WA author Chenée Marrapodi is the author of Breaking Pointe, a children’s novel about a young dancer with type 1 diabetes. She talks to ZOE DELEUIL about what she learned from writing this story and how fiction can be a gentle way of learning about the world for primary school readers.
Like many authors, WA author and journalist Chenée Marrapodi draws upon personal experience when writing fiction. Her debut children’s novel, One Wrong Turn, was inspired by her own training as a ballet dancer. It was while promoting this book that she stumbled upon an idea for her second.
“I was creating video content to help promote One Wrong Turn and was working with a young aspiring professional dancer called Kayleigh, who just happens to have type 1 diabetes,” Chenée says.
“On the day of filming, her mum pulled me aside and said, ‘just a heads up – Kayleigh’s having a lot of trouble with her blood glucose levels today and it can affect her work en pointe. She can still do everything, but you’ll notice she’s getting very frustrated.’”
Knowing from her own training that discipline and control are central to dance, Chenée began thinking about what it would be like to have that control taken away.
“The cogs started turning in my imagination, and when my publisher said to me, ‘there’s a lot of buzz around ballet at the moment – do you have any ideas for a sequel?’ I knew I wanted to write a follow-up novel with Amelia being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.”
There was also a more personal connection.
“My husband has type 1 diabetes, having been diagnosed as a teenager, so I had some understanding of what it’s like to live with the condition from seeing the frustration he faces sometimes when trying to get his blood glucose levels on track. Of course, it’s one thing to be a wife dealing with an adult, but with this book I was imagining what it would be like to be a parent looking after a teenager.”
Chenée wrote a draft in two months, and it went to print later that year. She says was very conscious while writing it that she was writing outside her own experience, and that diabetes is not a one-size-fits-all thing. Knowing her husband’s story would be very different to Amelia’s, she set about researching life with type 1, interviewing a range of people including Kayleigh and her family, Perth Children’s Hospital and the Type 1 Family Centre.
“Because every person living with diabetes is unique and the technology and treatments are always changing, I knew I had some flexibility with the storytelling, but I also wanted to get it right.”
Breaking Pointe also shows how living with diabetes means having to deal with challenges such as low blood glucose levels or sick days, often at the most impractical moment – something that she knows well.
“With a partner it’s about finding the balance, understanding as much as you can about diabetes but also knowing that he’s an adult, he’s well across how to manage it. You are still that second pair of eyes when a hypo happens, and you do pick up the slack sometimes, but I think it would be much harder if you were dealing with a child.”
Finding the right balance between care and independence is tricky for any parent, but diabetes can make that balancing act more of a challenge.
“I’ve got two sons of my own and as a parent, I think you would feel that urge to wrap someone up in cotton wool even more, and of course technology can be a curse and a blessing as you can now monitor someone all the time. But at some point, you have to trust that the person who has diabetes can manage it and only step in when you are needed.”
Thankfully, it seems Chenee’s take on those challenges has rung true. She has had some positive feedback on the book from children living with diabetes and their families.
“You do hold your breath, but many readers have said they’ve found it an accurate representation and that has meant a lot. There is a scene in the book where Amelia has an extreme low and seizes and froths at the mouth. I was worried that I’d amped things up too much, but feedback from families has been that it’s exactly what they have gone through.”
How writing children’s fiction about diabetes can build awareness
Like many children’s authors, Chenée visits schools around West Australia, and it’s here that she builds awareness with activities that show how diabetes can make things harder.
“I teach kids a series of basic dance step, then give them each an activity that will steal their focus, like juggling, balancing books or being blindfolded. It’s a fun activity, but it shows how hard it is to dance when something else is demanding your constant attention.”
She says that fiction can be a gentler way of learning about the world for young readers. “You’re learning about someone’s experience by getting to know her story. There are people who will read this book because it’s about dancing who haven’t been exposed to diabetes, and hopefully it raises a bit of awareness.”
This is something she is particularly aware of when she knows there’s a child with diabetes in the audience.
“Although I never single them out, I do see them sit up a little straighter when I start talking. Sometimes they will put up their hand and say they have diabetes, and I’ll always say something like, ‘Oh, so you must really know what I’m talking about.’ I think it helps their classmates understand what they are going through a little better.”
