Good Reading for Kids caught up with JOHANNA BELL and HUNI MELISSA BOLLIGER to discuss their book Digger Digs Down, a playful story about what’s possible when you let your curiosity run wild.

What sparked the idea for your story Digger Digs Down?

Johanna: This book began many years ago as a word game. My daughter, Amara, was three at the time and we used to make up stories and poems to pass the time. One morning she said ‘Digger digs.’ And as was customary in our games, I asked ‘Where does Digger dig?’ She thought for a moment and then said ‘Digger digs Down. Digger digs deep, deep into the ground.’ I loved the alliteration and the rhyming so I wrote it down on the back of a shopping receipt and stuck it to the fridge. It was quickly covered by bills and school newsletters and forgotten. It was only when the fridge broke, five years later, that I rediscovered Amara’s words. The pen had faded so much that the words were almost illegible but when I read them I still liked them. I remember thinking ‘This would make a great picture book’ and not long after, I was at the computer finishing off the story. As well as the sound of the first few lines, these questions caught my attention: ‘What if Digger doesn’t stop digging? Where will he go? What will he find? How will he be different when he gets back home?’

What can you tell us about Digger and the treasures he will find?

Huni and Rufus

Huni: Digger is an overly-zealous dog whose enthusiasm for digging makes him a bit goofy and accident prone. He digs before he thinks and this means he ends up bumping into all kinds of wondrous things. It also means he digs right past lots of treasures. Half the fun in this book is digging down with Digger and the other half is discovering all the hidden treasures that he doesn’t know are there. When I was creating the illustrations, I used layers of colour to hide objects in the earth. Some of these, like the dinosaur skeleton are easy to spot but there are lots of little things that you have to look closely to find. When I was a child, I loved books where you had to search for hidden surprises and I was hoping to create a similar world in Digger Digs Down.

The Digger character in our book was inspired by my own dog, Rufus, who looks quite a lot like Digger. They have similar hair and personalities. Before I got Rufus, I did lots of character studies, trying to find the right shape and personality for Digger but none of them felt right. It was only after Rufus came into my life that I was able to create a genuinely playful and loving Digger character. If I start digging a hole at the beach, Rufus comes over to help and gets so carried away, I need to try and distract him. In that way, they are very similar.

What fascinated you the most about what might lie underground?

Johanna: One of the reasons I love Digger is because he’s found the thing he loves to do – digging – and he just keeps doing it. Nothing deters him or gets in his way. The boredom of an empty backyard is suddenly transformed when he starts to dig. When I was writing the first drafts of this story I was genuinely curious about where Digger might end up and how he would get home after so much digging. I love underground worlds because they’re so vast and unknown. Anything could be down there! When Huni and I first started talking about the illustrations we took a very literal and geological approach, imagining Digger digging through different layers of the earth, past things like fossils that actually exist underground. And then at some point, we remembered we were making a picture book and the underground world could be whatever we wanted it to be. That’s when the book took a turn and became more playful. Why can’t Digger bump into a wombat’s bum? Or discover fire flies or make an unlikely friend in a giant luminescent octopus! The underwater cavern scenes are some of my favourite spreads. I just love the way Huni has layered so many colours and textures.

What was your collaboration process like? Do words or illustrations come first or together?

Huni: Johanna (Yo) and I have been friends for many years. We both lived in Darwin before moving to Tasmania and we worked together on an animation project in 2017. My background is in animation and I must have mentioned to Yo that I was interested in picture book illustration. Next thing you know, I’m taking part in a six-month story camp run by her and Erica Wagner (Allen & Unwin). It was off the back of that project that Yo asked if I might like to work on a project together. She sent through the manuscript for Digger Digs Down and I really loved it so I set to work on sketching up some character ideas and the rest is history.

Johanna: In picture book publishing, the author usually submits their manuscript and then, if it’s accepted, the publisher chooses an illustrator. But I’ve never liked working this way. Most of the books I’ve worked on have been collaborations from the outset and some of the stories I’ve written have been in response to an individual’s artwork or style. I’m a very visual person and I enjoy being involved in the development of the visual narrative. I love the storyboarding stage and I love seeing the draft pages come together. Despite their apparent simplicity, picture books require a lot of revisions and often the finished book looks nothing like the early versions. I feel incredibly lucky to work with illustrators like Huni who invite me to be part of the visual conversation and value my feedback. But it’s not just a two way collaboration. Once the book is signed, the publisher, editor and graphic designer also contribute. There’s often a lot of feedback and back and forth to arrive at the final version. In answer to your question about what comes first, the words begin the conversation but it quickly becomes a more fluid discussion. The manuscript shifts in response to the illustrations and once you see everything laid out, it usually shifts again. The entire story arc in Digger Digs Down changed during the development process.

Where do you both get your love of storytelling from?

Huni: I had quite a religious upbringing and my parents would read me children’s bible stories every night before bed. I loved the unusual illustrations in these books and the parables from foreign lands would spark my imagination.

As I got older, I fell in love with the power of images to tell stories in photography and films. I’ve never stopped thinking about the power of images and how they can be interpreted by people in so many different ways. Every image is a story in its own right and I think that’s amazing.

Johanna: I owe my love of books to my mum who made sure that we always had lots of picture books in our home. I still have many of the books she bought for me and some of them have influenced the way I write. I also have to credit my dad, who used to tell us epic bedtime stories about two friends, Garfish and Snapper, who went on haphazard underwater adventures together. As a marine biologist he was able to weave in lots of fascinating species and information.

Why did you want to tell this story?

Johanna: First and foremost it was the sound of the words. Digger digs. Digger digs down. Digger digs deep, deep into the ground. There’s something so appealing and enticing about a well-formed sentence. But it was also my interest in the idea that when we discover something we love to do, and keep on doing it, we can end up in the most incredible places. This book was created during the pandemic and I guess there was part of me (and maybe part of everyone) that was dreaming of escape so that probably contributed to. Also, I wanted to see what it felt like to write a light-hearted story. Typically, I gravitate towards quiet, serious stories and this story has always been infused with play. Plus I wanted to make a book with Huni because I have long-admired her animations and I knew her illustrations would be remarkable.

Huni: I have always loved dogs. My dog Rufus constantly injects humour and warmth into our lives and I wanted to be able to capture and celebrate that feeling for young readers. The bond between a child and their dog is incomparable and for me, that’s the main message in this book. It doesn’t matter how far you roam or how big your adventure is, at the end of the day, you want to find your human. Digging down is good but digging down with a friend is even better!

ABOUT THE AUTHORS