Actor Madeleine West turns her hand to children’s books

AFTER writing about her parenting experience and now turning her hand to children’s novels, actor and mum of six Madeleine West wants to change the world one book at a time.

MADELEINE West’s motto is “don’t make excuses, make it happen” or be left with a front-row seat to “watch the world pass you by”.

She wanted young children to have access to books that gave them an optimistic view about how to handle issues all will face — so she has written them herself.

The former Neighbours star, seen most recently as a feisty breakfast TV host in Network Ten’s The Wrong Girl, has written a new book series, Lily D, V.A.P. (Very Amazing Performer), dealing with topics she feels children need to know about but that are often not talked about.

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Madeleine West returned to Neighbours in 2017.

The mother of six has set herself no less a task than “changing the world” by offering children aged five to 10 uplifting tales covering issues such as bullying, illness, difference and body image in an empowering way.

“I was inspired by a lot of things: being a mother, also just a desire to change the world from a grassroots level,” West says.

Offering kids another perspective than they get on ever-younger skewed social media was another aim.

“One of the greatest banes of society is the cult of celebrity; kids are locked into it now, born into it, and they think it's the way to have a successful career — just to be adulated for adulation’s sake.

Madeleine West's new children's book Ophan Annie: Lily D.

“There’s nothing about hard work and the rewards that come with hard work, about being a success and having a fulfilling career and adding to society and helping other people. It (pop culture messaging to kids) is all about the cult of me, me, me.”

West worries children of this generation get the idea that if they can just become famous, they won’t have a problem in sight. This leaves them underprepared for life.

“There is an undeserved sense of entitlement, where it is, ‘I want it now’. Being in the acting industry, it’s something I see all the time. I don’t want that for my children or for other people’s.”

West, 37, has written six Lily D books so far, following schoolgirl Lily as she learns about the realities of life through taking on characters for a play. West used six classic works — Orphan Annie, The Wizard of Oz, Into the Woods, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night and The Phantom of the Opera — as ways for Lily to “walk around in the skin” of characters facing challenges.

“She sees how it feels and changes the way you see the world and others, and how you see yourself; there’s so many lessons to be learned from that,” says West, whose five daughters and a son are aged 3-12. “Each one of the books is based on a famous historical play in which they deal with issues prevalent in today’s society and (that) affect our society every day.”

Some are issues considered off-limits for young children, but which West believes they need to address and learn how to handle.

The first in the series, Orphan Annie, sees Lily assigned a character and a scene from the original and trying to draw links between her experiences and the character’s view. For example, Lily must come to terms with what it is like if you do not have parents providing everything for you.

Madeleine West hopes her books help children tackle subjects they need to know about, but aren’t spoken of enough.

“It is teaching kids to take responsibility for everything they take for granted in their little world, teaching them to appreciate it,” she says.

In The Wizard of Oz, Lily learns what it feels like to be out of your comfort zone and among people you consider different or strange.

“She learns to look for differences in other people and that it is what makes people special. She learns that people are different and have faults and flaws but those are an opportunity to learn about being better people.”

West’s favourite is Into the Woods, in which Lily D learns how fairytales can be used to cope with adverse experiences. She learns to embrace and deal with situations that may be extremely difficult, including serious illness.

“We don’t need to shy away from these things, they can be discussed,” West says. “Kids are curious about illness; it needs to be discussed and this gives them the opportunity.”

Other subjects demystified with a unshakeably positive point of view are bullying, discrimination and different family models.

Madeleine West on the set of The Wrong Girl.

“Lily is unrelentingly positive and has the most perfect example of a glass half-full attitude,” West says. “That’s something I’d like to pass on to my children and other children, to be fearless and not to be afraid to learn, even if learning sometimes digs up some uncomfortable truths.”

While known as an actor, West has always very much enjoyed writing (she has already written a parenting book, Six Under Eight) and plans to continue her series beyond the first six books, three of which are out now and three towards the end of the year.

“I’ve always been a bookworm and loved books, and I believe the answers to all the world’s big questions lie between the covers of a book,” she says.

She says when she started writing, the whole series “just came out” very quickly.

But to get time to write and edit it, she had to “tear a little pocket of chaos out of the order” of her life, running a home of six kids, plus her career and life as wife of chef Shannon Bennett.

“I used the Jane Kennedy school of writing — in the middle of the night,” West says.

Madeleine West wants to change the world one book at a time. Picture: Network Ten

“You wake up in the middle of the night and feel like you’re the only person in the world and jot it down.”

West found herself opening up her Word document with manuscripts in progress, and typing lines while waiting at the school gate.

“I wrote all six very quickly, and have been editing them ever since,” she says. “Lily’s language was so clear in my head as a way of speaking I hear in the school ground every day, and the issues were ones I saw kids encountering in the school ground every day.”

She hopes her books will help raise a generation of kids who feel more positive about life than some of the stuff they see on their screens.

“The world has become a pretty wicked place, but if we can encourage a generation that has a different mindset, to see the world as boundless and full of potential rather than small and scared and a little bit sad then we are ushering in an amazing future,” West says.

THE FIRST THREE BOOKS IN THE LILY D, V.A.P. SERIES ARE OUT NOW, HARDIE GRANT EGMONT, RRP $13 EACH