Frances Mackay: Retired Tassie teacher turns children’s author

A respected Tasmanian teacher who taught at a series of primary schools in the state’s south says her latest book – aimed at children – was her hardest to write yet. The inspiration for the piece came from a funny moment with her great nephew.

She’s written well over 90 books, but a Tasmanian author and retired primary school teacher says her latest effort, a children’s picture book, was her most difficult yet.

Blackmans Bay’s Frances Mackay, a decorated teacher who previously taught at Huonville and Bridgewater primary schools, as well as Ouse District School, before relocating to the United Kingdom where she taught for 30 years, is on the cusp of releasing picture book ‘Baby Worries’.

The book stars Baby, who meets his extended family for the first time and starts to worry what he might look like when he grows up.

His “vivid imagination runs away with him and he imagines the craziest things, depicted in hilarious detail by illustrator Dotti Colvin,” Ms Mackay said.

Ms Mackay was inspired to write the book by her great nephew.

“When my nephew brought his baby son to meet his family at one of our family get-togethers, the look on the baby’s face was hilarious,” she said.

“He looked at everyone with a very quizzical face as if to say, ‘Who on earth are you lot?’

“It set my own imagination spinning and Baby Worries was created.”

Retired Blackmans Bay primary school teacher turned children's author Frances Mackay. Picture: Supplied

This will be Ms Mackay’s fourth children’s book – the first three, Noisy Animal ABC, Monster Counting Book 1 to 20, and A Dinosaur Came To My Birthday Party, had an educational bent and were targeted at children aged three–five.

But Baby Worries, a children’s picture book with a plot line, presented its own set of challenges, Ms Mackay said.

“It taught me a lot of things, mainly that it’s not as easy as you think,” she said.

“I’ve had 90 books published, mostly teacher resource books, but this was a whole new ballgame.

“In a way my writing style was too formal, I had to learn to relax my style.”

Ms Mackay is launching a Kickstarter campaign on Tuesday, seeking to raise $8000 to partially cover the cost of printing in hardcover.

More information can be found at francesmackay.com.