Cherry Jordan

I WAS READING stories to my son during Covid and given we had lots of time on our hands around then, and our worlds were small for a time, I came up with these stories. It began as a silly bit of fun, but my son loved them, and so I decided to write them down.

In the stories, Johnny Hedgehog, an adventurous nine-year-old boy, was always the lead figure, and over time I began to really like this character I had created. I enjoyed thinking in a much more adventurous way while writing the stories, it was all new to me, and Johnny Hedgehog made me stop and think about the importance of enjoying the here and now. A helpful tool at that time!

During Covid, I felt a lot for my kids, missing out on day-to-day interactions and encounters, such as going to the shop, school, playground or bumping into a neighbour. All the things we had and took for granted as children.

It made me realise how important the surrounding community are in our lives. The person walking the dog who always says hello, the lady in our local post office who asks you about your football match, the man at the till in the local shop who finds a Clubcard to scan for you if you can’t find your one – I genuinely became aware of how important these people and encounters were to me. My stories (possibly subconsciously) incorporated the people we know, the people we meet, the people we bump into and how they shape us, and our everyday.

Building a child’s world

Johnny Hedgehog is a character who looks at life as a mix of opportunity and possibility, with an endless sense of curiosity. He enjoys engaging with the people he meets in the stories, and, as is a reflection of the real world, those characters enjoy being engaged with.

Our main character creates a sense of community wherever he goes. In ‘Johnny Hedgehog and the Summer Holidays’, he goes on his holidays and finds a bottle on a beach that leads him on an adventure, following clues, making friends, and ultimately finding more than treasure on his island adventure. It is a story that is simple, and any child could imagine it happening to them.

I hope this book will inspire children to think of their own adventure and how it can be found right now in their own life, where they are.

I found it hard to write the book initially because I find that I am more of an ideas person, and putting plans into action doesn’t come as easily to me. In other words, I am more of a dreamer than a doer!

But there was something about Johnny Hedgehog that I was afraid would be lost or forgotten if I didn’t write it down, and this compelled me to start typing. Initially, I typed and typed just to see where the story would bring me, and I found it was through that free writing that the story almost found its way to me. Another challenge was that usually the stories I made up were 10-minute stories, so writing a more comprehensive tale took a bit more thinking.

Helping this book work for good

When I finished writing the book, I thought that after going to all the effort of writing it down, I should try to get it published. But where to start!

One large publisher sent me an offer to publish the book, and that was just brilliant and very exciting, but something was niggling at me. I wanted Johnny Hedgehog to reflect something more, given he’d been born from a pandemic.

So that got me thinking… maybe there was a way I could do things differently here. Could there be a space for supporting a charity by publishing this book? I reflected on the values demonstrated in the book: kindness, care for people, interest in people, creating fun, inclusion, the importance of childhood and support for each other.

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I had been hearing a lot about Barnardos, the wonderful children’s charity, around this time, and the values seemed to align. It felt like the right fit as Barnardos provides vital support to many children and families who really need it.

I also lecture in TUDublin in social care and early childhood, and one of the modules I teach is ‘Supporting Children and Families’, which focuses on the needs of children and all within their families. Lecturing in this module has made me reflect on the impact social inequality has on families in this country, and how it affects family functioning and relationships.

Greater social inequality leads to poorer outcomes for families and children, and this does not sit right with me. I feel strongly that all children in this country deserve a childhood, and to support children, we really need to support their families. I believe that Barnardos plays a huge role in supporting children and families, and they are an integral part of the village for those who may have a harder path to walk. They’re the reasons I chose to partner with them, and I would love more than anything for this book to go big for Barnardos.

The story of Johnny Hedgehog is written for children, but it is also written for adults to read to their children. All the interactions and encounters Johnny has are great talking points for parents when reading to their children: how Johnny approaches people, what community feels like, who is part of our community, what adventure might your child like to go on, what ideas do your children have? All these conversations connect to the story. I hope every reader finds a piece of treasure in it.

To purchase this book you can go on to the Johnny Hedgehog website: johnnyhedgehogbooks.com and the book will be delivered to you, it is also my plan that this book will be for sale in local bookshops very soon.

Cherry Jordan is a lecturer on both the Applied Social Care and Early Childhood Education and Care programmes at TUDublin.