As a New York Times bestselling author, working mother, wife and passionate reader, Shannon Hale has her hands full — literally. Raising four children, maintaining a successful career and keeping her home in order leaves almost no room for Hale to sink into a comfortable chair, pick up a book and read.
Desperate to indulge in a good story, Hale converted to audiobooks. While playing chauffeur for her kids, finishing loads of laundry and carrying out other everyday tasks required of being a mother, Hale enjoys listening to stories.
“I love audiobooks, but I didn’t always. I am a visual learner so auditory learning is really hard for me,” Hale told the Deseret News. “But I loved to read and I’ve got four kids and I’m very busy — obviously, like all of us — so I started listening to audiobooks because I wanted to read more but I couldn’t always just sit down and hold a book.”
“(Audiobooks have) enabled me to just read so many more books than I would have otherwise and I think it’s also improved my ability to absorb auditory information, which is awesome.”
Hale’s newfound admiration for audiobooks, paired with raising four children — each with unique learning styles, challenges and interests — has “absolutely” shaped her writing career. Hale credits her children with inspiring her “Real Friends” series and the bestselling “Princess in Black” series, as well as her recent interest in creating audiobooks.
Fantasy novels such as “Goose Girl” and “The Princess Academy” are the works that earned the Utah-based author a permanent place in the writing world. “The Princess Academy” received the coveted Newbery Honor in 2006 and “Goose Girl” won the Josette Frank Award for youth fiction in 2003.
In spite of Hale’s success writing youth fantasy, as she started having kids, an enthusiasm for writing stories that would “appeal” to each of her young children overtook her interest in writing fantasy.
The author “spent three hours a day” reading to her kids, but had a difficult time finding books that engaged each of her children’s unique interests and learning styles.
“I haven’t published a fantasy novel in eight years and that’s what I was doing, one or two a year for my first decade of publishing,” said Hale. “I want to write for my kids, I want to write something that they’re just going to love.”
“It was hard when the oldest was getting a little older and the youngest are still really young to find books that would appeal to all of them at the same time. I could not find them,” explained Hale.
She decided the world needed more stories “compelling enough to have the interest of the older reader, but also full color illustrations every single page and not too long between page flips to still keep the attention of the younger readers.”
So Hale wrote one herself.
Shannon Hale reflects on her own adolescence in ‘Real Friends’
Inspired by her own daughter, who experienced “struggles with friends” while in elementary school, Hale decided to pen the graphic novel “Real Friends” as a way to “reach her.”
Sequels “Best Friends” and “Friends Forever” followed. The books in the “Real Friends” series are memoirs about Hale’s own adolescent experiences, such as coming to terms with a maturing body, confronting disloyal friends and learning to cope with difficult feelings, such as anxiety.
The “Real Friends” series was originally published as graphic novels, as a means to include young readers who “were never going to make it through a thick fantasy novel.” Hale found that graphic novels helped make reading more accessible to kids with dyslexia, reading disorders, attention span issues or visual learners.
But even Hale’s graphic novels left some young readers out.
“Graphic novels are leaving out kids who are blind or vision impaired or who are more auditory learners as well,” Hale explained. “A lot of kids have a really hard time decoding the image-based storytelling of graphic novels. I really wanted (‘Best Friends’) to be accessible to more readers.”
Although Hale typically does not incorporate herself in her own audiobooks, because “Best Friends” is a memoir, she decided it only made sense that she narrate it — and involve her husband and twin daughters in the process.
The Hale family teamed up for the ‘Best Friends’ audiobook
Successfully adapting a visual reading experience found within a graphic novel, like “Best Friends,” into an auditory reading experience is no small feat. But Hale pulled it off, with help from her family.
Hale thought it would be “boring” to simply read the book and describe the images on each page. To make the “Best Friends” audiobook more engaging, she decided to make the story similar to a radio drama rather than a typical audiobook.
With a full cast — including Hale’s husband and twin daughters — sound effects and music, “Best Friends” is an immersive listening experience.
While recording the “Best Friends” audiobook, Hale’s twin daughters were in sixth grade — the exact same age as the characters in the book. It only made sense to include her 12-year-olds in the audiobook. Involving her daughters in the process was a “really cool” experience, Hale said.
“This was just one of the coolest ways I’ve ever been able to include my kids in my job,” Hale said.
Included at the end of the audiobook is a conversation between Hale and her daughters about what sixth grade is like for them, their challenges, triumphs and how their modern-day experience compares to their mother’s.
“I think it’s really fascinating for kids to see, Oh, here’s what the differences are. ... They get a kick out of those things, but what’s fascinating is how much is the same. The emotional components are the same. The struggle with friendship and a sense of belonging and finding your place are the same even in the ’80s,” said Hale.
“The only compelling reason for me to publish those books was to reach out to those kids who feel alone and help them feel a little less alone.”
Reflecting on childhood experiences was a ‘challenging’ process for Hale
Writing a childhood memoir forced Hale to return to a tender age, reliving the adolescent experiences most of us are comfortable keeping locked away.
In “Best Friends,” Hale shares personal sixth grade experiences such as first crushes, keeping up with social pyramids and figuring out the sort of person she wanted to be. Reflecting on childhood experiences was a “challenging” process for Hale.
“It’s hard in every way. It’s hard to go back to when you were most vulnerable and relive those moments,” the author explained. “It’s hard because everybody depicted in the book are real people and I wanted to be respectful of them, to tell the true story, but also I didn’t want to hurt anybody with my memories.”
To dredge up decades-old memories, Hale started by “info-dumping” as many memories of her 12-year-old self that she could come up with. To unearth more forgotten memories, Hale read through old journals and letters, looked at photographs and listened to popular music from the era.
Self-doubt crept in throughout the process.
“In the middle of it you’re like, ‘I don’t know if this works,’” Hale explained. “The thoughts going through my head are, ‘Shut up, Shannon. Nobody cares that someone meets you in sixth grade.’ So there’s so much self-doubt. It’s a tricky process for sure.”
But Hale pressed forward with the belief that sixth grade holds life lessons worth sharing and that kids deserve to hear the painful truth about adolescence.
“I think often as parents we think we need to protect our kids from the truth because it’s painful,” Hale explained. “If they see that we’re not afraid of the truth, then they realize they don’t have to be afraid either, they know they’ve got someone on their side who’s looking out for them and no matter what, they’re gonna be cared for.”
“Even in a world that’s scary, even in times that are hard like sixth grade — cause sixth grade is hard — so I try to tell them truth in a compassionate way and then trust that they’re going to take out of it whatever story they need at this moment in their life.”
Listen to the “Best Friends” audiobook on Soundcloud
Listen to Shannon Hale’s brand new audiobook “Best Friends” on Soundcloud now. The “Best Friends” audiobook is also available through Audible, Google Play and Audiobooks.com.