Sarah Webb tells us a little about the background to the book and the cover.
Sunny Day and Moon Cakes is book 2 in the Songbird Cafe series. It’s about a girl called Soon Yi, or Sunny, who has a little sister called Min. They are originally from China but now live on Little Bird island off West Cork. It’s a fictional island, but it’s very much inspired by Cape Clear and Sherkin Islands.
I’ve wanted to write a book about two very close sisters for a long time. I have two sisters, I’m the eldest, then Kate, then Emma. Kate works in marketing and Emma’s back at college at the moment, after teaching Montessori for years. So I know a lot about being a sister!
As teenagers we used to fight a lot – well myself and Kate did, Emma was always very easy going – but now we are really close.
Sunny’s life isn’t easy – she has an anxiety disorder called selective mutism and she only talks to her sister and parents. It took me a long time to research the condition as I wanted to get it right. I was lucky to meet a mum early on who has two daughters with the condition and she was really helpful, reading my manuscript and talking to me about her daughters’ lives.
I also watched a lot of documentaries about the condition and read academic books. An expert in the field, a UK speech therapist called Maggie Johnson was also a great help. It’s amazing how kind people are if you ask them for help with book research!
I adore the girl on the cover. It wasn’t easy finding a girl who was just the right age – 12 going on 13 – but Maria at Walker (the designer) did a great job. I think the cover is bright, fun and inviting and I’m very proud to show it to you for the first time. I hope you like it!
I loved writing Sunny’s story and I hope readers will like it too. It’s out in September but in the meantime you can read Mollie’s story which is out today! It’s for age 8+.
