Childhood Dreams: Lottie Perkins author Katrina Nannestad

Charlotte Perkins is Seven years old and can’t wait to grow up – if only she could decide what she wanted to be! Luckily, no dream is too big for little Lottie Perkins.

Author Katrina Nannestad tells us about her childhood dreams.

Words| Katrina Nannestad

Can you recall your childhood dreams? What did you want to be when you grew up? Were your childhood dreams fulfilled?

My two sons used to dream of owning a lolly shop. As they grew a little older and more sophisticated, the lolly shop changed into a bookshop, but they would only sell books they had written themselves. The bookshop hasn’t materialised yet, but one son is studying writing and editing at university, so he’s well on the way to fulfilling that dream!

When I was a child, I thought it would be fun to be a hairdresser. I cut all my dolls’ hair until they were bald except for a spiral of short spikes. I had planned for a soft layered look, like Farrrah Fawcett’s hair, so was extremely disappointed with the end result. I started to feel like hairdressing was far too ambitious a dream, so I decided I’d be a famous movie star instead. In the end, I became a primary school teacher and a mother to two beautiful boys – those bookish ones. No movie fame after all. Go figure!

It was only later that I started to dream of becoming a children’s author. Iwrote for years, produced many stories and faced many rejections before I started to get published regularly. But I kept on writing because the dream just wouldn’t fade.  Besides, working towards the dream– writing, writing, writing – was great fun in itself.

Now, I can’t believe that I’m doing this author gig. I love writing – every part of the process and the lifestyle. I really am living out my dream.

Lottie Perkins is a little girl with big dreams – to be a ballerina, a movie star, a scientist, a doctor, a fashion designer, a pop star, a zoo keeper. Every week there is a new ambition and never, ever does it occur to Lottie that her dreams might be beyond her reach. Remember when you felt like that?

The fabulous thing about children’s dreams is that they usually come true. Not in the way that we as adults would understand the fulfilment of a dream. But in their lives, here and now. The little girl who longs to be a ballerina pirouettes around her bedroom, performing to her kitten, her brother, her teddy bears or an imaginary crowd. And sometimes, she might get to perform ballet on a stage in front of a real live audience – mums and dads and grannies and aunts. The boy who dreams of being a nurse cares for his sick teddy bear, listens to his mum’s heartbeat and bandages the dog’s leg when necessary (or when not necessary). The dream  quickly becomes reality through the power of daydreaming, imagining, playing and living in the  moment. So special! I hope I have captured this joy and magic of dreaming in the Lottie Perkins series.

And as you share Lottie’s adventures with the children in your life, I hope youremember how important it is to dream. Dreaming is the first step on an exciting journey to doing something fabulous.

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Katrina Nannestad is an award-winning Australian author. Her books include The Girl Who Brought Mischief, The Girl, the Dog and the Writer in Rome, the Olive of Groves series, the Red Dirt Diaries series, the Lottie Perkins series and Bungaloo Creek.

Katrina grew up in country New South Wales in a neighbourhood stuffed full of happy children. Her adult years have been spent teaching, raising boys, perfecting her recipe for chocolate-chip bickies and pursuing her love of stories. She now lives near Bendigo with her family and an exuberant black whippet called Olive.