Phil Russotti sent me copies of his 3 Stella books because I am the grandmother of a girl named Stella. It was quite a coincidence to find out while reading his books that his character, Stella, has a brother named Leo. How can that be? When I read the books to Stella, my 4 year old granddaughter, she decided to change all the names to match her friends’ names. I think she believed the story was about her. And why not? In the books, the character Stella does all kinds of magical and fun things with her family, friends, and magic wand. She can even fly on her pet bluebird. The books are full of fun fantasy. My Stella feels special that she has books with her name in it.
Phil co-wrote the books with his granddaughter. I imagine doing that someday with my grandson, Leo, who is becoming quite the artist. This grandfather/granddaughter duo took the extra hard step to publication. I was curious about the process, so I sent Phil some questions.
Tell us about the book:
The first book “Stella in Paris” was conceived by Stella and myself during the Pandemic. We were living together for safety reasons when one day Stella said to me, “Grandpa I was thinking that I went to the top of the Eiffel Tower and waved my Magic Wand and the virus went away all over the World. “
I said that was a wonderful thought and a great idea for a story and we started developing the book. It was her idea that she got the Magic Wand from the Tooth Fairy and that she flew to the top of the Eiffel Tower on her pet bird, Mr. Tweet Tweet, her trusted companion. We then decided that Stella could do more helpful things and conceived of the London and New York books.
Why did you write it?
Stella’s initial idea was born out of her reaction of fear and incomprehension of what was happening with the spreading virus. Which I assume all children had. But her solution had a positive and powerful message of empowerment that I realized could serve as a lesson for young girls that they could conquer any problem if they put their minds to it. We then ventured to other locales to show how a young girl could solve problems all by herself and help people.
Tell us about the writing process or collaboration. Did you discover anything new about yourself as a writer?
The collaborative process was accomplished by me coming up with the basic story (ie. saving a whale that got caught in the River Thames) and asking Stella questions to which she supplied the answers to flush out the story. Such as “Where should the next book be based?” and she came up with London. I asked why would she go to London and she said that once the pandemic was over, people would want to travel, and it would be natural for someone in Paris to travel to London. So she went to London to meet new friends. When I asked if she took the Chunnel from Paris to London, she said, “No, I would go with Mr. Tweet Tweet.” We just proceeded from there, question by question and she filled in the details.
I discovered that I could engage in fiction writing, which is something I had never done, and in fact, I didn’t read fiction. It was a growing experience for me to help create stories.
Who was the book written for?
The books are written for young girls to see how powerful they can be and how they can solve any problem they put their minds to. They are books of empowerment.
Could you share an example or excerpt for the audience?
In London when the whale inadvertently broke her Magic Wand, Stella had to figure out how to fix it. She came up with asking another woman, the Queen of England. When she met the Queen, she bowed and then said, “You’re welcome, but please Your Majesty can you fix my Magic Wand?” The Queen exclaimed ,”I’d be happy to”, and told Stella to hold the pieces together. The Queen then picked up her giant scepter and waved it over the wand saying, “Whippety, whoopity, whopp, Wand Wand come together!” and the wand was fixed better than ever. Two women solving the big problem together!
You can check out the Stella books on Phil’s website and Amazon.
Reflections on the Teche 