By Parker McKenzie
Derek the Dingo meets the Spotted Quoll is a labour of love by Bayswater-based dad Glenn Clemann and his daughter Zoé Clemann-Santa, finished across the globe over seven years.
Mr Clemann said the book was a way to develop Zoé’s connection with his own home country of Australia while in Hungary, where she was born.
“To keep in touch with family, we travelled back and forth when Zoé was around four years old and I could tell she was feeling a bit displaced,” he said.
“While in Budapest, she was talking about Australia and its animals, so a lot of the time the bedtime stories would be about native animals.”
He said Zoé and her mother moved back to Hungary from Australia in 2019 and working on the book was a way to stay connected during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We had written the story down on a piece of paper back when she was four years old — it was very rough — and we fine-tuned it and turned it into a book,” Mr Clemann said.
“Every time I look at it, it makes me think about the hardship we went through during Covid-19. It gave me an excuse to ring her when she was seven and eight. You know girls that age are more interested in doing other things than speaking to their dad on Skype.”
The story follows Derek the Dingo, a stoic and serious animal, on an adventure with a hungry young quoll as they search for food.
Mr Clemann said the story is focused on an endangered species and was inspired by his family’s close connection to nature.
“My brother is a herpetologist, he works for Zoos Victoria on a lot of threatened species programs and my sister also studied zoology,” he said.
“We’re all a little bit involved with Australian natives and preserving endangered species, and bringing their plight to the masses.”
The book is illustrated by Australian Emma Stuart, who Mr Clemann said is a brilliant and talented artist.
“I had an image of what I wanted, it was Derek being a little bit stoic but kindhearted, taking life seriously,” he said.
“I thought the people he met could add the character, and she just nailed it.”
Zoé, who is still based in Hungary, and Mr Clemann are already working on a follow-up book based on the adventures of Derek the Dingo.
“We’ve got a couple that we’ve roughed out, one of them is about a giant borrowing frog,” Mr Clemann said.
Derek the Dingo and the Spotted Quoll is available at bookstores and on Amazon and Booktopia.
