It’s been an accomplished few years for Bowen author Patricia Bowles, who recently completed her Butternut Island trilogy of children’s books.
Originally tackled as a pandemic project, the series of books set on Butternut (aka Bowen) Island published its final installment this year. Bowles wrote the first of the series, Butternut Island Irish, in 2020, drawing inspiration from the various people, places, and most importantly, animals, around the island (and some from beyond it). With the 2023 release of Butternut Island Max, Bowles has bookended her stories, ones she says both kids and parents can draw enjoyment from.
“I just wrote one, and then I sat there for a year. And then I thought I think I’ll write another one,” says Bowles on the origin of the books three years ago. This sparked a world inhabited by the creatures of Butternut Island, including protagonists such as Rose the deer, Irish the wolfhound and Max the eagle. Throughout the tales they spar with the Hooples, a gang of winged adversaries including crows, woodpeckers and hawks, as well as the nefarious coyotes of the Church of the Flying Macaroni Monster (a play on the real-life and similarly pasta-named church).
Each book deals with a different set of themes, as experienced by the residents of Butternut Island. For example the middle edition, Butternut Island Rose, “is partly to educate kids about what it’s like to be different, and how you need help in the community to help you be different and live safely,” explains Bowles. “It’s all about societal prejudice, and it’s meant to be a teaching tool for kids.”
And, while technically fictional, Bowles says the books’ storylines are largely drawn from current events. These include Rose’s search for a safe place in Irish, reflecting the early pandemic quarantine measures when the book was written. The coyotes and their spreading of misinformation is based on former U.S. President Donald Trump says Bowles, while in the finale the importance of negotiating peace is the focus – a reference to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. While a peace treaty has been elusive in that real-world conflict, in the series finale the residents of Butternut Island are able to establish one.
But of course, the book’s settings (including Mount Guardian and Smug Cove) are all-Bowen. Bowles says many of her ideas for local references came from long walks near her home in Sealeigh Park, particularly Bowen Bay Beach. These strolls would typically lead to some post-meal production.
“My process is I sit down and I just write, it comes in big spurts,” says Bowles. “Usually it’s after dinner and I’ll sit down and I’ll write five pages, just because I’ve been thinking about it.”
The author discovered something else during the past three years. “I found it easier to write about animals and birds and give them dialogue than I did for people… I love good dialogue, but I couldn’t seem to do it for people. But when they were rabbits and deer… I found it really easy. And other people might find that, because it releases you from being a real person,” says Bowles.
She adds her love for animals in novels stems from Richard Adams’ iconic Watership Down, a fantasy book about the adventures of rabbits. “I love the idea that you could have animals with their own world,” says Bowles.
The self-published series has now been accepted into the North Shore Authors Collection, a peer-review group of fellow area authors. This ensures its placement in libraries in West and North Vancouver, and they are also available at the Bowen Island Public Library.
Now at the end of the writing journey, for this series anyway, Bowles says she truly enjoyed the experience – and hopes others do too. “I hope the parents enjoy reading them out-loud. They’re fun to read and I’ve written them to be read out-loud… It was lots of fun, and I would encourage other people to have that kind of fun,” she says.
