Author Lawrence Hill hopes readers marvel at hero in newest book Beatrice and Croc Harry

Author Lawrence Hill is known for his adult books: The Book of Negroes, The Illegal and Black Berry Sweet Juice. 

He now has a new novel designed for a younger demographic called Beatrice and Croc Harry.

Hill spoke about his new book at an event hosted by the Congress for Black Women, Waterloo Region and the Kitchener Public Library earlier this week. He joined CBC K-W's The Morning Edition's host Craig Norris ahead of that event.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity. Audio of the interview is available below.

Craig Norris: Where did the idea for this [book] come from? 

Lawrence Hill: Well, I have been interested for decades in issues of identity and the development of a positive racial identity and moving into a sense of Black identity. These issues were front and centre in my own childhood growing up in a mixed race family in Toronto in the early '60s. 

But this particular idea seeded back about 15, 17 years ago when I was telling my youngest daughter, Beatrice, bedtime stories about a girl with the same name. I was duelling a crocodile and I was narrowly escaping the jaws of death. And Beatrice, my god, was so entranced by these stories about a girl with the same name duelling a crocodile that she made me promise that one day I'd turn them into a novel. And here we are 15 years later. 

Craig Norris: Wow, that's pretty good impetus and pretty good inspiration for writing a book for younger readers. What did you enjoy most about writing this book? Was it different from past books? 

Lawrence Hill: It was such a riot. It felt like the roof was blown off all the constraints and limitations I might have felt writing earlier novels for adults like The Book of Negroes and The Illegal. 

Somehow writing about a girl and a crocodile, writing an allegorical story about the evolution of racial identity and confronting injustice, but being playful with talking tarantulas and a fast-talking crocodile and all of whom can communicate with this girl, Beatrice, it made me feel kind of joyous and imaginative, and it sort of brought me back to being a bedtime storytelling dad on the page. 

So I felt I got to come out and dance on the page much more exuberantly, as I do in previous books. 

Craig Norris: When we wade into this allegory, Lawrence, what do you hope we take away from Beatrice and Croc Harry?

Lawrence Hill: Well, I hope that all readers, especially young readers, take away a sense of marvel at Beatrice's confidence, her self pride, her affirmation of self as a young girl and as she begins to realize, as a young Black girl — because initially waking up in amnesia in a massive forest, [she doesn't] understand that she's Black because there's nobody around to remind her of this since there are no other humans in this forest where she awakens.

It's not always easy for young people, especially people who are racialized or who have been historically mistreated, to feel good about themselves, their hair, the way they look, the way they feel and Beatrice does.