• Kids Home
• What's On
• Features
• 
• 
• Bookmark this site

Kim Zeluck talked with Shanghai-based author Trevor Lai as his children’s book Ollie & Jack makes its Asian debut. 

What was the main inspiration behind Ollie & Jack? 

I’ve always wanted to write something in which animals take care of their owners. Ollie is your typical ‘good’ character – he cleans up after Jack and puts up with his antics. I thought he needed a human counterpart who wasn’t evil, of course, but just mischievous. Enter Jack, who climbs all over the furniture and goes potty on the carpet. I actually started writing this when I was 21, but it never seemed finished. 

When I first created the book, I thought it would be for four to eight year-olds. But then I showed it to my 20 year-old friends, who were quite happy with it. You know, the real beauty of children’s books is that they’re for all ages. You read them when you’re 5, re-read them when you’re 8, watch them on TV at 20, and give them to your kids when you’re 30. It’s a cycle.

I understand that you published your first series, Ralphy the Rhino, when you were 17. How did you manage at such a young age?

Start your own company. When I was 17, I started my own publishing company to market children’s entertainment. Ollie & Jack is actually my fourteenth book, even though it’s my first Asian publication.

What do you hope to achieve with your writing?

I could write a story with an obvious moral but that wouldn’t be fun. My true goal is to be ‘the Pixar of writers’ and to create simplified, mini-universes through kids’ points of view so they can absorb everything. I’ve met kids who’ve gotten into the Ralphy series and they ask me questions like, ‘How does Ralphy breathe when he goes up into space?’ They get into it and it’s good.

I wanted to be a comic book writer so badly when I was 15. I even got a business card from the creator of the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers when I went to the Comicon (an annual comic book convention). But at one point, I had to re-look at the situation. There was an abundance of bad comic books in the 90s. No one wants to read a comic strip about a foot. Books last longer anyway. 

Huge. I actually tried to emulate [the comic strip] The Far Side in my books. If you look at Ollie & Jack, each scene stands on its own, like Gary Larson’s works. I try to draw each picture so that you could cover the words and the pictures would still tell a story.

I currently work at Identica Brand Consulting, a branding and design firm [in Hong Kong]. We do luxury real estate and consumer branding. 

Are you excited about your Ralphy series being made into an animated TV series? 

Oh, for sure. People love watching some of their favorite childhood stories on screen. I have a business manager/producer in Canada who’s currently developing the TV character of Ralphy. Toys, movies, merchandise…that’s the next step to enrich it. 

When I was growing up, I was a cat person but I never had any. But my piano teacher did, so I would always play with them after class. Now I have a dog, so I guess I’m a cat-and­-dog person. But I’ve always liked cats because they’re quiet and unsung creatures – like when a cat is good, they’re very quietly loyal. To me, there is a muted understatedness about cats that I like. 

Jack is the ‘wild child’ whereas Ollie is the ‘mild child’. Which would you say you are? 

Depends on who I’m with. People relate to Jack because they want to be able to do what he does without having to feel restricted. But at the same time, they respect Ollie because he’s sensible and responsible. They’re actually the balancing forces you find in all people. 

For more information about the author and his work, visit http://ollie-and-jack.blogspot.com/.