The Extraordinary Imagination of Jenny Figment received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Jennifer Hayes.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
The Extraordinary Imagination of Jenny Figment, published October 2023.
What’s the book’s first line?
“Do you believe in ghosts?”
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
The Extraordinary Imagination of Jenny Figment is about a little girl with a big imagination. She navigates a world filled with pocket-sized dragons, rainbow colored “pixie toads,” and perhaps most notably her best ghost friends. But when Jenny asks the ghosts to take a break from
their usual daily chores of planting weeds and training spiders, they go missing—and Jenny’s world turns upside down. It will take heart, compassion, and a whole lot of imagination to bring them back, but when your friends are as extraordinary as Jenny’s anything is possible!
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
I started writing Jenny Figment ten years ago after my own Grandpa Tony passed. We had a door in our house that never stayed open—it would swing shut unexpectedly, usually when I was near enough for a gentle tap. I began to wonder, what if that’s my grandpa playing tricks on me? And the story about a little girl with trickster ghost friends was born.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
This book is meant for anyone who loves stories about friendship, adventure, and playful ghosts. I hope kids will receive the message that with a little imagination, anything is possible!
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character?
Jenny Figment has an extraordinary imagination. This may sound obvious given the title, but everything she does stems from this one basic truth. I suppose in that way she reminds me most of Charlotte in E.B. White’s classic Charlotte’s Web—using her imagination to save her best friend. Not to mention, Jenny has a penchant for spiders.
Is this the first book you’ve written?
This is the first book I’ve published. However, I have been creating stories my whole life in one way or another. I’ve always had a vivid imagination, just like Jenny.
What do you do for work when you’re not writing?
I am an elementary music teacher by trade. I taught for twelve years before staying home to raise my daughter, Emma (who, like Jenny Figment, has hair that looks like curly fries). These days, when I’m not working on the Jenny Figment series, I’m usually baking. I love to bake.
Is there something in particular that motivates you (fame? fortune?)
I am deeply motivated by the kids I meet when I visit schools. The amount of imagination and joy those kids put into the world is both inspiring and contagious.
Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?
As an author, I most admire Roald Dahl because he invented the proverbial golden ticket and I have never read a single word written by him that didn’t fascinate me.
Which book do you wish you could have written?
I wish I would have written The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. His worldbuilding in this book is fantastic—some of the best in my humble opinion. As a kid, I studied his map and wished for my own magic tollbooth to appear and whisk me away to “The Lands Beyond.” Alas,
it never arrived. I do have an autographed copy, which is almost as good.