The following is an interview with Jared Styan author of “The Boy Who Ran Up A Volcano.” You can learn more about the book here: https://jaredstyan.com/books

Question: Who were your favorite picture book authors when you were younger?  

When I was young, I did read a lot of non-fiction books about science, ancient history and geography as I was always a curious little kid who was fascinated with the world around me (and I’m still the same). I did however, read a lot of Morris Gleitzman, Andy Griffths and of course the brilliant Roald Dahl who write eclectic, creative and clever fictional stories!

 Question: What is your professional background?

 I have an educational background in digital marketing and I’ve been a fundraising and marketing professional in the non-profit sector for over 3 years now, helping to raise millions of dollars for charities in my career so far. I’ve always been driven to help others and so I was naturally drawn to working in this field, but I’ve also started a sailing tour business, been a support worker for those with disabilities, and been an English Language teacher in South America.

Question: What inspired you to write “The Boy Who Ran Up A Volcano”?

The book is actually based upon true events from my own journey in life. As a child I was very short and would get bullied a lot in school, so growing up I didn’t have any natural confidence, but as I grew older, I eventually started building and finding my own self-confidence. One way I did this was by running to get fit, travelling the world and continuously going out of my own comfort zone (doing things that I was afraid of). Long story short, I actually did run up a volcano in 2019, which took over 13 hours, and 6 months of hard training to complete. I raised over $7000 for charity through that endeavour. I completed the run while I was living in Peru where I taught English professionaly for over 2 years and studied the Spanish language.

Question: What lessons do you hope young children learn from “The Boy Who Ran Up A Volcano”?

 I hope kids learn that no matter what you think of yourself when you’re young, that you can do great things and that every human is valuable and can surprise themselves by how brave they truely can be when they’re put in a situation that’s challenging. I also hope it encourages kids to travel, learn about the natural world and to find the deep purpose and satisfaction in completing difficult tasks voluntarily.

Question: What advice would you give to someone thinking of writing a children’s book?

 I would say one of the most important tips is… don’t worry too much about your first draft. Remember that it’s a draft, so it’s supposed to not be any good. You need to give yourself time to write, allocate a time in your day for it, schedule it into your calendar and stick to it. Think of writing like you’re making a statue from a giant rock, you just have to keep on chipping away at it, and eventually it will turn into something unique that only you could carve.