Evangeline Lilly, best known for her role as “Kate” on the hit television show Lost, visited the Indigo-Manulife Centre for a signing of her new children’s book Squickerwonkers on Nov. 19.
Dressed in a colorful ensemble, Lilly read the story from stage, accompanied by music and theatrical sounds.
Squickerwonkers, is a story about a spoiled young girl named Selma, who always gets her way, until a group of “creepy” marionettes stop her.
Some parents have shown concern for the story’s dark nature. However, in a question and answer session Lilly said she wanted children to see both the good and bad sides of the world.
“If I could tell parents to take away one thing from the dark and creepy nature of this book, it would be to embrace both sides of life and both sides of your child,” Lilly said. “Find a balance and be open to a book that may not be pretty on the outside, as being open to your child’s less desirable side – to give them a chance to accept themselves.”
Lilly said that she wanted to change the rules of storybooks for children of this generation, by teaching them to acknowledge and embrace their inner flaws.
“The message behind this book… is that every character has a positive thing about them as well as a negative. There’s no hero or villain, the characters are all just kind of a mess,” Lilly said. “The point being, we’re all a mess. We don’t see perfect people [in real-life] as we did in fairy tales growing up and I wanted children to find themselves in those characters and relate to them.”