Freewriter Britt Gondolfi has an important message: people need to put down their phones and LOOK UP.
The medium she chose to get this message across? Pigeons and poop jokes.
Look Up!: Fontaine the Pigeon Starts a Revolution has a simple premise.
As Britt tells it, it's "a poop-joke book about birds strategically, thoughtfully, and en masse pooping on our phones to wake us up from our doom-scrolling daze."
In other words: it's a lighthearted segue into a deeper conversation on digital distraction and human nature. It's no wonder Britt and Freewrite are a match made in heaven.
Find out how Britt and her BFF — who happens to be her illustrator — took a silly song and turned it into a book deal.
"It's a lighthearted segue into a deeper conversation on digital distraction and human nature."
ANNIE COSBY: What made you write this book about waking humans up from phone addiction?
BRITT GONDOLFI:I was a total screen addict! And honestly, I'm still working on having better digital habits. When I became a mom, I was coping with the stress of motherhood and my single mom circumstances by checking out on my screen.
I would be holding my child, breastfeeding her, and instead of looking into her eyes and savoring this once-in-a-lifetime time, I would be checking "likes" on a post or seeing what my “friends” were up to.
I wrote the song that became this book because I was addicted to my screen, and I knew I wasn’t alone. I wanted to create a joke about something really heartbreaking.
"I wrote the song that became this book because I was addicted to my screen, and I knew I wasn’t alone. I wanted to create a joke about something really heartbreaking."
AC: So how did that song come about?
BG:I wrote Look Up! as quickly as it takes to read it. It was, at first blush, an impromptu song on the guitar in my friend Amanda's kitchen with our babies on the floor.
With a guitar on one knee and, ironically, my cellphone with the Notes app open on the other, I sang the entire poem out and transcribed it on the very device the poem seeks to put away.
From the point of that day to publishing, it was a solid 7 years.
AC: And that friend is the illustrator for Look Up! right?
BG: Yes. My illustrator, Amanda Romanick, is my best friend in the world.
We met in Atlanta when we both just found out we were pregnant. And we were both from the same area of Louisiana. Our friendship, and our children, were both unexpected.
AC: Is it fun working with your best friend, or is it hard?
BG: I love working with my best friend.
Before we got the publishing deal, we had been dreaming of this book for 7 years. She had started so many times and had so much great material to show the publishing house.
It is a rare miracle in publishing to get to work with your best friend and the co-mom to your brain child. I couldn't imagine this book coming to life with anyone else.
AC: For an illustrated book like this, do the illustrations come before or after the writing?
BG: For us, it really happened together. We love pigeons and were not wild about the stereotype of a crazy, loony-bird pigeon dominating the kid lit scene. We felt like pigeons deserve some representation that showcases their intelligence, collaborative skills, and care for humanity.
As I was singing and transcribing, Amanda was already doodling our little red-beret-wearing pigeon hero.
AC: I'm a pigeon stan, too. They get a bad rap. I'm so glad Look Up!is here to change that. How did your book deal come about?
BG: Amanda and I tried several times to self-publish, but we thankfully never got it together between COVID and the strains of single motherhood. I tried to partner with a local bookstore and another illustrator once, but that collaboration fell apart.
It wasn’t until some old neighbors of mine in New Orleans met the stepmother of our literary agent and nabbed his number for me that the real journey to publishing got started.
We met on Zoom, and I performed the poem for him. We met once more in person, and I sang it to him on a ukulele. A month later, he invited me to a party where a publishing house was honoring some librarians.
There, with a French 75’s worth of liquid courage, I walked up to an editor and asked if I could slam-poetry-style perform my poem for her. She agreed, and the rest is publishing history.
I jokingly asked my agent after the party, “Did we get it? Did we get the deal?” He laughed and said, “No, we have to make a formal pitch, but the barstool poetry slam was a good start."
A few months later, I got the call that not only would we get a great publishing deal with a new imprint owned by one of the oldest book distributors and library services providers in the country, but that my best friend would be the illustrator.
"With a French 75’s worth of liquid courage, I walked up to the editor and asked if I could slam-poetry-style perform my poem for her. She agreed, and the rest is publishing history."
AC: That might be the most ridiculous publishing story I've ever heard. *Laughs* How has the publishing process been so far?
BG: Paw Prints Publishing has been a dream to work with. Getting traditionally published was a miracle for me. I was so excited, and it all felt like such a convergence of synchronicities.
The editing process was tough — for my ego. As a debut author, I had no idea how much my original piece would be changed in the formal editing process to make it ready for the traditional publishing market. There was a learning curve, a lot of push-pull collaboration, and sometimes I still have the urge to ask for edits.
I knew a lot of the storytelling was going to happen in the illustrations, but during the editing process, the editor wanted to make sure the story could stand alone sans illustrations. We came to a good compromise. I brought them a song/poem and they helped me turn it into a children's book.
I still sing the original version in song form every reading. It is my little “Britt’s Version” way of keeping the original poem alive. It will be coming out soon with a cute music video and on streaming services.
AC: Well, it sounds like people love it!
BG: Yeah,Amanda won silver for best illustrations in the Moonbeam Awards, and the book was a Foreword INDIES 2024 finalist in the picture books category.
All of this has been such a shock. I mean, we are just two solo moms from Louisiana who turned a poop joke into a poem and that poem manifested into a book.
The reception the story has received has put me on the floor and ironically had me on my phone more than I wanted to be, trying to drum up more publicity. Oh, the irony of promoting a book about screen use on your screen.
"Oh, the irony of promoting a book about screen use on your screen."
AC: Is that what drew you to Freewrite?
BG: Yes. I am currently working on an elongated version of the Look Up!children's book. I want to turn the poem into an early-reader chapter book.
For the past decade, I have collected vintage typewriters and used them for all of my creative writing. Freewrite gives me everything I love about using a typewriter: focus, clarity, and taking life — and writing — one line at a time.
It also helps me deal with everything that is complicated about writing on a typewriter: no backspace, inky fingers, taking your writing from analogue to digital, having to call the old typewriter repair guy in Algiers, New Orleans, when I have no idea what I am doing...
"Freewrite gives me everything I love about using a typewriter: focus, clarity, and taking life — and writing — one line at a time."
AC: Hah! Why do you think people should buy Look Up! for the kids in their lives? Why do you think kids need to be aware of digital minimalism?
BG:I hate to be a stereotypical elder millennial but here goes nothing ... “back in my day” we didn't grow up with screens in our hands. I got my first smartphone at age 21. My childhood was feral. We lived in the country, played in ditches and ponds, chased chickens, made forts out of sticks, and just made up our own adventures in the natural world.
Now kids are creating imaginary worlds in the digital landscape instead of interacting with the actual “IRL” world around them. I'm not an expert on the science, but I have read how this technology fundamentally harms our children’s brains and emotional well-being.
And I can see the proof in my own family. The days my daughter is cut off from the screens are better and happier days.
"The days my daughter is cut off from the screens are better and happier days."
AC: That's so true. Even as an adult, I feel like the days I'm disconnected from my phone and computer are better days.
BG:How long have humans walked the face of the earth without screens in their hands? How long has this technology been radically shaping our behavior and cognition?
When I do readings or singings of Look Up! I hold up my phone and ask the children, “How long do you think we have had this technology?”
The answers are always shocking. 100 years, 300 years, 500 years, 1000 years.
Children do not realize that these screens are just as new as they are to this world. We cannot let them believe that all this looking down all the time is normal or healthy.
"Children do not realize that these screens are just as new as they are to this world. We cannot let them believe that all this looking down all the time is normal or healthy."
My household still struggles with screen use, and I joke with friends that “my poor daughter had to have a mother who published a book about screen addiction, and now the pressure is on us to live our values.”
I struggle with the irony of being on my phone to promote my book about getting off the phone. I wrote this poem because I don’t think we overcome our addictions with shame, judgment, and criticism. I don’t think we can heal our behavior with statistics and data on how horrible it is for us.
The first step is lovingly and compassionately admitting that we all share a common problem. There are loads of resources (ironically on your screen) that can teach us how to get free of this technological spell. But this book wasn’t meant to be a how-to manual. It was meant to instigate the screen addiction conversation with love and humor.
"My poor daughter had to have a mother who published a book about screen addiction, and now the pressure is on us to live our values."
AC: Anything else you want to share with other writers?
BG: Writing is therapy. It is the most healing thing anyone can do for themselves. I dreamed of being published, but most of my writing has been to keep myself sane, balanced, and checked in to my inner voice.
I worry a lot about the screens and their effects on us. Devices like Freewrite give me hope that by combining older writing mechanisms with new technology, we can keep the spirit of distraction-free writing alive while helping authors more easily get their work out there.
Now, if you would forgive me, I have to go get my daughter off my phone right now.
"Writing is therapy."
You can follow Britt's writing journey at @britt.gondolfi on Instagram.
Mike Somerby identifies as a writer — with some reservation.
