Chamblee author creates children’s books around misunderstood creatures.
Like many people, Gina Gallois set out to study one thing in college before changing her mind. For the Chamblee resident, the shift came after being bitten by the love bug of French culture and language. The bite changed the trajectory of her life and career, taking her from the University of Cincinnati and an environmental science degree to being the author of children’s books and raising a family with her French-born husband in the U.S.
Just before graduating in 2001, Gallois added French as a second major and headed off on a summer immersion program. She briefly crossed paths with her future husband, Fabien, but it wasn’t until she was teaching in Nantes in western France that the two reconnected in earnest. They married in 2006 and headed back to the States for his schooling, and Gallois followed her own educational path, earning a Ph.D. in French Literature from Emory in 2014. She was also teaching, but before her second child was born seven years ago, she decided to step away from the classroom and write a memoir. “I really like that form of literature,” she says. “But at the time, I was reading a lot of children’s books, and being an animal and nature lover, I somehow realized people do not know enough about opossums. I ended up writing about opossums.”
Gallois took on the task of recreating the creatures’ image “so people wouldn’t think they’re disgusting.” But she couldn’t foresee that she’d wind up writing four books featuring the only marsupial native to North America. Funded by a Kickstarter campaign, Opossum Opposites debuted in February 2020, followed by Mama Opossum’s Misadventures, Opossum Disco, Opossums to the Rescue and Quantum Possum 1. All the books are published under her imprint, Moonflower Press.
Gallois then branched out with a “bug club series” starring “misunderstood bugs” in Cicada City: A Bug Club Story and Moth Metamorphosis: A Bug Club Story. “It’s always a bug people don’t know the value of,” she says. “And each book is well researched and factual.”
Along with doing reputation repair for critters most of us would hit with a sneaker, Gallois offers select titles in French and Spanish to bolster dual language learning among young readers. She writes initially in English, then translates the stories into French, while a bestie from grad school handles the Spanish version. (In her own home, the family speaks a mashup of French and English.)
“What publisher would have said, ‘Let’s do a French version of this book,’” she says. “I’m able to work with things I’m interested in.”
Gallois has shared her work with various schools around the area that have French immersion programs as well as early education and foreign language teachers. She’s also been spotted selling her books at local farmers and artisan markets. And in February, her local state representative, Karen Lupton, issued a resolution recognizing her work with misunderstood animals. A second Quantum Possum will continue that effort, even though it was the farthest thing from her mind in those early college days, Gallois says. “I never intended to start an opossum empire!”
moonflowerpress.com
@artemisopossum
