Coming Out of Her Cocoon With ‘Kibble’

Local Actress Undergoes Metamorphosis Into Children’s Book Author

By MICHAEL AUSHENKER | Contributing Writer

Four years ago, inspired by the El Medio Bluffs’ seaside views near her home, actress Anita Gnan embarked on a journey to merge her love for entertainment with real-world concerns.

The resulting picture book, “Kibble: The Monarch Caterpillar Afraid to Get Wings,” is truly a work of “infotainment.”

On the surface, “Kibble” tells the tale of how the titular caterpillar, reluctant to get into his chrysalis and make his transformation into full-fledged Monarch butterfly, relies on the support of critter pals—mentor figure Larry the crow, Red the nutty squirrel and Samantha the rat—to muster up the courage to spread his wings and take flight.

Yes, the children’s book, illustrated by Canadian artist John Fraser, bursts with imagery that appears light and imaginative, but it’s also informative storytelling, with subtexts stressing themes of friendship and overcoming fear, chock-full of factoids regarding the life cycle of butterflies and moths, and pollination.

Included in every copy of Gnan’s hardcover edition is the audiobook CD version, featuring original sound effects produced by Gnan’s brother, sound engineer Roy Gnan, and characters voiced by Ciscandra Nostalghia (Kibble), Eric Geller (Larry), Roy Gnan (Red) and, of course, Gnan (as narrator Samantha). World-class whistler Geert Chatrou also lent his pipes to this project.

As an actress, Gnan appeared in the 2007 Macaulay Culkin indie film “Sex and Breakfast” and episodic television such as “Frasier.” For two decades, she has also applied her Bachelor of Arts in music and theater to teach piano.

Recording the audiobook at Nostalghia’s Topanga Canyon studio in 2016, Gnan said “Kibble” allowed her to merge her acting skills (from the book’s storytelling and dialogue to the CD work) with her role as a Heal the Bay ambassador to come up with a children’s book project that’s folksy and inclusive.

“I didn’t want to be a self-publisher,” she explained. “I wanted to be a publishing company.”

So Gnan formed her own multimedia production company, West Creek Media, named after her native central Pennsylvania region.

“I would lie on the rocks and listen to the wildlife,” she recalled of her West Creek youth.

In fact, for the audiobook, her brother recorded birds, running rivers and other ambient sounds back home in the Allegheny Mountains.

It was the seaside neighborhood’s serenity and nature that brought Gnan to Pacific Palisades.

“I used to live in Hollywood, so I always felt that it was so much more peaceful and less noise,” Gnan said. “I liked the sense of community. Their [annual holiday] events are all inclusive. It really feels like home in Pennsylvania; that nice hometown feel.

“Book-wise, when I was a kid—when you got to that level where you’re able to read chapter books—I didn’t like the fact that they took all the art away. I purposely didn’t want to put a villain in the book. So I [conceived] a community where everyone gets along—kinda like in the Palisades.”

Online, Gnan found her artist in Fraser, who nailed the book’s visual vocabulary. Aside from a few initial character-design missteps (“Kibble had the wrong colors”), Gnan said the Toronto resident took to her project like butterfly to air and delivered on the narrative’s 20 cartoony illustrations and layouts.

“Working with Anita was a treat,” Fraser said in an email to the Palisadian-Post. “She had a clear vision [of what she was after]. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to create such loveable characters and have them come to life on the pages and I am looking forward to more adventures in the future.”

“The characters came very easily,” Gnan said of writing her picture book/chapter book hybrid. “The story itself kind of just came in a day.”

Although (spoiler alert!) we do see Kibble explode from his cocoon to become a full-on Monarch, the most interesting story choice Gnan makes is not to culminate the story with Monarch Kibble’s first flight. Instead, her ending highlights unity.

“As we looked at this final page, I thought it was important to show the entire community, so it was important that Red and Samantha show up,” Gnan said.

Overall, Gnan enjoyed her leap from actress to author.

“I still love acting but you really have a lot of control [when creating a book],” she said. “You don’t have to wait for [a callback]. It was a process that was entirely my own.”

Gnan said she has grand plans to indirectly sequelize “Kibble,” with each new children’s book featuring new main characters and concerns.

“My goal is one book per struggle—this one is overcoming fear,” she said, musing aloud that perhaps her next installment will star a turtle as a back-door way of learning about water conservation.

Having just returned from promoting her book on the East Coast, Gnan next plans to do “Kibble” signings in Southern California, beginning with 98% Angel in Malibu this January.

Sales from each copy sold are earmarked toward various charities devoted to education, restoring habitat and preserving wildlife, Gnan added.

After all, this lean, economical book contains a hefty message about preserving the ecosystem, even on the plants and insects micro-level.

“We need to be aware of the small creatures as well as the big ones. If they go, we go,” said Gnan, who has developed seed packets for growing milkweed—crucial to the Monarch’s existence. “We can plant seeds and bring the habitat back. If you can do something small, you can do something big.”