Jay Penn writer/illustrator

An Ornamentalist

I absolutely adore it when books have little visual details embedded in them. It may be as simple as an interesting way of showing page numbers, or something more elaborate like page-border elements or the use of a unique typographical symbol.

There’s really a lot that can be done with a standard page of text and I want my books to be glowing examples of that.

Fruit With A Risk

I created Juiceberries back in 2019 in an earlier iteration of what is now my Middle Grade book, MARY UNFAIRY & THE QUEST FOR BRAMBLE. In that version, one of Mary’s first daily activities was to hop down to the Juiceberry field and gorge on them until every part of her body was sticky.

While Mary Unfairy is a drastically different character from who she was then (her wings and rebellious nature are long gone), those Juiceberries haven’t changed one bit. Let’s have a look at what exactly a Juiceberry is.

About the size of a cantaloupe (though sometimes growing larger if given the chance to avoid being eaten before reaching full size), Juiceberries have a smooth and soft flesh and are quite light for their size. Juiceberries come in a wide range of colours, from vibrant yellows through to rich purples and every colour in between.

Regarding the what a Juiceberry tastes like, there is no single taste that could be described as ‘the flavour of a Juiceberry’. This is simply because no two Juiceberries will ever taste the same. In fact, this is their defining attribute. While every Juiceberry may smell similar (a sort of juicy, berry-y kind of smell), each one has a unique flavour.

Imagine raising a delicious-looking Juiceberry to your waiting mouth and not knowing what it’s going to taste like until you bite into it! It could taste like a summer breeze over a field of wildflowers. Perhaps it will taste just like a carrot dipped into a zesty lemon dip. Maybe, if you’re extra lucky, it might taste like a brownie, fresh out of the oven. Sounds nice, right?

The Caveat

There’s just one problem. While you might find yourself biting into a quite tasty Juiceberry, there is also a chance that you’ll chomp on one that tastes remarkably like a piece of bark that fell into a muddy puddle at least a year ago, or, if you’re very unlucky, a Juiceberry that tastes exactly like a Goblin’s handkerchief.

That’s the magical risk of the Juiceberry, you never know what you’re going to get and there’s a distinct possibility that it is going to be gross.

Juiceberries in stories

In my Realms of Faerie, Juiceberries are an unhealthily large part of several characters’ diets. Mary Unfairy in particular. She eats far too many of them and I don’t think she’s going to be cutting back anytime soon. Willow, too, is partial to Juiceberries. Mind you, Willow is incredibly fortunate to have become the recipient of a magical Juiceberry plant (currently growing outside his kitchen window) given to him by some apologetic Giants (it’s a whole thing involving an enormous stone ball…) which has the distinct property of granting the consumer control over what flavour each Juiceberry they pick from it will be.

Willow’s current favourite flavour is chocolate and ginger.

Juiceberry Bullets

As I mentioned at the start of this article, I love it when little illustrations are used in fun ways in books. And that is what I want to do with my MARY UNFAIRY & THE QUEST FOR BRAMBLE. Juiceberries are going to help with that. Namely, in place of bullets used to extend the breaks between paragraphs.

I’ve used loads of these bullets (also called section dividers, or when marked with specific designs, asterisms, dinkuses, fleurons and hedgeras – what lovely names!) throughout the book, and this is more or less how I’d love to see them printed-

Pretty cool, huh? I think so too. Did I mention I also created the antithesis to the Juiceberry, the Salad Fruit? No? Maybe I’ll write an article on them at some point too!

Until then…