‘I will always, always write about animals. It’s become a passion for me’

Georgeanne Irvine, public relations manager at the San Diego Zoo, maintains there are few things in life she takes seriously. For one, she introduces herself by saying, “Hi! My name is George, I work for the Zoo, and I was born on Halloween!� Preservation of wildlife is another matter for the 34-year-old University Heights resident, though. Irvine writes children’s books about baby animals in her spare time, thus doing her part, she says, to encourage preservation of endangered species. Her first works, a collection of six books, were published in 1982. Including “Raising Gordy Gorilla at the San Diego Zoo� and “Protecting Endangered Species at the San Diego Zoo� to be released this fall, Irvine has published 18 books. She also founded the Gordy Foundation, named for her favorite gorilla, where a percentage of her royalties will be donated to conservation projects. Of the foundation, she says she’s “just putting the money where my heart is.� Irvine spoke with Times writer Terry Rather and was photographed by Don Bartletti at the San Diego Zoo.

Kids love the books! They love the animals in the books. I’m not the star of the books. I write the books, but the real heroes are the animals. The book about Corky I have gotten a lot of response about. Corky was a little harbor seal who was abandoned on the shore. We now have him in the San Diego Zoo performing shows, but he became blind because of cataracts, so we had to retrain him.

I wrote Corky’s story. Now kids come to the San Diego Zoo from all over the United States looking for Corky. It’s real fun to talk to the trainers because, they say, when Corky comes out, kids start screaming “Corky!� “Corky!� “Corky!� When I know there’s that type of response it pleases me because I know the message about conservation is getting through.

My first book was Sydney the Koala. At that time I had a different boss, and I confided in her that someday I wanted to write children’s books. An agent had approached the Zoo and said there was a publisher who wanted to produce a series of six children’s books featuring baby animals. They wanted the Zoo to produce the pictures. My boss said well, if you don’t have a writer, I have someone on staff who I think would be very good. They looked at my stuff and hired me. But then I thought, “Oh my gosh, now what do I do? I have to write a children’s book! I don’t know what to do! Help!� It was funny because my dream had come true, yet I thought “Oh, oh, now you’ve got to produce.�

The responses to my books have been positive. The kids can identify with the animals, in particular with Gordy Gorilla. Gordy’s story goes from the time he was born. He was born without a sucking reflex, so we had to hand raise him in the nursery or he would have died. We have pictures following his progress and growth, and finally a limousine takes him up to the Wild Animal Park where he is integrated into the gorilla family up there. Gordy is now four years old. Gordy is in the nursery, which is similar to how humans develop, and when he has to leave the nursery, kids can identify with him making new friends and being integrated into a new family.

Writing kids’ books is my part in saving endangered species. The animals of the world are in critical danger, many species in danger of becoming extinct. My feeling is that, if kids can get to know a particular animal of a particular species, the more inclined they are to feel something for that species and learn more about why it’s endangered, and what they can do to help.

People say, “How do you do it?� I pretend that I’m 7 years old and think what would this child want to know about this animal. I think very carefully, too. You can’t write down to kids. You just can’t make assumptions about kids. A child would be enchanted to know how the pandas eat grapes. They like to know how things work. You have to use fun words, colorful words, so I have a thesaurus by my side. I try to put myself in the child’s place. Also, speaking to kids helps keep me on track. Kids aren’t afraid to ask questions. It lets me know what they want to know.

I also like adventure, I’m always looking for something new. I think life should be made up of doing things you enjoy. I love photography, traveling and putting together photo albums on my trips. I have traveled all over the world. My dream is to integrate my travels into my stories. I’d like to do some children’s travel books. I hope that I can continue that. I’d like to write about Africa. I just see a whole future out there. I have other book ideas, fantasy book ideas, but, even if I do these other types of books, I will always, always write about animals. It’s become a passion for me.