Courtesy of Dedey Natalia

Author and filmmaker Dedey Natalia gives her all to uncover the beautiful and adventurous minds of children.

The 40-year-old was behind the do-it-yourself art and crafts children'€™s TV program Buatan Sendiri (Handmade) aired by Kompas TV and the documentary series Ensiklopedia Anak Nusantara (Encyclopedia of Archipelago Children).

She also wrote a series of four books on children'€™s character-building, published by Radani Publishing.

A graduate of the Jakarta Institute of Art, Dedey started as an assistant director even before she finished her studies, and moved forward to helm TV programs, documentaries, company profile videos and many others.

She is currently an executive producer with production house idbox and was recently involved in a documentary telling the stories of two rape victims titled Masih Ada Asa (global title Memory & Hope) as production manager.

Her passion for the world of children is derived from her reading habits since childhood.

Raised by her grandmother in Semarang, Central Java, young Dedey had to save her pocket money to collect children'€™s novels or prepare a list of titles for birthday gifts from her relatives.

'€œDuring school days I had my own library '€” quite a professional one, with indices. I charged fees to borrow book, and bought more books with the money.

'€œI treasured my collection and always warned the borrowers not to misplace the book. I'€™m still on bad terms with a friend who lost one of my Noni series,'€ said Dedey.

The detective series was written by Bung Smas, her favorite author.

Dedey spends up to Rp 2 million a month on books, although reading is now a luxury for her. '€œMost of the books I bought are still in mint condition.'€

Roald Dahl books

I stumbled upon an unread copy of The Magic Finger at my school library. I loved it but forgot about it until I watched Matilda. I looked for the novel and realized that it was from the same author as The Magic Finger. I have read all of Dahl'€™s books and to visit his museum is my dream.

Thanks to The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me, I collect anything giraffe-related, such as stuffed toys and collectibles.

Matilda is actually the book that made me want to write a script and direct. I wrote a book inspired by it and took it to a lot of publishers, but it was rejected because they thought the character was suffering from mental illness. I consulted the book with child psychologists and they said the character was alright. But I don'€™t think I want to publish it anymore.

Mirrormask
by Neil Gaiman

I love this story of a teen girl who has to save her evil twin sister in another dimension. It'€™s an adventure story that is scary and fascinating at the same time.

Otto and the Flying Twins
by Charlotte Haptie

It'€™s a children'€™s fantasy about a family of magical people who live in the non-magic world and try hard to hide their identity especially because the baby twins sometimes unexpectedly levitate into the air.

I read the book by visualizing how it could be when adapted to screen. When the film was released in 2010, I was a bit disappointed with the visualization and plot and it turned out a flop.

The Christmas Mystery
by Jostein Gaarder

I like the novel because of the philosophy in it. It'€™s about a child who finds a handmade advent calendar. Behind each door of the calendar he uncovers the adventure story of a young girl.

It'€™s a children'€™s book but it can be enjoyed at different levels by people of all ages. This kind of book is similar to Bung Smas'€™ works. No one writes like that nowadays and I miss him.

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