Marianne Malone Has the Magic Touch With '68 Rooms' Series

Anyone who has been to the Art Institute of Chicago has probably seen – if not fallen in love with – the Thorne Rooms. A collection of 68 unbelievably realistic miniature rooms, they are designed to showcase furniture and styles of various eras in Europe and the United States. When touring this exhibit, it's hard not to wonder what it would be like to walk through this dollhouse-size world. Author Marianne Malone wondered the same thing, and her debut middle-grade novel The Sixty-Eight Rooms is a fantasy adventure set in these very spaces.

The Sixty-Eight Rooms (Random House Books for Young Readers, 2010) was an instant hit with readers and was named a Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Book and a Parent's Choice Recommended Winner. She followed it up with the sequel Stealing Magic in 2012. And coming this May, she releases the third in the series, The Pirate's Coin. In each book, sixth-graders Ruthie Stewart and Jack Tucker are up for the adventures the Thorne Rooms – and a little magic – have in store.

One of the Thorne Rooms miniatures

Question: What inspired you to set your stories in the Thorne Rooms?

Marianne Malone: I grew up in Chicago (born in Hyde Park, we moved to the suburbs when I was little), and I can’t remember a time that I didn’t know of and love the Thorne Rooms. I am not alone in this. Since The Sixty-Eight Rooms came out, I’ve met people who have had the same experience.  The rooms are enchanting and unique in the world. When I visit the rooms, I see stories unfolding in each room, and when I was a child I wanted to be in them in the worst way. I am writing the books that I would have devoured as a 10-year-old. But you don’t need to have seen the Thorne Rooms in person; anyone who has had a small fort, or a dollhouse, or any kind of secret place can understand the impulse. (And of course, they can see all of the rooms beautifully photographed on the Art Institute website).

One of the Thorne Rooms miniatures

When I had the idea and started writing, I was inspired by Mrs. Thorne herself. Imagine having the tenacity to stick with such an unusual project! She actually made 100 rooms, only 68 of which are in the Art Institute. But it was quite an obsession, which she carried out with such perfection.

Q: How much fun has it been to write each of these books? And will there be more?

MM: I am having so much fun writing these books! The process pulls together my love of the rooms, my love of art history (my college major), and my love of teaching. My love of writing is newfound, as I always considered myself a visual artist. But I’ve discovered that I approach writing from a visual perspective; the stories come to me as images, like movies. I’ve enjoyed the editing process as well, taking the rough cut and polishing and improving it until the prose is the way I want it, and the pace flows from fast to slow and back again in just the right proportions.

Q: Time travel can be tricky to write. And Ruthie and Jack make trips to periods like 1937 Paris, 19th-century South Carolina, as well as 1753 Cape Cod. How did you handle the historical aspects of your story as well as the sci-fi?

MM: Yes! Time travel can be very tricky. I have on occasion given myself headaches trying to keep the details straight with regard to how the time travel works in my stories. I have made a list of rules – about the magic and the time travel – and it’s important to follow them. Young readers will believe the story if the logic of the magic is consistent. I can invent any sort of magic that I want, but I can’t break my own rules.

I do a lot of research to make sure that the historical facts in the books are accurate. It’s wonderful when I have sent Ruthie and Jack to a certain time in history and it just happens to coincide with something unexpected and exciting. In Stealing Magic, for instance, they go back in time to Paris 1937, mid–summer, during the World’s Fair. And then I discovered that Amelia Earhart took her fateful flight at exactly the same time. I had to include that!

Q: It's great to remind kids (and adults) to look for the magic in everyday life. What do you hope kids take away from your stories?

MM: I hope that kids (and adults) read the books first for enjoyment, for that wonderful feeling of being swept off your feet by a story. I think the magic helps because you can’t recreate that in your real life (I haven’t figured out how to, anyway!).

Second, I hope that my books open the doors to museums for readers who might not be familiar with or comfortable in them. My favorite fan mail has come from parents who say that after reading my books, their son or daughter insisted they go to the Art Institute! I do a lot of school visits, and I like to tell students that they don’t have to like everything in a museum, just find the one thing that speaks to them. I guarantee that they will find that something if they look, and it might even be something that changes their life.

Third, I hope that I’ve snuck in just enough history that readers have an urge to learn a little more. I think art history is a wonderful way to introduce anyone to history; any given object can tell a story of where it came from, whose life it was a part of (and it doesn’t have to be "high" art found in a museum – family memorabilia is a great way to start). That is rather magical to me and a little bit like time travel.

Q: What's ahead for you, and for Ruthie and Jack?

MM: The third book in the series will be out in May, The Pirate’s Coin. I’m so excited about this one. In each book, the danger and the complications of time travel have become more consequential for Ruthie and Jack. Plus, there is a pirate!

And as I write this, I am editing the fourth book (still working on the title!), but I am loving this story, too. Just a couple of hints: they not only visit New York City, but Ruthie and Jack stumble upon an old mystery that they solve by going back to early 18th century England.

As for me, I have several ideas for other books I’d like to write both for the middle-grade audience and perhaps slightly younger. I’d really love to try my hand at combining my own story and artwork in a book as well.

When Irish Eyes are Reading: Tomie dePaola's St. Pat's Books

We might as well go ahead and declare Tomie dePaola a national treasure. He's been writing for children for more than 40 years now, illustrating about 250 books and authoring about 100 of them. His best-known titles are the 11 books in the Strega Nona series, for which he won a Caldecott Honor, and the 26 Fairmount Avenue series, for which he won a Newbery Honor. Aside from being able to boast that he's sold more than 15 million books, Tomie can also claim a wall full of accolades.

His work has earned him a Smithson Medal from the Smithsonian Institution, and in 1999, he was honored with a Living Treasure Award from New Hampshire's governor. And the biggie to beat all biggies, in 2011 he was given the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for his "substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children."

His most recent titles, Let the Whole Earth Sing Praise (Putnam) and Strega Nona's Gift (Nancy Paulsen Books), were published in 2011. Not bad for a storyteller who will turn 79 this September.

With all the celebrating of his Italian heritage in Strega Nona and other titles, it might be easy to forget that Tomie dePaola's other half is Irish. And it's those books that are in the spotlight this week as we approach St. Patrick's Day.

When March 17th rolls around, teachers, librarians, and parents scan the bookshelves in search of good books to share for Ireland's big day. And Tomie's books are among the best: Fin M'Coul, The Giant of Knockmany Hill (Holiday House, 1981) is a rip-snorting example of Irish folklore and witty storytelling. His Patrick, Patron Saint of Ireland (Holiday House, 1994) gives a wonderful history of the man behind the holiday, blending Irish superstition with Catholic tradition. Also not to be missed are Tomie's stories from his grandfather, the adorable Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1997) as well as Jamie O'Rourke and the Pooka (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2002).

Question: What inspired you to tap your Irish roots and write Patrick, Patron Saint of Ireland, the Jamie O'Rourke books, and Fin M'Coul?

Tomie dePaola: When Strega Nona was chosen as a Caldecott Honor Book, my Irish American mother said to me, partly joking but ultimately serious, "OK, honey, enough with the Italian. Don't forget you're half Irish." There's nothing like a mother's "nudge" to get the creative juices going.

Irish folktales that are suitable for younger children are literally few and far between. There tends to be a lot of whiskey involved, especially in the tales I researched. (Yeats collected many such folktales.)

I found the stories of Fin M'Coul to be the most child friendly. But doing what a good storyteller is supposed to do, I was able to find funny incidents in a handful of other tales. I then created a typical Irish character directly stolen from my Irish grandfather's stories that he loved to tell me when I was a child. (My English/Irish grandmother referred to these stories as "your" grandfather's lies.)

Hence, the Jamie O'Rourke stories. I can still hear my grandfather's voice saying, "Jamie O'Rourke was the laziest man in all of Ireland."

St. Patrick was a no brainer. I was already doing the lives of saints that I found interesting, and Patrick was a prime candidate.

Q: While your Italian and Irish heritage is clear in your writing, you have also tapped into other cultures and traditions in many other books – from Adelita, A Mexican Cinderella Story to The Legend of Bluebonnet. What do you hope to accomplish with the books you write? And what do you hope young readers take away from your books?

TDP: It's natural that I'd be interested in other cultures because as a child I found out how exciting it was to be the child of two different cultures, Italian and Irish. That sent me reading everything I could of other people's worlds. That stayed with me as I grew.

The only thing I hope to accomplish with my books is to "grab" children's interest, inspire them to be excited about things, to laugh and maybe even cry. In short, to truly touch their lives.

Q: One hundred years from now when readers talk about your books, what do you hope is said about you?

TDP: I just hope 100 years from now, there are books, and mine are among them, and people, especially children, like them.

Author-Illustrator Matthew Cordell Draws on Inspiration

The hugely talented illustrator Matthew Cordell has over 18 books to his name, and more on the way, including tomorrow's release of Gone Fishing (Houghton Mifflin) by Tamera Will Wissinger. And as if that weren't enough to make you green with envy, he is one of the rare birds who can both tell a story as well as draw one, as he has done with Trouble Gum (Feiwel & Friends, 2009) and Another Brother (Feiwel & Friends, 2012). His latest example is Hello! Hello! (Hyperion, 2012), a disarmingly sweet story that just might make you put down your iPad and take notice.

Young Lydia grows frustrated with her digital gadgets, and as the rest of her family keeps tapping away, she follows a leaf out the door and into the wonderful, wide-open world. Her encounters move from a bug to a field of flowers to a menagerie of animals that gets increasingly more ridiculous and exciting. Called back home by her parents, Lydia is able to get them to put their electronica away and share in her adventure. Hello! Hello! received starred reviews from both Kirkus and Publisher's Weekly, which called it "required reading for any kid with a phone."

Question: My second-grader has been screen savvy since he could extend his pointy finger. And it has been a constant battle ever since to find the right balance between virtual play and the real-world kind. You are a parent, too. What inspired you to write Hello! Hello!?

Matthew Cordell: I got the idea for this book one day way back when my daughter was 2 years old (she’s 4 now). She and I were playing with some of her toys for a while when I was tempted to go to a nearby laptop to check email or Facebook or whatever. I didn’t think she’d even notice (she was only 2 after all). But she did. She actually said, “Daddy, stop checking email and come play.”

First of all, I didn’t even know she knew the word “email” so that was weird enough, but I was totally busted and felt totally guilty. Later, it occurred to me that this scenario must be playing out with families all the time and everywhere. Once I was made aware of it, I started to look for it, and sure enough I saw plenty of parents and kids in places like parks, restaurants, museums, ball games who were attending to devices as much as, if not more than, each other. I knew a picture book (a book that is enjoyed by both parents and children) would be a perfect place to share this story. Or… stage this intervention, if you will.

Q: A variety of recent picture books have taken a whack at our overly techie age. Hello! Hello! succeeds on its sweetness rather than any heavy-handed message or heaping helping of guilt. Was it hard to rein in your message? Or did you know right away how far you wanted to go with the idea?

MC: I do not consider myself a “finger-pointy” kind of guy. And I hope no one else thinks of me this way. I’d never even considered tackling a book with such a distinct message. But I was sure that this story would resound with others like me, and I really felt compelled to tell it. So it was important for me, from day one, not to hit people over the head with a message. I think it helps that the story is told, mostly, with just one word… “hello.” It helps that that the story is told primarily through its pictures. I think it also helps that we don’t dwell on the negative aspects of the theme. The alienation is at the beginning, and pretty brief. If, in the end, it still feels finger-pointy to some, then that’s unfortunate. But the truth of it is, I’m pointing the finger at myself as well, and that’s how this book came to be.

Q: Picture books generally connect with two audiences – young children and the adults who read to them. Who were you trying to reach with Hello! Hello!?

MC: This is one of the most compelling and most difficult things about making picture books. You must please two completely different audiences. If you lean too far in one direction or the other, you are not doing a good job of it. If one makes a book that is rich in irony or sarcasm, the kids simply will not get it. If one makes a book that is too cutesy-kid-friendly, then the grown-ups are turned off. (Although, maybe the kids are too!) It’s a razor-thin fine line that a picture book maker must walk along. Hello! Hello! is absolutely intended for both adults and children. I think it is a book for children to identify with (of course, the central character is a child) and it is a book that parents can also identify with and, I hope, enjoy reading to and with their children.

Q: You are also the illustrator of many other books – some you've written yourself, some written by other children's authors. Do you prefer wearing your author hat to wearing your illustrator one, or are they both equally satisfying?

MC: They are both equally satisfying in their own ways, but it is a very special day to me when I can both write and illustrate a book on my own. To have complete ownership over that book is like gluttonous hog heaven. There is a certain and distinct love I have when collaborating with an author, but I have only been blessed a few times to write and illustrate my own books, and I enjoy that so much.

Q: What's next from you? And what do you hope readers take away from the books you write and illustrate?

MC: This year, I have four books coming out that I’ve illustrated: Ollie and Claire (Philomel, April 2013) by Tiffany Strelitz Haber; Gone Fishing (Houghton Mifflin, March 2013) by Tamera Will Wissinger; Like Bug Juice on a Burger (Amulet, April 2013) by Julie Sternberg; and What Floats in a Moat? (Simon & Schuster, July 2013) by Lynne Berry. Nothing in 2013 (thus far, at least) that I’ve written, but definitely some stuff in works. Fingers crossed!

I hope readers will get a good sense of family in my books. Joy, angst, love, humor… ups and downs all found and experienced within the family. This feels, I guess, kind of vague, but that is really what picture books and shared reading are about to me. Sharing the intricacies and bliss (and sometimes not bliss!) of our lives together as parent and child.

Judith Bloom Fradin, Cheerleader for Non-Fiction

Judith Bloom Fradin's remarkable writing career has spanned three decades already. And there's much more still to come. Writing with her husband, Dennis Fradin, who passed away in August, they have produced more than 150 non-fiction books for children and won countless awards, such as the ABC Choice Award, IRA Teacher's Choice Award, and School Library Journal Best Book of the Year. They have made a tremendous contribution to feeding hungry minds with fascinating information on topics ranging from tsunamis to Sacagawea to slavery.

Their most recent recent books include Zora! The Life of Zora Neale Hurston (Clarion Books, 2012), which gives a detailed and fascinating account of the life of the Harlem Renaissance darling and author of Their Eyes Were Watching God; and The Price of Freedom: How One Town Stood Up to Slavery (Walker, 2013), about how the townspeople of Oberlin, Ohio, banded together to protect a runaway slave.

Question: Many of your books focus on African American history and the lives of prominent black Americans. What has inspired you to write stories like Zora! and The Price of Freedom?

Judith Bloom Fradin: Dennis and I got hitched in March of 1967. The following September, we both started teaching in all-black schools. I taught English at Marshall High School on Chicago's west side and he taught second grade across the street at Faraday Elementary School. Since we only had one rickety used car, that worked well for us.

Both schools were educational wastelands. Classes were large. There were few books in either building worthy of our eager-to-learn students. The literature anthologies at Marshall contained brief excerpts from novels and plays, most of those less than riveting. Once Dennis's second-graders learned to read, there were no engaging books for them. So we took matters into our own hands.

I had my students purchase a paperback called Black Voices, a compendium of African-American prose, poetry, drama and essays by the likes of Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen and Gwendolyn Brooks and James Baldwin and Richard Wright and Malcolm X. Dennis held his second-graders' attention at the end of the day by spinning stories about remarkable figures in black history. The deeper we delved into these topics, the more intrigued we became. One thing led to another, as Dennis loved to say. . .

Q: You and Dennis have been prolific writers. Where does the spark of an idea for a book come from?

JBF: During the second half of the 1990s, we worked together on From Sea to Shining Sea, a series of state books. The last full chapter of each book focused on that state's famous people. The seeds of many future Fradin books were found in the course of researching those chapters.

In other cases, a publisher asks us to do a series of books, such as the Marshall Cavendish series Turning Points in U.S. History, or we collaborate at designing a project like the Witness to Disaster series we wrote for National Geographic Children's Books.

We've had the good fortune to work with many of the best editors in the business on these various projects. But our favorite books are those born from ideas that we propose.

Dennis's favorite of those was his Samuel Adams: The Father of American Independence (Clarion).  He loved reading and writing about colonial history. My personal favorite thus far is our Ida B. Wells:  Mother of the Civil Rights Movement – also a Clarion book. One "Father," one "Mother." I think Ida is my favorite because it's our first literary child – the first extensive book we worked on together. Also because Ida B. Wells-Barnett was a complex, difficult, intrepid, and mesmerizing woman.

Our Clarion biographies paved the way for our other stand-alone books like 5,000 Miles to Freedom, Stolen into Slavery (both National Geographic Children's Books), and The Price of Freedom (Walker).

Q: The details you include in books like Zora! – such as when she finished her manuscript to a book but could not afford the $1.83 it cost to mail it to her Philadelphia publisher – are fascinating and lend so much to the richness of your biographies. How much research do you do for your books? And how long does it take to write them? 

JBF: I like to tell schoolchildren that my name is Judy "Research" Fradin. I LOVE research. For Dennis, library research was his means to the end of writing the book. For me, the picture research is primary. Ultimately, the two are endlessly intertwined, pulling us and, we hope, our readers, deeper and deeper into our story.

Q: What stories do you enjoy writing the most? What stories resonate most with you? 

JBF: We're both drawn to the quirky story that either hasn't been told before or that has been forgotten. There are still a few such Fradin books in the pipeline!

Q: Considering your body of work, what do you hope to accomplish as a writer?

JBF: I can't speak for Dennis, who has accomplished so very much. We frequently spoke, however, about non-fiction as a method of reaching a wider group of students.

Q: What do you hope young readers take away from your books?

JBF: Again, speaking for myself, I'd hope our books would inspire students to read more non-fiction, discovering how fascinating our world can be. Just call me a cheerleader for non-fiction!

Ben Hatke and His Hero for All Ages, Zita the Spacegirl

When my second-grade son brought home  Zita the Spacegirl (First Second, 2011), a graphic novel about an intergalactic heroine on a quest to rescue her best friend, Joseph, and find her way back home, he slipped into his own sort of time-space portal just like Zita. He sat down with the book and didn't move until he'd finished reading  it. So off we went to scoop up the sequel, Legends of Zita the Spacegirl (First Second, 2012), from the school library.

But as a sure sign of the popularity of the Zita books, the sequel was checked out. And there was a lo-o-o-o-o-ng list of students who were eagerly awaiting their turn for Book 2. And a quick survey of his classmates revealed that most all of them – girls and boys – had read and adored at least one of the Zita books already.

Zita is conquering the reading universe. And with a third book in the series due to be released this year, we thankfully have more thrilling adventures to anticipate.

The creative force behind Zita is Ben Hatke, a classically trained artist, writer and comics creator. With a good dose of inspiration from his wife and four daughters, Ben has created a charming hero who leaves all of us cheering – including critics like Kirkus Reviews, which called Legends one of its Best Children's Books of 2012.

Question: Did Zita spring fully formed from your mind? Or did she evolve into the heroine we see in the books?

Ben Hatke: As a character, Zita took years to develop. Also, she’s originally the creation of my wife, Anna.

When I first met this adorable girl in college she showed me some comic strips she had drawn in high school. They featured a futuristic character called Zita the Space Girl. I started developing the character, mostly as a way to impress her. This girl eventually married me, so it’s still the best thing comics has ever done for me.

Those early Zita stories, the ones I made for Anna, were very silly, but that’s where her look started to develop. Later, when I started making short webcomics, I came back to Zita, and she began to get younger, eventually hovering around 10 or 11. And she became more of a world-hopping traveler, lost in space, and she started picking up friends. Her personality also evolved a little bit, and she became more headstrong.

When I got the opportunity to do the graphic novels, it was a chance to finally tell the story of why this girl was drifting from world to world.

Q: Were your wife and four daughters the inspiration for writing the Zita books? And if so, in what ways?

BH: Well, I already mentioned how my wife is the original creator of Zita, but she’s also a big influence on Zita’s character.

My daughters also find their way into the mix. They tend to influence the books in different ways. My eldest girl, Angelica (10), has even made coloring suggestions that have ended up being better than what I was doing at the time.

Also, when I’m writing a book, and before I start the artwork, I run the whole story by my family, verbally, and those initial reactions have a profound influence. When I was telling them the story for Zita 3, nobody wanted to sit down to dinner until I had finished. That was a good sign.

Also, it’s really handy from a drawing standpoint, to have a lot of adventurous kids running around as I try to catch their gestures and movements on paper.

Q: Often it's just the boys who get to be heroes on wild adventures and have all the fun, while girl protagonists are more often the stars of realistic fiction. Were you trying to fill that void with Zita? Why or why not?

BH: I don’t think I was consciously working to fill the void. I grew up with adventurous sisters, and now I have adventurous daughters. I think girl protagonists and adventurers just seem natural to me.

Q: While Zita offers up plenty of girl power, boys adore the stories, too. So often books for children are marketed just to one gender – boy books or girl books. Do you find you have both genders among Zita fans, and that perhaps we underestimate young readers? That a good story is a good story, regardless of whether the hero is a girl?

BH: I think we underestimate readers of all ages! I certainly don’t think of Zita as a boy book or a girl book, or even 100 percent children’s literature for that matter. It’s really a book crammed as full as possible of stuff that I, personally, think is cool.

I’m going for a true all-ages story. Hopefully there’s something for just about everyone to love.

I do find that the letters I get from fans of the books are close to even, gender-wise. I probably get slightly more letters from girl readers, but not a LOT more.

Q: As an author-illustrator, you have not only to write and conceptualize your book, you have to pace it and draw it too. How long does each book take, from idea to finished illustration? Can you speak to the creative process of your books?

BH: Writing, drawing, coloring and lettering a graphic novel takes a lot of time. There’s no way around that. Looking at the three Zita books, Zita 3 went extremely quickly at 9 or 10 months. Legends of Zita (the second book) took about a year and a half to finish. So it averages about a year.

I’m becoming a little more confident in my creative process these days. Getting the framework of the story settled is always the first phase. At this point, the writing and art are still separate. I make outlines on my computer and I also keep a sketchbook, dedicated to the book, for character designs and setting. I’ve learned to work very hard on the story outline.Later, when I start thumbnailing scenes, the writing and art start to come together. Though I work with a pretty solid outline for the story, there’s still a fair amount of detail and dialogue that I get to make up as I go. That’s part of the fun, and it keeps a sense of freshness to the process. A lot of the humor is stuff I probably made up on the fly.

The last phase comes after I have all the linework finished and scanned. I move on to coloring (and lettering). It’s like having a 200-page coloring book. I do my coloring with Photoshop, and it takes a couple months. I put in long hours and listen to a lot of podcasts during this phase!


Q: What's ahead for Zita? And for you? (And what's the story behind the Irish tin whistle?)

BH: The Return of Zita the Spacegirl (Zita 3) is completed and will be out later this year. I had a lot of fun writing and drawing this book, and I can hardly wait to share it with people!

Right now I’m working on a picture book called Julia’s House. It’s about a girl who hangs a sign outside her door that opens her house up to all the creatures no one believes in (trolls, dragons, mermaids, gnomes, etc.) and what happens when they actually show up.

The art for this book is all ink and watercolor, and I feel like I’m getting a good chance to stretch myself artistically. It’s a good feeling! Scary and exciting.

And after Julia’s House? I’ve got a lot of projects cooking. . .

Oh! And Tin Whistles! I usually carry one around in my bag. You know, just in case. . .

Carolyn Crimi on Pugs, Bugs, and What Makes Her Laugh

Some writers are born with a knack for plotting. Others with an ear for dialogue. But few come into the world with as finely tuned a funny bone as author Carolyn Crimi. She has written 13 picture books that are sure to elicit laughs and snorts from the youngest readers – as well as their adult companions. Carolyn is back with another of her joyful romps through storyland with Pugs in a Bug, illustrated by Stephanie Buscema (Dial, 2012). Part counting book, part rollicking adventure, Pugs in a Bug also features greyhounds in a bus, sheepdogs in a jeep, and even bulldogs driving cabs. It is a great fit for dog lovers everywhere.

Question: Pugs are adorable and inherently funny. Volkswagen Beetles are adorable and inherently fun. How did you hit on the stroke of genius to put the two together?

Carolyn Crimi: It just so happens that I own a Volkswagen Bug, although unlike the one in the book, mine is rarely a “clean,” green Bug. It is simply “green.” The very first time I put my pug, Emerson, in my VW Bug, I squealed, “A pug in a Bug!” That was about 10 years ago. I still have both my pug and my Bug, and now I also have a book about them.

Q: Lots of people have great ideas all the time. How do you take your creative, clever notions from idea stage to published book?

CC: A lot of my ideas never make it into books. That’s fine. Not all of my manuscripts are good enough to be made into books. Many people are surprised when I tell them that I have about 100 manuscripts of different lengths and degrees of completion in my computer, and yet I only have 13 books published. I’d say that most of my picture-book writing friends have just as many unsold manuscripts. Troubles arise when you feel you must publish a manuscript. Sometimes I’ll spend a long, long time on a manuscript and think that just because I’ve spent so much time and energy on it, I’ll sell it. Unfortunately that’s not the way it works.

If I really believe in a manuscript, I’ll revise it many times before sending it out to a publisher, while some manuscripts are just exercises that never leave my computer. It’s a different journey for each.

Q: Where does your creativity happen? On long walks in the woods, while scrubbing the dishes after dinner, at writer's retreats in the Vermont mountains?

CC: I’d say D, All of the Above. Although I’ve gotten an inordinate number of story ideas on my daily walk through the streets of Evanston.

Q: Because you write for the youngest readers, you must have a strong sense of the joys of being a child. Do you draw on memories from your childhood? Or have you just maintained a great connection to your younger self?

CC: I’d say that I actually have a strong sense of the agonies of childhood. Although I like to think that my books end on a hopeful note, they usually start with a problem that I’m having now or that I had as a child.

No one ever believes me, but I was a shy child. Right now I’m working on a book about a shy bunny who won’t say hello. I remember hating that whole, “Say hello to Mrs. Brown” rigmarole. I have always had stage fright, even though I love being on stage (go figure!), so Rock ‘N Roll Mole (Dial, 2011) stemmed from many memories of being petrified while on stage. I think if I started from a joyful or blissful memory of childhood, I’d write a pretty boring book.

Q: With characters from your books like these pugs, a rock-n-role mole, and a buccaneer bunny, you clearly have a sense of humor. What inspires you to write such fun and funny books? What makes you laugh? 

CC: I like taking stereotypes and turning them inside out. A bear pirate isn’t nearly as funny as a bunny pirate. Likewise, a lion rock star would be expected, but a mole?

These are the kinds of things I think about. Like, all day. Hippo fairies, pig princesses, warthogs in love, professorial monkeys, it’s all funny to me. Animals make me laugh in general. There’s not a day that goes by when I’m not laughing at my pug.

I write humor because I need humor. When I’m sad or frustrated, I’ll watch a funny movie or read a funny book. I cope with the world through humor. And hey, it’s a lot cheaper than therapy.

My Funny Valentine: Brenda Ferber's 'Yuckiest' Picture Book

Valentine's Day is almost here, and love is in the air. Or if that's not love, it's a serious craving for chocolate. We'd like to celebrate the big day by talking to Brenda Ferber, author of the brand-new picture book The Yuckiest, Stinkiest, Best Valentine Ever (Dial, December 2012). Brenda has also published two middle-grade novels with Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Jemma Hartman, Camper Extraordinaire and Julia's Kitchen, winner of the Sydney Taylor Book Award in 2007.

Question: Your other books are middle-grade novels. What inspired you to write The Yuckiest, Stinkiest, Best Valentine Ever and speak to a younger audience? 

Brenda Ferber: With my novels, I write for the adolescent I used to be because those memories are so close to my heart. But I honestly don’t remember much from when I was very young. However, when I wrote Yuckiest Stinkiest, I had two second-graders and a first-grader, so I was knee-deep in story ideas for that age-group.

The impetus for this particular story came when I was charged with bringing a Valentine’s Day book to my daughter’s class party. I looked in the book store and the library, but I didn’t find anything I thought would appeal to this group of sophisticated second-graders. I knew they’d be bored by anything moralistic, and they’d cringe at anything too lovey-dovey. I was looking for an adventurous, humorous book to share with them about Valentine’s Day, and I couldn’t find one. So I decided to try to write one myself.

I remembered the year before, when my then first-grade son had come home from school on Valentine’s Day and begun sorting his class valentines into two piles – good and bad. I wondered how he was determining which valentine went into which pile, especially since he wasn’t even opening them. It turned out he didn’t know or care who the cards were from; the good ones had candy attached. For him, Valentine’s Day was Halloween in February. It was all about the candy.

Contrast that with my younger son, who was a born romantic. He had big crushes since preschool, and he was very giving and demonstrative with his love. For him, Valentine’s Day was the perfect holiday because it was a day to share and celebrate love, his favorite thing. I wanted to write a story showing these two ways of approaching the holiday, because in my opinion, Valentine’s Day is about both candy and love. To make it funny, I exaggerated my sons’ characteristics and turned things upside down by having the valentine – who you’d think would be all for love – be the character who prefers candy to anything mushy or romantic. Then, to make it adventurous and to raise the stakes, I created a big chase.

In the original story that I read to my daughter’s class, the chase actually went around the world and ended with the valentine jumping into a bubbling volcano. Alas, I discovered a valentine suicide is not the best ending to a picture book! Over the next five years, I revised the story extensively, changing just about everything except the main concept. It was great fun and rewarding to see the story develop into what it is today.

Q: Did you find writing a picture book to be freeing in some ways from a middle-grade book? Were there more opportunities to tap your funny bone? 

BF: I don’t know if freeing is the right word. I felt a ton of pressure. I have a good sense of humor, but I’m not actually funny. I surround myself with funny people, and I love to laugh, but I’m not usually the person who makes other people laugh. Yet, here I was, determined to write a funny picture book. I wasn’t sure I could do it, but I tried. The thing that helped was that whenever I write, I approach it as a reader, so even though I’m putting the words on the page, I’m imagining reading those words for the first time and reacting internally the way a reader might. When I made myself laugh, I knew I was on the right path.

Q: What were you hoping to convey to young readers with Yuckiest? Not so much hitting them with a message, but in the spirit of the book? 

BF: Ultimately, it’s a book about vulnerability. It takes a ton of courage to tell someone how you really feel, especially when you can’t be sure if those feelings will be reciprocated. But nothing risked is nothing gained. Leon starts the story not even considering vulnerability. He’s never been hurt, so why should he worry? But the valentine and everyone he meets on the chase make him aware of just how complicated and risky love is. 

The image of Leon totally freaked out when he realizes this cracks me up because it's so real. Love is complicated! Love involves risk and vulnerability. But in the end (spoiler alert!), of course Leon’s crush loves him back, and not only that, but the valentine falls in love, too. So I guess what I’m saying is, it’s okay to be afraid of love, but don’t let that stop you. That said, readers might come away from the book with a completely different interpretation, and that's okay with me.

Book Giveaway Alert! Brenda will send a free, autographed copy of her book to one lucky reader who adds a comment to this post!

Q: Having an illustrator, and such a remarkable one as Tedd Arnold, can add an exciting dimension to a story – for both the reader and the author. Can you speak to what it was like seeing Tedd's interpretation of your story? And what his illustrations do for readers? 

BF: I absolutely fell in love with Tedd Arnold’s illustrations for my book! He added a whole other level of depth and humor to the story. There are so many fun details that make multiple readings a joy. For example, you might notice that when Leon is thinking about his crush, his pupils are heart-shaped. And the little girl who loves all this romance has a small tear in her eye that grows bigger as the story progresses. And then there’s the teen who goes on and on about how she can find out if Leon’s crush loves him back. She talks so much that her words literally get squeezed off the page.

Tedd makes the characters truly come alive. I imagine kids and adults will enjoy poring over the illustrations time and time again. I also love the way the book looks like a large, vibrant Sunday comic. I think this format will especially appeal to older picture book readers, and since the story concept is funnier the older you get, this illustration style seems to me to be the perfect fit.

Q: What do you hope young readers take away from your books – from Yuckiest to Jemma to Julia?

BF: I think reading is such a personal experience that I can’t really care what people take away from my books. I just hope they take something. When I first started out on my writing journey, I created a mission statement, and it holds true today. It goes like this: I aim to write books that touch the heart and soul and allow readers to see themselves and the world in a new way. So if I can make you laugh with this picture book, or cry with one of my novels, or if something I’ve written gives you that aha moment where you see things in a fresh and different way, then I’ve done my job.