WWII Nurses' History in Mary Cronk Farrell's 'Pure Grit'

March is not only Women's History Month, it's also National Reading Month. So what better way to celebrate the two than with a gripping read about some remarkable women at a crucial time in America's history. Mary Cronk Farrell's Pure Grit: How American World War II Nurses Survived Battle and Prison Camp in the Pacific (Abrams, February 2014) is designated for a third- to seventh-grade audience, but its appeal is much broader. I've talked about this title with parents and grownup friends as well as my own kids, and I simply cannot recommend this book enough. Not only does it detail the harrowing accounts of what these brave women went through, but it also looks at the frustrating treatment they endured upon return to the United States.

Pure Grit tells the story of U.S. Army nurses who enlisted for peacetime duty during the early 1940s. When the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor plunged the United States into World War II, their lives were turned upside down. One hundred and one American Army and Navy nurses serving in the Philippines suddenly found themselves treating wounded and dying soldiers in makeshift jungle hospitals. Told with page-turning urgency and illustrated with archival photographs, Pure Grit conveys the plight of these nurses struggling to help the wounded while bombs were exploding all around them.

Captured by the Japanese as prisoners of war, the nurses went on to endure three years of disease and near-starvation. This is a part of American history I knew nothing about, and I am so grateful Mary Cronk Farrell devoted the time necessary to write Pure Grit. It truly is a story of sisterhood.

Question: Pure Grit is incredibly well-researched. How long did this project take you from "ah-ha" moment to written manuscript. Can you talk about how you researched the manuscript and the people you connected with along the way?

Mary Cronk Farrell: I worked on researching Pure Grit over a span of about five years, though I was not focusing steadily on the project. I made concentrated efforts for a few months at a time and then would need to turn my attention elsewhere, for instance I also researched and wrote Journey to the Top of the World during this time as well as writing two drafts of a novel and researching and writing an historical picture book manuscript.

This worked well for Pure Grit because it took time to search for the nurses’ family members, other people I wanted to interview, and photographs. I followed a number of dead ends, as well as being passed from person to person to track information and waiting to hear back from people. In some cases, I have email and snail mail conversations that carried on over two or three years. I had not done a project of this scope before, but my stop-and-go, zigzag method is common, I suppose, for a working writer.

My favorite part was connecting with the nurses’ grown children, and, of course, meeting Retired Army Nurse Mildred Dalton Manning who was the last surviving POW nurse. She lived to be 98 and died a year ago this month.

Q: This is a book that stayed with me long after I'd finished reading it. I called up my parents and told them to look for it, and I've asked friends about their knowledge of these American nurses' experiences. Your book seems appropriate for adults and young readers alike. What made you target a young audience?

MCF: At this point in my career, I am focusing on writing for young people, so that is the main reason I targeted that audience for this book. But I always imagined adults would read it, too. There have been other books written for adults on the topic, but Pure Grit will reach a different segment of adult readers. I intentionally wrote the story to be a quick read for people who live busy lives, and included many photographs to make the story accessible to people who are used to getting information through images.

U.S. Army Nurse Corp Women imprisoned in Santo Tomas Internment Camp in Manila, Philippine Islands, 1943. (courtesy of Sandy Thor) 

Q: Fire in the Hole, Journey to the Top of the World, Daughters of the Desert. History and historical fiction seem to be your genres of choice. What draws you to this type of storytelling?

MCF: I’ve always loved learning history, but I’m not sure why. As a child reader, historical fiction was my favorite genre. In my middle-school years I read an average of a book a day and most of them were historical fiction. I do know that I’m drawn to stories of people who’ve overcome adversity, because I’ve needed to learn how to do that in my own life. Books have always been an inspiration to me during the rough patches of life, and being able to write one like Pure Grit, which I know will inspire others, is an honor and privilege.

Navy Nurses in Leyte shows U.S. Navy Nurses liberated from Los Ban᷈os Internment Camp, Laguna de Bay, Philippine Islands, February 23, 1945.

Q: What do you hope readers take away from your writing? What do you hope to achieve?

MCF: Besides inspiring people through telling the story of these women’s resilience and courage, I hope readers will ask what we can learn from history. I hope people will be moved to have compassion for our Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. Not feel sorry for them, not ignore them because they volunteered for duty, but truly see their needs and be moved to listen to their pain and share their struggles.

Q: What will we see next from you?

MCF: My next book is a biography of Labor Leader Fannie Sellins, who was shot to death on the picket line in a 1919 Pennsylvania coal strike.

Kicking Off Women's History Month With Tanya Lee Stone

Once upon a time, when my husband was just a little guy, he believed that all doctors were women. That's because his own mom was an MD. So it made perfect sense to him that this was how the world worked. But as we know, that's not the way it was. Medical schools today are graduating women at roughly equal numbers as men. But there was time when simply the idea of a woman aspiring to be a doctor was laughable.

With the picture book Who Says Women Can't Be Doctors? The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell (Henry Holt, 2013), Tanya Lee Stone takes readers back in time to see what it was like through a young girl's eyes. Named a 2014 Amelia Bloomer Project book, Who Says shows what Elizabeth was like as a young, curious girl. And how she got the idea to become a doctor from a sick friend, who confided that she would rather be examined by a woman than a man. It lays out the challenges and frustrations Elizabeth encountered as she pursued her dream and opened the door for countless other women to pursue theirs. It's a great book to celebrate Women's History Month.

Question: While you have written teen fiction, your specialty seems to be non-fiction. You are the author of at least 15 non-fiction books for young readers – including Courage Has No Color, The True Story of the Triple Nickles America's First Black Paratroopers (Candlewick, 2013) – and 10 non-fiction picture books. What draws you to this genre? Were you been bitten by the research bug early in life?

Tanya Lee Stone: I was an outdoor, tomboyish kid who loved to read and grew up on the rocky coastline of Connecticut, so I feel as though my entire childhood was based in field research! If you pair that with the fact that I am continually amazed by the extraordinary things that "ordinary" people do (there is really no such thing as an ordinary person), it's easy to understand my attraction to non-fiction.

Q: Many of your books focus on pioneering women – Elizabeth Blackwell, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, as well as Amelia Earhart, Ella Fitzgerald, and early female astronauts. Why write about these women?

TLS: The fabric of our history is so riddled with holes that I've been compelled to do my part and fill in as many as I can. This comes down, for me, to stories about women and people of color who have been largely left out of the record.

Q: With Who Says Women Can't Be Doctors? you lay out the challenges Elizabeth Blackwell faced in stark terms for the youngest readers to understand. Who do you hope to reach with your picture books? And what do you hope to accomplish?

TLS: My picture books are both for the standard picture book age range (4-8) as well as for older readers because of the topics I tend to choose. There are two things I'm generally interested in accomplishing with my picture books – capturing the essence of someone incredibly cool who we as readers are not particularly familiar with, and inspiring readers to dream big and not let anything stand in their way.

Q: Parents Magazine named Who Says Women Can't Be Doctors? the Best Non-Fiction Picture Book of 2013. And Booklist listed it a Top 10 Youth Biography. What do awards like these mean to you? Do they help you connect history and non-fiction to even more young readers? 

TLS: There are so many wonderful books that come out every year that don't get the attention they deserve, and it is always a huge honor to be highlighted with these kinds of accolades. Honors like these are also important in terms of elongating the life of a book and helping to keep it in print (and with nonfiction this can be even trickier than with fiction), as well as calling attention to it for readers who might otherwise miss it. For example, the Parents' Magazine press likely alerted a lot more parents than might have known about it. I am extremely grateful.

Q: Do you feel that the publishing world is more interested in non-fiction books these days than in the past? Was there a time when it was hard to sell your non-fiction work?

TLS: That's a bit of a tricky question, depending upon your perspective. While it is true that things like the Common Core have brought more mainstream, trade/bookstore-type attention to non-fiction, it has also been an area that has been strong for a long time because of the need for good non-fiction for kids in the school and library market.

Q: Where do you get your ideas for the next project? What will we see from you next?

TLS: I am always doing research, and always coming across things that elicit emotional responses from within, which can be negative or positive. Things I come across in the news or doing research that make me say, "Wow, how cool, I didn't know that!" are equally compelling to me as when I find something that makes me outraged or confused. I have several books in the pipeline, and the next one up (in 2015) is a picture book about Jane Addams called The House that Jane Built. After that, be on the lookout for more long-form narrative non-fiction from me, as well as new picture books. Thank you so much for getting in touch and Happy Women's History Month!

Kandinsky's Art Inspires Barb Rosenstock's 'Noisy Paint Box'

Picture book biographies are one of my favorite genres. Not only because they tend to feature remarkable people who change the world in one way or another, but because they distill the messiness of life into easily understandable bits. Betty wanted to fly, but people said a girl couldn't, so Betty proved them wrong. Josephine wanted to dance, but America treated her poorly, so she found a place where she was loved and accepted.

With The Noisy Paint Box: The Colors and Sounds of Kandinsky's Abstract Art (Knopf, releasing tomorrow), Chicago-area author Barb Rosenstock tells the story of a young boy who opened his paint box and saw colors differently. Young Vasily Kandinsky could hear colors singing and see vibrant sounds dancing, and he didn't want to paint the way everyone else was painting at the time. So he listened to his own voice and, over time, became a brilliant force for a whole new form of painting: abstract art.

Beautifully illustrated by Mary GrandPre, best known as the artist for the Harry Potter books, The Noisy Paint Box has already garnered starred reviews from top journals, including this from Kirkus: “A rich, accomplished piece about a pioneer in the art world.” Barb's other wonderfully detailed books have earned her praise as well: Thomas Jefferson Builds a Library, recently named an Orbis recommended book; The Camping Trip that Changed America, illustrated by Mordecai Gerstein; and Fearless: The Story of Racing Legend Louise Smith.

Question: Your picture books cover pioneering stock car racer Louise Smith, a ground-breaking camping trip with President Theodore Roosevelt and conservationist John Muir, and Thomas Jefferson's library. Now, with The Noisy Paint Box, you dive into the life of abstract artist Vasily Kandinsky. Where do your ideas come from? How do you go from "a-ha" moment when something catches your eye to finished manuscript?

Barb Rosenstock: I wish I had a better answer than "my ideas are random" but "my ideas are random." I wish they weren't. Something I'll read or see about a person or event will catch my imagination, and then it's research time. I'm looking for its importance to kids or to curriculum and also for a focus to build a book around. How it goes to finished manuscript, well, like everyone else, it's just create, revise, repeat.

Q: What inspired The Noisy Paint Box? How and why did you choose Kandinsky? 

BR: I saw an article titled The Man Who Heard His Paintbox Hiss while I was reading about folk artists and just had to find out what THAT was about. Turned out it was about Kandinsky. I told you my ideas are random. If I run into it, find it interesting and it doesn't already exist, I'll take a stab at it.

Q: You seem to prefer picture book biography and narrative non-fiction to other genres. Why? How did you land on this form for your writing? 

BR: I was a big history buff, even when I was in elementary school. I may have been the only fourth-grader who secretly hung out in antique stores. My reading preferences followed that interest, almost always historical fiction like the Betsy Tacy stories or Little House on the Prairie, but I never dreamed of being a writer. However, when my sons were young they liked "true stories" – emphasis on stories – and it was hard to find interesting, well-written, non-fiction or biography that didn't sound like a textbook. I started noodling around writing a bit, and here I am.

Q: The Noisy Paint Box has already earned starred reviews from top journals, and your other books have earned awards from the Amelia Bloomer Project, Junior Library Guild, and Bank Street, to name just a few. With books that are so thoroughly researched and well-written, how long does it take to fully explore your subjects? And what is your process like for writing and refining the story and specific language? 

BR: Thanks for the compliment! I actually found out we got a fourth star from School Library Journal today! Depending on the book, I would say six months to a year of research/writing. Ten days is my shortest book, two years is my longest. I don't write in a set order. For example, I almost never do all the research and then write a picture book. Instead I tend to do some research, write a draft for tone, style, or focus and then do further research to flesh out details in subsequent drafts.

All in all a bit circular. Then I'll do anywhere from five to 10 drafts to get the language perfect, especially the verbs. I'll never get the punctuation and stuff right, 'cuz I'm terrible at that, I just finally give up when I feel it's readable enough for my agent or editors. Later, I constantly judge the information on whether it serves the story, and judge the story on whether it serves the information. I'd still be rewriting books that are already published, so it's good that they take them away from me.

Q: Your illustrator for The Noisy Paint Box is Mary GrandPré, the artist who illustrated the Harry Potter series. In the children's book world, this puts you in some pretty heady company! How did you feel when you learned you would be working with Mary?

BR: I've been so blessed to be paired with phenomenal illustrators across the board. Allison Wortche, the Knopf editor of The Noisy Paint Box, understood this book's message. Her team chose the perfect artist to bring Paint Box to life. And Mary's genius added so much to the story. I have to confess, I didn't know Mary was the artist behind Harry Potter until the day we were paired up and then, yeah, I just walked around beaming for like three months. Okay, I'm still beaming.

Q: I loved the idea behind The Noisy Paint Box, that we don't have to be defined by what others dictate. What do you hope young readers take away from this book? And from all your stories? 

BR: That being yourself is good enough. That each of us is born with talents or instincts toward certain things and that we should always respect our guts and not hide our strengths to fit in. Also, that talent or wanting to change something is not magical, it takes work too. It's gratifying for me to learn about people in history who believed in themselves and their work. I hope in a small way my books contribute to supporting self-acceptance in children who typically too easily give up their uniqueness to satisfy others.

Q: What will we see next from you?

BR: March 1st of 2014 is the release of a new picture book titled The Streak: How Joe DiMaggio Became America's Hero. We did it in conjunction with some researchers from the Baseball Hall of Fame and Louisville Slugger. I'm a non-athlete in an athletic family, so this one is for my (now almost grown) boys who got me started on this crazy writing adventure. I couldn't believe there were no DiMaggio picture books. So I wrote one!

Pat Zietlow Miller, 'Sophie,' and a Squash for All Seasons

I love vegetables, much to my youngest son's dismay. Love me some spinach, asparagus, all kinds of mushrooms. And especially now in Chicago's deep, dark winter, I really love squash – as a creamy soup, or perhaps baked with a bit of brown sugar. That's why Pat Zietlow Miller's picture book Sophie's Squash (Schwartz & Wade, 2013) caught my eye. It tells the story of a girl who loves squash too. Only instead of letting her parents cook it up in a dish, Sophie makes a best friend of it. Bernice, as the squash is named, tags along with Sophie everywhere she goes. But as the weeks and months pass, Bernice begins looking a bit mushy. What will Sophie do?

Sophie's Squash tells a charming story of friendship, with energetic illustrations by Anne Wilsdorf. It earned starred reviews from journals like Booklist, Kirkus, and Publisher's Weekly, as well as School Library Journal, which wrote in a delightful review, "With lessons on life, love, and vegetable gardening, this tale will be cherished by children, and their parents will be happy to read it to them often."

Question: Picture books cover a wide range of topics, from naptime to pirating the high seas to cows that type. So why a girl and her squash? Who and what were the inspirations for this story?

Pat Zietlow Miller: This book was inspired by my daughter, Sonia. She fell in love with a butternut squash when she was 3 or 4, and carried it around like a baby. As a beginning writer, you always hear that you should never base a story on something cute your child did. I generally think that’s a good rule, but it obviously did not apply here.

In my defense, I did add several plot points that did not really happen, so the story truly is fiction. But Sonia, who is 11 now, is very proud to have inspired the story.

Q: It's one thing to have an inspired story, but it's another thing entirely to win over an agent and editor. Was Sophie's Squash a hard sell? What was it like to take the manuscript out into the world?

PZM: It was hard to sell the manuscript – I think for two reasons. First, it was one of my initial manuscripts, and I was still learning a lot as a writer. So the story went through many revisions as I worked with my critique group, studied more and incorporated feedback from editors. Some of the versions I sent out early on just weren’t ready for publication.

Even once the story was more polished, it took a while to find a home. I did not have an agent at the time and was sending the story out through the slush pile. So it often took many months to hear back. And when I did, it was often a form rejection.

But I did get glimmers of hope along the way – a few nice notes written in the margins of a rejection and a few revision requests. Those things kept me going and trying.

I think this story got between 15 and 20 rejections before Anne Schwartz at Schwartz & Wade said “yes.” And I’m so glad that the book ended up with her. She and Lee Wade have loved it and supported it and been extremely encouraging. It was worth the wait.

Q: Sophie's Squash is your first book, and it has earned at least four starred reviews in top journals. That's no small feat! What has the experience been like for you? How long had you been writing for kids before Sophie hit?

PZM: I still can’t believe the starred reviews. I’m thrilled, but I consider myself very fortunate. It certainly was not something I expected. I had been seriously working toward my goal of publishing a picture book for four years before this book sold. I had sold a few stories to Highlights magazine before selling Sophie, but I was very much a newbie.

I did have experience writing, however. I’ve worked as a newspaper reporter, magazine editor and corporate communications employee. And I’ve read picture books all my life, so the rhythm and flow of them was definitely embedded in my head.

Q: Can you talk about the books that we'll see next from you? Will we encounter Sophie again?

PZM: Here’s what’s currently in the works:

• Wherever You Go. This picture book is coming from Little, Brown in Spring 2015. It’s a rhyming look at the various roads in life with a reminder that everyone controls their own destiny. Eliza Wheeler is illustrating. Yay!

• Sharing the Bread. This is a rhyming picture book for younger readers about a family that prepares Thanksgiving dinner together with everybody pitching in. It’s coming from Schwartz & Wade, and the wonderful Jill McElmurry is illustrating.

• Sophie’s Seeds. There IS more Sophie coming from Schwartz & Wade. In this book, Sophie starts school and explores the ups and downs of having human friends. But don’t worry, Bonnie and Baxter are never far away. Anne Wilsdorf is illustrating again, of course.

• The Quickest Kid in Clarksville. This picture book, set in 1960, tells the story of two girls who idolize Olympic sprinter Wilma Rudolph. They both want to be just like her, and they compete to see who’s the fastest before discovering that not all races have just one winner. This is coming from Chronicle in 2016.

And, I’m always writing new stuff. I think one way to keep yourself sane as a writer is never to pin all your hopes on one story. Have lots of stories going on so you always have something to work on and improve.

Q: What do you hope young readers take away from your stories? What do you hope to accomplish as a writer?

PZM: I want to write books that reflect universal childhood truths. Those little moments that make readers nod (or wince) with recognition. And if I can make people laugh, that’s cool too.

My two favorite responses to Sophie’s Squash came from very different readers. One was an email about a little boy with autism who had fallen in love with a miniature pumpkin after Halloween. He was loving it and asking his mom if he was being a good daddy to it. She was worried about how sad he’d feel once it rotted. So she read him my book and they planted the pumpkin just like Sophie planted her squash.

The second came from a fellow writer who told me her mother-in-law, who has advanced Alzheimer’s, really enjoys the book too. My friend said, “Not many books bring a smile to her face, but this one does. She's always loved babies, and I think her imagination is equal to Sophie's!”

When I hear stories like that, it isn’t hard to sit down at the computer and get back to work.

Patricia Hruby Powell's Biography 'Josephine' Dazzles

Josephine Baker's fascinating life has been examined in books, films, and documentaries. But perhaps none is so beautifully done as Patricia Hruby Powell's picture book Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker (Chronicle Books, January 14, 2014). Illustrated by Christian Robinson, Josephine tells the inspiring story of this boundary-breaking performer and champion for racial equality. A biography written in verse, Josephine is already collecting a jewel box of starred reviews, including one from Kirkus that says it's "celebrated with style and empathy."

Question: You're a former dancer, so it's easy to see the interest you might have for writing about another dancer. But why Josephine Baker? What drew you to her story?

Patricia Hruby Powell: It wasn’t till I hit my more advanced adult years that I took a close look at Josephine and was smitten. Her style, verve, her originality—as seen in the early film footage and the three movies she made—are irresistible. But when I was a serious young dancer—of Graham, Limon, and Cunningham techniques and of ballet, who became a choreographer and concert dancer—I did not take Josephine Baker seriously.

In my more recent capacity as a children’s librarian, surrounded by unfocused preteen African American girls, I thought Josephine could be a wonderful role model. Josephine had phenomenal confidence. Blind confidence, perhaps. That’s what drew me.

Q: Josephine is both beautifully illustrated, immensely informative, and well-written. And it clocks in at a whopping 104 pages! It is not every picture book that gets an editor's green light to reach 100 pages! How did you win over your editor? Did the size of the book begin to worry you at any point?

PHP: Josephine evolved, you might say. I’d written it first as a 1,000 word picture book, received a lot of agent and editorial attention, but ultimate rejection. I then wrote it as a YA verse piece imagining Paul Colin-like black and white illustrations. Never mind that there’s really no such thing as a novella-length verse YA volume, I was writing what I wanted, as we’re always advised to do.

I was monumentally lucky that my eventual agent picked Josephine out of a cover letter description—I mean it’s not what I was submitting to her—and she asked to see it, liked it, and offered representation. That was in December 2009. That 7,500-word Josephine received praise but, again, ultimate rejection. Until…

An inspired editor at Chronicle asked me to cut the word count in half. Which I did. My dream editor acquired Josephine in October 2010, and we added some of those deleted stanzas back in.

My editor intended a long picture book of 48 pages, I think. Then it was 64 pages. When I was told it would be an astounding 104 pages, I panicked. What was this book going to cost? I was told a normal $17.99. I calmed down. All along the way, I was told how much everyone at Chronicle loved the book. So I guess they were taking a chance. Which made me feel terribly responsible. I’ve got to say, I’ve felt panic along the way on numerous occasions.

Q: Could you talk about your creative process? The personal recollections from Josephine Baker are woven into the storyline seamlessly, but this must have taken a lot of writing and revising to pull off. How long did you work on this manuscript, both researching and writing?

PHP: Josephine was a storyteller. She wrote five autobiographies—all in French—which required me to kick-start my school French. But those autobiographies supplied plenty of quotes.

Josephine Baker was overly energetic, which leads to hyperbole. I had to tease out the truth, or what I saw as the truth of her story. There are wonderful English language biographies as well. But some writers believed all her stories. I’d read so much about her, from her, and viewed so much footage and listened to her interviews on obsolete recording technology (thank heavens for the University of Illinois Library) that I felt I knew her extremely well.

Once acquired and Josephine was sent out for scholarly approval, a few of my facts were challenged. For instance, even some scholarly books cite Josephine’s birthplace as East St. Louis. (I think that misconception grew from Josephine’s story that she was in the middle of the East St. Louis race riots of 1917. But really, Josephine saw the battered people once they fled East St. Louis, Illinois, and crossed the bridge into St. Louis, Missouri). Josephine felt things strongly. She was a passionate artist. Her experience of seeing the devastated people from the East St. Louis riots was life-changing. But she was born and raised in St. Louis.

My Josephine had a long path to publication. But I was also working on other manuscripts over those years from 2005 to the 2014.

Q: Razzmatazz, vagabonds, ramshackle, effervesced! Your word choice is rich and full of meaty, mouth-filling words, and choosing to write in verse lends an urgency to the book's tone. It is clear you labored over every word. Can you talk about your decisions for word choices and writing style?

PHP: I love words. I create a word bank for each of my books. When I hear or think of or read a word I might use, I write it down. Bits of paper are scattered throughout my house. And my purse. Yes, I have notebooks and legal pads, too. Hopefully all the words will get gathered and transferred to the computer or a 3-by-5 card.

Josephine is a subject that invites scintillating words. Who knows how razzmatazz got in my brain? Josephine put it there. I tried to become Josephine to see how she felt—so I danced her. She danced me some of those words.

Q: I thought I was familiar with Josephine Baker's life story, but your book delivered some wonderful surprises. Were you already aware of her war service and piloting experience? Were there moments when you were surprised by Josephine's life?

PHP: I knew only the bare facts when I began. I was surprised all along the way. And in immense admiration of her.

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

PHP: I hope they will think, I can do anything I set my mind to. I hope they will dream up things no one has ever thought and do those things. I hope they will be instilled with Josephine’s confidence.

Q: What will we see next from you?

PHP: A YA documentary novel in verse (working title: Loving vs Virginia) about the interracial couple Mildred Jeter (black) who married Richard Loving (white) in Virginia, 1958. Interracial marriage was illegal in 24 states in 1958. The Lovings were arrested in bed, banished from their pastoral home to the slums of Washington, D.C. It took nine years before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in their favor. It’s a love story.

Grandson Inspires Esther Hershenhorn's 'Txtng Mama'

Esther Hershenhorn is known widely among Illinois children's authors as the heart and soul of SCBWI in this part of the country. Not only did she serve on the board of advisors for 10 years, she was the Illinois director 17 years, which means she's crossed paths with plenty of Midwestern authors, as well as more far-flung writers. 

As a teacher at the University of Chicago's Writer's Studio and Chicago's Newberry Library, and a writer herself – of the middle-grade novel The Confe$$ion$ and $ecret$ of Howard J. Fingerhut (Holiday House, 2002), poetry The Poetry Friday Anthology (Pomelo Books, 2012), and non-fiction S Is for Story: A Writer's Alphabet (Sleeping Bear Press, 2009) to name just a few – Esther brings her vast knowledge of children's literature to her role as a writing coach. She is a tireless champion of aspiring children's writers, both in her hometown of Chicago and beyond.

She returns to writing for the youngest readers with her latest book, Txtng Mama Txtng Baby (Sleeping Bear Press, 2013), a sort of ode to her out-of-state grandbaby.

Question: You're the author of poetry, picture books, a middle-grade novel. What made you want to write for the very youngest audience with Txtng Mama Txtng Baby?

Esther Hershenhorn: Most folks don’t know that Txtng Mama Txtng Baby marks my return to writing for the very youngest audience. I first began working to realize my Children’s Book Author Dream when Jimmy Carter was President, creating a personalized alphabet book to mark my son’s first birthday. Knowing that my son’s son inspired my newest book still has me smiling.

My raised Baby Antennae had traveled far and wide while my grandson was in utero, bringing me images of mamas thumbing their hand-held devices and babies finger-swiping the same.

Texting mamas, I repeated to myself. Texting babies. . . What’s up with that?

 It took out-of-the-box thinking, time, and some doing to figure out the story and consider the telling’s possibilities. I eventually settled on tunefully arranged familiar text expressions (think: I C U, xoxox, LOL) that created a through-the-day conversation between a mama and her baby. I’d always envisioned the board book as a cell phone look-alike, so I was especially pleased when Sleeping Bear Press created just that vertical (finger-swiping) format and chose colorful, baby-loving, easily identifiable emoticons as the illustrations.

My first book, The A to Z of Me, came close to being published by both Western Publishing and a toy manufacturer.  However, the technology did not exist to produce the book in a cost-effect manner. Ironically, today’s technology – i.e. laptops, cellular phones, iPads, reading devices – is the story that Txtng Mama Txtng Baby tells, and thinking about that fact widens my smile. Of course, the message remains the same in both baby board books: Mama loves Baby.

Q: You've cleverly merged our busy, electronic world with what you call "the ultimate hand-held device." What was your goal with Txtng Mama Txtng Baby? What did you set out to accomplish?

EH: I knew from the get-go I wanted to bring today’s Techy-Teachy World to the pages of a board book. Babies live and breathe this wired world. 

Giving babies a way to see themselves and this world in a book seemed smart to me. Which is not to say I didn’t consider apps and/or ebooks and story-telling with all sorts of bells and whistles as the perfect vehicle. However, my love for The Book trumped all other story-telling possibilities. I wanted babies to be able to hold this phone look-alike, to open it, close it, turn it, even eat it. I wanted these newest of readers to be exposed to letters, and to be eyeing those letters from left to write. I wanted them looking at cheery images that told a familiar story. I wanted these newest of listeners hearing the pleasing rhythm of the chosen text expressions. I wanted them to have fun!

And I wanted them sharing this experience with Someone Who Mattered – a parent, a grandparent, a sitter, a sibling.

I knew there would be folks who wouldn’t get the idea; I knew there would be those who wondered if I’d “lost it.” I could hear their responses: “I thought you loved literacy, Esther?! But I knew in my heart there would be many more Mamas and Babies, and their older siblings too, who would grab the book and hold it tight for countless fun re-readings.

Technology is a given.

Text is a language, now taught in some schools, believe it or not, so students can text their parents at the end of the day. Research has proven that when babies and toddlers interact with technology, engaging, interacting humans must be present too.

Q: Some readers and writers still shy away from digital books, even though this format is here to stay. But I believe storytelling is storytelling, no matter whether the delivery form is a paper book or a tablet. Where are you on ebooks, paper books, and early literacy?

EH: Well, back in the day, when I was teaching young children and parenting, I was happy as long as the child – mine or another’s – was reading, period. Comic books? Cereal boxes? Baseball cards? Game boards?

It didn’t matter. I simply wanted the child to be reading.

I still want that. So many folks now distinguish the vessels that deliver the content (ebook, iPad, book) from the delivered stories. Visiting classrooms, I see so many Kindles and Nooks stacked at the back of the room with students’ books for Free Reading Time. Text books are digital. Kids blog daily.

A Luddite at heart, I first balked at and bashed many of those technological “vessels.” I’ve come to see that, again, I want the child reading, no matter the vessel – good stories, told well, so well they resound in the reader’s heart.

Q: You've been an author and a teacher for years, but you're also a professional writing coach. Where does your heart lie? Are you happy wearing all three hats? Do you feel that each role has informed the other?

EH: In a true Quest story, the Hero returns with something so much better than that which he first sought. Such was my Writer’s Journey: I not only uncovered and recovered my voice, so I could go on to author my children’s books; I became a Writing Teacher and Writing Coach, working with adults who want to tell their stories to children.

Lucky me! as it says on my website.

I am indeed happy wearing all three hats. I began my career teaching fifth grade. Once a teacher, always a teacher. And in 87 Lifetimes, I could never meet the singular people with whom I’ve had the privilege of working; I could never know such amazing stories.

As I wrote in a recent TeachingAuthors post – because that’s what I am, a TeachingAuthor, I learn more than my students do. I invest in the writer, I invest in his story, researching content, exploring comparable tellings, coming to know his Writer’s story, drawing from the reader the story that needs telling.

In many ways, each class I create, each narrative I offer a writer, is a mini-story all its own.
I learn what the writer wants and needs, I spend time learning the why, and then I figure out the how. I do the same for my characters.

Sometimes, of course, like now (!), when I’ve needed to put my own writing aside to help another, my character begins expressing her anger, jabbing at my bones from the inside-out. The Good News is: when I do return to my novel, I’ll be so much smarter, thanks to the writers I coach and the students I teach.

All three roles allow me to live and work within the Children’s Book World. Again, Lucky me!

Q: What do you hope to accomplish with your writing? What do you hope readers take away from your books?

EH: I’ve heard it said that a writer writes the same story, just in different ways, each time he writes. There’s an underpinning – or what I think of as a heart, a belief a writer holds that he wants the world to know. That insight certainly applies to me and the books I’ve written and published.

No matter the format in which I’ve chosen to tell my story, I want my reader knowing: he or she is important. Not in the sense of famous or glorified. Simply in the sense of bearing weight, of deserving to be heard.

The Latin root of the word is importare – “to be of consequence, weigh.”

I want my reader thinking, when he closes one of my books: I matter too, just like Lowell Piggott or Rudie Dinkins or Pippin Biddle or Howie Fingerhut, or even the esteemed children’s book writers I referenced in S Is for Story.

Mama hearting Baby is but one more way of sharing that sentiment.

Beth Finke's 'Safe and Sound' Makes an Inspiring Holiday Gift

Christmastime for me growing up meant one thing: my annual plea for a dog. I was obsessed with them, begged Santa to slip one under the tree, read all sorts of books about them, memorized every breed. For kids and families with an interest in dogs, Chicago author Beth Finke's beautiful story of her relationship with her Seeing Eye dog, Hanni, makes a fascinating, uplifting holiday gift.

Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound (Blue Marlin, 2007), illustrations by Anthony Alex LeTourneau, received the ASPCA Henry Berg Award for children's literature, and it was featured on the Martha Speaks ReadAloud Book Club on PBS. Booklist says, "The pairing of Finke’s clear and animated writing with LeTourneau’s precise and expressive illustrations perfectly reflects the lively relationship between proud and responsible Hanni and proud and intrepid Beth. . ."

Hanni and Beth tells the story of how Beth, who is blind, travels safely around the city – to work, shopping, even to baseball games – with the help of Hanni, a specially-trained Golden/Labrador Retriever. It also includes factual information about how Hanni was raised and trained, how Beth and Hanni learned to work together as a team, and what it's like to be blind.

Beth's memoir for grown-up readers, Long Time, No See, was published by University of Illinois Press in 2003 and is required reading in disability studies programs at universities across the country. And her essays air on National Public Radio's Morning Edition.

And readers can keep up with Beth's latest adventures around Chicago and beyond with her current Seeing Eye dog, Whitney, over at her Safe & Sound blog.

Question: You are a print journalist, you have contributed essays to Chicago Public Radio and National Public Radio's Morning Edition, and you teach memoir classes for the City of Chicago's Department on Aging. What made you decide to write a children's book?

Beth Finke: My first book was a memoir. I lost my sight when I was 26 years old,  and Long Time, No See was about my marriage, raising our son, and the adaptations my husband Mike Knezovich and I have made to survive – and thrive – after losing my sight. After Long Time, No See was published I started doing book signings and presentations at book fairs, conferences, schools, libraries, and bookstores all over the country. One chapter of Long Time, No See focuses on training with my first Seeing Eye dog, a Black Lab named Dora. Over and over again, the questions most people asked during the Q & A sessions after my presentations dealt with that particular subject: my Seeing Eye dog.

People – especially children – are fascinated with Seeing Eye dogs. They may have seen Animal Planet shows about guide dogs, but the people I met didn't know much about how the dogs were trained, or what the rules are when they see a guide dog at work leading a person who is blind. I thought a children’s book might be a fun way for children and the adults in their lives to learn more.

Q: You are clearly a communicator and comfortable in any medium. And your school visits with Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound are enthusiastically received. Is there one medium you prefer best?

BF: I am old school. I prefer face-to-face communication.

Q: Your book can be appreciated by a wide audience – adult and child, teacher and student, blind and sighted, dog lovers and cat people. What kind of feedback do you get from audiences when you talk about Safe & Sound?

BF: Audiences seem to be taken by my honesty. Children like the way I treat them as adults during school presentations. Sometimes I wonder if that's because I can't see them – I picture them as peers, and talk to them that way.

Q: What about from the Seeing Eye school and other guide dog organizations – do they know about the book and your work?

BF: They sure do – my publisher, Blue Marlin Publications, put together a special edition with information about the Seeing Eye on the cover, and the Seeing Eye sold the book on its website and gave the book away to puppy raisers, the wonderful volunteers who raise our dogs to become Seeing Eye dogs and help people like me, who are blind, to keep safe. I work part-time for Easter Seals, too, and Blue Marlin Publications published special copies of the book for Easter Seals to give away to contributors as well.

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

BF: I hope Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound helps children understand that while having a disability presents challenges, that doesn't necessarily stop people like me from having a rich and active life. I hope that kids who read Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound might develop traits of empathy, not sympathy, as they relate to people with disabilities. And, for that matter, as they relate to all people.

Q: What do you hope to accomplish as a writer?

BF: You want an honest answer? I'd like to make enough money as a writer to support my husband, a man I love, rather than vice-versa!

Q: What are you working on now?

BF: I lead three memoir-writing classes a week for senior citizens in Chicago and am working on a book about what I am learning from those classes.

Q: Will there be another children's book from you hitting shelves anytime soon?

BF: I had no plans to write another children's book until last month. The mother of a 5-year-old who is blind contacted me to thank me for a Braille copy of Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound and lamented that there are  not many books for children about Braille. It has me thinking. . .