Lynn Green

by Lynn Green

As a teacher, a parent and a writer, Jon Scieszka has learned that there are big differences between boys and girls when it comes to reading. Of course, he isn’t the first to notice—research consistently shows that girls are more successful in learning to read and far more likely to read for pleasure. Scieszka, an innovative children’s author, decided to tackle the problem head-on by launching a literacy effort to link boys and books. His program started three years ago with a website, GuysRead.com, and continues this spring with the release of a new book, Guys Write for Guys Read.

Edited by Scieszka himself, the collection includes short pieces by 90 male authors "on their memories of what it is to be a boy. I left it pretty wide open, but I told them to keep it very short so boys would actually read it," Scieszka explains. He hopes the book will function as a sampler, helping boys find writers they like so they’ll be motivated to read more. Entries range from Douglas Florian’s succinct Guide for Guys: "Don’t daze/Don’t doze/Don’t pick/Your nose," to Chris Crutcher’s memories of his humiliating (and hilarious) induction into a high school sports club. Other contributors include such popular authors as Neil Gaiman, Eoin Colfer, Dav Pilkey, Avi and Christopher Paolini. All the proceeds from the book will be used to support boys’ literacy efforts.

As the author of The Stinky Cheese Man and The Time Warp Trio series (soon to be a Saturday morning TV show on NBC), Scieszka is well-versed in what it takes to interest boys. Raised in a Flint, Michigan, household with five brothers, he says he was completely immersed in "the boy way of seeing the world." After stints in an all-male military academy, college and a graduate writing program, he became an elementary school teacher in New York. "It was such a dramatic flip because suddenly I was in this world that was almost all women. I felt like I was on another planet," he recalls. As one of the lone men at the school, Scieszka found that he could be a powerful role model for boys. "In my first years, I taught a second-grade homeroom, and some of the boys were described by their previous teachers as the biggest terrors—when I read their first-grade reports you would have thought they were ax murderers! But they came into my class and they were fine. It was almost as if they were relieved to see someone of their gender doing this stuff—reading and writing and being able to relate to them."

Scieszka thinks it’s important that boys have choices about what to read and that parents and teachers expand their ideas about what constitutes good reading. "Don’t think that they have to read Little House on the Prairie for it to be reading. Boys, a lot of them anyway, don’t really care about fiction," he notes. They prefer nonfiction, humor, graphic novels, science fiction and even computer manuals. "If we broaden our definition of what reading is, boys will feel more included."

Scieszka, who lives in Brooklyn, is the father of a son and daughter, ages 19 and 21. "I found with my own kids, when a summer reading list would come home, my daughter would see 20 books she’d like to read, while my son really had to search through the list," he says. Scieszka now speaks to teachers and librarians—groups that are still overwhelmingly female—and tells them "to look at their reading lists as if they were a boy in their own classroom and see what’s on it that might interest them."

Scieszka believes society as a whole has much to gain by helping more boys discover the wonders of reading. "If we can get boys to read, we can get them inside other people’s lives and get them to be more empathetic characters," he argues. "It’s a way for you to see someone else’s point of view, which is a huge thing. If we could do that around the world, I think we’d all be better off."

Lifestyles, Self-Help

Self-Help Lifestyles

Dr. Edward Hallowell

Interview by Lynn Green

by Lynn Green

Taking control of life’s hectic pace This article should have been finished sooner, but I had to reply to the 48 e-mail messages in my inbox, not to mention all those voice mail messages on my phone and the urgent letters that are piling up on my cluttered desk. I’m feeling frenzied, frazzled and forgetful a condition Dr. Edward Hallowell would identify as the dreaded F-state. A leading expert in the treatment of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Hallowell began to notice an interesting trend in his psychiatric practice almost a decade ago. Many people who felt overloaded and unorganized came to Hallowell to find out if they had ADD. Most did not, but were simply suffering from the frantic pace of modern life what Hallowell calls an environmentally induced stand-in for ADD. He christened the condition crazybusy and decided to write a book for the millions of us struggling to overcome it. In CrazyBusy: Overstretched, Overbooked, and About to Snap Strategies for Coping in a World Gone ADD, the doctor invents a new vocabulary to describe the busyness that threatens to overwhelm many harried multitaskers. There’s taildogging (going faster simply because everyone else is), screensucking (wasting time watching a screen on a computer, video game or television), doomdart (a forgotten task that suddenly pops into your consciousness) and our personal favorite, EMV (for e-mail voice): the unearthly tone a person’s voice takes on when he is reading e-mail while talking to you on the telephone. BookPage asked Hallowell for a few tips on how to survive when you’re stretched thin.

How is constant busyness feeling frantic and unorganized, having too much to do different from true ADD? Constant busyness being crazybusy is a condition we create. ADD is a condition a person is born with. The environment influences both, but a person has much more control over being crazybusy than over ADD. And the last thing a crazybusy person should do is take medication! The crazybusy person should take control, instead.

Have you had a doomdart moment of your own lately? As I was driving to the airport with my family for a trip, a doomdart hit me. I thought I had taken care of everything prior to leaving, but I realized that I had forgotten to leave a key to my house for a man who was going to do some work for us. Panic! Thank goodness I have a friend who has a key. Isn’t being busy all the time a good thing? After all, most successful people seem to be busy. That’s deceptive. Warren Buffet has no computer on his desk. He sits and thinks. Bill Gates takes weeks out of every year to go to a cabin in the woods so he can read and think, without interruptions. Successful people stop and think. They don’t just run around doing errands, talking on cell phones or downloading and sending emails.

Would we all be better off if we gave up our cell phones and BlackBerrys? No, not at all. BlackBerrys are great. The crucial point I make about technology is this: we need to be in charge of it, not let it be in charge of us. As long as you don’t power up your BlackBerry while, say, making love, then BlackBerrys will serve you well. But when the BlackBerry or any kind of technology becomes an addiction and starts to take priority where it shouldn’t, then you need to make some changes. Put yourself back in charge.

What’s the first step someone should take to slow down a crazybusy life? Realize that you have more control than you think. Most crazybusy people feel that they have to be that way. They feel that if they slow down, they will fall behind. But this is not true. If they focus on doing well what matters most instead of doing too much in a so-so fashion they will do better than ever.

Help! My teenager is afflicted with screensucking and won’t do his homework. How can a parent counter the distraction of TV, computers and video games? Screensucking is a huge, national epidemic, and not just among children. Adults do it, too. The solution? First, name the problem. Recognize it. Start to set limits on yourself and on your kids. Cultivate other activities, so you are not just getting rid of something but offering something better as well. Preserve the human moment face-to-face conversations, family dinner, doing fun stuff together so screensucking doesn’t become the default activity everyone resorts to the minute boredom hits.

We had one more question to ask, but we’ve forgotten it. Is this early Alzheimer’s or an episode of fuhgeddomania (forgetfulness derived from data overload)? Can you repeat that, please?

YA, YA Fiction

YA Fiction YA

Susan Vaught

Interview by Lynn Green

by Lynn Green

Once you've read Susan Vaught's new novel for teens, you're not likely to look at an overweight person in quite the same way again. After all, that obese girl you just passed on the sidewalk (averting your eyes to avoid gawking) probably has a circle of friends, a boyfriend, hopes, dreams and embarrassments, just like you.

Vaught, a practicing neuropsychologist who recently lost 170 pounds herself, tackles the issue of obesity head-on with insight and hilarious style in Big Fat Manifesto, the story of a high school senior who has no intention of living up to anyone's expectations of how a fat girl should act. Jamie, who writes a column for her school newspaper, proclaims to her fellow students, "I'm not a jolly round person. I'm a peevish, sarcastic, smart, dramatic round person." Jamie is indeed all of that and more, and she has a voice that's both outspoken and poignant and as engaging as any recent character in young adult fiction. "I'm fat, fat, fat," Jamies writes. "If the word makes you uncomfortable, that's your problem."

Vaught, who spoke to BookPage from her farm 50 miles north of Nashville, says Jamie's voice interrupted her while she was working on another book. "It was right about the time that I had lost 70 or 80 pounds and people were beginning to notice that I was smaller," Vaught recalls. Just a few months earlier, when she weighed 350 pounds, "I had become so large that I was invisible, if that makes sense. People would look at me and then they would look away. And I knew why." The new, more positive reaction she got for being thinner and the feelings of confusion and anger that resulted worked their way into the character of Jamie, who demands that people accept her for what she is, but also struggles to accept herself.

Big Fat Manifesto is Vaught's seventh book for teens, and the follow-up to her well-received 2006 novel, Trigger, which tapped her experience as a neuropsychologist to explore the dilemma of a brain-injured boy who had tried and failed to commit suicide by shooting himself. "Trigger came out of my head so fast and so complete, and it was so based in things that I knew, I wasn't sure if I would ever write a book that strong again," the author says. "And then this book sort of wrote itself."

Vaught divides her time between her two vocations, spending three days a week in private practice as a psychologist, specializing in the care of patients with structural damage to the brain, and three days a week writing. The issue of obesity was one she had struggled with most of her life, always unsuccessfully. "Since I was 10 years old, I had been trying to lose weight and everything I tried wouldn't last or it wouldn't work or I just couldn't make sense of it," she says. Suffering from diabetes and hypertension, Vaught was depressed and disheartened, convinced that she would never lose weight. And then her literary agent recommended a computer program, the Diet and Exercise Assistant, which tracks calories consumed and expended. "It keeps up with everything I put in my mouth if I just enter it," Vaught says. "Whatever is missing in my brain that allowed me to weigh 350 pounds in the first place, this program sort of replaces like a little computer chip." With tweaking from her doctor, Vaught began a program that allowed the pounds to fall off even more rapidly than she expected. "The first month, I continued to enter the calories, even if I had a bad day, and I began to understand where I was shooting myself in the foot all along," like the steak dinner at a popular chain restaurant that added 5,000 calories to her daily total. By avoiding these dining disasters, and starting a strength training program, Vaught dropped below 200 pounds in less than a year.

The experience made her even more keenly aware of society's attitudes toward the obese. "When you're very large, life and the world beat up on you just as a matter of course. If you're going to a movie theater, you have to worry about whether you're going to fit in the seat. If you're flying, you have to worry about whether you'll be forced to buy two seats when you can't afford it," Vaught says. "You go to a store and you have to look at all the beautiful clothes you can never have." Like Vaught herself, however, Jamie refuses to dress down because of her size, always aiming to look stylish and snappy. But she's embarrassed by her overweight parents, who she feels look like slobs in their sweatpants and oversized clothes. Jamie is also hurt by her boyfriend's decision to have weight-loss surgery, causing her to question whether he really loves her as the oversized person she is.

Vaught's goal is for Jamie's "manifesto" to stir discussion, especially among thin people who are repelled by the obese. "I hope the book will open debate at different levels, she says, and force those reading it to look at their own thoughts about obesity and about big people and their stereotypes."

Nonfiction, True Crime

Nonfiction True Crime

Douglas Jones and Phyllis Gobbell

Interview by Lynn Green

by Lynn Green

Except for newcomers, almost everyone in Nashville instantly recognizes the name “Marcia Trimble.” The nine-year-old disappeared from her Green Hills neighborhood one winter evening in 1975 when she was out delivering Girl Scout cookies. Two months later, on Easter Sunday, her body was found a few hundred yards away in a neighbor’s garage.

It was a crime that horrified and forever changed a city where children had freely roamed their suburban neighborhoods without fear. The effort to catch Marcia’s killer would span more than 30 years and take the Nashville Police Department down many wrong paths, with several young men falsely suspected and one even arrested for the crime (though never indicted).

Nashville authors Douglas Jones and Phyllis Gobbell take readers through every step of the crime and the decades-long search for justice in their new book, A Season of Darkness. The co-authors recently answered questions from BookPage about the facts of the case and their collaborative effort to tell this riveting story.

For people outside the Nashville area who aren’t familiar with the Marcia Trimble case, how would you describe the impact this crime had on the local community?
PHYLLIS GOBBELL: We’ve heard it said many times: With the murder of Marcia Trimble, Nashville lost its innocence. And it is so true. The Green Hills neighborhood where Marcia lived was a microcosm of the city. Children played freely in the yards and streets, went in and out of neighbors’ houses, and returned home when the streetlights came on. During the day, doors stayed unlocked. Neighbors watched out for each other. It was a gentle time, and Nashville seemed insulated from many of the harsh, violent events of the world. This shocking crime ushered in a new era, where the entire city realized what could happen, just across the street.

One of the most unusual aspects of the Marcia Trimble murder is that the case was solved more than 30 years after her death. What do you see as the definitive factor in finding her killer?
DOUGLAS JONES: Cold Case Detective Bill Pridemore’s excellent investigative work was the reason this case was broken. Pridemore maintained an open mind and rejected 30 years of faulty police work that had created a mindset focused on one individual. Pridemore re-examined every lead and uncovered new ones. By being open-minded and a professional, he refused to accept the bogus assumptions of the Nashville Police Department homicide detectives. Pridemore was then able to crack the case.

Additionally, Deputy District Attorney General Tom Thurman had the insight, experience, and courage to try the 30-year-old case against Jerome Barrett. Thurman went in to the trial knowing that it would be very difficult to locate witnesses. He tried an excellent case, which led to Barrett’s conviction. Tom Thurman is one of the best district attorneys not only in Tennessee but also in the country.

You packed many fascinating details into every scene, giving readers a real “you were there” feeling as they read A Season of Darkness. How did you uncover this kind of detail about events that transpired more than 30 years ago?
JONES: Truman Capote in his landmark In Cold Blood painted the picture of Holcomb, Kansas, and the savage murder of the Clutter family. To paint the picture of Green Hills and Nashville in 1975, we had to capture the details of the time. This process was based upon reviewing articles and interviews done in 1975, as well as interviewing as many people as possible who were involved in the case. We also reviewed court files and records in detail. Additionally, I have practiced law in Nashville for 35 years, and I have a number of contacts and friends in law enforcement. This was invaluable in understanding and explaining the mystery.

You write about a lot about “what if’s”—missed opportunities in the investigation to find Marcia’s killer. Do you think the culture in the police department contributed to these wrong turns in the case?
JONES: Absolutely. In our research of the culture in the police department, we found that in 1975, the Nashville homicide detectives were known for wearing flashy suits and jewelry. They were determined to crack the Trimble case and get the limelight. In the book, they are referred to as “cowboys.” Because she was a woman, Detective Diane Vaughn’s productive work was ignored by the cowboy detectives. It was simple and easy to lock in on one suspect. They would continue to focus on the same suspect for the next 30 years.

In the years after Marcia’s death, several young men were wrongly targeted in the investigation and one was even arrested, though never indicted. Ultimately, do you think this case represents justice served, or justice gone wrong?
GOBBELL: If I were the parent of one of those young men, there’s no doubt that I’d focus on the mistakes made in the investigation. As Deputy D.A. Thurman pointed out after the trial, “there were a lot of victims” in this case. Justice was a long time coming, but I believe in the end justice was served when DNA analysis matched evidence on Marcia’s clothing with her killer’s DNA.

As you did your research and wrote the book, did you find any lesser-known characters in the story who really stood out?
JONES: Yes. Detective Diane Vaughn. Diane Vaughn was from Alpine, a remote village in Overton County, Tennessee. In 1967, she applied to be a police officer with the Nashville Police Department. Two years later, she was hired. She worked hard and after several years was promoted to detective. As a female detective, she was assigned the “dirty cases”’—rapes and murders of prostitutes— that the “cowboys” in the homicide division refused to work. But Diane Vaughn solved many of these cases and gradually built up a reputation and credibility in the department. Vaughn’s tenacious and professional investigation led to Jerome Barrett’s conviction in the case of the rape of Belmont coed Judy Porter. Vaughan was the first Nashville detective to link Barrett to the string of rapes and murders in Nashville in February 1975. Diane Vaughn died in 1994, never knowing her work would ultimately lead to Barrett’s conviction in the Marcia Trimble murder case.

Tell us one thing you were surprised to learn about Jerome Barrett, the man convicted of Marcia’s murder.
JONES:Jerome Barrett was an extremely dangerous man. The Vietnam vet had lived off the streets of Memphis making a living fighting barefisted for cash. In Memphis, he was a prime suspect in a number of assaults, rapes and homicides. After Barrett was captured he confessed to police that he was constantly on the prowl looking for an open door or unlocked window. Barrett spent years in prison for convictions of aggravated rape. A number of tough, hardened inmates that were assigned to be Barrett’s cellmate begged various wardens for transfers because they were deathly afraid of the man.

If a murder like Marcia’s happened today, how would the case be handled differently?
GOBBELL: I was surprised to learn that in 1975, individual detectives kept the case files. There was no central database. With today’s technology, the investigation would be entirely different. Via computer, information would be available to all involved in the search or the homicide. Had that happened, the link between Marcia’s murder and the other crimes for which her killer was charged would surely come to light quickly.

You’ve said that the Marcia Trimble case is a sad story, any way you slice it. As you think about the overall series of events, what strikes you as the single saddest moment of this 30-year ordeal?
GOBBELL: This is a hard one because there are so many sad moments—some that aren’t actually dramatic, but they still break your heart, like Virginia Trimble [Marcia’s mother] standing under the streetlight, calling for Marcia. The Trimble family coming home from church on Easter Sunday and being met by their friend, Detective Sherman Nickens, who delivered the news that Marcia’s body had been found—that was an unbearably sad moment. When the word spread across Nashville, it was as if the city suddenly fell under a dark cloud.

What is the one element of Marcia Trimble’s murder that still puzzles you or keeps you lying awake at night?
JONES: Marcia Trimble left her parents’ house around 5:30 p.m. on the evening of February 25, 1975. By 7:00 p.m., the police department was actively working the missing person’s case.

On February 26, 1975, around noon, the Nashville Police Department received a phone call from a Tennessee State Trooper in West Tennessee advising them that they had pulled over a white Chevrolet driven by a Phillip A. Wilson, who was a Black Muslim in Nashville. The state trooper wanted someone from Youth Guidance to advise him because the previous night, during the extensive search, the Nashville Police Department sent out a BOLO (to be on the lookout) for this vehicle “wanted for kidnapping.” The police couldn’t determine who sent the BOLO, so Mr. Wilson was allowed to drive away.

To this day, this mystery has never been cleared up and questions about the incident abound, including the question of whether Jerome Barrett was inside the vehicle that was stopped the day after Marcia’s disappearance.

Publishing trends come and go but true crime remains a popular genre. Why do you think readers are attracted to true crime stories?
GOBBELL: I think the main attraction is that we like to see the worst offenders caught and punished for their deeds, which is often the outcome in a true crime story. The complexities of investigations keep readers turning the pages. True crime books add depth to stories that may have made the news and show the many dimensions of the people involved. And it’s a cliché, but truth is often stranger than fiction.

Children's & YA, Middle Grade

Children's & YA Middle Grade

Andrea Davis Pinkney

Interview by Lynn Green

by Lynn Green

The Great Depression was a difficult era for most everyone in the United States, but doubly so for African Americans, who were dealing not only with economic hardship but racial discrimination as well. One bright spot during this period came from the success of boxing great Joe Louis, who won the heavyweight championship in a thrilling match in 1937.

Children’s author Andrea Davis Pinkney was inspired by a family photo to research this era and Louis’ pivotal role in it. This research even inspired the author to put on a pair of boxing gloves herself. The result is a captivating new novel for young readers, Bird in a Box, which sees the events of 1937 through the eyes of three children in upstate New York.

From her home in Brooklyn, Pinkney (whose husband is illustrator Brian Pinkney) answered questions for BookPage about the new book and how it came to be.

Why was Joe Louis such an important figure for African Americans in the 1930s and ’40s?

When Joe Louis came onto the boxing scene, he symbolized tremendous hope for African Americans. Joe was boxing at a time when black folks in America were still considered second-class citizens, and when segregation was still a sad reality. But in boxing, one’s ability to swing hard in the ring has nothing to do with the color of their skin. Louis’s pounding punches showed the world that a black mother’s son had superior abilities.On the night Barack Obama won the presidential election, there was an overwhelming pride that welled in the hearts of many people. There was cheering in the streets. Tears of joy came to the faces of grown men. A black man had made momentous progress toward social change. This same pride and elation filled the night of June 22, 1937, when Joe Louis, “the Brown Bomber,” became the heavyweight champion of the world.

Is there a specific message you hope young readers will take from this book?

More than anything, I’d like young readers to know that even when it feels like life is giving you a beating, there’s always hope around what may at first look like a very dark corner.

What is the one thing you would tell a child growing up in hard times?

As Willie’s mama says in Bird in a Box, “Don’t give up five minutes ‘fore a miracle happens.”

What was the most exciting part of your research for Bird in a Box?

The research for Bird in a Box began at a family reunion with an archival photograph of my great-grandfather, Cyclone Williams, who, as a kid, was an amateur boxer with dreams of becoming a champ. My Bird in a Box character, kid-boxer Willie Martel, is based on Cyclone. The antique photograph belonged to my grandmother, Marjorie Frances Williams, Cyclone’s daughter. The photo was one of her most beloved possessions, and one she seldom let out of her hands.

The picture has a beautiful, haunting quality to it. This is what sparked the idea for the novel. I knew very little about Cyclone before I discovered the picture of him, but my grandmother and mother told me colorful stories about his life and times. To piece together the details of Cyclone’s boxing career, I called on Rachel Dworkin, archivist at the Booth Library, Chemung County Historical Society. My cousin Larry, a historian and newspaperman, also helped by sharing information about Cyclone.

In the photograph owned by my grandmother, it was Cyclone’s determined gaze and solid stature that encouraged me to research everything I could find about the history of boxing and about Joe Louis’s record in the ring. I also spent countless hours in the audio archives at New York’s Paley Center for Media, listening to radio commentary of actual Joe Louis boxing matches. Much of this sports commentary appears in the novel.

To really capture the essence of the book, though, I realized I needed to put on a pair of boxing gloves from the 1930s and get into the ring. That’s when I bought myself a pair of vintage Spalding boxing gloves, got myself a boxing trainer and went to work. Through becoming a boxer myself—and feeling the sting in my knuckles and wrists from speed-punching a peanut bag, working on jab-hook-cross fist combinations, and being knocked toward the ropes—I inhabited the souls of my characters.

The radio is the center around which the characters in Bird in a Box revolve, and it connects them for a number of reasons. Did you grow up with a similar connection in your family or community?

Family has always been important to me, and for this book especially, my family played a key role. Once I’d discovered the photo of my great-grandfather, Cyclone Williams, the family stories about him and life during the Great Depression began to flow.My Aunt Rosa shared recollections and family heirlooms from the 1930’s. These added color and detail to my story.

My cousin Larry, the historian, has a wonderful use of language and a very distinct central New York dialect, which I used in crafting my characters’ voices.

My dad, the late Philip J. Davis, told me about the clothes he wore as a child growing up. He shared memories of scrapple eaten at sparse dinner tables, his family’s ice box, and how, as a kid growing up during the 1930s, he took his Saturday night baths in a tin tub set out on the kitchen floor of his tumbledown house. These details are also in the novel.

The one prevailing aspect to all of these family memories is the power of broadcasting, and how Joe Louis's boxing matches spilled into the living rooms of my own family members, and into homes throughout America from the speakers of Philco and Zeniths radios.

This story is set in Elmira, New York, a small town in central New York where your own family has its roots. Have you spent much time in Elmira and did you revisit the area during your research for the book?

As the town where my parents grew up, met and married—and where their extended families still live—Elmira holds a special warmth for me. While writing and researching Bird in a Box, I enjoyed every opportunity possible to just be in the town where my great-grandfather Cyclone was known by the locals as “Elmira’s sensational battler.” While in Elmira I would enjoy the musicality of the speech patterns of my aunts and cousins, watch their mannerisms, observe the ways they interact with each other and listen to them laugh and carry on about life during the Great Depression. In addition to being the home of my extended family, Elmira, New York, was the summer retreat home for Mark Twain. Elmira is the town where Twain did some of his best and most prolific writing. As such, Elmira has its own unique history, and sometimes feels like a place from yesteryear.

If you could live in another era, what would it be?

I was born in the era that is one of my favorites—the 1960s. This is why I still wear an Afro!

What’s the best thing about writing for young people?

Writing for young people is like being a magician of sorts. One of the best things about this is that, as an author, I’m always striving to create what I call “Book Magic.”

Book Magic is the precise moment, or word, or paragraph, or page that—poof!—like magic—draws a reader in and lifts him or her away to a new place and time. Book Magic is so powerful that it inspires kids to keep reading—and, like magic—casts a spell on me that makes me want to keep writing.

Children's & YA, Picture Book

Children's & YA Picture Book

Jon Katz

Interview by Lynn Green

by Lynn Green

If you love dogs and good writing, chances are you’re familiar with the work of Jon Katz, a former journalist and CBS News producer who has chronicled his life with dogs in such memoirs as A Dog Year: Twelve Months, Four Dogs and Me and Dog Days: Dispatches from Bedlam Farm.

Now for the first time, Katz offers his wisdom about dogs and life to a younger audience in a new picture book, Meet the Dogs of Bedlam Farm. Featuring Katz’s own photography, the book profiles each of his four dogs—Rose, Izzy, Frieda and Lenore—and shows these beautiful animals at work and at play.

Though the language and the story are straightforward, there’s an important lesson contained within: that every individual (whether dog or human) has strengths and weaknesses, and that each can play a role in the success of a family or community.

We contacted Katz at Bedlam Farm in upstate New York to find out more about the project.

Why did you decide to write a book for children at this point in your career?

Children are the purest and most intense animal lovers on the earth. They experience animals in a very particular way, unfettered by the many issues adults bring to their attachments. Animals are the beloved and imaginary comforters and soulmates of many children, as psychologists can attest. Kids talk to animals in very touching ways.

Animals are sometimes scary to them, but more often are very loving and never cruel or wounding. Animal fantasies are a seminal part of childhood development. The Bedlam Farm dogs run the gamut for kids—the troubled dog, the love dog, the serious dog, the healing dog. Until I wrote Meet The Dogs Of Bedlam Farm, I didn't quite realize how broad and familiar an emotional range Lenore, Frieda, Izzy and Rose covered.

What would you say is the message of the book?

Being loving and generous is serious work. It's important. Despite all of the arguing and controversy we see and hear about, love and acceptance are very powerful forces. Every child I have ever met knows that, even if the grownups forget. Our culture is sometimes tense and combative and I think animals like dogs can reinforce for children the notion that we don't have to communicate in an angry way. We can come together, exist together, work together. Love is work.

Do you think the book will appeal primarily to children who love dogs?

Despite contemporary marketing ideas, I don't think books appeal so narrowly to one spectrum or another. You don't have to have a dog to love dogs and you don't have to love dogs to appreciate a sweet story. I get messages from animal lovers but also many people who just like stories. Marketing is an important tool, but it ought not overwhelm ideas.

You've long been known as a talented writer, but now you're a photographer, too. Why do you think photography has become such an important part of your life?

I can't even describe how much I love taking pictures. Words are one way of telling a story. Photos another. Now, videos yet another and I am doing all three. The new story is visual as well as textual and Meet The Dogs Of Bedlam Farm is very much a new kind of story. I was prepared to argue for my photographs being included, but it wasn't necessary. Holt wanted that as much as I did. Photos can be static and cold, but I have worked hard to use my photography to capture emotion, especially in animals. The photos in this book are very emotional, they capture the spirit of each of the dogs—you can not look at Lenore without smiling, Rose demonstrates the virtue of hard work, Frieda is the trouble side of all of us, and Izzy is a sweet soul who helps people in the most profound way. I can write that all I want, but the photos show it and add depth and credibility to the story. Photographing animals is complex, but I think animal photography works especially well for children, makes the stories real and credible.

You clearly love your dogs but you don't believe they should be treated like children. Can you explain why you make that distinction and why you think it's a bad idea to treat pets like human members of the family?

Children and animals are different, and we ought never to confuse the two, in my opinion. You don't ever want to treat a dog like a child, or a child like a dog. In our culture, the idea that dogs and children are different is becoming controversial. Dogs are not children with fur, or "furbabies." They are animals with alien minds and sensibilities and instincts. When dogs are treated like children, it is impossible to train them or communicate with them. Sometimes we become disconnected from one another and we turn to dogs and cats for comfort. That's great, but we need perspective.

And I would never want my daughter to think I think of her in the same way I think of a Labrador Retriever, as much as I love Lenore. I wonder what children make of the idea that people see dogs and cats as their children. It can't be good. There is also the important message that all animals can be a bit dangerous if they are misunderstood or mistreated. When a dog is frightened, it can hurt people, and many children do get bitten (a rising number.) We need to maintain the distinction between dogs and kids, for the sake of both. We don't need to transform these wonderful animals into mini-versions of us. Let dogs be dogs and kids be kids.

Dogs are very different from humans, young or old, and their minds are very alien. It would be so much better for them if we understood how they really think rather than turn them into versions of us.

Near the end of the book, there's a beautiful photo of all four dogs resting around the woodburning stove in your farmhouse. Did you have to pose that photo or do the dogs really gather together there at the end of the day?

My dogs all gather by the woodstove, especially in the winter. I never have to pose them there. Dogs are pack animals, they love to hang out with one another. It wasn't always that way. Frieda was very aggressive with the other dogs at first, and Rose likes to be alone, or at the window looking at sheep. They are at ease with one another now, and all I have to do to get them to band together outside is yell "photoshoot" and they all come together and wait. My dogs are all media experts. 🙂 They seem to know that's where the biscuits come from.

Each of your dogs has a distinct personality and temperament. Do they ever squabble like human siblings do?

Honestly, my dogs do not squabble, in part because I just won't tolerate it. They all get plenty of food, water and treats, so they don't have much to fight about. They all have different roles as well, as the book points out. My dogs are with me most of every day, so I have the opportunity to correct troublesome behaviors. I do a lot of calming training and obedience work. Well-trained secure dogs don't squabble, in my experience. They get food, exercise and attention and they are quite grounded and responsive. They also adapt to one another. There was some jockeying for bones early on, but we worked through that. I never worry about that now. I can't remember the last time where was a confrontation of any kind. Rose and Frieda are two dominant females and there was a lot of posturing for a year or so, but nothing serious, and that is gone. Lenore doesn't squabble with anybody or anything. She is really the Love Dog.

What were your favorite books as a child?

I'm sorry to say that books were not a part of my childhood, so I read few of them. I remember Grimm's Fairy Tales and Hardy Boys, but that's about it, so I am especially fortunate to be able to write children's books. It is one of the reasons I wanted to do it.

What's next on your writing schedule?

I have two more children's books coming out from Holt. And in October, a book for Random House on grieving for pets, Going Home: Finding Peace When Animals Die. Next year, a short story collection called Dancing Dogs. And then a book on Frieda called Frieda and Me: Second Chances.

If you love dogs and good writing, chances are you’re familiar with the work of Jon Katz, a former journalist and CBS News producer who has chronicled his life with dogs in such memoirs as A Dog Year: Twelve Months, Four Dogs and Me and Dog Days: Dispatches from Bedlam Farm. Now for the first […]

Arts & Culture, Humor, Nonfiction, Pop Culture

Nonfiction Pop Culture Humor Arts & Culture

Michael Barson

Interview by Lynn Green

by Lynn Green

Michael Barson has been a comics collector for decades, in addition to his day job as co-director of publicity for Putnam/Riverhead Publishing. He’s collected some of the finest examples of 1940s and 1950s love comics in the new anthology Agonizing Love.

In the panels of the brightly colored comics that once filled newsstands, young women of the era picked up pointers on finding and keeping love. These tear-jerking pop culture delights feature such stories as “The Man I Couldn’t Love,” “My Heart Cried Out” and “I Loved a Weakling.” Cheesy as the comics might seem to the modern reader, Barson thinks these vintage “morality plays” might still offer all of us some important lessons on love.

We asked Barson to tell us more about his obsession with collectibles, the appeal of romance comics and the agonizing nature of love through the ages.

How and why did you begin to collect romance comic books?
I started pretty late in life in terms of collecting the classic Romance comics. I had been collecting all sorts of other genres since the mid-60s—Superhero, War, Sci-Fi, Horror, even Funny Animal—but it wasn’t until I bumped into a big collection of vintage Love comics that was being offered for sale in the early ‘80s at NY’s Forbidden Planet store, in their collectible comics section, that it suddenly clicked—How cool are these? It was a group that contained most of the early Simon & Kirby Young Romance issues, and those proved my entry point into collecting this category for the first time. Later I bemoaned the fact that I probably had passed over several hundred (if not several thousand) tasty Romance issues over the previous 10 or 12 years while collecting in all those other genres; love comics just didn’t register for me at that time.

Why did you decide to share your collection with readers?
What’s the fun in collecting something for almost 30 years if you can’t share it with others? Let’s face it, 99 percent of the world out there would never have a chance to read any of these little gems if someone—in this case, me—didn’t take the time and effort to rescue them from obscurity. I feel I am performing a service, however modest, for humanity.

For those who aren’t familiar with the genre, can you give us a capsule description of what a “romance comic” is?
To oversimplify terribly, most of the stories that appeared in Love comics during their golden period—to me, 1947 to 1960 or so—are little morality plays that have been given a seven- or eight- page stage on which to play out. Sometimes the resolution is a happy ending, but not always. But I think it’s fair to say that in 98 percent of the cases, a lesson is learned by one of the characters in the story—a lesson that will change their attitudes and philosophy going forward.

These comics look hilariously cheesy today. Do you think readers took them seriously back then?

To the extent that even a teenage girl or young woman (probably the target audience for these comics) would take any kind of comic book in a totally serious manner, I would answer with a qualified “yes.” In that pre-Ironic era, the main reason for someone to buy and read Love comics was because they connected to both the medium and the message. They weren’t partaking of these in order to get a quick laugh—there were humor comics such as Archie and Betty and Veronica for that purpose. So while the readers of the day were not treating these romance issues as the second coming of Madame Bovary, I believe they were reading them in a serious frame of mind.

Do you have a favorite romance comic cover or story?

I don’t have a single favorite, but I will admit to being partial to the Mother-in-law subgenre. There’s something about those that just tickles my fancy, even though my own real-life mother-in-law is perfectly benign. But not so in the stories about them that I’ve included here! And I do have friends in real life who are very much embroiled in a problem of this exact nature.

What's the most important lesson you've learned about love from a romance comic?

If you just got hitched, don’t invite your mother-in-law to move in with you on your wedding night. That goes for both of you!

Is love any different today than it was in a half-century ago?

Love, and its surrounding mysteries and problems, is exactly the same, I am convinced. The only difference is that eHarmony didn’t exist in 1951. Not that it (or any of the other popular dot-com dating sites) seems to have done all that much good.

Is love always agonizing?

In my experience, yes. Because if it isn’t you that’s doing the agonizing, then the other person probably is. The real question is, would we really have it any other way? The empirical evidence of the past 100 years suggests the answer is no.

You’re the father of three sons. If you could give your children one piece of advice about love, what would it be?

Collect stamps instead. Or at least try to avoid the 434 mistakes I was too dumb to avoid.

You’re an avid collector of pop culture memorabilia—everything from postcards and posters to magazines and comics. Where on earth do you keep all this stuff? Does your collecting drive your wife crazy?
Yes, I have in fact driven my wife crazy because of the millions (nahhh, it’s really just thousands) of pieces of moldering antique memorabilia over which she stumbles every morning. And afternoon and evening.

But let me ask you—does that make me a bad person?? Right—I was afraid of that.

YA, YA Fiction

YA Fiction YA

Lauren Myracle

Interview by Lynn Green

by Lynn Green

Children’s author Lauren Myracle may be the only person who can lay claim to the title of being a former National Book Award finalist. After her teen novel, Shine, was identified in a live October 12 broadcast as one of five finalists for the National Book Award in Young People’s Literature, the National Book Foundation later admitted the announcement was made in error and asked Myracle to withdraw her book from consideration.

BookPage contacted Myracle at her home in Colorado to find out more about how she was coping with the events of the controversy.

How did it feel to be the person at the center of a media maelstrom?

Ha. This question makes me laugh. It felt . . . familiar! And also bizarre, as it always does, because I swear to Bob, I don't seek out these maelstroms. And regarding this one in particular, I did not make it happen! My mom was like, "Oh, Lauren, controversy follows you wherever you go, doesn't it?" And I said, "But, Mom. I DID NOTHING THIS TIME, I PROMISE!" 🙂

Were you surprised by the outpouring of support you received from the book community after the news broke?

I was, yes, because of how much love was beamed my way. It was crazy and beautiful and made me cry. But more than surprise, my primary response was, Oh, wow. I love the KidLit community SO much. I love people (most of 'em) SO much. I am one blessed woman to have the support of old friends, new friends and even yet-to-be friends. Again and again, I have to just stop, breathe and honor the gratitude that has made my heart grow at least three times bigger. I am one lucky, awed and very humbled Lauren.

Do you think all the attention might end up being better for your career than a National Book Award would have been?

Well, given that it is what it is, and I don't have a time machine with which to go back and change anything, I'm going to go with . . . YES! Why not? I mean, it stunk big time at first. It did, and no denying that. But I'm tough(ish). I've seen my share of ickiness, and I always come out on the other side. Not only that, but this experience has reinforced an important lesson for me, a lesson I learned early on in my path toward being a writer. When I was a freshman at UNC-Chapel Hill, I was told that I wasn't "good enough" to major in Creative Writing, as the Creative Writing major was based on a selection process. Then, in grad school, I was told again that my creative writing wasn't up to "graduate level" standards, and my request to take a creative writing workshop was denied. What I realized in both of those cases—after tears, tears, tears—was, "Okay, these professors can tell me that I can't take their writing classes, but they can't tell me I can't write." The corollary here is, "Okay, the NBF peeps can tell me I'm not 'worthy' of being a NBA finalist, but they can't tell me what my true worth is. No way, no how, no sir." With that in mind, yes, I think my career will benefit, because I as a human have benefited . . . by being forced to do a little growing, you know?

Again and again, I have to just stop, breathe and honor the gratitude that has made my heart grow at least three times bigger. I am one lucky, awed and very humbled Lauren.

Have you spoken to Franny Billingsley about what happened? If not, what would you want to say to her if you had the opportunity?

Ah, Franny and I are good. She's a dear—and Chime, which happens to be the only one of the NBA finalists I've read (yet!), is lyrical, gorgeous, moody as can be (and I LOVE moody), and I am SO delighted for her that her book as been given this well-deserved recognition. She and I have plans to drink champagne together the next time we're in the same city at the same time. We will drink champagne, laugh, and raise our glasses to the awesomeness of life, books and friends.

What's the most important lesson you've learned from this series of events?

Oh my. Aside from re-remembering NOT TO RELY ON EXTERNAL VALIDATION? I'll go with listening to my brilliant editor, Susan Van Metre, and taking the time to sleep on things instead of making knee-jerk emotional responses. And you know what else? As a child, I was scared to DEATH of crying in public. As an adult, I've come to believe that letting out your emotions is healthy, while keeping them in is the path to bitter crabby-patties. So I've tried to let myself cry when I need to, and to let others comfort me and hug me and send me cookies when they need to, or just want to. I have yet to master that lesson, but this experience has helped me get closer!

How has all of this affected your writing routine?

Hahahahaha. What's that? My writing routine? Oh yeah, I used to have one of those. Um, I have been OFF MY GAME for over two weeks now. It is madness and must stop! (Tomorrow . . . tomorrow!)

Though all the attention is on Shine right now, your next book, Oopsy Daisy, due out in January, is the third in your Flower Power series for tweens. Have your real-life friendships inspired the Flower Power girls?

Oh, always, just as my real-life friendships and experiences inspired Shine. Listen: I like people. I like people A LOT. Not everyone does; I get that. But one of the key themes in *all* of my books is the importance of finding your tribe, learning how to be a friend, learning how to lean on your friends. So my answer to this question is an unequivocal YES.

Do you think it's harder to be a teenager or a grownup?

Funny question! I like it. Forgive me for splitting my answer, but: I think it's harder to be a teenager because everything is so . . . there, so present, so pressing and dramatic, so potentially heartbreaking at every turn. (It's also AWESOME to be a teenager, though, yah?) But in terms of BORINGNESS like mortgages and preparing meals, grown-ups have it harder. (My kids KEEP wanting dinner. Every single night they want dinner, and in the mornings, they have the gall to want oatmeal, or homemade cinnamon buns. What's up with that? And laundry, oh good golly. Don't even get me started.) At the end of the day, life is glorious at all ages, and life is hard at all ages. That's just the way of it.

Looking a couple of years down the road, if someone calls to inform you that you're a finalist for a major literary award, how will you react?

I will tell said caller to call my publisher, who will go to the ends of the earth and back to make sure that it's EFFING REAL. Then . . . then I will throw 5,000 gumdrops into the air and twirl around until I'm so dizzy I fall to the floor.

What's the funniest thing anyone has said to you about this unfortunate mistake?Someone retweeted this, from @michaelschaub: OH MY GOD LAUREN MYRACLE CONGRATULATIONS ON THE BOOKER oh wait nevermind sorry. That made me laugh, as did this one from my dear friend @SarahMlynowski: NBA is missing out. Lauren is best part of a party! Because she's right. I am an excellent party attendee. But guess what? I will celebrate regardless. It'll just be life I'm celebrating, and writing good books, and being blessed with all the amazing people in my little/big world.

Children’s author Lauren Myracle may be the only person who can lay claim to the title of being a former National Book Award finalist. After her teen novel, Shine, was identified in a live October 12 broadcast as one of five finalists for the National Book Award in Young People’s Literature, the National Book Foundation […]

Children's & YA, Middle Grade

Children's & YA Middle Grade

Lisa McMann

Interview by Lynn Green

by Lynn Green

Author Lisa McMann took some chances with her latest book, The Unwanteds, and her unexpected choices have clearly paid off. For the first time, she aimed her work at a middle grade audience, rather than the teen readers who have made her Wake trilogy a bestseller. And she tackled a genre—dystopian fantasy—that's much more popular in the YA world than in middle grade fiction.

The result is an original and exciting novel that's not only fun to read, but also a great way to get kids thinking about issues like creativity, conformity and the power of the individual vs. society. In The Unwanteds, children who are too creative or expressive are "purged" from their repressive community at age 13 and driven away to face the Eliminators and (they assume) certain death. In the Stowe family, young Aaron is selected for the prestigious "Wanted" group, while his twin brother Alex is labeled an "Unwanted" and led away in chains.

Critics and young readers alike have embraced the book, the first in a planned series. We contacted McMann at her home near Phoenix, where she lives with her husband and two teenagers, to find out more about how the book came to be.

What experiences have you had as a parent that helped to inspire this story?

It’s funny—the whole idea for the Unwanteds series came from an incident involving my kids. One day, when they were 12 and 9, they came home from school with news that the school would be cutting some of the arts programs due to budget shortfalls. I was really bummed out because my kids liked art, music, theatre, etc. And I said, sort of off the cuff, “Wow, guys, I’m so sorry. It kind of feels like you’re getting punished for being creative.” And then I thought about that for a minute and said, “Hey, what if there really was a world where children were punished for being creative?”

My son, who was 12, looked at me very seriously and said, “Not just punished, Mom. Sent to their deaths!”

And my daughter and I said, “Yeah!” And that’s how it all started.

Did you ever feel “unwanted” as a creative little girl?

Absolutely. I’m pretty sure everyone feels unwanted at one point or another. There were several years there where I felt like Charlie Bucket from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was my only friend. And when it came to my secret desire to be a writer, I just never felt like I could tell people that for fear of being teased. Being a writer wasn’t something people around me aspired to be. It was very “artsy” and out there, not at all cool.

What considerations did you give to the scary aspects of this story since it is aimed at middle grade readers, instead of your usual teen audience?

I didn’t really think about it while writing it, though the scary scenes are definitely less graphic in this series than in my teen books. I wrote The Unwanteds with my kids in mind, and my main goal was to write a book that my then 9-year-old reluctant reader would want to read (yay, it worked!). So I guess a sort of parental comfort level played a part instinctively—I knew what my kids could handle, but I also knew what they would expect. Action. Love. Evil. Danger. Conflict. In the end, they were delighted to discover that if they lived in Quill, they’d be doomed.

I believe kids know the difference between fantasy and real life. A few parents might wince at the “to the death!” concept, worrying that their vulnerable little one isn’t ready for such a heavy topic. But children view the scary stuff in literature as a chance to experience risk and adventure from the safety of the couch. The truth remains that characters in grave danger and extreme peril make us care deeply about them, no matter what our age. And I’ve seen it time and again—when children feel uncomfortable with a book, they put it down. They are not going to waste precious fun time reading a book that makes them feel yucky.

What influenced you in your portrayal of the special bond between twins? Do you know any twins or did you do any research on the bonds between twins?

I had five sets of twins in my graduating class in school and I’ve always been fascinated by how much the identical ones looked alike, but were often very different personality-wise. I also researched a bit about the intense bond twins have with each other, sometimes to the point of being able to feel each other’s pain, or intuitively know when the other is in trouble.

I decided to use twins because I loved the intense conflict—brother against brother. One a Wanted, one an Unwanted. Identical, yet so totally opposite. One trying hard to be evil, one very good, but with an unbreakable bond between them. That’s just so exciting to me.

What reactions have you gotten from young readers to the book?

Enthusiastic! I should start by saying that after touring high schools with each of my four previous teen novels, I was a little bit afraid of doing presentations to fourth through eighth graders. But wow, I forgot how much I love this age! Kids aren’t afraid to tell me what they think should happen in books two, three, four and beyond. It’s such a delight. Often I’ll talk about how my husband and kids and I sat around the living room coming up with spells based on art supplies, and I tell them that maybe over lunch or on the bus ride home they can do the same thing with their friends. That always gets 45 zillion hands shooting up so they can tell me the magic spells they’d create. I love it.

What message do you hope readers will take from The Unwanteds?

I suppose I should say something responsible like “Everyone should accept others no matter what,” or “good prevails over evil,” or “eat your Brussels sprouts,” but the truth is that I just want kids to have a book they can fall into and love and experience just for the fun and adventure of it all. And maybe the kids out there feeling unwanted can find a little comfort knowing they’re not alone.

What were your favorite books as a young reader?

Oh, I love this question. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory because Charlie suffered more than me, and I loved him for that. Little Women because of Amy and the limes, and because of Jo and the hair, and the suffering . . . do you sense a theme here? I loved Narnia, which was definitely an influence in my writing of The Unwanteds. I loved all the original dark fairy tales (the ones that ended with children being killed, not the fake ones with happy endings), and I loved Charlotte’s Web, because I just knew deep down that with the right combination of pig, girl and spider, they’d all be able to talk to each other, and that story could really happen. (And I knew I was the right girl.)

How do your two children feel about having a mom who’s a successful writer?

At first they were embarrassed, but then when Miley Cyrus and Paramount optioned the film rights to the Wake series, they thought I was probably sort of cool, and then when they started seeing kids in school walking down the hallway reading my books, they decided I was worth keeping. But I’m still not allowed to speak at their school.

What's coming next in the Unwanteds series?

So. Much. Drama. Book two (The Unwanteds: Island of Silence) will be out in September 2012. The suspense and danger ramps up as the momentary stability between Quill and Artimé crumbles. In Quill, Aaron tries to recover from his failures and get revenge, and in Artimé, Mr. Today has a surprising plan in store for Alex. New characters are introduced in both worlds, there is mass chaos, disappearances and death. I would never say this out loud, but secretly? It’s the best book I’ve ever written, and I can’t wait for you to read it.

Do you have any advice for parents on what they can do to encourage creativity in their children?

You know, we parents are all bozos on this bus together, just trying to figure it out and get it right, aren’t we? But now that my kids are 18 and 15, I can think of some things I could have done better in those middle grade years.

I think it’s really important to realize that creativity comes in many packages. In the world of Quill, it’s only the artistically creative kids who are considered to be Unwanted. But the ruler of Quill overlooks the nature of the very people she promotes—like Aaron, the Wanted twin. He’s extremely creative in coming up with ways to improve their society’s resources, but because he is obedient to the law of the land, his kind of creativity isn’t feared, so he’s safe.

For the child who is artistically creative, I absolutely love and recommend children’s community theatre, and not just for actors. There are wonderful experiences to be had for singers, painters, kids creative in building sets, and for those interested in the technical side of things—sound and lights and backstage managing. There’s so much camaraderie in putting on a show as a team—the friendships they build will be deep and strong.

For the child who doesn’t like to draw or sing or act or tell stories, why not encourage them to help with landscaping, or ask them to fix things around the house, or figure out the best way to lay out the furniture in a room? Ask them to estimate how much you’re spending based on the groceries in the cart, and maybe they can create a computer generated grocery list or expense spreadsheet. Maybe they can’t draw a giraffe to save their life, but they can take an old clock apart and put it back together, or create a go-cart out of two skateboards, a lawnmower and a broken dining room chair. Or maybe they’re really gifted with patience for younger children, and could shine as a babysitter or a volunteer in afterschool daycare. Maybe they can create a better cup holder in your car that keeps your coffee from sloshing around. Or maybe they can tutor students in science, or sell lemonade like it’s going out of style and raise money for charity. And maybe they can run or swim or play football with a natural instinct that makes you marvel. Creativity knows no bounds. Every child has a gift we can encourage.

One last thing. A few years ago my daughter said “I’m going to perform on Broadway,” and I very nearly told her that the chances of that were slim to none. What was I thinking? And who am I, shy nerdy girl from small town Michigan-turned-NYT best-selling author, to crush my kid’s creative dream? We think we’re protecting them by telling them the odds. But what they hear us say is, “I don’t believe you are good enough to do that.”

So when your child says “I’m going to win ‘American Idol,’ ” or “I’m going to be on the space shuttle,” or “I’m going to play for the NBA,” say something like, “If anyone can do it, it’s you. Go for it.” There are plenty of other people who will discourage them along the way. Somebody’s got to have your kid’s back. Let it be you.

Author Lisa McMann took some chances with her latest book, The Unwanteds, and her unexpected choices have clearly paid off. For the first time, she aimed her work at a middle grade audience, rather than the teen readers who have made her Wake trilogy a bestseller. And she tackled a genre—dystopian fantasy—that's much more popular […]

Sports

Sports

Lynn Sherr

Interview by Lynn Green

by Lynn Green

In the fitness world, swimmers don't seem to get the attention that runners do, but dedicated swimmers are every bit as committed to their chosen form of exercise as the many distance runners out pounding the pavement. Just take a look at the swimmers doggedly completing their laps early one morning in a crowded community pool. They're determined—you might even say they're "in deep."

Journalist Lynn Sherr, best known for her work as a correspondent on ABC’s “20/20,” describes her interest in swimming as "an obsession, benign but obstinate." In Swim: Why We Love the Water, she chronicles her love of the sport, culminating in her landmark long-distance swim of the Hellespont, the strait that separates Europe from Asia. Along with her personal journey, she offers a quick trip through the history of swimming, with fascinating tidbits about swimmers of old and their modern counterparts.

We jumped in with some questions for Sherr about her own passion for swimming and mankind’s long fascination with being in the water.

How did you get started as a swimmer? What are your earliest memories of swimming?

It began with frogs. As a toddler I used to watch them, mesmerized, at the edge of the lake at the camp my parents owned in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains. And I learned. No kidding—my breast stroke is very strong and my frog kick is terrific.

When I got old enough to be a proper camper—all of five years old—I also got some proper human lessons. There were always (as there are now) faster swimmers than I, but I always relished jumping into the water and making it to the other side.

Tell us about your swimming routine. Do you swim regularly for fitness?

Ever since I joined U.S. Masters Swimming last year, I’ve been doing drills at least twice a week in winter, sometimes accompanied by hour-long swims on other days. In the summer, I swim daily—outside—in the ocean or the bay or in the pool. My goal last year, when I was training for the Hellespont swim, was to swim longer distances, at a faster pace. I had worked up to two hours or more in the water before I went there.

Today I’m just trying to perfect my freestyle and pick up my speed. And while half an hour used to satisfy me on the off days, I’ve gotten so used to the longer workouts that I feel cheated if I have to stop before an hour is up.

You describe some of the gadgets now available for swimmers—lap counters, fancy goggles, etc. What's the one swimming accessory you can't live without?

If I could only have one piece of equipment it would be goggles. They’ve changed so much about the sport: the ability to swim for long stretches in both chlorine and salt. The ability to actually see underwater. And for those of us who are nearsighted, the ability to wear contact lenses—or prescription goggles—and actually see what’s in front of us.

I just wish they didn’t make you look so weird. We all look like extra-terrestrials about to invade planet Earth.

Where is your favorite place to swim?

Anywhere the water is warm and the lane is free. When it comes to the debate between pools and open water, I’m an equal-opportunity addict. Yes, you’re bouncing between walls in a blue box—but pools have a beauty of their own that I find irresistible. And yes, there is a special joy in the wild waters of a natural bay, or lake, or ocean, especially when you start in one place (or one continent) and finish in another. Come to think of it, I miss lake swimming and would love to find a wonderful new (warm) lake swim.

And I’d say that a golden sun and blue sky certainly help, but then, I like to swim at night, also, when the stars reflect on the surface; and I like to swim in a steaming hot pool when the snow is falling. That’s one of the cool things about swimming: there’s always another body of water.

One of the statements in the book that surprised me was: "I have never had a bad swim." C'mon! Hasn't the water ever been too cold? Or the pool too crowded? Or your body too tired to enjoy a swim?

No, no and no. Let me explain: I just don’t go in when it’s too cold. I am NOT a polar bear type. I know my limits. As for the crowds: well, sure, I prefer my own lane, and I’m not crazy about mass start in open water races. But just last weekend, while I was swimming in a hotel pool, I actually invited a waiting swimmer to share my lane because I knew I’d be in for an hour and didn’t want to deprive her. And then there’s last summer, when I voluntarily joined 431 swimmers from around the world to cross the Hellespont. If you’d looked closely, you would have noticed that I held back during the start—to keep from getting swallowed up by the crowd. There are ways.

As for the fatigue, call me crazy, but I like that feeling after a good, hard swim. And if I’m tired going in, the water wakes me up.

So I’m not a Polyanna about it. Just sensible. And lucky.

I love the Egyptian hieroglyph of a swimmer that’s included in the book. Where or how did you come across that?

Me too—in fact I love all the images I found illustrating the remarkable history of swimming. I did a huge amount of research, consulting hundreds of books and articles and websites, not to mention scholars and swimming professionals. And the idea that taking a swim was so familiar to the ancient Egyptians that they had a symbol for it, made me dig even deeper. For that one I found an Egyptologist, Bob Brier, through a Greek classicist (it was my college major), and he sent me the hieroglyph.

By the way, I’m especially proud to have included two ancient coins showing swimming—one with the goddess Aphrodite and one, the mythical Leander. Wouldn’t it be nice if our modern quarters showed a swimmer?

There are many references in your book to the spiritual aspects of swimming. How would you describe the experience of swimming and what it does for you in a spiritual or emotional sense?

It lifts my soul and it calms my body; it energizes me and soothes me, all at once. I can think about things in the water with a laser-like focus that is often not possible on dry land, in a noisy office. I have written some of my best ledes while swimming laps. And figured out some of the thorniest problems.

I have a friend who split from her husband and then spend hours a day in the pool, just going back and forth in her singleness. She worked it out. Me? I’ve cried in the water and laughed there, too; it’s so non-judgmental, I can enter it without reservation. It probably helps that we’re near-naked when we swim: no barriers, no hidden secrets.

Not that it’s all so serious. I like to play in the water, too, especially with my grandchildren. I do a wicked sea monster.

Now that you've swum the Hellespont, do you have any other long-distance swimming goals?

Let me first say that accomplishing the Hellespont was, hands down, the purest jolt of exuberance I’ve ever experienced. I was on a high for days—maybe weeks—afterwards, and I cherish the friendships that were forged in and around the waters. Perhaps more important, I proved to myself that I could challenge my body and push it to a new sense of power. [In the photo below, Sherr shows the medal she received last summer for swimming the Hellespont—a storied channel that divides Europe and Asia.]

So yes, it’s very tempting to find a new goal and go for that feeling again. And certainly there are channels and lakes that tempt me. I’m looking at a few, but there’s nothing specific at the moment. Although I am considering a smaller but equally iconic crossing this summer: the race from Brooklyn to Manhattan across New York’s East River and under the Brooklyn Bridge. Stay tuned.

Do you have any encouraging words for adults who don't know how to swim or aren't confident about their swimming skills?

May I quote Dory, the bighearted blue fish from the movie Finding Nemo? “Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.” Several of the people in my USMS class didn’t start until they were in their 30s or 40s, and they’re doing major marathons today. But you don’t have to aim for the English Channel. I think there’s a major sense of satisfaction waiting for anyone who can make it down the lane for the first time. It’s fun, it’s good for you, and as you get older, it’s probably the only strenuous activity you can do comfortably, without wrecking your joints. Also, it can save your life.

Who do you hope will read this book?

I hope it reaches a wide cross-section of readers (and listeners—there’s an audiobook too). Obviously, the swimming community, whose devotion to this activity reflects my own passion. Swimmers love—LOVE—to swim, and I’m so eager for them to learn more about the rich history and lore of this wonderful activity. Did you know that Julius Caesar escaped from the enemy by swimming? That Chairman Mao performed his famous Yangtze River swim mostly on his back—with his arms and legs afloat in what one wag called his “lounge-chair style”? That the first person to cross the English Channel (MatthewWebb) used the breast stroke? That President John Quincy Adams nearly drowned in the Potomac? And that no bathing cap in the world will keep your hair dry?

But I also hope that non-swimmers will be intrigued enough to see what they’re missing. To appreciate that this ancient activity indeed has something for everyone; that even if you’re just a fan of Esther Williams movies (or lucky enough to be experiencing those magnificent spectacles for the first time), or tired of being a fashion victim in the ghastly lighting of most bathing suit dressing rooms, there’s something in swimming, and Swim—for everyone.

So I’m hoping that those who can’t swim will be inspired to take some lessons and dive in themselves. I hope it makes people want to get wet.

CREDITS: Egyptian hieroglyph from R. O. Faulkner, A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian.

Photo of Lynn Sherr with Hellespont medal by Sharon Young.

Children's & YA, Middle Grade

Children's & YA Middle Grade

Sheila Turnage

Interview by Lynn Green

by Lynn Green

One of our favorite new children's books is Three Times Lucky, a middle grade mystery from first-time author Sheila Turnage. With a lead character who reminds us more than a little of Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird, a rollicking cast of Southern eccentrics and plenty of strange goings-on in the tiny town of Tupelo Landing, this beautifully told story is guaranteed to make kids smile, think—and keep turning the pages to see what happens next.

We caught up with Turnage between stops on her book tour to find out more about the spunky young heroine of Three Times Lucky and how the book came to be.

Mo LoBeau is such a wonderful character. How did she first spring up in your imagination?
I know it might sound odd, but one day this 11-year-old girl in plaid sneakers just started kicking at the door of my imagination and saying things like, “Hey, I’m Mo LoBeau. You got a minute? I got a story to tell.”

And there she was, Miss Moses LoBeau. Rising sixth-grader, part-time detective, yellow-belt karate student. I liked her immediately. I listened to her. I started writing and didn’t stop until she’d told her story and solved her mysteries.

What do you like best about Mo? What do you think young readers will admire or identify with when they read about her?
I love Mo’s smarts. Also her humor and toughness—and the vulnerability those qualities hide. I think kids will identify with those traits. And I think they’ll identify with her search for her missing “Upstream Mother” and her place in the world. Oh yeah, and there’s a murder to solve. . . . Everybody loves a mystery!

Author Sheila Turnage near her home in eastern North Carolina.

Why do kids make such good detectives? Would you have been a good detective as a child?
Kids make great detectives because they ARE great detectives. Kids have to figure out everything! How things work, what things mean, how our lives all fit together. I think kids are naturally curious, creative thinkers—two qualities detectives need to ferret out clues and put them together in a way that makes sense. If I’d gone into the detective business as a kid, I like to think I would have been a great one. Maybe not as great as Mo and Dale, but darned good.

The novel includes a very full cast of eccentric characters! Did your friends, family and neighbors in North Carolina inspire many of these characters or are they purely fictional creations?
Good question! All the characters in Three Times Lucky are fiction. As I wrote this book, bits and pieces of my own life morphed into Tupelo Landing, where Three Times Lucky takes place. But no particular person inspired any specific character.

What kind of books did you enjoy as a child and how did that influence your work in Three Times Lucky?
I loved books with vivid characters, and with a sense of place strong enough to make me think I could live there if I wanted to, no matter how unlikely the scenario. That’s what makes a book exciting to me. I loved Tom Sawyer, Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh for those reasons. I also loved mysteries, like the Hardy Boys—exciting books with a puzzle to solve. I guess I like to write what I like to read: exciting books with vivid, heart-felt characters and a strong sense of place.

When you wrote Three Times Lucky, did you set out to create a children's book?
No! I didn’t know it was a novel for kids until it was almost finished, and my agent told me. I wasn’t thinking about who would read it, I was just doing my best to write Mo’s story. I am delighted that it turned out to be for kids!

Can you give us a brief description of the place where you do most of your writing?
At this moment I’m writing in a high-ceilinged room at 9 a.m., with lots of sunlight flowing through the east-facing windows. A ceiling fan swipes overhead. The room’s a little messy: stacks of spiral notebooks, a box of paper for the printer, manuscripts lolling about. I see a half-consumed cup of coffee in my Harry Potter cup, a winter scarf tossed over a chair back, though it’s now May. My computers sit on a large oak teacher’s desk I got at a second hand store years ago. (I consider getting a new desk from time to time, but this one is too heavy to carry downstairs so I will probably use it forever.)

The farmhouse near Greenville, North Carolina, where Sheila Turnage lives and works once belonged to her great-grandparents.

You’ve attended the same writing class for 30 years. What kind of help and support did the class provide while you were writing this novel?
I wrote the first draft of this book at home, and the first time I wrote Three Times Lucky it was three times too long! So I rewrote it to shorten it, and took it to Pat O’Leary’s writing seminar at Pitt Community College in Winterville, North Carolina, for other writers to critique.

There are great writers in that ongoing class—which is for new writers and more experienced writers. We offer each other encouragement, feedback and friendship. The class gives me the chance to develop new skills. Reading about writing is one thing, but for me it’s important to practice the same way a musician practices.

I love that class because it gives me a chance to get good at what I love doing, and it gives me a chance to be part of a creative community.

If you could name yourself something outrageous and a little famous, what would it be?
Wow, I don’t know. How about Tupelo Turnage? It doesn’t have the snap of Sheila Warrior Princess, but I think it works. Don’t you?

RELATED IN BOOKPAGE
Read a review of Three Times Lucky.

One of our favorite new children's books is Three Times Lucky, a middle grade mystery from first-time author Sheila Turnage. With a lead character who reminds us more than a little of Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird, a rollicking cast of Southern eccentrics and plenty of strange goings-on in the tiny town of Tupelo […]

Children's & YA, YA, YA Fiction

Children's & YA YA Fiction YA

Samantha van Leer

Interview by Lynn Green

by Lynn Green

What would it be like if your favorite character from a book came to life and left his fictional world behind to join you in reality? Jodi Picoult teams up with her 16-year-old daughter Samantha van Leer to answer that question in a clever and charming new novel for teens.

Between the Lines features high school outcast Delilah McPhee, who falls for the hero of a strange children’s book. This fairy tale prince is not only “cuter than any guy” in Delilah’s school, he’s also smart, sensitive and courageous. Can she find a way to get Oliver off the page and into the real world where they’ll live happily ever after?

We asked the mother-daughter writing pair to tell us more about how they created this delightful fractured fairy tale.

Sammy, this is your first book, and Jodi, this is your first teen book. What was it like venturing into uncharted territory?
Jodi: I’ve been asked to write versions of my books for younger readers who might not be emotionally ready for some of the content of my grownup novels, and I’ve always said no—I’d rather tell the story the way I need to tell it, and have the kid wait till he/she is ready to read it in that form, instead of a watered-down version. But this story, which was 100 percent Sammy’s idea, was so different, and so cool—who hasn’t had a wicked crush on a character in a book at some point in her life? It felt rich enough to be a chapter book, and was a concept I thought both adults and teens could relate to.

Sammy: It was a lot of hard work, but in the end I was able to create something I could be extremely proud of. I’ve written in the past but I’ve never actually completed anything quite like this in terms of size and scope. I had lots of fun imagining an entire other world where I got to essentially decide the fate of everyone living inside. It was a power I’ve never had before!

"Delilah does something many of us think about: She literally gets inside the world of a book."

Was it always a dream for the two of you to collaborate?
Jodi: Sammy has always been incredibly creative, and a great writer. There have been story ideas she’s had that are so wildly original I’d find myself thinking, “I wish I’d been the one to come up with that.” I wasn’t sure if she’d have the desire or the fortitude, however, to take on a long-term collaborative project. Although it was her idea, I knew that having my experience crafting something of this magnitude would help—and that I’d be the one reining her in on sunny days when it would have been far more fun to sit outside than to be at a computer writing. I can’t say whether it was a dream for Sammy . . . but it was an unforgettable and wonderful experience for me to have with my own daughter.

How was the creation and writing of the story divided between you?
Sammy: We sat down together during the summer of my freshman year and every day we’d write for about four hours. Sophomore summer we spent the same amount of time each day editing. This summer—after my junior year—I’ll spend on tour. As for the actual division of labor, we sat side by side and wrote together, having a conversation or role-playing and writing it down.

What’s the best and worst thing about writing with family?
Jodi: The worst thing, of course, is that even when we’re writing, I’m still the mom. That means I am not only the one saying, “We have to finish 20 pages today,” I’m also saying, “Clean your room.” But the best thing is that I found our minds worked similarly in remarkable ways. We would literally write every sentence together, taking turns typing. I’d start to speak a sentence and Sammy would finish, or vice-versa. It was as if we were dreaming the same dream, and falling all over each other to describe what we were seeing, only to realize the vision in each of our minds was identical.

What sparks the attraction between Delilah and Oliver? Why do you think she connects so strongly with him when she’s a loner around real people?
Sammy: I feel like Delilah is more comfortable in the world of books than she is in the real world. When she uses the fairy tale as an escape from her world, she is able to associate with the characters inside better than she would with ordinary teenagers. The reason Oliver is so compelling for her is because he’s nothing like other modern-day teenage boys. He has chivalry, manners, and he also knows what it’s like to feel like he doesn’t belong in the world he inhabits.

What is it about Delilah’s character that teens will most identify with or admire?
Sammy: Everyone’s felt left out sometime—whether it was in high school or even in preschool on the playground. Anyone can identify with feeling lonely. Also, Delilah does something many of us think about: She literally gets inside the world of a book.

What makes your novel a modern story—even though it’s based on a fairy tale?
Jodi: The voice of Delilah—which is very poignant and true, and taps into that teen angst of how to find one’s place in a world that doesn’t seem to fit. Which, very intentionally, is also the driving force behind Oliver’s desire to escape his literary existence. There are bits of Delilah’s life that are so real a teen can’t help but identify—Sammy came up with one phrase I loved, in fact, where she described popular girls “clustered together like grapes, because really, do you ever see just one?” Who hasn’t witnessed that in the halls of a modern high school?

What’s one book you’d love to be a character in?
Sammy: A Dr. Seuss book. It seems like a really happy place to be, full of nonsense and imagination . . . which is a place I’d fit right into.

What has the process of working together taught you?
Jodi: I’ve always been proud of Sammy’s writing ability, but I was so impressed by her tenacity and her ability to really put in the time and energy required not just to craft a book, but to edit it multiple times, and then tour for eight weeks to promote it across three continents. I learned that I’m not the only storyteller in the family. And I learned that when my daughter wants to put her mind to a task, she can be incredibly successful.

Children's & YA, Picture Book

Children's & YA Picture Book

Barney Saltzberg

Interview by Lynn Green

by Lynn Green

Author-illustrator Barney Saltzberg has a special talent for capturing the magic of the creative process, as evidenced in his 2011 picture book, Beautiful Oops. He returns to the subject of creativity in his latest picture book, Andrew Drew and Drew, an exuberant and clever portrait of a boy who loves to draw.

Beginning with “nothing . . . but a line,” Andrew uses his pencil and his imagination to bring the line to life, transforming it into a staircase and then the back of a dinosaur. The line travels across pages and flaps and folds, making several surprising twists and turns. As folded pages are opened, a simple curve becomes the comb on a huge rooster, and a starlit nighttime sky becomes a dark, magical creature.

"There is not a 'correct' way to draw a cat!!! Let your kids find their way."

Children of all ages—especially those with an interest in drawing—will love exploring the pages of Andrew Drew and Drew. Along the way, they just might absorb some of the book’s message about the power of art and the joy of creating it.

Saltzberg, who lives in Los Angeles and is currently touring to promote Andrew Drew and Drew and another recent picture book, Arlo Needs Glasses, answered a few of our questions about how the book came to be.

What was your inspiration for the character of Andrew?
Harold and the Purple Crayon has been a favorite and I wanted to make another book about the creative process after Beautiful Oops.

What are your earliest memories of drawing?
Kindergarten. My parents mounted two of my pictures and hung them in my room. Looking back, it was very validating. My mother bought me lots of sketchbooks that I filled with drawings.

The book is dedicated to your mother, Ruth Schorr Saltzberg, “who encouraged me to use my imagination and a pencil!” Was your mother also an artist? Why do you think she chose to encourage your interest in art?
My mother was a huge fan of art. She dabbled in painting, drawing and sculpture. She saw a talent in me, way before I did. She even sent me to Saturday art classes in primary school (which I loved).?

How did the concept for the book originate—the clever use of folded pages and continuing lines?
I'm a huge fan of Emily Gravett. She used flaps in The Odd Egg. I loved the way the unfolding story impacts the rhythm of the story. Andrew seemed like the perfect book to have images appear as the story progresses.

Can you describe the process you used to create the book? Did you start by making a mockup that included all the flaps and folds and overlapping pages?
I had to make a mockup to write this. I came up with the flaps first and drew on each page. None of the drawings were pre-planned. I surprised myself when I saw what was unfolding as I was sketching. It was a lot of fun to see where the pencil would take me. ?

Did you encounter any problems bringing your vision for the book to life?
This was the hardest book to illustrate even though the drawings are simple. Making everything line up was quite a challenge. My art director, Megan Bennett, is brilliant and very patient!!!?

One of the cutest touches in the book is an easel with several different drawings attached. Was this element as difficult to produce as it appears? Did your publisher ever balk at the production cost of elements like that one?
My editor, Cecily Kaiser didn't bat an eye when I showed her the dummy. She wanted the book immediately and kept everything I envisioned. ?

What advice would you give to the parents of a budding artist?
Expose them to all types of art. Give them lots of paper!!! Don't be judgmental. Let them explore. If the sky they paint is pink with yellow polka dots, that's fine!!!! There is not a "correct" way to draw a cat!!! Let your kids find their way. Everything at school has a right and wrong answer. Making art is time for letting the rules go on vacation.

Author-illustrator Barney Saltzberg has a special talent for capturing the magic of the creative process, as evidenced in his 2011 picture book, Beautiful Oops. He returns to the subject of creativity in his latest picture book, Andrew Drew and Drew, an exuberant and clever portrait of a boy who loves to draw. Beginning with “nothing […]

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