books together

Welcome to the first stop on Gail Gauthier's blog tour!  Gail is celebrating the publication of her second book of Hannah and Brandon Stories, A Girl, a Boy, and Three Robbers (illustrated by Joe Cepeda; Putnam Juvenile, 2008).  The first, A Girl, a Boy, and a Monster Cat was recommended to me by Jen Robinson (at PBS Parents) when I was looking for a chapter book for my second-grader to read to his sister.  This tour is about chapter books in general as well as about Gail's latest book; in this interview, she answers my questions about what chapter books are (and are not) and some things to keep in mind when writing them.

[Anamaria]  Was writing a chapter book part of your goal when you started writing The Hannah and Brandon Stories, or did the characters and storyline determine the reading level?

[Gail]  No, I was interested in writing a picture book. And Brandon didn't even exist in the picture book draft. I was working with a long, involved story about a birthday party and a Venus flytrap. I was in a writers' group back then, and one of the members suggested that the material was better suited to a chapter book. My editor at that point agreed with her, so I tried my luck with a chapter book. Eventually, I hit upon the idea for a child using books to inspire fantasy play and changed the story altogether. Buttercup is the only carryover from my earliest attempts. In the picture book, though, he was a female.

[Anamaria]  Chapter books seem to occupy a relatively small but critical space on the bookshelves of kids who are beyond easy readers but not quite ready for middle-grade novels.  What are some the key elements that distinguish chapter books from other genres of children's literature?

[Gail]  You sometimes see chapter books described as stepping stones between easy readers and the true novels we see written for kids in the middle grades. (Say third or fourth through sixth grades.) Easy readers have a clear reason for existing--helping kids learn to read, helping them become comfortable readers. Middle grade novels have a clear reason for existing--they're real novels. Chapter books are neither one thing or the other. I think they may be viewed as a sort of throwaway item, existing only to move kids along to the more adult reading that we grown-ups understand and even enjoy.

Whether they should be or not, I think that middle grade-aged children are viewed as mini-adults. So you often see kid characters on the upper edges of the middle grade age range, particularly in fantasy, behaving in very adult ways and exhibiting very adult behavior--saving others, fighting off enemies, solving significant problems, falling in love. While it's true that kids like to "read up" and put themselves in the place of those characters, it also just happens to make writing the books much easier for authors. We can get away with imposing adult behavior on the characters and are thus writing about people who aren't that different from ourselves. Writing for the younger kids is harder because a realistic younger child character is going to be far less like us.

So some key elements would be:

1. Much younger characters whose behavior and abilities are restricted because of their age. (No getting around town on the bus by themselves, for instance, and the presence of adult caretakers who must be dealt with)
2. Shorter attention span on the part of the readers, so the overall work can't run long and chapters and even scenes need to be kept shorter.
3. If the books have illustrations, they will just be illustrating scenes. The illustrations won't be carrying part of the storyline the way pictures in picture books often do.

[Anamaria]  Although The Hannah and Brandon Stories can be read independently of each other, it's more than likely that kids who read one will want to read the others.  Why do you think series books are so appealing to kids at this reading level?

[Gail]  I think kids enjoy familiarity, so once they are familiar with characters and a setting, they feel comfortable sticking with them. They're still new readers at this point, too, and not having to bring themselves up to speed with new characters and a new setting with each book may make reading easier for them. Plus, as I've said many times, I think we all read to seek connection and community with others. If children feel a connection with a group of characters, it makes a lot of sense that they would want to spend more time with them. Adult readers do that, after all. Adults read series genre fiction all the time.

[Anamaria]  Did you envision The Hannah and Brandon Stories as a series from the start?

[Gail]  No. That suggestion came from my publisher. It never occurred to me. Years ago I wrote a sequel, Club Earth, to my first book, My Life Among the Aliens. I very much wanted to write a third Aliens book so I'd have a trilogy. I fantasized about a boxed set sitting under Christmas trees all over the country. That never worked out, and I think I kind of swore off sequels after that. So, really, I was originally just interested in one book.

[Anamaria]  The kids in A Girl, a Boy, and Three Robbers are recognizably real kids. How did you get the voice and tone of this book to match that of its readership so well?

[Gail]  I've had other people ask me questions regarding the voice in The Hannah and Brandon Stories. I tried different points of view before I hit upon Brandon as the narrator, and it took a while for Brandon to become the Brandon he is now. I'm delighted that people think the voice and tone are appropriate, but I'm not sure how I did it.

I do respect kids. I believe that particularly for younger children, learning to conform to the adult world and learning to get along with others is a big part of their lives. I feel a lot of empathy for them. I also enjoy kid humor, which I think involves a lot more than the word play and funny names that pass for humor in a lot of chapter books. I think many real kids use humor to level the playing field or to help them recognize life's oddness just as adults do. So perhaps the way I feel about kids has something to do with the voices I use when writing for them.

[Anamaria]  What are some of the particular challenges of writing chapter books?

[Gail]  This sounds really shallow, but keeping everything short can be difficult. I once read that anyone should be able to say what she wants to say in 900 pages, but saying it in 900 words is another thing altogether. Not that we're working with only 900 words with chapter books, but still.

You also are very restricted by the characters' ages with chapter books. If you're trying to maintain any kind of realism or logic at all, child readers aren't going to accept six- or seven-year-olds, say, traveling all over the U.S. and fighting mythical creatures the way the 12-year-old-plus characters in the Percy Jackson books do. (I like Percy Jackson & the Olympians, but I don't think that series would work with younger characters.)

So coming up with a story in which a six-to-eight-year-old character can be the center of the action without having to move around a lot can take some work. You have to find a setting where kids that age would be, anyway, or else come up with a very good reason for them being there.

[Anamaria]  Do you have any specific advice for writers working in this genre?

[Gail]  Accept that you must have a real story and real characters just as you would for a book for any other age group. Treat your readers with respect. Don't take the attitude that they're little kids so you can just knock off some jokes or cobble together some stereotypical silly characters, and your job is done. Spend some time in libraries and bookstores checking out the kinds of books that are being published for this age group just so you'll get a feel for what a chapter book is, versus a youngish middle-grade novel or an early reader.

As far as content is concerned, don't assume that whatever you see out there is what is being published so that is what you have to write. In fact, try to come up with something different. If you feel a need to teach something to kids, try writing nonfiction. Fiction is not the place for overt lessons on nature, language, history, or, heaven forbid, life.

[Anamaria]  We'll end where we began: with the "monster" cat!  Can you tell us more about your inspiration for Buttercup?

[Gail]  That long, involved story about a birthday party and a Venus flytrap I mentioned earlier was inspired by my niece's birthday party. My niece lives with, perhaps, a half dozen cats because her mother is a vet who specializes in cat care and likes to have a cat or two or six or seven around. At the time of the party, they had a cat that had to be kept away from plants because it liked to gnaw buds and blossoms off from them. And that was the starting off point for Buttercup.

[Anamaria]  Thank you, Gail!  I'll look forward to reading more about chapter books, and about Three Robbers, on the tour this week.  And of course, to reading more of The Hannah and Brandon Stories.

Here's the rest of the schedule for this blog tour:

June 30: Sam Riddleburger

July 1: Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

July 2: Jen Robinson's Book Page

July 3: Big A little a

July 4: The Miss Rumphius Effect

July 5: A Fuse #8 Production

I hope you'll join the conversation; it starts here!

I'm reading two middle-grade novels by Lisa Yee right now:  Millicent Min, Girl Genius (Arthur A. Levine, 2003) is my upstairs book and Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time (Arthur A. Levine, 2005) is my downstairs book.  Reading them together makes sense given that they tell the same story from two different points of view.  I'm a little surprised to find myself enjoying Stanford's book more than Millie's, but that could be because I identify too strongly with her (not necessarily the girl genius part, but maybe the uptight ultra-geeky part); it makes me uncomfortable.  Stanford is just hilarious.  So that's what middle school-aged boys are thinking.  Good to know!

I also just discovered that if I had another floor in my house I could be reading So Totally Emily Ebers (Arthur A. Levine, 2007), too.  See Lisa Yee's website for sample chapters of Millicent Min and Stanford Wong as well as a sneak peek at Emily.

I've been looking for a way to keep track of what I'm reading since January (see this post) and finally decided to commit to Goodreads.  You can find me (and add me as a friend) there at www.goodreads.com/profile/bookstogether.  If you're on Goodreads, please consider adding me as a friend; and if you're not, please consider joining.  I would love to see what you're reading.

N.b, the Goodreads widget in my sidebar is showing someone else's books at the moment!

[Updated to add:  I switched to a different widget.  And, Goodreads is addictive.]

The children are clamoring for more of the My Naughty Little Sister stories by Dorothy Edwards even as I try to write this post, so it will have to be short.  We discovered My Naughty Little Sister at the library yesterday--I saw the title, recognized the work of illustrator Shirley Hughes on the cover, and dropped the book in the library bag.  As it happens, Edwards's stories are favorites in England.  We read the first of them last night ("The naughtiest story of all") and were instantly charmed.  After all, I was a naughty little sister myself once, Leo thinks he's got one now, and Milly--well, let's just say that Milly likes the stories, too.

Our library holds the My Naughty Little Sister Storybook (published in the US by Clarion, 1990); but Egmont UK recently reissued the original collections, first published in the 1950s and 60s [warning: watch out for Her Irritable Father].  If you can't find My Naughty Little Sister, look for stories about Alfie and Annie Rose, written and illustrated by Shirley Hughes.  We love all of those.

Today is Wilma Rudolph's birthday; she was born on June 23, 1940 near Clarksville, Tennesee, the twentieth of twenty-two children (I love this detail).  Wilma was the first American woman to win three gold medals in an Olympic Games (Rome, 1960); she defeated polio and prejudice to get there.  We re-read Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the World's Fastest Woman by Kathleen Krull; illustrated by David Diaz (Harcourt, 1996) today in her honor; she became one of Leo's heroes (and mine, too) when we first read this book before the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.  It's an amazing story; well worth reading before this summer's Olympic Games in Beijing, too.

[See more Nonfiction Monday posts at Picture Book of the Day.]

It seems as if every week another Washingon Post columnist announces his or her decision to accept the Post's offer of early retirement.  I don't know if Elizabeth Ward, who writes the Post's biweekly For Young Readers column, is taking early retirement or just moving on after "seven years worth of dragons," but her farewell is in today's Book World.  According to Ward, "[a]bsolutely the best part of reviewing is discovery;" here she takes a look back at some of her most memorable discoveries in the field of children's literature.  I was surprised to find that I hadn't read many (any!) of her favorites, but I have to agree with her on Kate Di Camillo's The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.  Read her last column here.

I wonder who will be taking over the For Young Readers column?  Or might the Post replace it or even eliminate it altogether?  Watch this space.

The winners of the 2008 Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards were announced today (see the list of past winners and honor books here).  The judges awarded a special citation, only the fifth in the BGHB's 40-year history, to The Arrival by Shaun Tan (Arthur A. Levine, 2007).  On his website, Tan describes the book as "a migrant story told as a series of wordless images that might seem to come from a forgotten time."  The more I read about the ideas behind the book and the process of creating it (also on Tan's website), the more interested I am in reading it and the rest of Tan's work, none of which is available at my library.  I hope that will change now.

Another book about the immigrant experience won the BGHB Award for a Picture Book in 1994.  Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say (Houghton Mifflin, 1993) is a beautiful book, quiet and powerful; one of my favorites.  It won the Caldecott earlier that year, too.  Highly recommended.

The night before Leo's third birthday party I stayed up late making banners of papel picado to decorate the house. I followed the step-by-step directions for folding and cutting in Making Magic Windows: Creating Papel Picado/Cut Paper Art with Carmen Lomas Garza (Children's Book Press, 1999). It was kind of like making origami snowflakes, only these papel picado designs (eight of them, rendered in cut paper on the cover of the book) are influenced by Mexican folk art traditions. They're festive and easy to make, even the one that looks like hummingbirds. Carmen's directions are excellent; you could use them to make papel picado with elementary school-aged children and get great results. All you need is brightly colored tissue paper, scissors, a pencil, and string.

We put up (and took down) Leo's banners for every household birthday from 2003 to 2007. After five years they were pretty tattered and faded, so I cut some new ones the night before Milly's birthday party last month.  It's not a birthday at our house without the papel picado banners.  Muchas gracias, Carmen!

[Making Magic Windows is the companion book to Carmen Lomas Garza's autobiographical Magic Windows/Ventanas mágicas (Children's Book Press, 1999), which won the 2000 Pura Belpré Award for illustration.]

I got an email from Milly's preschool teacher this morning alerting me to the plight of neighborhood goats Carne (a Nigerian Dwarf) and Leche (a French Alpine).  It seems that the county considers them livestock and their owners to be in violation of local zoning ordinances; find out more at www.SaveOurGoats.com .  To be fair, we do live in Arlington, VA; just outside of Washington, DC.  My primary concern is that if the county allows it, the kids will want a pet goat, too.  Or two.

We're going to visit the goats on Saturday morning (the owners are hosting a goat-petting party).  In the meantime, we're reading Patricia Polacco's alphabet book G is for Goat (Philomel, 2003).  It has bouncy rhymes and bright illustrations, and it passes the Q test ("P is for push, when goats just won't go.  Q is for quit, when goats just say no").  Polacco's goats (they're in a lot of her books, come to think of it) are Nubians; read more about them in Oh, Look! (Philomel, 2004), the sequel to G is for Goat.  Are there any other good goat books?

We read everything Emily Jenkins writes (for kids; she also writes for adults, but I haven't read all of that. Yet).  What Happens on Wednesdays (illustrated by Lauren Castillo; Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2007) was of particular interest to Milly, who is starting to pay more careful attention to the days of the week and the routines that correspond to each one.  WHoH is as much about the preschool-aged narrator's (urban) neighborhood as it is about what she does there, and Lauren Castillo's mixed-media illustrations of Brooklyn in winter are warm with just the right amount of detail.

Jenkins writes (on her amazon.com blog) that "[her] hope is that readers and families will map their neighborhoods and write down their schedules, focusing not only on the events and locations that are important to the adults for navigation and structure, but on the things that matter to the children as individuals."  And that's exactly what the kids started working on, without any prompting from me, as soon as we finished this book.

[Two new Jenkins books not to be missed: Skunkdog (pictures by Pierre Pratt; FSG, April 2008); and Toy Dance Party (pictures by Paul O. Zelinsky; Schwartz and Wade, forthcoming in September 2008).]