[ Music ] >> Monica Valentine:
Hello and welcome to the National Book Festival. My name is Monica Valentine
from the Library of Congress. I'm here with Barb
Rosenstock whose featured book at the festival is
"Leave it to Abigail!: The Revolutionary Life
of Abigail Adams." If you'd like to see Barb's
presentation at the festival, log on to loc.gov/bookfest. You'll find her presentation
on the children's page. Welcome, Barb. It's great to have you here. If you're ready, we can
begin our conversation. >> Barb Rosenstock:
I'm ready, Monica. Sure. >> Monica Valentine: All right. So your most recent book
we mentioned was "Leave it to Abigail!: The Revolutionary
Life of Abigail Adams." What inspired you to write it? >> Barb Rosenstock: Abigail has
just always been on my radar as a person that I think
might have been more important than I learned in school. And sometimes I get
ideas that way. But I really kind of
kept putting her off. And I think it's kind of
strange because I put her off because I kind of
had only learned that she hung laundry
in the White House. That's the only fact
I ever knew about her. And -- Which it's kind of weird. As a woman I would
just go, "Oh, okay. Well, she's the one who
hung laundry," and just kind of like chalk all of her
accomplishments up to that. But I thought, "God,
maybe there's more to Abigail than I thought." And I just began
reading about her. And almost from the
very first book, when I read about her business
sense, her sense of money, it kind of changed my
whole entire world in terms of what Abigail did and
what she was capable of. And that's pretty much the
inspiration for the book. The business part of Abigail
Adam's life was really one of the prime inspirations
for the book. >> Monica Valentine:
Interesting. Okay. We have a question
that's come in from Katie. Katie asks, "What
inspired you to write about famous painters
or artists? What would you say to elementary
art teachers to inspire them?" >> Barb Rosenstock: Okay. First of all, art is super
important, so thank you for being an art teacher. I'm assuming, Katie, that
you are an art teacher, so thank you for your work. And especially now, thank all
the teachers for their work because they are just
holding the whole country up in one way or the other. I write on art. I'm not a particularly
gifted, you know, artist visually myself. But I just find the whole
process of looking and feeling and putting those two things
together just fascinating. And how our famous artists,
how different they all were. How different their
work processes and their habits all were. I just find the whole thing, just art in general,
super fascinating. And so I actually -- Mary
Grandpre and I have done what? "The Noisy Paint Box," so
Kandinsky and Vincent van Gogh. I'm looking at the wall here. And Chagall. And then we have a book on
Monet coming out in the spring. And each of those books were
a joy to work on and focus on a different part of art. I just think that art, I
mean to inspire art teachers, you have the classroom
where sometimes the kids that are troubled or having
difficulties other places in the school can come to
and really be themselves. And I just find that it's
like a safe place for a lot of kids, the art room. And if nothing else, I think
that that's real important. I think that art
teachers provide a space to feel in school. Not that other teachers
don't, but especially in the art room I
think it's important. And some kids really,
really need that room. So thanks for doing it. >> Monica Valentine:
That is a great point. Here's a question from Dalton. "Hello, Mrs. Rosenstock. Why do you enjoy historical
fiction and non-fiction? Why is it important
to inform children about the important women
in our nation's history?" >> Barb Rosenstock:
Well, hello Dalton. I enjoy true stories. It's historical fiction
and non-fiction. But it's mostly I think of
them as just true stories. And it's pretty much because -- I'm going to show
you guys a picture. This is my grandpa. He's right -- Oops! Other way. That's him. And he's leaning over and telling me a
story in that picture. And every picture I
have, he's leaning over and telling me a story. And so -- And most of
his stories were true. They were about events in his
life, people he had known, his immigrant parents,
the old countries that my family came from. And that idea that true
stories still had resonance, still meant something to us now
really kind of was engrained in me since I was a kid. I don't believe in telling
history stories just because they were
old history stories. In fact, I really don't
like stories like that. I really want to bring history
stories in and have them connect in some way to what's going
on now with kids today. And so that's really
what I try to do. And the only thing that's --
Really, women or men stories or any different stories,
I'm not sure that I think that one is more important than
the other, Dalton, but I do feel that many, many women's
stories, like many stories of any marginalized group in
the country, have been ignored in favor of the dominant
group stories. And so I just think it's more
important that children know about some women just
because they don't tend to be featured as often. So I guess that would be
my answer to that one. >> Monica Valentine: Okay. Can you give us a
little background on how you became
interested in Abigail Adams? >> Barb Rosenstock:
Yeah, I mean I can. She just was -- Like I said
before, she was on my radar. And then, what happened
is I actually went to a visit to her home. Well, actually John Adams'
birthplace which actually looks like this if any kids
are out there watching. This giant house, not
what we would think of. I mean not what I
guess I anticipated. And then, Abigail. And that was where
John Adams was born. And then, he and Abigail
set up housekeeping in a home right next
door to his parents. And when I visited the house,
it kind of changed everything about the way I thought
about Abigail. She -- Because I saw her things. I saw her -- There's still
been some preservation of her tools, her fireplace. I have to show you guys. I have a picture of her attic. And that's the stairway. I don't know if you
guys can see it. This is the stairway
going up into the attic. And just to be able to go and
walk up that narrow staircase where Abigail, you know,
went up and down the stairs and feeding the Revolutionary
soldiers that were up in that attic billeted,
which means sleeping over. Billeted in her attic. And that she fed them,
and she brought broth up and down the stairs. And her work ethic. The visit to her home
to see her real objects and the real environment where
she lived her life, her tools, her kitchen stuff, her clothing. And then, as she
and John, you know, as John became more prominent
and then became president, and after the presidency, just
to see how their life changed, you know, that they had
more material things. But she was still a
pretty hard worker. So that is really -- The
visit to Abigail Adams' homes and John Adams' homes. I always call them Abigail's'. They really were John's too. Just really changed everything. It did. It changed everything
about how I thought about her. >> Monica Valentine:
It's great that so much of her stuff was preserved. >> Barb Rosenstock: Yes, it was. >> Monica Valentine: So what do
you think are the major themes that emerged from
"Leave it to Abigail," and how do they relate
to our world? >> Barb Rosenstock:
Abigail was competent. And like a lot of women, and I
would say girls too, even now, she at times had to -- The
society was telling her to kind of hide that competence. If, you know -- And Abigail
just really had a great sense of herself which is something
that I think young girls have. And then, sometimes it gets kind
of socialized or kind of pulled out of us as we get older. And Abigail really
never lost it. Even living in a society that
was, you know, I would say -- You know, obviously a less free
in terms of what women could do. I mean she certainly
didn't have the vote. She couldn't have -- She
didn't have the rights to her own children. Technically, if you
were married, your husband owned
your everything, your property, your family. You had to ask permission to do
most anything of your husband. And -- But Abigail kept
that sense of competence. And she was kind of like
a quiet worker, you know. She just went ahead and did
what she felt needed to be done. I find that that's
a very modern idea. Most moms do that. Most working women do that. They kind of just
get the job done. You know, the famous
line in "Hamilton," you know, "Immigrants. They get the job done." Sometimes I think, you know,
if it was a different story, it could have been women, we
get the job done, you know. So that's, I guess, that answer. >> Monica Valentine: Okay. Well, we have another
question here from Daniella who's watching
with her six-year-old daughter. >> Barb Rosenstock: Okay. >> Monica Valentine:
And her daughter asks, "Who was your favorite artist?" >> Barb Rosenstock: Oh! That is a really tough question. I think right now it's
whatever one I'm working on most recently. So right now, it would be Monet. But in general, it's
kind of Marc Chagall. And that is, again,
because of my grandfather. When I got older,
he actually took me. I live near Chicago,
outside of Chicago. And we have Chagall windows. At the Art Institute of Chicago,
there are some Chagall windows that were installed
in the late 1970s. And my grandfather
took me to see them, really within the
first couple of months when they were installed. And you walk down the stairs. If you ever have a
chance to come to Chicago, come to the Art Institute. You walk down the stairs, and
you are literally enveloped in this beautiful blue color. It is the most beautiful blue. Daniella's daughter, if you can
just draw the most beautiful, prettiest, heavenly blue you've
ever seen, it's like that, but it fills the whole room. And ever since that experience,
I've almost kind of felt like Chagall was
giving me a hug. And that's why that's in the
book, "Through the Window." In the Chagall book, "Through
the Window," I do talk about blue being a hug, and
it came from that experience. >> Monica Valentine: Wow! Okay. More questions about art. Katie asks, "How do
you choose who to work with to illustrate
your stories?" >> Barb Rosenstock: Katie, authors don't get
to choose that. That is the job of
an art director at a publishing company. So I send in the story,
which it usually looks like about a five-page
typewritten story, and that story goes
to an editor. And that editor works
with an art director. And they choose the artists. Now I have been so thankful
because I have been paired with, you know, Caldecott,
you know, winners. Mordicai Gerstein. And I'm looking at my
wall of artists here. You know, Mary Granpre
won a Caldecott for "The Noisy Paint Box." And just so many. I mean Sarah Green, Elizabeth
Baddeley, the illustrator from "Leave it to Abigail." Liz Baddeley is also
the illustrator from the "I Dissent," the RBG book. Katherine Roy, just a
lot of terrific artists, but I don't choose them at all. I get paired up. >> Monica Valentine:
Interesting. All right. >> Barb Rosenstock:
[inaudible] It's fine. It works great. >> Monica Valentine: It's
been working for you so far. >> Barb Rosenstock: [inaudible] >> Monica Valentine: Monica, we have another question
from Dalton. "What inspired you
to begin writing? What advice do you
have for new writers?" >> Barb Rosenstock: Dalton. What I was not -- I'm just going
to be honest with you guys. I was not a big writer in
school, in elementary school. It scared me. I thought it was really hard. I think writing is really hard. And I think sometimes grownups
kind of forget how hard it is for kids to even like, you know, sometimes even physically
move a writing utensil or physically work,
you know, the computer. Because, you know, at the
time, your hands are small. And, you know, things
are, you know, things take more time
when you're little. And so in writing, when I was
in school, I also always felt like I was making mistakes. Like, "Oh my gosh. I spelled that wrong. I forgot to capitalize
a letter." You know, I just -- I always
was really tense about writing and never really thought
about doing it as a job. I did a completely
different thing. I was in advertising and marketing communications
for years and years. And then, stayed
home with the kids. So I was a mom. And something about
reading to my own sons, they liked true stories
I was reading to them. And I though, "Gosh, I wish that
some more true stories were more like stories the way my
grandpa used to tell." Just tell me the story, you
know, I don't want to all -- I may not want really
facty stuff. I mean I just really
like narrative. And that story was
just narrative. So I tried. I used to make up stories
when I didn't like -- I thought up the
words in a book were like something I just thought
was like maybe a little boring. Or I would have, you know. I thought, "Oh. I could have told
this story better." I would read to my sons by
just like telling the story and using the pictures. And out of that, I just started
writing some of them down. And then, this whole thing kind
of became something that I do. So I was not a kid
who loved to write. I was a kid who loved
to read and loved books and still do love the library. Still do. But I just thought
writing was really hard. So. >> Monica Valentine: Okay. Now we have a question
from Laura that's following up on Dalton's question. "What is the typical path to publishing a children's
book once you have a draft completed?" >> Barb Rosenstock: Well, I
don't know because I would think that everybody's path
is a little different. So I'm not sure that
there's a typical one. For most of us, we need to
have one draft completed. And I wouldn't even
call it a draft. It really -- You need to
make sure you've read it out loud a billion times and
that you've had other people who are professionals
read it and make sure that it's something that, you
know, might be publishable. And then, you begin
sending it out, you know. You send out -- At
the time, back in -- About 10 years ago
now, I guess I started. You know, I sent it to different
editors who I thought, you know, might publish a book like that. And you get a lot of
rejection letters. Like a lot of them. I probably I think I show kids
on a scroll that I have 25, at least 25 rejection letters
for only my very first story. And it's the story that actually
became "The Camping Trip that Changed America,"
but it got rejected like 25 times before
that happened. So it's a process of
either talking, you know, either writing directly to
editors in publishing houses, or of course, you can always
find a literary agent. That's a thing. In that case, usually you
need between like three and five manuscripts that would
be ready to go, not just one. And then, if that agent, if they
accept you for representation, they'll go ahead and
try to sell your work. So that's kind of
typically how it works. But each of us has kind of a
different little story on it. So. >> Monica Valentine: Okay. I will note that you have
written a lot of biographies. >> Barb Rosenstock: I have. >> Monica Valentine: And of all
the biographies you've written, what were some of the
surprising things you found out about your subjects? >> Barb Rosenstock:
Oh my goodness. That is so -- Okay. I can go through each
one, but I'm not going to. But my surprising
things I found out. For example, "Prairie
Boy," I just wrote about not too long ago
on Frank Lloyd Wright. And I had no idea that
the flamboyant, you know, the adult Frank Lloyd
Wright, he was just this kind of flamboyant, very sure of himself man was actually
a really pretty depressed, shy, sad, young boy. And to me that contrast
is really cool. I already told you for
Abigail, it's the fact that she really ran the
finances of the Adams family. John was not good with money. They would have been broke. You know, he was just
off writing political, legal treatises, like
that was his thing. And Abigail kept the house
running, the farm running, the children fed, worried about
their investments for the future and for their retirement. You know, could they
afford a bigger house? Could they afford more land? That was all Abigail's
to handle in a time when women couldn't
even sign a contract. Couldn't even have rented their
own room if they needed a room. Or a room at the inn, they
could not have done that. And Abigail was in
charge of everything. For every single book, I
learned something just amazing. Ben Franklin invented swim fins. I mean I kind of made a
whole book out of that. Like who knew? I don't know that, right? The Library of Congress
was really based, Library of Congress, on Thomas
Jefferson's like library. That like basically there
was a Library of Congress. It burned in the War of 1812. It was burned. And then, Thomas
Jefferson went, "Wow. We really need books
as a county. So how about you guys take mine. Will you take mine? I'm going to donate
them to you." I just -- I find something
fascinating out every time. And the reason that
I write biography is because people's
stories, and that goes for anybody who's
listening to this now, the people that you meet every
day, and the people in the past. People's stories
are so powerful. I always think of the fact that
like little kids, you know, when we're all babies, that
the one thing that they say across humanity, that
we're drawn to human faces. And I think for me,
that never left. And so I'm also drawn
to human stories. Like I will almost always
want to know about the people who did something, not
just the event itself. >> Monica Valentine: Wow. Awesome. Okay. Here's -- >> Barb Rosenstock: Yeah. >> Monica Valentine: --
another great question from Ann. She says, "That's a
great story about making up new texts while
reading to your sons. Did your sons -- >> Barb Rosenstock: Yeah. >> Monica Valentine: -- realize
how this changed your life? And do you tell them the
stories from your grandpa?" >> Barb Rosenstock: Okay. They're 26 and 21. If anyone has children of that
age, children, meaning men, young men of that
age, I have told them that I would not be a writer
if I hadn't been a mother and hadn't read them -- But whether they appreciate
or not, eh, you know. They're of an age where
it's not their job to appreciate it right now. Do I tell them my
grandfather's stories? Yes, and I'm lucky
enough that my mother and father are still alive,
and it's my mother's father, so my mother can also tell
them my grandfather's stories. So yeah, they know a
fair amount of them. They really do. They know a fair amount of them,
especially the funnier ones. >> Monica Valentine: Okay. Barb, do you believe
that your books appeal to a specific audience? And do you think about that
audience when you're writing? >> Barb Rosenstock: I think
I write with some kind of third grader in the back
of my mind of any type. I mean it's not necessarily
a girl or boy. It's not a certain, you
know, race or religion, but it's kind of a third grader. However, I as an adult -- Oh. You can see the dog back there. We are live. There's the dog. Her name is Nikki in case
anybody wants to know. We, you know, I had
totally lost -- The dog made me lose
my train of thought. Of course. What was I talking
about, Monica? >> Monica Valentine: We
were talking about -- Oh, the question was do you
believe your books appeal to a specific audience,
and do you think about that audience
when you're writing? >> Barb Rosenstock: Yeah. >> Monica Valentine:
You've mentioned that you have third graders
in the back of your mind. >> Barb Rosenstock:
Right, right. I always have third graders
in the back of my head, but I as an adult
love picture books. The reason I got into this
is reading picture books to my own children. And that was a genre that I
didn't know anything about. I did not have a lot
of picture books read to me when I was a child. So I still love them
as an adult. You know, like, oh, I still
have this Jackie Woodson's "The Day You Begin." I love that book. Like I love it for me. So I also do think that picture
books not only can be used in all kinds of classrooms
and all kinds of settings, but I kind of think they should. It's one of the few --
With graphic novels, it's one of the few kinds of
literature that uses, you know, our eyes, all of
our visual senses, all of our auditory
senses especially if someone's reading
it out loud. And all of our reading
skills kind of like all at the same time. And they can be like
such great like touchers of the heart picture books. I mean I just love them. So my audience is like
-- I always think, "Wow. I know how people could
use this in a high school, and I know how they can
use it in middle school, and I know how it can be
with elementary school." But somehow in the
back of my mind, I'm writing for a third grader. So. >> Monica Valentine: Okay. We have a question from Mona. She says, "I have a good concept for a middle school
aged children's series. But I'm not a writer. Is a ghostwriter an option?" >> Barb Rosenstock: I don't
know anything about that, Mona. I've got to tell you. I don't write middle grade,
and I've never heard of -- I don't really know that
much about ghostwriting. I would think that,
you know what? I would think that
you should try. That's what I would
say to anybody. When you say, "I
am not a writer," that's like me saying,
"I am not an artist." And Jarrett Lerner, if
anybody knows him, the author and illustrator Jarrett Lerner
has a thing where he's like, "Everybody stop saying
what you aren't. Stop saying what you
can't do in terms of art or in terms of creativity." I think that you
might be a writer. If you have a good concept, an
idea for a middle-grade series, and you know about it. And you know about
middle-grade children. And you know what a middle-grade
series is, I really want to challenge you
to try to write it. So how's that for an answer? >> Monica Valentine:
That is a -- >> Barb Rosenstock: I
wrote all my books like -- >> Monica Valentine:
-- great answer. [ Inaudible ] >> Barb Rosenstock: If you write
a chapter, I want to see it. >> Monica Valentine:
Great answer. So we have another
question from Laurie. "If you don't do illustrations
yourself, do you still write with some kind of idea of
the illustrations or outline of what they should be,
or does the book get sold to the publisher
with just the text?" >> Barb Rosenstock:
The book gets sold to the publisher
with just the text. That -- Do I have an idea of what the illustrations
should be? No. Because every
artist I have ever worked with on a book together,
we're a team. And my job in a way --
Picture book authoring is to write half of a story. For narrative non-fiction,
I think of it as writing half of the story. And I'm saving the other half. I'm leaving space in the story
for another professional, an artist professional
to do their job and add in the other half of the story. So. And in every single
case, all the illustrators that I've worked with
have just totally expanded and improved and
enriched my text. So they are super
talented at that. The only thing I may have
in mind, and, you know, I don't know if anybody
knows anything about when you write
a story, a manuscript, you can sometimes
put in art notes. But I try really hard
not to have almost any. I might just say like this
person was born in 1914 or something just to give
the artist, you know, like some sense and the editor
some sense of where we were at. But no. I don't really
write with pictures in mind because I know that when
I get an illustrator, the pictures are going to
blow me out of the water. And anything that I could think
of is not going to be as good as what they can all think of. So I know that sounds
really strange. It's hard for people, I think,
who don't, who haven't worked in a team, a creative team
like that, to understand that that's how it works. But it honestly works
better that way. It really does. >> Monica Valentine: Okay. Barb, I want to give
you some time so that you can tell
us what's next for you. What are you working on? What's coming up next? I know you mentioned
the book about Monet. >> Barb Rosenstock: I do
have a book about Monet. I don't think I have anything
I can show you, though. But there is a book about Monet. It's called "Mornings
with Monet." It is coming out in, I
believe, March of 2021. It is about Claude Monet
once he already was famous. And it is a story
about how art is magic. But art is also work. And so it's kind of about -- If anybody's interested in like
writing process or art process or things like that, it really
is a book about Monet's process, specifically how he painted. It is not like a birth to
death, you know, long biography where he starts in childhood
and goes all the way until, you know, the end of his career. It really is a little slice. In fact, the entire
book takes place in, gosh, like in four hours. I think the whole book from
beginning to end is four hours of Claude Monet's life. But in that four hours, you kind
of learn a whole lot about him. After that, I have some
books about monarch, science coming out,
which is great. And then, something
about the Sargasso Sea which is not a biography. So there you go, I'm
trying to challenge myself. If that was Mona who I
challenged to write the book, that she wants to
get a ghostwriter, I challenge my own self. And I'm trying to
continue to do so. I did not -- My Sargasso
Sea book is not a biography. I hope to do more that are not. And I hope, actually
to start a little bit of a verse novel pretty soon. So we'll see how it goes. >> Monica Valentine: That
all sounds pretty exciting. >> Barb Rosenstock:
It is pretty exciting! >> Monica Valentine: [inaudible] >> Barb Rosenstock:
For a Sunday morning. I just made myself tired
on a Sunday morning. >> Monica Valentine: Well, I just have one more
quick question for you. >> Barb Rosenstock: Yeah. >> Monica Valentine: What do
you most want readers to gain from reading your work? >> Barb Rosenstock: A sense of the importance of
their own history. Their own individual history. I want every child to realize that history is not what some
famous people that aren't us, you know, aren't
kids, you know, did. History is what you're doing
now, right, whoever you are. Right? You're a part
of it, you know, it's kind of like a giant river,
and we're all a drop of water. And there is no such thing
as, you know, important people and not important people. Things in history are
moved along by all kinds of people known and unknown. And in most cases -- I mean
my latest book which is "Fight of the Century." It's back here somewhere. "Fight of the Century"
about -- Oh. There it is right there. About Alice Paul. I really understood that while
I was reading about Alice Paul, there were so many
women who contributed, whose names we don't even know, to the fact that
women can vote now. And I just want kids
to understand that their stories
are important. They are. Very. >> Monica Valentine: Thank you. That's a great note to end on. And that's all the questions
we have time for today. Thank you very much, Barb
Rosenstock for sharing your time with us so generously. We've been speaking with Barb
Rosenstock whose latest book is "Leave it to Abigail!: The Revolutionary Life
of Abigail Adams." You can find her presentation
on the children's page of the National Book
Festival at loc.gov/bookfest. Thanks, too, to our
audience out there. We hope all of you
will take the time to explore our many programs. And enjoy the remainder of
the National Book Festival. [ Music ]
