[ 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 Don Tate,
whose featured book at the festival is William
Still and his Freedom Stories: The Father of the
Underground Railroad. If you'd like to see Don's
presentation at the festival, log onto
nationalbookfestival.com. Welcome, Don. It's great to have you here. If you're ready, we can
begin our conversation. >> Don Tate: It's truly an
honor to be here, Monica. Thank you so much
for inviting me. >> Monica Valentine:
You're very welcome. Okay. So I'd like first of
all to ask you about the book that we mentioned, William
Still and his Freedom Stories: The Father of the
Underground Railroad. What inspired you
to write this book? >> Don Tate: Well,
it's interesting. My mom actually inspired
the book. My mom is always
sending me stuff because she knows
that I like to write. She knows that I
like to illustrate, and so she's always
trying to give me ideas. So one day, at a garage sale,
she buys this book for me. It's called the Biographical
Dictionary of African Americans. And she sends it, and I'm
thinking, "What am I going to do with this book," you know? Because my book stack is
starting to, you know, build up. And so I decided during
Black History Month one year to start drawing
some of the images, some of the historical
figures inside. And then I came to that
image of William Still, and I decided rather than to
draw that image and put it out there on the internet,
I'm going to save that story for myself because I was
so inspired by the idea that he was the father of
the Underground Railroad. >> Monica Valentine: Okay. That's interesting. So what would you describe, for people who haven't read the
book, about the major themes in it and how they
relate to our world? >> Don Tate: So the major themes
in the story are, of course, African American history,
which is so important. I remember when I was
in elementary school, there simply wasn't a lot of African American history
taught beyond Dr. King and Rosa Parks, and I think
that it is so important to introduce kids to
a variety of history. The Underground Railroad system. You know, when I was
in elementary school, the only story about the
Underground Railroad system that I remember was, of course,
the story of Harriet Tubman. And one of the things that
really attracted me to the story of William Still was
that I didn't know that William Still actually
worked with Harriet Tubman. In fact, William Still
actually funded some of Harriet Tubman's journeys into the Underground
Railroad system. And so I thought that was an
important story that kids needed to know as they're studying the
Underground Railroad system and, you know, the topic of slavery. That's a tough topic sometimes
in elementary schools. And I think that, because the
topic isn't often discussed in elementary schools
that children, and particularly
children who, like me, grew up misunderstanding it -- when I first got into
publishing, I really wanted to avoid the topic of slavery
because I was embarrassed by it. I hadn't been taught much about
slavery in elementary school, and I remember being
in middle school and the movie Roots came out. It was a mini-series, actually,
and everyone was talking about that mini-series. And the white kids
were making jokes about how their ancestors
owned my ancestors, and the black kids were making
jokes about, your hair is as nappy as Kunta Kinte. So when I got into publishing,
I thought, "I just want to stay far away from
the topic of slavery." But then, as I started to
research some of these stories and slave narratives, I realized
that these are important stories that need to be preserved, because once children better
understand what happened, then they can realize that these
stories are stories to be proud of because they demonstrate
African American resilience and our ability to
do great things, even when we're facing
the worst adversities. >> Monica Valentine: Wow. Do you believe that
William Still and his freedom stories
appeals to a specific audience, and do you think about that
audience when you're writing? Did you consider that audience
while you were writing the book? >> Don Tate: You know, quite
honestly, I really try not to think about the audience or
who might be reading the story. I am simply trying to research,
to find out the truth in a story and to put that truth forward. Now, I did have to consider -- because this story deals with
some complicated subject matter. I mean, it does deal with
the topic of slavery, and there are going to
be some young children who simply don't
understand what is slavery. So it was very important for me
to introduce the topic in a way that was palatable
for a five-year-old. And then it deals with
other things like -- You know, like I say, the
Underground Railroad system and the Fugitive
Slave Act of 1850. You know, what does that
mean to a five-year-old? So, you know, to
a certain degree, I have to consider the
audience that I'm writing for, but for the most part, I try to
focus on just telling the truth and sticking to the
truth in a story. >> Monica Valentine: Okay. Okay. Can you share with us
a little bit about your path to becoming a professional
illustrator and writer of children's books? What inspired you to
start down that road? >> Don Tate: Well, I've
always been an artist. You know, when I was a kid,
I was the kid who was -- You know, I was not the kid who was outside playing
basketball and kickball. I was never a sports kid. I was always drawing. I was always keeping my
hands busy, making things and building things and
braiding or macrame. So I've always been an
artist, so I knew, you know, that I wanted to become
some kind of an artist. I wasn't quite sure
what that would be. And then when I was in
college, I had an aunt who was a young adult novelist, and one of her novels
was made into a movie. It was called Just an
Overnight Guest, and I remember when that movie debuted at
the Des Moines Public Library. And I went there and, you know, the important politicians
were there, and the newspaper
people were there, and all these important
dignitaries came out to celebrate my aunt's
literary achievements. So, you know, because I saw
my aunt as a book creator, then I started to see myself
as a possible book creator. And I thought, "One of these
days, I will tell stories, too." Now, back then, I didn't
see myself as an author. So I figured, I will tell
stories with pictures. And early in my career,
I visited, I believe it was an
International Reading Association conference. I was working for an educational
publisher, and I met teachers and librarians and other
authors and illustrators, and I fell in love with the
field of trade publishing and I decided, this is where
I want to be long-term. Now, it wasn't until much later
in my career as an illustrator that my friends encouraged
me to write. And I thought, I'm
not a word person. I can't even get the
words out of my mouth without my grammar
getting all tangled up. So I wanted to stay far away
from words, but then I started to write every day, and I
started to discover that, you know, the more that I wrote,
the better that my writing, you know, the better
that my writing got. And I realized that writing is
just like painting a picture, but I'm using different tools. When I'm illustrating, I'm
using paintbrushes and chalk and crayon; and when I'm
writing, I'm using verbs and adjectives to
create a picture. So what I've discovered is
that, today, I love writing just as much as I do illustrating. >> Monica Valentine: Wow. It's great that you had
a literary role model in your own family there. Amy asks, "Hi, Mr. Tate. Woosh is so popular
with my students. Are the end pages with
the plane -- I'm sorry. Are the end pages with the
plan illustrations based on Lonnie Johnson's real plans?" >> Don Tate: Yes. Now, that was a while
ago, but I believe that Google actually has a
search engine that allows you to find -- you know, you can
search out, you know, copyrights and you can search out who has
-- All of those images that are on the end papers are in that
Google search, and any inventor who has a patent out there, you
can go out there and search that and find the actual
patent with the drawings, and so I based my illustrations
off the drawings that I found in that Google search. >> Monica Valentine: Oh, wow. That's interesting. Okay. We have another question
regarding research from Elise. "What kind of research
did you do for this book, and what was the most
fascinating thing you learned about William Still that
you didn't know before?" >> Don Tate: Well, his entire
life was totally new to me. The primary source that I
used was his The Underground Railroad, which is the
stories that he documented. And then, within the Underground
Railroad, in a later edition, he hired a biographer,
James P. Boyd. So there is a short, you
know, biographical note. And so I relied highly on
that biographical note. I also used things like -- You know, I have an
illustrated -- Let me see. This is an Old Philadelphia
photographs from 1839 to 1949, which helped inform some
of my illustrations. There are actual etchings of
William Still and his family out there on the internet,
so I used many of those. I think the most interesting
thing that I learned was that William Still funded many of Harriet Tubman's,
you know, excursions. I didn't know that, and I
remember, it was about -- I don't know -- this time
a couple of years ago when that movie Harriet
came out. And I rushed out to watch
that movie because I wanted to get an idea of how, you
know, the director visualized that time period, and I
used some of the, you know, visual imagery from that movie
to inspire some of the images that I've created
in my own stories. So I often tell kids
that there's so many ways that you can do your research. You can use books. You can use the internet. You can use the library. You can go to the movie. There's documentaries. I remember one time I
was illustrating a book about Duke Ellington, and my grandfather was a
huge Duke Ellington fan. So I called my grandfather,
and I interviewed him, and he sent me every single
Duke Ellington LP that he owned, and I was able to use that
in much of my research. So, so many different ways to
research a children's book. >> Monica Valentine: Yeah. So many different mediums
and formats you can look in. Okay. Here's a question
from Cleo. "Since you said you read
nonfiction as a kid, can you give some ideas
of how to get kids to choose a variety
of nonfiction? Did you just go from
shelf to shelf, or did an adult give
you guidance?" >> Don Tate: I would say the
most important advice I can give you is to let the kids pick, you
know, what they want to read, and that is one of
the things that -- You know, my mom pretty much, my mom pretty much let me choose
the books that I wanted to read. There weren't a whole
lot of books in the house that I remember, but when
I went to the library, my mom would have never told me,
you know, this is not the type of book that you can read. One of the things, if you have
kids who are visual, like me, I encourage them to
read graphic novels. And I've heard where some
parents and, you know, teachers discourage
graphic novels, but graphic novels
are a wonderful way to introduce children
to literature. So Jerry Craft's New Kid, you
know, I keep hearing that's like one of the country's
favorites right now. So yeah, it's just important
that kids be allowed to pick out their own books and pick
out what they want to read. >> Monica Vallentine: Okay. Since we're on the topic
of kids, do have any advice for any kids out there that
might be considering careers as writers or as illustrators? >> Don Tate: Well, the
most important advice that I can give you is
probably really boring, but it is the best
advice that I can give you because it is the advice that
was given me when I first got into the business, which is,
if you want to be a writer, you have to read, and
you have to read in a way where you're studying
the various ways that writers are writing. Maybe you want to study
poetry and study the way that a poet uses
rhythm and rhyme to make the words engaging, or
if you want to write novels, you want to read
a lot of novels. If you want to be, you
know, a graphic novelist, you have to read at
least 300 graphic novels. And if you want to
become an illustrator, get yourself a drawing
tablet and draw in that tablet every day. If you love drawing cats,
draw cats every day, or if you have a hard
time drawing hands because hands are hard
to draw, guess what? If you draw hands every single
day in every single position, you're going to get really good
eventually at drawing hands. So the best advice that I can
give you is to use that talent and to polish that
talent, whatever it is. And even if it's -- You
know, maybe you want to become a singer or a
dancer or, you know, a rapper, whatever that is, you just
have to polish that talent. >> Monica Valentine: That's
great advice for young people. Okay. This next question
comes from Tenille. "Thank you for choosing
to write these stories. What advice would you
give to teachers on how to incorporate these powerful
stories throughout the year versus just Black
History Month?" >> Don Tate: So incorporate the
stories throughout the year. You know, it's important to, you
know, take a look at websites. I am the cocreator or cohost
on the Brown Bookshelf, which was established
to help highlight some of these stories written and illustrated by
African Americans. Check out sites like
We Need Diverse Books. There are so many of
these stories because, oftentimes what I'm hearing
is, there's not stories that feature children of
color, and I would say, yeah, there are; they're just
not as easy to find. So check out some
of these resources. Another one of my friends, her
name is Cynthia Leitich Smith, she has a website
with actually sorts of children's literature
resources and a blog which features many new voices
as well as voices of color. So check out all of these
resources and -- Yeah. So the most important
thing is -- I mean, you said it
there in the question -- that you have these materials,
these books in your library, in your classroom, and in your
curriculum through the year in addition to Black
History Month. >> Monica Valentine: Okay. One of our guests asks, "Do
you believe in the saying, 'You can't be what
you can't see'? If so, how do you strive
to impact representation and inspire others towards
their fullest potential?" >> Don Tate: Well, I most
definitely believe that, yes, and what I had been doing before
the COVID hit was visiting elementary schools all
through the country. I remember one time I
visited an elementary school, and the kids were
really excited. The kids are always
really excited. That morning, the school
library just buzzes. And I entered, and a young
white child walks up to me, and she says, "Are
you the author?" And I'm like, "Yeah." She goes, "I didn't know
authors could be black." And you know, she was
not trying to insult me. She was not trying to be
offensive, but in her world, if she doesn't see
African American authors or have African American
authors in her library, then maybe she didn't know that an African American
could be an author. So my mere presence at
an elementary school or the presence of my books which feature African
American faces in your library, that is how children
can see themselves. And I think that it's
so important that, when a child reads a book about an African
American historical figure or about any type of a
story, when they can turn to that jacket flap and
see on the back page that the story was
written and/or illustrated by an African American
person, that allows them to see themselves as being a
future author or illustrator, much in the same way as I
grew up with a famous aunt who was writing children's
books. I was able to see myself as a
book creator through my aunt. >> Monica Valentine:
Interesting. Okay. We have a question
from a third and fourth-grade teacher, Karen. She says, "You've touched on
this a little bit, but she says that she has a student
who's watching right now named Emerson. She loves to read,
write, and draw. Do you have any other advice
for her and young authors who would also love
to illustrate?" >> Don Tate: Who would
also -- so is it Emerson? >> Monica Valentine: Emerson. >> Don Tate: Emerson,
I would say, here's one of the
really fun things is that most illustrators today
are not using paper and pencil. They're using what's called --
They're drawing on their iPads or they're drawing on what I
use here is called a Cintiq. And I'm sure you probably
don't have a $3,000 Cintiq at your house, Emerson, but
what you probably do have is an iPhone like this. And there are lots of drawing
apps that you can download to your phone and learn to draw
with your finger on your phone, and that's one of
the cool things. I remember when I
was learning how to use Photoshop many years
ago, got on the internet in one of those chat conversations, and a 15-year-old kid taught
me many Photoshop tricks, and you can do the same thing. Get in there, learn how
to draw on your device because if you're aspiring to be
some type of a commercial artist in the future, you're going
to need to learn how -- you're going to need to know
how to use those devices. So learn how to use them today. >> Monica Valentine: Okay. That's great advice, Emerson. Steve asks, "What was
your favorite story about William Still that you
couldn't mention in the book?" >> Don Tate: My favorite
story that I couldn't mention. So that's a good one. You know, I don't know that I would have shied
away from any of them. I think that when it
comes to telling a story and even telling a story
for kids, you know, that we be honest
with our readers because these things
actually did happen. Of course, there are going to be
some things that we're not going to want to talk about
in children's books. But I'll tell you the story
that I put in the book, and the reason why I
put it in the book -- I spoke about Henry Box Brown,
and I remember that story. I grew up hearing that
story of Henry Box Brown, and there are several
children's books out there now about Henry Box Brown. And I was shocked to discover
that the reason that we know about Henry Box Brown is because
Henry shipped himself right to William Still's office. As a matter of fact, William
was right there helping to pull the top of that box off when Henry, you know,
popped out. But how come I didn't know that? And so I thought, wow, this is
one other reason why William Still's story needs to be told
because he made it possible for so many stories
that we're unfamiliar with to be told now,
be familiar with. >> Monica Valentine: Okay. Let's see. Here's a question from
Pan Filo [phonetic]: "You're both an author
and an illustrator. What are the challenges
for each process and what guidance are you
able to give the illustrator when you're in the
role of the author?" >> Don Tate: Okay. Repeat the question again because I was thinking
as you were talking. >> Monica Valentine: Sure. Sure. Give me a second. Let me get back to it. Well, the question was that "You are both an author
and an illustrator. What advice can you give
to an illustrator who is in the role of an author?" >> Don Tate: So the main thing
to know about an illustrator is that you are telling
your story, okay? So you'll want to read
the author's words, but then you're not
simply using your drawings to decorate that author's words. You are extending the story. You are putting information
into the story that the author could
not put into the story. The author only has
maybe 1,000 words to use. So a picture book
uses very few words, and so you can imagine the
struggle that the author has with trying to put all of
the details into the story. Well, guess what? The author doesn't have to
put all of those details in because the illustrator
can decide the colors. The illustrator can
decide what's happening in the background. The illustrator can illustrate
the setting and the time period and the hairstyles
and the clothing. And so you'll want to be
sure to do your research so that you can include all
these details in the story. And as well, the illustrator
really is kind of author because you are using your
drawings to tell a story just as well as the author. And what I've discovered --
and I think I've said this, I've already said this
before, but drawing is almost like writing, but you're
using different tools. You're using visual
tools to tell the story. >> Monica Valentine:
That's great insight. Okay. Desiree asks, "As
an artist, do you struggle with self-doubt and/or
motivation? If so, what lessons,
wisdom have you learned over the years to combat that?" >> Don Tate: So I will
begin with the lesson, and the lesson is, you
really have to blot out all of the stuff, okay? When I first got into the
business, I used to always, you know, struggle
with self-doubt. And I probably should say I
still struggle with self-doubt. When my book publishes,
when William Still and His Freedom Stories
publishes, I worry about things like, what
are the reviewers going to say? Are they going to say
nice things about my words and my picture, or are they
going to say bad things? They're probably going
to say negative things. And then I start to
worry about that. Then I start to worry
about, well, will my book win any awards? And when my books
don't win those awards, sometimes I feel bad and I
think, well, maybe I'm not as good as some of the other
authors and illustrators out there because I
didn't win these awards. But what I've had to learn is
that the most important thing that I do in my work is I do
the best that I possibly can. I create the best possible book
along with my editor and along with my art director
that I possibly can. And once I put it out into the
world, I have to be satisfied with knowing that
I've done my best, and if those reviews
don't come along and if those awards
don't come along, that's okay because
I've done what I can do, and I know that I'm
good and I have learned to appreciate my contribution
to children's publishing. >> Monica Valentine: All right. Well, here's some
praise for your work. Jane Martilino says, "I
would love to hear more about the making of
No Small Potatoes. I read it to all K
through five students. Such an inspiring story." >> Don Tate: So yes, that was
a very fun story to illustrate, and that was one of the
few stories where - See, most of the time, when
I work with a publisher, I do my sketches and I submit
my sketches to my art director and editor, and they
say, "This works. That doesn't work. Need you to go back and revise." And then you send
it back to them and they have their comments,
and you go back and revise. Sometimes I'll revise my
books 10, 20, 30 times. This publisher had so
much confidence in me that I submitted my sketches,
and she says, "Wonderful." And so then I went
to my final artwork, and I did my final artwork. And I submitted the final
artwork, and I figured, oh, there's going to be a bunch
of revisions and they said, "We love the artwork." There was not one revision. So this was, like, one
of the coolest projects that I could ever work on. One of the things that I
pointed out in that story -- And I have to be careful
because I'm trying to remember the details. I have lots of books
that I'm juggling. Junius Groves, at one point
in that story, took out a loan or borrowed some money to
buy some land, I think. And at a certain point, he
pays the landowner back. And when I created my
sketches, I thought, so this story would
have happened shortly after the end of slavery. Therefore, the landowner
was most likely a white man. And without doing any
research, I created a white man. Before the book went to
publish, I thought, "Well, I don't want to get that wrong. Maybe I should do a
bit more research." And I reached out to
the author and I said, "Who was this landowner? What did they look like?" And what I learned is that
this landowner was a Native American woman. >> Monica Valentine: Wow. >> Don Tate: And so I thought,
wow, that is an important detail that does not need to be
overlooked in this story because oftentimes, Native Americans have been
erased out of our history. And so I made sure on that
spread to illustrate, you know, Junius shaking hands
and doing a deal with that Native American woman. >> Monica Valentine: Wow. Thank you for sharing
that story. Ryan would like to know, how
many books have you written? >> Don Tate: Oh, I've
written way more books than have gotten published. I would say -- You got to
remember, most of the books that I write, they may or may
not go on to get published. So I would say that
I've probably written -- books that are still
sitting on my desktop that have been unpublished --
maybe 30 books, 25, 30 books, and many, many, many more ideas
that haven't been fleshed out and finished because sometimes,
I'll start to research an idea. I'll find a story that, oh, this
is a wonderful idea for a story, but then when I do my
research, I realize, there's not a real story there. There's not many details there. I can't really tell this story,
so it doesn't go anywhere. So I would say that I
probably have about -- oh, I'm going to guess here --
five or six books, as an author, that have either published
or are going to publish in the next couple of years. Like I say, I have a whole
desktop full of ideas that haven't got published, so. >> Monica Valentine: Well,
that's a great lead-in to our final question, which
is, what's next for you in terms of next projects from
one of our guests. >> Don Tate: Well, I will
quickly mention two projects. I am illustrating a series
of books called Roto and Roy, which is the story of a
helicopter superhero -- I should say two heroes: a
firefighter and a helicopter who are a superhero duo. And I won't share too
many of the details there. I just look forward to
sharing that story with you. The very next book
that will publish, that comes out next year is
the story of Ernie Barnes. He was a football guy
who became an artist. When he was a kid, he
wanted to be an artist, but all of his friends said boys
aren't supposed to be artists, so he became a football player, and he became a really
good football player. But guess what? Football didn't make his heart
happy, and so he eventually, after five seasons of football,
he left and he started to paint, and he painted that famous
painting behind the television show Good Times. And I remember when I was a kid, I would watch the
TV show Good Times and I would see those credits,
and I would see that painting, and what I didn't know
is that Ernie Barnes, an African American
football player, actually created that painting. And that book will
come out next year. It's called From
Pigskins to Paintbrushes: The Story of Football-Playing
Artist Ernie Barnes. [ Music ]
