>> Hello, I'm Alayne Hopkins,
Director of the Minnesota Center for the Book, an affiliate
of the Library of Congress. The Centers for the Book
help carry out the mission of the National Center, which
is to promote books, reading, libraries, and literacy
nationwide. We also promote our
state's literary heritage by putting a focus
on books and authors with a connection to our states. Every year, as a part of our
participation in the Library of Congress National Book
Festival, we each choose a book with a local connection,
the Great Reads from Great Places Initiative. You can learn more at read.gov. Today we're speaking
with Great Reads authors from several states. They were invited by the
affiliate Centers for the Book from Delaware, Maine,
Minnesota, and Oklahoma. I'd like to thank my colleagues
from those states in helping to put this program together. Here are our panelists,
alphabetical by state, and their books. From Delaware, we
have John Micklos. He's the author of more
than 50 books for children and young adult readers. His books include
picture books, poetry, and nonfiction titles
spanning a wide range of topics and for multiple ages. The Great Reads selection
from Delaware is John's book, "Raindrops to Rainbow,"
illustrated by Charlene Chua. In simple rhyming text, "Raindrops to Rainbows"
provides a color-focused story about a young girl who
experiences a thunderstorm and learns that only after some
rain can we enjoy the rainbow. From Maine, we have Suzanne
Greenlaw, who's a citizen of the Houlton Band
of Maliseet Indians. A PhD candidate in the
School of Forest Resources at the University of Maine, she works to restore
Wabanaki stewardship practices throughout Maine. Gabriel Frey is a citizen
of the Passamaquoddy Nation. He is an award-winning
basket maker, artist, and cultural knowledge keeper. His mother, and Suzanne and
Gabriel's two daughters, Musqon and Alamossit,
helped inspire this story. The Great Reads selection
from Maine is "The First Blade of Sweetgrass" by
these two authors, and illustrated by Nancy Baker. Musqon is excited to
accompany her grandmother for the first time to pick
grass for basket making, but she must learn to distinguish the
sweetgrass they seek from other salt marsh grasses. Frustrated at first,
she closes her eyes, and lets the sun's warmth
and the spirit and peace of the marsh fill her. She sees her ancestors
gathering grass as they've done for centuries. At last, the bright emerald
blades of sweetgrass stand out before her, inviting
her to harvest them. But she remembers not to pick
the first blade she sees, leaving it to grow for
future generations. From Minnesota we
have Daniel Bernstrom. He's the author of "One
Day in the Eucalyptus, Eucalyptus Tree," and "Gator,
Gator, Gator," in addition to "Big Papa and
the Time Machine." He has a Master of Fine
Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults from
Hamlin University, and lives in Worthington,
Minnesota, where he is an English
instructor. The Great Reads selection from
Minnesota is Daniel's book, "Big Papa and the Time Machine,"
illustrated by Shane Evans. Big Papa's grandson is not
feeling like going to school. He's feeling scared, so they
hop in Big Papa's time machine to learn about all the
ways a person can be brave. The dreamlike images from Big
Papa's life explore crucial moments of African American
history, happy and sad, inviting the young and
old to share their stories of courage across time. And from Oklahoma, we
have Barbara Lowell. She writes nonfiction and historical fiction picture
books, nonfiction early readers, and nonfiction educational
market books for reluctant readers. Her books include "Sparky
& Spike," "Charles Shulz and the Wildest, Smartest Dog
Ever," "Alexander Hamilton: American Hero," and
"Daring Amelia." The Great Reads selection from Oklahoma is her
book "My Mastodon." Sybilla Peale lives with
her large, artistic family at America's first
natural history museum. One day, she helps her papa and
big brother assemble the bones of a magnificent mastodon. She soon starts visiting
her fossilized friend for regular tea parties
and chats. But then her mastodon is
invited to tour Europe, and she's heartbroken. Will Sybilla be content to share
her best friend with the world? Well, we are very, very
excited to share some more about these books with all of
you, and would like to thank all of our panelists for being
a part of the program today. So to get started, we thought
we would begin with the Library of Congress National
Book Festival theme, which is Open a Book,
Open the World. And we'd love to hear
what that means to you. Could go in any different
direction. What book opened
the world for you? How do you hope your book will
open a world for young readers? And to be fair here, we'll
go alphabetical by state, and I'm going to ask
John to start us off. >> Thank you for that question. Books really do expose
young readers to new worlds, new ideas, new possibilities. And some of the books that
inspired me growing up were the "Wizard of Oz" series
by L. Frank Baum. I really loved the imagination and the new worlds
presented there. Also very influential books
to me books by Dr. Seuss, such as "The Cat in
the Hat," "Green Eggs and Ham," and "The Sneetches." I loved the rhythm, the
rhyme, and the wordplay. And I try to incorporate
some of those elements in my own books as well. And speaking of my own books,
in terms of the book "Raindrops to Rainbow," I hope that the way that it opens young
children's eyes to the world and opens new world to them
is by showing them the power of patience, that we
do indeed have to go through the rain before we
can experience the beauty of a rainbow. >> Thank you so much, John. I love that last image too. Suzanne and Gabriel, do you
want to talk to us a little bit about this theme of opening
a book and opening the world? >> Yeah, just to echo a little
bit of what John said, I think, that it is -- it's
pretty powerful, the effect that books have on experiencing all kinds
of different worlds. And for us, there is a little
bit of a theme in that same sort of experiencing patience. Musqon has to, sort of,
like, learn patience in being with her environment. And I think that's a interesting
lesson in experiencing sort of, like, your natural world and
how you interact with it. For me personally, "The
Hobbit" was a big one for me to experience the idea
of a different world, and different perspectives. As well as in my teen years,
Kahlil Gibran's "The Prophet." Do you have anything? >> No. I think -- no. >> Thank you, both. As the mother of a
5- and 7-year-old, I really like the theme around
patience, and I think I'm going to have to be getting these
books from the library to add to our reading list. Daniel, what would you like
to share about this theme? >> Well, I was just
thinking about opening a book and opening a world, and I
picked up Lisa Cron's book, "Story Genius," and it's true. She goes into the brain
science of when you are immersed into a story, you actually
start to physically feel. So it's more than just --
it's more than just empathy. A good book literally brings you
into that character, their mind, their feelings, their
situations, which is why diverse
books are so important, and why publishing these diverse
books are really important, because it's helping
children to walk in the shoes of someone else that
they're unfamiliar with. You know, what a
beautiful story about Musqon and finding sweetgrass,
and walking through that. That it's not just
opening a world. It's weird, it's like dreaming,
where the child actually starts to experience, or depending
on how the writer wrote it, they could actually be Musqon,
or they could be the little boy in "Big Papa and
the Time Machine." And anyway, as you all were
talking, it made me think of, yes, it's when you
do open a book, you enter through some
magical way into a story and how important that is. A book so many, we mentioned
"The Hobbit," but I'm going to keep with J.R.R. Tolkien. It was "The Lord of the Rings:
The Fellowship of the Ring," and I remember I
was in 4th grade, and there was a reading contest. And I was like, "Oh, I'm
going to beat everyone else by picking up this big book." So I sent and found the biggest
book in the children's library. And when I hit, I think it
was Lothlorien or Rivendell -- so, Tolkien describes
these beautiful cities, these beautiful elvish
cities -- and I was gone. I was completely somewhere else. And when I got done to the end, I was so thankful
there was another book. Not only because I could
dominate my classmates -- and I won. I won that reading contest. But I didn't want it to end. I just, I wanted to stay there
in that world for so long. For my book, as I said
before, I really want people to be immersed into this idea of
African American storytelling, the stories that my papa told
me, and to learn about bravery through a different culture. And it might touch -- it
might touch our cultures, but to walk through, to walk
in his shoes, and almost -- like me, he would
tell me this story, and I would sit beside
him, and how it changed me. I hope that opening the
book will open kids' worlds and change their lives as well. >> Thank you so much, Daniel. I'm a huge fan of rereading
books, and part of it is that being able to go back
into a world or an experience that you really did live
through as you were reading, so thank you. Barbara, what does this
question mean to you? >> I think that when we read
books about other cultures and different countries
that we experience what it's like to have -- or to
currently or to have lived in those countries
and those cultures. And I think it helps
us to understand that people are more alike
us than they are different. And the book that really opened
the world to me was one I read as a child, which was "All-of-a-Kind Family"
by Sydney Taylor. And it's about five little
girls and their family growing up in the Lower East Side of New
York City in the early 1900s. And as -- I became, reading
the book, I became part of the family, and I
experienced their joys and their disappointments,
and their excitement about the world around them. And it also opened up a world
of historical fiction to me, and I started reading
more historical fiction and more history as a child,
and lots of biographies. And it helped me
learn about how, really, how to live my life. And I think my book is about a
4-year-old child, and she lives in a natural history museum. And so you can experience
what it's like to live in one, and what it's like to put the
bones of a mastodon together, and how, I think, also
what's really important is that the book is about family. And that how, even if
you're four years old, you can put your brother, even
though he's bossy, ahead of you, his feelings ahead of you,
and give up your mastodon, even if it's for, as she
says, "A little while," because she knows
he'll come back. But that she could put her
brother ahead of herself. And also, I think when you're
a little child that it's okay to feel like your stuffed toy
is a real, is real to you, or that an inanimate object,
like the mastodon, is real, and it has feelings, and you
have close feelings to it. >> Thank you so much, Barbara. You've all touched on this maybe
a little bit, and we heard some in the descriptions of
the books and the bios about the inspiration for
all of these Great Reads. And so I would love to have all of you respond to:
What was that spark? What was the initial inspiration or the reason you really
wanted to write this book? And maybe also why
a picture book? And so I'm going to ask
Suzanne and Gabriel. Would you start us
off with that one? >> Sure, thank you. Thank you for that question. For us, I think actually
the spark came from being asked
to write the book. Our editor saw a article about my academic research
surrounding sweetgrass and restoring sweetgrass
harvesting in Acadia National Park. And in his email, he was like, "Do you have a children's
story in that research?" It was a really interesting ask. I've never been asked
that before, and so Gabe and I work together a lot, and
I was like, "What do you think? Is there a kid's story there?" And for us, this is a
very personal story. Even when you were
reading the description, we were having a
hard time not to cry. [laughs] And it was like,
it's so personal for us. This is a story of
our community, of our culture, of our family. You know, we -- Gabe grew up with his mother picking
sweetgrass at a young age. His mother learned from
her great-grandmother. So it's a generational
knowledge and practice. And we wanted to write a story that our community
felt proud about, but also was elevated
enough for people to read and that story could be
shared with everybody else. This practice is one of
beauty and care, and we wanted to share those sort of
ethics with the world. And I think that our
community, and Gabe's mother, feels really proud
of this book as well. So that community
approval is really -- been really, really wonderful. >> Marvelous. I love the genesis of that. And certainly, the threads
of family and community. And just as Daniel is from
Minnesota and shares the state, I know maybe a little bit more
about the background there, and I know that family was
perhaps an important element for you in the inspiration
for "Big Papa." Can you talk a little bit
more about that and -- ? >> Yes. So I was adopted
at a very young age, and I met my biological
family years later. And the first people that
I met were Papa and Nana. And growing up with kind of,
like, biculture, cultural, so growing up in a white culture
with very few -- well, no. I had one black friend
in elementary school, and then none throughout my
entire time throughout the rest of high school. And which inspired me to write because there weren't very
many books for kids like me. And I was always picked out,
and I was always the one. Anyway, when I finally
met my birth family, it was Papa who shared
with me my family story. So the stories in "Big Papa
and the Time Machine" are true. I like the "based on a true
story," how important and true and necessary that is. So Papa would drive
me around Chicago, and he would tell
me these stories. And he didn't have -- he didn't
graduate from high school. I don't think -- he didn't even
graduate from middle school. He dropped out to work. And that -- so his
education was very limited, and he was a brick mason in
Chicago, building Chicago. And he would tell me the
different buildings he worked on, and he would tell
me these stories. And very much like African
American culture, passing them down through oral storytelling. And I talked to my dad about
it later when he read the book, and he said, "I don't remember
dad telling me those stories." And then he was glad that
they were written down for him because they would
have been lost. And so I was -- I remember the
stories that Papa and I would -- that Papa would tell me, but
then he wasn't doing well. And then I realized what I
-- what I would lose so I -- we would call every week, and
he would just tell me stories, and I would just
write them down. And I even had them
recorded, and I'm trying to find the recordings. But I would record his voice, and I would just write
as he was talking. And that's how the
story of "Big Papa and the Time Machine"
came about. >> Thank you so much, Daniel, for sharing that family
history and story with us. Barbara, how did "My
Mastodon" come to be? >> Well, I learned about
Charles Wilson Peale when I was writing a
different manuscript. And then when I started
researching him and his family, I discovered that they lived
in a natural history museum. And I love natural
history museums, and I visited my first one
when I was a little kid, and it was the Museum of Natural
History in New York City, and I just fell in love with it. And I just imagined
what that would be like. I mean, I would have
loved to -- or still -- live in a natural history museum where I could visit all the
exhibits whenever I want. And so I knew -- I
mean, I really wanted to write about the family. And it's a picture book because
I write picture books primarily. And so it isn't that
I look at the research and then decide should it
be middle grade, or YA, or nonfiction, or whatever? But I look at the research, and then decide the
focus for a picture book. And the focus was on Sybilla,
who was a real person, and she was 4 years old at the
time, which is the perfect age for a young child's
picture book. And so that's why I
decided to write it. And it was a lot of fun. And I love doing research, and
I love history, and I would love to go in a time machine really. I think that would be great. So I really -- I'll have to
look for your book, Daniel. It sounds wonderful. Also, just to say that I think
it's so important that there's such a focus now on writing,
publishing more books from -- I don't like all the
lingo, but, you know, from African Americans,
Latinos, and Native Americans. I think it's so wonderful. And I know a woman
who is a Cherokee who writes now books
about Cherokees. And she said when she was
growing up, like you, Daniel, there weren't books
that were about her. And so that's so important that
now children can have those. >> Thanks so much, Barbara. I hadn't realized until
you all started talking and describing the inspiration
in your work really how strong that theme of "based on a true
story" really is throughout all of these books. But we'll let you bring it
home, John, if you want to talk to us a little bit about your
book and how it came to be. >> Well, I find that
the books that work best for me are the ones
that are really -- or that I'm really happiest
with are the ones that kind of almost come out of nowhere, through like a stroke
of inspiration. And I've had a couple of these
come at writer's retreats in the mountains
of Pennsylvania. And one was, my first one
was "One Leaf, Two Leaf, Count With Me," about leaves
on a tree and the seasons. And "Raindrops to Rainbow"
came to me in the same way. It was a rainy day in the cabin. And as I listened to the rain
rap, rap, rap down on the roof of the cabin, a line
popped into my head. "Plip plop, plip
plop, plip plip plop, will these raindrops ever stop?" And then from there, I
said, "Ooh, I like that. I can do something with that." But I didn't know what. And kind of over the course
of the next 24 hours or so, my manuscript kind of roughed
itself out of a little girl who was disappointed
because she wanted to -- and it somehow became
a color-oriented book. Because she was looking for
blue skies and yellow sun, but instead she got gray clouds and frightening white
lightening, and other colors that worked their
way into the book. And then, of course, the
rainbow at the end with all of the rainbow colors. And I knew it had
to be a picture book because the message was
aimed at preschoolers and primary students, so a picture book
was most appropriate. Plus, I knew that
the rainbow theme, that the artwork would
definitely have to be something that would help carry the book. And that proved to be very true. The bright, bold, beautiful
illustrations by Charlene Chua in Toronto, Canada really
do carry the story along. And just, I've always felt that the most effective
picture books are one that are really kind of a true
marriage of words and pictures. And I've felt that I've
been fortunate enough that that was really the
case with the picture books that I've done, and kind of
especially with this one. >> Thank you so much, John. I love that idea of the line
that's just in your head, and it's going to stay there until you can create
something with it. Thank you. So we touched on a little bit. All of you have shared a
bit about this in a way. But this next question, I
just, I'd love to open it up to the whole group. We've talked about, you know,
the importance of representation and diversity in
children's literature. And there's that, absolutely. And how else do you
think that books for young people can help them
cope with the important issues that we're facing right now? And I'll let you just
sort of think about that. And please jump in if
you've got any ideas that speak to that question. >> I think there are two main
things that come to my mind, and one is not feeling
alone, and that you can live through the characters
in the book and realize that you experience
those emotions too, and you are not different,
really different. And also, there are books
that are about mental illness, like "Challenger Deep." And books about children
who are autistic. And I think they're so important
because they can realize that there are other
children that are like that, and learn how to negotiate
their life better through books. And then another thing that's
so important is empathy, that you learn through
living the character's story that you feel their feelings. You understand their emotions. And that helps you feel
empathy in your life. And that if you didn't
read books, you might -- and you didn't feel empathy -- I mean, you didn't
experience other people, people outside your limited
world, you might not feel that for other people. And it's so important
in our world. So I think, and I think
during the pandemic that books really helped
people because they were -- when they were missing
their regular connections in their lives, they could
read about characters that were experiencing things
that they might look beyond. So I think, I mean, books, to
me, are everything, you know? I just grew up books, and
I read books all the time and love them. >> [Inaudible] pick up
that theme of books kind of getting us through
the pandemic. And I think part of that is
just the idea of being able to see the world through
the eyes of others and the experiences of others. And in my case, with the
book "Raindrops to Rainbow," it's kind of about
patience, and it's about hope. And I didn't -- I wasn't
thinking of this, obviously, when I wrote it because
it was pre-pandemic. But it seems like that's really
a message that I think resonates with children and adults today. We've been under this cloud
of the pandemic for a year and a half now, and I think
we are all kind of hoping and praying for that
rainbow when we come out into brighter days
and a more normal world. >> Yeah. I think it's
that sort of, like, connection of being able to
see through the eyes of others. But then I think there's
also an importance of, similar to Daniel's
book, is, like, being able to see
yourself represented in an authentic way also
has a strong resonance. Before we wrote our book,
there was this sort of, like -- we had read several, and
searched several books that represented Native American
kids in the first-person voice, that sort of, like,
resonated in an authentic way. And I found it very
difficult to find. So I think there is something
that's incredibly important about being able to see others
and empathize with others. But then also, see a reflection
of yourself in an authentic way. >> Also, in our book as well,
is Musqon is facing challenges and frustration, and so she has
to learn to work through those. And so in our culture, it would
-- the grandmother tells Musqon to relax, or kind of --
she doesn't say, "Relax," but to think through it. "Grandmother's here with you. The ancestors are
here with you." And so that would be something
that people would say. Like, the story we created was
one where we imagined Gabe's mom and our daughter together. And everything that
was said was things that had already
been said before. So this idea though, it's
this idea of finding peace within yourself, but having
our cultural sort of context to support that self-reflection
to find her peace. I think that's a good
story for kids working through the pandemic, knowing that there are many
ways to self-soothe. [laughs] I'm not sure
that's the right term. But to work through
things and to know that people are here
to support you. I think it's a good message. And I'm going to
launch off of that. And sorry, if I'm going to
-- as the academic, like, I have all these books,
and they're just here. So I'm going to read from Lisa
Cron that says exactly that. She says: "Story was the
world's first virtual reality. It allowed us to step out of the
present and envision the future so we could plan for that thing
that has always scared us more than anything: the
unknown, the unexpected." That's why opening a book,
just everything there. Even though the child might not
have experienced the pandemic, or even though the child might
not have experienced a tiger running at them, or like,
well, I mean, I write a book about a boy being
eaten by a snake. And it's like, well, is that -- well, should you have
really written that story? Because that, you know,
a child got eaten. And I said, "No, it's not
about a child being eaten. It's about when a child
falls into darkness, and they don't know what to do. What are they going
to do to get out?" So that's -- I think of
Cori Doerrfeld and her book, "The Rabbit Listened"
about emotions and understanding my emotions. And if I'm upset, sometimes
I, it's okay to be by myself. It's okay to go through
the stages of grief. Not just cultural diversity,
not just age diversity, mental health, all that, but just preparing
children for just life. >> That is a pretty massive
undertaking, and I have to say that I am very, very glad that
we have books like all of yours and many others to help us
process with our children and with our communities. So as a non-writer, but a
voracious reader and parent, I'm grateful for all of
the work that you all do. Along those lines too, and
I might put you on the spot, Daniel, as our resident teacher
here, how do you share messages with children who might be
interested in being writers or illustrators themselves? Do you -- what -- I
don't know if I want to say, "Words of advice." Or how do you talk to
young people about sort of their potential in
telling their own stories? >> Yeah. When I was, I think,
when I was in 2nd grade, I pushed over the Christmas tree
because I was mad at my mom. And I tell kids that. And they're like, "You did what? You pushed over the
Christmas tree?" And I said, "Oh, I've
never written about it." "Wow! I want to hear
more about that!" I tell them, "Tell the
stories that you know. Tell the stories
from your own life." It's exactly what's
been talked about here. It's, I'm so glad,
and forgive me, because I can't pronounce
your names, or -- and maybe it'd be great for
you guys to jump in next. But finding Native American
stories, looking for things that were close to you, things
that you cared about deeply, and first-time authors,
am I correct? Hey, jump in. Jump in. Help me answer this. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, for sure. I do a little talk at our local
school, and I brought the book and let the kids sort of,
like, look through it. And one of the kids just started
asking me all of these questions about the book and about why I
wrote it, and all of this stuff. And I was like, "Well, it's about my family,
and duh, duh, duh." And then he started talking about his grandmother
was a painter and how his mother was a painter
and how he likes to draw. And it's like, "Yes, this is
exactly the same sort of thing." It's cultural knowledge
that's being passed down, and this is the -- and so it
wound up sort of evolving into, like, him being able to
take that concept of, like, this is something that
I know that I can talk about that is important to
me, and it's interesting. And if it's interesting
to me, then, you know? So, yeah, I think it is. It's that fascinating, like, being able to connect
with your story. >> Each individual
life is so different, and we have different lenses. We could look at the same
event, but we're going to look at it differently just because
of our cultural knowledge and background. So when I tell kids, I say,
"You see life differently. You have your own --
you've lived your own life, and you have stories to tell, and we need to hear
those stories." And you know, I took 1st grade. I had to repeat 1st grade
because I couldn't read. So, please, just, if you
want to tell a story, just try telling it, and
we're waiting for it. >> Kind of in a similar vein,
when I go into schools and work with kids, especially when I do
writing workshops with students, now I tell them to
tell their own stories. I tell them to write about
what they're passionate about and what really matters to them. And that if they feel
that strongly about it, that it will come across
to the reader as well. And also talk to them about
kind of following their dreams, whatever the dreams may be, and
wherever they may lead them. And I tell them about how
I wrote my first story when I was in 2nd grade. It was called, "Tubby,
the Pig on the Moon," about a talking pig and
his barnyard friends who built a rocket ship
and flew to the moon. And I kind of tell them,
you know that was, you know, a story that I wrote as
a 2nd grader, and that -- but even then, I knew that
I wanted to be a writer. And I kind of built from that,
and I practiced, and continued to grow my craft
over years and years. And I was able to see my dream
come true, and I encourage them to pursue theirs,
whatever it might be, especially if it's
writing or illustrating. >> Whenever I first write a
story, it's my first draft, and that is just the beginning. And I think a lot of children
feel they write down the story, and they've got the story. But I have to go back and
revise and revise and revise, and also play with the story. So I might write it
first in first person, and then change it
to third person. Or I might it in present,
then change it to past. And what's wonderful now
is you have a computer and so you can cut and paste
things, move things around. So I think what's really
important is not to feel like you -- "I have to
get this story done." But that you can play
with it for a while. And -- Sybille, I mean, Sybille. I mean, "My Mastodon," where
I actually, that was one of the very first things I
ever wrote, but it was very, very different, and that was in
2006, and it came out last year. So it took a long, long time
for me to get it almost right. And but then I still
had to work on it. So it just isn't something that
comes to you, and you know how to do it, and you just do
it, and it's brilliant. It's something you
need to learn. So don't be hard on yourself. Give yourself an opportunity
to have fun with it and play with it and enjoy it. And I think that's really
important for all writers, to, you know, to enjoy the process. And I do. But you know,
and I can write some, still, very bad things. And but -- and I do. [laughs] But then I, you know,
people will tell me that. And [inaudible], "Yeah,
well, that's right," and I'll try something else. So don't be hard on yourself. And the most important thing
to me is just enjoy it. >> This is wonderful. These are fantastic insights, and I love that we're
getting this glimpse of how you all are approaching
your work, and really the impact of that work and what it can be
for young readers particularly. So just here at the, as
we're getting toward the end, I'd love to just open it up for
all of you if there is something that you'd like to share about
your work or your process that you haven't had the
opportunity to speak about yet. What you're working on now,
or what's next for you. Just a kind of a bit of a round
robin there of any last ideas or thoughts you'd like to share. >> I have a book coming out. It was supposed to come out this
month, but it was pushed back, and they finally
found an illustrator, so it comes out in two years. And I can't say what it is because it hasn't been
announced, but it's funny. And I love to write
funny, but I don't always. Most of the time, I don't. But it's really funny, and
it's about this child who -- you will know who his father is. But this child who grew
up in this special place and was a real mischievous
kid, so. And then I'm working on -- my focus pretty much now
is to write about children and that do different things
that children, other children, would be interested in. So I always love when
I find that rather than writing about adults. I mean, real -- I mean, true. Real kids, not just
made-up kids. But anyway. [laughs] >> I find it fascinating,
like, through this process of telling this one story, we
started really talking about all of the different
aspects of our culture, and all of these other stories
started bubbling up out of that that were going to
be part of the story. And we're like, "Well,
this is a separate story in and of itself." And then it went in this --
so we wound up with, like, five different stories that
were just branches of this one, talking about culture and the
connections, and the lessons that we've learned
through cultural teachings. And so, yeah, the same way,
I feel like there's, like, this one finished book, and then
this half-finished manuscript, and then this skeleton
structure over here, and then this concept
down there. >> Yeah. [laughs] >> It's this series of,
like, all of this stuff where we hadn't considered
it before. But looking at it,
we're like, "Oh, my God, there's so much there." >> Yeah, we've been
bitten, definitely. Yeah. [laughs] >> Yes. [laughs] >> Yeah. Yes, and then,
what we love is this sort of taking a lot of
our cultural teachings and incorporating those,
but in a modern way, or like what a child
would feel today, which I think is
really applicable to all children, right? Feelings of frustration, or
whatever their challenges are, and how would somebody
in our community, how would an adult kind of
help them navigate that? Or how a child would
navigate that. That is really exciting
to us, I think. And those are kind of where
we're moving forward into. >> I have several projects
that I'm working on. I do a lot of nonfiction
and a lot of history, and I have four history-related
books that will be coming out within the next year. One relates to the Revolutionary
War, one to the Civil War, one to the Lewis and Clark
expedition, and one to the race to be the first to
the Antarctic, or to reach the South Pole. And then I have three
picture books that I'm working on as well. But I don't want to talk too
much about them because they're in kind of different stages,
and I feel like I jinx them if I say too much before
they get too far along. But kind of the final
thought that I'd like to add from my perspective kind
of loops back to the idea of opening worlds through books. And one of the best
things that I ever heard in an education convention
one time was a speaker said, and I wish I could
remember who the speaker was so that I could credit them. But they said that
introducing children to books is like dropping a pebble
in a pond. You never know where the
ripples will extend to. And I kind of love that thought
about what we do as authors. We're dropping pebbles
in the pond. And the more books that we
can expose young people to, we never know which is going to
be the book that catches them, the book that speaks to them,
the book that opens the world to them and makes them want to
read another book, and another, and another, and become
a reader for life. And that, to me, is
the magic of writing and the magic of reading. >> How in the world can
you have four books coming? [laughs] I'm in awe. I'm just in complete awe. My word. I think I wrote 18, I wrote 18 picture books
this past spring, just, like, just tried to come up with,
like, ideas and stuff. And maybe one of them
is going to come out. [laughs] So, oh, way to go. So my process is literally
just write everything. So if it comes up, I'm
going to write it down. And I like what Barbara said. Just play. An advisor, and now dear friend, Phyllis Rute [phonetic],
told me about that. She said, "Play in the
sandbox with your book." I know it's a weird
kind of idea, but I try to approach
it like that. Just play with these words. Play with these ideas. And don't worry if
anything is going to happen. And yeah, and thank you,
John, for dropping pebbles, dropping pebbles and changing
students, changing kids, giving books that they'll
want to read to their children for years later, and I think
that's why we do what we do. And I hope that I
can keep dropping -- you know, that I
have the privilege to keep dropping
pebbles in there, and opening up different
worlds for kids to explore. >> I know, we do really
important work, don't we? Yeah, it's one -- I
mean, it's just a -- it's a joy, and it's wonderful. >> I couldn't agree more. Thank you all so, so very much. And I'd like to say, on
behalf of our state centers, and particularly Delaware,
Maine, Minnesota, and Oklahoma, that it really is our honor
and privilege to be able to use this Great Reads
initiative to share your work with the whole country. I am really excited to look
up more of your books myself, and I'm really thrilled at
how many works are out there in the future that readers
are going to be able to share. So these stories and insights and your perspectives
have been just fascinating and fun and wonderful. So thank you very, very much. And we'll look forward
to another opportunity to read your work and
speak with y0ou again. thank you.
