[ Music ] >> Sasha Dowdy: Hello, and welcome to the
national book festival. My name is Sasha Dowdy from
the Library of Congress. I'm here with Jon Scieszka
and Steven Weinberg, whose featured book at the festival this year
is Astronauts Mission Two: the Water Planet. If you'd like to see their
presentation at the festival, log on to
nationalbookfestival.com, and you'll find a
prerecorded presentation on the children's stage. Welcome, Jon and Steven. Uh-oh. they're not here yet. >> Steven Weinberg: We're
waiting to [inaudible]. Can you turn on the
gravity machine, Jon? >> Jon Scieszka: I will
turn on the gravity machine. >> Steven Weinberg. I'm going to keep floating
up, higher and higher. If you don't turn
it -- We're back. Great. >> Sasha Dowdy: Safe arrival
-- welcome Jon and Steven. >> Jon Scieszka:
Well, thanks, Sasha. >> Steve Weinberg: Thank
you for the introduction. >> Jon Scieszka: We're here in the Thomas Jefferson
nose rocket, so you can see space behind us. >> Steven Weinberg: Somewhere
in the Orion Nebula, we believe. I mean, first ones here. >> Jon Scieszka: Yeah. >> Steven Weinberg:
No one else -- >> Jon Scieszka: No
one else is here. >> Sasha Dowdy: Thank
you so much for beaming in from outer space,
to be with us at the National Book
Festival today. So, we already have questions
rolling in, for you all. Here's one from Sarah
[assumed spelling]. Jon, where is your Ambassador for Young People's
Literature Medal today? >> Jon Scieszka: Good question. I think I left it
back in my pod. It's in the nose rocker. But I -- >> Steven Weinberg: It
might be the shiniest star. >> Jon Scieszka: Well, remember,
we used it -- well, it is. It's the shiniest star. I was going to say, we
battled that giant lizard with it and bonked him. He may have it. >> Steven Weinberg:
That was good. That's why you always
wanted to hang out with the National Ambassador
of Children's Literature. [multiple voices]. The acronym is like [inaudible]. >> Steve Weinberg: Yeah. It's good to have that award. >> Jon Scieszka: Good
opening question already. >> Steven Weinberg:
Yeah, Buttering him up. >> Jon Scieszka Yeah,
[inaudible]. >> Sasha Dowdy: The two of you
really seem to get along well, but when you're in space, how do
you find space from each other? >> Jon Scieszka: Wow. >> Steven Weinberg: Wow. >> Jon Scieszka: It's
a great question. >> Steven Weinberg:
I'm always like, "Jon, I tried the space walk
and don't always have like a rocket booster to fix." >> Jon Scieszka: Or I often
quote my granddaughter, who told me yesterday, sometimes
I need some alone time. She just whipped that
sentence on no where. It's like great. Yeah, it's hard to
find in a nose rocket. But it's a pretty
big nose rocket. >> Steven Weinberg:
Actually, no. We show all the details
in Book One. >> Jon Scieszka: And even
in Book Two, we follow-up. It's a big diagram, so -- >> Steven Weinberg: I don't know
this will translate on our -- the resolution might
be a little choppy, because we're so
far out in space. >> Jon Scieszka: Yeah,
like 430 light years. >> Steven Weinberg: Yeah,
but there's like a pool here. There's a common room. >> Jon Scieszka: The Auditorium. >> Steven Weinberg: Astrotorium. >> Jon Scieszka: Astrotorium. >> Steven Weinberg: That's
a good place, for space. >> Sasha Dowdy: Okay. It sounds like you have a
pretty good time, overall. So, we have another
question from earth. Cynthia says, "Which
books excited each of you when you were kids? >> Jon Scieszka: So many. >> Steven Weinberg: Yeah. I've been reading a lot
with my kids, Alexander and The Terrible -- Horrible? >> Jon Scieszka: No good. [inaudible] horrible, a
very bad day, I think. >> Steven Weinberg: Yeah. I love that one. I'm a mental kid, so
that's like my life. I was just getting gum in
your hair, getting caught when you were punching
your brother, but they punched you first,
and you're in trouble. >> Jon Scieszka: I think mine
was probably Go, Dog, Go, which was a lot like my
family of five brothers, and we were all driving around in different colored
cars, barking like dogs. And then we would have
a party and a treat. >> Steven Weinberg: You guys
do have good treat parties. >> Jon Scieszka: Every day. >> Sasha Dowdy: You
had fun as kids. We can tell. >> Jon Scieszka: Yeah. >> Steven Weinberg: It's
their job, basically. >> Jon Scieszka: And then
we got sent into space. >> Steven Weinberg: Yeah. somewhere. >> Sasha Dowdy: Here's a
question from Lisa, for Jon, reading out loud your stories from Knucklehead
was greatly enjoyed by myself and my students. Do you think you'll write
a second book of stories, from your childhood,
with your brothers? >> Jon Scieszka: That's
funny you should say that. I've been thinking, maybe. But I also -- I don't know. That would be weird. >> Steven Weinberg: Did you
work with your brothers on that? >> Jon Scieszka: No. I write all the stuff, because
I even have a couple brothers who said, " How come all the
stories were weird about me? That was Greg [assumed
spelling]. So, I said, well sorry,
Greg, because you were weird. >> Steven Weinberg: You wouldn't
want to give your brothers -- that could be a funny book, if they got to write
their own stories, I don't think you
should see that. >> Jon Scieszka: Let's have
a reason to be a writer. You get to tell the story. I mean, not that I
invented anything, but -- because I look good
in all those stories. I might think about
more Knucklehead, because I do have more -- >> Sasha Dowdy: Well, we
really want to know more. I'm sure everyone
in the audience. So, you have a lot
of time and space. Please get to that. >> Steven Weinberg: Yeah, yeah. Can we hang out by the old
astrofire pit at night. Jon tells me the same stories. >> Jon Scieszka: Well,
I bought Book Three. I need some more. Or we should probably tell you
how Steven and I work together. >> Sasha Dowdy: That's
actually a question from Beth. What's your collaboration
process look like? How do you share,
develop ideas together. How do you decide what's
in words and pictures? >> Steven Weinberg: Wow. The whole process is, I guess,
rather unusual from the get-go, as most books are not --
I can't even explain this. >> Jon Scieszka:
Yeah, like the writer, the writer doesn't ever
see the illustrator. More often -- yeah, like they'll
just -- you get a manuscript. Steven will get it, and then
he'll have to just go like, oh. But I'll just draw it. >> Steven Weinberg: But I have
to see Jon the all the time, because he's my father-in-law. >> Jon Scieszka: And I live
across the street from Steven. We're up here in the Catskills when we're not in
the nose rocket. >> Steven Weinberg:
Yeah, out in space. >> Jon Scieszka: And
we did all our work, mostly in Steven's studio. Some we did when I
was in New York City, like on a computer hang-out. >> Steven Weinberg: Yeah. We actually was doing this
all before it was cool. >> Jon Scieszka:
Yeah, that's true. >> Steven Weinberg: And then
we work on everything we do. Outline first, and once
we have that nailed down with our editor, we
basically do every single spread in the book, like spread
by, like the two pages. And I'll do a sketch of that,
and Jon's like over my shoulder, saying what should happen. >> Jon Scieszka: I just tell
him, Steven, don't do that. >> Steven Weinberg:
[inaudible] cracking a whip. >> Jon Scieszka: But it is
kind of that great opportunity, to say like, "Here's what we
want to happen in this chapter. How do we show that?" >> Jon Scieszka: And then
Steven and I try to get as many jokes in as we can. And we just change things
around until -- or we -- it might be time for a
dramatic shot like that, which doesn't take a
whole lot of writing. It's just more of Steven
going like, "Look at this. I can do this in [inaudible]." >> Steven Weinberg: No. And the other ones like this, like where we introduce the
characters, that's pretty fun, because has room for so many
little things to happen, and they're -- and
by the time the book, where I'm doing the final art,
my studio, it looks pretty wild, where it's every single spread
of the book is up on the wall. >> Jon Scieszka: That was
in -- that's in the video. It's online too. So, you can see all the black
and white drawings behind us. And then we can kind of see
the entire book just laid out in Steven's studio. >> Steven Weinberg: Yeah. >> Sasha Dowdy: That's awesome. So, when you write a book
full of jokes and explosions, Shelly [assumed spelling]
wants to know, what are you hoping kids
will learn from this series? >> Jon Scieszka: So,
first how to tell a joke. [multiple speakers] >> Steven Weinberg: Definitely
be careful with methane. >> Jon Scieszka: Maybe --
be careful with methane. Don't light in, unless
you're on a camping trip with a bunch of your friends. >> Steven Weinberg: Yeah. That's Jon's advice. I'm not going to
[multiple voices]. >> Jon Scieszka: I just said
the Nasa had that [inaudible]. >> Steven Weinberg: Yeah. And I mean we're
trying to like do -- really talk about
the climate crisis that we're all in the middle of. And it's a pretty heavy topic. So, we try to have a lot of
science and a lot of jokes. So, people want to
read about us. >> Jon Scieszka: And that was
really the idea, when Steven and I first started, because
I had a bunch of books out. Steven was just getting
some books out, and we were like doing
presentations to kids, and we thought -- that would
be fun to work together. What should we do? And we thought climate
change is a huge topic, that's affecting everyone. And so, how do you do
that, but in a funny way? >> Steven Weinberg: Because
we were looking at books, like Thirteen Story
Treehouse and Dog Man, and Whoopikids I love that
format, and I'm like can we kind of marry these ideas together? >> Jon Scieszka: And then
even go the next step. Actually, that's a fun thing. Steven, you should tell like
where this artwork came from. >> Steven Weinberg: Yeah. That was another addition
to this whole process, where around this time,
a couple of museums -- like the Royal Dutch
Museum, being the one that we used a lot in this book. They decided to open up
their whole collection. So, people could --
anyone, not just me -- can take art from them and reuse
it any way that they want to, so I could use like
a [inaudible] wave, as a wave on the water planet. >> Jon Scieszka: That's
Mount Fuji in the background. >> Steven Weinberg: I thought that was a great
way, to start -- >> Jon Scieszka:
It's so beautiful. >> Steven Weinberg: -- showing
stuff, as we were talking about climate change,
where you want to use every resource available. So, why not use like every
bit of art ever made? >> Jon Scieszka: And I always
love that teacher moment, where you just embed those
things in the storytelling. Like you don't make
it a lecture. It's where the astronauts go. They're looking for things that truly would make
a Goldilocks planet, if we had to go somewhere else. But they also happen
to be doing battle with a giant venous fly
trap, or in Book two, on the water planet,
clams are in charge. Battle the clams. >> Steven Weinberg:
I like those clams. >> Jon Scieszka: Including Clam
McConnell [assumed spelling]. >> Steven Weinberg: Claim
McConnell is a slippery clam. >> Jon Scieszka: He is. Clam Rockefeller. >> Steven Weinberg:
Weinberg: P.T. Clam.. >> Jon Scieszka:
P.T. Clam Barnum. >> Steven Weinberg:
This could happen. That's the warning on this book. >> Jon Scieszka: What
was the question again? >> Steven Weinberg: >> Sasha Dowdy: I
think you answered it. But you are such
a great teacher. You share this message
of a dire thing happening to Earth right now, and Jon, this is not your first time
being a role model for kids. You were, you know,
National Ambassador for Young People's Literature,
which we brought up before, but -- Marie wants to know,
what's your fondest memories from your role, as the first
ever National Ambassador for Young People's Literature? Maybe Steven, you have
a favorite memory of -- >> Jon Scieszka: Being
the National Ambassador. I didn't have much to do. . >> Steven Weinberg; Jon, I
think you should really start. >> Jon Scieszka: The most fun
was like I was out on tour right after it kind of happened,
and I got the medal. So, I was out on tour with
Dave Shannon, and we would go to schools and just -- I
would show kids the medal. And Dave just decided he would
become the Vice Ambassador. So, we just called him Vice,
and he was like my second in command, my Dick Cheney,
kind of at the moment, because it was that era. >> Steven Weinberg: I
don't know if I would go to Dick Cheney for anybody. Who wants to be that guy? >> Jon Scieszka: But
Dave was so good, because he would just make stuff up in every class
we would go to. And we were doing Chuck
Town for younger kids. So, we were at a group of
about 200 kindergarteners, and Dave said, "Well the
traditional way you greet ambassador and say
good-bye, is you shalom." So, he got like 150
kids going like -- as I came in and as I left. And I just abused that
for the next four years. >> Steven Weinberg: And
you still kind of do it. >> Jon Scieszka: I do it. I still do it. I make people shalom
as I come and go. My wife doesn't do it anymore. She's kind of bummed. >> Steven Weinberg: Now, your
grandkids are starting to do it. >> Jon Scieszka: Exactly. That's good, the next generation
shaloming the ambassador. Because it's a -- it's
a position for life. I don't know if you know this. >> Steven Weinberg: I'm sure
Jason [assumed spelling] sagrees with you. >> Jon Scieszka: Exactly. And Kate DiCamillo,
and Jean Yang. >> Sasha Dowdy: Yes,
it's for life. You will be remembered always. The Library of Congress
never forgets. >> Steven Weinberg:
That's kind of the slogan of the Library of Congress. Right? >> Jon Scieszka: I think so. [inaudible]. We catalog. >> Sasha Dowdy: So, we have
two questions that are kind of related to each other,
from Mame [assumed spelling], and she wants to know how
long have known each other, and Ellen [assumed
spelling] wants to know, Jon, you've worked with many authors. Who's your favorite to work
with, besides Steven, of course? >> Steven Weinberg:
Steven -- besides Steven. I let's see, when -- I would
have, probably 10 years ago. >> Jon Scieszka: Yeah, because
you were still in college. >> Steven Weinberg: For
-- I guess a long time. >> Jon Scieszka: Yeah. And what was the other question? >> Steven Weinberg:
Who's your favorite, besides me, to work with. >> Jon Scieszka: There
is nobody besides Steven. You know what, kind of every
illustrator I think I've ever worked with -- >> Steven Weinberg: You worked
with some really great people. >> Jon Scieszka: Yeah. And it's so good, to
like hand over some words and then see how it becomes
something even better. Which is what Steven
and I like to tell kids, about like find someone
to collaborate with. I mean, maybe you don't
love drawing so much. Or maybe you both do,
and you can both draw. >> Steven Weinberg: It's
really fun to work together. It's just you kind of -- I don't
know, the parts that seems hard for me sometimes,
like the writing part, and Jon used things like the
drawing part's part is super easy, and then, you
have days like, "I'm just drawing
whatever I want, and you're telling what
talking about jokes to put in. It's just kind of --
it's a lot easier. >> Jon Scieszka: And our stuff
is always better after Steven and I work on it together. Then we just decide, things
like, oh, that's funny. But we always think
of something else. Here's something even funnier. You like two monsters? Let's have 12 monsters. >> Steven Weinberg: That's a
really fun feature of book two. We have -- I think we have
like 20-some sea monsters, individually with their
powers or their names. >> Jon Scieszka: Oh, yeah. Look at these guys, because we
thought this is a good idea. What if they fought monsters? >> Steven Weinberg: You
kind of have sea monsters, because you're in the
ocean or the water planet. >> Jon Scieszka: And then,
what is there were just more. . >> Steven Weinberg: We really
wanted page after page of this. And this was the compromise. It's still a lot of sea monkeys. >> Jon Scieszka: That's
still a lot of sea monsters. >> Sasha Dowdy: It
really is a lot. You must have done
a lot of research. So, that's what Rachel [assumed
spelling] question is about. I was curious about what type of research you did
for the astronauts. There's some sneaky science
bits, mixed in there, with a vegetarian shark chefs. >> Jon Scieszka: Oh,
that's a good test too. That's a lot of both
of us, and like we -- and sometimes it takes us
places we knew we would have to research the hard
science of what is it? What kind of planet would
be habitable for humans? >> Steven Weinberg: Yeah. And that was stuff on --
even from like NASA directly. We've done a lot of
research with that. I love the third
book we're working on is called the Perfect Planet. I won't give too much away. >> Jon Scieszka: Good idea. >> Steven Weinberg:
But it's Earth. >> Jon Scieszka: When you think
about it -- Steven Weinberg: But before fire is invented. So, it's a lot of
early human stuff. And that, we read a lot of
books about early humanity. It's pretty wild how -- to think about how long we've been
a species on the planets? And how long we been kind
of acting like we do now? >> Jon Scieszka: And that's
why it's so good to have Earth as the narrator, because she's
obviously not too thrilled about what's going on,
because it's just like -- she's been around for
four billion years. >> Steven Weinberg: Yeah. That time scale, where we have
been a really annoying blip on her. >> Jon Scieszka: A blip. We're just a blip. So, she gets to always narrate
the books, and just say like, guys, please find a planet. Or do something good. Right? And then Steven also
knows a bunch of people who are doing the real science
of like oceanographic stuff. >> Steven Weinberg: Yeah,
especially for this book. One of my best friends from
college is an oceanographer, so I would just ask him
questions, all the time. >> Jon Scieszka: Yeah,
because some of it too, is we want to help -- offer
like a healthy alternative. We don't want to say
things like, don't be bad. But here's actually a thing
you could do, to help us. >> Steven Weinberg:
It's also pretty fun, to ask a real scientist,
like what would it be like if a planet was just water. And they start giving you a real
answer, And then you were like, and if it was run by clams? They're like, okay -- that's
not a real science question. >> Jon Scieszka: That's
where it goes off the rails. But I'm glad Steven's
asking the questions. >> Steven Weinberg:
The hard questions. >> Sasha Dowdy: Okay. Those are the real
questions, the real answers. So, we're going to zoom from
Earth is narrator, onto A Wolf. So, Joanne [assumed
spelling] wants to know, is has A. Wolf given you
any more true stories? . >> Steven Weinberg: I just put
that together like a week ago. So, this is Jon second
book starring A. Wolf. Jon Scieszka: There's
alpha wolf in this book, and all our astral
books, any it will -- yeah, You know, he's
still in the slammer. He has not gotten out, but I've
been talking to him regularly. He's got some appeals
coming up, maybe. And it's been like
30 years almost since I wrote his first story. >> Steven Weinberg: We could
do a bridge like Novella, A Wolf making a deal with NASA. To get him out of the slammer. If they could like
mutant him up. And then send him into space. >> Jon Scieszka:
Maybe they could. >> Steven Weinberg:
I don't know, I'm not -- too many ideas, Jon. >> Jon Scieszka: Also, the
good part to have two people, you can sometimes say like no. That's too much. That's too much >> Jon Scieszka: Also, the
good part to have two people, you can sometimes
just say like no. >> Steven Weinberg: No. It's pretty weird. >> Steven Weinberg:
No, that's too much. That's too much. >> Sasha Dowdy: Yeah. That's how you eliminate the
things that maybe don't need to make it into the
next book, directly. >> Jon Scieszka: I had a
good question the other day. Someone asked like what would
be your favorite planet? What will be on a planet,
and we said, I don't know. How about yours? You tell us. And that the pizza
planet came up. >> Steven Weinberg: Yeah. That's a real -- that's like
the one we haven't gotten to explore. What would the pizza
planet be like? >> Jon Scieszka: Very Cheesy. >> Steven Weinberg: Crust. >> Jon Scieszka:
Crusty, also crusty -- a lot of plate tectonics. Right? >> Steven Weinberg: Pepperoni. Will there be different
continents of toppings? >> : Jon Scieszka: The mushroom
continent, I'm guessing. >> Steven Weinberg: Would it
be hot pizza or cold pizza. I guess the polar
regions will be cold. >> Jon Scieszka: Freezing cold. Icy pizza. It's a little bit weird. >> Steven Weinberg:
[multiple speakers] No, yeah. >> >> Jon Scieszka:
This is what we do. >> Steven Weinberg:
Now draw that. So, you got -- >> What would that look like? >> Sasha Dowdy: So, it sounds like you could continue writing
the Astronaut Series forever, but Chris [assumed spelling]
wants to know, what are going to work on after you're done
with the Astronaut series? >> Steven Weinberg: Wow. >> Jon Scieszka: We've
been thinking about a bunch of goofy ideas already, because
Steven has two daughters, one who's three-year-old
one one-year-old And there are [multiple
speakers]. >> Steven Weinberg: Yeah. I don't really like
always inspiring ideas and They're really like
always inspiring ideas. I don't know. I love watching them play. The idea of a kid holding
toys and playing with them, and just their own
stories going from there. >> Jon Scieszka: And it also
really focuses your storytelling too, you realize -- I
mean, that's what I -- I was a teacher for 10 years, and I think that's what
really informed all my stuff. I always think of just trying
to reach a class of kids. And you don't have time to
just kind of babble around and don't get caught
down sidelines. But tell the story. >> Steven Weinberg: Yeah, like
what's the immediate thing. Yeah, I'm doing a board
book series that's all about home appliances,
because at this time, my ddaughter loved a dishwasher. She loved washer and dryer. She loved frig and oven. >> Jon Scieszka: So, each
appliance gets its own book. >> Steven Weinberg:
With googly eyes. >> Jon Scieszka: I'm so jealous. I wish I had a book
with googly eyes. >> Sasha Dowdy: That's awesome. That sounds like a book for
everyone, not just little kids. >> Jon Scieszka:
Wouldn't you just love to have that book right now? >> Sasha Dowdy: Yeah,
100 percent. >> Steven Weinberg:
I don't know. Everything's slower now. >> Sasha Dowdy: So,
here is a question from Ann Marie [assumed
spelling] speaking of your young children. Besides your own books, what contemporary children's
authors do your children and grandchildren enjoy? >> Steven Weinberg: What is
she reading a lot of right now? She loves the new Adam
Rex book, Unstoppable. That one -- it's very funny. It's kind of like a great
little civics lesson too, unexpectantly. >> Jon Scieszka: And
just the other day, I got a brand new Laurie Keller
book, about Arnie the Doughnut. >> Steven Weinberg:
She's got great energy. eat energy. She's got a whole another Arnie
the Doughnut book, and it's just as funny as all the other ones. And again, what a
compelling thing. Right? Like a story
about doughnuts. Did you take all the doughnuts ? >> Steven Weinberg: Yeah. And then my older daughter
Amenia, she's three, and she -- held the book, those
graphic novels. And there's a new one in
France called Esther [assumed spelling], which is similar
to Hilda and Zeta's Spacegirl. That whole genre of
like really tough girl and kind of fantasy whatever. I love those. >> Jon Scieszka: And I
love that she's a fan of the older books too,
like Frog and Toad. All of them, she
has just memorized. >> Steven Weinberg:
George and Martha, yeah. She is wonderful. >> Sasha Dowdy: That's
a great mix of contemporary and classics. >> Jon Scieszka: Yeah. And then [inaudible]
all the time. >> Steven Weinberg: Yeah. She's always coming
home with a new one. >> Jon Scieszka: My wife,
honestly she put away the Track Down Books, because
Amenia would ask for, like is this John
Chester's Truck Town? And. yes. John Chester's -- >> Steven Weinberg: She
does have a lot of books. Like where it is a pretty great
place for these two girls, where the amount of books in our two houses
combined is -- it's a lot. . Not as many as the
Library of Congress has. >> Jon Scieszka: That's true. Because Felix [assumed spelling]
lately is liking a little -- so, she's one-year-old. So, she toddles around,
any book she can grab and kind of ripped apart. >> Steven Weinberg: Yeah. there's a little
[inaudible], Like Little Truck, Little Plane, Little Boat. >> Jon Scieszka: She also
likes the Map of Paris, which is about this
big and indestructible. And she keeps trying,
I will rip this. That's her new favorite. >> Steven Weinberg: Why not? You've got to know. >> Jon Scieszka:
You've got to know. >> Sasha Dowdy: That's amazing. A very tenacious young
person, it sounds like. So, speaking of the
John Chester books, Erica [assumed spelling]
wants to know, why did you write
the Stinky Cheese Man and other fairly stupid tales? >> Steven Weinberg: Why? Why? >> Jon Scieszka: I mean,
is that an accusing why? Or is that a -- >> Sasha Dowdy: It could be. >> Steven Weinberg:
You have to do it, Jon. >> Jon Scieszka: Stop it. Well interesting enough, because
Steven's wife, my daughter, Casey [assumed spelling]. one of her favorite stories
was the Gingerbread Man. And we had an old copy
of the Gingerbread Man, and she would make me
read it a million times. And I was just like --
and I love fairy tales, since I was a kid too, and
read them all the time. But I was going nuts. I couldn't stand
the story anymore. I tried to get rid of the book,
but she would always find it. So, I thought, I've got to
write a new version of this. Like what would happen if the
lady ran out of ginger bread. It was like that tiny idea that one became a much
more gigantic thing. Because you change only
one thing in that story. You're only changing what the
gingerbread man is made of. >> Steven Weinberg: It's different once it
hits the water though. Things change from there. >> Jon Scieszka:
It changes a lot. And then I just became
the Stinky Cheesy Man and all his friends. >> Sasha Dowdy: It's
a good origin story. So, we're talking about kids
and grandkids and inspiration, and Beth [assumed spelling]
wants to know, do you children or grandchildren also
write and-or illustrate? Do you think there
will be a dynasty? >> Steven Weinberg: A dynasty. Wow. >> Jon Scieszka: That's
a good question too. >> Steven Weinberg:
They are, yeah. I mean like they're
drawing a lot. It's pretty fun, just because
I have all these books. I have art supplies. I just wanted them to be
just kind of ubiquitous. So, it doesn't seem
like a big production. >> Jon Scieszka: No. I think they'll just do
it as part of their life. Because that is a big thing. They see Steven and I
waiting all the time. Steven's just drawing
all the time. And the stuff is around. Steven and I were often just -- well, you make little
books all the time. >> Steven Weinberg: Yeah. And that's like with a --
whenever I have an idea, I love just kind of making
-- we call them dummies, just like a little
version of the book. And that's -- half
the books that Amenia and Felix read , a half book. A lot of them are
books that I've made like over the last few days. [multiple speakers]. Staple together. >> Steven Weinberg:
So, they know books from like the Seed to the Tree. So, yes. >> Jon Scieszka: We were
actually worried there, thinking like -- I mean,
this is what books are. They're all done by either like
their dad or their grandfather. That must be what happens. >> Steven Weinberg: And my wife, your daughter --
Casey's written. >> When she's got
[inaudible], yeah. >> Steven Weinberg:
A lot of writers. >> Sasha Dowdy: We look forward
to this dynasty developing then. It's going to be great. So, we've reached Advice Corner. Lisa would like to know,
what are must have books, when traveling in space? >> Steven Weinberg: Wow. >> Jon Scieszka: Well,
the first one is -- like The Trekker's
Guide to Space. >> Steven Weinberg: That
would be a good one. >> Jon Scieszka: Because it
tells you like hot spots to go to -- pretty little -- >> Steven Weinberg:
Like Hitchhikers Guide? >> Jon Scieszka: Hitchhiker's
Guide is another good one. It's a lot like that. They were like combined
together. >> Steven Weinberg: For space? I mean, we're here. What did we forget? Which books did we mean to get? >> Jon Scieszka: Well,
we left our dictionary. >> Steven Weinberg:
It's very good. We forget about words. >> Jon Scieszka:
We're just making up spelling at this point. >> Steven Weinberg: I have been
looking up a lot more of the -- you know, like the --
the famous Viking ship, whatever they send
out into space. Not a Viking Explorer. And how they try to like
whittle down Earth's culture into a couple gold records. >> Jon Scieszka: Yeah. voyager. >> Steven Weinberg:
Voyager, yeah. >> Jon Scieszka: And that was
Carl Sagan, trying to decide like == and there's
Chuck Berry on there. >> Steven Weinberg:
And whale sounds. >> Jon Scieszka:
I've got the record. There are whale sounds. We might have it somewhere
in our nose rocket. >> Steven Weinberg: I
like reading about books, where like in the
future, you would have -- like you're in space, you'd
have your reading device. And it's just every
book ever made. Which it seems like the
science fiction of 20 years ago, but kind of what we expect now. >> Jon Scieszka: We also
found it doesn't work so good, because wi-fi's not great,
anywhere in the universe. So, we do have a lot of copies
of Go, Dog Go, and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible,
No Good, Very Bad Day. >> Steven Weinberg: Probably
just all three astronauts. [inaudible]. >> Jon Scieszka: All
three astronauts. >> Steven Weinberg:
Every astronaut. >> Jon Scieszka: Only
in our books, yeah. He might make every species
read these, over and over. >> Steven Weinberg: Fun fact,
there's actually another book within Astronauts Mission Two. Most of Moby Dick
is in this book. >> Jon Scieszka: Yeah. It's in the agreement between
the clams and the astronauts. Because P.T. Clam Barnum
kind of takes them out, and he says, "Oh, look. There's an agreement. We can swap planets. All you have to do [inaudible]." >> Steven Weinberg: I'm
so bad at getting -- >> Jon Scieszka: So, we
realized a lot of text and what Steven put in
there, in the fine print, is the text to Moby Dick. >> Steven Weinberg: There's no
longer a copyright on Moby Dick. >> Jon Scieszka: So, it
starts -- Call Me Ishmael. And then the final print
is some later chapters. >> Steven Weinberg: It's
gets really hard to read. But that will be a good
book to have in space, with all the books inside of it. >> Jon Scieszka: Good call. That would be -- or more
astronauts will be good, because the other feature
we haven't shown you is in every astronaut's book. I mean, they usually
end up battling. And in every book, there
is a fold-out battle scene. Four pages. >> Steven Weinberg: This is where Jon does all the
big, heavy lifting. >> Jon Scieszka: Yeah. Not much writing. A lot of directing. >> Steven Weinberg: He's
got three words in this one. >> Jon Scieszka: Like Steven,
put that thing over there. >> Sasha Dowdy: Well, thank you for that unbiased
recommendation. >> Jon Scieszka:
[multiple voices]. It came off the top
of our heads. We're just looking
in our library. What do we have? >> Sasha Dowdy: We have one
more advice corner question. This one is a little
bit more serious, from Kathleen [assumed
spelling]. What can kids do
about climate change? >> Jon Scieszka: That
is a great question. >> Steven Weinberg: Yeah,
a really good question. Number one, tell every adult
they need to register to vote, and they need to vote. >> Jon Scieszka: And
further the science. I mean, I think that's
probably the thing. mostly like -- like find out. Find out, lwhat does that do
like if you don't use a straw? And that's a good thing,
but there are better things. >> Steven Weinberg:
And say, yeah. Really, the science part. Like learn the science and then
start talking about the science. Because it's really
big concepts, but they're not that
complicated. >> Jon Scieszka: No. Not that gigantic. >> Steven Weinberg: And I
think a big problem we're in, is that people don't
know science. >> Jon Scieszka: Yeah . And we're doing trust
the science. And we could absolutely
trust our scientistd. I mean, it's just perfectly
obvious, too, that plastic bags. single use stuff
is not a good idea. And once you know the amount of plastic that's being
thrown into our earth. It's just -- you're horrified. >> Steven Weinberg: Yeah. And then you can be the
expert on these things. I mean, like I was reading --
the age of readers for this, I knew everything
about dinosaurs. I grew up in D.C. and I'd
go to the Smithsonian kind of every rainy Saturday. And I loved that. But you guys can be
experts on climate change. >> Jon Scieszka: Then
we're putting more stuff on our website too,
astronauts.space. >> Steven Weinberg: Yes. This is our high tech. >> Jon Scieszka: Let
me go into the foyer. And if you go to
astronauts,space, you can both learn how to
do artwork like Steven did and see some examples. And also, go other
places, to just find out more about climate change. >> Sasha Dowdy: Brilliant. Thank you. So, we -- >> Jon Scieszka:
That's who we want -- why we wanted to get these books
to kids, because they're going to be the ones that are going
to have to figure this out. It's bad now. In 10 years, it's
going to be much worse, if you don't do something. >> Steven Weinberg:
Difficult bed, >> Jon Scieszka: Sorry
to hand that to you kids. Help us. >> Sasha Dowdy: Well, we have a
very informed generation going up, if they read your books. >> Steven Weinberg: [inaudible]. That's so cool. >> Jon Scieszka: Yeah. The kids we've seen in
schools are just like so smart about what's going on. >> Sasha Dowdy: That's
awesome to see. So, we are almost at the end. If you could answer
this question quickly, from Katherine. Pre or post COVID, do you come
to schools for author talks? And she says, I'd love
for my students to hear about your creative process. >> Steven Weinberg: Yeah. We definitely do school visits. We've done -- we did a bunch
of touring for the first book. >> Jon Scieszka: Yeah. And kind of based on festivals, books festivals around
the country. The Texas Book Festival
is one of our favorites. >> Steven Weinberg: And
then through book stores, now we're doing a
bunch of zoom visits. So, again, if you want us
to come to your school, find your local bookstore -- >> Jon Scieszka:: Yeah, that's
probably their best connection. and talk to them. That's probably the best way. Because a lot stores, like
Politics and Prose in D.C. >> Jon Scieszka:
That's another good one. >> Steven Weinberg:
I love that store. >> Jon Scieszka: Or Mitch
Kaplan down in Miami, Books and Books is a
spectacular store, and I've been to a lot of schools with him. >> Steven Weinberg: Yeah. What was that other question? No. That's all. >> >> Jon Scieszka: Just
how to get there. That's most of them. >> Sasha Dowdy: Yeah. That's the last question. And unfortunately, so sorry,
but we're out of time for today. Thank you to Jon and
Steven for sharing your time with us so generously today. Thank you so much. Beaming in from space
is brilliant. >> Jon Scieszka: We'll clean
up our gravity machine too. When you're ready,
you say the word. >> Sasha Dowdy: So, we've been
speaking with Jon Scieszka and Steven Weinberg, whose
latest books is Astronauts, Mission Two: the Water Planet. You can find their presentation
on our children's stage. >> Steven Weinberg: Uh-oh. Gravity's back. >> Jon Scieszka: We're floating. >> Steven Weinberg: Jon. I'm upside down, now. >> Sasha Dowdy: Good
luck, everyone. Thank you, everyone
for tuning in today. I hope you all take the time
to explore our mini-programs, and enjoy the remainder of
the National Book Festival. [ Music ]
