Simms Taback seemed to burst onto the children's picture book scene in 1998 with his first Caldecott honor medal for There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. In reality, he has worked in the field of illustration for over forty years as a designer and artist with more than 68 books to his credit. After graduating from New York City's High School of Music and Art, Simms studied fine art and graphic design at New York's famous Cooper Union. In 1956, following his service in the Korean War, Simms began his career in art. Among other assignments, Simms designed the first Happy Meal box for McDonald's, album covers for Columbia records, and posters for Scholastic's Let's Find Out magazine and Sesame Street Magazine. In fact, he was one of the original artists to work on Sesame Street Magazine. He also became a founding member of the Graphic Artists Guild and received their first Lifetime Achievement Award in 1976.
Simms feels he does not draw well so in creating his books he thinks about shapes. "It's the shape itself in an abstract sense that interests me. I work very flat. I love flat, wonderful shapes sitting in space."[1] Many of his earlier books such as Who Said Moo? and When I First Came to This Land were illustrated for other writers (these two are by Harriet Ziefert), however Simms prefers to control every element of the book including layout and typography. He reports his style has been influenced by children's art as well as naïve art, the folk art of painters like the Reverend Harold Finster. He has also "been inspired by Paul Klee, Saul Steinberg, early animated films and the circus figures of Alexander Calder."[2]
His folk art style is eminently suited to the subjects he picks but his unique imagination lends vitality and verve to the simple songs and rhymes that he chooses.
Both Joseph Had a Little Overcoat and There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly are classified as novelty book because of their die-cut pages, a technique perfectly suited to these two stories. Taback had explored this technique in many previous forms including a 1997 colored pencil version of "Joseph" and a line of greeting cards for "Cardtricks," a business he and partner Reynold Ruffins (also a well known illustrator) started in 1987. With There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly he adds to his watercolor and colored pencil on kraft paper, building up layers to resemble gouache or tempera paintings. In Joseph Had a Little Overcoat he added a collage technique, cutting up old catalogs, Yiddish newspapers and family photographs to create a virtual encyclopedia of "yiddishkayt" (Jewish world-view). These small details add many layers to his simple folksong and delights audiences of all ages.
The 2000 Caldecott medal for Joseph Had a Little Overcoat cemented his rightful place as a top illustrator of children's picture books. Before winning the Caldecott medals Simms did not feel he was able to earn a living from creating picture books alone. Now he feels able to devote more of his time to book illustration. The medals have led to his signing of "open contracts" with two publishers, which means he is free to select the stories and has the freedom to write, illustrate and design his books. The first of these new books, This Is the House that Jack Built reverberates with an imaginative energy that promises even more fun for the future.
[1] Susan E. Davis. "Cross Over Appeal" Step by Step Graphics. July August, 1999. 34-45 [2] Connie C. Rockman, Eighth Book of Junior Authors and Illustrators. 510-512
Isaac Brooks did not did not graduate from college with a career in education in mind, but after an eight year stint in advertising account management he decided that teaching was in his heart. He left his advertising job to attend Columbia University's Teachers College and earned a Masters degree in Curriculum & Teaching. In the nine years since then he has taught every grade between second and ninth in public schools. Courtesy of the Tenafly New Jersey Public Schools, he attended summer and weekend workshops in the Teachers College Writing Project and was chosen to take part in their Leadership Program with poet Georgia Heard. He has continued his professional development by taking courses in Children's Literature and Reading at Teachers College and participating in professional seminars.
As Isaac's experience in the classroom deepened he came to realize the important role that literature played in children's
learning. He explains,"As students struggle to find their writing voice, I realize that they also have to find their thinking voice. Literature is the most accessible way for kids to key in to stories and to relate them to their own life stories. Many students are reluctant to try to tell their own stories. This shows up in class discussion, the paucity of hand-raising and the frequent 'I don't know what to draw/write/say...' that comes from them when prompted. I model my own responses to what we read, but I want my students to find a comfort level in which to formulate their own responses. This can be done through literature circles, reading buddies, dialogue journals, jackdaws, book ads or whatever. But it is crucial to the growth of any individual in a learning community. After we solicit opinions, especially those that do not mirror the majority or the teacher's, we look for evidence to substantiate our feelings. This is developmentally appropriate for elementary school and a valuable exercise for the academic years that follow." [3]
Isaac explains that his previous career in advertising has given him a unique perspective on bringing children to books and deepening their responses to literature. " I feel that children are grown-ups with less experience. I have met adults whose interest in reading had been stunted by their education. They have tried one or two genres, using one or two strategies and have given up making it a part of their lives. In advertising, we sought to match the interests of consumers with products and services they might not have considered right for them. Children are no different. My job as teacher is to expose them to as many kinds of writing and show them as many different ways to enjoy books as possible. After read aloud, the classroom library must be the starting place, but making my students the sales force for those books is the next step. They, like me, enjoy a happy reader who appreciates the book they've recommended. If a peer recommends a book and supports you through the reading of it, then that has the biggest success rate of all. We make book commercials, buddy up when choosing books and reading them, encourage forays into the library and local bookstore and give lots of time to talk about books throughout the day. Literature circles help, but they are hard to make as spontaneous as discussions about sports or TV. That's the challenge. Put books on an equal footing with video games and Pokemon cards and we've started the self-propelling juggernaut of reading in a child."
When asked about some of the problems he's encountered at different grade levels Isaac replies, "From a student's perspective, second and third grade presents a broad range of reading abilities among classmates. Some are still stringing sentences together to make sense of the book, while others are reading well beyond their "grade level." Students become peer conscious and self-conscious at this time and their parents' anxieties are felt keenly. Administrators are too often impatient with the wild and wooly nature of the class' reading ability and pressure the teacher to bring up the laggards. Standardized testing and leveling of books are both feeble attempts at normalizing a wide-ranging group of readers. The down side of each can be seen in the weaker students hiding their inability to read or in deciding they don't enjoy reading because they've gotten the message that it should be so much easier for them than it really is. By intermediate grades, the cement has hardened and successful, well-adjusted readers are set for life, but the students on the cusp are further behind and even less self-confident to bridge the gap. It is very hard to find high-interest, low ability books for students who wish to hide their poor reading ability. This obstacle alone, works counter to intermediate grade student achievement."
He has addressed these problems in several ways. "Frequent discussion with parents keeps them in the loop and sets their expectations at a more realistic and supportive level. Asking both parents to model reading and make time for it at home more than once a week works wonders. Testing and book leveling won't go away by themselves, but they don't have to stand in the way of rich reading activities, either. I have found that a rich reading/writing classroom tests well and that a large library of good books benefits students no matter how it's organized. Asking administrators and parents to come read with your students puts everyone on the child's side in the struggle for reading success. No one can spend 45 minutes with a struggling reader and say he or she knows how to make an entire classroom successful in reading. Empowering your students as teachers makes the entire class less needy and more able to tackle the challenges of literacy education."
When asked if he could share some memorable moments about children and literature Isaac replied with several anecdotes. One involved encouraging a student to hate a book. He reports, "This may seem bizarre, but it builds trust in the process of literature response. It seems like a risk, but some of my most obstreperous readers found me even more enthusiastic when they constructively lambasted the assigned book for the book group than when they pretended to love it. Like everyone else, they had to find evidence in the text to back up their assertions and they unwittingly united the rest of the group to come to the book's (and author's) defense. At one point, our self-appointed curmudgeon convinced me not to use a book next year. She was right--the book was awful."
Isaac also loves to ham it up during read aloud time and to read books with different character voices. He suggests that, "certain books don't lend themselves well to read-aloud because every character sounds the same. But for the most part, I look forward to the lively conversation captured in good books. I found one parent reporting back to me that her reluctant fourth grade reader was loving reading now that 'he could make up the voices for each character as he read.' "
Finally Isaac knows that there are many roads into lifelong reading. He explains, "I am amazed at how many of my supposed non-readers read newspapers, websites, magazine articles and comic books. By allowing these things in to the mix and broadening the stuff of reading to include them, I find these readers more willing to try traditional fiction when asked. Also, re-reading is a crucial strategy for some of my students. They skim deeper and deeper with each re-read and they are more comfortable with a book the second time around. Who says the experience is identical the second or third time around? Literary snobbery gets you nowhere when teaching eight-year-olds."
[3] All quotes in this profile were from a personal interviews or correspondence with Isaac.
Patricia Lee Gauch, Editor-in-Chief, Philomel Books
Patricia Lee Gauch has had a unique view of the children's book field. Over the last 40 years she has been involved with children's books as a mother, teacher, writer and editor. Since 1976 she has been Editor in Chief of Philomel Books, where she has edited such well-known authors as Brian Jacques, Patricia Polacco, T. A Barron and Tasha Tudor. In addition she has edited three Caldecott medal winning, books Owl Moon (Jane Yolen and John Schoenherr), Lon Po Po (Ed Young) and So You Want to Be President (Judith St. George and David Small)
Patti began her writing career at Miami College when she joined the school newspaper and found she loved reporting and writing. After graduation she moved with her new husband Ron to Louisville Kentucky where he was stationed with the Army.
While there she worked as a reporter for the Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper Louisville Courier-Journal. When she became pregnant with the first of her three children she left reporting to concentrate on her family. Patti reports, "In those days women didn't mix work with family." Wondering what she could do to stay in the writing profession, Patti wrote to a former professor who suggested the field of children's books. Patti's profound memory of beloved children's books, among them Millions of Cats and The Story of Ping, convinced her that this could be a rewarding career.
After the Gauch family moved to the metropolitan New York area Patti participated in a writers group led by Jean Fritz, noted children's author. Patti credits Jean with developing her skills as a writer for children and as an editor. Patti vividly remembers her manuscript pages covered with Jean's careful suggestions. In 1970 Patti's first books My Old Tree and A Secret House were published. That same year she received a master's degree in teaching and a doctorate from Manhattanville College and began teaching at the Gill-St. Bernards School in Gladstone, New Jersey. She taught for over 10 years and her students as well as her own children became inspirations (and critics) for her continued writing. To date that career includes over 30 titles.
Although she continued to write and publish books for children, Patti's career as an editor began when her children left home. She remembers, "I knew that I needed to get out of that empty house." One day when she was turning in a novel to Margaret Frith, her editor at Putnam. Patti noticed how distressed Margaret looked. She told Patti that for six months she had been hoping for a new editor to come on board, and he had just turned her down. When Patti commiserated, Anne turned to her and said, "You wouldn't want to be an Editor-in-Chief would you?" After much agonized deliberation and consultation with her husband Ron, Patti agreed she would.
Patti found the transition from writer to editor to be difficult at times. "Publishing is so complicated," she reports, "there are forty different procedures. I was constantly in the wilderness." She was also horrified to learn that her company president expected her to produce twenty books in her first year. "I appeared to have gotten myself into hot water," she recalls. However unschooled she was in the publishing business, her talents as a writer and her instincts as a reader came to her aid. In her first year at Philomel she came across the manuscript of Brian Jacques's Redwall and offered him a contract. Their relationship has continued through 17 books and millions of dollars in sales. In addition, Patti also inherited from her company illustrators Eric Carle, Tasha Tudor and Barbara Berger and their books gave her some breathing space as she sought to develop her own list of authors and illustrators. Her success was established only a year and a half after arriving at Philomel. A manuscript by Jane Yolen called Owl Moon came across her desk. Several other publishers had turned the manuscript down but Patti loved it. In trying to decide upon an illustrator, Patti turned to one of her former high school students, Ian Schoenherr, already a fine artist. Ian felt he was not ready to take on a thirty-two page picture book but suggested Patti contact his father, John Schoenherr. The result of the serendipitous contact was a Caldecott medal for John's illustrations for Owl Moon. With that honor, Patti's place was assured at Penguin Putnam. She has since edited two other Caldecott winning titles, and a Caldecott honor winning book (Ed Young's Three Blind Mice).
Patti feels that she has several skills that contribute to her success as an editor. One is a sense of space. "There's something that happens in my insides that tells me when something is right," she explains. She also feels she can "put art and text together with a fair degree of skill."
Patti also thinks her experiences as an author have shaped her work as an editor. "Because I'm an author first I'm not afraid of anything. Ron said when I went to this job at age fifty, 'be free--you don't have to work--you go in there and be free.' I've never ducked anything. When they [the company, marketing] see me coming they know I know what's good for an author--they know I'm going to fight, to be difficult because I keep seeing myself there. I'm very pro-author and I think at this point they appreciate it."
Patti is aware of the changes that have affected children's book publishing over the years. As mega corporations have bought out more and more small houses, sales and not quality seem to predominate. In addition to her best selling titles Patti feels she has had the freedom to pursue books such as Coolies by Yin and Chris Soentpiet or On the Road to Lhasa by Barbara Berger. Although these books have not sold millions, they have been successful and they are "where her heart is" She declares, Penguin Putnam "is one of the finest [publishing] houses in New York. All the editors have been here at least fifteen years. Regina Hayes has been here thirty-five years. That's very telling when you look at many houses where people are in and out." Her decisions about books are not second-guessed by an editorial board, often the case in other big houses. "We have no editorial boards. At another house that had a board, if I wanted to do a book I'd have to bring it to an editorial board. The chance that a book like Coolies would get past the board is minimal. I wouldn't make it there because I'm always doing something that doesn't fit anywhere."
Happily, Patti Lee Gauch has found a fit. As Editor in Chief of Penguin Putnam's Philomel Books she has found a place in a big corporation that makes her feel like she's "in a tiny brownstone down the street." Her award winning books must certainly have contributed to the degree of freedom she has earned. However it is just as likely her success as an editor as well as a writer come from her special sensibilities and her intuitive and learned understanding of what makes a good book for children.
The characters in Rosemary Wells many picture books for preschoolers may take the form of animals, but to young children of all cultures, Nora, Benjamin, Tulip, Timothy, Morris, Max, Ruby, Yoko, and Edward are pure reflections of self. Rosemary has an unswerving ability to zero in to the hearts and minds of youngsters, speaking to their concerns and their fears as well as to their silliness.
Rosemary began her career in children's books in the publishing industry, working as art editor and designer for several large publishing houses. When well-known editor Susan Hirschman saw a dummy of a book Rosemary had done, she gave Rosemary a contract and her first book, A Song to Sing, O! (To Gilbert and Sullivan lyrics from "The Yeoman of the Guard) was published in 1968. Although she may be
best known as a writer and illustrator of picture books and board books for young children, Rosemary's early books included novels for adolescents. Among them were The Fog Comes on Little Pig Feet (1972) and None of the Above (1974). Since then Rosemary has continued to write across genres. Her recent books include biographies like Mary On Horseback and Wings, as well as retellings of classics such as Lassie and Hitty Her First Hundred Years. Her talent as an illustrator may have overshadowed her renown as an author, but all her picture books are grounded in wonderful writing. Rosemary declares, "The story comes first, the pictures come second. There's a trend now in children's books to make it so that the story is a vehicle for picture. This is a very bad idea because children want the story. Remember children- young children- are always listening most of the time."[4] Certainly Rosemary's many stories have delighted preschoolers as well as their parents and teachers for many years.
In addition to her stories, Rosemary collaborated with folklorist Iona Opie to offer three superb collections of nursery rhymes. Rosemary feels working with Opie contributed to her growth as an artist as well as to her awareness of our cultural heritage. She states, "We live in a time when our language is shrinking. The rhymes of Mother Goose represent our language at its most innocent, playful and profound. And now they are in danger of disappearing completely. Children in America by a huge margin could sing you a beer commercial before they could recite Jack and Jill. I remind myself what a privilege it is to be published and try to start each day remembering that what I put on a page should be part of the solution, not the problem."[5]
Rosemary Wells may have an incredible sense of what children want, but she also has a passionate understanding of what children need. Recalling her own positive early experiences with books, Rosemary has become an energetic advocate for early book experiences for all children. In the mid 1990's she worked with The Association of Book Sellers for Children to create a promotion on reading aloud for parents. They argued the "most important twenty minutes [in a] day" were the twenty minutes parents spent reading aloud to their children. Rosemary created a delightful poster and took that message across America, appearing at library associations and books stores. Rosemary also encouraged doctors to advise parents to read aloud as part of a child's over-all wellness regime. This blossomed into the "Reach Out and Read Campaign" ( http://www.reachoutandread.org/) promoted by well-known Boston Medical Center pediatricians Perri Klass and Barry Zuckerman. In 1997 Rosemary published an inexpensive but appealing little book, Read to Your Bunny (Scholastic) that became the medium of her message. She has continued to be an advocate for young children on her web site (www.rosemarywells.com) and in her public appearances. Rosemary has said she believes "all stories and plays and paintings and songs come from a palpable but unseen space in the cosmos...According to how gifted we are we are all given a large or small key to this treasury of wonders. I have been blessed with a small key to the world of the young."[6] Rosemary's key may be small but her gifts to children have been enormous. http://www.rosemarywells.com/frames.html
[4] Anita Silvey Rosemary Wells, Horn Book Radio Interview. www.hbook.com/exhibit/wellsradio/html
[5] Cyndi Giorgis. "A Book is Forever": A Conversation with Rosemary Wells. The New Advocate. Spring 2000. 107-115
In the Caldecott Honor award winning illustrations for Martin's Big Words, written by Doreen Rappaport, Bryan Collier demonstrates how an artist's choice of the elements of art and book design can create a powerful aesthetic experience. The cover of the book is close-up portrait of Martin Luther King Jr., his face pictured slightly larger than life-size. There are no words on the cover. No title and no author or illustrator's names appear, an acknowledgement that this hero needs no other introduction than his smiling visage. Another reference to the greatness of Dr. King is the book's trim size. Larger than most picture books, it measures 10 1/4 by 11 1/4 inches. As we look closely at the portrait the muted tones of sepia, brown, black, gray, and the subtle textures in the painting are fitting to Dr. King and his life's work; this was a man of great depth and nobility.The highly contrasting values used to depict King's facemake him seem to leap out of the cover, and we find ourselves in the intimate
embrace of his personality. Then we open the book to brilliant reflections of stained glass end papers; these highly realistic depictions offer a vibrant and reverent entrance into the book.Turning the end paper, we finally read the book's title. "Martin's Big Words" reaches across the two pages in a warm red ochre letters almost two inches high. Martin Luther King's heroic achievements set him above the ordinary and the theme of his greatness extends through out the rest of the book. We find it in the oversize typeface that is used for all the direct quotes from Dr. King and in the many close-ups of his face throughout the book. Bryan's collage technique and his unusual points of view add depth and drama to the straightforward text. On the penultimate double page spread, Rapport describes Dr. King's visit to Memphis and ends with the simple words, "On his second day there, he was shot. He died." The ochre type set on a pure black background and the close-up of Dr. King's face framed by the bars of stained glass are immensely moving. On the final pages this same image is set behind four lighted candles. The text, "His big words are alive for us today," echo the hope of those burning flames. Bryan Collier's distinguished artistry in this book is a great tribute to this monumental figure and is sure to provide a richly satisfying aesthetic experience for the book's readers.
Bryan may be new to the children's book field but in he has already acquired a long list of awards and accolades. His Uptown was the winner of the Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Award and a Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration in 2001. Freedom River by Doreen Rappaport received a Coretta Scott King Honor in 2001 and Martin's Big Words, also written by Rappaport earned him a Caldecott Honor Medal and another Coretta Scott King Award in 2002.
Although much of his work is firmly grounded in the Harlem landscape, Bryan came to New York from Maryland to study art at the famed Pratt Institute. During college he volunteered to develop an art program for young patients at the Harlem Hospital. Eventually the Hospital established the Harlem Horizon Art Studio http://www.columbia.edu/cu/record21/record2117.34.html http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/01/02/harlem_horizon_art.html http://www.freshartnyc.org/bios.html and after graduation from Pratt in 1989 Bryan was hired as its director. There he found that children were his teachers. "They're just totally free. And in that you see their inhibitions are gone. It goes directly to the visceral nature of creating." [7] He later worked with children to create thirteen murals in parks, playgrounds and schools around Harlem.
Certainly the textured landscapes of the inner city are brilliantly evoked in his collage and paint illustrations. He brought that sensibility to books for children when he saw there were few books that represented the world he knew. "They didn't look or feel or sound like me or my kids or my people. So that sort of sparked the idea that I could do this if I ever got a shot."[8] He credits Andrea Pinkney, the editor of his first book These Hands (written by Hope Lynne Price), with encouraging him to take risks in his books. He reports, "She said, 'take at least one chance in the book.' And that sort of lit me up because I was like 'Okay, I'm going to take every chance, I mean just being as honest as you can about a situation in the book.' "
Bryan's honesty extends to both pictures and words and has resulted in a fresh, vibrant, and emotionally powerful style. His work has not only captured awards but also has captivated audiences of all ages and all cultures. We hope this young illustrator has many more stories to tell in the coming years.
If oral tradition could be thought of as a tree of the world with branches representing the stories of all its thousands of cultures, then Joseph Bruchac has called upon deep roots in that tree in his career as author, storyteller and musician. Joseph has drawn from his ancestral roots in the Abenaki culture for his life's inspiration (although he has also been influenced by his English and Slovakian heritage). His Abenaki roots have also inspired his many novels and retellings of Native American tales and poems. In addition, he is rooted to a place that has nurtured his family for several generations: his family's stories must still echo within the walls of his home in the Adirondack
mountains, the same home where he was raised by his maternal grandparents. These roots have given Joseph a special sensibility he passes on to children through his many books, to audiences through his performances of traditional and contemporary music, and to his community through his efforts to preserve Abenaki culture language and skills. In Native American tradition, his projects have been a family effort. Joseph's wife Carol and their two sons, James and Jesse, have collaborated on many of his books and projects including performing with him in the Dawnland Singers.
It wasn't until Joseph was in his teens he began to be interested in his Abenaki heritage. His family had talked little about his Native American roots when he was younger. Joseph explains that everybody in the county knew that his grandfather "was an Indian. It was taken for granted -- but he would not talk about it because there was a lot of shame connected with being dark skinned, being a native." (p. 29)[9] When he began to meet other Native Americans in his teens Joseph became fascinated with the Indian languages as well as cultures and he became determined to devote a portion of his life to seeing that all cultures were valued and respected.
Having earned a bachelor's degree from Cornell University and a master's degree from Syracuse, Joseph and his wife Carol went to Africa to teach for three years. When they returned to his childhood home they threw themselves into the literary world by establishing the Greenfield Review Press http://greenfieldreview.org/ and the Greenfield Review, a literary magazine that published multicultural poetry and stories.
During this time Joseph was collecting Iroquois legends to tell to his sons and in 1975 he published many of these in Turkey Brother and Other Tales. The collection was well received by critics and when Joseph began telling the stories from memory at book signings his career as a storyteller for young people was launched. Since that time he has published over seventy books. His titles for children include many Native American stories and poems from the oral tradition including Songs from the Earth on Turtle's Back, The First Strawberries, and How the Chipmunk Got His Stripes; an autobiography, Bowman's Store; works of contemporary fiction, The Heart of a Chief and Eagle Song; and historical fiction, Arrow Over the Door and The Winter People. He won a Horn Book Honor Award for The Boy who Lived with the Bears and his books appear consistently on the Notable Books in the Field of Social Studies list compiled by the National Council of Social Studies. He has received the Knickerbocker Award for Juvenile Literature from the State of New York, the David McCord Children's Literature citation for the body of his work, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writer's Circle of the Americas.
All of Joseph's many works pay homage to his Native American roots. In an interview, he spoke to author Ann Hauprich of how Natives and Non Natives alike need to create a sense of self. "Have pride in what you are and recognize that we as human beings make ourselves. Our possibilities are not limited by what our family was or by what other people say we are."[10] In his many books, his preservation activities and his performances, Joseph Bruchac and family would have made his grandfather proud.
T. A. Barron's own life story bears a striking resemblance to the mythic quests that lay at the heart of his many works of fantasy. Barron grew up on a ranch in Colorado where his youthful experiences there led to his lifelong passion for environmental concerns. But as a young man he journeyed from the meadows and mountains of the west to the towering cities of the east, earning a bachelors degree at Princeton and then a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford University. For some years he worked in the concrete canyons of New York City, eventually serving as president of a venture capital firm. Despite his success, Barron seems to have felt something missing from his life.
He states that he had always loved writing and during college and back-packing trips through Asia, Africa, and the Arctic, he wrote stories and poems that were influenced by the magic of the places he visited. Even during his frenetic years in New York he tried to continue getting up before dawn to write. In 1990 Barron turned his back on a highly successful career. Supported by his wife Currie, Barron moved their family of five children back to Colorado so that he could write full time. The proof of his success lies in his many published books, the awards they have garnered and his obvious air of happiness and fulfillment.
Barron argues that, "each of us has to raise our voices in the way we can, and my way is the bard and the storyteller. Maybe a few tales I tell might help change people's views, raise people's sights, give people a sense of the hero that's in themselves. Then I've done my job."[1] He also claims that "this job description is totally compatible with being a present and totally silly Dad" with his children. In addition to accolades, writing has given him the greatest treasure of all, time with his family.
Although Barron's most notable works have been in the genre of fantasy, he dislikes that term. The term "fantasy" has baggage, Barron asserts, "because its easy to do fantasy badly. What you really have to do is create another world that comes alive. You have to make it real and true. The only way to do that that I know you have to do the detail work. You have to build a structure like Tolkein, L'Engle, LeGuin. It can be a different logic from our world but it has to feel true on the level of the senses, the emotions and then--the big one--on the level of the spirit."
Barron suggests that the term "mythic quest" is a better descriptor of this type of fiction than the word "fantasy". The word "mythic," he explains, strikes into human experiences that people have had over different times, races, cultures, and genders--something deeply true about human experience." Mythic "Quest" signifies "an adventure, an exciting voyage of discovery."
This phrase most certainly describes the essence of Barron's many books. On all their mythic quests, Barron's characters, male and female, discover that the treasure that lies at the end of their journeys are the previously unknown qualities of courage or perseverance and wisdom that make a hero.
Although he has been asked if he will return to Fincaira and the world of Merlin that he so adeptly created in "The Lost Years of Merlin" series, Barron feels that Merlin's story is complete. He declares that he does want to return to this cycle of myth "but into a whole new place, the place of Avalon." Child of the Dark Prophecy will begin a new series and enter Avalon a thousand years after has receded into another world. Some of the characters from Fincayra will live on but a new character, Tamwyn, the lost grandson of Merlin, will be the central figure. Barron enthusiastically relates, "I'm having the greatest time inventing languages, peoples, characters, some who are friendly to humans others unfriendly." He declares more seriously, "what I want the book to be about is the dangers of human arrogance, the kind that says we are the only ones who have a pathway to God." The counter to that belief he says is to present "the combination of humility and compassion that is open to other truths." In addition Barron want to raise another question in the series, "humanities relationship with nature."
Looking back on his life's journey, Barron states, "I would never have had the confidence to think I could write books that people would want to read. I'm still amazed by that--seeing all those faces in bookstores and classrooms and at conferences." It is easy to predict that as T. A Barron remains faithful to his long held passion for the natural world and the world of story Barron will continue to delight and enlighten readers in his many books to come.
[1] All quotes in this profile were from
a personal interviews or correspondence with T. A. Barron
The title of one of Janet Wong's many books is You Have to Write. Although the book is addressed to helping children overcome writers' block, the title would also be appropriate for her autobiography. Janet has discovered that she really does have to write in order to be happy. This understanding did not come easily or early, however. Janet, the daughter of a Korean mother and Chinese American father, was the first person in her family to go to college.
She attended the University of California where she received a BA in history and graduated summa cum laude. During her college years she studied art history in France and then returned to found the UCLA Immigrant Children's Art Project, a program that worked with refugee children in the Los Angeles area. After graduation she was off to the east coast and Yale University where she received her J.D. degree, directed the Yale Law and Technology Association and worked for New Haven Legal Aid. With her law degree in hand she seemed to be on the fast track to success and wealth when she returned to California and began to practice corporate law. She worked for GTE and Universal Studios in Los Angeles and was promoted to the position of director of labor relations at Universal. At this point, however, she began to question the road she had taken. At Universal, Janet explains, "I was in charge of negotiating union contracts and firing people. One day I came home and said to my husband, 'You know I think I'm becoming a mean person.' I was 29 and I thought, 'what good is all that money if you're not happy.'"[2] Janet says that she tried to think of something important she could do with her life and that there was nothing more important that she could think of than working with kids. But she had worked as a substitute teacher while she was in New Haven and she knew she "couldn't survive in a classroom." One day when she was looking for a gift for a friend in a children's bookstore she ended up buying a whole stack of children's books for herself. "Someone has to write these books," she thought. "Maybe I could do that." Janet talked this over with her husband. She promised him, "I'm going to do this for a year. If at the end of the year I hadn't sold a book I'll go back to practicing law." She recalls, "My parents though I was a lunatic," but she approached her task as if it were a business. She took classes, did research, joined the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (http://www.scbwi.org/), and wrote and wrote and wrote. At the end of the year there was no contract. But her wonderful husband told her, "If you love it keep doing it." She did love it and she kept at it and after a year and a half she was given a contract for her first book, Good Luck Gold. As of this writing she has more than 17 books in print, books aimed at audiences from toddlers to adults. Most of her writing takes the form of poetry, including the upcoming, Minn and Jake, a novel in poems. Her poem, "Albert J. Bell" from a Suitcase of Seaweed was one of those chosen for the Poetry in Motion project and appeared on 5,000 subways and buses in New York City. Poems from Behind the Wheel were featured on a car-talk radio program.
Janet's cultural heritage has played a big part in her writing, inspiring books like Suitcase of Seaweed, The Trip Back Home, Apple Pie Fourth of July and other books. She states, "Culture is more about habit than anything else. Our habits, routines rituals-whether daily or annual, ours or those of our grandparents--these show who we are. In my writing I like to focus on the various cultures that define who I am now and who I was as a child."[3] This belief means that a book like Buzz reflects the routines of her own contemporary household while The Trip Back Home dwells on her grandparents' routine in rural Korea. Wherever she places her pen, or sends her imagination, Janet takes obvious delight in writing. Her courageous choice to turn her back on a high status career because she "had to write" is Hollywood's loss but our immeasurable gain.
[2] Unless otherwise noted the quotes in this profile were taken from personal interviews or correspondence with Janet. [3] "Author at a Glance, Janet S. Wong." Biographical handout, Harcourt Children's Books.
Jacqueline Woodson was born in Columbus, Ohio but lived most of her youth in moving between South Carolina and Brooklyn, where she still resides. She credits one of her seventh grade teachers with encouraging her belief that she could be a writer and in 1985 she graduated from college with a BA in English. Even before then, Jacqueline knew she wanted to write. She explains, "I knew there were stories I wanted to tell, things I wanted to say. I wanted clarity. I wanted to be able to create a world in which I had all the answers, in which I could make up my own endings." (p. 560)[4] Perhaps this feeling was due in part to her perceived status as an outsider.
Raised in a very strict Jehovah's Witness household, Jacqueline was not able to celebrate birthdays or holidays, or pledge to the flag. When birthdays were celebrated in class she had to leave the room until the party was over. As an adolescent of color she felt even more alienated from mainstream culture. She states, "I began to challenge teachers, and when they couldn't give me the answers I wanted I became even more isolated."(p.240)[5]
As an adult Jacqueline has achieved her childhood dream, creating moving books about other outsiders -- minorities, gays, the poor. She explains, "I write about black girls because this world would like to keep us invisible. I write about all girls because I know what happens to self esteem when you turn twelve, and I hope to show readers the number of ways in which we are strong." (p 241)[6] Her novels do not shy away from difficult issues faced by so many young people today. She feels that she writes her books grow out of who she is as a person, not out of a particular ethnic community. She classifies her novels as "good" books and books that are more problematic and deal with issues like sex abuse and homosexuality that make some adults uncomfortable. Her first books, a trilogy that began with Last Summer with Maizon, are books about a close friendship between two African American girls and are what she refers to as her "good" books. With The Dear One Jacqueline dealt with teen pregnancy and includes a lesbian couple among the characters was among her more controversial books. Although she noted a sharp drop in speaking engagements when The Dear One was published Jacqueline has continued to deal with topics that are important to adolescents. Her I Hadn't Meant to tell you this revolves around the issue of sexual abuse. From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun and The House You Pass on the Way present a male protagonist who has difficulty dealing with his mother's lesbianism and his confusion about his own sexuality. Whether her books fall in the "good" or "Controversial" category none of them are one dimensional problem novels. Her characters are complex individuals who represent a broad spectrum of cultural venues and economic classes.
In a career that is really just getting started (Last Summer with Maizon, her first novel, was published in 1990) Jacqueline also contributed to her community. She has worked as a drama therapist with runaway and homeless children, taught in the MFA program and Goddard College and spent part of each summer at a writing camp for underprivileged children. She has also garnered accolades and awards for her many books. Including the Coretta Scott King award for Miracle's Boys. Jacqueline credits Author Virginia Hamilton for opening her eyes to the possibility that her African American culture could be represented in books for young people. With her many powerful and award winning books Jacqueline is a worthy successor to Hamilton's legacy of excellence.
[4] Op cit, Rockman [5] Something About the Author, Vol 94. Gale p. 240 [6] ibid
Author Janet Hickman's gentle, quiet demeanor belies a sharp intellect and quick wit. Janet has brought these qualities to the many books she has written. Although she has published novels for older readers in the genres of realistic fiction and fantasy, her true passion seems to be for writing historical fiction.
Janet was born and grew up in Kilbourne, Ohio, and has lived in the same house in Columbus, Ohio for more than thirty-five years. Perhaps it is these deep and stable family roots that have inspired her love of history. How her interest in history came about was not a result of the school curriculum. She explains, "Some children say they don't like history because it's boring. I was one of those children. Looking back on it now, I realize it was mastering and spitting back the textbook that I didn't like. I did like history but the parts I liked I thought of as play not work."[11]
The works of historical fiction she read as a child, including Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" books seem to have fueled her passion. Even more important than her love of history were her grandparents' stories. Janet remembers her grandmother's tales about the one-room schoolhouse she attended as a girl and the sacrifices the family was forced to make during the Great Depression. Janet also remembers tales about her great-grandfather's experiences in the Civil War. When she visited the Ohio State Historical Society's museum as a ten-year-old Janet found herself fascinated by the family of mannequins who posed in the replica of a late 18th century cabin. She reveals, "I secretly longed to move the figures from fireplace to table, from bench to bed, to take them through their daily chores or to play out what would happen if the baby had a fever or a wild animal clawed at the door."[12]
Her love of creating fictional stories grounded in real times and places has stayed with Janet throughout her life just as she has stayed rooted in Ohio. She attended The Ohio State University to obtain a Bachelor of Science degree, graduating in 1960. Soon after she married John Hickman, whom she had met at the University. While she and John raised their two children, Janet returned to Ohio State University two more times. In 1964 she earned a MA. Ed and in 1979 she earned a PhD in Language Literature and Reading. Early in her career she taught junior high school and later was an instructor at Ohio State University before being hired as a full time professor of children's literature in 1985.
During these years of parenting, teaching, and studying Janet was also writing. Janet recalls that the idea she could write books for children did not occur to her until she gave her eighth graders an assignment to write a short story based on the information in the chapter they'd been assigned to read. She remembers the students complained so much that she promised she would do the assignment as well, "just to prove it wasn't so bad." [13](p. 77). Her students loved her story and it became her first published work when it was sold to a classroom magazine. Her first full-length novel, The Valley of the Shadow, was published in 1974. The book is centered around a real incident, the massacre of Christianized Indians in Ohio caught between the British and Colonial conflict territory in 1781. Her story was grounded in meticulous research that included diaries of early Moravian missionaries and even weather reports of the time. Other works of historical fiction followed. Although Ohio remained the setting in the other books, the time periods ranged from the Civil War in Zoar Blue, to an early nineteenth century Shaker community in Susannah, to World War II in The Stones. Although her book Ravine is not strictly historical fiction, it is a time travel fantasy and the main character's mother happens to be a college professor who is performing historical research. Janet's most recent work of contemporary fiction, Jericho, is also deeply rooted in the stories of several generations of a family living in Ohio.
About her fascination for history she declares, "For me, historical research is absolutely seductive. It usually begins when my imagination catches on some simple piece of information that I've discovered by chance at an historical site (which I love to visit) or in a book or magazine article about the past. It might be a passing reference to a young person or to someone's children, but without any names provided because history doesn't keep very good records of the young. Then I start wondering about all the particulars that lie behind this simple information--Who were these children? What were their lives like? How were they connected to the events and circumstances of their time? I start trying to track down those answers by reading everything I can, and the more sources dating back to that historical period, the better. On-site explorations are especially good, not just for the experience of the place, but because local libraries or museums often provide unique resources and fascinating people to talk to. Although I'm not an artist, I often take along a pad for making sketches as well as taking notes. It's easy for me to get so totally engaged in this treasure hunt for information that I put off the very different work of beginning the story." [14]
It seems obvious that Janet Hickman's many books grow out of her deep attachment to the story in history. This attachment to the story, she believes, can be nourished by teachers. Emphasizing the story in history is "one good way to make it seem close, immediate, and real enough to interest children in the larger issues that we know they need to consider. "[15] Certainly, Janet Hickman's books and the story of her research can be a good way to inspire children to read and to write about history.
[11] Janet Hickman. Put the Story in History. Instructor Magazine, November/December 1990. pp 22-24 [12] ibid [13] Something About the Author V 127 p 76-77 [14] personal communication, April 16, 2003 [15] Op cit Hickman, p24
Author Penny Colman is passionate about nonfiction, and her love for the genre dates back to her childhood. She recalls, "I grew up in a nonfiction loving home, and I raised three nonfiction loving children."[16] Although she has written both fiction and nonfiction, Penny takes the greatest satisfaction in presenting the complexity, richness, and beauty of the human realm of experience using nonfiction in a way that is both informative as well as engaging to children and young adults.
Penny grew up in an unusual household. Her mother was a painter and her father was a psychiatrist. Because her father's profession dictated the family's domiciles many of Penny's childhood memories were set on the grounds of state mental hospitals. In fact, when Penny was eleven, her family was the subject of an article in Redbook Magazine that described
"The Strangest Place to Find a Happy Family." She remembers growing up in a "very noisy family" that was always into sports and outdoor activities but also found time to play in a family orchestra. Her own three sons, Jonathan and twins David and Stephen, were only a year apart so "they were noisy too! And always into something--backyard basketball and break-dancing. They sang all the time and even performed in a nightclub in New York City."[17] Those early experiences eventually led son Stephen to a role on Broadway as a performer in Russell Simmon's "Def Poetry Jam."
Despite her unconventional upbringing, Penny took a conventional path for some years. She attended the University of Michigan where she received a BA with distinction in 1966. She completed an M. A T. at Johns Hopkins in 1967 and did postgraduate work at the University of Oklahoma and New York University. She married a Presbyterian minister and spent many years raising their three children as well as serving in and developing community action groups. She served as executive director of the Center for Food Action in Englewood, NJ and was appointed to the New Jersey Commission on Hunger in 1986. Her lifelong commitment to women's issues, human rights, and social justice has shaped the choices of subject matter in her books, including her first nonfiction book for children, Breaking the Chains: The Crusade of Dorothea Lynde Dix and the many others that followed.
In all her works of nonfiction Penny maintains a fierce devotion to the truth, to insure that nothing is made up. Penny explains, " All of my books are based on extensive research. My process is eclectic and never ending. I find material everywhere, including archives, attics, libraries, used bookstores, museums, historic sites, and conversations with all sorts of people including scholars and people with first-hand experience. I build a bibliography, compile a chronology, and take seemingly endless notes. Every project gets its own black file box or file drawer, and eventually its own room, especially when I am doing photo research or taking photographs."[18]
All this research could be deadly dull in the hands of most writers but Penny brings her passion for nonfiction to the art of writing as well as research. She carefully plans the structure of each book, which she compares to the plot in fiction. She explains, "Good nonfiction has structure and substructures, or macro- and microstructures...As I shape the structure I also search for the essence of the story, the emotional insight, the cognitive concept that I want to illuminate. My search is driven by the sound of my voice in my head repeating, 'what's the point Penny? What's the point? Why are you compiling these facts and true stories?' "[19]
Penny's skill as an author allows all of her books to give readers a powerful aesthetic experience with nonfiction as well as inform them in enlightening ways. Her many books belie the belief, held by many teachers and children, that nonfiction is boring. Penny Colman's award winning books are living testament to her conviction that nonfiction is literature, too.
[16] Penny Colman. "Nonfiction is Literature, Too." The New Advocate. V 12 #3 Summer 1999 215-223 [17] Something About the Author V 114 pp 32-35 [18] op cit Colman [19] ibid
Elizabeth Partridge is a woman of many talents. Not only has she published award-winning books for children, but she has also studied Chinese medicine and is a licensed acupuncturist. In 1974 she was the first person to graduate from the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in women's studies.
Elizabeth's first book for children, Clara and the Hoodoo Man, was a book of fiction for younger readers. She has published many picture books, but her passion seems to lie in biographies. There is probably good reason for this, as the subject of her first biography, Restless Spirit: The Life and Work of Dorothea Lange was her godmother. Elizabeth's father, Ron Partridge, was Dorothea's assistant and Elizabeth reports her family spent most
of their holidays at Dorothea's house. She remembers Dorothea very well, but although Elizabeth admired and respected Dorothea she recalls as a child she kept her distance. Dorothea was "tough, difficult, extremely demanding. The closer you were the more she demanded. But she demanded the most from herself."
Elizabeth says she chose to write a biography about Dorothea because she had never known her as an adult. Elizabeth also had incredible access to others who knew Dorothea and to collections of her photos and proof sheets. Elizabeth explains that the biography "gave her a chance to look into Dorothea's life to see what made her what she was."
Following the awards and accolades for Restless Sprit, Elizabeth took time to create several picture book manuscripts. At the same time she and her editor at Viking Publishers began to search for another biographical subject they both wanted to work on. Elizabeth argues that "working on a long biography you have to be fascinated with the subject." She reports in such an undertaking the editor plays a critical role so you both have to be willing to spend time with the subject. When her editor suggested Woody Guthrie as a subject, Elizabeth wasn't sure that he was the right choice. Elizabeth recalls that she knew very little about Woody, just the opposite of her familiarity with Dorothea Lange. However, once she started researching Woody's life Elizabeth was hooked, as she found him fascinating. She reports, "He could take any situation and boil it down into a song."
This Land Was Made for You and Me: The Life and Music of Woody Guthrie took Elizabeth three long years to complete. "I used to get frustrated and angry with him. Writing is very intense. You get into this translucent world as a writer. One world is your real world, the other is this translucent world where you're living in that other person's life." In Woody's case it was very difficult for Elizabeth because Woody had such a tragic life, and because he treated people very badly at times (the result of his progressive Huntington's Disease). Elizabeth recalls how over her desk she had a picture of Woody that seemed to stare back at her and say" Hurry up! Why can't you finish this book?" And Elizabeth would retort, "Woody, Shut up!"
As she came to write about the end of Woody's life Elizabeth found the story was so sad she couldn't finish the book. At this point, however, she had the opportunity to interview Woody's son Arlo. Reluctant to share much of a personal nature at first, Arlo finally recalled a time when his band was on tour and their bus passed the hospital where Woody had been a patient. Arlo broke down as he recalled the big tree outside the hospital where he and his siblings used to wait while their mother visited Woody. Elizabeth realized what it must have cost Arlo to be attached to his father. She also felt that Arlo's confidence and his "vulnerability was a gift to me. It helped me finish the story." The book has gone on to be nominated for the National Book Award and to garner many other accolades.
Elizabeth reports she hopes her books will have an effect on her readers. "What I want is for kids to think. My parents and godparents taught me to observe, to analyze. They've given me the freedom to think critically in my life that I would like to share with kids. I'm writing for the kid in Kansas City who is an outsider, not coping in school, can't understand why people are pushing him in a direction he doesn't want to go. When someone assigns him a biography I'm hoping a librarian will give him Woody's and that kid will get something out of the biography that he's not finding in his life."
Sophia Ali has learned about the power of reading aloud to children and put it into practice in a unique way. Sophie, the daughter of a Pakistani father and American mother, grew up in Pakistan but went to college in the United States. Following graduation, she went to work as a production assistant for an Italian film company, and from there she moved to California where for fourteen years she worked as a film and television producer for Orion, Paramount, and Universal studios. In 1998 after the death of a close friend, she began to question the direction that her life had taken and decided she wanted to do something with her talents that would give something back to the world. Leaving Hollywood behind, Sophie went back to Pakistan and found there were no programs for children on Pakistani television. Sophie set about producing a show for children similar to PBS's Sesame Street and Storytime. Trying to get funding was a real problem, as most companies who might sponsor the program did not believe that there was a market for children's television. In addition, she faced a military coup and a US embargo on funds. Spending most of her own money on materials and sets, Sophie found a core of volunteers who helped her produce a pilot of Kahani Corner (Story Corner).
The Human Rights Education Program (HREP) http://www.hrep.com.pk/default.htm gave her enough money to fund a pilot program and eventually Shell Oil Corporation and the British government provided funding for thirteen half-hours shows.
Sophie chose 26 picture books from around the world. She had these translated into Urdu and, after another battle to get permissions from publishers, she was ready to film. To host the program Sophie enlisted the help of a well-known Pakistani star, Marina Khan and a puppet named Cheeko. In each episode Marina read two books to an audience of children, both boys and girls. After each reading the children enthusiastically discussed the books with Marina and Cheeko. The show was a huge success in Pakistan and throughout the region. In order to provide the broadest possible coverage to Pakistani children, Sophie produced a radio version for those areas of the country that did not have access to television. During the broadcasts Sophie was always worried that Pakistani censors would object to the books she chose, which had subtle themes about peace and understanding. She was also doing something subversive in giving young girls equal weight with boys on the show. She surmises that the show was ignored because it was for children and they were just not taken seriously.
In 2000, Sophie returned to the United States where she received a Master's degree in Child Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University. Her thesis, which dealt with the psychological effects of war on Afghan refugee children, led to a new project. Encouraged by the reception of her Kahani Corner, Sophie is currently seeking funding to produce a Story Corner for Afghanistan. http://www.hrep.com.pk/kahani.htm
The Afghan government has now given permission to produce the show and to film in Kabul, and Sophie hopes to get funding for twice as many shows, to be broadcast on both television and radio. This time books will need to be translated into both Pathto and Farsi. Sophie also plans to use an Afghan film crew in order provide technical training in film production that will stay in the country.
Through her courageous struggles to bring good stories to children who have been previously denied access, Sophie Ali has clearly demonstrated the power of reading aloud. By choosing picture books from around the world, she links the important human themes that cross all borders. Furthermore, in providing children the chance to respond to these stories on camera she subtly demonstrates that good books can break down the barriers of gender, culture, and class.
