Author Interview: Skila Brown

by Cordelia Jensen

Today's interview is with Skila Brown, debut author. Her Middle Grade verse novel Caminar hit the shelves in March. It has received starred reviews from the Horn Book and School Library Journal. Here's a summary of the book:

Set in 1981 Guatemala, a lyrical debut novel tells the powerful tale of a boy who must decide what it means to be a man during a time of war.

Carlos knows that when the soldiers arrive with warnings about the Communist rebels, it is time to be a man and defend the village, keep everyone safe. But Mama tells him not yet—he’s still her quiet moonfaced boy. The soldiers laugh at the villagers, and before they move on, a neighbor is found dangling from a tree, a sign on his neck: Communist.

Mama tells Carlos to run and hide, then try to find her. . . . Numb and alone, he must join a band of guerillas as they trek to the top of the mountain where Carlos’s abuela lives. Will he be in time, and brave enough, to warn them about the soldiers? What will he do then? A novel in verse inspired by actual events during Guatemala’s civil war, Caminar is the moving story of a boy who loses nearly everything before discovering who he really is.

Thanks for joining us on the Big Blue Marble Bookstore blog, Skila! I just finished reading your beautiful book, Caminar. I had the privilege of reading an earlier version, which made the reading (and holding) of the final product that much more amazing. Your book has been receiving sensational reviews (no surprise), so, also, many congratulations on those.

Thank you for having me, Cordelia, and for those kind words. It’s an honor to be here!

What was your initial inspiration for this story? Tell us about how and where it began.

I’d spent ten years reading about the terrible violence in Guatemala, but I never had the intention of writing a story about it. I had several novels in draft form that I was writing, but nothing was really working. Shelley Tanaka, my writing mentor at the time, asked if there wasn’t something I cared more about. Wasn’t there some story I might have hidden away in my heart that I needed to put on the page instead? Turns out there was.

How did you make the decision for Carlos to be an only child? How did that seem integral to his journey?

I don’t remember ever considering a sibling for Carlos. In an earlier draft, he had a father who had been ‘disappeared’ by the Army, though I later whittled that away. I knew it was only Carlos and his mama in his family. I just had that feeling in my gut early on.

I really like the “animal spirit” theme in the book and how Carlos finds his own guide. It gives a sort of playful quality to the book which is, obviously, a serious book overall. Did you play around with a few animals before choosing one? Or was there always one?

It was always an owl. Long before I knew nahuales would make an appearance in the story, I had printed off a picture of an owl and taped it to my notebook. I thought of Carlos like the owl—always watching, perched in a tree, easy to pass over if you aren’t paying attention. It was only when he was literally in that tree and I knew he needed something to look at, something to focus on, that I realized it would be the owl.

Do you have an animal you feel spiritually connected to?

Jellyfish are my favorite animals on the planet. I could spend all day watching a jellyfish move through water. It’s mesmerizing and so calming.

My favorite part of your poetry style is the way you carve white space with your words. The shape of your poems so often reflect the imagery and/or content of the poem. Is this an energizing part of writing for you?

Yes! It’s so fun. I don’t think about shape when I’m drafting a poem; it’s only in revision that I start to play with space and stanza. And that’s always my favorite part.

What draws you to the verse novel form in general?

There’s no fluff in a verse novel. It’s potent, sparse language that cuts to the heart of the emotion without wasting words. I like that novels in verse are accessible to a wide range of readers. They can be a fast page-turner for the reluctant reader or a slow story to savor for someone else. They often leave things unsaid, making it digestible for a wide range of ages.

Anything else you would like us to know about this book?

I’ve had more than one person ask me if this story is really appropriate for a ten-year old child. The answer is a resounding yes. It’s about a tragedy, yes, but it’s also about growing up, facing fears, figuring out the right thing to do. The violence in the story happens off-screen and without graphic detail. I’d encourage teachers and parents to read this first, if they have doubts that a particular reader is ready for the story, but I think we need to give kids the credit they're due. They can handle more than we realize. And stories about survival can be a reassurance for a child reader.

Any other upcoming projects?

I have two books forthcoming with Candlewick—a second novel in verse out next year and a picture book collection of poetry about sharks out in 2016.

And now for our “3 for 3” book-related questions. What were 3 of your favorite books when you were a child/teen?

I was a huge fan of Shel Silverstein and read to my kids now from the dog-eared copy of A Light in the Attic that I had as a child. I read Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret at least a dozen times as a kid. And I’m fairly certain I owned the entire Sweet Valley High collection. (I was Elizabeth – wishing I were Jessica.)

What are 3 books you have read recently that surprised you?

I am always surprised by books because I never read summaries or jacket flaps or even blurbs—I just open them up and dive right in, not knowing what to expect at all. Recently, I loved Amy Timberlake’s One Came Home. The tone of the story was such a surprise to me as it wasn’t what I expected from the cover. P.S. Be Eleven by Rita Williams-Garcia surprised me because it’s so rare to find a sequel even better than its predecessor. Finally, I’ll have to go with Two Boys Kissing. Just when I think David Levithan can’t get any more brilliant, he goes and writes another piece of spectacular.

What are 3 books that influence/d your writing?

Only three?! That seems incredibly unfair. The first three that pop into my head are: George Ella Lyon’s Where I’m From, Katherine Applegate’s Home of the Brave, and Encounter by Jane Yolen (illustrated by David Shannon.)

 Thanks, Skila!

Skila Brown holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She grew up in Kentucky and Tennessee, lived for a bit in Guatemala, and now resides with her family in Indiana. Caminar is her first novel. You can find her at www.skilabrown.com

Thanks for reading!!! If you're local to the area, please let the bookstore know if you would like to order a copy of Caminar. You can email orders to orders [at] bigbluemarblebooks [dot] com, call (215) 844-1870, or come see us at 551 Carpenter Lane, in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Next up on 5/13: Jill Santopolo, author of the new Sparkle Spa series.

Author Interview: Delia Sherman

by Jennifer Sheffield

Hi, Delia! Congratulations on the recent paperback release of The Freedom Maze! Here is my synopsis of the book:

Slated to spend the summer on her family's sugar plantation in Louisiana, 13-year-old Sophie wishes for a storybook adventure and is sent back in time by 100 years. In Sophie's own 1960, there is no question of who is black and who is white. It has never occurred to her that in 1860, tanned and barefoot, she might be taken for a slave in her own ancestral home...

I was excited to learn last fall that the paperback was finally coming out this year. I’m curious about what it’s like when you have a book published in hardcover by one publisher and in paper by another.

Believe it or not, when I first got into publishing, it was pretty much standard operating procedure for a paperback house (like Ace, Berkley, or Pocket Books) to buy reprint rights to previously published hardcovers. Now that the publishing business has changed, this is far more unusual, but it still does happen. In this case, it was because a small press like Big Mouth House doesn’t have the time, money, or personnel to send out all the free copies and file all the paperwork necessary to get a book into schools and libraries, which is where we all agreed that The Freedom Maze belonged. Things have worked out perfectly—for me, anyway. Kelly Link, who has been cheering me through TFM since I first started working on it 20 years ago, was the perfect editor for it, and Candlewick, with their impressive roots in the children’s book world, is the perfect distributor.

While I think of you mostly as a New Yorker, I know that you spent time in Louisiana while growing up. How did your own experiences influence Sophie’s character and the development of her story?

Since my father was from South Carolina and my mother had family in both Texas and Louisiana, there are ways in which I grew up in the South even though I actually lived in New York. Take my family’s views on race. Although Papa held extremely progressive views for his age and background, Mama was a little more, shall we say, conservative, as were most of her relatives. One of my aunts, for instance, came back from Africa full of indignation about about how bad Africans smelled (which made me wonder why she would go in the first place, but people are strange, right?). Add to this the fact that none of the African-Americans I met, either in the North or the South, conformed in the smallest detail to the stereotypes my southern relatives described, and you got a kid who did a lot of thinking about prejudice, blind assumptions, and privilege. My life-long wrestling with these issues is reflected in Sophie’s story, as are my thoughts on Being A Lady, how to define Family, and the importance of Blood and Heredity—all of which are more important (or at least more discussed) in the South of my youth than in the New York of today.

I really like reading about Sophie’s friend Canny and her family. It's always good to have people on your side when you're in a new and overwhelming reality! How did they come to be? Did you create the family all together, or did the characters come along separately?

I tend to make up characters as I need them. And since I adore making up characters, the problem, really, is keeping them down to a manageable number. My favorites arrive fully fledged and determine the course of the narrative. For instance, I knew Oak River needed a cook because every plantation needs a cook. I began to write and Africa appeared on the page and kind of took over. And of course she had to have a family, and of course they turned out to be interesting, active folks. It took me a while to get to know Ned and Poland and Flanders, but Canny, like her mother, was always very much herself.

The Freedom Maze tackles complicated issues of race relations and racial identity. And while Sophie herself is certainly coming to her travels from a world of white privilege, she is surrounded by people who aren't. How did you approach the task of writing the stories of your African American characters living in slavery? What kinds of reactions have you had from readers?

Research, research, and more research. I read social histories, memoirs, slave narratives, plantation documents. I went to plantation and folk-life museums in Louisiana (I recommend one in Baton Rouge particularly) and asked a lot of questions of the docents. I had conversations about civil rights, white privilege, writing the other, the religion of Voodoo, weaving, sewing, and cooking in the 19th century, sugar culture and manufacture with friends, experts, and historians of all colors, ages, and backgrounds. I gave my manuscript to kind and rigorous readers, and listened to what they had to say, and I talked with them about how I could fix (or at least address) its problematical parts without compromising the story I wanted to tell. On the whole, readers' reactions have been wonderfully positive. I have done a couple of talks after which a reader has asked me how a fair-skinned child (even one with a tan) could possibly be taken for a slave, and on both occasions, the questioner has been white. There has also been a little discussion about whether Sophie is a White Savior.

Having heard you read aloud -- both from Freedom Maze and from your other works -- a number of times, I know you have a particular ear for language and dialect. What was it like coming up with the different voices for your characters?

Fun. One of the things I’ve always noticed about people is how they speak. Even in the most casual conversation, the language a person uses reveals something about their education, interests, experience, social context, age, even character. For me, language is a method of characterization. If I know what a character looks like and how she talks, I’ve pretty much got her. That said, sometimes I have to do a bit of writing and rewriting to pin down a character’s voice. You don’t want too many crabby old ladies (or at least not crabby in the same way), for instance, or characters who are nothing but mean or helpful or sassy or comforting. You want people who sound like they have a life when they’re not talking to your hero. Varying the way they speak helps with that.

One of the things I love about The Freedom Maze is that at the end (only mild spoiler, I think) there is clear evidence – both to readers and to Sophie's family -- that the adventure was real. No one tries to convince Sophie to dismiss her tale as a dream or the product of wild imaginings. Did you do this deliberately, or did it just flow from the progression of the story?

A little bit of both, actually. Sophie doesn’t really expect anyone to believe her, so she doesn’t tell anyone but Aunt Enid. She only tells her because she’s tired and sad and can’t think of a plausible lie. She also knows that Aunt Enid absolutely believes in ghosts and strange happenings and magic, even if she is freaked out when confronted with proof that they’re real. Sophie’s actually having aged 6 months was very deliberate indeed. I can remember being utterly disgusted when the Pevensies became children again when they tumbled back through the wardrobe from Narnia. They’d been adults, for Pete’s sake: Kings and Queens with responsibilities and knowledge and experiences under their belts that would have made becoming children again almost impossible to bear. I wasn’t going to do that to my magic adventurer, no siree—especially since I have seen for myself that adolescents do tend to change pretty dramatically once they get going and those closest to them are the least likely to notice (or accept) those changes.

The eponymous maze has an interesting journey itself throughout the book, as it moves from background to forefront and then fades again multiple times. And of course because it’s made of growing things, it looks and feels different in different eras. Have you spent time in places with this kind of living maze?

Nope. I just love the idea of mazes, and always have. I stink at actually figuring them out, except in those puzzles you find in kids’ activity books.

Do you have current or upcoming projects you’d like to tell us about?

I’m delighted to say that The Freedom Maze has just been published in France by Editions Hélium, in a beautiful translation I got to read and comment on. I’m closing in on the last draft of a new middle grade book, this one set in Maine, about a boy who runs away from home and is taken in by an Evil Wizard. It’s got Selkies and werecoyotes and motorcycles and magic in it, it is called The Evil Wizard Smallbone, and it is a lot of fun to write.

And now for our "3 for 3" book questions:

1. What were 3 of your favorite books from childhood/teen years?

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

2. What are 3 books that you've read recently that surprised you?

Adaptation by Malinda Lo
Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black
Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann (which is not a kid’s book, but is absolutely astonishing)

3. What are 3 books that influence/d your work?

The Nine Lives of Christopher Chant by Diana Wynne Jones
The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss
The Five Children and It by Edith Nesbit

Thank you so much for joining us!

photo credit: Augusten Burroughs

Delia Sherman writes short stories and novels for adults and young readers. Several of her short stories have been nominated for the Nebula and World Fantasy Awards, and her most recent novel, The Freedom Maze, received the Andre Norton Award, the Mythopoeic Award, and the Prometheus Award. A collection of her short stories will be published by Small Beer Press in 2014. She has taught many writing workshops, including Clarion, the Hollins University Program in Children's Literature, and Odyssey. She has taught Freshman Comp, worked in a book store, and been a freelance editor. She can write almost anywhere, but prefers cafes and comfy sofas near a source of tea. She lives in New York City with her wife Ellen Kushner and many fine books, most of which at least one of them has read. Besides reading other people's manuscripts and writing her own, favorite occupations are travel, knitting, cooking, and having fun adventures, as long as they don't involve actual dragons.

Thanks for reading!!! If you're local to the area, please let the bookstore know if you would like to order a copy of The Freedom Maze. You can email orders to orders [at] bigbluemarblebooks [dot] com, call (215) 844-1870, or come see us at 551 Carpenter Lane, in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Next up: on April 29th, come check out Cordelia's interview with Skila Brown, author of Caminar.

Grace's Five Best Big Blue Books

So you're looking for a book...and you can't remember the name, or the author, or what it was about. But wait! You are pretty sure the book was blue. I definitely don't know what book you're looking for, but I can recommend all of these big, blue books.

The Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick (HarperCollins, $25.99)
Matthew Quick's novel The Silver Linings Playbook was a Philadelphia book that took Hollywood by storm when the movie adaptation entranced viewers all over the world. Now, Quick has done it again with this quirky, hilarious, and absolutely heartwrenching story that takes place in Philadelphia, with the bonus of a road trip to Canada. Topics such as bipolar disorder, Richard Gere, cute librarians, and aliens are all addressed in this wonderful coming-of-age tale about a 38 year old man navigating life without his mother.

How To Disappear Completely: On Modern Anorexia by Kelsey Osgood (Overlook Press, $26.95)
Kelsey Osgood's book is a special one. The memoir serves as not only a commentary on eating disorder memoirs themselves, but also a genuinely good criticism of recovery culture and modern anorexic life.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (Dutton, $17.99; paperback forthcoming!)
The Fault in Our Stars is the sort of book you immediately start from the beginning again after you finish it. Interwoven with romance, tragedy, illness, and hope, this book is an honest portrait of young people with cancer. Author John Green always manages to make his characters very real, and they will stay in your heart even after you finish the book (twice). Join the YA book club and discuss this amazing book in May 2014!

The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (Tor, $7.99)
This epic fantasy novel is the beginning of a fourteen book series that outlived the author himself. I first received this 800 page book when I was nine years old, and immediately tore through it and what else was released in the series. Note: NOT a children's series.

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin (Bantam Books, $9.99)
You've heard of it. Maybe you've seen the show. But have you read the books? Spoiler alert, they're REALLY GOOD. Join the Read the Movie book club to discuss this amazing book, and also watch the premiere of Season 4, on April 9th at 7:00pm.

Grace Gordon, April 2014

(Some other blue books: Blue book display
from Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston, Texas!
-- Jen)

Interview with Abigail Perkiss, author of Making Good Neighbors

by Grace Gordon

Please join Big Blue Marble Books this Friday, April 4, at 7:00pm, as we welcome Mt. Airy resident Abigail Perkiss in celebration of her new book on the history of integration in postwar Philadelphia. Making Good Neighbors: Civil Rights, Liberalism, and Integration in Postwar Philadelphia examines the history of race, ethnicity, and urban identity in post-WWII American cities, and focuses on the neighborhood of Mt. Airy.

What’s your relationship to Mt. Airy?

My relationship with Mount Airy is two-fold:

First, I lived in the neighborhood until I was nine years old and grew up steeped in the story and legacy of Mount Airy's integration efforts. I moved back in 2005 and have lived here ever since. My husband and I have enjoyed finding and creating a community here as adults, and we're about to add to the newest generation of Mount Airy-ites.

Second, I am an historian and my doctoral dissertation examined West Mount Airy's integration project, from the early 1950s through the turn of the 21st century. This book is based on that research.

At what moment did you decide you wanted to write a book about integration in Philadelphia?

Again, this book stemmed from my doctoral research. I hold a joint JD/PhD from Temple University, and while I was in graduate school, I found that my research interests in both history and law were coming together around issues of civil rights and racial justice, property rights, and community-building. When I began thinking about my dissertation, I knew that I wanted to explore these themes within the broader context of questions of identity formation, community cohesion, and historical memory. West Mount Airy's integration efforts kept emerging as a plot point, pulling together these various threads.

So, my interests in studying the neighborhood stemmed from a desire to understand and engage with both the actual history of post-war American cities and neighborhoods, and the story of Mount Airy's integration project and how that narrative has been constructed and shaped.

What are some things you learned in your research that surprised you?

One of the most compelling stories to me was the marketing of integration. In the early 1960s, once the process of creating integration in the community had been relatively well established, community leaders set out to market the idea of integration to a broader audience, both to attract new like-minded residents to the area and to situate their efforts within broader national and global conversations about racial justice, neighborhood sustainability, and democracy.

In 1962, for instance, West Mount Airy Neighbors hosted 200 individuals from 31 United Nations-member countries, to introduce them to and, in a sense, "sell" residential integration as part of the country's broader Cold War efforts to spread the democratic ideal around the world. Through this UN Delegates Weekend, they turned interracial living into a performance, a brand - an outward manifestation of liberal politics and achieved racial justice.

This vision of the neighborhood was critical to establishing the predominant narrative of Mount Airy's integration project and was disseminated in publications ranging from the New York Times, to McCall's, to Women's Day, to the Christian Science Monitor. It had pretty significant implications for how people within the community conceived of integration as well.

This branding of integration is directly related to another piece of the Mount Airy story: the differences - and at times disconnects - over the meaning of integration among black and white residents of the community. I was struck throughout my research by the ways that racial identity impacted how homeowners thought about interracial living.

For many of the white residents in Mount Airy, living in an integrated community served to legitimate their identities as liberal, urban Americans - again that idea of integration as a performance. At the same time, though, this white conception of integration was grounded in a sense of de facto economic exclusivity attached to middle-class notions of postwar liberalism. The WMAN integration project, then, at once allowed white residents to protect their homes and their quality of life in the neighborhood, and to live out their vision of manifested racial justice.

Meanwhile, for many black homeowners in Mount Airy, the prospect of integration brought with it a set of very material conditions - more secure investments, better schools, safer streets, more reliable municipal services - and a window into a professional culture with which they were trying to engage. Certainly, African Americans in West Mount Airy believed in and fought for racial justice and equality, but their interest in living among whites often stemmed as much from these tangible opportunities as it did from an abstract sense of justice.

These two ideas of integration very much complemented each other - as the class-based exclusivity critical for white residents allowed for the stability that many black homebuyers sought - but they also revealed that the experience of interracial living was bound by racial identity, and by the mid-1970s, these disconnects in the meaning of integration would create some pretty profound tensions in the neighborhood.

What did you learn that made you appreciate our Mt. Airy neighborhood more deeply?

One of my main goals as an historian is to teach my students that our world today was not an inevitability - that it has been shaped by the deliberate decisions and actions of individuals and groups of people and the intended and unintended consequences that emerged as a result.

And this applies to this research as well. Accounts of post-WWII neighborhood racial struggles aren't new. There is now a well-established narrative about the contentious relationship between race and urban space in the middle of the twentieth century, one in which the movement of African American homebuyers into previous all-white enclaves prompted aggressive clashes over ideas of private property and individual freedom, the threat of instability and crime, and the push for racial equality. In this story, segregation and racial inequity in American cities were not the inevitable outcome of postwar race relations, nor were they a reaction against 1960s radical racial power movements. Rather, the racial composition of neighborhoods was the result of intentional political, legal, and economic initiatives that fostered racial separation.

But - and this is an important "but" - just as segregation wasn't inevitable, neither was it the only possible outcome of these deliberate policies and practices. West Mount Airy's integration efforts offer insights into the decisions that individual homeowners had to make as they negotiated the racial landscape of postwar American cities. Here, a community in transition came together to find an alternative to racial separation, without knowing what they would create in its place.

That sense of the unknown - the commitment to embarking on something different without having a concrete sense of what the outcome would be - has given me a greater appreciation for what the neighborhood is today.

What can readers from Mt. Airy expect to find familiar in your book?

For many, the origins story of Mount Airy's integration efforts is a familiar one. But what was most striking to me in writing this book, and what I hope will be compelling to folks who read it, is not just that process of integrating, but the challenges, contours, and complexities that emerged out of that experience of interracial living.

Abigail Perkiss is an assistant professor of history at Kean University in Union, New Jersey. Her research centers on the history of race, ethnicity, and urban identity in post-WWII American cities and has been guided by questions of identity creation, community cohesion, and historical memory. She holds a joint JD/PhD in history from Temple University, and her first book, Making Good Neighbors: Civil Rights, Liberalism, and Integration in Postwar Philadelphia, examines the creation of intentionally integrated neighborhoods in the latter half of the twentieth century. She lives in West Mount Airy.

Author Interview: Robin Herrera

by Cordelia Jensen

Hi Robin!

Congrats on your Middle Grade debut, Hope Is A Ferris Wheel. It is a terrific book.

Here is a synopsis:

Ten-year-old Star Mackie lives in a trailer park with her flaky mom and her melancholy older sister, Winter, whom Star idolizes. Moving to a new town has made it difficult for Star to make friends, when her classmates tease her because of where she lives and because of her layered blue hair. But when Star starts a poetry club, she develops a love of Emily Dickinson and, through Dickinson’s poetry, learns some important lessons about herself and comes to terms with her hopes for the future. With an unforgettable voice with a lot of heart, Hope Is a Ferris Wheel is the story of a young girl who learns to accept her family and herself while trying to make sense of the world around her.

Star is such a likeable character and, yet, has so many obstacles in her way. Overall, she has this shining, hopeful spirit that had me cheering for her from the start. I also really liked that you used first person perspective for this particular story. Was it always written in first person or did you play around with other perspectives?

I believe I wrote the first chapter in third-person when I started. It never quite took off for me – even in third-person, there should be a voice there. But there wasn’t. It was just blah and bland.

However, I then wrote Star’s first set of Vocabulary sentences using first-person (because she was the one writing them, natch) and her voice came through bright and clear. I decided to write the rest of the manuscript in first-person and haven’t changed it since.

I like how Eddie both challenges Star and sees her strength. He also points to her character flaw a few times. Another author might have chosen one of her family members to point out Star’s stubbornness but I like that you have a character a bit further outside herself that pushes her to grow. Was this your intention?

That was intentional, yes! I’m of the belief that the people closest to you (like your
family) sometimes have glaring blind spots about your flaws. So Eddie was the perfect
person to do that, especially because Star sees him as very flawed herself. It helps that Eddie’s incredibly blunt, even to Langston.

Plus, I think it shows that Eddie actually really likes Star. He’s the only person in the book, I believe, who sees this stubbornness in her. He’s very observant. I wanted that to come across.

The way poetry is weaved throughout the book shows the earnestness of the age group to learn and to absorb beautiful material. As a creative writing teacher of 8-12 year olds, the awe and intrigue the kids had in the poems felt very accurate. Were you an early poetry lover? Did you ever make up a club yourself?

The poetry I loved as a kid was the silly poetry. Shel Silverstein and Judith Viorst were
my favorites. I also listened to a lot of Simon & Garfunkel as a kid, who I think are very
poetic.

The only club I belonged in during Elementary School was, oddly enough, the Stamp
Club. It sounds boring, but I had a lot of fun. We went to a stamp convention once and I
bought some Disney stamps from another country. My favorite stamp was a 3-D stamp
from I think Abu Dhabi? Actually, I just googled it, and they were from Bhutan. But they
were 3-D!

That does NOT sound boring. The relationship between Winter and Star is probably my favorite part of the book. I noticed that the book is dedicated to your sister. Did you do any free-writing from Winter’s perspective? As I was reading, I felt like I could have read a YA book from her point of view simultaneously. She felt as three-dimensional to me as Star.

I never did any free-writing for Winter, though I got a lot of comments on early drafts of
the book that it seemed to center around her too much, so I had to dial that down for the
final drafts. But I felt like I knew Winter very well, though she’s not all that similar to my sister.
The thread I hung onto while writing scenes between Star and Winter was the memory
of looking up to my older sister when I was Star’s age. My sister was the coolest person
I knew. She had the most awesome clothes. Her hair was amazing. She was funny and
witty and smart. So I kept that filter on Star when I wrote, and I’m really glad that so
many people have commented on their relationship. I love those two!

Me too! Anything else you would like us to know about you or your book?

It’s funny! I think that’s something that hasn’t been advertised quite as much, but it’s not
all drama and family secrets and trailer parks. There’s some very funny stuff in there.

And now our “3 for 3” book-related questions:

1. What were three of your favorite books as a child/teen?
 I Am Regina by Sally M Keehn, Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson, and The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm by Nancy Farmer.

2. What three books have you read recently that surprised you?  
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor (because I didn’t like it as a child), Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina (because even though no one dies, it made me weep ugly tears), and Archer Coe and the Thousand Natural Shocks, by Jamie S. Rich and Dan Christensen. Okay, so I read that last one for work, but it still surprised me! Both in plot and art. Dan’s art is fantastic, and I think it’s Jamie’s best work yet.

3. What are three books that influence(d) your writing?  
A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban, The Wayside School Series by Louis Sachar, and probably (oddly enough) Battle Royale by Koushun Takami.

Thanks!

Robin Herrera is an aspiring cat lady living in Portland, Oregon. She has a BA in English from Mills and an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. In the past, she has worked as a waitress, an after-school teacher, a cashier, and an omelet flipper, but she now works as an Associate Editor for Oni Press in addition to being a writer. Hope Is a Ferris Wheel is her first book.

Thanks for reading!!!

If you're local to the area, please let the bookstore know if you would like to order a copy of Hope Is a Ferris Wheel. You can email orders to orders [at] bigbluemarblebooks [dot] com, call (215) 844-1870, or come see us at 551 Carpenter Lane, in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Next up: In mid-April, come check out Jen's interview with Delia Sherman, author of The Freedom Maze.

Janet's Five Hopeful Wings or Yes, Spring IS Coming

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd (Penguin, $27.95)
Two unlikely soul mates, a slave and the daughter of the family who own her, grow wings and fly into an unimaginable freedom by giving voice to who they are and what they believe.

The Conference of the Birds by Peter Sis (Penguin, $27.95)
Originally written in the late 1100s by Farid Ud-Din Attar. Sis adds his unique illustrations to the translation of this epic poem. Through love, faith and an arduous flight, the king is reached.

Vedge by Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby (Workman, $24.95)
For those who put their heart in their cooking, Vedge is a tapestry of delicious recipes with beautiful illustration and easy to follow instructions.

A Butterfly is Patient by Dianna Hutts Aston (Chronicle Books, $16.00)
Beautifully illustrated by Sylvia Long, the patience and perseverance of butterflies is simply described filling the final pages with soaring exuberance. Others in the series include A Rock is Lively and An Egg is Quiet.

Hope is a Ferris Wheel by Robin Herrera (Abrams, $16.95)
This is a young adult book about the loss and gain of hope. To ten-year-old Star, hope comes with the release of dreams, allowing them to fly. Release date on this young adult book is March 11, 2014. (Watch for Cordelia's author interview on our blog next week!)

Janet Elfant, March 2014

Author Interview: Elisa Ludwig

by Jennifer Sheffield

Hi, Elisa! Congratulations on the imminent release of Pretty Sly!

Synopsis: Following the events of Pretty Crooked, Willa Fox was ordered to stay out of trouble by a juvenile court judge. But that was before her house was ransacked . . . and her mother went missing. Now Willa and her crush, Aidan, decide they must violate her probation and hit the California highway in search of her mom. When Willa and Aidan wind up as the focus of a national police chase, their journey becomes dangerously criminal. Soon Willa realizes it's easier to escape the law than the truth. And that everything she thought she knew about her mom--and her life--was wrong. (Check out the book's trailer on YouTube.)

Pretty Crooked, the first in the series, reads as a Robin Hood tale, with the twist that Willa is stealing from people in her own crowd. How would you characterize Pretty Sly?

PRETTY SLY is a kind of Bonnie and Clyde story, as Willa blankets the West Coast in search of her missing mother, with her romantic interest Aidan in tow. As a national manhunt for them heats up, a series of mishaps and circumstances force them to rely on Willa's criminal tactics for survival. So you have action, adventure, road tripping, thievery, car chases and lots of kissing. Oh yeah, and a night in a movie star's house.

How did you first come up with the idea for the series? Did you have the three-story arc in mind when you started Pretty Crooked, or did it come to you during the writing process?

The idea came about when Colton Harris-Moore, the Barefoot Bandit, was in the news for his criminal exploits in the Pacific Northwest. I was fascinated by the idea of how a kid could break into houses, steal planes, dodge the FBI and become a folk hero in the process. In the PRETTY CROOKED series Willa's character has more of a benevolent goal in mind (at first, just evening the social playing field in her school, but later it's to save her mother and find out the truth about her family), which makes her a bit more relatable for teens. I always had a three-story arc in mind but the specifics of that arc, the ways the mysteries unfold and some of the themes have definitely changed in the writing and editing process.

Which character(s) in the series do you find the most difficult to write, and which come the most smoothly? Does it change from book to book? Do you have particular strategies to help you along with this?

Overall, the beauty of writing a series is that once you pin down those characters in the first book, it's much easier going forward. When it came to writing the sequels, I could really concentrate on all of the plot twists (of which there are many!) because I already knew the voices and motivations of Willa, Aidan, Tre, et al. I would say Willa herself was difficult to write in the first book, especially, though it got easier with the other two. It was a fine balance to achieve—she had to be naive enough to believe that what she was doing was "right" while clever enough to pull off her heists and schemes. All the while she is gradually becoming more self-aware and more independent. Plus, she needed to be likable, even though she's a crook! There was no particular strategy per se, but it just took several revisions to hone the transformation her character goes through and her internal thought process along the way. (Sadly, my only strategy is hard work, but I'd love to know if anyone out there has any others!) As for the smoothest, I have always found Tre easy to write for some reason, even though he is technically the least like me of any character in the book. Go figure.

How do you feel about Willa and her decisions/motivations? Aside from my assumption that you have rather more impulse control than she does, in what ways do you find yourself like or unlike your protagonist?

This is certainly a high-concept book, so the onus was on me as the author to make a highly unbelievable story seem real enough that my readers will go along with me—or at least humor me! That often included giving her rationales and motivations for behavior that most of us would not agree with. So while I don't condone stealing as a solution to any problem and I think it becomes clear to readers that Willa has to pay for her mistakes, I also hope that readers see this book for what it is—a fun fantasy. As the series moves on, of course, her motivations become even deeper and more complicated. She wants to find out more about her family and who she is, and that process, though dramatized here in an extreme way, is really what growing up is about. As for me, well, I was very different from Willa in high school! I was a shy, Doc Marten wearing, poetry-writing girl who didn't really get the appeal of the popular crowd. About the only thing we have in common is our sense of humor! But maybe, just maybe, I could have been swayed by a bad boy like Aidan.

Pretty Sly takes Willa on a rather unusual tour of the West Coast, some very scenic and some not so much. How (without giving too much away) did you plan her route? I know you like traveling; have you been to the places that Willa visits along her mad journey?

This was one of the most fun aspects of planning this book, for sure. I picked their first destination somewhat randomly, but from there I looked at maps. The route actually changed a few times in revisions—it's not a straight line, as you noticed. I chose some of the places because they seemed logical, some because they seemed scenic or had dramatic potential, and others for the names! And truth be told, I have only been to Santa Barbara and that was when I was 12. I would really like to go to Carmel and the Painted Hills, though!

How is the third book in the series progressing? Have you been finding surprises as you work, or is it fitting close to a plan?

The third book is actually now in copy-edits, so it's pretty much complete. Actually, the third book surprised me quite a bit. The mysteries Willa uncovers take her to a very different place, literally and psychologically, in the final installment. I'm really excited about it, because I think it's a fitting conclusion to the series, but at the same time, it's not an obvious one.

Is there anything else you would like our readers to know about Pretty Sly, or about you as an author?

About Pretty Sly: I think this might be my favorite book in the series, if I'm allowed to say so! About me: I just feel really, really lucky to be doing what I love to do.

And now for our "3 for 3" book questions:
1. What were 3 of your favorite books from childhood/teen years?

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Patterson: The fantasy world was so evocative... I remember this book inspiring a lot of my play.

Pardon Me, You're Stepping on My Eyeball by Paul Zindel: Nobody did quirky outsider characters like Paul Zindel and I really wish people still read his books. (Also, I still think the 1970s and 1980s has the lock on the best YA book titles.)

Mom, the Wolf Man and Me by Norma Klein: Again, title! I loved all of Norma Klein's books—they always had sophisticated characters with unconventional parents, sort of the edgier Judy Blume.

2. What are 3 books that you've read recently that surprised you?

Destroy all Cars! by Blake Nelson: I loved the voice in this book—he gets the smart, disaffected and alienated teen boy perfectly. The story isn't groundbreaking, but I was drawn right in because the characters were so believable.

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell: This book stunned me with its economy. She gets us so deep into these characters in so few words. Miraculous and beautiful.

Fresh Off the Boat by Eddie Huang: I don't often read too much outside YA these days, but this hilarious and boastful memoir was a great palate cleanser. I loved all of the descriptions of food and once again, the voice was pretty spectacular.

3. What are 3 books that influence/d your work?

The Sweet Valley High series is a big influence on Pretty Crooked, in that I wanted it to be as fun and page-turn-y as these books were for me in my childhood.

That Summer by Sarah Dessen. This was one of the first "newer" (i.e., not from my era) YA books I read when I first started thinking about writing YA, and I am continually amazed by its pitch-perfect realism. There's a reason Dessen is a perennial bestselling author—she just nails the teenage experience in the most relatable way, year after year. Maybe it's less influence and more awe.

King Dork by Frank Portman. See above. This was something else I read in that same era, about eight years ago and it made me want to write for teens. It's funny, it's smart , it's timeless and it has all the makings of a classic.

Thanks for joining us, Elisa!

Elisa Ludwig studied writing at Vassar College and Temple University, but she wanted to be a writer long before all of that. Technically since she started writing, editing and publishing The Elisa Bulletin which she printed out on a dot matrix printer and sold for ten cents a pop.

In the intervening years she has worked as a freelance writer, covering the following topics: hot dogs, insurance, cyber theft, penny-pinching, drug development, weddings, other people’s books, music, movies, restaurants, mental health issues, diets, engineering, whiskey, furniture, real estate and travel. But writing about teenagers is her favorite subject.

She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and son. Her novel PRETTY SLY is the second in her PRETTY CROOKED trilogy, with the third installment coming in 2015. You can visit her online at www.elisaludwig.com.

Thanks for reading!!! Elisa Ludwig's Pretty Sly comes out next Tuesday, March 18!

If you're local to the area, please let the bookstore know if you would like to order a copy of Pretty Sly, or the first book, Pretty Crooked. You can email orders to orders [at] bigbluemarblebooks [dot] com, call (215) 844-1870, or come see us at 551 Carpenter Lane, in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Next up: On March 25th, come check out Cordelia's interview with Robin Herrera, author of Hope is a Ferris Wheel.

Author Interview: Bonny Becker

by Cordelia Jensen

Hi Bonny! 

Thanks so much for joining us on the Big Blue Marble Bookstore blog. I have been a huge fan of the Bear picture books since my own (now 8-year-old) twins were small. I love the dynamic between Bear and Mouse. For some reason, reading the books out loud I always read Mouse in a British accent! 

Did Bear or Mouse come to you first? Or their relationship?

Mouse came first. He popped into my head one day full grown as a pesky mouse who just couldn’t be gotten rid of! Then I had the delightful task of figuring out who my mouse would bug. I went through several animals in my head before I hit upon a bear and that seemed perfect.

Are there any more Bear and Mouse books coming soon? Have you ever thought about writing a book from Mouse’s perspective? 

Yes, there are two more Mouse and Bear books in the works. A Library Book for Bear comes out this September. And next year or perhaps the year after that will be A Halloween for Bear. I never thought about doing a book from Mouse’s perspective. I wonder who cheers him up?

Good question! Maybe another tiny animal . . . While having been familiar with the Bear and Mouse picture books for a long time, I just finished reading The Magical Ms. Plum. What a funny book! The kids and I were laughing and laughing. When the first tiny horse came out of the closet I was really surprised. The book has this surreal quality to it. Where did the idea for those books come from?

This book is a lot harder for me to track in terms of how the idea came together. I know I was working on a story about a boy who finds a tiny t-rex. One small enough to fit into his backpack. I just couldn’t seem to make it work! I think that got me thinking about other tiny animals and one thing led to another. I do remember the various elements—at school, a magical school teacher, different kids, different animals, a lesson learned—kind of assembled themselves one by one in my mind.

My kids were wondering what would happen to Lucy if she went into the closet . . . they would like a sequel so they can find out! If you had been in Ms. Plum’s classroom as a child, what animal do you imagine would have come out for you?

That’s a good question and a hard one for me! There are animals I would want to come out like a jaguar or a unicorn. Then there’s the animal that probably would have come out given my personality. I was a huge reader and a thinker and a little odd. I’m thinking maybe an owl? But then again maybe I needed a wild, funny monkey! I am working on a sequel, but it will be a new class not Lucy’s class. I like to think, though, that every kid in Ms. Plum’s class did get a chance to go into the closet. Lucy is such a good sport, I think I’d give her a unicorn.

It is interesting that in both the Magical Ms. Plum book and the Bear and Mouse books, there are small animals in unexpected places. (The Mouse in the cake maybe being my favorite.) What is your own relationship to animals? Do you have many pets?

I have animals in almost all my 12 books! And it’s not something I realized until I’d written about five or six books. My books include The Christmas Crocodile, the story of crocodile who gets delivered to the wrong address at Christmas, An Ant’s Day Off about the first ant in history to take a day off and, of course, the Mouse and Bear books. I’ve written about a lizard who wants to be an artist and one about the way various animals feel to the touch—like the wooly curls of a sheep or the slippery scales of a fish. Animals show up a lot in my work.

I had four sisters and a brother, so I grew up with a lot of siblings and a lot of pets. But I’m not sure if that’s the reason animals show up so much. They are good substitutes for people. They can be such distinct characters. You can have a lot of fun with them without making fun of people themselves

And now, our three for three book-related questions:

1. What were three of your favorite books as a child and/or teen?

All the Oz books, Mary Poppins, and the Narnia books. Anything with magic in
it!

2. What are three books you’ve read recently that surprised you?

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green both surprised me by how caught up in the story I got. I don’t read much YA, but I was impressed! And The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine. I’m just starting it, but it’s full of fascinating facts about brain development and gender differences.

3. What are three books that influence/d your writing?

Charlotte’s Web, The Wizard of Earthsea, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Thanks so much for joining us, Bonny!

Bonny Becker is author of the best-selling Mouse and Bear books, including A Visitor for Bear, New York Times bestseller, winner of the E.B. White Read Aloud Award and Amazon’s Picture Book of the Year. Her latest book is A Birthday for Bear. Poor Bear is even grumpy about birthdays! Her middle-grade novel, The Magical Ms. Plum, won the 2010 Washington State Children’s Book Award. In all, she’s published 12 books for children. She is also an instructor for the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts, an accredited program for a Masters of Fine Arts in Writing. Visit her at bonnybecker.com.

Thanks for reading!!! If you're local to the area, please let the bookstore know if you would like a copy of A Visitor for Bear, or any of Bonny's other books. You can email orders to orders [at] bigbluemarblebooks [dot] com, call us at (215) 844-1870, or come see us at 551 Carpenter Lane, in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Next up: In mid-March, come check out Jen's interview with Elisa Ludwig, author of Pretty Crooked and the upcoming Pretty Sly.

Author Interview: Judy Schachner

by Jennifer Sheffield

Hi, Judy! We're looking forward to seeing you at our Kids' Literary Festival in May. Congratulations on the release of Bits & Pieces this past fall! Here’s a bit of synopsis from the book jacket:

“Tink has everything he ever wanted: delicious treats, hugs and kisses, and even a kitten to raise. The only thing missing is wild outdoor adventure. So when the opportunity arises, Tink sneaks away -- and becomes an outdoor cat for one unforgettable night...”

I was sorry to hear the news of the recent death of Tink, your model for the protagonist in Bits & Pieces, and I’m curious to know what he was like. Was he truly as spacey as his portrayal in the book? As adventurous? And did he indeed acquire a kitten of his own to raise?

Tink was hilarious! I say was, because he passed away only just recently at the age of 21. He had a long and wonderful life eating inappropriate things like pool noodles, packing peanuts and a flip-flop. Tink was generous with his licks - He licked everything and everyone in sight and he was SO nurturing to the kittens that came to live with us, especially one kitten named Skippyjon Jones. My old cat Simon had earned the name of "The Grannyman" because he was just like a kindly old Granny to Tink when he was tiny. In turn, Tink earned the name of “The Mother-Brother" when Skippy came along because he was both like a mother and a brother to his new kitten. Was he spacey? Most definitely! I seriously think that he had a brain the size of a frozen pea…a dried up frozen pea, which rolled out of his ear one night at dinner. I know this to be true because I found it on my kitchen floor when i was cleaning up after we had finished our meal…what else could it have been? We had eaten creamed corn that night.

I have developed the strong impression (please correct me if I’m wrong...) that in the Grannyman/B&P series, the plot and characters are drawn fairly true to life, whereas the Skippyjon Jones books...tend toward the fanciful. (Though I do see a Siamese called Skippy on your Grannyman dedication page.) How does the writing experience feel different for the two series?

Yes, Jen, both The Grannyman and Bits & Pieces are drawn upon my life with our cats, but to some extent so are the Skippy Tales. Skippy was a very funny Siamese with an adorable personality. One day he was stung on his noggin by a large bee in our basement and that was when he began to speak with a Spanish accent…no one else ever heard him, but I can assure you that it was all true. I love writing the SJJ books because that is when I am most in touch with my six-year-old self…I can really let the cat out of the bag so to speak and I do.

The dedication page for The Grannyman has a beautiful display of cats, some grouped together and some by themselves, who I presume are your feline companions (up through 1999). How many of your cats have you drawn and written about? Do you specifically favor the depiction of Siamese cats, or is that just the way things turned out?

The title page in The Grannyman is one of my favorites because they are indeed the portraits of all my fur children dating back to the 1950’s. Our tabby, Mr. Mickey, made an appearance in my first book Willy and May (still in print) along with my very first Siamese named Frankie. Our dogs have been in my books as well. Buster, our adopted pit bull, is in Skippyjon Jones Class Action, though he made his first real appearance in Yo Vikings (my most favorite book) along with another one of our adopted pooches named Mugsy (talk about a crazy dog!). I do have a special relationship with the Siamese model of feline fuzziness though. They are so very different from other cats. Male Siamese are known to be the most nurturing of all the cat breeds and I have found that to be true. I lost my mother when I was quite young and my oldest brother, knowing that I was having a tough time, brought home a Siamese kitten just for me. I have been smitten ever since.

How do you feel your drawing style has changed over time?

Well…I don’t know quite how to answer that one. The Skippy books are very colorful and boisterous and labor-intensive while books like Bits & Pieces and The Grannyman are quieter in both color and line. I think I prefer the quieter ones and will be doing more of them in between the Skippy books. I just hope to keep improving - I have ever so much to learn (she said in her very best British accent). I am a very harsh critic of my own work - I tend to see only the mistakes. Plus I am a luddite; I have NO computer skills - none. Having said that I must confess to a preference for artwork done by the human hand. I love the imperfections and the warmth of real live art.

Among my favorite scenes in the book are the pages outlining Tink’s intoxicating stroll in the daylight and moonlight. Do you share Tink’s fascination with the outdoors? Do you do any of your drawings “on location,” or do you create the outside world from an inside space?

For an indoor cat, Tink certainly did have a fascination for the outdoor life; in his later years it became an obsession - trying to escape every time he heard a door open. I’m more of an indoor girl - though I think I have an obsession with weather. I love storms, especially snow storms. I love being in my studio working on my books when it snows - I can think of nothing better. Most everything I draw or paint is pulled out of my head…my imagination.

I'm glad to hear you like the snow, considering the winter we've been having!

I’m a cat person myself, and I recently included Bits & Pieces in a “staff pick” list of books with cats in them. What are some picture books featuring cats that you particularly like?

It’s not really a cat book but I love Sam, Bangs and Moonshine by Eveline Ness. I identify with the little girl who has just lost her mother. Sam has a cat that follows her everywhere. She talks to him and she says that Bangs could talk if he wanted to. I think it’s a near perfect little book which deals beautifully with the subject of death. Other favorites of mine are Mrs. Lovewright and Purrless Her Cat by Lore Segal, love the orange tabby in the Church Mice books by Graham Oakley and it goes without saying, anything by Clare Turlay Newberry.

Do you have current or upcoming projects you’d like to tell us about?

I am finishing up the newest Skippy adventure, titled Snow What. It involves tights, sausages, and kissing. It will be on your doorstep this fall - that is, if I ever do finish!

And now for our "3 for 3" book questions:

1. What were 3 of your favorite books from childhood/teen years?

I adored Little Black Sambo - The idea of tigers turning into butter positively floored me. I can even remember drawing that image in my first grade classroom - only, I think I drew the tigers melting by the stove in our kitchen. I don’t remember having many books as a kid and anyway the thing I was most interested in was drawing. When I was a bit older, I do remember just loving the book Rascal by Sterling North. I didn’t have glasses and I needed them, so reading was difficult.

2. What are 3 books that you've read recently that surprised you?

I was never a big fan of Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, so I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed The Signature Of All Things. Loved it! And who knew how interesting it would be to spend time inside the mind of Thomas Cromwell? Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies, both by Hilary Mantel, blew me away - could not put them down. Finally, The Sense Of An Ending by Julian Barnes was, in my opinion, bloody brilliant!

3. What are 3 books that influence/d your work?

A Visit To William Blake's Inn, by Nancy Willard, illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen, A Girl Named Zippy, by Haven Kimmel, and, last but not least, all works by Arthur Rackham.

Thank you so much for joining us!

Judy Schachner was born into an Irish Catholic working class family from New England. Money was as tight as their apartment was tiny and though she may not have had the easiest of childhoods, she credits her imagination with helping her survive it.

She can't ever remember a time when she was not drawing and like most budding artists she doodled on everything, including her father's bald head. She drew herself into stories where she was the smartest in her class and into a family where mothers lived to a ripe old age. In many ways, Judy feels that her own life has resembled the fairy tales she loved reading as a child, complete with a happy ending. And the best part of this author/illustrator's story? She married a prince of a guy and they had two beautiful daughters and just like the mothers in her earliest tales, she plans on living to a ripe old age.

Described by the New York Times as “…something like the James Joyce for the elementary school set…,” Judy Schachner is the #1 NY Times Best Selling Author/Illustrator of over 23 books for children including Bits & Pieces, the Skippyjon Jones series, Yo Vikings, The Grannyman, and Willy and May. She has won many awards including the first E. B. White Read Aloud Award.

Thanks for reading!!! If you're local to the area, please let the bookstore know if you would like a copy of Bits & Pieces, or any of Judy's other books. You can email orders to orders [at] bigbluemarblebooks [dot] com, call (215) 844-1870, or come see us at 551 Carpenter Lane, in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Also, come check out our annual Kids' Literary Festival this May, where Judy will be among our lovely literary guests.

Next up: On February 25th, come check out Cordelia's interview with Bonny Becker, author of the Bear series and the Ms. Plum books.

Grace's Five Books Mentioned in Cheryl Strayed's Wild

To celebrate Wild's place as #1 bestseller at this store in 2013, I've decided to make a list of some of the great books Cheryl Strayed mentions in her memoir. On her hike from the Mojave Desert all the way to Washington State, Strayed collects books to read in her tent, and against her spiritual judgment, she burns each one after finishing it to reduce the weight of her hiking pack. (Don't try this at home!)

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner (Vintage Books, $14.00)

The Dream of a Common Language by Adrienne Rich (W W Norton, $14.95)

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (Vintage Books, $15.95)

The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor (Farrar Straus & Giroux, $18.00)

The Ten Thousand Things by Maria Dermout (New York Review of Books, $14.95)

Grace Gordon, February 2014

Mariga's Hardback/Paperback Combo Mix

Editor's note: with apologies to Mariga, I neglected to post this at the end of December...

Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened by Allie Brosh (Touchstone Books, $17.99)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck by Jeff Kinney (Amulet Books, $13.95)

The Christmas Gift by Lori Evert (Random House Children's Books, $20.99)

How it All Began by Penelope Lively (Penguin, $16.00)

The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz (Mulholland Books, $14.99)

Mariga Temple-West, December 2013

Bookstore Bestsellers, 2013

Happy New Year! I'd like to present the annual list of Big Blue Marble bestsellers -- the top 20 books sold in 2013, and top 25 overall.

What books have you read and loved over the past year?

Top 20 Bestsellers at Big Blue Marble in 2013:

1) Wild by Cheryl Strayed
2) Good Morning, Beautiful Business: The Unexpected Journey of an Activist Entrepreneur and Local Economy Pioneer by Judy Wicks (local author)
3) The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka (2013 selection for the One Book, One Philadelphia program)
4) Keeper by Kasey Jueds (local author)
5) Wonder by R.J. Palacio
6) Dear Life: Stories by Alice Munro
7) Drift by Jon McGoran (local author)
8) Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain
9) The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
10) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck by Jeff Kinney
11) Hyperbole and a Half : Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened by Allie Brosh
12) House of Hades by Rick Riordan
13) The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
14) Dog Songs by Mary Oliver
15) Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver (locavore)
16) Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert (local author)
17) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
18) Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
19) Round House by Louise Erdrich
20) Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

Top 25 Bestsellers at Big Blue Marble to Date:

1) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
2) Body Trace by D.H. Dublin (local author)
3) Philadelphia Chickens by Sandra Boynton (onetime local author)
4) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
5) Good Night Philadelphia by Adam Gamble and Cooper Kelly (local setting)
6) Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathman
7) Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (local author)
8) The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
9) The First 1000 Days by Nikki McClure
10) The Daring Book for Girls by Miriam Peskowitz (local author) and Andrea Buchanan
11) The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
12) Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
13) The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka (2013 selection for the One Book, One Philadelphia program)
14) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
15) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (selected as companion book for the 2011 One Book, One Philadelphia program)
16) Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama
17) The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
18) Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
19) The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch
20) Ivy and Bean by Annie Barrows
21) Flotsam by David Wiesner (local author)
22) Blood Poison by D.H. Dublin (local author)
23) Zen Shorts by Jon Muth
24) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
25) Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
Bonus: Tied for spot 26:
a) Ella Elephant Scats Like That by Andy Blackman Hurwitz (local author)
b) The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

Happy reading for 2014!

Author Interview: Miriam Glassman

by Cordelia Jensen

Hi Miriam!

Your book Call Me Oklahoma! was my daughter’s favorite book of the summer. Here's a brief synopsis:

"From now on, call me Oklahoma!" nine-year-old Paige Turner announces on the first day of fourth grade. She is determined that this year she will be different: someone gutsy—brave enough to stand up to her tormentor, class bully Viveca Frye. It takes a lot of work for Paige to bring out her inner Oklahoma, but she's helped along the way by her best friend, her sympathetic teacher, her bratty cousin, and some hilarious but inspiring events at home and at school.

Paige does manage to overcome most of her fears, and in the process she learns that a true friend offers all the courage she needs.

First, let’s talk names. My daughter’s name Lily is in this book. And my name, Cordelia, is also in this book. And Paige’s whole idea is that she will be a braver person if she has a name like Oklahoma as opposed to Paige. Is this concept what first brought on the idea for the story? Was she ever going to be named a different state besides Oklahoma or was it always Oklahoma? Did you ever wish you could change your name when you were a kid? 

Hi Cordelia!

I’m so delighted that your daughter enjoyed Call Me Oklahoma! And how great to meet an actual Cordelia! As you know, it’s Cordelia who inspires Paige to reinvent herself. I love the name, and it seemed fitting for the bouncy, dynamic cousin in my book.

But why Oklahoma? Well, the seed of the story came from my younger daughter who came home from camp one day and mentioned a girl named, Oklahoma. I said, “Wait a minute. You have a friend named, Oklahoma?” And my daughter said, “Well, that’s not her real name. It’s just what she asked people to call her.” That got me thinking: Why would a person ever choose the name, Oklahoma? And would having a feisty name like that change one’s self-perception? That’s when Paige Turner stepped into my life. I wanted to write about a kid who feels the power of names, and who tries to embody the spirit of her new name and become more courageous. I never thought about Paige taking on any other name. Oklahoma is not only fun to say, but in this book, also has associations with the musical, which is about the Oklahoma territory becoming a state--another story of change and promise. It seemed logical to me that Paige would be moved by the optimism of the title song and the spirited characters. And in her choice of such a unique name, she signals that she’s already begun connecting with her inner Oklahoma.

As for my own name, yes, absolutely, I wanted to change it. Growing up in the 60’s and 70’s, my friends all had fun, high-energy names: Amy! Debbie! Lisa! Donna! Karen! Vicki! And then there was...Miriam. It felt like a heavy, wool coat I had to wear all year round, and I dearly wished my name was Julie. Incidentally, the editor on this book is named, Julie. I’d also like to add that I’ve since made peace with my name.

Your illustrations are terrific. Did you submit the story with them or add them 
later? How does your writing process compare to your drawing process? Is one more energizing than the other? More frustrating? 

I had a lot of trepidation about sending illustrations with the story. Although my agent wanted to include my sketches with the manuscript, I made her promise she wouldn’t unless the story was accepted. I hadn’t illustrated professionally for years, and had galloping insecurities about my drawings. I got a little zing of courage, however, when the story was accepted; so the sketches were sent to Holiday House. I figured by then, it couldn’t hurt. Turned out, the editor felt the spot illustrations made the piece stronger. That really surprised me and the lesson I took away from that experience is, don’t hold back anything that enriches or energizes a piece for you.

I enjoy both writing and illustrating, but writing is often more frustrating. It’s much
harder for me to get narrative and characters down on paper than it is to realize my ideas for drawings. That said, I went through pads of tracing paper till I was happy with the way the characters looked. I’m sure that was partly due to being so out of practice. Also, because I draw in a cartoon style, each line has to feel just right to me. The size of a dot for an eye or the slant in the line of a mouth radically affects the look and feel of a character.

I love the final paragraph of the book. And the idea that we all have so many 
possibilities inside of us and we don’t just have to be this one way or one thing. I like how you encourage self-exploration in the book and I am glad that Paige’s parents do too. Is this something that grew out of your own experience as a parent? As a kid? Or was it just the logical way to take Paige’s story?

The idea of reinventing oneself and the struggle to be one’s true self has long been a theme I’ve been interested in, both as an individual and as a parent. I’m fascinated by how we define ourselves, and the courage it takes to redefine ourselves as we grow and change.

Viveca Frye is a strong antagonist and a multi-dimensional one. Did you do any free writing from her perspective? 

I didn’t do any free-writing for Viveca, but she emerged more fully in revision. I wanted her to be more of a power player than textbook bully. We’ve all known kids who are both admired and feared and who lean into their insecurities rather than their strengths. Towards the end of the story, however, Paige encourages Viveca to nurture one of strengths, which is her artistic talent. And in embracing it rather than dismissing it, there’s a suggestion that Viveca is on her way to discovering one her many possible selves.

Is there anything else you would like readers to know about this book? 

This was my kitchen sink book in the sense that a lot of the material came from scraps of my life, both past and present: my daughter’s old clogs, the “magic” rubber light bulb, her familiarity with personal jinxes, the cottage cheese monster game I played with my brother, and the pets in the talent show. It was like cleaning out a closet and discovering all this good stuff I could use to build Paige’s world.

What are you working on now? Any chance of a sequel for Paige? 

I am currently working on a middle-grade novel about kids at an overnight camp. And yes, I’d like to follow Paige through fourth grade, maybe focus on the run-up to the winter holidays. So, chances are the title won’t be, Call Me Cincinnati!

And now for our “3 for 3” book-related questions:

What were 3 of your favorite books as a child/teen? 

1. The Lonely Doll by Dare Wright. I truly felt pulled inside this story, and think it
was my first experience of a book as another world I could inhabit just by turning
the pages.

2. Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh. This book totally spoke to me. I admired and greatly envied Harriet’s brash honesty.

3. Agatha Christie mysteries. These books did a spectacular job of blocking out a lot of middle school for me!

What 3 books have you read recently that surprised you? 

Hard to think of a book that surprised me, but recent books that have stayed with me include: Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, P.S. Be Eleven, by Rita Williams-Garcia, and A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra.

What 3 books influence/d your writing? 

1. A Girl Called Al by Constance C. Greene. The economy of dialogue and sharp observations taught me a lot about writing humor. 

2. Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth, by E.L.
Konigsburg. The voice and characters in this book have stayed with me since
I first read it in fifth grade, and Konigsburg’s intelligent, funny stories remain
models I turn to.

3. Birds of America by Lorrie Moore. I love these exquisite short stories, especially for their invigorating blend of anguish and humor.

Thanks so much! 

Thank you, Cordelia!

Miriam Glassman is the author/illustrator of CALL ME OKLAHOMA! (Holiday House, 2013), recently selected as one of the New York Public Library’s list of top children’s books for 2013. She is also the author of BOX TOP DREAMS (Delacorte), and a picture book, HALLOWEENA (Atheneum), illustrated by Victoria Roberts. 

Miriam has a master’s degree in teaching from Simmons College, and an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She has worked in children’s book publishing, as a library assistant, a children’s book reviewer for Publisher’s Weekly and as an illustrator for the educational market. Miriam has two grown daughters and lives with her husband in Massachusetts.

Thanks for reading!!! If you're local to the area, please let the bookstore know if you would like to place a special order for Call Me Oklahoma!  You can email orders to orders [at] bigbluemarblebooks [dot] com, call (215) 844-1870, or come see us at 551 Carpenter Lane, in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Upcoming interviews: In the middle of February, look for Jen's interview with Judy Schachner, author/illustrator of Bits & Pieces and the Skippyjon Jones series.  At the end of the month, check back for Cordelia's interview with the talented Bonny Becker, author of the Bear series and the Ms. Plum books!