Interview with Judy M. Miller on Parenting Your Adoptive Child: Tweens, Teens and Beyond

Posted on by

Judy M. Miller is an adoptive parent and adoption advocate living in the Midwest with her husband and four children. She has mentored prospective adoptive and adoptive parents for over a decade about adoption—its joys and issues. She is a member of Adoption Voices (moderating a group for parents of tween and teen adoptees), AdoptionParenting, AdoptionParentingTweens, Families with Children from China, and Our Chinese Daughters Foundation.

Judy is a columnist for the adoption network, Grown in My Heart. Her essays and articles appear in adoption and parenting magazines. Judy’s stories are featured in A Cup of Comfort for Adoptive Families (Adams Media), Pieces of Me: Who Do I Want to Be? (EMK Press), and Chicken Soup for the Soul: Thanks Mom (Chicken Soup for the Soul). She recently presented on “Finding Our Stories Online” at Story Circle Network’s Stories of the Heart. Judy facilitates classes for adoptive parents of tweens and teens at Parenting Your Adopted Child: Tweens, Teens and Beyond.

I became acquainted with Judy last fall when she hosted me on The International Mom’s Blog. I’m happy to feature more information about her and the work she’s doing for parents of adopted children. Here she talks about a new class she’s created to help parents with their adopted tweens and teens.

 

What prompted you to create a class on parenting adopted children?

I was moved to create Parenting Your Adopted Child: Tweens, Teens & Beyond for several reasons, but the main reason was that many parenting classes target waiting parents or parents who have recently adopted infants and young children.  There are few classes for adoptive parents of kids entering tweens and teens.

I created Parenting Your Adopted Child: Tweens, Teens & Beyond because I observed the hunger adoptive parents have to connect and share with other adoptive parents. I know from personal experience that this hunger to connect with other adoptive parents never goes away and is especially needed when parenting is most challenging—before and during adolescence.

I also found that as I became a more experienced adoptive parent, I had countless requests for my “expertise” for over a decade and fell into a mentoring role for other adoptive parents and parents beginning the adoption process. I believe we glean the most from our own tribe, from collective experiences as adoptive parents, adoptees, and birth parents. Parenting Your Adopted Child: Tweens, Teens & Beyond was created in this spirit.

Why teens and tweens? Why not parenting young adopted children or school-age adopted children?

Issues inherent in adoption typically begin to surface when the child realizes they are becoming independent from their parents. Questions many parents assumed had been addressed when their child was younger often resurface. Most adoptive parents aren’t aware of this or prepared for it. Parenting Your Adopted Child: Tweens, Teens & Beyond is a class that helps the adoptive parent navigate these parental challenges, which are compounded by the complexities of adoption. I often say that parenting is not adoptive parenting. Parenting adopted children is adoptive parenting—more is required of the adoptive parent in parenting the adopted child.

Who would be helped by your class the most?

Parenting Your Adopted Child: Tweens, Teens & Beyond is for parents who have children between the ages 6 and 18. During these years kids begin to understand what they have gained and lost by being adopted. Parents find themselves challenged with a lot of questions as in “Why did my birth mother give me up?” “What did I do to be given up?” and “Why did you adopt me?”

I even have one parent who is considering taking the class now even though both of her children are under the age of five. This parent wants to be proactive, prepared as much as she can be. She sees this class as the next step in parenting her adopted children. I think it’s always a good idea to be as informed and prepared as you can be as an adoptive parent.

Aren’t there already ample resources available on this topic?

Wonderful books, articles and resources are on parenting adopted teens are available, but reading takes time and digesting the facts takes even more. Many adoptive parents don’t have the benefit of having the “conversations” with other adoptive parents, who best understand what they and their child are experiencing. There are a few online classes for adoptive parents of adolescents, with little, if any, interaction with the other adoptive parents in the group. And, of course, there are online forums, but discussions there tend to go off on tangents and are not private.

Although I have a library of resources to draw from, my preference has always been to connect with others in the adoption community—adoptive parents, well-seasoned adoptive parents, and older adoptees for insight and perspective. So, I’ve created an e-mail class that offers the benefits of all the resources, my experiences parenting four kids, and the wisdom of the group.

If someone has never taken an e-class before, can you explain what they can expect in terms of their time commitment to the class?

I send course material out weekly via Microsoft Word Document. The workbooks cover different topics related to parenting the adopted tween/teen. The beauty of the class is that participants meet each other virtually through the class introduction and sharing of weekly class work. Participating parents do weekly assignment at their convenience, when it fits into their busy life. The weekly time commitment is only a couple of hours per week but, of course, the parents can reflect on what they are learning and discussing as much as they like. The class lasts six weeks and the class materials can be referred back to as needed in the future.

The next Parenting Your Adopted Child: Tweens, Teens & Beyond begins April 7th. Class is limited to 12 participants. Parents can find out more and register here. http://judymmiller.com/.

Judy Miller with her family

Interview with Author Heather Vogel Frederick

Posted on by

Heather Vogel Frederick

Heather Vogel Frederick’s fictional book The Mother Daughter Book Club, was reviewed in the last issue of my newsletter. She’s also written The Voyage of Patience Goodspeed, The Education of Patience Goodspeed, and the Spy Mice series. Lucky for me, Heather lives not far from where I do in Portland, so we were able to meet for lunch and talk about her writing, her love of reading and what’s next. (From an interview in July 2008.)

How did you know you wanted to be a writer?

HVF: I’ve known it was what I wanted to do since I was six. My dad taught me to read when I was four. I got my library card as soon as I could sign my name and I can still remember going to the East Lexington, Massachusetts, library and very proudly getting my library card. It was another year or two until I realized that books didn’t just appear magically on the shelves.

How did you know you wanted to write books for children?

HVF: It was spring quarter, my senior year in college, and I needed one more credit to graduate. I was looking through the catalog when I saw a children’s literature class. I thought hey, easy A, this will be fun. That class changed my life. The woman who taught it was a children’s librarian, and a teacher and a writer herself. She had written text books about teaching children to read. I didn’t think of children’s books as something someone would aspire to write, but she reintroduced me to writers from my own childhood and new writers of that time. I remember reading The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper and having an epiphany thinking this is great literature. From that moment on I knew that would be my niche.

But you started out writing as a journalist, not as a book author?

HVF: I went to work for the Christian Science Monitor. I started off as a copy kid and then became a cub reporter and an assistant editor and a staff writer. I wrote features. It was great training ground. I learned how to write on deadline. I learned how to interview people. I learned how to research. I learned how to be edited without having a hissy fit. All those things that professional writers know and understand. Eventually, when my son, Ian, was born I wanted to be home with him. So I worked out an arrangement where I became the children’s book review editor. At the same time I started freelancing for other organizations like Publisher’s Weekly magazine. I didn’t have much time beyond mothering and doing that to work on fiction but it was always there in the back of my mind, like little flames flickering away.

How did you come to write The Voyage of Patience Goodspeed?

HVF: When my youngest son was in first grade I finally had a little extra time. My initial foray was into fantasy, but it was just going nowhere. I was getting discouraged. On a different note I was doing some family genealogical research, and I called my great uncle Billy one day when I was tracing the family history. He said, “Do you know that your great great grandfather ran off to sea to be a whaler when he was 15 years old?” He sent me a bunch of material including a receipt for the whaling gear for a 15-year-old boy. I started reading about the American whaling industry and I found out that whaling voyages followed whale migrations while they tried to fill up the hold of the ship with oil. A lot of times they would be gone 3 – 5 years at a time. Since these captains were gone such a long time a lot of them brought their wives and raised their kids at sea. And I thought what a great setting for a children’s book. So that was the genesis of what came to be my first book The Voyage of Patience Goodspeed, which followed a 12-year-old girl who goes off with her dad and she learns to navigate.

You’ve written historical fiction, fantasy and current fiction. Why so many different styles?

HVF: They all seems to have connections to my life. There was the family connection with Patience. Spy Mice was an homage to my misspent youth, because I spent a lot of time watching spy-fi TV. The Mother-Daughter Book Club is set in my hometown of Concord, Massachusetts.

Do you feel a particular resonance with middle grade readers?

HVF: There’s this magic window for kids between eight or nine and maybe about 12 where you still have their attention before they get off into young adult and adult fiction. My books can be read by kids who are younger, they can be read by kids who are older, but I think there’s something about 11 year olds that’s great.

Why do you think it’s important to write for that age range?

HVF: There’s such a push in our world today to thrust our kids further than they need to be. Whether it’s in pop music or fashion or what they’re seeing in movies. I’m really whole heartedly for defending our kids, and maintaining that sense of purity that comes with childhood without being in such a rush to push them on.  Let them still be kids.

I understand you have two sons. What inspired you to write a book about mother-daughter book clubs?

HVF: The spark for the idea was from my editor. She called me up one day and said there are mother-daughter book clubs all over the country and wouldn’t it be fun to write a book about one. You could set it in Concord, your home town and have the club read little women. It sounded great to me.

So how did you take the idea and make it into your own story?

HVF: I was one of three daughters. I mined our rich childhood vigorously. I had a world class mother too, so there are strong mother/daughter connections there. But it is at the height of irony that I wrote a book with a pink cover.

What was it like writing about your hometown?

HVF: It was fun. There’s a lot of things taken right out of my own childhood and adolescence. I got a chance to go back and re-visit and walk around the town. It’s such a beautiful place. I appreciated that even when I was living there as a child and young woman.

Do you plan to write more about the mother-daughter book club?

HVF: There will be four books in the series. The second one will be out in September. It’s called Much Ado About Anne, and the club will be reading the Anne of Green Gables Series.

What are your thoughts about real mother-daughter book clubs?

HVF: I think it’s the best idea that’s come down the pike in a long time, and I’m incredibly jealous that I don’t have a daughter. Because I’d start one in a heartbeat. I know a group where the girls are in college and when they come home for the holidays they still want to have book club meetings. It’s truly special to have something like that to share and look back on. Even with my sons, we did a lot of reading together growing up as a family. Bonding over books is something that helps create a very strong connection.

I understand you’re willing to meet with mother-daughter book clubs?

HVF: Yes, and I’ve met with clubs both on the phone and in person. I think it’s a fun way for the moms to visit and the girls to interact. And it’s been really great for me to get feedback from book clubs across the country who say we loved your book and now we’re going to read Little Women. It makes me so happy to spotlight books like this and help keep them alive.

If you’d like to contact Frederick about meeting with your book club, send her a message through her Web site at www.heathervogelfrederick.com.

Interview with Author Mary E. Pearson

Posted on by
Mary E. Pearson photo

Mary E. Pearson

Mary Pearson is author of several books for teen readers, the latest of which is The Adoration of Jenna Fox. I recently read this along with my daughter’s mother-daughter book club, and when we finished our discussion we thought of questions we would like to ask Pearson. Below you’ll find our questions along with her answers. (From a July 2008 interview.)

Why did you choose to write about ethics in medicine?

MP: I am not sure that I exactly “chose” to write about ethics. I think the question of ethics naturally arose out of the situation and story. When I write, I like to explore gray areas and various viewpoints and I think the particulars of this story and situation, just happened to be ripe with ethical questions.

Why did you decide to place the story in a future time?

MP: Years ago, when my own daughter was facing a life-threatening illness but was saved by modern medicine that hadn’t been available fifty years earlier, I wondered how far medicine would progress in another fifty years. I didn’t think of it as an idea for a story at the time, but that niggling question stayed with me.

Was there something particular you wanted to say to a teen audience about the issues?

MP: No. I don’t write to “tell” teens anything. For me, when I write, it is more a matter of exploring things that I am curious about. And I write from the teen perspective because I find the teen years to be so pivotal and life changing. Teens are adults, albeit young ones, who are experiencing so many firsts and making decisions that can affect them for the rest of their lives.

Do you have strong opinions of your own on the topic?

MP: Yes and no. How’s that for wishy washy? I do believe in the sacredness of human life. I do understand a parent’s desperate need to save their child. I do believe in change and progress. But I also believe in some limits and control. The dilemma comes in who decides what. That’s the part I don’t know. The only thing I really do know, is that probably none of us knows for sure what we would do in an impossible situation.

What kind of research did you have to conduct to write the story in a way that would make sense to readers who aren’t knowledgeable about medical terms?

MP: In some respects, making it “accessible” was easy since it is all written from seventeen year-old Jenna’s point of view. When I was researching the anatomy and workings of the brain, I had to choose key brain anatomy phrases so it wouldn’t be too jargony and I tried to keep those to a minimum. I didn’t want it to read like a medical encyclopedia even though much of the story revolved around medical technology. It was a balancing act to include enough but not too much.

Have you spent time with people who have had experimental medical treatments? How about with people who rejected experimental medical treatments?

MP: Yes and yes. I have a friend who was given six months to live after a diagnosis of metastasized melanoma. She did some research of her own and found some experimental clinical trials that were being conducted at a local university. It was tough going, months of uncertainty, but she had nothing to lose. And finally one of the treatments worked. That was over ten years ago and she is alive and well today.

As far as rejecting experimental treatment, my husband and I rejected it for our own daughter who was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma. It was a horribly difficult decision for us. The experimental treatment was shorter, and also had the “possibility” of fewer of the long lasting side effects of chemo and radiation, but it didn’t have a long proven track record. However, the standard treatment did have a proven track record with a great degree of success. We felt we just couldn’t take a chance when her life was at stake, so we went with the tried and true. That was eight years ago and she is well and healthy now so we feel we made the right decision.

Do you think you would make the same decision Jenna’s parents did?

MP: Honestly, I don’t know. I think I would. I think most parents would do anything to save their child.  But there is also the uncertainty of how much hell you will be putting your child through. I think until we are actually faced with such horrific decisions, it is impossible to judge.

Did you change your views while you were writing the book?

MP: I’m not sure I had a view before I began the book. Just questions. And maybe that is what I was left with too, perhaps along with a greater degree of empathy for those facing the unknown.

In your opinion, what makes this a good book to read and discuss with a group in a book club?

MP: Ha! You’re asking the author to judge her own book! But I will give it a try. I think because there is so much gray area in this book and opposing opinions, it gives each reader the opportunity to weigh in with their own. There are no right or wrong opinions, but certainly there will be strong ones. We’re talking about life and death here, and the essence of our humanity. These are huge topics that affect us all, and everyone is bound to have their own ideas about what we should or shouldn’t do.

Anything else you’d like us to know?

MP: I’m truly honored that you chose to read my book for your book club, and I do hope it provided you all with some interesting discussions. I wish I could have eavesdropped!

Interview with Patricia McCormick, Author of Sold

Posted on by
Patricia McCormick photo

Patricia McCormick

Patricia McCormick has received much acclaim for the novels she’s written about important topics that  people often find uncomfortable talking about. Her latest, Sold, tells the story of a young girl from Nepal who is sold into the sex slave industry in India. In Cut, she wrote about a young girl who cut herself to deal with feelings of guilt she has over her brother’s illness. And in My Brother’s Keeper, a boy covers for his brother who increasingly experiences problems as he travels further down a path of drug abuse.

Yet McCormick writes about these topics to enlighten, so reading her work doesn’t feel preachy. The topics she covers are often best discussed in a group, such as a mother-daughter book club, where readers can talk about their thoughts on the subject while discussing a character in her book. Recently, I spoke with McCormick about what she chooses to write about as well as how she came to be a writer. (From an August 2008 interview.)

How did you decide to become a professional writer?

PM: I had a job at a daily newspaper in New Jersey that I just loved. It was such a thrill to see my work immediately the next day and see that it had an impact. But then there came a point when I wanted more of a challenge. I tried business writing which was not for me. I was doing movie and book reviews and I found I didn’t want to be the person reviewing the books, I wanted to be the person writing them.

What made you want to write fiction as opposed to non-fiction?

PM: You can do a lot with journalism and you can do a lot with creative non-fiction, but fiction feels like the biggest canvas to tell a story.
Your books deal with very difficult subjects. Things that people maybe don’t want to talk about too much.

What’s the advantage do you see of talking about those things in a fictionalized way?

PM: If you have a conversation about a fictional girl and her mother, or a fictional girl and her father they are one or two or ten steps removed from your situation, but you can still see similarities. So I think it’s a much safer way to talk about things that people aren’t comfortable talking about. Everybody is affected when something happens like in Cut or My Brother’s Keeper. They don’t know how to talk about it. And, if you’re cutting, you might think you’re the only one in the world doing it, and it’s really hard to ask for help. But if you’re reading about it in a book it’s easier to ask for help. I’ve heard from so many kids who’ve said that they just went in and put the book down or made a point of letting their parents know they were reading this book as a way of saying, “that’s me, that’s what’s going on in my life.”

That must be very rewarding.

PM: Oh it is. I love when I hear from librarians who say, “I needed a book just like this for one of my kids,” or when they tell me it’s one of their most stolen books.

What draws you to the topics you talk about?

PM: My Brother’s Keeper is a story I kind of lived through. I lived with family members who have substance abuse problems, and my thinking there was the person who’s got the problem with substance abuse attracts a lot of attention, but there are so many other people affected by it who should have a voice too.
As for Cut, I was really fascinated by this issue and by the idea that somebody could be so hurt or angry or lonely or frustrated or numbed-out but couldn’t tell anybody so they take it out on their bodies.

With Sold, I heard about trafficking and I just couldn’t believe that people sold their children. There’s great journalism about trafficking, but I think when you turn it into fiction and when you really sink into the experience of another human being experiencing this, it calls on your empathy.

Did you hope to inspire people to action with this book?

PM: I very much had the idea of activating people. I had opportunities to intervene while I was doing the research, but I was thwarted in the things I wanted to do. Then I thought, “what I can do is write a book.” So I couldn’t write it fast enough. I wanted everyone to know immediately about this. I’ve been really amazed at the response. Kids of this generation tend to be very socially aware and care about issues of social justice and are activists. They want to raise money and they want to find out more. Even kids you wouldn’t anticipate having any kind of connection to an issue like this. I went to a juvenile facility, and I though, “why are these girls going to care about some girl in a mud hut?” But they were really moved. And I think it’s because they know what it’s like in some cases to be betrayed by a family member. Or to be sexualized inappropriately. Kids are really shocked that this is happening to their peers.

How do people best channel their desire for action?

PM: We’re physically far removed from the problem, so the best way to help is through our donations. The organizations I list in the back of the book really helped me, and I can vouch that the money really goes to help the girls. Five dollars can buy a girl her first new dress when she leaves the brothel. It’s such a huge benefit to her to put on something clean and modest. People can also talk about the issue. Trafficking happens here in the United States. Either with kids coming in from foreign countries or kids who run away here and are trafficked once they lose their bearings and run out of money.

You went to Nepal and India to conduct research for Sold. What was that like?

PM: I would collect information and I would think, “oh this is powerful, I can put this in the book.” But the other half of my brain would think,” oh my god look at what’s happening in front of you.” I tried to keep a professional screen between my feelings and the work I was doing. But I would go to my hotel room at night and I would just shake. I trembled with rage and sadness and frustration.

I could only write about it for a couple of hours a day. What made it more bearable is that I didn’t have to use graphic language. Because Lakshmi was a child, I tried to put it through her frame of reference, and she wouldn’t totally know what was happening to her. She wouldn’t use what we would consider offensive language. In some ways that made it more poignant.

What are you working on now?

PM: It’s a book about a soldier in Iraq. When you think about it it’s absolutely audacious that a 52-year-old woman in Manhattan could write about that experience. And I am really worried about getting it right and making it authentic, but there’s something that was so compelling to me about that experience that I could not, not write it.

Anything you’d like to share for readers at Mother Daughter Book Club.com?

PM: I’m so envious of people who have mother daughter book clubs. I have a 25-year-old daughter and we read a lot together and she is my first editor. I wish the idea had been around when she was younger. It’s so wonderful when people can talk about a book in an open non-judgmental way. A book is an amazing way to see an experience that’s not yours. I think so many kids think they have to figure out by themselves. But real growth comes from staying and working things out with the people at hand.

Interview with Laura Whitcomb, Author of A Certain Slant of Light

Posted on by
Laura Whitcomb photo

Laura Whitcomb

Laura Whitcomb is author of A Certain Slant of Light, a young adult novel that unfolds through the eyes of Helen, a spirit who died long ago but maintains contact with the living world by clinging to a host. When Helen meets James, another spirit who has learned to inhabit a body vacated by the soul of its teen owner, the two embark on a relationship that explores life, death and love against all expectations. Recently, Mother Daughter Book Club.com interviewed Ms. Whitcomb about A Certain Slant of Light and her other works. (From an interview in February 2007.)

The subject matter of A Certain Slant of Light is a bit mature, and it’s recommended for an audience of 9th grade and older. Did you have a young adult audience in mind when you were writing?

LW: Actually I was just trying to write the best story I could think of in the best way I could tell it. My agent sent it out to both adult and YA editors. After it sold as YA, it made sense to me – even though the ghosts were in their twenties when they died, the bodies they took over were teens. The characters had to deal with teen life.

Both Helen and James are spirits with unresolved issues, do you believe spirits exist all around us?

LW: I don’t know if there are ghosts, but I believe many people experience hauntings, and I believe that our spirits/souls go on to new things after we die. I wouldn’t be surprised if some souls had to heal in order to pass on to what comes after this earthly life.

Why did you decide to have the spirits of Helen and James – who died as adults – inhabit teen bodies?

LW: It started out as just one scene. I didn’t know if the scene would turn into a novel, or just be a short story. If I were a ghost, attached to a host, I would want to be around books. Since I used to teach English, I thought I’d have my ghost’s host be an English teacher too, and so when I had her be seen by someone, I chose someone who’d be right there in his class, and that person was a high school student. At first that was my only reason to choose a teen. But it worked well for me as the story progressed – it created lots of conflict.

Was there a reason you placed the flesh-and-blood lives of Helen and James in two different times in history?

LW: Well, I thought it would be too much of a coincidence if they died around the same time.

Helen makes references to other literary figures, like Emily Dickinson, that her spirit was attached to in the past. Why did she attach herself to those writers and teachers in her spirit life when it seems she wasn’t part of that world when she was alive?

LW: Helen loves books. She was a reader, rather than a writer, when she was alive, but it was her love of literature that drew her to her hosts once she was dead. She wanted to dwell in the beautiful worlds that novels, poems, and plays offer because her own existence was so limited.

A Certain Slant of Light leaves us hopeful in the end not only for Helen and James, but also for Jenny and Billy, whose bodies they inhabit. Do you plan a sequel focusing on Jenny and Billy?

LW: No, I don’t have a plan to write a sequel. But one never knows!

You’ve attended a mother-daughter book club meeting where A Certain Slant of Light was being discussed. What was it like hearing readers’ comments about your book?

LW: It’s always interesting to hear people talk about something you wrote. I was impressed by the sophistication of the questions and comments from both generations. It feels great to have your work be the fuel for such lively conversation. One of the women even made a point that I hadn’t ever thought of. She said, “I don’t think Jenny ever would’ve come back to Cathy’s house if Dan had still been there.” Hey, that was pretty smart! (Wish I’d thought of it.)

You’ve also written a non-fiction book for writers on how to write and sell a novel. Did you find big differences in the process of writing fiction and non-fiction?

LW: The non-fiction book, called Your First Novel, which I co-authored with my agent Ann Rittenberg, had much more structure to start with, so I was writing it to fit a plan. A Certain Slant of Light was my original story, and at first I didn’t even have an outline, so it was more of a creative process. One the other hand, there are a lot of similarities. As examples, both books are meant to excite the reader and are about learning the rules of a new world.

Do you have another novel in the works?

LW: The publisher of A Certain Slant of Light, Houghton Mifflin, bought my new YA novel, The Fetch (due out in 2008,) on a summary and sample chapter. I’m just finishing it now. This one might be a series. I think I’d really enjoy that. My agent’s also about to send out another of my novels, Judas Cross, which will probably be an adult novel rather than YA.

Interview with Kirby Larson, Author of Hattie Big Sky

Posted on by
Kirby Larson photo

Kirby Larson

Kirby Larson wasn’t expecting to write historical fiction when the story of Hattie Inez Brooks found her. Her books before Hattie Big Sky were written for younger readers, but as Larson says, “You never know where life is going to take you. Sometimes there’s a story that takes hold of your heart and there you go.” And readers have been happy to go with her. Recently Larson talked with Mother Daughter Book Club.com by phone from her home near Seattle, Washington. (From an interview in August 2007.)

Where did you grow up?

KL: I grew up almost entirely in Washington State. My family moved around a lot so I ended up going to five grade schools, two junior highs and two high schools, but it was all in Washington State.

How old were you when you started to write?

KL: Kids always ask me that. I’ve been writing for about 20 years, and I started when my children were small.

What attracted you to writing?

KL: I’ve always been a bookworm. As I mentioned, I moved around a lot, and one of the problems with being the new kid is it takes a while to make new friends. But I always had my books. There came a point when I wanted to try writing my own stories, but I didn’t know when I was younger that writing fiction could be an option for people (for a career). I wrote for newspapers and magazines, but not with the idea that I was going to write fiction.

How did you decide to try your hand at fiction?

KL: I remember the moment I decided I wanted to try writing something for kids. My two children were small, and we used to go to the library all time. We checked out a picture book by Arnold Lobel called Ming Lo Moves the Mountain. When we read it I had my son on one side of me and my daughter on the other, and we were sitting on our couch. When I turned the last page it was like a switch went off inside me. I said to myself, “I want to learn how to write a book that will touch other people the way this book has touched me.” That same day I called a really good friend of mine and asked her if we could trade babysitting. I’d go to the library while she had my kids twice a week for two hours and I wrote on a yellow pad with a pen or pencil. I did that for a couple of years.

Your earlier books are written for younger audiences. How did you decide to start writing for an older audience and write Hattie?

KL: I had no idea I was going to write the book. The book found me through my grandma, who was living in an adult care home near the end of her life. I was spending a lot of time with her, because I was one of her caretakers. We were sitting there one day when out of the blue she said to me, “The only time mom was ever afraid was in the winter when the wild horses stampeded.” I said, “Grandma what are you talking about?” But she didn’t even know she’d said that to me. I knew she was talking about her mom, my great-grandmother Hattie Inez Brooks.

So I started talking to my aunts, and my mom’s oldest sister said, “You know we did hear a story that Hattie homesteaded by herself.” I knew Hattie as this tiny little woman with white hair and thick glasses. I couldn’t imagine her as a homesteader. But I had a friend who was into genealogy research and she found the Montana Bureau of Land Management Web site that listed a claim number for Hattie. I sent that number to the National Archives, and within a couple of months I had all of Hattie’s homestead documents. I found out that she not only went to Montana, but she proved up on a claim there!

I was so fascinated about how a young woman could do this I started reading journals and diaries, and everything else I could find on that time period and on homesteading in eastern Montana. Before I knew it, there was a story there, and that started me on a three-year research journey. So I didn’t sit down to write a novel, in fact I would have been petrified if I would have told myself, “okay today you’re going to start working on a historical novel.”

Do you expect that you will write novels for older readers again?

KL: Of course. But I also have chapter books and picture books that I love and would love to find a home for. I still want to tell those stories. I don’t see myself writing in any one genre; I see myself writing stories in the form that best fit them. And sometimes that’s a novel and sometimes that’s a picture book.

It sounds like a fun career to be able to follow what your heart is telling you at the moment.

KL: I feel so fortunate that I’m able to do this. It’s lonely, too, because you’re sitting in your office most of the time not knowing whether your story will connect with anyone else. But I think if you find your passion and you go with it you are rewarded.

What is the most fun you have as an author?

KL: I think it’s twofold: fun for me is in feeling like I nailed something, like I really got the story right. With Hattie I feel like I really got the time period right, and I got her voice right. The other thing is, I get e-mails from people everyday who loved her story. Here I am sitting in my little office in Kenmore, Washington, and someone in Missouri or Kentucky or Vermont or Maine is reading my book and connecting with it. It’s mind-boggling.

Hattie was homesteading during Word War I. Did you feel like there was any correlation between the struggle that was going on in the broader world and the struggle that was going on with Hattie?

KL: Absolutely. When I first got the idea for Hattie it was just going to be a homestead novel. But the more I read about that time period, the more I became aware of the really strong anti-German sentiment and that people suffered harsh consequences not only for being German Americans, but also other folks who might question the treatment of German Americans or might question our being in the war at that time. It was also the struggle of answering the question, “How do you be a good citizen?” It was similar to the issue I was wrestling with in my own personal life in 2001 and 2002 when I was writing the book, which was when we first got into Iraq. I think writing about a different time period allowed me to explore some of the questions that were going on in my own life.

How much of what you knew of the real Hattie and her personality did you put into the character in the book?

KL: She died when I was 10, and I loved her to death but I didn’t know her as a person. If I had to pick one person who is most Hattie-like I think it would be my grandmother.

How did you feel when Hattie Big Sky was named a Newbery Honor Book?

KL: I burst into tears. I got the call very early in the morning. First I was speechless. I couldn’t even respond at first; then I was in tears. It’s such a significant honor. I read a lot so I know the books they were considering and to think that Hattie would have been selected was beyond imagining. I call this book a love letter to my grandmother who died before the book came out. I felt like there was so much of my connection with her caught up in this book, and to have that acknowledged by someone else was an emotional overload for me.

I understand you visited a mother daughter book club meeting with your daughter?

KL: Yes. It was really a fun evening. I am so impressed with the commitment that moms are making now to this concept. I think it’s an important way for moms to be together with girls, especially when they are pre-teen. You can talk about some tough issues that may be affecting your daughters, but since they are a character’s issues it’s a safe way to bring them up. I loved how the girls had their questions to ask and the moms had their questions to ask. They were all interacting as if they were equal. And I think it’s nice to have other adult women in your life when you’re growing up. I can see these book clubs working on a lot of different levels to help girls get through those tough pre-teen and teen years.

Interview with Author Zlata Filipovic

Posted on by

Photo by Tobias Munthe

Zlata Filipovic’s diary of life in war-torn Sarajevo has been compared to the Diary of Anne Frank. Only 11 years old when she started writing, she is now a poised young woman of 26 who uses her voice to speak against the tragedy of war and its effect on children. Here she speaks to Mother Daughter Book Club.com about her war-time experiences and her new book Stolen Voices, a collection of young people’s war-time diary entries. (Interview from March 2007.)

How long had your family lived in Sarajevo before the war started?

ZF: My father’s family has been in Sarajevo for generations, all of them also being boys and lawyers on the Filipovic side. Both my mother and father were born there, and I was born in Sarajevo in December 1980, which means I spent eleven very happy years before the war started in April 1992.

Why did you start writing in a diary?

ZF: I started writing a diary because I got a very pretty notebook, and I saw some older girlfriends keep diaries and wanted to emulate them in that way. I had also read the Diary of Anne Frank as well as the fictional Diary of Adrian Mole (written by Sue Townsend) and became familiar with the diary-writing form which I liked. I was hoping my diary would be more like that of Adrian Mole, which was extremely funny, but it ended unfortunately being compared to that of Anne Frank.

When did you realize war had come to your city?

ZF: It is a very interesting question… Today, when I look at April 1992 and hearing gunshots for the very first time, I now date that to the beginning of the war. But back then, there was one month which felt quite ambiguous – we did not go to school or work, but we did not BELIEVE the war was really there, we still went out into the streets on peace marches and thought that it would all be 100% normal very soon.

Why didn’t your family leave?

ZF: This related to my answer above—we did not believe that the war would last very long, because we never think wars will happen to us. It was also impossible for all three of us to leave together (because men were not allowed to leave the city) and we did not want to separate. By the time we realized things were very serious, the city was completely shut down and under siege, so it was almost impossible to leave.

What was the hardest thing for you and your family to live without during the war?

ZF: Lack of security I think was the hardest, just not knowing whether any moment would be your last or would be the last moment of someone you really love and care for. It was also hard to think of what to eat, how to cook once the electricity was cut off, how to get water once the water was cut off… The winter was incredibly cold, and we could not see any way out of the war. It was also terrible to hope for cease-fires and be happy whenever we heard of peace agreements being signed, and then feeling that terrible disappointment when they were broken. Nothing worse than hope being brought up and then have it crash down.

What brought you the most pleasure?

ZF: Not very much, but I was happy we had a little kitten in the neighborhood, and also that we were sharing very strong moments with our neighbors who we casually said hello to in the street before the war. We were now sharing food, sharing their joys and fears with them, and it was incredible to see so much humanity and kindness in the midst of so much cruelty.

What was the most frightening part of the violence?

ZF: For me personally, it was not so much the fact that I would die, but that someone I really care for would—my parents, or grandparents. I was also ‘planning’ that should I have to be wounded and lose the use of my legs, as a little of people had, I would concentrate myself on my piano-playing and become a great pianist. What a strange thing for an 11 year old to have to think about!

How was your diary chosen for publication?

ZF: This happened completely accidentally. During the war, regular schools stopped working, but a small ‘summer school’ was set up in small areas of the city, and there I joined a literary section, as I always liked to write and read. One day, in summer 1992, my teacher asked if anyone was writing a diary, because UNICEF were looking for a diary of a young person to publish. I gave some parts of my diary, and they collected these all over the city, and ended up choosing one for publication, which was mine. It came out in a small number of copies in Summer 1993 (it contained only the first three months of the war and only extracts of the original which I kept with me). Because of the strong presence of foreign journalists in Sarajevo at the time, they all started writing about it and the story got out into the world, which is when foreign publishers became interested in publishing the diary in its entirety.

What did it feel like to leave Sarajevo?

ZF: It was a very difficult day—being happy to finally have a chance to leave the city which almost no one could get out of, having a chance to actually be flown out as a family which was next to impossible and only happened because of the intervention on the part of the French publishers and French government—and being so sad to leave everyone behind, all our dear family members, neighbors, knowing very well what we were leaving them in, and not being sure if we will see them all again.

How did you adjust to life away from conflict and how long was it before you felt safe again?

ZF: The first days in Paris I could not believe that we had safety, we had food and water and electricity—it was truly unbelievable and I kept checking the taps to make sure the water was still running! What followed though immediately after my parents and I came to Paris was a very extensive book tour all around Europe and North America, so I was traveling a lot and speaking to a lot of people about my experiences and about all those who stayed behind and were not as fortunate as me to leave Sarajevo and Bosnia.

Where do you live now?

ZF: I live in Dublin, Ireland—since October 1995.

What do you do there?

ZF: I have just finished working on another book of young people’s experiences of conflict, called Stolen Voices. I have a Masters in International Peace Studies and am also a part-time research assistant for Governance Resource Centre at University of Birmingham, UK.

Do you still keep in touch with friends from Sarajevo?

ZF: Yes I do, this is very important to me. Thanks to email, Skype and other wonders of technology, this is really easy these days. Not everyone from Sarajevo is any longer living there, because a lot of people have left during the war and like me, ended up staying where they ended up.

Do you still have relatives there and do you visit the city?

ZF: Yes, I have been visiting the city regularly ever since the war stopped – since summer 1996, sometimes spending two-three months at a time. Keeping a relationship with the city is very important to me and there are many dear people who are living there that I look forward to seeing every time I go back.

If you could say something to the girl, your younger self, who is pictured on the cover of Zlata’s Diary, what would it be?

ZF: I’d say to her: “Keep on believing and hoping, things can and will get better!!!”

Tell me about your new book, Stolen Voices.

ZF: It is a collection of young people’s war diaries, starting during the WW1 and leading up through the 20th century all the way to the present Iraqi conflict. Having seen the impact that one story can have, it was hugely important and interesting for me to work on a project like this one, alongside my co-editor and friend Melanie Challenger. Everyone in the book is below the age of 21, they are young people who at times of conflict at different points in history decided to express themselves and record the changing and violent world around them. It was incredible to see the similarities between them, as well as hear their individual voices and their incredible stories – and in the process of researching and editing this, I have slightly ‘fallen in love’ with them all.

How did you get the idea to create this compilation from young diarists?

ZF: The original idea arose from my co-editor Melanie Challenger, since she was working with young people and using Anne Frank’s diary, and she too was thinking of this power of individual story. Mel and I met for the first time in Anne Frank’s house in Amsterdam back in 2003, and started working on Stolen Voices, developing the idea further and making it grow into the book that it exists as now!

How do you feel reading the diaries of young people who didn’t survive their wars?

ZF: It makes me incredibly sad, of course. There is always so much life, so much youth, talent and hope in them, and it makes me very sad and angry to know that these young people did not have the lives in which they could have lived out their full potential.

What are your plans for the future?

ZF: I am currently involved in planning several celebrations—notably the International Day of Peace in New York and London 2007, and am working with Amnesty International USA to develop human rights education material around Stolen Voices. I am also looking for my next big project or a job, so fingers crossed!!

Interview with Author Gennifer Choldenko

Posted on by

Gennifer Choldenko

My daughters and I fell in love with a Gennifer Choldenko picture book before we ever started to read her novels for young readers. Moonstruck, the True Story of the Cow Who Jumped Over the Moon, is a lovely story of what someone can accomplish when she puts her mind to it. Then we were delighted to read Al Capone Does My Shirts in our mother daughter book club when the girls were in sixth grade; it was one of the few books that everyone in our group liked. Choldenko delivers for young readers again with her recently released novel, If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period.

Recently I spoke with Gennifer by phone about how she became a writer, how she creates her books and what to expect from her pen in the near future. (From a September 2007 interview. Since then, Choldenko has released Al Capone Shines My Shoes.)

Where did you grow up?

GC: I grew up in Southern California. Now I live in the Bay Area, near San Francisco in Marin County.

How did you decide to become a writer?

GC: I think it got decided for me. I always loved writing and I took every writing class I could get in. When I graduated I got a job writing advertising. I did it for quite some time, but after a while I felt I just couldn’t write advertising anymore. I decided to go to art school, because one of the things I really liked about advertising was putting together the visuals with the words.

At the time I didn’t have the guts to try to be a writer, because I felt that was going to be fraught with rejection. I thought, “There’s no way I can be a writer and write books.” I thought it would be easier if I was an illustrator. So I went to Rhode Island School of Design and got a degree in Illustration and as soon as I graduated all I did was write. I kept saying, “I’m going to do my portfolio tomorrow, but right now I’m going to finish this one novel first.” Something just opened up inside me and I thought, “I just gotta do this. This is who I am, and I can’t pretend I’m someone else.”

Does your design experience help with your writing projects?

GC: It helps with the picture books a lot, because I can visualize possibilities. Sometimes I come up with an idea that the editors forward to the illustrator. It was my idea of having a tree falling from the sky on the cover for If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period.

What do you like about being a writer?

GC: I love to write. It’s so much fun. I love playing around with the words and trying to get the voices and the characters right. I find it very fulfilling.

What made you decide to write books for children?

GC: Again I feel like that was decided for me. When I took writing classes in college I didn’t think about being a children’s writer, but my characters were all younger than 18. I didn’t think that I was writing for kids, but that’s the way my voice comes out. When I went back to art school and I saw people who were both artists and writers I really gravitated towards them, and that’s when I realized maybe children’s books are a good place for me.

How many children do you have?

GC: I have a 13-year-old son and an 8-year-old daughter.

There’s a lot going on with Moose and his family in Al Capone Does My Shirts. How did you decide to write a historical fiction novel about Alcatraz that was about kids and included autism?

GC: I started out thinking I was going to write a book set on Alcatraz and I didn’t think there would be a character with autism. To learn about the history of Alcatraz I signed up to be a tour guide on the island, and once a week I worked there. One of the things I learned was how the convicts would be able to hear revelers in San Francisco during holidays, because sound travels differently on water. They would be in their cells and they would be hearing all these party noises but they couldn’t get out and participate. I also think Alcatraz is also one of the most beautiful pieces of real estate in the world. It reminded me of my sister who has autism. She was also quite beautiful, but she was locked in her own world. She could hear things going on around her, but it was like she couldn’t get out, like she was her own island. I pay attention to my intuition when I write, so I decided to create the character of Natalie.

Also, my brother, who loved baseball, was better with dealing with my sister with autism than anyone else in my family. It all fell into place, and I thought I would use a little bit of him in Moose.

Did you do much research on how people with autism were treated in the 1930s?

CG: I tried to, but autism wasn’t identified until 1943. It didn’t exist as a separate disease, so it was hard to find information. Sometimes people with autism were diagnosed as schizophrenic even though that’s a very different disease. But they really did not know what to do in that time. And they treated diseases differently. For instance, locking someone away, which from our viewpoint in 2007 seems horrid, was considered kind then. The thinking was, “They’re with their own kind, it’s better this way.”

That’s what’s really important about historical fiction. Times change and our perspectives on many things also change. So if you’re reading about characters who are true to their time period, their points of view on things can make you really uncomfortable.

Tell me about If a Tree Falls During Lunch Period.

GC: I had a lot of fun working on this book. My voice is naturally contemporary. It’s more of a challenge to get it to work in a historical setting.
There are a lot of issues in this book. You’re writing about classism and racism along with typical middle school issues of being popular and going through puberty.

How did you decide to write about these things?

GC: I think a lot of things came into play in this book. Classism bugs me, and yet I see it all around. Also, when I was kid I was bused from a predominantly white school to a predominantly African American junior high. All of a sudden I felt like I was the color of my skin wherever I went, and I felt like somehow I had to be representative of that. Or else people judged me based on skin color before they knew me. I had never experienced anything like that. I had never thought about the color of my skin. So it made a huge impression and I think that sort of seeped into this book also.

I struggled with getting the voices of Kirsten and Walk right. It was scary to create a character of a different race, because I felt like I was going to open myself up to criticism. But I also felt like not doing it was wrong. So I had to do the right thing for the book even if I didn’t feel like other people would necessarily agree with me on that.

I understand you’re in a mother-daughter book club with your daughter?

GC: Yes. I’ve really enjoyed it and I hope we continue on for many years. I think it will be fun as the kids grow and change and become more sophisticated and probably interact with books in a different way. My daughter is a voracious reader, but she doesn’t speak up much in the book group. She always looks forward to our meetings, and if for some reason I have to miss one she’s really unhappy about it. That’s the best indication that it means something to her.

What are you working on now?

GC: I have five books under contract. Three of them are picture books, and two are novels. One is a sequel to Al Capone Does My Shirts. There’s a lot of information that I wanted to use in the first one that I couldn’t. If all goes well with the sequel, I hope to write a third one and create a trilogy.

Anything else you’d like to say to readers at Mother Daughter Book Club.com?

GC: What you’re doing is a great thing. I think you will reap benefits from it for many years beyond the years you spend in it. Because kids can talk about things within the safety of the pages of a book, I think it’s an important forum that really helps the relationship you have with your kids.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...