Heidi at my juicy little universe is hosting today.
It's Earth Day weekend and such a great reason to celebrate besides all the poetry goodness. Have you checked in with the 2024 Progressive Poem? For Friday, April 19 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core. Today I have an encore interview for Double Feature Friday (in fact the other interview is also an encore interview. Last year, during National Poetry Month, I interviewed Helen Frost. Today, she's back with her new book, The Mighty Pollinators. 
JRM: In my previous interview The Mighty Pollinators was in process. Do you have another project that you are working with him on? What do you enjoy about collaborating with Rick Lieder?
HF:That’s so interesting—I hadn’t remembered that Rick and I were working on this book the last time you and I corresponded! We have several new ideas, but I hesitate to say too much about a possible new project before it becomes more of a sure thing. I enjoy the process of our collaboration. We both pay close attention to the creatures of the natural world, each with our own focus. Rick is a scientist as well as a visual artist, and is knowledgeable and attentive to detail. In my effort to find precisely the right words for my poems, I spend a lot of time outdoors making close observations, and I find that the details in Rick's photographs, and the knowledge I gain from our conversations, enrich and strengthen both the poems and the end-notes. And of course the collaboration works both ways—each of us refining our work in cooperation with the other. JRM: I am sure you researched pollinators in depth. What information did you have to leave out? What was the most surprising tidbit of information you discovered? HF: I was amazed at how much information we were able to include, between the photographs, the poems, and the back-matter. It would have been nice to be more specific about which pollinators are attracted to which plants, for example, but I do think the book will serve as a great introduction for young children to an important and complex topic. Those who are interested, as I would have been at age 3 or 4, can learn more as they grow older. As for new information, I hadn’t thought much about night-time pollinators, and I loved learning more about the bats and moths as pollinators, as well as the little nocturnal mammals who carry pollen in their fur as they scurry around at night. JRM: I love you included the wind and other living creatures that some readers might not consider as pollinators. There are probably other pollinators not included. How did you narrow your focus? HF: We knew we wanted to give attention to bees, because they are so important, but we didn’t want them to carry the whole show. That’s why there is a butterfly on the cover. You’re right that there are way too many different pollinators to include them all, so we tried to focus on the most important pollinators. It would have been fun to include a picture and poem that showed a person hand-pollinating something. I have a pawpaw tree that didn’t bear fruit for a few seasons. I knew it needed to be pollinated with pollen from a pawpaw tree of a different species, so I went to a nearby park and gathered pollen from several different pawpaw trees, then mixed it all up and, using a little paintbrush, spread pollen on my tree’s flowers at just the right time. I was so happy to have the delicious pawpaws a few months later! JRM: Was there a poem you wanted but had to cut? HF: Yes, Rick had some beautiful images of mosquitoes, and we were able to include one of them on the right side of the end-matter pages. We didn’t have space for this poem though: Mosquito I’m a male mosquito. Females are the ones who bite, and only when they need a meal before they lay their eggs. As for me-- I carry pollen, on two feathery antennae, and six skinny legs. JRM. Wow, Helen. Mosquitos would not have been on my list as pollinators. JRM: How can readers support our pollinators? HF:First: don’t kill them! Every year, someone comes to my door offering to “rid your yard of all the creepy crawlies.” This negative attitude toward insects is dangerous to the insects (obviously) but also, for many reasons, dangerous to humans. And then, don’t kill the plants they pollinate. Early spring plants such as dandelions and clover are sources of pollen for the early spring pollinators, so try to avoid mowing them down too soon or spraying them with herbicides. Also important: Plant trees and flowers that are native to wherever you live. Thank you for this thoughtful interview, Jone, and thank you for caring about The Mighty Pollinators. Helen, I am with you about not killing the creepy crawlies (well, I do have to deal with the sugar ants at times but that’s another story).
JRM:Would you have an early draft of a poem and then the final draft so readers can take a peek at the process?
HF: It’s a little embarrassing to show people my early drafts, especially handwritten notebook versions, but I can see how it might be interesting. A couple of notes: When writing in a notebook like this, I start on the right hand page, then continue on the left page—just a quirky habit, but important to know if you’re trying to read this messy early draft. Note the date: 11/15/2020. When children’s lives were upended by the Covid pandemic, Rick and I, along with our editor, Sarah Ketchersid, started thinking about how to help young readers understand how something as small as the corona virus (misheard by one child as “corona pirates”) could change everything so suddenly and dramatically. We thought about other tiny things, and eventually settled on pollen as something “almost invisible” but not quite—very small and very important. like small children themselves, in a way.
Thanks for this fascinating interview and this gorgeous book.
Heidi at my juicy little universe is hosting today.
It's Earth Day weekend and such a great reason to celebrate besides all the poetry goodness. Have you checked in with the 2024 Progressive Poem? For Friday, April 19 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core. Today I have an encore interview for Double Feature Friday (in fact the other interview is also an encore interview. In 2021, I had the pleasure of interviewing Joanne Rossmassler Fritz with her debut book, Everywhere Blue. Today I am interviewing her about her new book, Ruptured. It is a very personal story as Joanne took her real life experience to create a story about a father, a mother and a daughter, a medical emergency, and a secret that could impact their lives 
JRM: I remember in your previous interview that you shared how you were working on Ruptured. Would you like to expand more on how you came to write this book?
JRF: It took me quite a while, Jone. As you know, I'm a survivor of two ruptured brain aneurysms, twelve years apart. I knew I needed to write about it, but when I first tried, years ago, it wasn't working for me. I had attempted two different approaches, both from the POV of a high-school student who has a brain aneurysm rupture (and of course it would have been a YA novel). One was prose and one was verse. But I found it hard to write either one because I was still too close to the experience emotionally. In the spring of 2021, I had a "eureka" moment and realized I needed to take a step back and write about a girl whose mother has a brain aneurysm rupture. Once I tried that, it all fell into place. JRM: I felt the tension between Claire and her mom. I sensed the discomfort between the two adults and how Claire was experiencing it. How did you create these characters that are so real and the situation so heartbreaking? JRF: Thank you for saying that! I spent a lot of time thinking about the characters, and taking notes in a red notebook. I knew I had to make them different from myself and my husband, because this isn't an autobiography. And I don't have a daughter in real life. I have two grown sons. So Claire was completely invented. Of course, there's a bit of me in Claire. I suppose there's a bit of me in each of my characters. You need to get inside the character's head and imagine what they would do in each situation. As for the situation being so heartbreaking, thank you for saying that! I knew I needed more tension than just the Mom's rupture. A rupture happens suddenly, and then it's over, so to keep the tension going, I came up with the idea of Mom telling her daughter a secret. I worried about it at first. Would a Mom really tell her 13 year old daughter something this personal? Would this make the character less likable? But my editor accepted it and we worked together to make the Mom more relatable. JRM: I was expecting a character to have a ruptured brain aneurysm, I was not expecting the secret Mom shared with Claire. What a weight to carry especially as an only child. In your plotting and writing did you start with “I will have a character with a ruptured brain aneurysm and build around it? Or did you have an idea of a teen with discontented parents and build around it? (I guess I’m asking about process) JRF: Great question! As I said above, I started with the idea of the Mom having the rupture, so everything had to progress from there. And by inventing Claire, it gave me the distance I needed to write the story. JRM: What led you to set the story in Maine? JRF: This one is easy! Both of my ruptures coincidentally occurred in Maine, each time while we were on vacation. I never considered any other setting. In fact, in the beginning, I expected the entire story to take place in Maine. But as I worked on it more, I realized the timeline meant Claire needed to go to school, and Aunt Bobbi was the perfect person to take her home to Pennsylvania, and stay with her. JRM: Would you have a draft example and its final poem to share the changes? JRF: Yes! Here are two versions of Fever Memory from p.39-40: From Draft 2 (the first time the poem appeared): Fever Memory Staring at Mom’s face, I remember when I was three or four and woke up in the night, hot, confused, scared. My fingers had grown to huge fat sausages. I couldn't do anything with them. They were far too big and awkward, the rest of me far too small. I whimpered, crawled out of bed. needing my mother. But my parents’ closed bedroom door looked impossibly far away down a too-long hallway. And tiny, that door, so tiny. I cried louder. And then Mom appeared far away and small. Too small. Impossible to reach. Until a second later she was there next to me, helping me back into bed, smoothing a cool hand across my forehead, whispering calm quiet words, soothing me. Loving me. My mother. Now, looking at her, pain stabs my heart. She loves me. She’s always loved me. Get better, Mom. I need you. We need you. And here's the final version, from Draft 4 (much shorter, as you can see, thanks to my editor's suggestions!): Fever Memory Staring at Mom’s face, I remember when I was three or four and woke in the night, hot, confused, scared. My fingers felt like huge sausages. I couldn't do anything with them. I whimpered, crawled out of bed, needing my mom. But my parents’ closed bedroom door looked impossibly far away. I cried louder. Then Mom appeared, helping me back into bed. She pressed a cool hand to my forehead, whispering quiet words, calming me. Loving me. Get better, Mom. JRM: How did you come up with the lighthouse as an image? JRF: This is also easy. Maine has many lighthouses, and I've always loved them, mostly for what they symbolize, but also because of the majestic look of them. I'm fascinated that, before modern technologies existed, in order to avoid treacherous rocks along the coast, the only thing sailors or boat captains had to go by was the bright light from a lighthouse. And a real person had to live there and keep the lanterns lit. Do you remember Keep The Lights Burning, Abbie by Connie Roop? I've always loved that book! In today's world, any active lighthouses are now automatic and no one lives in them. In fact, most of them aren't used at all anymore. But they're still beautiful. And they still symbolize hope to me. JRM: I love how the book ended, hopeful and yet not totally wrapped up with a pretty bow. Have you had readers speculate about what happens next? JRF: Thank you! And yes, I have! It always surprises me. It's kind of cool that once we write a book, it doesn't belong to us anymore, and readers take what they want from it. (And I like to end all my books that way. Everywhere Blue ended that way too, not totally wrapped up.) JRM: The theme of family dynamics is apparent as it was in Everywhere Blue. I love the incorporation of Aunt Bobbi. I had an aunt that my teen self really related to. Who were your mentors? JRF: I had two aunts, who never married or had children, so in a way it was like having two extra parents! They took me traveling to places like New York City, for Broadway plays and museums. It was a lot of fun. JRM: Do you have a favorite scene or quote from the book? If you were to give a reading, what might you read to the audience? Was there a surprise for you in writing this novel? JRF: A surprise? I think all of my books surprise me a bit, because I'm not a plotter. I'm a pantser. So as I work my way toward my end goal, something inevitably surprises me. There are poems in this book that I had no plan to write, but as I struggled my way through the first draft, I knew it needed more. And the poems popped into my head. It's hard to pick one favorite scene, but I do have a personal reason to love the poem Stairs on p. 242, because that's exactly what my devoted husband did for me. My memory was beginning to return then, and I can still remember climbing the stairs sideways, one step at a time, with my husband a few steps below me in case I stumbled. And my favorite quote is still the tagline: "Is it wrong to grieve for someone who is still alive?" Originally, that was the first line of the opening poem. If I were to give a reading, I'd probably read the first five poems or else I'd read Trompe L' Oeil on page 61. JRM: What are you currently working on? JRF: Another Middle Grade verse novel. It's not very far along yet, so I don't want to say too much! I can only say that it returns to an environmental theme, in the woods. And this time, it's a middle child, feeling squeezed in a large family. Thank you so much for this interview, Joanne. I hope others get a chance to read this book. And PF Friends, if you would like to win a signed copy, just drop a comment. Joanne is graciously donating a copy to readers of this blog. There is still time to share your favorite poem or poet by filling out this form. We all have more than one poem or poet we love, probably we have many mentor poems. Don’t overthink it, just share one. Favorite Poem or Poet Anyone?
Note: Please link at Mr. Linky in Part 1 of Poetry Friday. Welcome back to part two of my poetry author’s interviews. I was very happy that Anne Irza-Leggat connected me with Liz and her new book, Everyone Starts Small. JRM: Where did the seed for this book come from? LGS: I love the wordplay you embedded in this question, Jone -- thank you! I write a lot about the natural world because of how enraptured I am with it and, also, how worried I am for it. This particular manuscript was inspired by two books -- The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben and Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake, both of which are chock-full of fascinating and heartening stuff, but are decidedly for grown-up readers. I wanted to grab the essence of what I learned from those books and translate it into something accessible and alive for young readers. JRM: What kind of research did you do? What information did you have to leave out? What was the most surprising tidbit of information from the research? LGS: When I dug into the interconnected lives of trees and fungi, I was utterly wowed by how smart and resilient these living worlds are, and what impeccable examples they offer of how to protect and lift one another other up. There was so much information I couldn't include -- like the fact that trees form intricate networks for sharing nutrients and messages and support, via chemical compounds and scent and even sound! But I was able (I hope) to evoke the reality that (as Peter Wohlleben said in The Hidden Life of Trees) "a tree can be only as strong as the forest that surrounds it." We are, none of us, as safe or well alone as we are together. JRM: Was there a verse you wanted to include but had to cut? LGS: Not a particular verse, but the tenor of the piece changed quite a bit. The early drafts leaned into a friendly competition between tree and water, and who could grow bigger and stronger, faster. There is still a hint of that, in the final book, but I became much more interested in how everything -- tree and water and bug and berry -- grows together. The threat or competition really isn't between them so much as an external thing being imposed upon them, thanks to the impact of human activity and climate change. 
JRM: Would you have an early draft of a poem and then the final draft so readers can take a peek at the process? LGS: My poet-friends Laura Purdie Salas and Tanita Davis are both amazing at capturing their own processes -- sometimes even via video. I'm envious because I'm less organized or maybe less conscious of the discreet steps of my process. But here's an example of a poem from a small collection I've been working on. You'll see that as it evolved, it became way more specific and, to my mind at least, child centered. JRM: Would you have a tip for teachers on how to use this book? LGS: I hope it will be read and enjoyed as "just a story" but also that students will notice that the "characters" in the book, while not human, are very much alive and engaged with the world and with one another! Tree has been given the primary speaking voice here, but I'd love for students to empower the other natural elements to speak, too! What would Wind say if we were listening? What might Bug wish for? What is Berry afraid of? The more empathy we build in this way, the more motivated we'll be to serve and stand up for and save the planet. I really believe that. JRM: What advice might you have for aspiring young poets of any age? LGS: Read your work aloud. Write and then read it aloud, then revise and read it aloud, then tweak and tweak again and read it aloud. Every time I do this I hear what's there, what's missing, and what I ought to do next. It's magic. JRM: How can readers support our environments? LGS: There are all sorts of hands-on ways for kids to engage their inner environmentalists, from picking up litter, to planting for pollinators, to helping compost food waste. Bigger picture? Reading and learning about our wild planet is the first step toward activism. To really know the Earth is to love her, to love her is to ensure she survives. And then, as Tree says in the book, Everyone Wins.
I do hope you will return on Saturdays to see the Saturday Matinee featuring my TWU student poetry videos. Here is last week: 2024 National Poetry Month Saturday Matinee, Featuring the Work of Texas Women's University Students.
This Saturday, April 13, 2024, the videos will feature poems by Jay Brazeau and Sally Murphy will be featured. You may want to check in on the 2024 Progressive Poem. It’s at Buffy Silverman on April 11 and Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise on April 12. There is still time to share your favorite poem or poet by filling out this form. We all have more than one poem or poet we love, probably we have many mentor poems. Don’t overthink it, just share one. Note: Please link at Mr. Linky in Part 1 of Poetry Friday  n Thanks to Irene at Live Your Poem for hosting the first Friday of National Poetry Month. The theme of my poetry month is 'doubleheaders". Double interview Fridays and double videos on my Saturday Matinees featuring my TWU students. World Aquatic Animal Day was April 3 so the first two books feature sea animals. Part II, is an interview with Randi Sonenshine and her gorgeous book The Den That Octopus Built. The book birthday is set for May 21, 2024.  JRM: From a lodge built by a beaver to a den built by an octopus, how did you decide on the octopus to be the next book? RS: My agent, Kendra Marcus of BookStop Literary, called me one night and told me I had to watch My Octopus Teacher because it was going to be my next book. She was right, of course! I was spellbound! Octopuses are such fascinating creatures, and though we have learned a lot about them, there is still so much we don’t know. They have an uncanny intelligence and an almost universal appeal. Their dens, though not elaborate structures like the wren’s nest or beaver’s lodge, are unique and central to the life cycle of an octopus. JRM: Are you creating a series? What will be next? RS: I think there’s potential for additional books in the animal habitats series, but there are none in the works at the moment. Currently, I’m working on another project, also a lyrical exploration of one aspect of the animal world, but wholly different from this series. JRM: I am sure you researched octopi in depth. What information did you have to leave out? What was the most surprising tidbit of information from the research? RS: I try to integrate as much of my research as I can within the main text, but given that the text is poetic and spare, that's a challenge, which is why I include back matter. With this book, though, there was so much I wanted to include, I couldn’t fit it all in the back matter. I would love to have included more about their hunting techniques, which I find fascinating. I mention the pounce attack in one of the verses, but they sometimes even trick their prey by reaching all the way around with one arm to tap it. When the backs up, thinking the danger is in front of it, it backs right into the octopus, where it is quickly trapped in the webbing between the cephalopod’s arms. To add insult to injury, the octopus then injects it with a paralyzing neurotoxin from its beak. Of all the fascinating things I learned, though, the most surprising had to do with words. Like you, I always thought the plural of octopus was octopi, but it’s octopuses or octopus. JRM: Wow RS:It has Greek roots rather than Latin. Also, its limbs are not called tentacles. They are arms. Squids have tentacles, which are long and stringy with suckers only on their clubbed ends, while octopus arms are shorter, muscular, and have rows of suckers all along their length. JRM: I love the pattern from the classic This is the House that Jack Built. What was your process for getting the rhyming and the cadence to flow and to include the information about the octopus? RS: As this is the third companion book, the cadence is very natural to me. In fact, while I’m in the writing phase, I often think in that rhythmic pattern, even when I’m not actually writing! While I’m researching, I also jot down words, phrases, and sometimes lines that are evoked by what I’m learning. Those words and the meter are constantly percolating in my brain, and as phrases or lines come to me (usually in the car, the shower, or right before I fall asleep!) I jot them down in the notes app on my phone. I’m a stickler for meter and rhyme, so I will obsess over every syllable until these are perfect. Sometimes that means changing a word or phrase or inverting the two clauses that make up the couplet. Two absolute essentials during this phase of the work are RhymeZone and thesaurus.com. I also read the verses out loud over and over and have others read them aloud. If anyone stumbles over a line or forces the meter, I know it needs work. JRM: Research or create the rhymes? What is your favorite? RS: I love the research, but it can take me down a long and winding rabbit hole! Once I start to write, though, it’s such an exciting challenge. It’s like a puzzle; I need to find just the right “piece” to fit in that poetic space.I also love revising for other sound and meaning elements to make the text as musical and lyrical as I can. With each revision pass, I layer and refine elements like alliteration, assonance, figurative language, and sensory images to create something that’s rich in both sound and meaning. JRM: Was there a verse you wanted but had to cut? RS: I wanted to include a verse that showed her using a shell or some kind of vessel as a temporary shelter: This is the shell she squeezes inside/ a quick, makeshift shelter to rest in and hide/ while far from the den that Octopus built. Instead, I opted for the verse in which she uses shells around her as armor: These are the shells she wears like a sheath/ keeping her safe from Tiger Shark’s teeth/ when she’s far from the den that Octopus built. JRM: How can readers support our aquatic environments? RS:: That’s a great question! First, it’s important for readers to understand that the ocean supports humans, just as it does aquatic life. In fact, about ten percent of people in the world depend on the ocean for their livelihood, and there is a limited supply of that water. The easiest and most important thing we can do is use less water. Taking shorter showers, turning off the water when we brush our teeth, and making sure we don’t have leaks are all great ways to conserve water. Also important is reducing the amount of contamination in our oceans, especially plastics. Recycling, using reusable water bottles, and using less disposable plastics like take-out cutlery, straws, and containers will go a long way towards reducing this threat to our aquatic life. JRM: Thank you for your wonderful interview. I was unaware of the plural of octopus and that they are limbs.  JRM: Would you have an early draft of a poem and then the final draft so readers can take a peek at the process? RS: Well, my process is (literally) all over the place! First, I jot down verses and partial verses in my notebook and/or on my brainstorming document on my computer, as well as in the notes on my phone, so I have snippets and scraps in multiple places before I stitch them together into a cohesive draft. Before I draft, I put the rough verses (usually multiple options) on color-coded notecards to help group them and determine the sequence, all the while playing with the language and sentence structure, so by the time I draft the manuscript, I have worked through a lot of revisions, and the changes after that are not as extreme. To show that evolution, I’ve added some of those early octopus “inklings’ to my first draft to share with you and your readers. Please stop by for the Double Feature Saturday Matinee featuring my TWU Students. And I host next Friday.
Thanks to Irene at Live Your Poem for hosting the first Friday of National Poetry Month. The theme of my poetry month is 'doubleheaders". Double interview Fridays and double videos on my Saturday Matinees featuring my TWU students. World Aquatic Animal Day was April 3 so the first two books feature sea animals. First up is an interview with David Elliott and his gorgeous new book, At the Poles.  JRM: What was the seed for writing poems about the two poles? DE: At the Poles is the eighth book in the series, so it might be more fruitful for your readers to understand how it all began. Some years ago, a book friend, through no fault of her own, was in a bit of financial trouble. So someone – I can’t remember who – came up with the idea of New England authors writing a short piece that would be illustrated by local artists. The finished work was framed, hung in a gallery, and auctioned off, the proceeds going to our friend. My contribution was: The Robin/ sings from her branch/but wants to roar./Small cousin of the dinosaur./ This was early(ish) on in my career, 2006 or so. At that point, I hadn’t written a lot of verse. But the exercise opened a door for me. “Hmmm,” I thought. ”I wonder if I can write more of these.” As it turned out, I could. Who knew? The result was On the Farm, published by Candlewick in 2008 and illustrated by the late and irreplaceable Holly Meade. I included that robin poem in the original draft of OTF, but Liz Bicknell, the fabulous editor of the series, nixed it -- can’t remember why, but I know she was right. But all was not lost. A version of the poem found its way into the fourth book, On the Wing, beautifully illustrated by then newcomer, Becca Stadtlander. On the Farm did well (still selling, and is now available as a board book) and led to In the Wild and In the Sea, both illustrated by Holly, who was also under contract for the next two – On the Wing and In the Past – when she was diagnosed with the illness that eventually took her from us. Our hearts broke the day we got her note saying she was no longer able to work. The rest, as they say, is history. Becca bravely took up her brush for On the Wing, and the incredible Matthew Trueman signed on for In the Past. It was the dinosaur book, too, where we began to add backmatter with notes on each of the animals. Next the consummate artist, Rob Dunlavey applied his wonderful story-telling art to In the Woods. Amy Schimler-Safford’s luminous art was perfect for At the Pond. That brings us to At the Poles. (Finally! I hear you saying.) Without ever making an actual decision, we had begun to look at our planet’s biomes as the settings for the books, and so the poles seemed like the next logical choice. The book, like each in the series, had its particular challenges. In this case, it was the extreme climate, which makes the animals who live there somehow more distant from us. (Think of the difference in how you might feel about a panda, say, and an elephant seal.) This is just one of the reasons why I am so grateful to Ellen Rooney. The warmth she brought to the fauna of the poles is exactly what was needed. These artists! They’re amazing! There are two more books in this series on the way. In the Desert, illustrated by the young British artist, Gordy Wright, and the final volume, At the Edge, poems about those strange creatures that live at the edge of our imaginations, animals like the axolotl and the pangolin. I’m over the moon to share that Clover Robins will do the art. By the time all ten books are published, I will have written over 150 poems about the other lives with which we share the planet. Reading, and then writing, about these amazing animals has been one of the greatest privileges of my writing life. JRM: When you wrote Antarctic Shag, did the words look as they do on the finished page with the illustration? (It’s one of my favorite pages) how much say do you have for the way the poem is placed on the page with the illustration? DE: Yes, the physical form of the poem is exactly as I wrote it and is as much a part of the poem as its vocabulary. One of the most difficult things for young writers to learn is that everything on the page conveys meaning. Everything! Every word. Every line break. Every comma. Every period. Every capitalization. Everything. And that includes empty space. Liz is an editor who understands that and gives me a lot of freedom. JRM: What was the most surprising tidbit of information from researching these animals? DE: One of the great pleasures in writing these books is what I have learned about the fauna that tread the earth’s surface, sleep in its caves, burrow into its soil, swim in its waters, fly through its skies. I was well into my sixties when I was working on In the Wild. From my earliest days, I had seen photos of lions, paintings of lions, lions in cartoons, lions in picture books, lions in zoos, in films, in wild animal parks. These magnificent creatures have populated my life since childhood, and yet my learning about them seems to have been arrested nearly from the time I knew they existed. To write about the lion, I had to make up for my many years of ignorance. Now I know that along with tigers, leopards, jaguars,lions are one of the four great cats. And why? Because they are the only cats that can roar. I love to think about the Greenland shark, one of the animals featured in At the Poles and the longest-living vertebrate on Earth. Scientists estimate these fish live between 250 and 500 years. Think of it! There are Greenland sharks swimming today that were around when Michelangelo was painting the Sistine chapel. I love Ellen’s shark, by the way. We often talk about how books change readers. But they change their authors as well. Writing these books has taught me that every creature on the planet, from the magnificent elephant to the tiny dung beetle deserves my admiration and respect. If we knew more about our fellow creatures, perhaps we wouldn’t be so intent on their destruction, destruction, which will, of course, bring about our own. JRM: Students asked, “Why is narwhal only a two line poem?” DE: But they might just as easily have asked, “Why does the narwhal get to be a two-line poem?” In other words, they could also see the brevity of that poem as a way of honoring the narwhal rather than some kind of diminution. The books in the series are about the animal world, for sure, and I hope they will help young readers get closer to, respect, have admiration for, and even learn to love all of life in its infinite forms. But the books are also about our language, its power, its buoyancy, its playfulness, its malleability. The narwhal is only seven words, but hopefully those words carry with them many layers of meaning. That kind of surprise is what our language can deliver. I hope teachers who use the books in their classrooms will help their students understand that their language, English, is a precious gift, and one which will help them to discover who they are in this wide and wonderful world. By the way, Candlewick has created a fantastic Teachers’ Guide for the series. It’s jam packed with exercises and ideas for classroom activities, all aligned with Common Core standards. Beautifully designed, too. Downloadable and free. Anyone who wants a copy can email me, and I’ll send them a copy tout suite. JRM: Was there an animal/poem you wanted but had to cut? DE: The opposite really. Because the conditions at the poles are so harsh, there were fewer animals to pick from. Unlike say, the Amazon which has over 10,000 species of beetles alone. Choosing the animals for each book has been an interesting exercise. On the Farm was relatively simple. You can ask any child anywhere in the U.S. what animals live on a farm and they will shout “Horse!” “Pig!” “Cow!” But think of undomesticated creatures. Now it gets complicated. A quick Google search will tell you that scientists estimate there are close to nine million wild animal species living on earth. Which of them should be included in a thirty-two page book, a picture book where each creature will appear on a double spread. In practical terms, that means somewhere around fifteen animals per book. Fifteen vs. nine million. You see the problem, right? The animals had to speak to me. But in each of the books, I also had to be aware of the illustrator’s job. Was I able to choose animals of different sizes, with a variety of forms, and shapes? This was especially challenging in books like In the Sea and At the Poles, where the setting and palette was nearly the same for each animal, water in the first case, ice and snow in the second. On the surface, picture books seem so simple. In fact, their production is an amazingly complicated process, requiring so much consideration and decision-making on the part of the author, the illustrator, the editor, and the designer. It’s this collaborative effort that makes a good book. It’s one of the reasons I love to write them. JRM: Would you have an early draft of a poem and then the final draft so readers can take a peek at the process? DE: This is difficult since I revise as I go along. That is, I don’t finish a poem, put it aside, and then go back to it. Well, that’s not entirely true. I do return to each poem. Again and again. But the poem I go back to has already been rewritten many, many times. I’ve already edited, amended, subtracted from, added to, and in general fiddled with hundreds of times. For better or worse, I don’t save each draft. But it’s an interesting thing to think about, revision. Emerging writers often don’t understand it, thinking that it means changing where a comma might go, or replacing one word with another. But revision means to see again. And often when you do that. Everything shifts. For example, here is the first poem I wrote about the Emperor Penguin, a poem by the way that went through many revisions. Some might say you are absurd -- a bird who cannot fly, a blooper in the history of feathered aviation. But you’ve acquired other skills on which you can rely and are a master of the art of close cooperation. Not bad, I guess. But then I started to think about the penguin’s name. Emperor penguin, and I re-saw the poem, capitalizing on the idea of emperor, which led to the poem we see in the book, and is, I hope, a much better tribute to the bird. JRM: What is it like to go between writing a novel in verse and a collection of poems? Do you have both projects happening at the same time? DE: Here, I’ll paraphrase what my good friend and writer (for adults) Hester Kaplan says about the difference between a short story and a novel. A collection of poems is like a date, or more accurately a series of dates, but a novel in verse is like a marriage. To continue with that simile, as in my actual marriage, I don’t cheat. JRM: What do you have in the works currently? DE: Maybe the easiest thing to do here is make a list.
JRM: Thank you David, for your thorough and insightful answers. I love this : If I’m not writing or thinking about writing. I’m not myself. I may not be talented, but I am dogged. Next up, an interview with Randi Soenshine. And I am hosting Friday, April 12.
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AuthorAll photos and poems in these blog posts are copyrighted to Jone Rush MacCulloch 2006- Present. Please do not copy, reprint or reproduce without written permission from me. 
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April 1 Mary Lee Hahn, Another Year of Reading April 2 Heidi Mordhorst, My Juicy Little Universe April 3 Tabatha, The Opposite of Indifference April 4 Buffy Silverman April 5 Rose Cappelli, Imagine the Possibilities April 6 Donna Smith, Mainely Write April 7 Margaret Simon, Reflections on the Teche April 8 Leigh Anne, A Day in the Life April 9 Linda Mitchell, A Word Edgewise April 10 Denise Krebs, Dare to Care April 11 Emma Roller, Penguins and Poems April 12 Dave Roller, Leap Of Dave April 13 Irene Latham Live You Poem April 14 Janice Scully, Salt City Verse April 15 Jone Rush MacCulloch April 16 Linda Baie, TeacherDance April 17 Carol Varsalona, Beyond Literacy Link April 18 Marcie Atkins April 19 Carol Labuzzetta at The Apples in My Orchard April 20 Cathy Hutter, Poeturescapes April 21 Sarah Grace Tuttle, Sarah Grace Tuttle’s Blog, April 22 Marilyn Garcia April 23 Catherine, Reading to the Core April 24 Janet Fagal, hosted by Tabatha, The Opposite of Indifference April 25 Ruth, There is no Such Thing as a God-Forsaken Town April 26 Patricia J. Franz, Reverie April 27 Theresa Gaughan, Theresa’s Teaching Tidbits April 28 Karin Fisher-Golton, Still in Awe Blog April 29 Karen Eastlund, Karen’s Got a Blog April 30 Michelle Kogan Illustration, Painting, and Writing |
