Q&A with Nancy Churnin

 

 

 

Nancy Churnin is the author of the new children's picture book Rainbow Allies: The True Story of Kids Who Stood Against Hate. She also is a contributor to the new middle grade anthology The Festival of Lights: 16 Hanukkah Stories. She lives in North Texas.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Rainbow Allies, and what do you hope kids take away from it?

 

A: As soon as I learned about this true story, I felt compelled to share how the kids of Natick, Massachusetts took a scary event -- the egging and tearing down the rainbow flag of their neighbors -- and transformed it into a beautiful one by sharing rainbow flags with everyone in their neighborhood.

 

Bullying, intimidation, and hate are sadly all too common in our world. Kids often feel small and hopeless as if there is nothing they can do in the face of this ugliness.

 

But these kids remind us we can all make a difference. We don't have to exchange hate for hate. We can make a difference by being allies, by showing our friends, our neighbors, everyone that we are part of the same community and we are all here to look out for and support each other.

 

I hope Rainbow Allies encourages kids everywhere to be allies as these kids have been, to be upstanders in the face of hate, to know that love is bigger than hate and they are stronger than they know.

 

I hope that the book itself becomes like a rainbow flag, carrying a message of love and inclusion to the heart of everyone who reads it.

 

I am grateful to Cari and Lauri Ryding, to Brendan, Landon, and Sommer and the wonderful families in the neighborhood for their support and encouragement in sharing their story.

 

Q: What do you think Izzy Evans's illustrations add to the story?

 

A: I’m dazzled by the emotional heft and passion in Izzy Evans' work -- the lush colors that remind us that while we may each be as different as the different colors in the flag, that we make each other more beautiful just by being together.

 

The moment where Brendan struggles to comprehend why someone would hurt his friends the way they did always makes me catch my breath.

 

I adore the celebratory nature of Izzy's cover -- with Brendan, Landon, and Sommer carrying the flags like an army of love, charging right into our hearts.

 

I appreciate Izzy's attention to detail, from making sure that Brendan wears glasses as the real Brendan does, to the detailed, carefully researched rainbow flags.

 

Izzy, our wise editor, Naomi Krueger, and I had a long conversation about the rainbow flag that the kids carry since the flag has changed so much over the years.

 

In the end we decided that the kids should carry the flag that was the flag of the time of the book -- 2016 -- and Izzy would draw all the other covers in the end papers. I love studying the variety of them!

 

Q: The Foreword Review of the book said, “Based on a true story, this touching picture book demonstrates that hate can always be overcome by love and community--and suggests some age-appropriate methods for being part of the solution.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I am grateful for the perceptiveness of Foreword Reviews. They captured exactly what I hoped readers would take away from this story -- not to treat it as a story that ends on the last page, but as a call to action.

 

That is why the back matter devotes two pages on How to Be an LGBTQ ally and we have developed additional materials on How to Be an LGBTQ ally, including a Rainbow Allies bingo card, designed by Dory Lerner, education director at the National Civil Rights Museum, packed with ideas of how kids can be allies.

 

You can download these materials on my website: https://www.nancychurnin.com/rainbow-allies and on the website of the publisher, Beaming Books: https://www.beamingbooks.com/store/product/9781506488448/Rainbow-Allies 

 

I would like to add that I was touched that when I thanked Foreword Reviews for their review, they responded by thanking me for writing the book. Happy tears!

 

Q: You also have a story in a new anthology called The Festival of Lights. Can you tell us more about that project?

 

A: I was honored when my friend, author and editor Henry L. Herz, invited me to submit a story for The Festival of Lights. I had never published a middle grade story before, although I had been wanting to venture into middle grade. Henry has put together an incredible group of kidlit creators and I am thrilled to be among them.

 

While most people know me for my nonfiction, I quickly had a fiction idea in mind for this anthology -- one that dealt with what can be the dilemma of a child whose parents celebrate different holidays -- Hanukkah and Christmas. For some families this can cause conflict. For other families it doesn't.

 

In this family whose story I wanted to share, it is not a cause for conflict until one parent is ill and the child must wrestle with whether or how to keep a holiday alive when the parent is not able to take the lead. This is a middle grade story and both parents and child are still very much alive, even though one parent is ill at the time of the holidays.

 

But I was thinking, too, of the larger question of what the future holds for children after their parents are gone -- what these children, when grown, will cherish and pass on to their children, whether links to the past will be cast aside or will remain intact. These are important questions to consider as we progress on our journeys.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am very excited about a new picture book I have coming out April 5, 2025: A Teddy Bear for Emily -- and President Roosevelt, Too, illustrated by Bethany Stancliffe, who illustrated my National Jewish Book Award-winner, Dear Mr. Dickens, also published by Albert Whitman.

 

I have always adored teddy bears. This is the true story of the immigrant family, the Michtoms, who created the first "Teddy's Bear" in 1902 to thank the kind President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt.

 

The story has been told from the point of view of the president and even of the journalist who wrote about the president's kindness in saving a bear on a hunting trip.

 

But my book focuses on the family that created the bear, including their daughter, Emily, who was 9 years old at the time and whom I imagined might have helped with making the bear.

 

The book is sprinkled with Yiddish as that is the language that these Jewish immigrants would have spoken just as my four grandparents did -- with my Yiddish scrupulously fact-checked by my friend, Professor Miriam Yudel, a Yiddish scholar at Emory University.  

 

I want kids to know that this toy is beloved because it was created from gratitude for kindness. I also hope to draw attention to the fact that this family already admired President Roosevelt (their New York governor before he became president) for his welcome to immigrants like themselves.

 

I hope that this book encourages young readers to be kind and appreciative of the gifts that immigrants bring us even as it may inspire them to give their own teddy bears an extra appreciative hug.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: All my books come with free teacher guides, resources, and projects on my website, https://www.nancychurnin.com/

 

It is my hope always that my stories don't end for the readers on the final page, but encourage them to be heroes, too.

 

I also want to thank you, Deborah, for your friendship and all you do to bring your own beautiful books into the world while shining a light on others. I am grateful for you and your kindness!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Nancy Churnin.