Molly Golden is the author of the new children's picture book Becoming Real: The True Story of the Velveteen Rabbit. Also an educator, she lives in Oregon.
Q: What inspired you to write Becoming Real?
A: Like so many people, I have always loved the story The Velveteen Rabbit. I still have the copy my mom read to me when I was a child. I think the story touched me when I was young because I had so many toys that were “real.” (I still have my well-loved childhood stuffed animal in my bedside table.)
When I reread the story as an adult, it resonated with me in a different way. I connected to the importance of loving and accepting love that I hadn’t before.
Years ago, I was researching picture book biographies and when I searched for one about [Velveteen Rabbit author] Margery Williams Bianco, there wasn't a book about her. So I started looking into her life and I decided I would write one!
Q: What do you think Paola Escobar’s illustrations add to the book?
A: Oh my! Paola Escobar made this book come to life. Each page, each spread is so stunning and detailed. Every time I look at her artwork, I find something I didn’t notice before. I am still pinching myself that she wanted to tell Margery’s story with me.
Her illustrations tell much of the story. She captures the time period, the innocence of childhood, the importance of imagination, and the difficulties of life. She illustrates Margery’s and then Margery’s children’s imagination through the eyes of the child, which is just magical.
Q: How did you research Margery Williams’s life, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?
A: Surprisingly for how famous The Velveteen Rabbit is, there isn’t much out there about its author, Margery Williams Bianco. I found what little I could online, but most of my research I gathered through a collection of essays I found by and about her published by The Horn Book in 1951. I felt as though I was stitching her story together.
What most surprised me was just that—how little we know about this amazing woman. She was ahead of her time when it came to understanding childhood and the importance of play and imagination. I was also struck with how much she respected and honored the sadness children face as well as their joy.
Q: The Kirkus Review of the book called it “Poignant and warm, just like the book that inspired it.” What do you think of that description?
A: I was honored when I read the review. When writing about a real person in a picture book, I imagine that person reading it. Would they feel like I captured their essence accurately? I was hoping to reflect the feeling of hope and love from The Velveteen Rabbit in Becoming Real, so I was incredibly grateful for this review.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: My second picture book biography, No One Told Sandra Day O’Connor What To Do, illustrated by Julia Breckenreid and published by Sleeping Bear Press, will be out in May, so I am looking forward to sharing that story too.
As far as my writing, I have a few more picture books and picture book biographies looking for a home. And I am currently working on my first middle grade verse novel. It has been exciting to try a new genre.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: Thank you so much for interviewing me! There often is so much time between selling a picture book manuscript and its publication. I appreciate the time to reflect and the chance to share about the journey of Becoming Real.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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