March 30

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
March 30, 1820: Anna Sewell born.

Q&A with Jennifer Robin Barr

Jennifer Robin Barr is the author of Goodbye, Mr. Spalding, a new novel for kids. It takes place in Philadelphia in the 1930s. Barr is based in the Philadelphia area.

Q: How did you come up with the idea for Goodbye, Mr. Spalding?

A: Back in 2009 I was reading Bruce Kuklick’s book To Every Thing a Season, which outlines the history of Shibe Park. I was taken by a chapter on the Depression Era, and specifically a wall that was built in right field to block the view from the neighborhood rooftops, nicknamed the Spite Fence.

When I dug a little deeper, I realized that almost everything I read was from an adult perspective – and I wondered what it would have been like for the kids on that street when that happened.

Q: What did you see as the right blend of history and fiction as you wrote the novel?

A: For this book it was very important for me to get the history correct – especially since baseball is so well-documented.

From my perspective, as long as it was moving the story forward, I tried to capture as much history as possible. So I’m not sure I'd call it the right “blend,” but rather making sure I wasn't dumping historical facts into the story for no actual purpose, and that every historical element helped to authenticate the era. My editor, Carolyn Yoder, was great at helping to identify these areas.  

Q: What kind of research did you do to write the novel, and did you learn anything that especially surprised you?

A: The research was extensive – from days spent in the Free Library of Philadelphia in the newspaper archives, to scrolling through pages of photos, to talking with people who remember Connie Mack Stadium, and a few who even remembered it as Shibe Park. While it was still open, I visited the Philadelphia Athletics museum a few times.

I think it was eye opening to see the Great Depression from a daily lens – where one dime makes a real difference. I’ve often read of the era from a broad perspective – soup lines, etc. Reading about hardships in newspapers and seeing how it affects the day-to-day - in such a specific way - was remarkable.

Q: What do you hope kids take away from the story?

A: While the baseball might draw in girls and boys, in the end this is a story about growth and friendship. I hope that kids are able to take away something they didn’t expect!

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I am very excited about the project I’m working on right now! It’s another middle grade historical fiction, but it’s very early and so I’m not quite ready to share. I will tease that it’s back in Philadelphia, but a departure from baseball (but who knows, maybe that will change!).

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: Thank you to for the opportunity to share a little bit about Goodbye, Mr. Spalding. I’m grateful to the teachers, librarians, and entire Kidlit community who has been so supportive!

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Kristin Fields

Kristin Fields is the author of the new novel A Lily in the Light. She grew up in Queens and lives in Brooklyn.

Q: Why did you decide to focus this novel around a child abduction and its repercussions?

A: The only thing I ever know about my novels when I first start writing is the title and one or two facts about the story. With A Lily in the Light, I knew Esme was a ballet dancer and that something had happened to her little sister.

Around this time, I stumbled on Emma Donoghue’s Room. As I was reading, I kept wondering what Jack and Ma’s family were doing in the years between when Ma went missing and when she was found. That was when I made the choice to tell the story from Esme’s perspective instead of Lily’s.

Q: Why did you choose dance as a focal point of the novel?

A: Shortly after graduating college, I took dance classes for the first time. It started with belly dance, then Zumba, ballroom dancing, and ballet.

When I think back to that time in my life, it’s defined by the time I spent in the studio and the friends I made there - despite the many changes happening outside the studio. My parents sold our childhood home of 30 years. My parents and siblings moved out of state. I got married and we moved from Queens to Brooklyn.

There was a lot of change very quickly, punctuated simultaneously by both excitement and loss, and perhaps that’s where A Lily in the Light came from subconsciously. Dance and loss were so linked at that time. 

I knew from the very beginning that dance was essential to Esme - I couldn’t write her without it. Learning more about ballet was one of the most enjoyable parts of writing this story. I went to ballets in New York City and one in Paris at the Palais Garnier, read bios of professional dancers from different time periods, tried a few more ballet classes, and little by little I found Esme. Dance, in many ways, was her voice.

Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you change things around along the way?

A: Early in the writing process, I thought the story would end where part two does now, but my fabulous editor convinced me that there was still a piece of the story to be explored, and hence, part three was born. I knew right away that she was right because I saw a lot of images and was jotting down notes everywhere before she and I were even off our call.

Q: Who are some of your favorite writers?

A: There are so many...I recently read and loved Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. I’ve read The Great Gatsby at least 11 times. Alice Hoffman’s Here on Earth was the first book I ever checked out from the grown-up section of the library and I read everything of hers after that.

I’m a huge fan of Celeste Ng, Sue Monk Kidd, a good Jodi Picoult or JoJo Moyes every so often, and I’m always looking for those voices that make me love reading all over again and set new writing goals for my own. A History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund and The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin had that very impact recently.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I’m working on a new novel, February Blue (working title), about a group of cousins introduced to drugs and the impact it has on their family and community.

It’s a coming of age for 13-year-old Gia as she watches her brother battle addiction, a period piece set in the 1960s/early ‘70s, and I’m having fun toying with Gia’s relationship to the natural world even though the novel is set in Queens (again! I can’t escape it.).

I’m also working on a memoir called 21 Keys and Counting. While I was writing A Lily in the Light, there was a huge fire in our building. We stayed in a total of 24 places during the 10 months it took to rebuild. Each one taught us something different about home.

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: One of the pieces I read during my research for A Lily in the Light was Jaycee Dugard’s A Stolen Life. Jaycee was kidnapped in 1991 and held captive for 18 years before she escaped. Today, she has a foundation to help families reunite after periods of separation. It’s called The JAYC Foundation and I’m a huge fan. 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

March 29

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
March 29, 1936: Judith Guest born.

Q&A with Karen Leggett Abouraya

Karen Leggett Abouraya is the author of the children's picture book Malala Yousafzai: Warrior with Words. She also has written Hands Around the Library: Protecting Egypt's Treasured Books. She lives in the Washington, D.C., area.

Q: Why did you decide to focus on Malala Yousafzai in your new book?

A: Young people have a unique power to draw attention to significant issues. Malala is of course a perfect example and I reflected on it in a recent column for The Washington Post. 

More and more books about strong women are finally being published, but Malala is special because she began demonstrating her strength at such a young age - she was only 11 years old when she began writing a blog for the BBC insisting that all children had a right to education. 

She continued to speak out even after she was shot and almost lost her life because she was so outspoken. Children can identify with her as a young girl and yet see her as a role model as well.

Q: The book's subtitle is "Warrior with Words." Why did you highlight that aspect of her life in the book?

A: A warrior is engaged in some struggle or conflict – which certainly applies to Malala – but the critical part of her message is the power of words. She does not need weapons. “One child, one teacher, one pen, and one book can change the world.” We wanted to emphasize that right in the title. 

Q: What do you think Susan L. Roth's illustrations add to the book?

A: Susan’s collages are made entirely of cut paper, found objects and fabric. She uses color, texture and all these odd bits to add powerful emotion to the story. 

School Library Journal noted for example that “there are gorgeous, bright colors throughout, but the Taliban and events involving them are depicted in muted tones of black and gray.”

Whether she is depicting the lush valleys and snow-covered mountains of Pakistan’s Swat Valley or the chaos that awaited the Yousafzai family when they returned to their devasted town, Susan’s art generates intense joy or anger or sadness.

And then she cuts a world map into a dozen pieces as the background for children around the world who are emulating Malala. The images are dramatic and unforgettable and children understand them immediately.

Q: What do you hope kids take away from Malala's story?

A: I want the youngest children to see that they can make their own voices heard on issues important to them – whether it’s joining a global education campaign or leading a campaign to stop bullying in their school or lobbying for a local law to lower the voting age.

The backmatter in my book lists several organizations that specifically encourage young people to participate and become leaders – including the Malala Fund.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I have discovered I really like highlighting the work of young activists and then engaging with kids in schools or bookstores to talk about their causes and passions.

My first book focused on young Egyptian protestors who surrounded the great library in Alexandria, Egypt, to protect it from vandals during the Arab spring (Hands Around the Library: Protecting Egypt’s Treasured Books).

I also expect to be working on stories about women who pursued their passions without regard for the obstacles along the way and without always getting much credit for their accomplishments.

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: I would want to remind your readers of all the effort that goes into writing children’s books. These authors are often dismissed as writing “just for children,” but look at the source lists and references in the best nonfiction books for children, the exquisite writing and imagination in fiction, to say nothing of the often exuberant illustrations. 

Children are our most important audience and it is imperative that we give them the very best we can produce.  

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Karen Leggett Abouraya.

Q&A with Roma Tearne

Roma Tearne is the author of the new novel The Last Pier. Her other books include Brixton Beach and Mosquito. Born in Sri Lanka, she is based in the UK.

Q: How did you come up with the idea for The Last Pier, and for your character Cecily?

A: It began with a group of photographs which I found in a flea market here in Oxford. A photograph of a young girl, her name and the date written on the back: Cecily 1939.

A year later I found a photograph album at another flea market, this time in London. What was remarkable was that this album had pictures of the same girl! Cecily Maudsley! There were more images of the rest of the family and when I researched it I found the entire family had died out. I kept the photographs without doing anything for about 10 years. 

Q: What kind of research did you do to write the novel?

Then I stumbled on another story.

Seventy-five years ago, in July 1940, an unmarked ship called the

Arandora Star, carrying 800 Italian and German internees together with British military personnel left Liverpool docks. It was bound for Newfoundland on the orders of Churchill. Unable to distinguish who were enemy aliens and who were not he had ordered the police to “collar the lot” and remove them from Britain.

As the ship passed the coast of Ireland in darkness, its decks covered in barbed wire, and with no white flag visible, it was torpedoed by the same German submarine that had sunk the Royal Oak. Nearly all on board died.

I came upon this tragic story one summer while staying far away with my family in Lunigiana in Northern Tuscany because many of the victims were from this area.

Although we had been coming to this part of Italy for more than 15 years I had never heard of the Arandora Star and her ill-fated journey, so I decided to investigate and discovered why this story had remained a secret.

The trail led me to a curious bilingual village called Brato, where many of the inhabitants are British-born Italians speaking both languages fluently.

There I met an old man who told me the story again, but this time from the point of view of a small, bewildered boy growing up in wartime England. His father, together with other relatives, had perished on the ship, so, in later life, he had returned to his family’s village.

This part of Tuscany is very beautiful with waterfalls, gently undulating hills and wonderful views. Tourists hardly visit, for the guidebooks prefer the cypress trees of the south, yet this is a land steeped in history.

The Romans found the wild tribes of Luni intimidating. They lived in the recesses of the dense chestnut forests - the very same trees that, concealing their secret history, served as cover for the partisans in the Second World War.

Many of those men from the forests around Brato had been put on the Arandora Star and later, when I said my goodbyes, I noticed my elderly friend was crying silently. He asked me if by any chance I might tell his story before he died. I told him I did not know but sincerely hoped I would and at that he nodded, satisfied. He was in his 80s, blind, and in poor health, but the events of that time were still very clear in his mind.

Q: A review of the book in The Independent says, "As she has done in previous novels, Tearne vividly depicts the devastating impact of war on ordinary lives." How do you see this novel connecting with your previous work?

A: Within my last novel about a Sri Lankan refugee, there is embedded in it an incident connected with WWII and when I finished writing that book I realised my interest in the war remained.

A chance find of a cache of photographs of one family in two separate locations was followed by series of conversations with relatives of victims of a wartime injustice. It was for me the moment when The Last Pier was conceived.

But why should a Sri Lankan novelist with five books set in that country chose to write a novel about Suffolk on the eve of WWII? The answer is simply that the imagination, like the human heart has no borders. If indeed we live in a truly global world then the passage to India can equally be the passage to Suffolk.

For many years I have wanted to write a novel steeped in the English countryside, in a part of the world I know and love. I have wanted to depict an England that is receding. The Last Pier is that novel, I hope. 

Q: The book is set in 1939 and also in 1968. Did you focus more on one time period and then turn to the other, or did you write the novel in the order in which it appears?

A: I read quite a lot from Mass Observation made during the months leading up to the war. I was both shocked and humbled by the courage of ordinary people. It was only after that I began work on the 1960s. 

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I’m working on two books, actually, both nearly finished. 

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: Yes, I’m painting again after 16 years and will be having an exhibition in 2020. 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Roma Tearne.

March 28

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
March 28, 1868: Maxim Gorky born.