For Librarians

The Sister Solution Blog Tour Author Interview: Trudi Trueit

By on October 6, 2015   /   Author Interviews, Book Lists, Fiction, For Librarians, For Teachers, For Writers, Writing  

Thanks so much to Trudi Trueit for joining us on The Mixed Up Files today!

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We’re thrilled about Trudi’s new release, The Sister Solution.

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Just so our readers are aware, Trudi and I have known each other for awhile now. I’m so honored to be the one to conduct this interview as part of The Sister Solution Blog Tour!

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Let’s get right to the interview, shall we?

MUF: Trudi, we met when you did a book fair event for our school. It was obvious to me from the start that you love to work with kids. Can you please share with us what you most enjoy about connecting with your readers?

TT: From a young age, I found comfort and power in books and, in particular, writing. I was a shy girl, but through my stories I could be all of the things I thought I wasn’t in real life. I could be brave. I could be strong. I could even be magical! And the more I wrote, the more I started to realize that maybe I wasn’t just those things on the page. Maybe I had little tiny bit of them within me. Writing gave me the confidence to come out of my shell and try new things. It became my passion to write stories, both fiction and nonfiction (I was a journalist before I wrote books for children). So when I get to connect with young readers and writers, the thing that thrills me most is seeing that same light turn on in them. When they have read something that makes them see the world from a different point of view or when they have written something they didn’t even know they had in them, it’s pure joy. I know that, like me, they are forever changed. They are finding all of that potential within themselves. They are brave. They are strong. They are magical.

MUF: Wow, thanks for that answer! As a kid who grew up feeling much the same as you, I deeply appreciate the way you’ve been able to tap into that magic and share it with kids. I’ve seen the lights turn on with kids and your books, and it’s pure joy.

As a school librarian, I know your books well. You write your nonfiction in particular for many ages, but I’d say that your fiction is all for middle grade readers (though Scab appeals to younger kids, too, he is very much loved by 3rd and even 4th graders!). What led to your focus on books for this age group?

TT: Fourth grade was when I found my own voice through writing, so I think that’s why this age group appeals to me. There is something inherently special about being nine or ten years old. You are just beginning to discover who you truly are, what your values are, what you want out of life, and where you want to go. All of these possibilities intrigue me and I find it to be rich with material. To me, it’s the ‘golden age.’

MUF: What a great answer. I find that the Middle Grade age range challenges and feeds me at the same time, as a writer and as a librarian, too. Of course, I’m not sure I’ve ever grown beyond 10 years old myself!

The Sister Solution, like Stealing Popular, is about facing the pressures of school and relationships head on. Where did the idea for this book get its start? Was it an “aha!” moment, or a slow development of an idea?

TT: I do love writing about relationships! I find it fascinating to deconstruct them. It is the journey we all take together. We are all trying to figure out what makes the people around us tick. I’ve known for quite a while I wanted to write about two sisters, who were polar opposites, that had to figure out how to navigate their differences to save their relationship. I started writing the book from the elder sister’s point of view but I wasn’t more than a few chapters in when I knew something was wrong. It was one-sided. I realized that if I truly wanted to explore what each sister was thinking and feeling I had to do it in her words. I switched to alternating points of view and that seemed to do the trick!

MUF: I love this, thanks for sharing your journey to find the right voice for this book. Can you please tell us a little more about your writing process? I happen to know that cats are involved, but beyond that, what does a typical workday look like for you?

TT: As I type this my cat, Pippin, is demanding I play with him so I’ll make it quick, because I am, after all, his servant. My routine is not too exciting. I am usually at my desk by 7:30 a.m. to answer emails and do a few promotional tasks (PR is an essential part of a writer’s job). I will write from 8:30 to about 4:00 p.m., with a few breaks to play with Pippin, check emails, and return phone calls. I might also have a Skype visit with a class. When I have a new book coming out – like now – I will go ride my bike or do a work-out, have dinner and then return to my desk for a few hours to handle some of the tasks that go along with marketing, like updating my website, blog tour interviews, promotional mailings, etc.

MUF: I wonder if we should tell our readers that Pippin has his own Facebook page…

Before you go, the librarian in me always has to ask:

Is there a favorite book you’d like to share from your own middle grade years? We’d love to hear about a book that stuck with you from your childhood.

TT: My favorite book, the one I read again and again, was Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth, by E.L. Konigsburg (also, of course, the author of From the Mixed Up Files – another one of my favorites). Elizabeth, the main character, was the first character from a book that I could completely relate to. She got me. And I got her. I wanted to have more friends, and so did she. I wanted to be extraordinary, and so did she. This book is why I love writing realistic fiction so much, because while I could always find pieces of myself in a fantasy realm, I could find ALL of myself in a real one.

MUF: You’ve expressed so well how a book can reach a reader, and why the books you chose reached you – thank you! I want to remember these words when I share my favorites with young readers. It’s so helpful for kids if we don’t assume that favorites are the same for everyone.

Thanks again for visiting with us today, Trudi. We’re very excited for Sister Solution, and we hope you have all kinds of success with it!

We’re so grateful that Trudi could stop by today. You can visit her webpage to find information about the rest of the blog tour and her other books, author visits and more.

You can also download the reader’s guide for The Sister Solution.

Follow Trudi on Twitter, and  keep up with the latest with the hashtag #SisterSolutionBlogTour.

Trudi’s Facebook page .

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Jabberwocky Time Warp Tour

By on September 30, 2015   /   Author Interviews, For Librarians, For Teachers, Giveaways  

Today we welcome not one, not two, but three talented middle grade writers to From the Mixed-Up Files… . Authors Eric Pierpoint, J.B. Cheaney, and Stephanie Bearce are helping us turn back the clock by answering the question: How does writing and researching historical fiction or non-fiction for middle-grade readers differ from writing for adults and how do these writers strive to  bring history to life for young readers? 

Time Warp Tour

 

 

 

 

Eric Pierpoint (The Secret Mission of William Tuck)

The Secret Mission of William TuckTo me, writing historical fiction for younger readers means creating more action and adventure around the facts. What appeals to adults may be boring to middle-graders, so whatever goes into the book must be done in a balanced way that keeps the level of excitement going. There are times where I like to really press on the gas, and then slow it down to make certain points in a different rhythm. I was once told that reading my books was sort of like watching a movie, that they are cinematic. They’re right! I never want to preach history and give too much of a lesson. I’d rather make that history come alive through the eyes of a young person who is caught up in the action of the story. For example, my main character could be in the middle of a scene where our founding fathers are discussing an important topic like prisoner exchange during the Revolutionary War. Rather than explain in long passages to the adult reader the history of prison ships, for a younger audience, my young character would be captured and taken aboard the infamous HMS Jersey and have to figure out a way off. I think it is better to increase excitement while using historical fact rather than spend too much time writing long explanations.

J.B. Cheaney (I Don’t Know How the Story Ends)

I Don't Know How the Story EndsIt doesn’t, much; you just leave out the more lurid details. Researching historical fiction is not just about getting the background facts right; it’s also getting a sense of the people who lived and though in ways we can’t fathom. What was important to them? What did they do for fun? What do we dismiss that they considered of first importance? I think it’s just as important to get those things right for children as it is for adults, because traveling to another time is as mind-expanding as traveling to another country. Kids need to have their minds expanded!

On a more practical level, research is vital for plot development. When the idea for a historical novel is conceived in the author’s fertile brain, she already has a basic idea of the history arc and can match it to her story arc. In 1918, where I set I Don’t Know How the Story Ends, Isobel’s father is serving in France during WWI. I already knew that America officially entered that war in 1917, but didn’t know about the Hollywood war bond rallies (where Isobel impersonates a boy scout), or Charlie Chaplin’s wandering eye (which makes Isobel so nervous about her mother), or D. W. Griffith’s decision to leave Hollywood (which will shift the purpose of Ranger’s film project). Those bits of information added texture and distinctiveness, not to mention important plot developments.

Stephanie Bearce (Top Secret Files)

The Cold WarI love this question because as a teacher it is something I have really worked hard to understand. Teaching or writing about history for children is very different than it is for adults. While an adult may be able to remember different decades, and the styles or fads of each one, a child has a much shorter time perspective. A decade may be longer than their entire life.

Dates and numbers don’t give children any clue as to what was happening at that time period. As adults we read the date 1776 and we can immediately picture men wearing knee breeches and white wigs. Mention Rome in 100B.C. and a grownup knows it’s the time of togas and Roman baths. But those numbers all have to be given context for children.

It’s important to describe what technology was and was not available during the time period. Writers and teachers need to help them understand that during World War One the radio was a brand new invention and airplanes had only been invented a few years earlier. Details about how people lived and how it is different from other time periods are important to give children a sense of the changes that have happened over time. It means telling every story with the idea of how it is different from the modern world of the child.

It’s a challenge, but it’s a fun one!

Want to win a #TimeWarpReads Prize Pack featuring titles from Eric Pierpoint, J.B. Cheaney, and Stephanie Bearce? Enter now!

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Books with Biracial Characters

By on September 25, 2015   /   Book Lists, For Kids, For Librarians, For Parents, MUF Contributor Books  

 

images-3In the US census between 2000 and 2010 people identifying as more than one race increased by 32%. It is, by most methods of calculation, the fastest growing racial group in the county and one that also needs representation in children’s books.

I didn’t set out to write a book about a biracial child, but I grew up in a neighborhood that seemed outwardly monocultural. As I got to know my classmates and their families over time, I learned that my neighborhood was far more diverse than it appeared. Several friends spent part of  the year living in the Middle East. I regularly babysat for a family with white and Native Alaskan parents.  One of my childhood friends spent every summer in Japan with his grandparents. He was fluent in Japanese and English, passionate about martial arts, and sometimes misunderstood by classmates who found his pride in his grandparent’s culture silly. He bore a strong resemblance to his American father and I remember watching him, and other biracial classmates, navigate the balance between body language, speech patterns and cultural convictions that set them apart and the convenience of looking white enough to blend in.

In writing a story with a biracial character  and thinking through my childhood experiences with an adult’s perspective I’ve found that biracial characters are magnets for conflict in ways that make them useful for story-making though not easy in the actually living of the biracial experience. Here are some avenues of conflict you might explore if you are considering writing biracial or bicultural characters.

1. “But you don’t look Indian!” I actually heard someone say this to an accomplished Native American author recently and she responded with what I felt was the perfect balance of firm resolve and compassion. It’s a terrible thing to say to someone–essentially, “you are not who you are.” That comment, and a dozen equally offensive variations, confront biracial people regularly. The relentless explaining of your identity is soul-wearying and makes a great plot point because even the most confident and well-nurtured biracial person can develop doubts of ever find a place where they belong.

images-22. “Shouldn’t you be more_____?” Is another phrase a biracial person frequently hears. Many minorities feel a pressure to behave in the expected mold of their culture, the intellectual Jew or the violin playing Korean child or the athletic black teenager, for example. imagesIt is hard enough to live up to the imagined-by-outsiders standard of one community, let alone trying to meet the expectations of two or even several. images-1The burden of living up to an impossible standard makes for great internal conflict in a story.

 

3. For many biracial people the aspect of their racial and cultural identity that comes to the fore varies with circumstance. So a family might choose to emphasize the heritage that blends most readily with the community at hand. Or the most advantageous one. For example, if the local schools are substandard, and a Jewish day school with better resources is available, then a family might choose to identify more strongly as Jewish and become more observant than they might have otherwise.  For the biracial child this can feel like  playing favorites with one parent over another or one set of grandparents over another. The tension between wanting the advantage the easy racial identity provides and wanting to see justice done for the disadvantaged racial identity is great food for complex story telling

4. I had a fascinating conversation with Pico Iyer a few summers ago about raising biracial and bicultural children. He’s found that both his own kids and those he knows from his many travels are masters of observation and highly attuned to cultural nuance. Not that the insights they have are unavailable to others who take the time to be attentive and make connections, but that the connections others overlook are blindingly obvious to a biracial or bicultural child. A keenly observant child always makes for a more interesting viewpoint character and the kind of observations readily available to the child who straddles a number of cultural groups is particularly valuable.

5. And here’s the tough part (at least from my perspective as a bicultural but not Unknownbiracial person). Often what white people do to acknowledge and respect cultures other than their own is so awkwardly done that it makes matters worse rather then better. The dressing up as pilgrims and indians in one glaring example. Here’s another. I recently heard hip-hop poet Merlyn Hepworth perform a poem about his 8 year old self and the school fiesta. He is Mexican-American and grew up in Idaho, a state well known for active white supremacist groups. Nonetheless, his 2nd grade teacher wanted to  broaden her students’ world view, so they had a class fiesta. Young Merlyn, all excited, asked his abuela to make tortillas, his favorite food. So she did and on fiesta day he brought them all fresh and warm, with the delicious little scorch marks that hand-made tortillas have. He set this treasure on the table alongside an array of Ortega products, Fritos, salsa in a jar, and chips with melted cheddar cheese. His whole class and teacher and school principal came to the table to eat and not one person would touch his grandmother’s tortillas. And for the first time in his young life Merlyn was ashamed to eat them himself. And so the whole event had the opposite effect from the one the teacher intended. She had wanted to celebrate Merlyn’s culture and ended up making him feel ashamed in a way he  hadn’t before and might not have ever been if he hadn’t brought real Mexican food to a pretend fiesta.

Here are just a few stories with biracial characters you might enjoy.

Misad51C5YsK3BLL._SX338_BO1,204,203,200_ventures of the Family Fletcher by Dana Levy9780688173975


Rain is not my Indian Name by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer by Kelly Jones

Operation Redwood 9780385755528by S. Terrell FrenchUnknown

Shadows of Sherwood by Kekla Magoon51Q-2FElUvL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_

I’d love to hear about books that you felt did a good job of representing the biracial experience.  Let me know what books I should be highlighting and I’ll add them to this post and ask the buyer to get them for my bookstore.

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