Children are natural activists. They care passionately about issues like the environment and what they see as injustices in their world. It would be hard to find a more inspirational figure for them to read about than Pete Seeger in Anita Silvey’s comprehensive middle grade book LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD, (Clarion, 2016). Many people know Seeger as a folk singer who was popular around the world in the second half of the last century, but he was so much more than that. As a key figure in so many of the key political movements in our country during his lifetime, he used his songs and lyrics as acts of defiance and support, and was often persecuted for them. With photographs, interviews, and tremendous details, Silvey tells the story of Seeger’s life and brings his personality and spirit alive for the reader.

ReaderKidZ:  This is a wonderfully comprehensive book, Anita, but it’s not an overwhelming length for young readers. I learned so many things about Pete Seeger I never knew. In the afterword, you said it took eight years to write. How much of that time was research and how much actual writing time? How did you know what to put in and what to leave out?

Anita Silvey:  With Let Your Voice Be Heard, I began with an extended period of research. An amazing number of books, interviews, video clips, and recordings of Pete exist. It took me five drafts to get the story arc that I needed. My research overwhelmed me – and my readers — in initial drafts. The book runs about 15,000 words, and I could have used that many for any one year of Pete’s life. Ultimately, this book tells the story of Pete as a social activist – for Unions, Freedom of Speech, Civil Rights, Peace, and the Environment.

ReaderKidZ:  Seeger was involved with every important social movement that took place in our country in the last century, from the early farm worker’s unionization, to Joseph McCarthy’s witch hunt of supposed Communists in the 1950s, to the Civil Rights movement, to protest of the Vietnam War. I can’t think of another artist or musician or public figure who maintained such a consistent presence in so many historical milestones, can you?

AS:  You have summed up the contents of Let Your Voice Be Heard quite well. Every time I write a book, I initially have a story that I think I will tell – and then I find the one I write. So I thought for Untamed: The Wild Life of Jane Goodall I would focus mainly on her chimpanzee research but ended up detailing her relentless crusade to save all creatures great and small. I thought Pete’s life would focus on his music – but realized that his greatest contributions came in the causes he supported. I cannot think of another 20^th and 21^st century figure who stood on the right side of history in so many movements.

ReaderKidZ:   I hope you’re going to make many school visits so children can learn him from your book. Children are born activists. How do you hope to see it being used in schools, and what “message” would you like it to leave children with?

AS:  On my website there is an excellent Teachers’ Guide for anyone to use in the classrooms that gives a lot of ideas about how to extend this book. I have tremendous respect for children and believe they can find their own inspiration and messages in a book. But all of my books celebrate true believers – those who often found in childhood a love or passion and made it the focus of their lives. Pete stayed true to his beliefs, worked tirelessly and long, never compromised, and never gave up. That life model should be an inspiration to children – and the adults who read this book.

ReaderKidZ:  The story about Seeger’s concern over the pollution of the Hudson River and the building of the Clearwater sloop is a story in itself. “What can a sailboat do?” sounds like a title to me. Do you have any plans to write another book about any of the fascinating subplots in this book? The so-called “red diaper babies,” maybe?

AS:  I don’t have any follow up books in mind at this point. I wish someone would write a book on the “red diaper babies” though, a great subject. Right now I am thinking about orangutans and Borneo for my next book, Queen of the Orangutans.

ReaderKidZ: :  It’s wonderful that you got to talk to Pete in person. Was he what you expected? Did he say anything you didn’t include? Did he read any part of your manuscript before he died? What about his family – did they ask to see it before it was published?

AS:  I talked to Pete many times, and he met and exceeded every expectation. I would call with a short list of questions, and we would be on the phone for three hours. He was also interested in questioning me. One day he asked me if American publishers were bringing in enough international books to encourage children to think of themselves as world citizens. A very good question. He sang to me on the phone too!

I was just sorry that he died before I had something to show him. But recently Laura Vaccaro Seeger, Pete’s niece-in-law, wrote to say that she was sure Pete would love the book. I hope so.

It’s a wonderful book. Thanks for talking to us, Anita Silvey.

Summer is nearly over. Sure, it’s kind of sad to see those lazy, crazy days end, but Fall and a new school year bring the promise of crisp weather, new friends, and exciting new subjects to learn. And new books, too! Book groups and book clubs and discussions about plot and character and plain, old reading enjoyment. ReaderKidZ is kicking off the school year with a new middle grade novel for our times …

In “Be Light Like a Bird” by Monika Schröder, 12-year-old Wren is faced not only with the loss of her father, but with a mother who is so wrapped up in her own anger and grief that she leaves her daughter to cope with the terrible burden largely on her own. As her mother erratically moves them from one town to another, picking up jobs and boyfriends at every stop, and dropping them again when they move on, Wren is forced to bring order to their chaotic life. Like so many children who are having to face scary and uncertain situations, both in this country and around the world, Wren grows up quickly. New schools, mean-spirited girls, a fragile home life – Wren copes with the hand she’s been dealt with courage and determination. Her friendship with Theo, a boy in her class who has suffered his own loss, comes as a respite to them both. Together, they fight to preserve a local pond teeming with birds and wildlife, and in the process, forge strong and lasting bonds for themselves and within the town Wren will finally call home. It’s a journey without frills but with tremendous heart. Young readers who may have felt a tremor in their own lives will take solace in getting to know a girl who manages to fight for what she needs in spite of all odds.

We talked to the author about how she wrote such a powerful story and what influences in her own life may have affected the telling of Wren’s story.

ReaderKidZ:  I love middle grade novels. I’ve noticed a trend in recent years of portraying a young girl (usually) who’s facing a family crisis with pluck and grit and a happy ending. While I believe in positive endings for children, these books often strike me as unrealistic and ultimately not helpful to young readers who may be facing similar circumstances. Your book doesn’t do that. Wren’s father has died, her situation is dire, and out of her own grief her mother is acting irresponsibly – the way too many parents do. While Wren makes the best of things, she comes across as real. I found myself believing in her. How did you do this? Was it an unconscious act or did you set out to write it that way?

MS: I am glad that Wren seems like an authentic character to you. I was hoping to create a girl with a deep emotional problem who discovers strength within herself over the course of the story. From early on I knew that Wren’s conflict with Carrie and Victoria had to end with her staying true to her own beliefs. Then I wanted to develop her friendship with Theo in a way that first surprised her and then gave her the strength to get through the crisis with her mother. I also felt that her desperation in regards to her mother’s behavior made her a realistic character since kids cannot always figure out what makes adults behave in a certain way.

ReaderKidZ: The minute I read a review of your book in which I learned that Wren goes around burying road kill after the death of her father, I was hooked. (I guess that’s why such plot twists are called “hooks.”) It works because her father’s body is never found so Wren can’t have the comfort of a decent burial, but how did you come up with this idea? Which came first – his death over the sea, or Wren’s fascination with road kill?

MS: The father’s death in the airplane came to me first. Then I tried to put myself in Wren’s position and felt that her desperation about the loss of her father and her mother’s distant behavior needed an equally desperate outlet. The idea with the roadkill came to me on my morning run in my North Carolina neighborhood where on any given day one may find small animals dead on the road. I often wonder what it says about people’s relationship to animals that so many of them are killed in this way and then left dead and unattended on the asphalt.

ReaderKidZ: Theo’s a great friend. His mother died, so he understands something about how Wren feels, but he responded very differently to his mother’s death. Both of their remaining parents respond differently to the loss of their spouse, too. You cover the topic from both angles. On what did you base your knowledge of how children might react to the death of a parent and adults to the loss of a spouse?

MS: I did not have a similar experience with the death of a parent or spouse. But I have been close to people whose loved ones died. When I was in school the father of my best friend died. My husband lost his mother and his brother within a month of one another. While writing the book I tried to put myself in the situation of a 12-year old girl whose father died, trying to feel the pain and how she might react.

ReaderKidZ: I love the way Wren grills her mother about where she was and who she’s dating. It’s the way many girls would act in her situation and it left me feeling as neglected as Wren felt. Same with her mother’s disclosure at the end that Wren’s father was not all he seemed. Yet, I didn’t finish the last page feeling depressed. I felt as if what I’d read was the way life happens and that facing up to it made Wren heroic without your even telling us she was. How much did Wren change in your mind over the course of writing the story? Did you set out to create a strong protagonist, or did she grow from the events she faced?

MS: In early drafts of the book the focus was on Wren’s trouble being the new girl in school and her fight to save the bird sanctuary. Over many revisions I felt that I hadn’t reached the core of who she was and what was hurting her. And then I suddenly knew, her father had died and her mother had dragged her to northern Michigan. From there I rebuilt the emotional arc of the novel, focusing on the grieving and her relationship to her mother

ReaderKidZ:  I love the way Wren named the crow Joseph and has such a strong connection to nature and her father through birds. Also, the way Theo shares her awareness of the destruction of the natural world because of a development. Snooty Carrie called them “two crazy peas in a pod.” What was your model for this friendship?

MS:  While teaching grade four for many years I have occasionally observed friendships between girls and boys. It was rare and, just as in the book, they often had to go through some mocking or bullying, but I did see those friendships and they helped me to imagine the relationship between Wren and Theo.

ReaderKidZ:  What new books of yours can we look forward to reading in the future?

MS:  I am working on two projects, a middle-grade mystery novel set in Calcutta 1832, and I have recently submitted a manuscript for a picture book about my dog, Frank, whom we adopted from the streets of India. In it Frank exchanges a series of letters with a dog-friend back in Delhi, describing his new, spoiled life in the US.

We look forward to reading both of those. Thanks for talking to us, Monika Schröder.