How to Ride A Dragonfly

Posted on 06/05/2023

Anne Schwartz Books | 978-0593175644

Have you ever dreamed of sharing a pot of tea and crumpets with a fairy? Or imagined you’d one day joust with a bumble bee while riding on the back of a dragonfly?

You’re a wee bit big, of course. But not for long! All you’ll need is “a rose petal in your pocket at sunrise….” and the magic begins… Lasso the first dragonfly you spy and you’re off on an adventure like none you’ve ever experienced before.

HOW TO RIDE A DRAGONFLY, by Kitty Donohue, delightfully illustrated by Anne Wilsdorf, invites young readers into a world of fairies and beetle bands, a world where adventures happen in miniature. What child, at one time or another, hasn’t dreamed of such a life full of magic?

Kids will be charmed by Donohoe’s enchanting story and will soon be dreaming up adventures of their own!

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It’s a pleasure to introduce readers to my long time friend Kitty, and her debut picture book, HOW TO RIDE A DRAGONFLY.

DIANNE: Welcome to ReaderKidZ, Kitty! You and I go a long way back. I have distinct memories of an SCBWI Working Writer’s Retreat we attended back in the 90s. We were both teachers. You were writing novels, and I was just beginning to dip my toe into picture books. Over the years, we’ve attended the same conferences, classes, and shared many writing ups and downs.

I’d love you to start back when you were a child, growing up in Yosemite. It was there that the seeds of your stories were planted. Can you share a little bit about that time of your life and how those memories influence your work today?

KITTY: Dianne, growing up in Yosemite was pure magic. We lived in a very old house that my great-grandfather built. He and my great grandmother left Ireland in the late 1800’s for a new life in America. They homesteaded  Yosemite Valley in 1884. My siblings and I had the joy of growing up in an extraordinary setting.

 It was impossible to not be transfixed by nature. Each season had its own unique spell. As far as my book goes, summer memories had a big influence on HOW TO RIDE A DRAGONFLY.

Every summer afternoon my mom walked us to the Merced River near our house. We would spend hours swimming and daydreaming under the cottonwood trees. Watching little creatures like water bugs, butterflies, and of course, dragonflies was a delightful pastime. I think those early memories become deeply embedded in one’s psyche.

DIANNE: I remember the day several years ago, when you shared the news that you’d sold your first book! It was thrilling! And how exciting it is to now be holding a copy of HOW TO RIDE A DRAGONFLY. Can you share the inspiration for this book? Did the story begin with the “how-to” structure or something else? What was your writing process as you worked on the manuscript?

CLICK TO ENLARGE © Text by Kitty Donohoe, illustrations by Anne Wilsdorf

KITTY: It was really exciting to share the news with you Dianne!  We had so many dreams for so long and it just makes it better when a friend can enjoy your success! One thing I know for sure is that one must never give up. I have been writing stories from the time I could hold a pen and submitting stories for half of my life. Dreams do come true if you don’t give up.

I did think about a “how – to” structure to some degree. I have taken many institutes from The Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. One of their units focuses on nonfiction “how – to” books. I was making some exemplar “how – to”  books for my students and then I thought what if I made a “how – to” book that was fantasy?  And then I thought , what if I make it so that the narrator talks to the reader in much the same way as I talk to my students?

You might say that I found my writing voice by tapping into my teacher voice — the fun teacher voice that taps into kids’ natural curiosity and enthusiasm for learning.

DIANNE: Anne Wilsdorf’s illustrations are absolutely stunning – whimsical, full of light and color. She really captured the imaginative and fanciful nature of the story.

CLICK TO ENLARGE © Text by Kitty Donohoe, illustrations by Anne Wilsdorf

One of the joys of seeing sketches and final art in our picture books is the magic of how an artist transforms our words with a “second narrative,” things that show up in the art that we might not have been expecting. (I’m thinking of the kitty who appears at the beginning and end of the story. A nod to the author from the illustrator?!) Any other fun surprises in the illustrations kids can look for?

KITTY: I do think Anne Wilsdorf may have been having fun with the kitty in the illustration as a nod to my name. The artwork of the fairies on flowers was so charming. As a child growing up in Yosemite, I believed that such things existed. My childhood friends and I used to play a game we called Flower Fairies. We based it on the characters from Cicely Mary Barker’s books.

 When I first read my book to second graders at my school, one of them had such a good question. The book implies that the fairies were little kids who shrunk and didn’t get back by sunset so they stayed small. A child asked me if that was the case, how did the child get wings?  The only answer I had was that it was magic. It did make me think though. Kids see things that I hadn’t even thought of and that is the fun of sharing stories with children.

DIANNE: After a long teaching career, this is your last year! I’m sure it feels both exciting to be stepping out into full-time writing and, maybe even, a bit scary. How has teaching influenced your writing up to this point, and what’s on the horizon for you?

KITTY: I have to say that this is indeed a bittersweet moment for me. I have been teaching very young children for well over half of my life. I will miss their constant presence. Rather like a mama duck with her ducklings following her everywhere she goes. I will say that I do know a lot about young children’s imaginations and their sense of humor. Being around them for so many years has tuned me into that and it has truly helped me as a writer for youngsters.

I hope to continue to have more books published. I love to write and I will have more time to do it now. I feel like being an author for young children is the perfect fit for me. I love children’s literature and being a part of children’s journeys in literacy is very important to me. 

Thank you so much Dianne for interviewing me. You are a dear friend and I am excited that we have walked the same path for many years.

DIANNE: Ditto, Kitty! I look forward to reading the beautiful stories you create in the years to come.

 

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For more…

  • Visit Kitty’s website
  • Find Kitty on Twitter and Instagram
  • Enjoy this interview with Kitty and Brein Lopez, manager of Children’s Book World in Los Angeles.

 

 

 

This is Not My Home

Posted on 05/22/2023

Little Brown Books for Young Readers | 978-0316377102

When the cover of this week’s book popped up on my social media feed, I was immediately intrigued by the young protagonist, Lily, her mouth agape and holding the words “THIS IS NOT MY HOME.” Her expression of disbelief and desperation spoke for itself and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this book to learn more.

This picture book did not disappoint! It’s powerful for so many reasons, but first I’ll mention that the book — both the art and text — were the result of a close collaboration between Eugenia Yoh and Vivienne Chang that began at the height of the pandemic. In Yoh’s own words (see link to the full interview below):

“It is hard to attribute who wrote what because so much of the concept and writing are intertwined through Zoom conversations. While I was the one who officially put pen to tablet and drew the physical pictures, Vivienne was there every step of the way.”

Another reason it is such a gem is because this is a book with heart, a tender “reverse immigration” story about a girl who must leave her home in America to return to Taiwan to take care of her Ah Ma (grandmother). Though her mom urges her to be understanding, “Lily was not understanding. Not while packing. Not on the airplane. Not even when she saw Ah Ma.”

CLICK TO ENLARGE Text and Illustrations © Vivienne Chang and Eugenia Yoh

And when Ah Ma says, “Welcome home!” The only thing Lily can say is, “This is not my home.” Nothing is the same. Not the backyard BBQ, not the fireflies, not her school.

Lily feels angry and alone.

As you might imagine, over time, Lily adjusts. Taiwan may not be her home, but it is the home of her mom’s family, and childhood. “And this can be ours,” her mom gently reminds her.

CLICK TO ENLARGE Text and Illustrations © Vivienne Chang and Eugenia Yoh

Illustrations, sketched and colored in Photoshop, include wordless spreads, panels, and speech bubbles (in English and Chinese characters), all together making for engaging art and a design that expands the story.

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A Bed of Stars

Posted on 05/15/2023

Candlewick Press | 978-1536212396

I have hundreds and hundreds of picture books. I place them all around the house. In bookcases and on shelves, but also displayed on the piano, the media center, an entry table by the front door, and on all the flat surfaces in nearly every room of the house. Truly, I do not need more books. And yet… today when I went to the bookstore and opened A BED OF STARS by Jessica Love, I knew right away I would buy the book and bring it home. I love gorgeous writing, and the way a picture book can build page on page, transporting me as I read, causing both my heart and the world to become a quiet magical space of the book and me.

This is what I felt as I read A BED OF STARS. I’d gone to the bookstore to bring home a different book, but before I could find it, my eye landed on Jessica Love’s newest. I’d read the (cover reveal) article in Publisher’s Weekly, nearly a year ago, and I’d watched the author discussing the book on YouTube a few weeks before its publication. I knew what it was about. And yet it became so much more as I turned the pages…

CLICK TO ENLARGE © words and illustrations by Jessica Love

It’s about together time and the special relationship of a father and son. It’s also about the desert, an overnight camping grip, and noticing. Small things, like a swallow and a crow, manzanita and sage, and the tiny tracks of beetles in the sand.

CLICK TO ENLARGE © words and illustrations by Jessica Love

And big things, too. A vast expanse of stars. A universe that goes “on and on forever.” Parents who understand exactly what their child needs.

A beautiful book in both words and illustrations. Not to be missed.

 

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Read this article with the author in Publisher’s Weekly about the process of creating the book.

Enjoy this video introduction to A BED of STARS:

 

 

Namaste is a Greeting

Posted on 05/08/2023

Candlewick Press | 978-1536217834

At their best, picture books are the interplay of text, illustrations, and design, a marriage of the visual and the verbal – together, more than the sum of each of their parts. It’s a form that invites readers to inhabit the world of the book in such a way that, once the reader/listener has finished the book, they’ll want to pick it up and read it again.

NAMASTE IS A GREETING by Suma Subramaniam, illustrated by Sandhya Prabhat is such a book. The words, like a list poem, provide the structure, while the art is free to build on that structure, imagining a narrative about all the ways namaste can be both a greeting and a way of living in community with others.

Derived from Sanskrit, namaste is a respectful greeting, its meaning having evolved over time and across cultures. As such, you can imagine that people have different opinions about how namaste should be represented in a book.

CLICK TO ENLARGE © Words by Suma Subramaniam, illustrated by Sandhya Prabhat

For that reason, I was glad to have the opportunity to read and hear what the creators of NAMASTE IS A GREETING had to say about their understanding of namaste based on their personal experience and heritage, and their intentional representation of that understanding in the text and art of the book.

You can learn more about the collaboration of author Suma Subramaniam and illustrator Sandhya Prabhat as they worked with their editor and the Candlewick publishing team to capture their personal relationship to the word and concept of namaste.

  • Behind the scenes peek at the development of the art from sketches, through character design, to mock-ups of cover ideas.

 

 

 

How to Write a Poem

Posted on 05/01/2023

Quill Tree Books | 978-0063060906

As I write, it’s the last day of National Poetry Month in the US, so it’s not surprising that earlier today, I read an article about poetry in the Council Chronicle, a professional journal about language arts and literacy published three times a year by NCTE. The article,”The Power and Possibilities of Children’s Poetry” by Adrienne Samuels Gibbs quotes poet Terry Blackhawk reminding teachers that “There are so many exciting ways to build collaboration through poetry,” and poet and teacher Georgia Heard who adds, “… there are rules and forms – you have to know craft tools; but that’s the not the experience of poetry.”

I also listened to poet Maggie Smith, author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful, saying much the same, including that even when we may not always understand exactly what a poem means, we can pay attention to how a poem moves through us, how it sounds in our ears, how it makes us feel.

The words of these poets resonated with me because that’s been my experience. Poetry can be an integral part of a school community when it’s presented in a way that helps students experience the poem, rather than worry about dissecting the poem’s meaning.

Which says to me that there’s something in poetry for ALL of us. A connection, an entry point, a feeling that touches something deep inside that we might not be able to articulate. And, to be clear, this doesn’t mean that every poem is for every reader. It means that – in the same way we all have our own set of likes and dislikes when it comes to reading fiction, there will poems that speak to us and poems that don’t. And that’s okay.

Unfortunately, the same thoughts that can make reading poetry feel daunting, sometimes make writing poetry feel impossible. Which is why I love How to Write a Poem, by Kwame Alexander and Deanna Nikaido, with art by Melissa Sweet. Like a road map, young poets can discover a concrete way to begin…

Begin with a question
like an acorn
waiting for spring…

… Next, listen to the grass,
the flowers,
the trees –
anything
that’s friends with
the sun.

HOW TO WRITE A POEM invites writers to trust the words will come. That they are, in fact, “raining everywhere…,” dancing “with your joy…,” ” at the tip of your heart…,” “waiting to slide down your pencil into your small precious hand…”

Have you written a poem lately? It’s been about a month since I have and after reading How to Write a Poem, I feel inspired to get back to it. Maybe you will too?

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Pair this book with POETRY MATTERS: Writing a Poem from the Inside Out by Ralph Fletcher

 

 

My Baba’s Garden

Posted on 04/23/2023

Neal Porter Books | 978-0823450831

 

When her grandson arrives in the early morning, the sun is rising and the mountains beside the sea “look like whale bellies.” Baba is already in the kitchen fixing a bowl of oatmeal that swims in butter, and “pickles, cabbage, and beets from the garden.”

CLICK TO ENLARGE © Words by Jordan Scott, illustrations by Sydney Smith

This quiet routine is their shared ritual. Baba doesn’t speak English well and her grandson knows that some of her ways are different from his. He has learned that her life in Poland, where she was born, was difficult. That when it rains, she walks slowly, scanning the sidewalk for worms for the garden. They share these special meals and walk back and forth to school until one day, Baba must leave her chicken-coop-home to sleep at the end of the hallway in a room right next to the boy’s.

The roles have reversed. Now it is the boy who brings oatmeal, and the boy who tends – for the first time – a small pot of tomatoes growing outside Baba’s window. It is the boy who walks slowly, eyes glued to the sidewalk, picking up each worm he finds.

MY BABA’S GARDEN, a beautifully poetic picture book collaboration by award-winning author Jordan Scott, and illustrator Sydney Smith is the second book they’ve created together and is just as lovely as their previous, I TALK LIKE A RIVER.

A profoundly moving, intergenerational story perfect for every home, classroom, and library.

 

 

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Ode to a Bad Day

Posted on 04/16/2023

Chronicle Books | 978-1797210803

We’ve all had our share of bad days. Times when nothing goes our way. We’re late, we’re bored, someone cuts in line, even dinner disappoints. It feels like the whole wide world has turned against us.

Then, just when we think we won’t be able to stand another minute of it, this happens…

“Oh Cricket in My Room.
cheet-cheet-cheet, cheet-cheet, cheet-cheet.
A bleaty tweet with insect feet!
You’re up, you’re down, you’re all around
I can’t escape your cheet-y sound!
Oh you Cricket!”

Could things get any worse? And then… well, you put things in perspective. Not every day will be like this one, right?

“Oh, Bad Day,
all day long
my way went wrong.
I’m so annoyed…
but not destroyed…

…My eyes are closed, and I suppose
a better day is on its way.”

It’s impossible not to smile. Sure, we’re all seen bad days, but – somehow or other – things eventually turn around.

With charming verse by Chelsea Lin Wallace, ODE TO A BAD DAY takes the sting out of the kinds of everyday annoyances we’ve all experienced. Hyewon Yum‘s sweet illustrations, rendered in watercolor and colored pencil, capture the emotional journey of the young protagonist while leaning into the undercurrent of humor that bubbles up and emerges by the book’s end.

ODE TO A BAD DAY is sure to remedy even the worst days and remind readers that a new and better day is just around the corner.

***

DIANNE: Welcome, Chelsea! Thanks for agreeing to answer a few questions about your newest book!

CHELSEA: Thank you for having me, Dianne! It’s such a pleasure to get to interview with you – my agent sister!

DIANNE: One definition I found described an ode as a form of lyric poetry that expresses emotion and represents the poet’s musings on a thing (or person). ODE TO A BAD DAY is exactly that, Lots of emotions about all the bumpy moments your sweet protagonist encounters in a day. I imagine you had fun coming up with those moments – from rusty bones to dusty teeth, soggy, squishy cereal to stinging knees. We’ve all had those kinds of day, even as we can’t help but smile at the young girl’s dramatic hyperbole. As writers, we know that inspiration for stories can be found just about anywhere. What was the spark that inspired this ODE?

CLICK TO ENLARGE © Words by Chelsea Lin Wallace, illustrations by Hyewon Yum

CHELSEA: I will give you a hint: cheet-cheet-cheet!  Oh, that cricket! My daughter was 7 yo when she was visited by a chirping cricket in her room and she couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. The DRAMA! She was furious and frustrated and we ended up tearing apart her room looking but we still couldn’t find the guy. After a while her anger turned into giggles because of how ridiculous the whole night had become. I started paying close attention to all the tiny and tremendous annoying moments in her day and the story unfolded.  I knew I wanted to flip the ode on its head – essentially ode-ing to the moments we don’t like – because in many ways we can be just as grateful for the moments that challenge us as the ones that lift us.

DIANNE: What I love so much about your story is the way it makes space for the young protagonist to vent all manner of her complaints. At the same time, we – as readers – can’t help but feel our spirits lift at the humor of it all. Sometimes a missing pudding cup and yucky, slimy sauce on our spaghetti is the worst! Ha!

Do you have a favorite best “worst moment” that you knew you wanted to include? Were there some moments that were part of the drafting process that you eventually cut (either before or after the manuscript was acquired)?

CHELSEA: Ah! Well, I definitely had to include the cricket! My other favorites are boredom at the store and the missing pudding cup but a lot of that is credit to Hyewon’s utterly hilarious illustrations that made those moments over-the-top epic; the smug smile from the pudding cup kid is probably my favorite spread in the book. The hiccup ode is one of my favorites to read-aloud.

I had to go back to my earliest drafts to find out what odes were cut – turns out a few! Originally I had one about a bully, a first day of school, and a cold. When I decided to arc this into a day the first day of school didn’t work anymore. The bully one morphed into the line-cutter (the specificity of that made it much stronger and way funnier), and the cold turned into an entirely new book! I will speak to that one in your last question.

DIANNE: Finding the perfect ending for a picture book is not always easy. The “Oh, Cricket in My Room” stanza was a lovely surprise that begins the ending of this bad day and cleverly “signs off” the very last spread. How did you come up with this terrific ending?

CLICK TO ENLARGE © Words by Chelsea Lin Wallace, illustrations by Hyewon Yum

CHELSEA: I love this question! Truthfully I always knew that the cricket would be our last ode (since it was based on my daughter’s real experience at bedtime). It was Hyewon’s idea to introduce the cricket in the opening spread sneaking through the window! I LOVED that and suggested we see the cricket follow her throughout the day. The cricket became somewhat of a character in the story. So when she closes out the night with hope for a better tomorrow I felt it would be hilarious but also sweet if the cricket answers her “that day could happen tomorrow, right?” with a cheet-cheet-cheet.

DIANNE: Ah, yes! The cricket gets the last word! Genius!

What are you working on now? What can readers look forward to?

CHELSEA: Thank you for asking! I’d mentioned I had an ode about a cold originally in ODE TO A BAD DAY. That particular ode inspired my young daughter to write a bunch of odes all tied to being sick or hurt. That’s when it occurred to me that the concept of a bunch of kids getting hurt and sick at school needed its own book. It became THE BOO-BOOS OF BLUEBELL ELEMENTARY, brilliantly illustrated by Alison Farrell, and it’s coming out from Chronicle in the fall. This hilarious story in rhyme follows a cast of kids pouring into a school nurse’s office with various aches and ailments.

I have several more books coming out in 2024 and 2025 including a fun and funny story in rhyme called DARE TO BE DARING with Lian Cho (Abrams) and the recently announced WE ARE THE THEATER with Molly Idle (Abrams).

DIANNE: You’ve been busy! I can’t wait to check out these upcoming books!

 

***

Chelsea has some great extension activitites on her website to accompany ODE TO A BAD DAY:

And… an original **SONG,** inspired by and created for ODE TO A BAD DAY, and written, composed, and performed by Tara Trudel: