Ocean Meets Sky - An interview with The Fan Brothers

Ocean Meets Sky
The Fan Brothers
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (May 15, 2018)
Fiction * Imagination * Adventure
Audience: Ages 4 to 8
Indiebound | WorldCat

Description from GoodReads: It’s a good day for sailing.
Finn lives by the sea and the sea lives by him. Every time he looks out his window it’s a constant reminder of the stories his grandfather told him about the place where the ocean meets the sky. Where whales and jellyfish soar and birds and castles float.

Finn’s grandfather is gone now but Finn knows the perfect way to honor him. He’ll build his own ship and sail out to find this magical place himself!

And when he arrives, maybe, just maybe, he’ll find something he didn’t know he was looking for.

________________________

I am excited to welcome Eric and Terry Fan to Kid Lit Frenzy. Thank you for stopping by and talking about your new book OCEAN MEETS SKY. 

Kid Lit Frenzy: I am curious about your collaborative process. As I looked at the illustrations, I kept wondering how you merge your individual styles into page spreads that work together so beautifully. Do you storyboard it first and then divide up the spreads or do you work on them together? And what happens when might not agree on something? 

Eric: We definitely always storyboard our art and do a rough dummy before proceeding to finals, so we have a pretty good idea of the basic composition and elements. Sometimes the image can change quite a bit as we move from rough to final because we like to give ourselves the creative headroom to allow new ideas to grow instead of being to chained to the rough. In any case, for the finals we’ll either work together on a spread if we’re in the studio together, or we’ll work on different parts of it and then bring the elements together in Photoshop and share the layered file in Dropbox. 

Terry: It’s nice to hear that our individual elements merge well, since that’s always our ultimate goal. It’s a fairly intuitive process and we’ve developed a good dialogue between us, and sense of how we want the image to develop, so we don’t run into too many disagreements. Our primary medium is still graphite or ballpoint. We scan the monochrome drawing and then colour it in Photoshop. Again, it’s a collaborative process and we can always count on the great feedback from our editor and art director to help steer us in the right direction if we’re unsure about something. 

KLF: Do you have a favorite spread in the book? And why? 

Eric & Terry: It’s really hard to pick a favourite spread from a book, but maybe the Library Islands spread, just because we knew going in that it was going to be a difficult illustration to execute, so there was a certain degree of relief when we finished it, which marked a turning point in the process where you feel like you’ve cleared a difficult hurdle. We also love books, and we had a lot of fun including books that have had an impact on both of us growing up, as well as inventing book titles as a shout out to friends and family. We completed the illustration during our Sendak Fellowship, and so we named one of the books “The Four Fellows” as a tribute to the two other artists attending the fellowship with us - Eliza Wheeler and Rashin Kheiriyeh - who we became good friends with.

KLF: The text and illustrations work amazingly well together. I love how the book flows from a young boy in play to this incredibly imaginative story and returns to the young boy and his mother, all the while, there is this nod to the grandfather and his stories. How did you decide on the direction and flow for the story? 

Terry: Thank you! It took us quite a while to find the story, and the text went through a number of different drafts. Much like The Night Gardener, the initial spark for the story started with a stand-alone image from many years ago. It was an image of a whale in the clouds surrounded by sailing ships. We knew we wanted to have our character Finn visit this magical place, but we also wanted to deepen the story and give it some resonance beyond just the adventure aspect. Early on we decided to make the character of Finn Asian, which got us thinking about our own family. Our grandfather and father were both storytellers, and the stories we were told as children had a big impact on us and likely steered us into wanting to tell our own stories as adults. We started seeing the “story” as a kind of seed planted that can grow in the mind of the person hearing it. 

Eric: We also saw kids reacting to The Night Gardener - inventing their own topiaries, even filming little movies based on our book - and we knew it was a theme we wanted to explore. So in some ways, even though the reader experiences Ocean Meets Sky from Finn’s perspective, for us as writers we’re more aligned to the grandfather’s perspective, with Finn being a proxy for the reader entering the imaginative world of the book. Like Finn, the hope is that a story can grow in the mind of the reader and act as inspiration, or grow into something entirely new. Since the book is also about loss, and coming to terms with loss, we wanted to show how a story could become a form of connection and closure; we build our life using stories, structure our memories and feelings into stories to make sense out of them. We liked the idea of Finn living through his grandfather’s story, and by breathing new life into it he’s kept his grandfather’s spirit alive inside him.

KLF: When you think of your journey as artists, who do you credit as influencing your work and did you see your career going in the direction of creating children's picture books? 

Terry: I think the biggest early influence on us was our parents. Our father loved to invent stories and would create magically little story-worlds for us to participate in. His stories usually had messages in them about tolerance or conflict resolution, and he would ask us to think our way out of various predicaments presented to the characters. Our mom has always been our biggest artistic champion. She’s perhaps the one person who’s believed in us throughout our entire lives, even when we weren’t working directly in the art field. Before we could even read or write she helped us collaborate on our first book together “Many Years Ago” which was about dinosaurs. She stapled it together for us and wrote out the text as we dictated it. Somehow we still have the book after all these years, and through many moves. 

Eric: As far as our journey into picture books, Terry and I both attended OCAD together, but up until relatively recently we both had full time jobs outside of the art field. Children’s books were always something I was interested in, and when I was younger I submitted a manuscript I had written and illustrated with my younger brother Devin. We sent it out unsolicited, and unsurprisingly most came back unopened, but we did get two lovely letters of encouragement from a couple of editors. Fast forward to many years later, when the internet started to change the landscape for artists. It’s now possible to have your work seen by a global market by showing it on social media, or uploading it to sites like Society6, Threadless, and Redbubble. Terry and I both started selling our art online and by chance it caught the attention of our agent Kirsten Hall. That lead directly to our first book being published, The Night Gardener. Even in retrospect it all feels a little unreal, and we feel so fortunate to have “fallen” into picture books through remarkable good fortune and happenstance. 

KLF: Can you share about any future projects that you are working on? 

The Fan Brothers: We’re currently illustrating a lovely story called The Scarecrow, by Beth Ferry (HarperCollins) and after that we’ll be working on our third book, with a third Fan - our younger brother Devin! It’s called The Barnabus Project and will be published by Tundra Books/Penguin Random House in 2020.

Look for a copy of Ocean Meets Sky at your local indie bookstore or public library. 

About the creators:
Terry Fan received his formal art training at Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto, Canada. His work is a blend of traditional and contemporary techniques, using ink or graphite mixed with digital. He spends his days (and nights) creating magical paintings, portraits, and prints. The Night Gardener is his first book. Born in Illinois, he now lives in Toronto. Visit him online at Krop.com/TerryFFan and Society6.com/igo2cairo and on Facebook (Terry Fan Illustration).

Eric Fan is an artist and writer who lives in Toronto, Canada. Born in Hawaii and raised in Toronto, he attended the Ontario College of Art and Design, where he studied illustration, sculpture, and film. He has a passion for vintage bikes, clockwork contraptions, and impossible dreams. The Night Gardener is his first children’s book. See more of his work at Society6.com/opifan64 and on Facebook (Eric Fan Illustration).

Blog Tour: Everything Else In The Universe - An Interview with Tracy Holczer

Everything Else in the Universe
by Tracy Holczer
G.P. Putnam & Sons Books for Young Readers (June 12, 2018)
Fiction * Family * Vietnam War
Audience: Ages 10 and up
Indiebound | WorldCat

Description from GoodReads: Lucy is a practical, orderly person--just like her dad. He taught her to appreciate reason and good sense, instilling in her the same values he learned at medical school. But when he's sent to Vietnam to serve as an Army doctor, Lucy and her mother are forced to move to San Jose, California, to be near their relatives--the Rossis--people known for their superstitions and all around quirky ways. 

Lucy can't wait for life to go back to normal, so she's over the moon when she learns her father is coming home early. It doesn't even matter that he's coming back "different." That she can't ask too many questions or use the word "amputation." It just matters that he'll be home. But Lucy quickly realizes there's something very wrong when her mother sends her to spend the summer with the Rossis to give her father some space. Lucy's beside herself, but what's a twelve-year-old to do? 

It's a curious boy named Milo, a mysterious packet of photographs and an eye-opening mission that makes Lucy see there's more to life than schedules and plans, and helps to heal her broken family. The latest from critically-acclaimed author Tracy Holczer is a pitch-perfect middle grade tale of family and friendship that's sure to delight fans of One for the Murphys and Rules.

---

Thank you Tracy for stopping by Kid Lit Frenzy and talking about your new book Everything Else in the Universe. 

Kid Lit Frenzy: As I was thinking about Everything Else in the Universe, I couldn't help but wonder if it would be considered historical fiction or contemporary fiction. Not that this distinction changes how I would share the book with students, but I am curious how you viewed it as you were writing it. 

Tracy Holczer: After the election in 2016, I was in revisions and was struck by how history was repeating itself. When I originally conceived and did first drafts of the story, the 70's was a singular time in history. The details I chose to reflect that history leaned heavily on protest and conflict with the war, as well as universal themes of sacrifice, family and friendship. What I had originally considered to be historical feels very contemporary, now, I believe, because of what's happening all around us. During last revisions, I tried to go with that, focusing on historical elements that actually paralleled the here and now. I hope this sparks many conversations about the importance of protest, what children sacrifice when parents go to war, and that history can and will repeat itself if we are not vigilant.

KLF: What was the biggest surprised that Lucy or Milo revealed to you as your were writing the story?

TH: The biggest surprise was digging up that flight helmet in the garden. I did not see that coming until Milo's shovel banged against metal, and I saw the U.S. stamp down there in the dirt. I love it when that happens. It sort of turns everything on it's ear, but in a good way.

KLF: In conversations, we have spoken about how family and culture are important. Can you talk about this in relationship to Lucy and Everything Else in the Universe? 

TH: Family and culture are everything. There is so much conversation going on right now about identity and who has the right to tell which stories. I'm very much in the camp of writing from a solid foundation of what you know emotionally. Writing a main character from the perspective of someone else's identity feels very much like identity theft to me. Especially in light of the CCBC publishing statistics about People of Color and First/Native Nations. Until those numbers rise, where people of their own cultures are telling more of their own stories, I think we need to make room at the table. Does this mean I believe white people shouldn't write about other cultures? No. Our books should be peopled by real life characters, and the world we live in is diverse. I just can't help but feel that, because there is a call for more diversity in writing for children, writers are seeing that as a trend they should follow, an opportunity to sell. Which is a terrible reason to write anything, imho. Bottom line is, write from your heart, but be clear on your motives. Intentions are well and good, but don't mistake them for sensitivity. Sensitivity takes more work.

KLF: I loved that the cat was named Cannoli. If I ever get more cats maybe I will name them Cannoli and Ravioli. Speaking of Cannoli, where have you found a decent one in Southern California? I miss the ones I used to get in Connecticut. 

TH: An interesting story about cannoli. The Italians in my family didn't make them until my mother came along and she was all, "where's the cannoli?" So she found a recipe and started making them at family events. They were terrible. Filled with ricotta and dried fruit and overly thick, oily shells (sorry, Mom!). But the family loved them! (or maybe they just pretended to for my mother. Sorry again, Mom!). Anyway, I didn't have a real cannoli until my friend Nicole Maggi's book launch (check out her newest - What They don't Know from Sourcebooks Fire, Oct. 2018), where she had them flown in from Ferrara's in NYC. According to Nicole, Eagle Rock Bakery has some good ones. So let's make that our next lunch date!

KLF: Can you share about any writing projects that you are currently working on? 

TH: I am currently working on something tentatively titled Braving the Woods. It's a fairy tale retelling of sorts where the main character's parents have been enchanted by grief. My girl, Juniper, comes up with a way to break the spell, which involves a one thousand mile journey to get her recently deceased brother's military service dog. It deals with living in the shadow of an idolized big brother and how to break free from that. With a little bit of a surprise ending (that I hope I can make work, cross your fingers for me). I pulled some from Grimm's Little Brother, Little Sister, which embraces the theme of bringing family back together after great suffering and death. Suffering and death! Good heavens, I guess someone has to write the weepies! Oh, how I love them myself. And I hope my readers do, too.

Check out the other stops in the blog tour:

Smack Dab in the Middle - June 16th
Mr. Schu Reads - June 17th
Kidlit Frenzy - June 18th
Teach Mentor Texts - June 20th
Caroline Starr Rose - June 22nd

About the author: Tracy Holczer spent her first twelve years in San Jose, California with her boisterous Italian family. Everything Else in the Universe is a love letter to that family, the pink kitchen where she discovered her nonni's secret ability to infuse food with love, and the San Francisco Bay Area in all its foggy glory. Her critically acclaimed first novel, The Secret Hum of a Daisy, made several state award lists and garnered starred reviews. A full time writer, Tracy lives in Los Angeles with her family, one fluffy dog and three cats.

The Lifters - Interview with author, Dave Eggers

The Lifters
by Dave Eggers
Knopf Books for Young Readers (April 24, 2018)
Fiction * Fantasy & Magic
Audience: Grades 3 to 7
Indiebound | WorldCat

Description from GoodReads: Journey to an underground world where adventure awaits and heroes are made in this middle grade novel from the bestselling, Pulitzer-nominated author of The Monk of Mokhaand Her Right Foot.

When Gran and his family move to Carousel, he has no idea that the town is built atop a secret. Little does he suspect, as he walks his sister to school or casually eats a banana, that mysterious forces lurk mere inches beneath his feet, tearing up the earth like mini-hurricanes and causing the town to slowly but surely sink.

When Gran's friend, the difficult-to-impress Catalina Catalan, presses a silver handle into a hillside and opens a doorway to underground, he knows that she is extraordinary and brave, and that he will have no choice but to follow wherever she leads. With luck on their side, and some discarded hockey sticks for good measure, Gran and Catalina might just find a way to lift their town--and the known world--out of danger.

___________________________
Thank you Dave Eggers for stopping by Kid Lit Frenzy to talk about your new middle grade novel, The Lifters. 

Kid Lit Frenzy: In THE LIFTERS, the town is called Carousel. Are there any Carousels that inspired you and if so, where is it located? 

Dave Eggers: When I did research into the making of carousels back in the day, I found so many great examples of the form, and many had been made in Pennsylvania. Here are some great photos of an extraordinary carousel made in Pennsylvania and still in use there, at Weona Park in a town called Pen Argyl, PA.

KLF: In many middle grade fantasy books, there seems to be a "portal" of sorts into another world. In THE LIFTERS, you use the tunnels to get to the other world. What influenced your decision to use tunnels as your portal?

DE: To me the main thing was the door. I’m from a very flat part of the country, Illinois, and now I live in a hilly region — northern California — and since moving here I’ve been obsessed with the topography, and what lies beneath. The Lifters started about ten years ago, when I would be walking through the hills close to the Pacific, and started picturing being able to just open a door on the hillside. It seemed so plausible to me that it was bewildering that I couldn’t just do it. So I made up a story that made it possible.

KLF: The Art Designer is an important member of a team creating an illustrated novel. The Fan Brothers do the jacket art (by the way, love the surprise when you remove the jacket) and Aaron Renier did the interior art. Some authors have input on the illustrations and others have little say. Did you get to be a part of this process? 

DE: I’ve been designing books for about twenty years now myself, commissioning art and doing the typography, so in this case the publisher allowed me to take on that role for the interior of the book. It was a blast working with Aaron Renier, who I’ve known for a long time. We worked on the premise that there should be some kind of artwork on every spread, and Aaron just went to town on the project with that as his mandate. He created this very moody, mysterious environment that pretty much exactly mirrored the images I had in my head. 

KLF: A friend of mine who is a big fan of Harry Potter and Stranger Things and who is listening to THE LIFTERS audiobook wanted to know if you are a fan of those series and did they possibly influence you in the writing of THE LIFTERS?

DE: The weird thing is that Harry Potter came out when I was about 30, so I was not lucky enough to be part of the generation that got to experience those books at the prime target age. And I keep hearing about Stranger Things, but I don’t have broadcast or cable TV at home, so I have to wait until things appear on DVD. I’m excited to dig in once they compile the show in my preferred 1990s format.

KLF: Short chapters can be a fabulous tool for drawing in reluctant readers. However, it can be a challenge for writers to develop the story and to keep the pacing.  What were the factors that influenced you to write shorter chapters?

DE: I was thinking of pacing for sure. Something about the shorter chapters creates an accelerated rhythm that I wanted for The Lifters. And secondly, I was thinking of young reluctant readers, like the reader I was when I was in middle school. I would have been attracted to chapter books with a healthy amount of pictures, and with a different approach to chapters. There’s a sense of accomplishment, I think, when you’re ten years old and, because the chapters are short, you can read 12 chapters in a sitting.

KLF: The names of your characters are quite creative (Granite Flowerpetal, Catalina Catalan). How did you come up with the names? Also, are there parts of you in Gran?

DE: There’s not much of me in Gran, I have to say. The one thing we share is that I spent a lot of time as a boy making animals out of clay. That part is all me, as is the part of about having an odd name. Eggers isn’t the easiest name to have as a kid in public schools. There are endless ways boys can hassle you for a name like that. But when I was a kid, the kids making fun of my name were my friends, so it was just part of the banter of a bunch of knuckleheads. Catalan is a word I’ve always loved, in its inherent lyricism. Adding Catalina as a first name, I thought, gave a musical air to a young woman who is very serious and purpose-driven.

KLF: Can you share anything about upcoming projects for children that you are working on?

DE: In the fall Chronicle Books will publish a book I did with Shawn Harris called What Can a Citizen Do? It’s a rhyming book that talks about, well, participatory democracy, really.

KLF: You talk about 826 National in your acknowledgements. How did you help establish 826 National and why are you so passionate about it? 

DE: The story of 826 National is probably too long, and there are too many aspects to the network now, to encompass here. But it started as a writing and tutoring center for kids in the Mission District of San Francisco. Then other cities adopted the model, and we grew into a network of 22 centers in 8 cities. The basic idea is that young people should feel comfortable as writers, because virtually all their power as citizens will come from their ability to express their desires, hopes, needs, rights, and vision for change. 

Look for a copy of THE LIFTERS at your local indie bookstore or community library. 

About the author: 
Dave Eggers grew up near Chicago and graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the founder of McSweeney’s, an independent publishing house in San Francisco that produces books, a quarterly journal of new writing (McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern), and a monthly magazine, The Believer. McSweeney’s publishes Voice of Witness, a nonprofit book series that uses oral history to illuminate human rights crises around the world. In 2002, he co-founded 826 Valencia, a nonprofit youth writing and tutoring center in San Francisco’s Mission District. Sister centers have since opened in seven other American cities under the umbrella of 826 National, and like-minded centers have opened in Dublin, London, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Birmingham, Alabama, among other locations. Eggers’s work has been nominated for the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and has won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, France’s Prix Médicis, Germany’s Albatross Prize, the National Magazine Award, and the American Book Award. Eggers lives in Northern California with his family. His novels include The Circle, A Hologram for the King, and Heroes of the Frontier.

Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge: Interview with Carlyn Beccia

They Lost Their Heads: What Happened to Washington's Teeth,
Einstein's Brain, and Other Famous Body Parts
by Carlyn Beccia
Bloomsbury (April 3, 2018)
Nonfiction * Biography * Historical
Audience: Ages 10-14+
Indiebound | WorldCat

Thank you Carlyn for stopping by Kid Lit Frenzy and answering a few questions about your new book, THEY LOST THEIR HEADS. 

Kid Lit Frenzy: What prompted your interest in history and particularly the middle ages? (Ren Faire? Raucous Royals? I Feel Better? - I see a pattern)

Carlyn Beccia: Yes, there is definitely a pattern there. I obviously have a dark sense of humor so it is probably natural to be drawn to the most ‘nasty, brutish, and short’ time period in history. Studying the pre-modern era really can give you a new appreciation for a hot bath and a bed without fleas.  

KLF: Can you share with readers a little bit about your research process for THEY LOST THEIR HEADS, and what is your favorite chapter in the book? 

CB: Ah yes, my research process is nasty, brutish and definitely NOT short. I started with a lot of secondary sources for this one to first get a strong sense of who this person was before they croaked. Then I moved on to primary sources – many of the body parts are still in museums and collections. And I always am a big snoop when it comes to letters. For example, I got a really good sense of the turmoil in van Gogh’s life leading up to the ear incident by reading his brother, Theo’s letters.

Favorite chapter - You know that is like choosing between children….or at least, your children’s body parts.

No, seriously, my favorite parts of the book are actually the sidebars. I am a big trivia buff so I really enjoyed uncovering all these interesting factoids about what happened to peoples’ bits.

But my favorite story – l'inconnue de la Seine. I still get freaked out by her image! She looks like she is just about to open her eyes.

I'nconnue de la Seine death mask

For readers who are not familiar with this image….In Paris in the late 1800’s, an unknown girl was fished from the River Seine and taken to the Paris morgue. The pathologist there was so taken with her beauty that he made a death mask of her face. He apparently did just a great job that her death mask was reproduced over and over until it would have been hard to find any European home without it hanging in the drawing room. She became known as l'inconnue de la Seine – the unknown woman from the Seine.

Flash forward to the late 1950s when Austrian doctor Peter Safar was trying to develop the first CPR standards. He needed a doll so others could practice and learn his techniques for saving lives. So, he enlisted the help of toy maker, Asmund Laerdal. Laerdal used the death mask of l'inconnue de la Seine for his model which we know today as Resusci Annie.

Her nameless face became the face of the most popular CPR doll today - Resusci
Annie.

So everyone who has ever taken CPR has kissed this unknown girl. I think it is a story that really shows how life and death come full circle. The face of death is now the face of the doll used to save lives. I love creepy parallels!

KLF: This is the kind of book that is easy to book talk. Kids love these kind of fascinating facts. I was wondering what are a few of your favorite questions from children?
 
CB: Thanks! Whenever I do school visits, I always insist that I sit down to lunch with the kids
because I think you get far more intimate questions in a smaller group. One question that I have been asked a few times is if my own children inspire some of the themes in my books. I always feel the kids who ask these questions are the empaths of the world. They are not asking questions about personal rewards (every author gets the how much money you make question) but instead are trying to see the author through the lens of their relationships with others. These kids are the old souls of our world because they are understanding their relationships with others will change their path in life.

And to answer that question, I get far too many ideas from my 8 and 10-year old and I vet every chapter off of them before sending to my editor. They really should get paid.

KLF: Can you share about any future projects you are working on?

CB: I get frustrated talking about future projects because It takes me a few years to finish a book because of the research and amount of illustrations. This one took five! I really wish I could work faster.

My next book release is one that I have worked on for the past few years and I am finally finishing up. It is a book about the science behind monsters (title pending). It essentially uses monster lore as a platform for scientific exploration. For example, if a vampire was to try to drain your blood….where should he/she bite? And if you became a zombie, what body parts have the highest caloric content? Should you maybe skip the brains? Or my favorite, if Godzilla did attack, how could one survive the nuclear fallout? This book combines folklore, physics, chemistry, biology and a lot of cutting edge science…..all in many, many infographics. I hated science as a kid so I am determined to make some of the concepts I once found so boring irresistible to readers. I promise
genetics is far more interesting when explored from the werewolf’s perspective….

About the author: 
Carlyn Beccia children's book have won numerous awards including the Golden Kite Honor recipient for picture book illustration, the International Reading Association's Children's and Young Adult Book Award and the Cybil Award for Non-fiction picture book. Beccia teaches digital painting throughout the United States and is author of the best selling, Digital Painting for the Complete Beginner. She paints with 'digital oil brushes' to create a unique and deeply textured art. She enjoys giving live demonstrations of how art is created on the computer and encourages kids to experiment with the digital medium.

Artwork by Sarah S. Brannen ©2017

Don't forget to link up your nonfiction reviews...

Love, Penelope Book Trailer & Interview with Joanne Rocklin

Love, Penelope
by Joanne Rocklin; Illustrated Lucy Knisley
Amulet Books (March 20, 2018)
Fiction * Social Themes * Siblings
Audience: Grades 4 to 7
Indiebound | WorldCat
 

Kid Lit Frenzy: The book consists of letters from (almost) 11-year-old Penny to her sibling in utero. Why did you choose this form for the novel?

Joanne Rocklin: Penny is overjoyed that she will be a big sister and takes her role very seriously. Even though the baby won’t be born for another eight months, the fact of “You’s” existence is very real to Penny, so she decides to describe the world to You right away. 

I love writing in first person for the middle grades, and have done it in diary/letter form before. It is an age of increased introspection, an intense pondering of identity, and a growing desire to examine one’s place in the world, which the form allows. There are also many opportunities for humor (both conscious and unconscious) as my narrator expresses observations that are innocent, open, and sometimes erroneous. 

The form of the novel is also a “metaphor” for Penny’s own development -the birth of her discovery of life’s surprises and complexities.

KLF: What is the significance of the date June 26, 2015 listed at the end of the book trailer?

JR: That is the date that the U.S. Supreme Court voted to end the ban of same-sex marriage across the nation.

KLF: The trailer says that Penny is “not Ohlone by DNA, but... Ohlone by love.” What can you share about Penny’s adopted Ohlone family?

JR: Penny’s mama, Sammy, is not her biological mother. She adopted Penny when Penny was a toddler. Sammy’s mother is Ohlone, and Sammy’s Native American heritage is a big part of Sammy’s identity. To feel as close to Sammy and Sammy’s family as she can, Penny reads and learns about the Ohlone culture throughout the story. She shares what she has learned in the letters to her unborn sibling. 

Elementary school students in California study the Ohlone, who have lived in the areas where Penny lives for thousands and thousands of years. But Penny acquires an even deeper appreciation of their ongoing struggles to save their heritage and sacred areas. And she  connects with the Ohlone’s deep love for the earth and all of nature, as well as with the beauty and significance of their artifacts. Penny also discovers that, long ago, the Ohlone may even have invented basketball! 

KLF: As a children’s book creator in Oakland, California, do you, like Penny, find the “Golden State Warriors are the greatest team in the NBA. On the planet - probably”?

JR: Yes. And, of course, it has nothing to do with living in Oakland, California. They just are.

KLF: How do Penny’s friends make her a bigger, better person?

JR: Penny thought she knew about tolerance, empathy and forgiveness, but sometimes important words are just plain old words until your friends teach you what they really mean in real life. Gabby, and Hazel, and Kenny, and Penny’s Secret Impossible Love all have their own stories, and Penny writes them down in her letters. 

“Dear You,” Penny writes. “So much has happened this year. Or does it just seem like a lot happened because I wrote it down? Mr. Chen calls that a RHETORICAL QUESTION. A question without an answer. No, there is an answer. A lot happened. And I wrote it down. Love, Penelope.”

And as Penny writes it all down, she grows. Just like the baby inside Mama.   

KLF: Banana slugs or goats?

JR: As Penny says, banana slugs are easy to draw, but very hard to love. Especially when compared to goats. Penny and I agree that bright yellow slimy slow-moving unfriendly garden  banana slugs are not huggable. Goats are huggable. And in Penny’s world, goats keep secrets and give very good advice, just when you need it.

KLF: Your starred review in Booklist called Love, Penelope a “joyous testament to our complicated world.” How do you find joy in this complicated world?

JR: Penny and I find joy in family, 
friends, 
community
dogs
cats
nature, (ok, even banana slugs, which are SO amusing to look at!)

Wait, there’s more!  
Food! Food from all around the world! 
Books! 
Singing! 

And then there’s that joy that comes from honing the wondrous superpower of empathy--when you really learn to understand someone else’s point of view and can actually feel your mind and heart grow bigger and bigger. 

And of course, there’s the joy of love, which is what it’s all about. Nothing beats it.

Check out the book trailer for Love, Penelope:

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joanne Rocklin is the author of many other award-winning novels for children, including The Five Lives of Our Cat Zook (Golden Kite Award), One Day and One Amazing Morning on Orange Street (California Library Association Beatty Award), and Fleabrain Loves Franny (Bank Street College of Education’s Best Children’s Books of the Year) all from Amulet Books.  Look for her at JoanneRocklin.com.

ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR: Lucy Knisley, who provided the spot illustrations for Love, Penelope, is a critically acclaimed comic creator and author of the graphic memoirs French Milk, Relish, An Age of License: A Travelogue, Displacement: A Travelogue, and Something New.  Look for her at LucyKnisley.com

Thank you to Kirsten Cappy & The Curious City for the guest posting with this fabulous interview with Joanne Rocklin. If you don't know about The Curious City or Curious City DPW, check out these great resources.