picture book and middle-grade author
Six books in on my author journey, and I finally have a story that’s left the United States! I can’t think of a more appropriate one than A Race Around the World.
Though Nellie and Elizabeth didn’t pass through Turkey, children there can now read about their amazing adventure.
Bon voyage, my traveling friends!
I saw somewhere recently that this has been a big shelter-in-place book. Have you read it, too? My first Ann Patchett novel, I listened to the audio version, which was narrated by Tom Hanks. It’s a family story that centers around the house where the narrator and his sister grew up (and were asked to leave by their stepmother, once their father died). It meanders over decades and memories and reads like real life. I couldn’t help wondering how someone plans a book with so many moving parts.
British author Karen McCrombie kindly sent me copies of her Little Bird books a few months ago. As I was working on May B., she was working on the second book in the duology, Little Bird Lands. Set on a fictional Highlands island, Bridie and her family are driven from their Scottish home by a cruel new laird — and ultimately arrive in America. I interviewed Karen last month on the blog. Click through to learn more!
Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A History of Feral Children
I’ll say up front this was not an easy read. Ever since learning the story of Victor of Aveyron, I’ve been fascinated with stories about children who have lived apart from society. The stories in this book are tragic but many offer hope. A study on what it means to be human and our responsibility toward others (and the complex motivations behind and limitations of those caring for these children).
Rebecca Behrens is a master at writing tightly plotted middle grade. Like her 2019 novel The Disaster Days, Alone in the Woods (publishing this fall) is a survival story, this time set in the Wisconsin wilderness. The deeper readers go into the woods with Joss and Alex, the more they’ll be rooting for the girls’ survival — and the salvaging of their friendship.
Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague
This book has been on my shelf forever, and when stay-at-home orders were first issued, my mom told me she couldn’t stop thinking of it. Year of Wonders is the story of an English town that self quarantines during the Black Plague to further stop its spread. It’s beautiful and tragic and hopeful. I’m so glad I waited to read it until this very moment. Book 6/15 for my Clear Your Shelves Challenge.
I picked up this quirky, funny book written in the thirties for a book club read. It came along just when I needed something light. Flora Poste, orphaned at 19, goes to live with her strange relatives, the Starkadders, at Cold Comfort farm (where the cows are named Graceless, Pointless, Feckless, and Aimless). I Googled the title as I was reading and learned it was meant to be a send up of English romantic novels. I found myself highlighting dozens of humorous lines, like this one:
Mrs. Smiling’s second interest was her collection of brassieres and her search for a perfect one. She was reputed to have the largest and finest collection of these garments in the world. It was hoped that on her death it would be left to the nation.
What have you recently read?
Michael Burgan started writing for children as an editor for Weekly Reader, the classroom periodical. He left there in 1994 and has been freelancing ever since, focusing on history and biography. He’s also done some science and geography and adaptations of classic novels, such Don Quixote, Frankenstein, and Dracula. Michael is currently the editor of The Biographer’s Craft, the monthly newsletter of Biographers International Organization.
What kind of sources do you use?
I still rely mostly on books. I always make sure to have access to a good academic library, and I’ve been lucky over the years to be close to some good ones—University of New Mexico, University of Illinois-Chicago, and Yale. I augment that with books from the local library and ones I buy on Amazon. Of course, I use reputable online resources, too, such a government sites, academic journal articles, respected nonprofit organizations (medical associations, museums, etc.). I use Wikipedia only to check really basic facts quickly, or as a source for more detailed, trustworthy resources. I conduct the occasional phone or email interview. Rarer still are trips to archives; I don’t usually have the time or money for those.
How long do you typically research before starting draft?
Since my books are fairly short, I probably do less research than some of your interviewees. I’d say on average two weeks, though for a book I’m currently doing on the Middle Ages, it was about twice that. My editors usually require outlines, so I do as much research as I need to give them what they want up front, then I get deeper into specific topics as I’m writing. And of course, that process can lead me to discover useful info that didn’t emerge in the first round of research for the outlines.
Favorite thing about research?
Learning new things about topics I thought I already knew pretty well, or exploring topics about which I previously knew little or nothing. Also, when I do make it into an archive, I love coming across an unexpected tidbit. Example: I was in Fall River, Massachusetts, researching Lizzie Borden and I came across a letter from someone written at the time of her trial that said they had used a Ouija board to discover that Lizzie was guilty, but that she would not be convicted. I don’t know if that makes it into other books about her, but it made it into mine! (That also led to my doing a bit of research on the history of the boards, to give my readers context.)
Least favorite?
When I do phone interviews, I hate having to transcribe them afterward. But I have to record them and then transcribe; my handwriting is too atrocious and my typing skills are too bad to take good notes on the fly.
Why is historical nonfiction important?
Santayana’s famous quote, of course, comes immediately to mind. Besides keeping us from repeating past mistakes, it gives context to the world as we experience it day to day. And it connects so many different fields of study while showing us our relationship with the people and ideas that came before us. And while history as it’s sometimes taught can strike kids as dry, I think engaging historical nonfiction that has a strong narrative and interesting characters can hold kids’ interest while still giving them important information.
