Caroline Starr Rose

picture book and middle-grade author

Classroom Connections: Charlie Russell and the Gnomes of Bull Head Lodge, Illustrated by Jeanne Bowman

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genre / form: historical picture book
age range: 4-8 years
Jeanne Bowman’s website

Please tell us about your book. 

Charlie Russell and the Gnomes of Bull Head Lodge, written by Emily Wilson, is a story about the famous western painter Charlie Russell and his search for creativity.

Charlie Russell (1864-1926) was known as “The Cowboy Artist” because he started painting while he was working as a cowhand in his youth. He loved to paint the working men and women of the frontier, the Native people of the plains and mountains and the wildlife that lived in the beautiful country stretching from New Mexico to Montana. 

This story is an interesting look at a small slice of his life. Charlie owned a small cabin in the middle of Glacier National Park. He spent summers there with his wife and friends, including his fellow artist and student Joe De Yong. Not many people know that Charlie also loved to make sculptures out of found objects. This story focuses on the life he infused into such creations, and how they helped to stir his creativity within the awesome backdrop of Glacier National Park. 

What inspired you to illustrate this story?

The South Dakota Historical Society Press (SDHSP) approached me to illustrate this story. I was interested because of the gnomes, and because of the little bit I knew about Charlie Russell from my art history classes in school. I love all things magical and mystical, and what is more mysterious than a forest filled with gnomes and art? 

This story was a fantastic excuse for me to spend more time researching Charlie Russell and the time period in which he lived. I have lived in both New Mexico and Montana and it gave me new insight and appreciation into the history of both states as well. (Although this story only takes place in Montana, Charlie made many trips to the south and made many paintings of the Navajo People, which were present in the biographies I used to research for this project.) 

Could you share with readers how you conducted your research or share a few interesting tidbits you learned while researching? 

I began this project by reading biographies about Charlie Russell and Glacier National Park. Here are two of the main texts I used to work on this book: 

Charles M. Russell, The Life and Legend of America’s Cowboy Artist by John Taliaferro and People Before The Park, The Kootenai and Blackfeet Before Glacier National Park by Sally Thompson, Kootenai Culture Committee & Pikunni Traditional Association.

I also took a trip to The Glacier National Park to photograph the landscape the book takes place in. This is not possible for every book, but luckily I live just 10 hours away (and my best friend lives near the park). 

I was also lucky because the author of the book, Emily Wilson, is also the curator of The C. M. Russell Museum in Great Falls so she and the wonderful Art Director at SDHSP sent along many fantastic photographic references of the real gnomes Charlie had made.

I also utilized the wonderful digital archive of photos from The Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa Oklahoma to learn about what Charlie’s home in the woods looked like. 

As an illustrator, what I am looking for mainly is photographic reference. Charlie’s life luckily overlapped the invention of the camera and his family was fond of taking many photographs. What I found most interesting in my research was the lifestyles of the Salish, Kootenai and Pend d’Oreilles tribes that live in the park. The way these people lived off the land in a sustainable way, moving with the seasons to harvest food, and acting as stewards of the land was very inspiring. It was also incredibly sad because of the way they have been displaced and mistreated. This was not something that I was taught in school and it offered a whole new perspective about living in the West that I had not considered before in depth. 

What were some of the challenges you faced in illustrating this unique story, with it’s historical setting and characters, but fictional narrative? 

Consistency is the hardest part of illustrating a picture book. Making sure that the characters look the same from page to page, especially if they have different emotions or are placed in a different perspective, is quite tough. Since Charlie and Joe were actual people, I needed to make a simplified version that still looked like them and that I would be able to replicate over and over again. In addition, I needed to find ways to create an image that told the story without repeating it, or that added something more through emotion or atmosphere. There are some pages within this story where I feel like I accomplished that, and some where I feel like I could have pushed it further. I hope that works overall. I am still really new at this and am learning with every project how to do it better. 

The truly hardest part was painting all the TEN MILLION LEAVES! I have a tendency to over detail things, and it came back to haunt me when I needed to paint everything.  I use watercolor and gouache. I paint by building up layers in glazes and it felt like it took an eternity, even with all of the stylistic shortcuts I took, to finish this book. 

What topics does your book touch upon that would make it a perfect fit for the classroom?

Bull Head Lodge today

This book has some wonderful overlapping topics. Charlie Russell and Joe De Yong were great artists in their own right. There is also the history of Montana and Glacier National Park to consider. I highly recommend looking into the life and history of the Salish, Kootenai and Pend d’Oreilles tribes that live in the area. There is a fantastic museum in Polson, MT called The People’s Museum that would be a great resource to learn more about this topic. You could even use this book to discuss art, artistic process, inspiration and the concept of the artist’s muse. (This book has three of them!) 

Classroom Connections: Everywhere Blue by Joanne Rossmassler Fritz

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genre / form: contemporary verse novel
age range: 10 and up
Joanne Rossmassler Fritz’s website

An insightful exploration of a girl’s inner tickings. 
—Kirkus Reviews 

Maddie’s quiet courage shimmers like the flash of a butterfly’s wing.
—Caroline Starr Rose, author of May B.

A lyrical novel that makes you feel the chill in your bones but also gives you hope and beauty and lightness, like watching Maddie’s beloved butterflies open and soar.
—Kathryn Erskine, National Book Award–winning author of Mockingbird

Today’s post is a full-circle celebration story. Joanne and I have known each other for years from the blogging world. She read May B. when it released — the first verse novel she’d read that she loved so much, she wanted to try to write her own. Joanne began work on her own verse novel and a few years ago sent it to me to critique through my Writing One-to-One editing service. That book sold! It’s a beauty! I got to blurb it, too! Let’s celebrate EVERYWHERE BLUE!

Please tell us about your book.

Everywhere Blue is a novel in verse for middle grade readers, about a 12-year-old girl named Madrigal (nicknamed Maddie) who plays the oboe in her school orchestra, excels at math, and loves everything in its place. 

When Maddie’s older brother vanishes from his college campus, her carefully ordered world falls apart. Nothing will fill the void of her beloved oldest sibling. Drowning in grief and confusion, the family’s musical household falls silent. After her parents fly out to Strum’s college to search for answers, Maddie is left in the care of her sixteen-year-old sister, who seeks solace in rebellion and ignores Maddie. 

Though Maddie is the youngest, she knows Strum better than anyone. He used to confide in her, sharing his fears about the climate crisis and their planet’s future. So, Maddie starts looking for clues: Was Strum unhappy? Were the arguments with their dad getting worse? Or could his disappearance have something to do with those endangered butterflies he loved . . .

Scared and virtually on her own, Maddie picks up the pieces of her family’s fractured lives. Maybe her parents aren’t who she thought they were. Maybe her nervous thoughts and compulsive counting mean she needs help. And maybe finding Strum won’t solve everything–but she knows he’s out there, and she has to try.

What inspired you to write this story?

I played the oboe in school and grew up in a family who listened to classical music. We all played the piano too. I’ve also suffered from anxiety for most of my life (and didn’t seek help for it until I was in my mid-20s, which I don’t recommend doing! If you have issues, please seek help!). 

In 2014, my husband and I went to St. Maarten for a vacation and visited The Butterfly Farm. Seeing those blue morpho butterflies struck me. I never forgot them.

But the similarities end there. 

As I began to write the earliest version of this story in 2015, I realized I needed a conflict. A real-life missing person case inspired me, but to protect the family’s privacy, I’ve changed all the details. 

And of course, the climate crisis is all around us. 

In the end, many different subjects came together and fell into place to create EVERYWHERE BLUE. 

Could you share a few interesting tidbits you learned while researching?

Because it had been decades since I’d played the oboe, I decided to buy a used one on Ebay in 2016 and learn to play it all over again. That was fun, although I didn’t become very good at it. The first time I tried to play a note, no sound came out of the oboe at all! Eventually, I could play a wobbly version of the Duck’s Theme from Peter and the Wolf. Getting the feel of the keys and the reed again brought back a lot of memories, though, which was my goal. However, my second aneurysm rupture in Sept 2017, put a stop to that. I haven’t touched the oboe since.

And I thought I knew a great deal about the climate crisis, but I had to do quite a lot of research. One interesting tidbit I learned was about frozen methane hydrates (sort of like icy cages holding the methane) in the Arctic sea. When I first started researching methane hydrates in 2015, the prevailing theory claimed that warming Arctic seas would soon melt the methane hydrates, spewing methane into the atmosphere. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, worse than carbon dioxide! But by 2017, scientists had realized the frozen hydrates would need centuries of warming to melt and release the methane, not just a few decades. So I deleted any mention of that in the book.

What are some special challenges associated with writing a novel only in verse?

As you know, yourself, Caroline, when writing in verse, authors have many fewer words to work with! It can be a challenge to fit in enough characterization and description in only 25,000 words, instead of 50,000 or more that a prose MG novel might have. I worried that the reader wouldn’t get to know my characters very well, or be able to picture what was happening. The version accepted by Holiday House was 20,000 words and my editor worked with me to add 5000 more.

Another special challenge with this particular verse novel was the character of Strum, the older brother who vanishes. My editor, Sally Morgridge, encouraged me to write more flashback scenes, since the reader only gets to know Strum through the other characters’ memories of him. Her suggestions made the story richer and fuller. Siblings don’t always get along! And before Sally suggested it, I’d never thought of adding a few poems to show that Strum and Maddie didn’t always have a special bond, especially when Maddie was little. I hope Strum comes to life as much as the other characters do!

What topics does your book touch upon that would make it a perfect fit for the classroom?

Everywhere Blue explores several themes, including mental illness, family issues, and the climate crisis. 

Maddie’s growing awareness of the climate crisis would be a perfect jumping-off place for middle-school students who are learning about it themselves. What can kids themselves do to help our planet? This is addressed in Everywhere Blue. I also mention endangered species, rising seas, and the disparity between the wealthy countries that produce the most carbon and the poorer countries that suffer the most effects.

Classroom Connections: How to Wear a Sari by Darshana Khiani

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form / themes: contemporary picture book; growing up, South Asian culture
age range: 3-5 years
Darshana Khiani’s website
How to Wear a Sari book trailer

Simple, multi-patterned line art drawings in a lively color palette by Lew-Vriethoff pilot young readers through Khiani’s winning guide to sari-wearing…an enjoyable behind-the-scenes look at a South Asian staple.
—Publishers Weekly

A delightful picture book about dressing—and acting—like a grown-up before your time.
— Kirkus

An Amazon Editor’s Pick: Best Books for Ages 3-5

Please tell us about your book.

My debut picture book, HOW TO WEAR A SARI, comes out on June 22 from the Versify imprint at HMH Books. It’s illustrated by the talented Joanne Lew-Vriethoff.

In HOW TO WEAR A SARI, a spirited young Indian girl is tired of being seen as “little” by her family. She wants to show she can do things that older people can do. She decides the best way to do this is by teaching herself how to wear a sari. Naturally, there are some hiccups along the way, but what she discovers is that she’s not the only one in the family who has set out with something to prove, resulting in some funny moments.

What inspired you to write this story?

When I started writing picture books, I wanted to write books for third-generation South Asians like my two daughters. Books that centered their lives in this country. Books that had universal themes about growing up with a South Asian backdrop and a touch of humor. Books that aren’t focused on the differences between South Asian and non-South Asian culture, but rather have an unspoken acceptance – books of joy.

I love the elegance and sophistication of saris. However, I’m not the best at wearing them. It can take me upwards of 45 minutes to drape one on. And even then, I may still ask my mom or cousin to help fix my sari. I began wondering if it’s this hard for me, what would it be like for a young girl?

Could you share with readers how the book evolved?

The story went through eleven revisions over nearly a year. The story is told in 2nd POV with the narrator helping the young girl through the story. The first voice was a used car salesman which was too sleazy, then a grandmotherly voice which was too sweet. The voice I ended up using was an encouraging voice with a touch of mischievousness. The hardest aspect to nail down was the character motivation. Why did the girl want to wear a sari – to be noticed by her family, to prove that she could do older things, to look glamorous, to be like an older sibling? After eleven revisions, I finally got it which was to prove she wasn’t “too little” and could do anything she put her mind to. After my editor acquired the story, I made a small change where instead of the narrator saying to the girl “You’ll look like a star,” the story says “You’ll be a pro.” Because of that change, I feel it increased the character depth since the story is now emphasizing acquiring skills.

What are some special challenges associated with introducing a sari which your audience might be unfamiliar with?

A sari can be stylish, sophisticated, a symbol of womanhood in South Asian culture much like wearing high-heels or a long fancy gown is in Western culture. The challenge became how to express the glamour and difficulties of draping a sari in a succinct way that seamlessly fits into the story. I solved this by approaching it from the angle of the girl’s nervousness at wearing a sari. “Don’t be nervous. Sure, saris are long and unwieldy and worn by adults, but you can do it.”

What topics does your book touch upon that would make it a perfect fit for the classroom?

Children have so much learning to do when they are young, whether it is acquiring a new skill like riding a bike or wanting to imitate an older person, such as dressing up fancy or helping around the house. This story shows that it’s okay to strive to do older things with a touch of reality that things may not always work out. I also wanted children to know that everyone has those moments of trying and failing as shown by the family photo album in the ending.

Thank you so much for having me. 😊

Thank you for sharing your book with us, Darshana!