Life on the back porch. Life in the street.

Regular life feels somehow frivolous, undeserved, when friends in Boston have been recently locked inside their homes, waiting for the next round of firing, when we have all witnessed via television, bombs, explosions, shootouts, lives thrown into grief and chaos.

A blog about writing for kids almost feels like playing on the back porch when there's a fire on the street. But our lives are webs, I think, and in that web--along with the fear and sadness and mystery of a desire to maim--are the uplifting qualities of courage, caring, in real life and the buoying, courageous characters found in good books.


So along the journey to good books, to community ...

 In January, Lauren Stringer-- very talented author-illustrator of a new book called When Stravinsky Met Nijinsky-- tagged me for the blog-around-the-world tour called "The Next Big Thing." I quickly said, "oh of course I can do that"--send you a photo of my new book, and brief description and then a short time later, tag others and answer some questions about the book.

Then life intervened with its own here-and-there demands.But today I am "doing that," doing what I said I would do, writing about my new book, coming out in September--Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table (Readers to Eaters Books). It seems appropriate, even in this tumultuous time, to tell you about Will Allen, because he is a man committed to the goal of giving hungry people everywhere access to good food, to making our world community stronger, in the face of all who would tear it down.




Questions:

1. What is the title of your new book? Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table.

2. Where did the idea come from? I was interested in urban farming and when I read of Will Allen and his Milwaukee farm, I knew writing about an urban farmer was the best way to tell the story of an urban farm.

3. What genre does your book fall under? Picture book biography.

4. What actor would you choose to play the part of your character? Danny Glover would be perfect. Will Allen reminds me of Danny Glover.

5. What is a few-sentence synopsis?  When Will Allen was a boy he hated farm work and wanted a "white shirt" job. When he grew up he realized he loved growing things, built a city farm and taught neighbors to help grow good food. But that table wasn't big enough; he wanted to invite more to the table and has worked to build a world-sized table.

pots and buckets at Will Allen's Growing Power

growing on the ground at Growing Power

6. Who is publishing your book? The very committed Philip Lee of Readers to Eaters Books.

7. How long did it take to write the first draft? The first draft of this book took about five months, but there were several "pre-first" drafts in previous months while I homed in on my real subject.

8. What other books would you compare this story to in your genre?  Possibly The Boy Who Drew Birds: a biography of John James Audubon by Jacqueline Davies  (illustrated by the wonderful Melissa Sweet) because they are both biographies of people with one passion; in the gardening sense White House Kitchen Garden and How It Grew by Robbin Gourley, another story of growing good food.

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book? The actual life and deeds of Will Allen. Many people around the world go to bed each night with good food in their stomachs because of his work.

10. What else about the book might pique a reader's interest?  There's a lot of good stuff about red wiggler worms.

And now I am pleased to tag my friend and fellow-writer Jane Kurtz and her lively Anna, of Anna Was Here:

Anna knows she will be fine in her temporary move to Kansas.  After all, she gets
gold ribbons for always being prepared.  And it's her first chance to meet cousins
and aunts and great aunts where her grandma grew up.  The Great Plains has always
held huge challenges for people, though, and she finds herself in the middle of
disasters too big for any nine-year-old girl asking "Who's in charge here, anyway??"
 Anna discovers a lot about what we cling to when everything is out of control. 

More from Jane soon.

More here, soon, about writing, gardening, finding stories, telling stories. 

Ten days of intense focus on writing and story leave all of us who attend the Hamline MFA in writing for children and young adults residency with much to think about.

Recently, I have been remembering the wonderful presentation by Lauren Stringer (on the left in the photo) and Wendy Orr. They told us the stories behind the story of their new book--THE PRINCESS AND THE PANTHER (Beach Lane Books, July, 2010). I especially enjoyed hearing that Wendy first thought about writing a story of kids sleeping outside about twenty-five years ago. The idea evolved--a boy was dropped, maybesaved for another story, a cat was added. Sometimes it takes a while for us to realize where the story is. But if we love the story enough we stay with it. Wendy did love the story of a child being brave and sleeping outside. When the manuscript was bought Lauren came on the scene. Her "panther" was the crowning touch. This is a true collaborative effort and a lovely book.

THE CHIRU OF HIGH TIBET was not twenty five years a-borning but it certainly did evolve in the writing. Even with non-fiction, a writer chooses how to tell the story, where to begin, what must be included, what can be dropped to move the story along. (Some major cutting, from my original telling, was required so I did not keep readers too long in the "gorge of despair.") So much of writing is revising, especially for picture books. We don't have many words, so each word has to be just right, has to sound just right and carry just the right meaning. Much of my revision is about cutting. For example, here's a first-draft description of chiru wool:

Chiru wool is the finest and warmest in the world.
There's a rough outer layer and an undercoat.
The hairs on the chiru undercoat
are thinner than human hair and mean
chiru can survive at termperatures
so cold a potato would freeze in minutes.

That eventually became:

Chiru have special wool--the warmest and finest in the world--
called shahtoosh, king of wools.

In picture book texts, less is often more.

And this book, like THE PRINCESS AND HER PANTHER, was a true collaborative effort. Linda Wingerter has always been fascinated with Tibet. It shows in her wonderful illustrations, beautiful paintings that bring to the book the feeling of mystery that is so much a part of Tibet. Her book jacket illustration (from inside the book) is a visual summary of the story.