What inspires your authorship for young readers?
I am always inspired by heroism, so the subjects I choose to write about generally involve some sort of brave hero saving the day, especially unsung heroes that kids might not hear about unless I write about them. But when my writing journey began (back in the days of dial-up internet!), I thought about what types of stories I wanted my children to read and kept going back to the books I loved as a child. These authors still inspire my writing today—authors like Frances Hodson Burnett who wrote The Secret Garden, Rumer Godden, who wrote my favorite childhood book The Fairy Doll, and Maud Hart Lovelace who wrote the Betsy, Tacy, and Tib books. I write narrative non-fiction picture books, but they do have a lyrical lilt to them that I think I got from growing up on a steady diet of fairy stories and old-fashioned tales from the past.
Please tell us about The Greatest Song of All (and any other future titles you’d like to mention).
I started working on The Greatest Song of All after I came upon this photo of actor and dancer Valerie Harper leaping across Broadway. I thought, I wonder what drew ballet dancers and musicians and fans of all types of music to picket in the middle of the busiest New York City street with cars honking and exhaust spewing all over the place? This sounds interesting! And it was a very compelling story, start to finish—with underlying themes of unity, activism, persistence and perseverance. It’s also about the joy of performing beautiful music in a grand concert hall. It’s Isaac Stern’s story, and at the same time, it’s Carnegie Hall’s story. I initially considered personifying the hall so that its distinctive personality could shine through to kids. But that made the story feel a bit too trite. It’s actually a serious topic. We have lost so many beautiful buildings over the years, architecture that deserved a historic landmark distinction to preserve it. Not every beautiful building has the backing of a Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (who helped save Grand Central Station) or an Isaac Stern. My next book is about Grand Central Station and its designer, William J. Wilgus, and after that I have a book coming out about Dr. Katalin Kariko, who spent more than thirty years researching and creating the mRNA technology that was the basis for the Covid-19 vaccine. The hero stories continue!
What message/s do you hope to share through your work?
My goal is to give children compelling, engaging stories that will draw them in so they can experience the joy of reading. And I hope to teach them about the heroes of the past. But a secondary goal is to wrap my stories in beautiful language so that children will be surrounded with inspiring, magical, lyrical text that helps them see, hear, taste, touch, and understand what happened in history. I want them to not just read the facts about an event but to actually feel what the characters are experiencing and to connect with them on an emotional level.
I also want children to know they are not alone, that their struggles are not theirs alone. There were other people who struggled with similar problems and pushed through and succeeded despite setbacks, roadblocks, and challenges.
Any message you’d like to share with young creators?
Don’t give up! It took me more than ten years of writing, crumpling the pages and tossing them, rewriting, revising, and almost quitting before I sold my first book. You have to have the perseverance of Isaac Stern to push forward when all seems lost, but do it! Keep working on your craft, and you will find your way!
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