Author Interview: Shelley Moore Thomas, the StoryQueen

Image from Shelley's website. Used with permission.

I noticed Shelley Moore Thomas's books before I learned that she had a blog. I work part-time in a library, and one slow evening, I came across one of her Good Knight easy readers in the bookdrop. A few sentences caught my eye while I was inspecting the returned book, and I ended up reading the whole thing. With a cast of characters including the Good Knight and three dragons, Shelley creates hilarious stories, all told through read-aloud-ready prose.

But the best thing about Shelley's books is that--at my library, anyway--children love them. Her tales of the Good Knight are in and out all the time; once, I checked a Good Knight book out to a child only to see him ask his mom if he could go get one more Good Knight book.

Shelley, AKA the StoryQueen, is known for reading books aloud in royal regalia. (See tiara above.) She also writes books that do not feature the Good Knight. Recently, I asked Shelley a few questions about her middle grade novel that is set to be released in 2012, and what it's like to write for children:

Do you approach easy readers and picture books differently? What comes first: the format, or the story?


For me, I think the story always comes first. While I am writing a book, sometimes the book decides to be something different than I originally thought. I think format and story should be an integral part of each other, if that makes any sense. With the Good Knight series, it was my editor, Lucia Monfried, who suggested the easy reader format for the story that I had sent her. I had unintentionally included so many of the bits that make up a good easy reader, I just needed to adjust the lengths of some sentences and change out a few words. One of the coolest things is that Lucia really liked the rich and unusual word choices in some cases and they got to stay. I love that they let me keep "methinks" in an easy reader!

How closely do you work with the illustrators of your books?


Actually, not very closely at all! I do my part with the words and the artist does her (or his) part with the art. It is awesome to see it all come together. I have been pleased with all of my illustrators.

Would you let the dragons from your books spend a weekend vacationing in your home?


Um...pretty much I live with them.  All. The. Time.


I notice in your videos section that you mention that Take Care, Good Knight was inspired by a real life experience. Would you mind telling a quick version of the story?


Well, my daughter (Issy) had to care for the neighbors' garden while they were away and completely misunderstood the directions.  When I went to check on things (the day before the neighbors returned) almost everything was DEAD!  We spent the next 12 hours running to the nursery and replanting things.  Good times.

Image from Shelley's website.

Imagine that you’re stranded on a desert island that happens to have a castle. (Queens should’t be stranded without one of those.) You can have one type of food (Italian, Chinese, etc.) delivered to your castle door daily. Which type of food would you pick?


Mexican food.


You have a middle grade novel, The Seven Tales of Trinket, coming out in 2012. How has working on this project differed from composing your works for younger readers?


I knew I wanted to write something that was a little longer than a picture book.  I attempted a few things that didn't work out as well as I had hoped.  The truth was, I didn't quite have faith that I could write a chapterbook or novel.  I started writing The Seven Tales of Trinket several years ago (under a different, quite hideous title), but the computer crashed and I lost everything.  But it was okay, because I wasn't ready to write it.  Also, I had tried my hand at some longer picture books, folktale retellings, but  they are a very hard sell in picture book form (which is a shame because I LOVE to read them to kids!).  Finally, one Spring morning in 2009, I started writing Trinket's tale, which is kind of a story within seven stories.  I wrote a couple of pages a day, sometimes only getting to the top of the next page before my time ran out, but I was committed.  I was ready. The big difference between writing a picture book and a novel (for me anyway) is the revision stage.  Revising a picture book is a little more "obvious".  I mean, I can tell if something is working or not pretty easily and make the change. With a novel, every little thing I adjust affects everything else.


Why a knight and three dragons?


It started with the character of the Good Knight.  I wrote it as a mistake, meaning to write Good Night....but then it cracked me up.  So I had the Good Knight.  The dragons showed up most likely because I have three children--however, I did not notice at the time I wrote the first one how much it reflected my own life!  Really!

The newest Good Knight picture book.
Image from Shelley's website.

Name three books you’ve recently read and enjoyed or been inspired by.


Me . . . Jane by Patrick McDonnell, Chime by Frannie Billingsly and I am in the middle of Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes by Jonathan Auxier and loving it.


Do you find that writing children’s books can be challenging because it can be difficult to keep children’s attention? Or is such an idea false?


Hmm..I think children are very honest.  If they don't like something, or if they find it boring, they aren't going to fake it.  However, I find that kids really love a good story.  I think what is challenging about writing for children is using the right voice for the story.  When I started writing, I wasn't even sure if i was a "children's writer" but that was the most real, honest voice that came out in my writing.  I don't sit down to write for children necessarily, but I sit down to tell my tales.  I think the fact that my favorite books, still, are children's stories, really influences what I write.
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Thanks, Shelly! (I really enjoyed Chime, too.) To learn more about the Good Knight books, as well as Shelley's other projects, visit Shelley's website. And while you're at it, check out her blog, too. Or why not watch a video of Shelley reading Take Care, Good Knight, based on the dead plant story?

 

 

PS: Sorry about the spacing issues between questions--Blogger is being a diva today.

More exciting news of pie + picture book controversy + last-minute Christmas present DIY

First, two things about PIE, both via Cakespy:

1. Candy cane cream pie recipe at The Inky Kitchen. It looks beautiful and sounds delicious, but if I made it I'd probably take a shortcut and buy a premade oreo crust. I'd also probably use more cream cheese, and less heavy cream. But I guess it wouldn't be a cream pie anymore if I did that...

2. Lo and behold, a small pie shop chain called High 5 Pie exists, and is opening another location in Seattle. This is rather far away from my neck of the woods, but I remain optimistic about the spread of pie shops.

Second, have you heard about this book yet?

Image from The Gloucester Times

I heard about it at work this week. The basic plot includes a monkey and a donkey. The monkey has a book, and the donkey asks what it is. He wants to know if you can scroll up and down, access Wi-Fi or tweet with it. The monkey says, "No" each time, and at the end of the book the monkey says, "it's a book, jackass."  Take a look at the book trailer:

I think it's a cute and clever concept, but I can understand why some adults in Massachusetts are against allowing a literacy group to donate copies of It's a Book to first graders. Charity is a thornier issue than library access to the book--in the case of a library, it is a parent's right to bar their child from checking out It's a Book and/or make sure their child does not hear it during storytime. But not allowing a group of well-meaning people to donate it in schools? Hmm. That's a tougher one.

What do you think?

(Further info on It's a Book can be found here and here at NPR, where it is recommended and discussed in relation to the e-reader explosion, respectively.)

Third, I was having difficulties completing my mother's Christmas present until I saw this rice pillow project at Wise Craft. I wanted to surprise her with something small, because I asked her point-blank what she wanted for Christmas, and . . . well, she won't be too surprised, since that's what I got for her. (And I wasn't very secretive about it.)

Image from Wise Craft

My mom used to have a cherry-pit pillow that she heated in the microwave, and this is a similar thing. It also looks super easy and nicely cheap--since I have a bin of suitable fabric scraps, I only need to run to the grocery store to buy rice to make this.

I started wrapping Christmas presents tonight. I love making them look all pretty and seeing how cleverly I can disguise gifts with boxes, tissue paper, and wrapping paper. Enthusiasm doesn't make me good with wrapping paper, though. I still wrap presents as clumsily as I did when I was in elementary school. I like to think it makes my gifts look more endearing. (Endearing sounds better than sloppy.)

Here's a video from Jackson Pearce on how to wrap a gift correctly. I might pay closer attention to it next year.


Merry (Early) Christmas,