Annemarie O'Brien

Q & A with Pamela S. Turner: Hachiko

Let’s welcome Pamela S. Turner today at Dog Reads!

AOB: What is the title of your book? Pub date and publisher?

Hachiko: The True Story of a Loyal Dog. 2004, Houghton Mifflin. It’s a picture book for children. I think it’s most appropriate for the upper age of picture books—age 6 to 10.

AOB: Who is your key dog character and what kind of dog is he/she? Tell us a little more about him/her.

*Hachiko was a Japanese Akita who lived in Tokyo in the 1920s and 1930s.

AOB: In 70 words or less, provide a succinct plot description of your story.

*Hachiko accompanied his master, Dr. Ueno, to the Shibuya train station every working day and always met his master’s evening train. One day Dr. Ueno had a heart attack and passed away at work. He never returned to the train station. Hachiko continued to meet the train every night for the rest of his life. He died still waiting at Shibuya Station—and by that time he was famous all over Japan.

AOB: Starred reviews or blurbs you wish to share:

*”This beautifully crafted picture book pays tribute to one of the world’s lesser-known animal heroes: Hachiko…Turner unfolds this poignant true story in the natural, unaffected voice of Kentaro, a fictional little boy, who wonders at the dog’s unswerving devotion. Unobtrusive details evoke a sense of place (“ladies in kimonos walked carefully, trying to keep their white tabi socks away from the grime of the streets”), as does Nascimbene’s spare line-and-watercolor artwork, reminiscent of Japanese woodblock prints…this will resonate with any child who has loved a dog and been loved in return.”

–Booklist starred review

AOB: What inspired you to write this story?

*I was living in Tokyo near Shibuya Station and saw the statue, which is inscribed “Loyal Dog Hachiko” in Japanese. Shibuya is now enormous—hundreds of thousands of commuters pass through every day—and if you need to meet someone there you always meet at the Hachiko statue. I asked some of my Japanese friends what the story was behind the statue. I thought Hachiko’s story was heartbreaking and inspiring and wanted to bring it to the English-speaking world.

AOB: What was the biggest challenge you had writing your story? How did you overcome it?

*The biggest challenge was finding the right tone—I didn’t want anything overly sentimental or maudlin. I decided the right approach would be to tell it in the voice of an older Japanese man who might be telling the story to his grandchildren. That meant a certain amount of culturally-appropriate restraint in the voice.

AOB: What other YA/MG books have you written? Do any of them feature a key dog character? If so, which ones? AOB: What are these stories about?

*Aside from Hachiko, I’ve written mostly science and nature books for middle-graders. My books include Gorilla Doctors: Saving Endangered Great Apes (the story of the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project), Life on Earth—and Beyond: An Astrobiologist’s Quest (about looking for life in extreme environments), A Life in the Wild: George Schaller’s Struggle to Save the Last Great Beasts (a biography of the most important field biologist of the 20^th century), The Frog Scientist (the story of Dr. Tyrone Hayes’s investigations of the link between amphibian decline and pesticide use), Project Seahorse (the story of coral reef conservation in the Philippines), and Prowling the Seas (high-tech tagging of leatherback sea turtles, bluefin tuna, white sharks, and seabirds).

AOB: What kind of story can we expect next from you? Is it about a dog? If so, what is it about?

*My new book The Dolphins of Shark Bay is coming out later this year. It’s about a wild bottlenose dolphin research project in Western Australia and how their discoveries are helping us understand why dolphins are so intelligent. Some of the dolphins in Shark Bay use tools. How amazing is that?

AOB: What else would you like us to know about you or your story?

*One of the interesting things about the Hachiko story is how well it fits into the Japanese tradition of the samurai retainer, who is loyal unto death. At the same time, the Hachiko story appeals to anyone who has experienced a dog’s unconditional love. Any culture with pet dogs can appreciate it.

AOB: Can you remember the first book that made an impact on you? And why?

*The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis. I loved horses and picked this up because of the title. The Chronicles of Narnia are still my favorite books.

Hachiko is such a compelling story it was made into a movie. To view the movie trailer, click here.

Thank you for joining us at Dog Reads, Pamela S. Turner! To learn more about Pamela and her books, check out her website.

Posted in Akita,Pamela S. Turner | No Comments

Q & A with Holly Thompson: THE LANGUAGE INSIDE

Let’s welcome Holly Thompson to World Reads!

What is the title of your book? The pub date and publisher?

* The Language Inside (May 14, Delacorte/Random House)

Where is it set?

* Japan and Massachusetts

In 70 words or less, provide a succinct plot description of your story.

Emma Karas was raised in Japan; it’s the country she calls home. But when her mother is diagnosed with breast cancer, Emma’s family moves to a town outside Lowell, Massachusetts to stay with her grandmother while her mom undergoes treatment. Emma feels out of place in the United States, begins to have migraines, and longs to be back in Japan. At her grandmother’s urging, she volunteers in a long-term care center to help Zena, a patient with locked-in syndrome, write down her poems. There, Emma meets Samnang, another volunteer, who assists elderly Cambodian refugees. Weekly visits to the care center, Zena’s poems, dance, and noodle soup bring Emma and Samnang closer, until Emma must make a painful choice: stay in Massachusetts, or return early to Japan.The Language Inside is a verse novel rich in language both spoken and unspoken and poetry that crosses boundaries to create a story layered with love, loss, movement and words.

Links to starred reviews.

How are you connected to the setting of your story?

* I was born and raised in Massachusetts, and I’ve lived in Japan for over 17 years.

What inspired you to write this story?

* Inspiration came from transcribing poems for patients at Goldwater Hospital when I was a graduate student at NYU; the immigrant communities of Lowell, MA; and volunteer work in Tohoku after the 2011 tsunami.

What was the biggest challenge you had writing your story? How did you overcome it?

* Researching and learning about the whole of my character Samnang and his heritage, far beyond what appears in the book, was certainly my biggest challenge. Although I live in Japan, I was lucky to be able to spend time in Lowell, MA, and in Cambodia during key phases of my research, and most importantly to be guided and advised by members of the Lowell Cambodian-American community.

What kind of story can we expect next from you? Is it set outside of the United States? If so, where? And what is it about?

* The middle-grade novel I just finished is set in Japan and I’ll soon be at work on my next YA book set in Japan and the U.S.

What else would you like us to know about you or your story?

* The Language Inside is a verse novel that explores language both spoken and unspoken and features poetry that crosses boundaries. The story takes readers from Japan to the Cambodian-American community of Lowell, Massachusetts, and to the world of a woman who can only communicate through eye movement. It is a story layered with love, loss, movement and words, and I hope that readers enjoy it.

Can you remember the first book that made an impact on you? And why?

* A Wrinkle in Time. At age 12 I was a slow reader and easily discouraged by a slow-moving novel. This book excited me; I was immediately hooked and glad to have a female main character.

Where can readers go to learn more information?

* For information about The Language Inside, Orchards and my other works of fiction and poetry, as well as various interviews, reader’s guides, news and speaking info.

Thank you for joining us today, Holly Thompson!

Posted in Holly Thompson,Japan | No Comments

Q & A with Marion Dane Bauer: RUNT

Let’s welcome Marion Dane Bauer to Dog Reads today! RUNT is written for the very young reader. When I first started the MFA program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, everyone there raved at how well written RUNT was, as well as what a good story it was. I must admit that I was a bit skeptical because at that time I was mostly reading young adult novels. Well was I wrong to have even an ounce of doubt! RUNT pulled me in from the very first page and kept me there until the last period. It isn’t often that I reread a book multiple times, but I read RUNT many, many times and studied its plot structure. Wow! Did I learn a lot about plot in RUNT. It is so well structured that I use it in the writing courses I teach at UC Berkeley and Stanford. RUNT has been one of my favorite teachers and it’s no wonder. If you have ever heard Marion speak, she is logical in her thought process, as well as how she communicates her thinking. If you haven’t read this book for pleasure or with a critical eye, you are missing out.

AOB: What is the title of your book? Pub date and publisher? Genre? Targeted age group? Illustrator?

Runt, 2002, Clarion Books, fourth through sixth grades, no illustrations

AOB: Who is your key dog character and what kind of dog is he/she? Tell us a little more about him/her.

Runt, not a dog but a wolf pup. He is the runt of the litter and named as such by his father. He spends his early days trying, and mostly failing, to win his father’s approval.

AOB: In 70 words or less, provide a succinct plot description of your story.

Runt is born, the last and smallest of his litter, in the forests of Minnesota. He struggles to learn the ways of the wild alongside his brothers and sisters, but often makes mistakes, many of them serious. Feeling the displeasure of the other wolves, he withdraws more and more. This is a story of the way he comes to find his place in the pack.

Starred reviews:

Publishers Weekly described the book as a “tightly plotted, swiftly paced tale”, while the School Library Journal called it “[b]eautifully written”. In a starred review, Booklist said it was a “compelling, poignant story” and that “Bauer precisely and vividly conveys the wolves’ wild world”.^[

AOB: What inspired you to write this story?

I remembered my own love of animal stories as a child, especially Felix Salten’s fine books such as Bambi. I remember reading his books with such intensity that, when I got to the last page, I almost cried because there was no more. And I wanted to recreate something of that experience for my readers. So I decided to work as he does, putting the animals in their natural setting, having them behave as they would in that setting, but, for the sake of developing the story, giving them speech. I think this choice was the right one for this story, but later, when I considered writing a sequel and returned to my wolf research to prepare myself, I grew so fascinated by–and respectful of–the complex ways wolves really communicate with one another without human speech that I found I didn’t want to return to writing the same way. I also felt respectful of what I had created the first time and didn’t want to take the risk of following it with a lesser effort.

AOB: What was the biggest challenge you had writing your story? How did you overcome it?

First, learning deeply enough about wolves to present them living their own lives in a way that would be valid. Second, trying to figure out where to draw the line between an animal’s consciousness and that of my readers’. At times I found myself bogged down trying to describe the world through the eyes of someone who had no vocabulary for it, so something such as a fence could require endless description. Or should I simply give it its name?

AOB: What other YA/MG books have you written? Do any of them feature a key dog character? If so, which ones? AOB: What are these stories about?

I have written many YA/MG books, but the only other that features a dog is my recent verse novel, Little Dog, Lost. It’s about . . . well, the title says it.

AOB: What kind of story can we expect next from you? Is it about a dog? If so, what is it about?

Right now I am working on two novels. I’m just finishing another verse novella, a young one called Patches. (I’m looking for a better title.) Patches is a calico cat who leaves home one bright autumn morning when she chases a leaf whirling in the wind and has adventures. The other is a Y/A, Blue-Eyed Wolf. It is set in 1967-68 and deals with an 18-year-old boy who enlists and goes off to Vietnam, seen through the eyes of his 12-year-old sister, his 18-year-old girlfriend, and the mother of another boy who enlists with him. (Also through letters he writes home.) Another important theme is the destruction of the wolves in northern Minnesota. (The reason I’ve ended up working on two novels at once is that I broke my arm falling on winter ice and had to turn to dictating through Dragon for a while. I decided a verse novella was more conducive to dictation, so switched gears.)

AOB: What else would you like us to know about you or your story?

Just that I was once Annemarie’s teacher at Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA program, and I am an admirer of her upcoming book, Lara’s Gift.

AOB: Thank you, Marion. That is very kind of you to say.

Can you remember the first book that made an impact on you? And why?

There were so many it’s impossible to name one, but I’ve already mentioned the Felix Salten books. I grew up in a very rural world, at the edge of a woods at the edge of a small town, and the natural world and any stories I could find about the natural world played an important part in my psyche.

AOB: Where can readers go to find out more information about you and/or your books?

I have a website and can be found on Facebook. My blog, Just Thinking, comes out every Tuesday.

Thank you so much for joining us today at Dog Reads today, Marion Dane Bauer. You are beloved by many. I’m proud to be among this community and one of your biggest fans. Thank you for all that you taught me and for working so closely with me on my critical thesis. I wish you continued success in all that you do, as well as good health.

Big, big hugs to you, Marion.

Posted in Marion Dane Bauer,Wolf | No Comments

A Letter from Ann Martin, editor of BECAUSE OF SHOE: a collection of dog stories

Back to My Roots

Hi, readers!

Many years ago, just out of college and with one year of teaching experience, I landed my dream job in New York City as an editorial assistant for the children’s paperback division of a large publishing company. One of my first jobs was to write cover copy, which is a summary of the plot that goes on the back cover of a paperback. I was thrilled to work on children’s books, and over the next few years, at three different companies, I took on many tasks and assignments.

Eventually, I became a senior editor. I enjoyed everything about being an editor: working with authors, coming up with new ideas, reading manuscripts, and editing a book from start to finish.Early in my publishing career, I decided that I wanted to write children’s books myself. I began working on Bummer Summer, which became my first published work. Over the next few years, I finished two more books,Early in my publishing career, I decided that I wanted to write children’s books myself. I began working on Bummer Summer, which became my first published work. Over the next few years, I finished two more books, writing before I went to work and on the weekends. Finally I decided to leave my editorial job and become a free-lance writer. Working alone at home was very different from being in an office with my colleagues, but I knew it was the right choice for me. Long-time readers may know that it was at this time that Scholastic’s editorial director asked me to write a four-book series about a group of girls who baby-sat, and The Baby-sitters Club was born!

Many years and many books later, I was delighted when Doll People co-author Laura Godwin asked me if I would be interested in editing a collection of dog stories. Because Laura loves classic dog stories, she thought children would enjoy reading a contemporary collection from a diverse group of authors. I happily said yes. After so many years of writing, I thought it would be fun to work once again with other authors and their stories. An added bonus, of course, is that I love dogs!

My first task was to invite authors to contribute to the collection. Laura and I ended up with a wonderfully diverse and talented group: fellow Scholastic authors Pam Munoz Ryan, Mark Teague and Jon J Muth, along with authors Wendy Orr, Thacher Hurd, Valerie Hobbs, Margarita Engle, and Matt de la Pena. It was fun to work with all of these people; I’ve known Pam, Mark, and Jon for years, and it was great to get to know some of the others whose work I was familiar with but whom I had never met. The only instruction to the authors was to write a story about a dog. We didn’t give them any other direction; we wanted to see what the authors would come up with on their own.

My dog, Sadie, got involved with the project and wrote a forward for the book, in which she says, “Between the covers of this book, you’ll read about a boy who turns into a dog, a dog who brings a family together, a dog who lived a long time ago and was a companion to a very great artist in Paris, and about funny dogs, adventurous dogs, brave dogs, smart dogs, and dogs who perform rescues.” I couldn’t have said it better myself!

I was also writing a story for the collection, and after some thought, I recalled a day when Sadie wandered off and went missing for several hours. It was a scary time, although it ended well and she never ran off again. I decided to tell a similar story through the eyes of twelve-year-old Delilah, who is left in charge of her dog Picasso for the first time in her life.

In the end, I tried not to do too much editing of the other authors’ manuscripts. I made suggestions, but felt it was important that the authors tell their own stories in their own voices. I think this is what makes the collection, Because of Shoe (the title of Pam Munoz Ryan’s story), such an adventure for the reader!

As for me, taking a break from my writing to return to my editorial roots was a great experience. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it’s a challenge I look forward to taking on again.

Happy reading!

Love,

Ann

Thank you for joining us at Dog Reads, Ann Martin! To find other books by Ann, click here.

Posted in Ann Martin,Multiple Breeds | No Comments

Memoir: I AM NUJOOD, AGE 10 and DIVORCED with Delphine Minoui

The title catches your attention doesn’t it?

I found I AM NUJOOD, AGE 10 AND DIVORCED with the adult books in the book section of my local Target store and couldn’t help but pick up the book.

I opened it to the first page and started reading and knew I wanted to learn more about Nujood of Yemen, the brave little girl who was married off by her father at the age of nine to a man three times her age.

Nujood Ali is the first child bride in Yemen to win a divorce.

She is hailed by Hillary Clinton as “one of the greatest women I have ever seen.”
Nujood was also named a Glamour Woman of the Year in 2008.

Carolyn Jessop, author of Escape and Triumph, says it best, ” This book took my breath away. It broke my heart but put it back together again with a renewed hope in the staggering power of the human spirit.”