Etta Wilson

by Etta Wilson

Cynthia Rylant moves about the world of children's books at a rapid pace. Born in 1954, she has already written more than 60 books for children and young teens. You may know her as the author of her first book, When I Was Young in the Mountains, a Caldecott Honor Book published in 1982. She continued to call on her memories of childhood in West Virginia with more picture books, including another Caldecott Honor book, The Relatives Came. Rylant also writes poetry and easy readers remember the Henry and Mudge books and later Poppleton and Mr. Putter and Tabby? More recently, she has even begun illustrating her picture books with the strong, primitive pictures in Cat Heaven, Dog Heaven, and The Whales.

Her strong storytelling skills appeal to middle-graders and young teens in the novels she writes. Though they appear less frequently, they are memorable when they do. In 1986, A Fine White Dust was named a Newbery Honor Book, and in 1992 her Missing May was the Newbery Award winner.

In the newly released novel The Islander, she writes about the area where she now lives the Pacific Northwest. (Incidentally, Rylant painted the picture of the pelican on the cover.) The story is a sort of memoir told by Daniel Jennings, a young man looking back on his 20th birthday. Daniel, a boy of eight, lives alone with his grandfather on a sparsely populated island off the coast of British Columbia. A shy child, he nonetheless yearns for a larger world. The appearance of a mermaid's comb on the beach intrigues him, and he waits into the night, hoping to see the mermaid. When she appears, the comb vibrates and slips through the air until she catches it. Then she speaks Daniel's name before disappearing back into the sea. Soon after, an otter brings him a shell which he pries open to discover a small, very old key, and he knows the mermaid has sent it. From that moment on, he wears the key around his neck.

The remaining story turns on the key. Its vibrations at critical points lead Daniel to find wounded pelicans after a terrible storm hits the island and, the following winter, to rescue a little girl who had disappeared. Time passes until Daniel is 17. After his grandfather's sudden death, he discovers an old photograph of a young woman in his Bible. Written on the back was her name and the dates of her birth and death. She had only lived to be 17, and Daniel determines to unravel the mystery. What follows gives The Islander more excitement and the ring of authenticity. Daniel emerges at the end of the story with gifts from the sea that make him a wise and contented young man, one who has found the companionship he needed. Rylant's haunting story with its mix of reality and fable is one that stays with readers, whether they are middle-graders, young teens, or adults. Rylant's own young life in West Virginia may have been the source of inspiration for Daniel. She describes that stage of her life as being "graced with silence in those mountains, and the smell of flowers and pines, and space." That kind of childhood seems very near to Daniel's spent walking the beach and caring for animals. It has the sort of quiet solitude with nature that enriches a young person and may stimulate imagination later in life. It certainly did for Cynthia Rylant.

Children's & YA, Middle Grade

Children's & YA Middle Grade

Second stirring installment in Rowling’s saga of a young wizard

Review by Etta Wilson

by Etta Wilson

Let's face it. When it comes to fantasy for young readers, British authors have the edge. Think of P.L. Travers' Mary Poppins (1934); J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit (1937); C.S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (1950); Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964); even Brian Jacques's Redwall series, or Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series qualify. J.K. Rowling surely joined the ranks with the publication of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in 1998. Winner of too many top awards to list, this first novel is full of magic, humor, and action. Readers, both young and old, raved.

And, wonder of wonders, Rowling has done it again in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. This story is laced with even more characters than her first title. Readers will already know the Dursleys, Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore, and Harry's friends at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Ron and Hermione. Making a first appearance (or near-appearance in some cases) are Nearly Headless Nick, the ghost who didn't quite achieve a complete decapitation, and Moaning Myrtle, who haunts a stall in the girls' bathroom. Anyone in the book trade will recognize Gilderoy Lockhart, a new Hogwarts faculty member and an author more intent on fame than creativity. Rowling has a sure-to-please sense of names for people and places. But the droll word play is merely icing on a delicious plot. From the first chapter, when Harry is locked in his room during summer vacation by his priggish guardians, to his numerous adventures at Hogwarts, clues drop incidentally in the fast-paced story. Why does the house-elf Dobby warn Harry not to return to Hogwarts? Who killed Mrs. Norris, the caretaker's cat? Why would someone want to flush away the diary of a student from 50 years ago? Most important, how was the Chamber of Secrets opened, and what or who exists there?

Brave, wise, and innocent, Harry Potter is determined to find out. He faces evil and dangers reminiscent of those in Raiders of the Lost Ark. In the end, he learns that he was right to ask not to be a Slytherin even though he has the rare gift of Parseltongue. As Professor Dumbledore tells him, It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. Be sure to look for the third Harry Potter installment, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, this fall. I don't know how long or how fast Rowling can create more Harry Potter stories (she is planning on seven in all), but she will undoubtedly find a large audience waiting whenever they come.

Etta Wilson is a children's book enthusiast in Nashville, Tennessee.

YA, YA Fiction

YA Fiction YA

The magical Merlin strikes again

Review by Etta Wilson

by Etta Wilson

T.A. (Tom) Barron brings middle-grade readers more epic adventures of England’s great wizard in book three of The Lost Years of Merlin. Young Merlin, age 14 in this latest title, continues his quest for the Galator pendant once the possession of his grandfather Tuatha. The series has proven so popular that it is now projected to include five titles, and Barron seems to outdo himself with each new title.

The book opens as Merlin is putting the final string on his handmade psaltery and preparing to play it for the first time. Just as he strikes the first chord for his mother, the poet Cairpre, and his friend Rhia, he is attacked by a kreelix, one of the flying maggots that live by devouring the magic of others; the kreelix almost succeeds in killing young Merlin. The attack sets off a series of exciting events that readers have come to expect from Barron a narrow escape from a living stone; confrontation with the treacherous Urnalda, ruler of the dwarves, who insists that Merlin honor his promise to help fight the ancient evil dragon Valdearg; Merlin’s rescue by a brother and sister from the deer people, who give him power to be transformed into a deer and then swiftly lead him across the River Unceasing; a terrible whirlwind; and a final encounter with the Wheel of Wye, where he almost succeeds in regaining the Galator, and Valdearg. Like the travels of Ulysses and Dante’s Inferno, each event is filled with unearthly creatures, magical components, and terrible threats on every side. Yet it is Merlin’s practical knowledge of herbs and his compassion in saving Valdearg’s last surviving hatchling that result in Merlin’s own final escape. Magic is a tool, he declares near the end. But whether it’s ultimately good or evil well, that depends on the person who wields it.

Young readers with a taste for mythical adventures will devour Barron’s books, perhaps without realizing the strong undergirding they give to the courage, humility, and integrity Merlin displays. Perceptive readers will also notice the occasional interweaving of environmental and vegetarian causes. And everyone will want to know if and when Merlin ever possesses the Galator.

Etta Wilson is an author, editor, and cheerleader for children’s books.

T.A. (Tom) Barron brings middle-grade readers more epic adventures of England's great wizard in book three of The Lost Years of Merlin. Young Merlin, age 14 in this latest title, continues his quest for the Galator pendant once the possession of his grandfather Tuatha. The…

Children's & YA

Children's & YA

Mother-daughter duo’s books of dreams

Review by Etta Wilson

by Etta Wilson

A classic form of fantasy advancing high ideals is found in four books by author-illustrator Flavia and her daughter Lisa Weedn. Recently reissued after more than a decade, each of the books is told as a fable with animal characters who discover their own value and find hope and comfort. The California mother-daughter team has evolved a good bit since the books first appeared. Flavia Weedn has been writing and illustrating inspirational concepts in books, cards, stationery, and posters for more than 30 years. Now her daughter Lisa, who shares her mother's viewpoints on life, works with her in developing and writing the stories.

Based on folk tales from different cultures, each of the four stories tells a very human situation but has illustrations featuring animals. In The Elephant Prince, three young elephants vie for the heart of a rich princess. The test is scaling the glass mountain to the castle where she lives, and only the one who loves her for herself, not for her riches, makes it to the top. The Little Snow Bear features a lonely little bear who finally creates a friend for himself out of snow. They fly kites, read books, and watch the stars together until spring comes and melts the friend away. Lonely at first, the little bear discovers that in his heart, he remembered everything, and his memories help him make new friends.

The Star Gift emphasizes the rewards of kindness, and The Enchanted Tree teaches the lesson of self-esteem in a story within a story.

Falvia's rich colors are outlined with pen and ink. The illustrations completely cover the pages, yet are simply drawn and never overpower the stories.

These books are quiet-time reading for young children, best if their themes are matched with particular children who need the ideals they bring. Flavia and Lisa believe they are needed now more than ever when children are faced with adult concerns at younger and younger ages. A little hope goes a long way.

Etta Wilson is the children's book editor of BookPage.

Children's & YA

Children's & YA

Chris Raschka

Interview by Etta Wilson

by Etta Wilson

How do you go from working in a home for handicapped children to having a piece of your original art presented as an award to John Kennedy, Jr.? Why, you write and illustrate children's books, of course. At least that's the path Chris Raschka has followed, but it's been circuitous at best. He told me something of the path he's followed when we talked recently.

Raschka always thought he would be a biologist as he was growing up in Pennsylvania. Nonetheless, he spent a lot of time painting and playing musical instruments, eventually mastering the viola. After graduating from college, he was on his way to work for a summer at a crocodile farm in India when a sudden opportunity to work in a home for handicapped children in St. Croix diverted him. That experience, about eight years ago, changed his life in several ways. He and his wife began to exhibit their art in St. Croix, and he began to be curious about sardines a process that gave birth to his 13th picture book, Arlene Sardine, although the gestation period was a long one.

In the meantime, Raschka returned to the U.S. where he was scheduled to start graduate school at the University of Michigan. At the last minute he got a two-year deferment and took a job illustrating for the Michigan state bar association's publication. That led to doing political cartoons, and art carried the day at that point. He never returned to graduate school. He credits picture book artist Vladimir Radunsky with persuading him to move to New York to be nearer opportunities to illustrate children's books. However, Raschka didn't quite forsake music. His first title for Orchard was Charlie Parker Played Be Bop, published in 1992. Not only did it feature a great jazz musician, but the form and style of both text and illustrations suggest the loose inventiveness of jazz. Waddling birds, dancing lollipops, shoes with legs, and Charlie Parker and his saxophone go crazily across the pages to scat words in different kinds of type. Yet they repeat in unexpected ways and give the same pulsating beat as Parker's music in his recording of "A Night in Tunisia," which Raschka credits as the inspiration for the book.

In each succeeding year since '92, Raschka has published one or more picture books. His Yo! Yes? was a Caldecott Honor Book in 1993. With minimal words (maximum of two per page) and simple drawings of the same two boys, one black and one white, on each spread, he depicts the story of finding a new friend that makes readers want to jump up and yell YOW just as the boys do on the final page.

Raschka returned to a jazz theme again in Mysterious Thelonius, which Orchard published in 1997. Even more inventive than Charlie Parker Played Be Bop, it is, at first, pages of brightly colored squares on which the jazz musician Thelonius Monk plays his piano in wild contortions. After more consideration, the puzzle yields to show how Raschka has matched the 12 musical tones of the scale to the 12 values of the color wheel. It becomes a way to see music in color and, if you can read music, to play the words of a picture book.

I asked Raschka how he happened to think of the life story of a sardine for Arlene Sardine. He remembers its origin well. One day, as he was putting away an assortment of food donations from the United States, he was struck by the amazing journey of a can of sardines. It had come from the Sea of Japan to the U.S. and then to St. Croix. He began to wonder about the world travels of a fish and wrote to that sardine company and several others. His best information came from Norway, describing the process of how a brisling fish becomes a sardine. Later, the information resurfaced and became the basis for Arlene's story.

In semblance of a can, Arlene Sardine is designated on the cover as an "easy-open book" with "Net Wt. 12 oz." Inside it tells the story of how one little fish, in a school of thousands, dreamed of becoming a sardine. Smiling sublimely all the while, she is caught in a purse net, sorted, salted, canned, covered in oil, sealed in a can, and cooked. Arlene was a sardine. The semblance may be hard to swallow for an adult either that there are too many of us on the planet or that death is just a part of the life cycle but young readers will certainly like the interesting depiction of how sardines are made from little fish. Raschka hopes they will also see it as the fulfillment of Arlene's dream, a cause for celebration much as a birthday or the last day of school. He describes it as "the celebration not of an ending but of a moving on, a changing." If there's anything he knows well, it's change. Don't be surprised if you hear that he's off to Japan to personally follow the journey of Arlene. Who knows what other interesting and colorful stories he will find?

Inspirational Fiction

Inspirational Fiction

Frank Peretti

Interview by Etta Wilson

by Etta Wilson

The devil is really getting his due these days. With wide-screen exposure in the new Star Wars blockbuster The Phantom Menace, the confrontation between good and evil has reached fever pitch as we approach the millennium. In this atmosphere it’s altogether fitting that Frank Peretti’s new adult novel, The Visitation, should appear. The battle against the demonic has always been Peretti’s principal theme, starting with the publication of his first novel, This Present Darkness, in 1986. The book’s thrilling battles between angelic warriors and demons charted a new course in Christian fiction, but it took more than a year for readers to recognize that the spiritual battleground could be their own home town. In 1987 the book reached the top of the Christian bestseller list. Piercing the Darkness, published in 1989, spearheaded the strong interest in spiritual warfare fiction just as conservative Christians were beginning to read fiction in large numbers.

Now, with more than eight million novels in print, including The Oath (1995), Peretti is a bona fide publishing phenomenon. His intriguing stories convince readers of the reality of evil forces and their ultimate defeat.

In The Visitation, however, Peretti may be directing us down a different road. While he maintains his vintage trademarks of fast action and multiple scene changes, signs of a more thoughtful maturity appear in this new novel.

The book chronicles events in the small town of Antioch, Washington, which convince many people that Jesus has reappeared. A custodian and member of the local Catholic church is healed of arthritic pain in his hands by tears from a statue of Christ. A wounded Vietnam veteran, who has operated his hardware store from a wheelchair for years, is suddenly able to walk. A motel owner with faulty vision can now see clearly without glasses. "A wildfire had begun in Antioch," and each flame is linked to a newcomer — a young man with olive skin and long hair. It must be that Jesus has returned.

Into this ever-increasing turmoil, Peretti casts his principal character, Travis Jordan, the former pastor of a Pentecostal mission church. After 15 years in this vocation ("15 years, 93 souls saved, 23 weddings, 14 funerals, a small retirement account, and no real estate"), Travis is suffering a bad case of burnout. He has resigned from the church with a variety of physical and emotional ills and plays the uncaring skeptic, especially with the young enthusiastic pastor who has succeeded him at the church. Travis’s story, told in first person, becomes the main thread throughout the book. As he encounters Brandon Nichols (the Jesus figure) and Antioch’s growing frenzy of response, he recalls the ups and downs of his life as a pastor.

"I’m not writing about spiritual warfare here," Peretti explains. "This book is more the story of a crisis of faith. It deals with the deeper unspoken things that most Christians face at one time or another and points back to the heart of the reader, rather than being a battle out there somewhere."

For The Visitation, Peretti used his personal experience in the ministry. He points out that he grew up in a church culture. In his youth he even assisted his father in pastoring a small church. This book is more autobiographical than his earlier novels and includes "eclectic, gathered things from my own life."

The intriguing heart of this book is that both Travis Jordan and the young man portraying himself as Jesus are wrestling with the same problem: "Religious life can swallow us up. It’s the same thing but to different degrees," in Peretti’s words. In the end the responses of the two characters take absolutely different turns, but not until Travis stirs from his apathy toward the church and fully investigates his antagonist’s past. The horrors he finds suggest what is to come in Antioch at the book’s end.

That conclusion, and Peretti’s bent for the supernatural in all his writing, led me to ask how he would compare his novels with those of Stephen King. "Well, I’m not as wordy, for one thing," and you can hear the smile in Peretti’s voice. "At the root of it is King’s fascination with character and detail. He gets inside people . . . but he never passes up an opportunity to portray Christians in a negative way. In my writing, I present angels and forces of good as well as the demonic. There is great spiritual conflict, but there are solutions to spiritual problems."

Peretti is a quiet man who wears his fame well. He lives a simple life that includes carpentry, sculpturing, bicycling, hiking, and banjo making. In his early years, he played banjo with a bluegrass group and toured with a pop band. An avid pilot, he often flies his Cessna 182 to gather details for his books. These incidental details give the supernatural elements more impact. "I find out whatever I need to," Peretti says.

He also has a gift for naming his characters, which he developed early in his writing. The name Travis Jordan may remind some readers of the Jordan River and of biblical meaning; a woman named Florence Lynch is mean-spirited, as her name suggests; Justin Cantwell is full of deception; and Morgan Elliott is a female pastor with a man’s name in a role usually associated with males. Upon reflection, such names seem to suggest the personalities, and they add to the story’s impact.

From his mid-life perspective, Peretti feels Christian discernment has a lot to do with maturity. "This book is a fly-on-the-wall observation of growth as a Christian. Through all his ups and downs, Travis’s relationship to the Lord remained the same. Jesus is the constant. He will still be there, no matter what happens. I want this book to be one that helps people sort out the difference between relationship and religion."

Asked about his future writing plans, Peretti said it’s back to children’s books. The author of eight titles in the Cooper Kids series, he plans now to develop a series with different characters. First, he will be touring across the country to promote The Visitation.

Children's & YA, Middle Grade

Children's & YA Middle Grade

Gary Soto

Interview by Etta Wilson

by Etta Wilson

Great stories are about the human situation first and any particular ethnic group second. The story collections and picture books created by Gary Soto are clearly set in Mexican-American communities, yet their universal themes speak to every adolescent. Soto, a Chicano ("That's what I am"), is quick to say that he feels a certain obligation to that ethnic group, but he's no cheerleader.

Born and raised in Fresno, California, Soto decided while in college that he would be a poet. He began writing poetry for adults and received much recognition for his work. In 1990, his first two books for juveniles, one of poetry and one of short stories, were published to wide acclaim, with Baseball in April and Other Stories, named as an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. Now 45, Soto's stream of creativity is still flourishing as he continues to write novels, plays, essays, and poetry for adults and young readers.

His newest title, Petty Crimes, is a collection of ten stories about kids in the middle-grade years who are dealing with contemporary issues on their own — resisting bullies, petty thievery, a grandfather in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, a girl trying to buy back her dead mother's clothes.

"La Guera," the first story in the collection, begins with Priscilla in kindergarten, where all the children hold hands and sing of rainbows, unicorns, lakes, and sheep. But by sixth grade, Priscilla has become La Guera. She teases her hair, wears mascara, and steals constantly, especially candy and cake. Desperate to find a solution, her mother sends her for a summer visit with her aunt and two cousins, but it's too late for change. At the end of the story, we find La Guera back in the city in a vicious street fight with another girl.

Not a pretty story! Although touches of humor dot the landscape of several of these stories, most are depressing with occasional violent outbursts. When I asked Soto what he was trying to say in these harsh scenes, he replied, "Petty Crimes is about youth not using their minds or their bodies very well. And it is about the development of character." He went on to discuss a recent incident in California where a child tried to shoot his principal. Disturbingly, this type of violence in schools is becoming a nationwide trend.

A daily observer of the Mexican-American community, Soto wants to make clear that his stories are not based on actual events. "Although the experiences in my stories, poems, and novels may seem autobiographical, much of what I write is the stuff of imagination."

He writes in short sentences, using lots of dialogue and giving readers a vivid sense of reality with his deft use of imaginary detail. That detail includes several noticeable Soto trademarks. One of them is the frequent mention of food throughout the stories — everything from pork rinds and animal crackers to Mars bars and barbecue potato chips.

"There may be something to that," Soto replied when I asked about all the food references, "but I don't do it on purpose. Someone else mentioned a lot of references to body shape. I think it's just that I see the images of what I write so clearly."

That may also be the reason Soto includes so many Spanish and Mexican words in his stories. He grew up in a blighted area of south Fresno, and "these are the pictures I take with me when I write. They stir the past, the memories that are so vivid." Soto has a big following of Mexican-American readers. "All the Chicanos read my books," he says. A number of Soto's books include glossaries to define the Spanish words and phrases he uses so naturally in all his writing, even in his picture books.

In Big, Bushy Mustache, Ricky doesn't like being told that he looks like his mother. When his teacher brings out the costumes for a class play about Cinco de Mayo, Ricky isn't interested in any of them until she holds up a mustache. He loves wearing it; it looks like his papa's. Against his teacher's instructions, Ricky takes the mustache home only to lose it on the way. None of his attempts at making another one works, and finally, in tears, he tells his father he has lost mi bigote. The next morning Papa has the perfect solution, and Ricky goes to school with a mustache in his pocket.

Another picture book by Soto, Snapshots from the Wedding, is told from a little girl's point of view. Maya was a flower girl in an elegant Hispanic family wedding, and her special memories of the event are depicted in Stephanie Garcia's terrific clay figure illustrations.

Soto's picture books are much happier than his middle-grade titles, but touches of humor lighten those as well. In "If the Shoe Fits," one of the stories in Petty Crimes, Manuel is preparing to go to his first boy/girl party. "He got dressed, splashing his face and throat with three different kinds of cologne. He brushed his teeth until they hurt and combed his hair four different ways" — only to discover he had outgrown his dress shoes!

Soto's current passion seems to be writing plays. "It's not unusual for contemporary writers to try their hands at two or three different genres," he says almost apologetically. "I wish I could offer a brilliant thesis for my interest in so many forms, . . . but at the moment I'm still mulling over my intentions."