From running dogs in Alaska’s famous Iditarod to sailing around treacherous Cape Horn by himself to writing more than 190 books, author Gary Paulsen seems to have a passion for life like nobody else. In his new book, The Glass Café (or the Stripper and the State; How My Mother Started a War with the System That Made Us Kind of Rich and a Little Bit Famous), he takes his writing to a new extreme by capturing the unique voice of 12-year-old Tony.

A young boy Paulsen met while living in Hollywood, Tony is, of course, no ordinary kid. He is thoughtful, intelligent, incredibly artistic and the son of a stripper named Al (short for Alice). Even though Al dances for a living, she too is an intelligent, thoughtful person, with a sensibility Paulsen brings out in unsurpassed form. Through a series of misunderstandings, prejudices and comedic moments, he creates an entertaining yet true-to-life account of the struggles single parents often go through and the intense love, protectiveness and loyalty they have for their children.

Paulsen has written numerous books for young readers as well as adults. While he admits there is more adult writing he would like to do, he prefers to reach out to the younger crowd. "I think it’s artistically fruitless to write for adults. They’re locked into car payments and divorce, and not open to new ideas," he explains. "If you really want to write artistically, you have to write for the eighth or ninth grade. Adults just don’t have time to appreciate artistic, new things."

Paulsen has won several Newbery Awards (for such books as The Winter Room, Hatchet and Dogsong), and his titles continue to gain critical acclaim. Oddly enough, English was never one of his favorite subjects in school, and his decision to become a writer came about in a surprising way. "I had become an electronics engineer in the Army, and I was tracking satellites one night when I had an epiphany and realized I needed to be a writer," he recalls.

Even though he had never composed a single story, that night Paulsen walked off his engineering job to begin a career in writing. And the rest, as they say, is history. His many titles have ranged from adult westerns and mysteries to children’s picture books. But his favorites of the bunch are books for young readers that center on tales from his childhood, "all true stories," he says. Paulsen’s next grown-up adventure will be sailing his boat, an 1820s-design sailboat with no motor, around Cape Horn.

"Sailing the Cape is the maximum expression of sailing a boat," he says, "the same way the Iditarod is the maximum expression of running sled dogs." And the maximum expression of writing? "I’m going to write until I die," claims the author.

His trick is to approach the craft the same way he did dog running. "When you’re racing dogs you focus for 20 or so hours at a time, so that’s what I do for writing," says Paulsen. But one thing has changed where his working habits are concerned: instead of writing from the frigid north, he now works on his sailboat, which he navigates on his own for months at a time. "I set the steering vane and write for hours," says Paulsen. During one recent trip, he cranked out four books. "I write until I’m finished," he says, "then I fly back to do book tours."

Paulsen loves the inspiration that being on the open water, miles from land, brings him. "When a story works for me, the hair goes up on my neck," he says. "It doesn’t happen all the time, but when it does, it is elegance." Make no mistake about it: although he has run dogs through 1,200 miles of frozen tundra and although he sails through some of the most treacherous waters on earth, Paulsen’s true passion is writing.

"I am a writer who runs dogs and a writer who sails," he says. "To me, writing is everything. Everything else is just a place to write."

Heidi Henneman writes from San Francisco.

When I was about 12, Richard Peck scared the daylights out of me. His novel Are You In the House Alone?, the haunting story of a high-school girl who is raped by a boy she knows, a boy no one can believe would commit such a crime because he comes from a socially prominent family, gave me chills. “Good!” the author said during a recent interview. “It was supposed to!” Are You in the House Alone? is just one of the many books Peck has written about the hard lessons we learn while growing up. The winner of numerous awards, including the National Humanities Medal, Peck has produced more than 30 novels for young adults, as well as works of adult fiction, an autobiography and poetry. His new book, The River Between Us, is a fascinating examination of the way a family in a small Illinois town is affected by the dawning of the Civil War and by two mysterious women who arrive on a steamboat from New Orleans.

Peck says that reading about the mixed-race women of the time, known then as “quadroons,” inspired him to write the book. “[I learned that] quadroon women fled [their homes in the South] because if the South lost the war, they would lose all their status,” he says. “Those who were pale enough went north and vanished, those who looked Spanish went to California, and those who didn’t went to Mexico. I wondered what happened to them and I hugged myself with glee, thinking of all those northern families who said, 'My grandmother came from New Orleans’ without knowing why.” After doing two years of research for the novel, he set the story in a small town in his home state of Illinois. “That's a way real life can assist you,” he explains. “It gives you sets.” 

Peck taught school for 20 years before quitting to become an author. He’s determined to show young readers that, in order to find themselves, they must first separate themselves from their peers. “You can’t grow up in a group,” he says. “I grew up in a time in the 1950s where you could be a part-time conformist and get away with it. I was a frat boy and committed to it, yet I could get on the QE2 and study in England for a year. I’m not sure the peer group would allow that kind of mobility now.” Peck says he can’t even imagine writing without having been a teacher first. The denizens of junior high “kicked the living autobiography out of me they don’t want to hear it,” he explains. This drove him to figure out what young readers would accept and to write it for them.

“My goal with my next book is to write something that will cause the teacher to just break down and weep with laughter,” he says. “Comedy is a higher calling than realism or tragedy. It’s uphill work because kids don't always get it the young are not used to laughing unless it is at one another.” Peck asserts that writing for young adults is in fact more difficult than writing adult fiction, pointing out that “YA books are better crafted, because they can’t use pornography to hide weak writing. It’s harder to do. Plus, if you can’t say it in 200 pages, you probably shouldn’t say it at all.” Right now, Peck is nearly to the midpoint of his next book, The Teacher’s Funeral. Memories of visiting his grandparents on their farm, combined with his father’s memories of his own childhood, are informing his present work. “[The farm] was a whole different world of outdoor privies and wells, of horses and buggies and coal-oil lamps. I was lost in the romance and didn't notice how hard farm life was.” Now, he says, thoughts of these times are “fueling the end of my career. I’m going back to grandma’s house for the summer.”

Linda Castellitto is the creative director of BookSense.

Paula Danziger owes a slice of her success to a pizza party. Her popular books about Amber Brown were inspired by a phone conversation with her then seven-year-old niece, Carrie, who was obviously upset.

"She was a crazed person," Danziger remembers.
"Aunt, we're having a pizza party at school," Carrie told her.
"Calm down," Danziger said. "You've had pizza before. What's really going on?"
"It's a going-away party for my best friend, Danny," Carrie confessed.

The result of that exchange was Amber Brown Is Not a Crayon, about Amber and her very best friend Justin, who is about to move. The feisty, pigtailed heroine has taken on a life of her own ever since, and young readers can now find this title in paperback. The latest installment is Amber Brown Goes Fourth, in which Amber enters fourth grade and looks for a new best friend. Next month Amber Brown Wants Extra Credit will be published, and more of her adventures are in the works.

Danziger's niece, now 13, is sometimes embarrassed by her literary counterpart, especially her hair. Carrie notes that the Amber shown on the cover of the paperback editions "has split ends," and, frankly, "shouldn't be wearing those stupid pigtails in the fourth grade."

In response, Danziger may grant Amber a haircut in a future book. Unfortunately, the new do will be "a bad one," she adds. Of course, Amber has always been wise beyond her years. Danziger originally envisioned her story in picture book form, but during the revision process discovered that it needed an older voice. As a result, the novels are chapter books for beginning readers, an audience often neglected in the publishing world.

Even Danziger has a literary counterpart in the series in the form of Amber's pal and confidante, Aunt Pam. The second book, You Can't Eat Your Chicken Pox, Amber Brown took off after Danziger invited her niece to London and Carrie came down with—well, you guessed it.

Despite the many real-life details tucked into the fiction, there are important differences between Carrie and Amber. Carrie's parents remain happily married, while Amber's have divorced. What's more, Amber is an only child; Carrie has three brothers, who have given Danziger literary fuel for other books.

While much lies in store for Amber, Danziger has vowed never to write about her niece after she graduates from sixth grade. "It just gets too complicated after that," Danziger says. "It's already complicated enough. In the book I'm writing now, she's much angrier than I ever thought she would be."

In contrast, the author comes across as a warm woman overflowing with ideas and energy. She divides her time between New York City, Woodstock in upstate New York, and London. She takes time out from writing to host a monthly literary segment for a BBC children's show called Live and Kicking. (Her popularity is secure in Great Britain. She was nominated for the British Book Award for children, but native Ann Fine, of Mrs. Doubtfire fame, edged her out.)

Perhaps some of Amber's newfound anger is rooted in Danziger's childhood, which had its share of complications, described in the well-received 1974 book that launched her career, The Cat Ate My Gymsuit, about 13-year-old Marcy Lewis.

"[The book] is very much my growing up," she says. "At age 12, I was put on tranquilizers when I should have gotten help," she continues. "There was nothing major and awful, I just didn't feel [my family] was supportive and emotionally generous. My father was a very unhappy person, very sarcastic, and my mother is very nervous and worried about what people thought. They weren't monsters, but it wasn't a good childhood."

Danziger sums up the subject with one of her trademark quips: "I always say that the family would now be called dysfunctional; back then we were just Danzigers."

One of the things that's seen her through good times and bad is her sense of humor. She even names many of her characters after favorite comedians, such as Ernie Kovacs.

The origin of Amber Brown's name, however, is a joke between fellow writers. When author and illustrators Marc and Laurie Brown-the creators of a multitude of best-selling books about Arthur the Aardvark and his sister D.W.-were expecting a child, Danziger suggested that they name their baby Amber.

"Then everyone would call her Crayola Face," Danziger told them. Instead, the Browns named their daughter Eliza, and now she receives advance copies of the Amber Brown books for critique.

Before turning to writing, Danziger was a junior high school teacher. While her students provided plenty of raw material for the beginning writer, she strongly recommends that anyone interested in the craft take acting lessons, as she did, on the advice of a teacher.

"They're wonderful for anyone who wants to learn about characterization and motivation," she explains. "No matter what age you are, if you want something more than anything else, but can't have it, to me, that becomes a plot."

As for her own plots, she says, "I think my books talk about kids learning to like and respect themselves and each other. You can't write a message book; you just tell the best story you know how to tell."

An important mentor was poet John Ciardi, whose children Danziger babysat during her college years. After learning of their sitter's literary interests, Ciardi and his wife took Danziger to literary conferences.

"He taught me a lot about language," she remembers. He suggested that she analyze one poem by underlining the funny lines in red and the serious lines in blue. By the end of the poem, Ciardi said, you get purple.

"That's what I always write toward," Danziger says, "that mixture. I think that's why Amber Brown works: the books are funny and sad, and that's what people respond to."

Danziger's titles alone are often enough to catch the attention of adults and young readers alike. Take, for instance, Remember Me to Harold Square and its recent sequel set in London, Thames Doesn't Rhyme with James. Although written for an older audience than the Amber Brown books, they have the same witty humor and quick phrasing that appeal to kids today.

Of course, appealing to kids and appealing to their parents is not always the same thing. Danziger has noticed this at book signings for Can You Sue Your Parents for Malpractice? Some parents have told her they would never buy such a book for their child; others say they can't wait to get it in the hands of their son or daughter.

"You know [the latter] are probably pretty good parents," Danziger says, "because they've got a sense of humor and they're not afraid."

Alice Cary has interviewed many writers for this publication.

When she was a kid in North Baltimore County, Laura Amy Schlitz trained herself to sleep in a position that was similar to that of Mary Martin on the cover of the Peter Pan phonorecord: “one knee up and the other knee stretched behind me and my back arched.” She thought that if Peter popped into her window, he would think, “Oh, she’s asleep, but she definitely wants to go to Neverland.”

Considering this history, it makes sense that the author has written The Night Fairy, a middle-grade novel about a brave fairy named Flory—and the challenges she faces when a bat accidentally crunches off her wings.

In a phone interview with BookPage, Schlitz explained that fairy stories, which have a fairy as the main character, are different from fairy tales. And fairies are not frou-frou girly-girls (contrary to what you might think from coloring book pictures of fairy princesses).

“What’s enchanting about the fairy world is that it’s completely free,” Schlitz explained. “You never see a fairy with shoes on. Princesses wear shoes. Princesses wear corsets, but fairies wear loose clothes and they’re barefoot. They move and they dart and they spring. When I dreamed of fairies as a child that was part of what was so fascinating to me. Part of it was aesthetic; there was this beauty. And the other part was adventure. And I think it’s that aesthetic plus adventure quality about fairies that is so enticing.”

In The Night Fairy, those qualities are captured in Schlitz’s writing—which is wonderfully descriptive of Flory’s changing emotions and the creatures that surround her, including a praying mantis, a squirrel and a red-throated hummingbird in need of rescue. Thanks to illustrations by Angela Barrett, the book is a true work of art. Young readers will delight in discovering Flory’s miniature world, captured in vibrant greens and blues. As Schlitz says, the pictures bring a feeling to the story that is “luminous and exquisite.”

The garden where Flory lives is based on Schlitz’s own garden, and because Flory is a nocturnal fairy, Schlitz observed at night for research. “I turned off all the lights in the house and watched the garden get dark. I thought about what I could see, where the sky is lightest at dusk and what’s the last thing you can see as it gets darker and darker.” She noticed that white flowers would remain visible during the night, but after a certain point pink flowers would be gone. “It was interesting because I think in our culture we very seldom let our eyes completely dilate,” she said.

Besides writing and gardening, Schlitz has another passion: her work as Lower School librarian at The Park School of Baltimore, a position that gives her “an edge” when it comes to writing for children. Talking about her students, she said, “They both inspire and encourage me and I can try things out on them.”

This method certainly helped when Schlitz wrote Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village, the winner of the 2008 Newbery Medal. The book was originally conceived as monologues for students at The Park School, and now Schlitz said her kids “own the characters; they live in their skins.”

The Night Fairy was also inspired by students—specifically, little girls. “They wanted a book about a fairy,” she said. “I went to a bookstore because I thought we should have these books; we should have more books about fairies. But when I started looking for books about fairies, there were a number of them that had quite nice illustrations, but I didn’t find many where much was happening.”

While she was working on her manuscript, Schlitz read The Night Fairy out loud to a group of second graders, watching their faces to see interest, or squirming, and identifying “good parts” based on when she got excited about sharing certain scenes.

“My students are very avid listeners as well as avid readers. They love having a story told to them. As they say, ‘I like it when I make the pictures up in my head. I like to see the pictures in my head.’ And that’s exciting to me because they may think that what they like is the way I’m telling the story, but what they really like is the way they’re participating: the things that are happening inside their brains.”

Since winning the Newbery, Schlitz has cut back to working three days a week at The Park School, and now she teaches third through fifth graders: the perfect audience for The Night Fairy, Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!, and The Hero Schliemann: The Dreamer Who Dug Up Troy, her novel from 2006. But the author is also adept at writing for different age groups, as demonstrated by her picture book The Bearskinner or her young adult novel A Drowned Maiden’s Hair: A Melodrama.

Next up will be a Victorian gothic called Splendors and Glooms, which Schlitz calls “a bizarre little book” that will appeal to readers who loved A Drowned Maiden’s Tale, since both stories have “suspense and surprises and a little whistle of brimstone.” The title comes from Shelley’s elegy “Adonaïs” and stars a boy and a girl who personify “dingy splendor” and “decorative gloom.” Schlitz hasn’t yet signed a contract for the book, although she wants to finish it soon. “I’m hoping that I can finish the second draft and that someone will want to publish it,” she said.

If the rich characterization and lovely descriptions present in The Night Fairy are any indication, that shouldn’t be a problem.

When she began to write her eighth novel, Rita Williams-Garcia decided to try something different. “Every writer should get a little antsy once they get too familiar with the worlds they create—if that happens, you’re not working hard enough, and there’s not enough in it for you as a writer,” she says in an interview from her home in Queens, New York. “I have a very different background from the kids I tend to write about, so I thought, for a change, why not tap into the childhood I did have?”

And so she did, setting One Crazy Summer on the West Coast rather than in her usual locale of New York City. “My sister, brother and I were always amusing ourselves in the wide-open spaces of Seaside, California. I was determined to have the three girls in my story run around outside in California in the 1960s, too.”

Eleven-year-old Delphine and younger sisters Vonetta and Fern live in Brooklyn with their father, Papa, and grandmother, Big Ma. The adults decide to have the girls spend the summer of 1968 in Oakland, California, with their mother, Cecile, who left them after Fern was born. Big Ma has never forgiven her, but Papa prevails, and off they go.

The scenes depicting the girls at airports are just a few of the many moments in One Crazy Summer wherein the author’s gift for combining everyday settings with social commentary and wry wit make for memorable, but not heavy-handed, reading. Delphine rolls her eyes (and bites her tongue) when she and her sisters are stared at as if “on display at the Bronx Zoo,” and the girls engage in what Williams-Garcia calls “colored counting.” It’s an activity she and her siblings “did everywhere. It was a time when, in public places, you might not see a lot of African-American people. We’d count how many of us were there, how many words we got to say on TV.”

These small but telling moments are the ones that most interest Williams-Garcia. “Usually I don’t like to do ‘the race book’ because it’s not how people live,” she says. “Not to say racism doesn’t exist, but it’s not this moment-to-moment consciousness. I like to include the domestic, intimate things about race and identity that never really make it into books or media—you mainly get big or dramatic events of racism, violence or discrimination.”

Thus, when none other than the Black Panthers become part of the sisters’ everyday lives, there aren’t cinematic goings-on at every turn. Sure, the girls initially are anxious when Cecile sends them on all-day visits to the Panthers-run community center, where they have free breakfast and learn about the group’s political causes and views. And the political rally at book’s end certainly is exciting.

But in between, the children develop friendships and enjoy being part of something larger than themselves, even if they understand only some of what’s going on at the center. Cecile keeps a printing press for the Panthers in her kitchen, which she fiercely protects as her own space for working, thinking and writing her poetry.

Cecile and the other women in One Crazy Summer—smart, strong, often unrepentant—are in many ways like Williams-Garcia’s own late mother, whose influence was central to another change in approach for the author. Her previous work—including the 2009 National Book Award Finalist Jumped—“always seemed to mourn the loss of childhood,” she says. This time, “I decided to celebrate my experiences. My mother was the super-mother of all mothers; she made it clear there was only one woman in her house, and my sister and I did not qualify.”

With that in mind, she wanted to have a chasm between mother and children in One Crazy Summer. “I respect the difference between parent and child. Delphine and her sisters haven’t earned their mother’s story, and she hasn’t earned their forgiveness.”

Ultimately, what is attainable for Cecile and her children is a truce of sorts, one characterized by hope for mother and daughters, as well as the America they’re living in.

As for Williams-Garcia, herself the mother of two daughters, she’s hoping to challenge herself even more via her next book, a gaming novel: “I’m estrogen-ed out—it’s time for me to write about a boy.”

Linda M. Castellitto writes from North Carolina.

Opening a new novel by Polly Horvath is a bit like going on an adventure—on each page something new and unexpected unfolds. And that’s part of the reason Horvath is one of the literary stars in the universe of children’s literature. The author of the National Book Award-winning The Canning Season (2003), Horvath also received a Newbery Honor for Everything on a Waffle (2001), while The Trolls (1999) was a National Book Award finalist. Horvath’s books have often been chosen as Best Books of the Year and Editors’ Choices, along with several other honors.

Horvath makes her home on Vancouver Island in British Columbia with her husband and two daughters. While her creative process includes a daily writing schedule, along with long walks in the rainforest and on nearby beaches, the inspiration for her recent books about the Fielding family came to her in an unusual place: the bathtub.

“I was reading a Country Living magazine in the tub,” Horvath explains with a laugh, “and an article by the poet Mary Oliver sucked me in. It led me to read her poems and some of her essays in which she talks about being a poor poet. And so the character of Jane’s mother, Felicity [also a poor poet], took off before Jane did.”

Jane Fielding is the eldest daughter in a quirky family that includes sister Maya and two little brothers, Max and Hershel. Jane’s mother comes into strong focus in the first book, My One Hundred Adventures, set during Jane’s 12th summer at the family’s home on a beach in Massachusetts.

But it is Jane’s relationship with her recently acquired stepfather, Ned, which Horvath explores more fully in her new novel, Northward to the Moon. As Jane sees it, she and Ned “have our own subset built on the understanding of adventures and the lure of outlaw life.”

“Writing is kind of interesting,” muses the author, who doesn’t outline her award-winning books, but rather discovers the story along with her characters. “The character that surfaced in this book was Ned.”

As Northward to the Moon begins, the family has lived in Saskatchewan almost a year. But things are about to change. Ned has just been fired from his job teaching French at the local school. The reason? Well, he doesn’t speak French.

Ned has been a wanderer almost all his life. When he gets a call about a dying friend from his past, he proposes that the family travel across country to visit her. Jane is delighted by this turn of events. “Finally, I think, an adventure. Ned had promised me nothing but adventures when we got to Canada, but this is the first whiff I’ve caught of them.”

They set off on a journey that, after some twists and turns, eventually lands them on a ranch in Nevada, with Ned’s aging mother, Dorothy. And it is here that the real journeys actually begin.

Northward to the Moon is a story about families that sometimes work well—and sometimes don’t. It’s also a book that explores the challenges different generations face. At Dorothy’s Nevada ranch, Jane develops a crush on a ranch hand, and her little sister Maya forms a deep bond with her step-grandmother. Ned and his siblings, and Dorothy herself, must grapple with difficult life decisions after Dorothy suffers a broken hip in a riding accident.

When things come to a head at dinner one night, Dorothy bursts out, “I’ll admit I may have to move somewhere where someone will assist me . . . but I don’t have to put up with you all planning it behind my back like I’m senile. . . . Sometimes I wish I’d had gerbils instead when the mothering instinct came over me.”

“What mothering instinct?” whispers one of her daughters.

Horvath believes the family issues in Northward to the Moon will be very familiar to children today. “Especially as people are living a lot longer, dealing with aging grandparents is a part of children’s lives,” she says.

Will there be another book about Jane Fielding’s adventures? Horvath, who has been writing since she was eight, is definitely planning on it.

“I began wanting to do to nine books about a character, from childhood to 90s. The voice that came to me was that of a 91-year-old lady looking back on her life, and I’m intrigued by the idea of taking someone through a life.”

Based on the first two books about Jane Fielding, readers will have a lot to look forward to from this original and talented writer in the years ahead.

In the meantime, Horvath is embarking on her own adventures this spring: a national book tour to meet her readers in person.

Deborah Hopkinson’s latest book is The Humblebee Hunter, inspired by the life of Charles Darwin.

Most people are satisfied to come back from a vacation with a few souvenirs, perhaps a tan and some fond memories. Award-winning author Pam Muñoz Ryan, on the other hand, returned from a recent trip to Chile with the idea for her next book. “Inspiration for books arrives in different ways,” she says in an interview from her home in Southern California. “In this case, it was like a confluence of rivers.”

In preparation for her trip, Ryan had brushed up on the biography and writings of several Chilean authors, including Pablo Neruda, the beloved poet whose work she had read as early as high school. While in Neruda’s native country, she visited two of his childhood homes and became fascinated by tales of his early life. Then, shortly after her return home, she met author and illustrator Jon Muth, who told her a story about Neruda that became, in many ways, the centerpiece of her beautiful new novel The Dreamer, which centers on the childhood of the budding poet.

In the story, the painfully shy young Neruda (known as Neftalí) finds the courage to exchange small gifts with another young child, a stranger, through a hole in the fence that separates their properties. Neftalí receives a beloved toy sheep, and offers up a remarkable pine cone that had already sparked his own imagination. The encounter, and the human connection and imaginative power it conveys, highlight the themes of Neruda’s early life as well as his later writings.

Stories like these inspired Ryan’s own imagination and sent her to the library, where she read biographies about Neruda and also became reacquainted with his writings. “Living with the poetry day in and day out,” Ryan says, “I became particularly fascinated with the Book of Questions and I became intrigued with the idea of integrating questions into my own book.”

Ryan’s novel does incorporate many questions—“Is fire born of words? Or are words born of fire?”—that will rouse young readers’ own inquisitive natures. She hopes that these questions will “allow readers’ imaginations to extend the text beyond the page.” As she wrote the novel, she imagined a reader, a daydreamer or “closet poet,” who might be inspired to jot down his or her own verses and images in the margins of her book.

As is fitting for a novel that relies so heavily on visual details and concrete images, The Dreamer is generously, almost magically illustrated by award-winning artist Peter Sís, whose delicate, pointillist drawings help enhance Ryan’s dreamlike, magical realist world. For Ryan, working with Sís was a true collaboration, a dream come true in many ways: “I’ve been a huge fan of his work for many, many years,” she says. “I remember many years ago going to a museum in Chicago and never even imagining that he would illustrate something of mine one day.”

Ryan, who has published numerous picture books, points out that writing an illustrated novel is a fundamentally different process than writing a picture book for younger readers. “A picture book is a marriage of art and words,” she observes. “When you write a picture book, you write with a more limited palette. In the case of the novel, the words were written first and his illustrations just added a whole new dimension.” Each chapter of Ryan’s novel opens with a Sís triptych that illustrates images, objects and moods that will play key roles in the chapter to follow. Larger-scale drawings also vividly illuminate the fanciful wanderings of young Neftalí’s wholly original imagination, accompanied by lyrical passages of text: “I am poetry, lurking in dappled shadow. I am the confusion of root and gnarled branch. I am the symmetry of insect, leaf, and a bird’s outstretched wings,” Ryan writes.

Young readers—and, in many cases, their parents and teachers—who come to Neruda’s work through Ryan’s fictional portrayal may wants to read more of Neruda’s original poetry. Ryan recommends that young readers start with his Odes, especially his “Ode to a Bicycle” and “Ode to a Lizard,” and, of course, with the Book of Questions. Several of Neruda’s own poems, as well as information about collections of his poetry, are gathered at the back of Ryan’s novel.

Poetry, too often, can be seen by middle-grade readers as opaque, abstract, difficult. In The Dreamer, Ryan expertly utilizes Neruda’s own excitement about nature, his enthusiasm for language and his unbounded imagination to inspire young readers’ inner poets. By giving them her own “book of questions,” Ryan prompts children to consider their own answers, and by doing so, perhaps write the world, as Neruda does, through their own unique perspectives.

Norah Piehl is a writer and editor who lives near Boston.

The first book in The Books of Elsewhere series has a tall order to fill: publicity materials compare author Jacqueline West to Roald Dahl and Neil Gaiman. Luckily for readers, The Shadows does not disappoint. In her first book for young readers, West—who is also a poet—introduces a spooky, magical world that will captivate middle schoolers.

Olive Dunwoody, a shy and curious child, moves with her “dippy” mathematician parents into a Victorian mansion. Olive soon learns that they’re not alone in the dusty, antique-filled house. With talking cats as her guides, Olive discovers that she can travel through paintings on the walls, as long as she’s wearing a certain pair of glasses. But the paintings hold a dangerous, life-or-death secret, and it’s up to Olive to figure out the mystery.

In an interview with BookPage, West elaborates on why she likes writing for kids, her preferred type of superpower and what to expect in the second book of the series.

You have mentioned your interest in magic—talking cats, paintings as portals to another world. What sort of magical adventure would you like to go on; is there a power you’d like to have?
Back when I thought I might be a superhero when I grew up, I wanted to be a shape-shifter. Actually, I’d still like to be one. I know this is sort of like wishing for more wishes, because it’s one power that would come with all kinds of other powers: flying, breathing underwater, running at incredible speeds. But I’m greedy that way. I’d like to see the world from all different points of view, to experience life as a whole slew of people and animals and objects. Of course, this is the same reason I wanted to be a writer.

Do you believe that houses can really be haunted? Would you be delighted—or terrified—if you discovered your house was built on a graveyard (or came with a talking cat)?
Sadly, I’ve never had a personal experience with ghosts or haunted places. I’ve lived in several old houses and even in rooms where people had died, and I remember wishing that their ghosts would show up and keep me company and be my quirky roommates. But it never happened. That’s not to say it couldn’t happen . . .

The Books of Elsewhere: The Shadows is your first book for young readers, although you are an accomplished poet. Have you always wanted to write novels for kids?
When I started writing The Shadows, I was experimenting with all kinds of genres and forms—poetry, short fiction, scripts for a series of graphic novels (which no one ever needs to see), an adult novel (no one ever needs to see this, either)—and I’ll try to keep challenging myself this way. Focusing on writing for kids has been a huge pleasure, in part because I’m writing for my inner child rather than for my inner critic, but I know I’ll continue to write poetry, I’ve got drafts and notes for several middle grade and young adult books underway and maybe someday I’ll baffle myself by waking up with the plan for a three-act melodrama in my head.

Your book has been compared to works by Roald Dahl and Neil Gaiman, and there are scenes reminiscent of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. What are your favorite books for children? Do any authors inspire your writing?
As a child, I read A.A. Milne, Lewis Carroll, J.M. Barrie, Roald Dahl and Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes collections over and over so intently that I think they became part of my genetic makeup. I can still remember finishing Matilda for the first of many times. I was in the backseat of the family car, it was dark outside the windows and I felt as though my whole body was full of lit fireworks . . . It was that exhilarating. My favorite books for kids haven’t changed much—I still love Milne and Dahl and Shel Silverstein (I also deeply admire some writers who are currently working, like Gaiman and Rowling and Kate DiCamillo)—and I suppose it was the joy I got from reading these books that indirectly influenced me to write for kids myself.

The Shadows is filled with descriptions of paintings and antiques—do you have a particular interest in art? Did you do any research on art and architecture when writing the book?
This was drawn more from memory and imagination than from research. I’ve worked as an arts writer, and I’ve spent considerable time wandering in a happy daze through museums, so I had quite a lot of material stored up.

Throughout the book, Olive’s only companions are Morton, a boy from a painting, and three talking cats. Why does Olive have trouble making friends her own age, when she’s clearly funny and spunky?
The qualities that appeal to grown-ups aren’t necessarily the qualities that appeal to kids when making friends. Among kids, fitting in is generally more important than standing out, and even standing out in a good way can be a liability. Olive is shy and awkward, she has moved from place to place a lot and she’s the only child of parents who are more than a bit out of touch with the real world. She certainly hasn’t been prepared to fit in.

Although The Shadows is magical (and often creepy), it also includes themes that are timeless and very real: trusting others, taking chances, being lonely. Are there any lessons (or types of encouragement) you hope kids take from the book?
I certainly didn’t write this with any type of lesson in mind, but I suppose any book in which a child protagonist has to solve her own problems lets the reader learn from her mistakes and her growth. I hope kids will identify with Olive and that getting to know her might make them feel a bit less alone or misunderstood or out of place. Aside from that, I just hope kids will be entertained.

How many books to you intend to write in the Books of Elsewhere series? Can you give us a hint about Olive and Morton’s next adventure?
The total number of books is still up in the air at this point, but I’d estimate four or five volumes in total. Volume Two is already written, so I can tell you that the house has some more big secrets waiting to be revealed, including an object that begins to take over Olive’s life. Olive also makes a friend who isn’t from a painting or covered in fur, and someone else—someone Olive thought she knew—turns out to have been fooling everyone all along.  

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Twelve-year-old Lucy, the heroine of  Valerie Hobbs’ lyrical new novel for young readers, treasures her summer visits with Grams, an artist and “a hippie before hippies were invented.”

But this summer turns out to be different. For one thing, Lucy’s longed-for, precious time at the lake with her beloved grandmother is disrupted by a surprise visitor, one who’s not altogether welcome. And then there are the disturbing incidents: Grams forgetting the day of the week, a dish towel left too close to the burner, an ill-advised canoe trip in threatening weather.

As the days pass, Lucy wants to cling to the way things have always been. She doesn’t want Grams to change. Yet she can’t forget what her mother told her as she said goodbye: “This might be the last time, you know.”

The last summer. Lucy wants it to be the best.

The Last Best Days of Summer was inspired by a film on Alz-heimer’s disease, which prompted Hobbs to think about family members, like Lucy, who get left behind. This can be extremely painful for children, especially those being raised by their grandparents, or those who have close ties to a grandparent or relative.

Now a grandmother herself, Hobbs believes her own experience has helped her appreciate in a new way the special bond that can exist between grandparents and grandchildren. “I wanted to speak to that connection,” she says in an interview from her home in Santa Barbara, California.

In writing her latest novel, Hobbs also drew on her experiences with throwing pots, a skill Grams is teaching Lucy in their time together. “I did pottery for a couple of years. I got to the point where I could center a pot. It’s a really strange and profound feeling—a feeling of being centered on the Earth, and centered within yourself.”

The author of 12 novels for young readers and one for adults (Call It a Gift), Hobbs writes for both middle grade and young adult age groups. She says it’s really the story and characters that shape whether a book is for middle grade readers or an older audience.

“It really depends on what story hits me,” she notes. Though she adds with a laugh, “I think I got stuck at about age 14 so I can go either way.”

Hobbs, who likes to visit schools and talk with students, believes that writing can help young people find themselves. She works with young writers to enable them to recognize that their own lives and stories are important.

“I start out with a banner that reads, ‘Only You Can Tell Your Story.’ I want them to know that they have the power to write from their hearts and their experiences. To get those real stories out is important,” the author says.

Hobbs practices this in her own work. Her novels have sometimes drawn from her personal experiences, including the tragic death of a boyfriend when she was a teenager. But while she has found that writing some of her books has been challenging emotionally, others have turned out to be pure fun, especially her 2006 novel Sheep, about the adventures of a border collie.

Despite its bittersweet story, The Last Best Days of Summer is never dark. Instead, it seems infused with joy and an affirmation of family. Part of the reason may be that Hobbs, who lived in New Jersey before moving to California at the age of 15, has wonderful memories of her own summers as a golden, carefree time. “We were gone all day. We ran. We made forts. We only came home when we were hungry.”

Lucy’s summer with Grams may not be what she was expecting, but by the end it has been touched by love and a kind of magic. Lucy has come to feel that sense of being centered, in spite of the changes and emotions that envelop her.

“I hope kids get that,” says Hobbs, “that feeling of knowing who you are, and knowing ‘this is right.’ ”

And really, isn’t finding out who you are exactly what summer reading is all about?

Guerilla warfare, child soldiers and landmines: What do these ripped-from-the-headlines terms have to do with a coming-of-age story for young readers? As it turns out, quite a bit.

While displacement camps and military maneuvers are not the trappings of your standard touchy-feely “do the right thing” tale, they bring a sense of hard-edged reality to Mitali Perkins’ Bamboo People, an intriguing and insightful story about two boys learning how to become men in the midst of chaos.

The award-winning author of such internationally diverse books as Monsoon Summer, The Not-So-Star-Spangled Life of Sunita Sen, Secret Keeper and Rickshaw Girl takes us, this time, to the border between Burma and Thailand—and into the eye-opening lives of children in the midst of a war zone. Bamboo People follows two boys caught in the crossfire of the ongoing border fight—a cultural and land battle that has been waged for decades, but in recent years has escalated dramatically through the forced enlistment of child soldiers.

Chiko, a scholarly and quiet Burmese teen whose father has been imprisoned for having anti-government sympathies, longs to be a teacher and avoids conflict at all costs. In an unexpected turn of events, Chiko is forced to enlist in the Burmese army, where he learns that education is more than the stuff of books. On the other side of the lines is Tu Reh, a member of the Karenni ethnic group displaced by the fighting, who would give anything to prove he is man enough to carry a gun. Tu Reh and his family have lost their homes, their loved ones and much of their sense of community during the many years of fighting, and his prejudice against everything Burmese runs deep. When Chiko is injured behind enemy lines, it is up to Tu Reh to decide whether this boy, his supposed mortal enemy, lives or dies. It’s a decision that changes both their lives.

Perkins was inspired to write the story during the three years she and her husband, a Presbyterian minister, spent on a missionary assignment near the Burmese border in northern Thailand. Here, Perkins witnessed firsthand the hardships, tenacity and hope of those affected by war. “These people are in conditions that seem nearly unbearable: They have been hunted, forced into labor, lost their homes, and many are hiding in the jungle,” Perkins explains. “You see them trying to perpetuate nationhood, trying to teach civility to a younger generation, trying to keep a hold on their culture and language. It’s fascinating and sad, but amazing to hear their stories.”

She also learned that war is never black and white. “When you think about the Burmese army from the Karenni point of view, it’s easy to think about them as evil. But Burma used to have one of the highest literacy rates in the world, and now it has the most child soldiers. So you have all of these soldiers who are really young and uneducated. They are trying to send money back to their families, trying to make ends meet, and they are desperate. It’s not always clear who are the good guys or the bad guys.”

Having traveled the world from an early age, Perkins knows a little about how diverse the world can be. Her father, a civil engineer who developed shipping ports, took the family from their home in India to live in such places as Cameroon, Ghana, Mexico and London. But it wasn’t until she landed in America that she felt a culture shock. “I was often between cultures,” Perkins recalls. To find refuge, she would sneak onto her family’s New York City fire escape—and there she also found her passion for writing. “I used to take my Sweet Tart candies, a pen and my journal and go out there to write,” she remembers. “It was in between the world of home and the world outside, and even today the fire escape metaphor really works for me.” Indeed, Perkins has a blog called Fire Escape where she invites her readers to join her for chats, discussions and a place to “explore hopes, dreams, and fears.”

Her own sense of being in between cultures is also why she is so interested in sharing stories from around the world with her readers.

“I like opening the eyes of children,” Perkins says. “They are much more open-hearted and aware than many adults believe them to be.”

“I think there is a lack of respect for what children do and want to know,” the author says. “They understand the human experience much more than they are sometimes given credit for.”

Megan McDonald’s Judy Moody series has sold millions of copies, captivating early readers with the oddball adventures of a feisty third-grader. In the series’ ninth installment, Judy Moody, Girl Detective, Judy and her little brother, Stink, find themselves in the middle of a mystery: Mr. Chips (a dog) has gone missing! Luckily, Judy is a student of Nancy Drew, and it doesn’t take her long to start looking for clues.

The popular series will reach an even larger audience when Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer—the movie—is released next summer.

McDonald took a few minutes to give us her take on the new book, Judy’s resilience and the upcoming film adaptation.

Was your personality like Judy’s when you were in third grade?
Do I have to admit it? I’m moody! Judy and I are a lot alike—we both have messy hair, can turn anything—a Band-Aid, sock monkey, scabs, ABC gum—into a collection, and yes, I once went to school in my pajamas. I would like to think that Judy and I are both a good friend and a good sister, despite our shortcomings. And . . . our favorite color is purple.

How were you different?
Judy is a bossy BIG sister (based on my four older sisters!) and I’m the youngest, like Stink. I think Judy is much more outspoken and sure of herself than I was at her age. She has a strong voice, and is not afraid to speak up with creative ideas. She is not crushed by disappointment—she picks herself up and keeps going, even though lots of things don’t turn out the way she’d hoped. Judy certainly has her failings, and one of them was spelling. I, on the other hand, was a Spelling Bee champ from way back. Can you spell pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis?

In your opinion, what is Judy’s best quality?
Resilience. Call it lively, spirited, energetic, feisty, or go-getting . . . I set a lot of obstacles in Judy’s way, but she always meets the challenge, and in the end, overcomes them with humor and imagination.

Judy has a lot of opinions on “Rule Number One” of being a good detective. (From “A good detective does not get in a bad mood,” to “Never give up!”) In your opinion, what’s the real Rule Number One of being a good detective?
My own favorite Rule Number One is: NEVER leave home without your S.O.S. lipstick! (For writing a HELP message in red in case you find yourself in danger.)

Rule Number One-est of Them All: TRUST YOUR INNER NANCY DREW!

What’s your favorite Nancy Drew mystery? Why is Judy so drawn to the girl detective?
2010 marks the 80th anniversary of my girlhood favorite—Nancy Drew! Who doesn’t remember Nancy and her blue convertible Roadster, taking on ghosts, villains and jewel thieves of every stripe! The clever, gutsy, independent teenage sleuth has impacted generations of women, from Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Sandra Day O’Connor to Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey and Diane Sawyer. My favorite Nancy Drew book would have to be . . . #21: Secret in the Old Attic. A dead man’s letters, secret clues, an unpublished musical manuscript . . . great stuff!

When I was a girl reading Nancy Drew, she felt so grown up and independent to me. She had all these amazing adventures in faraway settings, AND she knew how to drive—a convertible, no less! I think Judy is drawn to that same spirit of adventure—the idea that there’s a mystery, with a dash of danger, around every corner.

Judy takes her place next to a slew of beloved kid heroines, from Ramona Quimby to Harriet the Spy. Has your writing been inspired at all by other authors or characters?
Katherine Paterson inspired and mentored me at a young age, long before I ever became published. She still inspires me as a person, and as a writer.

As for characters who had an important impact on me—Jo March, Ellen Tebbitts, Harriet the Spy, and of course, Nancy Drew.

Of all the Judy Moody books, is there one that sticks out as your favorite? Why?
If I had to pick one, my favorite would be Judy Moody Saves the World. I love the books that show the big-hearted side of Judy Moody, and who doesn’t think the planet needs a little saving right now?

Young readers have a lot of entertainment options, from smartphones, to the Wii, to over-booked after-school activities. In spite of so many distractions, why are kids excited about Judy Moody?
She’s funny, and makes us laugh. We see ourselves in her. Judy can always be trusted to TRY and do the right thing, but her adventures along the way are hilarious and true, like life. I do worry that reading has to compete so much with technology, sports and other activities, but I believe there’s nothing better than curling up with a good book. Reading feeds the imagination; my hope is that kids will always make room for a good story.

How did you react when you learned that Judy Moody is being turned into a movie? Are there any actors you envision as Judy and Stink?
I’m Joyful-on-top-of-Spaghetti-and-the-World that Judy Moody is being made into a movie—Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer. A feature film will reach countless new Judy Moody readers. I’m kind of hoping that Judy and Stink will be actors we haven’t seen much of yet—so that they really embody and become the characters in the books.

For the movie, you share a screenwriting credit with Kathy Waugh. How is the screenwriting process different from writing a book?
Wildly different. Screenwriting is completely visual—I had to constantly play each scene like a movie in my head. The biggest challenge for me in scripting a movie is that the characters always have to be doing something—in action. I LOVE most of all to write dialogue, and there are rarely more than a few lines of dialogue at a time in the script. It was quite an education for me.

What are you working on now? Can you give us a hint about Judy’s next adventure?
Look for an on-set, behind-the-scenes, Judy Moody Goes to Hollywood kind of diary . . . Her next adventure? The good news is . . . it’s about BAD news. Judy gets tired of all the bad news in the world, and starts her own GOOD NEWS newspaper. The bad news is . . . I can’t tell you any more because it’s a work in progress!