Episode #130: Where do you get the inspiration for your books? with Duncan Tonatiuh
Welcome back! Please join us this week as we welcome Duncan Tonatiuh along with Grace Lin to answer another fun kid question.
TRANSCRIPTS:
Grace Lin: Hello, I'm Grace Lin, children's book author and illustrator of many books, including the middle grade novel, When the Sea Turned to Silver, and the picture book, A Big Moon Cake for Little Star. Today, I am here with Duncan Tonatiuh, the author and illustrator of many picture books, including Feathered Serpent and the Five Sons, a Mesoamerican creation myth. Hi, Duncan.
Duncan Tonatiuh: Hi, Grace. Thank you for having me.
Grace Lin: Are you ready for today's question?
Duncan Tonatiuh: Yes.
Grace Lin: Okay. Today's question is from a person named Hannah, and Hannah asks, "Where do you get the inspiration for your books?"
Duncan Tonatiuh: That's a question that I'm often asked when I have a chance to speak with students or other readers, and I think there's sort of different answers to it or different levels, so to speak, to that question. One main inspiration where... I started writing because I like reading. When I was a kid, I would borrow a lot of books from my school library as a way to spend the afternoons, and so ever since then I've loved reading and just I think reading is what made me want to write books. That's my first inspiration, is reading.
Grace Lin: That's your inspiration for making books? How about your inspiration for any specific inspirations for the books that you make?
Duncan Tonatiuh: Yeah, so then all my books are very different from one another. It's not that series with the same characters. But one overarching theme, one theme that the books have a lot in common is that they're about Mexican culture or Mexican-American culture in some way. I grew up in Mexico, but then when I was a teenager, I moved to the US. I went to high school, to college in the United States. As I spent more time away from Mexico, I began to miss things that were around me growing up. The music, the food, different traditions, different holidays. I just began to miss those things and I was always interested in art, and so in my different art classes, especially when I was in college, and my writing class, I took a lot of art classes, a lot of writing classes. I would often connect my projects to my background, to my heritage. That's something that I felt pride in that I wanted to learn more about. I became very interested in issues that affect people of Mexican origin on both sides of the border and in Mexico, but also in the United States. Issues like immigration, like segregation.
Duncan Tonatiuh: When I started making books, when I started making picture books, my books, like I said, all very different, but all deal with that theme. Now that I've been making them for more than 10 years, I've been making picture books, I've really come to learn of the need for multicultural literature and the need for more diversity and children's books and in books for young readers. That's a big inspiration for doing the kinds of books that I do.
Grace Lin: That's awesome. That's actually really similar to me, too. I was interested when you were talking about when you were younger and you were leaning into your Mexican heritage. That sort of happened to me. It happened to me after college where I started really wanting to learn more about my own cultural heritage, and that's what really affected all my books. Because, just like you, all of my books are all really different, but they all do have to do with Asian or Asian-American culture. I think we're similar that way, which is cool.
Duncan Tonatiuh: Yeah, definitely. Definitely. I think, for me, a big part of it was moving from Mexico to the US, because when I was in Mexico growing up, I didn't think about it. Let's say a holiday, like Day of the Dead was just something that happened every year. I never thought twice about it. But then when I was in a different country and people celebrated differently, it made me realize that it was pretty unique and pretty special. I think a big reason why I first became interested in Mexican culture and Mexican-American culture was being away from Mexico and seeing it from a different light.
Grace Lin: Yeah. I have a similar experience. It's like here in the United States I feel my Asian culture a lot. But it's so interesting because when I visit Taiwan or I go to any Asian culture, I really feel very American. You know? It's like when you're surrounded by it, you feel the differences much more.
Duncan Tonatiuh: Yeah, definitely. Definitely.
Grace Lin: That was great. Thank you so much, Duncan, for answering Hannah's question. And thank you, Hannah, for answering it. Bye.
Today’s Kid Book Review: Today’s review comes from Domenica! She is reviewing “Separate is never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation” by Duncan Tonatiuh.
The book I would like to talk about is Separate is Never Equal written and illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh. This book is about segregation and how kids and people of different races, religions or backgrounds weren’t able to go to the same pools or schools as white people. It focuses on Sylvia and her family, the Mendez family. It tells how they went to a court and got help to fight for their rights. I liked this book because the Mendez family were determined and even though Sylvia was still being bullied in school, she held her head high.
Thank you so much Domenica!
More about today’s authors:
Grace Lin, a NY Times bestselling author/ illustrator, won the Newbery Honor for Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and her picture book, A Big Mooncake for Little Star, was awarded the Caldecott Honor. Grace is an occasional commentator for New England Public Radio , a video essayist for PBS NewsHour (here & here), and the speaker of the popular TEDx talk, The Windows and Mirrors of Your Child’s Bookshelf. She is the co-host of the podcast Book Friends Forever, a kidlit podcast about friendship and publishing (geared for adults). Find her facebook, instagram , twitter ( @pacylin) or sign up for her author newsletter HERE.
Duncan Tonatiuh is an award-winning author-illustrator. He is both Mexican and American. He grew up in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico and graduated from Parsons School of Design and Eugene Lang College in New York City. His artwork is inspired by Pre-Columbian art, particularly that of the Mixtec codices. His aim is to create images and stories that honor the past, but that are relevant to people, specially children, nowadays.
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