Episode #137: Why did you make the story this way? with Lisa Moore Ramée
Welcome back to Kids Ask Authors! We are pleased to welcome author Lisa Moore Ramée! Lisa answers the kid question, “Why did you make the story this way?”
TRANSCRIPT:
Grace Lin: Hello, I'm Grace Lin, children's book author and illustrator of many books, including the middle grade novel Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and the picture book A Big Moon Cake for Little Star. Today I'm here with Lisa Moore Ramée, the author of middle grade novels like Something to Say, and A Good Kind of Trouble, as well as the recently published Mapmaker. Welcome, Lisa.
Lisa Moore Ramée: Hi, thank you so much for having me, I'm excited to be here.
Grace Lin: Oh, thank you so much for being here. Are you ready for today's kid question?
Lisa Moore Ramée: I hope so.
Grace Lin: All right, today's kid question is from a person named Nikel, and they ask, "Why did you make the story this way?" Now, this is a very open-ended question, but I was able to talk to Nikel a little bit and I'm pretty sure they are asking about the inspiration for your book Something to Say, so I'm going to rephrase that just to help you there, and I think they're asking what is the inspiration for Something to Say?
Lisa Moore Ramée: Well, I actually love talking about this because I have a horrible story with Something to Say, horrible for me in that the book talks about a young girl who is terrified of public speaking, she will do pretty much anything to get out of it. And there's a scene in the book where we see her having to give a speech and how horrible it is for her, I mean, she almost blacks out, she thinks she's going to die. And that was completely, completely based on a true thing that happened to me in real life, I had to give a speech in a class, and I didn't know that I was so terrified of doing that until I had to get up and stand in front of the class, and I was stuttering and I was sweating so much, and I was shaking my index cards, and I felt like it was the worst thing that had ever happened to me, and I was shocked that I survived it.
When I walked back to my seat and sat down I had this moment of thinking, oh my gosh, I am still alive, that is amazing that that experience did not kill me. And so when I was thinking about writing another book for young people I thought about that moment and I knew that that was actually not that uncommon, that a lot of people are afraid of public speaking, and it's something that I actually learn to do relatively easily, which is another thing that surprises me. So I wanted to write a story about someone dealing with that fear, and also look at just how deep it is and how much they would be willing to give up, including possibly a friendship, in order to get out of having to talk in public, so that's where the inspiration came from.
Grace Lin: Oh wow, that's amazing. And it's true too, I mean, they always talk about how for many people speaking in public is their worst nightmare, and especially kids, I think, there's a lot who have that as a nightmare as well, so I think a lot of kids can relate to that experience. And honestly, I feel similar too. I feel like I never wanted to speak in public either as a child, and even now, when I think about the fact as authors we actually do quite a lot of public speaking, and I remember thinking that when I first became an author I never thought that there was going to be that, that was not something that crossed my mind, I thought I was just going to be sitting at home writing and drawing.
Lisa Moore Ramée: Right.
Grace Lin: I didn't realize there was so much talking to other people involved. And I feel like somewhere in the course of my career I had to re-hatch myself so I could learn to speak to people.
Lisa Moore Ramée: Exactly. I feel like it's a good thing that we don't know going in, because I think that there's so many authors who would've said, "Oh no, forget it, I don't want to do that."
Grace Lin: You said it was fairly easy for you to become a public speaker, was that something that happened while you were younger, or as a-
Lisa Moore Ramée: I think living through that horrible experience helped me because of the fact that when I sat back down and looked around the class and I thought, wow, this is really interesting, nobody cares, nobody cares about the fact that I struggled to get through the speech, they're all just worried about the speech they have to give, and I was like, and I actually didn't die, so I could probably survive doing it again.
And I ended up majoring in speech communications when I went to college, so I had to give a lot of speeches. I was really interested in all the different ways that we communicate, and so that major made sense to me, and it was one of those, you can't really get out of it. So I do notice that when I first start giving a speech I can hear the anxiety in my voice, but I just tell myself, don't worry about it, people don't know what you normally sound like so they probably can't even tell, and I just keep going, keep breathing, and it actually can sometimes be almost fun.
Grace Lin: I agree. For me it's not so much fun, but it's so worthwhile afterwards when you realize you've been able to connect with so many people. Fun isn't the right word for though, meaningful might be better.
Lisa Moore Ramée: Right, right. Well, especially when you have the opportunity to talk to a group of young people who are interested in your stories, and so that's maybe where the fun part comes to me. I mean, I'm more interested in hearing what they have to say really than talking to them, but I love that exchange, so if the only way that I get to do that is by standing in front of them at a school, I'm willing to do it.
Grace Lin:
Yeah. Yeah, I think enjoyable and meaningful are the words that I would use to describe it, and yes, I agree, hearing what they have to say about the work that we do is always so important, and worth the standing in huge crowds and feeling like you might die.
Lisa Moore Ramée: Exactly.
Grace Lin: All right, well thank you so much, Lisa, for answering today's question, and thank you Nikel for asking this question, it was a great one.
Lisa Moore Ramée: Yeah, thanks Nikel.
Grace Lin: Bye.
Today’s KID BOOK REVIEW is from Lillian. She is reviewing “Something to Say” by Lisa Moore Ramée!
My review is about the book, “Something to Say” by Lisa Moore Ramee. This book is a realistic fiction novel about Jenae, a girl who doesn't like to be seen. On her first day of school she meets a boy that has the same Astrid Dane backpack as her who’s name is Aubrey. He won't leave Jenae alone with his 24/7 smile and flaming red-hot cheeto hair. She just wants to get away from him and be invisible again, but Aubrey wants to be friends. In Janae’s new English class, the teacher assigns an argument speech but she dreads it - she can't even talk in front of people - let alone being paired up with the most talkative boy in the school! Meanwhile at home, her Grandfather is acting weird. Jenae has to have a way out of this madness. I liked this book because it is about standing up for yourself. It is an awesome example of courage and showing how someone can stand up for what they believe in. I recommend it because it was a good story about finding your voice. What will Jenae do next? Read the book to find out!
Thank you so much Lillian!
More about today’s authors:
Lisa Moore Ramée was born and raised in Los Angeles and now lives in the Northern California, with her husband, two kids, two obnoxious cats and more yard than she can control. She earned a BA in Speech Communications from San Francisco State and a MA in English Literature (focusing on Creative Writing) from Cal State East Bay. She worked for several years in publishing, for the Walt Disney Company, first in comics, and then with licensed publishing. While there, she co-penned The Little Mermaid, Jr. Graphic Novel and the writing bug took up permanent residence. She is a devotee of Top Chef and Project Runway and often tries to work the shows in her plots. As of 2020 she has written two books; A Good Kind of Trouble, her first novel, has received critical acclaim, garnering three starred reviews (PW, Kirkus and SLJ); and Something to Say.
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.
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