Episode 37: What is your favorite book you ever read?-with Renee Watson

Welcome back to another great episode of Kids Ask Authors! On today’s episode we welcome author Renee Watson to answer this kid question: What is your favorite book you ever read?

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 Mooncake For Little Star. Today, I'm here with Renee Watson, the author of Some Places More Than Others, and Ways To Make Sunshine. Hi, Renee.

Renee Watson: Hi.

Grace Lin: Thanks so much for being here.

Renee Watson: Thanks for having me.

Grace Lin: Are you ready for today's question?

Renee Watson: I'm ready.

Grace Lin: Okay. Today's question is from a person named Xenia and they ask, "What is your favorite book you ever read?" What is your favorite book you've ever read and why?

Renee Watson: So my all time favorite book is House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, and I love that book because it's a combination of poetry and prose. The chapters are really short and some of the chapters kind of can stand alone as a short story, and then when you put it back into the book, it makes the whole novel. So I really just think that that was brilliant of her to write it that way. But also it's about a place that is sometimes misunderstood and forgotten, her neighborhood. And I feel like it gave me permission to write about my neighborhood and the place where I grew up and to make that place a visible community for readers who may not know about Portland, Oregon. So, I feel like it gave me permission to tell my own story.

Grace Lin: Oh, that's so nice. When did you first read it?

Renee Watson: I read it when I was young. I think I was in middle school, maybe. And since then I've read it countless times. I have read it. I have parts underlined. I have parts highlighted. I go back to that book many, many, many times to get inspiration or to find examples of good writing. And when I was teaching, I used to use it in the classroom to help students write their own stories.

Grace Lin: So was it your favorite book immediately after you read it?

Renee Watson: Oh, yeah. I loved it immediately and I wasn't able to articulate all those reasons when I was younger, but as I grew up and started writing on my own and I returned back to it, I realized that there were many more reasons why I liked it, but first I just liked it because it's a really great story.

Grace Lin: I think it's so interesting because whenever I get this question and I ask people this question, they always talk about the books that we've read as kids. You know, like this book that I read and I loved as a kid, like in middle school or even in elementary school and nothing else has beaten it, you know?

Renee Watson: Yeah, yeah.

Grace Lin: So, I think that's so interesting. I know for me, when I get this question, what's your favorite book you've ever read? And I actually ... My favorite book is a book that wasn't ... that I didn't read. My favorite book was a book that was read to me. And I remember in third grade, my teacher read The Search For Delicious by Natalie Babbitt. And I remembered I loved that book so much that immediately when she was done, I went to the library and I took it out and then I read it and I loved it so much. And it was so strange. I loved it so much, I wouldn't read any other books by the author for the longest time. I just read that one over and over again. I guess I was afraid that if I read more of her books, that I'd be disappointed that they weren't as good, or that maybe they would be better and I wouldn't love this one as much.

Renee Watson: I totally get that. I totally understand that. I found out that Sandra Cisneros also writes poetry, but I didn't know that until I was much older. I think it was in college when I realized that she also had a lot of poems. And so I then fell in love with her as a poet, too. But it took me a while to read anything else by her. I was much older when I started getting into her other works.

Grace Lin: You know, that's funny, because it took me ... I was much older too, before I read any of Natalie Babbitt's other works too. So interesting. I think it's something about the poignancy of a favorite childhood book. Anyway, I think that's why we ... at least I know that's why I write for kids, because I know how important those favorite books were when I was a kid, and I guess there's something about that, that I just dream. I guess that's my dream is to create a book that somebody loves as much as I loved Natalie Babbitt's book.

Renee Watson: Yeah, yeah. That age, they're so tender and they're so impressionable, too, right? And so to be a young person's favorite is really special. I think about my toys when I was a child, the TV shows that I loved, the music that I listened to, all of that is so nostalgic for me when I go back to those memories. And so, yeah, it's such an honor if you become a young person's favorite. I think that's such a gift for a writer to hear that.

Grace Lin: Yeah, I agree. Anyway, well thank you so much, Renee, for answering this question and thank you so much Xenia for asking it. It was great. Bye.

Renee Watson: Bye.

Today’s BOOK REVIEW comes from Zoe! She’s telling us about “Genesis Begins Again” by Alicia D. Williams.

Hi, I'm Zoe, and I'm 11 years old. I want to recommend the novel Genesis Begins Again by Alicia D. Williams. When thirteen-year-old Genesis has to move for the millionth time, she really hopes this will be her last time. She has a big house, a nice neighborhood, good friends, and smart teachers. She's very self-conscious and hates how she looks. She has to deal with her dad, who drinks, too. Her mom has to work a lot because her dad never pays the rent. You should definitely read Genesis Begins Again. I'd say it's for nine-year-olds to 13-year-olds. I hope you take my suggestion. I'm Zoe. Bye.

Thank you so much Zoe!

More about today’s authors:

Renée Watson is the New York Times bestselling, Newbery Honor Book, and Coretta Scott King Award-winning author of Piecing Me Together, This Side of Home, What Momma Left Me, and Betty Before X, co-written with Ilyasah Shabazz, as well as two acclaimed picture books: A Place Where Hurricanes Happen and Harlem's Little Blackbird, which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. She is the founder of I, Too, Arts Collective, a nonprofit committed to nurturing underrepresented voices in the creative arts, and currently lives in New York City.
www.reneewatson.net; @reneewauthor  

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.

Special thanks to the High Five Books & Art Always Bookstore, Ms. Carleton’s 2nd grade class at Jackson Street School for their help with our kid questions and reviews.