Episode 4: Why do you write about dragons? with Tui Sutherland
*Please note that these episodes were all all recorded pre-pandemic!
Welcome to episode 4! Why do you write about dragons? Join us with author Tui Sutherland!
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 Tui Sutherland, the author of The Wings of Fire series.
Grace Lin: Hi, Tui.
Tui Sutherland: Hi, Grace. I'm so excited to be here. Where The Mountain Meets The Moon is one of our very favorite books.
Grace Lin: Aw.
Tui Sutherland: I talk about it all the time.
Grace Lin: Oh, thanks. That's so nice to hear.
Tui Sutherland: And it has such a great dragon in it. I love it so much.
Grace Lin: Oh, which is perfect for today's question because ... Are you ready for today's question?
Tui Sutherland: Yes, of course.
Grace Lin: Okay. Today's question is from a girl named Susan and she asks, why do you write about dragons?
Tui Sutherland: Oh. That is a lovely question. I write about dragons for lots of reasons. I mean, I just think they're awesome, for one thing. I think dragons, I kind of feel like when I'm writing about dragons, I'm writing about teenagers with super powers. They can all fly. They usually have different things they can do like breathe fire or breathe under water or freeze people with their breath. So it just gives me a lot of things to play with. But I can still make them really human in the inside. So they have all the same problems that we do and the same emotions that we do, but they're super cool and they can set you on fire when they get mad. So I think that's the number one reason that I love writing about dragons.
Grace Lin: Well it's so interesting because I also write about dragons too, but my dragons are very different than yours. And I always have to tell people, there's the European dragon and there's the Chinese dragon. And the European dragon is very much closer to what you write, with the wings. Because it's wings of fire. Whereas the Chinese dragon doesn't have wings. And the Chinese dragon doesn't breathe fire. And the reason why I write about dragons is more because the dragon is such an important symbol, and important part of Chinese culture. So that's why I feel like I have to write about the dragon, because it's such a symbol in that culture. And not to mention, it would be very strange-
Tui Sutherland: To not have dragons there?
Grace Lin: Yes, exactly.
Tui Sutherland: You know, I actually did think a little bit when I started, about including some dragons that didn't have wings, because I had done some research on other kinds of dragons in mythology. But what I realized was that if I had half my characters with wings and one character that didn't, he would spend the entire book trying to catch up to his friends. He'd be like "All right, I'll see you like three books from now when I get to the next adventure spot." So just logistically, it wouldn't be very difficult.
Grace Lin: Yes. I can completely see that. But in Chinese culture, the dragon flies without wings because they're like the kings of the sky. So the sky has to take them wherever they want. So they're like "Cloud, I want to go over there." And they have to be brought over. So that's why they don't need wings to fly, because they're such masters of the sky.
Tui Sutherland: That's true. That's right. One of my favorite dragons is from the movie Spirited Away.
Grace Lin: Oh, yes.
Tui Sutherland: Oh my gosh. I love that movie so much.
Grace Lin: Me too.
Tui Sutherland: And just like yeah, so that dragon definitely could travel.
Grace Lin: Yes. And that's a Japanese dragon.
Tui Sutherland: Yeah.
Today’s book review is on The Odyssey by Gareth Hinds. It is reviewed by Kobe:
The book I would like to talk about is The Odyssey by Gareth Hinds originally by Homer not Homer Simpson (The Greek guy). This is a graphic novel about a Greek hero Odysseus who tried to get home for twenty years. I will warn you, there is a lot of gore and inappropriate stuff for young kids. I probably shouldn't talk about that. I like it because the illustrations and the story line were really exciting and surprising like when he is as smart as the Cyclops.
Tui T. Sutherland is author of several books, including those she has written under a number of pseudonyms, including the names Erin Hunter and Tamara Summers. Her first books were part of a beginning reader's series called First Friends. Her first young adult novel was This Must be Love, a comically romantic twenty-first-century retelling of Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream. She has also written the supernatural suspense series, Avatars. Recent titles include the Legends of the Brethren Court series (written under the name Rob Kidd) and the Pet Trouble series. Named after a rather noisy New Zealand bird, Tui was born in Venezuela, and lived in Paraguay, Florida, and the Dominican Republic before her family moved to New Jersey, where she went to high school. She then lived in New York City before moving to Boston, Massachusetts where she currently lives with her husband and her yoodle, Sunshine.
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. Also, special thanks to Porter Square Books for helping to facilitate today's interview.
