Episode #58: How much research do you do for a book? -With Christina Soontornvat
Hello! Welcome back to another episode of Kids Ask Authors where we answer this great kid question: How much research do you do for a book?” -with authors Grace Lin and Christina Soontornvat.
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 Christina Soontornvat, author of many books, including the middle-grade novel, A Wish in the Dark, and the early reader series, The Diary of an Ice Princess, as well as the author of the middle-grade non-fiction book, All Thirteen, which comes out in October 2020 about the Thai cave rescue. Hi, Christina.
Christina Soontornvat: Hi, Grace. Thanks for having me.
Grace Lin: Thanks for being on. Are you ready for today's question?
Christina Soontornvat: I'm ready.
Grace Lin: Okay. Today's question is from a person named Meg and they ask ...
Meg: How much research do you do for a book?
Grace Lin: How much research do you do for a book?
Christina Soontornvat: Oh, okay. This is a great question. So, normally, I usually write fiction and I think people have an idea that when you write fiction, you don't do any research. You just come up with everything yourself. But for mine, I actually do. So, for A Wish in the Dark, it takes place in Thailand, so I did a lot of research of mostly talking to family members and friends and making sure I'm getting all of the cultural details right and I'm being respectful and I'm asking them for lots of ideas to help me craft the setting. So, even in my fiction work, I do research. But for the book that you mentioned, All Thirteen, about the Thai cave rescue, which was an event that happened in 2018 when a group of 12 boys and their coach went into a cave in Thailand and they were trapped there by floodwaters and was this big international rescue to get them out of the cave. That one was completely different than any book I have ever written and the amount of research was huge. So, I think I'll talk about that one.
Grace Lin: Yes. I'm really interested in that. I think everybody would be.
Christina Soontornvat: Yeah. I mean, I could talk about it for hours because I did so much research, but I was actually in Thailand when this event happened and that's part of what spurred me to want to write a book about it because I saw from the perspective of the Thai people what a big story it was and what it meant for them there. It was very interesting because it was such a huge international story that I was seeing media coverage from all over the world. I got to see media coverage while I was in Thailand, and then when I came back to the United States, it was like the biggest news story of the year. So, I was seeing how the United States media was covering it, and I got this glimpse into, "Oh, wow. What you see on television and the news, or even on the web, like web news stories, doesn't always tell the full story."
Christina Soontornvat: So, when I got the book deal and I knew I was going to write the book, I knew I had to go back to Thailand and talk to the people in Thailand where the rescue had actually taken place because I feel like that helps you understand the truth of what happened. An event is more than just facts. It's also how you interpret the facts and that depends on what lens you're looking through. So, I flew back to Thailand. My dad lives in Thailand for part of the year, so he was there with me and my family members were with me. I don't speak Thai so they were helping me to be translators. We went to the small mountain town where the boys live and where they were trapped in the mountains there and I just tried to meet with as many people who were actually at the rescue as possible.
Christina Soontornvat: So, even if they weren't like big stars of the rescue, like here in the U.S. the biggest names that came out of the rescue were these British scuba divers who went in and actually pulled the boys out, and they were absolutely heroes, but they had one part of the story. The rescue was such a big collaborative effort that I wanted to talk to lots of different people. So, I talked to people who were there from the very first day. I got to talk to the man who arrived at the cave the night the boys went missing and all the parents were there trying to find them. He's the one who saw their bikes lying on the ground outside the cave. He's the one who told me about this sinking feeling that he got, that this was going to be a really long rescue. And it was. It lasted for 18 days and it was 10 days before they even discovered if the boys were alive.
Christina Soontornvat: So, it was just those stories of talking to real people that helped me get those little details that I felt could make it such an interesting and gripping story. Then, what was fantastic is that I got to actually meet the boys and I had no idea I would get to do that. I didn't expect that. It was kind of a chance meeting that I got to meet them and got to meet their families. I had a translator there who told me what they were saying. I was instructed not to ask them specifically about their time in the cave because they had just gotten out and nobody wanted to upset them. But that was okay because I really wanted to know ... I knew that I'm writing this book for kids, and I knew that kids would want to know what are these boys like?
Christina Soontornvat: So, I just asked them about, "What are you like? What are you into?" And they're all into soccer. They talked about soccer so much and their favorite players and they talked about homework and how they had a lot of homework and they were worried that they wouldn't finish their homework. I got to see them just joking with each other and it really helped me write the story and paint them as full people instead of just people I had seen on television. So, that was really important.
Christina Soontornvat: Of course, I did a lot of research online from various newspapers online. I read a lot of books. I read so much about cave diving and caving, and I really learned that books are a much more reliable source of information when it comes to scientific information. A lot of times online, there'll be mistakes, but in books, they take so much more time and care to write them that it's often more accurate. So, a lot of research in a very short amount of time.
Grace Lin: Yeah. Well, I think what's interesting about what you're saying is that you actually were there and you actually go to the country. I think that really struck a chord with me because I know a lot of my books are like Chinese fantasies, kind of about a China that never was, but it's still kind of got this framework of China. I know that it took me going to China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, and going to these places multiple times to really get that flavor that I was looking for in my writing. It is something that you can't get just from looking at pictures online. There's a certain kind of research about just being there that makes a difference in your writing, I think.
Christina Soontornvat: Yeah, absolutely. I've been able to tell, and maybe you can tell this about China too, when people write about Thailand and they haven't been there, or maybe they've only been there as a tourist, as opposed to, if they've spent a lot of time there, it's just certain details. It's like you said, like a flavor, but also like the atmosphere, the smells, and feel of a place that's impossible to get if you're not actually there, I think.
Grace Lin: Yeah. I think it's because when you're there you feel the real scope of the land because when you look at things online it's always in a little box, right?
Christina Soontornvat: Yeah.
Grace Lin: So, when you're actually in a place, that's when you get the real sense of being immersed in it and I think that makes such a difference in your writing and I feel like that's a really important part of research that anybody who writes books that are not in where they actually have ever experienced is an important part that I advise people to do.
Christina Soontornvat: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I remember when we went to the cave for the first time and actually walked up there and you could see the mountain looming over the parking lot where all of the parents were staying and I just was hit by this feeling of like, "Gosh. As a parent myself, that they stayed in this parking lot for 18 days waiting for their kids to come out and this mountain is so big and you would just be imagining your child is somewhere trapped, deep inside that mountain, and you just cannot get to them and you cannot find them." It really hit home what the emotional impact of that would have been for those parents.
Grace Lin: And how amazing when they came out too. So, I'm really looking forward to this book, and I think anybody who's listening to this episode is probably really looking forward to it too.
Christina Soontornvat: Thank you so much.
Grace Lin: Well, thank you so much, Christina. And thank you, Meg, for asking this question.
Christina Soontornvat: Yes. Thank you. Good question, Meg, and thanks for having me, Grace.
Grace Lin:
Bye. Christina Soontornvat: Bye.
Today’s BOOK REVIEW comes from Mila. She’s reviewing Christina’s book, All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys’ Soccer Team.
My name is Mila and the book I would love to share about is All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys’ Soccer Team, written by Christina Soontornvat. This epic and true story is about an adventurous, daring and close knit group of Thai soccer players and their coach who go to a mystical cave in the rainy season. But their adventure turns into a disaster that takes rescue teams from America, Thailand and The United Kingdom to the now hazardous and life threatening cave! I loved this book because it has action, you see the point of view in all the minds and it is informational. Lastly, but in my opinion most importantly, this rescue operation shows that 1) people risked their lives to save these children and 2) things can happen more quickly if countries, including ours, work together in hard situations. I enjoyed this book and I hope you enjoy it too.
Thank you so much Mila!
More about toady’s authors:
Christina Soontornvat grew up behind the counter of her parents’ Thai restaurant in a small Texas town with her nose stuck in a book. She is the author of the fantasy middle grade series, The Changelings, and the early chapter book series, Diary of an Ice Princess. Her books published in 2020 include the middle grade fantasy, A Wish in the Dark, and All Thirteen, a nonfiction account of the Thai Cave Rescue. In addition to being an author, Christina holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a master’s degree in Science Education. She spent a decade working in the science museum field, where she designed programs and exhibits to get kids excited about science. She is passionate about STEM (science, technology engineering, and math), and loves learning new things. She lives in Austin, Texas with her husband, two young children, and one old cat.
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.
