Episode #87: If you could give one of your books another title, what would it be? -with Josh Funk
Welcome back to another episode of Kids Ask Authors! Today we are joined by Josh Funk and he will answer the kid question, “If you could give one of your books another title, what would it be?”
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 Josh Funk, the author of the picture book Short and Sweet Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast Number Four, It's Not Little Red Riding Hood, Where is Our Library?: A Story of Patience and Fortitude. Those are three separate books just so listeners know. So hi, Josh.
Josh Funk: Hey, how's it going?
Grace Lin: Good. How are you?
Josh Funk: I'm doing all right.
Grace Lin: Thanks so much for being here today. Are you ready for today's question?
Josh Funk: I'm ready.
Grace Lin: Okay. Today's question is from a young person named Sheila, and Sheila asks:
Sheila: If you could give one of your books another title, what would it be?
Grace Lin: If you could give one of your books another title, what would it be?
Josh Funk: Sheila, that is such a great question. I have so much trouble coming up with titles for my books. Sometimes it hits me right away and I know that it's the right title, but most of the time it's something that takes forever to figure out, even after I've finished the story and it's all ready, and sometimes even after it's been illustrated. With Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast, that name was always the name of the book because that was the name of the characters. But for all of the sequels, it took a really, really long time to figure out what the titles would be, and sometimes it wasn't even me that came up with the titles.
Josh Funk: I loved the title Mission Defrostable right away, because I thought that one ... That one was silly and it was an action adventure story, and so I was trying to get a good title. That one came pretty quickly. The title of the newest one, Short and Sweet, that was a title that took a long time to come up with. At first, it was called Mini Ms. Pancake and Squire French Toast, but the publisher thought that was too long of a title considering that the series title was already Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast. So it would have been really, really long.
Josh Funk: And we couldn't think of anything for a very long time, and then finally, one of the people who works at the publisher, it's a whole big team effort to make a book, and it's even a whole big team effort just to come up with a title because in one of their meetings, somebody, and I don't even know who, said, "Short and Sweet." And then my editor asked me what I thought about it and I loved it and I thought it was perfect. So I didn't even come up with that title.
Josh Funk: Another title though that I probably would try to change would be The Case of the Stinky Stench, which is the second Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast book because that is a pretty long title and it takes a really long time to say Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast Number Two, The Case of the Stinky Stench. It doesn't really fit very well on a tweet and it takes a really long time to type out, and so that would probably be the one that I would redo.
Josh Funk: I would probably try to come up with something shorter, maybe even just The Stinky Stench. For a little while, my editor wanted to call it The Funky Stench or The Funky Smell, and Funk being my last name, it does have the meaning of something kind of stinky, but it also means sometime ... And over time it changed from being a stinky smell to also being like kind of something cool. And we Funks, we've been trying to distance ourselves from the stinky smell thing, so I fought against The Funky Stench and we went with The Stinky Stench.
Josh Funk: But yeah, that is a great question. So many of the books that I've written, it takes a long time. I actually brainstorm titles with some of my friends over chats, text chats, and we go back and forth for days sometimes just trying to figure out what is the right title for this book. It's not easy. That's a great question, Sheila. Thank you.
Grace Lin: I know, I agree. I think titles are tough and I have the same problem as you in terms of long titles. I somehow always end up with really, really, long, long titles. Even when I try not to have a long title, they always seem to end up being long. Like my book Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. I struggled with that title for so long. We were going to call it Never Ending Mountain, or we were going to call it The Old Man of the Moon. And none of the ... Nobody liked those titles.
Grace Lin: You're right that the title is not something actually that the author gets to choose, it's really a whole bunch of people, and it's the editor, it's the salespeople, it's everybody, the publishing, and so they all get to kind of have their vote. And so I remember struggling so much with Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, that title, and so finally my editor was like, "I don't know what we can call this book." She said, "We need something kind of poetic, like the last line of your book. Something like where the mountain meets the moon." And I said, "Okay, let's just use that."
Grace Lin: So that's what we did, and we kind of ran into the same problem with the next book and the next book. So we're like, "Okay, let's just do that." And in some ways it was really nice because it made all the books tie together and they are very poetic, but they are really, really long. You're right. I can't really fit it in a tweet. You can't really have a Where the Mountain Meets the Moon website. It's a lot of words. So I would like to change my titles to something shorter if I could think of something shorter, but I have never been able to think of anything shorter.
Josh Funk: Yeah. Well, I think you did a great job with Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. That's a pretty perfect title. Well done.
Grace Lin: Aw, thank you. I wish it could have been shorter though. But I don't know how I could have shortened it.
Josh Funk: How do you make it a hashtag?
Grace Lin: That is kind of the bane of our modern existence.
Josh Funk: Yeah.
Grace Lin: Well, thank you so much, Josh, for answering this question and thank you, Sheila, for asking it. It was a really great question. Bye.
Josh Funk: Bye.
Today’s BOOK REVIEW comes from Elise! She is reviewing the book, Too Small Tola, written by Atinuke and illustrated by Onyinye Iwu.
My name is Elise and the book I would like to talk about is Too Small Tola written by Atinuke and illustrated by Onyinye Iwu. This book is about Tola who is small, but mighty. Tola is the youngest in her family, but she is stronger than she looks. Tola lives in a run-down block of apartments in Lagos, Nigeria. She lives with her sister, Moji; her brother, Dapo; and Grandmommy. Tola volunteers to help her family with many tasks. She goes to the market and carries home a heavy basket on her head that is full of yams, fish, chili peppers, and diapers. She also brings water from the pump when the faucets in the apartment do not work. I like this book because it shows how life is in Africa. Besides helping her family, Tola has a big heart and jumps to help her neighbors when they are in need. Everyone should read this book to get a glimpse of Africa’s way of life and how a small girl can make a big difference in her community.
Thank you Elise!
More about today’s authors:
Josh Funk writes silly stories such as the Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast series (including The Case of the Stinky Stench, Mission Defrostable, and Short & Sweet), the How to Code with Pearl and Pascal series (including How to Code a Sandcastle and How to Code a Rollercoaster), the It's Not a Fairy Tale series (including It's Not Jack and the Beanstalk, It's Not Hansel and Gretel, It's Not Little Red Riding Hood, and the forthcoming It's Not the Three Little Pigs in the fall of 2022), the A Story of Patience & Fortitude series in conjunction with the New York Public Library (including Lost in the Library and Where Is Our Library?), Dear Dragon, Albie Newton, Pirasaurs!, A Night at the Bookstore: A Barnsie & Noble Adventure, and coming soon: My Pet Feet in the summer of 2022 and Dear Unicorn in the fall of 2023!
Since the fall of 2015, Josh has visited (or virtually visited) over 500 schools, classrooms, and libraries and he is a board member of The Writers' Loft in Sherborn, MA. Josh is the host of Funk & Friends a show where he interviews members of the children's literature community. Josh grew up in New England and studied Computer Science in school. Today, he still lives in New England and when not writing Java code or Python scripts, he drinks Java coffee and writes manuscripts.
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.
