Episode #90: What is the first book that made you cry? with Nanci Turner Steveson
Welcome back to Kids Ask Authors! On today’s episode, authors Grace Lin and Nanci Turner Steveson answer a wonderful kid question; “What is the first book that made you cry?”
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 Nanci Turner Steveson, the author of middle grade novels, such as Swing Sideways, Georgia Rules, and Lizzy Flying Solo. Hi, Nancy.
Nanci Turner Steveson: Hi, Grace. How are you?
Grace Lin: Good. How are you?
Nanci Turner Steveson: I'm wonderful. Thank you.
Grace Lin: Well, are you ready for today's question?
Nanci Turner Steveson: I am ready and raring to go.
Grace Lin: Okay. Today's question is from a person named Jonathan. And Jonathan asks...
Jonathan: What is the first book that made you cry?
Grace Lin: What is the first book that made you cry?
Nanci Turner Steveson: Oh, what a lovely question. I'm going to have to say it was probably Charlotte's Web and for pretty obvious reasons, but there's something about Charlotte's Web that really grabbed me early on. I always wanted to grow up on a farm and I didn't. I grew up in suburban Connecticut with farms close by. And so I really dove into that book and loved all of those characters so much. But when I read it and when I cried, it was not just a cry of loss, but it was also a cry because I knew beautiful things had happened in that story and that Charlotte's death was inevitable.
Grace Lin: Yeah, that was, it's such a beautiful book. And I don't remember if I cried at that one. That book though I remember feeling really sad, but it wasn't a kind of sadness that broke my heart.
Nanci Turner Steveson: Right.
Grace Lin: I remember the first book that I read that made me cry, that broke my heart was Where the Red Fern Grows.
Nanci Turner Steveson: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Grace Lin: Where the dog dies at the end.
Nanci Turner Steveson:Yeah.
Grace Lin: And that made me so upset. It made me, actually, it kind of scarred me where I didn't want to read any more books where dogs died and I would own it. And I think, I think ever since I read that book, it started me on this kind of thing where I always kind of look at the end of the book to see what happens.
Nanci Turner Steveson: Sure. So you don't have to go through that again
Grace Lin: Yeah, or at least be prepared. You know?
Nanci Turner Steveson: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And that was the thing about Charlotte's Web is that it was very, very sad that Charlotte died, but it was also kind of a beautiful thing. I remember carrying the copy of that book around clutched to my chest for days and days and days until finally my dad said, "Do you think you're ever going to put it down?" And I said, "I don't know. I just don't know." Yeah, it was beautiful.
Grace Lin: How do you think that book has affected your writing?
Nanci Turner Steveson: Tremendously. Very, very much. And as evidenced in Swing Sideways, there's an ending that has a tragedy, but at the same time, it's a really beautiful beginning for a whole new story and a beginning that needed to happen.
Grace Lin: Oh, tell us a little bit more about that.
Nanci Turner Steveson: So, Swing Sideways is about, it's a friendship story about two girls who meet one summer, who both are coming very unlikely friendship, and they're coming into this from very, very different places in their lives, but each of them have something that the other one needs at that moment in time desperately. And they're polar opposites. Like I said, it's a very unlikely friendship and there's a lot of work throughout the story on building this friendship and this beautiful relationship that ends a little bit tragically, but at the same time, the peripheral things that were so instrumental to the manifestation of their friendship bloomed and became healed and beautiful, and real, and necessary. And there are ponies involved; there's an injured stray dog, there's an exotic pet chicken.
Nanci Turner Steveson: Yeah, yeah it's wonderful. And it takes place on a farm.
Grace Lin: Oh, that sounds really nice. Has Charlotte's Web affected any of your other books besides that one?
Nanci Turner Steveson: I think it's affected everything that I have written. I use it as a mentor text when I teach also, but it's such a beautiful story and the characters, the way that they are with each other translate into my other books, none of my books thus far anyway, have animals who talk to each other, but there are always relationships that are built on things with these kind of opposites, there's Templeton, the rat in Charlotte's Web who makes friends, begrudgingly with all these other animals who are much softer and kinder. There's a lot of things like that throughout my books that I think are meaningful to kids and to people to readers so that they can see that this is good. This is great. Open yourself up to friendships.
Grace Lin: Yeah. And I think it is something about the bitter-sweetness of life that was so beautiful about Charlotte's Web, it's kind of like, it was such, as we were talking earlier, it was a crying book, but not a heartbreaking crying book in that of the injustice and tragedy of life. It was more the circle of life, I guess.
Nanci Turner Steveson: Exactly, exactly. And it's interesting because you go through this whole part where towards the end of your cheering and you're so excited and you're so happy, and then the inevitable happens and that's life, that's the way that life is. I think it was a great experience for me to read that on the page before I actually experienced it in real life.
Grace Lin: Yeah.
Nanci Turner Steveson: And I think that's so important to kids too.
Grace Lin: Yeah. It's like kind of a safe way to realize how life works, I think.
Nanci Turner Steveson: Yeah. Put your toe in the water, sort of. Yeah.
Grace Lin: That's kind of the beauty of books too. And why books that make you cry are actually really valuable. I know that people like me, I don't usually like books that make me cry. I like books that like take me to different places and more escapism. But, I do think books that make you cry are extremely valuable.
Nanci Turner Steveson: Yeah. And you know, the take you to the different place and escapism is also evident in all of my books. One of the things that my editor said to me once that I just love, he said, "You've created this magical place where the rules of the real world don't apply." And in my books, which I just love, I actually have a little poster of that, that I made that's near my computer. So I can remind myself on those days when it's hard to face everything.
Grace Lin: Oh, how beautiful. Well, thank you so much, Nancy, for answering that question and thank you Jonathan, for asking it.
Nanci Turner Steveson: Thank you, Jonathan. And thank you, Grace.
Grace Lin: Bye.
Nanci Turner Steveson: Bye, take care. Thank you so much.
Today’s BOOK REVIEW by Mila! Mila is reviewing, Imani’s Moon by JaNay Brown-Wood with pictures by Hazel Mitchell.
The book I would like to talk about is, Imani’s Moon, authored by JaNay Brown-Wood with pictures by Hazel Mitchell. This book is about a little girl named Imani who has a tiny body but big wishes. She adores stories and one day she hears one that inspires her to touch the moon. Will she make it? Read this book and find out! I enjoyed this original and amazing adventure because it shows a small girl can do awe striking things. I believe that this book shows a lesson of the power in the small who believe.
Thank you Mila!
More about today’s authors:
Nanci Turner Steveson is the proud author of middle-grade realistic fiction: Swing Sideways (HarperCollins 2016); Georgia Rules (HarperCollins 2017); and Lizzie Flying Solo (HarperCollins, April 2019) about a recently homeless girl who loves a pony she can’t have. Swing Sideways was published internationally and earned a Scholastic Book Fair selection. Georgia Rules is a Bank Street College of Education Best book of 2018 with Outstanding Merit, and Lizzie Flying Solo made Kirkus’ “Best Book of 2019” list and was A Mighty Girl’s “Best Book of 2019.” After Nanci’s children grew up she packed her truck and trailer with her horse, her dog, and a mysterious antique box and headed west. She now lives in a historic, meadow cabin in the shadow of the Tetons where she writes books. Nanci is the Education Director for Off Square Theatre Company, is on the Board of Directors of Jackson Hole Writers Conference, runs a free Almost Authors Summer Writing Camps for children, and created the Literacy for Hope Project which gets books into the hands of homeless adults and children.
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.
