Lois Lowry
Despite the rain, this year’s National Book Festival broke all previous attendance records when an estimated 130,000 crowded the Mall to see their favorite authors. Lois Lowry, acclaimed author and two-time Newbery Medal winner (The Giver and Number the Stars), spoke to a packed audience about her newest book Crow Call.
Crow Call, set in post-World War II America, is the story of a father and daughter reconnecting after he returns from war. First published for adults in the late 1970s, the story is based upon events from Lowry’s own childhood. I got the chance to speak with Lois Lowry at the National Book Festival about her current projects, writing process, and influences.
Contributor: Emily Griffin
Emily Griffin: How did Crow Call come about?
Lois Lowry: An editor at Scholastic encountered this story that had been published so long ago and asked if she could turn it into a picture book. That’s when she hired the illustrator and it evolved into the picture book.
EG: Did you have any say in choosing the illustrator?
LL: No, and that would have been a mistake if I had tried to because editor know all the illustrators and know their work and I don’t. And so, I just depended upon her to choose the best one and she certainly did that.
EG: Do you know where the plaid shirt is? (In Crow Call the father buys his daughter a plaid hunting shirt.)
LL: No, it’s gone. When I was eleven years old my family moved to Tokyo and a lot of stuff got lost. We lived several years in Japan and when I came back stuff that had been dear to me when I was younger was gone.
EG: Did you ever try hunting again?
LL: No no, oh no.
EG: What is your writing process? Do you write very day?
LL: Very often I’m on the road, like now, and last week I was in Idaho, but when I’m home, and I actually have two houses and each house has an office. I have a house in Cambridge Massachusetts and I have an old farm house in Maine. So I go to my office--and for some reason in Maine we call it the studio--and I spend the entire day there. I poke my head out now and then to pick up the mail or to have lunch but it is a full working day.
EG: When you spoke earlier you mentioned that you rewrite, you don’t do drafts. Why is that?
LL: When I worked on a typewriter I then would re-do the whole manuscript. That was torture because I was never a good typist. But now on a computer I revise as I go along so I don’t end up with sets of separate drafts that scholars can later look at. I just have the one final manuscript.
EG: You also mentioned earlier how you constantly narrate things in your head, at what point do you decide to pursue an idea further?
LL: Well, that’s interesting. Very often--well not very often--what happens is a character will appear to me. I don’t know how that happens but that’s what happens. And the character will often appear with a name. And then when that happens I find that my subconscious, I suppose, but certainly my imagination, working on that character. Trying to figure out what that character’s story is. I don’t know it’s a kind of magical process; I can’t describe it very well.
EG: Are there any books that you love to re-read? Something that you keep going back to over the years? That keeps resonating?
LL: If I thought about that for a period of time I would probably come up with something but not on the spur of the moment. I read a lot and I read very fast and the bad thing about that is that I don’t retain what I read. And so I do go back and read books again but it’s not because I love them so much it’s because I can’t remember what the hell happened in them. My husband reads very slowly so he reads every word and he remembers it all for a very long time.
EG: Who are you reading right now? Are there any children’s or young adult authors you’re excited about?
LL: I don’t read kids books. It’s a matter of time. The books that I read are about people to whom I can relate. I’ve just finished the new Richard Russo, That Old Cape Magic, which I liked very much. I just finished the new Lorrie Moore book, which got wonderful reviews.
EG: How has being a grandmother influenced your writing?
LL: I was writing books for kids a number of years before my first grandchild was born. My first grandchild is twenty-six so he’s been around for a long time. I think after I began to have grandchildren and then also acquired step-grandchild, of which I have five. I began to appreciate more my own books and other children’s books from a kid’s point-of-view rather than from my own point-of-view. It’s hard to describe. This is a silly example but the question I’ve been asked most often about The Giver, and I’ve been asked it for years and years and years. Is “how did you get the idea for that book?” Somebody asked it today. They always do. Taxi drivers ask it, my dentist asks it, and it gets irritating after a while to have to answer the same question again and again. Yet when my own granddaughter asked it of me, she was probably nine at the time, and this sweet little kid said “how did you get the idea...” I suddenly realized that for every kid it’s the first time they’ve asked that, and so it happened to be my own grandchild that reminded me of that. And now I’m watching younger grandchildren, that granddaughter is sixteen now but my younger ones are eight and ten, and watching the way they enjoy books; it just gives me a close up picture of my audience because I don’t go out and visit schools anymore.
EG: Mrs. Pigeon seems like a really great teacher. Would you talk a bit about her?
LL: You know I worry about her though, from my point of view. Because, she is terrific, but she often is portrayed I think as loosing control of the classroom. The main character is the child, and of course in a children’s book the protagonist is the one who has to solve the problems and so very often in those books the child steps forward and saves the day for the teacher and I worry that teachers will begin to resent that. In one of the books she is gone for a bit and there is a substitute who is very rigid and in contrast you can tell the difference.
EG: Was there a particular reason you had Gooney Bird’s class study Aesop’s fables and poetry?
LL: For those books I’ve just tried to think each month of a school year what a second grade class might be studying, and teachers like to use those books as a taking-off point for some section of what that their going to teach. I happened to never go to second grade, I skipped second grade. In those days they just put people ahead if they were advanced in anyway. So I don’t know what second graders' learned but I tried to think of what teachers use.
EG: What inspired Gooney Bird’s brain-warming hat?
LL: Let’s see, I have a grandson who has just turned eleven and I remember that--we’re going to have to do a little math here--the year that 911 happened it was 2001 so that was eight years ago, he was three at the time. And my son and his wife suddenly noticed that this three year old was wearing underpants on his head all the time, and not in any “look at me I’m being goofy” way, and they discovered that he was thinking of it as a safety device. He had been affected by the aura of fear that came over everybody and he began calling it, now I’ve forgotten, but it was his safety hat. So I think that stuck with me and I just translated it into Gooney Bird.
Learn more about Lois Lowry’s books by visiting her website (www.loislowry.com)
Reviews
Crow Call
Lois Lowry
Illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline
The story opens with a young girl heading out on a hunting trip with a father she has not seen for some time. He has been off fighting a war and now he is home. Previously when in town, Lizzie had spied a hunting shirt in a store window. It was a beautiful rainbow plaid, but way to big for such a young girl. No matter, her father made the purchase noting that she would never outgrow the shirt. They stop at a diner and have cherry pie for breakfast—Lizzie’s favorite thing to eat. They discuss the war and his fears--as well as her fears, in particular going hunting. They discuss the cycle of life and how crows eat the crops to survive. In spite of that Lizzie just doesn’t have it in her heart to hunt them. She uses her crow call and they flock to her and surround her. Lizzie says “They think I’m their friend!” Her father refrains from shooting the crows and leaves that for another day or another hunter. Today, he and his daughter walk hand–in-hand and head back home. The illustration by Ibatoulline are evocative of a frosty autumn morning—soft browns with a sky that is just beginning to light up. The trees bare of leaves and mist rising from the hills add a sense of mystery and fear as the two wait to see if the crows will respond to Lizzie’s call. They are a perfect match for the story. Lowry’s story will resonate today as it did back in 1945 when she went through the experience of reacquainting herself with a father who had recently returned from World War II. Today’s children are separated not only from fathers but mothers who head off to places like Afghanistan and Iraq, risking their lives and then having to come home and try to re-establish relationships with family and life in general. As Lois Lowry says on the closing page “And so this story is not really just my story, but everyone’s.” 2009, Scholastic, Ages 7 up, $16.99. Reviewer: Marilyn Courtot (Children's Literature).
ISBN: 978-0-545-03035-9
ISBN: 0-545-03035-8
Gooney Bird is So Absurd
Lois Lowry
Illustrated by Middy Thomas
Gooney Bird's second grade class launches into a poetry study on a wintery January day, with Mrs. Pidgeon leading them through readings of poems written by her failing mother. As the class explores different types of poems, they cannot contain their enthusiasm about trying to write some themselves. They even inspire their principal to try his hand at a limerick. The motley mix of children in this class might be some teachers' nightmare, but Mrs. Pidgeon handles their differences with understanding while encouraging respect for diversity and maintaining some classroom order. Then, Mrs. Pidgeon's mother dies. The class composes a poem for many voices to celebrate her life and offer support for their teacher. As usual, Gooney Bird makes a distinctive fashion statement in the book. This time, it is ruffly underpants; they provide holes for her two ponytails and keep her brain warm so ideas and words flow! Thomas' sketches add humor and visual clues. Lowry manages to craft an entertaining story that packs in lots of information about poetry, learning styles and effective teaching. Teachers will flock to this book as they introduce poetry units to their classes! Young readers ready for easy chapter books will enjoy this latest addition to a fun series. 2009, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Ages 6 to 8, $15.00. Reviewer: Peg Glisson (Children's Literature).
ISBN: 978-0-547-11967-0
Added 10/27/09
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