Author Interview: Susan Patron

I'm a big fan of Susan Patron, Newbery award winning author of The Higher Power of Lucky. She was kind enough to take some time away from writing to answer a few questions for Cool Kids Read. You can read my review of Lucky Breaks here. Thanks, Susan!

(Be sure to visit Susan's website, too: www.susanpatron.com)

Cool Kids Read: When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

Susan Patron: I was eight and our teacher had just finished reading Charlotte's Web aloud to the class. It left me consumed with a longing to write stories that would have a powerful effect on readers; I hadn't known it was possible to do that and I wanted to try.

CKR: What did your experiences as a librarian teach you about the children’s genre?

SP: That children live in the same world we do; they want reliable information, they want to escape, they want entertainment, and many want books that will help them figure out questions of mortality, morality, shades of meaning: life.

CKR: Who are your favorite authors to read, past and present?

SP: This is off the top of my head: Anne Tyler, John Updike, Anne Lamott, Stewart O'Nan, Elmore Leonard, Nancy Farmer, Theresa Nelson, James Marshall, Beverly Cleary, E.B. White, Beatrix Potter, William Steig, John Green, Geraldine McCaughrean…

CKR: What inspired the idea for The Higher Power of Lucky?

SP: It took over ten years to write the book, and a lot of my own life experiences played into it. For instance, my mother died in 2003 which made me realize—I hadn't known this before—that Lucky had lost her mother and was longing for her. Also, my husband and I spend a lot of time in California's Eastern Sierra area, which became the setting for the story and strongly affected its events.

CKR: What affect did winning the Newbery have on your writing?

SP: I feel, every single day, overwhelmingly grateful. At the same time, as I explain to children in presentations, you would think that winning a major award would be the highest validation of your work, and would free you from self-doubt and writer's block. Well, yes, of course it's hugely validating, but paradoxically the self-doubt and fear were magnified rather than banished. Writing the next book (Lucky Breaks) was enormously difficult because it felt as if a giant critical spotlight was shining on every page.

CKR: Do you have one particular character you enjoy writing more than the others?

SP: I love writing about Miles, who is loosely modeled on my little sister, Georgia.

CKR: Lucky Breaks continues your story, and I understand you are working on the third in the series. Did you always plan this to be a trilogy?

SP: No; I envisioned the first book as an entity but when I finished it I couldn't bear to leave Hard Pan. Then the same thing happened when I finished Lucky Breaks; I wanted to continue to explore the characters' stories. Writing this final book of the trilogy is satisfying because I get to tie up all loose ends (which I hadn't been aware were loose ends as I wrote them). I'm the kind of writer that discovers how it works as I go groping along, taking stabs and making a lot of mistakes, trying to figure out how best to tell the story.

CKR: Any hints you’d like to drop about what happens in the third book?

SP: Miles gets caught in a difficult, untenable situation; Brigitte faces an enormous challenge; the town of Hard Pan changes; and Lucky makes some discoveries that shift her understanding of the world.

CKR: The Higher Power of Lucky has been optioned – any news on when the film will be made?

SP: No news yet; stay tuned!

CKR: Anything else you'd like to share?

SP: Here are a couple of excerpts of letters from kids. They give the writer in me the courage to face the blank page and get on with the work.

"The first book was really good. It really got my attention. It made me want to read more and more. I also can't waite until it's time for the next book of Lucky."

"It is good that you used a lot of incredible vocab. I thought the book had a good meaning it was funny to. I just wanted to take this time to thank you very much."

"The book that I am reading is the very first book I have read by you. I think it is good because I can relate to all the characters. Have you ever been to Harrisburg? You should go sometime it is a good place and you can do a lot of other interesting things. I can connect to Lucky because my mom also died and I felt just like her."

It just doesn't get any better than that.

Alex and the Ironic Gentleman by Adrienne Kress

I stumbled upon the audio version of Alex and the Ironic Gentleman (Weinstein Books, 2007) which is read gloriously by Christopher Lane, btw. I am a couple of years late coming upon it (its sequel, Alex and the Wigpowder Treasure came out last year, so it obviously did well at the bookstore).

[update: Adrienne Kress let me know that this title is actually the UK title for Alex and the Ironic Gentleman and that the sequel is Timothy and the Dragon's Gate, which is out now, see below. Thanks for the clarification, Adrienne and I apologize for the confusion!]

There is a great deal of good to say about this story. For one, Adrienne Kress has a magnificent, snarky storytelling voice, and she unfolds the tale with a sarcasm and wit I thoroughly enjoyed.

The first few chapters hooked me immediately -- tomboy Alex Morningside is a great character, and I love it when the main character in an adventure story is a girl.

Typically orphaned, 10 year old Alex lives with her uncle and before long, her beloved sixth grade teacher, Mr. Underwood, ends up moving in with them as well. Turns out, Underwood happens to be the descendant of a famous pirate, and only living heir, to a lost treasure.

So begins Alex's involvement in helping Mr. Underwood find the missing treasure map, and subsequent treasure. That is, until Alex's uncle is murdered by another band of pirates (led by the dreaded Captain Steele who is also trying to get the treasure). And, as if that wasn't bad enough, the beloved Mr. Underwood is taken prisoner.

And here's where the train jumped the tracks a bit for me (lucky, it re-railed itself near the end). As Alex heads off, determined to rescue Mr. Underwood, the story veers off in odd directions, like David Lynch at the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. She has one odd encounter after another, with quirky characters who do bizarre things.

Alex boards a train that travels for hours but never gets anywhere, but carries an ever-shrinking group of people who seem to be living the same party over and over. And don't even ask what's in their champagne glasses. When she finally escapes that scene, she discovers a hotel deep in the woods, complete with talking appliances. This journey to save Mr. Underwood is packed with an offbeat oddness that I eventually warmed to, but at first found unsettling.

That said, I found myself re-hooked throughout the last quarter of the book, right up until the Last Chapter, "in which all the strings are tied up". The sequel, Timothy and the Dragon's Gate (2009, Weinstein Books) will be making my to-be-read list. Seriously, a combination of dragons and Kress' writing style has got to be good.

Listed for 10 and up. I agree, maybe even older for the more sensitive reader.

3 1/2 bookmarks, leaning toward 4. If you've read this book, what did YOU think about it?

Things May Be Slowing Down A Bit

You may have noticed I haven't posted as many reviews lately. That's because I'm going full throttle (finally) on writing my new book and I tend to not read as much when I'm writing.

I do hope to have some guest bloggers throughout the summer, however, and if you would like to be one of them, please email me at kimberlyjsmith1@mac.com.

In the meantime, I'd like to share an article about YA literature that was published in the Wall Street Journal last week. Since it featured "13 Reasons Why" (see my review here) I thought it was worth posting.

Here it is.

Also worth sharing is a letter to the editor in response by Lisa Von Drasek (Children's Librarian, Bank Street, Library of Education, New York):

"Although I was thrilled to see a full-page article on young-adult books ("It Was, Like, All Dark and Stormy," Weekend Journal, June 6), I am sorry that it misses the point.

The waters of adolescence are dark and stormy. The issues of eating disorders, cutting, depression and, yes, suicide are present in what looks on the outside to be the most normal, typical teen. The gift of literature is the ability of the author to let us into the thoughts and point of view of the characters.

You lost an opportunity to do a deeper reading. "If I Stay" isn't just another dead-girl book; it is about exploring who we are, how we define our family and how we are connected to our community.

"Wintergirls" isn't a how-to manual on eating disorders, but examines the downward spiral of addictive behavior as family and friends watch helplessly from the sidelines. "Hunger Games" isn't just a dystopic fantasy of teens battling each other to the death but an examination of materialism, celebrity culture and the world-wide gap in access to resources like food, health and education.

Contrary to your statement that librarians "want to keep the book off the shelves," librarians are on the forefront of buying these books, writing and talking about them and handing them to teens. The shelves of the young-adult section of the library are packed with a variety of materials: the supernatural romance of "Twilight," the comic response to that in the "Reformed Vampire Support Group," the thoughtful contemporary fiction of Sarah Dessen and the award winning coming-of-age novels of Sherman Alexie."

Lucky Breaks by Susan Patron

Anyone lucky enough to take in Newbery winner The Higher Power of Lucky (2006, Simon & Schuster) will be thrilled to know that Susan Patron’s follow up, Lucky Breaks (2009, Simon & Schuster), is equally as well written and just as touchingly introspective as its predecessor.

Lucky is back, and she’s about to turn 11. A much more intrepid age than 10, to be sure, at least that’s what Lucky thinks. Brigitte (her French-born adoptive mother) is bringing the entire dusty little dessert town of Hard Pan together to celebrate. Miles and Lincoln return, and Lucky makes her first female BFF in Paloma, daughter of an archeologist digging near Hard Pan.

As before, the relationships are really the story here. Lucky’s feelings are all over the place, as any 11 year old’s would be. She’s not sure how she feels about Lincoln, he simultaneously intrigues and flabbergasts her. Miles is a less central character, but just as cute and brainy. But it’s Lucky’s new friendship with Paloma that makes this book so delightful to read.

“Higher Power” stirred up some controversy with a particular biological word (a controversy which IMHO is narrow-minded and petty), and if that offended you, be aware, that word is here again. But if you can look beyond that word to the bigger picture, you’ll find a story that touches the heart and captures the essence of childhood as it sits with its feet in the cold pool of adolescence, trying to gather up enough courage to plunge in. 4 bookmarks.