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What is your favorite thing about being a writer? Half–well, five, of my 12 books are historical novels, and I enjoyed the reading they required tremendously. Being allowed to consider reading “work,” and therefore not feeling like a self-indulgent slouch as I spend week after week just reading, is lovely. Learning why we do some of the things we take for granted doing is another bonus. I know that’s only half an answer, but I can’t pin down the other half. Once I accepted, first, that I couldn’t draw, and second that I couldn’t have at least 3 children, writing is all I’ve wanted to do. I simply enjoy crafting sentences, making up stories. Occasionally a book will have a more than casual purpose. Darkness Over the Land was written as I was trying to make sense of the Third Reich, which
had baffled me since childhood. Sarah the Dragon Lady is about coping with loneliness and was written for the sake of a niece who’d been moved from state to state to state and was really unhappy. Kate of Still Waters resulted from my hearing a counselor say how rust belt farm children's school performance was suffering from their worry over maybe losing their homes; from their getting less sleep and having less time for schoolwork on account of having to pitch in around the house for a working mother, or doing more farm chores as their fathers took on outside jobs. I meant Kate of Still Waters to be an encouraging book, though some chapters are grim. Some chapters, like the one about wrapping Lexington's tallest building with silver-sequined burlap, are just for fun.
Interview with Martha Bennett Stiles
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Do you have a certain process for writing? I majored in chemistry, and have had to remind myself from time to time that Louisa May Alcott didn’t have the benefit of writing classes either. In the beginning, I made my story up as I went along. This makes for an episodic narrative. I have grown more systematic through the years. Having a plan in the first place is both more efficient and more apt to result in esthetic success, and, as I used to reassure my students, one hasn’t to regard this plan as the tablets of Moses. If my story starts willfully surprising me, I permit it some leeway. When I began Lonesome Road, I had no idea where the disappeared child, Lang, was, and didn’t aim ever to say. As I wrote, I realized how cruel this was, to the parents, who had become real to me, and to any readers. So then I had to stop and figure out what had become of Lang. Well, where was he last seen? By the mailbox. Well, the neighbor boy says Lang didn’t come to his house, so Lang was most likely picked up at the mailbox, most likely by someone he knew. And so on for more than a dozen chapters I hadn’t expected to write. Sailing to Freedom was conceived with just one hero, a 12-year old cabin boy who is afraid for awhile that he is going to get chucked overboard, but who winds up a dazzling hero. Urged to give him even more adventures, I considered that you can have too much of a good thing, and instead invented a second hero, ashore. Ogun, 11, is an escaping rice plantation slave, bits of whose story alternate with the Massachusetts cabin boy’s. Island Magic, a gentle story about a boy and his grandfather on Grosse Ile, Michigan for which Dan San Souci painted such beautiful watercolors, began as a parody of Carl Sandburg’s Fog. Sometimes all I have at the beginning is a question. How could the country that produced Brahms, Beethoven, Mozart, Heinrich Heine, my family’s creche, produce the SS? My husband’s Guggenheim gave me a year in Munich, allowing me to pursue that question, and write my most seriously intended book, Darkness Over the Land. Which of your books did you enjoy writing the most? The character whose story gave me the most pleasure writing it is Sailing to Freedom’s runaway slave, Ogun. Certain facts had to be got across in Sailing to Freedom, and I had Cook’s helper, Ray, help me deal with them all in his chapters. I was free, then, in writing Ogun’s parts, to concentrate on Ogun–what is he feeling, thinking, remembering. I am naturally therefore strongly attached to Ogun. For dearest female character, maybe Sarah the Dragon Lady. I permitted Sarah to deal imaginatively, successfully, with problems which bulldozed me when I was her age. Do you have a favorite children’s book? Gracious no, I am attached to far too many. Naming the first half dozen favorites that spring to mind will I hope be acceptable–The Sword in the Stone; The Wind in the Willows; Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone; all the Louise Andrews Kent He Went Withs I could lay hands on; Johnny Tremain (though it does some whitewashing); Histoire de Babar, le petit éléphant, my first book-huge, in French, and I nine months old–my first Christmas gift from my writer grandfather, John Bennett. My memory of Babar begins at two, I on my stomach on the floor, poring over every detail in every picture, who knows how many times. Today the only French I know, aside from the snatches a tourist must learn to survive, are lines that my patient mother read to me many times. Ce n’est pas un joujou, monsieuer l’ éléphant is never much use in Paris, but it brings back happy memories of my mother, my grandfather, my treasured first book. Is there a particular genre that you most enjoy? I have published 5 historical novels, and, with modern settings, 3 picture books, 2 middle-grades, one young adult and one adult novel. I guess I am Browning’s last duchess incarnate, she who liked whatever she looked on, and her glance fell everywhere. This has not quite cost me, like her, my life, but certainly had I settled on one age of reader, one time period, I would be less obscure. For me, the sacrifice would have conclusively outweighed the benefit, which is why I didn’t make it, but I do confess to wistfulness.
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You have lived in Kentucky for a long time. What is your favorite thing about Kentucky? Kentuckians are grand, but I have found grand people absolutely everywhere, so let’s choose something only our own, our wonderful landscape. I float along the Paris Pike and appreciate that I am among the world’s privileged. And I remind myself that this countryside will disappear if horse racing fades. We took a visiting Swiss couple for a picnic into Kentucky’s mountains and they were soberly enraptured. “There is nowhere in Switzerland,” they said, “where we can have this experience.” As we knew them for skiers, we were puzzled, but they continued: “Nowhere in Switzerland can we stand and see nothing made by the hand of man. Even where there is no house, no road, there is always a wire...” Forgive me for not leaving that perfect moment perfect: please, please inform yourselves about mountaintop removal. Can you tell us about your newest book Sailing to Freedom? The major narrator, Ray, a twelve-year-old whose clipper ship-captain father gave him a monkey to console him for not getting to sail on said clipper, works for the cook on a coastal schooner which is smuggling the cook’s infant granddaughter to a Canadian island. Ashore, the infant’s mother and 11-year-old brother are making their way by any means to the said island. Nobody has it easy. Are you currently working on any new books? I am always working on new books. Do you have any upcoming events? First, Kentucky’s marvelous, Carl West-inspired November 9-10 Book Fair that manager Connie Crowe and her staff work on so selflessly every year. Then a talk to Lexington’s Transylvania DAR, who are kindly interested in One Among the Indians, it being about a real Jamestown boy who was a hostage to Pocahontas’s father for 3 years, and like Pocahontas, has identifiable descendants living in this country to this day.
Look for Martha Bennett Stiles at the McConnell Conference 2013. She will be signing!
Kate and Nate are Running Late is the newest book by Dan Yaccarino. Check out this book from 2013 McConnell featured presenter Dan Yaccarino! http://bit.ly/Dan2013Presenter
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November 3 at 7:00 pm Discussion of Michael Grant’s BZRK http://bit.ly/McConnellBZRK November 24 at 7:00 pm Discussion of Veronica Roth’s Divergent http://bit.ly/DivergentMcConnell December 1 at 10:00 am Wrapping for the foster children of Fayette county. http://bit.ly/HolidayMcConnell Please RSVP on our Facebook pages or the form found here for these events so we know approximately how many are coming or if we need to reschedule. ~Thanks!
McConnell Conference March 1-2, 2013 Embassy Suites Hotel, Lexington, KY https://ci.uky.edu/lis/mcconnellconference
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Every month leading up to the McConnell 2013 Conference, the McConnell newsletter will feature a new book review from one of our 2013 featured presenters. These reviews will introduce you to our authors and some of their work. If you have any books from our 2013 presenters you would like us to review, please send suggestions to: mercedes.hopewell@gmail.com
The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs By Jack Gantos
Is love a curse? Can you love your family too much? Jack Gantos address this dilemma in The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs. This is a dark gothic story about Ivy Spirco, a girl who is caught up in a curse. The curse makes the love she feels for her mother dark and disturbing at times. She is part of three generations of a family who are doomed to love their mother beyond reason. The story follows Ivy’s growth from childhood to adulthood. Her family is made up of a cast of strange characters. The Rambaugh twins teach Ivy how to taxidermy and provide semi-father figures. Ivy’s mother dresses her in the same outfits and parades her around town. Ivy is obsessed with her mother and even more obsessed with her mother’s future death. As Ivy learns to taxidermy she starts to question her mother immortality. She also starts to ponder dark thoughts. This book is for readers, who like macabre environments, dark plots, and twisted characters. A moral discussion about love in all its forms, follows after a reading of this book. This is defiantly a unique book in the world of young adult fiction. For those who like physiological thrillers this might be for them. Gantos, J. (2006). The love curse of the Rumbaughs. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Read A-Likes Hartnett, S. (2006). Surrender. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press. Sebold, A. (2007). The almost moon: A novel. New York: Little, Brown and Co. Werlin, N. (2006). The rules of survival. New York: Dial Books.
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Thanks to everyone who came to the McConnell Board Game Night! Look for the next McConnell event on November the 3rd at 7:00pm. http://bit.ly/McConnellBZRK
Above: Chris Walz, Jessica Herrington, and Mary Mayfield.
Above: Jesse MacLean, Caleb Dunaway, David Senatore, and Tyler Anderson
To the Left: Andrea Johnston, Aaron Palmer, and Heather Burke
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Be an Angel! This holiday season the McConnell Center is taking donations for three Fayette county foster children. We have a wish list for the two boys and one girl that you can check out here http://bit.ly/TR5jvv. We hope to make this a great holiday for these children. Donations can be dropped off at the McConnell Center. We will be wrapping their gifts at the center on December 1st, 10:00am.
In the annual Teens’ Top Ten poll sponsored by YALSA, teens choose Divergent as their favorite book. Below is a list of the top ten books teens choose. 1) Divergent by Veronica Roth 2) The Fault in Our Stars by John Green 3) Legend by Marie Lu 4) Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
5) What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen 6) Across the Universe by Beth Revis 7) Cinder by Marissa Meyer 8) The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater 9) Where She Went by Gayle Forman 10) Abandon by Meg Cabot
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We are excited to announce the 2013 Connecting with Characters Contest. All kids in preschool through 12th grade in Kentucky or a neighboring state can enter. Sponsoring libraries and schools must register to participate by November 30, 2012. Entries must be received by January 18, 2013. The Contest is in conjunction with the 2013 McConnell Conference for Youth Literature, which will feature Jack Gantos, Dan Yaccarino and Selene Castrovilla. We hope that the Contest will provide an opportunity for the youth of Kentucky and the surrounding states to connect with the works of these wonderful contributors to the world of literature for youth. Participants could win a signed copy of Jack Gantos’s Dead End in Norvelt, the 2012 Newbery Medal Winner! There are also great titles available by Dan Yaccarino and Selene Castrovilla. More information is forth coming but be sure to check out our website at https://ci.uky.edu/lis/mcconnell-contest-2013
If for you, NBA has nothing to do with basketball and everything to do with books, then check out the National Book Award finalists for the Young People's Literature category:
William Alexander, Goblin Secrets “A boy joins a theatrical troupe of goblins to find his missing brother.”
Carrie Arcos, Out of Reach “A girl searches for her missing brother who is an addict.” Patricia McCormick, Never Fall Down “A child of war tries to stay alive in Cambodia against all odds” Eliot Schrefer, Endangered “One girl tries to save a group of bonobos from destruction.” Steve Sheinkin, Bomb: The Race to Build---- and Steal--- the World's Most Dangerous Weapon “A fascinating story about how one split atom changed the course of history.”
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STUDENT SECTION INFORMATION FOR SLIS STUDENTS
Are you in LIS 610 or LIS 613 this Fall? Come use the McConnell Center! We can help you find books to use for your class. Hours Monday & Tuesday 10 am - 3 pm Wednesday & Thursday 12 pm - 5 pm
Or by appointment contact mercedes.hopewell@gmail.com
Krista King has a new article in the Fall 2012 Young Adult Library Services journal. Krista King is an alumna of the School of Library and Information Science. She was also the McConnell Graduate Assistant from 2008 to 2009. Krista’s article is called “Advocacy, Teens, and Strategic Planning.” She talks about how libraries can utilize teens in their strategic planning. Check out her article in the newest issue of Young Adult Library Services this month! King, K. (2012). Advocacy, teens, and strategic planning. Young Adult Library Services, 11(1), 24-26. Picture by Krista King
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On the Blog: ARC Read & Review 2012! We have the following titles available for anyone who wants to read and review them for the McConnell Center blog at http:// youthlitmatters.wordpress.com/ New Books in the Center: Juvenile Fiction The Peculiar by Stefan Bachmann Seraphina by Rachel Hartman Young Adult The Crown of Embers by Rae Carson
A vital gathering place for books and ideas, the McConnell Center is committed to identifying excellent literature for children and adolescents and to bringing this literature to the attention of those adults who have an academic, professional, career, or personal interest in connecting young readers with books. We maintain two main, non-
Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
In the Center: Join us for the a discussion of Michael Grant’s BZRK!
Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn
Our next event will be a discussion of Discussion of Anderson Michael Grant’s BZRK on A Confusion of Princes by Garth November 3 at 7:00 pm Find us on Facebook to RSVP for this Nix event. http://bit.ly/McConnellBZRK Picture Books You can find the McConnell Facebook Group here: In the Land of Milk and Honey http://on.fb.me/ by Joyce Carol Thomas, McConnellReadingGroup illustrated by Floyd Cooper Everything Goes in the Air by Brian Biggs
circulating collections: Our Current Collection includes all books sent to us for review by publishers during the current year. The Permanent Collection is several collections of books maintained in the Center as a resource for students and librarians. It includes the Basic Collection, the Awardwinning Collection (Caldecott, Newbery, Printz, Morris, Pura Belpré, Sibert, and Orbis Pictus Awards), the Kentucky Collection (notable Kentucky authors and books about Kentucky), the Reference Collection, and the Periodical Collection. Our Fall 2012 hours are Monday & Tuesday 10 pm - 3 pm and Wednesday & Thursday 12 pm - 5 pm
You can now RSVP for Center Events via the following form: http://bit.ly/McConnellRSVP
Please visit our website for more information: https://ci.uky.edu/lis/mcconnellcenter
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