Maw Books

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Yesterday I posted a book review for  Crocodaddy by Kim Norman and illustrated by David Walker.  Crocodaddy is a fun rhyming book with adorable illustrations and I’m thrilled to share with you an interview with Kim as she discusses Crocodaddy, picture books, school presentations, parsnips and more!

Maw Books:  You say you wrote Crocodaddy based on your own memories with your own father and watching  your two sons play in the backyard pool.  What was the moment like when it “clicked” and you realized that you had the base for a fun story?

Kim Norman: Many of my inspirations come from wordplay. I just love words, especially made up words, which kids are good at inventing.  So I kept thinking Crocodaddy MUST be in a book, and probably in rhyme, but… what KIND of book.  That took a bit more time.

Maw Books:  Did you start writing it right away or did you let it “stew” for a bit?

Kim Norman: Yes, I’d say as much as a couple of years. I like to walk in the early morning, and I’d think about it then, during my walks. Not every day for two years, of course, just now and then. Finally I drafted a version that had some solid rhymes and a bit of suspense, but my critique group thought it might be a bit too intense for toddlers, maybe even scary. So during another walk, the rhythm of that refrain came to me, (”Crocodaddy, Crocodaddy, whatcha gonna do?….”) and somehow that added extra playfulness to the story.

Maw Books:  The illustrations for Crocodaddy by David Walker are adorable.  What is it like to put your book into the hands of an illustrator in hopes that they have the same vision as you?

Kim Norman: You know, that is such fun. I always wait with anticipation to see what they come up with. Not just how the characters will look, but also how they add to my story. So far, none of my illustrators have disappointed me in that regard. I often show students during school visits how the illustrators have added to the story beyond my words on the page. I’ve already begun to see sketches for TEN ON THE SLED, one of the two books I’ve got coming out next year. Again, the illustrator made me laugh out loud with humorous touches she added to flesh out my story. And, of course, with CROCODADDY, David Walker’s paintings are so lush, I want to jump into the paintings and join the fun.

Maw Books:  What is your favorite spread in Crocodday and why?

Kim Norman: Gosh, hard to pick just one. Can I cheat and pick 2? The first is “slowly, s-l-o-w-l-y Crocodaddy sinks.” I like not only David’s painting, but the design of the whole page, including the way the book designer arranged the text. (Oh and let me just put in a plug for book designers everywhere, at this point. At Sterling, a young man named Scott was in charge of the book’s overall design. It was he who chose that delightful crocodile-bumpy typeface for the cover, the text arrangements and all that other great stuff. Such an important contribution to the quality of the book.)

Number 2, a page that’s so sweet it speaks for itself without a single word from me, is the final page where dad and son are walking off at the end of a fun day. I won’t give away the delightful surprise on that page, but students always gasp with satisfaction when I point it out.

Maw Books:  That end illustration is wonderful.  You have illustrated books for other authors.  Do you ever intend to illustrate one of your own books?

Kim Norman: Well, to be honest, I just did that one book, THE MUSEUM DUCK, which is sold locally in our county museum. It was a great experience and a nice credit to get me started, but the longer I watch the amazing illustrators in my critique group as well as the illustrators of my own books, the more I know I’d still have to learn if I were ever to illustrate my own books. I’m a graphic artist, but my drawing muscles have withered in the past decade or two thanks to clip art. So, while I’d be very capable of designing the layout and choosing typefaces, I think I’ll have to leave the illustrating to the real pros until I’m closer to retirement, with more time to hone my skills.

Maw Books:  Crocodaddy is the perfect book to read-a-loud to a child because of the tempo and rhyme.  I’m not a writer so I’m clueless on all of this but is getting it just right difficult to do or does it come naturally to you?

Kim Norman: I adore writing in rhyme. It seems to come naturally to me, although I probably picked up many tips and tuned my ear to it by reading old poets when I was a child. Our house was full of my dad’s poetry books, like A Children’s Garden of Verse and A Treasury of the Familiar. Rhyme is the only type of writing I find addictive. I have to keep at it until it’s just right. Other types of writing… I tend to procrastinate. The one downside of writing in rhyme is that — if you change a word — you often have to go up and change the whole stanza above. But that’s fine, too. I always tell my editors, who are a bit apologetic asking me to change things — knowing the extra work of rhyme — that it’s okay. There are always other words to choose from.

Maw Books:  What is the best thing about writing books for children?  And what are some of the challenges of writing books for children?

Kim Norman: Probably the best thing is the kids themselves. Getting to meet them and interact with them at schools, once my book is published. And I seem to still have a childlike outlook about many things — humor, fantasy and imagination — so children’s writing just felt like home to me when I decided to give it a try after dabbling in several genres.

The biggest challenge of writing for children, especially picture books, is that EVERY word must count. There’s no room for extraneous plot points, or even unnecessary words, in a picture book. So editing a picture book usually involves cutting — which can be fun and excruciating at the same time. It’s kind of fun, seeing how tight and spare I can make it, but sometimes that means cutting a phrase or sentence I thought sounded especially nice.

Maw Books:  You were really active in musical theater and love to sing and dance. How has that background influenced your presentations when you go into schools to talk about books and reading?

Kim Norman: It has been immensely helpful. No one ever has to ask me to speak up. Unfortunately for my friends, I tend to speak too loudly on the phone, probably because of all those years of having to project to an audience. I also perform a few songs I wrote myself, so the music always adds a nice highpoint at the end of the presentations — to the younger students, anyway. I usually skip the songs with older students who would think they’re too babyish.

Maw Books:  It’s better to have an outgoing presenter than one who you can hardly hear.  Why do you love to visit schools?  What do you think you get out of it in addition to the kids walking away with a “spark” for the love of books.

Kim Norman: I do love it, probably because I’m a natural-born show-off. I’ve also been a home schooler for about a decade, including teaching classes at several co-ops, so I love teaching, too. I’m pretty good at controlling a crowd. In fact, I had a proud moment last week at a small school, where I’d been warned the 2nd grade class can be rambunctious. At one point, they were all listening intently to the story of my struggles with an “Evil Inner Editor.” (I also show pictures of her, which are good for some laughs.) At the end of that section of the talk, a woman who’d been sitting in the back of the room took a second to introduce herself. Turns out she was the principal, who said she was very impressed that I’d tamed those famously energetic 2nd graders.

Maw Books:  Do you have a funniest moment from your school visits?  A time when a child said something really funny or you had an embarrassing moment?

Kim Norman: Can’t think of anything particularly embarrassing; maybe because I’m hard to embarrass after all those years onstage, rolling with the punches. You’ve got to be prepared for anything in theater, ready with an ad-libbed line if something goes wrong, like the time I played the evil Miss Hannigan in ANNIE. I opened a door at the appointed time and found a chagrined policeman who was supposed to be delivering Annie back to the orphanage. He was alone because “Annie” had forgotten her entrance.

Gotta be quick with the rewrites in a situation like that, so countering a silly question or even a student who is being flippant & rude, (a fairly rare occurrence) — it’s all part of the think-on-your-feet training I had in theater.

I don’t want an audience that’s TOO tame, though. I like enough action and noise to know they’re enjoying the performance. (I do consider it a performance, although there is much more student interaction and participation than if I were simply giving a one-woman show). So there are many places where I invite laughter, especially when I show images of my homely “Evil Inner Editor,” created by a computer program which distorts images like a funhouse mirror.

Maw Books:  I’d love to see you in action!  What were you like as a young reader and what are you like now?  Same?  Different?

Kim Norman: I AM different now. I read almost no nonfiction as a child. I was addicted to fiction back then — absolutely INHALED books during what I call my “golden age of reading” around 5th grade. Read all the great series: Little House, Oz, The Black Stallion, even Freddie the Pig. Then as a young adult I spent about half a decade reading thru 19th century classics: Dickens, Austin, Elliott. Some I liked, some not so much. Now I find myself reading more nonfiction, particularly memoirs, (which — I realize — are probably closer to fiction sometimes!)

Maw Books:  I love memoirs.  Some of my best reads.  What is one book you will never be too old to love?

Kim Norman: Oh dear, do I have to pick only one? In that case, I’ll cheat and pick one from picture books and one from midgrade. In picture books, anything with cumulative verse/repetition, like The House that Jack Built. (Both my books coming out next year are based on cumulative verse classics.) And in mid-grades, I love stories set in the early to mid-20th century. I’m fascinated by the Depression and WWII eras. Not the war part, but the way families were living on the home front. (At which point, I should put in a plug for my friend Doris Gwaltney’s marvelous midgrade set in that time frame, HOMEFRONT, Simon & Schuster, 2006.)

Maw Books: I love books set during World War II too.  I’ve just put Homefront on hold at the library.  If you could have anybody illustrate one of your books, dead or alive, who would you choose and why?

Kim Norman: When my kids were little, and we were checking out books from the library, I always loved Steven Kellogg’s jolly illustrations. So much to see on each page! Someone sent one of my early manuscripts to him, and he kindly responded with a handwritten letter. What a sweet guy. He DID illustrate the book of my good friend Debbie Guarino, Is Your Mama a Llama?, which is still in print after nearly 20 years. That’s amazing in this industry of sometimes yogurt-length shelf life.

After that I discovered Stephen Gammell. You could spend hours looking at  one of his books and still find something new next time you opened it. He illustrated I Know an Old Teacher by Anne Bowen, a member of my critique group, and since I love her, I try not to be too jealous.

But so far, I have been very happy with all the illustrators hired by my publishers. My editors are more familiar with all the talent out there, so I’m content to let them do the choosing.

Maw Books: By the way, I recently met Ann Bowen, she’s a local author to me. This is a question that I ask of every author I review and that’s to have them share a favorite recipe of theirs, whether they appear in their book or not. I try to make it and then blog about it later.  Do you have a yummy favorite recipe that you’d like to share?

Kim Norman: How fun! In the past year or two, I’ve been trying to shake up my side dishes. The same old frozen vegetables can get boring. So one of my favorites is roasted vegetables. Any root vegetables will do, although an absolute MUST for me is parsnips, which I discovered a only couple of years ago and wondered, “Why didn’t someone tell me about this delicious vegetable years ago!!?” In roasted vegetables, the natural sugars in the vegetables caramelize, increasing their sweetness.

Cut the parsnips and other vegetables, (carrots, potatoes, turnips, sweet potatoes, etc.) into chunks, maybe an inch or so. I like to include large slices of red pepper for added color. Place in a baking dish and drizzle with olive oil, then sprinkle with kosher salt, (and black pepper, if you wish.) Cook in oven, 400 degrees, for about 30 to 40 minutes, turning with a spatula at least once during that time. The parsnips will turn a golden brown and the peppers might blacken in a few spots, but they’re still pretty and yummy that way.

Another great thing about this dish is that the flavors combine, so the veggies taste even better the next day, if you’re lucky enough to have some left over. I’ve been known to eat them for breakfast before anyone else is up, so I don’t have to share. (Bad mom! Bad bad mom!)

Maw Books:  I don’t think I’ve ever had a parsnip in my life.  This sounds delicious!  Tell us a bit about your two upcoming books, I KNOW A WEE PIGGY WHO WALLOWED IN BROWN and TEN ON THE SLED?  And when can we expect to see them?

Kim Norman: Oh, one of my favorite topics: upcoming books! Well, as they say, “the good Lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise,” both books should be released on 2010. Dutton has hired Henry Cole to illustrate WEE PIGGY, which tickles me no end. He is such a prolific and popular illustrator. WEE PIGGY, as the longer title implies, is a variation of “I know an old woman who swallowed a fly,” with colors replacing foods in the repetition pattern. At a county fair, Wee Piggy dashes from one colorful adventure to another, wallowing in brown (mud), yellow (butter), red (canned tomatoes… maybe), etc. I say “maybe” because many of those choices will be left up to Henry Cole to illustrate. I built in a rhyme scheme that allows the reader to guess the color coming up on the next page. (Thank you to my critique group buddy, Joe Kulka, for that great suggestion.)

And TEN ON THE SLED is a phrase that popped into my head one day as a variation of the old favorite “Ten in the bed.” In my version, ten arctic animals find themself in a race with an ever-growing snowball filled with the animals who have been recently ejected from the sled. Liza Woodruff is illustrating that, and I’ve already seen her marvelous first sketches. Sterling is hoping to have the book out by the fall of 2010, in time for the winter/holiday season.

Maw Books:  They both sound fantastic!  I look forward to checking both of them out when the are published.  I wish you the best of luck!  Do you have anything else you’d like to share?

Kim Norman: Can’t think of a thing. You’re a terrific interviewer!

Maw Books: Ah, shucks . . thank you Kim!

Kim Norman: Thank YOU, Natasha!

Links of interest: My book review of Crocodaddy,  Kim Norman website,  David Walker website.
Genre:  Picture book, ages 4-8 (I would put it more like ages 3-6 though)
Publisher:  Sterling.  May 5, 2009
Hardcover, 32 pages.  ISBN 978-1402744600
Crocodaddy by Kim Norman is available from your local independent bookstore, Powell’s, Barnes and Noble and Amazon.

Check out what other bloggers are saying on the Kidz Book Buzz tour:  A Christian Worldview of Fiction, A Mom Speaks, A Patchwork of Books, All About Children’s Books, Becky’s Book Reviews, Booking Mama,Cafe of Dreams, Dolce Bellezza, Elizabeth O. Dulemba, Fireside Musings, KidzBookBuzz.com, Looking Glass Reviews, Maw Books Blog, Never Jam Today, Olive Tree, Our Big Earth, Reading is My Superpower, SMS Book Reviews, The 160 Acrewoods, Through a Child’s Eyes

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