2008-07-17 scieszka [music] Matt Raymond: Each year thousands of book lovers of all ages visit the nation's capital to celebrate the joys of reading and lifelong literacy at the National Book Festival, sponsored by the Library of Congress [Library] and hosted by first lady Laura Bush. Now in its eighth year, this free event held on the National Mall Saturday, Sept. 27, will spark readers' passion for learning as they interact with the nation's best-selling authors, illustrators and poets. Even if you can't attend the festival in person you can participate online. These podcasts with authors will be available through the Book Festival website at www.loc.gov/bookfest. And you can find a whole suite of other materials there as well. I now have the honor of talking with the well known children's author Jon Scieszka. In addition to authoring “The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Fairy Tales,” “The True Story of the Three Little Pigs” and “Smash! Crash!,” which is part of his new “Trucktown” series for young readers, Mr. Scieszka was recently named the first National Ambassador for Young People's Literature by Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. That position was created by the Library's Center for the Book and the Children's Book Council to raise national awareness of the importance of children's literature in fostering lifelong literacy and enriching the lives of young people. The recipient of several book award honors including the “Publisher's Weekly” “Cuffies” Award and the Caldecott Honor, Mr. Scieszka has also appeared on the "Martha Stewart Show" and NPR's "All Things Considered." Mr. Scieszka, welcome to you. It's a pleasure to talk with you today. Jon Scieszka: Oh, thanks, glad to be here. Matt Raymond: We appreciate your time. Now, you started out your career as a teacher. What was it that motivated you, I guess, to shift gears and move into the realm of becoming an author? Jon Scieszka: Well, I had started earlier actually thinking about being an author, and in fact, I grew up loving reading and writing, and I actually came out here to New York where I live now. I grew up in Michigan but came out to New York just to get a master's in fiction writing at Columbia University, which then enabled me to paint apartments. It's not a particularly useful degree [laughs] . But from there I went in to elementary school teaching and that's where I realized I really I found my audience there. I realized that's who I should be writing for. Matt Raymond: Were there any authors or role models that you had growing up that helped inspire you? Jon Scieszka: Yeah. In fact, I think that's probably what really motivated me to become a writer, were those writers that just, I don't know, wrote the books that made me want to keep reading. So Dr. Seuss was certainly a huge influence. I distinctly remember reading “Green Eggs and Ham,” or at least pretending I could, or “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street.” Or and P.D. Eastman was another writer who wrote “Go Dog Go!,” which is one of my favorite books still. Matt Raymond: And what was it about those stories? Was there, you know, a particular genre or was it the imagery or the good story? What really sort of clicked with you when you were reading books? Jon Scieszka: You know, I think it was really the sense of humor, which I wasn't finding in the stuff we were reading at school. I mean, when I was going to school we were learning to read from kind of dreary textbooks and those Dick and Jane readers, which just seemed surreal to me. I mean, those didn't even seem like the real world. So when I read this stuff about like “Green Eggs and Ham,” that's just like the craziest thing. Or “Go Dog Go!” is a story, just a bunch of dogs driving around in cars and then they have a party up in a tree. Like that, to me, was compelling. I wanted to find out what was going on in those stories. Matt Raymond: Well, we're looking forward to welcoming you as the first National Ambassador for Young People's Literature at the National Book Festival. Why do you think it's important to participate in the book festival as an author? Jon Scieszka: Oh, I think that well, as an author, it's just a spectacular chance to meet up with your audience, and this is the spot where just thousands of people come because there are so many authors. And in fact, this year is just going to be extra spectacular because I'm going to be there as the ambassador, just kind of, I don't know, fulfilling my role, which is just to really brag about all the great things going on in children's books. So I'll just get to be there kind of showing off all the other great writers and illustrators that we have. Matt Raymond: Now, I know that you were chosen as national ambassador in part because you have a long history of advocating literacy and reading. Talk a little bit about that if you would. Jon Scieszka: Yeah, you know, that kind of came out of my experience of being a teacher, and also growing up with five brothers. I started a literacy group called Guys Read just to sort of study the problem of why boys were slipping and still are as readers and not becoming readers. And it really was just kind of fascinating to me and the more I looked into it, I mean, part of the problem was no one had done any research on it. We just keep testing kids and realizing like, oh yeah, boys aren't doing well. But then when I got to really get into it, it was really, I don't know, kind of gratifying to find out that there are things we can do to motivate boys to be readers. And then the more I thought about it, what actually works to get boys reading works for almost every reader. It's kind of a great way to connect with all kids. Matt Raymond: Why, from your experience or knowledge, why do you think there is a particular problem with a decline in boys reading in particular? Jon Scieszka: Well, it's a very knotty problem. It's got a lot of strange different strands of it being, you know, some cultural, some genetic, some just biological. I mean, I had since I grew up with all brothers, I just expected, you know, the little guys in my second grade to be kind of running around bouncing off the walls sometimes. It's just kind of in the nature of how boys, I don't know, biologically grow up. They're not quite ready to be readers as early as girls are. Girls just have some advantages in how their brains mature and their nervous system that they can just sit down and, and actually focus on that challenge earlier than boys. So boys get caught in this weird loop of they're not successful as readers right away, a lot of them, and then it just becomes more of an issue because they don't want to be seen as not successful and then so they don't read and it's just it's kind of a death spiral then. Then they don't read, and they get worse at reading. Matt Raymond: Now, we always hear that reading is important and maybe there's some fairly obvious reasons, but why do you think reading is such an important skill for young people to develop and to foster later on in life? Jon Scieszka: Well, I'm a huge believer in how important reading is. I mean, and I think it is good for us to actually verbalize what that is. I think a lot of times people just assume, you know, everyone should be a reader. I guess that's good and don't really wonder why but I think it really gives you an insight into whole different worlds. And, ultimately, I think it's the basis of our democracy. It sounds kind of gigantic but I think that really is the heart of why reading is important. We want to make informed citizens and to be an informed citizen I think you have to be a reader. Matt Raymond: Now, again, we mentioned you are the first National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. What are some of the goals that you hope to achieve? And since you're the first one in that role, maybe you can define the role. What is the national ambassador? Jon Scieszka: Well, it is kind of the nice part. That was an interesting, I don't know, kind of appealing feature when they first called me and said I could be the first one. So my first mission is I keep bugging Dr. Billington to give me a helicopter or a jet pack, people have mentioned, would be nice. And other kids have said like a tiara or a crown would be good. A scepter -- Matt Raymond: Scepter, yeah. Jon Scieszka: But my mission is really just to tell people, I don't know, just kind of the importance of children's literature and the importance of getting kids to be readers. Matt Raymond: And I have seen that you have sort of a number of tips or, or precepts that parents in particular can try to live by or try to keep in mind in getting kids interested in reading. Talk about some of those, if you would. Jon Scieszka: Well, those are those tips that grew out of my work with boys in reading and what I like to tell parents -- and these are practical things that they can do. The first thing is just to expand your definition of what you call reading. Don't limit it to just fiction because not everyone is a fiction reader. Boys in particular are big fans of nonfiction, humor, comics, graphic novels -- audio books, that's reading -- online, magazines. And second, I like to tell people to let the kid help in the choice. Let them be part of that choosing of what they read. You might not love sharks and spiders and volcanoes but maybe your little reader does and so if we let them read what they really are motivated to want to read, then I think they have the reason to be readers. Matt Raymond: And I've also seen that you, I think, try to get people to perhaps expand their acceptance of the role of other forms of media alongside reading, such as television and the Internet. That's, I think, maybe a little bit, I don't know, I don't want to say counterintuitive but certainly not what most or a lot of people seem to be advocating. Why is that? Jon Scieszka: No, I think you are right, actually, that's a good word, that it is kind of counterintuitive where I think we do realize like what's taking the time away from kids reading is TV time and online time and video game time. But I like to sort of take a broader view of it and realize kids have grown up with these technologies in a way that we haven't as parents and adults and I like the distinction. These kids are, are digital natives; they've always had a computer. Even say like a four year old today, they've grown up, they've always had a computer in the house and there's always been like fifty channels they can scroll through. So I think we really need to embrace where we are now; like we're in the 21st century. These things are not going to disappear, and we need to help kids become intelligent consumers of all of these different media. Matt Raymond: This is probably a good place for me to put in a plug for the Library of Congress. We have sponsored a “Digital Natives” lecture series, which a lot of people have found quite fascinating, talking about some of these things and folks can find webcasts on loc.gov. Do you think it's something of a generational issue? I mean, is it that technology has been changing so quickly and fundamentally that maybe there's a little bit of a fear of what the technology is doing, how it's changing the way we communicate? Jon Scieszka: Yeah, I think there is definitely that. And then that's completely natural. I mean, if you have grown up just, I don't know, kind of even digesting those technologies or the whole debate now even or to see what's happening with newspapers; like I'm a big newspaper fan. I love holding a newspaper. But it's just like, no, I don't think that's the way of the future. There's so much online. But it is that kind of thing where I think people always kind of hold on to whatever technology they grew up with. Maybe even going back to the ancient Greeks who sort of pooh poohed it when they started writing things down. Saying like, oh, nobody memorizes like they used to. Matt Raymond: So all this texting and instant messaging is not necessarily worse, maybe just different. Jon Scieszka: Yeah, I think that's a great description. Not worse. And not to put a value judgment on it, just to say kids brains are being shaped in different ways now. And they're capable of a lot of things that, I don't know, you and I probably aren't capable of. Matt Raymond: Let's get back to your own writing a little bit. You have a book that came out in January, “Smash! Crash!,” which I mentioned earlier, part of your new “Trucktown” series. Talk a little bit about the book and also about the series. Jon Scieszka: Well, that's the thing that kind of brings all those strands together we have been talking about. Of first, like just connecting with kids in a way with books that they'll want to read, and that was the big idea. It kind of came out of my work with boys and I thought, wouldn't it be fun if I could actually come up with a whole world of books where as soon as a kid started to get exposed to books at a young age, they find something that really excited them. So I thought, “Oh, that's what excited me and my five brothers, trucks!” So I just made this whole world of 14 different characters all based on kids I worked with here in Brooklyn at a preschool, just to kind of, I don't know, show kids like they could have fun with reading. Like this would be a reason to want to be readers. So now this thing is a gigantic program and it's in we're working on making it really a multimedia project where there are going to be 50 books in the next three years and the beginning of the first website is up at trucktown.com. And then there will be toys and animation and everything kind of works together. It's that whole world all just telling stories in different ways. Matt Raymond: Where do you get all these ideas from? Are they mostly based in your real world experiences or in your own childhood? Jon Scieszka: I think it's kind of a combination. I get it certainly out of all the stuff I read. I just I love reading just about anything. And so you can see a lot of my, say, fairy tale spoof books just come out from twisting existing stories. I'm a big fan of that. But then the other great resource for me is having been a teacher for ten years and a parent for longer [laughs], is that I just get to sort of mind those areas for, I don't know, just fun characters and the things that kids think. Matt Raymond: Do you ever get ideas from the fans themselves? Have they ever thrown out something and said, “Well, why don't you write about this?” Jon Scieszka: Not probably not as specific as that but I just love to hear the reaction of kids. I was just reading it's another book I'm working on called “Knucklehead,” which is coming out in the fall, which is an autobiography of me growing up with all my crazy brothers. And after I read a couple of stories about like having our little brother eat cigarette butts and tying our other brother up to a tree with my dad's ties, this little guy came up and he was probably like all of six years old and he said, "You're a lot like me; you're inappropriate." And I just I don't know, that's the kind of thing that just inspires me to write more things. Matt Raymond: What do you hear do you hear from parents? I mean, when they see a title like “Stinky Cheese Man,” are they able to get past the title? Jon Scieszka: Yeah, you know, I thought there would be a little more controversy and there was some, say, when “Stinky Cheese Man” first came out. People thought I was kind of messing with sacred fairy tales. But you know what, the overwhelming reaction was just kids were such fans of it and parents and teachers themselves just had so much fun with it and really realized kids can learn while they're being entertained, that that's just sort of I don't know it never really became a problem. Matt Raymond: And I'm always interested to find out a little bit about the writing process. Sometimes authors will have a ritual or maybe they'll have a little shack in the back of the house that they'll retire to. How do you do your writing? Do you wake up in the middle of the night when an idea comes to and you write it down? Jon Scieszka: Yeah, you know, I don't have much of a real regular ritual. I think that came out of, I don't know, even growing up with five brothers and then being a teacher, you just kind of grab whatever time you can. And when my first books -- when I was working on those -- my kids were still elementary school age so I would usually go hide out in the library whenever I could to get a little quite time. But otherwise, I like to tell kids it's really about just finding any time and really making the effort to put your ideas on paper. So I do. I'm like a compulsive kind of note taker and just always writing things down. Matt Raymond: And if someone were to ask you for advice on perhaps pursuing that kind of a career path, what would you tell them? Did you have success immediately or did you have to kind of stick in there? Jon Scieszka: Yeah, in fact, when I go out and talk to kids in schools, I love to bring all the drafts of things that I work on. So even a book like “The True Story of the Three Little Pigs,” which is probably only seven or eight typewritten pages has, you know, probably ten or fifteen different drafts that it went through drastic changes. So I love to describe to kids, like, how much work that is and not just tell them like, no, reading is fun and writing is magic and just to show them, it's not so much magic. It's more like just showing up every day and digging a ditch. Matt Raymond: And of course, again, we look forward to hearing from you on Sept. 27, at the National Book Festival. What can we expect to hear from you? Will we hear readings or do you typically like to interact more with folks? Jon Scieszka: You know, I really like to just sort of see who the audience is and then I usually use that as an opportunity to read new things that I have coming out. So I'm sure I'll be reading some new “Trucktown” that I've got going on, and definitely stuff from “Knucklehead,” and then even new projects that I'm not even sure what they are yet. Just kind of test those out and see how they work on an audience. Matt Raymond: Are there any ideas that are just sort of rallying around in the back of your head that you really need to get out or maybe tackling a new genre in the future? Jon Scieszka: You know, I'm very interested in this whole phenomenon of really telling a story through a lot of different media. And I'm not sure exactly what that's going to be yet but maybe I'll have some of that just to be telling stories that can live in books and online and, who knows, in little paper dolls or something [laughs]. No telling what might come out. Matt Raymond: It seems kind of the wave of the future; I would imagine that people are looking for those, those immersive multimedia experiences. Jon Scieszka: Yeah, and kids themselves, I think that's what really drives it. I got that from my audience who, like the “Trucktown” things, which really are a little bit of everything. When I read the stories to three and four year olds, they want to know like where is it on the computer? Where's the toy? Can I get the slippers? [Laughs] Which I kind of like, the truck pajamas. [laughter] Matt Raymond: Well, Jon Scieszka, our first National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. Very much appreciate you taking the time to talk with us today. Jon Scieszka: No, my pleasure and I'm looking forward to seeing everybody down in the Mall there. Matt Raymond: Well, we're looking forward to it, too. And once again, that is the National Book Festival coming up on Saturday, Sept. 27, on the National Mall from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. [music] The event is free and open to the public. If you'd like more details as well as a complete list of participating authors, visit www.loc.gov/bookfest. From the Library of Congress, this is Matt Raymond. Thank you for listening. [end of transcript]