✽ Promoting children's and YA books by Canadian authors and illustrators ✽
August 11, 2022
The Fort
August 09, 2022
A Starlit Trip to the Library: Q & A with author Andrew Katz
HK: Before we talk about the book, tell us a bit about the collaborations that resulted in both the Julia books, How to Catch a Bear Who Loves to Read and A Starlit Trip to the Library. How did you all come to work together to create the text and art?
Andrew Katz: Our collaboration came together through a series of fortunate events. Juliana and I met about six years ago, and our very first conversations revealed a mutual love of writing. At that point she was a published novelist, writing in French, and I had self-published a few picture books for my nieces and nephews for birthdays and holidays.
HK: As a story-telling and book-reading child, Julia is open to the magic that comes with words. After all, she has animal friends, spends nights in a tent in the forest, takes a ride on a house boat, and more. How did you choose which elements to keep real–like Julia being afraid to go through the forest at night–and which would be fantasy, like the talking animals?
HK: I think most readers and all writers know the importance of the books and libraries in our lives. But A Starlit Trip to the Library (as well as How to Catch a Bear Who Loves to Read) takes a slightly different take on both by having the characters, Julia and her animal friends, visit the boxes of donated books that the librarians put out behind the library. Why do this rather than have them visit the actual library inside?
When Juliana and I were kids, we loved it when our librarians would introduce us to new books on the shelves. Julia and her friends are able to have this experience, too, thanks to a new character who appears in the sequel: Olga, the night librarian. Olga is an owl who spends all night organizing the boxes of donated books and alphabetizing the titles. As Bertrand says, “She is a librarian of vast experience,” and after Julia and her friends tell Olga the kind of bedtime story they would like to read, Olga finds just the right book for them.
In this way, the back of the library at night becomes an animal-friendly version of the library that kids experience inside during the day.
We also thought that kids might enjoy the idea of going to a place they normally visit during the day at an unusual time––i.e. at night. When Juliana and I were young readers, we would have been very excited by this prospect! In fact, there is a town not far from where we live whose library is perched on a riverbank, and we have some friends who live in that town who own a canoe, so we are contemplating a little paddle at sundown to visit the back of the library ourselves.
HK: The characters in A Starlit Trip to the Library were first introduced in How to Catch a Bear Who Loves to Read. When you could have chosen from countless species, you’ve selected a diverse group of creatures that differ in size, in temperaments, and more. Why did you choose a groundhog, a skunk, a squirrel and a bear?
As for the bear, Julia is a character with a big heart who dreams big, and a bear matched the size of both her heart and her dreams. At first, she wants to meet a bear because she thinks a bear would give the best bear hug ever. But after she encounters Bertrand, she also discovers that they share a mutual love of reading. (Juliana also has an unconditional love of bears, so she was eager for us to include a bear in the story.)
It was a challenge to give so many different animals their own unique personalities and voices. But who they were and how they spoke gradually revealed itself as we wrote the story. The squirrel is very excitable, like a small child. The groundhog has a grandmotherly disposition. And the skunk is full of curiosity. Bertrand is gentlemanly and gracious, and his manner of speaking is that of a self-educated bear; he loves words, including some big words, but he uses them in his own idiosyncratic way.
HK: A Starlit Trip to the Library may be about stories and the places they can take us but the book also gives us more than a story. For example, you share information about animal constellations, providing teachable STEM content in the book. Are you a fan of astronomy and the stars of the night skies?
One of the ways we navigate the unknown is by locating the familiar in it–for example, finding familiar shapes, including the shapes of animals, among the stars. Since Julia is a little obsessed with animals in general and with bears in particular, we thought it would be fun for her to identify the animal constellations on her way to the library. We wanted to use real constellations that Julia, along with young readers, would see in Canada during the summer, such as the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper, conveniently also known as Ursa Major and Ursa Minor–aka the big bear and the little bear. She also learns about the swan-shaped constellation (Cygnus) and about the North Star (Polaris), which always shines brightly in the same place, right at the tip of the little bear’s tail–a fact that comes in handy for Julia when she has to bravely take the helm of the raft and keep it on course.
HK: Your story is appended with the lyrics to "Julia's Song", a song you wrote, based on a line from Emily Dickinson’s poem "There is No Frigate Like a Book." There is also a QR code to link to a video on Bibliovideo of Taes Leavitt’s performance of it. What came first: the song or the story?
HK:
On August 26 the song will be released on steaming platforms, so that people can listen to it on Spotify, iTunes, etc. as well. I am also currently working on a video compilation for the song–i.e. singers each performing short sections, with all the sections then spliced together–which will appear sometime after the book’s release. Some of the musical guests for the compilation will include Taes Leavitt, Jack Grunsky and an all-girl choir in Tofino.
HK: Have you ever considered amalgamating your Julia stories into a children’s musical or an animated film with music? In fact, do you see there being more Julia stories?
August 08, 2022
A Starlit Trip to the Library
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From A Starlit Trip to the Library by Andrew Katz and Juliana Léveillé-Trudel, illus. by Joseph Sherman |
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From A Starlit Trip to the Library by Andrew Katz and Juliana Léveillé-Trudel, illus. by Joseph Sherman |
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From A Starlit Trip to the Library by Andrew Katz and Juliana Léveillé-Trudel, illus. by Joseph Sherman |
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From A Starlit Trip to the Library by Andrew Katz and Juliana Léveillé-Trudel, illus. by Joseph Sherman |
There's magic in books, as every reader knows. There's the magic of searching for the right book, of sharing a story with friends, and of the adventure that comes from within. Julia and friends find their newest bit of magic under the stars and behind a library and, by telling us their story of A Starlit Trip to the Library, Andrew Katz, Juliana Léveillé-Trudel and Joseph Sherman get to share some of that allure with us.
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Tomorrow I interview co-author (and songwriter) Andrew Katz about A Starlit Trip to the Library, so look for that here.
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August 06, 2022
Boobies
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From Boobies by Nancy Vo |
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From Boobies by Nancy Vo |
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From Boobies by Nancy Vo |
August 04, 2022
Jasper's Road
August 02, 2022
The Ugly Place
There is only one way to get to the ugly place, and you have to feel absolutely miserable.
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From The Ugly Place by Laura Deal, illus. by Emma Pedersen |
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From The Ugly Place by Laura Deal, illus. by Emma Pedersen |
But seeing, really seeing, brings clarity. By focusing on that which is in front of them, perception is changed.
...my heart settles when I see the seagull circle around again in effortless flight, joined by another. Their crisp white feathers are exceptionally bright against the sunless sky. They play while gliding and swooping through the air.They close their eyes and open their senses to the sounds, the smells and the feel of the emerging sun.
Then, and only then, is when IT HAPPENS.Small things emerge to announce their joyful presence: a stir of the water, the flip and flop of sculpins, and life in the sea, on the land, and in the air. And in the child's heart, through the art of breath.
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From The Ugly Place by Laura Deal, illus. by Emma Pedersen |
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From The Ugly Place by Laura Deal, illus. by Emma Pedersen |