When They Throw a Parade for Your Middle Grade Novel

That title to this piece is admittedly a touch misleading. It should probably read, “When Your Novel Gets Feted Alongside an Annual Heritage Day Festival”, but can you argue that that’s more kicky? Nah. If clickbait is the name of the game then I shall bait with only the finest of clicks.
To preface this, it’s important to understand that my first middle grade novel Long Road to the Circus originally came out at a less than entirely opportune time. By the fall of 2021, the lockdowns of the early COVID days had passed but that didn’t mean we were back to normal or anything. As such, promoting my first MG novel was a bit… shall we say, spotty. I couldn’t go to conferences. Book signings were outdoors (and mighty cold too, I’ll say). All around, it was just bad timing (though I acknowledge that my bad timing pales in comparison to the bad timing of the 2020 releases). But there were some perks. The book is set in both Burr Oak, Michigan and Mendon, Michigan, and I myself am from Michigan. That was enough to get the Michigan Library Association interested enough in giving the book an honor as a Michigan Notable Book of 2022. Add in the killer New York Times review (Elisabeth Egan is officially now my favorite adult author and if she ever writes a book for kids I want her to send it to me first) and the fact that NYT also put it on their 25 Best Children’s Books of 2021 and I was quite happy. I mean, books don’t last forever. They run their course. Out with the old, in with the new, right?
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Which takes us to this:

What you are seeing here is a float in a parade. On that float is a makeshift surrey. The makeshift surrey is being pulled by a 7-foot-tall ostrich (we know this because the wood they used to create the ostrich came in seven foot sheets). It has reins. It has the name of the book “Long Road to the Circus” in the front. And it is featuring myself (in a black top hat reminiscent of the great Madame Marantette herself), an ostrich hand puppet, and multi-award winning artist David Small at my side.

So how did we get here?
It turns out that if you write a book about your ancestral home, that ancestral home may take notice. Burr Oak, Michigan, for all its charms, does not show up in a lot of works of fiction for kids. So when I chose it set the book there, it went the extra mile and thought about how to celebrate the story. Now for the last 15 years or so, the town has had an annual Heritage Festival in the summer, and by now it’s a big time deal. Imagine a town of 700 hosting 3,000 people. When they asked David and myself to help take part, I had no idea that I’d be involved in a weekend that would involve mud volleyball, Port-a-Potty pulls, magicians, vendors, and more Amish families than I’ve ever seen in one place at one time.
Bright and early on Saturday morning at 10 a.m., David Small and I converged in this small town on a float. I had relatives nearby, able to house my family while they waited for the parade to begin. David lives in Mendon, Michigan, a town that my grandmother’s uncle is reputed (thanks to family lore) to have walked to on a regular basis from Burr Oak. Though, as David and I both noticed this day, it’s a bit of a trek! David was coming fresh off of the success of his recent adult release Werewolf at Dusk: And Other Stories. We also both admired the handiwork on our painted ostrich. Apparently there had been a brief thought about engaging the services of a real one, but that notion fell by the wayside the minute folks realized what stone cold killers those birds can be (something you can learn quite easily about in my own book). Best to stick with the more two-dimensional variety.

Now long ago an ex-circus performer by the name of Madame Marantette retired to Mendon, Michigan. Nonetheless, she kept busy, and was always game to ride in a surrey pulled by her favorite ostrich Gaucho. At one point she even managed to train Gaucho to pull alongside her horse Bonnie Ann, though her methods for making this happen are long since lost to memory. Our float was an homage to a sight that would have been popular a full century before. My outfit was, in its way, a tip of the hat to low-rent Madame Marantette cosplay.
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One thing I learned along the parade route: The sheer number of Amish families that live in this particular part of Southern Michigan. Aside from the odd proliferation of Amish romance novels in the last few years, they don’t make much of a dent on society. I commented to David that it was funny how few children’s books featured the Amish. He politely reminded me of his own picture book, The Journey. Touche.

The parade, for the record, wasn’t a two-bit affair. There were flames. There was what may have been the world’s most beautiful horse on display. There were loads of adorable ponies. And there was so much candy lobbed at small children that it would have made Willy Wonka himself blush. In the end, David and I were taken to a pavilion where we signed some 70-odd copies of the book for the children of Burr Oak, all in front of a magnificent and gigantic reproduction of the cover.
But there was something else that happened that was a little better than that, and I almost hesitate to mention it for fear of sounding cheesy. It happened while David and I were in the parade. You see, while we were on the surrey, I had on my left had an ostrich hand puppet from Folkmanis. I figured it was a way to amuse the kids along the route, and indeed a lot of the smaller ones got a big kick out of it. But as it happens, every 8-12 year-old in town had been read my book during the school year. So as we traveled I had kid after kid yelling, “I loved your book!” at me. And that, folks, was the coolest thing of all. Because it is one thing to be on a float for your novel. It is another thing to be recognized and told that the intended audience really and truly and legitimately liked your book.
So a great big thank you to the folks organizing this festival and who were kind enough to give David and us this day. Thanks to Sue Sturdewold for creating both the ostrich and the replicated cover, Patty Seeba for being such an excellent host (and for getting David’s lost pouch back to him), and the entire team for this incredible day.
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About Betsy Bird
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.
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I’ve told you before how much I enjoyed LONG ROAD TO THE CIRCUS, how the audio version kept me entertained on a long 4,000 mile drive from Arizona to Maine. I’ve known you “virtually” for so many years and enjoy several aspects of your personality and expertise. I remember thinking several times while listening, “Betsy Bird actually wrote this delightful tale.”
Your article today fills me with joy knowing these experiences must have meant the world to you. In my role as the “queen of details” more than once you identified LONG ROAD TO THE CIRCUS as your “first” novel. If I interrupt this writing now to check Amazon to see if I have somehow missed novel #2 I will need to begin my comment all over again. So, Betsy, explain if you will, is there a second novel already published, in the works, or maybe anticipated for the future? I sure hope so.
I loved reading every word and seeing the pictures. What a fantastic day this must have been and how wonderful to have your work brought to life at this time.
Thank you for your kind words, and for reading the book! And yes, there’s a novel #2 in the works. I’m banging away at it each morning and it’s definitely getting there, but don’t expect it for another couple of years at least, I’d say.
Thank you for answering my question. No hurry . . . . . BUT I am 78 years old! Where in the world do you find time to raise a family, produce nearly daily incredible blog entries AND write? I sometimes express irritation when you review a book several months before publication but in this case I will gladly anticipate a wonderful surprise and be patient. ROAD TO THE CIRCUS was so delightful. It is common in your interviews to ask an author about future plans. I don’t mind if you keep everything a secret about this!