Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Martha by Gennady Spirin

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Martha by Gennady Spirin

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Recently Kirkus Reviews came up with their own list of the Best Books of the 21st Century (So Far). And it seemed to me that it would be a good idea if we tackled one of those books that neither of us knew. Looking into it, they included the 2005 title Martha by the illustrious and highly talented Gennady Spirin. This autobiographical title was never placed in the nonfiction section of any library, but it would fit in there perfectly by today’s standards.

Listen as we repeatedly mispronounce the creator’s name (and then sloooowly get it correct), compare him to Hodor (but with better hair), talk fussy eating, and how if this book was produced today there would definitely have some backmatter urging you not to pick up crows.

Listen to the whole show here on Soundcloud or download it through iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, PlayerFM, Audible, Amazon Music, or your preferred method of podcast selection.

Show Notes:

Here is the interview we conducted with our local Evanston Roundtable.

I am serious. If ever you need to pronounce a children’s book creator’s name, check in with teachingbooks.net.

I know two things when I look at this image. 1: Gennady Spirin adores his wife, cause she looks gorgeous. 2. Look at the DETAILS on that shawl!!

This 1980s Russian vet line is right out of Norman Rockwell. Everyone’s doing something and everyone has a story.

And this guy? Something’s going on with this guy. No idea who he is.

Meet the mostly kindly killer you’ll ever encounter in a picture book.

This shot really struck me as a true self-portrait. That the crow climbed onto Spirin’s head and he was able to capture the moment. And for fun, let’s do a comparison with Hodor, as Kate suggests:

It was my husband who pointed out that Ilya’s hockey jersey here may carry the key to when this book takes place. IF you know your history…

Kate Recommends: Do Not Attempt on National Geographic (and, hence, Disney Plus)

Betsy Recommends: This piece in The Stranger about the gophers and Mt. St. Helen’s. PLEASE, I beg you, SOMEBODY turn this into a nonfiction picture book!!

A Good Story Well Told: The Story Craft Podcast You Need In Your Life Right Now

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There’s a new podcast in town.

Though the literary podcasts I listen to tend to focus primarily on children’s literature in some fashion (The Sartorial Librarians, Grimm, Grimmer, Grimmest, The Yarn, etc.), I’ve always had a soft spot for podcasts that look at the larger craft of writing itself. One of my favorites was between an author and his editor called Marlon and Jake Read Dead People. That show, however, hasn’t posted a new episode in two years. Now that Marlon and Jake-sized hole in my heart finally has a podcast to fill it, and it’s created by two fellows I happen to know rather well.

The name Jonathan Auxier may well be familiar to you thanks to his myriad works. Not too long ago I featured him on this site talking with his editor about his latest book The Vanished Kingdom. But, of course, Jonathan is a smart cookie when it comes to the process of writing. He is joined in the new podcast A Good Story Well Told by none other than one Matt Bird. Matt is the creator of two books on writing (The Secrets of Story and The Secrets of Character) and, until recently, he co-hosted the Secrets of Story podcast alongside author James Kennedy (he of the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival fame). Oh. And he’s also married to me. So there’s that as well.

Today, I get to talk to Matt and Jonathan about their new endeavor:

Betsy Bird: Hey, you two! Congrats on your collaboration! So let’s get the origin story of A Good Story Well Told. First and foremost, how do you know each other? And what made you think you’d do well in a podcast together?

Matt Bird: My former podcast was “The Secrets of Story Podcast” with James Kennedy and Jonathan was our most frequent guest, so I already knew he was great on the airwaves.  We’ve had to craft a slightly different dynamic as co-hosts, but I think it’s going well!

Jonathan Auxier: We actually have a history that goes way back – we met years before either of us were published writers. If you listen to our first episode of the podcast, you can hear all about it!

BB: That’s a good point. The first episode of A Good Story Well Told really does cover a lot of about your individual backgrounds. Now on your show you two decide to read the books everyone loves but that you’ve never read yourselves. This unique concept of discussing the craft of writing through classic or commonly read books in the canon that you’ve previously avoided is an idea I really haven’t seen done on a podcast before. How did you settle on this specific focus for your show?

Matt Bird

Matt: Jonathan brought a ton of ideas to the table for what we could do on specific seasons of the show.  We quickly realized that this was a unique way to discuss books and movies that we hadn’t seen done before, and we would enjoy shaming each other.  

Jonathan: In our house, my wife and I have a “shame shelf” filled with famous books that we feel bad about not having read before. It seemed like it could be a fun way to frame a podcast about stories and storytelling. Almost every writer I’ve mentioned this idea to has asked to be a guest … so there’s a chance we do another season of more “Shame Shelf” classics in the future. 

BB: And what, to your mind, is the benefit of considering the choices of authors of books that you’ve never read but that are considered by many to be “classics”?

Jonathan: There’s something magical when a reader encounters a truly great story for the first time. Who hasn’t wished they could get selective amnesia and re-read their favorite book for the first time again? It’s also safer to discuss (and criticize) works that are already celebrated … there’s less of a sense of punching down. 

BB: Smart. So you’ve hinted at books you’ll be covering in the future. What books would you not cover or would prefer to avoid for whatever reason?

Jonathan: We’re still trying to figure out our audience and tone. Ideally, we want to have high-level craft conversations that you can still listen to with your kid in the room … but that makes certain Shame Shelf candidates like Schindler’s List and Kill Bill a little harder to navigate! 

Matt: There’s a certain novel I won’t name that Jonathan was going to read, but I decided to reread it first and said, “Whoa, this has not aged well in the twenty years since I last read it.  I decided not to subject Jonathan to it.  

BB: Oh yeah. I know what book you mean. Good call. So I’m intrigued by the concept of having guests on. You speak of the “Shame Shelf” of books that authors have never read and fully intend to. What’s your dream roster of guests that you’d like to have on the show?

Matt: We won’t tell you that because then we’ll have authors on the show who lecture us for not listing them as a dream guest!  Every author we talk to says they have things they’d love to finally be shamed into reading or seeing, so hopefully we’ll get some good ones lined up.  

Jonathan: Authors, consider this an open call: if you want to be on the show, let us know! Pitch me a Shame Shelf book or movie you’d like to read and discuss with us! 

BB: Okay, this one is for Jonathan and it’s entirely selfish. I heard on the first episode that your wife is an expert in international children’s literature (or at least that’s how it sounded). Tell me more! I’m half thinking I should start a podcast with HER!

Jonathan Auxier

Jonathan: You are not the first person to want to do a podcast with her! She’s a delight! She also has zero interest in existing in the public sphere … much to my occasional disappointment. To answer your question: my wife Mary has a PhD in “transatlantic children’s literature” – her dissertation looked at the ways early children’s texts written by American and English authors discussed one another … and what that revealed about evolving ideas around childhood itself. She no longer teaches, but it’s still very much a part of how she views and processes the world. And it means we have a lot of obscure, old children’s books in our library! 

BB: That is so cool. Finally, do you envision this as a relatively short run or do you have hopes for multiple seasons in the future?

Jonathan: The plan is to run forever(!). To keep things fresh, we will be organizing every dozen or so episodes into a “season” with a different focus.

Matt: I still have another podcast Marvel Reread Club, where my brother and I read our way through the history of Marvel Comics, so the idea of a contained season of biweekly episodes was appealing to me, but if things go well, I’d love to do a second season sooner rather than later.  Our sponsor is Jonathan’s publisher Abrams books, and they’ve only signed on for the one season so far, but hopefully we could renew that relationship or find something equally good.  

Jonathan: You hear that, publishers? We’re currently accepting sponsorship offers for season two! 

Many thanks to Jonathan and Matt for answering my questions about their podcast today. You can download A Good Story Well Told wherever you happen to get your podcasts. And trust me, it’s delightful. Particularly when they start talking about The Giver (and I don’t mean Chapell Roan’s latest song).

Tentacles!! I Talk Hilarity and Board Books with Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham

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The current Supreme Court case Mahmoud v. Taylor has been on a lot of our minds lately. It is rare that the Supreme Court itself rules on picture books and whether parents can “opt out” of them, but here we are. And since we’re dealing with broad broad terms, you know what book could be included in this ruling? Why, Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn by Shannon Hale, illustrated by LeUyen Pham, of course! After all, in 2023 it was flagged in Texas as being “sexually suggestive.” Mmm hmm. Yup.

Credit where credit is due, Hale & Pham AND their publisher (Abrams) have doubled down. You gotta problem with a picture book? Well, try these BOARD BOOKS in the same series on for size! Ha!

When I was asked if I was interested in interviewing Shannon and LeUyen about Kitty-Corn Club: Parts of Us, a debut board book in the new Kitty-Corn line for the youngest of readers, I leaped at the chance. Not simply because I like the books, but also because this book? It’s legitimately hilarious! Just watch and see.

[Note: I don’t usually mention this, but just as a hint, the longer my questions in a Q&A with someone, the more I like that person and their book.]

Betsy Bird: Well, hello, Shannon and LeUyen!! Thank you so much for answering my questions today. I’m so incredibly happy to be talking about PARTS OF US since this book is, quite frankly, board book comedy gold. The readaloud potential alone, my god! So let’s get the origin story. How did Kitty-corn and friends end up in a board book at all?

Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham

LeUyen Pham: Ahhh, thank you Shannon for letting me take this one, because I’M TOTALLY GOING TO TAKE CREDIT FOR THIS ONE! It wasn’t long after the first couple Kitty-Corn books came out that Abrams approached us about doing something on the side of the picture books, suggesting perhaps early readers or the like?  And I just remember saying to Shannon, “BOARD BOOKS WOULD BE SO MUCH FUN!”  I was always a huge fan of Sandra Boynton and Taro Gomi, and read these books to my babies all the time.  I remember when my first child was born, publishers sent me gifts of many MANY board books, and my kid would lay in the center of these piles of board books and proceed to play with, chew on, and eventually flip the pages with their chubby little hands.  And the ones that would provoke the biggest smiles and gurgles would be the ones that were fun for ME to read as well.  Short, precise, with the humor absolute nailing it, in both the words and the pictures.  I know that most board books are perceived often as a way of introducing concepts to kids, but the ones that I admire most are the ones that can do that AND suggest the subtlest of stories.  When I suggested it to my fellow kitty-corn (I’m being deceiving here, once again I basically screamed at her “BOARD BOOKS!” and probably shook her enthusiastically til her brains rattled), Shannon responded with equal enthusiasm, and that was that.  I think we both understood the challenge of making board books with brevity and precision would also be part of the joy in making them.  As always, our goal is to get the other one to laugh.  And these were FUN!

BB: Oh man. You are singing my song. Boynton! Gomi! I too surrounded my children with books so that they literally fell asleep in piles of them. Shannon, this next question’s for you. I think you may be one of the rare authors to write almost every kind of book from board books to titles for adults. And if we were to grade different types of children’s literature by levels of difficulty, I would put writing successful board books right up there with full-blown YA novels. This book is so legitimately hilarious that I cannot WAIT for my baby niece to grow up enough to be able to read it. You do this incredible thing with page turns where the book is bobbing about, rhyming nicely, and then you WHAMMO hit the reader upside the head with the hilarious word “tentacles.” So that’s just my long-winded way of asking, how did you realize that “tentacles” was such a funny word? 

Shannon Hale: Betsy, I’m eating up all your compliments with a spoon. I ADORE board books. I have four kids, and I’ve spent surely thousands of hours reading hundreds of them over and over again. When Uyen pitched the idea of board books, I was both delighted and intimidated, because I have such a reverence for the ones done well. Uyen and I come up with all the Kitty-Corn books together, from concept on. We sat together in airports and coffee shops and in her living room rolling ideas back and forth between us. For the body parts book, we wanted to find several body parts that our four main animals all have, though each in their own style. Then we thought we’d introduce a new animal who had a body part that none of our other critters had.  [I found a list I sent to Uyen of potential parts if you’re curious:] 

trunk

shell 

spines

Needles

Quills

Snout

antlers

tusks

humps

flippers

Antennae

Spots

stripes

Fins

Udders

pincers

thorax

stinger

Proboscis

wattles

carapace

Prehensile tail

I loved the idea of introducing a new, big, crunchy word in a board book that kids could shout. I tried it out myself, alone in my office shouting “TRUNK!” Or “SNOUT!” Or “PROBOSCIS!” Uyen drew a bunch of new animals with these parts, and I remember loving a walrus with tusks, for example, but with apologies to Fleetwood Mac, “tusk” just isn’t as fun to shout as “tentacles.” I mean, try it out. Right now, wherever you are, shout out: TENTACLES! It’s just fun! If we used an octopus, not only would kids get to shout TENTACLES, the concept worked perfectly, because the octopus wouldn’t have any of the other body parts: tail, tongue, back, etc. And of course, once I saw Uyen’s Octopus, it was a no brainer.

BB: Sorry, I’m still mourning the fact that you didn’t go with the equally amazing “wattles”. I think I smell a sequel… Now, LeUyen, I do believe you must have had a lot of fun figuring out how to draw a bespectacled octopus. When you’re creating a new character like this, what does your process look like? For example, did you have a clear picture of what the octopus would look like right from the start or did you do a fair amount of putzing about before you landed on the right look? 

LeUyen: You know, I absolutely love coming up with characters. It’s one of the things that comes easiest to me, and I’m not sure why.  Lots of imaginary friends as a kid?  Let’s go with that.  At any rate, usually when I come up with a character, I’m working off the mold of someone I already know, or a phase of my children’s lives, or even myself.  Meaning, the first part of designing a character is understanding their personality. This case was a little different, because we didn’t have a personality for this one yet.  We had decided on tentacles as the funny word, and this little octopus came, fast and furious, like Athena from the head of Zeus, almost fully formed.  I remember Shannon and I were at a hotel during a tour or book event or something, and were sitting poolside, and Shannon was listing off some of the word pairings she had come up with. The ones that made us laugh were the ones that she noted.  And somewhere in her recitation, I started drawing this little red octopus.  I remember showing it to her, and her eyes lit up and she said “THAT’S IT!” I can’t figure out if Shannon is either incredibly kind and says she likes everything I make, or whether she actually DOES love everything I make, but either way, her enthusiasm feeds my own, and Octopus was born.  But I’ll tell you the truth about designing characters — we put all we have into making them look cute and or funny, or whatever it is, but in the end, what brings the character to life is the acting.  And in board books, you don’t have too much real estate to develop character.  So the pattern of the words that we chose had to precisely fit with the growth of the story of this little Octopus, trying to fit into the world of Kitty-Corn, and ultimately finding acceptance in her own world of tentacles (arms, tentacles, I agree with Shannon — tentacles is FUNNY).  

Total side note — one of the things you use when visually acting is body language, and in particular, hand gestures.  Octopus provided PLENTY to go on there!

BB: Okay. You just alluded to it, LeUyen. The elephant in the room. For whatever reason, octopuses have been VERY hot in children’s nonfiction books lately. And the one thing those books stress time and again is, alas, that octopuses have arms and not tentacles. So initially, when I was reading your book, I was sad that this wasn’t mentioned… but wait! Right there on the back cover you DO mention it yourself! Hooray! So my curious little mind has to ask… at what point in the process did that particular note make it onto the book? Did some sharp-eyed copy editor bring it to your attention or was it always the intention to put the note at the end like that? 

Shannon: Betsy, let’s get raw and real. I mean, we’re talking board books, the most punk category of children’s lit, so no holding back. I HAD NO IDEA ABOUT THE ARMS THING. Here we were, doe-eyed kid lit creators, having just spent a couple of years creating a board book, and we’re at final proofs when suddenly a rogue copyeditor jumps out from behind a large shrubbery, wiggling her technicolored appendages and shouting: “THEY’RE CALLED ARMS! ARMS!!!” Honestly. The nerve. I, being both a pragmatist and a linguistic descriptivist, replied with an emphatic “STET!” But also, with a soft spot for the tiniest nerds among us (having raised four such sharp-eyed nerds myself) I asked if we could add the disclaimer on the back. I want to support Science. And I also want to support the right to yell TENTACLES. You can tell by looking at this little Octopus that she likes calling her limbs “tentacles,” and that is her right. It is similarly my right to refer to my fifty-year-old hips as my “majestic haunches.” Sometimes the best word is the funnest word.

BB: Brava! My forty-seven-year-old hips salute you! And it’s unpleasant, but due to the state of the world in which we live today, I probably have to mention that much like many other children’s books in the country, Kitty-corn has also been a victim of the book banning wave. I wonder if you could say a word or two about this, and what it’s like to create book for kids in a country where a little horned kitty can be untimely ripped from the hands of kids in this manner.

LeUyen: Yup, book banning.  It’s unbelievable in this day and age how much this has been taken up as an issue, and has been weaponized so effectively.  Everything we talk about concerning book banning seems to come with a military suggestion — librarians are “on the front”, we’re all “warriors”, “the battle” for our children’s minds and hearts — it’s hard to imagine that a cotton candy pink horned kitten could be at the root of any of this.  There’s simply too much to say here in regards to the damage it’s doing to our kids, to our communities, to the good librarians and teachers who find themselves in the cross hairs of what, let me emphasize, is coming from a SMALL MINORITY OF PEOPLE WITH VERY LOUD VOICES.  But in regards to Kitty-corn, I do have a lovely story about what can be done to fight this oppression.  Last year, the lovely hamlet of Abilene, TX (known as the Storybook Capitol of the World) featured me as their guest artist for the NICCL.  As part of the celebration, there was a parade, a costume party, multiple dinners, a featured gallery, and best of all, a life-size bronze statue to be made based on one of my characters.  And they selected Kitty and Unicorn, because, you know, WHO DOESN’T LOVE KITTIES AND UNICORNS?  Unfortunately, as has been proven, a few people don’t.  Suggestions that the book promoted transgender values, improper use of pronouns, etc etc.  Shannon and I are pretty baffled by this, as again, we’re writing about KITTIES AND UNICORNS.  And the power of friendship.  And the power of seeing one another. And the power of acceptance.  In the case of Abilene, a complaint was registered at the city council meeting about the statue should be allowed to go up in a public garden.  Once again, let me say, we’re talking about a bronze statue of a KITTEN AND A UNICORN being considered as TOO CONTROVERSIAL.  For a CHILDREN’S STORYBOOK GARDEN.  

But here is where the story gets interesting, and to me, provides the perfect example of how to address book banning.  The citizens of the town itself came forward, writing in letters of support and denouncing these attempts to control what went into their garden.  Lynn Barnett, who was in charge of the festivities there, let me know in no uncertain terms how much the community was supportive of the books and the statue. In fact, she said that the committee had seen an uptick in donations for the festival in light of this banning, with letter after letter emphasizing the importance of letting children be children, or allowing parents to decide what was best for their own children, of emphasizing the positive messages of love and friendship that the books espouse.  In short, the community spoke up for themselves, and overwhelmingly voted the statue into the garden.  That summer, both Shannon and I attended the statue ceremony, and saw that the small handful of protesters (handful sounds like a lot — I’m thinking it was more like three people?) were camouflaged by people who also held signs, but with a different message.  “WE LOVE KITTY-CORN”, “WE LOVE OUR GARDEN!”, “WELCOME KITTY-CORN!”  I found it to be the most moving moment of my entire time in this sweet little Texas town. It shows that while our teachers and librarians and book creators are calling out the injustice and damage being inflicted upon our children, it takes the community itself to right that injustice.  

BB: Shoot! I had no idea about any of this! Now I need to add your statue to my round-up of A Complete Listing of Children’s Literature Statues in the U.S.! Well, finally, here’s hoping we see more of Kitty-corn in all sorts of formats (easy book, early chapter, graphic novel, you name it). Until she gets there (and maybe that’s already in the works?) what else do you two have coming out these days? What can we look forward to?

Shannon: So much. I’m excited about my very first holiday book! HOLLY JOLLY KITTY-CORN is so festive, you’ll want to celebrate Christmas in September. This year is also the 20th anniversary of PRINCESS ACADEMY. The novel series has beautiful new covers by Dung Ho, and a graphic novel of PRINCESS ACADEMY comes out spring ’26 illustrated by Victoria Ying. And this August I have a new middle grade graphic novel DREAM ON illustrated by Marcela Cespedes.

LeUyen: Oh boy. Lots coming up. Between a new Princess in Black and our holiday Kitty Corn book, just the books with Shannon alone should be enough.  But you know us — we’re conquering the world one genre at a time.  I’ve got a young adult graphic novel coming out with the amazing Jen Lee, the creator of Disney’s Frozen and Moana.  It’s called AS I DREAM OF YOU, a star-crossed lovers ghost story, and it’s like nothing I’ve ever done before.  That one should be coming out next year sometime.  As well, I’ve got a picture book coming out with my dear friend Laurel Snyder, called SHRINKING VIOLET. It’s the first time in a couple of years where I was painting in gouache, and it’s been lovely to feel that brush across paper.  I’ve also got an adaptation of the Madeline books in graphic novel form coming out, with John Marciano writing and my husband Alex Puvilland illustrating with me.  And a book coming out with Meg Medina! 

Are you not ENTERTAINED?!? Man. Big thanks to Shannon and LeUyen for all these answers. I’m almost left with even more questions after these answers, and it’s glorious. Thanks too to Mitch Thorpe and the team at Abrams for helping to put this all together. Kitty-Corn Club: Parts of Us is out now, so no need to wait. Find it. Read it.

TENTACLES!!

Climate Shock Realized: A Cover Reveal and Conversation with Nicholas Day About A World Without Summer

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Today is my birthday. And because it is my birthday, I get to do whatever I want (or so American society has led me to believe). And what I want to do the MOST in the world right now… is interview Nicholas Day and reveal the cover of his latest book.

Can you blame me?

No doubt if you too read Day’s The Mona Lisa Vanishes, when it was published two years ago, it has stayed with you. Now he returns to us, and in the interim has grown even more ambitious. A World Without Summer (out September 9th) shows how something like a volcano on one side of the world can cause everything from starving cows to the creation of Frankenstein on the other. Or, as the publisher says:

“Discover how Mount Tambora’s catastrophic eruption plunged the world into darkness, altering the global climate and inspiring the likes of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. This remarkable story of disaster and survival is brought to life in a thrilling new illustrated nonfiction title from the award-winning author of The Mona Lisa Vanishes.

The world was upside-down. The wind was fire. The sky was ash. The rain was rock.

When Mount Tambora, a volcano on the edge of the Indonesian archipelago, erupted in April 1815, it was the largest explosion in recorded history. The land around Indonesia was a hellscape of fire and smoke. In the months and years that followed, the fallout—a cloud of impossibly fine ash— spread through the atmosphere. It killed harvests on the other side of the world. It turned farmers into beggars and their children into orphans. It turned sunsets into molten nightmares.

That same year, eighteen-year-old Mary Shelley fled England with poet Percy Shelley. While sheltering from the worst summer in Switzerland’s history, she watched the explosive thunderstorms over Lake Geneva and caught the spark of an idea. Almost overnight, Frankenstein was written. 

In this masterful work of middle grade nonfiction, Nicholas Day traces the forward and backward of a single event, weaving in the many people, places, and things that were affected—and created and invented!—as a result, while tackling the ever-worrying issue of climate change.”

Betsy Bird: Nick! The sheer delight in finding out you have another book coming out is what keeps us going in this cold, cruel world. And it’s an interesting pivot. You’re going from a book about the theft of a famous work of art to one focusing on the eruption of a volcano (which is probably the most simplistic pair of descriptions possible, but here we are). To begin at the beginning, what got you interested in 1816 and the eruption of Tambora in the first place?

Nicholas Day,
photo credit: Isaiah Day

Nicholas Day: Betsy! It’s a delight to be back here. I’ve been interested in Tambora and its aftermath for years and I’ve wanted to write about it for as long. It’s a story with everything. It opens in 1815 with the largest volcanic eruption since the last Ice Age—and that’s only the start. Because the fallout from Tambora creates a climate shock that suddenly alters everything about the world. The rain doesn’t rain when it should (or it doesn’t stop raining when it should). The sun doesn’t shine when it should (or it doesn’t stop shining when it should).

For a couple of years after Tambora, the world was suddenly very, very different. And no one knew why. And no one knew if it would ever be the same again.

If The Mona Lisa Vanishes is about the theft of a painting, then A World Without Summer is about a different sort of theft: our very assumptions about how the world works.

BB: And one single volcanic eruption leads, in turn, to discussions of the creation of Frankenstein, the writing of the song “Silent Night,” people blaming Benjamin Franklin’s lightning rods (and tearing them down), and more and more and more. Tell us a bit of your research and how you went about figuring out what to include in the narrative.

Nicholas: The short answer is that I’m a magpie: I pick up the shiniest objects.

The longer answer is that you have to pick up the shiniest objects in the right order. This story is a global story, so there’s a lot scattered around to pick up. Because the weirdness of the Tambora years affected the whole world, everything was altered. It’s a massive event, and as often happens in a time of crisis, a lot changed in a very short period of time. That’s what makes it such an exciting subject.

Once I have a rough outline, then I know what to exclude—what I’m not going to pick up. I might really want to talk about something or someone, but if it doesn’t fit the arc of the narrative, no amount of wanting will make it fit. And even after that, I still pick up way too much—at this point in the process, I’m the person who says, No, I don’t need a bag, I can carry it all.

And on my way out of the store, I drop half the groceries.

What’s left in the final version is what the narrative can hold. With any luck, it feels inevitable.

BB: I rather like the grocery analogy. Though I’m a magpie in a different sense (each new project is a shiny thing to pursue). Here, there is a moment in the book when, after giving a long litany of what people suffered thanks to the weather, you mention that there’s a bit of a danger of fatigue in such descriptions. I’ve certainly experienced this when reading books about other historical catastrophes (example: M.T. Anderson’s SYMPHONY FOR THE CITY OF THE DEAD, which would pair beautifully with this book). But as a writer, did you also experience that in the course of your research? And how, as a writer, do you handle this misery fatigue while keeping your writing compelling?

Nicholas: I think I am no different from anyone else: once you know what happened, you very swiftly take it for granted. You harden yourself against the misery but—and this is the cruel part—without even knowing that you’re doing so. I talk about this process explicitly in the book: that the more we hear about something, no matter how horrible it is, the more normal it comes to seem.

In the book, I wanted to make clear the scale of what happened, but the most graphic material I cut or never included. It simply wasn’t necessary. Once you lead someone far enough, they’ll see the rest for themselves.

This is a story that looks into the darkness, but it turns toward the light.

BB: THE MONA LISA VANISHES is, ostensibly, about the theft of a painting but in the course of that book you broaden the scope and show how what it’s truly about is misinformation and what happens when people trust their guts rather than the facts (with pertinent ties to the world we live in today). Similarly, A WORLD WITHOUT SUMMER is seemingly about a singularly crappy year and a volcano, but you back up so nicely near the end and extend the narrative to a consideration of what happens when there is climate change on a massive scale, and (notably) how we didn’t understand what was happening then but we do know now. When writing these books, at what point in the process do you know what the larger story is going to be?

Nicholas: At the very beginning, but I don’t know how I’ll get there.

The larger story is a lot of what makes these books interesting to write. If The Mona Lisa Vanishes is just about someone stealing a painting—even the Mona Lisa—I don’t know if there’s a captivating book there. It’s the resonance that makes the story ring. The question is how you hit that bell. I want readers to intuit that larger story. And so when we approach the end, and extend the narrative outward, as you say, that should feel logical and warranted.
That’s the idea, anyway.

The story of Tambora is an extraordinary story. But there are a lot of extraordinary stories. And the reason for telling this story now is that the upheaval of those years offers us a glimpse of what it looks like what the climate goes haywire—when the things that we’ve assumed will always be there are not there. But I wanted readers to approach it as a story of disaster and survival and genius.

BB: What did you want to include but simply couldn’t? What facts were delicious but simply didn’t fit within the scope of your writing?

Nicholas: There’s so much, Betsy. But let’s take a minute for the Baroness von Krüdener, who was born into wealth and nobility but became in the Tambora years a spectacular messianic prophet. She began preaching that the apocalyptic days were the signal that the rich would fall and the poor would rise and the Lord would return.

People needed something to believe in, and the worse conditions were, the more credulous they were. They flocked to her. She was offering possibility. She was offering hope. Wherever she went in Switzerland, the roads filled with vagrants and beggars. They were on their way to see her. Her feats were fantastical. It was said that she’d fed 900 starving people with only 19 loaves of bread. She was—for a brief, bizarre moment in time—a hero, a mystic, the only person who could make sense of a world that had stopped making sense.

Anyway, all that got cut.

BB: You’re a brave man to admit as much. One element to this book that I thought was particularly interesting were the “Questions for the Reader, Also Known As You,” which pop up fairly regularly. These are moments when you step back from the story you’re telling to address kids reading this book today directly. It’s not so much breaking down the fourth wall as giving a bit of a pause to the action and, oftentimes, the misery. Were these sections always a part of the book from the start or did you add them in later? And what made you think to include them in the first place?

Nicholas: Even though it is the story of the eruption of Tambora, the climate shock that followed, the creation of Frankenstein—all of that—I sometimes think that the real subject of this book is thinking itself. How do we assimilate new information? How do we form theories that make sense of that new information? How do we evaluate whether those theories are valid or not?

Now obviously the best way to lose a reader forever is to write something like: How do we evaluate whether those theories are valid or not? I’ve fallen asleep already, and all I had to do was copy and paste it from the previous paragraph.

But I think these ideas can be thrilling, if presented in the right way. Voice can do a lot here. What I’m trying to do in these loose, voice-driven sections is to introduce these ideas, not in a top-down authorial sort of way, but a way that says we’re all here thinking this through together.

It’s particularly appropriate for this book, because the narrative ultimately finds its way to our story and our climate today, which is an echo of Tambora. And that’s something we need to all think through together.

BB: I don’t want to make the impression that the book is depressing because in spite of some of the things that happened in 1816 (spoiler alert: they weren’t great) the book is highly engaging. What struck me as interesting, though, was how you managed to find some things that made the world better after this moment in history. For example, the whole notion that helping people that need help on a governmental scale really hadn’t happened before. This is a book for young readers, so finding those moments can be key. But did you know what good came out of Tambora when you began, or did you have to search for it as you researched and wrote the book?

Nicholas: I’d read a lot about Tambora before I started writing the book, so I knew that there was this gem of hope glittering in all the mud. But I’d add that Mary Shelley’s story is also an inspiring story. Amidst all the thunder and lightning of those years—and amidst all the chaos of her personal life—Shelley managed to write a book that’s endured, a book that still haunts us today. And she was staggeringly young, only a few years older than the readers of this book will be.

BB: Though you credit them Acknowledgements, could you let us know some of the experts you consulted who were particularly crucial to this writing?

Nicholas: There’s been a rich vein of scholarship about Tambora in the last couple of decades, and I mined all that. But the problem is that because a climate shock touches almost everything, there’s so much that’s been studied. There’s volcanology, of course, and there’s meteorology and climatology. Literary studies—that’s Mary Shelley and Frankenstein. But then I ended up in places I never expected to be. Once you find yourself knee-deep in scholarship about the Opium Wars, or taking notes on a paper about the Gulf of Maine fisheries, you know you’ve gone too far.

BB: Forewarned is forearmed. Finally, I can’t imagine what you could possibly be doing next, so tell us! What’s next on your plate?

Nicholas: In 2026, I’ll have a hat trick of picture books, all published by Random House Studio or Neal Porter Books, and illustrated by people I’m very lucky to work with: How to Have a Thought, with Hadley Hooper; A Riddle of Eels, with Corey Tabor; and Nice Work, with Hala Tahboub. And then in early 2027, there’s a new book of narrative nonfiction, out with Random House Studio and the brilliant Annie Kelley: the story of the confidence game in America and Charles Ponzi, the original Ponzi schemer. The peerless Brett Helquist will be back to work his magic on that book.

A plethora of riches! Eels AND Ponzi AND Helquist returns? Clearly it is my birthday.

Just to prove it, here’s the truly gorgeous cover (illustrated by Yas Imamura, alongside the work of Art Director Jade Rector):

A great deal of thanks to Nicholas for his incredible answers to my questions today. Thanks too to Annie Kelly and the team at Random House Studio for putting this all together. A World Without Summer is out September 9th. You’d be remiss to let this pass by. Remarkable stuff.

 

 

Troublemaking: A Conversation with Arree Chung

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At my library (Evanston Public Library) we create a list consisting of 101 Great Books for Kids at the end of each year. To make this list, I will receive a slew of galleys and review copies of children’s book titles and then meticulously file them on shelves behind my desk for any committee member to have. In doing this, I’ve noticed that some categories have changed in size over the last few years. Poetry this year, in comparison to 2024, is rather robust. Ditto Fairy Tales/Folk Tales/ Religious Tales. And for all that we’re decrying the death of Middle Grade Fiction (if it’s a slow news day in book publishing then something somewhere has to be dying, I figure) the number I’ve seen already is hugely impressive!

But there is one shelf that is particularly full as of April 2025, and that is the graphic novel shelf. When I think back even ten years ago to the state of GNs for kids outside of the comic book industry and then compare it to what we’re seeing today, I’m floored. Now I’m sure there are some publication reasons for the plethora currently on display (and, by the same token, I know that fears of tariffs could change everything in an instant) but the fact of the matter remains that while other types of children’s books experience some kind of flux and flow, comics are still doing mighty well.

And comics with memoir components? Forget about it. They’re on fire!

Naturally, this lead up brings me to Arree Chung. If you are a children’s librarian that name may already be familiar to you, but within a younger context. No doubt you have at some point encountered Arree’s picture books, if not his Ninja picture book series then Mixed: A Colorful Story (though I was always a particular fan of his work on How to Pee, but that’s me). So how do you take the leap from picture book to middle grade fictionalized memoir? I intend to find out.

Don’t Cause Trouble (out TODAY, you lucky ducks) follows the story of Ming Lee, best described by its publisher in this way:

Twelve-year-old Ming Lee hopes middle school will be the fresh start he needs.

But stepping into school with the same bowl haircut his mom insists on giving him, and wearing the extra-discounted thrift shop clothes she buys him doesn’t quite make for the first day of his dreams. Things only get worse when he’s placed in an ESL class despite English being his first (and only) language. The journey ahead is full of awkward, painful, and downright embarrassing moments.

Ming’s dad always tells him, “Get good grades! Don’t cause trouble!” But with two new friends by his side, and a few tricks up his sleeve, Ming is determined to make some changes.

Perfect for fans of Raina Telgemeier and Jerry Craft, Don’t Cause Trouble is a funny, warmhearted graphic novel that will resonate with readers who are looking for a place to belong.

Today, I get to talk to Arree about the book itself and its links to real life:

Betsy Bird: Arree! Thank you so much for talking with me today. You’ve done your fair share of picture books over the years, but writing a graphic novel is another set of muscles entirely. Did you always want to write a comic, or did the idea creep up on you slowly?

Arree Chung

Arree Chung: I’ve always loved comics and toyed with the idea of making one, but I never found the right story until my agent, Rubin, asked if I’d explore my own experiences growing up Asian American. I thought, “Boy, do I have stories to tell!” I had plenty of funny, awkward, and deeply personal memories from my childhood as a child of immigrants. Over the next few years, as I shared these experiences with my editor Kate, the idea naturally evolved into Don’t Cause Trouble.

On one hand, switching from picture books to a graphic novel felt familiar—my picture books often use panels and sequential art, so the visual storytelling came naturally. On the other hand, tackling a project that required an entire screenplay-style script and more than 250 pages of art was no small feat. It stretched my storytelling skills in new ways, but finishing something so substantial was incredibly rewarding. It turns out that big challenges can be a lot of fun when they come from telling a story close to your heart.

BB: The middle grade graphic novel memoir is considered a staple of comics for kids right now. With that in mind, was writing a fictionalized version of your own experiences your first inclination when you thought about making a GN or was it something that was suggested to you as a good place to start?

Arree: When I first started, I envisioned something more autobiographical—along the lines of Smile by Raina Telgemeier. But when I tried piecing them together chronologically, it felt scattered. Some experiences, like the mysterious love note I once received, never really had a neat conclusion in real life. It was humorous but wasn’t a full story.

That’s when I realized it would help to fictionalize things. I could take those awkward, funny, and heartfelt moments and weave them into a cohesive storyline with its own emotional arc. Making a fictionalized version of my experiences gave me the freedom to explore what I learned and felt, without being bound by strict facts and timelines. And it allowed me to infuse humor and tie everything back to the central idea of embracing where you come from and who you are.

BB: While a lot of this feels very specific and very real, it’s impossible for the reader to know which parts actually happened to you and which just extrapolate on those real experiences. For example, I found myself wondering if they really put you in an ESL class in middle school. Is that true?

Arree: Yes! Being placed in ESL was absolutely true—though it actually happened in my later elementary school years. By middle school, a teacher recognized my strengths and placed me in honors classes, which was a huge turning point. As for some of the other story elements, like Ming’s friends Vikrum and Marcus, they’re inspired by real people but from different periods of my life. And that love note? Totally real—but I never discovered if it was just a prank or genuine.

The part about stealing shirts from a department store was also drawn from real events. In reality, I got my brother involved instead of my friends, and we both got caught! Needless to say, my parents were not thrilled about that episode.

BB: Well, and much along the same lines, how did you go about deciding which elements from your own life to include and which you wouldn’t? Were there stories you really wanted to put in the book that simply didn’t fit the storyline?

Arree: Fictionalizing my childhood gave me room to shape a complete story while still capturing the heart of my experiences. I had plenty of memories I wanted to include, but if a scene didn’t serve the book’s core themes, I had to let it go. I wanted to maintain a clear story arc and explore Ming’s identity, so every plot point needed to reinforce that.

For instance, Ming’s journal and his alien drawings show how he feels different and dreams big. But the trick-or-treating adventure never actually happened to me—it just felt like the perfect moment to deepen the boys’ friendship. On the other hand, scenes of my parents collecting a “candy tax” really did happen. In the end, it’s a mix of real anecdotes and invented moments, but all of it supports the story I wanted to tell.

BB: I think I speak for all kids when I say that the “candy tax” moment caused me almost physical pain to read. You know, it can be difficult taking a real life and giving it a satisfying narrative with a strong end. Did you have to invent the conflict in this book or was some of it real?

Arree: Most of the conflict in Don’t Cause Trouble comes directly from my life: My parents really struggled financially, they truly sent money back to family abroad, and arguments about paying tithe vs. saving every cent happened often. The longing for new clothes, the bowl haircut, wanting to join the basketball team, and even stealing clothes to fit in—all real.

What took more creativity was weaving these moments into one cohesive arc. Real life can feel random, so I had to invent certain details—like how my friends reacted to the mysterious love notes—and build a satisfying resolution. In reality, I never learned if my own love note was legit. And while I dreamed of my mom turning her egg rolls into a business, that never happened. If it did, perhaps today we would be rich! But at its heart, the core lesson remains the same: by working through trouble, I learned from my mistakes, discovered what truly mattered, and carved my own identity.

BB: Finally, what else do you have coming out these days? What else is on the horizon?

Arree: I’m currently developing two new inspirational picture books—The Long Shot and The High Bar. Both focus on resilience, overcoming challenges, and learning how to get back up when you fall. I’m also exploring fresh ideas for more graphic novels. And who knows? There might be a sequel to Don’t Cause Trouble. I still have plenty of personal experiences that haven’t made it onto the page yet!

Huge thanks to Arree for taking the time to talk to me on this, his book’s birthday. Thanks as well to Morgan Rath and her team at Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group for giving me the chance to talk to Arree in the first place. Don’t Cause Trouble is out at this precise moment in time, so delay not! Find yourself a copy and indulge. You won’t even have to pay a candy tax.

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: It’s Not Easy Being a Bunny by Marilyn Sadler, ill. Robert Bollen

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“I want to do something with my life, but with minimal effort.” “He’s the hero our children need today.” Today, there is a mystery at work. For the past two years this 1983 beginner book publication has hit #1 on the Publishers Weekly list of top selling picture books around Easter time. But why? What caused this particular P.J. Funnybunny book to become quite so popular again? We endeavor to find out as we tackle today’s title. It’s not very Easter-y, but I guess bunnies will be bunnies. Along the way, we talk about the potentially damaging narrative at work here and how this book is, in its way, the complete opposite of a title like Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn.

Listen to the whole show here on Soundcloud or download it through iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, PlayerFM, Audible, Amazon Music, or your preferred method of podcast selection.

Show Notes:

Love the bindle. Sad that this is literally the only moment in the whole book that this bindle is seen.

Size-wise, what do we think? Giant bunny or tiny baby bear?

After looking at this image, Kate imagines these moose speaking in the voice of Eeyore. “Live with us, don’t live with us, it doesn’t matter. Living doesn’t matter.”

We kind of adore that Sadler went with “MOOK” with this one.

As Kate correctly points out, the book should have spelled this as opossum. As for how you pronounce it, apparently both pronouncing the “o” and not pronouncing it are equally fine options.

Kate Recommends: Go to Sleep, I Miss You by Lucy Knisley

Betsy Recommends: A Minecraft Movie