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INTERVIEWS

Writing for Children and Young Adults
An interview with Kirby Larson

WS: You've just launched your first novel, Hattie Big Sky. On your webpage, you say you didn't know it was a YA until your critique group pointed it out. The subject of a young woman's struggle against nature and cultural expectations could have been pitched to any age. So—is it your heart, your head, or your voice that is, apparently, naturally attuned to the younger audience?

KL: My passion is writing for children and young adults so it never crossed my mind to make Hattie any age other than 16. Interestingly enough, I'm getting many, many emails from adults who are reading HATTIE BIG SKY. Several bookstores are featuring it in both the YA (young adult) and adult sections.

WS: Hattie has already received two starred reviews, one from Booklist and one from School Library Journal. Did you sense it was that good when you were writing?

KL: HA! When I'm writing, especially the first draft, I can't believe how wretched the writing is! So, no, I wasn't thinking about the story's goodness as I was writing it. I did connect with Hattie, however, and loved looking at her situation through her self-effacing, stubborn and caring heart and eyes.

WS: Previously, you've published well-received books for younger readers. Was writing the novel a substantially different process? If so, how?

KL: Hattie is book number six. My one picture book is THE MAGIC KERCHIEF. People always think picture book texts are so easy to write; I say they're so easy, it only took me ten years to write one! The four other books I've had published are chapter books, which are geared for emerging and newly confident readers, about 1st-3rd grade. The novel was a much messier and scarier process as there was so much more story to get my hands around and hold onto. But, the primary elements are the same no matter which category a book falls into: you need an engaging character and a problem for that character to face, tackle and, perhaps, resolve.

WS: You've said you were inspired to write for children when a particular picture book touched you. Do you have any different perspective about that statement now that you are an author?

KL: No; I can still remember that magic moment. The book was MING LO MOVES THE MOUNTAIN by the amazing Arnold Lobel, also known for his charming Frog and Toad books. I still want to write books that touch others the way his book touched me. And what an honor for me when the people I touch are children!

WS: Do you feel pressure to touch your readers?

KL: No, I only feel the pressure to tell a good story; to honor the telling of the story at hand.

WS: Do you feel a different responsibility than you might if your intended audience was older?

KL: While I think children deserve our very best, I don't think about my audience as I write. I think about telling a story "true," telling it to the best of my ability, in a way that could only be told by this cast of characters in this particular set of circumstances.

WS: Some people complain that books for children are getting too dark and edgy. How do you respond to that?

KL: I think a lot of stuff—books, TV, music, movies—for children and for adults, is getting too dark and edgy! But that's me. I will confess to being disappointed in or uncomfortable with books that seem to include dark and edgy elements for the shock factor. But I can't think of many books darker than M.T. Anderson's FEED, and it is a stunningly brilliant satire of our consumption-oriented culture that still has me thinking, a year or more after reading it. Again, for me, it comes back to a story being told "true."

WS: You're participating in the National Novel Writing Month. Have you moved on from picture books or is this a "phase"?

KL: I wonder if you would ask that question of a poet who was doing NaNoWriMo, or a short story writer. It's not about moving on—I hope I can live up to the rigors of publishing another picture book (I have several manuscripts out at editors; it's not that I'm not trying!). There are so many stories I want to tell and some of them will be in the form of picture books, some chapter books, some middle grade novels and some young adult novels. Since I plan to write until I'm 99, that gives me about 40 more years of having a grand time.

WS: If you could go back and give advice to the Kirby writing Second-Grade Pig Pals, what would it be?

KL: She wouldn't listen to me, even if I could tell her something! But I would tell every writer the same thing I remind myself daily—writers write. Some days, they write badly, some days brilliantly. But the brilliance can't come without the bad. So sit in that chair and get to work!