Summertime and Rhyme--A Perfect Picture Book Pair: An Interview with Author Eileen Meyer by Julie Phend

 

What's more fun than spending a summer day at the beach creating your own sandcastle? 

BUILD A SANDCASTLE, published this spring by Reycraft Books, is a charming picture book featuring fun rhyming text by Eileen Rajala Meyer and colorful sewn-felt illustrations by Manica Musil. STEM sandcastle-building techniques are offered by an expert starfish (who's seen many a castle collapse in his years on the beach). 

It's my pleasure to welcome author Eileen Rajala Meyer, a former Grog blogger, to talk about the book and give us some expert tips on writing in rhyme.

Julie: Welcome back to the GROG Blog, Eileen. I'm excited to share your new picture book and tips for writing in rhyme with our readers. This book is a rhyming picture book, but it's also a how-to book with STEM components. So: WHY RHYME?

Eileen: Thank you, Julie, for inviting me to share insights about my new picture book, Build a Sandcastle. I came up with the idea for this picture book during the pandemic while walking the beach near my Florida home. I envisioned a book celebrating that favorite summer activity--building a sandcastle. My audience would be young builders at the beach, those in preschool or early elementary grades.

I chose to write in rhyme because young children love it and rhyming picture books picture books promote early literacy. The repetition of sounds and words aids language development. Since my book was about a fun day at the beach, it tone was light-hearted. To match that feeling, I chose a bouncy rhythm (trochaic poetic meter) for the rhyming couplets I was crafting. Considering all those different elements, writing this book in rhythm and rhyme seemed the perfect match for the subject matter, tone, and audience.

So which came first, the rhymed story or the STEM building tips?

Eileen: Great question. I enjoy researching new topics so I read about sand, sandcastle building, and how experts go about crafting sandcastles. During that process, I compiled a list of tips for the book's back matter. The list included things like safety considerations, supplies to bring along, and how to scout the right spot to build a beach masterpiece. In my research, I came across more advanced tips that competitive builders us, such as using nonstick spray to coat the inside of buckets and forms so they slip off seamlessly during the building process. 

As I crafted rhyming couplets for the story, I referred to my research and fine-tuned my age-appropriate tips. So, to answer your question, the rhyming text and sandcastle construction tips evolved together. In early drafts, the STEM construction tips were placed in the back matter. By my final version, that had changed--now a spunky Starfish shares tips on each page spread to aid young creators step by step.

Julie: Editors often say they don't want rhyming picture books. Why not?

Eileen: As you know, I love rhyme! Most of the picture books I've published are written in rhythm and rhyme. I'm part of the "Rhyme Doctors" team, along with fellow children's authors Michelle Schaub and Patricia Toht. Our team writes extensively about different aspects of rhyme on our free biweekly House Calls blog. Sign up at https://www.rhymedoctors.com/  Our posts include discussions about rhyming picture books and mentor text recommendations. In addition, we often dive into writing nitty-gritty, such as the use of poetic devices or understanding poetic meter and scansion. 

Writing in rhythm and rhyme is not an easy task. It's a real challenge to do it well. There are many elements of a rhyming story to get just right right. Are your rhymes inventive and unique? Is your poetic meter consistent, and does it match the tone of your story? Each word in a rhyming picture book manuscript needs to be carefully chosen for the poetic meter scheme, its meaning, and tone. So, when editors say they don't want rhyming picture books, I believe they are really saying: We want rhyming picture books, but please submit projects that are well-written. Your meter is spot on. Your rhymes are unique and interesting. And you've reworked, revised, and refined your project to perfection!

Julie: What are some common pitfalls about working in rhyme?

Eileen: I think the biggest challenge if you want to write a rhymed picture book is understanding poetic meter. Beginners think that writing a rhyming picture book is all about getting the end rhymes right. Of course, that is an important element (using true rhymes and avoiding slant or near rhymes). But in my opinion, what is essential is creating and maintaining a strong rhythmic pattern from start to finish. Of course, that can include meter variations and refrains--but it should be a pattern that's consistent throughout your manuscript. You want read-aloud text where the words flow beautifully.

Understanding poetic meter is is essential when crafting poems and rhyming picture book text. There are four common poetic meters most poets use: iambic and trochaic meter (formed using two-syllable metrical feet) plus anapestic and diactylic meter (formed using three-syllable metric feet). I write about these four meters in my Rhyme Doctor posts, if readers would like to search the archives. Each post provides examples of the meter, defines it, and showcases its use in children's books and poems. 

Excerpt from Build a Sandcastle. Note the rhyming text, Starfish tip, and sewn-felt illustrations.

Julie: Did anything surprise you about the final version of Build a Sandcastle?

Eileen: After the contract was signed and we discussed art, my editor, Sunita Apte at Reycraft Books, suggested mixed media art for the book. I wasn't familiar with that form of illustration and artistry--but I was thrilled with Manica Musil's sewn-felt depictions. (I hadn't previously seen Manica's work since she is from Slovenia and is published outside the U.S.) She's an amazing talent! My favorite spread is one containing the completed sandcastle. The way she created the castle's intricate details with felt, fabric pieces, and stiching is astonishing. She has added beautiful details, such as an orange beach pail that includes a tiny animal. If you look closely, you'll see that the animal's expression changes with each illustration and page turn. A fun surprise! Manica Musil's beautiful sewn-felt artistry really makes this book stand apart. 

Julie: Thank you, Eileen, for this fun and informative post! Good luck with Build a Sandcastle.

Eileen Rajala Meyer writes children's picture books and poetry. Here rhyming ode to a favorite summer activity, Build a Sandcastle, is hitting the shelves now. Her poetry collection, The Superlative A. Lincoln (Charlesbridge Publishing) was a Florida State Book Award Silver Medal winner. Eileen is a member of the Rhyme Doctors team and shares articles about writing poetry and rhyme in a free monthly newsletter. Sign up at https://www.rhymedoctors.com/  

Visit her at EileenMeyerBooks.com 

On Instagram and Blue Sky:@EileenMeyerBooks 

On X: @Writer_Meyer

Butterflies are Pretty Gross!

 by Sue Heavenrich

Tundra Books, April 2021

What with the days getting longer, insects are flitting and buzzing, whining and zipping about the yard. Among them are butterflies, pretty and – according to Rosemary Mosco – pretty gross! They taste with their feet. They lick salt from muddy puddles. Some of them even eat poop! And their kids! Butterfly larvae can be rude, stinky, and sneaky. 

Truth is, butterflies are complicated. And Rosemary and Jacob do a great job getting that information across to readers of all ages. They highlight the science and shenanigans of seven species, including the Monarch who narrates the book. And believe me, he’s none too eager to give up Secrets of The Order (Lepidoptera). Granted, this is a picture book, but it’s got enough humor in it to entice adults to read it again and again. Plus Back Matter!

I “met” Rosemary through her online Bird and Moon cartoons. I met Jacob at our regional SCBWI conference (west-central NY). So I am really happy they are able to join me here on the GROG blog today and share some of their secrets – which are not gross at all! Imagine that we are sitting around a table slurping coffee through our long, tubular butterfly tongues (Rosemary, do butterflies drink coffee?) and chatting about words and art.

Sue: So Rosemary, What made you want to highlight the gritty side of butterfly life?

photo by Adrianne Mathiowetz

Rosemary: I got the idea for this book when I overheard someone say "I like bugs, but not butterflies. They're just boring and girly." Well, I'm a girl (okay, a woman), and I know butterflies to be gross, funny, beautiful, and wonderful - just like us. I wanted to highlight the complexity of these familiar critters. I was hoping to show that everything is much more complicated and interesting if you take a deeper look.

Sue: What sort of research did you do?

Rosemary: I started with a big list of strange butterfly facts. Then I whittled it down to my favorites. I read books and papers, and I also spoke with two experts. I talked to Phil Torres, who is a true renaissance man: he's an adventurer, researcher, TV host, and butterfly expert. He has taken great tropical footage of butterflies eating jaguar poop and drinking turtle tears. Phil read an early draft of the book and provided footage that helped the fabulous artist Jacob Souva nail down the strangest scenes. I also talked to Professor Naomi Pierce of Harvard - she has a wealth of knowledge, and she's particularly interested in butterflies that let ants babysit their caterpillars. The facts about alcon blue butterflies in this book come from her research.

Sue: And you watch butterflies too, right?

Rosemary: Yes, enthusiastically! I even travel to other places to watch them. I've been to the National Butterfly Center in Texas twice for the Texas Butterfly Festival. It's hard to pick a favorite, but I love zebra swallowtails. They're these beautiful black-and-white-striped butterflies that like to drink from puddles in the middle of hiking paths. 

Sue: And Jacob, you did research, too for the illustrations.

Jacob: This book took a lot more in-depth research than a normal project would. We cover a lot of ground. Tundra’s art director, John Martz, had me walking the fine line between fiction and non-fiction to weave the book into a whole. For example, Monarch Butterflies have small little legs that sit up near their heads. I made a run at it, but couldn’t make it look reassuring enough for young readers! So we compromised and pushed them down a bit to take on a more recognizable form. He also wears sneakers and drinks coffee …. Also, Rosemary pointed out a few inaccuracies here or there after I turned in the finals. There was a “butterfly” on the cover that turned out to be a sneaky moth! I am so grateful for her knowledge and was happy to make changes where needed. This book was a team effort in the truest sense.

Sue: one of my favorite spreads shows the “sneaky caterpillars”. How did you decide to turn this spread into a filmstrip?

Jacob: This book presented some unique storytelling challenges. The narrator (monarch butterfly) speaks directly to the reader and then takes them on a journey into the strange facts. How does that look? How do you weave the strange and gross details into a narrative that makes sense? The thumbnail stage for this book was very important.

I landed on the narrator using a few different devices as a narrative tool to get into a set of images. The first is binoculars, second an old retro film projector, and the third is a top secret room. The “sneaky caterpillar” illustration worked best as a series of images that show how the ants take in and adopt the caterpillar over time. We had some dialogue back and forth about whether a film strip would be clear enough to work. 

Sue: You create your illustrations digitally. Any pros and cons you’d like to share? 

Jacob: There are a lot of benefits to working digitally. I love how easy it can be to change things and tweak color or texture after the fact. It’s a bit like working in oil paint that never “sets.” I really enjoy working with color so Photoshop is a bit like a giant playground. Texture files can be reused! And no mixing paint! It really is great.

On the downside, you can easily overwork an image to get it ‘just right.’ Sometimes this can drain the life from the work and it can become kind of stale. I combat this by not using the undo button too much and living with the imperfect lines and bits of unintentional collage. It’s something I’m very aware of. I also sometimes miss getting my hands dirty or spilling paint water!

Bird & Moon comics

Sue: Back to bugs. Rosemary, in one of your comics you listed animal body parts you wish you had. Do any butterflies have some superpowers – or body parts – you would like to have?

Rosemary: Butterflies can see ultraviolet, and they have special ultraviolet patterns on their wings that humans can't see. I'd love to be able to see even more butterfly colors. And of course I'd love a pair of big colorful wings. But they'd need to fold up for easy storage. It'd be hard to go through doors!

Sue: Any words of advice to readers?

Rosemary: I'd like to urge anyone reading this to go and explore their local insect populations. You'll be shocked, disgusted, and overjoyed by what you find - and you'll banish boredom forever.

Thanks for joining us today. Folks can find out more about Rosemary Mosco at her website, https://rosemarymosco.com  and Jacob Souva at his website, www.twofishillustration.com/my-work

Definitely Dominguita—An Interview with Author Terry Catasús Jennings by Julie Phend

 

Meet Dominguita Melendez, intrepid knight of the neighborhood, who, along with her squire, Pancho Sanchez, have brave adventures and do good deeds just like Don Quixote in Dom’s favorite book.

 

Definitely Dominguita is a delightful chapter book series for ages 6-9 released this month by Aladdin/Simon & Schuster. In a starred review, Kirkus called it “a charming adventure that will encourage kids to become knights in their own communities as well.”

 

In Dominguita, better known as Dom Capote, Cuban-American author Terry Catasús Jennings has created a character who is determined, independent and resourceful, and who just happens to be a child of immigrant parents.

Terry Catasús Jennings

 

Terry Catasús Jennings knows what it’s like to feel different. Her family, including her father who had been jailed during the Bay of Pigs invasion, emigrated from Cuba in 1961 when she was twelve years old. Terry was immediately enrolled in an American school. The problem was that she only knew enough English to recite the days of the week and months of the year. Like Dominguita, Terry found refuge in books, especially the classics she read with her abuela.

Each book in the Dominguita series is based on a beloved classic: Knight of the Cape on Don Quixote, Captain Dom’s Treasure on Treasure Island, All for One on The Three Musketeers, and Sherlock Dom on—you guessed it—Sherlock Holmes and The Hound of the Baskervilles. 

 

I had the pleasure of chatting with Terry about the series and her writing career. 

 

Tell us a little about your journey as a writer and how it led to this series.

I always dreamed of being an author, but family pressure led me to a more “practical” career. I majored in math and physics and worked in finance for many years before I decided to give writing a chance. At first, I wrote articles and essays. The first essay I ever submitted—about teaching my daughter to drive—was published by The Washington Post. Then I moved on to writing educational content for the Smithsonian Science Education Center and non-fiction books for children. Finally, I decided to try my hand at writing a novel, an upper MG book about a Cuban girl. 

 

Submitting that novel (still unpublished) led me to my agent, Natolie Lakosil. I pitched the idea for the Dominguita books to her in 2018. She was enthusiastic, so I got right to work. The series sold rather quickly. I signed the contract in May of 2019, and the first two books are being released this month, March 2021.

 

Tell us about the illustrator.

The books are illustrated by Fátima Anaya, who lives in El Salvador. I LOVE the illustrations. Fátima got the characters just right—Dom’s spunky face and the wonderful Roco, the dog whose belly is so low it almost touches the ground and whose ears are so long that they do. The costumes are so creative—and the colors she uses are wonderfully vivid. Her work is just terrific.

 

In the first book, Knight of the Cape, Dominguita is reading Don Quixote to stay close to her Abuela who’s had to move to Florida because she’s getting forgetful. When the class bully says Dominguita reads because she doesn’t have any friends, she has to come up with a better idea: she’s studying to be knight. He laughs. “Girls can’t be knights.” Dominguita decides to prove him wrong. She adopts the name Dom Capote, Knight of the Cape.

 

How is Dom like Don Quixote?

 

Both Don Quixote and Dom Capote failed spectacularly! But both eventually transition from fantasy to reality. They come to understand and accept themselves as they are, including their shortcomings and failures. They both recognize the value of love and friendship.

 

Having based the characters on those in Don Quixote, how does that work in the rest of the series, where the books are based on other classics?

 

In each book, the character relationships stay the same. Dom is the visionary, Pancho brings her down to reality, and their friend Steph is the even keel rule-follower. The events and key scenes echo the classics but the novels are each a contemporary story. For example, in Captain Dom’s Treasure, Dom finds an old map in a library book with a telltale X marking an unknown place. She and her crew set off to find treasure like Jim Hawkins did in Treasure Island.

 

These books are filled with the kind of humor that kids love. Give us an example.

In All for One, inspired by The Three Musketeers, Dom and her friends set out to foil a villain’s dastardly intention to spoil their friend Leni’s quincerañera party. They use the ultimate musketeer weapons—chocolate covered toilet plungers.  

 

I know you’re a big fan of writers’ critique groups. Did you work with a critique group on these books?

I sure did. I belong to two critique groups, and at one point, I was writing too fast to be able to wait for the meetings. So one group critiqued the second book, and the other did the third. They were a big help! 

(For more information on Terry's work with critique groups, see https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1295379888006925064/3563527391626195485)

 

What do you find most rewarding about writing children’s books?

The reward is connecting with a reader and making a difference. My hope is to reach children and cement the belief that there are no “others.” Dominguita is every child. Whether she is American, Cuban or the descendant of a purple popsicle, she loves and misses her grandmother, tries to manipulate her brother, sometimes disobeys her parents, loves sweets. She has moments of brilliance and moments of sheer folly. She is just a kid who happens to live in a household where black beans and rice with a side of plantains are a staple.

 

Thanks, Terry, for sharing your journey with us. We wish you every success with Definitely Dominguita.