Children’s Author Interviews
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Posted by Michael Jung Jul 14, 2009 |
One of the best parts of being Suite 101’s Children’s Books Feature Writer is the chance to chat with published children’s authors over the phone or via email and ask them all the interview questions their readers would like to ask – everything from where they got the inspiration for a certain book or who they’d like to see their characters played by if their books ever got made into movies. I always get great answers… but don’t take my word for it – click on the author interview links below and see for yourself!
(Note: A lot of times, the interviews are so great they’re too big for a single article – so I split them up into two or even three separate interviews, some dealing with the author’s writing process, others dealing with behind-the-scenes stories. Be sure to read them all!)
Now and then, I get to interview children's authors who base their stories after wonderful childhood memories that they continue to treasure well into their old age.
Gitty Daneshvari isn't one of those authors.
Instead, Gitty based her first children's book, School of Fear, on something kids can really relate to -- horrible childhood fears and phobias. After spending some quality time chatting about Gitty's childhood phobias of elevators, spiders, and bathrooms (yes, bathrooms), I could see why writing she'd be drawn to writing a middle grade book like School of Fear -- which is very funny, but nowhere near as funny as Gitty's own experiences!
Funny, creative and morbid (but in a good way!) are all fitting terms for Alethea Eason’s first middle grade science fiction novel Hungry – a story about a flesh-eating alien from outer space who just wants to be a regular teenage girl and eat hamburgers and M&Ms. With a premise like that, you’d just have to jump at the chance to understand the mind that created this story – and I think Alethea did a great job letting readers in on how she came up with Hungry.
I’m always amazed at the journeys people take that lead them to become authors – especially when the person in question never intended to become an author. For Tom Birdseye, author of popular middle-grade novels like I’m Going to be Famous and A Tough Nut to Crack, this process was all the more fascinating since he didn’t even like writing back in school. How, you ask, did he wind up becoming an award-winning author? Click on the interview above and find out!
Find more author interviews at Online Author Interviews with Young Adult Authors and Interviews with Comic Book Creators and Picture Book Authors.