Volunteer State Book Award

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I was asked to provide a copy of my acceptance “speech”  for publication here.   Well, I never write down a speech.  I just jot down talk points and babble.   So they said…well then re-create it.   This is more or less what I think I said.  At least it is what I should have said.   And I’m glad of a chance to say it again.  

I cannot tell you how pleased I am to receive this award!    It is especially wonderful because it is given by the children.     I just finished telling stories in ten schools in the Kingsport area and can tell you that your children are the most delightful I have met anywhere!    And I’ve seen a lot of children.   

The other reason I am so enormously delighted with this awards is…it saved the book.   Yes, HarperCollins (as do many large publishers) had decided to remainder Pickin’ Peas after it’s three year run.   I had just been notified of this when the news came from Patty Williams that the children of Tennessee had chosen it as their favorite.    The fact that Parenting Magazine had given the book its “Reading Magic” award hadn’t affected the publisher’s decision.    But the children of Tennessee did!     You can tell your children that their decision does make a difference.   Without them,  Pickin’ Peas would no longer be in print.   Thank them for me!

Now…to give credit where credit is due.    I do not make up these stories.  I am a folklorist, and I work almost exclusively with folktales.   I search and search for the most engaging stories I can find.  And when I spot a really delightful story,  I work up my own version for telling.  Then I tell and tell and tell this story to scores of groups of children, until it begins to sound just right.   Then I write that version down.    My hope is to create a text that is so perfect that any random father can pick the book up, read it aloud, and it will sound smooth and lovely.   

Pickin’ Peas was being told by an African-American teller in Calhoun, Alabama in 1897.   Someone heard this and wrote it down.   It was published in Southern Workman (December, 1897).    Later Sarah Demings of Elizabeth City County, Virginia was heard telling the story.   Her version was recorded in the Journal of American Folklore in 1922.

Finding these two versions…which included the music even…I was able to combine elements from both and end up with Pickin’ Peas.    So the thanks really go to both of those tellers.  And to the folklore collectors who preserved their tales.

A picture book is not a solo production.   It requires the collaboration of author, illustrator, editor, book designer, and more.     I was lucky to have Pat Cummings chosen for this project.   I love the fact that her little girl looks just like many of the little girls looking back at me from my audiences.   Some reviewers criticized the illustrations as being too contemporary.   This is just what I like most about the book.   Folklore does not belong to the past…it belongs to the people.   And contemporary illustrations for a folktale are just right!

An example of the way author and illustrator collaborate:    When Pat sent the first black and white sketches,  I saw that she had drawn the little girl holding a wicker basket to gather her peas in.   I had been telling the story  “Pickin’ peas.  Put ‘em in my pan.”   We always used to pick our peas into a little aluminum saucepan when I was growing up in Southern Indiana.    That is what I was envisioning.   I didn’t want Pat to have to redraw all of her pictures.   But I couldn’t go saying “Pickin’ peas.  Put ‘em in my basket.”    I wanted the alliteration of all those popping “P’s”.     Then I thought… “Pail!   That would work!”     So I changed the text and Pat aluminized her basket (as you will see if you check the illustrations).   

When I send in my picture book manuscripts,  I have already provided the page breaks for the story.    I am envisioning the page turning as part of the dramatic event of the story performance.   However in this book,  it turned out that I had not called for the correct page break at one point.   When I began to read it aloud to groups with Pat’s sketches,  I saw my mistake.   So I asked the editor to let me shift some text forward a page.   This put more text on the page with the little girl eating her peas than Pat had planned for.   She graciously said that she could scrunch her gunny sack and box down a bit, to allow for my text.     I love working with an illustrator who enjoys collaboration.  

Last of all I want to say how much I have loved spending time in your wonderful state.   It is this book award which brought me here for these several days.   And I thank you very much for that too.

Margaret Read MacDonald    

 I am thrilled that Holes was voted the winner of the Volunteer State Book Award.  The Newbery award may be more prestigious, but what kids think matters more to me than the opinions of critics and librarians.

 I’m sorry I can’t be there in person to accept it.  I’m trying to focus on writing, and will not be doing any more speaking engagements for a while – at least not until I have something new to talk about.

 People often ask if when I was writing the Holes, I knew it would be so well received.

 No.

 All I wanted to do was somehow piece together a good story that I liked, and I hoped somebody else would like it too.  It took a year and a half to write.  I did five drafts.  During most of that time I was writing it I was thinking, this won’t work, the jumping around in time is too confusing, and who wants to read about a kid who does nothing but dig holes all day?  Still, I kept with it, day after day, digging my holes, so-to-speak, just like Stanley.

 Some other questions I’m often asked:

 How did I come up with the name Stanley Yelnats?

 I always have trouble naming my characters.  I have to stop the flow of the story and think what am I going to name this person.  It’s so arbitrary.  At the time I made up Stanley, I didn’t feel like stopping to think of his name.  So I just wrote Stanley, and then wrote it backwards:  Yelnats.  I figured I would change it later when I felt like thinking about it.  When I did get around to thinking about it, I decided to keep the name for a couple of reasons.  One, it let the reader know that even though h\this book is about a poor kid wrongfully sent to a horrible prison camp, there would be humor and playfulness to the story.  And two, it established that Stanley had the same name as his great grandfather, which as you know, turns out to be very important.

 How did I manage to tie all the stories together at the end?

 That wasn’t the hard part.  I knew all along how it would all tie together.  The hard part was setting out all the other stories, without them getting in the way of Stanley’s story.

 What happened to other boys, X-Ray, Armpit, etc, after Camp Green Lake closed?

 I don’t know, but I’m glad I’m asked that question.  I try to give some humanity to all my characters, even the villains.  The fact that people want to know what happened to them means that to some extent they care about them. 

 I even feel some compassion for the Warden, although I haven’t heard anyone else echo that sentiment.  I feel sorry for her.  She and her parents had wasted their lives, living in that awful environment, searching for buried treasure.  Then Stanley cam and took it away from her.

 Are the yellow spotted lizards real?

 Sorry, but no.  Still, it doesn’t hurt to eat a few raw onions a day, just to be safe.

 With thanks and best wishes,

 Louis Sachar