In honor of National Poetry Month, I asked poet/childrens book author April Halprin Wayland to answer a few questions.
When and why did you start writing for children?
I was always a writer, always writing poems and stories late at night, especially as a teen, and then hiding them in the bottom right drawer of my desk. I began to write picture books and songs for fun when I was about ten. I loved the blending of words and illustrations, words and music—I still love the interweaving of words and other art forms.
In my twenties, I wrote picture books for nieces and nephews, to commemorate the birth of a friend’s child, to celebrate a friend’s wedding. Then, when I was deep into a high-powered job in corporate marketing, I needed an escape. I was choking in that job, which was so wrong for me. So I took a chance and took a class through UCLA Extension’s Writer’s Program on writing for children…and it set me on fire! I had exactly the same feeling in my writing class as I had when I fell in love with my husband—I didn’t need to eat, I didn’t need to sleep, I felt as if I was walking on air!
My first published picture book, TO RABBITTOWN, beautifully illustrated by Robin Spowart, is a dreamy free verse story-poem about a child who runs away to live with rabbits…and slowly turns into one. It got a starred review in School Library Journal, was a Junior Library Guild selection, was Mommy Care’s Book of the Year, and became a Blue Ribbon Best Seller paperback…and it was accepted by Scholastic soon after I quit my corporate job. This felt like a tap on my shoulder from the Universe telling me I was going in exactly the right direction.
What is the most valuable advice you can give to a newly publish writer?
Hmmm…I guess I would tell her or him to keep the books coming. I love to teach, so I began traveling, performing and doing school visits soon after my first book came out, which split my energies. If I had to do it over again, I’d have tied my rear to a chair, continued to learn my craft, experimented with styles and age levels, and gotten book after book after book out there first…and gone out into the world a bit later.
I would also tell this newly minted writer: dig as deep as you can inside and write what is too embarrassing to write. Share your secrets with us. It’s not about your secrets, really—it’s about letting the reader see her own secrets in the ones you are brave enough to reveal.
What is one of your favorite children’s books that you'd like to recommend?
My all-time favorite children’s book is HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON by Crockett Johnson—a true classic.
But I also love Janet Wong’s absolutely wonderful middle grade novel in poems, MINN AND JAKE; Paul Fleishman’s DATELINE: TROY; O BEAUTIFUL FOR SPACIOUS SKIES edited by Sara Jane Boyers, Arlene Alda’s stunning 1 2 3 WHAT DO YOU SEE?; MRS. BIDDLEBOX written by Linda Smith and illustrated by Marla Frazee; ROXABOXEN written by Alice McLerran and illustrated by Barbara Cooney; TOMORROW’S ALPHABET by George Shannon illustrated by Donald Crews; CALLING THE DOVES—EL CANTO DO LAS PALOMAS written by Juan Felipe Herrera with illustrations by Elly Simmons…and so many more!
These books and all books that take my heart make me look at the world in a new way.
And don’t get me started about poetry books and novels in poems—so many yummy ones out there I hardly know where to begin. Just make sure you read books and poems by my friend Alice Schertle—she’s an amazing wordsmith… and don’t miss the deliciously readable novels in poems by another friend, Sonya Sones.
What is your favorite dessert and why?
Because I don’t eat anything with sugar, and maybe because my father was a farmer, there is nothing in the world better than a bowl full of fresh, sweet raspberries and freshly whipped cream sweetened with honey. Nothing better.
April Halprin Wayland, an award-winning poet, has published three picture books with Scholastic and Knopf; her poems frequently appear in CRICKET Magazine and in numerous anthologies. Her most recent work is the award-winning novel in poems for teens and ‘tweens, GIRL COMING IN FOR A LANDING.
GIRL COMING IN FOR A LANDING (Knopf) quilts together 125 poems to trace the ups and downs of a girl on the verge of adolescence, while providing a glimpse of the publishing world.
It won the Children’s Literature Council of Southern California’s Myra Cohn Livingston Award for Poetry; was nominated as a Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association (ALA) and for ALA's Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers list, and was a Junior Library Guild Selection. The book also won Pennsylvania State University’s Lee Bennett Hopkins Honor Award for Poetry.
April Halprin Wayland has been a farmer, a folk fiddler and a corporate manager. She is currently on the faculty of the UCLA Extension Writer's Program and has been invited to perform and teach writing workshops at over 375 schools across the US and in England, France, Italy, Poland and in Germany at the invitation of the US Department of Defense. She lives with her husband, son, and an assortment of animals close to the beach in Southern California. She can be reached through her website, www.aprilwayland.com
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