Natascha Biebow, THE CRAYON MAN

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[1:04]by it is a gift to housewarming if you actually go somewhere or just give it to yourself. Everybody

[1:09]needs a treat without a long spring. PageOneBooks.com. Welcome to Day Two of the second week of the

[1:17]July Book Blast. This is the, I guess, seventh day in all of my 10-day July Book Blast with episodes I

[1:24]recorded throughout the quarantine, some quarantine related, some not all of which deserve to see the

[1:29]the light of day before the summer comes to an end. Today is Young Reader's Day. So I have a

[1:36]collection of children's books, a middle grade, and all sorts of stuff that your kids might like,

[1:41]and how interesting to hear from children's book writers, which is exciting to me because I

[1:45]actually sold two children's books to Penguin Random House that I'll be coming out in the next year or

[1:50]two. So I have a personal affinity for children's book authors. Enjoy these episodes.

[1:55]Natasha Bebao was born in Johannesburg, South Africa and grew up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,

[2:01]where she went to an American school. She studied developmental psychology at Smith College

[2:06]and completed a degree in early childhood education and an international diploma in Montessori

[2:11]pedagogy in 2013. She wrote as an editor, is this my nose illustrated by Georgie Verkett,

[2:18]which won the Book Trust Best Book for Babes. She's also written many other books, including the recent

[2:24]story, The Cran Man, The True Story of the Invention of Crayola Cranes, which is really fantastic,

[2:30]and I've now read it like 50 times to my kids. And you should too. Hi. Hello. How are you?

[2:36]I'm good, thanks. Great talk to you. I'm going to see you live. Thanks. Well, I'm really excited

[2:43]to talk to you. I've read The Cran Man now like, I don't know, five times to my kids in the last

[2:49]week or so. They love it. Anyway, so I'm really excited to talk to you. How old are your kids?

[2:56]Well, I have four kids, but I read it to my five and a half year old and almost seven year old.

[3:02]I have twins that are about to be 13, but they are kind of past this. But I love reading

[3:08]children's books. And so anyway, so what what inspired you to write this story? Tell me more about

[3:13]The Cran Man. So I was looking for a topic to write for a nonfiction picture book

[3:19]course that I was taking. And I needed a topic really fast. I was watching an episode of Sesame

[3:25]Street with my son who was four then. And we saw this great video about how The Crayola Cranes

[3:32]are made in the factory. And I remembered how much I liked them for my childhood and had I

[3:37]really thought about The Crayola Cranes in a little while. And I saw this machine, the collating

[3:44]machine that has all the colors stacked up. And when you see them, they're like this amazing rainbow

[3:49]of colors. And it's just such a vivid picture. And then I started thinking, well, maybe that would

[3:55]make a good topic. And so the more I started looking into it, the more a really cool story emerged.

[4:03]And I discovered that no one had told this story quite the way I wanted to tell it, which was

[4:07]about Edwin Benny the Man, as opposed to just the sort of historical, very old-fashioned

[4:15]kind of drawing nonfiction approaches that were out there about Just Crayola and a very linear

[4:22]history, shall we say, of how the crayons had been made and invented, which talked about

[4:28]when Benny and his company. So I just got digging and the more I dug, the more interesting things

[4:35]and what brought you to take that class in the first place. So I've been writing picture books

[4:41]for a really long time. I'm also a picture book and young fiction editor. And when when I needed

[4:48]to make some money, I was focusing more on my editing. And when my son came along on parenting and

[4:54]so on. And then I just got to a point where I just thought, you know, I just needed a new direction.

[4:59]I need some deadlines. I need someone to kind of get me unstuck from the balancing act that is

[5:07]trying to cram too many things in your life, right? And so I decided to take this class because it

[5:13]would be eight weeks. And by the end of it, you'd have written a book. And I just thought that's

[5:17]what I need. I need to be accountable in some way. And it worked. Where did you take? Was it an

[5:24]online or actual person? It was an online class with Kristin Fulton who unfortunately isn't offering

[5:30]the class anymore. But it was really great because she she talked us through the whole genre of

[5:36]nonfiction picture books and the different aspects of writing in that particular area. And it

[5:43]was an area that I sort of explored a little bit, but hadn't focused as much. And I started

[5:48]remembering how much I like two stories. Because sometimes the two stories are just are

[5:54]quirky or then stuff that you can imagine. And I like that about it. And so through the course,

[6:02]we had weekly meetings and assignments. And Kristin talked us through different aspects of the

[6:07]craft and different parts of writing a nonfiction book. And we got some feedback from her as well,

[6:13]which was really great and also from our classmates. So neat. So funny how like you can get

[6:19]something done in such a finite period of time when you have goals and regular accountability and

[6:25]all of that. It's opposed to like having a goal that's just so vague and maybe you'll get it done,

[6:30]maybe you won't. Like I feel like I'm the type of person who needs that level of structure to

[6:35]like get stuff done regularly or at least like a self-imposed structure like if not in class.

[6:41]Absolutely. So Kristin was like, you know, by this week, you need to have started your research. And

[6:47]by this week, you need your 10 key facts about whatever topic so that we can see if it's going to

[6:53]make a book. Or if you need to go and look into that. And by this point, you've got to collect

[7:00]enough information, but stop. Because one of the things about researching is you could go on and

[7:05]you find interesting things and you go down a little rabbit hole here and you realize, oh,

[7:11]I'm way off topic, right? So you have to know when you've got enough to write the book. And then

[7:18]once you write the first draft, you can go back and ask further questions and find further

[7:25]verification for certain things that are still not clear. But at least you've kind of got something

[7:31]that looks starting to look like a story with the beginning, middle and end kind of thing.

[7:36]My son was wondering though why they got so many different colors all over their faces and

[7:42]they're clothing every time they weren't trying to. Yeah, someone asked me that in a recent

[7:48]school visit. And I said, well, if you imagine it's like you're making a cake and you are baking

[7:55]and you got, you know, the flower goes everywhere and you mix it with a lot of vigor.

[8:00]I think part of that is slightly artistic license from the illustrators point of view to convey

[8:06]the point. But I do imagine they were in this lab with all kinds of materials and it got messy.

[8:15]I answered something similar to that, but your answer is better. Tell me about some of your

[8:21]other books. Like what's the first picture book you worked on? So my first picture book was called

[8:27]Eleanor or elephants never forget. And it was inspired by a trip to Africa with my parents. My

[8:33]parents lived in South Africa when I was very little and we went back a few times as I grew up.

[8:39]And we were staying on a game reserve and talking about elephants. And I learned that when an

[8:46]elephant dies and often, unfortunately, through poaching, the other elephants from far and wide will come

[8:52]and pay their respects to the person who were to the elephant that died. And it just struck me

[8:57]as such a moving phenomenon that elephants are almost like people in that respect and they seem to

[9:05]sense that somebody from their tribe had left. And so I wrote this book and it's not 100% nonfiction.

[9:13]It's more an inspired story based on the story of the game. People had told me, but I was,

[9:19]I just love elephants. I think there's such majestic creatures. And so I wrote that book.

[9:26]That was published quite a long time ago. And then in my work as an editor, I've done a lot

[9:31]of writing as well. And I have written some nonfiction and fiction. But the one that I really

[9:39]like a lot was called Is This My Nose. And it's a baby board book, very simple text about different

[9:47]parts of your face. And it's fun. It illustrated by Georgie Burkett. Awesome. So what's coming next?

[9:55]Are you working on another book? Or are you always do you always have a lot of projects at once?

[9:59]Or how do you wear?

[10:00]Yeah, authors always have lots of books in their bottom drawer, I'd say, or out on submission in various stages.

[10:07]So I've written a chapter book in a chapter book series proposal that's out on submission, and it's inspired by teachers, because I'm always fascinated by the hugely important roles a teachers play in our lives.

[10:22]And I've also written some other nonfiction books, picture books like The Cran Man that are at various stages, so a couple are out on submission, others I'm researching more.

[10:33]And I think it's partly it's a question of having the right story at the right time, because publishers list are very busy and they're always trying to find a balance between all the different topics they're publishing and the different voices they want to hear from.

[10:51]And what kids are what's timely for kids right now, but part of it is also just having enough time to research everything and get the book written.

[11:02]So again, it comes back to the to the juggling of paid work versus trying to be a working author and live just off that.

[11:13]So as an author and an editor, what do you think makes a great children's book?

[11:18]For me, it's got to be child centered. It's got to be a book that speaks to kids, so I think it's a great picture book has to have wonderful art that's inspiring, but also that isn't too lofty, shall we say, or you know, we don't want it to be the coffee table book that looks beautiful, but it's just too grown up for them to really access.

[11:40]And I think the story has to be from the heart and it has to be a story that that is at relevant to children in their everyday lives, so they've got to be able to find a way into the story that that moves them or that speaks to them in terms of their experience.

[12:01]And I think it sparks curiosity perhaps, but also I love a text that has a good rhythm to it so that the parent has to read it hundreds of times.

[12:10]Maybe also some levels of jokes or humor to kind of draw in the grown ups, right, that always helps.

[12:21]So it's such a multi layered piece of art picture books are full of different aspects that draw in different readers, but ideally one that that endures is one that has a real sense of wonder perhaps or it speaks to you emotionally in some way.

[12:41]Awesome.

[12:42]And as a parent, you read loads of picture books, don't you?

[12:45]I do. I do. I read picture books all the time. You know, I really do love his.

[12:51]What do you call nonfiction picture books? I was going to say historical picture books, but I think those are really great because then kids from I mean, I don't know.

[12:59]I'm such a visual person like it really helps me to see the factory and the brothers and all the stuff like now I understand.

[13:05]I can look at a grand box and I'll feel very differently from now on and have a different set of images going through my head.

[13:10]I love humor. I love when books use the book form in a different way. Like I love in the elephant and piggy books. I sometimes they talk to the reader. Like we are in a book by Mo Willems is probably my favorite picture book ever.

[13:22]Like we are in a book. What are the book ends?

[13:25]It's so funny. It's just like so self-referential. It's like it's so clever and brilliant. Anyway, so yeah, but picture books are great and they're great to read as parents and such a bonding thing to do with your children and fostering that love of reading early.

[13:39]So having great options is super important. So thank you for contributing to the great options.

[13:45]Thank you. I was also going to say the interesting thing about the nonfiction that we're seeing more recently is that there's lots of different kinds of nonfiction.

[13:55]And so it's drawing in those readers who really like facts but maybe have an access story in the same way. And maybe because they're so drawn in by the facts, they're now going to be compelled by the story to read different things we hope or the other way around, right?

[14:11]The kids who really like the narrative maybe they'll start looking at nonfiction differently. So it's a nice genre that way too.

[14:19]What do I do? Do you have any final advice for aspiring picture book or children's book authors?

[14:26]I think my advice is to persevere and bomb on seat. I think you got to have your butt in your chair. You got to put in the hours. You really have to be prepared for the journey that is being a writer.

[14:42]The many drafts, the whole process of getting published is not for the faint hearted. It requires a lot of perseverance.

[14:51]But also just literally getting up and spending the time to write or illustrate and to further your craft and always be open to learning from other people looking to inspiration, reading a lot of other books and just to keep your mind open for new possibilities.

[15:11]But you really need to be prepared to not give up because it is a tough genre to get published in.

[15:21]But it's also a really wonderful community of people working in this area who are very supportive and open to sharing their advice and supporting you on your journey as a published or pre-published author or illustrator, right, as we like to call people on their journey.

[15:40]Awesome. Well, thank you so much. Thanks for coming on Momstone to read books and thanks for entertaining my kids and me for lots of the times.

[15:49]Oh, that's amazing. I'm so glad you liked the Korean man and it's really fun to connect with you. Thanks to being here.

[15:55]Thanks a lot. Bye.

[15:57]Bye. Thanks so much for listening to Young Readers Tuesday, part of my July book blast. I hope you've enjoyed it.

[16:04]Thanks again for listening to my podcast, Momstone Have Time to Read books. If you liked this episode, please follow me on Instagram at Zippy Owens and at Momstone Have Time to Read books and sign up for my mailing list at Zippy Owens.com so you can always hear about the latest things I'm up to.

[16:21]Thanks a lot.

[16:22]Thanks so much to Page One Books for sponsoring today's episode. I hope you'll all check out my summer beach bundle at Page One Books.com.

[16:29]Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan at Texture Sound for the sound editing. And thank you to Morningmoon Productions for providing this fantastic intro and out trim music.

[16:37]Thanks for listening. You could always email me at Zippy at Zippy Owens.com.