Mountain writers writing for children

Monsters and water beasts, Shakespeare’s best stories retold as Appalachian mysteries, baseball in 19th century Japan, and exciting things to see and do before you’re 12. These are some of the topics found in books for young adults by three mountain writers.

Karen Miller

Monsters and Water Beasts, Creatures of Fact or Fiction, published by Henry Holt and Company, is NOT fiction. Author Karen Miller began her research for the book in the 1990s when she taught reading to sixth-graders. 

The students were asked to keep a reading journal recording how much time they spent reading each day. A student named Michael approached her at the very beginning and said, “I HATE to read.” 

The challenge was on. Miller learned that what fascinated Michael most were monsters in any shape or form. The Internet had just become available as a resource in classrooms, and Miller was determined to teach her students how to do responsible research and change their opinions about reading. 

She decided to focus on monsters (including Bigfoot and Hoop Snakes) and water beasts (including Lake Champlain’s Champ and the Sea Serpent of Gloucester), but she wanted it to be a non-fiction project because, she said, “The real world is just as exciting as the pretend one.” Her criteria in choosing the creatures for the book was that there had to be a minimum of three reliable sources of research for each. She cited as examples National Geographic, the BBC, and Jane Goodall’s work. In addition, there had to be at least a possibility that the monster actually exists.

As the book began to take shape, the children helped her with both the research and editing. Each monster is presented through stories as well as the evidence on record, such as photographs. Scientific theories about the nature of the creature are also cited.

The book is delightfully illustrated by New Yorker cartoonist Sergio Ruzzier, although on her website, Miller also includes pictures of the monsters sent to her by children. Their favorite monster turned out to be the “Jersey Devil” (who happens to inhabit the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, where portions of the “Blair Witch Project” and “The Exorcist” were filmed). Miller thinks this is because they feel sorry for him. One story of this monster’s origin was that the mother of an unwanted child wished he would turn into a devil. When he grew horns and a tail, she sent him away.

Monsters and Water Beasts began while Karen Miller was living in the Midwest, but it was published after she moved to Burnsville, N.C. She is now at work on a sequel. This one will include some genuine Smoky Mountain monsters such as Judaculla, a formidable giant of Cherokee origin. She also points out that there have been sightings of Bigfoot in nearby Madison County. Apparently monsters are not confined to regional or territorial boundaries.

Alan Gratz

Although Alan Gratz grew up in Knoxville, Tenn., and still lives in the Appalachian mountains, his first novel for young adults, Samurai Shortstop, is set in Japan. Gratz has always been a lover of baseball, but he first came to his fascination with Japan through novels like Shogun and then through intensive reading of Japanese history, travel articles, and articles on all aspects of Japanese life and culture. 

At one point, he discovered a photograph of a kimono-clad young man throwing the first pitch at a baseball game. The photo was dated 1915, and it immediately captured his imagination. Gratz learned that baseball had been introduced to Japan even earlier, in fact during the late 19th century. 

And so the story unfolds of a young Japanese boy who loves baseball but is caught up in a swirl of traumatic events related to family, social class and survival in the rough environment of a strict private school. Gratz’s next two novels, Something Rotten published in 2007 and Something Wicked to be published in fall 2008, are both set in the Appalachian mountains and both feature a teenager named Horatio Wilkes as the main character. The novels are mysteries based on the plots of Hamlet and MacBeth respectively. He is writing a third novel in the series, scheduled for publication in 2009. This one is called Something Foolish and is based on “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” 

Gratz is at work on yet another novel called The Brooklyn Nine, which returns again to his passion for baseball. This one is actually a series of interconnected short stories following nine generations of a family, each with a different baseball connection. When asked about a unifying theme in his books, Gratz  said that in every case the main character is struggling to find his place in the world, struggling to define himself, asking the question “Where do I fit?” Gratz believes that his own basic sense of optimism guides his books.  

While doing research for Something Wicked, he was drawn to the North Carolina Highlands. The book is set in the Great Smoky Mountains and much of the action takes place at the Highland Games. He traveled to the event at Grandfather Mountain in July and fell in love with the area. He called his wife in Atlanta and said, “It’s July, this place is spectacular, and I have on a jacket. We have to move here.” 

And move they did with their little girl to a place near Penland, N.C. Gratz is now a full-time writer and “house husband.” His wife travels with her job while he writes and cares for their 5-year-old daughter.

JoAnne Sullivan

Fortunately, you do not have to be younger than 12 years old to enjoy this delightful book entitled 101 Places You Gotta See Before You’re 12. Each of the 100 places is beautifully illustrated with color photographs (#101 is a place of your own choosing, an “extra credit place” for which you must furnish your own illustration). 

The places range from lighthouses, waterfalls, canyons and aquariums, to more “ordinary” places such as “your parents’ workplace” or a street market, a pigpen or a landfill. Each numbered place offers an introductory comment full of information. For instance, did you know that each lighthouse in the United States and Canada is painted in a distinct pattern so that ships can distinguish it from any other? And did you know that Michigan has more lighthouses than any other state (124 to be exact)? 

The book is funny and clever, just the sort of thing to make a child feel drawn in, part of the joke. Place #96 is labeled “the middle of nowhere.” The commentary offers this useful observation: “The trick is…to stop and find out where you really are. Because even the middle of nowhere is really somewhere, and it may be more interesting than you thought...  [On the other hand], even if it turns out that the middle of nowhere is not that interesting after all, at least you can say you’ve been there.”

The book includes a map and a list of all the numbered places in the back, as well as a list of additional possibilities for each. (For instance, under Waterfalls #14 or Windfarms #20, you will find names and addresses of additional waterfalls and windfarms.) There are stickers to choose from so that the child can track the places he or she has been and respond with phrases such as “loved it” or “yawn fest,” “way strange” or “this rocks.” There are even “wish list” stickers for the most exotic or distant places that might not be easily accessible. Finally, a journal section contains lined, blank pages for the adventurer’s notes.  

O’Sullivan has written a second book, also published by Lark Books, called 101 Things You Gotta Do Before You’re 12. 

So what inspired her to begin these projects? Her history reads a bit like that of a travel writer from another century. After completing undergraduate school where she studied art history, journalism, and creative writing, she had the opportunity to teach English in Korea. 

From there she took a job in Florence, Italy, where a friend was doing art restoration. She then earned a master’s degree in Intercultural Studies and took a job with an educational travel company. The company planned overseas trips for students from 8th to 12th grades. The goal was to help students experience a particular part of the world more as a local person might experience it, rather than as a tourist might. 

So, for instance, when a trip was planned to the Cotswolds in England, an effort was made to locate walking trails used by people in the area. If students were to see a Shakespeare play at Stratford in Ontario, there would also be a talk by a Shakespearean scholar.

As she began to develop the areas to be included in the books, O’Sullivan kept in mind cultural, historical and natural resources. But she also wanted to include things like “people watching,” archeological sites, artists’ studios, an eccentric eatery, an endangered place — locations and opportunities that are universal and accessible to any child, any person. In other words, no matter where we are, we can find a place that is unique, that is “my place.” We have only to be encouraged to look.

Perhaps Joanne O’Sullivan would consider producing books like these for those of us between 12 and 112. However, she is currently working on a novel also inspired by her background in travel and in art history.