August 2018
Tony and Lauren Dungy Score a Touchdown with New Children’s Book Series
ANN M. MARTIN Inspires a New Generation of Baby-Sitters
Vanessa Marshall
Tim McCanna
the Most Dangerous Voice in the Galaxy
Hits a Happy Tune with Little Readers
Jennifer Rose Offers Life Lessons for Autistic Teens
One to Read
Fiona Basile
Q&A with
Linda Kranz
One to Watch
Maceo Smedley
PROMOTE YOUR BOOK IN OUR NEXT ISSUE! Would you like to promote your book, product, or business? Contact Cristy Bertini at Cristy@StoryMonsters.com or call 413-687-0733 to reserve your space! Discounts available.
MEET THE STAFF PUBLISHER
Bring Story Monsters Ink into Your Classroom!
Editor-in-Chief
Visit our website at StoryMonsters.com to download free classroom question sheets to aid in learning comprehension and encourage your students to discuss what they’ve read in each issue!
Linda F. Radke Linda@StoryMonsters.com Cristy Bertini Cristy@StoryMonsters.com
WRITERS Melissa Fales, Nick Spake, Rita Campbell, Olivia Amiri, Julianne Black, Larissa Juliano
DESIGN
StoryMonsters.com
Science & Nature Editor
Order Story Monsters Ink online at storymonsters.com/subscribe/ or through subscription services for schools, libraries, and businesses.
Jeff Yesh
Conrad J. Storad
PROOFREADER Deb Greenberg
Web Management Patti Crane
Advertising
Linda F. Radke Info@StoryMonsters.com Cristy Bertini Cristy@StoryMonsters.com
“Like” us on Facebook! Facebook.com/StoryMonsters Follow us on Twitter! @StoryMonsters Follow us on Instagram! instagram.com/storymonsters
Book Reviewers Darleen Wohlfeil, Diana Perry, Jessica Reino, Tynea Lewis, Sherry Hoffman, Diana Fisher, Dawn Menge, Denise Bloomfield
Issues of Story Monsters Ink are recorded by the Arizona Talking Book Library!
Cover photo courtesy of Scholastic Story Monsters Ink magazine and www.StoryMonsters.com are trademarks of Story Monsters, LLC. Copyright ©2018 Story Monsters LLC, ISSN 2374-4413, ISBN: 9781338199932: All rights reserved. Contents may not be published in whole or in part without the express written consent of the bylined author and publisher. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the individual writers and are not necessarily those of Story Monsters Ink or its advertisers. Story Monsters Ink is published by Story Monsters LLC Postal mail may be sent to Story Monsters Ink 4696 W. Tyson St., Chandler, AZ 85226 Phone: 480-940-8182
2
Story Monsters Ink | August 2018 | StoryMonsters.com
Honor Roll Gold Award Recipient, Mom’s Choice Awards. Named among the “great magazines for kids and teens” by School Library Journal. 2016 Irwin Award winner for “Best Publisher of a Literary Magazine” and “Best Editorial Director.”
August 2018
In this issue 04 Ann M. Martin Inspires a New Generation of Baby-Sitters
52
08
Q&A with Linda Kranz
Tony and Lauren Dungy Score a Touchdown with New Children’s Book Series
My L ibrar y Car Stor d yM
32
onste
12
r
One to Watch Maceo Smedley
Vanessa Marshall the Most Dangerous Voice in the Galaxy
28
16
Jennifer Rose Offers Life Lessons for Autistic Teens
22
Tim McCanna Hits a Happy Tune with Little Readers
One to Read Fiona Basile
26 Liv on Life 36 How Does Your Garden Grow? 38 Summer Reading List
42 Monsters at the Movies 46 Book Reviews
56 Purple Dragonfly Award Winners 59 Kids Corner
Tell us what you think of this issue! Email your comments to cristy@storymonsters.com. StoryMonsters.com | August 2018 | Story Monsters Ink
3
Feature Cover Story
Ann M. Martin Inspires a New Generation of Baby-Sitters by Melissa Fales photos courtesy of Scholastic
The Baby-Sitters Club series was a literary staple of an entire generation of young readers. Ann M. Martin’s books about adolescent friends Mary Anne, Kristy, Claudia, Stacey, and their charges dominated bookshelves from the late 1980s through the 1990s, becoming one of the most popular young adult series of all time. “I heard from a lot of kids that the club members were like friends to them,” says Martin.
4
Story Monsters Ink | August 2018 | StoryMonsters.com
Feature Cover Story
Martin grew up in Princeton, New Jersey. Her father drew cartoons for magazines like The New Yorker and her mother was a preschool teacher. “It was a happy, Leave-It-to-Beaverish sort of childhood,” she says. “I loved to write, and enjoyed any challenge put forth by my teachers, especially the wonderful Mr. Doherty, my creative writing teacher in junior high. Also, I wrote horrible poetry.” While Martin was never a member of a baby-sitting club, she did her share of sitting. “I baby-sat my way from junior high through college,” she says. On her first day at Smith College in 1973, she met Claudia Werner, who would become a lifelong friend and lend her name to a main character in The Baby-Sitter’s Club books. Martin says her four years of college were some of the best of her life. “I double-majored in psychology and elementary education, both of which informed my writing, and I became particularly interested in children’s literature,” she says. After graduation, Martin spent a year teaching fourth and fifth grade at a small, private school in Connecticut. “I had engaging, funny, hard-working students,” she says. “I enjoyed sharing my love of children’s books and reading and writing with them, but I could feel the pull of the publishing community. I wanted to work on children’s books myself, so I moved to New York City and began a new career.”
and had worked on several series as an editor, but hadn’t considered writing a series of my own.” Martin’s first step in The Baby-Sitters Club saga was to create the characters. “That’s always my favorite part of creating a story,” she says. “I had set out to create a group of girls who were very different from one another but who worked well together and were friends, despite having divergent personalities and coming from varying backgrounds and family configurations.” As real as the main characters came to feel to fans, only Kristy and Mary Anne were based on real people. “Kristy was based on my still-best friend Beth McKeever,” says Martin. “Mary Anne was based on me. As kids, Beth was the one with the big ideas, who was always starting clubs and coming up with adventures for us and our friends. And she was funny and outgoing. I was shy, but happy to follow her lead. Even now, 59 years after we first met, Beth organizes stellar baby showers, weddings, and birthday parties.” All in all, the series ran from 1986 to 2000 and boasted a total of 131 titles, plus spin-off series and Super Specials. “While the books that were more funny or fanciful were fun to write, of course, I was always more
Martin worked for a number of major publishers, but yearned to be on the other side of that world. “My love of writing, even bad poetry, had never left, and as I became more involved in children’s publishing, I decided to try my hand at writing a novel of my own,” she says. “It was a middle-grade novel, Bummer Summer. The moment it was accepted by a publisher, I knew what I wanted to do, if not for the rest of my life, then certainly for the rest of my career.” It was published in 1983. Shortly after Martin left an editor position with Bantam Books to write full-time, she was approached about writing a four-book series about a group of baby-sitters. “I was both relieved and intrigued,” she says. “I wasn’t sure I could make this work. So the offer of a four-book series, about baby-sitting, no less, was a relief. The series was middle-grade, the level at which I’ve always felt most comfortable writing, and I certainly had experiences to draw on. I was also intrigued. I’d read plenty of series books as a child, StoryMonsters.com | August 2018 | Story Monsters Ink
5
Feature Cover Story
interested in writing about serious topics,” she says. “My favorite stories were the more serious ones, such as Claudia and the Sad Good-Bye, written after the death of my grandmother, in which Claudia loses her own grandmother; Kristy and the Secret of Susan, in which Kristy sits for a girl with autism; and Jessi’s Secret Language, in which Jessi sits for a boy who uses American Sign Language to communicate.”
“I had set out to create a group of girls who were very different from one another but who worked well together and were friends, despite having divergent personalities and coming from varying backgrounds and family configurations.”
6
Story Monsters Ink | August 2018 | StoryMonsters.com
Martin received letters from devotees with personal requests for stories about specific topics such as bullying or losing a beloved pet. “I took all these things into consideration,” says Martin. “Later in the series, after I received a number of letters requesting a story about the dangers of drunk driving and also a story about the death of a peer, Mary Anne and the Memory Garden was published, which tackled both of those topics.” The Baby-Sitters Club series was incredibly popular, with over 176 million books sold. Martin believes it’s because fans felt so genuinely connected to the club members. “Early on, I saw that most young readers felt drawn to one or more of the main characters, and that pulled them into the series,” she says. “Also, I wanted to create a group of kids who were independent, entrepreneurial problem-solvers. The members of the Baby-Sitter’s Club knew that the adults in their lives were there to help, but they generally took matters into their own hands. They were energetic creative-thinkers (who, frankly, pulled off something that wasn’t exactly realistic), but they were also relatable.” The members of Martin’s Baby-Sitter’s Club remain perpetually adolescent. “What eventually became a problem for my editors and me was the fact that after the first few books, the characters didn’t age,” says Martin. “None of us had expected that the series would be published for nearly 15 years and that there would be hundreds of books in the series. The characters aged one year in the first ten books, and then we realized
Feature Cover Story
we needed to stop time. If we hadn’t done that, the Baby-Sitter’s Club members would have been nearly 30 by the time the series concluded. So it was the fact that the series couldn’t change much over the years that eventually led to its end.” The Baby-Sitter’s Club has continued in the form of a television show, a movie, and most recently, graphic novels by Raina Telgemeier and Gale Galligan based on Martin’s original stories. Later this month, there will be a special edition release of the first six books of the series in a collectible The Baby-Sitter’s Club tin case. Martin has continued to write, including A Corner of the Universe (a Newbery Honor Book), Here Today, A Dog’s Life and Everything for a Dog. Currently, she is taking a break and spending her time sewing, doing needlework, fostering homeless cats, and working on the Lisa Libraries, the foundation she started in 1990 in memory of children’s editor Lisa Novak. The Lisa Libraries collects new children’s books to create libraries for underserved children, including those who are in foster care, shelters, or visiting incarcerated parents. In January, she released Rain Reign. Again, her creative process started by developing the main character. “I started thinking about a young girl living on the outskirts, both geographically and emotionally,” she says. “She had quirky interests and a troubled relationship with her father. Eventually, I realized she might be on the autism spectrum.” While Martin was cultivating the character of Rose in her mind, her editor asked if she wanted to write another book about a dog. “The story about Rose and Rain didn’t come together, though, until Hurricane Irene hit our area,” she says. “As in the book, the storm wasn’t supposed to affect us, but it took an inland turn and did a great deal of damage in the northeast. After the storm, as I walked my dog Sadie up and down the street and saw the ruined homes and roads, I thought about pets that had become separated from their owners. The story came together quickly after that—a story about love, and about doing the right thing, even when the right thing is very difficult.”
two trusted editors, Liz Szabla and Jean Feiwel, who proposed the idea of The Baby-Sitter’s Club to Martin all those years ago, Martin has already published two books featuring a new character, Missy Piggle-Wiggle, the great-niece of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. The third book, Missy Piggle-Wiggle and the Sticky-Fingers Cure will be released in September. “Like her great-aunt, Missy lives in an upside-down house … with lots of animals, including a talking parrot, and a pig so polite that children learn good manners from him,” says Martin. “Parents go to Missy seeking her humorous but effective magical cures for such problems as a child who won’t help care for the family dog, a boy who gets hooked on chewing gum, a brother and sister who won’t stop whining, and in the case of The StickyFingers Cure, a boy who can’t help but pilfer anything that attracts his attention.” Martin admits that developing a new character and series based on such a beloved classic was a little intimidating. “It was daunting to attempt to follow in the footsteps of Betty MacDonald, but thinking of funny problems and cures made sitting down to write each day a pleasure,” she says. For more information about Ann M. Martin and her books, visit scholastic.com/annmartin.
•
It’s ironic that Betty MacDonald’s Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books were some of Martin’s favorites growing up. With the full blessing of MacDonald’s greatgranddaughter, Annie Parnell, and the guidance of StoryMonsters.com | August 2018 | Story Monsters Ink
7
Feature Story
Tony and Lauren Dungy Score a Touchdown with New Children’s Book Series by Melissa Fales photos courtesy of Krupp Kommunications
8
Story Monsters Ink | August 2018 | StoryMonsters.com
Feature Story
For 36 years, Lauren and Tony Dungy have enjoyed a marriage that revolves around faith, family, and football. Together, Lauren, a former teacher and early childhood education specialist, and Tony, a former NFL player, NBC sports analyst, NFL Hall of Fame member, and retired Super Bowl-winning head coach, are writing sports-themed children’s books designed to get children interested in and excited about reading. Austin Plays Fair and Maria Finds Courage are the first two books in the new Team Dungy series. “It’s very important to get kids reading early because we know that reading is going to help them in every area of their lives,” says Lauren. “Ideally, they’ll develop a love of reading that will lead to a lifetime of learning.” Best known for coaching the Indianapolis Colts from 2002 to 2008 and shaping them into one of the NFL’s most formidable teams, Tony is also a New York Times bestselling author, having written books such as Uncommon and Quiet Strength. He’s also teamed up with Lauren previously to write The Uncommon Marriage, and children’s books including the Ready to Read series for Simon and Schuster, with stories featuring their own brood. The Dungys began writing children’s books after Lauren discovered a need while volunteering at Title 1 schools. She and several other NFL wives visited the schools weekly to read to students. “The problem was, there wasn’t a lot of material for them to read,” Tony says. “They wanted to read something that was fun, but also had a positive message. That’s how we got started. We wrote books for them to read to the kids.”
The new Team Dungy series of picture books designed for children in grades 1-3 is published by Harvest Kids, an imprint of Harvest House Publishers. Each book offers more than an appealing cover and a relatable sports-themed tale; it teaches an important lesson and incorporates the faith that is so integral to the couple’s lives and marriage. “We do hope our Christian principles are evident throughout the books, but we didn’t want to limit our books to only Christian bookstores,” says Tony. The lesson in Austin Plays Fair is about honesty. “We meet Austin, whose flag football team is struggling to win,” says Tony. “They think about tightening up their flags which would make it harder for their opponent to win. But is that the most important thing? Do we want to win? Sure we do. But is it really winning if you don’t play fair? That’s what Austin has to work
StoryMonsters.com | August 2018 | Story Monsters Ink
9
Feature Story
“Sometimes, kids who are dreaming about becoming a professional athlete don’t think they need to learn how to read. But if you can’t read, you can’t play the game. Reading is important for everyone, no matter what your dreams are for the future.” through. The message is that honesty and integrity really do trump winning.” Maria Finds Courage is about a girl who’s new to a school and her parents encourage her to play soccer as a good way to make friends. “She’s apprehensive about trying something new,” says Tony. “She was comfortable being on the swim team and she’s afraid 10
Story Monsters Ink | August 2018 | StoryMonsters.com
of failure. She’s afraid the other kids will laugh at her. It’s a good example of a real situation kids can find themselves in … wanting to try something new but their fear holds them back.” The Team Dungy books were written with inclusivity in mind. “One of our goals was to feature diverse characters the kids could see themselves in—boys and girls of different nationalities,” Tony says. “The idea is that we may all look different, but we all are the same in that we all want to play and we all want to win.” A third book in the series, Carson Finds Forgiveness, will be released in August 2019. Separate from the Team Dungy series, the Dungys will also be releasing We Chose You: A Book About Adoption, Family, and Forever Love in spring 2019 through Harvest Kids. “It’s for people who are wrestling with how to tell their kids about adoption, and at the same time spread the word about how important adoption is,” says Tony. Seven of the couple’s 10 children are adopted. “We have a passion for strengthening and encouraging children and empowering families,” says Lauren. When visiting schools, the Dungys use the opportunity to demonstrate an example of a long-term
Feature Story
families) nearby. “We try to reach as many as we can because we know there is such a need,” she says. “We hand out books to the students and for many of them, it’s the first book they’ve ever owned.” Both Lauren and Tony have seen firsthand how important it is for kids to read. Tony recalls coaching many football players over the years who had great potential on the field but never developed key reading skills. “They were very bright, but they couldn’t read well,” he says. “It ended up hurting them in their careers.” Lauren says that’s a message kids need to hear. “Sometimes, kids who are dreaming about becoming a professional athlete don’t think they need to learn how to read,” she says. “But if you can’t read, you can’t play the game. Reading is important for everyone, no matter what your dreams are for the future.” For more information about Tony and Lauren Dungy and their books, visit coachdungy.com.
•
marriage. “We’re modeling the idea of two parents who love each other and are still together,” says Lauren. “We’re promoting the idea of family. Sometimes we even take our kids along with us as a way to reinforce that idea.” The Dungys say that working together on the books has been a blessing. “Our personalities are different, but we’re both teachers,” Lauren says. “We have a shared goal and we’re motivated by a love for children. Using our platform to help others has been very gratifying to both of us.” Tony says collaborating with his wife has been the easiest and most enjoyable part of the writing process. “The hardest part for me has been word choice and keeping it simple,” he says. “Lauren has to constantly tell me, ‘Remember, you’re talking to little kids, not football players.’” Despite being busy with their large family, the Dungys make time to volunteer in a number of social programs near their home in Tampa Bay. Every Tuesday, the Dungys visit Title 1 schools in their area, continuing the tradition that inspired them to write children’s books in the first place. Lauren says she was shocked to learn there are 135 Title 1 schools (designated as such by the high percentage of students from low-income StoryMonsters.com | August 2018 | Story Monsters Ink
11