Avi’s 2024 Summer Blog Series
Janet Wong
From Avi: As I did in the summer of 2023 and the summer of 2022, I’ve invited 13 admired middle grade authors to write for my blog for the next three months. I hope you’ll tune in each Tuesday to see who has answered these two questions we’re frequently asked by readers. You should have a list of terrific books to read and share by the end of the summer … along with new authors to follow!
My friend Sylvia Vardell and I have a new book coming out soon: Clara’s Kooky Compendium of Thimblethoughts and Wonderfuzz (Pomelo Books). It’s an anthology of approximately one hundred poems by a terrific roster of new and established poets. The poems are tied together with text written by me in the voice of the main character Clara, in addition to assorted quirky facts (“thimblethoughts”) and lighthearted questions (“wonderfuzz”) written by me and Sylvia.
The format of the book is a notebook (or compendium, thanks to the many lists of information and the large number of little facts sprinkled throughout). The book is structured so that it can function easily as a mentor text if teachers want to use the ready-made prompts for writing exercises. Clara’s “work” can be shared to give young writers examples to follow.
Where did you get your idea for a specific book of yours?
The general idea to do a funny book came to me during a writer’s workshop. The writers in the room wanted to know my answer to the question, “What kinds of books need to be published nowadays? What should we be writing?” I had been sharing serious poems about kindness and respect and inclusion in my workshops, but all of a sudden it hit me: maybe what we need to focus on most at this moment is very simple. Laughter. Joy. Books that make us happy. Not necessarily books that make us roll on the floor with belly laughs, but books that are light and silly and, well, kooky. I realized that if you have kids who support each other when they’re being super-kooky, you’re going to have a room filled with kindness and respect and inclusion, too—kids who celebrate each other’s quirks.
We decided to stuff the book with facts because we’re so proud that one of our books, HOP TO IT: Poems to Get You Moving, won an award for “Best Book of Facts.” It’s very rare to have poetry books recognized for their fact content, but it’s really common to find poems that are full of embedded information about science, math, social studies, and other topics. And because readers really love the little random facts that can be found on every page of HOP TO IT, we wanted to do that with this book, too. Our made-up word “thimblethought” means little facts as small as a thimble; “wonderfuzz” means fuzzy things you wonder. The nonsensical nature of the words makes them even more fun; in the book we encourage kids to invent nonsense words, too.
If you had one piece of advice to give to a young would-be writer, what would it be?
Don’t be afraid to be your weirdest, wackiest, silliest self on a regular basis; a notebook (or journal or compendium) is a perfect place to do it. Write down “what-if” wonderings and don’t worry if they make sense. Find answers to those questions and discover random fun facts by diving into books in the library and doing online research. When you find something that tickles your brain, write it down!
But here’s one thing to be careful about when you’re doing research online: Don’t believe everything you read. There are some people out there who aren’t just wacky in a fun way, but they’re actual “wackos”! They believe things that are so wrong, they’re dangerous; like, for instance, they might think that the world is flat … and you’ll fall off the edge if you travel too far … SPLAT!
Note: did you see what I did there? I played with rhyme, adding SPLAT because it rhymed with flat. You can have fun playing with rhyme (or alliteration or other poetic techniques) even when you’re writing a “regular sentence”; you don’t need to save those things for poems. Experimenting with writing is a great way to entertain yourself on a rainy day, or during a long car ride. When you know how to play with words, you will never be bored.
Particulars
Janet Wong
Janet Wong is the author of more than 40 books, including You Have to Write. She is the winner of the NCTE Excellence in Poetry for Children Award, a lifetime achievement award that is one of the highest honors a poet can receive.