(Is that a perfect book title, or what?)
Happy Book Birthday Week to my friend Nancy Cavanaugh's third fabulous book.
I'm beyond excited that she's stopped by to introduce you all to this newest middle-grade novel.
Kick off your flipflops and stay awhile, Nancy. Let's talk!
AUGUSTA:
You've drawn from your own life for your previous novels, is there
a little bit about you in this book? Were you a camper? Counselor? Do you love or hate swimming/ canoeing/ hiking/
soccer? As a former camper, counselor, and lover of summer camp, I think you
described the camp activities so well.
NANCY:
Summer camp is one of my
most vivid childhood memories. Notice
that I didn’t say my “fondest” childhood memories. My camp memories include the
good, the bad, and the ugly. The “good”
was always the active fun of activities with my friends (swimming and boating
were my favorites) and enjoying a week of complete freedom away from my
parents. The “bad” was the camp
arguments with difficult cabin mates, strict counselors, or the time I got
strep throat at camp. And the “ugly” was
that awful camp oatmeal, the really bad bug bites, and the way my clothes
felt damp all the time. (Oh yeah,
and the sand that always ended up in the bottom of my sleeping bag when I didn’t
brush my feet off well enough before I crawled inside. I always HATED that!)
In spite of all
that, I really did love going to camp, and I think summer camp really changes
kids. At the end of the week, everyone
returns home a slightly different person, which is why I chose Camp Little Big
Woods as the setting for this story.
But my daughter and her friends going to summer camp were the real inspiration for JUST LIKE ME.
AUGUSTA: I know Chaylee is proud of her mom!
Tell us a little about the design of this book? I love love love
the puzzle pieces at the head of each chapter, the fabulous cover design of canoes,
the uber cool little envelopes for page breaks. Who gets to decide what goes
where and why?
NANCY:
I LOVE the way JUST LIKE ME looks
too, and I can say that without bragging because I didn’t have anything to do with the way the book looks. Thank
goodness for that! The art design team
at Sourcebooks is responsible for how wonderfully creative all my books are in
terms of design. The art team works
closely with my editor to come up with a concept for how everything
will look and how it ties together with the story. Throughout their process, my editor does show
me the ideas they are working on. She
not only asks for my input, but also asks if I have any ideas of my own. It really is such a team effort.
AUGUSTA: Speaking of teamwork, there's a wonderful subplot about teamwork and helping friends in
your book. Is that one thing you hope kids will take away from JUST LIKE ME?
NANCY:
As a former teacher,
I spent lots of years encouraging the students in my classroom to not only get
along, but to actually work together. I
think it’s one of those things that I’m always trying to impress upon young
people because it’s such an important life lesson.
AUGUSTA: Ah, yes. Life lessons. I love that about books! I know kids will read this novel for fun and they'll get those lessons, because it feels very
true. But there's also a serious side to Julia. Was that hard to write?
NANCY:
Though this book was
inspired by my daughter who was adopted from China, the character of Julia is
completely fictitious, and finding Julia’s story was quite a struggle. I’m an adoptive mom, but I myself
was not adopted. I really had to dig
deep into my imagination and emotion to put myself in Julia’s shoes
and figure out what her struggles and issues would be.
AUGUSTA: And you did that so well!
Here's a bonus question, just for fun and because so many writers who aren't lucky enough to be published yet would love to know more about school visits, which you're so great at.
What's the funniest question you've ever been asked at one of your
many school visits? (Other than Are you a millionaire?!)
NANCY:
When I do my school
presentation for my book THIS JOURNAL BELONGS TO RATCHET, I bring engine parts
and talk about how taking apart an engine and putting it back together again is
very similar to how we as writers take apart our writing and put it back
together when we revise it. Well,
at one school visit a couple years ago, the microphone was acting up during my
presentation, and it kept making that really annoying buzzing sound. A student interrupted my talk to ask, “Since
you know how to take apart an engine and put it back together again, would you
be able to fix the sound system?” I’ll
let you guess what my answer was.
