Ask the Author: Kate DiCamillo
Answered Questions (30)
Kate DiCamillo
Ah, Janet. You have a smart 12 year old. The characters show up as real people to me. And we're all flawed, right? I certainly am. But yet I keep trying. I mean well.
Kate DiCamillo
Oh, Karrie, there are so many. Katherine Paterson, Christopher Paul Curtis, Isak Dinesen, Ted Kooser, Mo Willems, William Maxwell, Eudora Welty, E.B. White. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Kate DiCamillo
Hi Kim. I love watching the story unfold. I love it when it becomes its own thing and surprises me.
Kate DiCamillo
Hi Carrick, I remember being a kid with such clarity and so much emotional force. It's not hard for me to access those feelings. They are right on the surface for me. *Why* this is so, is a mystery to me.
Kate DiCamillo
Christy! Thanks for hand selling my books. As far as the Ambassadorship goes, I feel changed in this way: I feel more connected to the readers, writers and illustrators of children's books, and also all the people who work to put the books in reader's hands. That is to say: I feel the community of what we do more powerfully. Writing doesn't seem as isolated. And that is pretty grand.
Kate DiCamillo
Hi Olivia. It is hard for me to pick a favorite. I think of the books as my kids. I love them equally, but differently. They are (complicated, flawed, lovable) individuals to me.
Kate DiCamillo
Coffee! Must have the coffee. And lights. I always turn on a string of festive lights. After that, it varies depending on the book. Sometimes, there is music that I write to, sometimes not. Sometimes, I light a candle.
Kate DiCamillo
Hi Kelly! For me, reading is such a pleasure, so I always feel that it is a privilege to hold a book in my hands. I think it would be great if we could remind kids and adults of the pleasure/privilege of reading. Sometimes reading gets turned into a duty, a task, a chore. Something we should do. But if we can keep telling people how much joy there is to be found in books, I think that life-long love will come naturally.
Kate DiCamillo
Oh, I love that you are opening suitcases when you write. I might steal that phrase from you. As for Rob and Sistine and what happens to them--I don't know. Tell your students that it would be wonderful if they told me.
Kate DiCamillo
Hi Melinda. The biggest challenge is this task: putting myself in front of as many people (children and adults) as I can and reminding them of what they already know to be true: stories matter. Stories are necessary. Stories connect us. Reading together is a pleasure, a joy, and a privilege.
As for that Mercy Watson: tell your students that there are going to be Further Tales from Deckawoo Drive. The first one comes out this fall. It is about Leroy Ninker.
As for that Mercy Watson: tell your students that there are going to be Further Tales from Deckawoo Drive. The first one comes out this fall. It is about Leroy Ninker.
Kate DiCamillo
Hi Elaine, I think that telling a story really matters. And that heart really matters. Story and heart. That is what I think it comes down to. Recommendations: Harriet the Spy, Charlotte's Web, The Year of Billy Miller, The Watsons Go to Birmingham, The Secret Garden, anything by Beverly Cleary, Bridge to Terebithia.
Kate DiCamillo
Sarah! I was the luckiest kid in the world in this respect. I grew up with a Standard Poodle named Nanette. She was, in every possible way, the grandest dog imaginable: playful, nurturing. Plus, she had an excellent sense of humor.
Kate DiCamillo
Lauren! I think that I bear more than a passing resemblance to Flora. I am a cynic. But I am not *really* a cynic. And the superhero, poetry-writing squirrel. He is about the wondrous improbability that is everywhere. And he is about love. And love is a hard thing for a cynic to argue with. Does all that make sense? Thank you for loving the book .
Kate DiCamillo
A very dear friend gave me a rabbit doll as a Christmas gift one year. When she handed him to me, I asked her what his name was and she said: Edward. That rabbit kind of haunted me. And when I dreamed about him, I knew that there was a story to tell.
Kate DiCamillo
Wheeeeee. I love it. Yes.
Kate DiCamillo
It's the same thing that is important for all of writing, I think: to tell a story with the whole of yourself.
Kate DiCamillo
Oh, it is really, really, really hard to pick a favorite character. If you insisted, I would pick Winn-Dixie. Because everything that has happened to me as a writer has happened because of that dog.
And the easiest to write? Edward Tulane. That story just kind of told itself.
And the easiest to write? Edward Tulane. That story just kind of told itself.
Kate DiCamillo
Hi Amber. I was pretty old (30!) when I started writing. I give the same advice to young people and old people about writing, and that advice is basically this: keep your eyes, ears, mind and heart open. And make some deal with yourself about *how* you are going to do the work. For me, that deal is: 2 pages a day.
Kate DiCamillo
Hi Lilith. I was in my twenties when I knew for sure that I wanted to be a writer. But it wasn't until I was almost thirty that I started to actually write.
Kate DiCamillo
Hmmm. No one has ever asked that before. It would be Frances Hodgson Burnett's *A Little Princess.* I read and re-read and re-read that book as a kid. I still love it as an adult.
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Nov 09, 2019 09:34AM · flag
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