KID SCOOPS
February 12, 2008
A Conversation with Lois Lowry
TFK Kid Reporter Hannah Spicijaric talks with the award-winning author about her latest book, The Willoughbys
For more than thirty years, two-time Newbery-Medal winner Lois Lowry has been writing books for young people. Some are serious, and others are funny. Some tell about the past while others take place in the future. Her latest work, an old-fashioned satire called The Willoughbys, made TFK Kid Reporter Hannah Spicijaric laugh out loud. Hannah recently had the chance to chat with Lois Lowry about the new book, which is set to hit stores on March 31.
TFK:
The Willoughbys was completely different from all of your other books. Where did you get the idea for such a funny book?
Lois Lowry:See, I knew you were going to ask me this question; it's difficult to answer. It's the question most people like to ask: Where did you get the idea? Ideas come from many places, some simmering in your mind, and some come from past experiences. I have a very long past because I go way back. So I think it probably came from the kind of books I read when I was young, and kids don't read books like that anymore. Back then, books tended to have stock characters. They always had adjectives before their nouns: not just orphans, but needy orphans; not just the nanny, but the odious nanny, like the nanny in The Willoughbys. Then I was thinking, "Do all my books have to be serious?" In a typical book today, if there were an orphan whose parents had died, it would be a sad book about grief, but I wanted to write a humorous book about that subject.
TFK:How long did it take you to write The Willoughbys?
Lowry:I think that particular book didn't take me terribly long and the reason is because once I got started, you know, it just moved along and flowed. And I didn't have to spend a whole lot of time delving into the depths of the characters because they are pretty superficial, so to answer your question, I would say it took me about two months.
TFK:I noticed you illustrated The Willoughbys. Is this the first time you've illustrated one of your books? Will you ever illustrate again?
Lowry:I am not an illustrator, but it was fun just drawing goofy cartoons, and then they let me keep them. And no, that will be my first and last time.
TFK:What do you hope kids will get out of this book?
Lowry:I hope they will laugh out loud, the way you said you did when you read it, and I hope they will not learn any great lessons about getting rid of their parents.
TFK:I noticed you used a lot of advanced vocabulary in the book and you even included a glossary. Did you do this because you wanted to use those words, or were you specifically intending to help improve kids' vocabulary?
Lowry:I never wanted to teach kids. If I did, I would have become a schoolteacher. But it was fun to use those words, and they seemed to go with the kind of book it was. My grandson read the book, but had no idea what those words meant, so I put a glossary in the back, a funny glossary to help explain those words.
TFK:You make many references to older books that are classics. You even include brief summaries of the books from the past mentioned in the story. What is your opinion on these "old fashioned" books? Do you think of them as outdated? Or are they books that every kid should read?
Lowry:I think some of those books are outdated, and yet all of them were books that I read and liked as a kid. But I don't think my own kids would not have liked those kinds of books, and I know my grandchildren would definitely not like any of them.
TFK:You've written all different types of books, including historical fiction, science fiction, realistic fiction, memoir and now this satirical book. When it comes to writing and reading, do you have a favorite genre?
Lowry:I don't think I do. In reading, I do have favorites. I love to read memoirs, but that wouldn't be my choice of what I like to write. What I do like, though, is being able to go from one genre to another because it keeps me from getting bored, and also it keeps the reader from getting bored. If I wrote the same type of books all the time, then the reader would say, "Oh, there's another Lois Lowry book. She writes the same type of books all the time, so I don't want to read that one." But by doing it this way, then maybe a reader will say, "Oh, this is different; I want to read this book."
TFK:The Willoughbys is your 34th book. Did you ever imagine when you started writing that you would have written this many books?
Lowry:No... When I published my first book, I was already 40 years old. So if somebody said looking into the future that you are going to write 34 or more books, I would have said no way - I wouldn't think I had the time. So it surprises me that I have written so many and that I think I have so many more left to write.
TFK:Have any other authors inspired you?
Lowry:You know, I read almost all my life. I learned to read when I was four, so I have been reading a very long time, and every author that I have read has probably inspired me. I have read a lot of great books, and I have read some books that are horrible, and they stick in your mind too, so you know how not to write. So I don't think that I could single out any particular authors.
TFK:Did you always intend to write books for children and young adults? How did you get started?
Lowry:I thought of myself as a writer for adults, and I had majored in writing in college. I was writing for grown-ups, and then I published a short story for adults, which was about a child and was told through the viewpoint of a child. But a children's book editor read it and contacted me and said, "Would you consider writing a book for young adults? Because I think you have a good feeling for the way young people feel." And I wrote my first young-adult book, A Summer To Die, and realized that young people tend to understand and capture the meaning behind my books.
TFK:What do you like to do when you are not writing? Lowry:
Oh, I like to do a lot of things. I have kids, and I have grandchildren. And I have a couple of houses and gardens. I do all the grandmother kind of things. I knit sweaters for my grandchildren. I have a dog and a lot of friends, but my favorite thing in the world outside of reading is to go to the movies.
TFK:Out of all the books you have written, do you have a favorite?
Lowry:Well, that's hard to answer, and I would answer differently on different days. I am very fond of the book called The Silent Boy. I think partly I am fond of it because it's the time period when my mother was a little girl, and it uses old photographs to illustrate it. Some of them were of my mother when she was a child, so I am fond of it.
TFK:Is there a certain place where you like to write? What time of day do you prefer to write?
Lowry:Well, I am limited in a way to where I write because I have an office in both my houses, and that is where my computer is, so I write there. Time of day? In the morning, noon or night.
TFK:How many rewrites do you have before you are satisfied?
Lowry:You know, way back when I began writing books, I worked on a typewriter. Kids today don't even know what that is. But that meant if I were writing, I would have to retype everything, so I would kind of know how many rewrites I had. But today with the computer, I no longer know how many times I have rewritten something.
