Books for Children and Young Adults set in Haiti

As I work on a post about Haiti, its beauty, and what the country and its people mean to me, I'd like to direct you to Mitali Perkins' blog, where she compiled a list of books for children and Young Adults set in Haiti. I particularly like "Tap Tap" and "Painted Dreams," by Karen Lynn Williams. And Edwige Danticat's "Behind The Mountains" is a touching novel.

As I mentioned in Mitali's comment section, I find it interesting that the last picture book set in Haiti was published five years ago. For almost a year, now, I've been trying to find a publisher for a picture book manuscript set in Haiti. The title (tentative, as always) is "The Pulse of Papa's Land," and it is the story of a child from the Haitian diaspora who travels to Haiti with her father for the first time. I have received very nice rejection mentioning the music of the text and what not, but rejections nevertheless. I know, the economic situation, etc, etc. It is still out there, anyway. I have not given up...

That story had been lurking around in my mind for a few years. It was more like images, really. My mother in law's garden, in Fermathe. The Citadelle. My father in law's boundless energy, and his contagious joy in the small pleasures of life. A pick-up truck bouncing up a dirt mountain road. A drum beating in the night.

When I came back home after our last trip in Haiti in the summer of 2008,  the story just poured out of me. I worked at it for several months, wrote half a dozen drafts, and finally, in May 2009, I felt it was ready. It has since gone through two more revisions, and I'm now pretty confident about it (and believe me when I say that this is not my usual state of mind - I'm more like your average pathologically anxious female Woody Allen - if only I were half as funny.) But the feedback has always been very positive, and most of all, I truly poured my heart out with this story. It touches themes that resonate deeply within me : the longing and confusion that come with wanting to belong and feeling foreign at the same time, the mysterious ways in which one person's culture and heritage can be a part of their soul fabric without them even knowing about it, and the special relationship between a father and his daughter. And it allowed me to write about the beauty of Haiti and its people, as opposed to the dry comments one finds in the press about the "most impoverished nation in the Western Hemisphere." I so long to see books that celebrate this country's spirit and resilience, its joyful people and its rich and vibrant culture.

One aspect of the debate on diversity in children's books : the name of the characters

Mitali Perkins launched a new great discussion about diversity in children's books, here, and here. I was glad to see one question address the issue of the lack of diversity in the characters' names. I ranted enough about this (well, I had Amadi do it, actually) when it was decided that I had to find him a new name; Ifeanyi (his original name) was deemed too strange, too difficult to read. I could understand the publisher's and editor's concerns and I know they had the book's best interest at heart. This is not so much about them, as it is revealing of a general, mainstream approach to all things considered even mildly different, therefore possibly threatening, at the very least difficult -- and who has time for difficult, right? 

As a sidenote, I shared the name anecdote with the children at the Vidyaranya High School, here, in Hyderabad. I wrote Ifeanyi on the black board, without having said it, and asked them to read it. They all did, flawlessly. Of course, these children are all at least bilingual (English and Hindi, and/or Telugu, and/or Tamil, and/or Urdu, and/or Bengali... etc, etc.) Maybe one answer to that particular problem would be to put more emphasis on the need for American children to learn at least one other language (and when I say learn, I mean as in being able to actually speak it, really, not just playing around with a few strange or funny-sounding words here and there, words forgotten almost as soon as they've been heard.)

Author picture : done !

Well, in the end, and even though I did ask the kids and my husband - each one had a different favorite - and a few friends - and there again, no consensus - I made my own decision. I'm the one who has to live with that picture for a while... hopefully. So, here it is.

Now, I really need to work on the website, and I don't know where to start. I bought "Building a website for Dummies" and I'm sorry to have to say that I don't understand half of it - not that I read it all, but I was hoping I would kind of ... get into it. Ha ! I'm even dummier than the worst dummies ! So, I must now find a web designer, finish to write the website content, and get this out of the way.

And just to make sure I don't forget to write, in the middle of it all, I'm taking Uma's new manuscript workshop, starting at the end of the week. Yippee !

They need my pic ! MY PIC ? Oh, my !

Well, this is a time when I can be vain and act all important about it, because, you see, it's for the book.


Months ago, I was asked to send an author's picture, but I promptly forgot about it. And then, I cut my hair, last summer. This is something I do every two, three years. I let my hair grow below my shoulders usually, and by then, the time that it took for it to grow has worn my patience out and I can't wait to get a new face and I usually chop it off. The scenario can change, here. Sometimes, I go from long to really short all at once. Chop chop ! Other times, I do it gradually. Well, this time, I did it gradually from November until July, last summer, when I decided that now, I wanted it really SHORT. Not quite crew cut short, but almost. I liked it for a while - not sure anyone else did, though :) - but then, I started longing for my long hair again. So, it's been growing and no way was I going to have my author picture taken in that in-between-time. Now, it's reached an acceptable length, and anyway, I can't wait any longer. So, my husband was appointed official photographer, today, and I sat in different spots in the garden, squinting at the sun - to bring the blue out of my eyes, you know, I'm telling you, this is my very vain moment - while he took one picture after another. And now, of course, I don't know which one to send to Tilbury. But that's OK. It's fun and exciting. I think I'll get the girls and the official photographer to help me choose, tomorrow.

A couple of days ago, I sent the author bio as well. It does look as if this is really happening...

Update on my coming picture book

Much has happened over the past few weeks regarding the publication of my picture book, to be released sometime in May 2008 : Amadi's Snowman.

The illustrations are done and I'm now anxiously waiting to see the proofs - I've only seen the dummy, so far. The good news is that I received a first positive critique from Michael Afolayan, Ph. D. who was consulted for authenticity's sake (the story is set in Nigeria and the characters are Igbo.) Here is what he said :

"This write-up is respectful of the culture in which it is set. It is a breath of fresh air to read of a children fiction set in Africa that does not irritate the eye of the African reader with condescending language and stereotypical depictions. After all, when was the last time we read an African children fiction whose theme is literacy with a good end? For these and some other reasons, I think this is a story book that is worth reading."

Not too bad, hey?

And so, the waiting game continues.

The DUMMY for my picture book is here !

I received the dummy for my coming picture book, Amadi's Snowman.

Oh boy, Oh boy !

I won't say anything more for now. I read somewhere about an editor reminding authors that they read blogs, too. In other words, refrain from disclosing too much.

Still, I can at least share the thrill of opening the envelop and setting eyes on the face of my boy for the first time. Of course, my boy having had to change names, and also to have his face created by another person, means that he's no longer my boy only. Still...

Let me add that the dummy is a bunch of sketches, rather crude drawings. But, it gives me the page breaks, it gives an idea about the artist's vision for my book, and, as mentioned above, it begins to give a face to the characters in the story, to show the settings, the action.

There is much more to come. Colors. The drawings will be refined. Still, it's one step along the publishing process.

It felt weird, surreal, to be leafing through the photocopied, stapled dummy, last night. I'd had it sent to my husband's office address, to make sure it didn't get lost or unnecessarily held up at the post office - our postman delivers mail on a bicycle, and we live all the way up a hill, so who knows on which day he might decide he just doesn't feel up to producing such an effort - so I got it in the evening. My 7-year-old daughter was with me, and she already wants to color it. I think I'll let her.

We have an illustrator !

Finally, I can share this news. I've had to bide my time while waiting for the contract to be signed and everything to become official, but now it is, and so I can shout it out : Dimitrea Tokunbo is working on the illustrations for my picture book.

Dimitrea is half Nigerian on her father's side, and American on her mother's side. How is that for serendipity striking again ? I see some kind of cosmic harmony in this Nigerian connection. It just feels right. And Dimitrea has a multicultural background, and that, to me, feels like life coming full circle.

Last, but far from least, she has an interesting illustrative background. Check out how she describes herself, below. How is that for poetry? I just love the way her words sing.

http://www.boydsmillspress.com/contributors/contributors/tokunbo_dimitrea.html

Well, actually, there is more : Dimitrea is also involved in The Children's Theater Company. Here is the CTC mission statement.

http://www.childrenstheatrecompany.org/about-mission.htm

Is that great or what ?
And you'll find Dimitrea somewhere in there if you scroll down.

http://www.childrenstheatercompany.org/about-staff.htm

Now, I just have to wait to see how She sees my Ifeanyi Amadi. I also have to let go of my baby as she works to give him a face, a body, and the physical presence and expressions that she, the artist, will be coming up with. More to come on that, I'm sure.

What's in a name ?

Still processing the change of name of my picture book character. Amadi turned out to be much better than me at this. But I have good reasons. More than ever, I realize the importance of each and every word in a picture book text. I already knew that, of course. But now, I'm experiencing it in a very real - and confusing - way. Whenever I try to read the whole text with the name Amadi in place of Ifeanyi, it sounds all funny - funny as in strange, not as in laughing funny, even though that would also be a problem, as the story is not exactly comic. I was very careful to choose a new name that ended with the same sound, foreseeing such problem, but I also had to LIKE that name, and in the end, I was unable to find one...
a) which I really liked, hear a name that spoke to me, a name that seemed to adopt my Ifeanyi
b) which ended with the same sound
c) which had four syllables.
I do like the name Amadi. But it has only three syllables. I find that disruptive. And I'm having a hard time deciding whether it's me still unconsciously resisting this name change, whether it's just old habit - I have written some 57 millions versions of this story over the past 5 years after all - or whether, really, it doesn't flow the way it used to. And I can't ask my critique group because they've also seen and read the old version with Ifeanyi a number of times. Plus, we are still on break. But it reminds me, if I ever needed to be reminded, how crucial the music of the text is in a picture book. Sentences not only have to flow in a seamless way, they must carry an internal tune. And I can't overdo it. I need to read it, try to make some changes, let it rest, go back to it. That's the only way I've found to deal with this problem so far.

What on earth is wrong with my given name ?

Hello everyone, I'm Ifeanyi, the main character in the soon-to-be-published picture book that's been mentioned, here, a few times. I'm being sneaky and surely, my authorly mother - that's Katia, the owner of this blog - will not be happy when she finds this post. She will go all stern and reasonable on me and lecture me about everyone at the publishing house doing their very best to make sure the book reaches the widest audience possible and doesn't turn anyone off for some silly reason. And maybe she's right. Still, my feeling is that the situation is serious enough to warrant a coup d'eclat.

What situation? Well, I hear that they are changing my name. Can you believe it ? I know that I'm a fictional character, but that doesn't mean I don't have feelings. The general opinion seems to be that my given name, the name that my authorly mother chose for me, is too difficult to pronounce and therefore unacceptable. What is so difficult about Ifeanyi, I ask? Ee-feh-ahh-nyi. See? Easy. Well, some people think it is impossible.

Imagine. Mother, who's supposed to be on holidays, and instead, has been busily painting walls and ceilings, got an email from the publishing house telling her that the decision had been made to change my name. She was given two options ; both options unacceptable in her opinion, and mine. She spent the day angry and upset, and was still feeling that way when she went to bed, and of course, she couldn't sleep. So she got up and spent the night trying to find me a new name that she liked, a new name which would be deemed acceptable... hear easy to pronounce. Jack, Jill, Tom, Jo, Dan, Bob, Bill, Tim... That kind. She found a new one. It seems that I now go by the name of Amadi.

Amadi means "free born" in my native language. I wonder if she's making some kind of a statement, here. As far as given names go, I'd say Amadi is just fine. And definitely Igbo. It does sound like home and when I say it, I can almost hear my ancestors' voices travelling on the wings of the Harmattan as it blows its dusty way from the desert. Still, it's going to take some getting used to. It's been a few years since I came out of my authorly mother's mind. I'm used to my given name. I LIKE it. It's a beautiful name ! It means : with God, nothing is impossible.

Mother - the authorly one, because I now have another mother, an artist busy painting me - has been telling herself that it was maybe an omen that she chose it for me in the first place : it will now help us prove that indeed, nothing is impossible, even getting used to a different name. Amadi is OK, really. She does come up with nice names.

I'm going to do just like her and repeat, again and again : I have two beautiful names. The first one is a name that only a handful of people know and use, people like my authorly mother, her close friends, and myself: Ifeanyi. And the second one is the name that will be used by all, the name that will come out in print in a book that will tell my very own story: Amadi. And later, when people know and like me as Amadi, maybe I can tell them that I have another name, my first given name, Ifeanyi, and maybe they'll like it and not think it's so impossible. Because nowhere in the world should there be such a thing as an impossible name. On the contrary. People all over should be curious and open to hearing new sounds, to learning new words and names. Nowhere should anyone be afraid to leave their comfort zone and try new things, to let their tongue taste new sounds, see how they roll off of it. Nowhere should anyone worry about sounding funny, about struggling with different combinations of letters and syllables.

My authorly mother is also using another trick to help her deal with this name issue. In her husband's country, Haiti, newborns are often given several names in order to honor family members. In the end, the name that everyone uses is often the very last one, and not at all the first one. And so it will be for me. Only, the giving of my second name kind of got delayed.

Signed : Ifeanyi Amadi

The mystery of the illustrator's name, and ranting about the difficulty of waiting, waiting, waiting...

I don't like it. To wait. I'm not a patient person. At all. Which is probably why life, destiny, the Universe, call It however you like, seems to be testing me at the moment - BIG TIME. So I can grow, you know... Boy, sometimes, I wonder how much growing one has to do before they can consider themselves all grown-up. In my case, the process is taking its sweet time, for sure. Anyway, I was saying that life is testing me. Not only has IT decided that I was to be, for an undetermined amount of time, a full-time-at-home-mother-with-two-kids-on-summer-break-during-the-Indian-Monsoon (as if that weren't already taxing my energy - not to mention how it has reduced my writing time to almost nothing), but it also decided to play tricks on my computer and I now have LOST the little that I had been able to produce in the past few weeks! Am I entitled to throw a tantrum or what ? But that is not all. I must also wait some more before I can tell the name of the illustrator of my book. I'd like to shout out the news to the whole world - the one that's interested, anyway, and, well everyone else, too, actually. But I can't.

For weeks and weeks, I've been a good girl and kept my mouth shut. Well, I must continue to keep it shut, and wait some more. Did I mention I don't like to wait? Well, bear with me, because I'm going to repeat it: I don't like to wait. I understand, of course. Still, it's difficult.

I also would love to get in touch with said illustrator. Not to give pointers, or control the work, no, I swear. Come on, I'm not like that. Or am I? No, I'm not, or at least, I can control my controlling tendencies. Sure, I can! In the end, what matters is the book, right? I'm not unreasonable, you know.

It's just that I love meeting interesting people involved in interesting activities. Also, this particular person presently spends a lot of quality time with my baby, and that naughty baby hasn't called, hasn't written, hasn't even sent an email to his mommy to let her know how things are going. Maybe he received the same marching order : Keep mum! Or maybe he's turning into a precocious teenager, sprouting wings and very happy to be away from old writerly me. Living with an illustrator is bound to be much more colorful - I just couldn't resist that one :) There will be different smells, too. Paint. Turpentine. I only hope he's not watching too much TV. Two daughters doing just that under this roof is quite enough.

Anyway, that's that. It's a good preparation for the day my kids leave for college. I know, I'm complaining that I can't write because they are around, and I'm already worrying about the day they'll go to college. What can I say? I'm full of contradictions. Aren't we all?

Where was I? Ah, yes, what makes it all worse is that I actually understand my editor's reason for not wanting me to get in touch with said illustrator right now (provided that said illustrator whose name I cannot yet disclose shows an interest in responding, of course. ) It had not occurred to me, and yet, it makes total sense. She wants to give the illustrator the space and time to immerse herself in the story, to wrap herself in it so she can make it hers. Because, Katia, don't you forget that you've written a picture book, and in picture book, there is the word "picture," and you have no talent whatsoever to draw pictures, remember? TWO names will appear on the cover. Not that I mind sharing the cover with another person. If I did, I wouldn't have written a picture book, come on ! And sharing the cover with someone with such an interesting background and interests is really exciting. I totally look forward to it. That is precisely the reason I'm dying to share all this information.

But I can't. Not yet. Did I mention how... DIFFICULT that is?

Anyway, in order to ease some of my frustration and avoid a messy implosion, I just disclosed 3 tiny pieces of information about the illustrator. Who's been paying attention here ? Yes, The illustrator is a SHE. She has an interesting background, even more so considering where the book takes place. Ha ha, hint, hint... And finally, she's involved in interesting things. You want to know more ? Well, you have to be patient. Yes, I know, it's DIFFICULT. But you can do it. If I can, anyone can. Soon... Soon... Soon...

My editor, Audrey Maynard !

I finally worked out the courage to send this blog's link to my editor at Tilbury. I was worried about... agh, I'm always worried about something : that she might be annoyed about my resisting the name change, that she might discover that I'm French and Spanish and no longer want to work with me, that... I don't know what else I might have come up with. I'm very much like Woody Allen's characters that way : totally, neurotically anxious. Wish I were only half as funny. :)

Well, she LIKED it ! She did! She sent me a really nice note, and even shared some info about her. I'm so very lucky. I suppose it's only normal that the person who liked Ifeanyi's story enough to want to publish it, would share so many of my views, would even get invested in the type of project that I have so much respect for.

Check out what Audrey does when she's not selecting/editing/helping publish good books ( and, yes! that implies that my own book will be good, too)
http://www.mainehumanities.org/newsletter/fall-02-p4.html

There are so many wonderful people out there who strive to open the world for our children, to broaden their horizons, to make sure they see the whole picture and learn values like tolerance, the importance and richness of difference and diversity. Everyone can do it at their own level, using their own sets of skills. And what may feel like a drop in the ocean can then turn into streams, and rivers, and more. Am I getting carried away? It's the tide of optimism. May it stick around for a while. I like it when I'm up-beat. Up-beat is good.

Contract in the mail !

I no longer have to remain cool as a cucumber - considering that it's 113 degrees Fahrenheit, here in Hyderabad, it required quite an effort. I can jump, do cartwheels - well, maybe not - and kiss everyone around. I received my signed copy of the contract in the mail, today. I wonder if we are all like that. Worrying constantly that something will happen to make the publisher change their mind. I was. Now, I can safely start worrying about something else. Considering my extended proficiency in that area, I don't expect it will take me more than an hour or so to come up with something new :)

Publicity, Marketing, Hurray !

Nice morning surprise: I got an email from the person in charge of publicity and marketing, at Tilbury. This is starting to feel so real. I signed the contract, and yet, I think that until I have it back in my hands with the signature from the publisher, I will want to remain as cool as a cucumber - HA ! Still, they are thinking about publicity, marketing, asking for a PHOTO ! It is all so totally, outrageously unreal ! I love it.

About the title : I'm having a change of heart. I have tried to be reasonable. Truly and sincerely, I tried to find another name. I pushed my "authorly" needs and wants aside for the sake of the book. I spent hours on the net, searching Igbo names and their meanings. I exchanged countless emails with my friend in Nigeria, and she sent me more lists of names, even asking her patients to contribute their stories and knowledge about their own names. All to no avail. No other name feels suitable. In the process, I found several sportsmen on the web who bear that same given name. It's Ifeanyi, by the way. One of them is a football player in the Cincinatti Bengals team ! So, I'm trying something new. Hopefully, the editor and the publisher will accept that. Letting go, yes. Absolutely. If it will benefit the story in the end. But I have to be able to live with that. I've been having nightmares where I'm reading my stories to a classroom full of children, and I blurt out Ifeanyi instead of whatever new name I might have come up with. Most importantly, the character must adopt that new name in a seamless way. It must fit him. It must feel natural and obvious. So far, this has not happened. Maybe he's meant to be Ifeanyi, and Ifeanyi only. It's a lovely name, anyway, with a lovely meaning that suits him and the story : "nothing is impossible." More to come about that, I'm sure.

About foreign names in picture books

I'm currently working on the last edits on my very first picture book, to be published next year by Tilbury House, Publishers. Yes, hurray ! And Yes, I still can't quite believe it. I regularly check the emails I exchange with the editor, reading them again to make sure it's all happening in the real world, and not only in my dreams.

So far, the editing process has been rather smooth. I really like my editor, even though I wish I knew more about her. But of course, she is very busy. Same with the publisher. Only bump on the road, so far? (Of course, there had to be a bump somewhere.) They would like me to change the name of my main character. Change WHAT???

I was first told it couldn't appear in the title. No foreign name in the title, especially one which pronunciation can be tricky. Now, Uma Krishnaswami - my teacher extraordinaire, and someone whose name is bound to appear from time to time in these virtual pages - once said that she regretted keeping Chachaji's name in the title of her picture book Chachaji's Cup. So, I decided to be very mature about it. I said "Fine. No name in the title."

I was already congratulating myself on being so reasonable and wise, when I was asked if I could possibly change the name completely ! That's almost like asking me to start calling my daughter differently, after I spent five years calling her by a name I happen to like or I wouldn't have chosen it, right ? This is the kind of issue that comes up in multicultural litterature. Or so I'm discovering.

I chose to tell the story of a boy who lives in an African country. He has an African name. Sometimes, foreign names are easy to pronounce for the Anglophone. But of course, I didn't choose one of those. I never even thought about pronounciation. I just liked the sound of that name, and that was it and the character must have liked it too, or he wouldn't have stayed alive, I don't think.

I have not yet resolved the dilemma. But you know what? I will again try to be mature and reasonable - now that my best writers friends have weathered the worst of my "freaked out" moment. I will try to find a new name for my boy ; a name that will better serve the story in the end ; either because it will be easier to pronounce, or because I will have found a way to avoid that pitfall. Writing - and being published - like so many other things in life- is so much about letting go.