NEW YORK (AP) — Children’s author Kate DiCamillo is best known for her beloved stories like “The Tale of Despereaux” and “Because of Winn-Dixie,” about children and animals trying to navigate the world and form emotional connections. . His trademarks include a strong voice, humor and a touch of sadness.
But his latest book, “Ferris,” is a departure, and a surprise even for DiCamillo — the story of a happy family.
“People have opened up their hearts to me. It’s been a long, beautiful kind of thing where I’ve been able to love myself because of stories. So now I can write a story that is completely love. ,” the author recently told The Associated Press.
The middle grade novel — out this week from Candlewick Press — describes the adventures of a 10-year-old girl named Ferris, living in a small town, who tries to manage her quirky family members, including her adventurous younger sister Pinky and glamorous grandmother. Is trying. Who insists that she is possessed by a ghost.
“Ferris” still has many of the characteristics of the DiCamillo story – small-town simplicity, the slow pace of hot summer, a dependable best friend, and a lovable dog with extreme emotional intelligence. Most of DiCamillo’s books explore life through humor and common sense. Teaches lessons. experiences, but the characters also grapple with loss, grief, and loneliness. DiCamillo says she did not recognize the themes until fans told her.
“I used to hear ‘Books are dark,’ and it always surprised me because I thought books were funny. Or books were telling the truth about what it’s like to live here, which is that it’s really hard to live here .And it’s beautiful here, too,” said DiCamillo, 59.
The Newbery Medal winner laughingly acknowledged how little planning and preparation is required to start a new book. She says her writing process is “intuitive” and that she often learns about her story’s subjects while promoting her books.
“I don’t do character development. “I… don’t think about the plot in advance,” DiCamillo said. “I usually have the name, I have one or two images and then it’s like walking down a dark corridor and I can see a small strip of light at the end of the corridor. That is the door. And so I’m like feeling my way through it.
DiCamillo has 44 million books published worldwide, translated into 41 languages, and many adapted for stage and screen. Still self-deprecating for her mistake, DiCamillo claims that she often thinks her first drafts are “terrible”, but is confident that they will improve.
DiCamillo’s human characters are usually 8 to 10 years old, and while fans wonder how she gets into the mind of a child so authentically, she says that her 8-year-old self still exists in her heart. Is. His newest character, Ferris Wilkie (nicknamed after his mother gave birth to him next to the Ferris wheel at the state fairgrounds) is a fifth-grader and in love with Grandma Charisse, but feels That he is not well.
DiCamillo said of that age, “You know about everything and you haven’t gone into doubt yet.” “She’s seen the world, and is very open to all the magic of it and also seeing… people you love can get sick.”
Ferris has his own room, two parents, and an extended family who create a safe and happy home while showing off their love. DiCamillo says she got the idea for the story after a close family friend gave birth to a daughter and when she brought the baby home she was surrounded by love. “I just had this thought, what if I wrote a book about a child who was completely, positively loved from the moment he came into the world?” DiCamillo said.
She believes in the importance of being candid with children about all the complexities of being human. “The world is a beautiful place. It is a terrible place. It is a place full of sorrow,” said the author. “But you also have to talk about sad things, because you have to be able to find that in a book, because that makes you feel less alone.”
DiCamillo suffered trauma as a child growing up in Pennsylvania and Florida, and she recently shared that her father was verbally abusive, manipulative, and threatening, leading to a “terrible “An atmosphere was created. She says therapy and some closure have helped her recover after her father’s death in 2019.
It has even taken time for her experience to be labeled as domestic abuse. “It’s time for me to say it like it is. But I think it’s important,” she said. “It’s nice that we can all talk about it, and somewhere in someone’s classroom or in someone’s library, there’s a child who is experiencing this now, and so we can give them a safe place and a book.” Are.”
Connecting with children and adults through their books has made this place more safe. DiCamillo says that writing has helped him work through his emotions and “Ferris” is proof of that.
Best-selling novelist Ann Patchett calls DiCamillo a “beautiful writer” and says that once she got her books, she couldn’t put them down. “It’s her willingness to be involved and her willingness to always talk about what the kids need. We need to study,” Patchett told the AP. “We need that community in literature so that we can also grow and have the experience ourselves.”
DiCamillo admired Patchett even before he met him and the two are now close friends who read each other’s work-in-progress. “I call her Swiss Army Annie,” DiCamillo says, smiling. “Whatever you need to do, she knows how to do it. I go to him with all my problems of being human and my problems of writing.
Patchett – who owns a bookstore in Nashville – says that just because DiCamillo’s books are for children doesn’t mean adults should be deprived of them. She often recommended DiCamillo’s books when people were having trouble focusing during the pandemic. “I was like… read these books because you can get the full experience of a huge, very important piece of American literature, but you can finish it in two hours. And people are attracted to that fact and the books themselves. “Incredibly comforted.”
When she’s not writing, DiCamillo travels around the country meeting and reading with children.
She says her biggest inspirations growing up and today are her mother, teachers, and librarians – people who read aloud to children. She remembers well that her mother would buy books for her, read to her, and take her to the library. “And I remember my second grade teacher was reading out loud. We read novel after novel every day after lunch,” DiCamillo said, crying. “I think, boy, if it means that much to me, a kid who’s getting it in so many other places… I think it could be life-changing.”
The author receives hundreds of fan letters from children and reads and replies to each one. Despite immense love, DiCamillo has had difficulty receiving praise, but this has recently changed. “Now every time I’m on stage, it’s just more evidence that I can’t get off the stage without crying at some point, because yes, I’m letting it in,” DiCamillo said. “I’m very impressed by it, so I’m not as uncomfortable with it as I am surprised by it.”
Rachel Person, events director at North Star Bookstore in Saratoga Springs, New York, has met DiCamillo several times during her book tour. The man organized an event for more than 550 people in 2016 and when he started selling tickets, he started to worry because people were so emotional about meeting DiCamillo.
“They were saying all these things and I don’t think anyone can live up to what they’re expecting from this woman,” Person said. “But she somehow found a way to connect emotionally with every single person who passed through that line… to be present, in the way that these people with this intense emotional connection needed her, which was are amazing.”
“Ferris” is DiCamillo’s 34th book and he has two more coming out later this year. She is also working on a collection of fairy tales. Patchett calls DiCamillo “extremely hard-working.”
“No matter what, she gets up in the dark hours of the morning and goes to work,” Patchett said.
Persson says that when people talk about the books that shaped him as a person, it is often stories he read as a child, and DiCamillo is one of those authors who made an impact. Is. “There are so many children who have a little bit of Kate in their soul, and that’s a really promising, lovely thing for our world.”
“I feel like it’s the greatest gift in the world because I’m a reader myself and I know how books have saved me,” DiCamillo said. “I tell kids sometimes… Most of the time we may never even meet, but we still know each other because of those stories, you know? This is a miraculous thing for me.”
