Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Proust Questionnaire: Kidlit Edition, round 2

Fifty kidlit authors and illustrators answer a Vanity Fair-style Proust Questionnaire (i.e. short to read, long on insight). Same 10 questions for all (plus, for some, a wild card 11th of their choosing.) The series intro explains more and lists the participants.

Here are the next five:

Samantha Berger


What is the trait you most admire in others?

Speaking and owning the truth, even when it’s unpopular or scary. Also filing paperwork all organized-like.

What is your greatest strength?

Letting humor reign supreme even when the circumstances are supremely not funny.

What would your friends say is your greatest strength?

My unwavering commitment and devotion to karaoke.

How have you experienced bravery you didn’t know you had?

By rescuing a terrifying, fang-filled, shaggy, poisonous spider, and releasing him/her back into the wild. Or maybe it was just a daddy longlegs.

What is your greatest extravagance?

Traveling the world. And drinking Pellegrino.

What is your most treasured possession?

Journals and photographs. Now kids, let me tell you what a “photograph” is…

What was your big break?

The time Claudia Cohl hired me as an editor at Scholastic. Sometimes all it takes is one person to believe in you. Either that, for opening for the Beastie Boys in 1985.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Rescuing animals.

Setting aside the reality of whether or not you can sing, with whom would you like to perform a duet?

Jim Henson.

What is your motto?

“Every day, do some work, get some exercise, and do something fabulous.”

WILD CARD: If you could choose what to come back as, what would it be?

Bugs Bunny.

Louise Borden



What is the trait you most admire in others?

Courage.

What is your greatest strength?

Belief that I can reach a creative goal.

What would your friends say is your greatest strength?

Maybe…positive energy.

How have you experienced bravery you didn’t know you had?

When I had to help an injured woman until the life squad arrived.

What is your greatest extravagance?

Staying at beautiful hotels.

What is your most treasured possession?

Books, and stones from travels in Europe.

What was your big break?

After publishing seven or eight books, I had a manuscript accepted by the legendary Margaret K. McElderry.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Personally: raising our wonderful three kids. Creatively: piecing together the unknown story of Margret and H. A. Rey’s escape from Paris.

Setting aside the reality of whether or not you can sing, with whom would you like to perform a duet?

Sting.

What is your motto?

“Face the sun.”

WILD CARD: Which talent would you most like to have?

I would love to be able to draw buildings.

Nick Bruel



What is the trait you most admire in others?

A sense of humor.

What is your greatest strength?

No comment. Wait…I can juggle. Does that count?

What would your friends say is your greatest strength?

Most of my friends don’t know that I can juggle.

How have you experienced bravery you didn’t know you had?

At ILA 2015, I took it upon myself to initiate a conversation with the owners of The Ayn Rand Foundation booth. I wanted to see how honest they would be about Ms. Rand’s philosophy regarding the role of public schools at a conference attended almost entirely by public school teachers. They were surprisingly forthright in telling me that their utopian worldview of a society based on Ms. Rand’s objectivist philosophy simply didn’t allow for the existence of public schools at all. That’s when our conversation turned into a rhetorical equivalent of pro wrestling, and I felt like Andre the Giant up against the Olsen twins. It was fun.

What is your greatest extravagance?

My framed original art by MAD Magazine’s Don Martin.

What is your most treasured possession?

Possibly my copy of Different Dances signed by Shel Silverstein.

What was your big break?

Selling my first book to Roaring Brook. Eleven years later, and I’ve had the same publisher and same editor—Neal Porter—ever since.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

My wife and I surviving a two-year ordeal of adopting our daughter, including the 25-hour trip back from Vietnam with a 9-month-old baby.

Setting aside the reality of whether or not you can sing, with whom would you like to perform a duet?

Groucho Marx.

What is your motto?

“Happiness lies not in having what you want, but in wanting what you have.” I first heard this on an episode of The Abbott and Costello Show.

WILD CARD: How would you like to die?

I don’t care, so long as the words “horrified onlookers” don’t appear in my obituary.

Michael Buckley



What is the trait you most admire in others?

The ability to admire me.

What is your greatest strength?

Imagination, and then, maybe hmm…I don’t know. I can’t think of anything.

What would your friends say is your greatest strength?

Super speed, flight. I’ve led my friends to believe I have special abilities. They’re not terribly bright people.

How have you experienced bravery you didn’t know you had?

Every morning when I open up my email and realize I have a zillion Q&As to fill out, I remind myself that I actually do have special abilities.

What is your greatest extravagance?

The belief that someday I will win the Newbery Award. Yeah, I know. It’s ridiculous.

What is your most treasured possession?

My treasure map.

What was your big break?

Abrams purchased The Sisters Grimm almost ten years ago. It changed my life completely. Before that, I think it was winning the thirty-meter dash during my fourth grade Field Day. It was all downhill after that.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

My wife and I taught our son to ride a bike. Maybe it’s not climbing a mountain or winning an award, but it felt pretty amazing watching him pedaling on his own.

Setting aside the reality of whether or not you can sing, with whom would you like to perform a duet?

Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, me when I was 21.

What is your motto?

“Let me explain why your motto is ridiculous.”

WILD CARD: How would you like to die?

Saving Hogwarts from Voldemort.

Matthew Cordell



What is the trait you most admire in others?

Modesty.

What is your greatest strength?

Patience.

What would your friends say is your greatest strength?

I asked my family; my wife said farting and my daughter (she’s 6) told me to tell you that her greatest strength is fencing. So, um, yeah.

How have you experienced bravery you didn’t know you had?

Last weekend, I tried several times to do a back flip into a swimming pool. When I was a kid, I would’ve been scared, but now I just went for it. It wasn’t pretty and I landed smack on my back every time, but I freaking went for it, man.

What is your greatest extravagance?

The wife and I love to buy (whenever possible) original art, prints, and posters from favorite artists and illustrators. The most we’ve spent was for a signed Sendak print. Or a Howard Finster one. Maybe it was a tie.

What is your most treasured possession?

A Swiss Army knife my wife and kids gave me on Father’s Day a couple of years back. It has an inscription that reads “Romy & Dean’s Dad.”

What was your big break?

Getting my first picture book (as illustrator) published with my wife, author Julie Halpern. Toby and the Snowflakes, Houghton Mifflin, 2004.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Marrying my lovely wife and being able to have our two amazing kids. Family.

Setting aside the reality of whether or not you can sing, with whom would you like to perform a duet?

I’m going to say Louis Prima. I bet he would’ve been fun to sing with.

What is your motto?

Whenever my daughter is up in my face grabbing on me or complaining about something, I often say, “Back it up or crack it up!” It doesn’t really make sense and that’s not really my motto, but let’s go with that.

WILD CARD: If you were to die and could choose what to come back as, what would it be?

A lion. King of beasts, lots of naps, and life without any of the annoying human stuff.

No comments: