Zig Zag Kids, Book #1 Number One Kid and Book #2 Big Whopper, were released on August 10th. Recently we had the chance to interview Patricia.
What motivates or inspires you to write children's book?
I read my way through childhood,
through my mother’s favorites, my father’s, even my grandmother’s; I devoured every book in the children’s section of our small storefront library.
Imagine what it was like years ago, to teach a group of fifth graders who were beginning readers. All we had were ancient copies of a reader called LUCK AND PLUCK, and not even enough copies for every child. Sometimes I read to them, leaning up against the classroom door, not sure in those days, if I was permitted to do that.
It seemed inevitable that I’d become a reading teacher, that I’d work with kids who had reading problems for most of my teaching career. It seemed inevitable that I’d want to write books for them. But I didn’t know how to begin.
I’d been teaching for ten years on a snowy morning… joking with my husband Jim that I was going to write a book: “I’ll spend my days in my robe drinking hot cocoa, and writing from morning till night.”
Home from school that afternoon, I walked into the kitchen. Jim had knocked down the wall between two closets.
Arms out, he showed me: I had a place to write.
How could I disappoint him!
Of course I didn’t drink cocoa as I looked out at the snow, but every morning, I wrote before I went to teach.
How hard it was in the beginning. I wanted to give up dozens of times. But I’d think about how much Jim believed in me; I’d remember all the kids I’d taught. They danced in front of my typewriter.
I can’t imagine my life without writing now. How grateful I am that Jim believed in me and that the children I taught keep inspiring me, even today.
Be sure to visit more of Patricia's ZigZag Kids Blog Tour:
Aug. 10 Cynsations
Aug. 11 Random Acts of Reading
Aug. 12 Where the Best Books Are!
Aug. 13 Shelf Elf
Aug. 14 Mundie Moms
Aug. 15 The Children’s Book Review
Aug. 16 Chicken Spaghetti
Aug. 17 Patricia Reilly Giff
(two additional dates outside of the tour):
Aug. 25 TeachingAuthors.com
Sept. 7 Teachingbooks.net
Thank you Patricia for taking the time to visit with us and to Random House Kids. Don't miss our review of Zigzag Kids on Mundie Kids here
http://tinyurl.com/23vjgf4
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