McDonald, Megan

Megan McDonaldIn 1985, Bound to Stay Bound awarded a scholarship to a promising young woman who wanted to be a librarian. Her name was Megan McDonald and she took her story time talents honed in the children’s department to create a career as a popular author of children’s books. More than two decades later, Bound to Stay Bound is not only proud of its scholarship recipient for her librarianship but also ranks her as one of its best-selling authors.

Megan McDonald was working in the library when legendary children’s book editor Richard Jackson accompanied one of his authors on a visit. “He was clearly looking for new talent,” McDonald remembers. Jackson was not seeking a specific genre but looking for a unique voice. Megan had been honing a story about a hermit crab for story time and Jackson’s comments made her think about her storytelling voice. Is This a House for Hermit Crab? became her first published work. “With me, it has always been voice from that time on,” states the author. “I remember sending Dick Jackson a story about the year they hid the Liberty Bell from the British,”–he replied that he loved the story but he missed the storyteller voice. That one statement “completely transformed the book,” recalls the author.

Soon, Megan McDonald was on the school circuit, talking to kids about books and the writing process. She especially loves talking with third graders and remembers one inspiring day when a student asked her “How do you write a book when you are in a bad mood?” “It struck me that kids that age are becoming aware of moods, and that planted a seed about a character with moods. I thought it was profound.”

So McDonald had several books behind her when she began a new collaboration with Candlewick and illustrator Peter Reynolds called Judy Moody. Each person involved–the author, the illustrator, the art director, the editor–set out to make the best possible book. Megan turned in a 350-page manuscript (saving much of the material for a second book). “Candlewick allowed me the freedom in the beginning to allow all of these elements to come together.” Adds McDonald: “I can’t take credit for the striking look.” People ask McDonald how many books there will be in the series. “My editor says as long as I have ideas and I’m having fun with it, let’s keep going!” She is very pleased that so many good writers have been drawn to writing for this age group. “It all goes back to voice–the books that work are the ones that have their own voice.”

And she is still having fun with Judy and her little brother Stink. “Right now, I’m in the middle of wrestling with a new Judy book where she is trying to go for a whole week without getting in a bad mood,” confides McDonald. “This is wonderful for me–I’m trying to have her personally do something that is very hard to do and of course getting some comedic value all the while showing something new in her character.”

Is the writing process easy for this author of more than 20 books? “Some books write themselves and others are like ripping out hair,” she admits, adding that the writing process is mysterious even to authors. She begins each day with the question, “Is this going to be a good writing day or a bad writing day?” Megan enthuses that “On a good writing day, the whole world is good, but you never know how it is going to be when you face that page.” Her secret? She always leaves it so that she has an idea where she is going next: “I leave something to be done.”

And she always likes having something to be read. Megan McDonald grew up in a home filled with books. Her father had to leave school to go to work when he was in the eighth grade but he was an avid reader. “Even though we had so many books, my dad was a storyteller and he would tell us these crazy stories about his childhood and his experiences so, in addition to reading, I was hearing stories told to me orally,” Megan explains. “That voice was always there.”

Her mother came to the rescue when the voice was not literally there. Little Megan started to stutter in the fourth grade. Her mother was concerned and came home with Harriet the Spy. She gave Megan the book along with a spiral notebook, telling her that maybe when she cannot say something, she could write something. “That created the connection between reading and writing for me,” concludes Megan.

The local Carnegie Library would send a big green bookmobile to the suburbs. “I was so lucky to have four sisters in front of me so they would tell me all the best books.” She and her sisters set out to try to read all the books on the bookmobile. “We did not realize they changed the books out and that we were never going to be able to read them all!”

The librarian and occasional bookseller still live on inside the author. Megan draws on that experience, having seen what it is like to have a child who is eager to read something that enthralls them. Megan loves to match the book and the kids: “Not every book is for every child, you have to get to know their likes and their dislikes, talk to them about other books they have read. It is so gratifying when you get it right! You feel like you’ve made a reader!”

She is reminded of the early days of Judy Moody. “It was kids telling kids–teachers did not know anything about it. A teacher told me that one day she looked up and ten kids were reading Judy Moody.” And it didn’t stop there. Stink has a special appeal for kids who normally wouldn’t read. “It’s hard for them to find a book and then they found Stink.” The author is in an exultant mood: “My book has made a reader–that’s the greatest feeling in the world.”

         – Interviewed by Ellen Myrick, October 2012

 

 

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