Meet the Author • Meet the Author •

Interview conducted by Toni Buzzeo, Katherine Applegate career media specialist and author (visit www.tonibuzzeo.com).

ter it? If not, where did KA: I love doing research. I your inspiration come always tell children to think of it from? as a treasure hunt: you can get a little messy and confused in the KA: I’d read a fascinating process, but it’s such a rush when book by Lillian Schlissel called you find that nugget of gold! Of Women’s Diaries of the Western course, there are the obvious Journey, and I was awed by the places to start your search, such resilience and bravery of travel- as the Internet and the library, ers on the Oregon Trail. I have but you can often find real trea- a hard time packing for a few sures in used bookstores and old http://cdn.harpercollins.com/ days at Disneyworld. How could Photo courtesy of newspapers. One of my favorite harperimages/author/10991.jpg these folks pack up their entire used bookstore finds was an old lives, leaving so much behind, reprint of the actual book pio- Katherine Applegate is the and head for a place they’d neer families used in preparation author of dozens of books for never seen before? I’d moved a for their journey, and it was full children and young adults. bit as a child, enough to know of useful tidbits. Who knew you With her husband, Michael how emotionally wrenching it could pack eggs in flour barrels? Reynolds, she wrote can be, and those memories Or that gathering dried cow pad- (Scholastic), the best-selling helped me imagine the anxi- dies (manure) to burn as fire fuel middle reader series. Her first ety and sadness Hallie would would turn out to be a vital daily free-standing novel, Home of be feeling. On the other hand, chore for young children? the Brave (Feiwel & Friends I’ve always loved to travel. As / Macmillan), won the 2007 hard as it would be for Hallie Golden Kite Award for best to leave the world she’d always fiction from the Society of known behind, it was easy for Children’s Book Writers and me to envision the excitement Illustrators, the 2007 Josette and exhilaration she’d feel about Frank Award from Bank Street heading westward. College of Education, and was selected as a Best Book of 2007 I suspect that you did by School Library Journal. Last a lot of research into year, her chapter book series for time and place before young readers, Roscoe Riley Rules, you wrote The Buffalo debuted with Harpercollins. The Storm. What can you tell us about your Buffalo Storm (Clarion Books) is research process? And her first picture book. what were some of the Historical fiction always most interesting facts begs the question: is this you uncovered? story based on a true fact? If so, how did you encoun-

March 2009 Web Resources • LibrarySparks •  Meet the Author

KA: Much more fearful than How can readers learn brave, for the most part. I was more about you and your very shy, a good student, a real books? animal lover. It’s both challenging and rewarding—and a great deal KA: Visit my Web site, www. of fun—to write about charac- katherineapplegate.com. ters who are not necessarily like you in every way. Hallie is more E E E physically brave than I was, and Toni Buzzeo, MA, MLIS, is I loved exploring that. She’s actu- an author as well as a career ally much more like my daugh- library media specialist. She is ter, who is quite the athlete and the author of eight picture books, wonderfully resilient. most recently The Library Doors You are well known as an (UpstartBooks, 2008) and many author of novels for older professional books and articles. readers, so The Buffalo Visit www.tonibuzzeo.com or The relationship that Storm is quite a depar- e-mail Toni at tonibuzzeo@ speaks to us most clearly ture for you. How was tonibuzzeo.com. in your book is that the experience of writing between Hallie and her a picture book different grandmother. Is this rela- from your novel writing? tionship modeled on a relationship from your KA: Oh, it’s so much fun! I love own life? the economy of language. Every word has to count. And some KA: You know, I never knew my of the work you would usually own grandmothers particularly do—the visual component—is well, but I’ve always been very the job of the illustrator. I adore close to my mom, even though Jan Omerod’s work on this proj- we’ve often been separated by ect. I think my favorite scene is many miles. It’s always hard to the spread with the buffalo stam- be far apart from someone you pede. It’s just exquisite. love, and to try to bridge that distance with letters and phone Your text in The Buffalo calls and e-mails. I do think Storm is quite lyrical and you bring that sort of emotional evocative, making it deli- touchstone into your writing, cious to read aloud. Are sometimes consciously, some- you trained as a poet? times unconsciously. KA: [Laughing heartily.] I do Often, the main character love poetry, but I honestly don’t in a children’s book is like know much about it. I hope the author in some way. children take this lesson to heart: Is Hallie at all like you? sometimes the most fun happens Were you both brave and when you try something brand- fearful when you were new! young? Tell us more about yourself as a child.

 • LibrarySparks • March 2009 Web Resources