Conversation with an Author/Publisher

 

One of our reps asked her mom to send in this adorable Q. and A. that her second grade students did for Kate Klimo’s Dragon Keepers series. Kate is not only an amazing author but also Vice President/Publisher, Random House/Golden Books. Here are the kids’ questions and the great response Kate sent.

Mrs. DuFort’s Kate Klimo Brainstorming
Second Grade Greenwood Elementary School
Grand Ledge, Michigan

After reading the first chapter of The Dragon in the Sock Drawer aloud to my second grade students (about ten of my students have already read the entire text) they were asked to draw what they visualized from the story’s opening scene. I also asked, “Why has Kate Klimo grabbed your attention? What would you like to ask her about her books or her work as an author?” Here are some of their questions and thoughts!

• Giovanni:  How did the thunder egg break the saw?
• Austin:  How big was the saw?
• Onalee:  I like how the dragon talks.
• Sidney: She describes everything so well I wanted to learn more about the story.
• Devin: Lots of detail!
• Kyra: I thought it was really funny when they tried to feed Emmy human food!
• Kelly Suzanne: What color was the egg?
• Brendan: How tiny was the dragon?
• Jacob: How big was the egg?
• Kelli Marie: Was the dragon inside?
• Sidney: Why are they called thunder eggs?
  (We found the answer to this one in chapter two! My students insisted that I go on…)
• Hunter: Why was the old man in the story?
• Taegan: Lots of interesting words!
• Emma: It’s funny!
• Kyleigh: Does she draw the pictures?
• Brandon: I liked how Jessie and Daisy got the dragon back.
• Ian: How big are The Dragon in the Driveway and The Dragon in the Library books?
• Jayden: Why did the rock shock the boy?
• Kelli Marie: How big will the dragon get?
• Kyra: I liked the end when Emmy disguised herself as a shaggy dog!
  (Which elicited a chorus of “oh no, she gave it away!”)
• Whole class: We want to read more!!!

And the response from Kate………….

Dear Mrs. DuFort and Kids of Greenwood Elementary,

Hey there! It’s great to hear from all of you. First of all, I have to tell you something. Ten days ago, I was out riding my horse, Pie (short for Mississippi Mud Pie). We were riding with a bunch of other horses and I was at the end of the line. The first horse in line got spooked by a deer and broke into a gallop. All the rest of the horses followed (horses are herd animals and their instinct is to follow the leader). I held my horse back and he wasn’t too happy with me because he started to buck. Boy, did he buck! He bucked me so high, I felt like Pecos Bill in the tall tale. I went flying so high I thought I saw the curvature of the earth beneath me. I came down hard on my left shoulder and broke it in several places. So now I am stuck at home in this brace. Lucky for me I have figured out a way of propping myself up on pillows so that all ten fingers can reach the keyboard of my computer. My son, Noah, tells me I look like a tyrannosaurus Rex with my tiny little arms sticking out in front of me. Anyway, I have to say that getting a note from you kids is better than any get well card, so I will try and answer your questions—and then some.

Giovanni, you were curious to know how the thunder egg broke Uncle Joe’s saw. The answer to that is that Uncle Joe’s saw had very strong blades, sharp enough to cut rocks. But the thunder egg was made from magical stone that no saw on earth could cut. And that’s why all of the blades got snapped to bits. I bet Uncle Joe is still wondering what kind of a rock that thunder egg is that none of his super-sharp blades could stand up to it.

Austin, you want to know how big the saw was. The saw was pretty big. The blades were about the size of tea saucer and set into a big steel table. That’s why they are called table saws.

Onalee, you liked that Emmy can talk. I like it, too. It’s much more fun having a character who can communicate than one who is mute. At first, Emmy talks like a toddler. But by the end of the book, she is talking more like a kindergartner. Dragons grow much faster than kids. I have just finished writing The Dragon in the Volcano, which is the fourth book in the series. In that book, she talks as well as a fourth or fifth-grader. Plus her magical powers have multiplied. Stay tuned….

Sidney, you tell me you like the descriptions in the book. I’m glad to hear it. Describing stuff is what books are all about. The reader starts out knowing nothing about the world the writer is describing. The writer functions like the “eyes” of the reader, showing the reader everything that can be seen in the story. The more the reader “sees” of the world described in the book, the more she or he wants to find out. That’s because the world of the book becomes almost as real as the world the reader lives in. That’s wherein the magic of writing and reading lies!

Devin, you made a comment about the detail. Well, detail is what the descriptions are made up off. Lots of little details, not just about the way things look but also the way they taste and smell and make the main characters feel. Jesse and Daisy are sort of like the reader’s representatives in the story. Through Jesse and Daisy, and the details they take in, the reader gathers information and begins, like them, to figure out what’s going on!

Kyra, you thought the scene where Jesse and Daisy are trying to figure out what to feed Emmy was funny. It was funny but it was also serious business! Imagine how you’d feel if suddenly, out of the blue, this tiny helpless little creature landed in your lap. Like Jesse and Daisy, you’d probably freak out. Fortunately, when Emmy refused to eat everything they gave her, they kept their heads and decided to research the problem. Their research led them to the discovery that they had become not just babysitters of this tiny squalling mass of energy, but Dragon Keepers. Holy moly is right!

Kelly Suzanne, you were curious about the color of the thunder egg. The thunder egg was sort of oatmeal colored, with flecks of green and purple. Very much like the geode my own sons found when they were kids. It was that geode, which wound up in my son, Luke’s sock drawer that inspired me to write this book. Every time I went to put away Luke’s socks, I’d come across that geode and wonder, “What if that geode were some sort of an egg holding some sort of a magical creature?” It wasn’t until my sons grew up and went to college that I got a chance to write that story. But I’m glad I did. P.S. I still have the geode.

Brendan, Emmy was the size of a newborn kitten when she first hatched from the thunder egg. By the end of the book, only a few days later, she was the size of a full-grown chimpanzee. I guess calcium-rich foods work like Miracle Gro on dragons because she certainly shot up.

Jacob, you wanted to know how big the egg was. It was about the size of a softball.

And yes, Kelly Marie, the dragon was curled up inside the soft-ball-sized thunder egg, like a sprout inside of a seed casing.

Hunter, you wondered who the old man was who was hanging out up on High Peak. I’ll let you in on a secret: the old man was St. George. (Don’t tell.)

Taegan, you commented that there are lots of interesting words in the book. When I was your age, I liked interesting words, too, particularly new ones I hadn’t read before. To me, they were like beautiful seashells I might come across while beachcombing. I would pick them up and turn them around and check them out…and then add them to my collection. The more words you have in your collection, the richer your life will be.

Emma, I’m glad that you think the book is funny. To me, life, like a good story, is no fun at all without a little humor. Life–or books–without humor, is like a dish without spices.

Kyleigh, I did not draw the pictures. I only wish I had. I am a pretty good embroiderer but not much good at drawing (and you can’t embroider illustrations, I don’t think). So the art director at Random House asked an artist who was very good at painting dragons to do the pictures. His name is John Shroades and I think he did a bang-up job. I hope you do, too.

Brandon, you liked how Jesse and Daisy got their dragon back. I did, too. When I was a kid I always liked it better when kids got themselves out of fixes rather than when some grown-up doing it for them. To me, the figuring it out part is what makes it an adventure.

Ian, the Dragon in the Driveway is about as long as The Dragon in the Sock Drawer. But The Dragon in the Library is over 200 pages long and so is The Dragon in the Volcano. I guess the more I learn about the world of Emmy and Jesse and Daisy, the more I have to write. I hope, when the time comes, that you don’t mind reading the extra pages. I’ll try not to get too carried away from now on. Personally, I like short books, especially in my current one-armed condition. Much easier on the arm.

Jayden, you ask a very good question: Why did the rock shock the boy? You’re talking about the time just after Jesse finds the thunder egg, when he slips it into his sweatshirt pouch and it zaps him. That’s because they were just passing by the old man who was standing near the summit of High Peak. As I told Hunter, that old man is really St. George the Dragon Slayer. Emmy is afraid of St. George and that’s probably why she zapped Jesse. Maybe because she wanted to warn him that this old man was bad news. Of course, Jesse doesn’t realize this for himself until later.

Kelli Marie, you ask how big Emerald will get. I actually don’t know the answer to that question. All I can tell you is that, by the fourth book, Emmy’s size is beginning to pose serious problems for Emmy and her Keepers. The great thing about writing books is that you create a bunch of characters and it’s as if they are the ones who tell you, the writer, what’s going to happen in each story. It’s one of the things that make writing as magical as the story itself. When things happen in the story, it’s almost as surprising to the writer as it is to the reader.

So, I want to thank every one of you–Giovanni, Austin, Onalee, Sidney, Devin, Kyra, Kelly Suzanne, Brendan, Jacob, Kelli Marie, Hunter, Taegan, Emma, Kyleigh, Brandon, Ian, Jayden (if I missed anybody, please sing out) for your excellent questions. You are obviously very good listeners. And I want to thank Mrs. DuFort for being such an awesome teacher. Teachers who read aloud to their kids are the best. Reading aloud is something you never really outgrow. Now that my kids are all grown up, they still like me to read aloud to them from time to time and my husband reads aloud to me when I’m embroidering (which I won’t be able to do until my shoulder heals.) I hope you keep up with Emmy’s adventures as she continues to grow and grow and grow. And if anybody has any good ideas about what kind of adventure Emmy and her Keepers should have next, by all means, let me hear them.

Keep reading and enjoy the spring.

Your friend,

Kate Klimo

 

And don’t miss the other adventures in the Dragon Keepers series,

The Dragon in the Driveway 

and The Dragon in the Library (now available!)