Pirates Don’t Go to Kindergarten!
by Lisa Robinson (Author) and Eda Kaban (Illustrator)
Booktalk: Yo, ho, ho! It’s a mutiny against kindergarten!
Snippet:
Guest Post by Lisa Robinson
Lisa Robinson is a children’s book author and a therapist who works with children, teens, and adults. She has an MFA in Creative Writing for Young People from Lesley University. She lives in the Boston area with her family and three mischievous cats. When she’s not working or writing, she’s flying through the air with her daughters on aerial silks at her local circus studio. She has four picture books forthcoming, two with Two Lions/Amazon in 2019 and two with Schwartz and Wade/Random House in 2020.
Q. Describe your writing process:
A. Recently my daughters learned to bake challah bread and as I watched their aunt teach them, it occurred to me that the process was an apt metaphor for my picture book writing process.
First you mix in a bunch of ingredients: a character (or two or three), a setting, a situation, some conflict and tension. For Pirates Don’t Go to Kindergarten! I knew I wanted to have a high-spirited girl who loves pirates, a loving preschool teacher she doesn’t want to leave behind, and a new kindergarten teacher.
Next, you stir everything together into dough . . . I tossed all the ingredients onto the page and played around with them until I had a tale that seemed to work.
After the dough is mixed, one has to wait while it rises. Pirates Don’t Go to Kindergarten! had plenty of time to rise–I first wrote the story in 2007 and then I revised and revised and revised (and faced multiple rejections) until I received a contract for its publication in 2017.
It helps to have additional sous-chefs in the kitchen when you’re baking and the sous-chefs for this story were my thoughtful critique partners, particularly my online critique group, Crumpled Paper. They gave me essential feedback and encouragement.
After the dough rises, you bake it and hope that when it’s done it tastes delicious. I’m excited for kids to read it and see if they like it!
Q. Tell us about your debut book:
A. In Pirates Don’t Go to Kindergarten!, Pirate Emma is about to go to kindergarten. But she’s not so sure she’s ready for a new captain and crew. Especially since Cap’n Chu–the roughest, toughest, awesome preschool cap’n ever–is right down the hall.
So Emma decides to head back to the preschool ship to see if she can stir up a mutiny against kindergarten.
Is that what she really wants? Or does she just miss her beloved Cap’n Chu? Batten down the hatches, mateys, because the first day of school is going to be stormy.
This book was inspired by my two daughters’ love of their preschool teachers. . . When they had to leave preschool, they had a hard time saying goodbye to them. When I searched for a book with a story about leaving beloved teachers behind, I couldn’t find any. So I decided to write one.
CONGRATULATIONS, Elizabeth! Thanks for sharing your debut book!
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