Patron and Wiesner Discuss Their Award-Winning Books

This story originally appeared in Children's Bookshelf on January 25, 2007 Sign up now!

by Diane Roback, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 1/25/2007

On Monday, the Newbery and Caldecott Medals were awarded, to Susan Patron for The Higher Power of Lucky (Atheneum/Jackson) and to David Wiesner for Flotsam (Clarion). It was Patron's first win, and Wiesner's third—he's only the second artist ever to win the Caldecott three times. We spoke with the winners soon after the announcement.

Some old habits die hard. Susan Patron, a Los Angeles librarian who served on the Caldecott committee back in 1988, remembered that "the call" to the winner was traditionally placed on Sunday night, in advance of the Monday morning announcements. "We all have that little hope—you dream about it," she said, of her Newbery chances for The Higher Power of Lucky. However, since she was under the impression that the call came on Sunday, when the phone didn't ring, she thought, "It's OK, I'm moving on."

Monday morning Patron got up for work earlier than usual, because she and several colleagues were going to watch the awards Webcast in her office at 7:45 a.m. She got the call from the Newbery committee at 6:30, just before she left the house. "I think my first thought was that it was a hoax," she said, certain that the winner had already been informed. Then she thought they were calling to tell her she'd won a Newbery Honor. "So I asked them, 'Are you sure?' I could hear them all laughing in the background. They said, 'No, we're very sure, it's the Newbery.' "

That was the beginning of what she calls "a surreal day." Sworn to secrecy by the committee, Patron headed to work to watch the Webcast with her colleagues, knowing that she had won the prize. When her name was announced, "They just looked at me and started screaming. It was lovely." Patron hopped on a plane that afternoon for New York City, where she appeared on The Today Show Tuesday morning along with Caldecott winner David Wiesner. And Wednesday morning found her back at her desk, saying, "It feels like it's time to go back to work."

As juvenile materials collection development manager for the Los Angeles Public Library, Patron says she's very accustomed to trying to gauge the possible award winners each year, to have them in stock for library patrons. "Lucky was not among the books being buzzed about, not on any mock Newbery lists," she says. "It didn't make a splash. I truly did not expect anything. So it was a great shock."

She's been a librarian for 34 years, and says the award is especially meaningful to her because it was given by her peers. And she can truly appreciate the effort that went into choosing her book. "I've been on Wilder and Caldecott committees, and I know they put so much work into the selection."

The genesis for Lucky goes back a number of years. Patron recalls a dinner at an ALA midwinter conference given by Dick Jackson, who had edited her earlier books. "Amy Kellman [one of the librarians at the dinner] asked me, "What are you working on?' I thought, 'Here's my chance to pitch this book.' I told them about it and they laughed at all the right places, and Dick said, in so many words, 'Send me some chapters and I'll send you a contract.' "

Pretty speedy path to publication, right? Well, not exactly. Patron says she ended up working on the book for 10 years. "Dick was very patient. Each time I'd send him a draft, he'd say, 'Not ready, not yet.' So I'd take another stab." Patron found a new direction for Lucky after her mother passed away. "I had this sense of being unmoored—it was a very surprising feeling. That gave the book its heart."

Lucky was Patron's first longer novel (she had previously written four picture books and a chapter book), and she's currently finishing a sequel, tentatively titled Lincoln's Knot. Her Newbery novel tells the tale of 10-year-old Lucky, who lives in a tiny town in the California desert. "It's a story about abandonment and survival," Patron says. "At the end Lucky learns that what you really need is love. So many children have issues of feeling abandoned, of feeling powerless. At 10 you don't have any power, but Lucky finds out that there are ways to have power even [at that age]. I put my entire self into the story, so it's lovely to know that many kids will now connect with it."

Three Times Is Still a Charm

David Wiesner admits that the circumstances of his phone call for Flotsam were "not all that exciting. I wasn't in the shower or anything." Weisner says he was in his kitchen on Monday morning when the phone rang. "My wife was out but my son hadn't left for school yet. The committee chair, Janice Del Negro, told me I'd won the award. And then there was an overwhelming wall of noise."

He says he felt a variety of emotions on absorbing the news. "I'm really proud of the book," he says. "It came together in a way that felt so right. Everything I wanted to do, I was able to do. It felt really nice to have the book recognized. On the other hand, I thought, they can't possibly be calling me a third time! It's too unbelievable! Though I wonder if all the illustrators aren't growling…"

Normal life "pretty much ground to a halt after that," Wiesner says. "There were endless phone calls and then a scramble to get the kids looked after so we could go up to New York [Wiesner lives just outside of Philadelphia]. The next morning he headed to The Today Show, where he's an old hand by now. "I've been through all the hosts," he says. "Jane Pauley for Tuesday, Katie Couric for The Three Pigs, and this time we had the gang [Ann Curry, Al Roker and Natalie Morales]! I thought maybe I'd get Matt this time."

Then Wiesner went out for "a really fun lunch with the gang at Clarion," including his editor, Dinah Stevenson. "It's especially wonderful because they've been through all the books with me—it's been the same group of people, all these years."

In Flotsam, a wordless book, a boy finds a camera that has been washed ashore, containing photos of fantastical undersea scenes, which unveil a mystery connecting him with others who have found the camera before. Like Patron, Wiesner went through several versions before hitting on the one that he felt worked. "My books usually start with a visual idea," he says. "I was playing around with it, but wasn't quite sure what kind of story would contain that idea. There was always this idea of connection between kids across time and space, and being able to share this magical secret. And it always had this element of finding something on the beach. Finally the camera came up as an idea, and that seemed like a really nice way to show what was going on."

In all, Wiesner created "five fairly different dummies." He'd show each version to Stevenson, he says, and would tell her, "This isn't it, but take a look." Then, when he brought in what he thought was the final dummy, "We went through it and she said, 'There it is.' It was great to have her concur that I'd finally reached that point."

Were all the versions necessary? "In hindsight, maybe," Wiesner muses, "but I wouldn't have minded if it came out the first time around—that would have lopped a year off the process!" However, he says he learned something new with each subsequent dummy. "Each time you have to do it over, you have to see how much is working. I find it necessary to work through the entire idea in story form, instead of just doing the first few pages. So I'd do a complete presentation and then sit back and look at it. Definitely you can see as I go along that it gets closer and closer."

Eventually he'd like to post his earlier Flotsam dummies on his Web site, to show his creative process, but says, "I haven't figured out how it can be done yet."

One thing that occurred to Wiesner after Monday's big news sank in was "Oh no! I have to write another speech!" In delivering his previous two Caldecott acceptance speeches, he notes with chagrin that the illustrator always seems to speak second. "Great!" he says. "Make me follow the word person!" However, he says he's been "amazed at how much I enjoy getting up there and talking, to a room full of people involved in my field. It's really wonderful."

Publishers Meeting the Demand

As soon as the Newbery and Caldecott awards are announced, of course, the winning publishers are instantly backlogged with orders, as the existing stock is snapped up. Both publishers have acted swiftly to fill demand. According to Simon & Schuster's Paul Crichton. The Higher Power of Lucky pubbed in November with a 10,000-copy first printing. This past Monday morning a significantly larger number—100,000 copies—were ordered. Crichton says the second printing should be delivered to accounts by February 5.

Over at Clarion Books, which published Flotsam, the printings have been mounting up. The book went out in August with an initial 75,000 copies. A second printing of 75,000 followed a month later, and on Monday, a third printing of 60,000 was put on order. Later this spring there will be a fourth printing, says publicist Jennifer Groves, which will bring the total in-print figure to 250,000 copies. "We currently have enough copies in stock to fill all immediate orders," Groves says, "and expect the third printing to arrive in a few weeks."

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