BeInkandescent

COVER STORY: SEPTEMBER 2014

Beloved Children’s Book Author Kate DiCamillo Brings Animals—and Magic—to Life

By Hope Katz Gibbs, Publisher, Be Inkandescent magazine

Flora Belle Buckman is 10 years old and hates romance. She prides herself on being a natural-born cynic, and while she wants to believe in superheroes, she just can’t make herself buy into the premise.

At least, that’s how she feels during the summer after 5th grade when she’s reading, “The Illuminated Adventures of the Amazing Incandesto!”

With the whoosh of a vacuum cleaner, that all changes. Flora’s neighbor, Mrs. Tickham, while using her new Ulysses Super-Suction, Multi-Terrain 2000X—on the lawn—sucks up an unassuming squirrel, and the incident magically gives him superpowers. From then on, the squirrel is known as (what else?) Ulysses.

“Holy bagumba!” shouts Flora, witnessing the scene from her bedroom window.

Holy bagumba, indeed.

Magical realism abounds in the 240 pages of Kate DiCamillo’s “Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures.” After his encounter with the 2000X, Ulysses is born anew with powers of strength, flight, and misspelled poetry. Their friendship helps Flora discover the power of having an open heart.

Themes of hope and belief amid impossible circumstances are the hallmark of DiCamillo’s wildly popular novels. Her 12 New York Times best-selling titles have sold nearly 20 million copies and have been translated into 39 languages.

Adding to the appeal of this latest tome are illustrations by former Hollywood interior designer Keith Gordon Campbell, whose genre-bending approach blends graphic and comic-style in the artwork.

It is no surprise that “Flora & Ulysses” is the 2014 Newbery Medal-winner—another honor for DiCamillo to add to her collection, which includes the National Book Award (2001), the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award (2006), and the (Theodor Seuss) Geisel Award (2007, 2011).

She is also the 2014-2015 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature—which means this celebrity author will be making the rounds to meet kids across the country. Yet, the modest DiCamillo says she’s stunned that any of her books have even made it into print, much less onto the silver screen.

“This almost sounds disingenuous, but there’s a large part of me that is still hoping I will simply get published,” DiCamillo admits. “I wrote for six years and got a lot of rejection letters before I sold anything.”

In fact, DiCamillo didn’t consider a career as a writer until one of her professors at the University of Florida told her she had “a certain facility for words.”

“Because I was 20 years old, I thought he was telling me I was wildly talented. So I ditched the idea of grad school and bought a bunch of black turtlenecks and sat around telling everyone that I was a writer—for the next 10 years. I wasn’t writing anything, mind you, just telling everybody that I was a writer.”

To make a living, she traded the turtlenecks for a light-blue polyester jumpsuit and worked as a guide at several Florida theme parks, including Circus World and Disney’s EPCOT.

“My job was basically to tell people, ‘Watch your step,’” she shares. At 30, all that changed. She moved to Minneapolis and made writing her priority.

Holy unanticipated occurrences! Her 2000 breakout book, “Because of Winn-Dixie,” won critical acclaim and became a feature film in 2005. Like the sensationally scrappy Flora, this book’s star is another 10-year-old. This girl, named India Opal, rescues a scruffy dog that was wreaking havoc in the Winn-Dixie supermarket, and of course, adventures ensue.

DiCamillo’s 2003 mega hit, “The Tale of Despereaux,” became an animated movie in 2008. This fantasy follows Despereaux Tilling, a mouse with giant ears, who sets out on a quest to rescue a beautiful human princess named Pea.

Why do animals have starring roles in her books?

“It’s not a conscious thing,” admits DiCamillo, now 49. “Sometimes I sit there and think, ‘Oh boy, I’ve got to make sure there isn’t an animal in this one.’ But as readers, we’re inclined to open our hearts to an animal. Once we do, we give the rest of ourselves over to the story. And that’s when the magic happens.”

Don’t stop now! Click here to read Kate DiCamillo’s thoughts on being the 2014-2015 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature in our September Tips for Entrepreneurs. Click here to listen to our Q&A on the Inkandescent Radio Network.

Also be sure to read our Q&A with “Flora & Ulysses” illustrator Keith Gordon Campbell.

Award-winning author Kate DiCamillo is the newly appointed 2014-2015 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.

In the last two decades, she has earned 11 New York Times best-selling titles and sold a combined nearly 20 million copies in print worldwide. Her books have been translated into 39 languages, and two have been turned into major motion-picture feature films: “Because of Winn-Dixie,” and “The Tale of Despereaux.”

DiCamillo recently participated in a Q&A with the Children’s Book Council about her new ambassadorial role in promoting reading and literacy. She is looking forward to traveling the country over the course of her two-year reign, and she looks forward to seeing new places, meeting new people, and gathering groups to read together through her “Stories Connect Us” platform.

Scroll down for her thoughts on what else she’s looking forward to.

What are some things you are most looking forward to during your time as National Ambassador?

Kate DiCamillo: I am looking forward to going places I haven’t gone. I am looking forward to seeing faces I haven’t seen. And I am looking forward to being in rooms filled with people who are reading together.

What do you hope to accomplish in your role as National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature?

Kate DiCamillo: I hope I can somehow convince people that reading together is a way for us to see each other. And that that would be a happy and joyous thing. And that there is nothing but pleasure and connectivity in stories. Reading should not be a task; it should be a celebration.

Your stated platform is “Stories Connect Us.” How do they connect us?

Kate DiCamillo: We are all connected by stories because we are stories ourselves. There’s that wonderful quote from Muriel Rukeyser: “The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.” When we learn someone else’s story, it shifts the fabric of our being. We are more open. And when we are open, we connect.

How will you advocate your platform?

Kate DiCamillo: Well, I would love it if I could talk to people who have gathered together because they are reading together. I would like to go to towns, schools, hospitals, community centers, anywhere we can get people to gather and talk about books they have read together, and how reading together has changed how they see each other.

What sort of change would you like to see come about through reading together?

Kate DiCamillo: I would like to see if we can all open up and see each other.

What do you mean when you say “We are made of stories?”

Kate DiCamillo: If you sit down and talk with anybody at length (child or adult) you can get them to tell you amazing stories. Everybody’s life is a story just waiting to be told.

With several social media platforms available, anyone and everyone can tell/post/blog their story. Does this form of storytelling connect us?

Kate DiCamillo: Oh, yes. I think so. It’s still stories. It’s still windows into different lives.

What books/stories do you recommend be read together in realizing your platform?

Kate DiCamillo: I might have to work on compiling a list. Off the top of my head: “Wonder,” “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “The Whistling Season,” “A Single Shard,” “Charlotte’s Web,” “The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963.”

Republished with permission from the Children’s Book Council.

Click here to learn more about the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.

Click here to listen to our podcast interview with Kate DiCamillo on our Inkandescent Radio Show, Authors Between the Covers.