Go Set a Watchman
I wrote this a while ago, after reading Go Set a Watchman. It just seemed like something it might be worthwhile to share.
So Harper Lee, who wrote a book about white people and racism, wrote another book about white people and racism. I don’t know why we’re all so surprised.
Okay, yes, I do know. It’s a gut punch to know that Atticus, the kind, protective, wise, gentle father figure to white America, will smile and nod while listening to a speech so full of racist vile it makes his daughter vomit. It’s horrible to hear Atticus, our Atticus, declare the Warren Supreme Court and the NAACP his mortal enemies, to talk with gentle and genteel horror about black children sitting in his school and black voters taking over his government.
But it shouldn’t shock us, if we look back honestly at To Kill a Mockingbird.
We were all lulled into thinking that this is the definitive book about racism in America. And what does it tell us? That one man, armed with kindness, good manners, and legal training, can overcome racism in his small Southern town.
Except he can’t.
What does Atticus actually do in To Kill a Mockingbird? Remember? He doesn’t get Tom Robinson acquitted. He makes the jury take a little longer to decide. He makes them think about it. And he counts that as a victory.
Read MoreWhat Gets Left Out
NASA’s fecal containment bag. Astronauts are true heroes.
One of the saddest things about writing nonfiction is that you just can’t fit all the cool stuff you find into one book. Thankfully, we have blogs for this sort of thing.
I’ve been hard at work on my biography of Neil Armstrong. Apollo 11 has just achieved the first moon landing and Neil, Buzz, and Mike are on their way back to Earth. But I only had a limited amount of words to describe this epic achievement, and one of the things that got cut for space was the fact that there were no bathrooms on any of the Apollo flights.
So of course you want to know how this was handled, don’t you? Alas, I do mean handled.
In classic NASA speak, the astronauts used “fecal containment bags.” Sad to say, they were not terribly well designed and sometimes did not do what they were supposed to do, leading to this immortal dialog, captured for history in the transcripts for Apollo 10 as it orbited the moon:
Commander Tom Stafford: Oh — who did it?
Command Module Pilot John Young: Who did what?
Lunar Module Pilot Eugene Cernan: Where did that come from?
Stafford: Give me a napkin quick. There’s a turd floating through the air.
Young: I didn’t do it. It ain’t one of mine.
Cernan: I don’t think it’s one of mine.
Stafford: Mine was a little more sticky than that. Throw that away.
A bit later on the same mission:
Cernan: They told us that–Here’s another *$*#@*@*#*$ turd. What’s the matter with you guys?
Stafford and Young: laughter
Cernan: A line of dialog which I shall omit, as I try to keep this blog rated PG-13
Stafford: It was just floating around?
Cernan: Yes.
Stafford: Mine was stickier than that.
Young: Mine was too. It hit that bag–
Cernan: When I stuck my finger in mine–mine was too soft. [The fecal containment bags had a “finger cot,” a sort of indentation where fingers could be inserted to, erm, encourage separation of the matter in question from the buttocks, as there was no gravity to help with this. Cernan was not actually sticking his naked finger in, you know.)
Young; Laughter
Cernan: I don’t know whose that is. I can neither claim it nor disclaim it.
I tell you, the stuff you can’t include in books just breaks your heart.
Read MoreBrown Is Warm
So excited that Erin Robinson will be illustrating my new picture book with Little, Brown, called Brown Is Warm, Black Is Bright! Her style is sophisticated yet warm, rich and full of emotion–I’m so thrilled to see the book this will become!
Congrats!
Congratulations to all the amazing artists and writers and editors who created this year’s award winners!
The Newbery to a graphic novel–first time in history!–and a Newbery Honor to a picture book text. My, my. The committee was very avant garde this year. Love it! Cheers to all!
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This Is Neil Armstrong
New year, new project! I’m gearing up for work on a biography of Neil Armstrong, the first human to set foot on the moon.
So far, my favorite quote is not “That’s one small step for man…” but actually comes from his sister, June: “He never did anything wrong. He was Mr. Goody Two-shoes, if there ever was one.”
You can fly fighter jets and fight in a war and blast off into out space and walk on the actual moon, but I’m telling you, you’ll never get respect from your little sister.
Read MoreWhat I’ve Been Reading–The Best Christmas Book Ever
Every year the Christmas books come out for display. Every year I re-read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.
Really, there’s nothing like it. The understated humor, the clear-eyed child narrator who sees very flaw of the adult world with precision and affection, the marvelous transgressive awfulness of the Herdmans (“the worst kids in the history of the world”), and most of all, the dead-on depiction of the Christmas pageant as it goes in every church, every year, world without end.
There was the usual big mess all over the place–baby angels getting poked in the eye by other baby angels’ wings and grumpy shepherds stumbling over their bathrobes. The spotlight swooped back and forth and up and down till it made you sick at your stomach to look at it, and, as usual, whoever was playing the piano pitched “Away in a Manger” so high we could hardly hear it, let along sing it. My father says “Away in a Manger” always starts out sound like a closetful of mice.
I even find some strange enjoyment in the fact that (like the Grinch) the Herdmans are content in their own awfulness. Clearly this family is in dire straits–overworked single mother, no father, little money–but they don’t seem to care. Nobody seems to care–not their teachers or social workers or any adults in the community. But the kids, seen through another kid’s eyes, are fine, and it’s because they are so powerful. They do what they want, say what they want, and get what they want–no matter what, no matter how.
Yet the Herdmans are not one-dimensional either–they care for each other, they care for the baby Jesus, and they’re ready to fight to see right done. Even if they do shove pussy willow buds down people’s ears and smoke cigars in the ladies’ room at church.
Long live the Herdmans!
Read MoreFirst Moments
A little green bee-eater in Keoladeo Bird Sanctuary, India. Tiny and vivid and swift–a perfect metaphor for a writer’s first fleeting idea for a new story.
I was talking with my writers’ group yesterday about that moment when an idea starts to form in your head. You’re thrilled yet anxious–what if you get distracted and it vanishes? What if what seems wonderful and glowing and yes! at this moment turns out to be absurd or embarrassing or just plain stupid a little later on, in the cold light of reason?
One of my friends quoted C. S. Lewis, saying that this moment is like birdwatching–you see something precious and beautiful and rare alight near you, but you know you can’t grab at it or you’ll lose it. So you sit, quietly, patiently, and then another image comes to join the first, and another, and you have it–the story. The start.
Another said it wasn’t images that she saw, but a mood she sensed–lightthearted and zany, sad but tough, tender and funny. This makes sense because I’ve yet to see her write two stories that are similar. Each one has a unique emotional hue.
For me, it’s a character–actually, it’s a sense of a character’s journey, like a glimmering thread. I can get this person from HERE to THERE. I’m not sure how or what will happen along the way, but I can glimpse the path we’re going to travel on.
Read MoreSarah L. Thomson
A children’s book author publishing award-winning nonfiction, poetry, picture books and novels including…
“Thomson focuses on newfound connection, magic, and suspense to conjure a fast-paced, heartwarming mystery. Thomson’s world is populated by resourceful protagonists, fanciful creatures, and quirky supporting characters.”
—Publishers Weekly