Karen Cushman
Newbery award-winning children’s book author
Karen Cushman 
Q: Did you ever go looking for gold?
No. I grew up in Chicago, which left little opportunity for gold mining. We took our daughter to Columbia, a restored California Gold Rush town, when she was about ten. She wasn’t much interested in panning for gold but she was crazy about the mules
Question: What were your favorite books as a child?
Answer: My favorite books are not very popular anymore: Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski, Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly, and The Bobbsey Twins series.
How about you, Dear Reader? What were your favorites?
Question: How did it occur to you to use the Saints’ Feast Days as a device in Catherine, Called Birdy?
Answer: I spent 12 years in Catholic schools so I knew all about saints’ days. And I knew it was customary in the Middle Ages to mark time by saints’ days and festivals. When I reached the halfway point of Birdy, I realized she would mark time that way so I went back and added them. It was fun to decide what saints Birdy would pick and what she would say about them.
Question: You grew up in California and two of your books are set there, The Ballad of Lucy Whipple and The Loud Silence of Francine Green. Do you have favorite books written about the state?
Answer:
A Room Made of Windows, Eleanor Cameron—part of a series about Julia Redfern who lives in Berkeley in the 1920s.
We Were Here, Matt de la Pena—YA that “follows a journey of self-discovery by a boy who is trying to forgive himself in an unforgiving world.”
The Al Capone books by Gennifer Choldenko
Island of the Blue Dolphins, Scott O’Dell
Q: What drew you to working in museums?
A: I loved the idea of learning from objects and listening to their stories. Who made this? Why? How was it used? Why did someone make this? What is the story behind it? What does it say about the people who made and used it or the world they lived in?
In 2013 (most recent figures), more than 128 million people visited the top 20 museums in North America, Europe, and Asia.
The top five museums in the world, according to attendance figures, are:
Louvre, Paris, France 9,334,000 (paid admissions)
National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, 8,000,000 (free)
National Museum of China, Beijing, China, 7,450,000 (free)
National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC, 6,970,000 (free)
British Museum, London, UK, 6,701,000 (free)
(Report from AECOM, www.aecom.com)
What’s your favorite museum?
Q: Choosing names. Is there a story behind the names you’ve chosen for your characters? (e.g., Brat becomes Beetle becomes Alyce)
A: There is no good answer to this question. Names just pop into my head, often before the story does. But there is a story behind Rodzina: When I was ten, my Grandma Lipski took me to the Polish cemetery in Chicago to show me her mother’s grave. In front of a gravestone marked Rodzina Czerwinski, she sat and cried. Many years later when I was writing a book about a Polish girl from Chicago, I decided to call her Rodzina after my great-grandmother. I checked with my father to make sure I had the spelling correct, and he told me that rodzina was not her first name but was the Polish word for family. The gravestone marked the resting place of the rodzins Czerwinski, or Czerwinski family. The book Rodzina is all about the search for family, so I decided that while Rodzina was not my great- grandmother’s name, it was the perfect name for the girl in my story. And so she is Rodzina.
How do stories spring from real-life events? You can see some examples from the 20 authors (including me) who are part of this collection, Been There, Done That: Writing Stories from Real Life, which looks at the process of taking our experiences and turning them into works of engaging fiction. I had a great time writing my pieces—so much easier than a novel. Look for the book in November from Grosset & Dunlap, and let me know what you think of “Millie McGonigal.”
From a recent interview:
Question: You were born in and spent the early part of your childhood in Illinois. What drew you to writing about Rodzina, who set off on an orphan train from Chicago to an unknown home?
Answer: In a bookstore in Berkeley, I found a book about the orphan trains. The cover showed a giant locomotive and a line of children, holding little suitcases. Their faces were so frightened and brave and hopeful. I knew there was a book there, and I was right.
It’s award season and best of 2014 season, and so I am weighing in. Here are my favorite books of the past year. No money, no gold statue, just my sincere thanks for hours of reading joy.
Nest. Middle-grade fiction by Esther Ehrlich. Set on Cape Cod in 1972, Chirp survives a difficult year through the healing power of family, the natural world, and her growing friendship with the irresistible Joey. Nest is real, touching, true, and wise.
All the Bright Places. YA fiction by Jennifer Niven. This beautifully written book allows us into the worlds of the smart, dark Violet and the boy who teaches her to live while he plans to die. A gorgeous book with fascinating characters.
Tiger Queens. Historical fiction by Stephanie Thornton. Lengthy, detailed saga of the women who supported Genghis Khan and strengthened his kingdom. I was immersed in his world for days and loved it.
The Goblin Emperor. Fantasy by Katherine Addison. After a tragedy strikes, the half-goblin youngest son of an emperor has to learn whom to trust, how to rule, and how to survive, in a hurry. I loved the world building and Maia, the goblin emperor, who is much smarter and more lovable than he thinks he is.
The Secret Wisdom of the Earth. Fiction by Christopher Scotton. A boy grows in courage, understanding, and forgiveness during a summer he spends in a small Kentucky coal town with his grieving mother and beloved grandfather. The end is riveting and life affirming but I hated to see the book end.
Ah, Thanksgiving, a holiday all about family and food and being grateful. No wonder it’s my favorite of the holidays.
Except for Thanksgiving, 1952. We had recently moved from Chicago to Los Angeles. Thanksgiving Day dawned bright and sunny and 80 degrees. My parents were thrilled and set up the picnic table in the backyard. We ate in our shorts and flip flops.
I was devastated—Thanksgiving meant frost on the pumpkins and long cold walks after dinner and “over the river and through the woods,” not picking oranges in the yard and sunglasses. Those of you who have read The Ballad of Lucy Whipple will have a clue to how I felt about the move.
Here in the Pacific Northwest I have the Thanksgiving I always wanted, except that we make heaps of turkey thighs instead of a whole bird because my loved ones and I are all dark-meat eaters. I hope your Thanksgiving is just the way you want, filled with light and love and gratitude.
Thank you for all your support. I couldn’t do it without you.