Behind the Book - Karen Cushman

War and Millie McGonigle #6

October 12, 2021March 25, 2021 by Karen Cushman

Millie forms a close friendship with Rosie, a girl who has just moved into the neighborhood. Rosie is three years older than Millie. They’re interested in very different things and yet they’re still friends. Did you have a Rosie in your life? What did you want this friendship to do for the story?

I was pretty much a loner growing up. We moved to LA when I was ten so all my friends were left behind. I was sent to a school many miles away from home and most of my schoolmates. I like to read, imagine, dream, and put on plays in the garage. There was not a Rosie in my young life. I would have loved a friend like that. I wanted Millie and Rosie’s friendship to open Millie’s eyes to a different way of looking at the world, filled with hope, trust, confidence, and fun.

War and Millie McGonigle #5

October 12, 2021March 16, 2021 by Karen Cushman

What kinds of parallels do you see between Millie’s experiences in 1941 and what children are experiencing now?

Right now there is no impending war threatening our children, but there certainly is fear, confusion, and uncertainty about the future. Covid, unemployment, homelessness, political turmoil loom over us, and I expect our children are especially unsettled. I hope we all discover a place of peace, joy, and solace such as Millie found.

War and Millie McGonigle #4

October 12, 2021March 11, 2021 by Karen Cushman

You’re not old enough to remember 1941, the year in which War and Millie McGonigle is set. Of course, you weren’t old enough to remember the time periods for your medieval books, either. What was there about Millie’s time that made you want to write about it?

My experience of the war is mostly second hand—my Uncle Chester’s stories about fighting in the South Pacific, my father’s struggles to find tires and gas for the car, my mother’s complaints about rationing. Until the day she died, my mother grumbled about how many ration coupons I used up for the shoes I kept outgrowing. I wanted to know more about their struggles, challenges, worries. What would it be like to live in a time of such constant fear, deprivation, and uncertainty?

War and Millie McGonigle #3

October 12, 2021March 9, 2021 by Karen Cushman

We know you grew up with a brother. Is there someone in your background that brought the character of Lily, Millie’s younger sister, to life for your readers?

I wanted a sibling who was the opposite of the adorable Pete and my equally adorable brother. Luckily, I can’t remember anyone I knew who was as whiny and difficult as Lily. She was so easy to dislike. I had to make a point of softening both Lily and Millie a bit so they could build a loving relationship.

War and Millie McGonigle #2

June 23, 2022March 4, 2021 by Karen Cushman

Your book is full of the details that make 1941 in San Diego, California, so authentic. Mission Beach, Northern Tissue splinter-free toilet paper, Jungle Gardenia. What type of research did you do, which sources did you use, to help young readers connect to this place and time? Did you have to look up each product mention to make sure it was available in 1941?

There are many pieces to Millie’s story, and I had a lot to learn.

The internet helped me with 1940s slang, music, food, and fashions. People wrote about and posted their memories of Pearl Harbor. I accessed headlines from The San Diego Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, and back issues of The San Diego Historical Society quarterly history journal online.

I used the volumes Mission Beach, Pacific Beach, La Jolla, The Navy Comes to San Diego, and Surfing in San Diego from the invaluable Images Of America series by Arcadia Publishing. Titles such as Daddy’s Gone to War, William M. Tuttle, Jr; “War Comes to San Diego” from the San Diego Historical Society; and Peg Kehret’s memoir, Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio made history personal. Two pamphlets, Official Guide to the San Diego Zoo, 1947, and the Coca Cola Company’s Know Your Planes, I found on eBay.

But by far the most important and richest resource was traveling to San Diego and walking on Bayside Walk in South Mission, watching the waves on the bay, imagining the mudflats, hearing seagulls and waves breaking on the ocean side, and listening to Phil’s stories and memories. That all made Millie’s story truer and much richer.

Yes, I checked on every product I mention to make sure it was available and named correctly. I found that Cheerios in 1941 were CheeriOats, though Jello was Jello. The reference to Northern Tissues splinter free toilet paper was pure serendipity so I had to include it. Jungle Gardenia was the heady, exotic fragrance I wore in college and I was pleased to see it would have been around in 1941 for Cousin Edna.

War and Millie McGonigle #1

June 23, 2022March 2, 2021 by Karen Cushman

How did the idea for Millie’s Book of Dead Things come to you?

Haunted by her Gram’s death and the looming war, Millie became fascinated with death and dying. I wanted to give her a way to achieve some control over a scary, gloomy world. Thus The Book of Dead Things, a concrete manifestation of her obsession. Why a book? Because I was the kind of kid who made lists in a notebook to help me keep track of my world: best books, favorite singers vs. singers I hated, handsomest movie stars, good teachers vs. bad teachers, clothes I’d like to wear when I grew up. I still have a notebook with lists of suggested plots for Elvis movies.

The Book of Dead Things also felt like a metaphor for the troubled, frightened, worried Millie before she felt the courage to accept and embrace what was good in the world. The Book became an integral part of Millie’s story and her growth.

Charles Loring Brace and the Orphan Trains

September 1, 2021May 2, 2017 by Karen Cushman

Rodzina Brodski is one of thousands of orphaned children who were sent West to find homes from 1845 to 1929. She is the heroine of my novel Rodzina. Here’s some of the factual background behind the orphan trains.

This article about the Children’s Aid Society recounts the history of Charles Loring Brace, the man who faced head-on the heavy immigration to the United States after the 1840 famine in Europe. With so many orphaned and abandoned children in New York City, Brace saw the need to establish an organization to get them off the streets. He was the mover behind the orphan trains, seeking to find homes for the children.

“Critical of congregate institutions such as orphanages and almshouses, Brace thought that the rigid discipline of those institutions sapped a child’s self-reliant spirit, and that charity only encouraged children to remain dependent. Alternatively, the Children’s Aid Society opened low-cost lodging houses for boys and girls, set up reading rooms and “fresh air” camps for their benefit, and established industrial schools to prepare them for employment and self-sufficiency.”

The photo above, which shows the CAS training children for office jobs, is one of a number available on Harvard University’s website depicting the Children’s Aid Society in its early years. The organization still exists today. It is considered to be one of the top children’s charities in the country.