Karen Cushman
Newbery award-winning children’s book author
Catherine, Called Birdy blew my mind. It might have been the first time it occurred to me that history was stories and not just dates and proper names. That story wedged its way into my subconscious and I am sure had no small role to play when I set out to write my first story based on history. Karen Cushman showed the way. I’ll just say it, I think she’s a genius.
Thank you, Karen Cushman!
Professor Nancy Roser, of the University of Texas at Austin, shaped a poem from her children’s literature seminar students’ resonant phrases after they read Catherine, Called Birdy. Prof. Rosen framed the poem with a page from the original manuscript, which she studied at the Kerlan Collection of the University of Minnesota, where my working materials are housed. Thank you to Nancy and her students! This is a toast I will always cherish.
When I first came across Karen Cushman’s books, it was the ‘90s. Back then, I was a mess (and that’s putting it nicely). I was a graduate school drop-out who wanted to write fiction. Unfortunately, every time I put pen to paper (or more accurately, fingers to keyboard) I felt physically nauseous. I had a bad case of writer’s block, something to do with graduate school. Hence, I got a job at Borders Bookstore. If I couldn’t write books, I’d read them. The managers, for whatever reason, decided to put me in the children’s section. Since the last children’s book I’d read was Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret I had some reading to do. I read, read, and read. Some of my favorite reads from that time? Two of Karen Cushman’s books come to mind immediately: Catherine, Called Birdy and The Midwife’s Apprentice.
I loved those books. The heroines were right up my alley. Those girls said what they meant, did what they needed to do, and then got themselves back up when they fell. They didn’t take themselves too seriously either — they acknowledged their foibles, and as they did, the reader couldn’t help but smile.
Did I mention that these books are set in the past? This was important — to me especially. I’d dropped out of a graduate program in history. It was just as well, since I’d never reconciled writing history with wanting to write novels. But reading these books, I was struck by the way the author saw the past.This wasn’t a ‘please-pass-the-tea-dear’ past, the kind with silence punctuated by ticking clocks. No, this stuff set my my heart racing. Something about the way Karen Cushman wrote about the past felt like a way forward for me.
It’s been over a decade since I’ve read Catherine, Called Birdy and The Midwife’s Apprentice, but the stories have lived on in my imagination. I am indebted to both of these books, and to the author, Karen Cushman, for taking the time to commit them to paper.
Thank you, Karen Cushman!
—Amy Timberlake
Learn more about Amy Timberlake …
It’s hard to believe it’s been twenty years since Birdy burst upon the scene, tangling her yarn and scaring off suitors, bringing the fleas and rats and dirt of the 14th century into the family rooms of the 20th century, enchanting us with her indomitable spirit and making room in our hearts, as Karen Cushman says in her author’s note, for “all sorts of different people” who are in some ways vastly different from our modern selves. Bravo for Birdy! I imagine Birdy at twenty, perhaps a mother now herself, accomplished in the lady arts but fighting to stay authentically herself despite the expectations of her era, and inspiring us to do the same in ours. —Susan Fletcher
The month of May begins our countdown to Catherine, Called Birdy‘s 20th birthday. Can it really be that long?
Dorothy writes:
“File this one under ‘good karma.’ First some background: This week, my dear friend, Her Awesomeness Karen Cushman is celebrating the 20th anniversary of her Newbery-honor winning novel, Catherine, Called Birdy. Set in Medieval England, the novel is written in the form of a journal kept by young Catherine who is rebellious, smart, and determined to avoid marriage to the odious man her father has chosen for her.” Read more on Dorothy’s blog.
You’ll want to learn more about Dorothy on her site and read her books if you haven’t yet. She’s delightful!
In the past three days I have battled hurricane and pirates, floods and evil kings, false friends and kind strangers. I was angry, frightened, discouraged, and determined. All this while I rode a train from here to Portland and back. Yup, I was reading—two amazingly good books.
Rodman Philbrick, author of the entirely splendid Freak the Mighty, took me to New Orleans in Zane and the Hurricane, just in time to to be trapped by Hurricane Katrina. Zane and his dog, Bandy, also encounter a feisty young girl and an elderly musician, dangerous drug lords, uncaring officials, and generous strangers. I could feel the wet and the cold and the hunger. Great book.
Entirely different but equally compelling is The Shadow Throne, the third book in the Ascendance trilogy that started with The False Prince. Jennifer Nielsen has done it again, given us a rip-roaring adventure about good and evil, courage, loyalty, and love. I read this one much too late into the night. Great book.
I recommend you get these titles from your local independent bookstore. What would we do without them?
Background: The Loud Silence of Francine Green: From reading the book, you know that Francine’s friend Sophie’s father was a screenwriter in Hollywood, which is a factor upon which the plot turns.
You may find it interesting to learn more about Ring Lardner, Jr., a writer who won Academy Awards for M*A*S*H and Woman of the Year. In 1947, he was one of the Hollywood Ten, actors and writers from Hollywood who were questioned by the House Un-American Activities Committee for suspicions of having left-wing or Communist sympathies. He refused to answer questions about his political status and was sent to prison for 12 months and fined $1,000. He was fired as one of the highest-paid screenwriters in Hollywood and blacklisted from working there again.
Here’s a 90-minute reading by various actors from Ring Lardner, Jr’s, memoir, I’d Hate Myself in the Morning.
You can listen to an audio clip from The Loud Silence of Francine Green here.
I was asked not long ago if I plan to write in other formats—plays, poetry, screenplays, or picture books. My short answer was good grief, no! but here’s more. I think I wrote all the plays, poetry, and screen plays that I had inside me before I was fifteen. I still have boxes of them: plays like “Jingle Bagels,” the story of Santa Claus going down the wrong chimney on Christmas Eve and finding himself in a Jewish home; a notebook called Plots for Elvis Movies; and of course poetry, poetry I wrote when I was happy, angry, frightened, in love, broken hearted—even a series of poems based on the life of Elvis (do you see a theme here?). No, I believe I’ll stick to middle-grade novels. They have gotten me this far.
Allyson Valentine Schrier, Meg Lippert, and Heather Hedin Singh, the women behind The Story Sleuths, did a seven-part series on Alchemy and Meggy Swann, culminating in an interview with me. They look at things such as character transformation, inner dialogue, and details. It’s a good thing an author doesn’t have to plan all of this while writing a story. Much better to have the readers mull it all over and find meaning.
Reading The Ballad of Lucy Whipple? There are a number of Gold Rush history museums throughout California that will give you a look at different aspects of that particular time in American history. Among them: the Maidu Museum, the Gold Country Museum in Auburn, and the Rocklin History Museum.
If you’re in California for the holidays, plan a visit. As always, double-check the library’s open dates and hours. http://bit.ly/1e0XDa5