Vivica: Inventiveness is only one stage in learning to spell, but it’s the essence of good writing. One author/illustrator of children’s books who never stops inventing is Kate Duke, best known for “When Isabel Tells a Good One” and “One Guinea Pig is Not Enough.” From time-to-time, she’ll drop in on a school to teach kids about plot, character and setting. And she pulls it off without writing down a word.
Katie Duke: I’m going to draw a mouse or a guinea pig. How many people say mouse? How many people say guinea pig? I like to go to schools because it just renews my feeling of what children are like. So I’m going to draw a guinea pig first. I mean, I remember myself as a child pretty well. This kind of reinforces it. This is a great way to keep in touch with my readers. I find out what makes children laugh, what doesn’t make them laugh, what their current interests are. They come up with great ideas. It boosts me along.
Katie: This is Daffodil, the rich lady mouse. Now, she looks like she’s gotten all dressed up to go somewhere. She’s going to be bringing some flowers to somebody. You want to see them at the pool now?
Class: Yeah.
Katie: It’s a sunny day. I think he needs to have his shades on. And does his friend ever come? When I draw a story with the children, I encourage them to give me ideas.
Class: No.
Katie: It doesn’t come. Ugh, a mystery. That would make an exciting story. So what is Hubert going to do? Is he going to run back to the pool do you think? At some point, it becomes necessary to make…to bring in some action. And the best way to bring in action is to invent a bad guy. Oh, look. Footprints have clause. Yikes. Is Hubert brave enough to follow them?
Class: Yes.
Katie: Yes. He follows the footprints and he finds himself at a? Where? He goes into the woods.
Class: A haunted house.
Katie: Who could live in this haunted house?
Class: A big cat.
Katie: A big cat. Oh, no. Cat does not look friendly. Biding his time. Waiting until Daffodil comes just into the right spot. And then he’s going to pounce. I keep on asking questions and drawing pictures to go along with them to keep the story developing. Look. Hubert looks kind of upset. I try to encourage children to take chances, not be afraid, especially in terms of using their imagination. When I was in sixth grade, I wrote a short piece, something that had happened to me over the summer. The teacher gave me the first A I’d ever had on anything I wrote. And she wrote at the bottom, lovely. That was the first moment that I thought of being a writer. I would say to teachers to pay attention to each child and what they have to say. Let them speak. A sword fight. Oh, well.
Class: That would go under question books as well.
