On The Fly Interviews at the South Jersey Children's Book Festival

April 11th was the 3rd annual South Jersey Children's Book Festival. We don't read much kidlit here at the pod anymore but it's all still Jess's favorite. Check the links below and show these authors and illustrators some love!

• Veronica Mang
• Tracey Baptiste
• Pooja Makhijani
• Jonathan Stutzman
• Artie Bennet
• Anne Lambelet

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Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Hey all, just Jess here for a special episode of On-the-Fly Interviews from the South Jersey Children's Book Festival, hosted by Inkwood Books. I got to chat with some very cool authors of picture books, chapter books, and even some graphic guides. All of the names and links are in the show notes, so please hit them up and order some books. Welcome to Booked All Night, the podcast where hot takes meet craft notes and no one gets enough sleep. I'm Jess.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

I'm Katie. I'm Julia. I'm Maggie. Get ready for unhinged hot takes.

SPEAKER_04 0:29

A whole lot of books, midnight giggles, and zero shame. Grab your blankets, booklets, it's time to get booked all night. So, first, can you tell us who you are and where to find you?

SPEAKER_05 0:40

Hey, uh, my name is Veronica Meng. Uh, I'm a writer and illustrator of picture books and chapter books. And um I'm online at Instagram, Veronica underscoreMeng and VeronicaMang.com. Those are good spots to find me.

SPEAKER_04 0:55

Very fun. And what is the elevator pitch for one of your books that you have here today?

SPEAKER_05 0:59

All right, I'll talk about my most recent book. This is my debut picture book, nonfiction picture book called Copeland, a story about America. So this is all about American composer Eric Copeland, uh, who is sort of credited for finding our American musical sound. But there's so much more to the story. So uh you would definitely recognize his music, even if you're not familiar with his name. Sort of sounds like cowboy music and the Wild West planes, but Copeland was a first-generation American. So, child of immigrants, born and raised in Brooklyn, a pretty openly gay man, born in 1900, so that's pretty remarkable. And um, he came up in the labor movements, so his music is an intentional fusion of our different cultures uh jazz, folk music, and it was intentionally made to be more accessible than ever before. So that's sort of the origin to our American sound, and I think that's really beautiful. That's really cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:52

I love that.

SPEAKER_05 1:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:53

Uh, and then what is your preference for uh bigger kids' stories? Do you like standalones, duologies, trilogies, long series?

SPEAKER_05 2:01

Oh, I mean, I think a series is a lot of fun. It's a great way to get to know a character and you can really live in their world for a lot longer, and if a kid's into it, it just is a gateway to keep reading without much entry effort. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:16

That's fair. And then would you rather make chapter art or write chapter titles?

SPEAKER_05 2:21

Ooh, chapter art for sure. Yeah, the illustrator of me, definitely I'll do the art.

SPEAKER_04 2:26

Yeah, chapter titles are hard, right?

SPEAKER_05 2:28

Yeah, that sounds hard.

SPEAKER_04 2:29

Uh, and the last one is if your book were adapted into a Muppets movie, who does the main cast play?

SPEAKER_05 2:36

Oh my gosh. Oh, that's so hard. I mean, I guess I'm thinking who would be for this book, who would be Aaron Copeland? I mean, I I don't know. I kind of want to say Kermit. Like, I just sort of feel like that's that's an icon. Copeland's an icon. Maybe Kermit. Yeah, that's a great question.

SPEAKER_02 2:57

I like that. I like that.

SPEAKER_07 2:58

Oh, fuzzy mic.

SPEAKER_04 3:00

I like that fuzzy mic.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

Hello. This is my first fuzzy mic experience.

SPEAKER_04 3:04

Oh, that's exciting. I may have been fidgeting with these because they're like really soft and fluffy.

SPEAKER_02 3:10

So tell us who you are and where to find you. I'm Tracy Batiste. Uh, you can find me at TracyBatiste.com. I have on that website, I have not just my books, it also has information for educators, for kids. Kids can come visit my office, and it's a photograph they can um click through and see things in my office. There's information for other writers if you want to take different classes. Some of the classes are free. Um, a lot of information for people who are interested in literacy and writing and enjoying books.

SPEAKER_04 3:49

That's exciting, especially the stuff for educators, because sometimes that's really hard to find to get stuff in classrooms.

SPEAKER_02 3:55

It is indeed. I was a teacher for many years and then I was a curriculum designer, so I wanted to make sure that my website had a lot of support for educators because I know it can be hard, and I know how educators are constantly against um the clock for being able to get things and also have no money. So yeah, so I wanted to make sure there was plenty of stuff there for them.

SPEAKER_04 4:20

Lovely. And then what is the elevator pits for Kidx?

SPEAKER_02 4:24

So Kid X is the sequel to Boy 2.0, and it is a story about a boy who discovers very suddenly that he can turn invisible. Why he can turn invisible is the question of the first book. Was he created in a lab? Is he born this way? That's the question of the first book. The question of the second book is what does a 12-year-old do when they discover they have a superpower? And how much trouble are they gonna get into?

SPEAKER_04 4:56

I could tell you I would be in a lot of trouble if I found out I had any sort of superpower at 12. Yeah. And then what is your preference? Do you prefer standalones, duologies, trilogies, or a big long series?

SPEAKER_02 5:08

You know, it sort of depends. I feel like there are some stories that are very, very satisfying within one book. And there are some stories that really have a lot to say and require a lot more books. But I kind of top out at three. I feel like if I know I'm getting into a series and there's like 10 books in it, each of those books better be a standalone because I might lose interest. You know, like I love series where um they're like super, super long. Like I'm part of one of the kids in Mrs. Z class authors. And the nice thing about that series is yeah, there are 12 books, but you don't have to read all 12 of them. And so, like, that works for me. But if I'm gonna stick with a character through multiple things, I think a trilogy is right.

SPEAKER_04 6:04

That's fair. And then would you prefer to do chapter art or write chapter titles?

SPEAKER_02 6:09

Oh my gosh, chapter titles are a nightmare. So definitely chapter art, please. Yeah, please and thank you.

SPEAKER_04 6:16

And final question: if your book were adapted into a Muppets movie, who plays the main cast?

SPEAKER_02 6:22

Okay, so we're definitely gonna have Fozzie Bear. It's gonna be Dor, who is Cole's best friend. Um, we're definitely gonna have Miss Piggy, probably as Maury. Um, but I'm not sure who would be Cole because he's definitely not a permit, right? Um, he might be like a Ralph. He might be a Ralph. Um, that seems like, you know, because he's sort of calm and sort of, you know, stays behind the scenes, but can be very, very cheeky. So I feel like that is what Cole is like. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Fair play, thank you very much. Thank you. Uh my name is Pooja Makijani. I live here in New Jersey, and you can find me online at www.pojaMakijani.com.

SPEAKER_04 7:13

Thank you. And uh what is the elevator pitch for your book?

SPEAKER_01 7:16

My book is called Bread is Love, and it is about a family who makes bread every week. Um, and the bread, uh, yeah, and and and things don't turn out exactly how they expected. But that's okay, because bread is delicious. Bread is delicious.

SPEAKER_04 7:31

I could live on bread, yes. Uh, and then what is your preference? Do you prefer standalones, duologies, trilogies, or big long series?

SPEAKER_01 7:39

Ooh, that's a good question.

SPEAKER_04 7:41

Hmm. I like coming back to characters again and again. So I think I like big long series. Big long series. And would you prefer to do chapter art or write chapter titles?

SPEAKER_01 7:50

Ooh, write chapter titles.

SPEAKER_04 7:52

Really? You are the first person to be like, yes, chapter titles. I think chapter titles are a nightmare to come up with a for each one. That's insane. And the final question: if your book were adapted into a Muppets movie, who would play the cast?

SPEAKER_01 8:05

Oh my goodness. That is really hard. I think I love Gonzo. So I think Gonzo would be my main character, would be my narrator. Um, and I think Miss Piggy would be his little sister. Lovely. Lovelett. Thank you. You're welcome.

SPEAKER_07 8:21

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

I'm Jonathan Stutzman. I'm the author of books like The Tiny T-Rex series and Llama Destroys the World, Fitz and Clio, lots of other books, lots of books for kids. And you can find me on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter. Um, generally it's under The Dust Dances 2 T-O-O. So, or just look up my name.

unknown 8:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 8:46

That's fair. And what is the elevator pitch for Tiny T-Rex and the impossible hug?

SPEAKER_00 8:52

Well, Tiny is the smallest of dinos, and he has the tiniest of arms, which is difficult for him then to hug. And now his best friend is feeling down, and he needs to learn how to hug to cheer up his best friend. So he'll go through any obstacle to try to learn how to hug with his tiny arms.

SPEAKER_04 9:12

That's adorable. I love that. What is your preference? Do you prefer standalones, duologies, trilogies, or a big long series?

SPEAKER_00 9:21

Well, for reading, it's really fun to get into a series. But for creating, I really like standalones because you have the idea and you fulfill it to the end. You uh get that all completed and then you can move on to new ideas. But I have lots of series. So in that way, I've grown to learn to like them because now I get to have this character that I do love and know, and try to think of new challenges and obstacles for them to go on. And I think kids really love to read series because they get to have that friend that they kind of keep going on adventures with. So it's been fun for me to kind of learn how to write one.

SPEAKER_04 10:01

That's exciting. I love that. Uh, do you prefer to do chapter art or would you prefer to write chapter titles?

SPEAKER_00 10:09

Definitely do the writing because I don't illustrate. I would love to work on my illustration to get to the point where I would illustrate a book because I do love sketching. But I definitely would love to write a chapter book series. I've worked on a few, but I haven't gotten any published yet.

SPEAKER_04 10:26

It's exciting though. Chapter books are hard. All the picture books and chapter books, I feel like they're the hardest ones for GitLit because they're so confined.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

Yeah. That's really hard that I found while writing chapter books is I have lots of ideas. I'm like, ooh, I can use lots of words now because it's a lot longer than a picture book, which I normally write, but then I get too verbose. I use too many words because it's still very succinct, and you gotta make every word count, even though it is a few more hundred words than a picture book would be.

SPEAKER_04 10:59

So I think people don't realize that like it is just a few hundred more, like that's it. You don't get you don't get any elbow room in those.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

It's always about less is more and getting to your point with kids. And sometimes I even have to reteach that to myself while writing picture books. It's really hard to do.

SPEAKER_04 11:18

Yeah. My last question is if your book were adapted into a Muppets movie, who would play the cast?

SPEAKER_00 11:25

I love the Muppets. So I guess I would have Tiny T-Rex play himself, and then I would have in the book series he has an anti-June up that's kind of all over the place and really funny. I would have Miss Piggy play anti-Juneup, and I would have Kermit play Tiny T-Rex's dad, and they're sort of the same shape and coloring, so that works really well. Um and then I'm trying to think best friend Pointy, maybe Gonzo, um, because they're Pointy and Gonzo are a little bit, they're both trying to find their place in the world, and and Tiny would be best buddies with them. So that's kind of what I would think off the top. Um, maybe Rizzo the rat could be Tiny T-Rex's stuffy Bob. Um because he's really funny. He's not in too much, but when he's he's in there, he always is gold, just like Rizzo.

SPEAKER_04 12:16

Rizzo is the best, yes.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

Definitely.

SPEAKER_04 12:19

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

Yeah, no problem. Thank you so much for talking with me.

SPEAKER_08 12:23

I am Artie, I don't have to lean forth. I I am Artie Bennett, and where can I be found? I live in Brooklyn, New York. But my books are can be found wherever good books are sold, as they say. But they're popular throughout the country. As a matter of fact, the true story of Zippy Chippy, one of my children's books, is very big in Kentucky, horse country.

SPEAKER_04 12:49

Oh, I believe that. Can you give us the elevator pitch for Zippy Chippy?

SPEAKER_08 12:52

Sure. Zippy Chippy is a racehorse, was a racehorse. Sadly, he passed away three years ago. Just days shy of his 31st birthday. Wow. Which is it's old for a horse. But Zippy Chippy was descended from the greatest horses ever to run. Man of war, bold ruler, northern dancer, buckpasser. And he was expected to be just as great a racehorse as they. One problem though, he had too much mischief in his soul to be a disciplined racehorse. He would nip at the butts of the other horses as they ran by. He would stop and smell the roses, or if not the roses, the cupcakes that were in the air. We see in the book that he had a fondness for cupcakes. So Zippy Chippy ran 100 races, lost everyone, but became famous for losing, was in the Guinness Book of World Records, became more beloved than ever as a losing racehorse, and people were betting on Zippy Chippy to win, even though he had lost 80 races, 85 races. That's a story. That's Zippy Chippy. It's a moving story and teaches us never to give up on our dreams.

SPEAKER_07 14:13

Yes. We got the butt book, Joe Boys. I think.

SPEAKER_08 14:21

Kids say the butt book is the funniest book in the world. You you be the judge.

SPEAKER_07 14:29

What is the butt book about? The butt book. It's about butts.

SPEAKER_08 14:35

It's all about butts and not the grammatical butts, but it's about animal butts and some people butts and the variety of butts and why we use our butts. There are foreign words for the butt. It's a Dr. Seuss type book. As a matter of fact, I modeled it after Dr. Seuss's the eye book, the earbook, the nose book, the toothbook.

SPEAKER_07 14:58

They were missing a butt book.

SPEAKER_08 14:59

It's the one he never got around to writing. Someone had to do it.

SPEAKER_06 15:04

Someone had to do it, and you I don't want to take all copies of your butt book.

SPEAKER_08 15:08

You can never have enough copies of them. I would love to sign the buttons. Very cool. One butt book coming up, and who should I sign to?

SPEAKER_07 15:18

Who do we want it to be for? Then one butt book for bed. One butt book for bed.

SPEAKER_08 15:29

I know you'll have a buttload of fun.

SPEAKER_07 15:35

I love it.

SPEAKER_04 15:37

What is your preference? Do you prefer standalones, duologies, trilogies, or a big long series?

SPEAKER_08 15:43

I would say standalones. Standalones, some things, maybe are best just standing alone. One and done.

SPEAKER_04 15:52

I like I'm getting more into standalones and like a duology, just something shorter and just I can be done with it.

SPEAKER_08 15:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:59

Do you prefer chapter art or chapter titles?

SPEAKER_08 16:02

Chapter art or chapter titles. I love good art. As a matter of fact, I didn't choose, but my the art director at the publisher chose different illustrators for all my book books. And I was actually given a choice of three, and in each case, the one I thought might be the best was the one the art director thought as well. And I love their work. As a matter of fact, Mike Lester, the genius illustrator of the butt book, won the Ruben Award given by the National Cartoonists Society for these very illustrations. So you can find him online in a tuxedo, proudly, proudly displaying his copy of the butt butt.

SPEAKER_04 16:52

My final question is if any of your books were adapted into a Muppets movie, who would play the cast?

SPEAKER_08 16:58

Wow. Well, if Zippy Chippy were adapted, who would make a good horse?

SPEAKER_04 17:10

Stephanie Lovely is not a Muppet.

SPEAKER_08 17:14

Big Bird. Big Bird as the protagonist Zippy Chippy. Because Big Bird was was kind of silly, right? Zippy Chippy was known for his his silliness. I'd go with that.

SPEAKER_04 17:26

Okay. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_08 17:29

My pleasure.

SPEAKER_04 17:30

So first, uh, tell me who you are and where we can find you.

SPEAKER_03 17:33

Uh I am Anne Lambelay. I'm an author and an illustrator. Um, and I illustrate both for my own stories and for other people's stories as well. Um, and I live in Philadelphia, kind of near Eastern State Penitentiary, and uh you can find my work online through Instagram at Ann Lambelay or um at my website, anlambolet.com, which is A-N-N-E-L-A-M-B-E-L-E-T. Not the uh intuitive way to spell Lambolet.

SPEAKER_04 18:07

Secondly, what is the elevator pitch for either we are dwarf span whales or I'm a Dumbo octopus?

SPEAKER_03 18:14

Um so I'm a Dumbo octopus is the first in a series of marine life graphic guides, so I'll pitch that one. Um but basically the Dumbo octopus is a real species of octopus that uh cannot do a lot of the things that octopuses normally do uh that we think of, like it can't ink and it can't change color. And uh so he spends kind of the whole book with an identity crisis like I'm just a Dumbo. Uh but then he figures out throughout uh throughout an exploration of facts about all the other octopuses uh what makes him specifically cool and his species of octopus very cool, which uh spoiler is that they live like thousands of feet deep. They're like one of the deepest dwelling octopuses in the ocean. So um you don't really need to anchor change color if you live in pitch black environments.

SPEAKER_04 19:01

Yeah, no, that's true. That's absolutely true. And then while you are reading, what is your preference? Do you like standalones, duologies, trilogies, or big series?

SPEAKER_03 19:09

Oh man, that is a tough one. Uh I think like a trilogy is probably like uh best suited to my endurance of like how long I can stick with something before a plot resolves. Uh but I I do really love like uh fantasy sci-fi, uh particularly um The Everlasting was a book that I just read recently uh by Alan C. Harrow, uh that I probably my favorite book of last year, which is just a standalone uh sci-fi like romance novel. Love it. Not related at all to my work.

SPEAKER_04 19:47

Uh then do you prefer to do chapter art or chapter titles?

SPEAKER_03 19:52

Like like if I'm brainstorming, yeah. Uh like do like just a piece of art for the chapter, I I think probably that. Yeah. I'm like primarily an illustrator before being an author. So yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:06

That makes sense. Also, chapter titles are really hard.

SPEAKER_03 20:10

I appreciate a book where they're just numbers.

SPEAKER_04 20:13

It's not illustrations over titles any day. Uh if your book, this is the last question, if your book were adapted into a Muppets movie, who would the main task play?

SPEAKER_03 20:23

Oh my gosh. I feel like I've thought this out so many times for Pride and Prejudice and Lord of the Rings, and so counted off my own books. Uh well, I I feel like they could be Muppets in their own right generally, because they are animals. Um I forget. Pepe LePron could probably make an appearance in in the books as well. Um uh, but I feel like Dumbo Octopus really has like more Kermit energy of being like a little bit soft spoken and like um everybody else has kind of better than me, like has a little bit of an inferiority complex. So I don't know. Fozzy Bear is my favorite. I don't know. I don't know where he puts it under the seat, but he's my spirit animal.

SPEAKER_04 21:12

Thanks for staying up with us. Follow us on Instagram and threads at Bookdall Knight Pod. Drop a comment to let us know what you thought of today's show, and join our Discord server for giveaways, excerpts, and more. It's still in the works, but we're aiming for 100 members. Catch our live author interviews on YouTube and leave a question for our guests on our Discord server. Check out our shop and website at bookdallnight.co. And if you're loving the chaos, don't forget to rate us five stars. Until next time, booklets, and remember, stay booked all night.