DiCamillo, Kate

The Miraculous Journey of Kate DiCamillo

Kate DiCamillo is “waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

Think about it: She has numerous awards to her credit, the film adaptation of one of her most celebrated works is generating serious Oscar buzz, and her new books continue to be critical darlings. What is it like to be Kate DiCamillo right now? Her reply shows us that fairytales do come true, even for pessimists.

Kate DiCamillo’s entry into the book business was through the doors of a respectable book distributor in Minnesota. “I was a picker, but I was a reader, too,” she recalls. Assigned to the third floor of the big warehouse, Kate was literally immersed in children’s books: “I fell in love with the form.”

The first kid’s book the grown-up Kate read was Christopher Paul Curtis’ The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963. Soon, she was devouring the works of Katherine Paterson, Karen Hesse and more. “I thought, ‘I want to be able to do this,'” remembers the future author. Possibly the best benefit offered by her employer was the ability to check out books. Just to get a feel for the length of a children’s book, Kate typed a few out before trying her hand at her own story. “Because of Winn-Dixie was the first thing I tried.” She heard a voice just before she fell asleep one night say “I have a dog named Winn-Dixie” with a Southern accent. Kate was off like Winn-Dixie after a church mouse.

“It was a blissful time in a way – I didn’t think what I was working on would get published and I was just amusing myself,” she notes with a touch of wistfulness. A stranger glancing in her window might have seen her walking around and shaking her head, laughing with the wonderful characters she had created. “I was under the pressure of poverty, but not publication,” sums up the author.

After the honors and lauds for Winn-Dixie, she has never again had the luxury of not being under pressure of publication. “Winn-Dixie is the way you wish the world could be and Tiger Rising is the way it is,” she explains. More critical acclaim met her second book.

Her third book was totally different. She had a good idea of what the expectations were for a middle grade novel. Kate thought maybe she could work 30 hours a week and have a bit of income from her writing. But she was “blown away” by the reaction to her first book. “People responded from their hearts. You want to write something that makes people love you and that’s a dangerous place to be,” confides the author. “I couldn’t write another book like Winn-Dixie.”

So she didn’t try. “The Tale of Desperaux was directly inspired by Kate’s best friend’s eight-year-old son. “He was mildly impressed with me and took me aside to tell me that he had an idea for a book–it was the story of an unlikely hero with really large ears.” Yet Desperaux didn’t flow unfettered from her pen. The little mouse was buried for a time. When Desperaux emerged it quickly became a favorite with children, parents, librarians and critics, winning the Newbery Medal.

Kate DiCamillo acknowledges that “There’s no other award like the Newbery.” [see review of Minders of Make-Believe for more background on the award itself] At the same time, Kate also gives credit to her publisher for giving her books the Candlewick treatment. “They have made beautiful books for me – they’re astonishing! And it was from the very beginning. You just want to pick up the book.” Perhaps it’s not surprising that the most recent Newbery winner is another book that received the Candlewick treatment, Laura Amy Schlitz’s Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!

Even with both a Newbery Medal and an Honor Book to her credit, Kate continues to push herself into other directions. The Mercy Watson series has won her a younger set of fans and helps the author as well. “I love Mercy Watson,” says Kate, “and you want to know why? It’s like sherbet between the courses!” Kate finds the utterly predictable Mercy a fun respite as she puts the irrepressible pig into situations and follows her to the inevitable raucous conclusions.

When the last Mercy Watson was finished, Kate knew she was going to miss the sweet swine. One might think that she found an outlet in the forthcoming Louise: The Adventures of a Chicken, but in fact the text was finished six years ago. “We’ve been waiting for Harry Bliss ever since! He took that little bit of text and made it into the world,” raves the author. Louise makes her bow next month.

Louise is not the only Kate DiCamillo picture book. Last Christmas saw the author reunited with Bagram Ibatoulline, the illustrator of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. “This book, Great Joy, is the simplest, quietest book imaginable, and needed another kind of genius from the illustrations,” explains the author. “The force of his heart goes into every painting.”

The same could be said of Kate DiCamillo and her books. She has made her own miraculous journey from that little girl for whom the librarian waived the four-book maximum. Now, children probably are extended that same privilege just so they can get every book from their favorite author, Kate DiCamillo.

Learn more at Kate DiCamillo’s website.

– Interview by Ellen Myrick, August 2008

 

 

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