Project Chickens before the Eggs – Lesson 146 – Good Egg Interview with Karen Roman Young

As a mom of 6, I know how important it is to find books that kids will voluntarily read.

And as the owner of a tribe of dyslexics, I also know that when you do find a book that they not only read, but also discuss at the dinner table, and share with their friends, you hold on to it with both hands.

Doodlebug – a novel in Doodles by Karen Romano Young is one such book. (In fact, if the truth be told, I had to literally pry the book out of my daughter’s hands in order to write this – you’ll get it back sweetheart – just give me a little time).

Karen and I grew up in the same town and went to High School together. She was the ultra-creative one, always writing, always seeing things from a different point of view – the one we knew was destined for bigger and better things. It came as no surprise to anyone that she became not only a Young-Adult author but a damn good award-winning YA author.

To date, Karen has written over a dozen books for kids, including Cobwebs, Outsider In, and The Beetle and Me: A Love Story (which won YALSA Notable/ Best Books for Young Adults, 1999).

If you’ve ever picked up a kid’s Science book, chances are very good that Karen had something to do with it. She writes about Science Fairs, the Arctic, Maps, Ocean life, and yes, even Angels. Karen is not and never has been one for sitting still.

In Karen’s latest book – a story about a young girl, Dodo who moves from Los Angeles to San Francisco – Karen incorporates doodles right into the story (looking remarkably like all of her High School notebooks did, hmmm). Doodlebug is a non-linear story – the kind that creative kids (and especially those with reading difficulties) get. They really, really get it. It is an action story on a whole different level.

Karen absolutely nails what it’s like to be an out-of-the-box thinking kid who questions why things are the way they are when they could (with a bit of work and imagination) be so much better. Her character Dodo is the kid in all of us who stood up to (or at least wanted to stand up) to teachers to say “nope, not gonna happen in my world.” Doodlebug recognizes and embraces the spirit of kids assuring them that it’s not only okay to be who you are but that to be is a joyous thing, relax, have fun.

Well look at that, we were right, Karen did end up doing the bigger and better things we all knew she would.

Karen RomanoYoung is a great friend, a wonderful author, and now she’s got a chicken named after her in our flock. Could I be any happier?

Meet Karen-Romano-Young

Good Egg Interview with Karen Romano Young

(make sure you scroll down to the end to see an interview bonus!)

What is the best advice an older relative or family member gave you?

My dad and grandfather were always telling me to get out of the house. My dad wanted me to quit watching baseball on TV and go do something with myself. My grandfather worried that I spent so much time in my room listening to music, sewing, drawing, and writing. He wanted me to go out in the world and observe things. They were both (are, in the case of my Dad, who is hale and hearty) interested in everything: sports, the arts, technology, and especially science.

Because they explained things to me to the point where my eyes glazed over, I grew to feel that I could understand complex concepts and processes, that I was smart enough for most things. This is a huge matter for a child. It helped me to trust myself even at school where I wasn’t always in the highest science group. I developed the courage to fight for myself and my right to learn whatever I wanted.

I’ve carried that strength into my science writing, and you can see how it works in Doodlebug, my new book about a girl who has to fight for what she needs at her school.

If you were given one wish to use any way you wanted, what would you wish for?

World peace. Really. This would also imply that people were at peace with themselves and their world and would stop messing up the place and treasure the earth and each other. Wow.

If the wish were just something for myself it would involve something like endless art classes, the ability to throw like a boy, or to be a dolphin. I would really like to be a dolphin, especially if there was world peace.

If you were allowed the use of a large billboard over a well traveled road, what would you put on the billboard?

The face of a really beautiful dog, or a picture of the ocean. Something that would be calming and make people smile.

What’s the passion that drives you to get up every morning?

On one level, it’s telling stories. On another level it’s hope, optimism. I usually wake up thinking “Today’s the day!” But also I’m happy with life and wake up feeling grateful for my dogs, my home, the woods, my family.

What is your ideal dinner? What would you eat and with whom would you share it?

I love our Boxing Day dinner. Boxing Day is an English holiday, the day after Christmas. It’s traditionally the day that the master of the house gives the staff their presents. After a somewhat formal family Christmas, we have a silly, relaxed Boxing Day dinner with our best friends, during which we pull English Christmas crackers, which pop and have prizes and party hats inside. We eat spaghetti and meatballs and salad, drink wine, and eat Christmas cookies for dessert. After dinner we play an enormous, vicious game of Apples to Apples. Hooray!

Do you have any favorite chicken stories or memories?

Yes, in fact I do.

We live in the woods now, on a little road, but we used to live on a big road in town.

Across the street lived an antique dealer who often had yard sales, and cars would come and park all over the place to go to the sales. One time a chicken jumped out of one of the cars and flew across the street and landed on our front yard. A little boy got out of the car and came after it, and I went outside to try to help him. Why did the boy have a pet chicken? And why was it riding around in the car while his mother went to a yard sale? And why didn’t she come and help? I don’t know the answer to any of these things.

The chicken went into the bushes in front of our house, and when the little boy reached in to get it, it flapped out and ran across the neighbor’s driveway into his bushes. Now this neighbor was not friendly, not ever. He was gruff and silent and sat on his front porch staring out as though life was tough. It was a dark, glassed-in porch with just a few windows cocked open. On this day, he was sitting there in his place, glum as ever. I hesitated, seeing him, wondering what he would think if the boy and I dove into his bushes and started bashing around.

But he spoke the only sentence he ever said to me in the 15 years we lived there. He said, in his deep, gruff, gloomy voice: “You can get the chicken.”

So we did.

Karen-Romano-Young - a Good Egg indeed!

Thanks for being a Good Egg, Karen!

About Karen Romano Young

Writing took Karen to New York City , where she worked at Scholastic News, the classroom magazine. She wrote about science for magazines and books like Cricket, National Geographic World, and the Guinness Book of World Records before beginning to write her own science books and novels.

In 2004 research on a new ocean book, Across the Wide Ocean, led her to get involved in the Extreme research journey the University of Delaware takes to the hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. She went to sea for a month on R/V Atlantis, a beautiful ship owned by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and had the most amazing experience of her life; a dive to the bottom of the ocean in the little submarine Alvin.

The other amazing thing that happened to her in 2004 was illustration. She had done little diagrams for articles, and even did the sketches at the start of each chapter in her novel Outside In. Now she had the job of doing all the artwork for Across the Wide Ocean, as well as the writing. She is also working on new novels and a book about the gay civil rights movement, The Rainbow Timeline.

Karen lives in Connecticut near a pond full of frogs and woods with owls and foxes. Her husband Mark is a writer and producer for television. They live with their three children, dogs, and cats.

“Someday I hope to live near the ocean again…to go to sea again, maybe on a trip to the Arctic or Antarctic…but mostly to go on making books.”

Interview Bonus!!!!

This is the back page of Doodlebug. 10 points for finding the chicken. (it’s almost like this was destined to happen!)

Karen, thanks for being a great friend and a truly good egg. Love you always.