 |
I've been writing books now for about twenty years. The first few were for adults, but as daughters arrived and absorbed
me into their lives I started writing for young readers. I write mostly in the morning from a sunny home office in Portland, Maine. Photos of my family members are taped to my computer. When I need a
break I play a tenor steel drum that stands six paces from my desk. I often run along a nearby path with friends at noon.
The idea to write We Were There, Too! came from a comment made by an Indiana girl I interviewed for a book about young social activists (It's Our World Too!, first
published in 1993, which has been re-issued by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in September 2002). At one point thirteen-year-old Sarah Rosen remarked, "There's no one in my history book my own age.
Studying history makes you feel like you're not even real."
Her comment caught me cold. Could that be true? I started combing through U.S. history textbooks, and discovered that she was right.
Other than Pocahantas and Sacajawea—Native American girls who had helped white settlers—I found the same stuffy parade of generals and presidents and tycoons that I had met long ago.
So I set out to write a U.S. history book of and for young people. I vowed that there would be as many girls as boys, and that our
country's major cultural and ethnic groups would be represented. My book would extend from Columbus to the present, covering major periods and events so that it could work as a history text. Six
years later, I had a manuscript with about seventy primary stories and fifty or so sidebars. I had selected 140 final images from a mountain of candidates to accompany the text.
The research was demanding, and at times it was hard to find the space in my life to keep the project going. I'm married and the
father of two daughters, I work three days a week for the Nature Conservancy, and I'm involved in a variety of community activities. Often when the workload became discouraging, I would draw energy
from the inspiring stories I kept turning up. When I reached the twentieth century, I especially enjoyed interviewing people like Carolyn McKinstry, who had been a civil-rights activist as a girl
growing up in Birmingham, and John Tinker, whose anti-Vietnam War stand at school led to a milestone Supreme Court decision.
The stories in We Were There, Too! showed me that while circumstances have changed drastically in five centuries of American life, the basic needs and desires and character of American youth has remained consistent. The individuals I met sought adventure, love, riches, respect, and a change of scenery. They longed for justice, safety, information, and the freedom to make their own decisions. Some hoped to answer spiritual questions, others to feed their families. They were resourceful, brave, sometimes reckless, ingenious, and often preoccupied with right and wrong. Just like now.
In 1992 I wrote a song with my daughter Hannah, then nine, called "Hey, Little Ant." It's a dialogue between an ant about
to get squished and the child about to squish it. For years we performed it in our family band. The story is left unresolved, with the child's foot shadowing the ant on the final page. Inspired by a
scene from our driveway, we wrote it to help very young people consider non-violence and to address the commonality of living things. Hey, Little Ant was published as an illustrated children's book by Tricycle Press in 1998, and is now available to children around the world in eight languages.
One of the great things about being an author comes from the word's prefix, which means "self." I like it that I can
decide for myself what to write about and who to write it for. I've chosen to write for and about young people. I get to write about their endless possibilities, about the particular challenges they
face, about their considerable sacrifices and substantial accomplishments. How could there be a better job? I'm a very lucky man. •
|
About the Author:
Phillip Hoose is an award-winning author of books, essays, stories, songs, and articles. For the past twenty-four years, he has been a staff member of The Nature Conservancy, as well as a songwriter and performing musician. Mr. Hoose is founder and director of the Children's Music Network, a resource for parents, educators, and performers of music by and for children. Although he first wrote for adults, he turned his attention to children and young adults in part to keep up with his own daughters. Born in South Bend, Indiana, and raised in the towns of South Bend, Angola, and Speedway, Indiana, Phillip Hoose now lives with his family in Portland, Maine.
Books by Phillip Hoose:
We Were There, Too! Young People in U.S. History (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001)
Hey, Little Ant written by Phillip Hoose and Hannah Hoose, illustrated by Debbie Tilley (Tricycle Press, 1998)
It's Our World, Too! Young People Who are Making a Difference, How They Do It—How You Can, Too! (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, coming September 2002)
To contact this author or illustrator, please use the information for his or her publisher provided on our list of CBC member publishers.
Meet the Author/Illustrator Archives
|