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Mary Brigid Barrett
Biography
Mary Brigid Barrett is an award-winning children’s book author and illustrator, a professional educator and president/executive director of the National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance (NCBLA). Her books include Sing to the Stars, a “Best Book” of the National Council of Social Studies Teachers; Day Care Days, winner of the Oppenheim Gold Award; and The Man of the House at Huffington Row, a “Best Book” of the National Storyteller Association. She is editor of the NCBLA publication Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out (Candlewick, September 2008), a read-aloud family anthology of prose, poetry, drama, nonfiction and art that promotes reading and historical literacy. All profits for Our White House will support the work and programs of the NCBLA. She lives in Franklin, Massachusetts.
The Scoop
You are editor of the NCBLA publication, Our White House: Looking in and Looking Out. Can you tell us how you got involved in this project?
I got involved in the project because it was my idea. A few years ago, I met historian David McCullough and his wife Rosalee for lunch at the old Ritz Carleton in Boston. David talked about how our founding fathers and mothers – John and Abigail Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson— believed that if a democracy is to survive and thrive it must have literate, educated citizenry. And he also raised my awareness of the connection between literacy, historical literacy, and citizen activism.
Because of my work as a literacy and library advocate, I have had the opportunity to visit the White House. You do begin to wonder about the people who trod its halls, who ate and slept, danced and cried, worried and rejoiced in its rooms. Walking through the White House reminded me of the first time I walked through main reading room and the halls of the Cleveland Public Library when I was a kid, experiencing feelings of awe and amazement that this building was my building; that I had the right to all the knowledge it held within its walls.
I felt the same way walking through the main floor of the White House: that it’s my house, your house—that it is our house. I wanted to bring home to my own three children a book about the White House that not only told the history of the house, but also inspired a sense of excitement and wonder. I could not find that book anywhere.
Those two experiences— lunch with the McCulloughs and visits to the White House—were the inspiration for Our White House. I presented this crazy idea to the talented board of the Nation Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance. They not only embraced the idea, they committed their own extraordinary talents to its creative evolution. After doing initial research, I wrote a proposal for the book, and to the NCBLA’s ongoing delight, Candlewick Press won the bid to be our publisher. Our White House is a remarkable collaboration that combines the talents of 108 renowned contributors and their invaluable gifts of art, poetry and prose with the talents of the incredible editing and design teams of Candlewick Press. It is our hope that we have created a book that ignites young people’s interest in our nation’s past, provoking them to thoughtfully consider our future.
What challenges do you face in your writing process? How do you overcome them?
As the president of a national literacy organization for young people and a writer and artist who frequently works with kids in schools, the biggest personal challenge I have is finding time to write.
The challenges I faced in writing my story for Our White House were both internal and external. My fellow editors suggested I write a piece about the building of the White House, one that mentioned the design competition for the house, the state of the new Federal City, the actual construction, and a goodly mention of the historical personalities involved. Because I knew I had learned more about history reading good historical fiction rather than school textbooks, I wanted to create a viable story with full-bodied characters. The challenge I gave myself was to convey all the essential historical information and create a moving story all within a very pages.
What tips or advice can you share with young students who hope to start writing/illustrating?
For young people interested in writing:
Read. Read everything—great stories and books, fiction and nonfiction, comics, newspapers, magazines, websites, blogs, the backs of cereal boxes. And write, try your hand at everything—journals and diaries, poetry, essays, song lyrics, stories.
Use strong words; write with nouns and verbs, the more specific the better. Forget adverbs and use adjectives sparingly because nouns and verbs convey the strongest visuals and also convey a sense of wonder. For example, think about the sentence—She walked into the room. —it doesn’t tell you very much. Now change the verb —
She ran into the room.
She ambled into the room.
She raced into the room.
She rolled into the room.
She slithered into the room.
She glided into the room.
She skipped into the room.
Each change of verb not only gives the reader a different visual, it also stimulates a sense of wonder and curiosity—why is she racing into the room? What must she look like if she rolled into the room? Think how the visual changes when the noun in the last sentence is changed—Grandpa skipped into the room! The emotional content of the sentence is heightened with the change of one noun.
For young people who are artists:
Keep a sketchbook and draw every day. Draw your house, your family, your friends, your neighborhood, your town or city. Draw your dreams. Go to art museums and look and look and look, and sketch, and look some more. Find the art section in your neighborhood library and pour through books about artists and their work. Find other kids who are interested in art and form a club and share your work. And don’t just try to draw something realistically; try to draw what you think or feel about the thing you are drawing; draw your experience, from your perspective.
Can you suggest a fun writing topic to get them started?
Write about the day that is different. Anne of Green Gables begins on the day that the wrong orphan arrives. Fern is the first one up in the morning on the day her father is about to kill runt pig; Charlotte’s Web begins on that gruesomely exciting different day. Harry Potter’s story truly begins when he receives a letter delivered by an owl inviting him to Hogwarts; not your normal day. Think about your favorite stories, I bet you they start on the “different” day, the day when something out of the ordinary happens.
What is your list of favorite children or teen books?
Some of my old childhood and young adult favorites:
- The Story of Ferdinand
- Caps for Sale
- Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
- Lentil
- Winnie-the-Pooh
- Ben and Me
- Charlotte’s Web
- Caddie Woodlawn
- Mary Poppins
- The Borrowers
- The Little Princess
- Little Women
- Anne of Green Gables
- Mrs. Mike
- I Capture the Castle
- Saratoga Trunk
- The Once and Future King
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
- The Chosen
- My Name is Asher Lev
- The Color Purple
What is your advice to parents for passing the joys of reading on to their children?
Read and sing and talk to your baby.
Read and sing and talk to your toddler.
Read and sing and talk to your preschooler, your elementary child, your tween, your teen.
Many parents stop reading aloud to their kids when they perceive that their children have become independent readers—don’t stop! Reading skill levels start to drop around third or fourth grade. I believe one of the reasons that occurs is because parents often stop spending time reading with their kids. Never underestimate the importance of your active presence in your child’s life. You’re dispensable in every role you play except one—the role of parent to your children. And take your kids to the library as often as you can. Your neighborhood library should feel like a second home to your child.
Book Covers
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Last Updated: 10/02/2008