A Crowded Farmhouse Folktale by Karen Rostoker-Gruber, illustrated by Kristina Swarner debuts from Albert Whitman & Company Oct. 1
Karen Rostoker-Gruber’s resume is as crowded as Farmer Earl’s home in her newest book, A Crowded Farmhouse Folktale. But the difference between Karen and Farmer Earl is that while Farmer Earl is looking for a little more room, Karen enjoys adding more books. Right now, she’s authored more than 16, with hundreds of thousands of copies sold. Farmer Kobi's Hanukkah Match (co-written with Rabbi Ron Isaacs, illustrated by C.B. Decker, Apples & Honey Press), was named a National Jewish Book Award Finalist and was awarded the 2016 Outstanding Children's Literature Award from the Church and Synagogue Library Association. Her books Bandit, Bandit's Surprise (both illustrated by Vincent Nguyen) and Ferret Fun (illustrated by Paul Ratz de Tagyos), all from Marshall Cavendish, received starred reviews in School Library Journal.
Rooster Can't Cock-a-Doodle-Doo (illustrated by Paul Ratz de Tagyos, Dial) and Bandit were International Reading Association Children's Book Council Children's Choices Award recipients. Rooster Can't Cock-a-Doodle-Doo, Bandit, and Ferret Fun were chosen for the 100 Best Children's Books in the Bureau of Education and Research's Best of the Year Handbook. Rooster Can't Cock-a-Doodle-Doo and Ferret Fun were nominated for the Missouri Show Me Award; Bandit was nominated for the South Carolina Book Award; and Rooster Can't Cock-a-Doodle-Doo was a Dollywood Foundation selection in 2007 and 2008. Maddie the Mitzvah Clown (illustrated by Christine Grove, Apples & Honey Press), was a 2017 PJ Library book selection. This year’s books, Happy Birthday, Trees (illustrated by Holly Sterling, Kar-Ben) and A Crowded Farmhouse Folktale (illustrated by Kristina Swarner, Albert Whitman), are PJ Library selections for 2020. Karen is a member of SCBWI, has twice co-chaired the Rutgers University Council on Children's Literature's One-on-One Conference, and is a co-founder of The Book Meshuggenahs. Welcome, Karen, to The Kids Are All Write!
When I looked at the rooster in A Crowded Farmhouse Folktale, I couldn't help thinking about your book, "Rooster Can't Cock-a-Doodle-Doo." Now, you didn't actually mention a rooster in the text, what did you think when you saw it in Kristina Swarner's illustrations?
When I first looked at the sketches and saw the rooster on the first page, I couldn't believe it! Illustrators and authors aren't supposed to talk about the book until the book is done because the publisher doesn't want the author to influence the illustrator's creativity. I wonder if Kristina looked me up and saw my book, Rooster Can't Cock-a-Doodle-Doo, before she began her illustrations. I never asked her. One time, at a school visit, a little kid asked me if I wrote Rooster Can't Cock-a-Doodle-Doo because my last name sounds like rooster (Rostoker). I had never had that question before and it really stumped me. 😂
The roosters in each book couldn't be more different: Kristina Swarner's illustrations are whimsical and dreamy. Her colors are muted and soft and her work is very detailed--the feathers, the landscapes, the fabric on the wise woman's chair, the fur on the cats, the patterns on the wallpaper, etc. She also added humor into the book and elevated my words--take a look at the toilet paper page, the horses, ducks, and goats eating everything and the facial expressions of the cats, who are not amused at the crazy antics of the other animals in the house.
Kristina is a printmaker, so first she draws a sketch and transfers that sketch onto a linoleum block. Then she carves out all of the areas that will be white, inks the linoleum block, and makes a black and white print on heavily textured paper. Once the print is dry, she adds watercolors and colored pencils to the black and white print. Here she is working on the flaps for our book:
The rooster in my book, Rooster Can't Cock-a-Doodle-Doo, is cartoony and bright. I love each book and each rooster for different reasons. Paul Ratz de Tagyos, the illustrator for Rooster Can't Cock-a-Doodle-Doo worked in an advertising agency back then (in 2002), so his illustrations were done in marker. His drawings, he tells the reader on the copyright page, "were penciled, inked, and then colored with markers on marker paper. A teeny-weeny bit of color pencil was sometimes used, but that's cheating!"
His work is also very detailed--the wood on the barn, the pigpen, the fences, the grass, etc., which I could never understand. My marker comps never looked like that when I worked in an advertising agency. Back in 2004, when Paul wasn't working at the advertising agency, he was a Howard Stern impersonator. (I'm not kidding!) He really understood my understated humor and went above and beyond adding humor to each illustration. On one page he has the pigs reading magazines like: "Stench," "Pink," and "Filthy Living." 😂
How do you like the way Kristina's illustrations work with your words? Do you have a favorite spread?
Andrea Hall, at Albert Whitman, made a perfect choice for my book, as this was a folktale. I was hoping for an old-fashioned and whimsical feel and Kristina's illustrations fit that bill. My favorite part of the book is the toilet paper spread--perfect for COVID times. I had also asked that the duck, on the highest point of the house, take a bite out of the letter "A" in Folktale on the front cover. I don't know if anyone will notice that, but I see it every time I look at the book.
You and I are members of The Book Meshuggenahs. How do you feel this book fits with our mission?
Even though this book is based on a Yiddish folktale, I feel like the message is for everyone--especially now. Everyone should be grateful for what they have. One mission of The Book Meshuggenahs is to be able to supply teachers and parents with educational tools for each book that we publish. Since a lot of schools are going virtual, and students and parents are dealing with so many changes right now, I wanted to add an activity that focused on gratitude. It's so important to step back and find things that we are grateful for--even in the midst of a pandemic. So, below, I've attached a teacher's guide, written by Dawn Kiron, a licensed clinical social worker, for everyone to download with a coloring page and a gratitude journal. According to Dawn, "Keeping a gratitude journal or writing things down every day decreases stress levels and can make children and adults feel more grateful and happier over time."
Find the teacher guide here.
Find a coloring page here.
Find a gratitude journal here.
A Crowded Farmhouse Folktale is one of the books people can win by entering The Book Meshuggenahs Hanukkah Contest. Please give us the details of how to enter and win.
You can go to our NEW website, thebookmeshuggenahs.com, to see the exact details, but if you send a photo of yourself helping someone, you are eligible to win one, free, signed book. There will be 8 winners.
You have another book coming out in November, Happy Birthday, Trees, with Kar-Ben Publishing. Please tell us about that.
I was invited to a luncheon given by the PJ Library in New York a while back. They told everyone at the luncheon that they were looking for board books. When I went home that night I reworked an old manuscript, which at that time was called, Happy Birthday to the Trees! I sent it to the PJ Library and won their author incentive award ($2,000). Then, Karen Grencik (my agent at the time) sold the book to Joni Sussman, at Kar-Ben. Joni shortened the title to Happy Birthday, Trees, which I like a lot better. It's a board book about planting a tree with simple rhyming couplets and a repeated refrain. It's for the Jewish holiday Tu B'Shevat, which is very similar to Earth Day. Holly Sterling's illustrations are very lively and colorful! The characters in this book look like they are having so much fun!
Please share the inspiration for your ideas and stories, and the process about your latest project.
Every book goes through a different process. For my book, A Crowded Farmhouse Folktale, an editor told me to send her a folktale. So, I went to the library and took out a lot of folktale books--about 20 or so--borrowed more from friends, and bought some on-line. Then for weeks, I sat and read folktales from morning to night. I didn't skip any--just in case the one I skipped happened to be the perfect one. I kept looking for a folktale that I could simplify--folktales that no one reworked for a while--folktales that Disney didn't redo. I came across a Yiddish folktale that I loved. At 3am one night, after going over and over one of the folktales in my head all day long, I wrote this down on a sticky note:
In case you can't read my chicken-scratch (Hah!), it says: No room to sit, no room to pace, no room to rest, no extra space! That little rhyme was just what I needed as a starting point. I couldn't wait to begin working on it in the morning. I love repeated refrains, bits of rhyme, and lyrical writing. I'm also a sucker for a good animal pun, if it isn't forced. And, most of the time, I add in a touch of adult humor to my books. Also, after reading hundreds of folktales, I noticed that not one of them had a wise woman in charge. So, I put a wise woman in my folktale instead of a wise man. Times have changed. Once I finished the story, sent it to my critique groups, proofread it until I couldn't see the words anymore, I sent it to the editor that asked me to write a folktale for her. But, as luck would have it, by the time I wrote it, revised it, reworked it, and sent it her way, she had already acquired a similar story for her list.
This time though, unlike my previous 14 traditionally-published books, which I sold myself and negotiated with the help of Mary Flower (a book lawyer), I had an agent Karen Grencik . I ran it by her and she loved it. She sent it out on submission in March and we got a response in April! When my agent first submitted the book, it was called, No Extra Space, but my editor, Andrea Hall, at Albert Whitman, wanted to change it to have the word "folktale" in it, which was a great suggestion. It's now called, A Crowded Farmhouse Folktale. It's due to come out on October 1, 2020. I'm really excited about this one!
Where can we buy it?
You can get a signed copy of A Crowded Farmhouse Folktale, if you call my local bookstore, The Bookworm. I can sign them and The Bookworm can ship them! You can call The Bookworm at 908-766-4599 or visit their website here. If you don't need a signed copy, you can order it from Amazon here.
Thanks, Karen, for visiting us on The Kids Are All Write! You can visit Karen on social media.
On her website: karenrostoker-gruber.com
At The Book Meshuggenahs: thebookmeshuggenahs.com
On Facebook: Karen Rostoker-gruber
On Twitter: @karenrostokergr
On Twitter: @TMeshuggenahs
On Linked In: Karen Rostoker-Gruber
On Linked In: The Book Meshuggenahs