Michelle Knudsen Talks Lions and Tigers and Ladybugs. (Oh My!)
by Jennifer Nicholson
Michelle Knudsen and illustrator Matt Phelan will be talking about their new book, “Marilyn’s Monster,” at 12:15 p.m. on Saturday. Gaithersburg Elementary School librarian Jennifer Nicholson grabbed a few minutes with Michelle last week and asked her a few questions.
Q: What was your favorite book(s) as a child?
KNUDSEN: I think it was probably a tie between “The Grouchy Ladybug” by Eric Carle and “Mog the Forgetful Cat” by Judith Kerr.
Q: What advice do you have for young readers/writers who want to grow up and become authors?
KNUDSEN: I think these are my two best pieces of advice:
- Read a LOT. Read all different kinds of books by lots of different authors. You can learn a lot about stories and writing by reading — pay attention to what you like in a story, and try to figure out what the author did to make you feel that way. You can learn from books you don’t like, too. Think about what you didn’t like and why, so you can try to avoid doing those things in your own writing. Reading nonfiction is also great — you never know when you’ll stumble upon some information that fascinates or inspires you.
- Don’t stop writing. It’s very easy for writers to get discouraged — not just beginning writers, but even professional authors. It’s important to keep going and not give up! Most authors write terrible first drafts … but we revise and revise to make them better and better. The more practice you get writing and revising, the better your work will be.
Q: Several of your picture books have a theme of accepting differences and being proud of who you are. This is such an important concept for young students. What inspired you to use this as a theme?
KNUDSEN: I don’t start my stories by thinking about a theme — I usually start with an idea for a character or situation. The theme grows out of the story as I figure out what’s going to happen. Probably a lot of my stories end up being about acceptance (of self and others) because I think that’s so important … everyone wants to be loved and accepted, and so I think those ideas resonate with many readers. And writers often find their own deeply held beliefs coming across in their work, whether they consciously mean to put them there or not!
I like the random facts on your website. In that spirit, here are a few random questions for you:
Q: Best place to take a vacation?
KNUDSEN: That’s a tough one! I like visiting new and exciting places, but sometimes I also like going somewhere quiet just to relax.
Q: Favorite wild animal?
KNUDSEN: I love all the big cats — tigers, panthers, and of course lions! I also love reptiles.
Q: What’s the strangest job you ever had?
KNUDSEN: I’ve had lots of different jobs (for example … candy store employee, bookseller, substitute teacher, children’s book editor), but I’m not sure any of them were really all that strange! One of my favorite jobs was working in the library. I loved getting to be around books and readers.
Michelle Knudsen is the New York Times best-selling author of more than 40 books for young readers, including the picture books “Library Lion” (illustrator: Kevin Hawkes), “Argus” (illustrator: Andréa Wesson) and “Big Mean Mike” (illustrator: Scott Magoon). Her new picture book, “Marilyn’s Monster,” which is illustrated by award-winning artist Matt Phelan, was published in March 2015. She is also the author of the young adult novel “Evil Librarian” and two middle-grade novels, “The Dragon of Trelian” and “The Princess of Trelian.”