The TeachingBooks Blog
In this post, Sharon Creech considers her inspirations for her latest middle-grade novel, The Great Unexpected (Harper 2012), described in School Library Journal as “part realistic fiction, part mystery, and part ghost story.” Enjoy!
Snakes are tricky creatures, both to photograph and to handle. Their long thin bodies and surface-hugging habits don't necessarily create the best photographic compositions, and their nervous natures don’t permit easy interaction, especially with those of us carrying cameras.
My newest book, Son (Houghton, 2012), which creates a quartet from what had been The Giver (Houghton, 1993) trilogy, began as the continuation of Gabe’s story from those books. So many readers, over the years, had written to ask what happened to the baby? Was he okay? Did he grow up and thrive?
After completing my book The Race to Save the Lord God Bird (Farrar, 2004), I wanted to write about another animal in danger of extinction, but one for which there was more hope. My friend Charles Duncan, an ornithologist and conservationist, suggested several creatures, but none seemed the perfect choice.
Poetry forces me to be brief. All the facts and figures won’t fit in my verses, so I choose only those details that are most meaningful to me. My hope is that the uncrowded page will invite both reluctant and passionate readers.
As a YA author, I’ve written from the perspective of a guardian angel, a were-opossum, and even a pesky human or two. But the “character” who was hardest to connect with was my own teen self.