Fifty kidlit authors and illustrators answer a Vanity Fair-style “Proust Questionnaire” (i.e. short to read, long on insight). Same 10 questions for all (plus, for some, a wild card 11th of their choosing.) The series intro explains more and lists the participants.
Here are the next five:
Marc Tyler Nobleman
What is the trait you most admire in others?
Integrity.
What is your greatest strength?
Persistence.
What would your friends say is your greatest strength?
Creativity.
How have you experienced bravery you didn’t know you had?
Giving a TED talk following the only standing ovation of the night. That speaker devised a pioneering, inexpensive test for certain kinds of cancer. When he was 15. Then I went on and talked about comic book characters.
What is your greatest extravagance?
I don’t mow my lawn (even though it is very small).
What is your most treasured possession?
Not counting things I have but don’t own (my family, my friends, my health), I’d say a paperweight that used to be Bill Finger’s.
What was your big break?
Selling Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman to Janet Schulman. My query email (like the story itself) did not use the word “Superman.”
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Being a father.
Setting aside the reality of whether or not you can sing, with whom would you like to perform a duet?
Deceased: Sam Cooke. Still a possibility: Huey Lewis.
What is your motto?
“A no is closer to a yes than never trying.”
WILD CARD: What is your greatest fear?
Running out of time. (I don’t mean dying.)
Nora Raleigh Baskin
What is the trait you most admire in others?
Kindness.
What is your greatest strength?
A desire to work on becoming a better person for the rest of my life.
What would your friends say is your greatest strength?
Not being afraid to be honest and real in all situations. It is also my greatest weakness.
How have you experienced bravery you didn’t know you had?
Yes, but that’s private.
What is your greatest extravagance?
I once bought a pair of $585 Italian leather boots. Now, it’s spending on my almost, but not fully, grown kids.
What is your most treasured possession?
My family, my pets, my yoga mat. And then probably my MacBook Air. No, flip yoga mat and computer.
What was your big break?
Professionally, it was when my friend and author Elinor Lipman loved a novel I had written enough to call (like, on the phone!) an editor at Little, Brown and ask her if she’d be interested in considering it. Personally—giving birth to two healthy sons…though not at the same time.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Surviving my childhood.
Setting aside the reality of whether or not you can sing, with whom would you like to perform a duet?
Bob Dylan, hands down.
What is your motto?
“Where there’s a will there’s a way.”
WILD CARD: Which talent would you most like to have?
I took this question from T Bone Burnett, who said he’d like to paint. I’d like to play the guitar really well (a lot better than I do) and write songs.
Susanna Reich
What is the trait you most admire in others?
Integrity.
What is your greatest strength?
Perseverance.
What would your friends say is your greatest strength?
Sunny outlook.
How have you experienced bravery you didn’t know you had?
Every time I do a school visit and face an auditorium full of children.
What is your greatest extravagance?
Orchestra seats at the Metropolitan Opera.
What is your most treasured possession?
A Tahitian pearl my husband bought for me after a ride on the Moorea lagoon in an outrigger canoe.
What was your big break?
Selling my first book to Clarion.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
I once had to deliver flowers I designed for a Christmas party at the Plaza Hotel in NYC and found out that morning that deliveries could only be made by a truck with commercial plates. So I rented a 22’ truck, learned to drive it, drove to midtown Manhattan (in holiday traffic), found a parking space next to the hotel that was big enough for the truck, and parallel-parked. New Yorkers will know that the hardest part was finding the parking spot.
Setting aside the reality of whether or not you can sing, with whom would you like to perform a duet?
George Clooney. Can he sing?
What is your motto?
“Within each flower is the perfect pattern of unfoldment, and each flower unfolds according to its nature.”
WILD CARD: What is your idea of perfect happiness?
World peace.
Aaron Reynolds
What is the trait you most admire in others?
Authenticity. Real authenticity, as opposed to the fake kind.
What is your greatest strength?
Passion. But it’s also my greatest weakness.
What would your friends say is your greatest strength?
Passion. I’ve been known to be passionate all over my friends. I’ll say no more.
How have you experienced bravery you didn’t know you had?
I had children. And then got up each day to parent them again, even though some nights I went to bed feeling like I was a total failure at it.
What is your greatest extravagance?
I went to culinary school. Just because.
What is your most treasured possession?
Ridiculous tenacity.
What was your big break?
After tons of editors telling me I was pretty good, but they couldn’t publish me, one editor finally told me I was pretty good and she couldn’t wait to publish me. And that I was ridiculously tenacious.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Landing my wife. She’s out of my league. Way out. She won’t see this, right?
Setting aside the reality of whether or not you can sing, with whom would you like to perform a duet?
Freddie Mercury. He is the champion, he is the champion…of the world.
What is your motto?
“Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood.” But it was Daniel H. Burnham’s motto first. I’m a bit of a motto-stealer.
WILD CARD: Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
“You gonna eat that?”
Tammi Sauer
What is the trait you most admire in others?
A good sense of humor.
What is your greatest strength?
Spotting incorrect grammar on signs/billboards/menus. Yes, this makes me very popular.
What would your friends say is your greatest strength?
I’m really good at going out to lunch.
How have you experienced bravery you didn’t know you had?
I read my reviews on Goodreads.
What is your greatest extravagance?
Pedicures.
What is your most treasured possession?
My iPhone.
What was your big break?
I sold Cowboy Camp through the slush pile.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
When they were little, I got my kids to simultaneously nap.
Setting aside the reality of whether or not you can sing, with whom would you like to perform a duet?
Bon Jovi.
What is your motto?
Make good choices. (I live with teenagers.)
Here are the next five:
Marc Tyler Nobleman
photo credit: Karen London
Integrity.
What is your greatest strength?
Persistence.
What would your friends say is your greatest strength?
Creativity.
How have you experienced bravery you didn’t know you had?
Giving a TED talk following the only standing ovation of the night. That speaker devised a pioneering, inexpensive test for certain kinds of cancer. When he was 15. Then I went on and talked about comic book characters.
What is your greatest extravagance?
I don’t mow my lawn (even though it is very small).
What is your most treasured possession?
Not counting things I have but don’t own (my family, my friends, my health), I’d say a paperweight that used to be Bill Finger’s.
What was your big break?
Selling Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman to Janet Schulman. My query email (like the story itself) did not use the word “Superman.”
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Being a father.
Setting aside the reality of whether or not you can sing, with whom would you like to perform a duet?
Deceased: Sam Cooke. Still a possibility: Huey Lewis.
What is your motto?
“A no is closer to a yes than never trying.”
WILD CARD: What is your greatest fear?
Running out of time. (I don’t mean dying.)
Nora Raleigh Baskin
Kindness.
What is your greatest strength?
A desire to work on becoming a better person for the rest of my life.
What would your friends say is your greatest strength?
Not being afraid to be honest and real in all situations. It is also my greatest weakness.
How have you experienced bravery you didn’t know you had?
Yes, but that’s private.
What is your greatest extravagance?
I once bought a pair of $585 Italian leather boots. Now, it’s spending on my almost, but not fully, grown kids.
What is your most treasured possession?
My family, my pets, my yoga mat. And then probably my MacBook Air. No, flip yoga mat and computer.
What was your big break?
Professionally, it was when my friend and author Elinor Lipman loved a novel I had written enough to call (like, on the phone!) an editor at Little, Brown and ask her if she’d be interested in considering it. Personally—giving birth to two healthy sons…though not at the same time.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Surviving my childhood.
Setting aside the reality of whether or not you can sing, with whom would you like to perform a duet?
Bob Dylan, hands down.
What is your motto?
“Where there’s a will there’s a way.”
WILD CARD: Which talent would you most like to have?
I took this question from T Bone Burnett, who said he’d like to paint. I’d like to play the guitar really well (a lot better than I do) and write songs.
Susanna Reich
photo credit: Laurel Golio
What is the trait you most admire in others?
Integrity.
What is your greatest strength?
Perseverance.
What would your friends say is your greatest strength?
Sunny outlook.
How have you experienced bravery you didn’t know you had?
Every time I do a school visit and face an auditorium full of children.
What is your greatest extravagance?
Orchestra seats at the Metropolitan Opera.
What is your most treasured possession?
A Tahitian pearl my husband bought for me after a ride on the Moorea lagoon in an outrigger canoe.
What was your big break?
Selling my first book to Clarion.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
I once had to deliver flowers I designed for a Christmas party at the Plaza Hotel in NYC and found out that morning that deliveries could only be made by a truck with commercial plates. So I rented a 22’ truck, learned to drive it, drove to midtown Manhattan (in holiday traffic), found a parking space next to the hotel that was big enough for the truck, and parallel-parked. New Yorkers will know that the hardest part was finding the parking spot.
Setting aside the reality of whether or not you can sing, with whom would you like to perform a duet?
George Clooney. Can he sing?
What is your motto?
“Within each flower is the perfect pattern of unfoldment, and each flower unfolds according to its nature.”
WILD CARD: What is your idea of perfect happiness?
World peace.
Aaron Reynolds
Authenticity. Real authenticity, as opposed to the fake kind.
What is your greatest strength?
Passion. But it’s also my greatest weakness.
What would your friends say is your greatest strength?
Passion. I’ve been known to be passionate all over my friends. I’ll say no more.
How have you experienced bravery you didn’t know you had?
I had children. And then got up each day to parent them again, even though some nights I went to bed feeling like I was a total failure at it.
What is your greatest extravagance?
I went to culinary school. Just because.
What is your most treasured possession?
Ridiculous tenacity.
What was your big break?
After tons of editors telling me I was pretty good, but they couldn’t publish me, one editor finally told me I was pretty good and she couldn’t wait to publish me. And that I was ridiculously tenacious.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Landing my wife. She’s out of my league. Way out. She won’t see this, right?
Setting aside the reality of whether or not you can sing, with whom would you like to perform a duet?
Freddie Mercury. He is the champion, he is the champion…of the world.
What is your motto?
“Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood.” But it was Daniel H. Burnham’s motto first. I’m a bit of a motto-stealer.
WILD CARD: Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
“You gonna eat that?”
Tammi Sauer
A good sense of humor.
What is your greatest strength?
Spotting incorrect grammar on signs/billboards/menus. Yes, this makes me very popular.
What would your friends say is your greatest strength?
I’m really good at going out to lunch.
How have you experienced bravery you didn’t know you had?
I read my reviews on Goodreads.
What is your greatest extravagance?
Pedicures.
What is your most treasured possession?
My iPhone.
What was your big break?
I sold Cowboy Camp through the slush pile.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
When they were little, I got my kids to simultaneously nap.
Setting aside the reality of whether or not you can sing, with whom would you like to perform a duet?
Bon Jovi.
What is your motto?
Make good choices. (I live with teenagers.)
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