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Book of Coupons: Background from the Author
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From: Ginny Moore Kruse <gmkruse>
Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2002 15:59:01 -0600
Viking's 2002 Batchelder Honor Book "The Book of Coupons" was written by Susie Morgenstern, illustrated by Serge Bloch, translated from the French into English by Gil Rosner, and edited in the U.S.A. by Jill Davis.
Here's an excerpt from "CCBC Choices 2002" in case you haven't had a chance to read this fresh, funny, high-spirited 64-page novel: How could a new teacher be so old, wonder the students on the first day of the school year. "My Name is Hubert N?el," he tells them. "Ever since I was young . . . people have called me Santa." He presents each child with a gift-wrapped package, and inside is a book of coupons.
"One coupon for being late to school . . . One coupon for losing your homework . . . One coupon for not listening in class . . . One coupon for copying from your neighbor . . . One coupon for getting out of trouble . . . One coupon for singing at the top of your lungs whenever you like. The coupon book is just the first of many wonderful surprises the children have in store over the course of a remarkable school year in Monsieur N?el's class. Their teacher may look old, but he is young of heart and mind. He respects and challenges them, and they respond to all the gifts - of knowledge, of attention, of experience, of love - that he has to offer...
We were so fortunate to catch Susie Morgenstern's attention yesterday just before she left home for Paris and then Russia for several weeks. She very generously and graciously took time at literally the last minute to write to the CCBC-Net community about "The Book of Coupons." We appreciate this so much. Maybe some of you will let us all know how children respond to "The Book of Coupons." Perhaps Jill Davis herself will write from Viking about the editing process.
Meanwhile, here's what Susie Morgenstern wrote to all of us about "The Book of Coupons" and about writing for children in France:
"I got the idea of "The Book of Coupons" one rare rainy morning in Nice. I always dream of a wet, miserable day to stay in bed and READ. But it almost never happens. So this day I heard the rain and I was in heaven, except it was Monday and I had to go to work in the university. "Oh," I said to myself, "if only I had a coupon to stay in bed." So, disciplined, obedient, I got up and got dressed and drove the 25 kilometers to school, but instead of talking my guts out in front of my students I asked them to write something and I sat down and wrote the whole list of coupons. I carried that list around for years and years before getting the breakthrough that would permit me to write the book. (It was the idea of the old teacher.)
"The manuscript was completed about a year after I started the actual writing (I'm not very swift about the process) When I mailed it to my publisher (after it was corrected by my children) he immediately accepted it and it has been very well received here. It won the Prix Chronos and the Prix Sorci?res and I think a few other ones too and sales have been good I think. At some signings here, I've seen one person buy ten or twelve books for different people.
"I was lucky to meet Jill Davis without whom my books might still be a secret in America. The big difference here and there is the meticulous editing process in the U.S. Here in France it practically goes from manuscript to book with almost no intervention from the editor. Jill Davis and her staff go through everything with a fine comb and weed out contradictions and all kinds of mistakes. I feel safer with that, protected from my own self. French authors are horrified by the idea of anyone touching a single hair in their manuscripts. I wish all my books would be published in America to give me a second chance of writing them better.
"As you know I am American born (Newark, New Jersey), came to France to follow my French husband. I didn't speak a word of French but somehow started writing in French (now over fifty books !) and I'm probably world champion of French mistakes. My husband used to write the very rude word "merde" in the margins whenever I made spelling or grammar mistakes. I wrote in French because I was writing about my children's experiences in the French school system which was my own terrible culture shock. Whenever I try to write in English, I am confronted with the problem of not knowing how children live anymore in the U.S. A writer just has to soak up and use what he is living. I have written books about my own childhood in English (a book yet unpublished in the U.S. although I wrote it in English and it has been translated into French - Barbamour) called "Samantha Claus") but it's hard for me to write anything contemporary. I don't even know how children speak. I'm too far removed. So the difference of writing for French children is just that I know about their lives and I can keep my indignation and consternation alive (ad wonder !). I have just finished writing a story about how Halloween has come to France in the last few years and how miserable and angry this makes me because in France kids could never have the warm and cheery fun of going from door to door with "Trick or treat" (I have such fond memories of this from my childhood. All the candy !) They have simply robbed the name and the pumpkins but none of the spirit. So I wrote about a little American boy living in France for a year and trying to celebrate Halloween as he knows it. I don't know if it would work for American children.
"My publisher says "Why don't they publish "La Sixi?me" in the U.S. ? This is my biggest bestseller about a an eleven year old girl entering junior high school. I think the school systems are so different that American readers might not identify. But my publisher says the feelings are the same. Maybe with a preface ?
"It's a problem being uprooted. I write in French buried in dictionaries and grammar books. But when I write in English I sail away. So my language is in one place and my experience of life is in another. For thirty years, I have been visiting French schools and speaking to readers here. I have never been in an American school
(except as a child) or in a library. Maybe if I could have some insight into the way of life, I would be able to write more in English. It would be a whole new life !
..."
Viking was a 1999 Batchelder Honor Book designee for Susie Morgenstern's fine novel
"Secret Letters from O" featuring a 10-year-old protagonist and his memorable friend Victoria, kids who are almost polar opposites in personality and home life. One of the hallmarks of this book and "The Book of Coupons" is Morgenstern's skill at embedding a downright serious theme within an outlandish, humorous circumstance. Little wonder that, according to limited but reliable evidence on this side of the Atlantic, Susie Morgenstern is a prominent, well respected, frequently honored, beloved writer for children in France.
Your responses? Please remember that you never need to write at length, or have any particular expertise when stepping up to the "mike" in the CCBC-Net community. Your comments don't need to be informed by anything except sincerity.
We're leaning. In. Forward. - Ginny
Ginny Moore Kruse gmkruse at education.wisc.edu Director, Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) www.education.wisc/edu/ccbc/ A Library of the School of Education, University of Wisconsin - Madison Open seven days a week during the Spring Semester (Spring Break: Mon-Fri 9-4; Sat-Sun 12:30-4)
Received on Sat 23 Mar 2002 03:59:01 PM CST
Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2002 15:59:01 -0600
Viking's 2002 Batchelder Honor Book "The Book of Coupons" was written by Susie Morgenstern, illustrated by Serge Bloch, translated from the French into English by Gil Rosner, and edited in the U.S.A. by Jill Davis.
Here's an excerpt from "CCBC Choices 2002" in case you haven't had a chance to read this fresh, funny, high-spirited 64-page novel: How could a new teacher be so old, wonder the students on the first day of the school year. "My Name is Hubert N?el," he tells them. "Ever since I was young . . . people have called me Santa." He presents each child with a gift-wrapped package, and inside is a book of coupons.
"One coupon for being late to school . . . One coupon for losing your homework . . . One coupon for not listening in class . . . One coupon for copying from your neighbor . . . One coupon for getting out of trouble . . . One coupon for singing at the top of your lungs whenever you like. The coupon book is just the first of many wonderful surprises the children have in store over the course of a remarkable school year in Monsieur N?el's class. Their teacher may look old, but he is young of heart and mind. He respects and challenges them, and they respond to all the gifts - of knowledge, of attention, of experience, of love - that he has to offer...
We were so fortunate to catch Susie Morgenstern's attention yesterday just before she left home for Paris and then Russia for several weeks. She very generously and graciously took time at literally the last minute to write to the CCBC-Net community about "The Book of Coupons." We appreciate this so much. Maybe some of you will let us all know how children respond to "The Book of Coupons." Perhaps Jill Davis herself will write from Viking about the editing process.
Meanwhile, here's what Susie Morgenstern wrote to all of us about "The Book of Coupons" and about writing for children in France:
"I got the idea of "The Book of Coupons" one rare rainy morning in Nice. I always dream of a wet, miserable day to stay in bed and READ. But it almost never happens. So this day I heard the rain and I was in heaven, except it was Monday and I had to go to work in the university. "Oh," I said to myself, "if only I had a coupon to stay in bed." So, disciplined, obedient, I got up and got dressed and drove the 25 kilometers to school, but instead of talking my guts out in front of my students I asked them to write something and I sat down and wrote the whole list of coupons. I carried that list around for years and years before getting the breakthrough that would permit me to write the book. (It was the idea of the old teacher.)
"The manuscript was completed about a year after I started the actual writing (I'm not very swift about the process) When I mailed it to my publisher (after it was corrected by my children) he immediately accepted it and it has been very well received here. It won the Prix Chronos and the Prix Sorci?res and I think a few other ones too and sales have been good I think. At some signings here, I've seen one person buy ten or twelve books for different people.
"I was lucky to meet Jill Davis without whom my books might still be a secret in America. The big difference here and there is the meticulous editing process in the U.S. Here in France it practically goes from manuscript to book with almost no intervention from the editor. Jill Davis and her staff go through everything with a fine comb and weed out contradictions and all kinds of mistakes. I feel safer with that, protected from my own self. French authors are horrified by the idea of anyone touching a single hair in their manuscripts. I wish all my books would be published in America to give me a second chance of writing them better.
"As you know I am American born (Newark, New Jersey), came to France to follow my French husband. I didn't speak a word of French but somehow started writing in French (now over fifty books !) and I'm probably world champion of French mistakes. My husband used to write the very rude word "merde" in the margins whenever I made spelling or grammar mistakes. I wrote in French because I was writing about my children's experiences in the French school system which was my own terrible culture shock. Whenever I try to write in English, I am confronted with the problem of not knowing how children live anymore in the U.S. A writer just has to soak up and use what he is living. I have written books about my own childhood in English (a book yet unpublished in the U.S. although I wrote it in English and it has been translated into French - Barbamour) called "Samantha Claus") but it's hard for me to write anything contemporary. I don't even know how children speak. I'm too far removed. So the difference of writing for French children is just that I know about their lives and I can keep my indignation and consternation alive (ad wonder !). I have just finished writing a story about how Halloween has come to France in the last few years and how miserable and angry this makes me because in France kids could never have the warm and cheery fun of going from door to door with "Trick or treat" (I have such fond memories of this from my childhood. All the candy !) They have simply robbed the name and the pumpkins but none of the spirit. So I wrote about a little American boy living in France for a year and trying to celebrate Halloween as he knows it. I don't know if it would work for American children.
"My publisher says "Why don't they publish "La Sixi?me" in the U.S. ? This is my biggest bestseller about a an eleven year old girl entering junior high school. I think the school systems are so different that American readers might not identify. But my publisher says the feelings are the same. Maybe with a preface ?
"It's a problem being uprooted. I write in French buried in dictionaries and grammar books. But when I write in English I sail away. So my language is in one place and my experience of life is in another. For thirty years, I have been visiting French schools and speaking to readers here. I have never been in an American school
(except as a child) or in a library. Maybe if I could have some insight into the way of life, I would be able to write more in English. It would be a whole new life !
..."
Viking was a 1999 Batchelder Honor Book designee for Susie Morgenstern's fine novel
"Secret Letters from O" featuring a 10-year-old protagonist and his memorable friend Victoria, kids who are almost polar opposites in personality and home life. One of the hallmarks of this book and "The Book of Coupons" is Morgenstern's skill at embedding a downright serious theme within an outlandish, humorous circumstance. Little wonder that, according to limited but reliable evidence on this side of the Atlantic, Susie Morgenstern is a prominent, well respected, frequently honored, beloved writer for children in France.
Your responses? Please remember that you never need to write at length, or have any particular expertise when stepping up to the "mike" in the CCBC-Net community. Your comments don't need to be informed by anything except sincerity.
We're leaning. In. Forward. - Ginny
Ginny Moore Kruse gmkruse at education.wisc.edu Director, Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) www.education.wisc/edu/ccbc/ A Library of the School of Education, University of Wisconsin - Madison Open seven days a week during the Spring Semester (Spring Break: Mon-Fri 9-4; Sat-Sun 12:30-4)
Received on Sat 23 Mar 2002 03:59:01 PM CST
