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Re: Travel Books
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From: Nick Glass (TeachingBooks.net) <"Nick>
Date: Fri, 05 Jul 2013 11:35:04 -0500
Like Roxanne, Walk Two Moons came to mind first. What an incredible book this is (and audio book, too -- which is great while on a road trip).
Marie-Louise Gay and her husband David Homel have a few fantastic books of hilarious antics -- Travels with My Family and On The Road Again. Short chapters. Silly moments that most of us can relate to and laugh… Nicely illustrated, too.
Instead of me attempting to describe them (all I truly remember is laughing and the fun I had reading the first one aloud to my children), here are a few words from my 2011 interview with Marie-Louise about these books if that is useful.
TEACHINGBOOKS: Tell me about the travel books that you write with your husband, David.
MARIE-LOUISE GAY: I wrote two novels with my husband, Travels with My Family and On the Road Again! They tell the stories of two adults on trips with their two sons. The two adults happen to be writers, like my husband and I, the two kids are quite like our two boys, and their cat happens to be old, fat and striped like our cat. The family travels in Canada, across the United States and in Mexico. In the second book they spend a year in the south of France in a small mountain village.
We thought the stories would be much more interesting if they were narrated by Charlie, the eldest child. He's eleven years old and comments on everything, his brother, his parents, their adventures, the people he meets. His observations are original, wry and astute. He often laughs at his parents antics. I think this is one of the reasons the books resonate with our readers. Children immediately identify with the narrator who thinks his parents don't understand him, don't listen to him, and most of the time, embarrass him.
When my husband and I read these books in schools or literary festivals to enormous groups of kids, they roar with laughter. A good sign. Often, we ask them to share their experiences of embarrassing moments with their parents. You wouldn't believe the stories they tell us, with much relish and enthusiasm, I might add!
TEACHINGBOOKS: How did you come to write your first travel book?
MARIE-LOUISE GAY: It was pure nostalgia. Our sons are older now and do not live with us. Travels with My Family is a book of happy, crazy family memories. At first, I started writing it as a picture book, but because we've traveled so much and have had so many adventures, the stories grew longer and longer. It could not be contained in a picture book. So I decided to write a longer book, but I felt overwhelmed by the project.
My husband, David Homel, is a writer of adult fiction and as I was talking about this project, explaining my vision of it to him, he told me he would be interested in working with me. After all, he was in on these adventures too! So we started writing it together.
I wrote the outline and structure and David expanded on it. Then I would go back and revise: working on the dialogues, inserting new ideas and humor.
It was interesting going back and forth. We sent our revisions to one another in our separate studios by computer. But the best part was reliving our memorable family trips and revisiting our children's childhoods.
TEACHINGBOOKS: And how did your relationship fare through that process?
MARIE-LOUISE GAY: It went very well. We probably couldn't move a table together. We'd try to get it in sideways or upside down through the door, because we'd be telling each other how to go about it. But our cooperation was quite smooth. There was respect for each other's writing abilities.
Happy July to all.
Nick
_______
Nick Glass Founder & Executive Director
TeachingBooks.net LLC
p 800 596.0710 e nick_at_TeachingBooks.net
TeachingBooks Take a Tour Video: http://TeachingBooks.net/Tour
Received on Fri 05 Jul 2013 11:35:04 AM CDT
Date: Fri, 05 Jul 2013 11:35:04 -0500
Like Roxanne, Walk Two Moons came to mind first. What an incredible book this is (and audio book, too -- which is great while on a road trip).
Marie-Louise Gay and her husband David Homel have a few fantastic books of hilarious antics -- Travels with My Family and On The Road Again. Short chapters. Silly moments that most of us can relate to and laugh… Nicely illustrated, too.
Instead of me attempting to describe them (all I truly remember is laughing and the fun I had reading the first one aloud to my children), here are a few words from my 2011 interview with Marie-Louise about these books if that is useful.
TEACHINGBOOKS: Tell me about the travel books that you write with your husband, David.
MARIE-LOUISE GAY: I wrote two novels with my husband, Travels with My Family and On the Road Again! They tell the stories of two adults on trips with their two sons. The two adults happen to be writers, like my husband and I, the two kids are quite like our two boys, and their cat happens to be old, fat and striped like our cat. The family travels in Canada, across the United States and in Mexico. In the second book they spend a year in the south of France in a small mountain village.
We thought the stories would be much more interesting if they were narrated by Charlie, the eldest child. He's eleven years old and comments on everything, his brother, his parents, their adventures, the people he meets. His observations are original, wry and astute. He often laughs at his parents antics. I think this is one of the reasons the books resonate with our readers. Children immediately identify with the narrator who thinks his parents don't understand him, don't listen to him, and most of the time, embarrass him.
When my husband and I read these books in schools or literary festivals to enormous groups of kids, they roar with laughter. A good sign. Often, we ask them to share their experiences of embarrassing moments with their parents. You wouldn't believe the stories they tell us, with much relish and enthusiasm, I might add!
TEACHINGBOOKS: How did you come to write your first travel book?
MARIE-LOUISE GAY: It was pure nostalgia. Our sons are older now and do not live with us. Travels with My Family is a book of happy, crazy family memories. At first, I started writing it as a picture book, but because we've traveled so much and have had so many adventures, the stories grew longer and longer. It could not be contained in a picture book. So I decided to write a longer book, but I felt overwhelmed by the project.
My husband, David Homel, is a writer of adult fiction and as I was talking about this project, explaining my vision of it to him, he told me he would be interested in working with me. After all, he was in on these adventures too! So we started writing it together.
I wrote the outline and structure and David expanded on it. Then I would go back and revise: working on the dialogues, inserting new ideas and humor.
It was interesting going back and forth. We sent our revisions to one another in our separate studios by computer. But the best part was reliving our memorable family trips and revisiting our children's childhoods.
TEACHINGBOOKS: And how did your relationship fare through that process?
MARIE-LOUISE GAY: It went very well. We probably couldn't move a table together. We'd try to get it in sideways or upside down through the door, because we'd be telling each other how to go about it. But our cooperation was quite smooth. There was respect for each other's writing abilities.
Happy July to all.
Nick
_______
Nick Glass Founder & Executive Director
TeachingBooks.net LLC
p 800 596.0710 e nick_at_TeachingBooks.net
TeachingBooks Take a Tour Video: http://TeachingBooks.net/Tour
Received on Fri 05 Jul 2013 11:35:04 AM CDT
