As promised, here's my interview with the author of Oliver's Hunger Dragon, Sherry Alexander.
Did it take you
long to write the story?
Not really. I wrote the
first draft as part of 12X12 in February after meeting a little boy at the
library who was crying because he was hungry. I revised it in March, and sent
out several rejected queries to agents and publishers. Another revision, and
several children beta readers later, I decided to self-publish.
Why did you pick
the subject of hunger as the basis for this story?
So many kids in the
world go hungry, and in America, it’s one out of every four. That’s
unacceptable. As a child, I knew hunger up close and personal, and my family
had to reach out for help several times. I thought the problem was getting
better not worse, but when I went to look for books to explain hunger to my
grandkids, I couldn’t find any. That’s when I decided to write the book myself.
What made you
choose a dragon instead of maybe a tiger or lion?
It just seemed to fit.
Hunger is a monster that rumbles and roars. It’s overwhelming and overpowering.
I wanted a symbol that demonstrated that, and a dragon was the only creature
big enough to illustrate that.
The cover design
is really cute. Did you design it yourself?
I had the idea, and
knew how I wanted to dragon to look, but it was the illustrator, Amy Rottinger,
who took my concept to reality. She is absolutely amazing! We went through
several drafts from small dragons peeking over Oliver’s shoulder to even one
that wrapped around his legs. But, I felt Hunger needed to be enormous when
compared to Oliver because that is the way kids feel when they aren’t sure
where their next meal is coming from.
I like how
Oliver got rid of the dragon. What made you pick something like that?
Kids share naturally. I
wanted to show kids that they can be part of the solution to hunger. They do
have a voice, and they have the power to change what is happening in the world.
I am always amazed by the open heartedness and kindness of children, but it is
their honest approach to problems that makes my heart glow. In Oliver, the problem
is hunger, so the answer is food. It can’t be more simple than that.
Where can we
purchase Oliver’s Hunger Dragon?
It was released to
Amazon and Barnes and Noble on the 26th as a print book, and will be
available as an ebook at all ebook retailers by the end of September.
Can we expect
more picture books in the near future?
I have several drafts,
but I am presently working on two that I hope to finish by the end of the year.
One is about a rat and one is about a monkey. I don’t see any more dragons in
my future as yet, but then you never know.
Thank you so much for letting me interview you, Sherry. Best of luck with your writing career.
Here is a trailer for Oliver's Hunger Dragon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3rU3kAF9JY
No comments:
Post a Comment