Author, Maureen Crane Wartski, talks about her newest book, YURI'S BRUSH WITH MAGIC from Sleepy Hollow Books. Order now at: http://www.sleepyhollowbooks.com
Transcript of interview:
Raleigh Community TV [2010]:
Maureen Crane Wartski talks about her new children's book, YURI'S BRUSH WITH MAGIC:
"[In] this quilt, you can see the little tortoises -- excuse me, they are turtles -- not tortoises -- and they are swimming about.
"The book that I am writing is a mid-grade novel, and it's called [Yuri's] Brush with Magic... and it involves a couple of youngsters whose mother is very ill, and so they have to spend a summer on Emerald Isle [NC], with an aunt they absolutely detest. This hated aunt is an artist and she creates wonderful pictures that come alive for the young girl -- they actually come alive on the canvas. Also on Emerald Isle, there is a nest of turtles -- loggerhead turtles -- and both of these kids become very... attached to his nest. It evolves together with their story.
"So when I was writing this book, I began to make this quilt -- as a sort of celebration of the book itself. As you know, Loggerhead turtles are an endangered species. So the book has a bit of an ecological twist as well.
"My favorite readership, I think, has to be mid-grade and young adult readers. They have a clarity, still. They still believe in wonders. They believe in magic. Their heads are not cluttered with the opinions and the trivia, and the...foolishness that adults seem to put in their brains. And so they are, perhaps, more malleable; they change their minds, their minds can be changed. And although children can be terrible cruel, they are also capable of heroism, of love, of self-sacrifice, and friendship.
"I hope that in my books, I offer them problems, and choices, which all of us must make, in order to become all that we can be. Also, I think young people today are living in an extraordinarily difficult world. Not the least, I think, of their problems is this influx of technology... Facebook...Twitter -- the blog, the cellphone --- and all of this [is] coming at them from all directions. And so I think, to write for this age group -- it's not easy -- it's very challenging. And so I love it with all my heart.
"I am very encouraged because a lot of youngsters still read. Our grandson, who is twelve years old, has a book in his hand all the time. And many people that I know, their children read very well and very copiously... so reading is not dead! ... [Children] can open their minds and open their hearts. It will be, perhaps -- in the end -- the answers that we are looking for, too."
[Interview conducted by Rosalie Hernandez of Raleigh Community TV; April, 2010]
