- [Announcer] Live from your public media studios, WVIA presents Keystone Edition Arts.

A public affairs program that goes beyond the headlines to address issues in Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania.

This is Keystone Edition Arts.

And now Erica Funke.

- Welcome to Keystone Edition Arts and a program titled young people and literature.

We open with a young person, engaging with a 19th century poem and making it her own.

Paul Lazar sets the scene.

(upbeat music) - [Paul] Poetry out loud is a national program for high school students that encourages the study of great poetry, and includes a recitation competition.

Participants must comprehend the words, historical context and style of the poem to recite it successfully.

The preparation starts in English language arts classes and school aligning with state and national standards.

Students navigate their recitation contest by winning at the school level and moving up to the regional level.

The winner advances to the state level and the state level winners compete at the national finals more than 4,000 students across Pennsylvania participated in this year's competition.

UUVIA hosts the regional competition and broadcasts it each April during National Poetry Month.

Here's a sample from this year's regional competition, featuring Jennifer Janelle from Riverside High School.

- The Charge of Light Brigade by Alfred Lord Tennyson, half a league, half a league, half a league onward all in the valley of death, rode the light brigade.

Forward the light brigade charged for the guns, he said, into the valley of death, rode the 600.

Forward the light brigade was there, man dismayed, not though the soldier knew someone had blundered.

There's not to make reply.

There's not to reason why there's but to do and die.

- [Paul] For Keystone Edition Arts.

I'm Paul Lazar all as our.

- Thanks Paul, thanks Jennifer.

And thanks to the hundreds and hundreds of parents, teachers, administrators, authors, and librarians who continue to introduce young people to the world of literature in all its forms.

And we have three guests who do just that in a wide variety of ways.

Dr. Virginia Zimmerman, Professor of English at Bucknell University in Lewisburg.

Where she is Department Chair and Director of the Literary Studies Program.

She is a children's author as well.

Susan Campbell Bartoletti, of Lackawanna County.

Longtime educator and award-winning author of fiction and non-fiction.

She's received the Newbery Honor in 2006, and the Washington post children's book, Guild Nonfiction Award for her body of work.

Many among many other citations.

And George Brown, Executive Director of the Highlights Foundation in Honesdale and institution offering workshops, courses and retreats for writers, illustrators, teachers, editors, and other storytellers.

Let's begin where we are right now in the world of 2022, a very distressing time indeed.

There were books you turned to during the pandemic Virginia, tell us what you've learned from books and about books while we were all locked down.

- I read a lot during the pandemic and I think I chose books that took me away from what was happening around me, but I also chose books that took me right into the heart of illness and contagion.

I actually was one of the people who chose to read books about pandemic.

Have you read Station Eleven, which is not a children's book, but treats pandemic with great grace, I would say.

And that was really helpful to me.

I think what I learned and what I hope other readers learned is the ways in which books equip us to face the world that we're living in, whatever that world is challenging us with.

And books give us the opportunity to practice feelings, practice different types of experiences in the safe space of those pages.

And I definitely benefited from that experience during the pandemic.

And I'm confident that many other children and adults and people all over the world did as well.

- And Harry Potter was on your list?

- Harry Potter was on my list.

I went back to the last Harry Potter.

The Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows during lockdown, I felt like we were...

I don't know how well everybody knows the book, but that long section, when they're just sort of in the forest of dean and they don't know what to do and they can't figure out what to eat.

And they're just sort of in the tent, trying to figure out how to face evil.

That really resonated with me.

And I reread that book and took a lot of comfort from watching some favorite characters handle a particular kind of dark experience.

Which was not the same as the dark experience we were facing, but was really felt analogous to me.

- And Susan, you have actually written a book about the pandemic phenomenon on the epidemic.

And you wrote about an earlier one, Terrible Typhoid Mary, a true story of the most dangerous cook in America.

The Deadliest Cook in America.

Virginia, you just talked about Virginia.

The challenges that we face in the way books help us.

Actually, Susan, some of your books in and of themselves are challenging because of the topics that you've chosen.

Some difficult ones.

Talk to us about your choices to do- - Yeah.

- that.

- I do write about difficult subjects.

You know I've written about the child labor, I've written about famine.

I've written about the nearly nine million young people who followed Hitler and joined the Hitler Youth.

I've written about young people who have stood up against in justice in books like The Boy Who Dared.

I have written about terrorist group by the name that...

The first group, The KKK.

And I've written about Terrible Typhoid Mary.

And she was a woman who came to this country and she was born in 1869 in Ireland, and came here as a young teenager.

She was 14 about, we don't know exactly.

She came alone.

You figure, she traveled over in steerage.

She lived with her aunt and uncle who later died.

And she worked as a domestic.

She worked her way up the ladder and became a cook.

And what she didn't know is that she was an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid.

And she did not believe in germ theory.

She did not believe in science.

She did not believe in the medical doctors who did try to help her.

And as a result, she infected 50, some people, a couple of whom died and she was quarantined.

And so you know the study of her life, it has great implications.

How there are great civil and human violations, constitutional rights of hers that were violated.

It's the study of people who want to be safe from carriers of disease and how do we yet honor and take care of the individual?

And so it's a fascinating story that I had no idea when the book was published in 2015.

I had no idea what we were heading toward.

- Wow, wow, and so you trust your readers to meet you where you want to meet them.

You have faith that they can handle these types.

- Oh, absolutely.

They can handle.

They want to know.

Our young readers, they have a very strong sense of justice.

They have a very strong sense of right and wrong.

They don't like it when life isn't fair.

And they want it fixed.

And I think that the more that we expose them to yes, subjects that are difficult, it arms them.

It gives them the tools and the resources that they're going to need as adults.

We're preparing them for society.

- Wow, wow, welcome, George.

So good to have you here.

- Thank you.

- As we heard at the start, the Highlights Foundation, works with storytellers of all kinds, right?

Authors, illustrators, teachers, editors.

And I wonder if you could help us, tell us a little bit about the mission and how the foundation has evolved to help storytellers navigate and meet the challenges of storytelling in this complex world we're in.

- Sure, and so with the Highlights Foundation, our mission is to amplify the voices of storytellers, who positively impact children.

And so both as Virginia and Susan are talking about their readers, it is all about the reader.

So at the Highlights Foundation, while we are focused on teaching adults, how that writing process happens, it's really about creating the best for children.

Right, and so we've already talked about these books are gateways for children to see a new world.

There are topics that may be difficult that they can really get into and learn something about.

And so at the Highlights Foundation, we are providing workshops and courses.

We do online courses, we do in-person workshops at our retreat center.

And we try to get a mix of topics, whether it's fiction or non-fiction poetry, chapter, books, novels, and then a variety of skill levels.

So whether you're just starting and you're just want a kind of a short something to learn.

What does it mean to write or illustrate for children.

We've got that kind of workshop.

And then we have some very intense, longer form workshops too.

But it's all with the focus on helping the authors and illustrators really think about the children and who their readers are, so that you're providing the best story possible for those readers.

- And so the questions that's been out of the question that's been asked in many different forum for now is, who's being represented in these stories and who isn't, that's one of the explorations.

And you're very keen about helping writers work with diversity issues, inclusion.

- Sure, and I think the children's publishing industry is confronting the idea of what is the representation that exists in children's literature.

And there have been a number of studies.

There's one from an organization that takes a look at the number of books published each year and how many portray black children and how many portray indigenous children and Asian American children.

And the studies show that there continues to be a lack of representation of all types of children showing up in the books that kids are reading.

And so one of the things we're looking at at The Highlights Foundation is how do we help elevate storytellers who wanna tell their story, but haven't necessarily been given that opportunity or don't think it's for them because they haven't seen a lot of representation in the books that they're reading.

So one of the programs we did recently was a diversity fellowship in children's literature.

And through that, our good friend Floyd Cooper, whose book I brought today, Unspeakable, The Tulsa Race Massacre.

Floyd's the illustrator, Carole Boston Weatherford, is the author.

And Floyd was a mentor in that diversity fellowship program.

And so he worked closely with a number of the fellows in working on their illustration process and storytelling process.

Our friend Floyd, he passed last year.

And so we've since created a scholarship in his honor.

And so we have the Floyd Cooper Scholarship, which is specific to providing a scholarship for a black or indigenous illustrator to attend a Highlights Foundation program and to work on their art.

And so Floyd was such a mentor, this idea of passing it along from one person to the next and really learning that process of creating stories for children is something that we really focus on.

- And we have with us two guests who have taken part in worked with you at the Highlights Foundation.

Susan, what was your experience with the Highlights Foundation?

- Oh.

- Which one?

(all laughing) - Yeah, I've worked in several capacities.

I've worked... Well, I served on the board of trustees for a while and I've worked on the scholarship committee.

I have created programs that I have taught, but their programs are so enticing.

I've also taken a few.

So there really are programs for all levels of writers.

Yeah.

- And Virginia, you were away in the woods by yourself for a minute.

- I was there, I think it was an early fall.

I was finishing up a manuscript and I had the whole book laid out on the floor in a cabin with the woods, just outside the screened porch.

And it's just a fantastic place for that kind of retreat and really focused work on writing.

I also did a workshop back in 2014 called the Whole Novel Workshop which was really my introduction to the craft of creative writing, was really just a foundational experience for me as a writer.

- So two thumbs up George that's terrific.

That's wonderful.

And think about how many people you've influenced in that way.

Well, just one more moment with Floyd Cooper.

Tell us a little bit about him.

He began as card at Hallmark.

- Yeah, so the way I understand it is Floyd, he would tell the story of starting as a young child in schools.

And he was always illustrating and he always gravitated towards the art teacher in school.

And then as he got out into his career, he started at Hallmark and was creating cards at Hallmark.

And then eventually he was ready and he took the plunge and went to New York and started illustrating.

And he got his first illustration job on a book.

And then it just kept going.

So a 100 and some odd books later, there he is illustrating away and really has become one of the very well thought of illustrators and authors.

He's authored a number of books as well in the children's literature world.

- How exciting for you to have him - Yeah.

- As a mentor.

Before we leave the subject of illustration, Virginia, what about the wow factor in your book, Pink.

Tell us about that.

- Yeah, my book Pink, A Woman's March Story came out in January of this year for the fifth anniversary of the women's March in Washington, which was in January of 2017.

I wrote the book and my good friend, Mary Newell Depalma, did the art.

And as you, I hope can see from the image there, she actually knitted the hats that people wore at the March.

And also a lot of the clothing that the characters are wearing, and there's string.

You can see it's a real string.

That's running through the book there and oh yeah.

I'm so glad you have this as a little video that she made showing how she did some of the images in the book.

It's really just...

I was so privileged to work with her on this, and she was just so incredibly innovative and it just looks stunning.

And we collaborated together on the story, but the art is really all Mary and it was just a real privilege to work with her on that.

- And it's a metaphor, isn't it?

The knitting, it's what women are supposed to have been- - Yeah.

- been doing and that sort of thing.

But it's that.

- Yeah, one of my favorite images in the book when they finally arrive on the national mall and you can see the capital is just a sort of a spec in the distance, and it's just the see of people.

And the main character realizes that they are knitted together, right?

They are like the stitches in a hat and it is a metaphor, right?

For what can happen when people stand up together for what they believe in.

- Wow, and of course, this is a perfect segue to you Susan, because we know so many people are marching now.

But you wrote about an earlier women's March in Washington, DC in 1913 for the vote.

And it's so another wonderfully illustrated book.

And again, it was timely because it was coming out around- - Yeah.

- The March.

- Well, this book, I'd like to make a point about Floyd and Carole's book Unspeakable.

And as well as the books that I have here is that they're really covering points that, stories that aren't told in the history books, in the traditional history books.

Which is why as a kid, I loved going to the library.

And I loved finding these stories that my history teacher wasn't including, or the history textbook wasn't, including.

And kids wanna know this stuff.

And so the story of How Women Won The Vote, it was the largest parade ever put together by Alice Paul and Lucy Burns.

As women were trying to get this vote, the right to vote.

We wanted the amendment and...

They went in about it naively because they thought, oh, all we have to do is show the new President, Woodrow Wilson.

We just have to ask him, we just have to explain using, very rational arguments and surely he'll agree that we need this amendment, but he didn't.

And so they had this huge parade down in Washington DC, and it took seven long years.

It took many more protests.

It took protests.

It took picketing.

It took traveling across the country.

It took arrests.

It took hunger strikes.

It took force feedings.

And finally, seven years later women won the right.

- This is a safe book.

What about the book that you've written that has been considered not safe?

- Well, in 2010 a book, They Called Themselves the K.K.K was published.

And it's the story of the very first hate group that formed in the United States.

And it happened the year after the civil war ended.

It happened in 1866.

And this is... Again, it's a book that I didn't think that the subject would come around again.

And of course we've had Charlottesville and we've had what we most recently had the the attack in Buffalo, just over the weekend.

So this is a subject that is...

It's also a book that's been challenged in several states, there are people who don't believe it should be in the libraries or even in the school libraries.

And there's a lawsuit going on right now in Texas, where the book was removed from the public library and the citizens of the one county said, "No, you can't do that, it's a violation of the first amendment."

First of all, we have the freedom.

We have the right to express ourselves and nobody has the right to remove a book.

And so even in the court cases, it has been ruled that parents have the right to say, my child shouldn't read a book, but they parents do not have the right to dictate that no child should read a particular book.

- [Erica] Wow.

- And so it's a very interesting time right now.

- Wow, well, we want to talk with you and follow up on that.

And speaking of books as a dangerous medium, Virginia, you contend that books are magic, magic is real, and magic is dangerous.

Tell us as you can briefly about The Rosemary Spell and what it tells us about the power of books.

- Sure, so The Rosemary Spell is a middle grade novel that was published in 2015 that I wrote.

It's about loss and grief and memory loss.

And the primary tool that the characters use to process those complicated emotions and feelings is their love of books and what they learn from what they've read and what they've loved.

At the end of the book, there's a sort of annotated list of the books that the main character has referenced throughout the novel.

And then I also take as the conceit of the magic, that there's a story that there's actually a magic spell in Shakespeare's play Macbeth, and that that's why productions of the player cursed.

So I sort of start there and I say, well, if there's that little bit of magic in Shakespeare, then it's plausible that there's more magic in Shakespeare.

And the kids who are the main characters, find a little fragment of a poem from Shakespeare, which turns out to have a magic spell in it.

And it launches the plot.

So the words are literally magic in the story.

But also I do believe in the magic of words to help us figure out who we are and how to be in the world.

- And you're shaking your head, Susan, yes.

- In agreement.

- Yes, yes, - Yes, "- Yes, yes, and that's what the Highlights Foundation is rooted in, right?

The power of words, the impact that words can have.

- Yeah, and I think just in general storytelling, and everybody has a story in them.

And there's so many times when somebody might approach you and say, I've got an idea for a story.

And so just trying to think through how does one become a storyteller or tell their story, and we all might have a different approach.

You may just want to tell a story for your family, or you may wanna become an award-winning published author, but either way, I think there's this innate piece of us that wants to tell story and to get there.

And so with the Highlights Foundation, we're trying to help think about how to tell that story and how to tell it in a way that it's relatable to those readers.

- Yes, yes, and Susan, when you have an idea for a book, are they both proposed to you by your publisher and or you have a passion and you want to bring a story like what George was saying to life.

- Both actually, you know most of my books, I get the idea, a subject that I'm that's just sort of hounding me.

- [Erika] Yeah.

- And so I'll approach my editor and say, hey, this is what I'm thinking of writing about.

And sometimes there's a little bit of tweaking with it, but most of the time they're like, yeah, go ahead.

You know here's a contract and I like that, but I've also had ideas pitched to me.

But one of my favorite stories is one... An idea was pitched to me, would you I please write a book about the American experience during world War II, and I'm interested in World War II.

And so I said, yes, I'll do it, but I've got to figure out where this started.

So I started reading about Germany and I ended up not writing about the American experience.

I ended up writing about those nine million young people who followed Adolph Hitler.

And so the contract had to change and it all worked out.

But the point I'd also like to make is it's very easy to look at another country and say, look, what you did, look what you did, but there's also that need to look at our own country, honestly, and kids wanna know the truth and they deserve to know the truth.

And I don't believe we should have two sets of truths.

You know one for adults and one for children.

I think that young people are comforted when they know the truth.

- Wow, wow, this is we'll book you for a second round - [Susan] Follow up.

- Because there's so much, we've just begin to touch on the surface, but you're each doing such important work and we would refer all of our viewers to our website.

And so we thank you Susan.

We thank you, George.

We thank you, Virginia, and you for watching.

For more information as we suggest on the topic, including links to our guests and the resources, please visit wvia.org/keystone and click on Keystone Edition Arts.

And remember, you can watch this episode or any previous episode on demand, any time online or on the WVIA app.

- [Jillian] Let evening.

- For Keystone Edition - [Jillian] By Jane.

- I'm Erika Funke, thank you for watching.

And now we're going to close with another recitation from this year's poetry out loud, regional competition, Jillian McGee from MMI Preparatory School reciting.

Let Evening Come by Jane Kenyon.

- Let the cricket take up chafing.

As a woman takes up her needles and her yarn.

Let evening come, let do collect on the ho abandoned in long grass.

Let the stars appear.

And the moon disclose her silver horn.

Let the fox go back to its sandy den.

Let the wind die down.

Let the shed go black inside.

Let evening come.

To the bottle in the ditch to the scoop in the oats to air in the lung, let evening come.

Let it come as it will and don't be afraid, God does not leave us comfortless so let evening come.