The Ink Splat is our monthly activity letter filled with inspiration sparking challenges and resources guaranteed to inspire your creativity. In this Ink Splat, the author spotlighted is Elizabeth Partridge and her book Marching for Freedom: Walk Together Children and Don’t You Grow Weary. Submit a response to a challenge and you may have a chance to be published online! What are you waiting for?
The Challenge: Make A Difference
If you were to write a nonfiction book about a subject that interests you, what would you write about? Why? Do you have a first line for your book in mind?
Submit your response HERE!
Check out a few featured responses!
“I would write about World War II. I would write about World War II because there is so much that people still do not know about it. Most people know about the Hitler and the bombing of Pearl Harbor, but what about the unsung heroes? What about D-day? What about the concentration camps?” –Sydney
“I would write about Lake Tahoe. I went to Lake Tahoe in October and was excited that we would be kayaking and swimming. When I put my foot in the water, I quickly got it out. It was so cold in there! So, I tried again and again. Finally my knees were in the water and splash! I made it. Paddling in the kayak was hard, but my dad taught me…We went to an island with a Vikings castle on top…the island was made of rock. It was hard [to climb]. There was a Viking’s house too.”–Ellen
“I would write about football, because that’s what I like. My first line would be: “Do you like professional football? If you do, this book is a good book for you.”–Muki
“I would write about trees and forests like a natureologist. We breathe in the oxygen that trees exhale. We exhale carbon dioxide. I like to watch a lot of science shows, so I’d like to write a nonfiction book about science. For my first line, I’d write: “What is your favorite thing about nature?”–Camden
“I’d like to write about wild animals in the jungle. “–Susie
“Mine would be about a story of a girl’s life. Her parents are at sea and leave her at the harbor. It would be interesting. They left me stranded on the dock with my uncle.”–Ann
“If I were to write a non-fiction book… it would be about dog agility. I would choose this subject because I do jumping with my puppy, Quincy, and he has these cute little official-ish dog agility jumps that we use. It’s nice because if I jump him, he uses all of his energy on jumping instead of eating Rachel’s shoes and stealing my sister’s pacifiers. The first line of my book would be, “Dog agility is great exercise for young, energetic dogs and their active owners.” –Alexandra
“If I had to write a nonfiction book, I would write about Donner Lake. My first sentence would be, “Donner Lake isn’t a huge tourist attraction but it is so beautiful and peaceful for so many reasons.” I would write about Donner Lake because I love it there; it’s one of my favorite places. In the summer it is warm, and the perfect time to go to the beach. From my grandpa’s house, which I stay at when I’m there, the drive to the beach isn’t even ten minutes. In the winter, the snow is heavy, but beautiful. Obviously, Donner Lake is a fabulous place to be, which is why I would choose it as my topic for a nonfiction book.”–Rachel
Submit your response HERE!
Author Elizabeth Partridge and her book Marching for Freedom: Walk Together Children and Don’t You Grow Weary
(Interviewed by Helen Pyne)
Bay Area author, Elizabeth Partridge, writes both fiction and nonfiction for all ages. In her award-winning book, Marching For Freedom: Walk Together Children and Don’t You Grow Weary, she tells the story of how ordinary kids helped to change history. Drawing on archival photographs and interviews with marchers who were as young as 10 at the time, Partridge tells the unsettling but uplifting story of the Selma to Montgomery March in 1965, using the voices of men and women who participated as children and teenagers—and became civil rights pioneers in the process. In this book, Partridge proves that nonfiction can be every bit as dramatic as the best fiction.
Marching For Freedom: Walk Together Children and Don’t You Grow Weary, has won multiple awards including the 2010 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for nonfiction, the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, School Library Journal’s Epic Battle of the Books, YALSA’s Best Books for Young Adults, ALA’s Notable Books, and it was also selected by the International Reading Association to appear on its list of 2010 Notable Books for a Global Society.
INTERVIEW WITH ELIZABETH PARTRIDGE:
1. How do you find the subjects for your books?
I’ve found (the hard way, of course) that I have to be really interested in something to feel passionate about writing about it. A subject, or a person, needs to be edgy, difficult, political, artist, and/or controversial to make my socks roll up and down. It’s not the kind of search I can do intentionally. I have to come at it sort-of sideways, and a couple things will come together that make me suddenly jump at something.
2. You’re extraordinarily versatile. You’ve written books for adults, children, middle grade and young adult readers. You’ve published both fiction and nonfiction. Wow! Do you have a favorite genre? Do you enjoy writing fiction or nonfiction most?
I love all of it.
My versatility is actually due to two things: one: I have a really short attention span. So I jump around like a flea keeping myself interested. Two: writing is a great big wide-open field, and nobody can stop us from writing about anything we are interested in. So why not set new challenges for ourselves, try out different genres?
3. What have been some of the challenges you’ve faced while researching and interviewing your subjects?
My biggest challenge by far is making myself stop researching and start writing. It is just so much fun. I love to learn new things, and when I can combine a couple things I’ve learned in a way I haven’t seen anyone else do, it gives me a big thrill. Here’s an example: while researching Marching for Freedom, I read an archival article from the New Yorker in which the author interviewed teens who were on the march from Selma to Alabama in 1963. She used their real names. I also found a New York Times article in which the kids were quoted by name. So I got on the phone and starting calling people living in Selma who had the same last name as the kids…. eventually I found six or seven people to interview who’d been involved in the protest and march as young adults.
4. You grew up in San Francisco in a family of photographers. How did that influence you?
Growing up in a family of photographers is probably the single greatest influence on my life. To begin with, I was given an unbelievable visual education. By osmosis, I was taught what makes a good image. I don’t particularly have an urge to photograph, beyond quick grab shots with my cell phone. But I do like to use photographs in my nonfiction books. I enjoy finding them, and watching them do a lot of the heavy lifting in the book.
Even more important than the visual education were the values growing up in a Bohemian family. Expression was rated pretty highly, which is cool. Sticking tightly to society’s values without ever stopping to question them was not. My parents lived by their own rules. Two summers in a row when I was in grammar school we drove from California to New York, camping all the way. We didn’t get back each year until late October or early November. It’s not that my parents didn’t value education – they did – but they figured this was more important.
5. You mention the “power of photography” in your dedication in the book Marching For Freedom. Can you elaborate a little on what you mean by that phrase?
Photography is incredibly powerful for making you see something you never noticed, or feel something you’ve felt before in only a muted kind of way. To really take in a photograph is such a terrific experience. I love to give talks about this – about visual literacy — because we are generally so oblivious to the amazing images we are exposed to. And it is definitely something we can all get better at. As Georgia O’Keefe said, “… to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.”
6. Do you have any advice to give to young writers?
Yep. Persevere. Write about stuff you feel passionate about. Be brave. Dig deep within your subject, your characters, yourself, especially yourself, to write close to the bone. That’s where the power and beauty is.
7. What are you working on now?
I am just jumping back into a project I started awhile ago, on the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial. It was highly controversial when it was built, and it represents a very controversial war. I think it’s time to look at our involvement in Vietnam from a few different perspectives… the soldiers, the activists, the Vietnamese, the president of the United States. We’re back in a situation where we have a lot of veterans again. How well did we serve our Vietnam vets? How can we serve these new vets?
Thank you, Elizabeth Partridge and Helen Pyne!
Visit Elizabeth Partridge’s website HERE.
