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| | About Karla Kuskin & Her Writing
Whether she is making SoapSoup, helping Alexander Soames write his  poems,
getting dragons to pull wagons, observing two house-cats wage turf wars and
extrapolating something very uncatlike from their conflict, or allowing a radish
--- instead of a moon --- to rise in a night sky, Karla Kuskin's voice is
completely original. She observes, she imagines, she asks "What if?"
and she puts it into words of stripped-down, joyous purity, words that fall over
each other and dance with each other. That, of course, is her poems --- but her
brilliant prose books, like the fantastically one-of-a-kind The Philharmonic
Gets Dressed, are equally original and kid-delighting. (Karla
is pictured above left, photo by Nick Kuskin. Above right, a suspicious cat,
shown on the cover of The Upstairs Cat, has something important to tell us about
human beings --- and only Karla could tell it.)
It is no wonder so gifted and sui generis a writer was chosen to give the
first Charlotte Zolotow
Lecture. It is no wonder Charlotte and Karla have the deepest admiration for
each other. Deservedly so, on both sides!
Karla Kuskin on Being Edited by Charlotte
"In December of l990, a gathering in the Trustees Room of the
New York Public Library celebrated Charlotte's '52 years as a
distinguished editor, publisher, & writer of children's books.' "I wrote some lines for the occasion. These are a few of those:
There is that smile
that warms us like the sun.
There is the ouevre
(fine work done,
fine work yet to come).
There is all this, and more
combined
with that well honed and stainless
steel trap mind...
"I met Charlotte back in the l950s, before she was my editor.
I had heard a lot about her and was impressed, probably a little jealous
and shy. Ursula Nordstrom, my editor, Charlotte's good friend and
her
editor too, had arranged a meeting of a few writers so that we could
familiarize ourselves with some of the guidelines for writing simple
books that young children, just learning to read, could read. The idea
of an early reader that did not star Dick and Jane, and was not boring,
was new and the requirements at that time, seemed explicit and
confining. I left the meeting wondering how anyone could meet them
and
also be creative.
"But Elsa Minarik, who was at that meeting, knew very
well. She had just finished "Little Bear", and with its
Sendak
illustrations, it led a parade that was soon joined by little bear's
relations and gradually, by several generations of books,
simple and
diverse, that tempted the beginning reader with much success. And still
do.
"My first "I Can Read" book wasn't published until more than 20
years later. Ursula had retired and Charlotte had replaced her as head
of Junior Books at Harper & Row, now HarperCollins, when one day she
casually suggested that I try writing an "I Can Read" book of
verse.
"My head has always been full of simple rhythmic and rhyming language
and I ended up with enough material for  two books.
Something
Sleeping In The Hall was published in l975, and Soap Soup (cover
pictured right) in
l992. The latter was the first book I illustrated in full color. In
between those two
there was The Philharmonic Gets Dressed (cover
pictured to left) and a few years later The
Dallas Titans Get Ready For Bed, both illustrated wonderfully well by
Marc Simont), and others.
"Charlotte worked on all these books with me. This complicated
process also involved one other editor who assisted and helped guide
each book through the shoals of book production. Nina Ignatowicz was
that editor on the some of these books. Together she and Charlotte
oversaw every comma and serif. Both were always available to consult
with, and Nina was as straightforward as Charlotte was kind and full of
praise. They were a beautifully balanced combination.
"As were Charlotte and Pam Watson who steered me through "Jerusalem
Shining Still". It was Pam's idea that I write a book about
Chanukah. I
struggled for quite awhile trying to find a view of that story from the
Apocrypha that would not sound like just another "holiday book".
When I
thought
"As were Charlotte and Pam Watson, who steered me through Jerusalem
Shining Still. It was Pam's idea that I write a book about Chanukah. I
struggled for quite awhile to find a view of that story from the Apocrypha
that would not sound like just another "holiday book." When I thought
I had finished A Great Miracle Happened There (its
cover is pictured right), Charlotte read
it, digested it, going over it thought for thought, line for line.
Instead of being an editor who knows "something is wrong" but will let
you try to find a solution, or not as the case may be, she became the
perfect diagnostician. She found the weaknesses in my telling of the tale and pointed them out gently and succinctly by writing a clear,
totally helpful critique. I had trusted her before but now she had my
trust in perpetuity.
"As E.B. White once said of the other Charlotte, 'It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good
writer..'...AND, I'd add, a good editor. Like so many of the writers she has
worked with, I am grateful for my good fortune, and delighted to find
myself, with all these books and years behind us, busily weaving words
this morning for (what else?) Charlotte's website."
Charlotte's Home Page
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