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Between the Lines |
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Interview with Mary Ann Hoberman and Jane Dyer |
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Whose Garden Is It?
Mary Ann Hoberman
Illustrated by Jane Dyer
The gardener says the garden belongs to him. But the woodchuck insists that it's his. And so do the rabbit, the butterfly, the squash bug, and the bumblebee. Even the tiny seeds and whistling weeds think the garden just couldn't grow without them. As they stroll through the exquisite plants and flowers, Mrs. McGee and her child listen and wonder: Whose garden is it?
Children's book luminaries Mary Ann Hoberman and Jane Dyer reveal the secrets of a glorious garden in this beautiful and poetic rhyming read-aloud. |
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Biography |
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Mary Ann Hoberman is the author of more than twenty books for children, including the American Book Award winner A House Is a House for Me. She lives in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Jane Dyer is the acclaimed illustrator of many beloved picture books, including the bestselling Time for Bed by Mem Fox and Oh My Baby, Little One by Kathi Appelt. She lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.
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Interview with Mary Ann Hoberman—Author of Whose Garden Is It? |
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Q: In many of your books, you use the world and our relationship with it as a central theme. What inspired you to write Whose Garden Is It?
A: Oddly enough the seed of Whose Garden Is It? lay dormant for many years in another poem of mine, a short poem not written for children and never published:
Great toad
Whose most moments are spent
In my absence
And white hyacinth
To whom
I owe nothing
Stone that feels my foot
As I inspect
My garden
I still remember the very spot on my terrace where I came across the fat toad sunning himself, lord of the landscape, and the sudden aha insight that came to me: he, too, was at home. The poem’s speaker is oblivious to this knowledge and therein lies the inspiration for Whose Garden Is It? For of course everyone and everything in a garden can claim ownership and every claim is equally valid—band equally invalid as well.
The immediate catalyst for the book arrived when I was working in my garden one fine summer’s day, amid the bugs and birds and butterflies, and remembered my poem. And I asked myself: whose garden is it? And the book was born.
Q: What was the most challenging aspect of writing this book? And the most enjoyable?
A: When I write an extended story in verse like Whose Garden Is It? or A House is a House for Me, the primary challenge is met before I even begin to write the text. It lies in the title, which must dictate both the concept and the rhythm of the book. Without the right title there is no book; with it everything else is possible. Once I had the title/concept for Whose Garden Is It? I could start gathering possible claimants for ownership, building the story from the arrogant assertion of the hardworking gardener
to the ultimate declaration of the lowly little seed:
“It is mine,” the seed whispered. “Although I am small,
I am the beginning, the start of it all.”
And then to have Mrs. McGee, the garden’s visitor, return to her question:
But still she kept wondering
(Are you still wondering?),
Pondering,
Wondering,
Whose garden is it?
What was the most enjoyable aspect of writing this book? In a word, everything! Thinking about my garden and all its inhabitants, coming up with the exact words for each small creature’s defining characteristics and claim to dominion, deliberating over sound and sense and structure until I got them just right -- the usual suspects for a writer!
Q:What do you have planted in your garden?
A: My husband Norm and I have a variety of gardens on our five-acre property and each section is planted differently. And of course everything is always changing—Mother Nature sees to that! Plants appear and disappear. This year an exquisite little striped-leaf red tulip showed up far from where I had placed her sisters several years ago; meanwhile back home her siblings have vanished! And a lady’s slipper has sprung up next to the pond! We have a wildflower garden, several rock gardens, a small vegetable plot, a bamboo grove, native plantings, etc. Our garden is an ongoing project, one of the joys of our life.
Q: Congratulations on winning the 2003 NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children. What reflections would you like to share about your career and, particularly, on receiving this most recent honor??
A: Thank you! I have been so lucky! I decided when I was four years old that I would be a writer when I grew up, and I have been fortunate enough to live out that dream. Words are my world; and in my writing for children, I have been able to wallow in my love of language, of rhyme and of rhythm, and to use as my subject matter the things I care most about: family, friendship, animals, nature, our beautiful fragile earth. And to have had as my audience generations of young children who grow up to read my poems and stories to children and even grandchildren of their own -- I have been blessed! And the NCTE Award is frosting on the cake! It is always wonderful to know that your work is valued by people whom you value and respect. And I think of the award also as recognition of all children’s poets who write primarily in traditional forms, following in the glorious footsteps of Carroll, Lear, Milne, and Dr. Seuss.
Q: What advice can you offer to aspiring young poets and to those who teach them?
A: Read and write! Write and read! Think about words, play with them, taste them in your mouth, turn them into games, into puns and anagrams. Keep a journal just for yourself over the years, keep transforming your world into words. The more you write, the better you will become at it. The English language is such a magnificent heritage; learn about it, trace word histories, their trace meanings, make them your own.
Language is the ultimate human enterprise, the activity that differentiates us from all our fellow creatures. To contribute in some way, however small, to the great sea of literature is an honorable calling.
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Interview with Jane Dyer—Illustrator of Whose Garden Is It? |
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Q: You've illustrated so many wonderful books, many of them featuring animals and nature. What inspired you when illustrating Whose Garden Is It?
A: Some of my earliest memories are of gardens and flowers. My grandmother always had a big flower garden on her farm in Kansas, which included Russian peonies that the family had brought to America. My mother surrounded our tiny house in New Jersey with flowers. There are home movies of me as a toddler following her around as she cut her prize dahlias. As a very young child, I remember her showing me how to plant flowers. From the time I was five, we spent weekends and summers on our farm in Pennsylvania, where there was room to grow flowers and vegetables.
My husband and I spent our first summer together on that farm and planted our first vegetable garden. He is a landscape architect and has planted beautiful gardens for me to view from every studio I've had over the last thirty years.
So, to make a long answer short, I have always been surrounded by gardens. I must also add that having lunch with Mary Ann Hoberman overlooking her gardens was a great inspiration!
Q: What was the most challenging aspect of illustrating this book? And the most enjoyable?
A: The most enjoyable—painting all of those flowers!
Q: Your illustrations feature an array of flowers, plants, and trees. What’s planted in your garden?
A: In our gardens we have hollyhocks, delphinium, black-eyed Susans, peonies, yarrow, irises, daylilies, antique roses, Russian sage, lavender, lemon thyme, chamomile, calendula, astilbe, and others that I either can't spell, or can't remember since they are not in bloom as I write this. Oh, and then there are the weeds!
I must mention that Mr. Woodchuck eats off the buds of all sunflowers and poppies, so these do not appear in my list or my garden.
Q: You’ve illustrated many bestselling children’s books for Harcourt such as Time for Bed and Oh My Baby, Little One. How do you approach each project you're asked to illustrate and keep the art fresh and memorable for both yourself and the reader?
A: I always try to respond to the individual manuscript when approaching a new project and have my illustrations match the tone. Therefore, each book has its own unique look while still maintaining the "Jane Dyer" style.
I have to turn down many stories that I would love to illustrate, just because I am always booked five years in advance. Certain manuscripts come along that I do not feel I am the right illustrator for, but I often like to challenge myself by trying something slightly different. Whatever the project, each one is like a child with its own character, so each is exciting and new for me, and hopefully, the reader.
Q: What led you to become an illustrator for children’s books?
A: As a child, my mother always read to me. We had a set of books called My Bookhouse that was originally published in the ’20s. I loved the illustrations and would study and study them. In fact, some of my kindergarten drawings are reminiscent of them. But from the time I began school, I wanted to be a kindergarten teacher, which is exactly what I did.
Once I was teaching, it was my students' parents who, along with friends and family, told me I should be illustrating children's books. After three years of teaching, I spent eight years illustrating stories for various reading series, K-3.
I met Jane Yolen at a writers' group in 1983, and she told me I should go to New York to show my work. My first book, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, came out in 1984, and I have illustrated more than forty books since then -- and have loved every minute of it!
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