The Uncanny Express Blog Tour-A Conversation with Kara LaReau

Images copyright Jen Hill

Happy Monday morning, Kara.  It’s an honor to have you making a stop here at Librarian’s Quest on your blog tour for The Uncanny Express, the second title in your The Unintentional Adventures of the Bland Sisters series.  It’s been absolutely bitter cold here in Michigan but on the bright side it’s a wonderful opportunity to get cozy wrapped in a blanket, sipping hot cider and leave the confines of a comfy chair through the pages of a book.  It’s been a distinct and happy pleasure to travel with the Bland Sisters, Jaundice and Kale, first with a band of swashbuckling pirates on The Jolly Regina and second with a group of passengers concealing their true identities aboard The Uncanny Express.

I was wondering if you could tell readers who have not read these two books a little bit about the title of the series.  Why are the adventures unintentional?  Why are the Bland Sisters bland?

Images copyright Jen Hill

A lot of it is just their nature — the Bland Sisters inherently shy away from any kind of excitement or emotional upheaval, but they’ve become even more set in their uninteresting ways since their parents left to run an errand of an unspecified nature. (They’ve been gone for some time now, but Jaundice and Kale don’t tend to think about it too much. They’re sure their parents will return any day now.) It becomes clearer in The Uncanny Express that their strict adherence to routine is one of the ways they cope with their parents’ absence. It’s the only control they have over their situation.

Of course, Bland Sisters want to stay in their comfort zone. So an adventure on a pirate ship, or even — gasp! — on a speeding train, is the last thing they want to experience. Or so they think.

Images copyright Jen Hill

In the beginning of each book two pages are dedicated to the cast of characters in each adventure.  As a high school senior and college student in the seventies, I laughed out loud at the name of one of the pirates, Captain Ann Tennille. Would you tell us about the process of naming your characters?

I’m glad you appreciated that one! Of course, most of the humor in the series is for kids, but I try to include a laugh or two for the adults who might be reading along with them.

I’ve always had a thing for names, perhaps because my own first and last names have given me so much trouble, especially when I was growing up; no one seemed to be able to spell or pronounce them correctly, perhaps because of all the vowels. (FYI, it’s KARE-uh la-ROW.) As a result, I make an extra effort to remember people’s names and how to pronounce them, and this has led to a focus on names in general. I’m particularly interested in words that almost sound like they could be first names — whenever I hear a good one I try to write it down. Most of the names in the Unintentional Adventures come from that running list, though if nothing on that list seems to fit, I try to think about the character’s personality and do my best to find a name that complements it. For instance, there’s a tweedy, wan, put-upon maid on the Uncanny Express, so of course her name is Vera Dreary — and then there’s the brilliant, not-terribly-humble detective, Hugo Fromage (which, for the uninitiated, is French for “big cheese.”) I’m sure you can tell I’ve had a LOT of fun with this!

Images copyright Jen Hill

Each chapter in The Uncanny Express starts with one of Tillie’s Tips and second with a message from Professor Magic’s Rules of Illusion. The tips and rules are really quite good. I particularly like this one:

The closest thing to feeling real magic is performing for people and helping them to experience the impossible.

Why did you decide to employ this technique?  

Images copyright Jen Hill

In the first book, The Jolly Regina, Kale brings along the Bland Sisters’ favorite (and only) reading material, their illustrated children’s dictionary, so the chapter heads in the story all feature dictionary definitions. That dictionary falls by the wayside — quite literally! — in the first book, but I really loved the way it worked and wanted to do something similar in The Uncanny Express. I thought it would be a nice way to show the Bland Sisters’ character development to have them toting around a pretty mundane book of housekeeping tips at the outset of the story, but venturing a bit outside of their literary comfort zone by the end. Also, just as each word defined in the chapter heads is a word used in that chapter in The Jolly Regina, the housekeeping tips and magical advice in the chapter heads of The Uncanny Express are always relevant to the action in each chapter. It’s an extra bit of fun for my readers, and it was a fun sort of challenge for me to work it all out.

As a fan of mystery and detective stories I couldn’t help but make the connect between the Bland Sisters’ trials and tribulations aboard this train and those experienced by characters in Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express.  Are you an Agatha Christie fan?  Do you have favorite mystery and detective titles or authors?

Oh, yes, I am a huuuuuge Christie fan, and a mystery fan in general. I grew up watching Masterpiece Mystery and started reading Agatha Christie from an early age. Just as The Jolly Regina takes place on a ship, I knew I wanted the second book to take place on a train, and since I’d already had so much fun with the tropes of classic pirate stories, I was eager to try my hand at a Christie parody/homage. Many of the mysteries I read now are all pretty adult — I love Gillian Flynn, Kate Atkinson, Tana French, and Ruth Ware, for instance. (Interestingly, all women. Hmm…) But I also recently read (and loved) Kristen Kittscher’s The Wig in the Window and The Tiara on the Terrace, I just finished The Peculiar Incident on Shady Street by Lindsay Currie, which was terrific, and I know Lauren Magaziner has a new choose-your-own-adventure-style mystery series called Case Closed launching this spring that I can’t wait to get my hands on.

Did you have to do any special research about magic and illusions prior to writing The Uncanny Express?  If so do you have a favorite resource?  (Students enjoy learning about magic and illusions.)

Images copyright Jen Hill

Yes, I always do tons of research. For The Uncanny Express, I read a great instructional book for kids called Big Magic for Little Hands by Joshua Jay. I also read a lot about the history of magic in books like Hiding the Elephant by Jim Steinmeyer, and I did online research on Adelaide Herrmann, the real-life Queen of Magic, on whom Magique in The Uncanny Express is based. (There is now an excellent picture book biography about her called Anything But Ordinary Addie by Mara Rockliff, illustrated by Iacopo Bruno.)

Images copyright Jen Hill

And of course, I read and re-read Murder on the Orient Express and other Hercule Poirot mysteries. In addition, I watched every episode of the Poirot mystery series and took copious notes, and I read David Suchet’s memoir about playing the great detective, called Poirot and Me (Suchet was committed to playing Poirot exactly as Christie wrote him, so I appreciated his insights).

The portions of the plot when Kale and Jaundice are dreaming add tension and intrigue to the story.  When and why did you decide to include these in The Uncanny Express?

I tend to have very vivid dreams, so I’ve always been interested in dreaming and how our subconscious takes over while we’re sleeping. Jaundice and Kale are so reticent in their waking life, but there’s quite a bit bubbling beneath the surface. It seemed right that their dreams would be pretty telling. Also, dreams continue to play a part in the third book in the series, though I don’t want to give too much more away!

As a writer you have a gift in bringing the characters to life using somewhat quirky traits.  Are the characters fully developed before the plot begins or do their personalities grow as the story progresses when you are writing?

Images copyright Jen Hill

I create character profiles before I start writing, especially for this series, where there are so many characters in each story, and I really need to feel like I have some semblance of control. But they still end up surprising me! For instance, Countess Goudenoff didn’t have a dog at first, but the line “The tea spilled, all over my Chrysanthemum” came to me, and I realized, of course she would have a yappy little lap dog, and of course it would be named Chrysanthemum! Those moments when the story takes on a life of its own are so exciting.

As I was reading both The Jolly Regina and The Uncanny Express I found myself placing sticky notes at bits of life wisdom you weave into the stories.  The final sentence in the first book makes reference to a letter.  Is this why you have the sisters’ parents communicating with them through letters?

Well, given the distance between them, their parents can only communicate with them through letters (at this point, at least). Though all that might change, sooner rather than later!

Although these stories are totally absurd, it’s important that they also have some kind of emotional resonance so the reader can feel invested. Just as the Bland Sisters are learning (however slowly and obliviously!) from their experiences, I hope my audience might be taking something away from the stories, too.

Continuing with this train of thought I enjoyed what Magique says to the Bland Sisters:

I told you that the mind is our most powerful tool.  And that if we use it often and well, it will tell us many things and show us many secrets. . . .”

In addition to the adventure, action, magic and mystery what else do you hope readers will take away from reading about the Bland Sisters and The Uncanny Express?

Among other things, Magique and Hugo Fromage encourage the Bland Sisters to be present and observant, and how important it is to go through life with your eyes and ears open. That piece of advice is also extremely relevant to me as a writer. In that way, I’m a bit of a magician and detective, too!

I think I’ll end with twelve questions.  I know the Bland Sisters would appreciate the fact the number is divisible by three.  I wish you safe travels as you continue your journey on this tour.  I can hardly wait to step into another exciting episode in the lives of these two girls.

Thank you so much — your questions were so thoughtful, and so much fun to consider and answer!

Kara LaReau was born and raised in Connecticut. She received her Masters in Fine Arts in Writing, Literature, and Publishing from Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts and later worked as an editor at Candlewick Press and at Scholastic Press. She is the author of picture books such as UGLY FISH, illustrated by Scott Magoon, and NO SLURPING, NO BURPING! A Tale of Table Manners, illustrated by Lorelay Bove; an award-winning chapter book series called The Infamous Ratsos, illustrated by Matt Myers; and a middle-grade trilogy called The Unintentional Adventures of the Bland Sisters, illustrated by Jen Hill. Kara lives in Providence, Rhode Island with her husband and son and their cat.

THE UNCANNY EXPRESS

BLOG TOUR

1/9   The Little Crooked Cottage

1/10 MG Book Village

1/11 Mrs. Knott's Book Nook

1/12 YAYOMG!

1/15 Librarian's Quest

1/16 Storymamas

1/17 All The Wonders

1/18 Project Mayhem

1/21 Nerdy Book Club

Left And Loved

Anticipation.  There is nothing like it, especially when it comes to the book release of a new title by a favorite author.  There are authors who you have come to know through the characters in their books.  You appreciate the overall feeling you have when reading their books even if they change the method of presenting their story.

When Sharon Creech's new book appeared in bookstores, I was able to pick it up at my favorite indie shop on it's birthday.  As I do most times when a cherished author has a new book, I placed it where I could look at it for a few days.  I avoided all reviews and the jacket flap.  For starters the jacket illustration for The Boy on the Porch (Joanna Cotler Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers) intrigued me.  Who was this boy?  Where was this porch?  What was the significance of the dog sitting next to him?  It was like an open door.  With the first sentence,

The young couple found the child asleep in an old cushioned chair on the front porch., 

I crossed over the threshold and entered a truly memorable story.  By the time I finished the two-page first chapter I knew nothing would take me from this world of a husband and wife who find a boy on their porch, until I read the final page.

We learn the young couple are named Marta and John. Their small farm in the country, some twelve miles outside a tiny rural town with a general store and a sheriff's office, provides the quintessential backdrop for the events which unfold.  The boy, unable to speak, eventually hands them a wrinkled note he takes from his pocket.  It reads:

Plees taik kair of Jacob.
He is a god good boy.
Will be bak wen we can. 

At first Marta and John believe someone will come by the end of the day.  When no one does by the next day, John drives to town to make inquiries.  He's careful how he words his questions because already he can see Marta is developing an attachment to Jacob.  To his surprise he is too.

As is the way of the universe when one thing is missing, others may be strengthened. We readers along with Marta and John, discover Jacob's gifts.  He has a natural ability for music, painting (in a big way) and in communicating with the animals on the farm.  Beagle, the couple's beagle, a stray appearing at the farm earlier, leads Jacob around the pastures along with the cow, recently left tied to the fence at the end of their drive.  To their amazement, watching the trio one morning, they notice Jacob tapping and patting as he usually does but the dog and cow are responding in their own similar manner.

As days drift into weeks, it's clear the three have formed a familial relationship, however precarious it might be; all have tucked away in their minds the return of whoever left Jacob on the porch.  John and Marta do their best to care for Jacob and he delights them endlessly with his uplifting view of the world, his tenderness for all living things.  While their love for the boy grows, the couple continue to ask in their town and other nearby towns about a missing child never quite telling the whole truth.

 The goodness in John's and Marta's hearts, other pieces in this puzzle found, and visits by the sheriff are all blended together in a culmination which even now brings tears to my eyes.  But as is the way of storyteller, Sharon Creech, it's not the end.  Oh my no...she takes us deeper into the tale with more lives changed, more love than your heart can almost bear and a very old beagle howling at a closed door.


During my second reading of The Boy on the Porch I began to mark words, phrases and passages.  Soon my book was sporting the porcupine look.  In fact, I was so profoundly moved by the writing, the narrative of this book, I sent out a tweet to Sharon Creech.

Reading the prose of @ciaobellacreech is like reading poetry. I ♥ The Boy on the Porch. #bookaday
— Margie Myers-Culver (@Loveofxena) September 8, 2013

It's like she can see into the deepest parts of people's hearts, looking for the good which will triumph over the not-so-good things in the world.  It's her belief that kindness will be returned tenfold which permeates every single page of this book.  The dialogue between her characters and their thoughts revealed show us their essence.  Her descriptions of the events, the setting, are so vivid we are transported.  Allow me to share a couple of passages with you.

When the man and the dog returned to the porch, the woman was kneeling beside the old cushioned chair, her hand resting gently on the boy's back.  There was something in the tilt of her head and the tenderness of her touch that moved him.

He didn't know what made him so anxious.  Maybe the people had come for the boy.  He should have stayed home with Marta.  What if there was a problem---but what sort of problem?  What was the matter with him?  He wasn't usually a worrier.  

It was as if he were re-creating the sounds of the forest and the dawn and the mountains, all together.  The sounds moved John and Marta greatly.  One minute they would be smiling and soon after they were close to tears.  It was as if the boy had control of their minds and bodies.


The Boy on the Porch written by Sharon Creech is so beautifully told it can be enjoyed repeatedly by readers older and younger than the intended audience.  It provides answers but asks questions, opening up opportunities for discussion.  Most of all this is a story of love, love shared and returned.  Thank you Sharon Creech for this book.

Please visit Sharon Creech's website through the link embedded in her name above.  In celebration of this book's release pledge to read in the Creech-A-Thon.  If you desire here is a link to a discussion guide.  If you would like to read a portion of the beginning of this title, follow this link to the publisher's website to Browse Inside.  This links to commentary for readers and writers posted by author Barbara O'Connor on her blog about The Boy on the Porch.  Enjoy the video below where Sharon Creech reads to us from The Boy on the Porch.  



Here is an update to the original blog post.  It's taken from Sharon Creech's blog, Words We Say.  It's titled The Boy on the Porch: Beginning.  It's truly wonderful when readers are given insight into the writing process; knowing how a book is brought to life.

They're On The Case

I never go anywhere without a book; they are my constant companion and my best friend (except for Xena).  My purses are on the large side so I can always carry at least one (or maybe two) book(s).  Books educate, reaffirm, entertain and enrich me and my life.  Opening their pages removes me from where I am to the realm created by the written words.

A few days ago I found myself unexpectedly sitting in a hospital emergency room...for two hours.  Within a matter of minutes I had taken Platypus Police Squad: The Frog Who Croaked (Walden Pond Press, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers) written and illustrated by Jarrett J. Krosoczka out of my handbag, opening the cover for the first time.  All the sights and sounds surrounding me faded away; a crime had been committed on the docks in the dead of night in a city familiar but unlike any I had ever known.

This is the city.  Kalamazoo City.  Population: 75,000. By day, it's a bright, vibrant metropolis, the kind of city where dreams come true. ...
But it is a different city once the sun goes down.  The criminal element, asleep by day, haunts certain dark corners at night. ...

With those sentences from the first page of the prologue, your attention has been captured.  Your sense of anticipation is heightened.  By the time the final thought has been read, an esteemed faculty member, Professor Hopkins, a frog of impeccable reputation, has vanished.

Apparently an illegal purchase of synthetic fish has gone awry; a duffel bag filled with the odorous critters is at the scene.  Why, you may ask, was a teacher down at the docks?  Why does his coat bear the tire tread marks of a car?

Rookie Detective Rick Zengo, still living at home with his parents in a rather affluent section of the city, arrives at Platypus Police Squad for his first day on the force.  His late grandfather Lieutenant Dailey's portrait hangs on the wall. He is a hero, having lost his life in taking down the biggest criminal at the time in the city, Frank Pandini, Sr., a diabolical panda if there ever was one.

His new partner is veteran Detective Corey O'Malley, whose physique shows his love of one donut or cupcake too many.  A family man, two sons, one in middle school, the other in high school, and a teenage daughter with a new boyfriend, living with his wife in a lower income, established residential area of the city, O'Malley is known for following procedures, slowly fitting the pieces of a case together.  He was part of the team that took Pandini, Sr. down.

Zengo's gut instinct tells him that Frank Pandini, Jr., philanthropist extraordinaire, savior of the city, is not all he purports to be.  It seems he has his "finger in every pie" in town; possibly the missing person case they have been assigned.  When an evening stake-out at Pandini's club, Bamboo, goes sour, Zengo and O'Malley are taken off the assignment and reduced to elementary school crossing-guard duty by an enraged Sergeant Plazinski.

Can the newly-formed duo put seemingly unimportant clues together to solve the separate but connected crimes?  Have they been served their last best root beer floats in the city?  Readers and the detectives find themselves surprised at the answers.  And the last four pages?  Let's just say...put your pedal to the metal, flip on the siren and put the light on the roof.  It's going to be a ride to remember.


In his debut chapter book, Jarrett J. Krosoczka has created a cast of characters with distinctive, memorable personalities; Zengo and O'Malley are a likable, admirable pair, old school clashing and collaborating with eagerness, their families are humorously normal, the sly reporter, a lizard, Derek Doherty is lurking and looking, the two loud-mouth, annoying detectives, Diaz and Lucinni, are a little short on brains, the gruff Sergeant Plazinski is sharp, quick to anger but also to praise, rolling with the circumstances and then there's Frank Pandini, Jr. and his lackeys who put on a good show but....  The plot unfolds through a fast-paced narrative, snappy dialogue and the atmospheric descriptions of place and time.  Readers are completely engaged through the listing of where the characters are and the exact hour and minute beneath each chapter designation.  Here are a couple of example passages.

Even during the daytime, the docks were dank and dreary.  Dockworkers carried crates off and on boats, and the air was filled with the sounds of distant foghorns.  Zengo wasn't used to this, having grown up in the heights, far away from the poorer areas on the east side of Kalamazoo City.  He shivered.  It seemed ten degrees colder by the water, not to mention the stench! It hit Zengo so hard in the face that he gagged.  It was the kind of stink that would linger on his clothes for days.

"Don't worry, rookie. Not everyone has forgotten." Something passed over O'Malley's face. "Oh, crud, this is our exit!"
Zengo clutched the passenger-side door as O'Malley veered across three lanes.  When the car finally straightened out, the skyscrapers in the side-view mirror receded as the sprawling upscale business complexes rose up ahead.
"Not sure who's a bigger threat to society there, partner!" said Zengo, straightening his shirt and jacket.
"Can it, rookie."


Krosoczka begins this book by illustrating opening and closing endpapers with the docks at night, the buildings of the city behind, the slightly wavy water in front, in blacks and grays.  The title pages cleverly display pertinent information on lighted billboards on building roofs.  Less than twenty-five two page spreads are without some type of visual done in tones of black and white; varying in size to enhance the text appropriately.  Each chapter begins with a full page illustration on the left.


Combining all the best elements from decades of mystery and detective literature and television Jarrett J. Krosoczka brings to middle grade reader in Platypus Police Squad: The Frog Who Croaked an action-packed first installment to what promises to be an exciting new series.  When these boomerang-carrying, crime-solving detectives are on the job no criminal is safe.  Readers (myself included) will be ready for the next episode as soon as the final page is turned.

Follow the link embedded in Krosoczka's name above to visit his website.  This link is to his Nerdy Book Club post, Penguins Are Done In This Town.  Access the Zengo and O'Malley Rookie Rules Activity Kit here.  If you want to read the first forty plus pages follow this link. Be sure to mark May 23, 2013 on your calendar for the virtual launch party; more details are here.

Riddles And Rhythms

Of all the large cities I've visited, north and south, east and west, the one I've enjoyed the most and returned to again and again is Chicago.  The history, architecture, museums, theaters, restaurants, parks,  libraries, big stores and small shops along the shore of Lake Michigan populated with people from all walks of life are interesting, entertaining and simply amazing.  Considering I'm happiest hiking the hilly forests of northern Michigan without a soul in sight, that's saying quite a bit.

When an author chooses to place their book in a setting familiar to a reader, there's an immediate connection, a sense of coming home.  In her first fiction book Blue Balliett selected her own community on the south side of Chicago, Hyde Park.  This title, Chasing Vermeer, earned her numerous awards two of which are the Edgar Award and the Agatha Award.

The other two books in this trilogy, The Wright 3 and The Calder Game are either set in Chicago or begin there with her cast of familiar characters.  A town in Michigan, Three Oaks, is the setting for her third book, The Danger Box (reviewed here). By now as a reader I have a vested interest in the books of Blue Balliett drawn to them first for the place in which the well-told stories unfold.  I was thrilled to find the setting of her fifth book, Hold Fast (Scholastic), back in the city of Chicago.

It was the bitterest, meanest, darkest, coldest winter in anyone's memory, even in one of the forgotten neighborhoods of Chicago.
Light and warmth seem gone for good; mountains of gray
snow and sheets of ice destroyed the geometry of sidewalk and
street.

On this day, in the heart of winter, a man disappears leaving behind his bicycle, groceries and a pocket notebook.  The man is Dashel Pearl, husband of Summer and father to eleven-year-old daughter, Early and Jubilation, a younger son. He is a man who loves words and books, a page at the Harold Washington, the public library in downtown Chicago.

Dreams, a love of the writing of Langston Hughes, and hope are the glue binding this family together.  When Dash begins cataloging books for an unknown buyer, the extra money is welcome.  This money for Dash's college education will help them realize their desire to live in their own house.  But now their small living quarters are no longer filled with laughter and plans for a brighter future.  Despair descends as the police tell their tale and leave the three minus one.

Inquiries made of the wrong people lead to masked intruders stealing all they own, destroying their tiny one room apartment.  Fearing for their lives, Sum, Early and Jubilation leave in the dead of night with nowhere to go but a shelter for the homeless.  It seems the definition of bad has become much worse for the three Pearls.

To add insult to injury the police are trying to implicate Dash in a larger crime rather than simply being missing.  An unsolved European diamond heist, smuggling and kidnapping swirl around the threesome as they attempt to adjust to their new circumstances.  It is eleven-year-old Early, a thinker, a lover of words and riddles like her father, who knows it is up to her to solve the mystery of  his disappearance.

Life at the shelter brings countless rules, crowded conditions, a new school for Early and an air of hopelessness into their world.  With grit and determination Early begins to gather available resources disregarding the taunts of classmates and the lack of support from the police using the assistance of her father's old high school teacher and a tutor at the shelter.  The hardest thing has become knowing who to trust.

Crooks and cons are lurking and listening.  Death is waiting in the wings.  More money than the Pearls can imagine is at stake.  And how does The First Book of Rhythms by Langston Hughes tie this all together?


The language used in telling this tale of the plight of the homeless, the plight of the Pearls and the peril facing them at the hands of a ring of criminals is brimming with realism. Every word, sentence, paragraph and chapter is strung together artfully and with purpose.  Chapter headings are single words; ice, click, crash, cling, clutch, circle, crimp, crack, chase, catch, cover, cast, click and ice.  Each is defined as a noun and a verb, at times with completely different meanings depending on the culture in which they are used, on the first page of the chapter.  For careful readers these words become clues.

Beautiful descriptions of place, characters' personalities and thoughts fill the pages of this story.  For this reason readers are immersed in the emotions, the tension, caused by each event as the action escalates.  Almost without being aware we watch, we listen, we dream, we think, we write and we plan with Early.  Here are a couple of many passages I highlighted with my ever-present sticky notes.

"What's a printing?" Early had asked.  She loved the way her father shared information; his tone always made a plain old fact feel like something special.

It was odd how quickly each Pearl learned that wishing aloud made everything worse.  Survival was a matter of adapting, of learning how to hide in plain sight.

Understanding what she meant, Sum sighed. "I guess I am.  Reading is a tool no one can take away. A million bad things may happen in life and it'll still be with you, like a flashlight that never needs a battery.  Reading can offer a crack of light on the blackest of nights.


After you've read the final page, the note and acknowledgements you will quickly hold this book and, with a speed which can only be noted as fast, begin to think of all the people who you believe will want to read this book.  The number will be considerable.  Hold Fast written by Blue Balliett is a timely volume speaking to readers on more than one level; a story of family, homelessness, mystery and the power of the human mind and spirit.

Be sure to visit Blue Balliett's website linked to her name above.  It's one of the better sites filled with information about all of her books with a special section for educators.  This is a link to the Scholastic website for Blue Balliett.  Here is a link to a recent interview in TimeOutChicagoKids about this title.

Enjoy this interview where Balliett speaks about why and how she writes.