Sharing her love of writing

Lois Lowry, the author of the kids' books Number the Stars and The Giver, says she always wanted to be a writer. Her message: If that's your dream, never give up.

By ALINE MENDELSOHN

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 24, 2000

She was a young mother, happy but poor.

In the early '60s, Lois Lowry, her then-husband and their three kids lived in a two-bedroom apartment in Cambridge, Mass., scrambling each month to pay the $90 rent. Most of Lowry's waking hours were spent caring for their small children.

The highlight of her week came on Wednesdays, when she attended a writing course at Harvard University. She missed the class only one time, after giving birth to her fourth child.

The following week, as she walked into her writing class, the teacher snapped, "At least you did something creative this semester."

Stunned, Lowry never set foot in the classroom again. She also never gave up: She went on to publish 26 young adult books, including the long popular Anastasia series and Newbery Medal winners Number the Stars and The Giver. Her 27th book, Gathering Blue, is scheduled for release in September. Lowry, 63, spoke last week at the Pathways to Literacy conference at Tampa's Blake High School. During her visit to Florida, she answered some questions for Xpress readers.

As a kid, did you write a lot? When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

I went to school in the 1940s, and we didn't have school papers or creative writing, so it was something I did on my own. I wrote bad poetry and bad short stories and bad beginnings of novels. When I was 11 years old I wrote a poem and sent it to my grandparents and caused a lot of distress. I thought it was a wonderful poem. They thought I was mentally ill. The concluding line was: "Had she but lived, I would have loved her even more/But no, she now lies dead upon the rocky shore."

I liked writing and I probably was proficient, but I wasn't a good writer when I was a kid.

How did you start your career?

I majored in writing in college (at Brown University), but I dropped out when I was 19 and got married. When I was in my early 30s I went back to college and began writing as a freelancer for magazines. I published a short story in Redbook in 1975 about a child. A children's book publisher read it and asked me to write a book for kids. A Summer to Die was published in 1977 when I was 40 years old.

How did that writing teacher's stinging comment affect you? Did it stunt your writing?

I don't think it stunted my enthusiasm, but anything that happens like that is such a blow to your aspirations. The fact that I remembered it all these years indicates that it was important to me. At that time in a negative way, but now I look back and maybe it was a prod to work harder.

If you had a chance now to talk with that teacher, what would you say to him?

I probably would only point out that teachers don't know what an effect they have on a child. I was 25, an adult at that time, so I wasn't as vulnerable, but if a teacher had made a remark like that when I was 10, or 12, or 15, it would have been much worse.

Why do you think it is important to write for kids?

I get hundreds of letters every week. Within those hundreds of letters will be one or two from kids who have been profoundly affected by something I've written. At that age, their lives are often very difficult. So it's a wonderful thing if there are books out there that make them feel like they're not alone, like they have kindred spirits somewhere, that they can make it through their troubles because the book character has.

Is there a certain letter you received over the years that has particularly touched you?

The one that comes to my mind is from way back. This 12-year-old girl wanted to be a writer and had read A Summer to Die and asked me how I was able to make her see the meadow I described. I wrote to her and explained that I had to pick out certain details so that the reader could create the meadow in his or her mind. She wrote back and told me that she was going to enter a writing contest. The next time she sent me an article from the newspaper. Across the top was written in terrible handwriting: "I did it, I won!" And the (headline) said, "Blind child wins writing contest."

How can you not remember that?

The Harry Potter books have raised an interest in children's reading. What do you think of the Potter phenomenon?

I confess that I haven't read the Harry Potter books, but anything that raises the enthusiasm for kids to read has to be a wonderful thing. I feel very sorry for the author. I don't know her, but my guess is that she loves writing and she never wanted to be a celebrity. I can't help but think her life must be unbearable. She's like a rock star.

I'm concerned that because they're so quickly making Harry Potter movies and products, that they'll peak and they'll be a fad. I'm sorry for that because I assume they're wonderful books. I hope Harry Potter doesn't disappear.

Have you ever had that kind of celebrity status, with your Newbery medals or the Anastasia books?

What (J.K. Rowling) has had happen to her is really phenomenal. The Newbery Medal confers a certain status on the book, rather than the author. And that's kind of nice. It means the books will be there forever.

What does it mean to you to have received not one but two Newbery medals?

It's really quite amazing. The first one was a complete surprise. Then when The Giver was published, people began to talk about it as a Newbery winner. There was so much talk about it that I just wished they would shut up. I didn't want to be sitting by the telephone waiting to find out, so my husband and I took a trip as far away as we could go -- Antarctica. We were there when the committee met. There was no telephone on the boat we were on. Eventually I had to get a radiogram.

What can you tell us about your new book?

It's called Gathering Blue. It's set in the same time period as The Giver but in a different location where things have evolved in a different way. The society in the new book is very different from Jonah's society.

What advice would you give to kids who want to write?

The best way to learn to be a good writer is to read a lot. Kids ask me, "If you buy a certain notebook and use a particular kind of pen, will it make me a good writer?" But the fact is it doesn't work that way. If you go to a great restaurant and eat great food it makes you want to cook better. If you go to McDonald's you're never going to become a gourmet cook. If you read great books, you'll become a better writer.

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