Author Interview: Debra Kempf Shumaker

It's been a while since I've interviewed an author on my blog, so I'm thrilled to have Debra Kempf Shumaker here with us today to talk about her new picture book Wind Is a Dance, published this month by Kids Can Press. The text, with its lovely cadence, compares the wind to a dance, and the inviting, whimsical art by Josée Bisaillon allows you to almost feel the wind dancing on every spread. Small, unassuming sidebars describe different types of wind, and the back matter includes scientific details about how wind speed is measured and what effects different wind speeds have on the environment. I can see this book being used at home, in the classroom, and even in a dance or creative movement class. It's beautiful, educational, and versatile! 

Welcome, Debra. We're so happy you're here! I'm always interested in where story ideas come from, so I wanted to start off by asking you how you decided to write this book. 

First, thanks so much for having me on your blog! I’m exited to be here. Growing up on a diary farm with 120 acres as my playground, I loved being outside. And I loved that feeling in the air when the weather was changing. I’d sit on our porch, a rock, or anywhere and just listen to nature as a storm brewed. Fast forward to 2015 and I was in the middle of doing “PiBoIdMo” (Picture Book Idea Month by Tara Lazar, now knowns as Storystorm) and brainstorming picture book ideas. I was awed by Miranda Paul’s WATER IS WATER and how it showed water changing with the seasons. I decided I wanted to write a lyrical book about weather and wrote down “Lyrical NF book about wind—different types?”

 

Thanks for sharing that! I'm also curious how you decided to use the metaphor "wind is a dance" as a through line in the book. Was that the plan from the beginning, or did it evolve as you were writing or revising?

“Wind is a dance” was not initially my through line. The book literally started out as a string of poems about various types of wind. When I tried to string the poems into a picture book, it was very disjointed. I had written a few poems using metaphors to describe a wind type and I really liked the imagery it created and decided to use metaphors for each wind. (And boy, some of those metaphors changed a lot!) I also needed an opening and closing and something to tie it together. Initially, my opening mentioned that wind was air in motion—sometimes with a few words, sometimes with a lot. But all of those openings felt dry. I decided to try using a metaphor to explain that wind changes and tried “wind is a chameleon,” but that didn't work very well. As I visualized warm air rising and cold air going low, the idea of a dance metaphor popped in my head. It took a lot of trial and error to tie all of the metaphors together with the overarching dance metaphor, but I’m so thrilled with the end result. Revision took YEARS, lol.

Wow! How fascinating to hear the whole process and all the work that went into it. I am a bit biased, but I am also thrilled that the dance metaphor prevailed. It works so well! How did you choose which types of wind to include, and possibly exclude, from the book?

 

I started with individual poems about winds from all around the world. But when I started stringing them together, I knew the book needed some kind of “arc.” Initially I grouped them into seasons so I had winds like the Chinook and Santa Ana winds, but the flow wasn’t working for me. I tried grouping them geographically, but that felt scattered. Then I played around with going from relative calm to faster and more destructive winds. With the dance metaphor, that arc just seemed to work. As I revised, I decided to focus on winds that kids in North America would be most familiar with since that would likely be where the book would be published. Although the derecho is a wind not everyone is familiar with, we experienced one in 2012 and lost power for a few days. The derecho fascinated me so much, that I knew I wanted it in my book.

The book's cover is so inviting, and I love how Josée Bisaillon's illustrations are full of so much beautiful energy and movement. What are some of your favorite aspects of the art?

 

Oh my gosh, Josée’s illustrations are so amazing and so perfect for this book. I am so honored that she agreed to be my creative partner for this project. I knew it would be challenging to illustrate something that is not seen. I assumed she would incorporate the metaphors, but as in most traditional publishing contracts, I had no contact with Josée while she was working on it. The day I got her first sketches, I teared up. When the color ones landed in my inbox, I literally gasped. They were so beautiful. The somewhat transparent aspect of the wind with the objects of my metaphors flowing across the pages makes me swoon. The color scheme she uses is just so perfect.

The beautiful text coupled with beautiful art in this book will make a lot of people swoon! What impact do you hope this book will have on children?

 

I hope this book encourages kids to look at our natural world in new ways. I love the idea of kids coming up with new metaphors to describe other winds or other types of weather. I want them to see that science, while factual, is also awe-inspiring, and can be imaginative, too. I also hope that learning a bit more about the various winds, even the destructive ones, helps them fear storms less and also be proactive in knowing what to do if they face any dangerous storms.

And finally, to steal a line from the ending of your book (which is an ingenious discussion starter allowing for a variety of scientific, poetic, or other creative responses)... "How would YOU describe the wind today?"

            
It’s a very sunny, still, late summer day here in Northern Virginia and I only occasionally see the leaves move in my yard. So today the wind is a feather, barely tickling my skin.

Oh, I love that! And thanks again for being here with us today!

To learn more about Debra and all of her books, visit her website here. You can also follow her on social media: Instagram @debrakshumaker, Twitter/X @ShumakerDebra, or Bluesky @debrakshumaker.bsky.social.

This Is Rhythm! This Is Tap!

I was three or four years old when I put on my first pair of tap shoes, wearing them at least weekly for the next 15 or so years. Even when I wasn't wearing them, I was tapping. Tapping at the bus stop, under my desk at school, even in the grocery store--relishing in the rhythms I was making and memorizing the steps so I wouldn't have to think about them anymore when the music started playing in class.

Gregory Hines is the tap legend I've always known best, in part from his captivating performances in the 1985 dance film White Nights (which co-starred Mikhail Baryshnikov and was choreographed by Twyla Tharp). If you haven't seen it and have a few minutes, I highly recommend this clip of a Gregory Hines tap solo from the film... 

Gregory Hines was a master of rhythm tap, which is different from what I learned as a child, and different from what you usually see at a traditional dance recital or musical theatre performance. In rhythm tap, the dancer's center of gravity is a little lower, and the emphasis is much more on the feet and the sounds they make than on anything else, including what the dance looks like. It's literally "music" through movement.

The most famous rhythm tapper performing today is Savion Glover, and I can't tell you how excited I am that Holiday House has published a picture book biography about him! 

This Is Tap: Savion Glover Finds His Funk, by Selene Castrovilla and Laura Freeman, not only tells the story of how Savion's natural knack and passion for rhythm propelled him to stardom but also serves as an intuitive introduction to rhythm tap. 

Full of lyrical language and onomatopoeia, the words on the pages--with all their rhythms and sounds--are the perfect embodiment of this dance style. And the illustrations, ranging from a bouncing baby Savion to an adult Savion combining the funk of hip-hop with all those beats in his body, focus on the feet and boost the energy of the already boisterous text...  

Hittin' meant expressin' yourself with your feet  

Makin' a statement  

When the audience picked up on what you were putting' down, you hit  

RIFFITY, SPIFFITY, BOMPITY, ROMPITY,   

CLAP, CLAP, CLAP!

While preparing to write this post, I learned that Savion Glover was actually a regular on Sesame Street from 1990 to 1995. That means there's probably a whole bunch of lucky 30-something-year-olds out there who grew up with Savion...and tap dancing! That makes me so happy. 

In case you'd like to see Savion Glover in action, or simply feel like reminiscing about Sesame Street, I'm going to leave you with a few videos. The first is of a young Savion playing a rhyming game in which he rhymes/raps while dancing out a bunch of words that rhyme with "tap." It's adorable...and infectious!

The second video, also from Sesame Street, stars both Savion Glover AND Gregory Hines, who was one of Savion's teachers. What a treat to see two generations of tap legends together on--in my humble opinion--the best children's show ever created...

And the final video is a clip of a more mature Savion Glover dancing, in 2002, with the cast of the Tony Award-winning musical Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk during a telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Wowza!

Learn more about This Is Tap: Savion Glover Finds His Funk from publisher Holiday House here. You can also read this blog post from the University of Michigan's University Musical Society for a brief introduction to the very interesting, but complex, history of tap dance in America. 

Raven Wilkinson: A True Inspiration

Misty Copeland, the first female Black principal dancer for the American Ballet Theatre, has been in the news and mentioned on social media again and again over the past few years. She's also become quite well known in the world of children's literature. For young readers, she's been featured in You Should Meet Misty Copeland, When I Grow Up: Misty Copeland, and A Girl Named Misty: The True Story of Misty Copeland. Misty is obviously a role model for many young girls and has even written a picture book of her own -- Firebird -- that uses her story to inspire girls everywhere to reach for their dreams. But who inspired Misty Copeland?

The answer is someone you may or may not have heard of -- someone featured in the picture book Trailblazer: The Story of Ballerina Raven Wilkinson, written by Leda Schubert and illustrated by Theodore Taylor III. I feel very privileged to have learned about Ms. Wilkinson's powerful story through this book, which is full of details and sometimes sobering illustrations that really help the reader settle into the story's historical time and setting.

"When I was twenty-three years old, I watched a documentary called Ballets Russes. This was the day my life and my purpose changed," Misty Copeland writes in the foreword of the book. "I discovered a black ballerina named Raven Wilkinson, and it was in her that I saw myself and what was possible." Misty was already a professional ballerina when she learned about Ms. Wilkinson, and now is honored to call her both a mentor and a friend.

Trailblazer begins with a young and passionate Raven seeing the famous Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo perform when she was just five years old. It then takes readers through Raven's childhood and difficult journey to become the first Black ballerina to dance with the very same company. After Raven first auditioned for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, a friend told her that she wouldn't be able to join because she was Black. That didn't stop Raven, who auditioned again, and again, until the director asked her to join the company in 1955, when she was just 20 years old.

As the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo toured the country, Raven faced many challenges. The Ku Klux Klan was active, it was illegal in some states for Black dancers to perform alongside White dancers, and men even rushed the stage once during a performance to object to Raven's presence.

One of the last straws for Raven was when she was told by a ballet mistress that she would never be able to dance the lead role in Swan Lake because she was Black. She left the Ballet Russe in 1963, though she did later dance and act with other groups in Europe and the United States, and she led the way for many Black ballet dancers who came after her. She was a trailblazer!

The book ends with an intersection of Raven's life with that of Misty Copeland. In 2015, Misty Copeland became the first Black ballerina in a prominent American ballet company to dance the lead role in Swan Lake, and Raven Wilkinson was there to celebrate with her!

Thanks to publisher little bee books for a review copy of Trailblazer: The Story of Ballerina Raven Wilkinson, which was released in 2018.

Edgar Degas: In Museums and In Books

If you are familiar with the French artist Edgar Degas (1834-1917), you probably know that he had a special fondness for ballet dancers. He painted them, he sculpted them, and he spent hours observing and sketching them on stage and during rehearsals. The result is a collection of more than 1,500 works of art that beautifully capture many aspects of a ballet dancer's life.

A bronze cast of Little Dancer of Fourteen Years,

which Degas originally sculpted in wax in 1880.

These works of art have also inspired a variety of picture books. Most of the books are fictional stories, but many of them also contain biographical information about Degas, reproductions of his paintings, and other factual information about his work. Although not exhaustive, the list below highlights a few books that I have read and enjoyed, a few that friends have recommended to me, and a few that I have seen frequently in gift shops at art museums. If you have a favorite that is not included on the list, I would love to hear about it.

Little Ballerina, the first on the list, was just published in September 2011 by Prestel Publishing. I hope to read it and potentially blog about it in more detail soon. In the coming weeks I'll also be posting a more in-depth look at Chasing Degas, which is the second newest book on the list, published by Abrams Books for Young Readers in 2009.

Little Ballerina

Author: Helene Kerillis

Illustrator: Lucie Albon

About: A young dancer performs on stage with ballerinas from the masterpiece The Rehearsal of the Ballet on Stage

Chasing Degas

Author: Eva Montanari

Illustrator: Eva Montanari

About: A young ballerina chases Degas all over Paris as she tries to recover her lost tutu before a performance at the opera house

Dancing with Degas

Authors: Julie Merberg and Suzanne Bober

About: A board book that introduces toddlers to Degas through rhyme and art 

Bijou, Bonbon & Beau

Author: Joan Sweeney

Illustrator: Leslie Wu

About: A cat has kittens in a theatre where Degas is sketching ballerinas

Degas and the Little Dancer

Author: Laurence Anholt

Illustrator: Laurence Anholt

About: A poor ballerina named Marie becomes an inspiration to Degas and the model for Little Dancer of Fourteen Years, one of his most famous sculptures

Marie in Fourth Position

Author: Amy Littlesugar

Illustrator: Ian Schoenherr

About: Another account of how the young ballerina Marie became the inspiration for Little Dancer of Fourteen Years

On a related note, I recently found out about two exhibitions that are focusing on the relationship between Degas and ballet. "Degas and the Ballet: Picturing Movement" is being held at the Royal Academy of Arts in London through December 11, 2011. And "Degas's Dancers at the Barre: Point and Counterpoint" is on display at The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, through January 8, 2012. 

You can read more about the London exhibit here, in a review in The Economist. And, if you live in the DC area and are interested in visiting The Phillips Collection with other dance or art lovers, then local dance studio Ballet Petite is organizing a group tour on Sunday, December 18, 2011 (if you register by November 18, 2011). You can find out more about the tour here. A picture book about Degas might be the perfect warm-up to the event!

The History and Power of African Dance

I can hardly believe it's been more than two weeks since I've blogged. I think that's a record for me...but one I won't be trying to break any time soon. Because Picture Books & Pirouettes has been so quiet lately, I thought I'd start this post off with a bang. Or maybe I should say a boom--the boom of an African drum!

In 1990, Angola dancer and choreographer Julio T. Leitao founded Batoto Yetu--the children's African dance troupe featured in the above video. The troupe is based in New York City, but the 4- to 17-year-olds who make up the company travel throughout the world sharing the incredible energy and rhythm of their art form.  

With the publication of Drumbeat in Our Feet by mulicultural publisher Lee & Low a few years back, dancer and choreographer Leitao also became a children's author. Leitao and author/illustrator Patricia A. Keeler teamed up to create this beautifully poetic picture book that captures the rich history and traditions of African dance.

Thinking about the ancestors once young like us--

Dancing in African soil

Dancing under African clouds

Dancing in African rain

Breathing in African air

Drumbeat in Our Feet contains plenty of nonfiction material, including information on the origins of African dance, the different types of African dances, the role of spirits and ancestors, costumes, and of course African drums.

Just as African dance styles vary between regions of the continent, so do drum styles. For instance, the drums in central Africa are conical shaped, held between the knees of the drummer. In western Africa, some drums are shaped like hourglasses with cords attached to each end. The drummer can then squeeze the cord and change the pitch of the drumbeat by tightening the goat skin that covers the top of the drum. Drumbeats carry the rhythm of the entire dance, but a special patterns of beats called a "break" also helps the dancers know when to start dancing, stop dancing, or change to a new dance step. 

Listen up! The drums are talking!

Listen for the drum break.

Hear the beat: Doom, doom, da!

Tet da-da-dum, Tet da-da dum, Doom, doom, da!

Hear the drum break? Dance, dance, dance!

What I really like about this book is that the left-hand side of each full-page spread includes the nonfiction information, while the right-hand side contains a more lyrical interpretation of the material. I also love Keeler's illustrations, which are full of both rich earthy colors and more vibrant colors, especially on the costumes of the dancers, who are all children. 

It turns out that Batoto Yetu founder Leitao and his family fled Angola during the civil war in the 1970s, and Leitao had a tough childhood living as a refugee after that. According to the back matter of the book, music and dance are part of what kept him going during those difficult years. 

I recently had the great fortune of being able to spend a week in Rwanda--another African country that has been deeply changed by civil war. Despite its history of war and genocide, Rwanda has made astounding progress over the years and seems to have such a wonderfully peaceful aura. In some small way, I like to think that dance has played a part in this.

In 2009, Ballet Rwanda was formed to encourage creativity among young children and help develop the arts in Rwanda through dance. And years earlier, the nonprofit Association Mwana Ukundwa was created to help Rwandan orphans navigate their journey to adulthood. The following video shows children from the association performing an African song and dance. I found it so beautiful and mesmerizing, so was compelled to share it with you....

We are the children of the ancestors, singing the songs, dancing the steps to a story that never ends. African rhythm in our steps. African drumbeat in our feet!