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player ready...Once upon a time there was a technical writer who decided she wanted to write about something other than computers and science and stuff like that. As her mind wandered, she started to think about giants. What would it be like if instead of being scary, the giant was your best friend? If you got to play with one? What if you ran a race, would he beat you in one step?
The writer wrote down all her ideas until she’d finally written a whole book. She was so excited! But it still took four years and 105 rejections before a kind publisher told her he would like to publish it. The rest, as they say, is herstory.
Andrea Beaty is a No. 1 New York Times bestselling author who began writing for children in 2005. She’s authored dozens of books and has just signed a deal with Netflix to produce a new original animated series scheduled for next fall.
A Naperville resident since 1992, her latest book, “One Girl,” is a poetic story of female empowerment published last month by Abrams. The inspiring picture book, illustrated by Dow Phumiruk, is about the power of reading and how one child can change the world.
I spoke with Beaty not only about “One Girl,” but her career and just what it’s like to be a children’s author.
“It happened by accident. I (was the one) most surprised,” she said. “My background was in computer science. I did tech support and technical writing.”
Although it sounds a world away from writing for children, it’s actually just the opposite, Beaty said.
“Technical writing was probably the most boring thing I had ever done but it was great training to write for kids,” she said. “You have to explain complicated things quickly and not bore them; you have to make it interesting.”
Many of Beaty’s books have a scientific bent and feature STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) themes featuring curious characters like architect Iggy Peck, engineer Rosie Revere and scientist Ada Twist, scientist.
As part of the Questioneers series, they all feature children who want to discover something. Surprisingly, she never begins by thinking of a specific message.
“I almost never set out to have a lesson because it’s so easy to be didactic and children think that’s boring,” she said.
Iggy Peck is based on her son, who as a child loved to build things.
“I wanted to explore his passion,” she said.
She wrote Sofia Valdez, Future Prez following the 2016 presidential election.
“After the election I was hearing about kids who were scared, sad their grandpa would be deported,” she said. “I wanted them to know as kids, they can be brave too, not just their parents.”
Beaty got the idea for her latest book, “One Girl,” from the documentary “Girl Rising,” which tells the story of nine courageous young women around the globe.
“It looked at girls’ lives and education and what their lives were like without it,” she said.
“I have always known girls’ education was important. It struck me how simple and seemingly small it is, that when you can change a girl, she changes her family, her village, her region, other nations and the world. Nothing but goodness comes out.
“There are more than 150 million girls who get no education at all. I think if we fixed it more of other problems would disappear. A poem came to me and I’m hoping the book will be a little spark.”
The book production process begins with the writing and then it’s handed over to the illustrator.
“One of the things I almost never do is to write instructions,” Beaty said. “I try to leave everything open for the illustrators. They bring their own humor unless there’s a specific joke or plot point. … Iggy Peck started with just words until David Roberts created this magnificent classroom of kids. Now I’m inspired by his art.”
Seeing the story come to life with artwork is always interesting, she said.
“My first reaction is always, ‘No, that’s wrong,'” she said, laughing. “It’s like reading a novel and then seeing the movie. But those images become the person. I don’t illustrate my own books. I learned early I can write all day but if I want them to become books in a child’s hands, I have to be collaborative. I have to give up that control.”
She laughs when asked to describe an average day.
“My aspiration is to have an average day,” she says. “Typically, I’m up at 9 a.m. answering emails. At 10.30 a.m. I get writing. Two to three hours work can result in 300 words or two words. I edit as I go and polish, polish, polish.
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“By the time I get to the end of a picture book, I know it’s solid but the publisher will still send revisions. With novels, I’ll go to the end then revise them two or three times. It takes many months.”
Not surprisingly, Beaty loved books as a child. As one of six siblings, she thought of going to the library as a vacation. She says she dreamed of being accidentally left in the library so she could settle down with a book all weekend.
“I was going to have fancy librarian dinners, wear a gold sweater and sit in a big leather chair all weekend,” she joked.
Beaty is a big proponent of independent booksellers. She describes Anderson’s Bookshop as the best independent bookstore on the planet.
“They do such a remarkable job of finding books for their readers, they’re really a treasure,” she said. “Supporting independent booksellers like Anderson’s is everything. There are so many books that for your book to have any oxygen, it needs people to say, ‘You have to read this.'”
Beaty says she only writes things she would like to read herself. It’s just fortunate that that happens to be what her young readers love too, she said.
Given her demeanor and bubbly personality, she’d probably have made a perfect elementary school teacher had she not followed her passion for science.
“I don’t think about the kids or editors, only does it interest me and make me happy?” she said. “It just happens that I function at a six-year-old’s level. Things I find amusing work for them. I’m exceedingly fortunate that kids are attracted to my work because I maintain a link to my six-year-old self.”
Hilary Decent is a freelance journalist who moved from England to Naperville in 2007.