Lisa Papademetriou and the Magical Story of “The Fairy Book” by Ms. Craik
About the Interviewee: New York Times bestselling author Lisa Papademetriou is the author of Middle School: Big, Fat Liar and Homeroom Diaries (both with James Patterson), the Confectionately Yours series, and many other novels for middle grade and young adult readers. Her books have appeared on the Bank Street Best Books of the Year list, the NYPL Books for the Teen Age, and the Texas Lone Star Reading List, among others. A former editor, Lisa has worked for Scholastic, HarperCollins, and Disney Press. HarperCollins will publish her next novel, A Tale of Highly Unusual Magic, in 2015. She holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her website is www.lisapapa.com.
“I didn’t choose this book, the book chose me.”
Gino: The book that you chose to talk to me about is The Fairy Book by Mrs. Craik. You mentioned earlier that your grandmother gave it to you. How old were you at the time?
Lisa: My grandmother gave it to me for my 10th birthday.
Gino: Did she buy it specifically for you or did she already own it?
Lisa: She already owned it. My grandmother was German. She was an immigrant, and my great grandfather fought in World War I and was stationed in France. He bought this book in France because he wanted his daughter to learn English. He had three children, but my grandmother was the only one who learned English and she’s the only one who immigrated to the United States. She had married a Greek and he managed to get a Greek passport. They immigrated, first to England, and then to the United States in the 30s. She was actually in England when war was declared against Germany.
For whatever reason, she did not give this book to my father. She gave it straight to me on my 10th birthday, which was a really formative moment, because that was the year my parents got divorced as well. At that moment in my life, it really felt like this book had come to me from across the world. From a span of 80 years.
Gino: Did she ever explain why she chose to give the book to you?
Lisa: I don’t know. I mean, why did she hold on to it? Why did she bring from Germany with her? Why did she give it to me and not her son?
“At that moment in my life, it really felt like this book had come to me from across the world.”
Gino: I like that we don’t know. It makes the backstory more mysterious.
Lisa: It is mysterious! I mean, it’s not like she was moving at that moment and she’d gone through her items and come across it. And why did she give it to me when I was 10? I guess she wanted me to be at a certain level of reading so I could appreciate the book and take care of it.
Gino: Out of all of the back stories from people I’ve interviewed about books, your backstory is definitely the most interesting.
Lisa: Well, thank you. I can’t believe my great grandfather found a book written in English in France, and he was a German guy.
Gino: That seems impossible, especially at the time, when traveling was much more difficult and objects weren’t circulated all over the world the way the are today.
Lisa: Yeah, right, it’s not like he just found it on eBay. Doesn’t it seem like it was waiting for me, her American granddaughter?
Gino: It absolutely does. The book has so much personal significance attached to it. Is it something you’ve revisited multiple times?
Lisa: Absolutely. And most of the love and wear on this is from me actually. I think I probably got it in pristine condition from my grandmother.
Gino: Were you always into fairy tales?
Lisa: I was always a big rereader and I still am to a certain extent. Although being a grown up…
Gino: Doesn’t provide you with as much time to reread.
Lisa: Yeah, exactly.
Gino: And there’s always so much good stuff out there, it can be hard to justify rereading vs reading something new.
Lisa: Right. And as a child, you have this sense of unlimited time, like, “Oh, I’ll just be able to read whatever I want to.” Plus, you don’t have the sense of how many books are out there, so you just read the same ones over and over.
Gino: How do you make time for reading as an adult?
Lisa: I graduated from my Master of Fine Arts program for writing for children and young adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Of course for a master’s program, you have to do a ton of reading. I would get up, usually around 5:30 to do my reading, otherwise I would fall behind. I just kept up that habit because it’s my favorite time of the day. It’s interesting how much of our lives is just like the law of inertia. A body in motion tends to stay in motion, the body of someone who’s reading tends to want to keep reading.
“It’s interesting how much of our lives is just like the law of inertia. A body in motion tends to stay in motion, the body of someone who’s reading tends to want to keep reading.”
Gino: Having reread this book several times in your life, are there any stories that stand out as favorites or that you remember better than others?
Lisa: Well, my favorite as a kid was “The White Cat”. Let’s see, “The Hind of the Forest”, that was another favorite. “The White Cat” is so intense. It’s a transformation story where the princess turns into a white cat and the prince has to cut off her head and tail, and then she transforms, as I recall. These stories, you know, they’re stories that are…
Gino: They have a very dark layer to them.
Lisa: Exactly. And the language has this kind of Victorian-esque feel to it, and somehow, it’s kind of the same tone that you hear on a lot of high-fantasy. It’s this really elegant diction, and it makes everything reverberate and gives everything added weight and mystery. I think that was what stuck with me. That’s not really how I write, but I sure did love reading it.
Gino: Have you read any of these stories with your daughter yet?
Lisa: No, I haven’t. In fact, she only found out about this book like a couple days ago. I only just showed it to her the night before last night and she ripped a page. It was horrifying. (Laughs)
Gino: Oh man, that’s like dragging a needle across your dad’s favorite record. (Laughs)
Lisa: Exactly. Although I have to say, this spine was whole when I got it, and look at it now.
Gino: Right. Books fall apart over time. When your grandmother gave you this book, what sorts of things were you reading? Did this book change your path and make you say, “I want to read more books like this”?
Lisa: That’s really interesting, and I have to think about that for a minute. Because age 10, fifth grade, was when I moved from what we would think of as realistic fiction for tweens, like Judy Blume’s Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and that sort of fiction, to reading a lot of fantasy. I was a huge rereader, so I’ve read all the Chronicles of Narnia, at minimum 13 times each. In reading that series, I realized that someone had written those books and that was that person’s job. And I thought, “That is the job for me. That is the job I’m going to have when I grow up.”
Gino: So in many ways The Fairy Book formed reading tastes and habits that led you to pursue writing. It’s also interesting that you took a gradual jump from shorter stories in a big collection to a long series like Chronicles of Narnia.
Lisa: I read a lot of fantasy as a kid. I read The Hobbit and all of the Lord of the Rings books, but I also read a lot of realism like The Outsiders. I loved A Wrinkle in Time and A Wind in the Door. I read all of those, and I read A Wizard of Earthsea. That’s Ursula Le Guin. It ended up being a series, too, and it’s a beautifully executed book about a boy in a wizard school a la the 70s. I was a big fantasy reader and I kind of always thought I would be a fantasy writer, but then I wasn’t.
Gino: You took a different path.
Lisa: Right. My most recent book does have an element of fantasy, so it’s kind of that marriage of the Judy Blume kind of realistic fiction with this fantastical element.
“I realized that someone had written those books and that was that person’s job. And I thought, ‘That is the job for me. That is the job I’m going to have when I grow up.’”
Gino: It seems like the books of your childhood have influenced you the most as a writer. Would you say that’s accurate?
Lisa: The books that I remember having a profound influence on me, for the most part, were in that 10-year-old space. After that, I’ve read a bunch of good books, but I can’t say that many of them had a huge impact on me. Even the ones that were illuminating like the Grapes of Wrath. I didn’t feel them on that soul level that you feel when you’re 10, if that makes sense.
Gino: It makes total sense. People think you connect with the books you read at a young age because of your limited experiences as a reader. I think it’s something much more than that. Roald Dahl once said that children’s literature is amazing because people with such a diverse range of reading ability can appreciate the same book. There’s a universal appeal to children’s books. And they often deal with really heavy subject matter in a manageable, digestible way. They tend to be very honest.
Lisa: Right, that’s what fairy tales did too. They dealt with all kinds of scary things in the woods and children whose parents were basically abusive, but in a way that children could identify with and maybe digest. I mean, the fantasy genre is the oldest genre there is, really, because it’s like the granddaddy of them all. It’s just myth transformed and that’s kind of how we understand the world. I didn’t read Roald Dahl when I was a kid for whatever reason, I don’t know why. I read it more recently, and I had that same kind of child-like feeling reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for the first time.
Gino: And it seems like much of that child-like feeling can be traced back to this book. I’m honored that you shared such a special book with me and I was able to see it in person.
Lisa: Yeah. It’s just been my little secret book on my shelf, you know, that I’ve always kept. And like I said, my daughter didn’t even know about it, because why would she know? It’s just been in this box on the shelf. It’s one of those things that doesn’t come up like, “Let me show you my special book,” unless someone would ask.
“I mean, the fantasy genre is the oldest genre there is, really, because it’s like the granddaddy of them all. It’s just myth transformed and that’s kind of how we understand the world.”
Gino: I notice there’s a culture in America where albums and movies are constantly discussed by artists and creative people. I love music and film and it makes total sense, but we don’t do the same thing with books. When you talk to people about books that are important to them, they give you an amazing, intimate view into their life. It’s a really good springboard to talk about other things.
Lisa: It is. You’re asking for one book that influenced someone, and that kind of takes the need to be profound away. But it’s also…it’s also not even a question of taste so much as what moved you in a certain direction. And I didn’t choose this book, the book chose me.
Bookshelf Beats is a website run by Gino Sorcinelli. I interview people about books that change their lives, inspire them, and/or make them think differently. If you enjoyed this article consider subscribing to my Medium publication.
