[ Music ] >> Sara Peté: Hello, I'm Sara Peté, director of the Washington Center for The Book, an affiliate of the Library of Congress and a project of the Washington State Libraries where I work. The Centers for The Books help carry out the mission of the National Center, which is to promote books, reading, libraries and literacy nationwide. We also promote our state's literary heritage by putting a focus on books and authors with a connection to our states. Every year as part of our participation in the Library of Congress National Book Festival. We each choose books with a local connection. This is part of the Great Reads from Great Places Initiative. You can learn more at read.gov. Today we are speaking with Great Reads authors from several states. They were invited by the affiliate centers for The Book of Alaska, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, and Washington. It's my great pleasure to introduce today's author -- authors to you alphabetically by the name of state they're representing here today. Representing Alaska Recess at 20 Below. Cindy Lou Aillaud has been a classroom special education and or physical education teacher for 23 years. A few of her many honors include a Fulbright Memorial Fund scholarship for study in Japan in 2000. And the Alaska elementary Physical Education Teacher of the Year Award 2006. She recently retired from Delta Greeley School District in Alaska. Miss. Aillaud continues to live in Delta Junction, Alaska and stays busy visiting schools all across the world, encouraging kids to write their own stories. She is the author of Recess at 20 Below and coauthored the book Everybody Plays: How Kids With Visual Impairments Play Sports with Dr. Lauren Lieberman. Represented California, Frankie & Bug. Gayle Forman is an award-winning author of books for children, young adults and adults. She is the author of The New York Times Best Selling if I Stay series, and The Just One series. The middle grade debut, Frankie & Bug, was released last fall when the California Library Association Medium Work Middle [inaudible] Literature. And native of California. She now lives with her husband, children and various pets in Brooklyn and upstate New York, which is where she is for today's panel. Representing Hawaii Leilani Blessed and Grateful. Greg Bowman, Bo, received his BA in social science secondary education at Salisbury State College and his MA in Recreation Administration at the University of Maryland. A US Army veteran who has been a lifelong educator, coach and camp administrator for nearly 50 years. In his spare time, Bo enjoys exercising, reading, listening to various music genres and telling corny jokes. He hopes this will elevate the awareness of Blessings and Gratitude perpetuates the sense of wonder in all his readers. He is currently a world religions teacher at Iolani School, Iolani School. This is his first excursion into literary [inaudible]. Alan Suemori has taught English and history in the Hawaii high schools for the last 29 years. Leilani is the first children's book he has coauthored. He also wrote an oral history of traditional funeral resources across the state and is a longtime contributor to the Hawaii Herald, which is a five month in Japanese [inaudible]. He spends his free time reading, biking, and swimming in the ocean. Representing Idaho, The Stories Behind The Stories, remarkable true tales behind your favorite children's books. But Danielle Higley's not writing either for herself or as a freelance business blogger. She's typically working overtime as a stay-at-home mom to her toddler son, James. As a longtime resident of Idaho, she's had the chance to explore its many [inaudible] in the strange starry [inaudible] sand dunes to the peaks of the Sawtooth Mountains. The Stories Behind The Stories is her first book. Representing Nevada with The Girl Who Fell Beneath The Sea, Axie Oh is the New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Fell Beneath The Sea, XOXO and the Rebel series. Born in New York City and raised in New Jersey. She studied Korean history and creative writing as an undergrad at the University of California San Diego and holds an MFA in writing for young people [inaudible]. Her passions include hip hop, anime, and stationery supplies, and milk tea, and she currently resides in Las Vegas with both of her dogs Leila in Toro [inaudible]. And finally representing Washington, The Last Cuentista, Donna Barba Higuera's Middle Grade and Picture books, event history, folklore and or her own life experience, it's a compelling story. She lives in Washington State with her husband, four kids, three dogs, and a frog. Her books include, Lupe Wong Won't Dance, El Cucuy Is Scared Too, The Last Cuentista. Higuera's books have won awards, including the Newbery Medal, both Pura Belpré Medal and Honor, The NBA Best Book of the Year Award, and Fleischman Award for best children's book of the year. Thank you all so much for your incredible books and for being with us today in the studio. Can you share with us what inspired you to write your book? Why was it important for you to tell this story? >> Greg Bowman: Leilani Blessed and Grateful is about a fourth-grade girl who takes a class trip to Iolani Palace. She quickly becomes enamored with King Kalakaua and Queen Kapi'olani. She expresses gratitude at that point, and it kind of sets the theme for blessings and gratitude throughout the rest of the book. She returns home, shares her excitement with her family about the trip. And her family reminds her about blessings and gratitude in both Hawaii, the past and Hawaii the present. Most of the book is a dream scene in which Leilani meets Queen Kapi'olani. Queen Kapi'olani takes her on a tour of her kingdom in the 1880s. So, it's kind of a soft, fanciful, local history as the book progresses. And then at the end, it's kind of a surprise ending. But it's wrapped up with Leilani's expression of gratitude that she's been able to discern these blessings and express gratitude for both old Hawaii and Hawaii of today. What inspired us was we both love Hawaii and Hawaiian history. Alan teaches Hawaiian history and two of our favorite characters were always King Kalakaua and Queen Kapi'olani. Walked down Kalakaua Avenue to get to Kapi'olani Park. We sometimes take walks into Kapi'olani Park and two conversations in Kapi'olani Park and kind of gave us the idea of coming up with this type of story. And addition, blessings and gratitude are important to both of us. And it's a high priority in our lives. And I guess we wrapped all that together and came up with the idea for the book. >> Alan Suemori: I think we felt that our community is under such great stress at this time. And we thought it was really important to try and give something back that was positive and uplifting. And so, this was our hope and aspiration in putting the book together. >> Cindy Lou Aillaud: When I was a kindergarten teacher. I always did recess duty for my students and one very cold day. In fact, 20 degrees below zero day, I took all my kindergarten students outside for recess. And all my kindergarten students were playing outside, running around having a great time as only kindergarteners can do. While I was standing there, watching all the action, shivering in my boots, and wondering, why is it do I live here? When suddenly, an idea popped into my head. And I thought, oh my gosh, these awesome Alaskan kids have a story to tell. And maybe I should help them tell it. And so, the idea of photographing and writing the story Recess At 20 Below, happened. So, that is my inspiration for writing Recess At 20 Below and photographing it. I started photographing the kids and initially I thought it just be a photographic project. But then I developed a story, and I had my own book of Recess At 20 Below. So, I could only photograph though when it was 20 degrees below zero. So, I always hoped every day in the winter would be 20 degrees below zero. So, we could go outside and play, and I would be true to my title. >> Axie Oh: I thought it was funny because you, Cindy, and the other authors are saying that their books are very reminiscent of their states and my book is not. It's in the sea, and I live in Nevada, which is the desert. But my novel, The Girl Who Fell Beneath The Sea is a YA fantasy retelling of a Korean folk tale. And my inspiration was obviously the folktales based off of which is called The Tale of Shim Cheong, which is a very, very famous folk tale in Korea. And in my book, my main character, her village, is cursed by these storms. And she has to -- but these storm sent by the sea god. And so, she has to journey to the spirit realm in order to end the curse. It's like really fun, romantic, and I was inspired because when I was young, my favorite genre of stories were YA fantasy retellings like some of my favorite authors, including Shannon Hale, Gail Carson Levine. But there weren't any stories that were retelling that had -- that shared my heritage, my Korean heritage. So, when I sat down to write this book, I was like I want to write a story that's like similar in that vein of retellings. But the main character would be Korean, based off something that really was important to me. And this particular folktale was, I love this book tale. I had a -- I have a picture book of this folktale called Sim Chung and the River Dragon. And I loved this picture book, because it has a beautiful illustration of this girl in a Hanbok, which is a Korean traditional dress. And so, for my book, my main request for my cover was that it would have a girl in a Hanbok and I got that. So, that was why this book is so important to me and why this was the story I wanted to tell. >> Donna Barba Higuera: The idea for The Last Cuentista just came from a writing prompt. There was a writing prompt, many, many, many years ago. And I oftentimes will use writing prompts to kind of get my brain muscles working. And the writing prompt was take a traditional fairy tale and make it sci-fi. Well, that's like my dream writing prompt, because I love science fiction. I always have. And I decided, though, that I wasn't going to do -- I was working with some other writers, a lot of them were using the really well known traditional fairy tales, Cinderella, Snow White. I decided to use the Princess and the Pea. And I thought it was one of those tales that people kind of forget about. And it was about this, you know, a princess who the queen is trying to find a wife for her son, and they put a pee under the pillow. And if this woman is superdelicate, then they know that it's a princess. And it always bugged me. So, I decided to take that tale and make this a really powerful girl who was traveling across the universe. This is where it gets a little hokey and her pea or the P.E.A, Pellet of Extended Animation, fails. And so, she doesn't fall asleep. And this was just a short story that I had written. It was about two pages and about she wakes up 400 years later, and society has changed and what is she going to do about it, and she's this powerful person who's going to take over. So, I kind of spun that fairy tale gave it a little whirl to make it kind of what I wanted the fairy tale to be. So, but the story haunted me. The idea of traveling across the universe and waking up and society changing. And so, it -- while it started with that one little writing prompt, I started thinking about that, what if we had to leave Earth? And what if there was a character who was going to another planet and knew they were going to survive? But what was -- what did they value? They could only take, you know, very few things with them. What was most important? And for me, that thing was story and books. And so, I decided that my main character, Petra, was going to try to make sure she got downloaded with all of the books, and mythology and folklore. So, when she arrived, this download while she slept, she would arrive with all this knowledge from Earth. And I think that the part of the reason why this book was so important for me was that because story is so important to me and knowing that she's taking this with her, but also my love of science fiction I got to incorporate in this novel. But also, my love of Mexican folklore and mythology and the stories that I heard growing up. And so, when I started writing it, I was like, wow, this is a really weird idea. I don't know how this is going to go over. But as I started writing it, these parts of myself and things that even as a child, I might have been a little bit embarrassed to share with others. My love of Mexican folklore and mythology and my culture, my love of science fiction, suddenly started pouring out to this novel, into this novel. And so, by the time I was done, it made perfect sense to me. But I didn't know if others would love this book like I did. So, but that's kind of where it started was a simple writing prompt. So, that can happen, you know, with one little sentence, things can like blow up if your imagination can go there. >> Danielle Higley: I wish I could take credit for the idea of this book. But actually, I think it's kind of unique in that it was the brainchild of David and Stephanie Miles, who own Bushel & Peck publishers, they're Bushel and Peck Books. And David was actually the illustrator of this book. So, they came to me with the concept for it. And they said, how would you feel about writing a book that encapsulated all of these, you know, backstories, behind famous children's books? And I immediately jumped at the chance, not just because it was kind of my first foot in the door for publishing my own book, but also just because I've always loved history, I've always loved children's books. And I've always been completely fascinated by the backstories of why an author came up with a certain book. For a long time, I've always loved, you know, JK Rowling, and this idea that she was turned down by all these publishers, before Harry Potter was published. And that was always such an inspiration to me, just knowing that you can -- that somebody as incredible as her could fail. You know, it was such an amazing piece of writing, I guess. And so, you know, and that from there, just kind of coming up with this list of books. Dave and Stephanie were great. They gave me a lot of bandwidth to be able to come up with the list of books that we would include. And so, a lot of it was me kind of harkening back to the books of my childhood that I think are still completely relevant today, like Goodnight Moon, Where The Wild Things Are, Curious George, the Boxcar Children. And as I was researching them, it was so incredible to me, just what led these authors to create their stories, and sort of their shared histories, and how relevant those histories are today. And I think that as far as, you know, what was important to me, the biggest thing that was important to me, was just getting it right, because these amazing authors, some of whom are alive today, some of them aren't, you know, should have their stories told in a way that is -- that fits how wonderful they are, and how wonderful their history was. And I'm not sure that I necessarily nailed it on 100% but I hope so. Because they're their books are beautiful. And I'm just honored to be able to tell that story. >> Gayle Forman: So, Frankie & Bug is set in the 80s, which makes it a historical novel. And it's a little humbling to realize that growing up in the 80s, I can actually write history. But that kind of is the reason that I wanted to write this book. And I wanted to set it then which was, I had this moment of sort of looking back at how quickly certain sorts of civil liberties or people who were not receiving civil liberties had had really progressed since I was a teenager, specifically looking at sort of LGBTQ populations, which sort of back then you were either straight or you had a secret. And this was all happening during the AIDS crisis. And then I was thinking about how other, you know, other civil liberties and issues did not seem to move forward and maybe even move back. I -- growing up in California, I had undocumented friends who received amnesty when the government passed amnesty for undocumented and now I was living in a time where children were being locked in cages. So, I wanted to write a book that sort of allowed young people today to kind of understand the world as it was. And that led me to Venice Beach, Frankie & Bug, these two sort of irascible, 10 and 11 year olds, who don't like each other very much at first when Frankie is sent to spend the summer in Venice. But they team up to catch a serial killer also based on a real-life serial killer that terrified me growing up, the Night Stalker. And it's sort of about the two of them learning to show up for each other and discovering sort of some of the wrongs in the world. And it's about sort of found family they live in this -- Bug lives in this apartment building with her single mother and her brother, and upstairs is their neighbor Philip, who I think anybody today would read as a gay man, but both being 10 in 1980s doesn't get it. And they're downstairs neighbor who's an emigrate from Hungary who escaped the Cold War. And so, the entire book is really just kind of about found family, finding salvation finding, finding sort of sanctuary in places. But really, back to the historical how quickly certain things can change, but that they don't change without people working together to force change, that hoping for change is not enough. Hope needs to be an active verb and you have to put action behind it. So, that is why I wrote Frankie & Bug. >> Sara Peté: National Book Festival's theme this year is books bring us together. What does that theme mean to you? What are your hopes for how your book could bring us together? >> Danielle Higley: One of the things that I have loved about writing the stories behind the stories and getting to see it published, as far as you know, bringing books together, what's really cool about it is that because it spans the distance between, you know, everything from Mother Goose back in the 1800s, to -- like Captain Underpants, sort of these, these modern stories of the 21st century. Diary Of a Wimpy Kid, is that when somebody picks it up, and they look at, you know, the stories that are inside. A lot of times, it's, you know, it's an adult, and they're saying, like, oh, my gosh, yeah, I, I read, you know, A Wrinkle in Time, or I read -- The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, or the Boxcar Children, or whatever it is. And when they're talking to their kid, their kid has is reading like Curious Georgia or Where The Wild Things Are. And what's cool is, is that when they take that book home, maybe -- their children are still reading these books, like the Hobbit or Harry Potter, you know, they're just kind of starting to get into them. And, and they're sharing, like, together, you know, not just like reading this book for the first time, but then they can kind of like reference this book, and they can see or my book and they can see, you know, how that book came to be. And I think it's a really great way for adults to connect with their children or their grandchildren. And a great conversation starter, because, you know, you're kind of sitting in bed together, telling the bedtime stories. And it's not just reading, you know, the fiction, but also the nonfiction behind it, which is kind of cool. >> Gayle Forman: I like to think of novels as empathy delivery devices. And they do something in a way that I feel like lecturing or hectoring, or telling young people, or older people just doesn't work. And a little spoiler about Frankie & Bug is a -- Bug realizes about halfway through the book, Frankie tells her that he's a trans boy, although in 1987, Ohio, there's not really a word for it. And Bug just kind of accepts that as face value. She tries to figure out how to sort of show up for him just as he tries to figure out how to show it for her. They mess up a lot of the time. But to Bug, what matters is her friendship with Frankie and catching the serial killer and being able to go swimming in the beach. And I think through her, you see some of the absurdity of the transphobic bathroom bills or all the sort of transphobic rhetoric that we've seen happening here. So, I think that books can really show people, particularly when you're telling stories for young people, just how absurd the sort of artificial prejudice that we create between ourselves are so but kind of blows that away. And again, I really wanted young people to see that change can happen. But it does not happen if we are not there muscling together, as Bug's Mama says. You know, we have to hurry toward justice and that requires action. So, I wanted it to be both a call to action and also like a reassurance because I know my kids just kind of assume the way things are now is how they always were. And it's astonishing to me. The swiftness, which was some things can change. And so, I wanted it to be a hopeful read to young people, even though it really does address some injustices head on and without sort of sugarcoating. >> Donna Barba Higuera: When you pick up a book you're, you're getting a window into someone else's experience. And when -- if you can live that story with the character, kind of like what Gayle said, you get to have empathy for that person, and maybe something about them that character you didn't understand before, whether it's their culture or their identity. And reading that and growing to have a friendship, perhaps with that character. That's how we gain empathy. And that's how a book can bring you together in understanding someone else's experience. And then, you know, you've made a friend that you didn't have before. I think a lot of times we go through life with a fear of things that we don't understand. And books allow us to read those experiences of things that we might have feared before just because we didn't understand them. And suddenly those things that we were afraid of. No longer are we, -- no longer afraid, we embrace them with love. And I think that's really important. And that's what that theme means to me. As far as what my hopes were for my book, I don't know that I had any, but I will tell you it's been extremely humbling now that I can see it in real life, how it's bringing people together. The one thing that's been really interesting for me is that while my book is classified as middle grade or upper middle grade, because we kind of have to, we have to put it in a category. I'm seeing kids who are reading it in book clubs with parents and grandparents, and they're all getting different messages from it, but it's opening up discussions. And they get to have, you know, these talks about what the book means to them. And it's different, I think, for everyone. And it's not just that it's, you know, kids who are reading the book, who maybe haven't been exposed to, you know, this culture or the mythology and folklore. And the things in the stories that might have seemed a little bit creepy. At the end, they understand them. And maybe they learned a little Spanish, and maybe they feel like they're Petra's friend and something that might have been something that they might not have approached wholeheartedly before. Now they're unafraid. And they can embrace that thing and that culture, and it belongs to them now as well. And not just the character, Petra, and I think that's what books do, we introduce our characters, and hope to make friends. >> Axie Oh: [Inaudible] amazing idea that books need to be windows, as Gayle and Donna are saying about where you can read about another reader. You can read another person's experience, and you can feel empathy for them. But the other side of that is that books also should be mirrors. And I think that was really important for me, because like I said in my -- earlier was that, you know, growing up, I loved young adult literature, like it was my favorite genre. But I never really, I never saw any Korean faces and very rarely saw any Asian faces. And so, that was really important to me that all of my books that I've ever published have had, on the cover -- a Korean face, a Korean character. That's always been a request of mine. And that's something that I think is really important that kids and young people and also adults have mirrors where they can see themselves represented in these wonderful children's books and these wonderful books. And I think that's something that I will always do. I always request that going forward is having the covers, always having a character with a Korean face and you can see them on the cover. And this book, actually, also, we mentioned my bio was New York Times bestseller, which was really awesome, because it was one of the first on the list that had an Asian -- Korean protagonist. And so, things like that, I think, are really important. Visibility. I get lots of messages like Donna, you're saying, I get lots of messages from actually aspiring writers who aren't necessarily Korean. But you know, they'll come up and they'll say, I didn't know that you could write about, you know, this obscure folk tale, you know, in the western lens. You can write about this obscure folktale and you're in a [inaudible] doll. And that's like, yeah, you could do it, you could do whatever you want. And they're like your, I guess, they feel empowered. I get lots of emails. And even at book signings, I get people coming up to me, writers and saying that they feel inspired, that they could also write, you know, a folktale, retelling from their heritage, things like that. And I think that always makes me feel so -- such a great feeling. And I don't know, if I set out always to write, you know, I'm not like, oh, I want to represent every Korean. But because I'm Korean, I feel like inherently happens, because it's what I care about. And it comes out in the stories I tell. So, that's what this theme means to me. >> Cindy Lou Aillaud: I have to agree with other authors when they said that books can be a window into the world. In that I think that a book can allow us to see into someone else's backyard. And we can experience what it's like, at another location or in another culture. And I think that's really important that it can then open up discussion and also encourage curiosity to research more about a place or culture or peoples. And I think that's, that's really a cool thing about books. We can learn a lot. So, I think with my book, nearly every kid all across the world experiences recess and loves recess. And so, immediately, they can pick up a book Recess At 20 Below and have something in common about that because they want to find out how recess is in a very cold place in Alaska. And so, a lot of kids and schools across the globe have actually taken Recess At 20 Below, and written their own story about recess at their location. And so, I've received books written by kids from Australia, and from Nevada, and several other places that I can then share with my students and my school. So, that's been really fun to feel like one little idea, maybe encourage some writers to share something about themselves and their locations. >> Alan Suemori: For me, a good book reconnects me to myself, to my best self. And I felt that -- I feel like I live in a time where it's very easy to lose, to lose my best self, to lose my North Star. And that's why books are so precious to me. That's why I love them so much. That's why I keep reading the same books over and over again. Because I feel like they reconnect me to my highest, my highest voice. And by doing that, I feel I then can connect to other people in a way that's constructive and organic and truthful and meaningful. That's it. >> Greg Bowman: We, -- excuse me. We thought there were several unifiers, so to speak, in our book for bringing people together. One would be the aloha spirit, which is embodied throughout the book, when that aloha spirit naturally brings people together. Another was blessings and gratitude. We feel that's kind of universal by nature. It cuts across racial ethnicity, nationalities that people universally engage in blessings and gratitude. I know I live in an apartment building and just a little side story in regards to that. I live on a high floor in an apartment building. So, I spent a lot of time in elevators, and being in a tourist area, I'm often with people that I see for the very first time. So, when I engage in conversation with them, and they asked me, how am I doing? My typical response is, I'm blessed and grateful. And that just immediately disarms people, and engages people, and connects people. And I get responses like, ain't that the truth? Amen to that you are so right and they just -- starts a conversation very quickly. Another unifier we felt for our book, Alan, put together this marvelous couple of history pages. With pictures of real life, King Kalakaua and Queen Kapi'olani, and the Iolani Palace, and the Royal Hawaiian [inaudible]. Those pages come at the end of the book and are written largely for adults. But -- it enables adults to go back and make more elaborations with the book. And the characters in the book as they're portrayed in the book. We feel the connection here is between kupuna, which is a term for senior citizens in Hawaii, and keiki, which is a term for children in Hawaii. We've read to our lower school students, and we've engaged in readings, and we've noticed throughout the regions. And sometimes its kupuna, keiki and sometimes it's keiki reading to kupuna. But it brings these two generations together. Another thing for our particular book is a sense of wonder. When we wrote the book, we wanted to capture that sense of wonder throughout the book. And we've noticed and our hope is, and we've noticed that it does seem to rekindle, to ignite a sense to wonder in some, and in some older people to reignite a sense of wonder. So, we feel that good books are like good friends, they're always there for you. One of our reasons that our particular book Leilani Blessed And Grateful, bring us together is under the theme of blessings and gratitude. And within our book, we've embedded a gratitude journal for young children. So, when we read to them, or when they read it to themselves, there is a page where they can print their people, places, things or activities for whom they're grateful. And there's also a page where they can draw pictures of the same. So, that's a huge part of our book, blessings and gratitude, which again, we feel is a unifier in effect. >> Sara Peté: Share a book that was significant to you growing up, and why. >> Gayle Forman: I'm going to share a whole series. The Ramona books by Beverly Cleary were incredibly meaningful to me first as a kid, later as a parent, and later as an author. I think I love the Ramona books for so many reasons. But really, I love them, because number one, they really showed a family dealing with things and not sort of protecting or hiding it from the child because the child is a member of that family. And also, because Ramona is a pest, and a brat, and all kinds of things. And she's constantly sort of fighting to become a better version of herself and failing and learning because that's how we grow. So, I love Ramona so much as a child. I identified, I read all those books over and over again. When I read them aloud to my own children, I learned a lot from the Quimby's as parents, and how to parent and how your child failing and not loving their teacher and just having frustrations, which as a parent you want to protect them from, is really just kind of a part of like growing up. And you have to let them do their thing. When I started Frankie & Bug, I think it was 2013. It took me a really, really long time to get that middle grade voice. I've been writing young adult primarily and that voice always came easy to me. But the middle grade voice did not. And it was when I finally remembered Ramona. And if you read Frankie & Bug, Bug and Ramona share some essential DNA. That I gave myself permission to write these flawed kids to not try and show them as perfect because it was in their imperfections and the imperfect ways that they screw up and aren't great with each other and have it out and move on. That's how they grow. And I want young people to know it's a messy process. And it's okay to be wrong sometimes. And it's okay to say the wrong thing to somebody, you know, you just have to learn to like, sit with that discomfort for a minute and say I'm sorry, I was thinking about myself, tell me how I can do better. And these kids, they managed to do that. And I learned that from Ramona. >> Donna Barba Higuera: This is really hard. Because there are so many and when everyone is -- I'll get questions like what was your favorite book? I have 50 favorite books. But I'm really glad that Gayle mentioned the Ramona series, and about how writing flawed characters. It was definitely impactful when I was -- this is Lupe Wong Won't Dance, actually, this is the Spanish version. But Lupe is a really flawed character. And so, much of how Ramona was about finding, you know, the error, when you make a mistake, you go, okay, that was -- I wasn't being a good friend, I'm going to try to do better. So, that series was really impactful for me too. But I think ultimately, there were a couple of books that were really important to me. Again, they were books that had kind of this science fiction background. And there were books that my town librarian handed to me. I had a really hard time choosing books, and my mother would say, okay, time's running thin. And I would look around the library and I could not make a choice and for -- it was overwhelming, too many choices I still don't do well with. So, Mrs. Hughes [assumed spelling] would have a stack of books and say, go through these choose the few that you want. And one of those first books that just blew my mind wide open into the universe was A Wrinkle in Time and reading that as a child took me to places out of this dusty little town that I lived in at the time in central California. And it was -- it changed the way I read and the way I viewed the world, everything about it. And then I then, you know, she thought I was ready for something more. So, she gave me the Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin. And so, and again, that took me another step further. So, I think those types of books are the ones that really influenced my writing. But I have to say if someone said a singular book, this is -- it's not -- well, maybe it is fiction, but it was called Mysteries Of The Unexplained. And it was a Reader's Digest book. And it was a coffee-table book, and it was huge. And my aunt had it at her house. I think it was huge. I was little when I was holding it. But I would go through this book and all these things, whether it was people or events or history, unexplained things would be presented, but there were no answers. And so, as a child, my mind got to invent the answers. And I think that was my first venture into storytelling was when I'm like, I'm going to make up a reason why this is, you know, why this is what it is. So, if somebody were to say what book had the most influence? I know, it's a weird answer, but Mysteries Of The Unexplained the Reader's Digest version. >> Danielle Higley: So, similar to Donna, obviously, it's so many books that I love, it would be so hard to name them all I think. But that we definitely have that in common. But the one that I kind of zoned in on when I was thinking about this question was Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. As a pretty awkward youth myself, I definitely resonated with a character like Stargirl. And I what I loved about that book was that it celebrated, kind of quirky personalities, and even portrayed them as strengths. And so, that really spoke to me as a kid. >> Cindy Lou Aillaud: When I was growing up, I actually lived in Issaquah, Washington, on a very small farm. It was my grandma's farm, and she had a few horses. So, anytime I could I read books about horses. I was one of those kids that just loved horses. But when I was in the fourth or fifth grade, I picked up kind of a horse book, but a little bit different that my librarian had recommended, and it was called Brighty of the Grand Canyon by Marguerite Henry. I fell in love with that book. It opened up my eyes to the differences in the parts of the United States that I hadn't traveled to, because my family, when we would go on vacation would just go to a local state park and camp for a weekend or a week. And so, I became curious about the Grand Canyon, and always wanted to see it. And thought, I want to hike the Bright Angel Trail and go to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, just like Brighty did. And I had to wait until just as last October. And just this last October, the University of Alaska, in Fairbanks, Alaska, had a trip that floated through the Grand Canyon. And we went by all those trails that people hiked down and the mules -- go down and carry people down. So, I got to see where Brighty of -- was and it just was amazing to me that once again. The book became a window to the world that I was curious about the Grand Canyon. And I finally was able to experience that and I -- thank my school librarian for recommending that to me, because it just, I finally really got to experience it. And I had to hike out of the Grand Canyon, because sometimes helicopters will come in at the end of a raft trip and now they you can take you out. But we did it at the very end of this season. And so, helicopters weren't able to fly. So, we hiked up those trails out of the Grand Canyon into a snowstorm. So, it was a -- so I would have to say Brighty of the Grand Canyon, by Marguerite Henry is one of my favorites and made a real difference to me. >> Alan Suemori: My favorite book was Roald Dahl's Danny, the Champion of the World. I resisted reading it for the longest time because I thought the title was so weird until I was trapped in a small little town in Hokkaido. And the only books they had there were Japanese language books, and they had one English book and it was Danny, the Champion of the World. And I fell in love with that book, from the very start. I just loved everything about it. I love the idea that he was unlocking the secret world of adults. Ehere, adults were flawed and naughty and capable of doing fun and interesting things. And I just love the gentleness and the kindness of that story. It speaks to me at a very deep level. And I think it opened up a different world for me. Maybe it reminded me of what I thought -- what I hoped childhood could be. But that's, that's my favorite book. >> Greg Bowman: My favorite book growing up was the Red Badge of Courage. I grew up in a small town in a very rural area, and our town did not have a library. But once a week we had a bookmobile. So, that's one of the first books that I checked out from the bookmobile the Red Badge of Courage is about a young Union soldier in the Civil War, who goes through a transformation. My two big takeaways from the book was, a need for a balance of idealism and realism and the power of redemption. Henry is a young Union soldier who, in his first battle, flees. He runs from the battlefield. He feels remorseful and shameful. But he goes through quite a transformation. He goes into this battle, glorifying war, and that's where his idealism comes in. But by the time he's done with that, those series of battles, he's soon the realisms of the horrors of war, soon set in. That's one theme, and another theme is the transformation that Henry goes through. Following that, fleeing from the battlefield, he learns to overcome fear. He develops a sense of duty. He develops a sense of pride, honor, perseverance, and humility. And by the end of the story, he actually becomes a heroic figure on the battlefield. But my big takeaway from that was the power of redemption, as well. Yeah. >> Axie Oh: It's funny, because whenever people ask me what my favorite book is, my answer is always The Little Prince. Because I just I love that book and I remember I think it was the first book that when I was reading it, I like consciously knew I was reading, if that makes any sense. Where while I was reading it and I was like, looking at the words and I was like, crying. And I was like feeling a very emotional connection to this book. And ever since then, I actually, when I read a book, I will tab it like, if there's a line I really like, I'll put like a little tabs so I can remember it. And I really engaged with the text. So, like I -- that book was really -- that's always my answer. But for this question, I pulled out a favorite of mine that I loved when I was in middle school, which was called Dragon Sword and Wind Child. And it was this beautiful book in translations originally in Japanese. And I loved this book, so much at -- my local library had, a different cover. Actually, I bought this later. And it's like this -- it's based off I think, Japanese, real Japanese mythology. And it's like a retelling of that. And it's just this -- it's about, it's about the light forces of light against the forces of dark, but the forces of dark aren't bad. They're both -- like I think the forces of light are the bad guys. The forces of dark are the good guy. That was something I'd also never experienced before because I think in a lot of Western folklore, we see dark is bad and light is good. And so, but in East Asian cultures, that's not necessarily the case. They're usually like yin and yang, like they're equal, like they, you know, you need both. They sort of have a symbiosis. And so, like seeing that in this book or presented in this book was so, was so like, sort of mind blowing to me. I kind of really engaged with it. It was also super romantic. And it was so much fun, a lot of adventure, like I'm a huge YA reader. I've read so many YA books like, and also all these amazing middle grade books that everyone's mentioned, children's books. Every time you guys mentioned a book, I'm like so excited. So, yeah, I think, I think this one would be one of my favorites. And it's so hard to pinpoint a favorite book. Thank you. >> Sara Peté: What is one of your favorite things about your state? >> Gayle Forman: My favorite thing about California I'm going to say two things. Number one is sort of a more philosophical thing, which was, as I was writing this book, I was thinking about California, as a sanctuary, as a place where so many people left their countries of origin to come to, or their states of origin, whether we're talking about immigrants, or LGBTQ people who came there for a more accepting community. To me, growing up, I really sort of thought about California as a sanctuary state. And I'm not going to say it's perfect. They've passed some, some terrible laws that they then repealed, but that was really the thing that I was thinking about in this book. All these people who sort of came to California. My other favorite thing about California is that it, particularly Los Angeles, I think, I live in New York City now. All -- I feel like it's magic is very easily revealed to you. You just kind of show up and you can see it, but in LA, it's more hidden. And so, things like the Venice Canals, which are these canal system, that sort of kind of hard to find, you wouldn't know if he didn't look for it, in the middle of this kind of this beach town, things like that. California, how it sort of keeps a little secrets that even having grown up there and spent 50 years going, I'm still discovering things about California. >> Danielle Higley: So, one of my favorite things about Idaho. And having grown up here, since I was five years old. Was, is just the kindness of the people here. I think like all states, you know, that when you grow up, you see things that they're changing, but the part that always sticks with me, is you know, getting to like a three-way stop sign and watching like all the drivers of the car, you know, like, wave each other on like, you go. Oh, no, you go, you go and you just like sitting at this stop sign for like 10 minutes waiting for somebody to make a decision of who's going to finally go. And then somebody will like inch forward and the other person will be like, oh, no, no, no. Oh, sorry, sorry, no you go. And that was just a very Idaho way to be and I don't think I realized that until I moved kind of coast to coast and kind of saw just that faster paced way of living. And it kind of brought back that sensation of, like, man I miss home. Like I love, I love that about my state. But I suppose a more tangible thing that I love about Idaho is Idaho Shakespeare Festival. If you're ever in Idaho, in the summertime, get tickets, take a picnic, you should not miss it. It's Shakespeare or they also do other plays as well. But under the stars, this beautiful outdoor amphitheater with all the sounds of the animals, the bugs, and everything else, like by the river. And it's so lovely at some of the best theater you'll see in the entire country. And it's beautiful. It's a campus. >> Donna Barba Higuera: Well, I am a very, very proud Washingtonian. I have lived here way over half my life. I'm not going to tell you how many years that is. But my favorite thing and I will tell anybody that I love my town. I live in Issaquah. I love Issaquah salmon days. And anybody if you're from Washington State, most people know about is the Issaquah salmon days. It's a celebration of salmon, but it has everything. There's a carnival and there are artisans and there is food and you see neighbors walking down the street and everybody is out, it is Issaquah salmon days and there's a mascot who's a walking salmon and there's, you know, emphasis on you know, recycling and there're like superheroes who help you recycle and so I think that for me like something that involves specifically my community. I love Washington State. I love the hiking trails. This is such a beautiful place to live in. And yeah, it rains a little bit. It's like misty rain. It's not bad. But my community in itself where my children -- where I've raised my children and have made some of my dearest friends is probably one of the things that I hold most precious and yeah, if you ever come to Washington State, Issaquah salmon days normally September, October but you -- be there. >> Axie Oh: I'm from Nevada. So, you -- so, you know, when people think of Nevada, they probably think a certain thing. But actually, my joke answer is movie theaters and casinos and slot machines and grocery store. But actual answer is, actually really love how Nevada since I live here, a lot of people come to visit like the city. They come -- like we just had BTS, which is a huge K-Pop group, if you don't know. They have their concert here at Allegiant stadium in the spring. And because of that, -- Allegiant Stadium was just built, I think, couple years ago, and it can hold up to 50,000 people, and it was a sold out concert. So, 50,000 people came for four nights in the spring to see this, this Korean boy group band. They sing mostly in Korean. But because of that, I have friends come from Canada, from San Diego, from New York, Florida. And I got to see them, they came to see -- they came to Vegas to see this concert but because they were here for the concert. They came, I joked they came to see me. And so, I got to bring them. We went to Red Rock Canyon. We went to the local indie bookstore called the Writer's Block. It's a wonderful bookstore in downtown Las Vegas. I got to bring them to the Chinatown here. We have a wonderful Chinatown. It has, like all Asian restaurants, it's great. And so, I think that's one of my favorite things about Vegas. Nevada, in general, is amazing. We have Tahoe and Reno. But what I love about Vegas is that people come to, I guess to -- there's so many hotels and many things to do, but because of that I get to see them, so. >> Cindy Lou Aillau: I love Alaska, and I love living in Alaska, and I love sharing Alaska with anybody I can. We're so lucky to have so much beauty and so much wilderness in one place that we have a lot of mountains. We have tundra, which is beautiful as well. We have sea, the sea, we have lots of rivers. And of course, we have two big towns too. Anchorage and Fairbanks and a smaller one, Juneau, our capital, but I feel like Alaska has it all. And it's kind of like truly the last frontier. So, I think that I love going somewhere and telling people I'm from Alaska and being able to talk about it. I love going out in the, in the dark, which is we're starting to get a little darkness now. In the summer we have 24 hour daylight but come the end of September we're going to start seeing the Aurora Borealis, the northern lights which are absolutely gorgeous. And that's just almost a magical experience to see the northern lights. I love going hiking in all in the mountainous areas. I love kayaking in my town of Delta Junction, which is the little town at the end of the Alaska Highway. We are surrounded by mountains, and we have lots of rivers in the area. And just a mile away from my house is the Clearwater River and Clearwater Lake and there's like a trip that we do that I -- to float the river and end at Clearwater Lake and then pull your kayak home. So, I love going kayaking in the summer and in fact on the solstice, which is the longest day of the year. My friends and I do a -- an all-night float. So, we leave Clearwater campground at about 11 o'clock at night. It's still light, and we get to experience the sunset, it stays light. And we get to Clearwater Lake about 4am and we see the sunrise. So, we see both sunset and sunrise in one float. And it's pretty amazing. And of course, then we go home and take a little nap and then get on with our day but it's a pretty phenomenal trip and friends have joined us on that because we talk about it a lot so they say, can we please go on the solstice trip? It's like sure. So, I -- and one of my favorite things to do in the winter time is to cross-country ski and I can cross-country ski on trails from my school to my friend's house, which about three miles away, just on trails in the woods in the total darkness. And we will sometimes hear a wolf or coyotes out there or we can hear a moose snorting at us, which is kind of frightening. And so, then we'll start singing as loud as we can. But to cross-country ski in the winter, even at 20 below zero, is really fun. So, I hope that all of you can come and visit Alaska, because I'd be glad to show it to you. >> Alan Suemori: My favorite place is Beach, which is in the shadow of Diamond Head. It's called Kaimana of beach. And I swim there every morning, during the summer. And it's a very magical place. Historically, Native Hawaiians would use it as a place of healing if they were sick or injured. They would go down there and there would be native healers, who would work with them. It's a place where local families bring their children to teach them how to swim because the ocean is more gentle there. Right now, we have a Hawaiian monk seal who gave birth to a pup. And so, all of the swimmers have been kicked out of the beach for now. But it's a place that really makes you feel privileged to live in Hawaii. I also, I also want to share something that Nainoa Thompson spoke about. Nainoa Thompson is a Hawaiian Wayfinder. He's a navigator who only uses traditional techniques to sail the ocean. And he was asked this question and he was asked what does Hawaii have to share with the rest of the world? Because I think oftentimes, we're so isolated, you know, we are the most isolated landmass on the face of the planet. And so, sometimes we are -- what we have to offer is marginalized or ignored. And he said, you know, Hawaii is so diverse, and we have so many different cultures living in a very small area. And he said, what Hawaii might be able to teach the rest of the world is that we can all live together without tearing each other apart. And I really believe that. >> Greg Bowman: Thank you. For me, this is a very tough question. I adore Hawaii, there's so many different things that I enjoy about Hawaii. If I had to narrow it down, I think it would be a fusion between the concepts of the aloha spirit and ohana. The aloha spirit, it's a coordination of mind and heart within each person, which results in that emoting good feelings towards others. Love, kindness, affection, a philosophy in life that you always give more than you receive. And then the concept of ohana, extended family that we're all part of a family and we all take care of one another. It's a very much a strong exercise in communal care. So, for me, I think it would be that fusion of aloha spirit and ohana.