A few weeks back, I had the incredible opportunity to spend an afternoon with several local bloggers, my friends at PBS, and two amazing authors. Today, one of those women, Susan Meddaugh author of Martha Speaks, is guest posting for us AND giving away a signed book pack to one special reader! Welcome, and thank you, Susan!
About the author: Susan Meddaugh was born and raised in Montclair, New Jersey. Susan is the creator of many humorous and inventive books for children, including the wildly popular Martha Speaks tales about Martha the talking dog. Martha Speaks was included on the New York Times Best Illustrated List in 1992. In 1998 Susan was the honored recipient of the New England Book Award, given by the New England Booksellers Association to recognize a body of work. The Martha Speaks book series is now an animated series in its third season on PBS KIDS. Aimed at views between the ages of four and seven, Martha teaches vocabulary, and what better way than through a dog who just can’t stop talking?Martha Speaks airs locally weekdays at 7:30AM on WETA. Visit Martha Speaks online at pbskids.org/martha.
Susan lives in Sherborn, Massachusetts, surrounded by dogs. The pack now includes Kaiser (a 98 pound black lab from a shelter), Oats (a pug who needed a new home, and now has a role in the PBS series), and Dudley (a stray dog abandoned at a Georgia gas station). Susan’s house obviously has “decor by dog.”
There have been many books that I have loved because they spoke to where I was at a given time in my adult life. One book that I encountered in my twenties totally shook up what I thought I knew about children’s books. I was working as a children’s book designer, interviewing illustrators, and feeling pretty confident that I knew what I was doing. Going through the library one day, I came across a book that I had read as a child. I pulled it out and my immediate reaction was that I would never hire this illustrator to do a picture book. Sophisticated designer that I was, I did not like the art at all. But as I leafed through the pages, I suddenly came to a picture that sent me hurtling back in time. Not a memory, but the complete experience of being 6 years old and entranced by the illustration on the page. Needless to say, it was an embarrassing wake-up call. And actually this was a famous and very successful children’s book author-illustrator. Obviously I needed to rethink what made an illustration work for a child.
This truly came in to play later when I was doing my own picture books, and I gradually began to explore the mystery of the much asked question: Where do ideas come from? And how do you know when something is right? I began to delight in the sudden burst of inspiration that might or might not lead to a story, or solve a problem in a story I was already working on. I learned to trust my intuition about what worked. I accepted the fact that my stories hardly ever ended up the way I had in mind at the start. And I was particularly thrilled when a character I created actually began to take over and tell the story, seemingly without my input. These experiences, which I believe many authors have had, seem pretty close to magic to me.
Susan and Martha at the National Book Festval!
I don’t believe that any book I read as an adult could match the experience of some of the books I read as a child. So that experience of being 6 again for at least a moment was important. One book I remember reading over and over was Zephir’s Holidays by Jean de Brunhoff. I still have my original battered, poster paint covered copy which dates to either the late 30’s or 40’s. (The title page is long gone.) It is bigger than the later version where the title was changed to Babar and Zephir, and the text is no longer in cursive writing as it was in my childhood copy. The pictures were magic to me then, and I still love them.
So what’s the difference between looking at the book now? As an adult and as an author-illustrator, I understand that the words and the pictures together created a world for a child to enter into. The illustrations did what they were supposed to do, and that had nothing to do with being “great art”. They were great illustrations! The double page spread of Monkeyville invited me right in. I was there, in that drawing, living in one of those little tree houses. The scene of Zephir and the nightingale at the window held all the magic of being awake in the middle of the night while being safe in your own bedroom. The desolate island picture of Zephir among the gray boulders was mysterious and (probably) frightening, but I know my mother read the book to me the first time. And the second and third etc. I could return later to the pictures and still be in them, but without fear, knowing that the ending was happy. And I did, but that is something I remember, and that’s different.
Creating a world for a reader with words and pictures is always something I try to do with my own books. Getting lost in a story is truly wonderful, whatever age you are.
Thank you so much, Susan, for creating an exciting world for our children with your Martha Speaks series–I’m betting that our kids will never, ever look at alphabet soup–or dogs–the same way!
GIVEAWAY: A signed copy of Martha Speaks and Martha Speaks gift pack!
Do you want to win a signed copy of Martha Speaks and a Martha Speaks gift pack?
- Leave a comment here (along with your email address) simply sharing what you love about Martha Speaks.
- For extra entries, you can share this post with a friend (just tell me who you shared it with!) OR Tweet this: Win a @pbsmarthaspeaks signed book and gift pack on @teachmama http://teachmama.com/?p=576 #ece #literacy
This contest ends on Monday, November 15, 2010 at midnight ET.
Do you want to share a book that moved you? Let me know!
The just 1 book feature gives everyone a chance to share their love of literature and the power of books. Guest writers are invited to share a book that moved him or her:
‘all it took was just 1 book’. . . to get you thinking, get you moving, get you arts-and-crafting, get you talking, get you writing, get you counting, get you traveling, get you thinking, get you cookin‘, dancin’ or dreamin‘.
And if you’re interested in guest posting for the just 1 book series, please let me know! Anyone and everyone is welcome; just drop me an email at [email protected]
Yvonnee
I love this book and the children in my classroom love to hear this book again and again. The illustrations are engaging and funny also.
Thanks so much
Jill P
My kids love Martha Speaks! A dog who eats alphabet soup and learns to talk? What’s not to love?? I put alphabet noodles in our vegetable soup the other night and it prompted a long discussion about Martha! 🙂
Gabe
I love reading an authors take on books. My kids and I are big Martha fans.
Jaynee
My daughter really enjoys Martha Speaks. I love that she’s learning while having fun. Thanks so much!
Melissa W.
We love Martha Speaks, what a great way of learning new “robust vocabulary” words. Who doesn’t love talking animals? The books are wonderful and we love the PBS show. Great show to watch right before the bus!!!
Sue and Danny
What I love about Martha Speaks is that this “show” actually communicates to my son who watches and seems to understand and enjoy the show! A book too? If this is meant to be, I will do an entire month long theme on Martha Speaks. Whether Susan meant to reach extended audiences such as individuals with autism and/or mental retardation, she did. How lovely! Thanks for this opportunity and the lovely read on your afternoon with several other blogger!
Denise
My daughter would love the book. On most days she is a dog and I think I have her called Martha more times in the last year then her given name.
Kristen Kucko
We had the honor of watching Susan at the National Book festival this year. Both of my daughters love the PBS series, and the books. Thank you for sharing your ideas! We love them!
Dana R
Im not going to lie, my son is too young to understand…hes only 5 months old…but I LOVE LOVE LOVE Martha. I have my DVR set to record all episodes. I do volunteer work with several animal rescues and have used materials available off of the PBS site to hand out to young children. We travel to under-priviledged neighborhoods and speak (and speak and speak and speak) about responsibilities of spay/neuter, reporting illegal animal activity, etc…sometimes it is hard to get the attention of young children, especially when all they have been around is using dogs as money makers thru breeding and fighting. I thought the pair of episodes about being in the pound were especially poignant.
Deborah Norton
Here in our house Martha Speaks brought a whole lot of comfort when we lost our family dog, Tansey, quickly and suddenly. My older daughter told our younger daughter that if Tansey could have spoken, “he would have been like Martha, only a boy voice” – fun and loving and questioning all sorts of life’s adventures. Only “Tansey has our family to talk about and he is probably talking to the other dogs in heaven” she said. It broke my heart and was one of my prouder moments all rolled into one…..my 6 year old thought up and found a way to work thru her loss before I could even wipe my own tears. Martha helped us thru a difficult time and continues to make both my girls giggle and laugh about her antics. We love Martha!
amy
oh my goodness! What a bittersweet story–thanks so much for sharing, and I’m so sorry about Tansey!
L Stephens
I’d love to win a copy of Martha Speaks for my sister’s Kindergarten classroom. Her kids would love it! (I’m going to send her a link to this posting too.)
Miphi Hall
I have bought all the Martha books as they come out and given them as Christmas presents to nieces and nephews and then grandchildren – and I’ve always kept one of each for myself! Martha is such a doggy character – I love her. BTW, I was delighted to hear about Susan’s 98-lb lab named Kaiser because I have a 96-lb Doberman named Kaiser!
amy
wow!! and Kaiser’s not a particularly common name, either!
Miphi Hall
I can’t take credit for coming up with my Kaiser’s name – I adopted him when he was 5 1/2 years old and decided that I didn’t have the right to change his name since he’d had it for so long. But it seems appropriate since he’s a German breed and was actually born in Germany. Now I’m curious as to how Susan came up with Kaiser for her lab …
Miphi Hall
. . . and now I have tweeted about your generous giveaway!
Rhonda
My son is 5 years old and he totally loves Martha. I love that he comes out with such big words for a little kid and I think shows like Martha Speaks are responsible for that to a large extent. I found him one of the books at the library and he did a happy dance in the stacks. We’ve been requesting them on a regular basis since but I’ve yet to buy one.
Deanna K
we really like Martha speaks around our house! I liked a recent episode I saw about the White House!
thanks for the giveaway!
Deanna K
I just tweeted about it!
thanks for the giveaway!
Heather
My favorite thing about the Martha Speaks series is when a child reads one book and comes back eager to read all the books in the series.
Lisa G.
We love,love,love Martha Speaks at our house. I love that she encourages a large vocabulary!
Thank you!!!
jodifur
Michael loves that Martha talks, and wants our dog to talk. I like that hard words are always defined in the story.
Anne@LittleSproutBooks
My son and I love the vocabulary introduced by Martha – we try to use it throughout the day!
Summer
I love Martha speaks! It teach my 4 children vocabulary, and it also helps me to better explain the definitions of words to my children! It is also clean, never have to worry about content! Which says a lot this day in age!
Traci K.
Well ditto to everyone’s comments! It is such a well done show, it’s rare to find a show that my 2 year old, my 6 year old, and my hubby and I ALL enjoy! I love the learning and the humor! We quote “Martha” all the time around the house!
Traci K.
And retweeted @tkennebeck on Twitter!
Traci K.
Also shared on my FB page with link to yours! 🙂
Trish Wallace
Believe it or not, my 13 year old son still loves Martha speaks!! Not sure what it is about that show, but he watches it (but dont tell anyone!! lol) My favorite book was Black Beauty, read it over and over as a teen.
Monica
My daughter Grace and I loved Martha Speaks from the first time we watched it on PBS. I had not heard of the books or the show before, but my daughter was familiar with the books. Martha is a great dog! She’s smart, friendly and lovable. We have a dog named Candi and we sometimes like to pretend that she’s like Martha and can speak as well. I hope the books and the show continue for a long time.
Jennifer
I haven’t any experience at all with Martha Speaks, but this post has piqued my interest! My little ones love words. My son (3yo) recently said, “Hey, Mama, “chili” and “chilly” are the same word!” I told him they were homonyms; it is now a favorite word around our home! (I think it’s a fun word to say, too.) 🙂 And I love to read interviews with authors. Thanks!
Purple Lotus Doulas
Love Martha!
Jackie
I love the theme song to the show Martha Speaks. My two year old trys to sing all of the words and it cracks me up. Especially when he says, “Hypervenalate”. I love that kids are exposed to new vocabulary and it’s not just about only teaching cvc words that kids “could read”. It challenges them!
Traci K.
Eagerly awaiting the winner! Good luck all!
Stacy
We just discovered this show! I love that it’s entertaining and appropriate for both my 2.5 and 4.5 year olds! Thanks for the giveaway!
Stacy
I tweeted 🙂 http://twitter.com/SacBookMom/status/4382756922462209
Traci K.
And the winner is????
amy
. . . and the winner is Anne from CA! Many thanks to everyone for reading, entering, and checking back for the winner! Check back for more ‘just 1 book’ guest posts and signed book giveaways!