A former journalist for North Jersey Newspapers, Mike Allegra is the editor of THE LAWRENTIAN, the nationally award-winning alumni magazine of The Lawrenceville School (Lawrenceville, NJ). His plays have been performed around the country, and he was the recipient of a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship. SARAH GIVES THANKS is his first children’s book.

SARAH GIVES THANKS tells the story of magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale, and the hardships and personal tragedy she faced in her quest to getting Thanksgiving recognized as a national holiday. Can you tell us a little about this fascinating woman?

Sarah Hale accomplished so much in her life it’s sometimes hard to figure out where to begin. She was a celebrated and prolific writer. She edited the most widely read magazine in America. She founded charities, led patriotic fundraising drives, championed college education for women, and used her magazine to influence public opinion on a wide spectrum of topics—the most famous of which was Thanksgiving.

And she did all these things in the early- to mid-1800s, when women were widely seen as second-class citizens. And she also did all of these things while raising five children by herself.

Once I learned about Sarah, I just had to write about her.

The story of Thanksgiving is often boiled down to a meeting between pilgrims and Native Americans and left at that. How did you discover the story of this often unsung hero?

I discovered Sarah Hale by accident.

When I decided to write a Thanksgiving book, my plan was to write about Lincoln. I knew from the Ken Burns documentary, THE CIVIL WAR, that Lincoln proclaimed a national day of Thanksgiving in 1863. I always found the timing of that proclamation to be brilliant—after all, it’s very hard to remember the good things in your life when you’re in the middle of a horrible, bloody war. I wanted to write a story about how Lincoln came up with that idea.

Once I started my research, however, I discovered that Lincoln was only a bit player in the story of Thanksgiving. Sarah Hale is the reason why we all celebrate the holiday. She championed the idea when no one outside of New England could have cared less. She lobbied politicians. She used her magazine to build a grassroots movement. And everyone—eventually—began to see the wisdom behind what she was saying. Lincoln knew wisdom when he saw it, so he signed the proclamation.

You’ve said that you “geeked out” on the research that went into SARAH GIVES THANKS and spent loads of time in historical archives. As Thanksgiving is quickly approaching, how will all of your newfound Thanksgiving-based knowledge change the way you celebrate the holiday?

I have been a Thanksgiving nut my whole life—but mostly for the wrong reasons. As a kid, I loved Thanksgiving because it was the day my family celebrated my birthday; I loved Thanksgiving because every year the local TV station would run MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, KING KONG, and SON OF KONG—a six-hour marathon of simian mayhem; and I loved Thanksgiving because I could gorge myself on Stove Top stuffing.

As I got older, I began to approach the holiday in a way that more closely resembled the proper spirit, which is to say I thought a little about the good things in my life. But then I would slip back into my old habits and wonder why Channel 9 no longer aired those Big Ape movies.

Learning about Sarah Hale’s life, however, made me think about thankfulness in a whole new way. In 1822, just a few weeks before Thanksgiving, Sarah’s husband of nine years died, leaving her alone to take care of five children—all of whom were under the age of seven. She had little money, and no real opportunity to earn enough cash to support her family. It was a dire, almost hopeless situation.

Yet, by counting her blessings on that Thanksgiving, Sarah found the strength to carry on. Through raw intelligence and sheer grit, she survived—and then thrived—in a man’s world.

After you hear a story like that, it’s hard not to be a little embarrassed about fixating on KING KONG. I can’t help but be amazed by how much of my life I have taken for granted.

Well, no more, I can assure you of that.

On your blog, you are heading up a one-man movement to boycott celebrity children’s books. Since many of our readers are teachers and have some influence over book purchases, what is your case against this increasingly common phenomenon?

I think most celebrity books speak for themselves. Almost all of them are across-the-board crummy. There are exceptions, of course; Jamie Lee Curtis, for one, keeps me from speaking in absolutes. In most other cases, however, the books are unoriginal, didactic, awkwardly-rhymed nonsense.

Unfortunately, unoriginal, didactic, awkwardly-rhymed nonsense sells very, very well once you put a celebrity’s name on the cover. A lot of book buyers see this name and think, “Ooh! I like this person!” And in the basket it goes.

This buying reflex creates a couple of problems, I think. First, it exposes kids to lousy, unimaginative writing. That, in my view, should be a crime—or at least a misdemeanor.

Second, bad writing by celebrity non-writers encourages non-celebrity non-writers to announce, “Hey, I can do that, too! I’m gonna write a book just like my favorite children’s book author, Madonna!” And so bad writing begets more bad writing.

Thanks in part to the subpar stylings of Madonna and Company, everyone now thinks they can write a picture book. Publishing houses are overwhelmed like never before and have responded to the tidal wave of manuscripts by changing their submission guidelines. Over the last several years, I’ve seen many houses stop accepting unsolicited work. The market is constricting. Writers are finding fewer and fewer opportunities to get their work noticed.

I am very lucky. I got a book published, it’s selling well, and I am grateful. But there are a lot of writers out there who write better than I, who, for whatever reason, can’t quite reach the brass ring. The glut of celebrity books—and the awful manuscripts those books spawn—are making things more difficult for people who have dedicated their lives to the craft of writing.

My little movement is just a way to say, “Hey, let’s make this publishing thing a meritocracy. Let’s promote the good stuff written by unknowns. Let the kids out there see what a really good story looks like.”

And don’t worry about Madonna. She’ll get by somehow. I’m told she can sing a little.

You regularly tell high school students that if they want to be writers, they should spend some time writing for a newspaper. Given the state of print journalism, this may seem like strange advice. Where does it come from?

The daily newspapers are in trouble, that’s very true. The weeklies, however, aren’t going anywhere—and I can’t think of a better place for an aspiring writer to develop his or her skills.

I worked for a weekly paper for about two years. Those were the two most important years of my writing career. The job taught me to write fast, polished stories on an incredibly wide range of topics. During my tenure I wrote about politics, schools, crime, business, the environment, and the arts. I also wrote stories about hauntings, a parrot who liked to curse, and a crazy lady who kept pigs in her house.

The paper taught me how to work independently. News stories didn’t come to me; I had to go out and find them. To this day I can still find stories almost anywhere. Few former reporters suffer from writer’s block.

The job also taught me how to put my failures behind me. On many occasions I was forced to submit a story I didn’t think was written all that well. I didn’t have the luxury to dwell on it, however. My editor expected six stories from me every week; all I had time to do was learn from the experience and move on.

At a newspaper, your work is also scrutinized by an editor. Writers need to hear that critical voice. If the article is unclear, the editor is going to demand a rewrite. If you are editorializing, the editor will call you on it. If your wonderful story is three inches too long for the space provided, the editor is going to make you cut it. That writer/editor relationship is invaluable, and forces a writer to be cooperative and flexible.

All that being said, I would be remiss if I didn’t also point out that being a reporter for a weekly newspaper is a difficult, low-paying job with crazy hours. But, believe me, you will get so much more out of the experience than you could ever possibly put in. It’s worth doing.



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Dorothy Hinshaw Patent has written more than one hundred books—mostly nonfiction and photo-essay for children—including ALA Notable Children’s Book and Orbis Pictus Honor Book WHEN THE WOLVES RETURNED: RESTORING NATURE’S BALANCE IN YELLOWSTONE, SAVING AUDIE: A PIT BULL PUPPY GETS A SECOND CHANCE, and THE RIGHT DOG FOR THE JOB, which earned a starred review from School Library Journal. Dorothy is cofounder of iNK THINK TANK, an innovative online company dedicated to connecting young readers and educators with dynamic nonfiction books and their authors. Dorothy lives in Montana with her husband, cookbook author Greg Patent.

You often write about animals in the wild and about nature in general; what intrigued you about the military dogs in DOGS ON DUTY: SOLDIERS' BEST FRIENDS ON THE BATTLEFIELD AND BEYOND?

I’ve always been interested in the relationships between people and animals, especially dogs, since I’m a dog nut myself. In reading about military working dogs I could see that the bond between these dogs and their handlers is especially strong and deep, since they depend on one another for their very survival every day when on the job, and I wanted to be able to explore and honor that bond.

Our bond with our domesticated animals also provides us with a window into the nature of wildness and of ‘other,’ since they are able to experience the world very differently from the ways we do. For example, our primary sense is sight, while dogs experience the world most intensely through their sense of smell, which gives them a completely different perspective on the world around them.

One reviewer described DOGS ON DUTY as “clear-eyed” and notes that you mention the injuries dogs sustain in military work. As a self-proclaimed dog lover, how did you stay true to the story while discovering some of the hardships these dogs face?

Reading about the experiences of dogs in war and deciding what to include and what not to include in a book for children was the most difficult part of writing this book. I decided to keep my focus on the most important aspect of this work—that these dogs save lives—as I read and wrote. It became like a mantra to me.

I also wanted to show the added emotional benefit that a wagging tail or doggy kiss can provide to a weary and perhaps discouraged human warrior. I try always to keep the spirits of my young readers in mind when I write about difficult topics like this one, and I hope they are able to view the work these dogs do the same way I do.

As a part of iNK THINK TANK, you participate in matching students and classrooms with nonfiction texts that are appropriate based on the Common Core State Standards. Why is quality nonfiction so vital to meeting the Standards and improving literacy in general?

For one thing, scientists have shown that readers remember information that’s presented through good writing better than information that’s presented poorly or in an uninteresting fashion. More than 20 years ago, a study showed that information written up by linguists or composition teachers was not remembered as well by teenage readers as the very same facts and figures presented through the writing of professional writers, Time magazine editors to be specific. The first two kinds of writers don’t need to be concerned about grabbing their audience, but the Time editors certainly do. The results of this study are striking—the students reading the editors’ versions recalled over 40 percent more than those reading the other versions.

As a parent, my one fear as my sons went through school was that they might get bored and turn off to learning. Luckily, that didn’t happen, but many children come to dislike school because they must use boring textbooks and don’t have their curiosity sparked by information presented through engaging writing. People who write trade books for children have to write interesting prose that grabs their readers or they won’t succeed. Our books convey our own enthusiasm for learning and leave our readers wanting more.

Lastly, every time we take on a new project, we live the CCSS. We do intensive research and evaluate our sources. We organize the material to make it fun to read and easy to absorb, and we challenge our readers to think about what we have to say and about what more there might be to learn about the subject. And we know how to help young people learn to do the same.

You live on the edge of a national forest in Montana, and spend time in Yellowstone regularly. That gives you access to wilderness that most students have never come in contact with. What inspiration do you find in nature and how can that be communicated in an increasingly urban/suburban society?

When I talk in city schools, I like to point out to the children that even in the city, nature is all around us and poses interesting questions if we just stop and observe. For example, some of the trees in the city park lose their leaves in the winter and others do not—why is that? Just about every city has pigeons that go about their normal behavior and make great subjects for anyone interested in animal behavior. Nature is really everywhere if we just take the time to stop and observe.

I also believe children’s lives are enriched in many ways when they have pets, since all our domesticated animals originated from creatures that live wild. Kids can see that there’s more to the world around them than they personally experience when they watch their dog energetically sniffing at a tree trunk or observe the activities of an ant “city” living between glass plates.

I hope that this kind of awareness can make it easier for young people to realize that humans as well differ in the ways they experience the world. Some people may think this is a far-fetched idea, but I believe that once we can expand our consciousness beyond ourselves we’ve triggered our empathic abilities for other humans.

In your career you’ve covered a myriad of topics, but lately you’ve written a couple books about canines making comebacks (SAVING AUDIE and WHEN THE WOLVES RETURNED). What broader values and lessons for children can be found in these redemption stories?

I see several important things children can learn from these stories. One is that there’s always hope, even when things seem really dark. It takes courage, determination, and patience sometimes, but where there are caring people willing to devote time and attention to solve problems and right wrongs, it can be done.

Another is not to take the easy route of just believing what other people say or write. My younger son, Jason, never fails to catch me when I get caught up in someone’s drama having only heard one side of the story. He always asks for the other side and reminds me to do the same. For example, up until the mid-twentieth century, pit bulls were the most popular family dog in the United States! Then, the combination of increased backyard breeding for fighting and media attention whenever a pit bull bit someone, fear of these loyal, smart, loving dogs took over.

It’s also important for children to realize that what we believe today isn’t likely to be the “whole truth.” Back in the 1920s, people believed that predators, like wolves, were “bad,” while grazing animals like elk were “good.” Now we know that ecosystems need all the major players in order to function in a healthy fashion.



Book Reviews: Dog Lover’s Delight

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This post originally appeared on the Engage/Teacher to Teacher blog in February 2012.

Laurie Calkhoven has always loved reading and writing (just don’t ask her about arithmetic). She’s especially interested in the small moments of American history that usually get left out of the history books. Learn more about her at www.lauriecalkhoven.com.

I GREW UP TO BE PRESIDENT follows future presidents from boyhood through their time as U.S. Presidents. What important facts/lessons can be learned from studying these men’s childhoods specifically?

I think it’s important for children to know that the presidents are just like us. John Quincy Adams was nearly shipwrecked—twice!—while traveling to Europe with his diplomat father. Ulysses S. Grant hated school and loved horses. Harry S. Truman was teased because his thick glasses kept him from playing sports, so he read every book in the public library instead. And Lyndon Baines Johnson was so poor as a child that his family didn’t have electricity or indoor plumbing.

The presidents loved their pets, played sports, and ate ice cream. Some of them were terrible students, and more than one was a prankster. They were ordinary kids who grew up to do extraordinary things. In other words, the presidents are not so different than you and me. Any American can grow up to be president!

In your Boys of Wartime series, you have created characters who are young men during famous wars and battles. Have you presented these books at schools, and, if so, have you gotten any interesting feedback from children whose older siblings might be fighting in America’s current wars?

My Boys of Wartime novels are about ordinary kids who get caught up in extraordinary events, and that’s a big focus in my school presentations. I’m always surprised that children don’t ask questions or make connections to America’s current wars, but so far they haven’t.

In presentations about DANIEL AT THE SIEGE OF BOSTON, 1776 and WILL AT THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG, 1863, I like to talk about the small, funny moments that played a role in the war or the battle—how a broken egg helped keep the American Revolution on track, for instance, or the insulting song a Gettysburg girl sang to the Confederate soldiers camped out under her window. Students have really enjoyed those stories.

MICHAEL AT THE INVASION OF FRANCE, 1943 is just about to be published, and I have wondered if—because it’s more recent than the other wars in my novels—it might spark more questions about contemporary events.

Having written a biography of George Washington (GEORGE WASHINGTON: AN AMERICAN LIFE), do you have suggestions for little-known or interesting aspects of his life that might help teachers to connect their students to the first president?

We tend to look at George Washington as this giant, heroic figure, and forget that he was, in many ways, an ordinary man.

Washington had an “interesting” relationship with his mother. She was something of a scold, and more than one of his friends was afraid of her. He wanted to join the British navy when he was a teenager, but she wouldn’t let him. Mrs. Washington didn’t think her son paid nearly enough attention to her and would have been happier if he had stopped his soldiering and politicking to stay home and take care of her.

He also struggled with poverty after his father’s death. Washington became a surveyor because he couldn’t afford to go to college. He liked to dance, but he missed more than one party as a young man because he couldn’t afford extra feed for his horse. He was also shy and quiet, which made him unlucky with girls! He even had to borrow money from a friend to travel to New York City for his inauguration.

I think stories like those that humanize Washington and make him more interesting to today’s readers. He was a heroic individual, but he struggled just like the rest of us.

What periods and/or events in history would you like to write about in the future?

There are so many time periods and events that interest me that it’s hard to choose! Two of my favorite places to bring visitors to in New York City are Ellis Island the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, so I suppose that one of these days I’m going to have to write a novel set in the immigrant world of the Lower East Side. My original plan was to include a World War One story in the Boys of Wartime series, but World War Two proved to be more compelling. So that’s still a possibility.

When I write a historical novel, I usually spend a good long time researching (six to eight months) before I even begin writing (which can take another year or more), so I have to find a story that I love, and one that makes sense given that my characters are 12-year-old boys.

Do you have any favorite research techniques that teachers can adapt to their classrooms, and help their students be more successful in researching historical figures/events?

My process has been a little different for each book. I got the idea for DANIEL when I was writing my biography of George Washington, so then it was a matter of finding out everything I could about what led up to the Siege of Boston and what day-to-day life was like during that year. I usually begin with big, general histories and then dig deeper. I comb through the bibliographies of the books I’m reading looking for more. I browse the library stacks, reading the titles nearby the ones I’m using. And I always try to find primary sources—first-hand accounts from the people who actually lived through the event.

For the next two books in the series, WILL AT THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG, 1863 and MICHAEL AT THE INVASION OF FRANCE, 1943, I started reading very broadly about the time period, looking for an aspect of the war that intrigued me. The Battle of Gettysburg captured my attention because it was such a pivotal battle in the war. Control of Gettysburg changed hands four times very quickly. For a time, one home was the battle’s front line. Confederate soldiers were on the back porch and Union soldiers were on the front. They shot at each other through the windows while the family crouched in the basement. The history books are mostly about the soldiers and the generals, but I wanted to know about the townspeople.

Once I settled on that battle as the basis of my novel, I turned to primary sources. Many of the townspeople recorded their stories. I also visited Gettysburg more than once. A lot of the Civil War buildings are still standing. I was able to walk the streets, poke my fingers into bullet holes, and stand under the shade of trees that witnessed the battle. That was invaluable.

I knew that my World War II novel would be about a boy in the French Resistance. Again, I started with very broad research. As soon as I read about the spy networks that helped Allied airmen make their way across France, into Spain, and safely into the hands of the British, I knew that’s what my story would be about. There are some great recent nonfiction books about the escape lines, and many of the airmen and Resistance fighters put their experiences down on paper, too. Once again, primary sources proved to be the most useful in getting the details right.

For nonfiction my approach is pretty much the same—I begin with contemporary historians and then make my way back in time, getting more and more specific and looking for the fun details (like the broken egg in DANIEL) that don’t usually make the history books.



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