(Author of The Bridge Home)
*During the summer of 2016, I added this feature to the blog which was called "Season #ONE". This first season ran from June of 2016 to March of 2017.
*I started up the interviews again in June of 2017. It was great to get back to Season #TWO. This season ran throughout the summer.
*Season #THREE ran during the school year of 2017/2018.
*The next season (season #FOUR) of interviews took place during the summer and fall of 2018. With each interview I became more and more impressed with the authors I was having interactions with.
*I started up the interviews again in June of 2017. It was great to get back to Season #TWO. This season ran throughout the summer.
*Season #THREE ran during the school year of 2017/2018.
*The next season (season #FOUR) of interviews took place during the summer and fall of 2018. With each interview I became more and more impressed with the authors I was having interactions with.
*It has been such an honor to connect with authors and "chat" about their novel, characters, and thoughts about the story.
*This is the FIFTH interview of what I'm calling Season #FIVE.
*Thank you to Padma Venkatraman for being the Seventy-Sixth author that I've had the pleasure of interviewing. I truly appreciate it.
*Here are links to the first Seventy-Five interviews…
SEASON #ONE
SEASON #TWO
Interview#38 with Terri Libenson (Author of Invisible Emmie)
Interview#39 with Tony Abbott (Author of The Summer of Owen Todd)
Interview #40 with Rob Buyea (Author of The Perfect Score)
Interview#39 with Tony Abbott (Author of The Summer of Owen Todd)
Interview #40 with Rob Buyea (Author of The Perfect Score)
SEASON #FOUR
Interview #54 with Jonathan Auxier (Author of Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster)
Interview #55 with Sharon Creech (Author of Saving Winslow)
Interview #56 with Stacy McAnulty (Author of The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl)
Interview #57 with Kelly Yang (Author of Front Desk)
Interview #58 with Jennifer A. Nielsen (Author of Resistance)
Interview 59 with Christina Collins (Author of After Zero)
Interview #60 with Eric Walters (Author of Elephant Secrets)
Interview #61 with Phil Bildner (Author of The Rip and Red Series)
Interview #62 with Erin Soderberg (Author of Milla in Charge)
Interview #63 with Laura Shovan (Author of Take Down)
Interview #64 with Donna Gephart (Author of In Your Shoes)
Interview #65 with Alan Gratz (Author of Grenade)
Interview #66 with Barbara O'Connor (Author of Wonderland)
Interview #67 with Lindsey Stoddard (Author of Just Like Jackie)
Interview #68 with Katherine Marsh (Author of Nowhere Boy)
Interview #69 with Dusti Bowling (Author of 24 Hours in Nowhere)
Interview #70 with Christina Uss (Author of The Adventures of a Girl Called Bicycle)
Interview #71 with Adam P. Schmitt (Author of Speechless)
SEASON #FIVE
Interview #72 with Dan Gemeinhart (Author of The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise)
Interview #73 with Abby Cooper (Author of Sticks and Stones)
Interview #74 with Abby Cooper (Author of Bubbles)
Interview #75 with Abby Cooper (Author of Friend or Fiction)
*Nancy Paulsen was so thoughtful and kind when she sent me an ARC of this new novel by author Padma Venkatraman. I read it right away and absolutely loved it. I also read it to my fourth grade class in the fall of 2018. That read aloud experience was so rewarding and we had such great discussions about the story. During #NCTE18 I had the honor of meeting Padma in person. She was a delight and I enjoyed our conversation.
*I asked Padma if she would be willing to do "An Inside Look" and her response was an immediate YES. I can't wait for the release of the novel and for many readers to experience the incredible story she wrote.
*I asked Padma if she would be willing to do "An Inside Look" and her response was an immediate YES. I can't wait for the release of the novel and for many readers to experience the incredible story she wrote.
*Padma was kind, gracious, and giving with her answers to the questions. It is an honor to post her responses here on the blog.
*Thank you Padma Venkatraman for writing this book...
The Bridge Home
by Padma Venkatraman (February 5, 2019)
How did you come to know Viji?
My mother volunteered to work at schools for children who had very little. Viji resembles a friend I had at one of those schools - but then again, like all my characters, she's also her own person. I got to know her by spending time with her in my head. The best way to think of it is that a character haunts my thoughts in the beginning and then I allow them to possess my heart - and when they take over my life (and I dream like I'm them), that's when I feel I really do know them.
What do you think is Viji's most admirable quality?
What do you think is Viji's most admirable quality?
Her ability to act bravely out of love for someone else.
Is there anything you wish Viji would have changed or done differently in her story?
I wish she would have gone to Celina aunty's school the moment she arrived in the city. But if she'd done that, she wouldn't have been Viji. I also wish she would have understood Rukku better right from the start. So it's tough. As an author you have to watch your characters do things you wish they didn't have to do; but like being a parent, you just have to watch and let them make their own mistakes...
What do you think the characters in THE BRIDGE HOME can offer to other children that are experiencing similar situations to what she went through?
More than any of the other characters in the novel, I think the character who is the most inspiring for kids experiencing similar situations is Lalitha, whom Viji meets at the school that Celina Aunty's sister studied at. She offers the best glimpse of a future filled with hope and promise. That said, I think Muthu's sense of humor, Arul's depth of compassion, Rukku's independence and determination, and Viji's spunk and courage all have something very positive to offer.
How did you research Viji and the circumstances she found herself in?
Many of the kids whom my mother reached out to and helped would come home and tell us their stories. I would write them down in a book - although they sometimes horrified me. A lot of times the children would cry and I knew they didn't want pity - they were too brave for that - but although pity wasn't in my mind at all, I also felt driven to do something to help their stories reach the larger world instead of just being in our house for our ears to hear. Later, when I wrote the book, I went back to the childhood diaries and visited schools still in Chennai and talked and listened to a lot of people. I also - and I know this sounds awful - I also walked up and down streets with open rubbish heaps to take in the stench and spent just day fasting to try and understand a little better what it meant to be hungry.
Do you and Viji share any similarities?
We've both made some bad mistakes in life and she tends to jump into decisions without a whole lot of forethought, which I do, too. We've both experienced and survived domestic violence and abusive situations. We both love teaching and think it's important to dream. We don't give up easily. In a way her chosen family is like mine - I immigrated to the United States on my own, and for several years I was far away from the family of my birth and I had to make my way in a new setting with my own resources, among strangers; so some people whom I really care deeply about, who are family to me are my friends, not the siblings I inherited at birth.
What was the hardest scene to write about Viji?
The opening scene in which appa beats amma was toughest. I wrote it greater detail, so it was a lot more vivid at first and it was hard because it meant I had to relieve some of the pain I had undergone as a child. My brilliant editor, Nancy Paulsen, who knows a lot more about middle grade fiction that I probably ever will, cut it down so it remains emotionally powerful without showing as much explicit violence - but that scene was still really tough for me to read when I read the novel aloud for the audio book. There's another scene that was equally hard to write about but I won't get into that because it would be a spoiler.
Who do you think was Viji's biggest supporter and why?
Arul, probably. I wasn't thinking about this as I wrote the novel, but when I saw this question, I realized that my boys are strong, fully fleshed out and well developed characters and their own people - but although it's their story, too, they also play great supportive roles (whereas in so many books even today, we see boys being supported by girls, and this story turns that around). Arul is supportive but that doesn't mean he's always saying yes to everything Viji wants - he's good enough friend to tell Viji when he thinks she's being bossy and when she underestimates Rukku and is overprotective of her; and he speaks up to prevent Viji from drowning in self pity. I love the fact that he's such a compassionate boy - and we know he'll grow into a kind, sensitive empathetic man.
Why do you think young children have such a strong sense of what is right, what is wrong, and what needs to be done in order to survive?
Wow! Great question - no real answer....maybe because they don't overthink things?
What do you think Viji is doing at the present time?
Working as hard as she can, through all the ups and downs, to make her dreams come true. Like I am trying to do, too!!!
Is there anything you wish Viji would have changed or done differently in her story?
I wish she would have gone to Celina aunty's school the moment she arrived in the city. But if she'd done that, she wouldn't have been Viji. I also wish she would have understood Rukku better right from the start. So it's tough. As an author you have to watch your characters do things you wish they didn't have to do; but like being a parent, you just have to watch and let them make their own mistakes...
What do you think the characters in THE BRIDGE HOME can offer to other children that are experiencing similar situations to what she went through?
More than any of the other characters in the novel, I think the character who is the most inspiring for kids experiencing similar situations is Lalitha, whom Viji meets at the school that Celina Aunty's sister studied at. She offers the best glimpse of a future filled with hope and promise. That said, I think Muthu's sense of humor, Arul's depth of compassion, Rukku's independence and determination, and Viji's spunk and courage all have something very positive to offer.
How did you research Viji and the circumstances she found herself in?
Many of the kids whom my mother reached out to and helped would come home and tell us their stories. I would write them down in a book - although they sometimes horrified me. A lot of times the children would cry and I knew they didn't want pity - they were too brave for that - but although pity wasn't in my mind at all, I also felt driven to do something to help their stories reach the larger world instead of just being in our house for our ears to hear. Later, when I wrote the book, I went back to the childhood diaries and visited schools still in Chennai and talked and listened to a lot of people. I also - and I know this sounds awful - I also walked up and down streets with open rubbish heaps to take in the stench and spent just day fasting to try and understand a little better what it meant to be hungry.
Do you and Viji share any similarities?
We've both made some bad mistakes in life and she tends to jump into decisions without a whole lot of forethought, which I do, too. We've both experienced and survived domestic violence and abusive situations. We both love teaching and think it's important to dream. We don't give up easily. In a way her chosen family is like mine - I immigrated to the United States on my own, and for several years I was far away from the family of my birth and I had to make my way in a new setting with my own resources, among strangers; so some people whom I really care deeply about, who are family to me are my friends, not the siblings I inherited at birth.
What was the hardest scene to write about Viji?
The opening scene in which appa beats amma was toughest. I wrote it greater detail, so it was a lot more vivid at first and it was hard because it meant I had to relieve some of the pain I had undergone as a child. My brilliant editor, Nancy Paulsen, who knows a lot more about middle grade fiction that I probably ever will, cut it down so it remains emotionally powerful without showing as much explicit violence - but that scene was still really tough for me to read when I read the novel aloud for the audio book. There's another scene that was equally hard to write about but I won't get into that because it would be a spoiler.
Who do you think was Viji's biggest supporter and why?
Arul, probably. I wasn't thinking about this as I wrote the novel, but when I saw this question, I realized that my boys are strong, fully fleshed out and well developed characters and their own people - but although it's their story, too, they also play great supportive roles (whereas in so many books even today, we see boys being supported by girls, and this story turns that around). Arul is supportive but that doesn't mean he's always saying yes to everything Viji wants - he's good enough friend to tell Viji when he thinks she's being bossy and when she underestimates Rukku and is overprotective of her; and he speaks up to prevent Viji from drowning in self pity. I love the fact that he's such a compassionate boy - and we know he'll grow into a kind, sensitive empathetic man.
Why do you think young children have such a strong sense of what is right, what is wrong, and what needs to be done in order to survive?
Wow! Great question - no real answer....maybe because they don't overthink things?
What do you think Viji is doing at the present time?
Working as hard as she can, through all the ups and downs, to make her dreams come true. Like I am trying to do, too!!!
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