Welcome to Cantastic Authorpalooza, featuring posts by and about great Canadian children’s book creators! Today’s guest: Alison Lohans. Take it away, Alison!
Creating new things. Sometimes beautiful things.
We rarely know the deep origins, or why a particular “something” begins to wiggle, and then morph into a new creative work. Ever since high school, already writing and very active in music groups, I’ve inherently known that involvement in the arts – whether the written word or music, visual arts, drama or dance – is soul-enriching at the deepest levels. To take this a step further, sitting in band rehearsal one day in the mid-1960s, I was deeply moved by the realization that, playing together as a group, we could create something “truly alive”, something that none of us could attain on our own.
And so it also happens with the development of a picture book. Our manuscript is partnered with just the right artist, and the work comes alive in new ways that neither of us could achieve individually. Then, at the next stage, readers become involved in this same “act of creation” – a three-way transaction in which readers bring their own worlds of experience to what we’ve already created jointly.
My latest experience here is the publication of my newest picture book, The Wind and Amanda’s Cello, illustrated by artist Sarah Shortliffe of Nova Scotia, and released by Shadowpaw Press on September 24 of this year. It’s been amazing working with Sarah (who also happens to play cello!) and writer-publisher Edward Willett/Shadowpaw Press. And it’s been intriguing to see some responses of early reviewers.
The Wind and Amanda’s Cello isn’t the first time I’ve highlighted music in a book for young people. (Others include Nathaniel’s Violin, Foghorn Passage, and Don’t Think Twice.) In this newest book, it was great fun playing with the idea of a mischievous puff of wind swooping into Amanda’s cello as she sat practicing – and then staying there. This magical breath of wind has its own ideas about what Amanda’s music should be. From then on, practicing is less a chore and far more of an adventure. Even people who “don’t like music much” stand there listening as Amanda practices. The music Amanda plays at lessons or concerts isn’t always what’s in the book – but people enjoy it anyway. When Amanda’s baby sister isn’t feeling well, the wind comforts her. Further, when Amanda is invited to play at her little sister’s daycare, “the wind whispered stories that only Amanda and the children could hear”. But… Children have a tendency to grow. And Amanda is eventually told that she’s outgrown her small cello, and needs a bigger one…
To close, I’d like to share John O’Donohue’s “For the Artist at the Start of Day,” from his book To Bless the Space Between Us (Doubleday, 2008, p. 17):
May morning be astir with the harvest of night;
Your mind quickening to the eros of a new question,
Your eyes seduced by some unintended glimpse
That cut right through the surface to a source.
May this be a morning of innocent beginning,
When the gift within you slips clear
Of the sticky web of the personal…
…A morning when you become a pure vessel
For what wants to ascend from silence…
Alison Lohans of Regina, SK is the author of 31 books (primarily for young people) published by Canadian and international presses. She’s won some awards, has taught writing and mentored a number of now-successful writers, served as Writer-in-Residence, given over a thousand readings from her work in schools and libraries across Canada, and does some editing.
Since early childhood, Alison has been actively involved in the arts: writing, music, and visual art. She could read simple piano music before she could read words. Growing up in a family where bedtime always meant stories read aloud or retellings of favourite made-up stories; singing; and always a stash of library books on hand – and add a grandmother who occasionally played classical piano after the kids went to bed… How could this unrealized wealth not have an impact? From her earliest years, Alison’s parents included her in “making art” – such as (with her sister) illustrating their dad’s fire engine story, and even illustrating a would-be picture book story that her mother submitted to New York publishers. In high school, Alison reluctantly set aside her passion for visual art because writing and music seemed more important. (Actually, she tried dropping music in order to focus on art, but that didn’t work…) Her university degrees are in Music and Education. In addition to teaching writing, Alison has also taught music at various levels, plays four instruments on a recreational basis (cello, cornet, recorder and piano), and sings in her church choir. Her next picture book “The Best Little Sister in the World” will be released in 2025.