Keatley Talks Past, Present and Future
Zilpha Keatley Snyder Exclusive Book Help Web Interview
Zilpha Keatley Snyder is one of those authors who have accompanied many people through their childhood. Her words have danced through their heads as they fell asleep at night and awakened in them a joy and love for reading.
She is perhaps best known for The Egypt Game, The Headless Cupid and The Witches of Worm -all of which were recognized with Newbery Honors. In all her books, though, she creates characters whom her readers recognize; characters they befriend and who make their lives the more richer for having known them.
Zilpha Keatley Snyder: I don't find any overall difference. I still hear from kids who are fascinated by books and reading but, as always, there seem to be others who only read what and when they have to. Modern kids still seem to relate easily to the characters I wrote about in some of my early books--particularly the to the boys and girls in The Egypt Game which still seems to be widely and enthusiastically received.
BHW: What has been one of the most interesting reactions to your books, either by a child or an adult?
Snyder: Oh dear! This could range from a girl who wrote "I don't know how I lived before I read The Changeling --to a woman with far right religious convictions, who once confronted me on a stage and thrust a book matches into my hand--and told me it was a gift because I was "going to repent and burn all my own books."
BHW: In your autobiography, you say that you write for children because they share your optimism, curiosity, and imagination. How have you managed to keep these three traits in such abundance given all that you have experienced and witnessed in your life?
Snyder: I don't see any decrease in my curiosity and imagination. Optimism has been a little harder to hang on to, given the mess the world is in at present. But my optimism is quite resilient due to the fact that it seems to be largely organic and the result of (as I have quoted before) "a short memory and a good digestion".
BHW: Do you ever have a desire to go back to any of your stories and "find out" what happened to your heroines after they became adults? Where do you think you would find some of your characters today if you were to write more of their stories?
Snyder: No, I rarely do that. I think I tend to leave that up to my readers. I once got a package of letters from a sixth grade that had written sequels to The Egypt Game in which the characters had grown up, married each other and had produced any number of children. I'm willing to take their word for it.
BHW: There is an element of the supernatural or magical in many of your stories. Why do you think this element resonates so well with young readers?
Snyder: I think nearly all kids enjoy the feeling that there is more to the world than what is known and accepted by "all-knowing" adults and that no matter where you are and what you are doing, you never really know what might be going to happen right around the next corner.
BHW: You've won Newbery Honors for three books: The Egypt Game, The Headless Cupid, and The Witches of Worm. If you had been able to give any of the 43 books you've written a Newbery Award, which one would it be and why?
Snyder: Other than the three all ready so awarded? I think I might suggest Cat Running and Gib Rides Home.
BHW: Have any of your books turned out vastly different than how you thought they would when you began? What happened?
Snyder: The Gypsy Game was one. When I began the story, I was planning a more light-hearted story. I did know that Hitler included them in his genocidal activities, but other than that I basically thought they were people who told fortunes, danced to accordion music and kept dancing bears. But when I began to research their history, I was so saddened by what I learned that the book took on a more serious ambiance.
BHW: What do you do with a story when you get stuck-either because the plot isn't working or the characters aren't coming to life?
Snyder: I go downstairs and make myself a cup of tea. No, not just that. But I do have writers' block rather rarely. But when I do there is the tea, and then I go back and read over what I have just done, and begin to rewrite.
BHW: Which other juvenile fiction author do you most like to read?
Snyder: Going way back: Some of my early loves were Smoky the Cowhorse, The Secret Garden, and Anne of Green Gables. A little later there were the Borrower stories by Mary Norton, the Green Knowe stories by Lucy Boston, and books by Madeleine L'Engle and Susan Cooper, Recently I have been enjoying Daniel Handler and Gennifer Choldenko.
BHW: What project/book are you working on now? What will it be about?
Snyder: I will have a new book this year called The Treasures of Weatherby. Once again it is a fairly realistic story with slightly magical overtones. It concerns the biggest and oldest house that I have ever written about, and the undersized boy who will someday inherit it. And I am now about fifty pages into something that is in too delicate a stage to talk about.
