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picture book

Patrice Gopo’s Debut Picture Book

June 13, 2022 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

With the June 14th release of All the Places We Call Home, Patrice Gopo claims her place on the list of picture books authors who currently call Charlotte home.  Patrice did not always call Charlotte home.  The child of Jamaican immigrants, Patrice grew up in Anchorage, Alaska.  During her early adult years, she spent time living in multiple states and countries, including South Africa, before eventually moving to Charlotte about eleven years ago.  Patrice draws on her unique background in her debut picture book.  For more information about Patrice and All the Places We Call Home, please click on the following link:  https://www.patricegopo.com/home

In the beginning of All the Places We Call Home, a young girl spins a globe on her bedside table and wonders about the various places that figure in her family history. Like Patrice, the girl lives in America but has family roots in multiple parts of the world.   The girl’s mother then shares bedtime stories about these special places.  Jenin Mohammed, the book’s illustrator, provides colorful pictures that perfectly match Patrice’s lyrical descriptions of the various places that the girl calls home.

All the Places We Call Home has direct connections to Patrice’s first book, a collection of personal essays titled All the Colors We Will See:  Reflections on Barriers, Brokenness, and Finding Our Way, which came out in 2018. I recently contacted Patrice and asked her about the connections between these two books.  Here is what she sent to me:

First, a fun fact about All the Places We Call Home: an essay in my collection All the Colors We Will See inspired the story. Years ago, in rural Zimbabwe, my oldest daughter took a nap on her great-grandmother’s bed. That day I remembered a childhood nap I had once taken on my grandmother’s bed in rural Jamaica. I recognized how my daughter’s story would, in many ways, mirror my story: a child who lives in one place but has cultural ties to other parts of the world. That experience became an essay titled “Before.” I started writing personal essays around 2010. However, I only branched out into picture books in 2019 when an idea whispered to me that maybe I could reimagine “Before” in a new form.

When I initially started writing All the Places We Call Home, I attempted to take “Before” and pare it down, still clinging to the complex language and structural movement. That draft failed miserably. The failure, however, was still a great learning experience. I discovered I needed a different approach for a picture book versus the meandering approach I often take when writing essays. With essays, the images and lyrical language usually come first and lead me toward the story. With picture books, I discovered that the story usually comes first and leads me toward the rich imagery and lyrical language.

As a 2011 transplant to Charlotte, I think All the Places We Call Home is the perfect title for this book. Over the years, Charlotte has truly become a place I think of as another home. I know some of that metamorphosis happened because of the significant impact Charlotte and North Carolina has had on my growth as a writer. I often tell people that living in this city and this state helped me become the writer I am today. It’s here that I refined my craft as an essayist, and it’s here that I stepped into this new area of picture books. Along the way, I’ve found incredible support through organizations such as the North Carolina Arts Council, the Arts & Science Council, Charlotte Lit, and the Carolinas chapter of SCBWI.

I’m so excited for All the Places We Call Home to find its place in the world, and I’m absolutely thrilled with the Jenin Mohammed’s rich and textured illustrations. She brought life to this story in ways I could have never dreamed. Ultimately, I hope All the Places We Call Home will encourage children and their families and caregivers to embrace this beautiful truth: the places we come from can be part of us, even if we can’t always be near them. Places we’ve never lived—or we no longer live—can deepen our understanding of ourselves. Our children can connect to more than just the place where they fall asleep at night. For some, their ties stretch across the world. For others, they stretch across their town. Ultimately, may this story inspire others to celebrate the various places they call home.

Patrice is participating in several upcoming events tied to the launch of All the Places We Call Home. Detailed information about these events can be found on her website, but the key information is listed below:

Saturday, June 18th @ 11am @ Park Road Books

Wednesday, June 29th @ 1 pm @ Pig City Books

Friday, July 1st @ 10 am @ Main Street Books

Saturday, July 9th @ 11 am hosted by Shelves Bookstore

While reading All the Places We Call Home, I was reminded of the family stories that my mother told me about Sweden when I was a boy.  Everyone in my mother’s family came from Sweden, and her Swedish heritage was very important to her.  I enjoyed hearing my mother’s stories about our family history.  I was in my 60s before I visited Sweden, but I felt at home when I finally did. 

Like Patrice, I now call Charlotte home, but also like Patrice, I feel strong ties to other places in the world—places where I once lived or places where members of my family once lived.  In this regard, I am not unique.  Charlotte has a long and rich history of attracting people from all over the world.  For this reason, Patrice’s All the Places We Call Home is a perfect book for Storied Charlotte. 

Tags: family storiespicture book

Derick Wilder’s Poignant Picture Book about a Dog and His Child Friend

December 13, 2021 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

I grew up on the side of a mountain where I had something of a feral childhood.  I spent much of my early childhood wandering around the mountain, but I was usually not alone.  We had an old collie named Gypsy, and she almost always stayed at my side or rested nearby, always keeping an eye on me.  My parents used to say that they had me but Gypsy raised me.  I thought about Gypsy as I read Derick Wilder’s touching debut picture book titled The Longest Letsgoboy.  Gypsy is long gone, but I have a feeling that she would identify with the dog in this book.

Published in October by Chronicle Books, The Longest Letsgoboy tells the story of an old dog and a young girl going for one last walk in the woods together.  Narrated in the voice of the dog, the story beautifully captures the special relationship between a dog and a child.  The dog has a unique way of talking.  He has his own words for the things that are important to him.  He calls trees tallsticks, refers to squirrels as branchjumpers, and uses the name Little when talking about his girl.  The dog’s love of Little shines through on every page.  He cares deeply about Little, and he wants to make sure that she is going to be okay.  Cátia Chien’s mixed-media illustrations are in perfect synch with the strong emotions that the story evokes.

With the publication of The Longest Letsgoboy, Derick now joins the ranks of picture book authors and illustrators who call the Charlotte area home.  However, Derick took a long and winding road on his journey to becoming a published picture book author.  I asked him about how he came to write this book, and here is what he sent to me:

I’ve been writing since I was a kid—journaling vacations, penning poetic birthday cards, and scribbling silly stories. And after one career in technology and another working with children, I’ve sort of come full circle, initially falling in love with picture books after spending endless hours sitting on the floor of our library and local bookstores with my little girl. Once hooked, I began scribbling silly stories again, this time for an audience of one.

Fast forward almost a decade and that little girl has magically become a teen. Meanwhile, one of those silly stories turned into an actual book, as The Longest Letsgoboy, illustrated by Cátia Chien, was released in October. It’s a circle-of-life tale told through the eyes of an aging dog, and sprinkled with his own dog-speak, taking a final walk with his best friend, a little girl.

This book was actually inspired by a real-life event. I write on the back patio quite a bit, and my huskies at the time, Lakota and Kaya, would often sit by my feet. One morning, Lakota, then an elderly boy, got up and slowly strolled around our yard. I followed him, and it felt like he was saying farewell to the surrounding flora and fauna. So I substituted my daughter and imagined them walking through the woods, with the dog knowing it would be his last day on Earth. I wrote a (very bad) first draft that morning, then spent time in the forests of our local greenway, trying to figure out how a dog might refer to the natural elements. I’d watch squirrels, lie under trees and stare at their canopies, speak to flowers, and listen to streams. Next, I started trying combinations of small words to create dog-speak that made sense and, just as importantly, could be easily pronounced when read aloud. Finally, after about 50 revisions and multiple rejections, Jenna Pocius, my agent, found the perfect home for the story at Chronicle Books.

My next picture book, illustrated by K-Fai Steele and also published by Chronicle, is slated for May. This one will be very different, as it’s titled Does a Bulldozer Have a Butt? and is written in rhyme. But one common thread is that it was also inspired by a real-life event—my young daughter was in the back seat as we stopped behind a school bus and blurted out, “Look Daddy, the school bus has a butt!” It was a brilliant, childlike perspective that I would never have thought of… she wants royalties.

For readers who want to know more about Derick, please click on the following link:  https://www.derickwilder.com/

The Charlotte area is home to a number of remarkable picture book authors and illustrators, including Vanessa Brantley-Newton, Gail Haley, Brandon Reese, and Alicia D. Williams.  I am pleased to add Derick Wilder’s name to my list of Storied Charlotte picture book authors.

Tags: dogpicture book
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