"Christmas Stories from the Heart" with Author Trinka Hakes Noble

Dear Friends,

Thank you so much for sharing what you were thankful for this Thanksgiving time. Your thankful hearts warmed my heart! I know you've been waiting for this announcement, so without further fanfare, the winner of Pat Brisson's book, Before We Eat: from farm to table chosen by random.org is:   

Donna Volkenannt. ** Congratulations, Donna! **  

(Donna, please e-mail me: claragillowclark(at)gmail(dot)com with your mailing address and how you'd like the book personalized.)

This week's featured guest, Author Trinka Hakes Noble, is generously donating one copy each of her two beautiful Christmas Books for the comment contest that she will autograph and personalize for the winners. All you have to do for a chance to win is leave a comment about the post or share a Christmas memory of your own. The winners will be announced on December 6th.

And now, please welcome my dear sweet friend, Trinka!

Christmas Stories from the Heart by Trinka Hakes Noble


Every Holiday Season, bookstores cram their shelves and displays with Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa books for children. These books run the gamut from crassly commercial to deeply heart felt. Many holiday books are given to children as gifts each year, and many adults collect Christmas books. For many families, Christmas books are keepsakes they cherish year after year. So, children’s book publishers make sure they offer new holiday titles on their lists each year. 

Having published two Christmas books and one Thanksgiving Day story, forthcoming in 2017, I feel writing these holiday books comes with a certain responsibility, not only to your young readers and the adults who purchase them as gifts, but to the holiday itself. 

You can’t just hang a story, any old story, on a holiday like an ornament on a Christmas tree. To my way of thinking, the story must be interwoven in an organic way with the holiday, and yet, not totally dependent on it either. I feel that the story must be strong enough that it might be able to stand on its own without the holiday. At least almost. In other words, the story is so captivating and transporting that you might forget that you are reading a Christmas story.

And yet, the magic and wonder of Christmas must somehow be sprinkled into the story like soft snowflakes landing on your tongue.

Trinka's drawing board made by her dad

I like to think that Apple Tree Christmas, which I wrote and Illustrated, is that kind of Christmas story. Not only is it written from my heart, but from my real life as well. I loved to draw as a kid, and one Christmas my father made me the most beautiful, real, professional drawing board I’d ever seen. Right then I knew nothing was going to stop me and I would grow up to be an artist.  

But that Christmas long ago, there were two little words I never said. I never said “thank you” to my Dad for the best gift I’ve ever received.  So, when I did grow up to be an artist and a writer, I decided to say thank you to my Dad in a very special way. I wrote and illustrated Apple Tree Christmas just for him. If you read the dedication, you’ll understand. 

Every illustration in Apple Tree Christmas I drew on that same drawing board my father made for me. It is sitting in my studio today. I probably wouldn’t be writing these words to you right now if my father hadn’t made me that beautiful drawing board so long ago.

Illustration from Apple Tree Christmas

 Ever since its first publication in 1984, Apple Tree Christmas has touched thousands of readers young and old with its simple heartfelt message. Now in a handsome, classic edition, published by Sleeping Bear Press, Trinka Hakes Noble’s holiday remembrance reminds us once again of the strength of family ties and the boundless roots of love. 

Vine swing in the old apple tree

          “So much of Apple Tree Christmas – the vine swing, the old apple tree, Mrs. Wooly, the drawing board, and the little girl who dreams of becoming an artist – is from my cherished Michigan childhood.”

Junior Literary Guild Selection
CBC Book of the Year
Featured in Cricket Magazine
Included in The Golden Books Treasury of Christmas





 
Christmas Spider’s Miracle was inspired by an old Ukrainian tale that touched my heart. My publisher at Sleeping Bear Press handed me a very short blurb describing this Old World tale and asked, “Are you interested?” Well, I was more than interested! My storyteller’s heart was captivated.  

From this short blurb I wrote an original story of two mothers on a bitterly cold Christmas Eve. One was a poor peasant woman who struggled to provide for her children, and the other was a mother spider that also worked hard to care for her little spiderlings. Although different as night and day, these two poor mothers had much in common. 

Mother Spider caring for her Spiderlings

On Christmas Eve, that magical night of nights, they came together in a most heartwarming way with the kindness, compassion and grace that embodies the true spirit of Christmas.

Illustration from A Christmas Spider's Miracle

The illustrator of A Christmas Spider’s Miracle, Stephen Costanza, captured the long ago Old World charm with his beautifully lush artwork.      

Ukrainian Village from A Christmas Spider's Miracle

Reviews for A Christmas Spider's Miracle: 
“The story unfolds smoothly...with lyrical, dramatic text. An appealing story with a magical aura spun by the shimmering illustrations and memorable story.” – Kirkus Review, 2011

“Enchantingly told, the story is enriched by the visual magic of textured compositions.  An excellent choice for lap-sit reading or group sharing.” – School Library Journal, 2011


 A new book coming in 2017, titled Rettie and the Ragamuffin Parade, is a Thanksgiving Day story about an immigrant girl who lives in the tenements on New York’s Lower East Side in 1918. Her name is Loretta, but everyone calls her Rettie. In 1918, American was in the grip of The Great Influenza Epidemic and World War I, colossal events way beyond a young girl’s control. In these hard times, Rettie struggles to keep her family together. The only thing that keeps her going is the hope that the Ragamuffin Parade won’t be canceled on Thanksgiving morning. 

Sketch for Rettie and the Ragmuffin Parade

Long ago, the children of New York would dress up like hobos and beggars and parade though the streets of New York with their hands out asking “Have you anythin’ for Thanksgiving?” Then people would give them a penny. Rettie, along with all the tenement children, loved the Ragamuffin Parade because they badly needed those pennies.

History tells us that when Halloween became popular with children dressing up, parading and trick-or-treating for candy, the Ragamuffin Parade fell out of favor. Many of the immigrant children who loved the Ragamuffin Parade grew up to be employed at a large department store called Macy’s in Midtown Manhattan. Some historians believe that these employees asked Mr. Macy if he would put on a parade for the children of New York on Thanksgiving morning. And so, in 1924, the first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade took place, and has continued to this day.

Rettie and the Ragamuffin Parade, coming in 2017, will be part of The Tales of Young Americans Series, published by Sleeping Bear Press. It is presently under illustration by David Gardner. 

In closing, my wish this Holiday Season is that a Christmas story touches the hearts of the children in your life, and the child within you. 

A Blessed Christmas to you all,
Trinka Hakes Noble

Trinka Hakes Noble is the award-winning author of over thirty picture books including: The Scarlet Stockings Spy (IRA Teachers’ Choice 2005), The Last Brother, The Legend of the Cape May Diamond, The Legend of the Jersey Devil and Apple Tree Christmas, which she wrote and illustrated. Other titles include: The Orange Shoes (IRA Teachers’ Choice 2008), The New Jersey Reader, Little New Jersey, The People of Twelve Thousand Winters and The Christmas Spider’s Miracle. Ms. Noble also wrote the ever-popular Jimmy’s Boa series, illustrated by Steven Kellogg, and Meanwhile Back at the Ranch, both featured on PBS’s Reading Rainbow. Her many awards include ALA Notable Children’s Book, Booklist Children’s Editors’ Choice, IRA-CBC Children’s Choice, Learning: The Year’s Ten Best, plus several state reading awards and Junior Literary Guild selections. Her latest titles are Lizzie and the Last Day of School (March 2015), and The Legend of Sea Glass (February 2016).
Coming in the fall of 2017 will be a story set on the Lower East Side in 1918, about a young immigrant girl named Loretta, whom everyone called Rettie. The title is Rettie and the Ragamuffin Parade: A Thanksgiving Story, and will be part of the Tales of Young Americans series by Sleeping Bear Press.

A graduate of Michigan State University, Ms. Noble went on to study children’s book writing and illustrating in New York City at Parsons School of Design, the New School University, Caldecott medalist Uri Shulevitz’s Greenwich Village Workshop, and at New York University. She is on the board of The New Jersey Center for the Book and a member of the Rutgers University Council on Children’s Literature. In 2002 she was awarded Outstanding Woman in Arts and Letters in the state of New Jersey for her lifetime work in children’s books, along with letters of commendation from the US Senate, the US House of Representatives and the US Congress. She is also the recipient of the Author and Illustrator of the Year Award, 2016, from the New Jersey Association of School Librarians. Ms. Noble currently lives in northern New Jersey. Learn more at her Web site www.trinkahakesnoble.com.

Thank you so much, Trinka, for sharing "Christmas Stories from the Heart" and your beautiful books, Apple Tree Christmas and A Christmas Spider's Miracle. I know we all hope you'll come back next year to share about your Thanksgiving book, Rettie and the Ragamuffin Parade. 

On December 6th, my final guest for the year, Author Michaela MacColl, will share about the writing of Secrets in the Snow, a YA novel of intrigue and romance featuring Jane Austen!

Merry Christmas!  ~Clara

Writing from the Inside Out. . . Author Trinka Hakes Noble shares about Legends

Dear Friends,

Many years ago, Trinka Hakes Noble and I met at a conference--maybe it was The Hodge Podge Book Conference or it might have been Keystone Reading, but wherever or whenever we met doesn't matter. We were instantly friends. I'm so pleased to share with you my dear friend, Trinka Noble, who shares with you about turning legends into picture books for children. She's also generously giving away two of her picture books for the comment contest. See more about that and Trinka's amazing bio at the end of the post!

 A Legend: Writing the Unwritten by Trinka Hakes Noble

When Sleeping Bear Press, renowned for publishing legends, asked me to write the legend of Michigan, I eagerly accepted. At the time, I was visiting their offices in Ann Arbor, Michigan; but once I was driving back home to New Jersey through the beautiful mountains of Pennsylvania, I was struck by this thought: How does one write something that was never intended to be written, ever, but only spoken? How does one write the unwritten? 

A legend, passed down through eons of time, generation after generation, was told and retold. Furthermore, as far as I knew, there wasn’t a legend of Michigan! I was born and raised in Michigan. My family roots run deep, way back to when Michigan was a wilderness territory, and my Native American roots go back even further. So, why wasn’t I told this legend when I was a kid?

Needless to say, it was a long, fretful drive across I-80. And yet, by the time I reached the Delaware Water Gap, I was determined to find a way to write the unwritten!

I’d written numerous picture books, which often have a read-out-loud quality, so I knew how to start. But a legend seemed to need something more. I’d do historical research, of course, but a legend needed something beyond history, something venerable, something timeless, something for the ages. And so I turned to the masters. I read out loud, and at times actually recited, The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and found what was needed--a cadence. Picture books have a rhythm, but a cadence is stronger and more pronounced, like the beat of a tribal drum. The strong beat of a tribal drum, which is believed to be the heartbeat of the earth, spoke to my Native American ancestry and to what I wanted to write for The Legend of Michigan. This was the breakthrough I needed to find a way to write what is traditionally spoken and not written. So I tuned my writing ear to the beat of a tribal drum, the heartbeat of the earth.

                Interior Illustration from The Legend of Michigan
                                                                                                                                                         
If I were going to use something as ancient as the beat of a drum, then I would have to go back to a time and space before the legend could appear. A legend often tells how and why something came to be. I would have to reach far back in time before the story of the legend started, and set the stage so the legend could happen. In The Legend of Michigan I journeyed back to the last Ice Age to find the story of how Michigan was created and came to be the unique shape of a mitten. 

And even though I was writing a legend, I was also, and most definitely, writing a story. I wanted the feeling of sitting around a campfire on a still evening, watching the wood smoke drift up into the starry night, listening to elders tell this long ago story, their voices softly rising and falling through eons of time. So I put myself in both places. I had to become the storyteller, the elder and the young listener all at the same time in order for the written page to captivate and transport the young reader back in time. This was another breakthrough that I needed in order to write a legend.

And yet, I still had to somehow connect the legend to the present, to ‘now’ so young readers could relate, so it would have some meaning, some connection to the modern world of today.

Lastly, a legend needed a mythical element, something beyond logic and reason, something that could only happen in the realm of timelessness. Only then could a legend come to life on the written page.

Somehow, all these things came together in the mysterious and unexplainable process we call the creative process. Through the creative process, I was able to write in picture book form a legend, a spoken story in the written word.

Interior Illustration from Legend of Michigan

Long long ago, the ancient peoples of the forest gathered around their warm bright fires and told the tale of a time long past, when the land of Michigane was covered with thick heavy ice. They called it the Long Night of the North Wind.

The Legend of Michigan -- Finalist for the Great Lakes Book Award, 2006



After writing The Legend of Michigan, illustrated by Gijsbert van Frankenhuyzen, I went on to write three more legends for Sleeping Bear Press.   

The Legend of the Cape May Diamond, illustrated by E.B. Lewis, came next. It begins in a time long past, when the Delaware River was called the Wehittck and flowed through an ancient land called Lenapehoking, the ancestral homeland of the Lenape people.

"Eye candy tome to dress up any coffee table, and serve as pirate's treasure for generations of beachcombers.  Ahoy!" - Philadelphia Magazine
Keystone to Reading Book Award List
Delaware Diamond State Award Nominee
 
Next came The Legend of the Jersey Devil, illustrated by Gerald Kelley.  It begins in a wild and mysterious place in New Jersey that has kept its ancient ways, called The Pine Barrens. Lurking in its black swamps and murky bogs are hidden secrets and evil stories that can only be told on the darkest of nights. 

"A delightfully spooky picture book rendering of the famed Jersey Devil legend.  Suspenseful, with captivating illustrations."  Kirkus Review, June 2013


The fourth legend, and my latest book, is The Legend of Sea Glass, illustrated by Doris Ettlinger. It begins long ago when people believed the world was flat. No one dared sail beyond the horizon, for surely you would fall off the edge of the earth and be devoured by sea monsters.

Summary: Long, long ago there was a time when mankind did not venture into the deep ocean waters. It was believed that the world was flat and to sail beyond the horizon meant falling off the edge of the earth. So even though they were drawn to and fascinated by the ocean, people feared it.

But as people lived their lives above the water, far beyond their view and in the ocean's deepest depths lived mysterious and magical sea creatures, half girl and half fish. These shy, gentle creatures were called mermaids and were much loved by the ocean. And when people finally overcame their fear and ventured out to sea, risking disaster and even death, it was the mermaids who came to their rescue. This imaginative legend explains the origin of sea glass, that treasured, collectible gift from the sea.

I learned a great deal from writing these four legends, and I believe they have helped me with my other writing as well. For me, this venture into an unfamiliar genre of writing the unwritten has helped me to stretch and grow as a writer and storyteller.  

Biography: Trinka Hakes Noble

Trinka Hakes Noble is the award-winning author of over thirty picture books including The Scarlet Stockings Spy (IRA Teachers’ Choice 2005), The Last Brother, The Legend of the Cape May Diamond, The Legend of Michigan and Apple Tree Christmas, which she wrote and illustrated. Other titles include The Orange Shoes (IRA Teachers’ Choice 2008), The Pennsylvania Reader, The New Jersey Reader, Little New Jersey, Little Pennsylvania and The People of Twelve Thousand Winters.   Ms. Noble also wrote the ever-popular Jimmy’s Boa series and Meanwhile Back at the Ranch, both featured on PBS’s Reading Rainbow. Her many awards include ALA Notable Children’s Book, Booklist Children’s Editors’ Choice, IRA-CBC Children’s Choice, Learning: The Year’s Ten Best, plus several state reading awards and Junior Literary Guild selections.

Her latest titles are The Legend of the Jersey Devil, and Lizzie and the Last Day of School (March 2015).  Forth coming in 2016 is The Legend of Sea Glass and in 2017 The Ragamuffin Parade, part of the Tales of Young Americans series by Sleeping Bear Press.   

Ms. Noble has studied children’s book writing and illustrating in New York City at Parsons School of Design, the New School University, Caldecott medalist Uri Shulevitz’s Greenwich Village Workshop, and at New York University. She is on the board of The New Jersey Center for the Book and a member of the Rutgers University Council on Children’s Literature. In 2002 she was awarded Outstanding Woman in Arts and Letters in the state of New Jersey for her lifetime work in children’s books, along with letters of commendation from the US Senate, the US House of Representatives and the US Congress. Ms. Noble currently lives in northern New Jersey.

Learn more about Trinka Hakes Noble on her Website: www.trinkahakesnoble.com.
Follow Trinka on FB: Trinka Hakes Noble, Author-Illustrator Or click on the FB symbol on her website homepage. Thanks!

Trinka has generously donated a copy of her featured book, The Legend of Michigan, and her newest title just released on February 15th, The Legend of Sea Glass.

                       ****** HAPPY BOOK BIRTHDAY, Trinka!******

For a chance to win one of these two titles, simply leave a comment for us and your name will be entered. We appreciate your comments, dear readers! If you have a moment to spare, please tweet using the handy icon below the post. The winners, picked by random.org, will be announced in one week!

Thank you so much, Trinka, for sharing your writing from the inside out and for your generous spirit!