We are so excited to have Nancy Churnin join us today to share information about Dual Narrative Picture Books!
Nancy Churnin is an award-winning children’s book author who writes about people who have made the world a better place and inspire kids to be heroes and heroines, too. Among her honors: the 2021 National Jewish Book Award, the 2022 Sydney Taylor Honor, the 2022 and 2019 Sydney Taylor Notable, the 2018 South Asia Book Award, two Junior Library Guild picks, a Sakura Medal Finalist, three Social Studies Notable Trade Books for Young people, two Children’s and Teen’s Choice Book Awards Finalist, three Silver Eureka Award winners, five A Mighty Girl picks, multiple books on the Bank Street School of Education Best Children’s Book lists and starred reviews from School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews and Publishers Weekly. All her books come with free teacher guides, resources, and projects on her website, nancychurnin.com. Nancy lives in North Texas and is available for virtual and in-person bookings through authorsandmore.com.
In addressing my process of writing of dual narrative picture books, the first thing you need to know is that I never set out to create such a book. Instead, the concept behind Martin & Anne, the Kindred Spirits of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. found me. I felt compelled to tell their stories together and I discovered how to do it by doing it.
The idea began to stir in me at a time of great distress, when I was worried about the rise of hate crimes in this country. When things feel dark, I search, in my reading, for light. It didn’t take long to turn to the words of Dr. King and Anne Frank, who never stopped working or believing that we could create a better, kinder, more just world for all, despite living in times so suffused with hate that their lives, like so many others, were cut brutally and painfully short.
I didn’t intend to write about either one. After all, both have been the subject of many fine books. Then, as I studied their lives, I noticed that they were both born in the same year: 1929, the year of the Stock Market crash and the Great Depression, a time when people were scared and hungry and, sadly, easily manipulated into looking for vulnerable groups to blame.
I started wondering what else they had in common. I pulled out a piece of notebook paper and noted key things that had happened at the same time in their lives. At five, both were cut off from their friends, not able to go to the nearest school, Martin because of the color of his skin, Anne because she was Jewish. At the same age that kids are excited to go to the public swimming pool, the ice cream store, or the movies, Martin was turned away because of the color of his skin and Anne because she was Jewish.
There were parallels in what they experienced, but was there a deeper connection? I wondered how they dealt with the challenges that faced them. When I saw that Martin won his first speech competition at 13 and Anne began to write in the diary she received for her 13th birthday, I had it. At 13, they both discovered the power of words to articulate a vision for a better world. This gave me the opportunity to share with young readers the power of words – something that can’t be tasted, smelled, or worn – but can fill us with courage and strength to do the right thing. Taking two people with so many differences on the outside – gender, race, religion, language, country of origin – and showing how much they shared on the inside also gave me the opportunity to share how we are all one human family and how we are all here to help each other.
I tried to keep the writing as simple as possible to focus on these interwoven threads. My opening talked to the reader about their differences, the narrative focused on their parallels, and my ending underlined their unified hope for a better future. It is my hope that these parallel stories will inspire young readers to work for a better future for us all, too.
Martin & Anne, the Kindred Spirits of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Anne Frank, is illustrated by Yevgenia Nayberg, published by Creston Books, and distributed by Lerner Books. It has been translated into Braille by the National Braille Press and is also available in Chinese.
Link to the Braille translation: https://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/BC2102-MARTIN-ANNE.html