Five years ago, I had the opportunity to work with a group of first graders on writing. One of my favorite students, Andy (short for Andrea) grew into a voracious reader and a budding writer with a fabulous vocabulary. This summer I introduced her to author, Shannon Messenger's
Keeper of the Lost Cities. Andy devoured the book. I was lucky to acquire an Advanced Copy of
Keeper of the Lost Cities: Exile which comes out in October 2013. Before I had a chance to even read it, I knew I could make someone's day and shared it with one of my favorite young readers, Andy.
For some fun, Andy wrote up some questions for two of the main characters, Sophie & Fitz. She also had a few questions for Shannon, too.
Interview questions for Sophie:
When the truth was revealed about how you where created how did that impact your life? Could you elaborate on your experiences?
Well, I'm honestly still figuring that out. There's still so much no one's told me that most of the time I feel like I have no idea what's going on. It can be a little frustrating. And sometimes a little scary. But I just have to take it one day at a time.
When you first learned that you had to move away from your love ones how did you feel? What were your thoughts?
Oh wow--there were so many emotions. Of course I was sad. And scared. And angry that we all had to suffer because of things that we had nothing to do with. But honestly? I also felt a little relieved. I know that might sound bad, like I didn't love my family--and I do. But I never felt quite right with them--and I could tell that they were always worrying about me. So in a weird way, it was nice to finally understand why living with them had been so hard.
Interview questions to Fitz:
I find it very humorous that only your ears tend to change as you age! Can you explain why it happens?
Ha--I don't know why you humans find that so weird. Don't you know that it even happens to you? Have you looked at your grandfather's ears? How about your great grandfather's? Go look if you haven't. You'll find they're quite large, because human ears continue to grow as you age too. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if your ears could grow points as well. You just don't live as long as we do to find out.
How does it feel being a telepath, and is there a reasons why it's not permitted to read people's mind without their permission?
I love being a Telepath! It's a really important ability--and I'm good at it! Really good, actually. And we have laws for Telepaths to make sure we respect other's privacy. Just because some of us have the ability to hear thoughts doesn't mean we should be allowed to poke around people's heads all the time and find out what they're thinking. Wouldn't you want to be able to keep a few secrets?
Interview questions for Shannon:
What inspired you to create the characters, animals, and majestic places?
Oh, so many things. The world of KEEPER is a little bit of everything I love, mixed with a lot of answers to the question, "What if?" I love to consider possibilities and think about what things would be like if they were different from the life we see every day. The story really came from there.
Do you plan to make the book into a movie?
Well, that's one of those funny things a lot of people don't realize. It's not *really* up to the author whether the book gets made into a movie because it costs a LOT of money to make a movie. So that would be up to Hollywood to decide. But I think it would be very cool if it happened. Fingers AND toes crossed.
Thanks Shannon for answering Andy's questions and for participating in this interview. :-)
For more information about Shannon Messenger, check out her website:
http://shannonmessenger.com/
Keeper of the Lost Cities Book Club Giveaway
Keeper of the Lost Cities has been a huge hit with every child I have shared it with. To celebrate
Exile (book 2) coming out next month, I am giving away 10 paperback copies of
The Keeper of the Lost Cities (book 1) to a lucky reader with a U.S. mailing address (no P.O. Boxes). Shannon and I are working out a way to get the books signed. Additionally, Shannon has agreed to skype with the lucky book club or classroom that wins the books.
Please enter the contest using the Rafflecopter form below:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
