SLJ Talks to Mary Ann Hoberman about Her 50 Years as a Children’s Author

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Joan Oleck -- School Library Journal, 9/25/2007 2:15:00 PM

More than two generations have delighted in the musical rhymes of children’s author Mary Ann Hoberman. And this year marks the 50th anniversary of her first published work for kids. Since 1957, Hoberman has written 41 books on such child-centric topics as a llama without pajamas, a raucous auk, and an "eensy-weensy spider." From a librarian's point of view, these are books that practically beg to be read aloud, particularly her popular You Read to Me, I'll Read to You books (Little, Brown).

Now 77, Hoberman, the mother of four, grandmother of five, and a National Book Award winner, lives with her husband and first illustrator, Norman Hoberman, in Greenwich, CT. SLJ spoke with the author about what it's like to turn 50—in print.

Fifty years! How's that feel?

It's hard to believe, really. It feels fine; it feels like a miracle! I have friends in the field who are not publishing now, who went off into other fields. I've been very lucky with my editors, publishers, agent; and I've kept having ideas that people want to read.

What motivated you to write your first children's book, All My Shoes Come in Twos (Little, Brown, 1957)? And why did you do it in rhyme?

What motivated me was really my own kids. I had wanted to be a writer of some sort; I never thought of being a children's book author. It wasn't really a field that you chose back then. I kept journals; I wrote poems; I worked on the school paper and the yearbook. I wrote poetry—that was the main thing that I wrote. Ever since I was a little girl, I've made up stories and poems, and I just love rhyme. It's probably genetic. 

What do you think about people calling you a "children's poet" who has moved beyond mere rhyme?

I think in rhyme. That makes [my work] a [reflection of] a lot of my interior life. I'm always making up limericks, political stuff. It's something I enjoy. I love the surprises of rhyme. It throws up ideas that often wouldn't go together.

From the time I was a little girl, I adored poetry. I always have thought of poetry and the poets as a very noble calling. [Yet] I've always hesitated to put what I do into that area. I say, "Yes, I write verse." But it's interchangeable, especially now. So, yes, I write poetry. And I think some of the things [I write] maybe approach what I think of as poetry, rather than light verse.

Do you think kids respond better to rhyme?

I am convinced that everybody—not just kids—responds to rhythm and rhyme and repetition and all the things that are out of favor in adult poetry.

Are today’s kids different from those of past generations?

I know that attention spans are not as good as they used to be; I used to be able to go into a school when there wasn't much television, and I could hold a whole audience from kindergarten to sixth grade for a presentation. I would no more think of doing that now than flying to the moon! And the kids are more sophisticated; they have many more things to do.

So I think in a way it's almost as if they've stepped down. My grandson, who's two-and-a-half, is responding to books I've written for four-, five-, and six-year-olds; and I think that [this is happening] with a lot of children. On the other hand, I go into schools and sometimes I talk to fourth and fifth graders and read the poems, and they're delighted. So a lot of it is what you offer kids. [Some educators have] made children's verse a kind of a chore now. They use it in school in language arts, and sometimes I think it's overkill; they ask many questions about it; teachers have lesson plans. Things have changed a lot, but the essence of children, that doesn't change. They still love animals and family and they still have imaginations.

Do you plan to write more books?

There are some in the hopper that are going to be out in a couple of years, and I'm working on some now. So I hope so. As long as they buy them, I'll write them. And even if they didn't buy them, I'd go on writing. I’d write things for my grandchildren!