Don Brown: History through Unsung Heroes
Jennifer M. Brown, Curriculum Connections -- School Library Journal, 1/6/2009
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Listen to Don Brown introduce All Stations! Distress!: April 15, 1912: The Day the Titanic Sank
Don Brown has always been fascinated by the childhoods of the famous. He has written and illustrated books about Albert Einstein (Odd Boy Out [2004]) and Mark Twain (American Boy [2003]). But his true passion has been to convey history through its uncelebrated heroes. People such as Mary Kingsley (Uncommon Traveler, [2000]), Mary Anning (Rare Treasure, [1999, all Houghton]) and the "newsies"—the paperboys who went on strike in Chicago in the summer of 1899, in Kid Blink Beats The World (2004). "I'm naturally drawn to lesser-known people," Brown notes. "I love those little anecdotes of history." His most recent titles for young readers each concentrate on a single day—Let It Begin Here!: April 19, 1775: The Day the American Revolution Began; and All Stations! Distress!: April 15, 1912: The Day the Titanic Sank(2008, all Roaring Brook). Both books have allowed Brown the latitude to introduce the smaller players in history.
You've written many biographies over the years. What gave you the idea to zero in on milestone days in history?
I've been writing and illustrating picture-book biographies for youngsters for a long time, each limited to 32 pages and 1200 words. I was interested in a format that would allow a broader portrayal of an event or a time, [aimed at slightly] older kids who can handle art that’s more realistic. During the Battle of Lexington and Concord [in Let It Begin Here!] there are people dying; [that would be challenging for the traditional picture-book audience, but] for an 8- to 12-year-old, I think it works.
Even though these are big, historic events, you make them accessible by focusing on the individuals involved. The man on the cover of Let It Begin Here!, for instance, is not Paul Revere, but rather Captain John Parker, who also played a key role in the fight against the British on that day.
We're connected to the past by a shared humanity. You can make a 21st-century connection to a loss in the 18th century because you're human. It doesn't matter if it's the Babylonian War or the Revolutionary War. [The events have a] greater impact if you use people to tell the story. The Battle of Lexington and Concord is well documented. You can put names and faces on the people involved. The man who dies on his own stoop in front of his wife and children [in Let It Begin Here!]—that's pretty rough stuff.
In each book, you begin with a quote that crystallizes the thrust of the coming story. Do you choose it after you've done your research and before you begin to write? Or does that quote rise to the surface in the process of writing?
I'll find [a quote] and I'll store that away in the back of my head and try to use it. Because I do use a prologue, I have to think about what will be in it, what will appear on the title page. If you look at the picture books I’ve written over the past 10 years, virtually every one has a prologue.
Your opening quote in All Stations! Distress! is that of a crewman, "God himself could not sink this ship!" Somehow, in other accounts I'd read, I missed that the fateful iceberg left a "three-hundred-foot breach in the forward hull"—that's the length of a football field!
What's left [of the ship's wreckage] is buried in the mud, so the actual breach can't be viewed. The latest research shows that it was probably a series of holes in the hull covering 300 feet.
It's disturbing to read that there were only enough lifeboats to save half the people on board, and that several of the lifeboats were launched half full.
This was the only book that [has ever given] me nightmares. The water's freezing, the boat is sinking, there aren't enough lifeboats, and there’s that notion "you only have an hour to live." Exposure kills, and that's how most people died.
How do you balance what you will convey in words and what you will convey through illustration?
First come the words. Even though I do both, I try to write without thinking about the images. Only after the writing do I think about the pictures. What's the visual arc of the artwork? How do I create images that enhance the story? If everything is of equal weight visually, there is no weight. The whole should be greater than the sum of its parts. When that happens, it's magic. It's alchemy.
Brown's next book in the series will focus on the start of the California Gold Rush, with the discovery of gold on January 24, 1848, at Sutter's Mill.
Listen to Don Brown introduce All Stations! Distress!: April 15, 1912: The Day the Titanic Sank
TeachingBooks.net resources on this interview »»»
