We just had our first author signing and I got to interview Josh Prince, author of the new book, “I Saw an Ant on the Railroad Track” by Sterling Publishing! Josh was very friendly and gave a great interview. He said that one of his favorite authors as a child was Maurice Sendak. In fact, he still reads Sendak books today to his 3 kids.

Josh spoke about the importance of books in the home. As a child, he always had plenty of books in his home and he continues that tradition today with his own family. He keeps books in almost every room of his house from the kitchen to the car to the bathroom… He said his children will always pick up a book to read and he and his wife hope that they are instilling a lifelong love of reading.

Josh was scheduled to sign at our booth from 11-12, but his book was so popular that we ran out of copies by 11:30! Josh also paused to cast his vote for literacy in our Literacy and Justice for All campaign. He voted for his home state of Connecticut… If you haven’t already, join Josh and vote!

Check out the transcript below the fold…

Rough Transcript:

Joshua Prince: I’m Joshua Prince. I’m the author of “I Saw an Ant on the Railroad Track” and I’m very excited to be here with First Book.

First Book: Great, well we’re very excited to have you. We just have a few questions for our blog readers.

JP: Sure.

FB: First, what were some of your favorite books as a child that have really inspired you?

JP: I happened to be a lover of Maurice Sendak from start to finish. I think the feel of his books, his illustrations his writing and even the actual typography, the hand-drawn typography, is outstanding…

My favorite book of all that I read to my young children is “Mickey and the Night Kitchen,” his best work. I love “Where the Wild Things Are” and I love “We’re All in the Dumps with Jack & Guy,” which is a little bit of a scary book but it really has a wonderful message.

FB: what do you think your audience repsonds to in your stories?
JP: Well, I think that in the ant book that there’s a very very rhythmic aspect to the actual language and the story line in the book. I also think that there’s some tension in the book and that’s what I happen to like in kids books… it’s not just all positive and happy and sunny. The ant’s out for a walk and he doesn’t know that he’s in danger and peril and a big person actually takes an interest in trying to save him. So I think the kids respond to the language and the rhythym of the language which is very train like… but I also think they like the idea that there’s some danger involved, that it might not turn out right, but through Jack’s intervention in the book he actually helps save the day, inadvertantly.

FB: How did you get into writing?

JP: I’ve written since… pretty much since my school days. I always wrote on school newspapers [in] junior highschool and through highschool. I actually thought that I would turn out to be a journalist… my real day job is a writer in advertising, and that’s a way for me to support myself and my family certainly so that the book thing goes well and the ant thing seem to have some measure of popularity. I’d love to do this as a vocation.

FB: In your opinion, what are some of the ways to attract children to the joys of literature?

JP: I think that one of the things that kids are put off by reading or by books is very often that… some of the language or the storyline or the ideas lack maybe a little bit of playfullnesss; that kids seem to be attracted to things like music. And I think that there’s not a hard time getting kids interested in music, in part because it’s very rhythmic and organic. So I think that actually the rhythmic nature of picture books and of young reader story books is a way to help kids fall in love with language and what you can do with it and how it sounds in your range. It sort of has a musicality but on the other hand they get the story and the ideas and the context of it. I think it’s a way to get kids into it and I also think that [when] kids [are] around people who love books it rubs off on them.

I have three small kids and we’re a house of books. I grew up in a house where bookshelves were filled and we made that a very deliberate choice. The TV is off a lot more than it’s on. The kids are encouraged to spend some quiet time with themselves and with a book.

FB: Do you have any particular mentors that shaped your experiences?

JP: I can’t say that I have anyone other than my teachers. I did have a highschool english teacher who took a shine to my writing and really encouraged me to pursue that and I think she was the first person that got me oriented to do that - to making a life of words - even though it’s in the advertising business. But I really was also inspired mostly by the authors that I’ve read. I’m a huge newspaper consumer. I read two or three newspapers a day cover to cover. I think that the quality of a lot of editorial writing is inspiring. I also think that a lot of the other authors that I’ve read have done great stuff. It is something that inspires me.

There’s also a lot of stuff that’s not really good that gets written so I say to people who are excited about writing for the first time that if you think you have it, go for it because there are people that achieve it and don’t have it.

FB: Is there anything else you’d like to say to literacy minded people who are trying to get involved?

JP: Yeah, I think that one of the challenges for a parent and myself as a parent is that we live in a very electronic media age. That’s obvious to everyone. And I’m not opposed to time on computers or time with television or time with any other electronic media but I think that quiet, thoughtful interaction between one’s self, your mind and words is an irreplacable thing. You can’t click through a book, you can’t hyperlink and jump out of it. It requires a little bit more of a regular engagement. And I think that slowing things down with people and kids and making the time to hang out and have books everywhere - we have buckets of books in the living room, in the car, in the kitchen. We have baskets of books in the bathroom. Everywhere you go in our home there are books. And we find that the kids read everyplace including the bathroom and that’s ok [laughs…].