Please welcome author Marsha Diane Arnold to my blog. I’m thrilled to celebrate her newest picture book, Armando’s Island, with beautiful illustrations by Anne Yvonne Gilbert.
Called a “born storyteller” by the media, Marsha Diane Arnold is a picture book author of twenty-four books, with over one million books sold. Her books have garnered honors like Best First Book by a New Author, Smithsonian Notable, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, and Green Prize for Sustainable Literature. Her Lights Out, about light pollution, has been praised by the Dark Sky and children’s lit communities and was a finalist for the SCBWI Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Text. Marsha lives in Florida with her husband and funny dog Sailor. When not writing, she enjoys spending time with family, gardening, and exploring new places and ideas.
Visit Marsha’s website to learn more about her books, manuscript consultations, and school visits.
What inspired you to write Armando’s Island…and what was the journey like from idea to publication?
Thank you so much, Mindy, for having me on your blog. The journey of Armando’s Island has been a very long one. I started researching it thirty years ago! I was working at that time with a number of conservation groups and I was particularly sad about the deforestation of the rainforest. From the research, an idea emerged – that of a man who stood alone, stood for the wildlife and plants, against the loss of habitat.
The manuscript went through several rounds of submission over the years. It was rejected again and again. Most editors liked the text, but thought it was too serious or that it wouldn’t sell well. The last time my agent submitted the story, in 2020, I had two offers! That was a rather nice ending to such a long journey. Another wonderful part of that ending was having the brilliant Anne Yvonne Gilbert do the illustrations for the book. Here’s one of my favorites.
The illustration is absolutely stunning. I want to hug all the animals. And wow, that is so inspiring, Marsha! I’m sure we all have manuscripts we love that had to be shelved—either because the publishing world wasn’t ready for it at one time, or we weren’t quite ready to tell that story in the best possible way yet. And I agree—the illustrations by Anne Yvonne Gilbert are gorgeous. This gives us so much hope that we can breathe new life into some of our shelved favorites. Huge congrats! It must feel amazing to have a story so close to your heart out in the world and in the hands of children.
Do you have a favorite paragraph or page from Armando’s Island?
The phrase I’ve always loved is, “With the first song of the toucan, he remembered.” It’s on page 9, followed by a stanza I love: “Chasing butterflies along a golden stream, calling to howler monkeys swinging high above, dancing to the rain’s rhythm with a leaf as his umbrella.” The phrase returns at the end, on page 27: “Armando hopes that some morning with the first song of the toucan, a long-ago memory will come to them…” This is followed by the ending stanza, again, “Chasing butterflies along a golden stream, calling to howler monkeys swinging high above, dancing to the rain’s rhythm with a leaf as their umbrella.” At the end of my stories, I always try to circle back to the beginning, if it works well.
What do those favorite words mean to me? I believe if we can immerse our children in nature from a young age, they will grow to love and respect and care for it. Note that in the beginning, I write “his umbrella,” referring to Armando and at the end I write “their umbrella.” At the end we hope that those who are destroying the rainforest will remember, in their hearts, a memory from childhood, a memory with nature.
Ooh, I love this! And I’m proud to have a nature-loving family. I’m glad amazing books like Armando’s Island will help more children grow up loving, respecting, and caring for nature.
Do you have a favorite animal from Armando’s Island?
I love them all. However, the scarlet macaw has long held a special place in my heart, ever since my first trip to Costa Rica in the mid 1990s. My first view of them was at dusk, when a group of two dozen or more flew across a river toward their nightly resting place in the rainforest canopy. They took my breath away. I’m not a photographer, but during my return trips to Costa Rica, I took photos of scarlet macaws, many near my husband’s and my casita. Toucans also visited our casita, which we sadly no longer have. It’s so special to be near these animals in your own home.
They are so beautiful! I’ve seen scarlet macaws at wildlife sanctuaries…but would love the chance to see them in the wild. And wow—to have them visit your casita must’ve been absolutely magical.
What kind of research did you do to discover more about the rainforest and the amazing creatures that live there?
As mentioned, I started researching thirty years ago! From the file I recently discovered, far in the back of my file cabinet, I see that I read other books about the rainforest. Some of those books were Jane Yolen’s Welcome to the Green House and Laurence Pringle’s Living Treasure: Saving Earth’s Threatened Biodiversity. It’s interesting – I didn’t know Jane or Laurence then, but now I consider them friends. Back then I wrote letters, instead of emails, to gather information and I received letters back – letters from World Wildlife Fund, Rainforest Alliance, Rainforest Action Network, and CBS News. More recently, I followed Amazon Watch and Greenpeace. For the animals, I researched using books and the internet.
What themes and characters come up most in your picture books?
What a fascinating question, Mindy.
Friendship is a common theme as is respect for each other, respect for elders, and respect for nature and wildlife. My upcoming 2025 book, which I can’t share about yet, is about respect for an inanimate object…or what most people would call an inanimate object.
I love my characters! I often get questions about how I’ve created such deep characters. Do I do character studies? Are they representative of people I know? The truth is that I start my story with my characters and I live with them. I learn about them. I have fun with them. I guess that’s the way I do a character study. I become friends with my characters. My stories are definitely character driven.
I love that you live with and become friends with your characters! It definitely shows in your beautiful and heartfelt lyrical picture books. Ooh, I can’t wait for you to be able to share more about your 2025 book. Congrats!
What resources do you have for teachers, media specialists, and parents?
An Activity Guide will be ready on September 1st. It should be available on my website as well as The Creative Company’s website.
Which five other picture books of yours do you think made the biggest impact on children…and why? (I know, it’s hard to choose between your book babies…but you have way too many incredible books to highlight them all here.) 😉
I’m going to include two out-of-print books and three in-print books. The first two are out-of-print. I so wish they were still available; I’m still asked for them.
Heart of a Tiger was my first book and received many honors, including Best First Book by A New Author, State Children’s Choice Awards, and the SCBWI Book List for Children in Crises. What was as wonderful as the honors was the way children and adults reacted to the book. I read the story to students from kindergarten to junior high. They all loved it. One example is a letter I received from a high school student. He had received his autographed copy of Heart of a Tiger when he was eight years old, when I visited his school. He wrote in the letter that he had treasured the book and whenever he had to make a difficult decision, he would reread it. He used it as a guide for living.
Roar of a Snore is a very different style from Heart of a Tiger. It’s a cumulative rhyming story that makes readers laugh. It was a Dolly Parton Imagination Library selection three years in a row. Parents wrote me that their children wanted them to read it over and over…and the parents didn’t mind…too much! Ha. One parent’s letter touched my heart. Her daughter, who was about eight years old, had a condition that required many surgeries. She memorized the entire book. The mother believed that it was her daughter reciting the story when she was in the hospital that helped her through the difficult times.
I used to do lots of school visits, but now, at a certain age, I do fewer. I have less interaction with children. I miss their enthusiasm! I know less about how they feel about my stories. But I will mention three of my recent books that I believe have impacted children. The awards they’ve received also make me think they have reached children.
My bilingual Galapagos Girl highlights the amazing animals of the Galapagos and shows how a child’s experiences can guide them into their adult occupation. Honors include the Green Prize for Sustainable Literature and the Little Read Lakeshore Community Read. I was able to virtually visit classrooms during the Community Read and also enjoy plays the children had created.
The nearly wordless Lost. Found. brings out the wonder of children’s imagination. Lost. Found. has been part of a couple of Storywalks – Winterkids in Maine and L.L. Bean’s Northern Lights Celebration. I was invited to the L. L. Bean event to autograph books. It was such fun seeing children enjoy the Storywalk, which combined the joy of being outside with the joy of reading and using the imagination.
Badger’s Perfect Garden shows the importance of trusting when unexpected things happen. There may still be a rainbow in the end. It received a Growing Good Kids Excellence in Children’s Literature Award and a Florida Book Award medal.
Those are all amazing, Marsha. Fingers crossed that the two out-of-print books will be out in the world again soon.
I’ve heard raves about your critique service. Can you share a bit about it and some of the mistakes you often see? Do you have tips to help writers overcome them?
That’s so kind, Mindy. I’m glad you’ve heard good things. I figure I must be doing something right as some of my clients have returned to me several times with different manuscripts and some are now being published. I enjoy the interaction with my clients, especially the Zoom session, where I get to meet them “face to face.”
One of the mistakes I see is impatience. Many aspiring writers are so anxious to have a book published that they rush the process. They don’t take the time to develop their craft. They don’t take the time to study simple things, like how to format a manuscript, how to use an ellipsis, how to punctuate properly. Much of this information can be found with a google search or in a copy of The Elements of Style. Some clients are working on their first book and expect it to be published, not understanding that many published writers wrote dozens of stories, perfecting their craft over years, before they wrote a story they felt was worthy of publication, worthy of our young readers.
One thing that even published writers forget to do is read their work aloud. I always encourage my clients to read their story aloud as they write it and of course, after a draft. It helps you hear the rhythm, lyricism, and musicality of your words, so important in children’s literature.
Another thing I see is stories that are too long. By that I mean they are too long for the story being told. Some stories require more words. Some require fewer. New writers tend to want to put everything but the kitchen sink in their story and sometimes they want to add the kitchen sink too! We need to prune and preen our manuscripts. When we cut and get rid of unneeded words and paragraphs, it is easier to see the theme and to see what our story is really about.
Thank you for these amazing tips and for visiting my blog, Marsha. It’s been wonderful chatting with you. 😊
Thanks to you, Mindy. You are such an inspiration to so many. It’s been wonderful chatting with you too.
Marsha has donated TWO incredible giveaways. Wahooooooo!
One lucky winner will receive a picture book critique AND a half hour Zoom to answer any questions about the feedback and anything else the writer would like to ask. So generous! Enter the Rafflecopter below.
The lucky winner is: Lynn Adler!
a Rafflecopter giveawayAnother lucky winner will receive a signed copy of Armando’s Island. US ONLY. Enter the Rafflecopter below. NOTE: You may receive extra entries if you do the action on the first Rafflecopter, such as leaving a comment or sharing on Twitter. Just click that you did it this time. 😊
The lucky winner is: Jess Burbank!
Armando’s home is the rainforest–he knows its sights, smells, tastes, and sounds. He even knows its moods. From the bottom of the forest floor to the top of the emergent layer, the trees are also home to a multitude of creatures. When outsiders begin laying claim to and destroying the surrounding landscape, the displaced animals find refuge with Armando in the only remaining pocket of untouched forest, his “island.” As people come in and animals are forced out, this poignant tale shows the cumulative and disastrous effects of Amazonian deforestation.
a Rafflecopter giveawayWinners will be contacted and shared on this post Sunday, August 13. Good luck. 😊
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