By Nancy Churnin
Have you ever considered writing a book inspired by a newspaper article?
My newest book, The Miracle Menorah of Mariupol, which comes out Sept. 1 with illustrations by Marissa Moss, was inspired by an article that moved me with its message of hope in a time of war and despair.
There are challenging aspects to working from contemporary story. The first is checking the veracity of the story – not something you could ever assume and especially not now at a time when AI is increasingly common. The second is making sure the book reads like a picture book and not another version of the article. Finally, are you writing something that will stand the test of time – something a newspaper article does not need to do, but a book does? After all, the article runs for a day. Your book will not come out for a couple of years after it sells, and the hope is that it will continue to be read long beyond that.
The Miracle Menorah of Mariupol is not the first time I have drawn stories from headlines. Two other books about contemporary stories that I discovered through articles: Manjhi Moves a Mountain, the story of a man who spent 22 years chiseling a path through a mountain so the people in his poor village could get access to schools, medical help, and work on the other side and Rainbow Allies, the story of a community of kids who found a beautiful way to show love and support to a couple that came home to find their home egged and their pride flag torn down.
Here are the steps I took:
Make sure you have the facts. Look for primary and secondary sources. For both The Miracle Menorah of Mariupol and Rainbow Allies, I interviewed people who were there and wrote the story with their support and encouragement. With Manjhi Moves a Mountain, I did extensive research and interviewed a professor at Southern Methodist University who traveled to India frequently with her students and knew the facts and the area well.
Make sure your book reads like a book. As a longtime journalist, I know how to write a newspaper article quickly. I also know one of the primary rules is to show and not tell and keep a professional emotional distance. In picture books, you also show, don’t tell, but you need to know the thoughts and feelings of your subject and reveal them through the slice of the journey that you are telling. In journalism, your story needs to be relevant to the day it is published. In picture books, you must think in global and eternal terms of what your story means. The Miracle Menorah of Mariupol is about a caretaker of a synagogue destroyed by war who decides to light candles in the community menorah he discovers miraculously intact in the rubble. The lighting of the candles helps unite the hearts of a dispersed community with hope for when they will celebrate together again.
Are you writing something that will stand the test of time? To bring the message of The Miracle Menorah of Mariupol home, I alternated the contemporary story with the first Hanukkah when people decided to light a menorah found in the Great Temple of Jerusalem that had been damaged by occupation and war. I decided if people have been telling the Hanukkah story for 2,000 years, maybe The Miracle Menorah of Mariupol might be able to tag along for a while, too.
The Miracle Menorah of Mariupol, illustrated by Marissa Moss, releases Sept. 1 from Creston Books.
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