Questions I'm Frequently Asked About Writing Nonfiction for Children

By Don Tate

I’ve been an illustrator for the majority of my career. Ten years ago, I began writing, too. My first manuscript was a biography of folk artist Bill Traylor. It Jes’ Happened: When Bill Traylor Started to Draw published with Lee & Low Books in 2012. Since then, I’ve authored four more books. Poet: The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton (Peachtree Publishing, 2015) and Strong As Sandow: How Eugen Sandow Became the Strongest Man on Earth (Charlesbridge, 2017). I have two more authored books under contract. My books have received great reviews, and I haven’t looked back. Here are answers to some frequently asked questions about my nonfiction writing journey.

How did you choose to write nonfiction for children?

Actually, nonfiction chose me. Early in my illustration career, I was advised by agents and editors to fill a niche. Some editors were looking to hire Black illustrators to illustrate manuscripts written by or about African Americans. That became my foot in the door to publishing.

The first manuscript that came my way was a picture book biography of Willie Mays. Other biographies followed. I illustrated stories about Ron McNair, Effa Manley, Duke Ellington, many others. I enjoyed illustrating the stories of little-known African American historical figures that were absent from my childhood school libraries. When I made the decision to write, I simply followed the path I’d created for myself as an illustrator. I wrote stories about real life people. 

How do you go about choosing the subjects you write about?

Here again, the subjects chose me. Sometimes, people pass along ideas to me, subjects they think I might want to write about. I take every suggestion seriously. If I’m interested, I’ll do some cursory research. Oftentimes, I’ll create a secret Pinterest page on the subject and pin research materials there. But before I invest too much time in a subject, there has to be some personal connection for me. Bill Traylor was an untrained artist, I was an untrained illustrator and author. Eugen Sandow was a bodybuilder, I was a natural bodybuilder. George Moses Horton valued literacy and became a published poet, I value literacy and became a published author. These connections are what inspired me to write biographies about these people and what kept me interested in a project long-term. Some manuscripts are years in the making.

What is the biggest obstacle you face in writing a biography?

Creating a story. A biography isn’t a chronological list of milestones. That’s a timeline, it goes in the back matter. For me, a biography is story with a beginning, middle, and an end. A biography has a scene-to-scene plot with rising and falling action. A good biography demonstrates change in the character from beginning to end. But researching a person's life doesn’t fall so easily into my criteria. Therein lies the obstacle.

 

How do you overcome the challenges?

There’s no cookie-cutter answer to overcoming these obstacles. What works for one book may not work for another. I try to be open to trying different things. When all else fails, there’s always Twizzlers. Or swimming pools. Or long walks.

Mostly, I try to be open to rewriting. The first time a critique partner suggested I rewrite a manuscript, I was mortified. It’s already written, it’s done, I thought. But no. It did need more work. Thirty revisions of more work. The only cookie-cutter part of writing is the necessity to rewrite—even if it takes forty-seven-sixty-thousand revisions. Patience.

You wrote your forthcoming William Still story in free verse. What made you choose that form of storytelling?

First of all, don’t let me fool you into thinking I know about poetry forms. I’ve never studied poetry formally. I approached writing free verse as I approached everything in my career: by trial and error. I also read a lot of picture books that use free verse. I like to to push myself.

The William Still story is complex. It’s the story of Still’s life. It’s also the story of his parents' lives. It became necessary to include elements of his brother’s life. I also had to explain the concept of slavery to my young readers. And the Underground Railroad system. And the Fugitive Slave Act. That’s a lot. My succinctly told picture book was quickly turning into a wordy chapter book.

I could have chosen to eliminate some aspects of Still’s life, but what would I cut out? Everything mentioned above was important to telling this story. Writing in free verse allowed me to condense entire paragraphs down to a few words. It allowed me to write more rhythmically. It forced me to make an emotional connection just a few words. I had to be even more selective in making word choices. Also, with shorter line breaks, the text could be more inviting to young readers. This new way of writing excited me.

Many of your stories deal with hard, painful truths about U.S. history. How do you tell these stories and make them appropriate for children?

Hansel and Gretel is the story of two young kids who are kidnapped by a cannibalistic witch. They are threatened to get baked in an oven. The story of Hansel and Gretel is a fairy tale; it’s not nonfiction, obviously. But for generations, it was a popular story for young readers. Children are tough. They can handle tough stories. I don’t think it’s a good idea to hide our tough history from children.

The enslavement of Black people was an inhumane institution that existed lawfully in the U.S. at one time. That’s an ugly truth. It should not be sugar-coated or erased. Children are our future, and they need to know what happened in the past in order to prevent bad things from happening again. That said, there are certainly things within the topic of slavery that I cannot address in a children’s book. My stories serve as an entryway to discussion.

 

How have you changed as a writer of nonfiction since that first book published?

I’m way more confident. At the time that I wrote my first book, I didn’t see myself as a *real* writer. I considered myself an illustrator who was dabbling with words. In many ways, I felt like an imposter. I feared that some child or reviewer or librarian would see right through my disguise and out me as a phony. That never happened. In fact, children embraced my work. I’ve not stopped writing.

What new books are on the horizon for you?

I have two books that will publish in 2020. We don’t have an official title for the William Still book yet. But that book will publish late this year with Peachtree Publishing. It’s the story of a free Black man, an abolitionist who helped hundreds of enslaved people escape slavery, on the Underground Railroad. My other book is one that I illustrated. Swish!: The Slam-Dunking, Alley-Ooping, High-Flying Harlem Globetrotters, written by Suzanne Slade, will publish with Little, Brown in November. It’s the story of the original Globetrotters. I’m excited about both.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Don Tate is an award-winning author and the illustrator of numerous critically acclaimed books for children. He is also one of the founding hosts of the blog The Brown Bookshelf – a blog designed to push awareness of the myriad of African American voices writing for young readers, with book reviews, author and illustrator interviews. 

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