Q & A with Shana

Q: What inspired you to write about the Mississippi Delta?

The first time I visited the Delta, I was working for a hunger relief project. I was driving down the highway, through endless cotton fields. After a couple hours, I passed a barn with the roof blown off, a club called the Dew Drop Inn, and then a sign for a town. The sign was falling over like nothing could hold it up anymore. Although I was still an hour from my destination, something made me want to stop and check things out.

I drove to the town center, went into the mayor’s office, and said, “I’m writing a book about children in Mississippi, so is it okay if I talk to some of the children hanging out on the grass in the town square?”

Before that very second, I had no idea that I was writing a book, let alone one about children in Mississippi. Really, I just wanted an excuse to talk to the children and find out about their lives.

I spent the afternoon with a rambunctious gaggle of seven-year-old girls. I was immediately struck by the juxtaposition of the poverty in which they lived and their zest for life and laughter.

I wrote several vignettes about my experiences in the Delta. After I left that job, I got my teaching degree and forgot about my experiences in Mississippi, until the day several years later, when I did a free write.

Q: So what’s a free write?

It’s just when you sit down for a certain amount of time and write whatever comes into your head without censoring yourself at all. So one day I sat down to free write at my computer and all of a sudden I saw Addie Ann. She was sitting at the bank of the bayou in Mississippi absolutely terrified.  I didn’t know why she was there, so I kept writing to explore it. When I finished, I had the chills.

Later that day, when my sister called, she was patient enough to listen to what I had written. “That sounds like the beginning of a book,” she said. Well, that was exciting, because I’d always wanted to write a book, although I wasn’t exactly planning to start right then.

A couple days later, as it turned out, I took my sixth grade students to hear one of my favorite authors, David Almond. At the end of his talk, I said, “That’s it. I’m doing this. I’m writing Addie Ann’s story.”

I had spent some time in Mississippi and I’d always been interested in the civil rights movement, so I guess those things were brewing in my subconscious when I sat down to free write. 

Q: And why were you interested in the civil rights movement?

My parents lived in Birmingham, Alabama for several years during the sixties, because they wanted to do what they could to fight for equality in this country. I, myself, was born in Birmingham, but moved to Massachusetts when I was still a baby. Growing up, I was always curious about why my parents would move to the South. What was so important about helping people get the right to vote? My parents weren’t African American, so what did they care? 

When I got into junior high school, my father played a cassette tape of an interview with a Ku Klux Klan leader. I couldn’t believe that kind of hate could exist. As I learned more about the movement, I was amazed at how regular people bonded together and used their brains and guts to dismantle a huge and ugly problem like racism. Later I learned how young people—and even children—helped black Americans get their rights.

Q: So how long did it take you to write this book and how do you feel now that it’s actually coming out in June?

Well, let’s just say that I started writing the same year I started teaching sixth grade, and now those sixth grade students are well into college. So it’s been a very long time! I’ve written more drafts than I can count.

Once I had a first draft, I hired some of my former students to critique it for me. We met at a pizza place near the school. Each time, we set a can of butter beans in the middle of the table as a centerpiece, and then I’d listen while these seventh and eighth graders discussed my book as if I weren’t even there. They were incredibly perceptive, and I took their comments to heart, since they were my target audience.

After that I spent years revising, as well as researching all kinds of obscure facts about everything from how to cast a spell to when it’s okay to plant a garden. I read about the movement, interviewed many people who lived through the time, and listened to oral histories and the blues.

Now that the book is finally going to be published, I am beyond excited to send Addie Ann into the world. I hope she will propel more kids to learn about how young people can stand up and solve problems in their neighborhoods and in the world.