So Bizzy was searching the internet and found something that Deedy (AKA Dorothea Jensen) wrote about how she started making books about us Izzy Elves. Some of this we already knew, but a bunch of it is NEWS to us.
Please don't tell Deedy we found this: we think she doesn't want us to know all this "behind the scenes" stuff!
H-e-r-e's Deedy!
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| Copyright 2015 Red City Review |
I answered a number of questions for the Red City Review which could not be included in this article because there wasn't room.
So I'm putting ALL my answers here. Hope you don't find it TMI !
Q. What inspired you to write a book about elves? We've explored
your website and are aware that Frizzy is the fourth book in your series.
A. When I was about four, my father, a family doctor, went on a home
call very early on Christmas morning. When he came home, he decided to turn on
the Christmas tree lights. In doing so, he knocked over the tree and the crash
woke us all up. I thought that we had trapped Santa in our living room and was
desperate to see him. My older brother, however, refused to let us go
downstairs. I was very disappointed.
I think the germ of having Santa (or one of his elves) stranded in a
family’s living room came from this experience. My first elf story, Tizzy, the Christmas Shelf Elf, is based
on it. Then, when I had Tizzy tell the boys who found him about his elf
colleagues, I started trying out various consonants with –izzy and found some amazingly
apt names. They are: Blizzy, who makes snowglobes; Bizzy, who is the bossy,
know-it-all elf; Fizzy and Dizzy, who make toys that surprise; Whizzy, who always
rushes around; Frizzy, who styles the hair of Christmas dollies, and Quizzy,
who makes puzzles and word games. Of course, the original –izzy name came from
the fact that the stranded elf was, well, in a tizzy! His job is not revealed
until the next book, however: Tizzy picks out books for Santa to bring to each
child.
Once I named all eight elves, they started taking on little
personalities and quirks, and before I knew it, I’d written three more stories:
Blizzy, the Worrywart Elf; Dizzy, the
Stowaway Elf (in which Santa does actually knock over a Christmas tree); and Frizzy, the S.A.D. Elf. Just for fun, I put my four grandsons into
two of the stories, and made the Izzy Elf Section of the North Pole (and Santa)
very savvy in 21st century technology.
I always loved “A Visit from St. Nicholas” and all the Dr. Seuss
books, and so decided to write my elf stories in rhyming couplets. I seem to have a knack for this, so once I
figured out the plot for each book, the actual writing went very quickly. It’s
great fun, actually.
Q. Do you have more Santa's Izzy Elves books in the works?
A. Yes, I will be writing stories featuring Bizzy, Fizzy, Whizzy and
Quizzy
Also, I have two more grandsons now and have to figure out where
they will fit into a story.
Q. What is your favorite thing about writing books for children?
A. Reading them aloud to kids and watching their faces as they
follow the story! I especially like reading my elf books aloud to my grandsons
who are just learning to read, and letting them figure out what the rhyming
word is at the end of each couplet. They love doing that.
I also hugely enjoy watching my elves take shape on the page in
illustrations. It’s kind of a circular endeavor: first I write about these
characters, then I see their images and than I want to write about them some
more. (This will all go one step further soon, as designs for Izzy Elf dolls
are underway.)
Q. If you could tell parents the best reason for buying your books
for their children, what would it be?
Unlike most picture books, these stories are actually aimed at older
kids—aged 4 and up—and are not “dumbed down” for children. Instead, I wrote
them so that, while they do greatly amuse kids, they also help them develop a taste
for reading rhythmic verse, for playing with words, and for learning new ones.
As one reviewer wrote about Frizzy:
I wish this future classic had been around when I was a child. I smiled
the entire time I was reading it. The characters are lovable and easy to relate
to. The rhyme format is fun and will lead to memory skills. There are a few
words that may be just past the reading level, which is perfect. These will
encourage children to not only learn new words - but to gain the skills to
discover how to learn what new words mean.
– Sylvia Cornelius,
Bookdepository.com
Q. Frizzy goes against the norm and refuses to stick to gender
stereotypes when it comes to the design of her toys. We believe this is an
important lesson for kids, what made you want to include it in your book?
When I was a little girl, I used to wheel a toy six gun in
my doll carriage instead of a doll (my main playmate was my older brother). My
mother told me that this was quite unnerving for little old ladies who peeked
into the carriage to see my cute little “dolly”. Later, when I was a young
mother of two boys and a girl, I was distressed at how toys were so relentlessly
gender-specific. Now that I am a grandmother (even though all six of my
grandchildren are boys) I’m happy to see that there finally are toys out there
that encourage girls’ interest in things mechanical.
I didn’t deliberately decide for Frizzy to design monster
trucks that eventually appeal to girls, however. The idea just popped up in my
brain—although
this probably happened because the experiences above are buried in there
somewhere!
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