Summer Queen S. J. Tucker on Books and Reading

What was the first book that you remember reading?

My middle name is Jane. My mother gave it to me in honor of my great aunt Jane, whom I remember from my childhood as the beautiful redheaded relative from Louisiana who always brought me new books. I still have a gorgeous, hardback illustrated collection of Greek myths that Jane brought to me when I was six or eight years old, called The Golden Fleece. That anthology was my first exposure to the Greek and Roman myths, and I still have it in my collection. In fact, that book was probably what kicked off my lifelong love of mythology and folklore. I was always encouraged to read by my family — you should see the teeming bookshelves my father built into the wall of our living room in the house where I grew up. We’re all quite bookish.

And what were your best beloved books as a child?

Mom and I would take turns reading to each other a lot, and later, I’d read to my father as he worked in his wood shop. I remember loving The Muppet Show Book, of course, Maurice Sendak’s Little Bear, and a little later, anything by Roald Dahl — most especially The BFG (the Big Friendly Giant). Dr. Seuss was also a staple in my book diet, and Shel Silverstein joined the hoard when I started grade school. I remember doing an illustrated book report on one of Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern books at age ten.

Which books would you now recommend that young children read?

Hands down, I believe that Catherynne M. Valente’s new Fairyland series is a must, whether children read it for themselves or have it read aloud to them by a loved one. Those novels are smart, funny as hell, and filled with magic, quests, hard choices, and other necessary ingredients for a balanced book diet.

Segueing from that, let’s talk about your children’s book, Rabbit’s Song. What was your inspiration to write this charming tale?

Rabbit’s Song is a collaboration with one of my teachers, the late Trudy Herring (who was, herself, the inspiration for my song, “In the House of Mama Dragon”) and illustrator W. Lyon Martin. Trudy wrote the original “Rabbit’s Song” poem, which she then gave to me to edit into lyrics and a song. Lyon then took the initiative to illustrate what would become the children’s book, and I love the watercolor work that she did so much. Truthfully, I wasn’t sold on the rabbit himself/herself, until she showed me that s/he was a green rabbit! I’m not sure why that made him/her/them absolutely perfect in my mind, but it did. Trudy’s original poem came out of a challenge that I gave her in trade for my music one day: come up a story or a poem about a rabbit, who pretends to be a crow, but wants to be a raven. That concept was originally inspired by my long-time friend Kevin K. Wiley, and it definitely suits him! “Rabbit’s Song” is the result of the second piece Trudy wrote along the lines of that animal-story prompt. The other story she came up with remains unpublished, but I have been known to tell it around the fire from time to time in fond memory of Trud.