Exploring Love and Light in ‘Ferris’ with Kate DiCamillo

A podcast interview with Kate DiCamillo on The Growing Readers Podcast, a production of The Children’s Book Review.

Join us for a captivating exploration of Kate DiCamillo’s latest literary masterpiece, Ferris.

Prepare to be swept away by a heartwarming love story between a granddaughter and her grandmother, where love in all its forms intertwines with the search for light in the darkest of times.

Discover how music serves as a beacon of hope in this evocative tale, where characters come to life on the page. Kate shares her writing process, prioritizing emotional resonance over mere calculation. Don’t miss out on this magical conversation as we delve into the soul-stirring themes of Ferris and uncover the transformative power of storytelling with the incomparable Kate DiCamillo.

Kate DiCamillo Talks About:

• The significance of the dedication to Tracy Bailey and Rainey Stewart: Exploring the personal inspirations behind Ferris.
• Character development: Understanding how characters like Ferris reveal themselves to Kate DiCamillo during the writing process.
• Themes of love: Analyzing the various forms of love depicted in the story and their impact on the characters.
• Finding light in darkness: Discussing how the theme of light, particularly through music and a chandelier, serves as a metaphorical beacon of hope.
• Emotional vs. mathematical writing: Delving into Kate DiCamillo’s approach to finding the right words emotionally rather than through mathematical precision.

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Read the Transcription

Bianca Schulze

Well, hello, Kate Di Camillo. Welcome back to The Growing Readers Podcast for the third time. I am so honored that you are here.

Kate DiCamillo

Well, you know how happy I am to be here. I’ve been looking forward to us talking, so it’s a real treat for me.

Bianca Schulze

Yeah, well, I’m just super curious—between the last time we chatted, which was kind of before all the holiday ho-hum. And now we’re talking in February. And this episode will air in March when your new book, Ferris, comes out. So, have you been up to anything exciting in the last couple of months?

Kate DiCamillo

Oh, you know what’s exciting for me is coming down the stairs in the morning and pouring the coffee and going in there and writing. That’s where all the excitement is. And so, I’ve been working really hard with writing and feeling lucky to get to do it.

That’s Ramona shaking her fowler there, so, yeah, we’ll just ignore her.

Bianca Schulze

Hi, Ramona.

I also have to ask so I loved our little slipper moment from the last conversation.

Kate DiCamillo

Every time I look at my slippers in the bathroom, I think of you.

Bianca Schulze

Same here. Same here. I think of you, too. And I was just curious if anybody’s gifted you any more slippers. And do you have any extra slippers in your collection now?

Kate DiCamillo

No, I’m holding steady at two, but I’m old enough now that each time my feet slip into either pair, I go, oh, man, that feels so good.

Bianca Schulze

I was planning to put my matching Kate di Camillo slippers on my feet, and I’m actually sitting here, embarrassed to say I’m barefoot and my feet are cold.

Kate DiCamillo

You know, it’s funny that it’s taken me a long time to become the slipper person, but now, sign me up, and the comfort of it is so great. And then to have people that you love give you, then, you know, to have you have the same slippers. That was a moment for the books right there.

Bianca Schulze

It was pretty funny. Well, you’re here today to talk about Ferris, which is your latest, greatest book. And I noticed that you dedicated the latest story to your bestie with amazing taste in slippers, which is Tracy Bailey, and also to Rainey Stewart. So, I love reading dedications, and I always wonder how you chose to dedicate a specific book to someone. So, was there a meaning to that particular dedication?

Kate DiCamillo

I’m like you. I love dedications and I also love acknowledgments. Those are like, I’ll start in a book, and then I’ll go back and look and see who it’s for, and then I’ll go to the end and see if there are acknowledgments. All of that helps me piece together whose heart I’m holding in my hands. And so, this book is for Tracy Bailey, as you said, who’s the friend of my youth, and Rainey is her granddaughter. This book of Ferris is a love story, and one of the many love stories in it is between a granddaughter and her grandmother. And so, Tracy and Rainey were very much on my mind as I was writing. And it was actually Rainey’s birth that kind of fully formed this idea of telling Ferris’s story. Rainey was born on the last day of 2019, really early in the morning, and all these pictures kept coming in of this beautiful baby surrounded by her mother, her father, and two sets of grandparents. And I just thought, what’s it like to come into the world? And from the minute you arrive, you know that you’re loved. And so that’s kind of where I started.

Bianca Schulze

It was funny because you had mentioned Tracy Bailey in our last episode with the slippers. And, so, when I read the name Rainey Stewart, I didn’t know that connection. And so, I love that that was the first question I asked you because it kind of led into the next question that I want to get. You know, when we talked a while back on the podcast about the Beatrice prophecy, you revealed, in a sense, that you’re more of a pantster versus a plotter when it comes to creating your stories. So, for Ferris, I wanted to know what the beginning moment of the story coming to you—we just touched on that. But how did this story continue to reveal itself to you as you were writing? As you kind of said, you let the story come to you just as a reader lets the story come to them.

Kate DiCamillo

Yeah. It was an unusual place for me to start a book with something conceptual rather than a character name or an image, although I do suppose I had an image, which was that child surrounded with love from the minute that she arrived. And so, I had no idea where I was going. And it’s not only that it’s different for me to start with a concept, but also different. And there’s really no simple way to say this or easy way to say it. I’ve never started from a place of wholeness before. All of the other novels deal with a missing parent or a fractured family, and here I was starting whole, which in a strange way is kind of like really setting a huge hurdle as far as storytelling goes because you don’t have a conflict, but you do have a conflict, I found, which is being human, because it’s like to be here means that we have to love with the whole of ourselves, knowing that what we love is eventually going to leave one way or another. And so, I immerse myself in that love between Ferris and her grandmother, Charisse. And then, one by one, all the other characters came and revealed themselves. Last but not least, Pinky, Ferris’s sister, is one of those characters who, from the minute she shows up, threatens to derail the whole story because she’s so strong and so dynamic. And so as soon as I had all the characters, then it was just this thing of following my way, really, too. I could feel that there was a lighted place that I was going to, and that’s ultimately where I ended up. I don’t want to give anything away. Is that too long an answer, Bianca?

Bianca Schulze

No, honestly, I feel like it’s such a beautiful answer. I feel like everything you just touched on is almost attached to every single question I have written down here for you today. So, this is such a great lead-in. As you were talking, I was listening and taking in what you were saying, but I was also looking at my questions and thinking, gosh, I thought I had these audits so well that now maybe I need to ask this question next. But I’m going to stay in my order because I think you just led us in perfectly to all the questions. Yeah, all the questions. So, let’s see. I think you need to talk to me specifically right now about Ferris. She is the lead character, and your stories are all so beautifully driven by these eccentric personalities. But Ferris, she’s found herself navigating a pretty chaotic summer filled with a little bit of family turmoil and some personal challenges are going on. But since your books do always contain such eccentric personalities, why and how did Ferris rise to the top to be your lead? You know, maybe this seed of the idea came—coming into the world and being surrounded by, you know, Ferris is a fifth grader, right? And she’s really becoming herself. So, out of all the characters, why was it Ferris that rose to the top?

Kate DiCamillo

She’s kind of the still center of this great storm loving storm. So, it’s just like it was that certainty that she has of being loved that was gifted to her from the minute that she arrived. And then she just kind of literally stands in the middle of all of these people, and as you said, they’re quite eccentric, and she is the least eccentric of the lot, but she is the still center of everybody, of all these eccentric people that circle around her. As I make the circle, I think of the Ferris wheel, which is how Ferris is. Her actual name is Emma Phineas Wilkey, but she’s called Ferris because she was born at the fairgrounds beneath the Ferris wheel. In a great, unexpected rush, she arrived in the world, and her grandmother was there and was the person who caught her when she arrived. And that’s why they call her Ferris. But she is the still center of that wheel and the Lonestar if you will.

Bianca Schulze

Yeah, I love that sort of metaphor and analogy of the Ferris wheel. And again, no spoilers here, but from someone who’s read it from start to finish, that is a perfect analogy for who she is, and particularly who she is in this story. So, the story delves into a variety of social-emotional themes, especially family dynamics. But I feel as though if I were to sum up this story in just one sentence if, I could be so bold.

Kate DiCamillo

Yeah, I can’t wait. Maybe I’ll be able to use it.

Bianca Schulze

I would say to feel the pain of grief is to know the beauty and joy of love. So, to feel the pain of grief is to know the beauty and joy of love. So, I want to ask you, is that an okay assessment?

Kate DiCamillo

That is a beautiful assessment. And it goes back to exactly the thing that I said when I was rambling in the beginning about how, oh, wait, you’re going to have a child with a totally intact and loving family. Where is the story? The story is in being human, and to be human is to grieve, to mourn, to lose, and to love with our whole selves.

Bianca Schulze

Well, there’s a sentiment repeated throughout that originates with Ferris’s grandmother, Charisse. And she said every good story is a love story. And so that sort of becomes a musical refrain. I mean, it’s not literally music, but it’s repeated often throughout. And so, I wanted you to talk to me about what this means to you. And do you believe that every good story is a love story?

Kate DiCamillo

Yeah. I should be prepared to get this question a lot more about whether or not I believe it. Let’s start there with the easier part of that question. I do believe it. I believe it as a reader, and I believe it as a writer because that is what every good story has done for me. It showed me how to love the world, how to love the people around me, and how to love and understand myself. I feel like that’s what stories can do. So, while it might not be a love story on the surface, it is still a love story if it teaches me how to love. And that’s what stories writing them and reading them has done for me. Where did the refrain come from? And I do like that it’s almost like a light motif, right? It is almost musical, and I’m glad that you said it that way. That’s one of those things where Charisse said it, and I thought, what a beautiful sentence. And I don’t know where it came from other than to say that I’ve said this before. The stories are smarter than I am, and the characters are smarter than I am. Charisse utters this, and I think, yes, that is.

Bianca Schulze

Yeah, well. And I think that maybe you are smarter than you think you are yourself.

Kate DiCamillo

I’m only smart enough to get out of my own way. That’s the limit of my smartness, which is to know when to put my ego aside and be guided by this greater thing.

Bianca Schulze

Yeah, well, love manifests itself in various forms throughout the story. There’s intergenerational love, there’s parent-child relationships, there’s siblings, there’s best friends. So, I’d love to read an excerpt to you that highlights one of my favorite ways in which you show a form of love, and I hope that’s okay. And it starts on page one, chapter one. And when I read this particular bit, I knew from that moment that I was going to be really happy where you took me as a reader. So, I’m going to grab the book.

Kate DiCamillo

I’m really looking forward to you reading to me, and it will be a chance for me to hear it in a different way. So, yeah.

Bianca Schulze

It was the summer that Ferris’s best friend, Billy Jackson, played a song called Mysterious Barricades over and over again on the piano.

Billy Jackson loved music. The very first sentence he had ever spoken to Ferris was:

I hear piano music in my head all the time, and I wonder, would it be all right if I held onto your hand? They were standing in Mrs. Bleeker’s kindergarten classroom. Squares of sunlight were shining on the wood floors, and Ferris gave her hand to Billy Jackson while he continued to explain to her about the piano music in his head. Billy’s hand was sweating; his glasses were attached to his head with a strap. And Ferris knew almost immediately from that very first moment that she didn’t want to ever lose hold of Billy Jackson. She said, there’s a piano at our house. You can come over and play it whenever you want.

And I love that demonstration of how love shows up. I think it’s so easy to think of love as romance and people getting married as a child. But I think it’s important to remember that love actually shows up in these tiny moments of somebody being vulnerable and somebody else being there for them. And I love that Ferris took Jackson’s hand.

Kate DiCamillo

Yeah. And that she knows. It’s also that thing about being open to— I always say I recognize my people when I see them. I know who my people are. And Ferris, because she’s been so well loved, knows also who she loves, and she knows from the first minute that she loves them, and she wants to hold on to him. Yeah.

Bianca Schulze

Yeah. Well, I’m not sure if you remember reading me a portion of Ursula K. Le Guin’s essay Operating Instructions.

Kate DiCamillo

That was so exciting when we did.

Bianca Schulze

Yes. And it was from the Words Are My Matter, in which she says reading is a means of listening. And when you read that, to me, that just so resonated, so with that in mind, reading is a means of listening. I wonder what you hope readers will hear from reading about the various relationships that you’ve portrayed in Ferris. What do you think they’re going to hear and take away? So, I noticed that spot of love when she reached out in her hands. But what do you think the children readers will hear about love?

Kate DiCamillo

I don’t know. I hope that on a subconscious level, and I also like that we’re saying hearing, because it goes to this is a book that is implicitly about music, when you think about it, because it’s back to that refrain, that light motif of every good story is a love story. And then Billy Jackson playing again and again the same song. So, it’s like music is woven into everything here. And so, it’s like, hopefully, the book will be like a song that a kid, that it does two things. It shows, without being explicit, but on a subconscious musical level, that there is love everywhere. And there are all kinds of ways to love in the world. So, there’s familial love. There’s, like you said, intergenerational love. There’s Sharice, and there’s Ferris and Billy Jackson. There’s Billy Jackson and his mom, who’s know, there’s just all these ways to love, all these ways to be in the world and to love. And I hope that you might not think about all of that consciously, but I hope that, as a reader, you feel it.

Bianca Schulze

Yeah. I just think, too, that I’m going to jump ahead to a different question that I had because I think we need to speak about it right now.

Okay, so here’s where I think we need to go right now. So, something that we talked about in our conversation for The Puppets of Spelhorst was the need to find light, even in times of darkness. Especially in times of darkness. And I feel as though while there’s undertones of sadness in this story, it’s really just such a beautiful, joy-filling book. So, for me, light comes in so many different forms, and one of those forms is people who show up for each other, which your characters do in this book in so many unique ways. And there’s a chandelier that could bring metaphoric and literal light to this story, but there’s also the light that you provide that may not be as obvious to readers, but it’s what we’re talking about right now, and that is the form of music. So, you reference the piece of music that Billy Jackson plays on the piano over and over again, which is mysterious barricades. So, I had to go and listen to it on iTunes because I didn’t know it. I didn’t know the piece. And I think I know why you picked that particular piece. And it’s so rude of me to say I know why you picked it.

Kate DiCamillo

I can’t wait to hear because, well, I’ll let you say, and then I’ll tell you my bit. So go ahead.

Bianca Schulze

So, I feel as though you picked it because it’s the right amount of light and joy and a hint of sadness. So that’s why I felt like you picked it. And I felt like it really did embody what your story does to me.

Kate DiCamillo

As a reader, that’s a beautiful thing. And I always have music when I’m writing a particular thing that will take me as I write through a— I had Mysterious Barricades playing over and over. And, you know, it was a piece that I knew Francois Couperin wrote it for harpsichord, and so I knew it on harpsichord, but it didn’t make me stop in my tracks until I heard it on the piano, Angela Hewitt playing it on the piano. And it just did that thing where you feel like something inside of you open up, and it does that to Billy Jackson, and he doesn’t know why. And it’s that thing of music, being able to articulate the. You know, the title mysterious barricades. No one has any idea why it’s titled that. No one knows what barricades there are that Couperin is referencing but I like to think that it’s the barriers that we all have inside of us. And again, it comes back to the love story and how those barriers, those barricades, can crumble when we feel seen in a story.

Bianca Schulze

Yes, I love that. I love that we got to that place, Kate because that’s so, sometimes it’s hard to talk about a book without giving away spoilers, and I don’t want to, but I definitely felt that often that barricades were crumbling down. And I’m not sure that I articulated that until this moment, but that’s what I was feeling as I was reading it. Well, I think we need to talk more about Ferris’s grandmother, Charisse.

Kate DiCamillo

She would like it if we talked about her.

Bianca Schulze

Yeah, I think so, too. I think so, too. I hope her ankles are not so swollen today and she’s feeling content today. But Charisse has been seeing and hearing a ghost while feeling unwell. And her character, beyond the intergenerational connection that she has with her granddaughter, Ferris, she just brings a lot of intrigue to the story. So, what do you want listeners to know about Sharice?

Kate DiCamillo

Charisse is what my mother would have referred to as a piece of work. She is like a very strong character who, yes, she has this particular bond with Ferris, but she’s also very much her own self, and she’s somebody who has lived life with her whole self. And I think that so much of, when I think of Charisse, I think of the two books that are by her bed, which are the Bible, and Walt Whitman’s leaves of grass. And those two books really kind of sum up who she is and that ghost that she sees. And it is, I guess, in a weird way, it’s a ghost story, is,

Kate DiCamillo

how can I say this? That ghost is there for a reason, which is the same not only for Charisse but for all of us, as a reminder of something. And Charisse is tuned in enough to know, to be able to see, to be aware of the ghost when a lot of people wouldn’t be. But that’s who she is. She’s tuned in. She’s certain of herself. She’s led this big life, and she loves with her whole heart.

Bianca Schulze

Yeah. On a greater level, I think for kids, this is a ghost, and it is a ghost story, but it’s so subtle and soothing. And I feel like you start to, like, is Kate about to take us on a spookier level than I could ever imagine? And then that refrain would come in, know every good story is a love story, and you’d be, this is. This is a Kate di Camillo story. I’ve got this, okay? But I think as an adult reader, I feel as though ghosts are definitely that metaphor of your instincts and your insides and your intuition, like letting you know things. Right. And so, for me, as an adult reader reading now, I knew that this was Charisse just tapping into her core, knowing what she needed to know. But for young readers, I feel like some will be perceptive and feel that, and others will just take the very literal message of this ghost. And I love that magic of. It’ll be so interesting to hear readers talk about how the ghost made them feel and what they thought the ghost represented in the story. I would love to hear what kids have to say about it. Well, that’s me.

Kate DiCamillo

Rambling. I’ve said this to you before, but it’s just always that thing of every time I have a good discussion with somebody, it helps me understand the story that ostensibly I’ve told a little bit better and makes me able to discuss it better the next time around. It’s just like a good discussion with a good reader helps me understand the story.

Bianca Schulze

Well, I’m glad that we can hash this out together.

What. What else do you want us to know about Charisse’s journey and that level of love that she has with, like, what do you want us to know about that intergenerational?

Kate DiCamillo

This. I don’t know what the study was, but this is just a general understanding and raising kids that— I think that if you have one relationship like Ferris has with Charisse, somebody who loves you, absolutely sees you clearly, celebrates your triumphs, is with you in your sorrow, as Charisse is for all of Ferris, that it’s enough to sustain you for your whole life if you have that early on. So, the love that Charisse has for Ferris is a gift that Ferris will carry with her for the rest of her life, no matter whether Charisse is there or not. So, it’s intergenerational, and it’s not constrained by time and place. It goes with Ferris wherever she goes. And that’s not a spoiler. That’s just, again, human existence. And so, Charisse gifts that great love to Ferris, and then we all get to know. A couple times—because people will ask, what do you want readers to close the book and feel? I want them to feel like they’re as loved as Ferris is loved. I want them to feel like they are in that house and that they can go up to Charisse’s room and sit and play cards with her. I want them to feel what it’s like to have a boomer, a dog who is part woolly mammoth and part sheepdog, sleeping on your feet at night, anchoring you to the earth. I want a kid to feel that kind of love, the way that Ferris feels love; that’s what I want somebody to walk away from this book with. And if you’re an adult and you feel that, too, that’s pretty. And Charisse— she’s the first love.

Bianca Schulze

Yeah. Okay. Well, we have to talk about Pinky now, which is like complete contrast. Complete contrast.

So, the character of Pinky, Ferris’s sister, reminded me of the joy that I felt reading Judy Bloom’s character Fudge in Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing.

It just took me back to reading feelings as a child. And so I also want to touch quickly on her name. And I had a guess that her name was inspired by the Newbery-winning author Eleanor Estes, who wrote Pinky Pye because the character’s name is Pinky, and her full name is Eleanor Rose Wilkey. And I was like, well, Eleanor Estes wrote Pinky Pye, so— maybe this is wrong.

Kate DiCamillo

Well, you know, it could have been a subconscious connection because I read Pinky Pie, and I remember those books very well. I remember checking them out from the library. So, it could very well have originated that way in my mind because all the best connections are subconscious connections, I think. And Ferris is basically the one that’s responsible for her know, because she says she looks all Pinky like a mouse when she’s born. But it is a name that I’ve always loved, and I could very well have loved it from the moment I read those books when I was a kid. So, I would say that’s a pretty good guess.

Bianca Schulze

Yeah. Well, okay. Pinky is hilarious. So, Pinky embarks on this mission to become an outlaw, and she definitely adds elements of contentiousness that bring a lot of humor to the story. So, we’ve talked a lot about the love and the happiness, but I think we need to talk about the humor that she brings. So, her character really balances the more serious themes with these great moments of levity. So, as a writer, how do you strike this balance, and why do you think adding some humor into storytelling when possibly some of the other emotional themes are a bit more complex? So why is it important for you to add humor to a story?

Kate DiCamillo

And again, I didn’t do it consciously, nor did I summon Pinky consciously. Pinky showed up and delighted me from the minute that she showed up. So, if I’m the one who’s sitting there telling the story, the story of love and more love and loss, I’m also the person who loves to laugh. And so, when Pinky shows up and makes me laugh, the person who’s telling you this story, then, like I said, I did not make a decision to balance out the more serious and weighty themes by putting Pinky on the other end and having her put her cloak on and go around shouting, out of my way, fools. But she served a purpose for me, too. I was grateful for her as I was writing because she’s one of those characters for whom I had no idea what she was going to do next, but I knew she’s going to do something. And she is a beautiful counterpart to, like you said, the more serious themes. And, boy, I loved her. And, boy, she wants her own book, I tell you what.

Bianca Schulze

So, have you started writing her own book for her?

Kate DiCamillo

No, but I can feel her glowering over my shoulder. Yeah.

Bianca Schulze

I think she’s calling for her own book, for sure. I think it’s true. When you just think about life in general, there are moments that are hard in it, and there are moments that are easy, and it’s those easier moments that help us get through the hard parts. So, I imagine, as a writer, that just instinctively comes because life isn’t all doom and gloom, and it isn’t all, like, happiness and silly antics, that her antics are over the top. I was not expecting the things that she got up to, and it was very hilarious.

Kate DiCamillo

Nor was I expecting those things. And I can’t believe that she got away with it. Or kind of got away with it.

Bianca Schulze

Yeah. Yeah, she kind of does. Well, let’s move on to Uncle Ted’s unconventional decision to paint a history of the world in the Wilkey basement and how it raises questions about the nature of creativity and expression. I think sometimes the more artsy, creative minds they can get pushed to the side. So, tell us about your decision to add Uncle Ted as a character and how he ties into this sort of broader theme of what’s going on in the story.

Kate DiCamillo

Yeah. Ted is one of those people who showed up right away—he quits his job. And because he quits his job, his wife is like, yeah, you need to leave. And so, he moves back into the house that he grew up in, which is Ferris’ house, to do this thing, this thing that he feels called to do, which is to paint the history of the world. And he’s not really getting very far in the painting. Ferris comes down to check on him, and he’s got a foot. He’s painted a single foot so far. And so it is that thing, like you said, of, I think for a lot of people, they think at some point they’re going to write a novel or paint a great painting or write a really meaningful poem, and they think, I’ll do it later, I’ll do it when I’m retired, I’ll do it after the kids are raised. And I think that Ted is seized with this sudden sense of, I have to do this now. And he answers for it. And in the end, he answers for it in a different way than he anticipated. But it’s nice to have him there not only as comedic relief but also as a reminder of that thing, of answering for your dreams.

Bianca Schulze

Yes. And it’s like what you talked about for yourself: you’re smart enough to get out of the way of your creative, I guess, calling that’s asking to be written down on the paper. It’s like sometimes just getting out of the way and just doing what’s actually coming. Well, I also feel like you were just talking to me.

I’ll stop procrastinating on my next great novel.

Kate DiCamillo

I was.

Bianca Schulze

All right. Well, this is definitely a common theme, and we’ve touched on this in some of our other conversations. But words and vocabulary play an important part in your writer’s voice, always in all of your books, but in this book in particular. In fact, in chapter three, on page 20, you wrote vocabulary is the key to the kingdom. Said Mrs. Milk, all of life hinges on knowing the right word to use at the right time. So, I ask you, Kate di Camillo, a two-time Newbery medalist with a remarkable ability to connect with readers of all ages, how do you know when you’re using the right word at the right time?

Kate DiCamillo

I don’t always know it, but what I do know is I don’t know if we talked about this in our previous conversations. I love George Saunders ‘book on writing called A Swim in the Pond in the Rain. And he talks in there about knowing yourself and that it’s kind of like when you’re writing, you have dimmer switches on a light where you tap it up, you move it down just a little bit this way, that way. And it’s not that you’re getting it right in some mathematical way, but rather that you’re getting it right emotionally for you. This is the word that satisfies me and that I feel is right. So, it’s like I just know when I found those words, and they’re the right words for me. That doesn’t mean that it’s the right word for everybody else. Do you know what I mean? It’s just like listening to yourself and tinkering. Is it this word? Is it that word? It’s this word. And it lands with a beautiful kind of like. And then you’ve got the light dimmer exactly where you want it to be, and it casts the light over the rest of the story if you can find the right word, perfect.

Bianca Schulze

Do you have any words that you absolutely love or loathe using?

Kate DiCamillo

I love so many words. This has been something that I’ve been questioned about quite a bit because it’s just like, why are you using it? And I don’t consciously use a multi-syllabic word that might be on the GRE or the SAT. It’s rather, I just love words. And I think if you’re learning a bunch of words as a young reader, why not learn a word like incandescence? There’s just so many beautiful words. I don’t have a favorite one, nor do I have any that I strongly dislike, I guess. But there are words that I have Bianca at the back of my notebook that are waiting to show up in a story. So, there are words I have not been able to use yet, and those I’m waiting to use, words that I love, that I’ve not been able to use yet.

Bianca Schulze

That’s so fascinating. I’m not going to ask you what those words are, but I really want to—

Kate DiCamillo

I wouldn’t tell you because the magic would be dissipated.

Bianca Schulze

I know that’s why I’m not going to ask you, but it’s really hard not to ask that question. Well, I always like to end by asking about the hopes, but I feel like we already spoke about what your hopes are for this story. You just always want the reader to feel less alone and to feel loved and to know that there’s a person there that does love. And I think your book does that, and you’re welcome to clarify that if you want to. But otherwise, I would love to end with you reading something to us. So, it could be an excerpt from Ferris, or it could be something that you’re dying to read out loud.

Kate DiCamillo

Yeah. Wow.

How about a sentence? I’ve got to go get my notebook. This always happens— where I have to get up a sentence that I read. It will just be a single sentence in a book on writing that is going to come out in April. The title of the book is Truth is the Arrow, Mercy is the Bow, and it’s by Steve Almond. Okay, now let me go see if I’ve got this written down because I gave the book to my neighbor across the street, who’s also a writer, so I can’t go and get the book, but I’m pretty sure I wrote down the quote, so. Hold up.

Bianca Schulze

Perfect.

Kate DiCamillo

Okay, let’s see.

Bianca Schulze

Can I just say I love that title so much as well?

Kate DiCamillo

So do I. I was doing an interview for Ferris, and the person who was interviewing me said, oh, I just read this book called. And I’m like, what? What is it called? And he said, I have an extra copy. I’ll send you one. And I was like. I was so grateful to him because that title kind of just stopped me in my tracks. Okay.

At the very end, he talks about how what we’re doing is, quote, convincing strangers to translate our specks of ink into stories capable of generating rescue.

Bianca Schulze

I need you to read it again.

Kate DiCamillo

What we’re doing as writers is convincing strangers to translate our specks of ink into stories capable of generating rescue.

Yeah, that’s my tiny little reading. Isn’t that a beautiful quote?

Bianca Schulze

It’s beautiful. Don’t you just think? I feel like sometimes somebody just says something so profound and so clearly and so concise that it just blows your mind. And I feel as though in every conversation that I’ve had with you so far, Kate, that sentence is the perfect summary for every conversation that we’ve had.

Kate DiCamillo

And happily, every time you and I have talked, and something has stopped us in our tracks, it’s not my words. It’s somebody else’s words. And it is deeply meaningful to me to connect with you over those words. The book comes out in April, and it is really worth getting. Truth is the arrow, mercy is the bow, and every story is a love story.

Bianca Schulze

Thank you for sharing that. I’m going to put the link to that in the show notes, of course, with the links to Ferris as well. So, I love that you shared that, and I always like to try to finish off with my feelings about a book. And I was having a hard time deciding how to share my love for Ferris. And I kind of realized that Uncle Ted said it for me when Uncle Ted said he needed to paint a history of the world. And I feel as though, and this might sound a bit woo-woo to listeners, but I promise you, if you read the book, you’ll understand what I mean, that this story is a history of the world. And so, I loved it so much. I know that it is going to make so many readers happy, as all your books do. And I just want to say that there’s something magical about you, Kate, where you’re literally covered in stardust. You may not feel it when you’re sitting at home in your slippers, but you somehow have cast a spell on the reading community, on educators, on humans, and it’s so well deserved, and it follows you wherever you go. And I just want to say thank you for coming and sparkling on our show today because I just appreciate it so much.

Kate DiCamillo

Okay, well, you’ve made me tear up a few times, but I want to say that the sprinkling of magic has come not from me but from those people, from readers, and from teachers reading aloud. And it’s just like that’s where the magic is. And so, I just am so grateful that I get to be a part of that, in the room with it, even though I’m not there when it happens. I’m so grateful to be a part of that magic of somebody reading a book aloud to somebody else.

Bianca Schulze

I imagine you as a star, like if a literal star. And just as you kind of move around, there’s these little sparkles that just drop down and anybody who happens to be in the right spot, that little stardust, just finds its way into their hearts.

Kate DiCamillo

Oh, okay. I’m not going to cry. I’m just going to say thank you. And I’m going to say; I bet you we get to talk again soon because there’s more books coming. And so here I am. Whenever you want to talk, Bianca, here I am.

Bianca Schulze

Well, I’m so grateful for that. And I just want listeners to know that I joked right before we started recording today that this will be the growing Readers podcast with your hosts, Bianca Schulze and Kate DiCamillo.

Kate DiCamillo

Thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Bye.

About the Book

Publisher’s Synopsis: The beloved author of Because of Winn-Dixie has outdone herself with a hilarious and achingly real love story about a girl, a ghost, a grandmother, and growing up.

It’s the summer before fifth grade, and for Ferris Wilkey, it is a summer of sheer pandemonium: Her little sister, Pinky, has vowed to become an outlaw. Uncle Ted has left Aunt Shirley and, to Ferris’s mother’s chagrin, is holed up in the Wilkey basement to paint a history of the world. And Charisse, Ferris’s grandmother, has started seeing a ghost at the threshold of her room, which seems like an alarming omen given that she is also feeling unwell. But the ghost is not there to usher Charisse to the Great Beyond. Rather, she has other plans—wild, impractical, illuminating plans.

How can Ferris satisfy a specter with Pinky terrorizing the town, Uncle Ted sending Ferris to spy on her aunt, and her father battling an invasion of raccoons?

As Charisse likes to say, “Every good story is a love story,” and Kate DiCamillo has written one for the ages: emotionally resonant and healing, showing the two-time Newbery Medalist at her most playful, universal, and profound.

Buy the Book

Show Notes

Kate DiCamillo is one of America’s most beloved storytellers. She is a former National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and a two-time Newbery Medalist. Born in Philadelphia, she grew up in Florida and now lives in Minneapolis.

For more information, visit ⁠https://www.katedicamillo.com/⁠.

⁠Truth Is the Arrow, Mercy Is the Bow: A DIY Manual for the Construction of Stories⁠ by Steve Almond.

Thank you for listening to the Growing Readers Podcast episode: Exploring Love and Light in Ferris with Kate DiCamillo. For the latest episodes from The Growing Readers Podcast, Subscribe or Follow Now.