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| Author Jen Bryant photo by Amy Dragoo |
JEN BRYANT is
the author of numerous non-fiction picture books for children, including A River of Words: The Story of William
Carlos Williams, The Right Word:
Roget and His Thesaurus, and A Splash
of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin. Her newest book, SIX
DOTS: A STORY OF YOUNG LOUIS BRAILLE, is about
the life of Louis Braille, a child inventor who created the alphabet system
that blind people use to read.
Keep an eye out for Six Dots when it hits shelves in a week on September 6! And if you want a sample of Six Dots in Braille, make sure to visit Jen's website.
Jen talks about which inventors inspire
her, the Braille Alphabet, and why she enjoys writing non-fiction picture books for kids.
Where are you
from? Where do you live now? Do you do anything else in addition to writing
great books?
I grew up in Flemington,
NJ, a small town in the central-northwest part of the state. It’s quite
expanded now, but when I lived there, it was pretty rural and very navigable by
bicycle. I walked to school my entire life, and that was a great way to observe
people and to feel physically connected to the community. Flemington is also
where the infamous Lindbergh baby kidnapping trial took place, an event which
became the subject for my first novel in verse. I now live in Chester County,
Pennsylvania, which is about halfway between Philadelphia and Lancaster, PA.
It’s primarily suburban and not so bike-navigable, so I have to drive to West
Chester, PA to get my “town and sidewalk fix.” But our home is in the woods,
which I love, as I do a good bit of bird-watching and nature-observing.
We also have a great state
park nearby where I frequently go to compose new work: I park facing the lake
and write in my car, or I sit at one of the many picnic tables scattered around
the park. At the end of the day, I usually go to the YMCA and bike or swim.
When did you
get your start as a writer of nonfiction picture books? How long have you been
writing?
I fell into it by accident, really. After graduating
from Gettysburg College, I was a language (French & German) teacher for
several years, but then we moved around and I began to do some freelance work
for smaller publishers and gift book companies. It agreed with me, so when our
daughter was born in 1988, I gradually did less teaching and more writing. My
first non-fiction books (1991) were a series called “Working Moms” and my
editor worked in a small office over a pet store in Frederick MD. I learned a
lot from him and from other editors who, in those pre-digital days, had a lot
more time to mentor new authors like me who were clueless but very eager to
learn!
What were some of your favorite
books as a child? Authors, illustrators, you name them.
My Mom is a very
expressive reader and both of my parents had books all around the house. I loved to hear Dr. Seuss books read out loud
to me, especially Green Eggs and Ham and
Hop on POP. I also loved P.D.
Eastman’s Go Dog, GO and Are You My Mother? Later, as an
independent reader, I gravitated toward non-fiction books about animals: bears,
penguins, lions—and especially horses. I was a horse-crazy girl and along with
all that non-fiction, I devoured the books in Walter Farley’s Black Stallion adventure series.
Top 3 favorite inventors?
Louis Braille, inventor of the braille code, and Johannes Gutenberg, inventor of moveable
type/the printing press—tie for first. Both enabled widespread access to
knowledge that was previously denied.
Guglielmo Marconi, who sent the first radio signal in Italy in 1895
is second, for purely selfish reasons. I listen to the radio most of the day and
I’m quite sure I’d go crazy without it.
“Amazing” Grace Hopper, who invented COBOL and other computer languages is
third. I’m not very adept at technology, but I do appreciate Hopper’s
pioneering spirit and experimentation, the result of which allows
me to do what I do at my desk and still keep in touch with the
world!
In your own words,
describe what SIX DOTS is about.
Like all of my
biographies, SIX DOTS celebrates two things I feel very strongly about: 1. Quiet courage, the kind that is passion-driven, yet not chest thumping, “hey look what
I did” driven. 2. Improvisation—the impulse to create something
new out of just what is at hand, and frequently in less-than-desirable
circumstances. Louis Braille worked for 3 years, from age 12 to 15, in
unhealthy surroundings, with no emotional or financial support, using only
crude tools and the rough idea of an unwieldy, complicated battleground
messaging system. From that, he created a wholly new and—I think Steve Jobs
would have agreed—sleek, intuitive code that is used throughout the world today
in its original form. His invention single-handedly provided (and continues to
provide) millions of people with access to knowledge.
Why did you
choose to write Louis Braille’s story? You actually wrote a young adult
biography on Braille in 1994, so why did you come back to his story? You write
that this was your attempt to understand what it was like to BE Louis Braille.
At age twenty, I did some
reading for a blind college student and that experience really made me
appreciate what I took for granted each day as a sighted person. When I penned
that 1994 book, I was writing single titles for publishers who wanted to
produce a topic-centered or themed series (Braille was part of a series called
Great Achievers: Lives of the Physically Challenged.) Much later—as I began to
do author visits in schools, to teach at a local university, and to travel to
conferences around the country, I saw braille in so many of those public spaces
and realized how ubiquitous it really IS. And yet—how little we sighted folks
know about and appreciate the origins of that invention. I decide to revisit
the topic—but this time, I wanted it to be a much more emotional, much more personal story than that earlier
book.
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| An example of a sign written in Braille. |
We see the Braille alphabet all the time. Can you
explain how the Braille alphabet works?
Although we often refer to
braille as a “language” it’s really a code
or system based on a 6-dot cell,
arranged in 2 columns of 3 raised dots each. Various arrangements of the top
four dots form the first ten letters of the alphabet (A-J), then adding the
bottom left or bottom right dots makes the rest. The expanded code also
incorporates punctuation, numbers, scientific and musical notation. Braille
also provides for contractions by using cells that can stand for more than one
letter or even whole words. Thus, it’s a simple, but highly adaptable system
that can be employed in any context in almost any language. What is even more
extraordinary, each cell fits easily under a human fingertip—something that
Louis must have worked toward instinctively, given his earliest lessons in
tactile learning with his family. Including
actual braille in Six Dots put the book’s cost totally out of reach for most
people . . . but I’ve provided a link on my website for obtaining a sample—and
readers can send their address to me to and I’ll provide them with a braille
alphabet card.
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| The Braille Alphabet |
What do you hope this book achieves?
I hope it raises awareness, among sighted children
and adults, about the existence and abundance of braille in their own
communities—and a sincere appreciation for the (very young!) man who created
it. Louis Braille is, by far, the youngest individual we know of who made such
an impact on so many people. Today we think of invention being done in sleek
labs or well-funded and staffed research facilities. But Braille worked alone,
unsupported, and while enduring the early stages of tuberculosis. In fact, as I
type this response (I’m at a university library), his code appears on signs by
the elevator and the restrooms, just across the hallway. I want others to make
that connection.
What do you
love about creating picture books for children, specifically nonfiction picture
books?
I love doing research—it’s like a big scavenger hunt
for facts and original anecdotes. Then I love the challenge of choosing the
most resonant images and details and arranging them in an accessible narrative.
Occasionally, I do wish it were
easier! It takes a lot of time, a lot of patience, a lot of trying things out
as I go. It feels like I’m putting together a big jigsaw puzzle where every
piece must fit perfectly—and yet I have no idea what the image on the box looks
like.
What is next?
Any future projects for us to look forward to?
I’ve contributed to a couple of poetry books this
year, so that’s been fun (see my website for those.) And, yes, I’m working hard
on another picture book biography—but it’s a little early to talk about it just
yet!!
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| Interior illustration of Six Dots by Boris Kulikov |
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