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Kathleen Krull is here!

We’re jumping feet first into the summer with a visit from one of the best story-tellers on our planet!

It’s fun to be nosy about Kathy Krull’s latest activities…especially when she responds to Blog Hop questions. Read on. Add a comment. You just might receive a surprise . And do check out the splendid creators Kathy has blog-tagged at the end. —J.C.]

Photo courtesy of Lili Gonzalez /Yellow Book Road

1.  What is the title of your work-in-progress?

KK:  It’s not in-progress, but piping hot off the press: What Was the Boston Tea Party

2.  Where did the idea come from?
KK:  Without being an expert on the Boston Tea Party, I still had a sense that the current Tea Party movement, which began in 2009, a month after President Barack Obama took office, was not always accurate in its depiction of American history.  So I wanted to know the real story of the event and present it to young readers.

3.  What genre does your book come under?
KK:  Nonfiction chapter book, illustrated with line drawings and 16 pages of photos.

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie?
KK:  150 of Hollywood’s buffest and cutest and youngest–more than a third of the participants that night were under 21.

5. One sentence synopsis for your book?
KK:  What happened on the night of December 16, 1773, placed within a context of what led up to it and what resulted–how it led to the birth of a whole new country.

6. Is your book self-published, published by an independent publisher, or represented by an agency?
KK:  Published by Grosset & Dunlap, a division of Penguin.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
KK:  At the same time I was thinking Tea Party thoughts, my editor at Penguin, Jane O’Connor, was starting up this new series — WHAT WAS, a spin-off of WHO WAS.  The deadline was tight, a matter of months, during which I was drinking tea from morning till night.

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
KK:  Is it conceited to say I hope I’m trying in my way to follow in the footsteps of Jean Fritz?

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book? 
KK:  American history is endlessly fascinating, and I love getting the chance to portray it as accurately and meaningfully as possible, fighting the good fight against cluelessness.

10.What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
KK:  It’s controversial!  Anyone who enters the fray will get sent a free copy of the book.

And now, I am tagging two upstanding children’s book folks: Helen Foster James , co-author of Paper Son: Lee’s Journey to America and several other popular books, and Carlyn Beccia, illustrator for one of my newest, Louisa May’s Battle and other beautiful books.