| Interview with Jane Breskin Zalben |
First off, thanks so much for joining us for an up-close and personal interview for TeensReadToo.com!
My name is Jen, and I’ll be your server toda…oh, wait, wrong job! Anyway, thanks so much for taking
time out of your writing schedule—which I’m sure is busy!—and answering a few questions for your
readers and fans.
Let’s get some of the typical interview questions out of the way first. When did you first know that you
wanted to be a writer?
I first began writing poetry when I was in second grade and became an editor in the school newspaper
when I was in sixth grade, but I officially started to think of writing after I graduated college.
Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing?
I was interested in doing picture books and decided I should write the text for my art. My first book was
accepted when I was 22 years old, and published when I was 23 by Macmillan. I was working for Dial
Press at the time for the Art Director /designer of all of Maurice Sendak’s books. In addition, both the
editor there, and the editor who published my first books, had worked for Ursula Nordstrom, the most
famous editor in publishing. So it laid a good foundation for my education in the world and business of
doing children’s books – design, art, and writing. I did every aspect of the business from reading reader’
s reports to production to design and then ultimately creating my own books. I also was the art director
of Scribner’s and taught at the School of Visual Arts on the subject. I have done over 50 books to date
from poetry to short stories to cookbooks to picture books, young chapter books, middle-grade and
young adult fiction, and most recently also non-fiction books.
Tell us a little bit about either your latest or upcoming release. If you could only tell your readers one
thing about the story that had to convince us to buy the book, what would it be?
Leap (Knopf/ Random House) is my latest book published. If I could tell only one thing about the story to
convince someone to buy the book it would be that it will make you laugh, cry, question what it means to
live in a family, in school, to be hurt in life, to overcome, and what it means to be a friend, a young
person who is becoming and growing up, in a tough sometimes unforgiving world out there. The novel is
told from the girl’s and boy’s alternating points of view and gets inside both their heads as they learn
about themselves and life, where hearts can be broken – and mended.
What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?
I am not quite sure whom or what has been the greatest inspiration in my stories. I think it is more a
matter of that I might see something small - a gesture, an act, a fleeting moment, and a story begins to
brew from something that simple into something greater, like a novel or even a picture book which is a
tale pared down to its essence.
Let’s hear about your family, who I’m sure are thrilled to have a published author among them!
My original family is my father, who was accountant and has been dead a very long time. My mother was
a children’s book librarian in a private school for special needs children in Manhattan. My brother was a
psychoanalyst and now does real estate. My family – the loves of my life – are my husband, an architect,
my older son, who produces, writes and acts in sketch comedy, and my younger son, who is a film
composer and violinist. We are all free-lance!
Now for some fun facts. What’s your greatest comfort food?
I love love love to cook, but my greatest comfort food, as all comfort food is, is the food you remember
from when you were a child (and often were sick or in need.) So it is very unexciting: noodles and
cottage cheese with a bit of butter and pepper in a soup bowl. It has to be in a bowl! A baked potato.
Also in a bowl. And chicken soup. Yes, also in a bowl. And you have to eat it in bed . So you could say,
comfort food is bowl food.
What are the first three things you do when you wake up in the morning?
The first thing I do before I work in the morning is straighten up during the news on TV. Everything has
to be away and in order before I create. Then I have a big breakfast. Fuel. And then I begin. I take a
break after two hours or so and either e-mail or go for a walk with a neighbor and then I continue for
more hours.
If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what’s the one thing that would
surprise me the most?
My closets – well, if you came to my house like one of my editors once did – she said that she wanted
me to arrange her closets. I am a very neat person and sometimes wonder if I should have been a set
decorator in filmmaking. Being an artist I also live through my eyes, and since I work at home, my
surroundings are important. I don’t have an attic or basement other than a crawl space – so maybe you
could find a dead body or some critter down there, but my house is very old and was built by John Philip
Sousa for his daughter so I guess by today’s super closet extravaganzas my closets are modest.
Although we did strip the doors of paint for over a year down to the natural wood - I also renovate in my
“spare” time. We have done a loft and several places we have lived in over the years. So you could
say, I could go into construction as well! I went into labor the first time I had a baby on a ladder spackling
Sheetrock. The second time, I was mowing the lawn.
Everyone asks the question about “if you could be a tree, which tree would you be?” so I want to know:
If you could be a color, which color would it be, and why?
Okay, the old Barbara Walters, if I were a tree – a should say a sturdy oak, but those weeping cherry
trees are so aesthetic and romantic and ethereal, I’d have to say I identity with them more. I could stare
at them for hours. Peach trees or those ones with dangling moss a close second – like the ones in Leap
when Daniel goes down to Louisiana near New Orleans to visit his mom.
My favorite color is purple. Although my home is more neutral and certainly not purple. And don’t ask
me why. I have never psychoanalyzed that one! I like black a lot and yet you wouldn’t say I am Goth. I
just think it is simple and I am understated and less is more.
Who is your favorite cartoon character? Which cartoon character is most like you?
My favorite cartoon character. I am not really a ‘cartoony’ person which is odd give that my son also
does a comic book podcast and comic improv show. But …. If you just had to pin me down it would have
to be Lucy in Peanuts. Wait, is she the one who is a pain in the neck? And fussy. But she is
responsible. You’d have to say, I’m that. I was the kid who did know how to run the lemonade stand and
organize the shows on our block in the summer, and games. So maybe I was a bit like bossy like Lucy.
But she was there and not flakey. So she had a good side.
If you could beam yourself to anywhere in the world (“Beam me up, Scotty!”), during any time in history,
where and when would it be—and why?
If I could beam myself to anywhere in the world in history it might be in England during
the Victorian times. Or maybe during the Jazz Age in America. Or in Venice during the Renaissance or
Kyoto when geishas walked the streets. But probably it would be right now, here. This answer surprises
me, but I am often happiest when I am alone writing or painting in a room.
So what’s your favorite type of music to listen to? Favorite musical artists? Do you listen to music while
you’re writing?
My favorite music. That is a tough one, because when I was thirteen I had to decide whether I was going
to go into music or art. I was very serious about the piano, as art, and was applying to the High School of
Music and Art in New York City, a special high school. I decided on art, but many of my novels involve
music since it is such a part of my entire family’s life. I love loud rock music when I am painting. I love
classical, blues, New Orleans jazz – all forms, soul, stuff I grew up on and my parents danced to – that’s
always nostalgic – very modern minimalist music that involves sophisticated technology involved with
performance art – some Broadway shows, I am really open to most music and listen to many kinds. I am
very eclectic.
Do you have any favorite T.V. shows? Movies you watch over and over again? What was the last movie
you saw at the theater?
Yeah, I love Seinfeld. And the Larry David Show. I think the writing is like a good Charles Dicken’s novel.
It comes full circle with all the primary and secondary characters and subplots intertwining and coming
together in the end to conclude the main story line. There are many shows that are offbeat and quirky
and I’m usually drawn to them immediately and they sometimes get canceled. I like smart writing and
intelligence, and even though its modern, the underlying themes could be any Shakespearean play. I
like when dialogue and feelings ring true.
It might not be hip to say this, but I am definitely not into reality shows. I don’t care for people humiliating
themselves in public, and I don’t like some of the meanness. If feels like the Romans throwing people in
with the lions and the public watching to see the outcome. Of course, when talent is demonstrated, then
that is joy to watch. There’s so much time in a day, to work, relax so you have to pick and choose what
you need to take you away. I like feelings and funny. These are the shows on regular TV I watch –
Grey’s Anatomy. Boston Legal. House. PBS mystery.
Sometimes, Bones and Cold Case and Frontline. I rent the ones on cable and watch ten or whatever the
amount in the series in a row without barely stopping to get the whole effect of the writing like The
Sopranos, Rescue Me and Monk.
The movies I could watch over and over again (and I love films – I watch one almost every night after I
finish working and I wrote a screenplay with a writing partner based on LEAP) are the early Woody Allen
movies. Some of the lines are so human and funny, revealing the way people really feel in relationships.
But I love all kinds of films. It would be ridiculous to limit it to anything other than telling a good story. I
could do without special effects, but hey, I am a writer, and an artist, but to me, I care more about the
characters. I do like everything though – mysteries, foreign films, comedies, romantic ones, horror, you
name it – I just plain love filmmaking and having it take me somewhere else – into another world. One of
my favorite films that I saw this year was a big one at Sundance called, “Sherry Baby.” It was a small
indie movie, and a small drama, but it was done so well on a tiny budget and broke my heart the acting
was so good. The last good movie I also saw that was visually beautiful was “The Painted Veil.” I also
like the old Italian movies. The last movie I saw in the theater was Borat. It was hysterical, although it
took me a few weeks to get that wrestling scene out of mind!
You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your teen readers. What would it be?
If I had the chance to give one piece of advice to teen readers it would be, be yourself. People are
always going to judge each other and in the end you’ve got to do what makes you happy so that you
enjoy the journey. Don’t hurt anyone else, but also don’t hurt yourself in the process. Life is a difficult
balance and there is no perfect answer. Even adults don’t have it and don’t believe they do. We are all
in a process together of learning. We make mistakes, grow, take risks, chances, and ultimately learn
something so the next time maybe we are a little smarter. I don’t think it ends, until it ends.
One last question. What stories can we look forward to from you in the future?
I have a new picture book coming out in the fall and a young funny chapter book and am at work on a
mystery and another novel is beginning to brew – with music, of course.
Again, thanks so much for joining us at TeensReadToo.com!
My name is Jen, and I’ll be your server toda…oh, wait, wrong job! Anyway, thanks so much for taking
time out of your writing schedule—which I’m sure is busy!—and answering a few questions for your
readers and fans.
Let’s get some of the typical interview questions out of the way first. When did you first know that you
wanted to be a writer?
I first began writing poetry when I was in second grade and became an editor in the school newspaper
when I was in sixth grade, but I officially started to think of writing after I graduated college.
Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing?
I was interested in doing picture books and decided I should write the text for my art. My first book was
accepted when I was 22 years old, and published when I was 23 by Macmillan. I was working for Dial
Press at the time for the Art Director /designer of all of Maurice Sendak’s books. In addition, both the
editor there, and the editor who published my first books, had worked for Ursula Nordstrom, the most
famous editor in publishing. So it laid a good foundation for my education in the world and business of
doing children’s books – design, art, and writing. I did every aspect of the business from reading reader’
s reports to production to design and then ultimately creating my own books. I also was the art director
of Scribner’s and taught at the School of Visual Arts on the subject. I have done over 50 books to date
from poetry to short stories to cookbooks to picture books, young chapter books, middle-grade and
young adult fiction, and most recently also non-fiction books.
Tell us a little bit about either your latest or upcoming release. If you could only tell your readers one
thing about the story that had to convince us to buy the book, what would it be?
Leap (Knopf/ Random House) is my latest book published. If I could tell only one thing about the story to
convince someone to buy the book it would be that it will make you laugh, cry, question what it means to
live in a family, in school, to be hurt in life, to overcome, and what it means to be a friend, a young
person who is becoming and growing up, in a tough sometimes unforgiving world out there. The novel is
told from the girl’s and boy’s alternating points of view and gets inside both their heads as they learn
about themselves and life, where hearts can be broken – and mended.
What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?
I am not quite sure whom or what has been the greatest inspiration in my stories. I think it is more a
matter of that I might see something small - a gesture, an act, a fleeting moment, and a story begins to
brew from something that simple into something greater, like a novel or even a picture book which is a
tale pared down to its essence.
Let’s hear about your family, who I’m sure are thrilled to have a published author among them!
My original family is my father, who was accountant and has been dead a very long time. My mother was
a children’s book librarian in a private school for special needs children in Manhattan. My brother was a
psychoanalyst and now does real estate. My family – the loves of my life – are my husband, an architect,
my older son, who produces, writes and acts in sketch comedy, and my younger son, who is a film
composer and violinist. We are all free-lance!
Now for some fun facts. What’s your greatest comfort food?
I love love love to cook, but my greatest comfort food, as all comfort food is, is the food you remember
from when you were a child (and often were sick or in need.) So it is very unexciting: noodles and
cottage cheese with a bit of butter and pepper in a soup bowl. It has to be in a bowl! A baked potato.
Also in a bowl. And chicken soup. Yes, also in a bowl. And you have to eat it in bed . So you could say,
comfort food is bowl food.
What are the first three things you do when you wake up in the morning?
The first thing I do before I work in the morning is straighten up during the news on TV. Everything has
to be away and in order before I create. Then I have a big breakfast. Fuel. And then I begin. I take a
break after two hours or so and either e-mail or go for a walk with a neighbor and then I continue for
more hours.
If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what’s the one thing that would
surprise me the most?
My closets – well, if you came to my house like one of my editors once did – she said that she wanted
me to arrange her closets. I am a very neat person and sometimes wonder if I should have been a set
decorator in filmmaking. Being an artist I also live through my eyes, and since I work at home, my
surroundings are important. I don’t have an attic or basement other than a crawl space – so maybe you
could find a dead body or some critter down there, but my house is very old and was built by John Philip
Sousa for his daughter so I guess by today’s super closet extravaganzas my closets are modest.
Although we did strip the doors of paint for over a year down to the natural wood - I also renovate in my
“spare” time. We have done a loft and several places we have lived in over the years. So you could
say, I could go into construction as well! I went into labor the first time I had a baby on a ladder spackling
Sheetrock. The second time, I was mowing the lawn.
Everyone asks the question about “if you could be a tree, which tree would you be?” so I want to know:
If you could be a color, which color would it be, and why?
Okay, the old Barbara Walters, if I were a tree – a should say a sturdy oak, but those weeping cherry
trees are so aesthetic and romantic and ethereal, I’d have to say I identity with them more. I could stare
at them for hours. Peach trees or those ones with dangling moss a close second – like the ones in Leap
when Daniel goes down to Louisiana near New Orleans to visit his mom.
My favorite color is purple. Although my home is more neutral and certainly not purple. And don’t ask
me why. I have never psychoanalyzed that one! I like black a lot and yet you wouldn’t say I am Goth. I
just think it is simple and I am understated and less is more.
Who is your favorite cartoon character? Which cartoon character is most like you?
My favorite cartoon character. I am not really a ‘cartoony’ person which is odd give that my son also
does a comic book podcast and comic improv show. But …. If you just had to pin me down it would have
to be Lucy in Peanuts. Wait, is she the one who is a pain in the neck? And fussy. But she is
responsible. You’d have to say, I’m that. I was the kid who did know how to run the lemonade stand and
organize the shows on our block in the summer, and games. So maybe I was a bit like bossy like Lucy.
But she was there and not flakey. So she had a good side.
If you could beam yourself to anywhere in the world (“Beam me up, Scotty!”), during any time in history,
where and when would it be—and why?
If I could beam myself to anywhere in the world in history it might be in England during
the Victorian times. Or maybe during the Jazz Age in America. Or in Venice during the Renaissance or
Kyoto when geishas walked the streets. But probably it would be right now, here. This answer surprises
me, but I am often happiest when I am alone writing or painting in a room.
So what’s your favorite type of music to listen to? Favorite musical artists? Do you listen to music while
you’re writing?
My favorite music. That is a tough one, because when I was thirteen I had to decide whether I was going
to go into music or art. I was very serious about the piano, as art, and was applying to the High School of
Music and Art in New York City, a special high school. I decided on art, but many of my novels involve
music since it is such a part of my entire family’s life. I love loud rock music when I am painting. I love
classical, blues, New Orleans jazz – all forms, soul, stuff I grew up on and my parents danced to – that’s
always nostalgic – very modern minimalist music that involves sophisticated technology involved with
performance art – some Broadway shows, I am really open to most music and listen to many kinds. I am
very eclectic.
Do you have any favorite T.V. shows? Movies you watch over and over again? What was the last movie
you saw at the theater?
Yeah, I love Seinfeld. And the Larry David Show. I think the writing is like a good Charles Dicken’s novel.
It comes full circle with all the primary and secondary characters and subplots intertwining and coming
together in the end to conclude the main story line. There are many shows that are offbeat and quirky
and I’m usually drawn to them immediately and they sometimes get canceled. I like smart writing and
intelligence, and even though its modern, the underlying themes could be any Shakespearean play. I
like when dialogue and feelings ring true.
It might not be hip to say this, but I am definitely not into reality shows. I don’t care for people humiliating
themselves in public, and I don’t like some of the meanness. If feels like the Romans throwing people in
with the lions and the public watching to see the outcome. Of course, when talent is demonstrated, then
that is joy to watch. There’s so much time in a day, to work, relax so you have to pick and choose what
you need to take you away. I like feelings and funny. These are the shows on regular TV I watch –
Grey’s Anatomy. Boston Legal. House. PBS mystery.
Sometimes, Bones and Cold Case and Frontline. I rent the ones on cable and watch ten or whatever the
amount in the series in a row without barely stopping to get the whole effect of the writing like The
Sopranos, Rescue Me and Monk.
The movies I could watch over and over again (and I love films – I watch one almost every night after I
finish working and I wrote a screenplay with a writing partner based on LEAP) are the early Woody Allen
movies. Some of the lines are so human and funny, revealing the way people really feel in relationships.
But I love all kinds of films. It would be ridiculous to limit it to anything other than telling a good story. I
could do without special effects, but hey, I am a writer, and an artist, but to me, I care more about the
characters. I do like everything though – mysteries, foreign films, comedies, romantic ones, horror, you
name it – I just plain love filmmaking and having it take me somewhere else – into another world. One of
my favorite films that I saw this year was a big one at Sundance called, “Sherry Baby.” It was a small
indie movie, and a small drama, but it was done so well on a tiny budget and broke my heart the acting
was so good. The last good movie I also saw that was visually beautiful was “The Painted Veil.” I also
like the old Italian movies. The last movie I saw in the theater was Borat. It was hysterical, although it
took me a few weeks to get that wrestling scene out of mind!
You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your teen readers. What would it be?
If I had the chance to give one piece of advice to teen readers it would be, be yourself. People are
always going to judge each other and in the end you’ve got to do what makes you happy so that you
enjoy the journey. Don’t hurt anyone else, but also don’t hurt yourself in the process. Life is a difficult
balance and there is no perfect answer. Even adults don’t have it and don’t believe they do. We are all
in a process together of learning. We make mistakes, grow, take risks, chances, and ultimately learn
something so the next time maybe we are a little smarter. I don’t think it ends, until it ends.
One last question. What stories can we look forward to from you in the future?
I have a new picture book coming out in the fall and a young funny chapter book and am at work on a
mystery and another novel is beginning to brew – with music, of course.
Again, thanks so much for joining us at TeensReadToo.com!
