Illustrator:  Lori DeLeonardis-Aman

Publisher:  Booklocker.com, Inc.

ISBN:  1-59113-495-1

The following interview was conducted  by:  Jennifer Brown:   CLICK HERE  to Read Jennifer's Review of the Book:  Click Here To View  More of Jennifer Brown's Reviews

Thank you, Mr. Sottile, for agreeing to participate in this interview with Bookpleasures.

Q:      Please tell us a little more about yourself.

A:         I was born in a log cabin…No, that was Lincoln... I was born in Queens, NY, and lived in one of those houses you used to see featured in the beginning of the TV show “Archie Bunker Show.” Those were the days when you could play ball all day long— stoop ball, stickball, punch ball, Wiffle Ball®, and hardball. Your parents didn’t seem to care when you came home as long as you were on time for dinner. When I couldn’t make the high school baseball team and later turn pro, I decided to become a teacher—one of the best decisions of my life. But I still daydream about being inducted into Cooperstown.

Q:      What prompted you to begin writing? Why children’s poetry?

A:         My best friend moved away and we started writing letters in high school to each other. We felt terribly misunderstood as teenagers and we had a common enemy: Dad. We wrote volumes about school, sports, girl friends, and Dad—sometimes at the expense of doing homework! When I became a teacher, I didn’t have time for long things like letters. So I started writing “short things” such as poems. You could write a perfectly awful poem in one sitting and polish it up later on. After ten years of teaching, a visiting poet came to school and inspired everyone to write children’s poetry, including myself. Children’s poetry seemed more alive, sensual, and understandable than adult poetry.

Q:      You say in your Introduction in PICTURE POETRY ON PARADE! that the book was originally titled Bathroom Vacation and Other Poems, but that the title had to be changed. What happened?

A:         The original title was based on a true experience. One afternoon a number of boys disappeared from my sixth grade classroom, while I plastered the board with notes. As soon as I discovered the decline in the male population, I raced into the bathroom—and there they were loafing around. I screamed, “What do you think you’re on—a bathroom vacation?” They scampered back, and I said to myself, “Self, I gotta use that someday.” But some readers who picked up the book at our local book festival would always ask, “Does this book have a lot of bathroom humor in it?” I usually rolled my eyes and said, “No.” We needed a new title, and why not one with some alliteration for the fun of it?

Q:      Your poems and illustrations alike are very reminiscent of Shel Silverstein’s work. Did you set out to emulate him or did you just find that your style of preference is much like his?

A:         I read Shel Silverstein’s poetry to my students whenever there was a break in the action, especially while we waited for the buses to be called. My kids went home laughing. I read his poetry before he was even popular in school. But I never sat down and said, “Now I am going to write like Shel.” I just wrote to please myself, whatever I

felt in my heart. Growing up is a choice, and in some ways I have chosen not to grow up. (Just ask my wife. She is the Treasury Department. I simply hand over my check.) At school presentations I wear a colorful hat with a propeller on it that says, “I Don’t Wanta Grow Up!” Kids and adults love the hat. As for the illustrations, they were done by Lori DeLeonardis-Aman, the art teacher in my former school. She is a superb cartoonist. We are kindred spirits. And as for Shel, I don’t think he ever grew up all the way. Do you?

Q:      Do you write for big people, too? If so, what else do you write?

A:         Yes, I write for very big people. My favorite accomplishment was having an article of mine featured on the cover of Learning87. This year I won the Writers & Books 2004 Poetry Booth Contest. So I do write some adult poems. I have also had my essays published this year in the local newspapers, Teachers of Vision magazine and Once Upon a Time, a magazine for illustrators and children’s writers. Oh, I forgot. I have this memory half-blocked out. One day at school the office secretary called my room, as the kids sat there, and she said, “The editor at Woman‘s World would like to talk to you. The class immediately howled, but I got the last laugh. They had accepted a personal essay of mine about whether I thought my future son-in-law was prince charming or not, and they wanted to take photos. They paid me $500 for the essay.

Q:      You were an educator for primary school aged children. What do you see as the biggest challenge facing children today?

A:         Children live in a world full of choices. At first that sounds great, but on closer scrutiny you realize that it is a mixed blessing. There are more good and bad choices they can make. I wish we could inoculate kids with a serum that would enable them to consistently make positive choices. I tutor students who have been suspended from school who don’t do homework, skipped school, stole from others, flicked off authority figures, acted out with violence, or used drugs. I offer them instruction, empathy, and guidance. Some preteens are so mixed up that I wrote a book just for them: 101 Secrets for You! I am searching for a traditional publisher. Actually, I am praying for one.

Q:      Why don’t we see more poetry for children out there?

A:         What a great question! I was once told that many editors are scared of all the blank, white spaces on a page of poetry. They think words should be there. I think some good illustrations can solve that problem.

Q:      Your poetry has a certain amount of irreverence to it. You have no problem discussing underwear and the “bathroom library.” Is this silliness something you learned from your students or is it just an innate quality in you? How necessary is it in keeping the attention of your readers?

A:         I was just talking about this to a friend today! I used humor in my class all of the time. How else could I be sure they were really paying attention to me or defuse a tense moment? Sometimes when a student said something annoying I would stretch out my

arms and stagger over to him like Frankenstein. Then I would gently put my hands around his neck. By this time the class is laughing, he is smiling, and so am I. All is forgiven. My students loved me because I had a sense of humor and I was on their side. It was never me against them. And I knew what words would always make them laugh. “Underpants” is at the top of the list.

Q:      In your opinion, are too many grown ups, too “grown up?”

A:         The people I like best are people who are passionate about life and know how to laugh at themselves. Sometimes it’s a challenge to find both of those qualities in a person.

Q:      Are great writers of children’s literature made or born? Are you one?

A:         I don’t think that you have much of a choice to be a writer or not. It’s something that you are compelled to do, whether you are a children’s writer or not. Edna Ferber wrote, “Life can’t ever defeat a writer who is in love with writing, for life itself is a writer’s lover until death fascinating, cruel, lavish, warm, cold, treacherous, constant.” If you read interviews by most great children’s writers, you usually hear how as kids they were surrounded by books and their parents frequently read to them. Therefore, it probably helps to grow up in a writing environment. It gives them permission to dive into reading and writing at an early age.

I don’t remember any children’s books in the house when I was growing up, although my father wanted all of his kids to go to college. It seems that the most difficult thing we need to do as writers is give ourselves permission to succeed We need to give ourselves permission to write frequently, join workshop groups, share our work, seek criticism, send out our stuff, learn from rejection letters, read about writing, use the internet, sign up for various writing newsletters, and get some professional writing help when needed.

I recently finished my first my first children’s picture book about a pencil. I had to give myself permission to write a very long book in terms of word count. Several writers in my workshop group and a paid editor all agree that it’s destined to become a “classroom classic.” Am I a great writer? No. Might this book become a classic? If I have done my homework right, it might.

At the end of my Poetry Booth poem I wrote, “I am the catcher of lost souls at Lover’s Leap. I am a waterfalls telling my story again and again.”

Thank you, Jennifer Brown, for the sunlight.