Author: A MusicTale by Kit Eakle:
Illustrators: Jean Eakle with Aubyn Eakle
Publisher: MusicKit
ISBN: 0-9713194-0-5

Click Here To Purchase In My Grandmother's Garden

Today, Norm Goldman Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com is pleased to have as our guest, Kit Eakle author of In My Grandmother’s Garden. 

Good day Kit and thanks for participating in our interview 

Norm: 

Please tell our readers a little bit about your personal and professional background. 

Kit:

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay area where my father was an art professor, and my mother a piano teacher. I inherited those interests, playing the violin from a young age, and receiving my BFA in painting at the Univesity of Californa at Davis.

I moved to Canada, joining the ‘back to the land’ movement, spending several years subsistence farming on a small island off the coast of Vancouver Island. But music always called and I eventually became a professional musician.

At a point, while raising a family, travel became difficult, I went back to music school. There I took an ear training course that caught my imagination. I realized that my early experiences as a violinist were based on learning where to put fingers in response to written notes — essentially glorified type writing. This course used a method, called the Kodály method after the Hungarian composer, Zoltán Kodály, which held that notes represent sounds, NOT a key to be pressed, or a finger to place on a particular string. It also emphasized the connection between music and language. Written music, it turns out is best learned when it connects to songs or musical “stories” which kids find meaningful. 

I decided to get a teaching credential, and began teaching in a regular classroom for 7 years. Later as a music specialist, in Nanaimo, BC, Canada, I developed a Music Listening Program, which I have now published as Listen to the Music, and which became my Masters project at the University of Victoria. I completed that degree in Music AND Art Education, and became a district music “helping teacher,” teaching classroom teachers to teach music.

I worked for the Province of British Columbia in Victoria, developing the BC Fine Arts curriculum. There I discovered the possibilities of using computers in teaching music, and established my own music education website, MusicKit.com. I was hired by the Kennedy Center in Washington DC to be the Program Manager of their first online Arts Education website, ArtsEdge, a wonderful teacher’s resource. 

When my father passed away in 1997, I returned to my childhood home in California. I had not lived there in almost 30 years. I ended up quickly finding a teaching job in Hayward, California, where they have a district wide Kodály based music program. I taught there for  3 years, and then went to Tiburon, in Marin county, where I still teach and have been teaching Kindergarten to Second Grade music for 10 years now. 

Norm: 

What do you want your work  In My Grandmother’s Garden to do?  Amuse? Teach? Entertain?  Whom do you believe will benefit from your book and why?  

Kit:

What a good question! As to the first part, the short answer is, all three! The idea of writing a book that included the written music was with me long before writing In My Grandmothers Garden. From the time I discovered that written music needed to be taught through language and stories, I have wanted to make amusing and entertaining children’s books that could share with kids my love of written music. I wanted to create picture books including songs that all kids knew. I liked to call these stories “MusicTales.” So the initial idea was to use these stories to teach, introducing young kids to written music. 

I hope the book is also amusing and entertaining. But In My Grandmother’s Garden is In My Grandmother’s Garden not really an entertaining amusement like a Captain Underpants, or Walter, the Farting Dog, to name some recently popular children’s books. I enjoy such books. But In My Grandmother’s Garden takes kids a little more seriously. It does touch on sensitive issues. I have heard from kids who have lost loved ones, something that inevitably happens to us all. They have found find real support in this story in overcoming their loss. Perhaps this is why the National Association for the Advancement of Psychotherapy nominated In My Grandmother’s Garden for its annual Gradiva Award on its publication.  

But the book is more than a pedagogical lesson book for teaching kids music, or a therapeutic nostrum. I hope it is a book that validates feelings that kids experience as strongly as adults: the mystery of our mortality, the richness and meaningfulness that the small intimate moments bring us all, and the joy of creativity. Adults often don’t acknowledge that kids have such deep feelings. But, while this little book does have an uncommon depth, it is a simple book with a simple little melody, and the simple love between a Granddaughter and her Grandmother at its core. So finally, to answer your question, I would hope In My Grandmother’s Garden is a book from which EVERYONE can benefit. In My Grandmother’s Garden is about the connection among generations. And so I hope ALL, children, parents, AND grandparents, will find much that is meaningful in this little book. 

Norm: 

What's the most difficult thing for you in putting together In My Grandmother’s Garden?  What did you enjoy most about writing this book?

Kit:

The story basically wrote itself. But the rhyme scheme and the melody for the song were a little more difficult. Designing a layout also proved to be of some difficulty. I initially hired a designer to do the layout of the book. But I found that the results were not sympathetic to the story and text/music requirements. I finally had to do the entire layout, including text and music, myself. Learning the tricks and quirks of the software and computer manipulations necessary to create the final layout proved to have quite a steep learning curve. But in the end, I think the results were worth the effort. Finally raising enough money to print the book in a manner that did justice to the watercolors was also a challenge.

As to what I enjoyed the most — this book, as described above, was a real family effort. And it brought us together in wonderful ways, as I hope is evident in the story itself. The exploration of the creative output of my mother’s watercolors was perhaps the most satisfying, but working with my niece and her father, the flute player on the included CD, was also deeply satisfying. And when the book was finally finished, and I found boxes and boxes of absolutely gorgeous books, what a feeling of accomplishment!

Norm: 

What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating In My Grandmother’s Garden? 

Kit:

There have been so many surprises! Discovering the delightful portrait of my niece painting a childish painting of flowers was the initial surprise  and that led to creating the book. But when I asked my mother, the book’s illustarator, if she had any idea of whether the painting Aubyn had made at that time was still around, she was sure it was not. A few weeks later, while exploring another group of watercolors mother had stashed away, there it was!

Most surprising, however, was the note painted in red “To Grandpa, from Aubyn.” As my father, Aubyn’s grandpa had recently passed away, Aubyn’s gift of her painting to her grandfather, took my breath away and made this book inevitable. So I have used the actual image Aubyn had painted as an 8 year old in the book.

More recently, Aubyn has now grown to be a wonderful 23 year old woman, no surprise. However, she recently graduated from University in, SURPRISE: Art! That has made the book’s ending seem prophetic. 

Finally, my wife and I recently moved into a new house near my mother. It has an iconic view of Mount Tamalpais- an iconic mountain in the San Francisco Bay area. While showing the book to a friend who was visiting, I opened up to the frontispiece of the book – view same area, which I had used, though I was never quite sure exactly where it was. It was EXACTLY the view out our window. Turns out my mother had painted it here when visiting previous residents of our house! The opening page is the view out my own window! It seems this book was destined to be a large part of my life.

Norm:

How has the feedback been so far?

Kit:

Feedback has been very gratifying. Everyone who sees the book and takes the time to read and listen to it are deeply touched by it. I have had nothing but positive feedback from hundreds of readers. Every review has also been positive, but unfortunately, to date they have been too few to really sell the book. The Gradiva Award mentioned above was also very gratifying, especially as the judge for that nomination was Robert Quackenbush, a children’s author of some repute who was particularly impressed by the book’s design.

However sales are the ultimate feedback. And that is a bit more problematic. This book was first published in 2002. For 2 or 3 years I worked hard at getting it out there and recognized, but as a small self-publisher, working as an individual who is also a full-time teacher, it has been VERY difficult to find the time to garner enough media attention to make the book a financial success. In those first years I tried everything I could to gain the attention I feel the book deserves. I have many ideas beyond this personal story. I‘d like In My Grandmother’s Garden just the first example of a new kind of book, that I have called MusicTales. But until the feedback is such that enough copies ofIn My Grandmother’s Garden can be sold, my dreams must stay on hold. I hope this interview is one step towards achieving that ultimate goal!

Norm:

How important is it to introduce children to music and art? Please elaborate.

Kit: In a word: VITALLY!

Our society has very little appreciation of the fact that music and art, more than any other endeavor, define us as human. In ALL cultures of the past, we know them by the music and art they have left us. And what is even less appreciated, music and art form the basis of how human minds develop, both collectively and individually. Almost every development in history is ushered in by a new vision of imagination in the arts. And each of our minds develop in unique and unimagined ways as we study the arts. Visual art teaches us new ways of seeing. Research in psychology and brain research show us that the only activity that visibly affects the appearance of the brain is the study of music. To find out more, I recommend folks read Oliver Sacks’ seminal book Musicophilia, and  Daniel J. Levitans The World in Six Songs. Music and Art are as vital to we humans as food, air and water.

Norm:

As a follow up, what makes music come alive in a classroom? How can teachers foster a love of music? 

Kit:

There are two basics, in my mind:

First we need to make kids aware that they can make their own music. Music is a universal human activity, not confined to some idealized geniuses called “musicians.” We all can make music! Our current view of music is strange. We don’t feel we have to be mathematicians to add and subtract. We don’t feel we have to authors to read and write. But somehow people have bought into the idea that you have to have some mysterious “talent” to make music! Hence, I try to involve kids in making music everyday, and I make a point of appointing each child for one day as “Musician of the Day” in my classes. The advent of recorded music a

 

Second, I try to expose kids to as many styles of music and context in which music is created as possible. I also play a wide variety of music on my violin –  my own particular voice – whenever and wherever it is appropriate.  We listen to jazz, classical, rock, world music, experimental music, cultural music of every stripe, etc. In each instance I try to help kids understand that each of these kinds of music serve a cultural or personal “purpose.” That each tells us something about the people and context in which it is created. This does NOT have to be pedantic. Indeed it makes the music come alive for the kids! 

Norm:

How would you define a good children’s song?

Kit:

I’ll answer the question in terms of my own writing. The main criteria musically, is that like any song, it sticks with you. Perhaps the greatest compliment I ever got about In My Grandmother‘s Garden was from a Kindergarten teacher who told me she heard one of her students singing the song over and over on the playground several weeks after I had played the song for her class.  

There are perhaps different criteria for song that kids like to listen to and songs that kids can sing. Performers often make the mistake of thinking kids exclusively like up-tempo, lively songs. And often they sing in a range that may be good for the performer, but NOT for kids! Kids actually prefer to sing songs at a slower tempo than many adults expect. Very young voices also have a hard time singing songs outside a certain pretty confined range – neither too high or low. For those interested in such things, kids sing best largely within the octave D just above middle C to the D and octave above. I have kept In My Grandmother’s Garden to a sixth from middle C to the A above. I actually wrote the song in G originally, but the wonderful singer I who sings it on the included CD, Laurie Lewis, found that a bit high, so we recorded it in F. 

Also, in order to help kids read the song more easily, and to make it truly singer friendly I decided to keep the song in the pentatonic, meaning that I used only five notes, in musical language low Sol, Low La, Do, Re, and Mi. This gives the flavour of a timeless folk melody. Many, many popular, folk, and kids songs confine themselves to the pentatonic scale. You can hear the effect by playing only the black keys on the piano. I used the model of my favourite pentatonic song, the Temptations, My Girl. That  tune is so catchy, and so lovely, it never feels like the 5 notes it uses is in any way a limitation. I hope In My Grandmother‘s Garden captures some of that! 

Norm: 

Are you working on any books/projects that you would like to share with us? (We would love to hear all about them!) 

Kit:

I have written at least ten other MusicTales, but as previously mentioned, I feel I have to recoup the costs of this project first. I would hope there could be MANY of these books that have the music as part of the text, so that kids can really be engaged in the desire to read music.  

The most recent project I have been contemplating hopes to connect the MusicTales idea with another love of mine, the violin . The idea would be to create a series of books, each telling the story of a great violinist or fiddler, each representative of a different fiddle style. Each story would be told with a tune closely associated with that player. I actually have a pretty fully realized version of the first of these highlighting Michael Doucet, the great Cajun fiddler from Louisiana, showing his connection to the Acadia, and what is called the Great Upheaval or Le Grand Dérangement, when the French speaking Acadians were the first examples of ethnic cleansing in America, and were expelled from their Nova Scotian home in 1755. Michael’s song, Recherche d’Acadie, tells their story.  

Michael has given me permission to use the song in this book, but once more, I need to find backing or get at least get In My Grandmother‘s Garden to be successful enough to finance the next book! Here is a link to my story about Michael Doucet. This story is bilingual and particularly appropriate in Canada. I have included illustrations I have found in various places that give the idea of the story, but I need to find an illustrator before publishing.  Is anyone out there interested? 

To get a more detailed view of all the projects I have in mind, your readers can check out this page on my website devoted to these ideas

Norm:

Will there be any unique ways you'll be marketing your book that is different from how others authors market their books?

Kit:

At this point, I have just begun to refocus my energies on marketing. I recently decided it is time to retire from teaching. In large part, that decision has been made so that I can devote the coming years to bringing this project to fruition. At this point in life, you realize it’s now or never! I am determined to redouble my efforts this year to establish In My Grandmother’s Garden as a respected children’s book and to show the world the untold benefits of exposing young children to written music. I view this as an investment in my own retirement, and so I have recently looked at advertising in high profile venues, such as the New York Times Books section, The first step is to get bookstores and distributors to stock the book rather than just fulfilling orders on a back-order basis. I hope you readers will begin to create this demand, and I am very grateful for this interview and hope it will help begin to get In My Grandmother‘s Garden back on track!

I also plan to use my web designing skills to get the word out this year. I have recently found that Facebook to be of great venue for targeting specific interest groups such as those I’ve identified above. I expect that will be one place you will begin to see ads for In my Grandmother’s Garden. Finally, once I have retired I intend to present this idea of MusicTales at various music education conferences and workshops around the country, and will also be available for book signings, etc.

Norm:

How can our readers find out more about you and your book?

Kit:

At MusicKit.com! This is my main website – indeed, I am proud to say it is one of the first, if not THE first, music education websites on the web, established in 1993! The book also has its own website at InMyGrandmothersGarden.com, where you can purchase the book. It is also available at Amazon.com. I am also on Facebook, and will establish a Facebook page for In My Grandmother’s Garden shortly. In fact you can actually view a simplified version of the whole book online in PDF format along with the music HERE! This cannot be downloaded or printed, but it will give folks a great preview of the book. I don’ know how long I will leave that up, so check it out now!

Norm:

Is there anything else you wish to add that we have not discussed?

Kit: I think I have gone on quite long enough! But I do want to thank you, Norm, for providing me this opportunity to discuss In My Grandmother’s Garden, and the great questions you asked. You have made me think more deeply about my own work! It has been a privilege and a pleasure.

Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors.

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