Book Giveaway: Rum, Pum, Pum by David L Harrison and Jane Yolen

Two of the most beloved contemporary children’s books author-poets, David L Harrison and Jane Yolen have teamed up to write RUM PUM PUM. This book, published by Holiday House and illustrated by Anjan SarKar, is coming out on September 15th. They have agreed to send a book with one lucky winner. All you have to do to get in the running is to leave a comment. Reblog, tweet, or talk about it on Facebook with a link and you will get additional chances to win. Just let me know the other things you do to share the good news, so I can put in the right amount of tickets in my basket for you.

Sharing on Facebook, Twitter, reblogging really helps spread the word for a new book. Thanks for helping David, Jane, and Anjan!

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

“Rrrrh!” means “Let’s be friends” in tiger talk, but the other animals don’t understand him and run away! Maybe the gentle “rum-pum-pum” of the drum can help him.

Fun animal sounds in a story about friendship, communication, and music. A perfect story time read-aloud!

The lonely tiger finds a drum. He strikes it with his tail–and friends start to follow: a monkey who says “chee-chee-chee” which means “I will come too” in monkey talk, a rhino who says “ouggh” which means “I will come too” in rhino talk, a parrot that says “scree-awk,” a chameleon, an elephant, and eventually a child–who is now reunited with the drum he lost. Because of the drum, the tiger is no longer lonely and friendless.

Information about tiger conservation is included in the back.

BOOK JOURNEY:

David

Things you need to know. I have a blog. That’s your fault, Kathy Temean, because when you designed my website back in 2009, you also created a blog and told me I needed to use it, and now I’m a slave to it and have posted over 3,000 times, so one day I got to talking on my blog about this ancient promise I needed to fulfill, and that’s where Jane comes in.

Jane

David’s son when he was a boy wanted his dad to write a tiger story, and somehow he never managed it. He blogged about it, and as was my wont, I challenged him to write the story, which he began, and I wrote the next section. (Or perhaps it was vice-versa.) We went back and forth a few times online with folks watching this unfold, at which point I said–this is really a picture book let’s do this without the onlookers. And so we did it and boy! was that fun.

 

 

David

Oh yes, fun for sure! Several things grabbed me about the idea right away. Jeff had always wanted a tiger story – here was a tiger. The first book I ever wrote for kids had a drum in it – this one had a drum too. Then there was Jane. We were two kids running around in the jungle, throwing scenes over our shoulders to see what the other would do with them.  I mean really, what was there not to like, make that love, about this idea?

Jane

How did we know what was going to happen next? Long practice, magic, belief that we could do it, luck, and the help of an old-fashioned muse who wears a long flowing dress and sandals and says helpful things such as: “Don’t just sit there, write!” And “It doesn’t just write itself, you know!” And besides, it was such dang fun, we finished it quickly which meant we had the leisure to tinker with it after instead of moaning and groaning through the process, which alas, sometimes happens.

David

I’d like to add a thought to what Jane just said. Writing this way — without an outline, one partner not knowing what the other will say next — requires trust in each other. Joyce Hall, founder of Hallmark Cards, used to tell people he intuited what to do next based on the “vapors of his experiences.” I think RUM PUM PUM is a book now, no longer an idea posted on a blog, thanks to Jane’s muse and the combined vapors of our experiences.

Jane

Tiger Poem especially for this blog

Tiger’s Drum

She’s really a quite

fearsome sight.

Her growl’s a bit worse

than her bite,

If you borrow her drum

She’ll consider you YUM,

Drop it fast.

and make sure you take flight.

©2020 Jane Yolen all rights reserved

 

David

Tiger poem especially for Jeff and this blog

Okay! It took me fifty years

to write your tiger story,

and even then, I had to yelp

to Yolen for some extra help,

but here it is so, give three cheers –

your tiger, nice and roar-y.

© 2020 David L. Harrison all rights reserved

 

DAVID HARRISON’S BIO:

David L. Harrison’s 95 books for children and teachers have received dozens of honors, including Society of Midland Authors award for best children’s nonfiction book, 2016; Missouri Pioneer in Education Award; and Missouri Library Association’s Literacy Award. His work has been widely translated and anthologized more than 185 times.

His poems have been set to music and sandblasted into a library sidewalk. He has been featured at hundreds of conferences, workshops, literature festivals, schools, and colleges. David holds two science degrees and two honorary doctorates of letters. He’s Drury University’s poet laureate. David Harrison Elementary School is named for him.

David Harrison was born in Springfield, Missouri. He has lived in Ajo, Arizona (as a boy), Atlanta, Georgia (as a graduate student), Evansville, Indiana (as a pharmacologist), Kansas City, Missouri (as an editorial manager) and back in Springfield (as a business owner). Counting his first poems at age six, David has been a writer most of his life and has produced 80 published books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction that have won dozens of awards. He holds two degrees in science and two honorary doctorates of letters (MSU and Drury University). He is poet laureate for Drury and David Harrison Elementary School was named in his honor. He regularly speaks at conferences and visits schools.

JANE YOLEN’S BIO:

Born and raised in New York City, Jane Yolen now lives in Hatfield, Massachusetts. She attended Smith College and received her master’s degree in education from the University of Massachusetts. The distinguished author of more than 170 books, Jane Yolen is a person of many talents. When she is not writing, Yolen composes songs, is a professional storyteller on the stage, and is the busy wife of a university professor, the mother of three grown children, and a grandmother. Active in several organizations, Yolen has been on the Board of Directors of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, was president of the Science Fiction Writers of America from 1986 to 1988, is on the editorial board of several magazines, and was a founding member of the Western New England Storytellers Guild, the Western Massachusetts Illustrators Guild, and the Bay State Writers Guild.

For twenty years, she ran a monthly writer’s workshop for new children’s book authors. In 1980, when Yolen was awarded an honorary Doctor of Law degree by Our Lady of the Elms College in Chicopee, Massachusetts, the citation recognized that “throughout her writing career she has remained true to her primary source of inspiration–folk culture.” Folklore is the “perfect second skin,” writes Yolen. “From under its hide, we can see all the shimmering, shadowy uncertainties of the world.” Folklore, she believes, is the universal human language, a language that children instinctively feel in their hearts.

All of Yolen’s stories and poems are somehow rooted in her sense of family and self. The Emperor and the Kite, which was a Caldecott Honor Book in 1983 for its intricate papercut illustrations by Ed Young, was based on Yolen’s relationship with her late father, who was an international kite-flying champion. Owl Moon, winner of the 1988 Caldecott Medal for John Schoenherr’s exquisite watercolors, was inspired by her husband’s interest in birding. Yolen’s graceful rhythms and outrageous rhymes have been gathered in numerous collections.

She has earned many awards over the years: the Regina Medal, the Kerlan Award, the World Fantasy Award, the Society of Children’s Book Writers Award, the Mythopoetic Society’s Aslan Award, the Christopher Medal, the Boy’s Club Jr. Book Award, the Garden State Children’s Book Award, the Daedalus Award, a number of Parents’ Choice Magazine Awards, and many more. Her books and stories have been translated into Japanese, French, Spanish, Chinese, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Afrikaans, !Xhosa, Portuguese, and Braille. With a versatility that has led her to be called “America’s Hans Christian Andersen,” Yolen, the child of two writers, is a gifted and natural storyteller.

Perhaps the best explanation for her outstanding accomplishments comes from Jane Yolen herself: “I don’t care whether the story is real or fantastical. I tell the story that needs to be told.”

ANJAN SARKAR’S BIO:

Anjan Sarkar is a British illustrator from a mixed-race British/Indian background. He has been illustrating professionally since 2010 and is currently working on children’s picture books and chapter books. He loves to draw expressive characters and try to inject a bit of humour into every image. Although he thinks of himself as British, his Indian heritage has influenced some of the projects he has been commissioned to work on, including Queen of the Hanukkah Dosas (about a mixed Jewish/ Hindu family celebrating Hanukkah) and Rum Pum Pum (a story inspired by the Indian landscape, its wildlife and culture). He thinks picture books are a great way to introduce children to ideas, people and places that they wouldn’t normally come into contact with. He lives in Sheffield, Yorkshire.

David and Jane, thank you for sharing your book and journey with us. Love the tiger poems do wrote for Writing and Illustrating visitors to enjoy. Children will love the animal sounds and I love how you shared what the animals were saying with those sounds. Anjar did a great job bringing the pages of your book to life. I am sure the kids will want to hear it read over and over to them. 

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy