Here at FoBaM, we’re big fans of reading with our kids AND OF Martha Speaks on PBS KIDS; so we’re extra excited to bring you this exclusive interview with Susan Meddaugh – the author/illustrator creator of the marvelously articulate and big-hearted dog, Martha. Susan shares her thoughts on encouraging creativity, fostering a love of reading, combining motherhood with other passions, thinking like a kid, and more. We hope you enjoy the interview as much as we enjoyed putting it together for you. To learn more about Martha, SUSAN and the Martha Speaks series, visit the PBS KIDS Web site.

1. What are the benefits of encouraging your child’s creativity and sharing the experience of reading with them?

I thought reading to my child was for my benefit! It was my loss when that lovely activity stopped. When I was reading to him, we were both enjoying the story, laughing together, or just eager to turn the page. I believe that made it even more fun, and I hoped that it would encourage him to become a reader. He could see that I was having a good time, and I was. Of course it was an education for me as a children’s book author to see what he liked, and also where our reactions to a book were quite different. He was and is a very creative character.

2. As an author and a mom, do you have anecdotes about reading to (and with) children to share with our audience?

One memorable experience really sticks in my mind. When my child Niko was in 2nd grade, I came to class with him for a sort of show and tell project. I believe the subject was “Where did I come from?” and I was drawing extremely silly pictures of my family. With all these silly looking relatives, I told the class, we had no idea what Niko would look like. I started doing drawings of Niko along the lines of: “If he had been a mouse, his name would be Squeeko. If he had been a bird, his name would have been Beako. If he had been a monster, his name would have been Shrieko or Eeko. But since he was a boy, his name was Niko. At which point Niko asked if he could do the drawing, and that was really his breakout moment. He started to draw, in class and at home. His drawings were wonderful, complicated and full of story.

3. What role do you think humor plays in children’s literature and how does it encourage kids to read?

I think a humorous story is one way among many to connect with a child. It happens to just be my way of seeing the world. I’m lucky because I do think that a lot of kids enjoy a funny story. So I hope that when a child likes my story, she or he may pick up another book, and then another one, and then continue to do that on and on until he or she is at least 100.

4. In an interview with The Bark magazine, you described Martha as, “confident, honest, loving, talking and acting before thinking, sometimes wrong but seldom in doubt.” How do you think Martha’s personality can help children discover how to be comfortable just being themselves?

Some children will always be pretty comfortable being themselves. Others, myself included, find it harder. Saying the wrong thing, doing something foolish, feeling stupid, wishing one could be someone else, thinking that everyone else knows better what to say or do in a given situation. And then there’s Martha. She jumps into every situation paws first. She has so much to learn, not just new words, and she learns by experience. She’s lucky in that she’s always confident even when she makes a blunder. I hope that kids who think Martha is a wonderful character can make the connection between all the things that make her such a likable doggie. How many of those things have to do with mistakes, doing things all wrong, being foolish? I personally find some flaws, doubts and clumsiness very appealing and far more interesting in a person, and a dog. A perfect person can be perfectly boring.

5. You’ve said that part of what you enjoy about writing the Martha series is the chance to think like a kid. How would you define “thinking like a kid?”

It’s not precisely “thinking like a kid.” It’s thinking less like an adult, being able to leave (temporarily) some of things I’ve learned along the way. I have the advantage of being a non-linear thinker, which makes it easier to float from one thought to another in what I like to think is more creative than logical, but what many of my friends think is just hard to follow. Ideas for stories are everywhere. Doing something with an idea is when the less adult thinking comes in handy for me. What it boils down to is letting the story find me, rather than forcing it to happen. It’s trusting inspirations, being intuitive, and enjoying the surprise if the story takes on a life of its own. For instance I have sometimes thought a story was going to be about one thing, only to find that it becomes something else entirely in the process of doing it. My book HOG-EYE was going to be a reassuring story about getting on the school bus for the first time. Nervous mother, me, had the idea watching my shy child get on the school bus. Surprise! HOG-EYE became a story about a pig that outsmarts a wolf after she gets off a school bus at the wrong stop. In this case the initial thought was: “The school bus is scary. I don’t like the school bus.” But once my character took on life, it became just “I don’t like the school bus!” That smart little piggy found me and forced me to tell the story her way. Of course I bring back the adult part when needed. As an adult I know the story must fit a 32 page format, that I will decide how best to tell it, what combination of art and text page by page, that I will use my learned skills with pen and ink and water color to make the illustrations. And speaking as an adult, I hope you can follow this.

6. In an interview with Wheaton College’s Wheaton Quarterly, you said this of your mother, “She’d read and she’d watch movies – she didn’t care a fig about housework.” What advice do you have for moms when it comes to enjoying their own passions and following their own dreams?

All I can say is that it’s hard. I had already published 4 books when I got married, so I was able to work at home while my child was growing up. When he was young, I mostly illustrated other people’s books. I don’t know if I could have done this with more than one child. I think every mother has to approach this differently. But I think it’s necessary to continue to do something you love however you decide to do it. And sometimes having less time turns out to be a good thing.

7. My daughter loves your books and the PBS series and is fascinated by the way Martha can understand and speak to all kinds of animals, not just humans and dogs. Has Martha ever thought of becoming a diplomat?

I think you’ll find the answer to this question in the new Martha episode to be shown on September 15, Presidents Day: “Martha Goes to the White House.” I won’t give it away, but you know Martha loves her family.

8. You have a houseful of adopted dogs and, with Martha, support the work of various animal advocacy groups. You recently published a new Martha book called Shelter Dog Blues. Which came first, Martha or your desire to help dogs in need?

I believe our gradual understanding of just how many animals need homes began with Martha. She pushed that awareness along because although she was a dog of many parts, one of those parts was pitbull. When we adopted her, pitbulls had and still have, a very bad reputation, generally not earned. Pitbulls were once the first choice for a family dog. Check out some of the early 1900s portraits of children with dogs. We have three dogs now, all so different. I can’t imagine getting a dog anywhere else but at a shelter or as a stray. And it may run in the family. A cousin in Little Rock has taken in various stray dogs in various numbers. My sister-in-law in Houston has taken countless strays off the busy streets. She always has a few old dogs that needed medical care and are therefore not likely to be adopted by anyone else. She currently has 5 dogs and several cats.

9. What other children’s authors and illustrators are you inspired by? What adult authors do you enjoy reading?

I guess I tilt toward authors with a sense of humor. William Steig, James Marshall, Bill Peet, Dav Pilkey, Bernie Waber, or any book that invites me into its world the way the art in the early Babar books did. And so many more that I can’t think of as I sit here. As for adult books, I like fiction and also find detective stories just the right balance with children’s books on the other side of the seesaw. I’ll read anything by Richard Russo, Sue Grafton, Amy Tan, Carl Hiaasen, Robert B. Parker, Laurie R. King. There are too many other authors or individual books to name, (or remember at the moment), but I refuse to read any book where the dog dies in the end. Too many well-loved real dogs have made that trip.