As a journalist, I wrote many true tales lengthy earlier than the thought of writing nonfiction for youngsters crossed my thoughts. I used to be a junior in school again in 2006 after I joined the editorial workforce at LasMayores.com, the Spanish-language web site of Main League Baseball. Since then, I’ve been translating and producing articles and writing unique baseball tales. I additionally freelance for numerous magazines and newspapers (together with a byline in Nationwide Geographic about tree rings that I like to brag about).
Given my background in journalism, you may assume that transitioning to writing kids’s image books, particularly nonfiction, can be a seamless course of. In any case, writing is writing, proper?
Effectively, sure and no.
As a journalist, I had a grasp of writing fundamentals and I used to be used to presenting details clearly and concisely. So, it’s no shock that my early drafts of image books have been slowed down with details and figures—my consolation zone. However image books name for a sort of storytelling that’s extra sensory and emotionally partaking for younger readers. Certainly one of my writing mentors, Leah Henderson, left a word on a type of early drafts that I typically recall: Transfer all of the details to the backmatter, she mentioned, and simply “inform me a narrative.”
Leah was introducing me to the idea of narrative nonfiction. It took me some time to completely embrace this strategy, which initially felt intimidating. I ultimately realized that in nonfiction image books, the story is the automobile for the knowledge. It’s not nearly what you’re telling the reader, however the way you’re telling it.
And because it seems, “inform me a narrative” is fairly good journalism recommendation too. I don’t know if being a journalist first has made me a greater kids’s writer, however being a kids’s writer has undoubtedly made me a greater journalist.
Whereas separate, my skilled work for MLB and my publishing endeavors generally overlap, particularly with regards to writing baseball biographies for youths. The title for my image guide biography of Afro-Puerto Rican baseball icon Roberto Clemente, Name Me Roberto!, which focuses on how he stood as much as bigotry and racism throughout his Corridor of Fame profession, is an efficient instance.
Initially, I titled early drafts Arriba, Roberto!, impressed by the radio name heard in Pittsburgh every time Clemente stepped as much as bat for the Pirates. However throughout a workshop critique session, a fellow author identified that essentially the most highly effective line within the guide was “Mi nombre es Roberto” (Spanish for “My title is Roberto”). Roberto’s insistence on being known as by his given title, reasonably than the anglicized “Bob” or “Bobby” that the media typically used, was one of many methods he asserted his identification and resisted makes an attempt to erase his roots and heritage. So, I adopted that as my working title.
After I first met with my editor, Carolyn Yoder, just about in April 2021, we landed on Name Me Roberto!, although I wasn’t fully bought on it on the time. I questioned if I used to be placing an excessive amount of emphasis on a single element or if specializing in respecting names would resonate. My assembly with Carolyn ended simply in time for me to placed on my journalist hat and be a part of a digital press convention with present Afro-Puerto Rican ballplayer Francisco Lindor, who had simply signed a long-term contract with the New York Mets after being traded from Cleveland.
In the course of the name, Mets radio broadcaster Howie Rose requested Lindor how he felt about being known as “Frankie,” as some members of the Cleveland media had performed. Right here’s what Lindor mentioned:
“I desire Francisco. I like my title. Frankie, it’s a bit extra Americanized for me. Frankie, it was positive. I by no means complained … however now I would like my title, I would like Francisco. My mother named me Francisco, my grandfather was Francisco, so Francisco it’s.”
Lindor didn’t point out Clemente, however he didn’t have to. Coming from an Afro-Puerto Rican participant, the echo was loud and clear, and I knew then that I’d chosen the precise title for my guide. I like to think about that second as a wink from the universe that being each a journalist and a kids’s writer is strictly who I’m meant to be.
Nathalie Alonso is a Cuban American bilingual author and journalist based mostly in New York Metropolis. A seasoned baseball reporter, her writing has appeared in Nationwide Geographic, Exterior, and Refinery29, amongst different shops. She is at the moment a reporter and producer at MLB.com’s Spanish-language sister web site, LasMayores.com.
Rudy Gutierrez is an artist and kids’s guide illustrator. He obtained the Pura Belpre Honor for Illustration for his work on Papa and Me by Arthur Dorros, a Caldecott Honor for Double Bass Blues by Andrea J. Loney, and the Américas Guide Award for Pelé, King of Soccer by Monica Brown, amongst many different honors. Rudy teaches illustration on the Pratt Institute Faculty of Design in New York Metropolis.
