California Here We Come!
How Pam Muñoz Ryan came to write a non-fiction book on California
About four years ago, one of Pam Muñoz Ryan's publishers (Charlesbridge) published a similar "state" book on Texas. After its success, they wanted to do a California book and knew that Ryan was a proud native Californian so they asked her to write it. She agreed, enthusiastically, because the more she traveled, the more she realized that many people have peculiar misconceptions about California. They only know what they see on television! Pam Muñoz Ryan knew and loved California's vastness and its unique diversity of land and people. Writing this book was an opportunity for her to give an overview of California's splendor, and maybe get rid of a few stereotypes.
California is bigger than most people think. Did you know that fourteen eastern states could fit into the geographic area of California? And because of its size, deciding which facts to put in the book was a problem. There was just so very much history, geography, plants, animals and fun information to write about, and only 32 pages to fit it into!
Ryan's experience as a teacher helped her with this book. She was familiar with children and how a classroom worked but it was teachers who are currently in the classroom that ultimately helped her. When Ryan began California Here We Come, she knew it would fit into the fourth grade curriculum in California. So she spoke to fourth grade teachers, read the social studies books for that grade, and tried to make her book compatible but different. Pam Muñoz Ryan wanted a certain element of fun to be there with some information that students might not find in a school book.
Sometimes intriguing information becomes another book! For instance, Ryan came across a reference to Charlotte Parkhurst, who lived her life disguised as a man, became a famous California stagecoach driver, and ultimately the first woman to vote in a federal election in the United States. That information led to Ryan's first historical fiction novel called Riding Freedom (Scholastic 1998). Again, when she discovered that all the raisins in the United States are produced in the San Joaquin Valley in California, she began digging. Ryan found out that, historically, raisins were sometimes more valuable than gold! Did you know that in ancient Greece you could buy a slave boy for just two jars of raisins? This research led to another upcoming book called If You Want To Raise a Raisin (Charlesbridge).
California Here We Come is a picture-book tour through the golden state featuring the history, recreation, culture and geography of California. Available in English and Spanish. Illustrated by Kay Salem and published by Charlesbridge Publishing.
The above cover is from California Here We Come! by Pam Muñoz Ryan. Text copyright© 1997 by Pam Muñoz Ryan, illustrations copyright© 1997 by Kay Salem. Used by permission of Charlesbridge Publishing. All rights reserved.
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