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WORK TITLE: Shark in the Park
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PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.ellenpotter.com/
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COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: SATA 395
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born 1963, in New York, NY; married; children: one son.
EDUCATION:Binghamton University, B.A.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Worked variously as a dog groomer, art teacher, receptionist, construction worker, and waitress. Presenter at schools.
AWARDS:Parenting magazine Best Book of the Year designation, and Child magazine Best Book Award, both for Olivia Kidney.
WRITINGS
Contributor to periodicals, including Hudson Review, Epoch, Cimarron Review, and Seventeen.
SIDELIGHTS
Ellen Potter was inspired to write her first middle-grade novel by recalling her own childhood growing up in a Manhattan brownstone. Introducing an imaginative twelve-year-old whose talent for channeling spirits involves her in some unusual adventures, Olivia Kidney was praised by reviewers for its multi-leveled plot and what a Publishers Weekly critic described as a “delicate balance between fantasy and stark reality.” In addition to continuing Olivia’s adventures in several more novels, Potter has also written several stand-alone novels for preteen readers, as well as an adult novel, The Average Human, and a guide for young writers that she coauthored with fellow author Anne Mazer.
(open new1)In an interview in the Children’s Book Review, Potter discussed her motivation to write books for children. She stated: “I really don’t enter any of my books with an agenda or even a theme. It’s really simple. I really write to delight kids. That’s it. And of course, as you’re writing, and sometimes only at the end of the book, do you realize there are intrinsically these themes that have emerged. And that’s great.”(close new1)
Featuring illustrations by Peter H. Reynolds, Olivia Kidney focuses on a twelve-year-old girl who wanders around her New York apartment building after being locked out of her own flat, and meeting up with an odd and even unnerving assortment of neighbors; on another level, the novel reflects the process by which Olivia comes to terms with the fact that she can communicate with her dead brother, Christopher. In Horn Book, Susan Dove Lempke praised Olivia Kidney as “compelling and unsettling,” while in Booklist, Ilene Cooper remarked on Potter’s “delightful way with words” despite the fact that the novel’s subtleties “may be difficult for some children to handle.”
Olivia returns in several other adventures. In Olivia Kidney and the Exit Academy the twelve-year-old and her handyman father George move to a new apartment in a Manhattan brownstone that has an unusual amenity: its underwater first floor has been transformed into a lagoon complete with wildlife. As Olivia discovers, the building’s owner is insane, and when he is linked to a mysterious novel and her father’s poisoning, she decides to ask for help from the “other side” via Christopher’s spirit. Reviewing Olivia Kidney and the Exit Academy in Horn Book, Deirdre F. Baker dubbed Potter’s story “enjoyable offbeat,” while Cindy Dobrez concluded in Booklist that “sparkling writing, madcap characters, and serious themes” make the novel “a read-aloud that adults will enjoy as much as the children.” Noting Potter’s “zany, surreal, and ultimately satisfying” storyline, School Library Journal critic Caroline Ward added that the story “believably fuses realism and fantasy” while weaving Olivia’s various adventures into “a complex and inventive climax.”
Readers share Olivia’s jitters at starting seventh grade in a new school and her excitement at her mother’s return in Olivia Kidney and the Secret beneath the City. Now a student at a school for creative kids, the girl worries that she may not be able to make the grade; however, the adventures and unusual characters she discovers while exploring the city’s abandoned subway tunnels keep her occupied and inspired. Balancing Potter’s “zany and over-the-top” cast of characters, the likeable young heroine “has enough realistic concerns … to give a solid base to all the wacky events,” according to School Library Journal critic Eva Mitnick. Although Olivia Kidney and the Secret beneath the City “tilts from the surreal to the silly,” in the opinion Ilene Cooper in Booklist, “it’s all done with panache” in a story that Olivia’s fans will relish.
In Pish Posh readers meet a middle-grade fashionista who draws them into a story that merges urban affluence with fantasy. Clara Frankofile has well-honed style standards for an eleven year old, and her high standards hold sway in her father’s Manhattan restaurant, Pish Posh. When Clara determines that something is not right with the restaurant’s soup chef, she and friend Annabelle turn sleuth, and the results will surprise even the most avid mystery fan. “Readers will enjoy watching Clara’s character deepen as she transforms from a mini-adult back into a kid unafraid to get cotton candy on her stylish black dress,” concluded Christine M. Heppermann in her Horn Book review of Pish Posh, and a Publishers Weekly critic dubbed Potter’s middle-grade caper “fetchingly outlandish” and described Clara as a “strong-willed and sharp-tongued” preteen who “adds an extra jolt of energy and humor to the story.”
Also set in Potter’s characteristic New York City milieu, Slob introduces Owen, an overweight twelve-year-old whose love-affair with high-calorie food began after his parents were murdered during a robbery in their family business. Now Owen is teased by his classmates, and the teasing soon leads to theft when Oreos begin to go missing from his lunch. Fortunately, Owen’s extreme weight is matched by his extreme intelligence, and his knack for invention allows him to mastermind a solution to the crime of cookie-napping and also create Nemesis, a time-travel television that he hopes will help resolve the mystery of his parents’ death. In School Library Journal, Elaine E. Knight praised Slob as “a sensitive, touching, and sometimes heartbreakingly funny picture of middle school life,” while a Kirkus Reviews writer praised the story’s “intriguingly offbeat mystery.”
In the middle-school novel The Humming Room, inspired by the novel The Secret Garden, Potter tells the story of twelve-year-old Roo, who sees her parents get murdered while she hides under their trailer. Roo is not lovable. A thief and scrapper who does not hesitate to bite, Roo ends up foster care and soon faces children mocking her. When an unknown uncle appears and adopts her, Roo finds herself living on her wealthy’s uncle island under the care of Ms. Valentine. The home is a former sanatorium for children, and Roo hears a humming sound coming from somewhere. She also discovers a hidden box and spies a strange homeless boy. “Readers who might be intimidated by the original will find Potter’s telling more accessible,” wrote Brenda Kahn in School Library Journal. Booklist contributor Shelle Rosenfeld remarked: “Roo is a memorable character—her experiences prove transformative in unexpected ways, and ultimately her complexities and growth ring true.”
A similarly creepy book for middle-grade readers, Hither & Nigh tells the story of Nell Batista. A seventh-grader, Nell has been cutting class since her brother, River, went missing in Manhattan’s Washington Square Park three years earlier. As punishment for her truancy, Nell is forced to join an after-school club, which turns out to be a course in magic. Other kids in the club include a large boy called Crud, a friend of River’s named Annika, and Nell’s crush, the Twizzler-loving Tom. The club is led by Mr. Boot, who tells them they are working toward becoming actual angels. As her magic skills improve, Nell begins entering a mystical world called Nigh (as opposed to the normal world, called Hither). In Nigh, she catches a glimpse of River. Nell begins finding clues about his disappearance and wonders if Mr. Boot was somehow involved. A writer in Publishers Weekly remarked: “Potter … satisfyingly blends contemporary snark with physical adventures heightened by spell-casting misfires, anxious close calls, and just-scary-enough monsters.” “The book tries to do a lot and largely succeeds,” asserted a Kirkus Reviews critic. The same critic called the volume “a thrilling page-turner.” John Peters, reviewing the novel in Booklist, commented: “The scary bits are leavened by sly humor and terrific flights of fancy.”
The picture book Otis Dooda: Strange but True, illustrated by David Heatley, introduces readers to Otis Dooda, who must deal with people making fun of his name with toilet humor such as Otis PoopyStinks. Otis comes to terms with the fact that his name will likely always elicit at the very least snickers. However, when he and his family move to New York city from the country, Otis is embarrassed and irritated by his brother Gunther’s love of rats, his mother’s vegetarian soy wieners, and his dad shouting out “rice and beans!” every time he gets upset. Then Otis encounters a boy hiding in a potted plant, one of the many eccentric characters in the apartment building. Potted-Plant boy puts a curse on Otis, predicting he will break every bone in his body by the time the full moon arrives. “Humor, hot air, and crudely rendered drawings should ensure this sagas popularity,” wrote Karen Cruze in Booklist. Otis returns in Otis Dooda: Downright Dangerous. Entering the third grade as the new kid in school, Dooda finds that the only kid who will sit next to him is the aggravating Boris. Potted-Plant boy makes a return to place another curse on Otis, who is determined to win a LEGO building contest. “With black-and-white line drawings, large font, and gross bathroom humor, reluctant readers will gravitate toward Otis,” wrote Annette Herbert in School Library Journal.
Potter is also the author of book series featuring Piper Green. Illustrated by Qin Leng, the series opener, Piper Green and the Fairy Tree finds Piper living on a Maine island and in the second grade. Missing her older brother, who is on the mainland, Piper is in more turmoil at the thought of her strict teacher. A Publishers Weekly contributor praised Potter’s “skillfully blending humor, pathos, and warmth with an atmospheric setting.” In The Sea Pony, Piper Green returns and still conjures up things in her mind via the Fairy Tree in her front yard. However, what Piper gets is not always what she really should have. Piper discovers a bosun’s whistle while hoping to get a pony. The whistle proves to serve a purpose when Piper goes off on her father’s fishing boat and discovers the whistle attracts seals, making Piper wonder if she could train one to be a sea pony. A Kirkus Reviews contributor wrote: “Cheerful line drawings add appeal. Completely satisfying. We wish for more.” Another novel in the series is titled Pie Girl.
Big Foot and Little Foot, the first book in another series by Potter, revolves around the young Sasquatch, or “squidgy,” Hugo, who resides in a Sasquatch community in the North Woods Central Cave District. Living with his parents and older sister in an apartment building, Hugo is distressed that his kind are not allowed to encounter humans, thus preventing him from adventures in the wider world. Nevertheless, Hugo meets a human named Boone, a young cryptozoologist. The two become friends and search for the mysterious Ogopogo. “Established chapter book author Potter delivers another winner with this series opener, wrote Molly Hone in School Library Journal. A Kirkus Reviews contributor noted: “The details she uses to flesh out the Sasquatch world are delightfully playful.”
In The Monster Detector, Hugo is now a student at the Academy for Curious Squidges, and Boone soon joins him there. During the days at school, they daydream about becoming cryptozoologists and hunt for mythical beasts. Boone brings a set of monster cards to school, and the Sasquatches are offended when the card depicting their race has a negative description of them. The Sasquatches turn on Boone, and he runs away. Hugo leaves to find Boone. When the two are reunited, they work together to overcome the dangerous beast, the Green Whistler, proving that humans and Sasquatches are great partners. Reviewing the book in School Library Journal, Davia Schmidt commented: “Potter has once again penned a winner.” Schmidt added: “Her characters are believable and enchanting.” A Kirkus Reviews critic described the volume as “a lovely story of using empathy to work through culture clashes.” The Gremlin’s Shoes finds Hugo and Boone taking on odd jobs to earn money to buy Mad Marvin’s Marvelous Monster Magnet. On one of their deliveries for work, a gremlin steals their package, and Boone trades his shoes to recover it. Meanwhile, they agree to help a Sasquatch search for treasure in the woods. A contributor to Kirkus Reviews described the book as “slightly message-heavy but delightful and accessible nevertheless.”
In addition to fiction, Potter also joined fellow author Anne Mazer to write Spilling Ink: A Young Writer’s Handbook. The book was inspired by the many questions and letters from young students asking for writing advice, the book weaves encouraging stories by both authors with practical advice about character development, planning a storyline, dealing with writer’s block, and developing one’s unique “voice.” Spilling Ink also entertains readers with inspirational drawing by illustrator Matt Phelan.
(open new2)The Girl in the Tree is the first book in the “Squirlish” series. Eight-year-old Cordelia lives in a treehouse in am elm tree in New York Central Park. Shakespeare the squirrel found her as a baby and raised her. She moves around the trees easily and speaks Chittering. Cordelia is usually hesitant around people. However, when a gymnastics coach sees her jumping, she tries to convince Cordelia to train with her. Cordelia gains a new perspective on human life and makes a close human friend in Isaac. A Kirkus Reviews contributor opined that the fantastical “elements of her world are imaginative and charming, if a bit implausible.” The same critic suggested that readers “suspend all disbelief and enjoy being a part of this world.”
In The Golden Imaginarium, Nell Batista is a middle school-aged angel-in-training. She travels to the magical world of Nigh to try and rescue her younger brother, who has been kidnapped. Her friends, Crud and Annika, join her to gain help from Tom the Imp. They fight monsters and get into misadventures along the way. A Kirkus Reviews contributor mentioned that “a bountiful creature cast and some learning-curve spellcasting will keep readers amused.” The reviewer described it as being “a rough patchwork of lightweight chills and thrills.”
Shark in the Park continues the “Squirlish” series. Squirrel Queen Isabel summons Cordelia to Belvedere Castle, where she instructs her to guard Prince Oliver as he journeys to find the long-lost Royal Scepter. Careless Oliver is not really interested in the quest, though, as his attention is always on sharks. A contributor to Kirkus Reviews lauded that “the characters are quirky, and readers will cheer for Cordelia.” The Kirkus Reviews critic found it to be “fantastical, funny, and charming.”(close new2)
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, May 1, 2003, Hazel Rochman, review of The Average Human, p. 1555; June 1, 2003, Ilene Cooper, review of Olivia Kidney, p. 1778; October 1, 2003, Patricia Austin, review of Olivia Kidney, p. 341; March 15, 2005, Cindy Dobrez, review of Olivia Kidney and the Exit Academy, p. 1295; February 1, 2006, Kay Weisman, review of Pish Posh, p. 51; May 1, 2007, Ilene Cooper, review of Olivia Kidney and the Secret beneath the City, p. 92; June 1, 2009, Carolyn Phelan, review of Slob, p. 57; February 1, 2012, Shelle Rosenfeld, review of The Humming Room, p. 77; June 1, 2013, Karen Cruze, review of Otis Dooda: Strange but True, p. 100; March 1, 2018, Julia Smith, review of Big Foot and Little Foot, p. 59; September 15, 2022, John Peters, review of Hither & Nigh, p. 52.
Horn Book, September 1, 2003, Susan Dove Lempke, review of Olivia Kidney, p. 617; March 1, 2005, Deirdre F. Baker, review of Olivia Kidney and the Exit Academy, p. 207; May 1, 2006, Christine M. Heppermann, review of Pish Posh, p. 325; July 1, 2015, Martha V. Parravano, review of Piper Green and the Fairy Tree, p. 142.
Kirkus Reviews, April 15, 2003, review of The Average Human, p. 567; June 1, 2003, review of Olivia Kidney, p. 809; March 15, 2005, review of Olivia Kidney and the Exit Academy; April 1, 2006, review of Pish Posh, p. 355; April 15, 2009, review of Slob; December 15, 2011, review of The Humming Room; June 15, 2015, review of Piper Green and the Fairy Tree; June 1, 2016, review of The Sea Pony; January 15, 2018, review of Big Foot and Little Foot; June 15, 2018, review of The Monster Detector; March 15, 2021, review of The Gremlin’s Shoes; August 1, 2022, review of Hither & High; May 1, 2023, review of The Girl in the Tree; September 1, 2023, review of The Golden Imaginarium; May 15, 2024, review of Shark in the Park.
Publishers Weekly, April 28, 2003, review of The Average Human, p. 47; June 23, 2003, review of Olivia Kidney, p. 67; March 27, 2006, review of Pish Posh, p. 80; January 2, 2012, review of The Humming Room, p. 83; December 2, 2015, review of Piper Green and the Fairy Tree, p. 64; August 1, 2022, review of Hither & Nigh, p. 68.
Resource Links, October 1, 2016, Alice Albarda, review of Piper Green and the Fairy, p. 19; October 1, 2016, Alice Albarda, review of The Sea Pony, p. 19.
School Library Journal, November 1, 2003, B. Allison Gray, review of Olivia Kidney, p. 72; May 1, 2005, Caroline Ward, review of Olivia Kidney and the Exit Academy, p. 138; April 1, 2006, Debbie Lewis O’Donnell, review of Pish Posh, p. 147; June 1, 2007, Eva Mitnick, review of Olivia Kidney and the Secret beneath the City, p. 158; July 1, 2009, Elaine E. Knight, review of Slob, p. 90; May 1, 2012, Brenda Kahn, review of The Humming Room, p. 116; September 1, 2013, Jamie Kallio, review of Strange but True, p. 129; June 1, 2014, Annette Herbert review of Otis Dooda, p. 88; July 1, 2015, Sada Mozer, review of Piper Green and the Fairy, p.72; January 1, 2018, Molly Hone, review of Big Foot and Little Foot, p. 66; July 1, 2018, Davia Schmidt, review of The Monster Detector, p. 59.
ONLINE
Children’s Book Review, https://www.thechildrensbookreview.com/ (January 3, 2025), Bianca Schulze, author interview.
Ellen Potter website, https://www.ellenpotter.com (January 3, 2025).
Imagination Soup, https://imaginationsoup.net/ (September 5, 2023), Melissa Taylor, author interview.
Island Readers and Writers, http://islandreadersandwriters.org/blog/ (May 7, 2018), Taylor Mace, “Ellen Potter at Pembroke, Jonesport and Beals.”
A Little Bit About Bestselling Author Ellen Potter
Ellen Potter with her dogs
I remember the exact moment when I knew, without a doubt, that I wanted to be a writer. I was eleven years old and I was in my school library. The school librarian always recommended books to me, and that day she suggested Harriet the Spy. I picked it up and began to read the first chapter. In a flash, I decided that the best books in the world were written for eleven-year-olds! Sadly, my twelfth birthday was just around the corner. So I reasoned that the only thing to do was to grow up and write books for kids, which is pretty much what happened (after many years and piles of rejection letters).
Since then, I’ve written more than 20 award-winning novels for children and young adults, including Hither & Nigh, Olivia Kidney, Slob, Big Foot and Little Foot, Piper Green and The Fairy Tree, The Humming Room, Pish Posh, and The Kneebone Boy. Several of my books have been chosen by New York Public Library as a Best 100 Books for Children, and have appeared on numerous State Reading Lists. My non-fiction writing book, Spilling Ink, A Young Writer’s Handbook, co-authored with Anne Mazer, was also chosen by New York Public Library as a Best 100 Books for Children.
These days I live near Syracuse, NY, with my family.
Ellen Potter
USA flag
Ellen Potter lives with her husband and young son in upstate New York. OLIVIA KIDNEY was her first children's novel, but Ellen has been writing for children and adults for over a decade and has been published in a number of American journals.
Genres: Children's Fiction, Young Adult Fantasy
New and upcoming books
July 2024
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Shark in the Park
(Squirlish, book 2)March 2025
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Central Park Ghost
(Squirlish, book 3)
Series
Olivia Kidney
1. Olivia Kidney (2003)
2. Olivia Kidney Stops for No-One (2005)
aka Olivia Kidney and the Exit Academy
Olivia Kidney Hot On the Trail (2006)
3. Olivia Kidney and the Secret Beneath the City (2007)
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Otis Dooda
1. Strange But True (2013)
2. Downright Dangerous (2014)
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Piper Green and the Fairy Tree
1. Piper Green and the Fairy Tree (2015)
2. Too Much Good Luck (2015)
3. The Sea Pony (2016)
4. Going Places (2017)
5. Pie Girl (2017)
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Big Foot and Little Foot
1. Big Foot & Little Foot (2018)
2. The Monster Detector (2018)
3. The Squatchicorns (2019)
4. The Bog Beast (2020)
5. The Gremlin's Shoes (2021)
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Hither & Nigh
1. Hither & Nigh (2022)
2. The Golden Imaginarium (2023)
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Squirlish
1. The Girl in the Tree (2023)
2. Shark in the Park (2024)
3. Central Park Ghost (2025)
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Novels
Pish Posh (2006)
Slob (2009)
The Kneebone Boy (2010)
The Humming Room (2012)
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Non fiction hide
Spilling Ink (2010) (with Anne Mazer)
Author Interview with Ellen Potter: What If’s, Books, & Writing Tips
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By Melissa Taylor
Posted on
September 5, 2023
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I met author Ellen Potter years ago when her book Spilling Ink came out. We’ve been friends ever since. Her writing always entertains and impresses me — it’s accessible for kids, interesting, and extremely creative. Simply put, she’s not just a friend but also one of my favorite authors of middle grade and chapter books.
To celebrate the upcoming release of the second book in the Hither and Nigh series, I’m interviewing Ellen so you can get to know her, too.
Buy her books (view them all here,) read her books, and share her books with the children in your life!
Newsletter subscribers, you will have the opportunity to win a copy of Ellen’s recent chapter book, Squirlish! If you’re not already a subscriber, subscribe here.
Interview with Author Ellen Potter
Author Interview with Ellen Potter: What If’s and Writing Tips
Melissa: I adore your most recent chapter book, Squirlish. Can you tell us more about the series and how you thought of the idea?
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Ellen: Thanks, Melissa! Squirlish is essentially an urban spin on The Jungle Book. A squirrel in New York City’s Central Park finds a human baby under a bush and he raises the little girl as his own. She becomes Cordelia, The Squirrel-Girl of Central Park. While the story follows Cordelia’s madcap adventures in the park, it also looks at her struggle to find her place in the world. The series explores the themes of chosen families, self-identity, and the courage to extend oneself in order to make friends.
Ellen Potter quote
Most of my story ideas are ignited by dreamy “what if” questions. In the case of Squirlish, that “what if” question came from a real-life incident. My friend found an orphaned baby squirrel in her backyard. It was so tiny and delicate that, for a while, she carried it around in her bra to keep it warm. I remember sitting in her kitchen, chatting with her over coffee, as this little baby squirrel peered out over the top of her shirt. My friend successfully raised the squirrel until it was old enough to be released. Every so often it would appear outside her kitchen window to say hi.
What if, I asked myself, it was the other way around? What if a squirrel found a human baby and raised it as its own? Would the child live in a squirrel’s nest in a tree? Would she be able to “talk” to squirrels? Would she be able to make human friends? The more I considered this scenario, the more fun and interesting it seemed. Central Park seemed like the perfect setting, too, with its different “neighborhoods.” Squirrels are territorial, so it made sense that the squirrels from each neighborhood would have reflected qualities. In Squirlish, the seafaring squirrels live near the Boat Pond, the artsy squirrels live near the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the literary squirrels live near Shakespeare’s Garden. And, of course, the Squirrel Queen lives in Central Park’s famous Belvedere Castle.
Book 2 in the series, Squirlish: Shark in the Park, will be coming out next summer.
Melissa: Who will love Squirlish — what ages and interests?
Ellen: The book is for readers ages 6 to 9. It’s a series for kids who enjoy adventure, humor, and maybe a talking rat or two.
Melissa: You have a middle grade book, HITHER AND NIGH, which is one of my favorite fantasy books and made my Best Middle Grade Books of 2022 list. Can you tell readers more about the story?
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Ellen: Hither & Nigh has sometimes been described as The Breakfast Club meets Harry Potter. The book follows the adventures of four kids who, in lieu of suspension, join a mysterious afterschool club where they are taught magic. These kids aren’t perfect—they each have troublesome pasts—but together they bring out the best in each other. While they practice their magic, they stumble into a parallel New York City, magical and sinister, where they are plunged into a quest to find a missing boy.
Hither & Nigh’s sequel, The Golden Imaginarium, is coming out on October 10.
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Melissa: Will you also share how you thought up such a cool world? (The unique world is one of the reasons I love it so much!)
Ellen: The world of the Nigh was inspired by the origin story of the Icelandic Hidden People, or elves. According to the folktale, the Great Spirit came down to visit Eve while she was in the middle of bathing her children. She’d only gotten around to cleaning half of her children, while the other half were still filthy—which begs the question, where the heck was Adam in all of this scrubbing? In any case, Eve hid the dirty kids, which was a big mistake. The Great Spirit did not appreciate being conned and declared that the dirty kids would always and forever be hidden from sight. That’s why we can’t see elves, the legend asserts, yet they are all around us.
The idea of this invisible community of people who are similar to us but also profoundly different, prompted a barrage of what if’s in my mind. What if there is an invisible New York City that exists side by side with the city we know? What if it is full of beauty and magic, but the magic has been twisted and abused. What if a child from our New York City is trapped there? These what if’s become a sort of itinerary for me when I launch into writing a new book.
Melissa: You also have many other children’s books. Talk about prolific! Can you tell us more about your book for growing writers?
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Ellen: I co-wrote Spilling Ink; A Young Writer’s Handbook with the wonderful Anne Mazer. We had both been receiving so many emails from kids who had excellent questions about the writing process: What do I do when I’m stuck? How do I make my characters come alive? How do I know what point of view to use? Anne and I decided to create the sort of writing handbook that we’d wished we’d had as kids. Spilling Ink has been very popular throughout the years, and we’re thrilled that it has become a staple in many classrooms. We’ve even heard from a few community colleges who use it in their first-year writing curriculum.
Melissa: Do you have a favorite tip you like to share with young writers?
Ellen: If the writing fairies offered me a single writing gift, I would choose the gift of persistence. I’ve known many stunningly gifted writers who never finish a single story. And I get it! Writing often brings out all our demons—“Am I smart enough to be a writer?” “Will anyone want to read this story?” Those self-doubts can paralyze a writer. In the end, though, you just need to stay the course, even when it’s uncomfortable. It helps to keep your focus squarely on your characters and their dilemmas. Plus, always remember that first drafts are generally lousy. Most of the best work happens in revision.
Thanks, Melissa! I’ve been a fan of Imagination Soup for years, so it’s an honor to be interviewed by you!
About Ellen Potter
Ellen Potter is the author of more than twenty award-winning novels for children and young adults, including Squirlish, the Hither & Nigh series, Olivia Kidney, Slob, the Big Foot and Little Foot series, The Piper Green and The Fairy Tree series, The Humming Room, The Kneebone Boy, and Spilling Ink, A Young Writer’s Handbook. Several of her books have been chosen by the New York Public Library for their Best 100 Book for Children list and have appeared on numerous state reading lists. Ellen lives with her family in upstate New York. For more information about Ellen and her books, visit https://www.ellenpotter.com.
Ellen Potter Talks About Squirlish: The Girl in the Tree
Bianca SchulzeBy Bianca Schulze36 Mins Read
Ages 4-8
Ages 9-12
Author Interviews
Books with Girl Characters
Chapter Books
Ellen Potter (pictured with her two dogs) Talks About Squirlish
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A podcast interview with Ellen Potter on The Growing Readers Podcast, a production of The Children’s Book Review.
Award-winning author Ellen Potter chats about her wonderful chapter book, Squirlish: The Girl in the Tree.
Get ready to laugh out loud as the story unfolds on how a girl raised by squirrels in Central Park attempts to make new human friends. Inspired by a friend raising a baby squirrel and her own life experiences, Ellen hopes readers will appreciate the value of finding one’s own strengths no matter the community they find themselves in.
Ellen Potter talks about:
How she writes to delight kids and wants to transport them to another world through her stories.
Writing for kids is more fun for her than writing for adults.
Doing school visits to ignite a love of writing in children.
How writing is challenging, but she has developed strategies to get past those rough spots and move through the writing process.
The importance of revision and how her best writing has always come out in revision.
Methods for overcoming writer’s block.
The inspiration behind Squirlish—how it came from a friend raising a baby squirrel.
How her own life experiences influenced the story.
Themes of fitting in and finding one’s strengths in the first book and how they continue in the second book, which also touches on New York City history.
So sit back, relax, and enjoy this fun-filled episode.
Listen to the Interview
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Read the Interview
Transcription:
Bianca Schulze
Hello, Ellen. Welcome to The Growing Readers Podcast. Or today, I feel like I should say, good day, and may you never have fleas.
Ellen Potter
Good day, and may you never have fleas.
Bianca Schulze
Well, there’s a reason we had that introduction, and I think our listeners may need to read the book to find out why we had that introduction. But you’re here to talk about your chapter book, and I know I’m going to mess up the title, so you’re going to have to correct me. Squirlish: The Girl in the Tree, which is the first of what will be the Squirrely series. So, did I say the title correctly today?
Ellen Potter
Perfectly, yeah.
Bianca Schulze
Awesome. Well, it’s not the first chapter book you’ve ever written, and it’s only one of your 26 books. Is that number correct?
Ellen Potter
That’s correct. I have to recount, but I think it’s at least 26.
Bianca Schulze
That’s amazing. So, we have to ask the question, what drives you and guides you in creating books for children, and how has that changed since your very first book?
Ellen Potter
Well, I want to start by saying, first of all, I love this podcast. This is what I listen to in my car. I love it, and it’s a real, real treat to be talking to you.
Bianca Schulze
I have to interrupt and just say you’ve absolutely made my day by saying that.
Ellen Potter
So, thank you. The truth. What drives me to write for kids? Well, I don’t have a fancy answer. I really don’t enter any of my books with an agenda or even a theme. It’s really simple. I really write to delight kids. That’s it. And of course, as you’re writing, and sometimes only at the end of the book, do you realize there are intrinsically these themes that have emerged. And that’s great.
I’m driven by—okay, so I have this image in my head whenever I start a book, and this image comes from the fact that I grew up in New York City and took the subway to school. So, I always picture a kid sitting on a subway, but it could just as well be the school bus or a car. And their nose is in a book. And they’re so engrossed in that book that all the chaos all around them just disappears, melts away, because they’re in another world, like physically in another world in the world of the book. That is always my goal when I write. I want to transport my readers because I love that in a book. That’s what I’m always going for.
I started out actually writing for adults, and my first book for adults was published, I think, three days before my first book for kids. And I just really found that it was much more fun to tell stories to kids, and so I went in that direction. It’s a joy. And plus, one of the big perks of writing for kids is actually being able to go into classrooms now. We do a lot of virtual visits and talking to kids about writing and getting them excited about writing. The kids are already there. At a certain age, they understand story better than a lot of adults, so it’s just really fun to ignite that in them a little bit more.
Bianca Schulze
That’s amazing. What’s one of your favorite things about doing the school visits?
Ellen Potter
Oh, what I really love, and this happens often, and it always makes me so happy, is when after the visit, I get a note from a teacher, an email saying, this child or that child has no interest in writing. And after you left, a lot of times I do like a little workshop before we end. That child just wanted to keep writing. They just didn’t want to stop. So that I love. I love it when you take a kid who may be a little fearful of writing or not really get the playfulness of writing, and you show it to them, and then they’re in, and then they love it.
Bianca Schulze
I wish that there was even more funding for schools. So many schools even struggle to have a librarian, and I wish that there was more funding for author visits because I’ve done them myself. And it is amazing to see those kids come to life and just get so excited just about reading, about writing, and the way I’m sure you’ve had this, where they come up to you and start telling you ideas for their stories or ideas for your next story, and it lights a fire in them. So, I love that.
Ellen Potter
It does sometimes. I always think, wow, their ideas are often so good. They have great concepts. I think, oh, if the publishers could just be flies on the wall. They had so many different ideas. But I did start when COVID hit, and a lot of the teachers were just struggling, even with the technology. I did offer to do free virtual visits just because my book tour was shut down. Actually, my father passed during that time, so there’s a lot, and I felt like I just wanted to do something, and so that’s when I started just shouting out, hey, I can offer free visits, virtual visits.
And, of course, it was overwhelming. So, I was doing, like, five visits a day. My voice was going, but it was amazing. And I got to connect with kids all over the like, in Russia, in France, all over the place, and of course, in the States, and it was a really great way to have a human connection at a time when we were all just so shut down like that.
Bianca Schulze
I love that, and it’s such a nice way to give back when you can do it.
Ellen Potter
Exactly.
Bianca Schulze
All right, well, since you are, I think officially, we can say you’re a very seasoned writer, so I have to imagine that not every book comes so easily. So, do you ever have struggles when you sit down to write a book?
Ellen Potter
So, this is a thing that I always tell kids because it is something I wish I’d known earlier. I tell this to also younger writers or writers who are struggling through it. I have a hard time writing even though I’ve written all these books. It’s never easy. A friend of mine reminded me when I called her up, and I was like, oh, this book is just so hard to write. She said you say that with every single book you write. So, it’s a struggle for me. I get stuck constantly. Every time I sit down, I get stuck. So, I like to tell young writers and kids that it’s as fun as writing is—and it really is fun, I mean, what a job. You get to wake up in the morning and tell stories. That’s a great job, but it’s also really challenging, and you hit a lot of rough spots where you’re tempted to just give up.
But as a writer, you gather up these tools to help you out during those real rough spots. Strategies to get beyond that, to get past that. So, you can keep going. But if you expect it, if you know it’s going to happen, then you don’t panic and think, oh, my story is no good, or oh, I’m not a good writer. There’s so many pitfalls where you can just sink into self-doubt. But if you know that this is a normal part of the writing process, you can move through it and always in your head, knowing there’s always revision. This is a first draft.
Bianca Schulze
Yeah, absolutely. I think that a lot of people, whether they’re children or adults, don’t realize that a lot of the magic happens in those revisions. And we often have to revise a lot to get to the finished product. Occasionally, I think things spill out just as you want them to be. But so much of the magic comes from the editing and the revisions.
Ellen Potter
Yes, my best writing has always come out in revision.
Bianca Schulze
Yeah. Well, when you are having sort of a tough spot, or you have a problem to solve in the story, what are some of the strategies that you fall back on? Do you have any special tools?
Ellen Potter
Yeah, I have so many ways of approaching it, and not all of them work each time, so I’ll try different things. But one of my go-to’s is super simple. I have dogs, so I take them for a walk, and there is something I don’t know what this is. I’m sure they’ve done studies on this, but there is something about walking and thinking that just gives it I come back with knowing what to do next. I mean, it almost always works.
Another really simple thing that I do is if I’m stuck and I’m writing on a computer, I switch and write by hand. In fact, when I start my stories, I always start by writing in a notebook by hand. And I think, and I don’t know if it’s the hand-to-brain connection, but I’ve noticed that ideas, my imagination, tends to be a little more fluid when I’m writing by hand rather than on a computer. Of course, I have deadlines, so once I know where my book is going, I switch and write on a computer. But every time I get stuck, I go back to writing by hand. So that’s something else I do when I’m stuck: I write by hand.
And then one other thing is I ask for help. And I always tell this to kids: you don’t have to do this alone. Yeah. Writing is a lone activity in many ways. But if I’m stuck and I don’t know which way to go next, I’ll call a friend, or I’ll talk to my husband or my son, and I’ll tell him the story. I’ll have him read it, and I’ll say, what do you think? What would happen next? What would this character do? A lot of times, I don’t actually take the suggestions. They’re not exactly right. But just the act of talking it out really helps me to see things in a little bit of a different way. So, there are many ways to approach being stuck, but it is just part of it. It’s part of it.
Bianca Schulze
Well, this is a question you’ve probably heard me ask a lot of people. So, to be a writer, they say you should be a reader first. So, my question for you today is, have you always been a reader, or is there a person, a moment, or a book that you feel turned you into a reader?
Ellen Potter
I’ve always been a reader. It’s absolutely so important to be a reader. If you want to write, you just have to because you develop an ear for language like you would develop an ear for music. The only way to really develop it is by reading. So, growing up, my parents would take us to this bookstore. It was down in Lower Manhattan, and it was a used bookstore. It looked like something out of Diagonal Alley. Seriously. Like it had a door that the bell would tinkle when you went in and the creaky wooden floors and floor-to-ceiling books with that ladder that would roll around.
And they sold books for $0.10 apiece. So, my brothers and I were allowed to take as many books as we could hold and buy them. This was the hugest, hugest treat for me, for all of us, I think. And so there would always be in that little stash of books, there’d always be, like, one book that was really good that you were reading, like, past your bedtime, under the covers, the flashlight.
So, when I found as a kid, when you have a book that you just love that you’re just thinking into, they’re wonderful, but then they end, and that can feel kind of devastating. You’ve been in this world that you loved hanging out in, and then suddenly, you’re just yanked out of it. So, I realized then I could write whatever world I wanted to hang out in, and whatever characters I wanted to meet, I could write them. So, I started writing because I loved reading. It was a direct line.
There was one book that was actually like a moment that really stands out, and it was when I was eleven. I was in a school library, and the school library knew I read Voraciously, so she would always direct me to books that she thought I’d like. So, she directed me to Harriet the Spy, and I remember picking it up, and I started reading it and immediately loved it—I don’t really think I’ve had any other epiphanies in my life. It was like a genuine epiphany where I said, oh, the best books in the world are written for kids, like they’re the best books in the world are for kids. Like I knew it.
And then, of course, I thought, well, I’m not going to be a kid for much longer; I’m going to get older, and then am I still going to remember how much I love kids’ books? So right then and there, I said, okay, if I can’t always be a kid, I’m going to write for kids. And that really kind of cemented it. As I got older, I started to kind of veer away from that, and I was writing more for adults, but always on the side. I would always be sort of tinkering with these children’s stories that were so much more fun to write than the books for adults.
Bianca Schulze
Yeah, I love that. Just a random question. Have you gone back and read Harriet the Spy as an adult?
Ellen Potter
I have, and it holds up pretty mean. I have noticed that there are books that I loved when I was a kid that I don’t really connect to anymore for different reasons, but I think that one held up pretty well.
Bianca Schulze
It’s always so fun to go back and read a book that you loved as a child and try to remember what it was that you loved because sometimes it’s there, and sometimes it’s not. Yeah, sometimes I struggle with some of the books that my heart still wants to love, but I think you’re right. I think Harriet the Spy has held up okay. So, it sounds like you’ve always wanted to be a writer. And so now, if the count is right, we’re at 26 books, and you had more than one book come out this year, so we could be talking about a bunch of books, but we’re going to focus on Squirlish: The Girl in the Tree. So why don’t you tell us all what it’s all about?
Ellen Potter
Well, Squirlish is about, well, I’ll tell you where it came from, and then I can tell you what it’s about because it’s from that. So, the idea came from a friend of mine who had found a baby squirrel on the ground in her backyard. It had probably fallen out of its nest, so she put it in a box because she wasn’t sure if the mom was around somewhere. She put it in a box, right, kept it where it was so she could keep it warm, and watched at her kitchen window to see if the mother would come back.
So the mother did not come back, so she took the baby in, and she had the box. And I think she fed it puppy formula through a tweezer. I think that’s what she did. And to keep it warm, she put the squirrel in her bra during the day, so it was so tiny. And she was a writer, too, so she would write, and the little squirrel would be in there, and she’d be doing her dishes, and she actually raised the squirrel successfully. And then she let it go. And it took a while. It would go out for an hour and then come back, and then it longer until finally it did finally leave. But she said it would appear like when she was doing dishes, it would appear at her kitchen window, and she’d let it in, and then it would hang out for a while and then go back out. So, I love that story.
And you know, as a writer, you’re always alert for story ideas. So, I thought, okay, so what if it was the other way around? And those what-ifs are so crucial. I always tell this to kids. That’s where we build our ideas. What if, what if, and letting your mind just play. So, I thought, well, what if it’s the other way around? And what if a squirrel finds a baby human? And what if that squirrel takes the baby up to its nest in its elm tree in the middle of Central Park? And what if this squirrel raised this little thistle girl as his own? And so, what if she becomes like the squirrel girl of Central Park, and she can climb trees like a squirrel and hop from branch to branch like a squirrel and talk to the squirrels? But what if she also begins to yearn for a human friend? So that idea started to roll around in my head, and that’s really where it came from.
The other thing, though, and I think many writers experience this, is that when you’re writing a book, a lot of times your life bleeds into the book without you even realizing it, and then as soon as it’s only apparent after the book is finished, which is what happened in this case. So, when I was writing Squirlish, it was my son’s last year in high school, so I knew he was going to be going off to college, which I had been dreading since he was five years old. Probably, as a parent, you want your kid to be independent and have their own agency and be fine with walking out the door, but you’re also, as a parent, kind of terrified of that moment. So that was, like, looming as I was writing this.
So, when I was reading it over, I saw that the squirrel, whose name is Shakespeare, one of his worries is that he’ll lose this little girl, Cordelia, that she’ll eventually grow up and want to be with other humans. And he’s sort of worried about her making human friends because he knows that this is maybe a step toward that separation. And when I read it, I was like, oh, I see what I did there. So that was definitely in there.
Bianca Schulze
Yeah. I feel like sometimes when we write stories, too, they’re almost healing for ourselves, and then that healing comes across in the stories for whoever’s reading it to take away if they need to, too. So, I feel like I picked up on that, too. I wonder if you want to share a highlight or even a favorite quote from the book, or do you have a copy next to you?
Ellen Potter
I do have a copy next to me, yeah, and I can read it. I’ll read a little passage that actually connects to what I just told you. So, Cordelia has made a friend, a human, a boy named Isaac, and Shakespeare, who is the squirrel, is watching this, and he turns to another squirrel, Miss Gertrude, who’s very wise, and he says this do you think it’s good for Cordelia to have human friends?
Miss Gertrude was quiet for a moment. Then she said, “Every once in a while, a human will find a baby squirrel who is all alone, and that human will take the baby squirrel home and feed it and keep it warm and safe.”
“That’s very kind of them,” Shakespeare said.
“Yes, it is,” agreed Miss Gertrude. “And if the human is very wise, they will help the baby squirrel learn how to do squirrely things, like how to climb trees and find acorns and play with other squirrels. Because one day, that baby squirrel will grow into a big squirrel, and it may not want to live with other squirrels. It may want to live with other squirrels instead of humans.”
Shakespeare thought about this. He felt a little sad lump in his throat as he said,
I suppose one day Cordelia might want to live with other people instead of us squirrels.”
“Maybe,” Miss Gertrude said gently. “Not for a very long time, of course, but maybe someday.”
“In that case,” Shakespeare said, “it’s probably good for her to do humanish things, like playing with other children.”
“You are a very wise squirrel,” said Miss Gertrude.
“Thank you.”
When I reread that in revision, that’s when I was like, I see. I get it. So, it can actually be like healing for readers, but also healing as the author, too.
Bianca Schulze
Yeah, and something that I find myself talking about a lot now since I’ve been doing this podcast is that sometimes what readers take away isn’t necessarily what the author imagined that they were telling. Right. So, I think the great thing about this particular story is that it’s going to appeal to readers who just love a fun, silly idea. I mean, the absurdity of a squirrel taking a little baby up to the tree and raising this girl in the tree. The way you tell that is so humorous and so funny. So, it’s going to appeal to the kids that just love a good, funny story.
But then the heart behind the story is what you’ve shared, and from your perspective, you noticed that that was tied into your feelings about your son going to college. And then I noticed, just as a mom of three kids, I also have one that’s applying for college right now, so next year she will be. So, I’m feeling that. But I also have two younger kids, and I noticed that desire to fit in. Even the kids that have good, solid friendships always have a moment in their schooling life where they struggle to fit in or they feel like they don’t fit in. Even if it appears that they have this amazing group of friends, there’s always those struggles, and then there’s the kids who really do struggle with finding a group of buddies on the playground.
So, I really took away that sort of part where Cordelia just feels like, obviously, she’s maybe ready to start branching out and meeting humans, but that struggle is definitely there for her. So, I just love the way that you build these relatable themes into your story but build it in a way that’s humorous and funny and a little bit absurd in this book. And that’s what brings the joy and gets the kids into those moments of heart. So, how do you find that balance?
Ellen Potter
Yeah, well, I do love that you picked that up because as I was writing, I did see, oh, yeah, this is really a theme where you have this child who doesn’t quite fit in with her community and how awkward that is and how she’s trying to make friends with humans, but she only knows how to make friends with other squirrels. And that process is very different. It makes her look crazy and ridiculous as she’s trying to engage other kids in a friendship. It’s not socially smooth.
I love that you got that out of it. And when you write a series, I think it gives you the bandwidth to see what you did in the first book and to say, okay, this has emerged. How do I work with this in the second book or the third book? So, the second book in Squirlish, which is coming out in the summer, is called Shark in the Park. So, what I thought about with Cordelia is like, okay, she’s different in her community, so how does she find her own strengths that will actually serve her? She, as a human being, actually is really important to these squirrels. She can do things for them that they can’t do for themselves. So, like, in the second book, and the really fun part of a squirrel is just I get to play around with Central Park.
So, in Central Park, there’s Belvedere Castle, which I believe used to be a weather station. It looks like a full-on castle. And so that’s where the royal squirrel family lives. So, they summon Cordelia to accompany the young prince because he’s safer with a human. There are all kinds of dangers for a squirrel in a park. He’s going on a quest to find this missing royal scepter. So, in the second book, I was able to work with the idea of how does Cordelia fit into this squirrel community. What are the things that make her feel like she is a part of it, even though she doesn’t look like them? She doesn’t act like them. She does act like them, but not completely. So that was really fun.
And actually, the second book also touched on this other obsession I have that is also in my middle grade book, Hither and Nigh, which is New York City history. It’s fascinating. Like, it’s endless. So, in the second book, there’s a storyline that touches on Seneca Village, which was actually before Central Park was created. There was black settlement. It was actually multiracial but predominantly black settlement. They bought the land. They had churches; they had schools. It was right in the area where Central Park now exists. And it was a thriving community. And when the politicians wanted to build a park in that area, they kind of spun it to say these people are vagabonds, they’re squatting, and they were forced to leave. So, it was sort of a sad little piece of Central Park history.
And I was able to bring in something that had been happening, is they’d been finding archaeological finds of this old village. I think it started in the ’70s or ’80s when they started finding things. So, it’s able to bring that little piece of New York history in a way that is not heavy. Because, of course, the chapter book, you want to keep it light and fun, but it touches on it, and it is sort of like an emotional anchor for Cordelia in terms of loving where she lives and the thought of maybe what would it be like to have to leave?
Bianca Schulze
Yeah. I hope you don’t mind, but I want to read a little section of Squirlish: The Girl in the Tree.
The reason I’ve picked this little excerpt to read is that I think it’s a demonstration of the humor that you bring, but it also demonstrates how delicately and gently you approach Cordelia’s process of discovering that maybe she is a little different from her squirrel community and trying to fit. So:
“What are you laughing at?” Cordelia asked her.
“You.”
“Why?”
“Because you run like a human,” said Kate.
“I do not,” Cordelia replied.
“Yes, you do. When you run, your arms go a wonka wonka wonka.” Kate waved her paws around in a silly way. Most of the time, Cordelia forgot she was a human. But when someone reminded her, like now, it made her feel all funny inside, like she’d swallowed a handful of earthworms.
“Don’t pay attention to her,” Bianca told Cordelia. “Kate’s the worst.”
“She calls me a rat,” Fenton said in a mopey way.
“You are a rat,” Cordelia said.
“Yeah, but it’s the way she says it,” Fenton complained. “Rat. Like I eat garbage and stuff.”
“You do eat garbage,” Cordelia said.
“Truthfully. I eat leftovers,” Fenton corrected her. “There’s a difference.” They kept playing Dragon King, but the whole time Cordelia felt they kept playing Dragon King, but the whole time, Cordelia kept feeling those earthworms squirming in her belly.
Ellen Potter
It’s so interesting you chose that because that’s the exact section that, before the book came out, I would read a little excerpt to the classrooms, that’s the exact section I would read to them.
Bianca Schulze
Well, I would love to know. What do you hope readers will ultimately take away from Squirlish: The Girl in the Tree?
Ellen Potter
Well, I hope they’ll be engrossed by it and delighted by the idea of living in a nest, or she actually is in a treehouse as she gets older. And I hope that they like the idea of finding your own legs, your own agency in any community, any place you are, to kind of hold on to who you are, what your strengths are, what your gifts are, and to value that, even though maybe some other people are not valuing you. So, I guess, in a deeper way, that’s probably what I would hope for.
And then just that they love the community of squirrels. It’s really fun because Central Park has all these different neighborhoods, and squirrels are very territorial. So, each squirrel community reflects where they are in the park. So, like Shakespeare’s, where Cordelia lives, it’s near the Delacorte Theater, where they do Shakespeare plays. So, all the characters are named all the squirrels are named after Shakespearean characters and have their own qualities. There’s the squirrels that live near the boat pond—they’re sort of pirates and kind of rougher. Then there are the ones that live near the Metropolitan Museum, and they’re very artsy, and some of them are a bit snobby.
So, it is really fun to play with that. And I hope kids like that as well.
Bianca Schulze
Yeah. And we can’t not mention the super cute illustrations and the little map at the beginning.
Ellen Potter
Sara Cristofori—I hope I’m saying that right. Every time I got that email from my editor saying, take a look at the new illustration draft, and you open it, I gasped every single time. She nails this really fun dynamic. It’s light, but it’s rich. I think she’s brilliant.
Bianca Schulze
Yeah, absolutely. And I just love an illustrated chapter book. I don’t recall as a kid myself; I feel like we read picture books, or I had a compendium of fairy tales from Hans Christian Anderson that would have a scary illustration on it. And then we did the early readers in the classroom, but then it was just novels, and I feel like there wasn’t so much of this nice, beautiful bridge of an illustrated chapter book. So, I love Squirlish does that—It’s a nice connection point between an early reader and launching into a thicker novel with no illustrations.
Ellen Potter
I agree 100%.
Bianca Schulze
Yeah. So, I need to tell you that your other book that came out, the Hither and Nigh, our contributor for the Children’s Book Review, Dr. Jen Harrison, just sent me a review, and I want to read you just a snippet of her review.
So, Dr. Jen Harrison says:
Hither and Nigh is a fresh and refreshing revamp of the classic “stolen by fairies” plotline, with rich settings, complex characters, and a roller-coaster pace. The story tackles some heavy topics: grief, gambling, exploitation, homelessness, and poverty, but without becoming too heavy or difficult for young middle grade readers to enjoy and relate to. Nell is an endearingly down-to-earth heroine, and readers will enjoy watching her uncover the many unexpected facets of the other characters around her. The story also makes use of wordplay and humor, which, together with the surreal, supernatural setting and quirky interpretation of magic, make the narrative fun as well as fast-paced. Hither and Nigh is an unforgettable read. Thank goodness there’s a sequel on the way.
Ellen Potter
That’s wonderful.
Bianca Schulze
Well, so you have the sequel coming, and it’s; I believe October 10 is the release day for the sequel. We don’t want to give any spoilers because we don’t know who here has read the first book, Hither and Nigh, and the second book, The Golden Imaginarium. So, just sort of in a nutshell, since we’ve had the squirrel theme, what do you want listeners to know about these two books?
Ellen Potter
They have been described—which sort of is fun—as The Breakfast Club meets Harry Potter. So, it is about a group of kids who’ve gotten into quite a bit of trouble in school, and they’ve been given a choice. They can either be expelled or join a mysterious after-school club. They do join the club, and they find they’re learning magic. So, the Hither and Nigh are two worlds, and these kids are traveling between their own world, set in New York City, to a parallel New York City where magic is in the air. I mean, it’s very easy to do magic there, and it’s a very beautiful place, but it’s full of danger. And so, they go on a quest to find a missing boy.
I don’t want to give away too much because there’s a lot of spoilers. It was so much fun to write. There were a lot of story threads. It was very tricky to write. There were a lot of threads that really had to tie in very tightly. And hopefully, the sequel brings it all together.
In the sequel, there’s more time spent in the Nigh, which is that parallel world in New York City. It’s a world that is basically built by children who have been stolen from our New York City, and it’s built out of their imagination. So again, one of the things I love is New York City history. So, in the Nigh, there are layers of history evident all around. So, the kids that were brought over in the 18 hundreds imagined tenement buildings. In Central Park, they have their goats pull carts, which actually is something that they used to do in Central Park back in the day. And there are monsters in this other world, and it’s ruled by a fairly sinister magician.
So, it’s a fun book. It’s fast-paced; there’s a lot of adventure, some scary stuff, and some funny stuff. So again, I hope it’s one of those reads that middle grade kids can just submerge themselves and just step into this very unusual, magical world for as long as they’re reading the book.
Bianca Schulze
Well, when my eleven-year-old—we have a lot of books that come through our home, and so she gets really picky on what books. And she had said to me right before I got Jen’s review of Hither and Nigh; she had said, Mom, I need a new book. I said, well, what are you looking for? She said, well, I don’t want a graphic novel; I don’t want realistic fiction. I don’t want anything like horror. I didn’t want anything too scary. I’m like, so it sounds like maybe you’re asking for a fantasy novel. She’s like, yeah, with some adventure. And she goes, I mean, it could be like a little scary, but not too scary.
And then Dr. Jen’s review came through, and it just sounded so exciting the way she pitched it. And I was like, here, read this. Does this sound like the book? She was like, that sounds like the book. So, we put it on audiobook then and there, and she started it last night.
Ellen Potter
Wonderful. See, and this is something that I think is so special about growing up now, is there’s so much choice in children’s books when I don’t really remember being able to curate exactly the sort of book I wanted to read when I was a kid. There were some of the old standbys, and there were some wonderful books, but now it feels like kids have so many choices that they can really get attracted to what is specifically the story that they want, and hopefully that’ll just engage them. So they’ll want to keep reading more.
Bianca Schulze
Yes, absolutely. All right, Ellen, if we were to leave listeners with just one takeaway today, what would you want that to be?
Ellen Potter
I think that for me, anyway, when I pick up a book, I want to leave my life behind for a little while, and I want to be in someone else’s life. And when you do that, when a book completely absorbs you so that you actually feel like you’ve stepped into this other world, then you’re like leaving your soul open to change, to experience things. It’s almost like you’re experiencing things in the moment, in real time, that your characters are experiencing.
And I think being in that kind of that meditative, that quiet, which is so rare now, I mean, there’s noise all over, but being in that quiet state allows you to absorb new ideas, to entertain different ways of looking at the world or looking at other people in a really powerful way. Maybe it’s more powerful than actually being in your own life because you’re sort of surrounded by all these stressors and all these preconceived notions. But books allow you to enter into different ways of looking at things.
Bianca Schulze
Well, Ellen, thank you for always writing entertaining books. First of all, they’re always relatable. Even if there’s the element of magic and fantasy and the absurdity of a girl living in a tree, in a treehouse with squirrels, they’re always relatable. You tackle themes and topics that kids need to understand out in the world, whether they’re their own experiences or the experiences of others, and you just do it in a way that’s gentle and caring. And I love how you know when to add humor. I feel like that’s a special skill that you have.
So Squirlish: The Girl in the Tree is laugh-out-loud funny. And I’m just grateful that you wrote it. I’m grateful I got to read it. And most of all, today, I’m grateful that you came on the show. So, thank you so much for being here.
Ellen Potter
Thank you so much. This was just a joy. This was wonderful. Thank you.
About the Book
Squirlish Book Cover: Book Cover
Squirlish: The Girl in the Tree
Written by Ellen Potter
Illustrated by Sara Cristofori
Ages 6+ | 112 Pages
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books | ISBN-13: 9781665926751
Publisher’s Book Summary: A girl raised by squirrels in Central Park tries to make human friends in this laugh-out-loud, highly illustrated first book in a new chapter book series perfect for fans of Sophie Mouse and Critter Club!
Cordelia is a girl who lives in a tree in Central Park. Found as a baby and raised by an adoring squirrel named Shakespeare, Cordelia acts just like any other young squirrel, leaping across treetops, chasing her squirrel friends, and sleeping in her treehouse. Still, she wonders what it would be like to have a human friend, and when she stumbles into a gymnastics class, it seems like she might have her chance.
Living in a tree might have made Cordelia an exceptional gymnast, but people skills are a whole other matter. Even if Cordelia can’t fully fit in with the other kids,
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Show Notes
Ellen Potter is the author of more than twenty award-winning novels for children and young adults, including Olivia Kidney, Slob, the Big Foot and Little Foot series, the Piper Green and The Fairy Tree series, The Humming Room, Pish Posh, and The Kneebone Boy. Several of her books have been chosen by the New York Public Library for their Best 100 Books for Children list and have appeared on numerous state reading lists. Her nonfiction writing book, Spilling Ink, A Young Writer’s Handbook, coauthored with Anne Mazer, was also chosen by the New York Public Library as a Best 100 Books for Children. Ellen lives in upstate New York with her family.
For more information about Ellen and her books, visit EllenPotter.com.
Hither and Nigh on Amazon and Bookshop.org.
The Golden Imaginarium on Amazon and Bookshop.org.
Thank you for listening to the Growing Readers Podcast episode: Ellen Potter Talks About Squirlish: The Girl in the Tree. For the latest episodes from The Growing Readers Podcast, Follow Now on Spotify.
Potter, Ellen SHARK IN THE PARK McElderry (Children's None) $17.99 7, 9 ISBN: 9781665926782
The continuing adventures of Cordelia, a young girl raised by a squirrel after she was abandoned in Central Park as a baby.
Cordelia considers herself "squirlish": "a little bit squirrel and a little bit girl." Though she speaks Chittering (the language of squirrels), moves nimbly through the trees, and lives in a snug treehouse in an old elm, she wears clothes supplied by a kindly groundskeeper and has human friends. Sometimes her stomach gets "blurggy" at the thought that she doesn't really belong. Summoned to Belvedere Castle by Queen Isabel, Cordelia initially worries that the squirrel leader is planning to banish her. But Queen Isabel instead instructs Cordelia to accompany Prince Oliver on his quest for the long-lost Royal Scepter. This won't be easy, since the young squirrel prince cares little for the scepter; all he can think about is sharks. Prince Oliver peppers Cordelia with shark questions, constantly drops his crown, and generally causes havoc. This fast-paced tale features delightful, inventive language, complemented by Cristofori's energetic cartoons. As in the previous series installment, Central Park feels like a major character, along with New York City itself. A noteworthy scene at the Museum of Natural History sees Cordelia and Oliver learning about Seneca Village, a 19th-century African American community that was displaced when the park was built. The characters are quirky, and readers will cheer for Cordelia--and laugh out loud often. Cordelia presents white.
Fantastical, funny, and charming. (map of Central Park) (Fantasy. 7-10)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Potter, Ellen: SHARK IN THE PARK." Kirkus Reviews, 15 May 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A793537119/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=7d2e666e. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.
Potter, Ellen THE GOLDEN IMAGINARIUM McElderry (Children's None) $17.99 10, 10 ISBN: 9781665910422
A cryptic note on her apartment door leads middle school angel-in-training Nell Batista back to the magical alternate world of Nigh for a second try at rescuing her kidnapped little brother.
In a slapdash follow-up to Hither & Nigh (2022), Nell, along with fellow trainees Crud and Annika, goes from being pitched into a disastrous pass/fail Initiation Trial for the Angelic Order of Alchemy in the Hither (which is this world, sort of) to reunions in the Nigh with her crush, Tom the Imp, and the big, memorable mama angel of New York's Bethesda Fountain. Encounters in both worlds with creatures ranging from really big dogs to a terrifying tiny Creeping Yeuk that bestows unreachable itches on its victims--plus battles with deadly monsters and evil, child-stealing Magicians--ensue on the way to a resolution and wrap-up so rushed that it's unclear whether the author plans further developments. But her comic--and comically romantic--timing remains sharp, her three young leads develop gratifyingly tight bonds notwithstanding very different temperaments and backgrounds, and the story arc does bend toward what appears to be a happy ending. A bountiful creature cast and some learning-curve spellcasting will keep readers amused, too. The human (and angelic) cast largely reads white.
A rough patchwork of lightweight chills and thrills. (Fantasy. 9-12)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Potter, Ellen: THE GOLDEN IMAGINARIUM." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Sept. 2023, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A762669077/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=3f158fa4. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.
Potter, Ellen THE GIRL IN THE TREE McElderry (Children's None) $17.99 6, 13 ISBN: 9781665926751
Cordelia's home is a treehouse in a large elm tree in New York City's Central Park.
No one knows where Cordelia came from, but the squirrel Shakespeare finds her as a tiny baby under a shrub and adopts her. By the time she is 8 years old, she is more squirrel than human, moving easily through the branches, leaping from tree to tree, and speaking Chittering. Shakespeare, her beloved father figure, mentor, and teacher, exposes her to the human Shakespeare's plays at the theater in the park. Groundskeeper Viola Berry is her one human friend, supplying her with necessities. Cordelia often forgets she is human and is curious about people but uncertain around them. When her squirrel-like leaps attract the attention of a gymnastics coach, a series of hilarious events brings her into close contact with human children and adults, sometimes with disastrous results. But the adventure leads to a new appreciation of her unusual life and to Isaac, a new human friend. Cristofori's detailed black-and-white cartoon illustrations match and enhance the fast-paced tale. Most of the action is set in real locations in Central Park, each with its own special aura, making the park an important character in the tale. Cordelia is inquisitive, confused, lovable, and utterly unique. The fantasy elements of her world are imaginative and charming, if a bit implausible. In the illustrations, Cordelia is light-skinned, Viola presents Black, and Isaac is brown-skinned.
Suspend all disbelief and enjoy being a part of this world. (Fiction/fantasy. 7-10)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Potter, Ellen: THE GIRL IN THE TREE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 May 2023, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A747342356/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=6cc3ff8f. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.