so our first guest this is her first appearance on black office matter TV her name is Sharon M Draper and she writes books for middle grade children students um and she's she's got lots of books in her uh backlist but she also has a new book coming out called out of my dreams and it releases next week so we welcome her to Black office matter TV well I'm glad to be here this is exciting it is glad to have you and you've been on our radar for quite some time um we did you know some sometimes it's hard to get a direct person to invite to get a connection to get a connection so we we took a little while but you've been on our r quite some sometimes good good you keep writing books so tell us a little bit about how you started and why you focused on the middle grade student um I was a teacher for like 9,000 years and okay taught reading and writing and literature and um you know my job was to teach kids to express themselves in the you know in the written word and um I had been playing with writing I I wrote poetry I've got a couple of books of poetry stuck in a back closet someplace and I've got um you know I I've been a writer all my life but I didn't really start writing until tears of a tagger came out and that's my little ball-headed Andy and okay that was the very first one and this was way back in 1997 I'm remember that book I remember the title it's still being used in schools it's a little bit dated you know has it always had that same cover oh no it's had a couple of covers yeah I I remember it with a different cover yeah and so um that but that was the first one that was the thing that started it all and um you know the you remember the um Ebony magazine writing contest yes yeah yeah I won that one year and that was that was like that was proof okay girl you can right so yeah did they only award One winner or did they have like C they only at that time they were only doing one per year so oh so you had to beat out a lot of other people yeah so I I won for that year and um and the story that they chose it the the story that I used that I submitted ended up being chapter one of Forge by fire which is a sequel to tears of Italian okay so um um that's kind of how I got launched into it I've always been a writer I've always been a reader I've got a zillion books around me all the time um but I didn't really know I could write till I started writing I said hey I can do this and you know after you read 9,000 zillion billion books with kids I ought to be able to write one I love your accounting system I've got to tell you it was at least 9,000 zillion billion at least now you behind you are some shelves with books and it looks like multiple copies of the same book yes so are those your books yes those are mine oh okay when a book comes out they send you a little box of books okay so I can give them to friends or family or whoever but send a little box that's that's mine to do with what I want so those are my samples for I bet one of of everything that I've written uh or or several of everything that I've written back there I say that looks like more than one now what said that looks like more than one of everything you've written oh yeah yeah I've got multiple copies that way if somebody says I need a copy of I've okay I've got one for you okay so how how many titles do you have released up to this up to the one that you releasing next week do you know about how many 30 32 30 I think it's in the 30s in the 30s okay yeah and are all of them middle grade no I wrote a few for elementary um I wrote the Ziggy books and those were featuring black boys uh where's remember Ziggy oh you got Ziggy and the black dinosaurs you go yeah I remember Ziggy I remember hearing about Ziggy Ziggy yeah there the Ziggy books this is Ziggy and the black dinosaurs okay lar and um there's one two three four five six of these and they ended up calling them the clubhouse Mysteries but these are just um I and I started writing them because of my two sons you know they would go in the backyard and they they make a fire in the backyard what are you doing making a fire you know they they dig for treasure and they um they got in trouble and so I just took my boys and some of their adventures and made it fictional and created a whole neighborhood of kids so those are the the books and that's for third grade fourth grade fifth grade are those are those chapter books are those like starter chapter books yeah uhuh yeah okay so it's the kind of thing to get kids started you know and like I try to do things like this this one takes place in Space Camp so they can see themselves as potential as astronauts this is the backyard animals show so they can see themselves expanding Beyond just school and home you know and you know they they start collecting animals and they get loose in the the lady's kitchen and you know that kind of thing so there are um six total Ziggy books okay now are any of your sons either your son's name Ziggy or was that for no no I made that up you made that up okay Ziggy Marley was real popular at time I was just about to ask ask Marley yeah okay U but no I didn't put their real names in there okay remember once my daughter had a friend over to the house and she was just laughing and giggling and my daughter said don't talk in front of my mother and she said why she'll put you in a book but you change the names to protect the innocent yeah yeah it's all fiction yeah now one of our viewers uh Susan roie she said she's so excited to be here and she learned so much from you at Walnut Hills OH what's her name Susan I think roie r o HDE e uh or could be RH that might be her married name I don't remember that is okay well I I'll would say you and it's got to be amazing when your teach when your students remember you and they still love you after all this time and you know many of them grew up to be teachers and they they you know they write to me I remember once I went to a a school and the the the teacher was teaching eth grade and I had taught her in eighth grade so wow wow she said her okay she said her last name was gambill back then g a m b i l l and she said her brother was there as well her brother Michael was there too she said I remember I remember that name I remember the last name because you've had lots and lots of students all thousands over the years 10 years and you know five classes of you know how they divide them up and during the day and so uh but I enjoyed it and that is how I learned how kids think how kids act how kids react how they react with each other and some of these like with the the teen books um they're a little bit dated because technology has caught up with us you know kids are not on a tablet or a phone all the time they actually go outside and play they actually you know walk around the neighborhood and talk to each other so um I'm I need to to write a more contemporary book with what kids are actually doing today yeah it's good to um WR write from a vantage point of what we want kids to do what we would like them to be doing yeah as opposed to what they actually are doing although I I have a children's book series and U the kids they they don't really play outside but they talk about uh doing things and using like shopping online is newer what's the name of this my series is called kids bids and it teaches children how to be entrepreneurs I've seen that I've seen that oh yeah okay well it has three friends on there and it's for like five year five to eight five to maybe 10 maybe okay but it's each book they do something different to earn money for things they want oh that is so cool yeah yeah so I get that for my grandkids well I would love you to and but all my books on Amazon I think the other good thing um but if even if you don't write update the book I think sometimes it's good for kids of today to see that kids of yesterday were not that different right they may not have had the video games or the or social media but their cares um the way they had fun was still pretty similar right their concerns their worries yes concerns about their parents you know because a kid can't do anything you know if they're you know the household is is not in order and uh so I put all of that in there I've got you know like one of them forged by fire deals with child abuse and um you know nice kid but he you know his stepfather beats him up and so it deals with with child abuse and I I touch on some touchy things but on a level that a teenager can understand I don't go too deep yeah well maybe in in reading about kids who do other things other than sit on their phones or tablets all day or video games maybe they'll get some ideas and do you know there's actually like science and about development and children of today that they they need more interaction and Co didn't help the situation oh yeah they really exacerbated the beginnings of it exactly and it's human interaction is crucial for us as human beings right right adults and children but especially children because they're not fully formed yet you know they're developing yeah I worry a little bit about these children in the pandemic you know it's they didn't get what we got in the school with the teacher and the rules and the desks and the you know they didn't get that they did everything online for couple of years it was it and and I think as they become adults it's going to be it's going to show up that there's something missing from that group because they didn't get that classroom instruction right right time when they should have it's probably G to show up before then but you know including adulthood so tell us about your new book um out of my mind it's a series and it do you have a Arc because it comes out next week I do I do I do I've got two new books oh Michael gambill is on too and he he said it it's such a pleasure to see you and hear your voice after all these years you probably have homework [Laughter] do okay the newest book is called out of my dream say it's out of my mind and then the second one is out of my heart and I wasn't going to write a third one but then I did and this one out of my dream same characters in this one the um the main character her name is Melody and she's disabled uh seriously disabled and she um uh but she saves the life in the first chapter she saves somebody's life uh mostly because she knew how to call 911 and um um she ends up taking a trip to London because I had to change the scenery in the second book she goes to summer camp so it's all about sleeping in a strange bed away from home and you know meeting up with other children and you know expanding your horizons to include friendship because these kids do need friends um so that was the second one and the third one I put her on an airplane and send her to London and the premise that gets her there is she's outside I mean she's in her bedroom and she's looking out her window and um she sees a um uh she sees the lady across the street fall down it's old lady and she falls down and so and Melody is the only one who witnesses this and so she has to figure out a way to call 911 to help this lady nobody else is around her mother is downstairs doing the wash you know so she's she's she is the one who saves this lady's life and she kind of becomes a little you know Facebook famous for a few minutes because this girl who can't do anything managed to save the life of this lady who ended up being a famous actress from a long time ago she was like 90s something but back in the day she was a famous actress so um uh so in the the whole book takes place not 99% of it takes place in London and I had to go to London for research such sacrifice I did poor thing yeah and um so um but visiting for a couple of days and knowing London is two different things I have a stack of books this big on Research I do indepth research for every single book and I look into um you know like especially for something like London you know where is trafala square how far is this street from this street you know is there a library there and could she get to it so um I had to go to London to research but that one will be out next week I think right September 3D another one that I'm really proud of oh I don't know maybe a couple weeks after this one I'm not sure what their release date is but I know they're letting them all out before Christmas because they're not stupid this one is called Bella Bell Arena and this has been in the I've never done a picture book before and this was done um was inspired by my granddaughter who started my daughter owns a dance studio so um and she's a a expert dancer uh her mom did not get that gift I got different gifts but you made sure she got it yeah she got she got the dance gift and so um she works with the little ones and so when my granddaughter was three I started working on this she's now eight and can read it by herself but um it's about a a little girl takes dance lessons and she she learns something but it's funny it's up uplifting and it's got really really good uh illustrations the um the illustrator is Ebony Glenn and she's an African-American woman and she did a really good job of capturing the you know the different you know the teacher the children every there's a little bit of different ethnicities all enough but it's just enough to be realistic it's not pointed but this is um and it's in rhyme and um it's just about a little girl who goes to dance class and has to learn something and the the uh conclusion at the end is they have to do a show and they have to go on stage and they have to wear a costume and have to put on makeup and you know for a little one that's that's exciting so that's called Bella ballerina and that will be out I don't know uh soon I think they're going to they're they're not putting them out at the same time because they don't want to confuse people so out of my dreams is they're focusing on first and then later on uh maybe in a couple of months they will release the the ballet book how many books will that make for you I think 35 is that 30 something 30 been blessed when did your first book come out that now that's GNA tell you how old I am but it was back in the 90s tears of attar came out in 1997 okay okay I think you didn't mention that yes it's been over a period of time I was 12 so not quite not quite 30 years but yeah getting there yeah so um when you um did you anticipate releasing all these books when you wrote the first one no no no I was a teacher and I you know I knew I could write because I knew how to teach writing and I you know I would scribble and write things myself all the time um but I had this idea of to write a book for the kids that I'm reading because you know what they make you do they had we had to read Charles dick and you know Silas Marner and all of the books that are put in the curriculum for kids to read there was nothing oh we got to read one langson Hughes poem every year but unless I brought in extra activities for the kids the uh there was not a whole lot of racial differentiation in the books early on you know that right right so um so the when I wrote the book I was teaching high school and I people say well is which student is that I don't know when you work with eight classes a day they all kind of merge together but I it's about a a a boy um who uh just wants to get out of ninth grade I mean he's you know he plays basketball he's likes a girl he you know there there's nothing outstanding about him except what happens to him and in chapter one uh he and his best friend are driving around acting silly had something to drink and uh they have an accident and one of them is killed and so it's like it hits them real hard and you know deals with grief it deals with guilt it deals with you know all of the emotions that goes along with that and um I've received so many letters from kids that said I've never had anybody write about death before I had this happen in my family and you know my mother my aunt my uncle my brother my sister you know and it helped me to have a way to cope with a death situation in my life so um I was just going to ask you um I I always admire children's authors who can write about such serious issues in a way for a child to understand and when you write about death and I know that these aren't young readers but um still they're still in that young developing age how do you write about something like that and then be able to write it in a way that resonates with them um I don't know um you know when kids ask me that questions like that I say if you put me in the kitchen on Thanksgiving day you would kick me out because I'm not a very good cook that's not my gift you know I'm not a good cook but if you give me a bunch of words and you give me a story I can write a story so I tell kids all the time you have to find your gift you know if your gift is a saxophone then go for it if that's what makes you happy do it that's what you're good at if it's easy for you some kids can draw I can't draw you know I do the stick figure thing but if uh if you have that gift then do it if you have art as a gift if you like painting so I when I talk to students I tell them you don't have to be like me you just have to find what your gift is because everybody has and then focus on that and you'll never be unhappy if you're doing what your gift is you know through the rest of your life you got to get a job so you may as well get a job doing something that you enjoy righten yeah that's that's um like the best of Both Worlds or all worlds if you're able to do for a living what you really enjoy most people don't necessarily get to do that a lot of times their job is what is their NE necessary thing right right and they do their gift thing on the side yeah like my you know I want to be a writer but I'm a packer for Amazon you know and yeah don't have you know you have to do what you what you can do I was very very fortunate to be able able to um you know to to climb up that ladder and do those um I talked to a lot of students that I try to encourage them I try to tell them yes you can but it you know I I tell them this book went through something like 600 revisions and I don't mean commas and capital letters It's like chapter 12 sucks rewrite it completely yeah so um okay the editing process is very intense and takes as long or longer than it did to write the book yeah yeah one of the viewers Anna Marie Smith said that we read Tears of a Tiger in high school for summer reading and it was phenomenal and so emotional oh thank you thank you it's a little bit dated because he has to go inside and pick up the phone off of the kids don't even know what that means to go ins I love watching the YouTube and um Instagram videos of the kids trying to pick up a phone yeah and um they don't know how to use it they're like how do you use this thing yeah they don't know how to dial with especially a rotary phone yeah rot really that's really taking you back well um I did also want to let you know that um the um the the viewers brother popped on and I don't know if you saw his comment but I thought it was so beautiful and I wanted to read it to you he said Mrs D it was such it's such a pleasure to see you and hear your voice after all these years I'm so excited for the world to see the amazing educator I've known for 40 years you changed my life at Walnut Hills who is who what's his name Michael gamble oh Michael yes of course I do remember Michael um you know and sometimes you'll run I'll run into them in mall and sometimes I remember once I did a school visit a little girl raised her hand she was like five and I said well you need sweetie and she said you taught my Grandma I said you [Laughter] just know it's very interesting though because my daughter and my mother both graduated from the same school so my my mother graduated in 1968 my daughter graduated in 28 they had the same chemistry teacher wow W her chem my my mother's chemistry teacher um when she that was her first job okay so when she she was like very young when she started teaching chemistry and so she's been teaching at that same school all these years and then one day my daughter was complaining about her chemistry teacher and my uh mom said well what's her name and when she said her name she goes that was my teacher yeah wow wow yeah some people really just love it and they're they're good at it and they make it a like you know the their careers for all the years well um Shar we're at the end of our interview time my goodness it goes fast it really does yeah let me tell you talk real quick about copper Sun um this is for older kids and this is wasn't from my my I made several trips to Africa and um somewhere in the process of all those trips I came out of this it's called copper sun it's about a girl who's happy in love got a mama who loves her a Daddy who loves her a boyfriend who's cute and uh and you know everything is perfect in her life and then the slavers come and so the story takes it's her story okay happiness in the motherland to being on a ship and being a a slave in h in the new world so that's coer son and that's that's for older kids that's i' say eighth grade and up Well you certainly have a an amazing body of work that students of all ages can enjoy so we really appreciate your having such a commitment to literature and to young readers and we know you're going to be continually successful W thank you and we did put your link in the chat so if anybody wants to um support any of these beautiful books you can just click on www. um Sharon draper.com yes um books okay and they can also um I I'm on email and Facebook too so they can they they know how to find me the kids know how to do that uh so um and if they send me an email I will respond might not be quick but I will respond and you know for the young people I just want to tell them find a book and read it find something that fascinates you find your the thing that makes you happy you know if you're good at the clarinet then do that you know if you're good at baseball then do that find the thing that makes you happy you got to work all your life you may as well enjoy it well thank you so much again and all best to you in your future career of as a writer well thank you so much for having me this was delightful I I really really enjoyed it I don't get a chance to to have this kind of conversation you know and it's we need more of this we need more of these amen amen do you know um Shar the work of Sharon flake I've heard the name but she hasn't been on the show uh she's another African-American author who we kind of write about the same age group the same tast and we run into each other a lot at conferences and stuff and you know we do the Sharon and Sharon show but uh look up Sharon flake she'd be a good person to uh to interview and she's got couple of new books coming out a thank so much we'll look her up okay okay have a great night thank you so much I really enjo it thanks for having me okay bye