July Author Penny Parker Klostermann Talks Mentor Texts

You guys are GREAT at the game of follow the leader! You've made it to Part 2 of Penny's interview! If you are just joining the game, join Penny for Part 1 HERE. I only have one question remaining, and as promised, it tackles the ever-important topic of mentor texts.

Were there any particular mentor texts that inspired you in the creation of THERE WAS AN OLD DRAGON WHO SWALLOWED A KNIGHT? (Or another one of your upcoming published books?)

Definitely! I knew I wanted to do a rewrite of a cumulative tale. I had many ideas recorded in my PiBoIdMo lists from 2011 and 2012. When I settled on a rewrite of THERE WAS AN OLD LADY WHO SWALLOWED A FLY, I searched the Internet for every possible rewrite. Luckily, my library had a slew of them. I read over 25 versions, which ranged from rollicking and hilarious to yawn-inducing. My favorites had that something extra.
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I really liked the refrain, "Yippee-o-Ki-Yee​!"​​​​ in THERE WAS AN OLD COYOTE WHO SWALLOWED A FLEA by Jennifer Ward​. I found another funny refrain in THERE WAS AN OLD MONSTER! by Rebecca, Adrian, and Ed Emberley​, "Scritchy-scratch, scritch, scritchy-scratch, scritchy-scratch, ​scritch, scritchy-scratch.​" And you can't listen to this without getting excited about the rhythm of this book.

I knew I had to come up with a twist to make mine stand out. It’s funny, but the yawn-inducing ones ended up inspiring my twist by making me think that the main character in those books was probably bored and irritated with the whole yawn-inducing, swallowing thing and wanted to shout, “Enough of this, already!” So there it was. My dragon actually says something very similar to that. And then I studied my favorite endings in my mentor texts and knew I wanted a twist at the end, too. I feel I came up with one that’s never been done before . . . at least as far as I know. My dragon actually ends up pretty happy.

For my next book, A COOKED UP FAIRY TALE, David Ezra Stein’s, INTERRUPTING CHICKEN, lingered in the back of my mind. I loved how his story incorporated several fairy tales. So I set out to write a fairy tale mash-up/fractured fairy tale.  As it turns out, my character lives in the fairy tales, but the way Stein uses multiple fairy tales in his story was definitely a mentor text in the beginning. And I must mention that to this day, INTERRUPTING CHICKEN is one of my favorite books.

Stein's book was a great mentor text for weaving stories within a story. I ​also admired the wordplay and pacing in Leigh Hodgkinson's GOLDILOCKS AND JUST ONE BEAR.​ ​I studied ​her book because in my mind, it was "just right." :-) ​

Oooo, I love INTERRUPTING CHICKEN and GOLDILOCKS AND JUST ONE BEAR, too! (In fact, I've had Leigh's book checked out from the library for waaaay too long.  I'm using it as a mentor text in my own fairy tale mash-up.) A Cooked Up Fairy Tale sounds like fun, Penny! And I already love I Know an Old Dragon Who Swallowed a Knight. For my sneak peek review, visit HERE. If you have not yet read Part 1 of Penny's interview, visit HERE.

Thank you for being our guest today, Penny!

Thank you so much for having me, Carrie.

Penny Parker Klostermann is the author of There Was an Old Dragon Who Swallowed a Knight. She loves all kinds of books, but especially loves very silly picture books that make her laugh. She has been known to hug her favorite picture books and seriously hopes that someday her books will gain huggable status too. Penny lives in Abilene, TX. Find out more about Penny on her website: www.pennyklostermann.com. You can follow her BLOG TOUR for I KNOW AN OLD DRAGON WHO SWALLOWED A KNIGHT at this link.