JITTERBUG JAM:
A MONSTER TALE
Jitterbug Jam: A Monster Tale
by Barbara Jean Hicks
Illustrated by Alexis DeaconWhat's a little monster to do about a boy hiding under the bed? Acting on the advice of his grandpa Boo-Dad, Bobo confronts the boy with a "great big toothy grin"—and gets unexpected results!
Set in an other-world full of enchantment and surprise, this award-winning role reversal tale encourages readers to look beyond stereotypes to the heart of those who are different from themselves.
The lyrical, magically illustrated text is also a perfect read-aloud―guaranteed to keep even the littlest monster entertained!
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Reviews
"A read-aloud picture book with attitude. Great fun!" ―Book Sense
"A charming and wonderful story about how new friends could be just around the corner." ―Midwest Book Review
"A funny, warm, enchanting tale of courage and discovery ... Captivating!" ―Okanagan University College News and Reviews
"A clever premise children will love." ―Seattle's Child
"Delightful and lyrical ... a perfect read-aloud. A most original and engaging triumph of language, illustration and design." ―Glasgow Sunday Herald
"A lyrical story of monster proportions." ―Mybooks magazine
"A crackerjack read aloud ... Nighttime worriers will be reassured and amused by this charming visit to the other side of the closet wall." ―Starred, Booklist
"A book to fall into over and over again." ―Starred, The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
"Will have younger readers, timorous or otherwise, flocking to it 'quick as lickety-split 'n' spit fish.'" ―Starred, Kirkus Reviews
Ten Facts About JITTERBUG JAM
1. I got the idea for the plot of Jitterbug Jam from the funny papers! In July, 2001, I read one of my favorite comic strips, Mother Goose and Grimm, by Mike Peters. A monster was sitting up in bed telling another monster he couldn't sleep because he kept thinking a human was under his bed. I thought it was really funny and would make a great children's story.
2. The way Bobo talks in Jitterbug Jam sounds kind of like the way my grandmother, Lizzie Lou Willingham Hicks, used to talk when she would come to visit. Lizzie Lou was born and grew up in the U.S. state of Georgia.
3. In the first draft of Jitterbug Jam, it was only a little brown bunny making the noises under Bobo's bed. By the tenth draft, it was only Bobo's imagination. A real boy didn't show up until the fifteenth draft!
4. I got the idea for the theme of Jitterbug Jam from the kids at the school where I was working. They were from lots of different racial, ethnic, religious and language backgrounds, but they never let their differences get in the way of becoming friends.
5. About twenty American publishers rejected Jitterbug Jam before Caroline Roberts, the publisher at Hutchinson Children's Books in London, England, took it home with her after a hard day's work to read. She liked it because it made her laugh!
6. When Caroline read the manuscript for Jitterbug Jam, she right away saw pictures in her head by Alexis Deacon. Wasn't I lucky?! At the time, he was only 24 years old and had published one book called Slow Loris. Before Jitterbug Jam came out, he also published Beegu, which the New York Times Book Review also named one of the ten best-illustrated children's books of the year (2003). He is an awesome artist!
7. When Caroline first read Jitterbug Jam, it was named Dragonfly Jam, which was Bobo's favorite food. But Caroline told me that dragonflies are much too lovely to be eaten and Bobo's jam needed to be made out of some other kind of bug. I chose jitterbugs because they aren't a real bug and because I liked the sound.
8. Also in the original manuscript, Buster was the main character and Bobo was the older brother, but Caroline asked me if it would be all right to switch their names because everyone in the office kept calling the littlest monster Bobo!
9. New York publisher Farrar Strauss & Giroux was one of the American publishers that rejected Jitterbug Jam, but they ended up buying U.S. rights from Hutchinson and publishing the book in the United States. I'm very happy about that!
10. Over 200 people came to my book launch party for Jitterbug Jam. I served bug juice (Chinese basil seed drink) and jitterbug jam (jalapeno jelly) on toast. The kids at my school performed an original dance called the Monster Mash and did gymnastics, juggling, unicycling and Double Dutch jump roping. Everyone there got a chance to learn a special kind of swing dance called...yep, the Jitterbug!
Whipping Up a Batch of Jitterbug Jam:
Wherein the Author Reveals
How Jitterbug Jam: A Monster Tale Came to BeTea with milk and honey, toast with butter and jam and the funny papers.
For many years this has been my morning ritual. One day in the summer of 2001 it also became the inspiration for my first published children’s book, Jitterbug Jam.
I’d been writing romance novels for a dozen years. Not long before, a sharp-tongued reviewer had given me a bit of unsolicited career advice: “Ms. Hicks really ought to be writing for children. I can’t imagine any adult appreciating such silliness.”
After a week in bed with the covers pulled over my head—every fan letter, writing award and positive book review completely forgotten—I said to myself, “Well, why not? I’ve always wanted to write a children’s story…” I’d been working on ideas ever since.
That particular morning the tea was English breakfast, the jam was boysenberry, and the comic strip was Mike Peters’ Mother Goose & Grimm: a little monster telling his mother he couldn’t go to bed because a BOY was hiding under it.
Perfect!
So I started to play the Wonder Game. I wonder what a little monster who’s afraid of boys is like? And why is he afraid of boys? What must be the prevailing perception of boys in his monster community? I wonder what a monster family would look like?
I decided my little monster would have to tell me himself, so I let him loose:
Nobody believes me,
and my brother, Buster, says I’m a fraidy-cat,
but I’m not fooling you:
there’s a boy
who hides in my big old monster closet
all night long
and then sneaks under my bed in the morning
on purpose
to scare me.I’ve always been a seat-of-the-pants writer rather than a planner. Writing, for me, is a process of discovery. I start with an interesting character, let him or her develop a voice. I wait for him to surprise me, to take me to unexpected places. That’s the “juice” for me, the thing that makes writing fun.
So Bobo introduced me to his world. Boo-monsters are active at night and sleep during the day, he told me; the bright colors of daylight hurt their eyes. They live in families, and have brothers who aren’t always nice to them and grandpas who give good advice and mothers who tuck them into bed. They’re insectivores; Bobo’s personal favorite food is dragonfly jam. (Jitterbug jam came later, when my publisher decreed that dragonflies are much too lovely to be made into jam!)
And, Bobo told me, boo-monsters speak in their own distinctive dialect, musical, colloquial, and rich with image and metaphor—a dialect that I realized, after the fact and with some surprise, had much in common with my grandmother’s.
In the many versions that followed the first draft of the story, the character and voice and the trappings of the monster world grew more complex and clear. But the plot and theme, never fully realized, continued to founder. In answer to the question, “What is your story about?” I could answer with confidence, “It’s about a monster who’s afraid of the boy hiding under his bed.” But for the question, “What else is your story about? Why does it matter?” I had no answer.
It took the events of September 11, 2001 for me to begin to find the answer. The attack on New York’s World Trade Center, and the retaliation I knew without a doubt would not be far behind, changed everything for me. Suddenly my life needed to count for something. My work as a copyeditor and advertising copywriter, while satisfying on some levels, meant nothing in a world where people could perpetrate such unspeakable acts against one another. Within two weeks I was working instead with children, where my heart has always been—as it happened, in a school with an extremely diverse student population.
Having gone into the field with the goal of giving, I came away every day with a wonderful gift instead: hope. The students I worked with came from all over the world and represented a range of racial, ethnic, linguistic and religious backgrounds. In many places, even here in their families’ adopted country, their cultures were in conflict. Yet for the children themselves, none of that mattered. They were curious about each other, courageous about sharing themselves, all-accepting. They were friends.
Out of the drawer came Dragonfly Jam. I knew what needed to happen. I knew why it mattered.
In the first draft, Bobo’s “boy” was only a little brown bunny, quivering and quaking and just as afraid of Bobo as Bobo was of him. By the tenth draft, the “boy” was no more than fluff and dust and Bobo’s overactive imagination. Now, for the first time, the boy was a real boy, “pink skin, orange fur and all.” And while Bobo was still afraid, he was curious too. Curious and courageous—enough to ask questions, enough to wonder if he and that boy might not after all have something in common…
In early November 2001, my agent sent Bobo out on his own. He stopped in at a good two dozen publishers—including Hutchinson Children’s Books, where nine months and many revisions later, he changed his jam preference from dragonfly to jitterbug and found a permanent home. The publishing process was agonizingly long, but finally, Jitterbug Jam was released in Great Britain, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, France and Spain in 2004 and in the United States in 2005 (Farrar Straus & Giroux).
Meanwhile, I’m back to my morning ritual of tea with milk and honey, toast with butter and jam and the funny papers—waiting for inspiration to strike again.
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