Goodnight Papa Star
Goodnight Mama Moon,
Bending your silver arms
down through the darkness.
And so begins "Northern Lullaby" by Nancy White Carlstrom. The award-winning children's book author is back in our midst on Queen Anne after having lived in Alaska for almost 18 years.
"The common theme of all my books is relationships," Nancy says. "Relationships with family, between young and old, with God, and with the natural world."
With a nod to Margaret Wise Brown, author of the classic "Goodnight, Moon," Carlstom's book develops the theme, saying goodnight to each family member, comparing each to a natural wonder:
Goodnight Grandpa Mountain
In shimmering robe,
Straighten your nightcap
of new-fallen snow.
The early years
Nancy was born in 1948 in Washington, Pa., a small town southwest of Pittsburgh. She is the eldest of Bill and Eva White's four children. Her father was a steelworker.
Nancy began to write poems and stories when she was very young. In high school, she worked in the children's department of the local public library. She attended Wheaton College in Illinois and majored in elementary education. While still a college student she spent time in Liberia, West Africa, teaching children there.
For four years after graduating, she taught first and second grades, first in Pittsburgh, then in Gloucester, Mass. About that time, in 1973, she retold and illustrated two Liberian folk tales. She submitted them for publication and met with several rejections. (The tales never were published.)
In 1974, Nancy married David Carlstrom. The first two years of their marriage they lived in Boston, where Nancy studied children's literature and art at several area schools. Eventually she realized she was a stronger writer than illustrator and decided to focus on her strengths. "There's a lot more to illustrating a book than you would think," she says. "You can be an artist, but not an illustrator."
The Carlstroms moved to Seattle in 1976 and settled on Queen Anne in 1977. Later that year Nancy opened the Secret Garden Children's Bookshop on Queen Anne. The writing and rejections continued while she ran the bookshop. If she wasn't disseminating children's literature one way, at least she was doing so another.
Nancy committed herself to "sticking it out" as a writer in 1981, when she attended the Port Townsend Writers' Conference, held annually by Centrum. At a workshop with children's book author Jane Yolen, in 11 intense days, Nancy wrote "Wild Wild Sunflower Child Anna," a story about a young girl exploring nature.
Family and acceptance
In 1982 the Carlstroms had their first child, Jesse, and the next year Nancy decided to sell the Secret Garden to a friend who had managed the shop for some time. Motherhood inspired Nancy to pen "Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?" After receiving more than a hundred rejections for books over the years, it was her first acceptance - the end of a long drought, and the beginning of what turned out to be a series of Jesse Bear books. Last year brought the 10th and final entry in that series, "Climb the Family Tree, Jesse Bear."
A second son, Josh, was born in 1986. A few years later Nancy published "Swim the Silver Sea, Joshie Otter." That book and the Jesse Bear series are among her favorites, for obvious personal reasons, as well as "Wild Wild Sunflower Child Anna," because it was written at a watershed time in her life. It was published in 1987.
In 1987 the Carlstrom family moved to Fairbanks, Alaska, where David had been hired as marketing director of the airport. The job was supposed to be for two years; it ended up lasting as long as their sons' upbringings.
They lived in the countryside outside town, close to nature, surrounded by lots of space and wildlife.
"It was wonderfully stimulating," says Nancy. "The books just poured out of me." Not all the books she wrote during that time are set in Alaska, but many are, including "Northern Lullaby" (1992) and "Raven and River" (1997).
The process
With the exception of "Wild Anna," it can take years for Nancy to write a book, and she works on several at a time. "It's like cooking soup," she says. "I throw ideas into a file, mix them up and let them simmer."
What finally takes shape is a piece of writing that stands on its own as a poem. That is what she submits for publication. The publisher chooses an illustrator, who turns the poem into something more.
It's the illustrator who decides how Nancy's text should be paginated. Nancy has very little input about the choice of illustrator, and very little interaction with them once they're chosen.
The exception has been Bruce Degen, illustrator of the Jesse Bear series. "That has been more of a collaboration," Nancy says. He has illustrated all 10 Jesse Bear books.
"Generally," Nancy explains, "editors prefer you have a variety of illustrators, except in the case of a series." Nancy has been delighted with them all.
When she writes, Nancy feels that she is celebrating life, connecting with people and processing things for herself. For example, "Blow Me a Kiss, Miss Lily" (1990) was inspired by Queen Anne neighbor Miriam Askren, then 88. Miriam had a heart attack, and Nancy watched as she was taken away by an ambulance, fearing that she would die. Nancy wrote "Blow Me a Kiss" to work through those fears.
Fortunately, Miriam lived another six years.
Nancy has received many good reviews, but personal responses mean much more to her. To learn that she has helped someone is the greatest compliment of all. "Once a mother wrote that her hospitalized child was uplifted by one of my books," she says. That single letter remains fresh in her memory.
Moving 'back south'
Over the years, Nancy grew tired of Alaskan winters. "The darkness and cold get to you," she says. An empty nest and the end of her husband's job coincided, and it was time to leave.
In November, the Carlstroms moved "back south," as they say in the North. "I'm so happy to be back," Nancy says.
At the time of her first publication, the market was receptive to Nancy's work, because "poetry was in," she says, "rhyme was hot." Though she has since published more than 55 books in 10 countries, the climate has changed.
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