Who are Tara and Mike? Think of Ebert and Roeper–but discussing children’s books instead of movies. This week we’re giving two bookmarks up to Neil Armstrong is My Uncle & Other Lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me by Nan Marino (Roaring Brook Press, May 2009).
“Muscle Man McGinty is a squirrelly runt, a lying snake, and a pitiful excuse for a ten-year old. The problem is…only I can see him for what he really is.”
Tara: So Mike, what attracted you to Neil Armstrong is My Uncle?
Mike Jung: Well, Tara, it was partly the cover (the moon, it’s a very evocative image), partly Nan being a Blueboarder and seeming like a decent sort, and partly the title, which really spoke to me somehow—I instantly felt like there was a story right there in the title. Why’d you read it?
Tara: The title especially drew me in. Even though it mentions the first man on the moon, I didn’t realize the story took place during the summer of 1969, so I was pleasantly surprised. I became immersed in the summers of my childhood, anticipating the arrival of the ice cream truck, just like the kids on Ramble Street.
Before I read it, I imagined Muscle Man McGinty was some sideshow freak at a local carnival. I’m glad he turned out to be a scrawny ten-year-old instead.
Mike: Ha! I was caught off-guard by the time period too. 1969 was the veeeeeery beginning of my time (I was born in the summer of ‘69) so it didn’t trigger any memories, but I thought the setting was so vivid, and so lovingly created, that I was immersed in it right away. And I had the same thought about Muscle Man McGinty! I also loved the character he turned out to be—so much sadness, courage, generosity and patience rolled up in one runty little kid.
Tara: Uh, maybe I shouldn’t have dated myself like that. 1969 was before my time, but still, if you remove the historical backdrop—Vietnam and the lunar landing—the story has a timeless feel. It felt like 1979 in my neighborhood, but it could easily take place in 2009, although the kids would be wearing bike helmets and the adults would be talking about Afghanistan and flying cars. If we had flying cars, that is.
What about the novel hooked you?
Mike: I was hooked by more than one thing—the setting, as I mentioned, was superb—but it was the characters that really grabbed me, especially Tammy. I love the voice of Tammy. She’s an incredibly genuine, multi-faceted, fully-realized character. In my eyes, one of the ways to create a successful protagonist is to put all their flaws on glaring, unmistakable display, but still make them sympathetic and understandable. Tammy often comes across as self-involved, oblivious and sullen in all the normal 10-year-old ways—she’s not some kind of villain, but she’s also not super-cuddly and lovable. I loved her anyway.
Tara: Confession: I didn’t love Tammy all the way through the novel. But I loved that I didn’t love her. I can’t recall the last time I felt such conflicting emotion over a main character. I rooted for her, even though I didn’t necessarily agree with her actions. The narration was brilliant because it revealed Tamara’s world so slowly, making you trust her implicitly at first, but toward the end you realized she could be h
Reach for a Memory
by Nan Marino
When it comes to writing, there are good and bad days. On a good day, you’ve got tons of ideas. Words flow. The sun shines. Everything is easy. But there are times when idea spigot gets a little clogged. Don’t worry. It happens to everyone.
On days when I’m looking for the mental equivalent of bottle of liquid Drano, I reach back to my childhood memories. First I think of a particular moment and try to recall the feelings surrounding it. Then I write. When I’m done, I move things around, alter it a little (or a lot), and turn it into fiction.
My debut middle grade novel, Neil Armstrong is My Uncle and Other Lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me, is filled with altered memories. When I was about ten, a boy who lived on my street challenged the entire block to a game of kickball. All of us against one kid! In real life after about five minutes, we got bored watching him chase after the ball, and we moved onto something else. In my book, that game stretches out for an entire week.
Childhood memories make great writing prompts. Below are more memories I incorporated into my book. Feel free to write about any of them to get your creative juices flowing:
The Ice Cream Truck: When 4th or 5th graders send me drawings of scenes from my book, someone always draws the ice cream truck scene. Everyone connects with Mr. Softee. It’s an iconic symbol of summer. Remember waiting for the ice cream truck to come around? Did you have a favorite flavor ice cream?
Kickball, baseball, handball: Did you play? Were you one of those kids who took it seriously or did you sit on the sidelines?
Barbeques: I like barbeques because they happen over and over again. We eat the same kind of food and gather together with the same group of family or friends. It creates that feeling of endless summer days. What happened at your barbeques? Did you have an uncle who made great cherry pies? Was there a neighbor who sang a special song?
Dandelions: Nothing separates adults and children more than their feelings about dandelions. It’s the first flower you probably picked, and the first one you gave to someone you loved. I dare you to find one person under the age of ten who thinks it makes perfectly good sense to spend your precious weekend hours trying to eradicate them from your front lawn.
Songs and Dances: Madonna or Nirvana? Springsteen or Sinatra? A single song can take you back to that day when you were seven… Need more inspiration? Download it and dance!
Historical events: What happened when you were young? Do you remember the first time a man walked on the moon, the bicentennial, the assassination of John Lennon, the Berlin Wall coming down, the first Gulf War, the Y2K scare? From a child’s eyes, these events are seen differently.
Your secret place: Was it up in a tree? Behind the couch? Or up on the garage roof?
Remembering ordinary moments from your childhood is a great way to begin writing. Next time you need some inspiration for your fiction, reach for a memory.
Nan Marino spent her childhood climbing trees and hanging out on garage roofs in the town of Massapequa Park, New York. Since then, she’s ventured a hundred miles south to the Jersey shore where she works as a librarian and lives with her husband and their dog. Neil Armstrong Is My Uncle and Other Lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me, published by Roaring Brook Press (May 2009), is her first novel.
We begin today with a mild pet peeve of mine. Here we go. You see this lovely new paperback edition cover of the book Neil Armstrong Is My Uncle and Other Lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me? Well I had great affection for the original story, though I was relatively lukewarm on its first cover. The original jacket just sported an image of the moon with a little astronaut sticking in a flag. Clearly they wanted to spice things up a bit. I don’t blame them. Lots of great books see a second life in paperback when they go with a more contemporary photographed look. That said, this particular book’s new cover suffers from a current trend I’ve found in some children’s jackets. It is a whatever-you-do-don’t-make-the-kids-think-the-book-is-historical cover. Now look at it. Look long and hard. Is there anything about the hair or dress of these two kids that screams 1969 to you? You might argue “well, is there anything that looks absolutely contemporary?” and you’d be right. But they’re definitely fudging the time period. This will happen from time to time. A bit of historical fiction will end up faking its cover to look contemporary, for all sorts of reasons. Generally you can get around this if you shoot the photo close up (as with Frances O’Roark Dowell’s Shooting the Moon) or the characters backs (though I’m still pretty sure the hair on Doris Gwaltney’s WWII novel Homefront was a bit suspect). Still and all, though I peer at this new Neil Armstrong book with a suspicious eye (shouldn’t Muscle Man McGinty be wearing glasses anyway?) it’s still loads better than the original back of the jacket for A Friendship for Today by Patricia McKissack. There you saw two pairs of legs wearing jeans (on girls in the American South in the 1950s) and Airwalk sneakers. Airwalks were established in 1986, folks. My oh me oh my. Nice book, though.
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I loved Muscle Man McGinty, and I REALLY don’t like this cover! Thank you for articulating my feelings–I probably wouldn’t have realized exactly what was bugging me, but I agree about the trying to hide the historical nature of the book. Argh.
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Yikes! Historical fudging aside, the design on that cover is atrocious. Shame, for such a lovely little book.
Also, that’s a photo of Buzz Aldrin, not Neil Armstrong. C’mon.
Woah. Okay, Brian. I gotta ask. You’re the expert… how do you know? You’re pulling my leg here, right?
Thank you so much for the Eric Carpenter list! My oldest son is beginning 2nd grade next week, and I’m tickled to have a custom-made (as it were) booklist to share with him.
Two part answer!
First, the picture on the jacket, though cropped and upside down, is still recognizable as the most iconic of all astronaut-on-the-moon photos, and is of Aldrin. Here it is, intact: http://www.nasaimages.org/luna/servlet/detail/nasaNAS~5~5~21581~126368:Buzz-Aldrin-on-the-Moon
Second, and maybe more interestingly, there are in fact almost no pictures of Armstrong on the moon. Armstrong and Aldrin shared the camera, and while Armstrong took plenty of pictures of Aldrin, Aldrin, for whatever reason, took almost none of Armstrong. Armstrong shows up incidentally in a couple of images, but is the focus of none. The best picture we have of him on the moon was teased out of video footage taken by an automated camera: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1200725/Never-seen-photo-shows-Neil-Armstrongs-face-walks-moon.html
Consider your leg unpulled!
Unpulled it is! And what a magnificent encapsulation. I doff my hat to you, Mr. Floca. Together, I propose that you and I shall become forensic book jacket scientists. Picking apart the minutia of misbegotten covers. You handle anything that has to do with astronauts. I’ll cover anything that has to do with various cinematic versions of the film “The Phantom of the Opera” (because sadly I feel unqualified to call myself a specialist in any knowledge I acquired post 9th grade).