I adore a good fractured fairy tale and today’s book is a great one!

Lynne Marie has visited my blog several times before.   She is an award-winning, multi-published author of several picture books including MOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE SCARES, with more forthcoming. She’s the Director of RateYourStory.org and ThePictureBookMechanic.com, and an Editor/Columnist at http://www.writeforkids.org. She splits her time between New York and Florida. When she’s not writing slightly spooky stories, she’s celebrating holidays — spooky, silly and sweet over at www.seasonsofkidlit.com. You can learn more about her at her website or follow her on Twitter, Instagram, BlueSky, or Facebook.

HENNY PENNY’S WEATHER WORRIES is a new twist on the Chicken Little story. Henny Penny and all the other fairy tale characters at Fairy Tale Elementary School are rushed inside from recess when a sudden thunder storm erupts. Henny Penny is hit on the head with a pea and chaos ensues as you might expect. What is unexpected is the added layer of animal weather myths that weaves through the story. Think of the Groundhog seeing his shadow predicting spring and you get the idea. It’s an incredible inclusion that raises the STEM matter of the story to a whole new level.

Welcome back Lynne Marie!

Me: I’m so excited that you have revisited the world of Fairy Tale Elementary school. I love the concept of this book! How did you come up with combining Henny Penny and weather myths?

Lynne Marie: Awww, thanks! I love the Fairy Tale Elementary concept as well! Because of the line “the sky is falling,” weather seemed like a natural backdrop.  And I wanted kids to be able to identify with Henny Penny. A reader can easily understand that she would have been anxious about bad weather, so that when the pea hit her, she overreacted.

Me: The illustrations by Wendy Fedan are so adorable! I hope you both work together on many more books in this world! Were there any illustrating surprises for you in this book? Any favorites?

Lynne Marie: Yes! I love what she does with a blank page. Her characters are so expressive and active! We are working together on the first book in the Colossal Kids Series: A Titanic Pet Problem (Little Zeus). It’s a really good one and I’m super excited about it!

Me: Oh! I can’t wait to read that! I adore all of the new characters introduced here in this story. Between your text and Wendy Fedan’s illustrations, the characters just spring to life and they all fit naturally into this world. Were there any character additions that surprised you after THE THREE LITTLE PIGS & THE ROCKET PROJECT? Any new characters that became a new favorite in this book?

Lynne Marie: Awww, thank you. I really do love the way she brings these characters to life as well! Because of the weather myths and the necessary associated animals, I needed to bring in the Frog Prince (German Fairy Tale), Fox (famous from Greek and Hebrew Fables), Cow (English Nursery Rhyme – Hey Diddle Diddle), Baby Bear (English Fairy Tale – Goldilocks and the Three Bears) and Puss-in-Boots (Italian Fairy tale), in addition to the Princesses (this time Cinderella and Aurora are joined by Snow White of the German Fairy Tale). I also squeezed in the Pied Piper (German Folktale) as a Recess Monitor, and the Four and Twenty Blackbirds (English Nursery Rhyme) as well. My objective is to introduce kids (even if just planting a seed of recognition) to other fairy tales, fables, folktales and nursery rhymes), which was a focus of my studies in college. As you can tell, they are all favorites and I hope others will feel the same! 

Me: This story builds and builds (just like the original Henny Penny) to a climax point that, once again, I wasn’t expecting. I loved that! Was your text like this in every draft of the story?  How many revisions did it take to get to this wonderful state?

Lynne Marie: Yes, this is one of those stories that I formulated in my head before putting it to paper. I do change the file name to a different version number every time I reread/revise a manuscript, even if only making a slight tweak. I did peek at the original and it is virtually the same as version ten. I think the key is that I had figured out the logistics and details in my head to make sure they would work, before writing and getting caught up in the words.

Me: What is one thing that surprised you in writing this story?

Lynne Marie: How much I still love fairy tales, folktales, fables and nursery rhymes, and how much relevant takeaway value they still have for children. The fracturing potential to make them a bit more modern and relevant is endless, as well as fun and challenging!  

Me: You’ve once again included back matter here. Can you talk about your research process? How much research did you have to do to find so many animal weather myths? Where did you find all your facts? Any special resources?

Lynne Marie: For my research, I read Farmer Almanacs, books and online articles. I had to do quite a bit of reading and note-taking, before selecting animals that could be depicted in recognizable characters. I don’t have my handwritten notes as I travel between homes, but I do want to emphasize that research has become highly accessible even from home with the current state of the Internet and its portals. The main objective is to locate trusted sources, like copies of a Farmer’s Almanac and scholarly websites. Another procedure is to make sure that you have three sources to support each “common belief” (in my case) or “fact” you find.

Me: The last book in this fairy tale world had a companion coloring book. Will this book have that too? Or anything STEM related (like school weather projects readers can do themselves, etc.)? 

Lynne Marie: Yes, Wendy is working on getting the coloring book uploaded. That is another thing that I loved as a child – coloring books! And I do think coloring is an important activity for children that has been somewhat overlooked in recent times. So I am happy to provide this medium for kids to color on, in addition to enjoying the story and its takeaway, as well as the introduction to these characters. I think there’s a lot of fodder for teachers, librarians and parents to expand upon for a satisfying learning experience.

I agree! Thank you for stopping by my blog again today Lynne Marie.

Dear readers, this book was published in March. If you haven’t had a chance to check it out yet, I highly recommend it (especially if you’re fans of fractured fairy tales like me). I can easily see using this in the classroom due to the STEM material. It would certainly create a lot of interesting discussions! You won’t want to miss this one.