Jitterbug Jam:
A Monster Tale
by Barbara Jean Hicks
Illustrated by Alexis Deacon
What'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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WOW!
Click on the cover to hear
Jitterbug Jam
read aloud.
Follow along in your own book, or close your eyes
and use your imagination...
AWARDS & HONORS FOR JITTERBUG JAM
American
Library Association:
2006 Notable Children’s Book
Banks Street College of Education:
2006 Book of Outstanding Merit
Children’s Literature Assembly:
2006 Notable Children’s Book / Language Arts
Child Magazine:
Best Children’s Books, 2005
Nick Jr. Family Magazine:
Best Children’s Books, 2005
New York Times Book Review:
Best Illustrated Books, 2005
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 Be
Tea 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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