For a free, downloadable teacher’s guide to Savvy, CLICK HERE (then scroll down) to be directed to the official Savvy site and PDF link.

I wanted to write a story that felt a little bit like a modern American tall tale as a way of presenting a different kind of magic to kids. I didn’t want to use the word ‘magic’ because I wanted readers to get the sense that a ‘savvy’ is something everyone has in them, even though, for the kids in the story, their particular talents are really exaggerated and fantastical.

With a savvy, there is always the element of the ideal versus the reality—what you dream about versus what you get. If I could pick, my savvy would probably be the ability to fly or to breathe underwater. But if I were to declare what my real, true, everyday savvy is, I think that I would have to say that I smile a lot, even through rough times. And I tend to spill things—usually on my shirt at dinner parties!

I think it might be impossible not to put a tiny bit of oneself into at least a few characters when you write. Like Samson, I prefer solitude. Like Lester, I tend to twitch. Like Lill, I often feel big and small at the same time. And like Mibs, I still struggle to weed out other people’s voices from my head. But I’ve never completely turned someone else that I know into a character in a story.

In Savvy, Mibs remembers talking to her grandpa about what a savvy is:

"Grandpa had recounted stories about our ancestors, and of relations both close and distant.  Since Beaumont was Poppa’s name, Grandpa’s stories held tales of Yeagers or Mendelssohns or Paynes, Danzingers, O’Connells, and Beachams.  He spoke of cousins and aunts and nephews and nieces who had used their savvy to do good things, and of those who’d made a different choice—like Grandma Dollop’s youngest sister, Jubilee, who could open any lock, and used her abilities to take things that didn’t belong to her." 

Scientists say that every blue-eyed person in the world probably share a single common ancestor. I’ve also read that one out of every 200 hundred men may be a descendant of Genghis Khan. If you follow your family tree back far enough, you may find yourself related to all kinds of people.

What if two blue-eyed people couldn't get married just because they both had blue eyes? Or two people who were both good at math? Or two talented painters? After all, part of what I try to show in Savvy is that everyone’s got a talent... so, perhaps Grandpa and Grandma were distantly related. Or, maybe they both just shared larger-than-life talents!

Savvy is currently in development and in the very capable, talented hands of the people  at Walden Media. Screenwriter, Karen Janszen is already at work!

Savvy is the fifth book to be published in joint venture between Walden Media and Penguin Young Readers Group, and the third to be optioned for a feature film.

Trust your own voice—trust that you have something worth sharing and that your ideas don’t have to be like everyone else’s. And have fun!

I loved books about magic, or books with a sense of wonder or adventure. Diana Wynne Jones was one of my favorite authors. I loved the Anne of Green Gables books as well. Arthurian legends, the Lord of the Rings, the Chronicles of Prydain, books about spies... I loved them all. I also enjoyed science fiction as well, but more so later, in my teens. I think I enjoyed anything that showed me new worlds or new ways of looking at the world. But mostly, I wanted to be wrapped up in an adventure.

Some names just popped into my head and feel right—first names especially. Others took more time to find. The Beaumont kids all have unusual names that set them apart just as their abilities do, however, like their abilities, as you get familiar with them, they start to seem normal and just part of who they are—even their names get ‘scumbled.’ Mibs, on the other hand, has a nickname (her real name is Mississippi) that sets her apart even from her siblings. This is because, as the main character, I wanted her to be even more different.

Long before I ever started writing my stories down, I had dozens of them in my head. I used to make up long, complicated stories to entertain myself and also to keep myself from getting anxious. I was often a very nervous kid--always worried about something--and I discovered that inventing stories and creating new worlds and characters kept me from worrying about everyday things more than I should. Worry is all about: "What if?" But so is storytelling! So, I wanted to use my "What if?" talents for something more fun and productive.

The first draft of Savvy came very quickly—about four and a half months. I was working at the time and I’m a single mom, so I’m not even sure how it happened that fast. Once I found an agent and a publisher, I spent several more months in the revision and editing process. But start to finish, from the first sentence that popped into my head to the last line edit emailed back to my editor, the book took about nine months. I’m not sure I’ll ever achieve that kind of pace again!

I am working on a follow up to Savvy (as yet untitled). The next book could be called a sequel, or a companion book. But it follows an all new main character--one nobody's met before, a cousin of the Beaumonts. But there will be some familiar faces along the way. I felt Mibs's story had been seen through to the end and wanted to explore a "savvy" birthday from an all new perspective, while still being able to spend time with some of the characters I love. It will come out sometime next year (2010).