After graduating from Stanford University, Martha Freeman worked as a newspaper reporter, copy editor, substitute teacher, college lecturer, advertising copywriter and magazine writer before finding her true calling as a writer of children's books. She has since written more than 20 books for children. Freeman's new children's picture book is If You're Going to a March.From the author's Q&A with Deborah Kalb:
Q: What inspired your new book, If You're Going to a March?Visit Martha Freeman's website.
A: Like a lot of people, I have found myself going to a lot of marches since January 2017. To make lemonade out of the situation -- this is a good thing. I think many of us were complacent and the current political situation has shaken us awake. (Shaken us "woke"?)
At these marches, there were a lot of kids. Since many of the issues (gun violence, family separation, climate change) disproportionately affect today's kids today and as representatives of future generations -- this made sense.
But I thought young children especially might not know what to expect at a march, and might not know the larger significance of political action in a democracy even if they'd been to one or two. I also thought parents could use a book like mine as a jumping off point for...[read on]
My Book, The Movie: Strudel's Forever Home.
The Page 69 Test: Strudel's Forever Home.
Writers Read: Martha Freeman (January 2018).
The Page 69 Test: Zap.
--Marshal Zeringue