BIO

Patricia Reilly Giff is the author of the Newbery Honor Books LILY'S CROSSING and PICTURES OF HOLLIS WOODS. LILY'S CROSSING is also a Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor Book. Giff's NORY RYAN'S SONG is an ALA Notable Book, Best Book for Young Adults, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, and a Golden Kite Honor Book.

INTERVIEW

September 2003

Kidsreads.com's Wiley Saichek talks with Patricia Reilly Giff about her latest novel MAGGIE'S DOOR, the companion to NORY RYAN'S SONG. Giff describes the research she conducted for both books and offers helpful advice to young people who would like to learn more about their family's background.

Q: Had you planned that there would be a follow-up book when you wrote NORY RYAN'S SONG, or did that idea come to you after you finished writing it?

PRG: I had always wanted to do three books on Ireland: one on the Great Hunger, one on the Land War of 1880, and one on the Uprising. I never expected to follow Nory to the United States. But the idea of what might have happened on the crossing intrigued me, and stories I'd heard over the years about that terrible crossing, convinced me to write MAGGIE'S DOOR.

Q: Why did you decide to write NORY RYAN'S SONG in the first-person and MAGGIE'S DOOR in third-person?

PRG: This time I wanted to give Sean Red Mallon a bigger part in the story. To use first person for both would be very confusing, I thought.

Q: The Ryans and Mallons were wonderful characters. Do you plan on continuing their story in a third book? Why or why not?

PRG: I'm never sure when I've told everything about a character. I wonder not so much about what happens to Nory next, but what might happen to her family. I am sure she would marry Sean Red one day and that she'd name a daughter Bird after her grandmother. What would it be like for Bird as the daughter in an Irish American family? There! That's the beginning, isn't it?

Q: Your essays at the back of NORY RYAN'S SONG and MAGGIE'S DOOR are so moving. They give readers a personal perspective that makes them want to re-read the books with your own family in mind. Have you considered writing a full-length nonfiction book on your Irish background and/or the potato famine? Why or why not?

PRG: Sure, I'd love to tell the story of growing up in Queens, Long Island as an Irish-American girl. Would anyone want to read it?

Q: What was the most fascinating thing you learned during your research for MAGGIE'S DOOR and NORY RYAN'S SONG? What was the most challenging aspect of the research or writing of these books?

PRG: So much of the research had to do with traveling and seeing and talking to people. I found my great-grandmother's house, where my beautiful grandmother took her first steps. In front of that tiny house, surrounded by those washed green fields, I promised I'd write a book that would tell our family's history. I walked up the hill and there was Patrick's Well. Scraps of fabric fluttered from the overhanging tree. "Prayers, each one of them," my second cousin told me.

And MAGGIE'S DOOR ... to see replicas of those tiny ships, to sit in the Library in Dublin and learn that the Irish people were used as ballast!

Q: I loved the herb and healing information in MAGGIE'S DOOR. Were the remedies mentioned in this book, as well as in NORY RYAN'S SONG, remedies that have been used by your family, or did you learn about them during research?

PRG: The story of the package in NORY RYAN'S SONG is based on a story my Irish cousin told me. But so many of the stories I might have learned were gone. My grandmother, who might have told me about her mother and father, died just before I was born. I learned so much in Longford, Ireland where people were willing to talk to me and direct me to places where I might learn more.

Q: In your opinion, do schools (in general) do a good job of teaching about the background of America's Irish population? What suggestions do you have for history teachers --- and students --- who may want to explore this subject beyond textbooks?

PRG: Having taught for twenty years, I know how hard it is to teach everything you'd want your students to learn. I do think that showing children the way to learn about their backgrounds may be the key: to teach them how to interview parents and especially grandparents, to show them how to use the tools in the library, to see old newspapers, to read. Ah, to read … isn't that one of the most important skills in seeking knowledge!

Q: What advice do you have for readers who are interested in looking into their own family background/heritage?

PRG: Ask! If only I had asked my parents about their backgrounds, about their parents and grandparents. Think about what you want to know. Write it down and save the answers.

Q: When can readers expect your next book? We'd love it if you could share a little about your work(s)-in-progress.

PRG: I call it A HOUSE OF TAILORS. I loved writing that book. I savored every word, laughing over it, crying over it. It will be out in 2004. I hope you'll read it. I hope you'll love it.