Your Questions Answered

the grand escape

Comment:

I love the grand escape with marco and pollo. I read it and it was the best.

Phyllis replied:

Ah, yes….the Cat Pack books.   If you are a person who likes cats, you’d probably love my cat quartet of books, about two house cats who want to sneak out and explore the neighborhood:  The Grand Escape, The Healing of Texas Jake, Polo’s Mother, and Carlotta’s Kittens.   If you like adventure and comedy all mixed together–including Steak Knife and his gang, you’d love to read about these two house cats who get mixed up with Texas Jake and his crew.

How many states have you been in?

Comment:

How many states have you been in to meet people

Phyllis replied:

I am proud to say that I have been in all fifty states.  Shiloh won so many state awards that after the Newbery, I finally was able to visit Alaska and Hawaii,  Although South Dakota was the final state we went to.  It was the one state I had not spoken in or traveled through, so one year when my husband and I visited our older son and his family in Minneapolis, we made a side trip to South Dakota.  I am so impressed with the variety in this land of ours, especially traveling by train where you can be in a pear orchard when you leave on a trip and wake up to find snow and mountains the next morning.

 

Fun facts

comment:

I am portraying you in the Eagle Elementary (Brownsburg, IN) 4th Grade Wax Museum later this month! Can you share any fun and less known facts about yourself that I can incorporate into my presentation? Also, I need to dress like you. What is your favorite color? I plan on talking about how you hand write your drafts which is so cool. I love the Shiloh book too but it is so sad.

Phyllis replied:

A wax museum!  Well, I certainly will be well-preserved, won’t I?  Little known facts about myself:  I’m afraid of heights, I’m a choco-holic, the third letter of all three of my names is a “y,” and my desk is the messiest part of my house.  My favorite color is teal and I right now I am dressed in black pants and a white long-sleeve tee.  And earrings.  I love earrings, so I wear them everywhere.

 

Thank you for your books

Comment:

Hello there! My name is Julia and I just wanted to say thank you. I remember first hearing of the name Phyllis Reynolds Naylor back when I was in 3rd grade. My teacher would read the Cat Pack books to us. They were my favorite series (and they still are!) Growing up, I would read the relatable and intriguing Alice books. I was pleasantly surprised when I realized that the same author had written my favorite books. I enjoy your work very much and appreciate everything you do. I hope you have a lovely day!

Phyllis replied:

Thanks so much for telling me so.  I had a lot of fun writing both of those series.

Parent/Educational

Comment:

My little girl is 10yrs old. She has been assigned to write about Famous Hoosiers. You were one of the choices, she is doing you. She has learned a lot. She wanted to put your parents first name in your childhood section, but cant find them. She is enjoying learning about you and glad she got you. My email, her mother is above. Thank you, have a blessed day. We hope to hear from you.

Phyllis replied:

My father’s first name was Eugene.  My mother’s was Lura.

Thank you for the Witch books!

Comment:

This isn’t actually a question, I just really wanted to tell you how much I loved your witch series books. As an eight or nine year old in a school in London your books enthralled me. They made my imagination come alive and I was riveted by them. I actually felt like I was a character in them. I was only able to read the first two as at the time we had no others in our library but maybe the others hadn’t been written then. For years I would look for your witch saga books in bookstores here but could never find them. Then whilst looking you up on the internet I found that you had written a whole series of witch books. I now have all six and even though three of them are pre owned I was over the moon to have them, I am waiting for a time to sit down, get cosy and read them one after the other. Even though I am 49! A good book is a good book whether you are 8 or 80! Thank you to you and Judy Blume for giving me a love of reading. What a wonderful gift you both possess.
With love to you,

Phyllis replied:
I’m so glad you found them all!  the first three came out from one publisher, and the next three, from another but they are one continued story.  I had so much fun writing them.  I had set out to write a truly scary story, and I tried to think what was the scariest thing that could happen.  Then I remembered a nightmare I’d had when I was very young–that my dear sweet mother had somehow had her legs chopped off at the knees and she was chasing me for some reason through the house, bumping along on these bloody stumps, and I was screaming, begging her to stop, but she kept coming.  I decided that the scariest thing was to have the person you loved and trusted most in the world suddenly turn against you, and that this would happen in the place you usually felt most secure.  Therefore the witch books take place right in the girls’ homes–in their bedrooms, even, and the person put in charge of them in many instances, is the person who wants to do them in.  Not for the faint of heart!

 

thank you

comment:

One of my students received a reply from you (we wrote letters a little while back and recently mailed them). You were the first author we have heard back from, so that is exciting, but more importantly, the 6th grade girl who received your signed letter, lost her mother 2 months ago to cancer. She is one of 5 young children who lost an involved, loving mother. You brought SO MUCH joy to her; I wish you could have seen the expression on her face when I told her and showed her. Her teacher said she clutched it as she returned to her classroom with joy. Thank you so much for taking the time to write her back! My son and I also enjoyed Shiloh – what a gift you and your writing is to young children! –

Phyllis replied:

My pleasure too.  I worry sometimes about children who write an author who doesn’t respond.  Must be hard seeing other children sharing their author letters when they don’t get any, but I sure understand an author’s overload too. Most distressing of all is when there is an error in the return address a child gives me and the letter comes back.  I do everything I can to track down the new address, but I’m afraid some teachers mail batches of letters close to the end of school and sometimes families have moved on by the time I get a child’s letter.

Witch Series Sequel?

Comment:

Years ago, I was hooked on the Witch series you wrote. I read all 6 of them over and over – in fact, I read the first three so many times, I had to buy new ones because they were falling apart.  I am now forty years old and, believe it or not, I still pull them out every couple winters and reread them! The story holds up even for adults. This year as I am reading them, I wondered if you would consider writing a sequel?
I know that Elnora Tuggle has been transformed by good forces…but I am curious as to what happened to Lynn and Mouse.
Would you consider writing a story in which they are grown up and one of their children is confronting witchcraft? Or one of Judith or Stevie’s children?

 

Phyllis replied:

Oh, those witch books do seem to have a life of their own, don’t they?  Every so often I get a letter like yours, from someone who read them years ago, and I’ll admit, they scared the pants off me too while I was writing them.  But there are nine notebooks piled on the floor beside my desk of notes for books waiting to be written.  There is a novel over 800 pages on my computer that I am determined to finish soon.  I have promised my editor another book by fall.  I appreciate your writing to tell me how much the books have meant to you, but I’m afraid that a seventh book would have to be spun from your own imagination.

Will their be a new series?

Comment:

We want to know if you are going to start writing any new series. We read Shiloh and watched the movie.We enjoyed both.We want to know if their are more because they are so interesting. We would appreciate it if you would respond.

 

Phyllis replied:

I’ll bet you would love my boy/girl/battle series.  Start with “The Boys Start the War,” followed by “The Girls Get Even.”   Look these up on my website, and it will tell you what they are about.

Boys Against Girls Names

Comment:

I love your book, I find it very intresting and im currently reading it to my niece and nephew. I was wondering the kids on the cover of you book, what are their real names.

Phyllis replied:

Those are the characters in the books, as imagined by the artist.  It’s not a photograph of real children.