Pam Mu?oz Ryan: "A Confluence of Rivers"

This author's remarkably colorful books for children all hold one thing in common - strength of heart

A collection of Pam Muñoz Ryan's titles (center). When asked if she keeps a rigorous writing schedule, Pam laughed, "I'm really brilliant in the morning. By 2:00 in the afternoon, my brain is scrambled eggs!"

With more than 25 books to her credit, Pam Muñoz Ryan is one of those enviable writers who seems to always have a story percolating. Not only is she rarely at a loss for a tale to tell, but she has also proven herself to be wonderfully adroit at nearly every form of storytelling, from winsome stories like Mice and Beans (Scholastic, 2001) and Mud Is Cake (Hyperion, 2002), to exquisite historical retellings like When Marian Sang (Scholastic, 2002) and Amelia and Eleanor Go for a Ride (Scholastic, 1999), to deeply engrossing novels such as Riding Freedom (Scholastic, 1998) and Esperanza Rising (Scholastic, 2000). With her latest novel for children, Becoming Naomi León (Scholastic, 2004), Pam Muñoz Ryan has established herself as a storytelling master and created perhaps her most complex character to date.

What's in a name? Naomi Soledad León Outlaw, among other things, is tired of being teased about her name ("Have you robbed any banks lately?" one of her tormentors asks her). She tries to sort out her problem by creating a list, "How to Get Boys to Stop Making Fun of My Name." Naomi's well-worn notebook is full of lists such as "Regular and Everyday Worries," "Splendid Words" and her shortest list on record, "Things I Am Good At" Naomi is an intensely sensitive girl who worries about her brother Owen never being "right" and that her grandmother, who is their legal guardian, will die. When Naomi's estranged and unstable mother unexpectedly rockets back into their lives, Naomi's list of worries nearly doubles.

Night of the radishes. Naomi feels safest when she retreats into the world of art she creates with her soap carving (one of the three things that she feels she's good at). Her carving talent is later put to the test at the Night of the Radishes festival in Oaxaca, Mexico, where Naomi travels with her grandmother and brother to find her father and ultimately, ends up discovering her true self.

An evolution. Much like Esperanza Rising, Becoming Naomi León is rich with the Mexican culture that Pam holds so dear. While Esperanza Rising was based in part on stories that her Mexican grandmother told her about her early girlhood of privilege in Mexico and later traveling to California to work in a labor camp, Naomi's story was a slightly different case for Pam. "I was in the airport and picked up a book about Oaxacan art and there was a one-line mention about Los Noche de los Rabanos - Night of the Radishes. I was immediately intrigued." When she returned home, she began to research the festival but found little to no information. Pam decided she had to see this mysterious event for herself and traveled to Oaxaca City in 1997 to learn more. There she witnessed the wonderful carvings that artists create with huge white radishes ("They're the size of arms and legs!" she marveled) that are grown especially for this event.

"I knew when I got there that I wanted to write a book about it," she said. "I just wasn't sure how exactly to approach it, and put the idea on the back burner." Some months later, Pam was at a school signing books for young fans, when she was asked to address an autograph to Naomi Outlaw. "I loved the name immediately!" she told us. "I have lists of unusual names, and 1 started wondering what it would be like for a child to have that name and how she would grow beyond it..and so 1 began writing Naomi's story and she evolved into a soap carver and traveled to Oaxaca. Sometimes an idea is like a confluence of rivers."

A leap of faith. Although she was always an "obsessive" reader, Pam Muñoz Ryan's career as a children's author was a bit of a surprise to her. "I didn't think about writing a book until after my children were born and I went back to school to get my master's degree," she said. One day after class, her professor asked if she had ever thought about professional writing. Until that point, she had never considered the idea. Three weeks later, a colleague of hers asked if she'd be interested in coauthoring a book with her. "It was like somebody planted the seed that just wouldn't stop growing," she remembered. A former bilingual teacher, after receiving her master's, Pam worked as director of an early childhood program in California for five years. She wrote three books for adults, but as soon as she sold her first picture book, One Hundred Is a Family (Hyperion, 1994), Pam knew she wanted to write full-time. "It took me a number of years to make that leap of faith," she said.

With her latest book for children, Nacho and Lolita (Scholastic, 2005), Pam embellishes a Mexican folk tale about two birds of different species who fall in love. "My rendition is very different from the original folk tale, but I loved writing this book. It was so much fun!"

Similar to the "confluence of rivers" that became Becoming Naomi Lean, each of Pam Muftoz Ryan's books is a tributary of sorts. While each of her stories is uniquely its own, they hold a common connection of characters with great strength of heart.

LUCKY SUBSCRIBER

Shannon Coykendall

Williamston, Ml

BY KATHERINE PIERPONT, SENIOR EDITOR

Copyright Early Years, Inc. Oct 2005
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