Reading Themes 

Of Children, Books and Bear
A Conversation with Author and Illustrator Clay Carmichael
by Cori Trudeau

We all have a “bear” somewhere in our childhood, a favorite stuffed animal or doll with whom we shared our deepest secrets, most beloved dreams, worst fears, and greatest adventures. Author and illustrator Clay Carmichael made her bear come to life in her Bear books. Recently, I talked with Clay about her books, her background, and how she shares her love of writing, reading, and art with children.
          Carmichael has published three Bear books. Her first, Bear at the Beach, was published in 1996. The second, Used-Up Bear, came out in 1998, and the third, Lonesome Bear, appeared in 2001. North-South Books published all three. Her books have been printed in six different languages. All are in Japanese, and some are also in German, Dutch, Spanish, and Korean.
          Bear, the central character in all three books, was Carmichael’s real childhood toy, and she still has him. “Bear is adventurous, daring, spirited, and independent. I was bookish and shy,” she said. As a child, Carmichael used Bear to try on different qualities. “Probably I always had them deep down, but Bear allowed me to try them out and later to own them,” she said.
          Carmichael wrote Bear at the Beach, as a way to deal with her father’s illness. “I began writing when my father developed Parkinson’s disease,” Carmichael said. “One day I came home from visiting him, and I drew and wrote as a way to make myself feel better. Essentially, that was the central section of the book.” She said that although she revised the beginning and ending, the main part didn’t change much from that day, even though it took her seven years to get it published. She also commented that she did not set out to write a children’s book; she just started writing and drawing and it came out in a child’s voice.
          Bear at the Beach is the story of how Bear longs for a father and goes in search of one. “In the story, each thing that Bear loved about his father is something that I loved about my father,” Carmichael said. Although in the end Bear doesn’t find the real father he is looking for, he discovers that he already has someone in his life who loves him and is there for him, his best friend Clara. To Carmichael’s great surprise and delight, Bear at the Beach has generated a great deal of mail. She gets lots of letters from single parents and families where the father is absent, telling her how significant the book is and how much it has helped them. “I get letters saying, ‘This book has changed me; it changed the way I look at things,’” Carmichael said.
          The two other Bear books also have strong emotional content. Used-Up Bear is the story of how Bear feels old and worn—when he compares himself to Clara’s new toys. He is worried that he will be discarded. But Clara cleans him up, tightens all of his loose, parts and makes him a new red suit. Lonesome Bear tells the story of the day Bear lost Clara. Bear and his friends, the rabbit and the cat, look and look for her and almost lose hope. Bear thinks he is “a bear by himself.” Then they discover that Clara was looking for Bear, too. “Lonesome Bear has my favorite animal in it, my cat—Mr. C’mere,” said Carmichael, “I had him for ten of his twenty years. The first ten years, he ran wild in the neighborhood and didn’t seem to have a home.”
          Carmichael grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, home to the University of North Carolina. Her father was in advertising and wrote mainly about UNC sports for the local newspaper. She often accompanied him to the games and the newspaper office. “I would go places with my father and people would comment on his work, about how much they enjoyed a story. I saw how he entertained people and made them laugh, and I thought I wanted to do that, too.”
          She learned about art at her grandmother’s house. There was a small room that all of the grandchildren called the “art room.” Using a set of old watercolors that had been left there, she started creating her first pictures. “I grew up around creative people. My family respected and encouraged art and literature,” Carmichael said.
          In college, Carmichael chose creative writing as a major and did her honor thesis on poetry. “Writing poems is good practice for writing children’s books,” she said. “The language is distilled—every word counts.” But when she was in college, she wasn’t planning to write children’s books. One thing that surprises many people is that she got into it totally by accident. “But I feel lucky because I discovered my true self,” she said, “even though it wasn’t intentional.”
          Carmichael enjoys writing for children. “It forces you to be honest and to do your very best work because kids are not going to say something nice just to be polite. Whatever they say, they mean it. It forces you to be rigorous about your work—I like that,” she said. “I write about things that happen in my life and add my imagination.” She writes about real things in her life also—the couch where Bear sits is a miniature version of her couch. She still has the steamer trunk that is in Lonesome Bear. She thinks it was her grandmother’s. “There is a lot of myself in the books,” she said, “a whole lot!”
          When she is writing, Carmichael doesn’t focus on her child audience. “I’m just trying to make the most beautiful story with the least amount of words,” she said. Although she recognizes that children have a limited vocabulary, she also wants to give them points in her books where they can stretch. She hopes that parents read with their children or, if children read alone, that questions about a book will open up a dialogue between them and their parents. Because of this, Carmichael doesn’t feel the need to explain everything. She also said that the pictures help to tell the story as well. “I don’t put everything in the written part; the pictures and story need to be seen as an integrated whole. It is an art form,” she said.
          Writing is hard work, according to Carmichael. “When your parents are writers, you constantly hear them in your head as you write, and they seem to be saying ‘you can do better,’” she said. Illustrating is her favorite part of the job. “Drawing and painting—that is when I am freest,” she said. She chose watercolors as her medium because that was what was in her grandmother’s art room. She uses materials to express feelings, so she loves the soft colors and finds they do this well. However, it is an unforgiving medium. “If you mess up, you have to start over,” she explained.
          Besides writing books, Carmichael also spends time teaching writing and sharing her love of reading with children near her Carrboro, North Carolina home. She worries that standardized testing is burning children out on reading and writing, and may even be teaching them poor skills. She is often brought into schools to teach children how to enjoy reading and writing again.
          Although she enjoys her work, Carmichael has had her share of frustrations. “Publishing is a more rigorous activity than merely writing,” she said, “it forces you to examine your work and do your best.” Carmichael believes there is a trend in the publishing world allowing marketing to make more decisions about the content of books. “This is becoming more and more acceptable,” she said. “I write about true feelings, things I have actually felt in my heart—not just for marketing.”
          “All of my work comes out of a love of writing, a love of art, and mainly a love of reading. I love books—all kinds of books,” said Carmichael. “Stories help us connect with ourselves and each other. They bridge cultural, racial, and social gaps. Everyone loves a good story,” Carmichael said, “and all stories have happy endings, depending on where you end them. My books are about joy, love, and loyalty. I always try to tell the truth.” Carmichael added, “I feel so lucky that I have found what I was meant to do. I have already achieved well beyond what I ever thought I would do.” Although Carmichael often finds the business end of being an author distressing, that doesn’t keep her from creating books. As she put it, “I do it for love.”

Cori Trudeau is the past managing editor for The Five Owls.