An Interview with Eileen Berry
Eileen Berry is a poet, a teacher of writing, and an author of four children's books. We met one Friday over cups of tea to talk about Haiku on Your Shoe, in which two boys—Jeremy and Taka—overcome cultural differences and become friends.
NB: What made you write a story about a language barrier?
EB: The idea came from my experiences in ESL tutoring (English as a Second Language). . . . I’ve spent quite a bit of time in Japanese households and learned a little about how American life appears from their cultural perspective.
NB: Jeremy and Taka are the story’s focus, but other children, Scot and Lily, for instance, contribute memorable behavior. What of them?
EB: I wanted to show that the good communication lines between [Jeremy] and his mom strengthened him and made him more stable than some of the other children in the story. I hope that reading the book might encourage some children to talk over their problems with their parents rather than bottling things up inside.
NB: Jeremy’s mom listened and talked to him, and he is seen later remembering her words. You show Jeremy remembering his teacher’s words.
EB: Parents and teachers are a powerful influence, particularly at the age level this book was written for. I think it’s true that when kids feel loved by an adult, they are more likely to open up to that person and listen to his advice.
NB: There’s a nurturing mom in the story. Is she like your mom?
EB: My mom was really great about steering my thinking into a spiritual direction, especially the way I thought about my problems. One thing [she] did to encourage child-parent communication was to have a snack time with my sister and me when we came home from school each day.
NB: Snack time’s in the book! I loved that.
EB: [For us] it was a time to relax and unwind before getting on with school work or piano practice. If anything disturbing or distressing had happened at school that day, snack time was usually the time when it would come out.
NB: You’ve dedicated this "To Daddy, who has always nurtured my love for storymaking." Tell me about that.
EB: I think my dad’s encouragement of my imagination as a child had a lot to do with my desire to pursue creative writing. I was always giving my stuffed animals personalities or impersonating various characters I had made up. My dad would enter into the fun and play along. He was never dismissive of all this as silly and beneath him, and his loving interest in my little games taught me that creativity was something to be valued and nurtured.
NB: Also, Haiku on Your Shoe will encourage adults who may not feel prepared to think about or answer the big things children are saying. You show Jeremy’s mom using her imagination. She sees simple things—icicles, candle wax, marshmallows—and then she thoughtfully engages her son to think compassionately toward Taka. You’ve written a huge theme in a short book for a young audience. Why compassion?
EB: The theme came from something the Lord had been impressing on me, and that is the need to continue reaching out with love to people even when I feel rebuffed or rejected by them. It’s a very hard thing to do, even for an adult, but it’s such a defining trait of God. Sometimes [our] perspective changes things if we can get beyond ourselves to "walk in other people’s shoes."
NB: Your story itself is a haiku: small but surprisingly large.
Nancy Bopp is a former staff writer for Marketing Communications at BJU Press.
Haiku on Your Shoe is published by JourneyForth Books, a division of BJU Press.