Beth Anderson, Children's Writer

When I picked up THIS IS TAP, I was delighted by this lively, lyrical, rhythmic, toe-tapping, sparsely written, standout biography. So I reached out to Selene Castrovilla wanting to learn about how it came to be. Here’s a terrific post from Selene about how an idea in her heart found its way to the page by thinking outside the box she had built for herself. (And when you’re done reading the article, treat yourself to a video of Savion Glover in action!)

Selene is offering a GIVEAWAY! A copy of THIS IS TAP to one lucky person who leaves a comment below.

THIS IS TAP: A Nineteen-Year Breech Birth

By Selene Castrovilla

This post has taken me weeks. Not the act of writing it but pondering what I would write. One problem was that my writing process for This is Tap: Savion Glover Finds His Funk was so personal, I wondered if anyone else would find it relevant. Another problem: the development of this story broke from my norm. It was inverted— a “breech baby.”  I’ll take the second problem first.

I’ve written several nonfiction picture books, and the creative process began with me being struck by a historical moment I had to share—but first I had to find my story’s heart. This felt like Michelangelo’s description of sculpting: “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” I carved through my research to find that essential human element that wanted to be shared.

This first happened when I learned about George Washington’s miraculous retreat across the East River after losing the Battle of Long Island. Not only would the fight for independence have ended had he not done this, but his men would have been killed. He did it to save his men. What an amazing true story to tell about George Washington!

But when I delved deeper, I found the story of Col. Benjamin Tallmadge, who was a teacher when the war broke out. He joined the army without thought of consequence. Tallmadge wrote about looking an “enemy” in the eye and realizing that he had to kill or be killed. Reading this chilling passage, I knew that every soldier must face this, in every war. This was the heart of my story: the universal, timeless element we can all relate to. This was humanity at its rawest, and it became my first book, By the Sword: A Soldier Meets War.

And so I wrote for years, clinging to my process like a child clutches his blankie: my one constant in each tenuous undertaking. Until one day I had the opposite: a passion that demanded to be shared, but I didn’t know how.

And here’s where problem number one kicks in.

The passion belonged to my two young sons, Casey and Michael. I was its surrogate and my boys’ cheerleader. They loved to dance and took lessons. To see their unbridled joy combined with devotion to an art both thrilled and astonished me.

I encountered naysayers who felt my boys shouldn’t be dancing. I couldn’t fathom such nonsense, especially when there are so many famous dancers who are men. But even if there weren’t–why would boys be barred from doing something so freeing and transformative? Something they loved?

This was the era of “it’s a great time to be a girl.” Yes, but why did boys have to be bound inside their boxes of masculinity? I wanted to share my boys’ hearts—that anyone can do anything that makes them happy—but how?

I struggled with the vague idea to share a story about a boy who danced. For a long while, I tried to to write a work of fiction. Kind of a Billy Elliot picture book. This went nowhere, and eventually, I realized that I wanted to tell a true story of a boy who grew up to be a famous dancer. Then I thought: Why not tell several stories? I wrote a middle-grade biography featuring the childhoods of Rudolf Nureyev, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Gregory Hines, Gene Kelly, and Fred Astaire. And I even got an agent, who said she was negotiating with a great publisher for me.

My agent died. I had no idea who the publisher was.

When I tried to sell the manuscript myself, I kept getting the response: “Great idea, but do it with girls.” Ummm—the whole reason I wrote it was because they were boys!

But a more important factor emerged, at least to me. I realized I had never really found the heart of each boy’s story. I was relating their childhoods to prove that there were boys who danced and grew up to be famous.

When I took Casey and Michael to see Savion Glover dance, I felt an immediate tug to write about Savion: a virtuoso, and the person who saved tap from obscurity. I set to work, researching, playing with words and carving out shape. Turns out the heart of the narrative was Savion’s passion for dance. Wanting to share Casey and Michael’s passion led to sharing Savion’s passion.

Nineteen years after I was forced to let go of my blankie and accept this reverse writing challenge that meant so much to me, This Is Tap made it into readers’ hands. It is my dream as an author and a parent that children will be inspired to follow their passions, no matter what challenges lie in their paths.

Giveaway! Don’t forget to leave a comment below for a chance to win a copy of THIS IS TAP.  (US addresses only). Winner announced 7/28/23.

BIO:
Selene Castrovilla’s 18^th book, This is Tap: Savion Glover Finds His Funk, was released in March 2023 by Holiday House. This creative and funky biography of tap dancer Savion Glover is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. Her book Seeking Freedom: The Untold Story of Fortress Monroe and the Ending of Slavery in America (Astra Books for Young Readers, 2022) garnered three starred reviews. It is a 2023 ALA/ALSC Notable Book, a Cooperative Children’s Book Center 2023 Choice for best books, and a Bank Street Best Children’s Book 2023. The New York Public Library selected it as a 2022 Best Book of the Year. Revolutionary Friends, her biography of General George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette is used in school curriculums across the country and earned several honors. Selene lives in a purple house amongst wildlife on a Long Island lagoon. Learn more by visiting her website: SeleneCastrovilla.com.