Beth Anderson, Children's Writer

Today we join the virtual book tour for FREEDOM’S GAME with author Rosanne Tolin and hear how a story opened up and a picture book moved into new territory to become a middle grade historical novel.

The link for a GIVEAWAY follows the article, with an opportunity for multiple entries to win a signed copy of FREEDOM’S GAME!

Congratulations Leslee Anne Hewson, winner of Jonathan Roth’s ALMOST UNDERWEAR!

Emotions Across Eras: Creating Characters that Connect by Rosanne Tolin

 My initial draft of FREEDOM’S GAME was picture book length. For months, I’d been captivated by Georges Loinger’s obituary which ran in The New York Times in January 2019; the article had detailed the gentleman’s fascinating adult life and the clever ways he’d “distracted” the Nazis from his real identity and actions. Soon after writing the manuscript, I showed it to my agent with the usual hope for a positive response. What I got instead was a mixed one. She loved the premise but wanted more. She said she was interested in the broader, more sweeping story—one that didn’t focus solely on a specific scene or ingenious ruse—but that told a bigger story of escape during the Holocaust.

            My first reaction was probably a heavy sigh. I’d never written anything longer than a short story, essay, or picture book before! How would I do it? What craft would I need to learn? Fortunately, the answer to the latter two questions organically surfaced. That’s because, shortly after I wrote that early draft, an impactful email landed in my inbox. It was from a relative in Skokie, Illinois, who was forwarding correspondence from a large museum in Munich. They were looking for survivors of my German relatives, in order to return items stolen during World War II. It was part of a larger push, by the German government, to give back artifacts on display to Jewish families who’d been looted by Nazi soldiers. 

            Before his timely email, I hadn’t known anything about the work my Chicago relative, a retired banker, had devoted his time to. He’d painstakingly created a document, hundreds of pages long, that recorded true accounts of my family members in Germany, starting in the 1700’s. Much more than a family tree, Dennis had culled short biographies of notable kin alongside photos. Even more poignant, he’d included the names, birthdates, and dates of death of over a hundred relatives who had died in concentration camps. 

            It was that particular list that gutted me.

            With his help and guidance, I began writing my middle grade novel in earnest. I knew the longer-form story wouldn’t be told from an adult perspective, and introduced two fictional characters of my creation, Elka and Ziggy, both Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler’s Germany. While Elka’s personality was, in part, fueled by my daughter’s, Ziggy embodied my mother’s side of the family: mainly serious German academics who, in some cases, were fortunate to leave Europe before the Third Reich rose to power. 

To give the pair of characters authenticity, I studied history books and documentaries, taking in tiny details that made their world feel smaller—and thereby more relatable to contemporary readers. My protagonists needed new shoes, got tired of eating the same meals for dinner, loved soccer and their parents, and felt messy emotions. Just because they didn’t use cell phones or play video games, didn’t mean today’s readers wouldn’t understand them fully. 

In fact, I think it’s just the opposite. By creating a world based in historical fact, an author gains trust with the reader. While my readers’ exterior lives are vastly different than Elka’s and Ziggy’s, the interior ones remain largely the same over time. I want kids to know that, when they open FREEDOM’S GAME, the heart of the journey they’re about to embark on is true. To go even one step further, there’s a universal truth across generations that books can illuminate. 

I’m hopeful that this one does that.

 

Click the image below to find the entry form for the GIVEAWAY!

Freedom’s Game, by Rosanne Tolin | Awareness Tour

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rosanne Tolin was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, and is the author of More Than Marmalade: Michael Bond and The Story of Paddington Bear, and Freedom’s Game. A respected journalist, her work has focused primarily on children’s publications. She was the creator of an ALA-notable website for kids, the managing editor of a children’s magazine, and a Hoosier State Press Award-winning feature writer. Rosanne lives in Chesterton, Indiana, with her husband. When not working, she can be found hiking with her dogs in the Indiana Dunes or Colorado’s Tenmile Range.

To learn more, visit https://www.rosannetolin.com.