Interview and Giveaway: Transracial Adoption-Themed Book for Kiddos

Just in time for Halloween!!!  

A FB post brought my attention to a fabulous adoption-themed book which will engage children who love mature cartoonish-illustrations, a suspenseful storyline, and a happy ending.     The best part of this book?  It features a transracial (well, trans-animal) family formed by adoption! 

First, let's meet the author, Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen:

I am a former PhD candidate from Caltech who had a couple kids and took a sharp left turn on the path of life and went from scientist to parent and children's author. I have three beautiful, brilliant, active biracial children now who both keep me inspired to write and too exhausted to write!

Being a mom to three kids is a pretty full time job, but I do consider myself a full-time writer. But don't think that means I spend my entire work day writing new books! (I used to have that misconception as well!) As a writer, I have to prepare and give presentations to kids at schools, to educators, to parents, and to other writers (which need to be prepared, practiced and revised), and I have to promote my current books by doing signings, appearances, interviews, etc. After all that, I have to find time to write. It isn't always easy.

And speaking of not easy, finding time for hobbies? Does laundry count? :-) It's incredibly hard to find "me time," but as many moms will tell you, you are a better parent when you keep yourself grounded. So I do try. I take a kickboxing a couple times a week (both fitness and stress relief!). I try to go out to dinner a few times a month -- I'm a foodie and I like to see what fabulous chefs are doing to try to inspire my own culinary efforts. I'm a huge New York Giants fan, so the fall is spent following football rabidly.

When asked about her inspiration for Quackenstein Hatches a Family...(emphasis on the text is from me):

Honestly, I didn't necessarily set out to write a book about adoption, and I totally understand and admit that QUACKENSTEIN is not necessarily a "resource book" on adoption. But I did want to write a book about a parent's fears and worries -- and how those sometimes lead to silly decision-making -- and I wanted to make a play on "Frankenstein" using a duck. Because every book is better with a duck. Once I had the Frankenstein theme, I knew the "creation" had to be a platypus -- because no other animal looks so much like it was crafted out of leftover parts than the platypus! But how do you create a family with such seemingly different parts? Adoption seemed to be the easiest way. My hope is that the book gets across the message that no matter how a family is put together, and no matter how different it is from you expectations, that families who truly want to make it work find ways to do so. If you think about it, whenever you have a relationship, whether it is a friendship, a romance, or a parent-child relationship, you really never know what you;re going to get. The person you care about may turn out to be different that you expected, hoped for, wanted, etc. But true love looks past the differences and focuses on what you want to do for the other person. And eventually you learn that it is the relationship that is important.

What can we expect from you in the near-future?

Thanks for asking! I have number of projects going right now. There are several books that are under contracts that will release soon -- in 2013 alone there will be two new picture books, SNORING BEAUTY and ORANGUTANGLED. I'm going to be launching a series of chapter books called THE SPECTACLES OF DESTINY in 2014 -- and I'm still actively working on (read: writing!) those books. And, of course, I'm working on finally cleaning my bedroom -- the goal on that is completion by 2015.

Sudipta has kindly offered one lucky reader a copy of her book Quakenstein Hatches a Family! 

 

Entry period:  Today through Nov. 2 at noon (Central time).

 

Ways to enter:  You can enter this giveaway up to six times; the winner will drawn at random on Friday.  The winner's name will be posted on Friday.   The winner is responsible for contacting me via e-mail (whitebrownsugar AT hotmail DOT com) within three days with his or her name and full address.    ONLY THOSE WITH UNITED STATES ADDRESSES MAY ENTER.  Each entry must be in a separate comment:

 

1:  "Like" Sudipta's Facebook page; leave me a comment telling me you did so.

2:   Subscribe to Sudipta's blog; leave me a comment telling me you did so.

3:   Become a follower of my blog; leave me a comment if you do!

4:  "Like" my book's Facebook page; leave me a comment if you do!

5:  "Like" my blog's Facebook page; leave me a comment if you do!
6:  Leave me a comment telling me what your little one(s) will be for Halloween this year.  

 

Good luck!