The Secret Knowledge of Grown-Ups

Wisniewski, David

ISBN 10: 0688153402 ISBN 13: 9780688153403

Publisher: Lothrop Lee & Shepard, 1998

Synopsis

A side-tickling guide to the secret world shared by adults invites young readers to explore truths never before suspected, revealing the real reasons grownups tell children what to do.

About this title

Review:

"Middle-grade kids...eat this stuff up, and this will likely move briskly, especially where the first has had success."--Kirkus Review

-Middle-grade kids...eat this stuff up, and this will likely move briskly, especially where the first has had success.---Kirkus Review

From the Publisher:

...from Publisher's Weekly...
David Wisniewski: Crafting Serious Entertainment Nathalie op de Beeck -- Feb 15, 1998 In a second-floor den in his Maryland home, author/illustrator David Wisniewski stores the tools of many trades. One table is piled high with scraps of the color stock that he uses for his meticulous cut-paper illustrations. On his lamplit drafting table, a glass jar bristles with his favorite #11 X-Acto blades. Bookshelves serve as a combination display space and library, where antique Hans Christian Andersen volumes accompany a glossy set of the Cultural Atlas of the World. The decor offers only quiet clues to his identity. Two handmade puppets in velvet and fur garments recall a production staged by Wisniewski and his wife, Donna, during the 1980s. Two pairs of clown shoes denote their owner's stint as a performer with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Clown College. And on an uppermost shelf, in an innocuous wooden box, resides the 1997 Caldecott Medal, which Wisniewski won for his illustrated folktale Golem (Clarion, 1996). This understated studio, which overlooks a tree-filled cul-de-sac not far from Frederick, Md., is a good place to do thoughtful work. And, for a guy who once worked as a clown and a puppeteer, Wisniewski has written some serious-minded children's books. His picture books -- with the exception of his forthcoming The Secret Knowledge of Grown-Ups -- convey intense concentration rather than center-ring wackiness. His attire suggests the same: he is dressed in a casual brown plaid shirt, black jeans and pointy Western boots. The only hint of outrageousness comes from the wide silver bracelets he wear's on each wrist. Golemis perhaps his most challenging work. In this grim tale, a rabbi protects the Jewish people from religious persecution by bringing a terrible clay giant, the Golem, to life. Wisniewski's other titles show the same consideration of metaphysics and tradition. His 1989 debut, The Warrior and the Wise Man, solemnly endorses wisdom over force as twin Samurai battle elemental demons. Three more historical epics -- Elfwyn's Saga, Rain Player and The Wave of the Sea-Wolf -- imaginatively span the centuries, introducing grade-schoolers to Vikings, Mayans and the Pacific Northwest's Tlingit tribe. "I don't want to do anything trivial," Wisniewski says emphatically. "And by 'trivial' I don't mean comedy. Having a laugh is important. What I mean is treating a subject snidely or shallowly. Each of the books I've done has a moral point, which to me is the engine that drives the story." Although he is himself a Christian Scientist, Wisniewski is careful to represent diverse religious perspectives. Even so, he had his hands full with Golem, which deals in shades of gray, not moral absolutes. The book opens on dangerous ground, pointing up "fierce hatreds" between Christians and Jews in 16th-century Prague. Golem is a very ambiguous tale," Wisniewski says, "and for that reason some people thought it was too dark." He recalls his post-Caldecott appearance on Today: "Katie Couric said, 'Wonderful illustrations, but this story! It's about oppression, repression and death. You say this is suitable for third and fourth graders?' And she gave that killer-chipmunk smile of hers. "It was a rude, 'gotcha' question," Wisniewski grumbles. He replied that picture books have become more sophisticated. "I kinda wish I had said, 'If you have trouble with the tale, take it up with the 400 years of Jewish parents.' But I didn't think of it at the time." Clown School to Puppetry Wisniewski's peripatetic background prepared him for a series of career moves and instilled in him the resilience of a freelance artist. Born in 1953 in England, the son of an American Air Force officer and a British mother, Wisniewski spent his childhood on the road in Nebraska, Alabama, Texas and Germany. When Wisniewski's father was stationed at Andrews Air Force Base, the son tried attending the University of Maryland. "I ran out of money and interest, in that order," Wisniewski recalls. "And that's when the Ringling Bros. Clown College happened." He traveled the U.S. with Ringling and spent another year with the California-based Circus Vargas. In 1975, he resettled in Maryland and interviewed at the Parks Department, where a certain Donna Harris hired him to work in puppetry. "I was good at making stuff, making props," Wisniewski says with a shrug. "I got hired on that basis and got married six months later." David and Donna Wisniewski have been in business together, one way or another, ever since. They remained as entertainers on the county payroll for four years, and they formed their own shadow-puppetry group, Clarion Shadow Theatre (no relation to the publishing imprint), in 1980. "We were expecting our first child within six months," the author recalls. "That first year was not only starting a business but starting a family." In 1985, when their second child was born, the Wisniewskis diversified once again. Two children made it impossible to tour, so Donna taught David graphic design. Two years later, Wisniewski met former editor Dilys Evans at a seminar in Washington. Evans reviewed his portfolio of graphic design work and, according to Wisniewski, "did something pretty unusual. She said, 'I don't usually do this but I'm going to give you the names and numbers of four publishers and you can tell them I sent you.'" Wisniewski planned his cold calls four months in advance; then he procrastinated. Two weeks before he was supposed to go to New York, he still didn't have a manuscript. At the last minute, he says, "P.O.'d" at his own inactivity, "I went for a walk around the block and I came back with a basic idea for The Warrior and the Wise Man." He went to New York with a complete manuscript, two prototype illustrations and his freelance portfolio. At his very first meeting, with Dorothy Briley of Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, he sold his first book. Dinah Stevenson became his editor and has worked on all six of his historical books. When Briley and Stevenson left Lothrop for Clarion Books, Wisniewski followed. Believing that "God doesn't give you talents and no place to put them," he doesn't pay attention to trends. "I was told that the market for folktales has softened, one reason being there are a lot of weak folktales produced," he says. However, Wisniewski believes there is still an audience for his legend-based storytelling. He presented Golem as a shadow play at the Smithsonian last year and notes that this year's Caldecott Medal went to another storybook adaptation of a familiar tale, Paul Zelinsky's Rapunzel. Wisniewski has never had a literary agent, although some have come calling recently. He remembers one conversation in particular, with an agent whom he once solicited through a friend. "Her first words were, 'Honestly, I was going to call you befor

About this edition

• Publisher: Lothrop Lee & Shepard
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0688153402
• ISBN 13: 9780688153403
• Binding: Library Binding