Meeting Canadian Writers and Illustrators of Children’s Books
What inspires the writers of the books your students read? How does an illustrator decide what to draw? Is it true that most authors and illustrators don’t know each other? This column features a different Canadian children’s book creator in each issue and shows you the story beyond the covers.
I picked up a free verse novel called Seeking Draven. I couldn’t put it down. Who wrote this book, and what else did he write? I asked Michael F. Stewart about his writing career and learned a lot about an interesting person!
Have you always been writing?
I’ve always wanted to be a writer, but that’s not the same thing. I didn’t journal (something I regret deeply!). I really started writing in grade seven with my teacher Dr. David Boyd. He was both a role model and the first person to tell me I could do it. (Teachers are the best. Oh, is this going into Canadian Teacher Magazine? I had no idea …)
As a child, were you a reader?
I lived for Dungeons & Dragons and bricks of fantasy novels. Despite having a great family, I somehow still needed to escape. I needed books with heroes I could inhabit, perhaps so I didn’t have to think so little of myself. It probably wasn’t always a healthy habit. I remember getting into trouble because I’d hide and read.
Now you are a prolific writer with TV pilots, graphic novels, and many chapter books to your name. How do you decide on a genre when you start writing? And do you have a favourite?
The idea chooses the genre and sometimes the form, too. There are ideas that you can say from the outset, “That’s not a book; it’s a TV show,” or “That’s a picture book and not a novel,” or “That’s a horror idea because the title is Keep in a Cold Dark Place. So I’m not sure I can claim a favourite. I like my middle-grade books to be funny and for my YA contemporaries to have a twist of the surreal.
Your website states that you are a “fighter of fictional emergencies.” I like that. What are fictional emergencies, and how do you fight them?
I am always game for what’s called work-for-hire. It’s a little like the “bat signal.” A publisher will be desperate for an author to write four of their twenty-volume set with very specific genre and page count format constraints—well—I am that writer. Parachute me in, load those requirements into my pen, and I’ll hit any deadline. Can you hear the music playing? That’s the montage of me fighting the fictional emergency.
I loved reading your book Seeking Draven. Was it difficult to write in Teagan’s voice?
First of all, thank you! I have four daughters, so I am lucky to be surrounded by young people. But for Teagan’s voice, I really did need to channel my inner child and dig out the kind of emotion I would have had at age ten because that’s what writing in verse is really about for me—emotion. It doesn’t start with a plot or scene; it starts with How would Teagan feel lost in the woods? What emotional words, sensations, feelings, images echo both that feeling and tone with the setting? Which words would be particular to her? That’s how I accessed her voice.
The subtle message about (phone) addiction and Internet perils is so perfect for that age. Is that something that you wrote with your own children in mind?
This book started when my youngest was begging me for a phone. Begging me like her life depended on her having a phone. Like any author, I didn’t see my own child with a heartfelt need; I saw the potential for a story. Sorry, Jilly. (She still has no phone.) But the very first page I wrote was page 32:
Phone, phone, ph-ph-phone, PHONE!
I have a phone.
I’ve wanted this phorever.
I wrote that right after the argument with my daughter.
Where did the inspiration for Heart Sister come from?
Heart Sister is my attempt to say thank you to the donor of my brother’s heart. He was born with a congenital heart defect, and so, when he received a transplant, and I learned it came from a young woman who died in a motorcycle accident, I wrote a book that I hoped would raise awareness for organ donation and help readers think about maybe becoming donors themselves. It was a tricky book to write because a thank you—a book that talks about all the wonderful people your organs can help—would make for a didactic, boring book. So I started from the opposite side. I started with a boy who had tattooed on his chest, “Do not recycle.” A boy who felt being an organ donor might have contributed to the loss of his twin sister. I figured if I could convince him, then maybe I could convince anyone.
Do you write full-time?
I do! I have been very lucky to have the support of great publishers and producers, FABULOUS TEACHERS and librarians, as well as the support of the Ontario Arts Council, Access Copyright, the Public Lending Right, the Ottawa Cultural Funding Unit—and a very patient wife.
Do you do school presentations? If so, what do you generally do?
Absolutely. I tend to adapt the presentation to the needs of the teacher. I love teaching craft, but I also have some interactive presentations where we come up with impossible ideas and see if we can turn them into story, or I help students develop their own pitches. Knowing how to pitch, whether it’s yourself, an idea, a book, a movie, is a really useful skill.
What are you working on now?
Right now, I’m working on a contemporary young adult novel narrated by a ghost. It’s about three kids who have punished themselves for their roles in the death of their friend, and who need to reveal the truth of what happened that night through the writing and performing of a musical if they’re to avoid a most terrible end.
Discover more about Michael F. Stewart and his many books for children by going to his website: michaelfstewart.com
Margriet Ruurs
Margriet Ruurs is the author of over 40 books for children and conducts (ZOOM) school presentations: margrietruurs.com
Enjoy her travel-and-books blog here: globetrottingbooklovers.com
This article is featured in Canadian Teacher Magazine’s Winter 2025 issue.