BIO

Kristiana Gregory says that her writing is her way of sharing with young readers her love of history and her deep appreciation for our first Americans. She received a Golden Kite Award for JENNY IN THE TETONS — the first in her "Great Episodes" series. Along with being a former book reviewer and columnist for The Los Angeles Times, she also was an editor, a legal secretary and a summer camp counselor/swim instructor. She lives in Boise, Idaho with her family.

A Talk with Dear America Author Kristiana Gregory
by Shannon Maughan

The talented Kristiana Gregory has written many critically-acclaimed books, including three Dear America titles: THE WINTER OF RED SNOW: THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR DIARY OF ABIGAIL JANE STEWART, ACROSS THE WIDE AND LONESOME PRAIRIE: THE OREGON TRAIL DIARY OF HATTIE CAMPBELL and THE GREAT RAILROAD RACE: THE DIARY OF LIBBY WEST, UTAH TERRITORY, 1868. She lives in Boise, Idaho with her family and recently took some time to talk with Kids Reads about her writing.

KRC: Were you able to choose which period of history you wanted to write about in your Dear America books?

Kristiana Gregory: For the first two books [about Valley Forge and the Oregon Trail] I was given a choice, but Scholastic asked me to write the railroad book and the one I'm working on now about the Gold Rush in 1849 California, which is due out in fall 2000.

KRC: What kind of research did you do for your Dear America books?

Kristiana Gregory: I used lots of books and sometimes visited the places I wrote about. When I wrote THE WINTER OF RED SNOW, I had already been to Valley Forge several times, in all different seasons of the year. I found journals, almanacs and maps from that time and then I constructed the story. With the almanacs, I was able to figure out what the weather would have been like on any particular day I was writing about.

When I visited Valley Forge in the winter, it was so cold, bleak and gray. It made it easier to imagine what it would be like to be there with no shoes, like some of the characters in the book were.

KRC: What was the most fascinating or memorable thing you discovered in your research?

Kristiana Gregory: I found it fascinating that the enemy --- the British --- was just 17 miles away in Philadelphia when George Washington and his troops were at Valley Forge. Nowadays we could blast someone with a missile if they were that close. It was just amazing that everything in Philadelphia was very civilized while soldiers were hunkering down at Valley Forge.

KRC: How difficult or easy was it to create a whole life for a character, while incorporating actual historic events?

Kristiana Gregory: Well, for the Valley Forge book it was very easy to write the story because the setting was one place. It was easy for me to visualize Abigail's house and the river. For the Oregon Trail book, it was really hard, because the characters were constantly moving from place to place. I had to create a whole new scene for almost every diary entry; it was very difficult.

KRC: What kind of feedback do you get from kids, teachers?

Kristiana Gregory: I hear just wonderful things from kids; they warm my heart. They enjoy the historical stuff in the books, but they can also relate to the family situations in the books, which are universal. I write about my own life, basing my characters on my own kids, who can be naughty sometimes, and on my own childhood.

KRC: Are you excited about the Across Dear America event?

Kristiana Gregory: I'm looking forward to the bookstore appearances. It's a thrill to meet the girls who come up to me hugging one of the diaries to their chest. I love to see that they are reading. And I know that many of them are inspired to record their own history, which is very important. They figure if the characters in the book could do it 100 years ago, they can do it, too.

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