MOON TREE: The Story of One Extraordinary Tree-- A Review, Book Journey, and Giveaway

Sometimes authors stumble upon their stories. And even though that story takes time to write, that initial connection remains strong when the book is brought into the world. 

As you'll read in the book journey below, that was the case for Carolyn Fraiser's debut STEM picture book, MOON TREE: The Story of One Extraordinary Tree (Reycraft Books, 2022) illustrated by Simona Mulazzani. 

REVIEW

Carolyn Fraiser, my SCBWI-Carolinas friend, makes writing a picture book look easy. The text is sparse yet lyrical.  But actually, the process of uncovering the "of course!" structure came only after many revisions. 

The story seems to begin with an ordinary sycamore in an ordinary forest. But actually, here is the true beginning many years before that tree was alive:

One ordinary boy

who dashes among the trees

At home, he watches

war planes soar

in the Oklahoma sky

and dreams that one day 

he will fly. 

        

He grew up to be...

He became a pilot who races through the skies. He watches others touch space.  Maybe one day, he'll fly even higher.

He does! And becomes,

the one NASA astronaut who packs his bag with seeds to honor the men who rescue trees.

But, back on earth, the container holding the seeds breaks and the seeds scatter. 

Along comes one forest researcher who watches them sprout and,

decides to send the "Moon Trees" to camps, schools, and state forests to celebrate the bicentennial. 

Everyone forgets about the trees until one third-grade girl finds a sycamore at her camp that is "named after the moon." She is curious and encourages her class to find out why it is called a moon tree.

In the end, the girl and the class discover the story of the Moon Tree--the book that your students, kids, or grandkids, will enjoy reading over and over again.  As you can see from the images I've included in this review, Simona Mulazzani's illustrations are out-of-this-world imaginative, and beautiful!

CAROLYN'S BOOK JOURNEY

I spent 20 years writing for adults before I decided to pursue writing for children, and it still took me 10 years to get a book published! Since I had written a lot for adult magazines, I started with children's magazines and had several pieces published. But book publishing was harder. I wrote and submitted many stories before I even started working on Moon Tree. 

I wanted to write Moon Tree from the day I stumbled across our local moon tree at the Cradle of Forestry in Pisgah Forest. I had never heard of the moon trees and the story fascinated me. I spent 6 months diving deep into research. I wasn't sure how to approach the story so I looked at it from every angle I could -- from Stuart Roosa's biography to the history of the Apollo program. I interviewed people with NASA and the US Forest Service, listened to interviews, read tons of newspaper articles, and watched every documentary I could find on the Apollo program. When I came across the story of the 3rd-grade class project, I had the opportunity to interview the teacher, and I knew I wanted to include that angle in my story. But my initial drafts were far from what ended up being published. 

My first draft was close to 1500 words with lengthy sidebars on every page. Then I wrote a fictionalized version from the perspective of the tree. I tried some other angles, but none of them really stuck. Then an agent challenged me to try a lyrical approach, which was more in my wheelhouse than anything else I had been trying. I let the idea simmer for several months before trying again. 

I  began to think about each element and person of the story and how if any of those pieces were missing, the story might not have happened or may have been lost to history. That's what gave me the idea of starting with the concept of "one" because each one made a difference -- right down to the third-grade girl. I didn't know if it would work, but it did!   

I literally put all my research away and focused on the essence of the story. What came out was the final version that ended up in print

Rejections? Oh, there were A LOT! I think I had about 50 rejections from this manuscript alone, but most were from early versions of the story. Once I had the final version, I saw interest pick up almost immediately. 

I had been familiar with Reycraft from my research with various publishers and friends who had published through them. I had been selected for a mentorship with Vivian Kirkfield who convinced me that the version I had was ready to go out. I think I put the pitch out there for a few Twitter pitch contests. A friend saw it and thought it would be a good fit for Reycraft. She suggested that I submit it to them, so once I got the green light from Vivian, I did. 

A BOOK WITH KID APPEAL

As you know, I love giving books to my grandkids. MOON TREE is one that I'm sure will be read over and over again. The boys loved counting all the trees! And of course, my granddaughter insisted on reading it herself. 

GIVEAWAY

Reycraft is donating a copy of MOON TREE. I'm giving it away through the spring issue of the Talking Story newsletter. Leave a comment with your email address if you are new to my blog and I'll add your name to the giveaway list. A winner will be chosen on April 17th. U.S. addresses only. If you are an educator, decide to follow my blog, or also leave a comment through the newsletter, I'll enter your name twice.