WELCOME
WILLIAM STEIG
K.A. Nuzum
TAEEUN YOO
PETER H. REYNOLDS
HARRY BLISS
KATE DICAMILLO
JEANNE STEIG
DAVID SMALL
MIKE TWOHY
SARAH STEWART
ROSS MACDONALD
JOAN SLATTERY
KATE MCMULLAN
KATHI APPELT
JEREMY TANKARD
ALISON MCGHEE
SALLY COOK
Jeremy Tankard on Bribes
Dec. 08, 2010
My parents were not ones to use bribes when I was growing up, however, there was one exception to that rule—and only one. I was a “reluctant reader”. I actually enjoyed books very much, but preferably if someone else was reading them to me. I could get absorbed in a good book if I had to read one, but I could always put it down again, even in the most exciting part. Why? I would rather be drawing pictures than doing pretty much anything else.
But, back to The Bribe. My parents are voracious readers. My little brother is a voracious reader. I was a voracious drawer. With so much reading going on in my house my parents were a little concerned about my lack of interest in reading. In fact they didn’t even think I could read more than a handful of words in one sitting. So my dad brought a book home after work one day. I think it was one of those Dick and Jane books if my memory serves correctly. But it was a LOOONG one, not one of the easy ones. He sat me down on the sofa and gave me the new book and said, “Jeremy, if you read this book to me I will take you to the toy store and buy you anything you want.” “Really?” I said. I took the book, opened it and began to read. I read it unfalteringly and with confidence. I didn’t stumble over the hard words. I read the WHOLE BOOK to him. When I was finished my dad looked at my mom and said, “I didn’t know Jeremy could do that!” My mom looked at me and said, “I didn’t know you could do that!” I looked at my parents and said, “I’m in grade two, of course I can do that! Now let’s go to the toy store.”
This is what I chose. It’s a beauty of a toy tractor. Solid metal, rubber tires, good paint.
I don’t think I read another book (not properly anyway) for a few more years. Of course I had to read the occasional one for school, but that doesn’t count.
Fast forward to 2004. Publishers began to take interest in my drawings. Serious interest. But there was a catch. They wanted me to write. Not just draw. WRITE. But wait a minute; you want the one guy who would do ANYTHING to avoid reading a book to write one? So I’m going to be a reluctant writer now too? I was in my early thirties and still a reluctant reader. Still loved books, but admired them from a distance—like a shy teenager at a high school dance who wants to ask the hottest girl if she’ll dance with me. That was books and me. Except that this was backwards—the hottest girl had just asked ME for a dance? I’m not stupid. I accepted.
I signed up for a writing class and started reading with a vengeance. I was thirty years behind on my reading. I had some catching up to do. But now it was like a challenge. In order to really impress the hottest girl at school I had to learn to do this thing. I read. I wrote. I read. I wrote. And somewhere in there I discovered that reading was the most wonderful thing and I had been missing out on it all these years.
I now take a book with me everywhere I go. I’ve still got some catching-up to do. In the words of my lovely daughter, “I’m a ferocious reader!” During negotiations for Grumpy Bird (my first picture book) Pippin decided to take me under their wing. I’m still amazed that the kid who had to be bribed to read gets to have his name on a list with the likes of William Steig (one of my heroes), Kate DiCamillo, Doreen Cronin, Kathi Appelt, David Small. Everyone really. They’re all amazing!
I phoned my parents the other day as I started to write this little piece and asked my dad about the bribe. He just laughed and said he learned his lesson, “I never bribed you again after that!” That tractor reminds me that rules are meant to be broken, that all good things come in time, and that I’m a late bloomer. I still think of that tractor when I crack open a new book and when I sit down at my drafting table to craft a new book of my own. It also reminds me that my books had better be good enough that kids don’t need to be bribed to read them!
But, back to The Bribe. My parents are voracious readers. My little brother is a voracious reader. I was a voracious drawer. With so much reading going on in my house my parents were a little concerned about my lack of interest in reading. In fact they didn’t even think I could read more than a handful of words in one sitting. So my dad brought a book home after work one day. I think it was one of those Dick and Jane books if my memory serves correctly. But it was a LOOONG one, not one of the easy ones. He sat me down on the sofa and gave me the new book and said, “Jeremy, if you read this book to me I will take you to the toy store and buy you anything you want.” “Really?” I said. I took the book, opened it and began to read. I read it unfalteringly and with confidence. I didn’t stumble over the hard words. I read the WHOLE BOOK to him. When I was finished my dad looked at my mom and said, “I didn’t know Jeremy could do that!” My mom looked at me and said, “I didn’t know you could do that!” I looked at my parents and said, “I’m in grade two, of course I can do that! Now let’s go to the toy store.”
This is what I chose. It’s a beauty of a toy tractor. Solid metal, rubber tires, good paint.
I don’t think I read another book (not properly anyway) for a few more years. Of course I had to read the occasional one for school, but that doesn’t count.
Fast forward to 2004. Publishers began to take interest in my drawings. Serious interest. But there was a catch. They wanted me to write. Not just draw. WRITE. But wait a minute; you want the one guy who would do ANYTHING to avoid reading a book to write one? So I’m going to be a reluctant writer now too? I was in my early thirties and still a reluctant reader. Still loved books, but admired them from a distance—like a shy teenager at a high school dance who wants to ask the hottest girl if she’ll dance with me. That was books and me. Except that this was backwards—the hottest girl had just asked ME for a dance? I’m not stupid. I accepted.
I signed up for a writing class and started reading with a vengeance. I was thirty years behind on my reading. I had some catching up to do. But now it was like a challenge. In order to really impress the hottest girl at school I had to learn to do this thing. I read. I wrote. I read. I wrote. And somewhere in there I discovered that reading was the most wonderful thing and I had been missing out on it all these years.
I now take a book with me everywhere I go. I’ve still got some catching-up to do. In the words of my lovely daughter, “I’m a ferocious reader!” During negotiations for Grumpy Bird (my first picture book) Pippin decided to take me under their wing. I’m still amazed that the kid who had to be bribed to read gets to have his name on a list with the likes of William Steig (one of my heroes), Kate DiCamillo, Doreen Cronin, Kathi Appelt, David Small. Everyone really. They’re all amazing!
I phoned my parents the other day as I started to write this little piece and asked my dad about the bribe. He just laughed and said he learned his lesson, “I never bribed you again after that!” That tractor reminds me that rules are meant to be broken, that all good things come in time, and that I’m a late bloomer. I still think of that tractor when I crack open a new book and when I sit down at my drafting table to craft a new book of my own. It also reminds me that my books had better be good enough that kids don’t need to be bribed to read them!
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