Please welcome artist and picture book author Bridgitte Rodguez to Frog on a Blog! Bridgitte’s beautiful book A Walk Through the Redwoods, which published last fall from Reycraft Books, is overflowing with lovely imagery in both text and illustrations (by Natalia Bruno). It features an abundance of plant and animal life, as well as tons of factual information. On her website, Bridgitte says, “I write stories intended to create an experience for the reader. I want my readers, be they young or old, to go on a journey.” And that’s exactly what you’ll do as you accompany a girl and her aunt on a walk through the redwood forest.
Today is National Arbor day, the perfect day for Bridgitte to stop by and speak a bit about her journey writing A Walk Through the Redwoods, especially the research she did to add an extra layer to her fictional story. Let’s hear from Bridgitte!
The definitions we learned in school for fiction and non-fiction are pretty straightforward. Fiction is not real and non-fiction is real. However, there are many caveats to that. Especially these days, when children’s books can take on many forms: informational fiction, realistic fiction, narrative non-fiction, creative non-fiction, etc. I mostly write in the informational/realistic fiction space. Which by my definition means that the story itself is fictional, though could be based on real people, real places, and the characters do things and experience things that a real person could do.
My debut picture book, A Walk Through the Redwoods, illustrated by Natalia Bruno, published from Reycraft Books in September 2023. It is an example of informational fiction. The story of a kid going on a walk through the redwoods is fictional. But it could happen. Anyone can take a walk in the redwoods, which is what makes it realistic fiction. It is considered informational fiction, because the book provides facts about the real redwoods and the plants and animals that call it home, through the use of sidebars. In effect, you learn something real.
The fictional story of walking through the redwoods, comes through my many experiences of walking through the redwoods as a student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, which is nestled amongst a redwood forest. The events in the story did not take place as written, but come from many different experiences I had in the redwoods.
As I was writing the story, I knew I wanted to write a fictional story— create an experience for the reader. But because the redwoods are a real place, and so few books are written about them, I wanted to impart facts to the reader. I wanted the reader to learn a little bit about what makes the redwoods so unique and special.
In my original manuscript, the aunt character was imparting these facts to the kid, sort of in a question and answer format. It was my editor at Reycraft, Winsome Bingham—a true champion of the manuscript, who suggested that the facts be pulled out of the story text and instead be formatted as sidebars. I agreed, and it made for a much more compelling story! And two different ways to read and interact with the book.
Once the decision was made to include factual sidebars—I realized that the facts needed to be wholly accurate and not just based on my experiences. I also realized that I needed to include a few more so that they seemed purposeful and not random. Thus, I began to do some research.
Because this was not a true non-fiction story, I didn’t do a deep research dive. But I did look at non-fiction books about the redwoods, both for kids and adults to see what kinds of facts they provided. I also reviewed websites such as the National Park Service and the California State Parks where the redwoods are located for information on the other animals that live in the redwoods. Additionally, I read a few scholarly articles that I found through online searches, just to further flesh out the redwood ecosystem.
My research was purely casual. Meaning, the book’s intention is not to provide a science lesson, but rather to spark curiosity for the reader about a real place. To entice the reader to want to experience and learn more. Because they now know, they are reading about a real place and real animals and real plants.
Research doesn’t require huge amounts of effort or time. It all depends on what your goals for your story are. What do you want your reader to come away with? For informational and realistic fiction, a little bit of research can add another layer to your story. It can take your reader from the pretend to real possibilities of activities and experiences that they, too, can have.
Bridgitte Rodguez was born in Puerto Rico and grew up in sunny San Diego. She attended the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she fell in love with redwood trees and nature, as well as earned a BA in Anthropology. At George Washington University, in Washington, DC, Bridgitte earned an MA in Anthropology and spent hours at the many museums in the city and spent many years working at one! She now lives in New York City spending her days writing, making art, and wandering the streets.
You can occasionally find her on social media @KidsBookWriting or on her website www.BridgitteRodguez.com. She also attempts to regularly write the Substack columns: Everyday Creative and Bread & Books, as well as post her artistic experimentations to her Redbubble Shop; StickFigureArts.
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