My Inspiration for Piper Morgan
The Piper Morgan series was my first attempt at a chapter book series and I was so excited my agent liked it. She was the first person to read it and she said I had the voice for chapter books down perfectly. The voice came to me after reading a stack of chapter books by some of the best children’s authors of all time. One of those authors is Barbara Parks.
When my agent told me publishers were looking for chapter books, the Junie B. Jones series was the first thing I read. I’d never even heard of it before—it came along in the early 90s, when I wasn’t really paying attention to what six-year-olds were reading. From the first book, Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus, I was hooked. I have never seen anyone capture the voice of that age group like Barbara Parks did.
Piper is slightly older than Junie, though, and as I wrote, she developed her own voice and a very distinctive personality. She manages to get herself into trouble in interesting ways, but mostly she just wants to make friends…and stay somewhere long enough to keep those friends. I don’t know if I’ll get to write past Book Four, but I’d love to write an ending where Piper and her mom finally stay in one place.
Piper is super excited to help out at Bark Street, a local animal shelter in town. Who wouldn’t want to be surrounded by adorable puppies and dogs all day? And when Piper sees Taffy, the cutest dog she has ever seen, Piper is determined to find a way to bring Taffy home. But it won’t be easy—especially when she finds out someone else wants to make Taffy a part of their family, too!
About Stephanie:
Stephanie Faris knew she wanted to be an author from a very young age. In fact, her mother often told her to stop reading so much and go outside and play with the other kids. After graduating from Middle Tennessee State University with a Bachelor of Science in broadcast journalism, she somehow found herself working in information technology. But she never stopped writing.
Stephanie is the Simon & Schuster author of 30 Days of No Gossip and 25 Roses, as well as the
Links:
Website : Blog : Facebook : Twitter : Instagram
Chapter books are amazing and I'm so happy to see there's a market for them again. My first one was the Baby Sitters Club Little Sister series. Those inspired me to write. I loved reading about Karen's family, and basically wanted to be Karen lol I'm so excited for the Piper Morgan series <3
ReplyDeleteI remember those! They were after my time, but that was during the book packaging days, wasn't it? When books came out in these HUGE series that was produced by a packager. It was hard to get published if you were a YA author in those days. You had to basically do ghostwriting work for one of those packagers and make only $1,000 or so. I think JK Rowling changed all that!
DeleteCongratulations, Stephanie!
ReplyDeleteThank you, William!
DeleteOh, Stephanie! Congrats! I'm sure this is another great read.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Meradeth.
I'm curious about Junie B. I haven't read it. I'd like to write chapters books one day. Piper Morgan looks great. I can't wait to read it.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun post! So wonderful to see Stephanie here! Junie B. Jones is definitely a character and my students love her. She certainly has voice. :) Piper sounds like fun! Wishing Stephanie the best of luck.
ReplyDeleteCongrats to Stephanie! I showed my son that cover and he really liked it. (He loves cats and dogs!) He's almost six, and he's reading a series of chapter books called Puppy Place and Kitty Corner. These about rescuing and adopting pets. (Just in case you were wanting to do any more reading research. :) )
ReplyDelete