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| Sara Pennypacker | |
Sara Pennypacker is the author of many books for children and is best known for the New York Times bestselling Pax and Pax, Journey Home, and the Clementine series.
Donna Bray: Sara, can you tell us about your first historical novel for middle-grade readers, The Lions' Run?
Sarah Pennypacker: Late in the Nazi occupation of France, an orphaned 12-year-old boy discovers something upsetting at a secretive Lebensborn. Questioning his courage, he finds he has enough to meet the challenge.
Bray: You've been incubating this book for as long as we've worked together--more than 20 years! Can you talk about the first seed of the story?
Pennypacker: The first time I heard about the Lebensborn program was from a history-buff friend. What he told me was so appalling it didn't even sound possible. To populate the lands Hitler intended to conquer--and to enlarge the Third Reich's armies--maternity homes were created in Germany and, later, in occupied countries. They were places where women and girls as young as 15 were housed, fed, and cared for until they gave birth--but only those women and girls who met the Nazi's "Aryan" standards, and were carrying the babies of Nazi soldiers. In the occupied countries, these babies were taken from their mothers to be raised in Germany. Pretty soon, I began to think about using this compelling setting in a novel.
Bray: You've written about the impact of war on children and animals in the Pax books. What inspired you to revisit this theme?
Pennypacker: Something like that is never finished; war is always occurring somewhere. What's memorialized in history books focuses on military actions, but there are always innocent civilians, kids, and animals affected. Their stories deserve to be told also. When I was doing school visits for Pax, I learned that kids want to know what they can do about injustice, so in The Lions' Run my characters explore ways they can take a stand against unfair situations.
Bray: This book manages to touch on complex and difficult topics, while keeping the stakes rising and the plot racing along. Were there any challenges in writing a story like this?
Pennypacker: Paring down was always the challenge. So many things in the book were story-worthy--What happened to those children taken from their countries and mothers? What happens to families when half the men of a country are missing?--but I had to be strict to keep the story tight.
Bray: We've been so lucky to have the brilliant Jon Klassen create art for your books! What was your reaction to seeing the cover for the first time?
Pennypacker: I actually gasped! There is so much energy and tension in that cover! It moved me so much that the next day I went into my studio and began revising, this time with the goal of having the action live up to that amazing cover.