I
have a secret to share, and it’s the reason why I write nonfiction. I want to
know what makes people afraid. More importantly, I want to know why, despite
extreme fear that may include the possibility of death—they face that fear and
go on to lead brave lives.
I’ve
come to realize that this motive is personal—that I’m looking for a blueprint
on life in the hopes that I haven’t strayed and that I can become the best
human being I can be. (Even though there’s this fear inside me that I might
fail.)
This
obsession began when I realized that my family background involved trauma and
some of the worst kinds of fear. Some of my relatives never recovered from this
past. Others—despite carrying emotional scar tissue—went on to lead fulfilling
and brave lives.
BABE
CONQUERS THE WORLD: The Legendary Life of Babe Didrikson Zaharias (Calkins Creek, 2014)
That
curiosity to study people who remain resilient in their quest, regardless of
the obstacles thrown in their path, attracted me to write about pioneering
athlete Babe Didrikson Zaharias.
In
researching Babe, I learned about her detractors—including male sports
reporters who didn’t believe that women should compete in track and field.
 |
Reporting on the
NHL for ESPN |
Those sexist views churned up the anxiety and vulnerability I’d felt as an ESPN
sportscaster in the 1990s when my male colleagues didn’t believe that a woman
should report on the NFL, the NBA or the NHL. They did everything possible to
silence my voice in hopes that I would quit. I didn’t.
Neither
did Babe. Seeking Babe’s own voice in the personal letters she wrote throughout
her career, I discovered her vulnerabilities and her courage. I was able to
channel my own vulnerability into the narrative.
BETWEEN
THE LINES: How ERNIE BARNES Went from the Football Field to the Art Gallery (Simon &
Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books, 2018)
Choosing
a subject for my first picture book biography was easy. I’d learned of Ernie
Barnes while working as a sports announcer. I never forgot his unwavering
self-confidence in the face of adversity, his strength in maintaining his
identity as an artist while playing in the NFL, and his resourcefulness in
navigating both worlds, refusing to adhere to stereotypes.
Years
after leaving ESPN, when I read that he had died, my heart sank. Why hadn’t I
written about him right away? The truth was, I didn’t know if I was “visual”
enough to write in the picture book biography format. Instead, I spent years
crafting long-form nonfiction with book lengths ranging up to 352 pages.
 |
| Ernie Barnes, courtesy of The Ernie Barnes Family
Trust |
But
when I stumbled on an article about Ernie’s artwork from the Los Angeles
Olympic Games, I knew I had to write his story. This time, my nonfiction
backlist gave me the courage to try the picture book biography format. And I
soon realized that broadcast journalism nurtured in me a deeply visual sense
mechanism. I think in pictures and scenes, much like a cinematographer.
Ernie
thought in pictures, too. He saw life as a canvas in motion connecting
humanity. I see story as a propulsion of bold, litmus-test moments spiraling
toward truth. Picture book biographies resonate with me because they form an
immediate connection with the subject’s soul. Writing them can often consume as
much time as lengthier nonfiction, because each word in a picture book is
weighted as heavily as an entire sentence or paragraph in long-form nonfiction.
FIRST
GENERATION: 36 Trailblazing Immigrants and Refugees Who Make America Great (Little, Brown Books
for Young Readers, 2018)
My
newest book, First Generation, co-written
with Rich Wallace, is my most personal nonfiction book yet.
The
jumping-off point was my own journey toward citizenship in 2016 and the ostracization
of so many immigrants and refugees with whom I took the oath during our
swearing-in ceremony. I wanted their stories to be front and center, but I also
needed to examine my own feelings around citizenship, being first generation,
and the daughter of a refugee and concentration camp survivor from the former
Yugoslavia.
I
knew right away what emotions and experiences to look for in researching our
subjects, so for this book, curating was in my DNA. Yet, being a collective
biography, we needed to achieve the heft of story through brevity and in what I
call, bio-sketches.
To
get at the core of the story, our mission statement revolved around one simple
question: If we’re in a cafeteria sitting next to an eleven-year-old, what is it
about the person we’re writing about that the child will never forget?
A
powerful and unexpected research tool became photographs. My mother cherishes
the few images that my grandmother brought with them on their boat journey from
Europe, and we discovered the same attachment with many of our subjects. So, we
selected for each person two moments in time or two images—like on
Instagram—that defined their lives, which I talked about in an interview
with School Library Journal.
Growing
up, I didn’t talk very much about my family’s traumatic past. The truth is, the
laughter from my classmates, when they heard my relatives speak English with
heavy accents, stung—a lot.
 |
I'm the kid on the right, sitting on
my
great-grandmother's lap |
Today,
it’s a privilege to shine a light on the truth and on my life. I know that I am
who I am because of the strength and perseverance of my relatives and their
unwavering will to survive. Ultimately, First
Generation lets immigrant kids know that they are valued and appreciated. For
kids whose families have been here for a long time, it helps forge connections
by seeing how much we have in common, like the need to be safe, to belong, and
to be loved.
Nonfiction
takes courage, honesty, transparency, and a tenacity to uncover the truth.
There is no hiding behind a subject. We dig deep into research and our souls
and present true stories to the most valued audience on the planet: young
readers.
 |
| Will Wrobel Photography |
Sandra Neil Wallace grew up in a home where several languages were
spoken, so oral storytelling became a tradition and perhaps the reason she
became obsessed with interviewing people and writing down their stories. Her
nonfiction books for young readers span all ages and focus on people who break
barriers and change the world. As the daughter of a refugee and concentration
camp survivor, Sandra was the first generation in her family to attend
university. She became a reporter, anchoring the network news before shattering
the glass ceiling in sports television as the first woman to host an NHL
broadcast on national TV.
Sandra’s nonfiction
titles have been selected as an NCTE Orbis Pictus winner, ALA Notable Books, the Chicago Public Library's
"Best of the Best", Booklist's Editors' Choice, and Bank
Street College's Best Children’s Books of the Year. She became a U.S. citizen
in 2016 and advocates for social responsibility as a member of the Keene
Immigrant and Refugee Partnership and advisor to the Cohen Center for Holocaust
and Genocide Studies at Keene State College. She lives in New Hampshire and
Maine with her husband, author Rich Wallace.
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