In a harmonic convergence of the literary sort, multiple forces for good are meeting up in one event on April 12. The occasion is the launch party for a new children’s book, PRIDE: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag, a Keep St. Pete Lit event hosted by the best little pop-up bookstore in Tampa Bay, Tombolo Books. If you’ve visited Tombolo in its temporary spot in the new Central Arcade at 1114 Central Ave., you know it’s way too tiny a space for a book party, so KSPLit is holding the launch in the Warehouse Arts Xchange, the new(ish) studio complex at 22nd & 5th avenues south.
We gave Rob Sanders the Seven questions with treatment… here’s what he told us.
I’d like to confirm for the sake of clarity that you’re not any of these Rob Sanderses: Rob Sanders, writer of such “speculative fiction” as The Dread Sentinels of Dorn; Robert Sanders, Scottish hack writer in 18th-c. London; Robert Sanders, 1st Baron Bayford; or Rob Sanders, Florida CPA.
I am not any of those Rob Sanderses — or the thousands of others who are out there. And I’m not quite sure what “speculative fiction” is. Alas, I am the Rob Sanders from Springfield, Missouri who now lives in Brandon, Florida, teaches elementary school and writes children’s books.
But as you explain in the “fun bio” on your site, you have had lots of varied experiences leading up to your present status as Brandon elementary school teacher and best-selling children’s book author. How have jobs like loading dock worker, trophy engraver and telephone sales rep helped you in your writing and your teaching?
Everything helps when you’re a writer, and nothing quite prepares you for a day of teaching. Working on the loading dock at the Kraft Foods Cave Storage Facility convinced me that college was important. Though it took changing colleges three times and having two different majors, I finally found the degree that fit me. Engraving trophies helped me pay attention to details, but more importantly let me know that I didn’t like working in isolation all the time. Being a telephone sales rep taught me to listen first, to share a message concisely, and to keep smiling. (We had mirrors mounted beside our desks and were required to smile into the mirrors when we spoke with customers. Though it seemed totally ridiculous, my tone was different when I was smiling.)
All my work and volunteer experiences over the years have contributed to the person I am. It’s difficult to imagine who I would be if any of those experiences were taken away. Not that I want to repeat a lot of those experiences, of course, but I value them.
You’re a great-uncle, not a dad, but your funny book Rodzilla suggests you’ve had experience with the disgusting odors and excretions occasionally emitted by toddlers. Were your nieces, nephews and students the inspiration for Rodzilla’s stink-rays and slime missiles? (I bet they’re every kid’s favorite parts of the book.)
Kids do love stink rays and slime missiles! I’ve been around children my entire life. My mom babysat when I was growing up and we had a huge neighborhood filled with kids. I’ve worked with children in volunteer settings since I was in high school, and every job I’ve had since I was 25 years old has focused on children. So, I’ve experienced my fair share of odors, unexpected sound effects, sick kids, cuts, bruises, and the like. Luckily at school, most things can be solved with a little room spray, a bandage or a wet paper towel.
Working with kids as much as I have, I have a sense of what they find funny. Gross and disgusting are two things that seem to top the list of funny for a lot of kids. Rodzilla was my chance to play up all that ick, goo, and sliminess and really entertain readers.
Why do you think children will enjoy your new book, the story of Gilbert Baker, the designer of the Rainbow Flag, and Harvey Milk, the gay activist who inspired him to create it?
Most elementary students love nonfiction. Of course, they love fiction, too, and they get a balance of both at school. But nonfiction often connects kids to new information that stretches their minds and their imaginations.
Many elementary students are at the stage of development where fairness is important to them. They are riled up by anything that seems unfair, unjust or unequal. They may not yet be great at recognizing when they’re unfair themselves, but they can recognize it when it happens. They want everything to be fair from how I follow our classroom routines, to how points are awarded for a game, to where they’re assigned to sit in the cafeteria. My students get into reading about the Civil Rights movement, school integration, the plight of farm workers, women’s suffrage, and so on, and they get emotionally invested in how injustice is corrected. I believe that recognizing injustice is the first step to being able to fight injustice.
PRIDE: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag can appeal to kids on several levels. First of all, it’s a biography about a flag. That’s a unique topic and approach that most young readers haven’t seen before. Second, it’s a story where things get better and hope wins out. There’s also the aspect of the friendship and collaboration between Harvey Milk and Gilbert Baker, and how members of the community came together to create by hand the first Rainbow Flag. Finally, it’s a story about an inequality that is corrected over time. You know from what I’ve told you already that my students will be interested in that.
How do you deal with Harvey Milk’s assassination in the book, and how do you think children will react to it?
I’m so glad you asked about that. Some children have heard about assassination before — whether it be Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy or Martin Luther King, Jr. In PRIDE, I address the assassinations of Harvey and Mayor George Moscone straight on, simply, and with understandable language. The text says: “Their lives were taken by a man who did not think like Harvey, or feel like Harvey, or love like Harvey.” The story could have ended there, and the Pride Flag could have ended there, but neither did. The story continued and it continues to this day. The ultimate message of the book is that equality, pride, hope and love ultimately win out — they always have and always will. Unfortunately, Harvey isn’t around to see the progress that has been made. If he were still here, I think he would remind of us of how much work there still is to do.
Milk and Baker collaborated on the flag. Talk about how you collaborated with the wonderful illustrator for your book, Steven Salerno.
One of the most intriguing aspects of traditionally published picture books is that the author and illustrator are not in contact with one another. I write the text without the illustrator influencing me, and I allow the illustrator to tell his or her half of the story, too — without my input. The editor and art director are the ones who see that the two parts of the story flow seamlessly together. I’ve learned over the last nine years of writing picture books to trust the process. I’ve been surprised beyond belief at each finished book. The illustrators always seem to envision and create something far greater that I could have imagined. Even the first sketches of Steven Salerno’s illustrations blew me away, and then when I started seeing color images — wow — they took my breath away.
Harvey told Gilbert, “We need a symbol.” Gilbert came up with the idea of a flag — a Rainbow Flag. Harvey wasn’t standing in the community center with Gilbert and the volunteers as they dyed the fabric and cut and sewed it together. Harvey trusted the designer — Gilbert — to do his work. The same is true with a picture book. It’s a work of trust and mutual respect.
Brandon was once upon a time represented by the former Hillsborough County Commissioner Ronda Storms, who called for a ban on Pride displays in libraries and schools because she didn’t want her 6-year-old exposed to books about homosexuality. Now you, a Brandon elementary school teacher, have written a picture book called Pride about LGBT equality. I gotta say, that’s some poetic justice right there.
My job as a teacher is to educate children, and my job as a children’s writer is to entertain and inform them. PRIDE is history. History is history. The truth is the truth. Equality is equality. Hate and bigotry grow out of ignorance — a lack of knowledge and understanding. We can all do something about that. We educate others. As a teacher, I hope to help future generations of kids be stronger, wiser, more compassionate, more loving, and more accepting than my generation. I think those were the goals of my teachers back in the 60s and 70s. I think those are the goals of most teachers today. And I hope those will be the goals of teachers in the future. I can’t change the world. I can’t rid the world of hatred and bigotry. But I can tell, live, and write and teach about my truth, and I can encourage others to do the same.
This article appears in Apr 5-12, 2018.
