Whether she’s writing picture books, middle-grade novels, or books for another reading level, Erica S. Perl has a way with the funny. From her CHICKEN BUTT! and FEROCIOUS FLUFFITY stories to her most recent middle-grade novel ALL THREE STOOGES, Erica touches our hearts and our funny bones, leading to award like the 2018 National Jewish Book Award for Children’s Literature, the 2019 Sydney Taylor Award Silver Media, an NPR Best Book of the Year award, and more.
How does she do it? We asked…
Booking Biz: What does your average day look like?
Erica: I try to get my dogs out, first thing, so they’ll let me write afterwards (they’re the bosses!). Then, I write until lunch, eat, then write some more. I try to divide up my day so there are chunks of creative time that don’t get interrupted by, well, everything else. I also do school visits, which I love! But those are not average days – those days are special!
Booking Biz: When you’re not writing, what do you like to do best?
Erica: I like to spend time with my family and I like to spend time outside, and I especially like to spend time with my family outside. I also like to run and dance and read, though not all at the same time.
Booking Biz: Where do you get the inspiration for your books?
Erica: It depends on the book! I write the TRUTH OR LIE series, which is launching this month with TRUTH OR LIE: SHARKS! That book came out of my childhood love for (and fear of) sharks, combined with my interest in teaching critical reading skills at an early age. I also write the ARNOLD AND LOUISE series, and the next book, HAPPY FELL, is about how Louise wants to make a huge leaf pile and Arnold wants to make sticky popcorn balls – two incompatible ideas that could get really messy if combined. As a fan of yummy treats and jumping in leaves, I wrote it rooting for both of them!
Booking Biz: Did you always want to write books for children, or was there another career you wished for as a child?
Erica: I always wanted to write books for children. I did a bunch of other things first, including being a trial lawyer and driving an ice cream truck, before coming back to it.
Booking Biz: If you ruled the world, what would it look like?
Erica: I recently started taking improv classes. Before, I would have said that everyone should be required to wait tables (so they’d know how and why to be nice to people in the service industry), but now I think that everyone should also have to take improv classes. The world would be a better place, because people would learn how to use “yes and” to build on their ideas collaboratively. And they’d tip well. That’s the world I want to live in.
Booking Biz: Yes! And… that sounds like a fun world.