Selected by IndieBound.org for the IndieSpring 2012 Kids' Indie Next List: "Inspired Recommendations for Kids from Indie Booksellers."
Q&A with Lisa Morlock, Author of Track that Scat!
Q. Where did you get the idea for this book?
A. The character in the book, Finn, is based on my son and his friend. One day the boys were waiting for a library program to start, when a flock of geese landed at a nearby pond. The boys asked if they could go see them and sprinted off. By the time we moms caught up, their flip-flops, toes, and ankles were covered in goose poop. I was fairly grossed out by it, but the boys were fascinated. We cleaned them up with the library garden hose, dried them off under the automatic hand dryer, and headed to story time. Bless all librarians; they're kind to every kid, even the wet, stinky ones.
Q. How did you pick the animals to write about?
A. The animals in the book could be found in about any wooded area. I was hoping that readers would quickly be able to relate to the ones in the book and begin looking for them in their own neighborhoods or local parks.
Q. Why does Track that Scat! have sidebars?
A. There was so much information that just couldn't fit into the rhyming format, so we created additional space for the information that the publisher calls sidebars. Animals are so incredible, and I wanted the nonfictional information to be just as entertaining as the rhyming, fictional part.
Q. Have you ever been sprayed by a skunk?
A. No, but Queenie, our farm dog, was sprayed. I was little at the time, but I do remember she kept rubbing her nose with her paw. (That's Puppy for pee-yew.)
Q. Which animal is your favorite?
A. Wolves are high on the list; who doesn't want to howl at the moon?
Q. Do you have a favorite book?
A. My all-time favorite is probably To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee.
Q. What's the best writing advice you've ever gotten?
A. Iowa poet Robert Tremmel once said, "The only difference between a published writer and an unpublished writer is that the published writer kept writing." So I write. The same philosophy can be applied to any dream: just keep working toward it.