20. Creating Thanksgiving Magic With The Turkey Hands By Susan Fairchild

Hey friends, welcome back to the Firstie Land podcast. I'm your host, Molly Schwab, and today I have a really special guest joining me on the podcast. I'm chatting with children's book author, Susan Fairchild, who's the author of The Turkey Hands.

It's one of the cutest books I've read in a long time, and I don't want to give away the plot because I want Susan to tell you all about it. Make sure you stick around to the end of the show so you can hear all the fun ways that you can use this book in your classroom.

I'm really excited to welcome Susan to the podcast and hear all about her inspiration for writing this book. So let's get started. Hi, Susan.

Welcome to the show. I'm really glad to have you here. I have to tell you first, I love your book. I really was, I was really taken by it.

And so I was really happy to have you on the show. Thank you so much. It is a delight to be here. Thank you for inviting me.

And I just can't tell you how happy it makes me that you like the turkey hand. So, yeah. I just made my day.

That's great. I just love it. Before we talk about the book, tell me a little bit about yourself

and your journey into becoming an author. You know, I just wanna say first off that I love your blog, I love your podcast. Part of the reason why it is close to my heart

is because I am the product of a first grade teacher. My mom taught first grade for probably 30 years and I've just been surrounded by children's books, by art. So she was just an incredible part of this journey

that I've been on in terms of writing children's books and just the work that she and first grade teachers, preschool teachers, second grade teachers, The importance of this work just can't be understated.

So really have an incredibly self-spot for the hard work that all of you guys do. Thank you. Thank you.

I appreciate that. And I did notice when I was reading your bio that your mom was a first grade teacher. And I was wondering if she was like any of your inspiration

behind this book or anything. Well, it's interesting. This book in particular has, I have been working on it for over 30 years,

probably for 35 years. And at different moments in time, I have gone back to it and I thought, well, how do I get it to the next level? And then there was this one point where, okay, my career has just gone in a different direction. I'm done. I'm done. And then COVID hit.

And my wife was on the front line to New York City, you know, in those early days, New York City was the epicenter. And I have some way of dealing with the fear, the unknown, just the trauma of that moment in time. And I went to this cabinet that had been shut

running a half decades probably with all of my children's books I had worked on when I was younger. And I thought, oh, am I really gonna open this can

of worms again? And I did. And that really sort of launched me back into, okay, I've gotta figure out the turkey hands.

They had been gnawing at me for over 30 years. I have to figure out how do I unleash them into the world? And so for the last five years, let's say I've been really working hard on them.

And I was really sort of at this moment, it's like, can't figure them out. I would trace my hair and I would look at my hair and it just, no, that doesn't capture the spirit

of these little sprites. And there was this one day where I was walking along the Hudson River and my mother died about 20 years ago,

and I was having this conversation with her. It's like, I can't figure it out. I just can't figure it out. I'm just gonna have to like forget this story.

And no sooner did I say that, then there is this crow that comes out of nowhere. It just swoops down, and if I don't duck, I am sure that crow would have hit me in the head.

I think that was your mother. I think she was telling- I think so, she was telling you, get that book written.

And no sooner did that happen that everything fell into place and the rest is history. That's great. I love it.

And they do kind of have a look of a little bit of a crow kind of look. They're kind of- They're in a strip hence, they're clever.

They get into all sorts of things. But I also just felt like, oh, this is down. You know, when you're on a road trip and you're searching for the right channel.

And the signal maybe is coming in faintly and you're saying, no. But then when you're driving through and the signal just comes in like, whoa,

that is how that all felt when I finally figured out this is what the turkey hands look like. This is who they are. I felt like, oh, everything just came together.

It was very exciting after all this finish here. That's great. I always get my, it seemed like I get my inspiration for things either in the shower or when I'm driving in the car.

Sometime when I can't write it down, you know, and I've got to like remember it in my head because I'll forget otherwise. So I've always got my phone handy where I can like voice in there, things that I'm thinking about doing or whatever.

So yeah, I understand. It comes in mysterious ways, right? But when it comes, it comes and you just know it. Absolutely.

That's for sure. So tell us what the book is about for anybody who hasn't read the story yet. Just give us the story of what happens in it. So this is a story about cutouts, paper cutouts, the sort of traditional Thanksgiving activity

where kids trace their hands. They make a little turkey out of their hands, they color in the feathers, and then the teacher leaves from the night and these little sprites, they just come to life. And they do what any kid would do.

I mean, these hands are so symbolic of children, right? And the way that children explore the world with their hands and express themselves with their hands, so naturally they get into all sorts of things.

And they're making a little bit of a mess along the way. And then they get into this one situation, which sort of is a shock. And there's-

I have to stop you because that's one of my favorite parts of the book. I mean, you know, can we say it? No, no, we can't.

We can't say it. It has to be a surprise.