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51 °F Forecast | Road Cams Thursday, December 9, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend October 10, 2004 Jan Brett illustrates her own books. This one�s taken from �The Umbrella,� her new book about a Costa Rican boy who takes a palm frond umbrella into an adventure. Children’s author Jan Brett will sign her new book here By BILL VARBLE Mail Tribune Jan Brett is talking from a cell phone on her tour bus near Boulder, Colo. Never mind that the closest most writers ever get to a tour bus is passing one on the way into a concert, Brett says she doesn’t feel like a rock star. "Nobody mobs the bus," she says with a laugh. The mega-selling children’s author says it‘s the ideal way to travel. Departures don’t get canceled, you never have to change flights to get to smaller towns, and you can schedule events whenever you want. Brett plans to visit Southern Oregon Thursday for a book signing from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Waldenbooks in the Rogue Valley Mall. She’s touring in support of her new book, "The Umbrella" (G.P. Putman’s Sons, $16 hardcover). Brett is not your usual children’s author/illustrator. Her books turn up on the New York Times best seller lists. Her sales are approaching 30 million books. Hundreds sometimes attend a signing. There is probably not a library in the country that doesn’t have a Brett book or two. Advertisement The bus is leased from a company that provides tour buses for musicians. It features a "wrapping" designed by the Penguin Young Readers Group’s marketing department. A young jaguar, a toucan, a resplendent quetzal and other animals from "The Umbrella" are depicted in full color on the big, blue bus. A tree frog, a kinkajou and a baby tapir, all bigger than life, appear to lean out the windows. "The Umbrella" is the story of Carlos, a little Costa Rican boy who sets out with a palm frond umbrella to look for animals in the rain forest. Seeing none, he places the umbrella upside down at the base of a giant fig tree. That’s the start of an adventure involving a mischievous monkey, a tiny hummingbird and other denizens of the forest. Colorful illustrations on each page are an integral part of the story. Animals peer out of textured forest made up of trees, orchids, vines, leaves, bromeliads. At signings, Brett talks to children about writing and drawing for 10 minutes or so. She travels widely, but she usually has an idea for a book before she plans a trip. "I think up a plot," she says. "That’s the hard part for me. If it evolves, I think of a place it could be set." She credits two teachers whose classes studied the Central American rain forest for the idea of a little boy who would carry an umbrella into an adventure. So she knew she wanted to write about a Hispanic child before she went to Costa Rica and visited the unique environment of the Monteverde Cloud Forest. There she took in the colors and the smells and went out with guides and saw toucans with their massive bills, almost mythical quetzals, a violet saber winged hummingbird that landed next to her. She says the toughest part of being an author is the writing. "I have to tie myself into the chair," she says. She likens the writing process not so much to creating or building something as taking a journey of discovery. "It gathers momentum and you lose the world around you," she says. "I love to have things take hold of me." For "The Umbrella," she says, the Costa Rican biology overtook everything else. She likes to see children lose themselves in books. "When I was a girl I felt I could enter the pages of my books," she says. "I love children for an audience. They put their fingers all around the page. They don’t care about the message. They just let themselves walk into it." If there’s any message she’d like them to feel, it’s just this: "It’s OK to make up a world." On the Web: janbrett.com Reach reporter Bill Varble at 776-4478 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities