Allison's Book Bag

It’s me again, Andy, your guest reviewer for the month of November. As you recall, I subbed for Allison while she participated in National Novel Writing Month. I indulged myself by reviewing my childhood favorites. One of these was Space Carnival: The Story Behind Our Space Trips, which offers a different story with every reading thanks to a built-in spinner. In the course of researching the book, I discovered that its author, Dr. Lee Mountain, is a professor of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Houston. I couldn’t resist e-mailing Dr. Mountain to tell her how much I loved her book, and I included a link to my review of her book. When she wrote back, I was thrilled. But not satisfied. I thought: Allison is always interviewing authors—why can’t I? And so, as my final act of indulgence, here is my interview with Dr. Lee Mountain, the gracious and talented author of Space Carnival.

Dr. Lee Mountain

Andy: Space Carnival is a childhood favorite of mine that was published in 1970 for distribution by Amway. You told me in an e-mail that your children helped you write the book. Can you tell me a little more about how the book came to be? Was it your idea, or the publisher’s, or Amway’s? What was the thinking behind making it interactive via a spinner? How old were your children when you wrote it, and to what extent did they contribute?

Lee: I had a friend in Pictorial Publishers who was also an Amway distributor. He said Amway needed an item for Christmas sales (half book, half toy – hence the spinner) that would capitalize on the 1970 interest in the space program. At that time my kids were 4, 6, 8, and 10 years old. My husband and I had a fighting chance of keeping them seated and not fighting at the dinner table if we read aloud during the meal, so we read myths, novels, and even newspaper articles to them. I also read aloud my first drafts of Space Carnival, and I remember how my six-year-old showed me how he would make himself fit into The Squeeze (page 5). I had no contact, however, with the illustrator who did such a terrific job.

Andy: The cover of the book says “Another Spin-A-Tale Book.” The use of the word “another” suggests that there were other “Spin-A-Tale” books, but my online searches have found none. Do you know if there were other Spin-A-Tale books, or if more had been planned?

Lee: Pictorial Publishers originally planned a series of Spin-a-Tale adventures, but production costs were too high. However, the branching idea of Space Carnival eventually gave birth to a series entitled Attention Span Stories. Here’s how it happened. Educational publishers bought thousands of copies of Space Carnival to sell in schools, but found that the spinners were not built to withstand classroom use. The branching idea, however, could be used without spinners, just by offering the reader choices at the bottom of each page.

Andy: Apart from the topic, was “half book, half toy” the extent of the guidance you received from your friend at Pictorial Publishers? Who came up with the idea to incorporate a spinner?

Lee: An interesting question. In a way, I wish I could claim credit for the spinner, but it was the publisher’s idea. But in another way, I’m glad I’m not responsible for the inappropriateness of the spinner for classroom use. With some students, it didn’t last a week.

My old beat-up copy of Space Carnival

Andy: If someone came to me and asked me to write a children’s book about a space carnival, it would certainly occur to me to have the carnival feature activities that would give kids a taste of what astronaut training and space travel would be like. And Space Carnival does include rooms like The Spinner, The Oven, The Crush, and so forth. But I’m pretty sure it would not occur to me to incorporate elements of mythology, as you have done by populating your space carnival with centaurs, Norse gods, Greek titans, mermaids, and more. Often the connection between mythology and space lies in the names of rockets and planets. In other cases, you created your own connections: for instance, the mermaid’s presence is due to astronauts training underwater to simulate weightlessness. What inspired you to include so much mythology in a book about space travel?

Lee: You are correct that the initial reason for including Centaur, Thor, Gemini, etc. was the naming of rockets. But mythology is full of such fascinating characters – they enrich any story! Look at the way they continue to grab young readers in Riordan’s best-seller The Lightning Thief. Cerberus, the three-headed dog, plays no important part on page 18 of Space Carnival, but his picture turned out to be my kids’ favorite in the whole book. Probably my own love of mythology moved me to weave it into many of the stories.

Andy: The space carnival is presented as a real, physical place. Each attraction occupies its own room; there is mention of ceilings, floors, and walls. However, I’ve always felt that there is also a magical element to the story. I see it as similar to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which is about a real (in that world) factory, but you just know there’s some magic at work as well. In the case of Space Carnival: the rooms often seem bigger than any room could be; the centaur doesn’t look like a guy dressed as a centaur, it looks like a centaur; the mermaid looks like a mermaid, Thor looks like a god, the three-headed dog does not look like a dog with two fake heads; and Joe does things that would not be safe in a real carnival. Is my perception of a fantasy element merely the result of a boy who got caught up in the story and the vivid illustrations? In other words, were you going for realism, or did you intend for the story to cross over into fantasy?

Lee: Yes, definitely! Space exploration has always stimulated the imagination of readers. And fantasy can be “educational” when it includes mythology as well as information. It means so much to me that you actually remember Space Carnival from your childhood, and your own words indicate that it was the “magical element” which caused you, as a boy, to get caught up in the story. What a wonderful imagination you must have had! Your imagination (much more than the words on the page) brought the adventures to life for you. That is your gift to me!

Andy: You said that your grandchildren have read Space Carnival, and I would suppose they have read some of your other books. Which of your books have been their favorites?

Lee: Space Carnival ranked high with them in their preteen years; interestingly, however, one of them (now aged 13) told me that my textbook series, Vocabulary from Classical Roots, was probably “most valuable.” His teachers used the series with his class in the middle grades, and he scored off the charts on his standardized test on vocabulary. Maybe that justifies my existence as a textbook writer, but no adult will ever write me, as you did, about childhood memories of a textbook.

Andy: Thank you, Lee, for taking the time to answer all of my questions. When I was a boy, I never thought I would one day be in contact with the author of one of my favorite books. Our e-mail conversation has been one of the highlights of my year.

Lee: Textbook writing is the meat and potatoes of my work because I am a teacher. But writing Space Carnival was dessert. And what a welcome second-helping of dessert you have given me with this interview! You and your wife are attending to the meat and potatoes of children’s books; the reviews will help put together kids and books – and thereby give children the dessert of reading for enjoyment. Keep up the great work!

Related Posts

• Space Carnival: The Story Behind Our Space Trips, written by Dr. Lee Mountain and illustrated by Dane Love