Through her dual career as an editor and author, Andrea Davis Pinkney has striven to create what she didn't have growing up, books for African-American children. Her new book "The Red Pencil" tells the story of a 12-year-old girl in war-torn Sudan. Pinkney speaks at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 30, at Lesley University's Marran Theater on the Cambridge campus.
BOOKS: Did you have a lot of books growing up?
PINKNEY: I come from a family of voracious readers. My mom was an 8th grade English teacher. My dad was a big nonfiction reader. At that time there weren't a lot of young-adult books so I read a lot of adult fiction. I read what my mother was reading. We read "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou. I read biographies of presidents and the stories of political movements. This was when I was 12.
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BOOKS: Do you think there are enough books for African-American children today?
PINKNEY: No. When my husband, who is an illustrator, would receive manuscripts from publishers I would say, "Can you tell your publisher we need more books about African-American notables, more stories about the civil rights movement for young readers." He finally said, "Why don't you do it?" I drew inspiration from writers like Virginia Hamilton, who wrote "M.C. Higgins the Great," which won the National Book Award and the Newbery Medal.
BOOKS: What are you reading currently?
PINKNEY: A fascinating book called "The Playwright at Work" by Rosemarie Tichler and Barry Jay Kaplan. It's conversations with notable playwrights, people like Tony Kushner. Because of that book I've been reading plays such as "Intimate Apparel" by Lynn Nottage, "M. Butterfly" by David Henry Hwang, "Choir Boy" by Tarell Alvin McCraney. I have devoured them.
BOOKS: Is that typical of what you read?
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PINKNEY: My favorite genre is memoir because it allows you to get under the skin of a writer. One I read recently is "To Be Loved" by Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown Records. One of my favorite memoirs is "The Color of Water" by James McBride. I just started reading his novel "The Good Lord Bird." I also read historical fiction. I love books about presidents, government, social policy. I am a big Thomas Jefferson person and a big Abe Lincoln person. My favorite Lincoln book is "Lincoln: A Photobiography" by Russell Freedman.
BOOKS: What are your reading habits?
PINKNEY: I have different books for different things. Vacation is all light, fluffy fare. I remember my last vacation book distinctly because I loved it. "Gunn's Golden Rules" by Tim Gunn from "Project Runway." As soon as I started it I realized it was the perfect vacation book. I have to say some of his strategies are really sound. Go Tim Gunn.
BOOKS: Any all-time favorite literary characters?
PINKNEY: My favorite book is Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird." I love each of those characters. I read it for the first time when I was 9. I read it every year. Last summer during the book's 50th anniversary, I had a hankering to read it again, but I didn't know where my copy was. I was on the subway and across the crowded car I saw this woman reading it. She was on the last page. She finished it, closed the book, and looked up thoughtfully. I said, "Psst. Can I look at that?'' I just wanted to get a taste. The subway pulls into the stop. She tosses me the book. She says, "Enjoy it," and gets off the train. I have to say I get my best reading done on the subway. It seems counterintuitive. It's noisy and crowded. Many times I've missed the subway stop.
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BOOKS: What's the last book that made you miss a stop?
PINKNEY: It was "The Watsons go to Birmingham — 1963" by Christopher Paul Curtis. I was laughing so hard my mascara was running. I was wiping my face, and I realized I was in some foreign borough in New York.
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