{"id":970,"date":"2022-07-16T09:45:40","date_gmt":"2022-07-16T09:45:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=970"},"modified":"2022-07-16T09:45:40","modified_gmt":"2022-07-16T09:45:40","slug":"lone-star-listens-kate-b-jerome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=970","title":{"rendered":"Lone Star Listens: Kate B. Jerome"},"content":{"rendered":"

This June, we’re featuring authors of children\u2019s books. <\/span>The kids are out of school and we want to give parents, grandparents, and caregivers insights into books with Texas themes and the authors of those books. We\u2019re delighted to interview someone who\u2019s been a teacher, an author, a book editor, a publisher, and an academic expert of intergenerational dynamics \u2014<\/span> Kate B. Jerome. <\/span>Welcome!<\/span><\/p>\n

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LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: Kate, you began your career as a high school biology teacher but serendipitously entered the world of educational publishing when you moved to Chicago and joined Scott Foresman Publishing. Although you started as an entry-level science editor, your creative vision and leadership catapulted you through every editorial chair in the organization and within a short thirteen years you were named president of Scott Foresman, also serving as a senior vice-president on HarperCollins Publishers\u2019 executive board in New York. A generation grew up seeing the name Scott Foresman on their textbooks. How would you describe your time at the center of the publishing world?<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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KATE B. JEROME<\/strong>:  The words \u201cexciting\u201d and \u201cexhilarating\u201d immediately come to mind. (Now…so many years later…I can forget about the \u201cexhausting\u201d and \u201cexasperating\u201d part!)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Seriously…it was an amazing time. During my tenure at Scott Foresman I had the pleasure of working with world-class subject matter experts with the goal of translating their best research into practical educational products that both students and teachers would actually use and enjoy. I remember the first elementary science series my team and I developed captured something like 75 percent of the market…which was of course, a huge business success. But the most gratifying aspect…even to this day… is thinking about how that program influenced so many kids. It\u2019s such a tremendous responsibility to get it right…and a terrific legacy when it works.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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You have created and developed numerous award-winning educational book series and have written more than two hundred children’s books. What attracted you to writing children\u2019s books?<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

First of all, I seem to be a born storyteller. I remember being ten years old playing ping-pong with friends in the garage…just making up stories the whole while. I think my friends used to let me keep playing just so I would finish my yarns!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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But my inspiration to focus my effort on children\u2019s books has always come from the kids themselves. Have you ever seen a child reading something when all of a sudden his or her eyes light up and a huge grin comes out?  I love that aha! moment so much… and I\u2019m just addicted to making it happen as often as I can!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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In 2001 you launched your own endeavor to further your mission as an author and developer of effective learning systems. Since its inception, you have created a range of innovative children\u2019s book series and online programs in collaboration with leading educational and trade publishers including National Geographic, Penguin Random House, and Arcadia Publishing Company. Your body of work, including Spanish and Chinese translations, has influenced untold millions of K\u201312 students. What made you decide to start your own publishing business?<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The entrepreneurial freedom was pretty enticing. I like taking risks on new ideas and it made it easier for me to develop programs for lots of different audiences…from struggling readers to English language learners to gifted children…in both print and tech media. Sometimes I\u2019ll work on something alone. Other times, I\u2019ll assemble and direct a big team of writers from all over the world. Either way, the creative juices are always flowing!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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In 2015 you accepted an invitation to join the inaugural class of Stanford University\u2019s Distinguished Career Institute. As a DCI Fellow, you immersed yourself in academic subjects ranging from neuroscience to art history, explored virtual reality technology, and mentored undergrad students on their startups. During your year-long residency your affiliation with Stanford\u2019s Center on Longevity reenergized your longtime interest in intergenerational connections. As a result, you have recently teamed up with Arcadia Publishing (the largest publisher of regional and local material in the US) as co-founder of the Arcadia Kids Division, serving as Creator and Program Developer for two Read Together\/Do Together children’s book series.<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

What\u2019s the overall goal of this program?<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The unique purpose of the Read Together\/Do Together series is to encourage meaningful conversations between kids and their favorite adults. And the emphasis is on meaningful. In our very busy world, conversations with children tend toward the practical (Did you pick up your toys?) rather than the profound (Keep trying even when it\u2019s hard!)…so we wanted to create books that would serve as useful tools for parents and grandparents to jump-start the kind of conversations that really help kids thrive.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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And we\u2019re so honored that the resulting two new read-aloud series are being so well received. The Lucky to Live in Texas<\/a> <\/em><\/strong>book is a whole new genre…a cross between a storybook and a memory book. So kids actually write and draw on the pages to record their own thoughts. Then, at the end of the book, there are instructions for building a time capsule so the book becomes a special keepsake.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The Wise Animal Handbook \u2014 Texas<\/a> <\/em><\/strong>is a hoot! It offers practical life advice through read-aloud rhymes and really funny animal photos. I\u2019ve never seen a single person (child or grown-up) read this book without laughing out loud at some point…and that really thrills me. (The coloring pages in the back of the book with fun facts about state animals is my homage to Texas-specific animals!)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Of course, publishing both series with Arcadia was essential because they are the experts in local content…and thus, I was able to customize the books in each series to forty different states and regions.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Happily, the books really do seem to be accomplishing their purpose. The Lucky series has already won a 2017 Interactive Memory Book of the Year award from Creative Child Magazine, and we\u2019re getting testimonials and emails from parents and grandparents all over the country who are letting us know that they are really enjoying both series…and in fact, they\u2019ve ended up sharing many of their own stories that go beyond the pages of my books. How great is that?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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What’s next for Kate Jerome?<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

There are more things percolating in the Arcadia Kids pipeline…and I\u2019d like to develop other venues\/projects that promote intergenerational connections. I\u2019ve also been interested in virtual reality ever since my stint at Stanford so I\u2019ve been dabbling a bit in that new media. There never seem to be enough hours in the day…but I wouldn\u2019t have it any other way!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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This June, we’re featuring authors of children\u2019s books. The kids are out of school and we want to give parents, grandparents, and caregivers insights into books with Texas themes and the authors of those books. We\u2019re delighted to interview someone who\u2019s been a teacher, an author, a book editor, a publisher, and an academic expert […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[229,720,30,636,9,609],"class_list":["post-970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-authorinterview","tag-katebjerome","tag-lonestarlistens","tag-lonestarliterary","tag-lonestarliterarylife","tag-lsll"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}