Blog

PW Children's Bookshelf recently interviewed author Jacqueline Woodson about her new novel PEACE, LOCOMOTION, which is featured in January issue of THE BRIDGE IS OVER.

In Peace, Locomotion, Jacqueline Woodson returns to the story of Lonnie, aka Locomotion, a Brooklyn boy separated from his sister, Lili, after the death of their parents. Through letters to Lili, Lonnie details his struggle to find peace--with their parents' deaths, with his foster brother's return from war, and with his poetry, after an unsupportive teacher dismisses his voice. Here, Woodson talks about what it was like to return to Lonnie's story, how her writing process has changed during her career--and why she will never write a novel through letters again.

Why did you decide to continue Lonnie's story?

A lot of times when I start writing I don't have a sense that I'm going to do a sequel, but the character of Lonnie really stayed with me. The big question I kept asking myself long after I had written Locomotion was, "Okay, so Lonnie and Lili are growing to love their foster families. What does this mean in terms of them ever being reunited?" The more I thought about it, I realized, "It's going to continue to be about loss for them. So, how do I resolve that? How do I make it so they are still connected, even though they're now growing up in separate families?" The story just started coming.

Read the rest of the interview.