What is Kate Feiffer reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Kate Feiffer, author of My Side of the Car.

The entry begins:

On a recent trip to Vermont, I bought The Lady Matador’s Hotel by Cristina Garcia because I loved the cover. The story certainly looked like something I would enjoy, but honestly I would have bought the book for the cover alone. I kept it on my bookshelf, facing out so I could enjoy the cover for a few weeks, before I decided to read it. It only stayed off the shelf for a day or two. The book is a beautifully written page-turner. It is powerful and lush, full of pain, sorrow, politics and passion. Garcia has woven together six seemingly discrete stories focused on fascinating characters whose lives intersect at a luxury hotel during a week celebrating the battle of the Lady Matadors. Writing about it makes me want to read it again. Off the shelf it comes.

I tend to go back and forth between reading novels for adults with books that are “supposed to be” for children. I highlight supposed to be because I often find the books geared toward young adults and tweens as engaging as most of the adult literature I read, which makes me wonder why they are supposed to be for children and not all of us. I recently...[read on]

Among the early praise for My Side of the Car:

"One continuous smile of a story."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Based on the father-and-daughter creative teams real-life events, this joyful, well-paced title offers an ode to imaginative perspectives, all winningly illustrated in the watercolor-and-pencil artwork, and will read aloud well to a crowd."
--Andrew Medlar, Booklist

"...we are treated to one of the sweetest sentences I've come across in a kids' book in quite a while: "My dad keeps driving."
--Sarah M. Earle, Concord Monitor

"...one of the best little picture books to hit the market all year. A fun, beautifully illustrated, original concept with a great idea and some top-notch writing."
--Elizabeth Bird, A Fuse #8 Production

Watch the video trailer for My Side of the Car.

Kate Feiffer is the author of several children’s books, including Double Pink, illustrated by Bruce Ingman; President Pennybaker and My Mom Is Trying to Ruin My Life, both illustrated by Diane Goode; The Problem with Puddles, illustrated by Tricia Tusa; and Henry the Dog with No Tail and My Side of the Car, both illustrated by her father, Jules Feiffer.

Visit Kate Feiffer's website and blog.

Writers Read: Kate Feiffer.

--Marshal Zeringue