Hunger Mountain Interview: New Faces at Pippin Properties
In early 2010, Hunger Mountain interviewed the boutique agency Pippin Properties. Since then there have been some changes at Pippin–including two new agent faces: Elena Mechlin and Joan Slattery. Elena and Joan were kind enough to offer critiques in the Hunger Mountain eBay auction and both brought in bid after bid. Hunger Mountain is glad to offer another Industry Insider interview with this premiere agency.
Bethany Hegedus: Our theme this issue is The Varying Shades of Shadows. The interplay between light and dark has long been a theme in children’s literature, from “Hansel and Gretel” to Kathi Appelt’s The Underneath and David Small’s Stitches, and Pippin represents work by authors and illustrators who play with lightness and darkness, both figuratively and literally. Can you share a bit about how (or if) you measure the “lightness” or “darkness” of a piece in regard to its craftsmanship and market viability?
Joan Slattery
Elena and Joan: The Underneath and Stitches are great examples of some of the darker work on Pippin’s shelves, but one common thread, and an important one in darker work aimed at younger audiences, is that there is a sense of hope and redemption in each.
In terms of lighter fare that you might find on our shelves, we’ve got piles of examples. But just because something is light doesn’t mean that it can’t hold weight or be of importance. Look at the work of Peter H. Reynolds, books like The Dot and Ish, which have been so influential in sparking discussions about creativity.
Then again, there is plenty of room for downright silly, a la Mercy Watson!
Bethany Hegedus: What would have you reject a manuscript for being “too light” or “too dark”?
Elena and Joan: For too dark: anything that seems gratuitously grim, written for the shock value only but without the heart and emotion a good story behind it.
For too light: Well, we’re all for silly (see above: Mercy Watson), but if it’s all fluff, with no substance or poetry to it whatsoever, then it probably won’t sustain repeated readings (and many years in print).
Bethany Hegedus: Joan, how does your editing background come into play in your role as agent? Do you have specific tastes in terms of the type of projects you decide to represent?
Joan: Just as in my editing years, I’m still drawn to strong characters, heartbreak (either mine or the characters’), unreliable narrators, and simmering suspense.
Bethany Hegedus: Elena, think back to your reading tastes as a child and a teen. Do the books you loved then have any influence on the kind of projects you desire to take on?
Elena: As I’m sure is true for most of us who have found ourselves in publishing, I was a huge reader growing up and I read just about anything
Elena Mechlin
and everything I could get my hands on, but some of the books that have stuck with me the most are some of the stronger historical fiction pieces, books like Number the Stars by Lois Lowry or A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck. It would be so incredible to find something along those lines, definitely a “pie-in-the-sky” type of project!
Bethany Hegedus: When we last interviewed the Pippin team, your highly regarded boutique agency seemed very collaborative in nature. Is this still so, or is there more of a shift to the individual agents developing their own lists under the Pippin Properties umbrella?
Elena and Joan: While we have moved in a direction of creating separate lists under the Pippin umbrella, there is still a whole lot of collaboration going on under that umbrella! We all read each other’s projects and offer our input both editorially and in the negotiation process. There isn’t much that happens in our office that hasn’t been touched or influenced by at least two if not all three of us!
Bethany Hegedus: Often picture book texts that are dark in nature are paired with an artist with a light touch—or light text is matched with an artist with a wry sensibility. Can you talk a bit about why this works and what kind of balance goes into shading picture book texts?
Elena and Joan: Hmm. Hard question. It’s a challenging proposition to try to talk about picture book text and art in terms of light and dark. Perhaps a better way of looking at it is to think about the color wheel, and colors opposite each other, complementary colors. Think about red opposite green—they’re not light and dark, they’re opposites of a sort, but they look awesome together. That’s what the pairings are all about, what sort of art brings out the best in the text and vice versa, what creates a “visual poem.” Mitchell’s License by Hallie Durand and illustrated by Tony Fucile is a good example of a contrasting match—a dry and understated text with funny, “loud” art.
On the other hand, serious text often does pair well with serious art, and light with light. Edel Rodriquez might be a good example of both: his work in Sonia Sotomayor (serious) vs. Sergio Makes a Splash (light).
Bethany Hegedus: Would each of you share a favorite light character? A favorite dark character? Or even a favorite character most would consider “grey”?
Elena: Well, one of my all-time favorite characters is Eloise, and while at first I thought of her as grey, she might just be dark! That naughty little girl. I suppose most characters fall into that middle ground, don’t they.
Joan: For light, I would choose Misha from Jerry Spinelli’s Milkweed. This is a boy who brings light to the darkest setting imaginable: the Warsaw Ghetto of the Holocaust.
Favorite “dark” would have to be gorgeous mother-villain Mrs. Coulter from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass). And then she fades (brightens?) to gray, intriguingly, by the trilogy’s end.
Bethany Hegedus: Lastly, please each tell us about a project you have in the pipeline and where in the process that project is.
Elena: Since last fall I’ve been working with a debut author on a darkly intriguing YA novel about a young man who is undergoing some major transformations. “The Varying Shades of Shadows” is a great way to describe him and the book. That’s all I can say right now!
Joan: We’ve got a medieval adventure from a debut author that will soon be ready to go out to editors. Fast paced, tons of action—great for middle grade boys with a taste for swords, castles, knights, and deadly river crossings. Stay tuned!
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That last book, that Joan mentioned, sounds great. I can’t wait to order copies for all my friends’ boys!