February 20, 2005 – Phillis Gershator is walking through the children's section at Dockside Bookshop when she sees a man reading one of her books. She smiles and says, "That's a very good book. I'll sign it for you if you buy it."
The man is impressed. "Are you the author?" He purchases the book and he and Phillis fall into conversation.
Undoubtedly when he presents this Caribbean relic to some child in his life, he will recount the story of meeting the author.
Phillis and her husband David are here to talk about their latest collaboration in the world of children's picture books, a story titled "Kallaloo," based on the classic tale "Stone Soup."
"It's a timeless story with versions in every culture. Sometimes it's a button, a nail, or sometimes there's a different ending," says Phillis. "One day David said, 'Why don't we set it in the Caribbean?'"
An idea was born and the partners got to work, or as Phillis says for this particular book, "He had most of the ideas and I did all the work."
David has co-authored several of Phillis' books, but even the ones that don't bear his name bear his mark in some way. They have that special kind of back and forth that comes from 42 years of marriage, so it's no surprise that during the writing process "we step all over each other," says David with a laugh.
In this Caribbean version of the classic story, a shell helps a hungry woman make a big pot of soup–enough to feed everyone at Market Square. But just when the woman thinks the kallaloo is ready, someone comes in with a surprise finishing touch.
The artist, Diane Greenseid, lives in California and wasn't able to come to the Caribbean to find inspiration for her paintings. So Phillis went around the island taking countless pictures. She sent them to Greenseid who used the photographs to capture the essence of St. Thomas with bright, colorful images.
"Kallaloo," is coming out in March, along with a reprint of one of Phillis' earlier stories, "Rata-Pata-Scata-Fata."
Phillis began her career as a children's librarian, working for Brooklyn Public Library, the St. Thomas school system, and the Baa Public Library in St. Thomas. She published her first children's book in 1979.
"I had always thought about it. David's father told me stories that he would embellish in his own way, old stories. I wrote one of them and it was published by The Jewish Publication Society."
That story was "Honi's Circle of Trees." Phillis's mother, Mim Green, did the black and white drawings.
She quit her library job in 1989 after Hurricane Hugo. "It inspired me to say, 'what am I doing?'" says Phillis. "I enjoy retelling stories and giving them a twist." How does she find the stories to retell? "I read."
The Iroko Man is one such tale, based on a Yoruba Folktale. "It reminded me of Rumplestiltskin. I never liked that story because he didn't get anything at the end. They didn't keep their promise to him. In my story, the Iroko Man gets a wooden doll, not a baby, but he's delighted with it," says Phillis. "I loved it so much I wrote many sequels that were never published," she adds with a laugh.
Even though Phillis has had dozens of books already published, and several with forthcoming publication dates, she admits to having boxes of rejected manuscripts.
"You can't do this unless you can change, unless you can cross out what you think is the best line of the book."
Still there's hope for those as yet unpublished stories. As the children's book industry cycles and circles, one of them may find an agreeable market some day.
"Some people write thinking commercially," says Phillis. "I think about reading to a child. My focus is what will work in a book? What feels real?"
At the end of our meeting, I notice Phillis has a bundle of mail ready for the post office. One letter is a thank you to Pete Seeger, folk singer and songwriter, who has written a lovely introduction for one of her book projects. Another envelope actually contains a manuscript. She lets me read it. This one is autobiographical, about Phillis' family moving from New York to California. I like it and tell her so. Phillis is genuinely excited about my reaction, very youthful in her joy. I think to myself, this is exactly the spirit needed to write a successful story for children. No wonder her books are so loved.
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