I know it's September already, it's fine. Getting by with children's book author, Eija Sumner.

Welcome back to the Eel Report! I guess today we’re going to look at how eels swim, because it’s my newsletter, and we might as well talk about that before we get into robots. When I think about fish, I usually think about them having fins on each side, pectoral fins, a fin along the top of their body, their dorsal fin, their tail or caudal fin, and the fins along the bottom of their body, usually pelvic fins closer to their head and an anal fin closer to the tail. 

I once had a fish science class that I took when I realized I needed like two science credits to complete my undergraduate degree, and I hope my fish science teacher is proud of me writing about dorsal and pectoral fins in this newsletter. I loved that class. 

Anyways, eels have a continuous fin along the top of their body, so it’s almost like if the dorsal, pectoral, and caudal fins are all combined into one long fin that eels use to propel their body. Eels are anguilliform swimmers, which sounds very fancy, but it really is named after themselves because Anguilliformes is the scientific order that eels belong to. Anyway, anguilliform swimming means eels undulate their whole body, or mostly their whole body when they swim, because of this wave like motion that propels them, they can swim forward and backward. 

I believe some dogs are anguilliform waggers. I knew a basset hound who most definitely was an anguilliform wagger, undulating his whole little basset body every time he was happy.  Remember in my first newsletter where I said I wasn’t a scientist? Well, if it wasn’t obvious, it is now.  

Here is a wild video of an eel swimming forwards and then backwards: 

Now that we’ve got the basics of anguilliform swimming we’re going to shift to robotics. I am assuming you have seen little video clips of robots—like the terrifying robot dog, Spot, and his rectangular yellow body that is the stuff of futuristic nightmares. But this is not a dog newsletter, it is an Eel Report, and guess what I have found—an eel robot. At first, I stumbled upon an article:

It goes in depth into the mechanics of how an eel swims, there is quite a bit of math involved . . .

But I was reading this article, and was like, okay, so what’s the goal? And readers, the goal is of course to make an eel robot. I was wondering if scientists and engineers had already done that and yes, yes, of course they have.

I like this eel robot that collects data about the water: 

And I think this eel robot in development is really interesting, but I imagine it would be eaten.

I think if I was a fish and I saw a little translucent eel robot I would probably take a bite. 

Reading Life

I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that I am having a hard time reading. But that hasn’t stopped me from acquiring books! If there is one thing that I have comfort bought during this pandemic, it is books. And cinnamon bears. And blue tortilla chips. Okay three things. Maybe in a later newsletter I will meticulously rank cinnamon bear brands which I had only eaten occasionally before, but for the past couple months they are now my main source of nutrition. 

Back to reading, it has been so hard for me to focus on reading. To read a novel. To read a book. Audiobooks have been a godsend, picture books, poetry, cookbooks. So here’s what I’ve been reading this month: 

Second Banana, by Blair Thornburgh, illustrated by Kate Berube, is a sweet and hilarious book about a class play and also about disappointment. Second Banana wants to be the star, she wants more lines, she wants to be the ONLY banana! I’m not trying to share too many spoilers, but I have never identified more with a character than with First Banana. 

Big Poppa’s Time Machine by Daniel Bernstrom and Shane W. Evans is a beautiful story about African American history, family history, oral storytelling, and also about fear, and facing those fears with the support and strength of your ancestors behind you. I wonder what kind of stories kids can ask their grandparents and their elders that might help kids navigate or inform what they’re experiencing right now.  

Julie Fogliano and Jillian Tamaki are some of my absolute favorite picture book makers. Julie’s poetry, explorations, and observations in picture books are lovely. I have been a Jillian Tamaki fan for over a decade, from comics and graphic novels to picture books. my best friend showcases all my favorite things about writing for children. It is about wonder and a complete embracing of the moment; it is about connection and imagination. It’s beautiful. And I love it. The pickle page lives up to and deserves all the hype.  

Ray by Marianna Coppo is so funny and surprising. A quirky and beautiful little book about a light bulb, and about perspective and how you fit into your world and how you see yourself in the world. Marianna is a genius. I think books about inanimate objects are difficult to write and they create so many challenges for the reader and storyteller, but between Ray and Petra, Marianna Coppo makes it look easy.

You all thought you might get zero eel content in the book recommendations, but nope! I have more eel content! Yoshi’s Feast by Kimiko Kajikawa, illustrated by Yumi Heo is a lovely tale about community and working together, and of course there are boiled eels at the center of the conflict (and resolution). It’s also a story about paying people for their work—and it’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about. About consumption and value. About who is doing the work. About who is getting paid—or not. About who is getting taking advantage of. And about using your labor power. Am I reading into things?? Maybe. I did just watch the historic NBA player strike, so maybe I’m inspired. But when one neighbor doesn’t value the work of the other, doesn’t want to pay for the work they enjoy . . . well, things get eel-y out of hand. 

I’ve been looking for books about fear, about worries, about unknowns, because *wildly points fingers at everything happening* and I liked Don’t Worry, Little Crab by Chris Haughton. This is a sweet and vibrant story about a scared little crab, and I think it’s such a great read aloud as the crabs go tic-a-tic, tic-a-tic over the rocks and on their way to the ocean. A nice book for big changes and new beginnings. Only drawback, zero eels.  

What if I just started rating books on whether or not they have eel content? I’m not there yet. We’ll see. 5/5 about eels. 4/5 eel metaphor. 4/5 eels in the illustrations. 3/5 eels but they’re depicted negatively. 2/5 could’ve used an eel. 1/5 no eels, no context for eels. I don’t know. I’m still working on this ranking system. Most of the manuscripts I have written utterly fail with this ranking system. 

Pasta Grannies is a beautiful cookbook— part biography, part cultural heritage, lots of pasta. I didn’t realize it started as a youtube channel—as a way to preserve recipes and oral histories and a little web series going into the homes of Italian grandmothers who share their pasta recipes. This is all the things I love. All my favorite tv shows are about day-to-day relatively mundane (not to me!) activities. Give me the drama of someone planting a full-sun shrub in partial shade! Anyway. I haven’t made my own pasta yet, but I have taken inspiration from some of these Pasta Grannies recipes. 

If you thought you might want to read about a plague fantasy during a pandemic, then I have a young adult duology for you! The Merciful Crow by Margaret Owen is the first book in a plague fantasy duology, but The Faithless Hawk just published this August, and I have never downloaded an audiobook so quickly. I did so much laundry while trying to find things to do around my house so I could listen to this second book. It has an intricate power structure and caste system. It has magic. It has a corrupt government. A little bit of betrayal. A little bit of court intrigue and games. A dead army. Characters who collect teeth. And hair. And of course, it has the plague.  

I haven’t read Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston in fifteen years, but I thought I would try and follow along with an online book club, Read a Book! with Kara, and reread it. I’m slowly making my way through the novel, way too late to watch the book discussion live, but grateful for the linked video. I’m keeping track of all of the books in this club and filing them away to see if I can keep a date and finish a book in time for discussion.    

I did read Clean Getaway by Nic Stone for my own local kidlit bookclub, but then I missed the book club discussion because what is time. Clean Getaway is the first middle grade novel from Nic Stone, and it’s a bit of a mystery and a bit of an adventure while also carefully examining race, prejudice, and privilege as William ‘Scoob’ Lamar goes on a road trip with his white G’ma. Scoob gets dragged into G’ma’s past, as they follow her old Green Book, and the stories she shares of her own history with Scoob’s Black G’pop. Scoob’s G’ma is grappling with mistakes she’s made, the privilege she’s wielded and the trouble she can’t help but get into, and who gets the blame. A great book to break down for a group discussion.  

Sometimes there are moments in an audiobook where you just know that the audio adds something extra, something the print book couldn’t achieve on its own. There’s a lullaby that is sung in the Mañanaland audiobook and it’s so lovely. I played that section of the audiobook over and over again. Mañanaland by Pam Muñoz Ryan is about hope and what it means to emigrate to somewhere new, to seek refuge, to fight for a new life. The reader follows Maximiliano as he chases his past as well as his future into Mañanaland to help a young refugee. It’s a beautiful story. There’s this moment when Max realizes he has all the tools and information he needs, because it’s all been passed down in stories he has been told his whole life. I love that, how stories can guide us. It reminded me of Jacqueline Woodson’s Show Way picture book.

We Dream of Space by Erin Entrada Kelly is a beautiful middle-grade novel set in January 1986 about three siblings: Cash, Fitch, and Bird, each trying to find their own refuge in a dysfunctional family, all while they study space and prepare for the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger. Erin Entrada Kelly carefully shapes each character, the ways they orbit around their parents and their lives at school, then she pushes the characters out of orbit, forcing them to crash and grapple with who they are. It’s a great historical novel, the way Fitch escapes at the arcade, Cash and the 76ers and Dr. J, and Bird dreaming of space and wanting to be NASA’s first female shuttle commander, and what the launch of the Challenger means to her as she tries to hold everything together.

No matter what is happening, there is always time for poetry. We might all be better off instead of doomscrolling on our phones if we read poetry instead. (Love to ignore my own advice.) I’ve got Bright Dead Things by Ada Limón on my bedside table. Which sounds a little dark but it’s not. And you don’t have to read it, I mean you can, but if you don’t pick up the book you should read How to Triumph Like a Girl, A New National Anthem, and What It Looks Like To Us and the Words We Use.

I listened to a lot more audiobooks to read this past month. I usually use a combination of overdrive from my public library and libro.fm from my indie bookstore. Libro.fm supports indies and has a membership a lot like Audible— if you’re looking to jump ship from Amazon.

Writing Life

If I could pick one mantra for the month of August, it would be to focus on what I can control.

This past month has been especially difficult. I don’t know if it’s the August heat. If it’s the covid19 pandemic. Politics. The internal attacks on the US Post Service. America grappling with its systemic racism. The attacks on our political systems. Trying to understand and prepare for the upcoming school year. Jacob Blake.

So I’ve been trying to focus on what I can control. For my family, that meant choosing online-only schooling. For political unknowns, that meant triple-checking I’m registered to vote, and volunteering to be a poll worker for the November election. For reading and book buying, it means choosing which stories to spend time with and uplift, as well as supporting Black-owned bookstores. Where to donate to support Black lives and Black communities. And for everything else, it has meant eating so many cinnamon bears. Because I think that helps.  

Along with the business of writing, there are variables that seem to change and are out of my control when it comes to publishing. So, I’m trying really hard to focus on what I can control.

I can control when I wake up. I can control whether or not I have time to write, to create. Writing is more difficult than normal right now, which, that is saying something! I’m not a fast writer. I don’t have a lot of extra time in my day, but if I make enough time in the morning, I can usually get some words. And that’s the goal, right? I love this Nina LaCour quote, “Some words, most days.” 

I cannot control what’s happening in publishing, with agencies, editors, budgets, marketing, printing, all of it . . . but I can wake up extra early. I can give myself enough time to write in the morning. Because the time and the writing, even if it’s really slow, that’s what I can control. 

It doesn’t mean the writing is necessarily easier! It doesn’t mean I’m suddenly churning out words and pages. I’m not. But I’m directing my time towards what I can control. 

Sometimes there are nice, unexpected surprises along the way! This past month I got to see rough illustrations for my 2022 picture book, Crocodile Hungry, and that was delightful. John Martz is such a fantastic illustrator and cartoonist, and I think y’all are going to love everything he is adding to this story.

What I’m Doing

Literally nothing. I’m kidding. I’m staring at my phone. I’ve developed an eye twitch. I’m feeding my children. I’m going to work. I’m wearing a mask. I’m playing badminton. I’m eating cinnamon bears.

My garden is growing and I need to figure out what to do with all this swiss chard. It is very exciting pulling up carrots and beets. There is an added layer of suspense and joy from pulling something up from the ground not knowing what it will look like, will it be ripe, will it be ready to harvest. Who knows. Let’s find out.

Here’s to you and whatever you’re cultivating. Make time for it. Take naps. Drink water. Eat an occasional cinnamon bear. Stay curious. Find some eel content. Pre-order books. Seriously, print runs are lower right now due to printing issues, so it’s really helpful to pre-order books, not only to support the author, but to guarantee you’ll get a book near its release date.

If you’re new here, thanks for making it all the way to the end! I’m honored. You can:

Thanks for sharing your time with me. You can always find me on my website, twitter, and instagram. I’ll catch you next month with more eels, a writing update, and as always, whatever I’m reading, watching, and doing. Take care!

— Eija