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Sunday, April 29, 2001 Kids' book author sees story on filmFACES OF NOTE | By Anne Geegis "The Golden Days" -- Stetson University professor Gail Radley's ninth book -- is having more than a moment in the sun. In addition to winning the highest honor for an elementary-age novel from the Society of School Librarians International, the movie, "The First of May," based on Radley's book, has won best film at six of the seven film festivals where it's been screened. Managers at Orange City Showcase are currently negotiating to show the film -- which features scenes of DeLand and Lake Helen. And, when it played by special engagement at the Beacon 12 Theatre in New Smyrna Beach earlier this year, the movie was held over four weeks longer than scheduled. "We had originally planned for it to be at the Beacon for a week," says Betty Nelson, president of Cinematique, which sponsored the film at the Beacon. "During that first week, it broke records and drew in more of an audience than the blockbusters they were showing." With marquee names like actress Julie Harris and baseball legend Joe DiMaggio, the locally produced movie about an orphan and an old woman who join the circus, would appear to have what it takes to go national -- if only the movie's creators could find a distributor. But that doesn't appear to concern Radley in the least. "This is a wonderful thing that happened to a book I wrote," Radley of DeLand says, smiling. "But I know nothing about the movie business. My thing is books." Radley, who will be 50 next month, made up her mind in third grade that she was going to be a writer. A distributor should be knocking if the filmmakers display the kind of sustained effort that has launched Radley into the highly competitive world of children's book publishing. She's published 16 books, ranging from picture books to young adult novels. A series of four books combining poetry and stories about endangered animals will be coming out this fall. "I've written a lot of things that never got anywhere," says Radley, explaining that her first book, "The Night Stella Hid the Stars" was rejected 13 times before a publisher said yes. It's since been published in Japanese. "You have to have a passion for it to succeed," she adds. "It's a long, diligent effort that does it." As she grew up before the current proliferation of young adult literature now on bookshelves, demonstrating against segregation was the first cause that this child of the 1960s embraced as a 15-year-old. It was, she says, part of acting out against being limited to a certain version of history. "There were a lot of stories that weren't being told to me in my history books, or were relegated to a footnote," she says. "I really felt cheated. By minimizing people of color in the classroom, they were limiting me." She writes for the next generation out of modern dilemmas that her generation gave them: suicide, kids without homes, blended stepfamilies. "I think this is a really exciting audience because they are doing a great amount of mental and emotional work," she says. "They face an awful lot of challenges. Some of that is probably the aftermath of my generation." There are other times, though, when her inspiration is as simple as a phrase that catches her fancy and won't let go. "The Night Stella Hid the Stars," for example, came from when she asked her mother about those gummy, metallic stars that she used to lick onto worthy worksheets or foreheads. "She told me that she'd thrown them out," Radley remembers. "I couldn't stop thinking, How could she do that? How terrible!" HICI Special Report — Summer Reading: Challenges, Choices & Censorship |
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