The following interviews were conducted by Weekly Reader Senior Edition editor, Laura McClure.

This year’s Caldecott and Newbery medal winning books transport readers into the past. Newbery-winning book, Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village, by Laura Amy Schlitz, explores life in the Middle Ages. Caldecott-winning book The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick takes place in the early 1900s in France. Weekly Reader talked with both authors about their success stories. Here’s what they had to say:

Q&A with Brian Selznick
Weekly Reader: Which came first--the words or the illustrations?

Brian Selznick: It started just as a written story. … I thought maybe [there would be] one drawing a chapter or some spot illustrations. While I was working on the book, I started watching all these old movies and I thought it would be interesting to try to tell the story [with images] like an old movie.

WR: How long did it take to finish the book?

BS: I worked on the whole book for about 2 1/2 years, [including] a year to do sketches. … On a good day I could finish two complete drawings. I made them all one-quarter the size that you see in the book. … When you blow up a drawing, … it makes everything softer and lighter, like old movie stills.

WR: Do you see yourself in Hugo, the main character?

BS: I definitely do. … When I was a kid, I really loved to draw and to make things. Hugo is actually much better with his hands then I was as a kid. I remember being frustrated with what my hands couldn’t do.

WR: What advice do you have for aspiring authors or illustrators?

BS: The most important thing is to just write about or draw the things that really interest you. … A reader or someone looking at pictures very often can tell whether or not the person making the thing loved it and was really interested in it.

Q&A with Laura Amy Schlitz

Weekly Reader: What inspired you to write this book of monologues and dialogues?

Laura Amy Schlitz: The children [at the school where I am a librarian] study the middle ages. … They give their imaginations to it and I wanted them to have a dramatic piece [to perform] so I wrote those short plays, those monologues for them and they’ve been performing them for many years now.

This book shows the good, the bad, and the ugly of the Middle Ages. Why did you decide to show all aspects?

I think when you know about the Middle Ages, you can’t help realizing what a dangerous and difficult time that was. … Suppose it’s winter and you get your feet wet. You don’t have another pair of shoes. If you get frostbite, you’ll go lame. … Those are facts [of life in the Middle Ages], but it doesn’t follow that the people were all miserable. They also had hope and good days and aspirations.

What do you hope readers take away from this book?

I would like to think that readers can imagine that time, but I think what I want most is for readers to be able to have the excitement of pretending to be somebody else. The thrill of performing the pieces in front  of the audience—I want the readers to get the applause.

What are you working on now?

I’m working on a chapter book now, I’m on chapter 29 but I don’t yet know the end, I don’t know how far am I from the end and I’m just trusting that the end exists somewhere and that I will find it.