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Bio (50 words)
Bio (100 words)
Karah Sutton is a New Zealand/American author and former bookseller whose debut children’s book A Wolf for a Spell was an American Booksellers Association Indies Introduce selection, a Junior Library Guild selection, a Bank Street College Best Children’s Book of the Year, and a Goodreads Choice Award nominee for Best Children’s & Middle Grade for 2021. Her second book, The Song of the Swan, was also illustrated by Pauliina Hannuniemi and published by Knopf, and was called “enchanting” by Kirkus Reviews. Karah also works in the video game industry for New Zealand-based developer and publisher PikPok.
Almost exactly 5 years. I spent two years writing it and then three years revising it with my agent and editor. In that time I went through more than 15 versions of the book before reaching the final you see in print!
I’ve found that coming up with ideas, like most things, is something that I get better at the more that I practice. So I like to practice coming up with ideas by makings lists of things that I like, and then mixing and matching and searching for interesting combinations. So just like Jurassic Park is “dinosaurs + amusement parks”, I will list out things I like: animals, witches, hot air balloons, stargazing, roses, castles, swordfighting, archery, boats, birds, ghosts… then pick some of them and combine them to see if anything about that combination feels interesting! What are some of the things you like in A Wolf for a Spell, and what would your own list include?
Oh, so many! I reread Pride and Prejudice and Ella Enchanted close to yearly, so definitely those, with recent favorites being Spinning Silver and The House in the Cerulean Sea. For young readers my long list of favorites includes Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin, The Thickety by J.A. White, Front Desk by Kelly Yang, and The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo.
The most important thing is to start. Don’t avoid this by worrying that you won’t be good enough, that your ideas aren’t original enough. It’s ok to start by imitating other books that you like. But once you start, then the most important thing is to keep going.
A Wolf for a Spell is an original story, however it uses a lot of elements from several different Russian fairytales. The two stories that inspired me the most were Tsarevich Ivan, the Firebird, and the Grey Wolf and Vasilisa the Beautiful.
I knew these stories from reading a lot of Russian fairy tales as a child. The definitive book of Russian fairy tales for me then was the Everyman’s Library version of Russian Fairy Tales by Gillian Avery with illustrations by Ivan Bilibin, which included the stories Tsarevich Ivan, the Firebird, and the Grey Wolf and Vasilisa the Beautiful. It is still available from some retailers, and you can view here on GoodReads.
While researching A Wolf for a Spell, I also referred to this online collection of Russian fairy tales at SurLaLune. However that list does not include “The Story of Ivan Tsarevich, the Firebird, and the Grey Wolf”, because Baba Yaga never appears in that story! You can find SurLaLune’s version of Tsarevich Ivan, the Fire Bird, and the Grey Wolf here, as well as an abbreviated version on Wikipedia.
One of my favorite ways to get a better sense of wolf behavior was through videos posted by wolf sanctuaries such as the Wolf Conservation Center. I also used the website Living With Wolves, which is dedicated to wolf research and educational outreach, building tolerance that can lead to coexistence between people and wolves sharing the same land.