Author Cornelia Funke brings stories to life; kicks off Book Fair

To kick off the 2013 Book Fair at Poly, Lower and Middle School students were treated to assemblies with multiple award-winning German author Cornelia Funke, who read excerpts from a few of her books and answered questions from the students. Perhaps best known for her Inkheart trilogy, Funke also shared tidbits from her life, such as the fact that she wanted to be an astronaut or a pirate as a child, she grew up in a small town and explored the “world” by reading books, she’s written 60 books which are published in 50 countries, and that if the 60 million books she’s sold were laid end to end, they’d stretch around the world (the next best thing to being an astronaut, she mused).
When asked by a Middle School student if she ever puts herself into her characters, she explained that there’s often a piece of her in all of the characters, and that they continue to evolve as the book progresses. Her books are somewhat of a family affair: Son Ben prefers to be in the books as characters rather than simply read them, while daughter Anna is the first editor on all of her novels.

As her travels have taken her across the globe, Funke has woven her experiences throughout her books. For instance, Ghost Knight is set in Salisbury, England, one of her favorite locales, which included a trip through Salisbury Cathedral with a guide who took her to see an effigy of William Longespée, third earl of Salisbury. Longespée became a character in the book and is summoned by two boarding school students when they lock themselves in the Cathedral one night.

During the assembly with kindergartners and first-graders, Funke read her children’s book Princess Pigsty; her animated storytelling elicited giggles from the students. She explained that she wrote the book when her daughter was young as a way to channel her inner tomboy by telling the story of a young princess who would rather play with pigs, feed chickens, and make blackberry jam than wear a crown and rely on footmen to fulfill her every need.

Funke began her literary career as an illustrator; however, after becoming bored with the stories she was animating, she decided to write her own. Her writing process is an intriguing one: While spending time in her writing house, Funke begins by handwriting her stories in a notebook, after which she enters the text into her computer (which she has named Jack), then she prints out the typed pages and pastes them back into a notebook to be edited by hand.

The students were not shy with their questions. One Lower School student asked how many times she changes her stories, to which she replied “Sometimes I change a story 10 to 13 times. It’s like a stone—you have to polish it until it shines.” She explained it can often take about two years to complete a book: “I have to research it, then write and rewrite and rewrite—sometimes the story hides itself.” She said that when she is working on a book, she will read a story out loud to herself to make sure it sounds good…and then make edits as she goes.

For those MirrorWorld fans, a new app has been created (although Funke explains that the app is based on the setting and experiences in the book, not necessarily the characters so those who have not read the books will still enjoy the app). Described by Funke as a “breathing book,” the app brings the user into an interactive form of her prose.

When asked what inspires her to write, Funke reflected, “I love what I do. It never feels like work. You need to find what you love to do and you will be best at it.” Another student followed that up by asking what keeps her going, to which she replied, “I can’t resist it—I compare it to breathing.”

At the conclusion of one of the assemblies, a student proudly told Funke, “I know all of your books,” to which she graciously replied, “I feel very honored.”

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