Ruth on the Roof | Kids Story & Author Interview

♪ Foggy Oak Farm♪♪ Foggy Oak Farm ♪- Hi friends, welcome to Foggy Oak Fairytales. Each week, we'll bring you a new story. Some weeks, we'll share a story based on what's been happening on our real-life Foggy Oak Farm, where we have all sorts of animals and adventures. Other weeks, we'll use our imaginations and create new adventures together. I'm so glad you're here. Hi friends, this week, we have a crossover episode with Ishara's Reading Podcast. Ishara is a second grader who has her own reading podcast.

Each episode, she selects a children's book to read and conducts an interview with the author and illustrator. I was delighted to join her to talk about my book, Ruth on the Roof, which is about our kitten, Ruth. She loves to climb, but one day, she climbs all the way onto the roof and can't remember how to get down. Roof learns that pushing through your fear to do something hard can make you stronger. With the support of her human family, Ruth finds that she can get help when she needs it and she can help herself too.

Let's join Isshara now. (upbeat music)- Hi, welcome to the Isshara's Reading Podcast and I'm Isshara. Today is season two episode four. Some of you may know that I worked with Miss Nida who works with kids needing mentors, group. I read "Tineless Essence Class." I read "Nixed," a colorful story written and illustrated by R.A. Chong. If you wanna listen to it, I also read this book on season one episode three. I also gave a DNA lesson using my freebie model I got from Dr. Eric Green. Then that gave me an idea.

Bring a light bulb showed up. I asked if I could write to Dr. Eric Green and he answered. He sent it to his department to one of the people who works into its apartment, Miss Sarah. And she answered and it. And she asked me to give the address to Mrs. Essence class so I could send DNA or a gummy worksheet. Everyone in Mrs. Ess class, you're gonna get a DNA or a gummy worksheet. And by the way, the instructions come with. That's amazing, but the other big news that they also ask if I could do a science project with them, I'm gonna do a project with the NIH.

National Institutes of Health. That's so cool. That's all the news for today. We also have a number of very special guests with us. Miss Claire Krendl Gilbert. Thank you for joining us. - Hi, Ishara. Thank you so much for having me. It's great to meet you and great to be on the podcast. - You're welcome. - She is the writer and illustrator of the book, Roof on Roof. Miss Claire, shall we get on with these questions? - That sounds wonderful. - So my first question is, seeing Roof on the roof, makes my tongue twirl and twist.

Why do you choose to name the main character, the chin, Roof? - Roof. - That's a great question. It is kind of a tongue twirl, which I think is a little fun, but that's also her real name. So we have a farm and on the farm, we really have a black and white kitten named Roof, who really does get up on the roof and all kinds of other places. So it's a tongue twirl and it's a litter tip, which means you get those like multiple R sounds, but it's also her real name. So it's kind of fun how that worked out.

- Oh, so how cool is that? That, so it is, so Roof is actually real? - Yeah, she sure is. She and she really does climb all over the place. So the book is illustrated based on pictures of things that Roof really does all the time. - Oh, so does that mean you have the white farmhouse accent?

- Exactly, she, so she likes to find lots of different places to climb and one day this kitten really did show up on the roof and the kids might as well have two daughters and they ran up to me and told me, Roof is on the roof. How do we get her down? So it's a really thing that she likes to do and we've mostly gotten used to it by now, but at first it was very surprising. (laughs) Well, I know one thing, cats could fall from any height and they could be okay, but this time it's not a full-grown cat.

It's a kitten, so probably it was too scared. - Yes, I think you're right. She was scared at first. - It's a kitten's art full-grown cat. So she still aren't developing the traits of a full-grown cat. - Yes, I think she's learned better now that she's grown up. - Better than sure she's a lot more safe. - Yes, I think so. She's learned if she wants to climb up somewhere, she has to have a plan for getting back down and now that she's grown up, she's able to do that on her own, a lot more successfully.

- Phew, that's good for the cat. So my second question is, I'm always making up characters and pretending with my mom and dad and family. In the beginning of the book, you dedicated it to your family and Craig. So I'm very curious who he is by the way. - Oh, that's a good question. He is a coworker, so I am a writer and I have foppy, oak fairy tales, which is a podcast of children's stories. And then my job, my normal job is consulting. And one of my coworkers said, I think you have a book in you.

And so this is my first book and I dedicated it to him because he had confidence in me that I would be able to write a book. - I was just curious about him. - Yeah. - But my actual question is, when you were a little girl who was your favorite character, you creed and what was the story? - Like what I was using my imagination? - Yeah. - Yeah, well I also like to make up a lot of things with my family and imagine different things. So one of the things I really liked to do when I was a kid was pretend I was a mermaid.

And I'm not sure if I gave myself a name or not, but anytime you would go somewhere with a pool, I would swim back in fourth and back in fourth pretending I was a mermaid under the sea. (laughs)- Oh. - What about you, Ishara? What do you like to protect to be? - You know some cartoons. I like to pretend to cartoon. I make up my own character and put it in the cartoon. - Oh, that's so fun. I love that. - I just pretend my mom or my dad, my mom's at morning, my dad's at night. I pretend twice. - Not really fun.

- Or maybe three times if it's a car. - Yeah, sometimes in the car you do need to have a lot of imagination, don't you? - Yeah. - Yeah. So my first question is, I love that Ruth did not give up. She was determined she can't go her fear. What challenges date you face as a little kid? And how did you overcome them? - Oh well, so one challenge I had when I was a little kid is I am left handed, which means I ride with my left hand. And my handwriting is a little bit messy as a result. So when you're left handed, you kind of drag your hand across the page sometimes and it can smear your right hand had you seen that before?

- Oh, my mom is left handed. Well, there you go so you know, now she might have much better handwriting to see. And I will tell you, my handwriting is still very messy, but I learned by working hard to make it a little more legible and to not smear it quite as much. But it took a lot of practice with my teachers to help me get to the point where I could write legibly. - Well, the thing is, there's a special trait that is very rare in people and I actually have it. - Oh, what's that? - Writing? You could write with both hands.

- You are ambidextrous? - Yes. - That is so cool. How, so did you just know how to do that naturally or do you practice? - Naturally. Well, I don't usually use the left hand so I'm a little better at the right, but if I have an injury on this hand, I just take the risk. - And you can do both. That is such a great skill to have. - Yeah, ever know, but you might need to use your other hand. - It's also very handy just in case of what happens. - Yes, absolutely. I am jealous. That is a really neat thing to be able to do.

- Thank you. It's a blessing by God. - But sure is. - So, I have a follow-up with that. - Sure. I'm always at the ice trinketing with older kids. I'm an ice skater, by the way. - Oh. - It can be scary, but I am brave, and I face my fear. What advice would you give kids who are facing their fears? - Well, one thing I wanna let you know about that, a lot of people are afraid of, but I am actually not that I love to do. Zip lining. People think it's so many people are so scared of it,'cause it's all right, but I'm actually not.

I think Zip lining is really fine. We have a little one in our backyard, and my daughter is like it a lot too. But, you know, the first time you do it, it can be scary for some kids. Some kids love it right away, but one of my daughters did find it scary at first. And I think, just like in the book, you can get help from your family and friends when you're scared of something or you're having trouble. And once you've done something hard, you can remember, take a minute, take a breath, think about the fact that you've done this before and that people you trust are telling you you can do it and try it again.

And that can really help. Just like Roof in the book, she has to think about, I've done this before. I know how to get down, I can do it, and she gets encouraged, meant so that she can do it. And I think that's what a lot of us need to do when we're dealing with something or scared of her that's hard. - Well, the best way to do it is through practice. - You're so right. - Yeah, so some people say practice makes perfect, but I don't believe in perfect. I believe in better. I don't believe that. Oh, perfect, perfect, that word.

I don't believe in it. I'm just one of my daughter's teachers says, practice makes progress, and I really like that. - And that is the way, and that is the way I could agree with. - Yeah. - Because, I really agree with you, we don't need to strive for perfect, we just need to do better every time. - And that is true. - How long have you been ice skating, Ashara, is that a pretty fun thing to do? - Amazing thing, but sometimes the actual jump could get a little big. But it's the hardest jump, so I have to practice it a lot, but really, it's very fun to do just to see yourself twirl and twirl and twirl and twirl and eight.

- That's amazing that you're doing jumps. - Thank you. I have a very good teacher. - That makes a big difference too. - And I also, about that question about how long have I been skating? Three years. - Wow. - And I'm seven years old. - So since you were little, so that's a really long time and it lets you get really good at stride ice skating, which is amazing. - Which is very fun. I also love interpreting music. - Oh, that does not find. - Now this is the last question before, you have to wrap up this interview.

- All right. - What is the most interesting thing about living on a farm? 'Cause I've never lived on a farm. - Oh, well, there are lots of interesting things about being on a farm. So we have sheep and ducks and goats and chickens and cats and dogs. I think, you know, that means that every day something different is happening and the animals are always very funny. So you're always surprised by something. So for example, one of the fun things that happened recently is our dog had puppies. So last spring we raised eight puppies, which we had never done before.

And that was really fun. - Wait, what? - Yeah. Yeah, it was a lot of puppies and they're big puppies. So the parents are both over a hundred pounds so they're big dogs. So you can imagine those puppies got big fast. So we had a lot of fun raising them and there's always something like that on a farm. - They sound cute. - They were super cute. We still have two of them. - Then what happened to the other six? - Yeah, well, so as much as of both of my daughters that we should keep all eight puppies of course and that would have given us 11 giant dogs on a farm.

And we thought that was probably too many dogs. So we found really good homes with friends and family for the other puppies. And a lot of them still come back for visits to see their mom and dad and their brothers, which is fun. - Uh, all of that's very hard touching and hardwarming. My parents literally melted. - Oh, thank you. They are very sweet and fun. - Thank you for training us with this interview but Miss Claire, keep listening'cause I'm also gonna read Ruth on her reef that she illustrated and wrote.

And Miss Claire is awesome time getting to talk with you. And I never, I never would have guessed Ruth was a real cat, not just a character and also those little puppies must be very adorable. And I'm saying hi to your amazing daughters. Thank you for joining us. - Thank you very much for having me, Ishara, this was so fun. - You're welcome. That was such an amazing interview, Miss Claire, let's read Ruth on her reef. And this time, there's something special. We are reading in the Brooklyn Public Library.

Can you believe it? I'm in Brooklyn. So we're inside the Brooklyn Public Library and we're reading my favorite book,"Ruth on the Roof." So when you open up the book, you meet Ruth, the main character. It's a kitten, huh? How cute. It's black and white. On a farm in Blue Ridge Mountains, lived a small black and white kitten named Ruth. Ruth loved to climb chic climb defensive. Oh, she climbed the black lotus trees. She even climbed to the wall of the big red barn to jump on the hay bails. One day, she climbed onto the white farmhouse.

But when she looked over the edge to climb to the ground, it was too much. It was too high. Ruth forgot how she had gotten up and she did not know how to get down. Oh no, oh no. She ran across the roof, popping, running, running, trying to think of ideas on her. She came to a window on the upper side. Let me in, let me in, Ruth cried. Now let me in, now let me in, now. Ruth's little girl opened up the window. Ruth on the roof, she exclaimed, Ruth jumped and she burned, oh, she was there. But Ruth did not give up.

She decided to drive again. She went back to the red budget tree by both farmhouse. She, I like how the furniture is. She walked across its long ranches. She jumped onto the black roof, but then... Yeah! It was too much. It was too high. This time she leaned over the edge towards the ground and waited. Help me, Ruth! Help! The little girl heard her cry and saw the kitten high above the ground. Ruth, I don't know, Ruth, again, she proclaimed. Again, the little girl called to Ruth. Take it a little at a time.

Find the tree, climb down. You know how to do this. She heard her and took a breath. She remembered. She slung back to the tree. She jumped onto the long branch. She crept down the truck. The little girl met her on the truck and shared her Ruth's coat, coat. She had done it. Maybe soon I'll be ready for one of those mountains or at least a little bit of one she bought. After all, now she was Ruth on the way. The end. I liked in the story that she was determined not willing to give up and let down.

And back down after she remembered and how to do it and took it slow, she did it. And maybe a kid should climb the mountain. I have no idea. But if her family goes on the climbing trip, maybe she gets to do it. So remember this book and how Ruth was the permanent. As a kid and so this book teaches you about the termination courage. So that helps you. But if you wanna just be determined to do whatever is giving you a problem, try again as many times as you need to to get it right. Practice it more and more and more.

So you get it right in the later in life. So, hope you liked this episode of the Shars Reading Podcast. Don't forget to like, review and smash that subscribe button. Bye bye. (upbeat music) Remember, you're part of the story too. What did you think of this story? What did you imagine when you were listening? We'd love to hear your part of the story. If you and your grownup want, you can share your thoughts or a picture you drew with our Foggy Oak podcast family. You might find it easiest to share with us on Facebook@FoggyOakFarm.

But we have lots of options on our website, foggyoakferrytales.com. You can also check out pictures from the farm and learn more about us. Thanks for being part of this story and I hope you'll join us next week. (upbeat music)(gentle music)(gentle piano music)

Meow! It's Ruth on the Roof 🐈‍⬛ | Kids Story & Author Interview

About this episode