Interview with Jacqueline Davies, Author of The Lemonade War
Welcome to Smack Dab, Jacqueline! Congrats on the release of the graphic novel adaptation of your much-loved Lemonade War. Please tell us (or, more likely, remind us) about the story in The Lemonade War.
Thanks! I’m so happy to be here and have the chance
to talk about a story that is near and dear to my heart. In the original Lemonade War—and now in the graphic
novel adaptation—brother-and-sister Evan and Jessie get into an argument about
who can raise the most money selling lemonade in the five days before school
begins. What starts out as an innocent bet between siblings soon becomes a
full-blown, winner-take-all war. Marshalling troops, drawing up battle plans,
and dirty tricks all play a part in the competition. Will Evan and Jessie find
a way to end the war? And will they come to understand that what they’re really fighting about is much bigger
than a lemonade stand?
How did the idea for this
adaptation come about?
Years ago, my editor and I were talking about the new
trend of adapting well-known middle-grade novels into graphic novels. We found
it fascinating. How could such a thing be done?? As an author, I tried to
imagine the process, and it seemed incredibly difficult. I suppose I like
things that are difficult—or at least challenging and new. A few years later,
when an author friend told me about a 4-day workshop on writing a graphic
novel, I decided to attend. That was my first true glimpse into the intricacies
of writing a graphic novel, and I decided then that I wanted to try adapting The Lemonade War into a graphic novel
script. I didn’t know if I could do it, but I wanted to try. So, the adaptation
really began as a writing challenge to myself.
As authors, we just cannot
stop editing. What was it like to revisit your novel? Any desire to revise
certain plot points?
What a great question! I actually had to fight the
opposite impulse in the process of adapting the novel to the graphic form.
Because I was a complete beginner, I clung
to the original version of the story the way a person washed overboard clings
to a life preserver. I didn’t want to change a single thing. If I did, I feared I’d lose my grip and sink
underwater. And so I found myself simply transferring the dialog, every word of
it, and importing each action, every shrug of the shoulders or roll of the eyes,
without altering a thing. About fifty pages in, I realized this wasn’t working!
The story, faithfully transcribed from its original form, was too slow and
ponderous in the graphic novel form. That’s when I started to loosen up. The
plot of the story remains the same, but I gave up trying to carry everything
over.
What was the process like
of adapting this storyline into a visual art form?
I knew it would be hard, and I was right! The most
challenging part for me was managing the pacing of the story. When my editor
returned the first draft of the script to me with her comments, they were all about combining panels: Could these
two panels be combined into one? Could these three panels be combined? What
about these four? Her revision comments were a master class for me in how to
keep the action moving forward in a visual medium. I’m good at pacing my
middle-grade novels. But keeping things moving in a graphic novel, while still
telling a story that has nuance and depth—that’s a set of skills I needed to
learn.
After a while, I put my editor’s comments aside and
continued the revision on my own. It’s like I’d been given a special pair of
glasses that allowed me to see something that was invisible to me before. I
could see all that could be accomplished in a single panel: back-and-forth
dialog, changes in emotion, sequential action, and the passage of time. I cut
eighty pages out of that first script, just by tightening up a little here and
a little there and by pushing against the limitations of each single panel. It
was a revelation!
The Lemonade War has become a much-relied-on teaching tool to
introduce young readers to basic economics. Have the economics lessons changed
at all around the core story as the economy has gone through both good and bad
times?
You’re so right that the book has been used to teach
a wide range of subjects in the classroom—and that is entirely due to the
creativity and energy of teachers who have sought out ways to integrate reading
with other disciplines. I put the “economics” in the book because as a child I was very interested in earning money
and that seemed like it would be a central interest of Jessie’s. All thanks go
to the teachers who took that childhood interest of mine and turned it into
lesson plans that are highly engaging and multidisciplinary. As for the lessons
changing with the economic winds—I don’t think so. The lessons taught are
foundational: supply and demand, profit margin, negotiation. These basic tenets
hold in all economies.
The novel also deals with
some complex emotions between siblings–jealousy, competitiveness, etc. Were
there any emotional parts of the story that were illuminated in new ways by new
visual aspects?
One of the most intriguing and fun aspects for me in
terms of writing the script was how to handle the metaphors in the book. There
are two in particular that posed exciting opportunities for using the visuals
to convey emotion.
In Chapter 1 of the original book, Evan is angry at
Jessie, and he’s trying really hard not to say all the mean things he’s feeling
inside. The pent-up words feel like bats inside his chest, beating their wings
in an attempt to escape. In the graphic novel, we were able to show the bats!
We see them bumping inside Evan’s t-shirt; we see a wing appear as one bat
escapes and then another. In the final page of the chapter, the full-page panel
is filled with swooping, out-of-control bats and Evan’s angry words superimposed:
“I hate you!” It’s a really powerful way to show the character’s emotion, and
it’s a way that couldn’t have been done in the original telling.
Another emotional metaphor in the original prose
version of the book is that Jessie, at times, has a nagging feeling that keeps
tapping on her shoulder. In the graphic novel, we were able to personify the
nagging feeling as a little purple blob that cannot be gotten rid of. Jessie brushes the blob off her shoulder,
shakes it away, and even inadvertently flings it across the room. No matter
what, the purple blob finds its way back to Jessie’s shoulder where it
continues to tap, tap, tap at her thoughts.
Love the ten tips at the
end for turning lemons into profit–but really, it could be advice on turning a
profit on any product. Have you heard stories of young entrepreneurs who were
inspired by The Lemonade War through the years?
Yes! Oh, many times. And again, I owe so much to
teachers and librarians who have gone the extra mile to help their students
enact some of the money-making tips. Many classrooms read the book and then
have lemonade stands, often with some kind of competition. In this way, kids
follow the story in real life, doing the things that Evan and Jessie do:
collaborating, planning, working, and seeing the fruits of their labor result
in profits. There is no better way to get a reader to engage deeply with a book
than to have that reader take physical action that mirrors the story.
But there are all kinds of entrepreneurship that have
been sparked by the book. I’ve met kids who have made and sold home-made comic
books. One group of girls beaded friendship bracelets and sold them. Another
reader made origami frogs and sold those. My own daughter made a “lemonade”
stand selling dog blankets she had made. Kids everywhere are interested in
finding ways to earn money.
One of the biggest lessons, though, centers around
what do you do with your money once you’ve earned it. Jessie likes to save.
Evan likes to spend, sharing generously with his friends. And Megan chooses to
give her money to charity. It warms my heart every time I read a newspaper
article or see a local TV news clip or hear from a classroom about kids reading
the book and then raising money for a charity: a local animal shelter, a senior
center, their town library, or a family in their school community that’s going
through a tough time. Sometimes they give to a national organization, like
Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, which raises money for pediatric cancer
research. Big or small, local or national, it’s so important that we teach our
kids—through experience and doing—that caring for each other and our
communities is the greatest thing we can do, and that every one of us has the
power to make a real difference.
Do you feel as though any
of the math and business concepts have actually been explained in new ways by
the visual version of The Lemonade War?
Actually, there were a good number of drawings (some
of them done by me!) in the original book that helped explained the math that
Jessie and Evan were doing in the story. Those drawings were brought forward
into the graphic novel version, but beautifully redrawn by the extraordinarily
talented Karen De la Vega. Karen’s illustrations throughout the book bring new
life to every aspect of the story. She’s so talented, and I feel very lucky
that she agreed to illustrate this book.
My favorite part of this
story is the idea that competition can both motivate and divide. What inspired
you to include collaboration as a theme? Was this always part of the vision of
the novel?
From the beginning, I wanted to write a story that
showed there are two sides to every argument. That’s why, in the original book,
the chapters are told from alternating points of view. The first chapter shows
us what’s going on in Evan’s head and heart; the second chapter shows us what
Jessie is thinking and feeling; and back and forth. For this reason, I wanted
the two main characters to be very close and collaborative (a brother and
sister who usually get along really well), but I wanted them to be opposites.
(Evan is good with people, while Jessie struggles to understand people; Jessie
excels in academics, while Evan has trouble keeping up in school.) I’ve long
believed that the people we love the most can lead to the most explosive
disagreements! And once you find yourself in the middle of a war, how do you
find your way back to the place of love?
What’s next? Any
additional graphic novel adaptations on the horizon?
At the moment, I’m working on another middle-grade
novel. But I would love to try my hand at writing the graphic novel script for
the second book in the series, The
Lemonade Crime. I guess we’ll wait to see how the first graphic novel does
in terms of sales! If readers like that one, then we might do more. I also have
an idea for an original graphic
novel, and I would definitely like to take on the challenge of writing that
script.
You offer presentations and virtual visits. Where can educators or young readers get in touch with you to request a visit or share their experiences with The Lemonade War?
Educators and readers can reach me in any of the
following ways:
Website: www.jacquelinedavies.net
Instagram: @jacquelinedaviesbooks_
YouTube: @jacquelinedavies9
Blue Sky:
@jacquelinedavies.bsky.social
And please sign up for my
newsletter!
Every month, I share news about my books and give away free books to educators. You can sign up here:
https://www.jacquelinedavies.net/landing-pagesignup
~
ABOUT JACQUELINE DAVIES
Jacqueline Davies is the bestselling and award-winning author of books for children and young adults, including The Lemonade War series, the Sydney and Taylor series and more. Her books have sold more than 2 million copies and have been selected as an ALA Booklist Editors’ Choice, Bank Street College Best Children's Book of the Year. She divides her time between a town just outside of Boston and a cabin on the wild coast of Maine. In addition, she almost always has a suitcase that is in the process of being packed or unpacked.
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