Pam Munoz Ryan: A Biography

A common misconception about writers is that they all are born with a drive for writing and somehow are able to recognize a love of and talent for writing early on. Some people feel that the future "great authors" can be easily identified as young children-that they begin their young writing careers as little nerdy book worms who carry a pencil and a pad of paper everywhere. Perhaps some of the great writers fit similar stereotypes as children. However, many great authors went through childhood with absolutely no interest in the world of books. Many of today's most talented writers were not English majors, and only pursued writing after reaching success in other careers.

The truth is, with hard work and perseverance it is possible to find success as an author, even if others doubt your ability and your writing resume doesn't seem adequate. This idea is best demonstrated by the famous children's author Pam Muñoz Ryan, who checked off a long list of accomplishments before even considering writing as a possible career. As a child, Ryan overflowed with imagination, through which she portrayed roles such as that of "benevolent queen, an explorer, or a doctor saving people." She never, however imagined becoming a writer, although she enjoyed writing in her spare time. The author attended grade school and high school and college in southern California. She still lives there today and doesn't "have a concept of what it would be like to live anyplace else...I'm definitely a California girl." (Podell)

In 1973, Pam Munoz Ryan graduated from San Diego State University with a bachelor's degree in Child Development. Following graduation, she took a Red Cross Volunteer position, planning and managing "play schools for refugee children at the relocation camp on Camp Pendleton, a U.S. military base north of San Diego." (Abbey, p. 133). Most children at the military base were refugees displaced during the Vietnam War. After three months at Camp Pendleton, Pam Munoz Ryan realized she enjoyed working with children and books, so she decided to try teaching. She was able to land a Head Start job teaching bilingual children, due in part to her Spanish fluency: "My grandmother only spoke to me in Spanish when I was a young girl...my Spanish is asi-asi."(Podell, 2002). She left Head Start after three years and was married to Jim Ryan. She spent the next decade taking care of her two daughters, Marcy and Annie, and twin sons, Tyler and Matt (Podell).

Eventually, Pam Munoz Ryan returned to school in hopes of adding graduate school to her lengthy accomplishment list. Little did she know that in addition to providing her with another degree, one of her graduate school professors would feed her the inspiration to pursue a writing career-he approached her after class one day and suggested that she consider writing professionally. This was the first time in Ryan's memory that she actually pondered about becoming an author. She found the possibility interesting, but did not pursue writing any further until Doris Jasinek, a fellow graduate student at San Diego State University requested Ryan's help writing a book. Pam Munoz Ryan agreed, and ended up collaborating with Jasinek to produce several educational resource books, which she published under the name "Pamela Bell Ryan." These books included A Family is a Circle of People Who Love You and How to Build a House of Hearts. Ryan found that she enjoyed publishing her work, and, still interested in working with children, began exploring the world of children's literature: "One thing led to another. I began writing children's book manuscripts. And I started the slow, tedious, yet exciting journey to become something I'd never been before." (Shanley-Dillman, 2009)

Pam Munoz Ryan confesses to having had an apathetic attitude toward reading and writing during the first decade of her life. "I was not a good reader until 5^th grade. I was really a late bloomer in the reading department." (Podell). Today, Ryan is still not altogether sure what exactly led to her lifetime love affair with literature, but she thinks the library's air-conditioning had something to do with it. As a child growing up in Bakersfield, California during the 1950s, Pam Munoz Ryan endured many long and hot south-California summers, during which, the library provided a lone respite from the high temperature: "my family didn't have a swimming pool and the library was air-conditioned" (Abbey, p.131) Ryan soon found that despite her lack of interest in books, the library was the ideal place to hang out when the temperature crept past 105 degrees Fahrenheit. Her quest for air-conditioning quickly led to an obsession that would shape the rest of Ryan's life: "Today I am a full-time writer and not much has changed. I still don't have a swimming pool and I still spend time at the library." (Abbey, p. 130)

As Pam Munoz Ryan grew to enjoy reading, her motivation for visiting the library changed: "I rode my bike to the library and filled it up with books, came home and read them all and went back to the library and filled my basket with books and rode back home." (Podell). Pam Munoz Ryan began to take further comfort in literature as she struggled to make friends with her new classmates, following her family's move across town. Books became her coping mechanism, temporarily allowing her to escape the realities of "tallness, big feet, hot weather in the summer, and the bitter cold foggy days of winter. I could escape from little sisters and a passel of younger cousins to retreat to worlds unknown." (Shanley-Dillman)

When asked which books she found inspirational as a child, Pam Munoz Ryan struggles to come up with an answer, since she feels that almost any book can be inspirational under the right circumstances. The childhood books she remembers best include everything from the Sue Barton Student Nurse series ("I must have read every single one of the them five, six times") to such classics as Treasure Island and The Swiss Family Robinson. She feels that her appreciation of repetitive series books as well as the heavier classics turned her into a very "indiscriminate reader" (Greenman)

Pam Munoz Ryan feels that she is still "indiscriminate about reading the same genre." Although she will sometimes desire a book "that won the Pulitzer Prize or the Nobel Prize for literature," she knows of many situations in which she prefers "light summer reading... a romance novel or a thriller." (Greenman) This attitude toward choosing books reflects her opinions about whether or not parents and teachers should choose "good books" for their children and discourage series or other books they view as "trash." She believes that it is most important that "children are exposed to many different books" (Greenman) In fact, this is her main advice to children who hope to become authors one day: "I encourage them (young aspiring writers) to read as much as they can so that they know what they like and what they don't like...good writers are usually good readers." (Podell)

Beyond reading a variety of books, Pam Munoz Ryan believes that the best way for children to become better writers is to, "daydream a little every day and pretend often...write lots of different things: lists, stories, menus, notes." Ryan feels that spending "blocks of unchoreographed time.. playing and developing my imagination," prepared her more for a writing career than an English major could have.

According to Pam Munoz Ryan, the significance of uninterrupted writing time is not limited to children. She believes that, no matter your age, writing every day is the key to achieving success. "I always feel that momentum is far more important than inspiration - that your best inspiration comes when you're in the process of doing. .. It certainly doesn't come in the form of a muse who sprinkles fairy dust. (www.teachingbooks.net)

Much of Ryan's writing time is spent chasing inspiration by sketching out lists and ideas. However, the largest chunk of effort goes into revising and editing what she has already written. She does not define the writing process with the stereotypical sequence of words (prewriting, drafting, revising, etc.) Instead, she describes the writing process as "not really a process but rather a very messy evolution...I start like most writers start - with a very bad first draft which becomes something to fix, and change, and hopefully make better." (www.readingrockets.org)

Ryan emphasizes with the many children who experience frustration with the revision process. She has to spend several weeks working on revisions, usually for over eight hours a day. Her daily workload is further increased as she draws closer to a deadline. Like the children she teaches and writes for, Ryan finds it difficult to stay focused on a goal, especially if she is strapped for time, which she considers her "biggest nemesis." (www.readingrockets.org).

One interesting method the author uses as a reminder to stay on track involves Japanese trinkets known as "Daruma." "When you get one (a Daruma figurine), the eyes are both blank and when you start the project you color in one eye." This is what Pam Munoz Ryan does as she prepares to begin a new project. The Daruma figurine has only one eye when Pam Munoz Ryan is in the process of drafting or revision. "When you complete the goal, only then can you color in the other eye. " Until then, the Daruma will continue to glare, "with only one eye, to remind me to stay focused on my goal of completion."

This "goal of completion" can take a staggeringly long amount of time to achieve. Ryan admits to rewriting every story or book at least twenty times, a fact which usually surprises, and often comforts, the children she speaks to. One of her favorite memories was created when the author visited an elementary classroom and revealed the staggering number of rewrites that occurred before a book could be published. Afterwards, a little girl wrote Ryan a heartfelt letter, which expressed that, ""When you told me you had to try so hard...it was like the ocean washing over my feet." Ryan found that as with many children, it was " refreshing to her to find out that I struggled...because to her it was such a struggle as well." (Greenman)

Although the revision effort can be exhausting, Ryan's overflowing mailbox delivers her constant reminders of why her writing career is worth the constant struggle. Pam Munoz Ryan has received thousands of letters from children, and many, like the one described above, are heartfelt responses to Ryan's writing workshops and classroom presentations. Other letters provide feedback and commentary on Ryan's novels and picture books. No matter the subject, the author views these letters as one of the best perks of her career. "I have been moved to tears from the touching responses from children." (Lehr, p.235) Some of her favorite letters came as responses to the semi-biographical novel Esperanza Rising: "One of my greatest joys has been receiving letters, almost daily, from Latino children who tell me how me how very much the story has meant to their lives and just as important, from non-Latino children who tell me that they have been enlightened by a story that is different from their own." (Lehr, p.237) Letters such as these served as the inspiration for the novel Becoming Naomi Leon, and, as Pam Munoz Ryan expresses "enrich my stories..in the most honest and charming ways." (Lehr, p.235)

Ryan's success stems not from a long career as a children's author, a rich education in literature and writing, or even an inborn ability for expressing herself through writing. Rather, Ryan's success was built through a powerful work ethic and years of dedication. This commitment is the author's chief source of inspiration. She also draws ideas from her love of reading, feedback from children, and the imagination and creativity she cultivated as a child. The author loves to use writing as a medium for creative expression, partly because it allows her to "try on different lives." (www.readingrockets.org). Ryan loves to imagine what life might be like if she stepped into another person's shoes, taking on that person's strengths and weaknesses. "When I write, I can be as strong as Charlotte in Riding Freedom or as determined as Eleanor Roosevelt, Amelia Earhart and Marian Anderson. Or even as remarkable as Esperanza in Esperanza Rising."

Ryan's eagerness to "try on different lives" in her writing reflects her status as a self-described "indiscriminate reader" and her rich and varied professional history. This history, rich in experience, has kept Ryan from getting "stuck" in one genre. Her eagerness to expand her own boundaries and explore the infinite worlds of literature are qualities that have defined her as an author willing to draw inspiration from anywhere and write about anything. "What do I write about? I write about dreams, discoveries and daring women. I write short stories about hard times, picture books about mice and beans, and novels about journeys. That's part of the enchantment of writing and creating characters-the variety." (Abbey, p.139)

Sources:

www.teachingbooks.net
www.readingrockets.org