Rowan O'Bannon(left) gets her "Annika Riz, Math Wiz" book signed
by author and professor Claudia Mills (right) as O'Bannons mom,
Valerie Rudolph (middle) looks on.
SAM CARAVANA / THE DEPAUW
Claudia Mills is this spring’s Robert and Carolyn Frederick Visiting Distinguished Professor of Ethics. She currently teaches a course on the Philosophy of Rousseau along with a children’s literature class in the English department. She also writes childrens books. This week, The DePauw had the opportunity to sit down with Mills and found out more about her background and interests.
The DePauw (TDP): What originally brought you to DePauw University?
Claudia Mills (CM): I came as just a speaker for the Undergraduate Ethics Symposium, which Prindle hosts every year…It’s a wonderful event where students from all over the country submit both scholarly and creative work on topics having to do with ethics, and they bring in outside faculty members to serve as seminar leaders, and speakers and facilitators. So I came as a UES speaker, and then came again, and then was invited to come as a visiting professor. So I’ve had a long association with DePauw.
TDP: Can you talk a little bit about your background?
CM: I grew up in New Jersey, and I was partway through my PhD in philosophy at Princeton when I took some time off and went to work for scholastic in New York City…almost all publishing takes place in New York…That’s when I started writing children’s books. And then I went back and finished my PhD, but I kept the two interests always going simultaneously.
TDP: What made you interested in teaching philosophy?
CM: When I read literature, I always found that I read for what’s called the epiphany moment…The moment when a character kind of learns something, some deep truth about herself or the world, and now it all clicks into place. I always would read for that moment where the big truth was revealed. And then I thought, ‘well, philosophy, you’re just getting to learn about big truths, and sort of skip the story.’ And now I found I really like both. I like to have stories and big truths…But…I was just fascinated by the questions that philosophy could pose about freedom of the will and the existence of God, and…‘what is a good human life?’. So I loved the questions right from the start.
TDP: Is it difficult having to go back and forth between philosophy and children’s literature?
CM: I think philosopy and children’s literature have a lot more in common than people realize…I think children’s books are often very philosophical because children are learning to explore deep questions about who they are and where they belong in the world and how they should live. So I think children are actually drawn to philosophical questions, and I think that philosophers are the grown ups who keep asking those questions…When I teach philosophy I often like to bring in some aspects [that have to do] with childhood or children’s literature.
TDP: How do you get ideas for your stories?
CM: Not so much for ideas, but more for inspiration in terms of craft…I like to read the very best books to set a standard for myself. In terms of inspiration for my books…I’m a mother, I’m a grandmother. I love to go to schools and interact with kids. And, in just 10 minutes of interacting with kids, you’ll get so much material, because you just see the way children’s minds work…The kinds of things that hurt their feelings and the kinds of things that give them joy…all that can be material to use in a story.
TDP: Do you have a favorite book of yours that you’re most proud of having written?
CM: Well, I think each book has its own challenges. And you’re always excited about the new book…I should probably tell you about the new book that I’m doing…The newest book is called Izzy Bar Running, Star…it’s part of a series called “Franklin School Friends” that’s third graders. So there’s Kelsey Green, Reading Queen, Annika Riz, Math Wiz, Izzy Bar and Running Star. So they’re third grade girls who have talents and passions…they sort of cheer each other on. But each book raises its own little philosophical question.
TDP: Are there any goals that you’re looking towards in the upcoming years?
CM: I like to challenge myself by writing different kinds of books…Most of my books were middle grade novels, and then I started writing a few picture books, and easy readers and chapter books…I used to write only about girls and then…I became a mother of boys so I started writing a lot of books about boys. I’ve never done children's creative non-fiction where you are writing a non-fiction subject but expressing it in a creative way, and I would like to try writing a non-fiction book.
TDP: Do you think we ever grow out of children’s books?
CM: I don’t think we ever do grow out of good children’s books. I like to think of it as not ‘leaving this behind and going on to this’, but ‘keeping this and then adding that'…I think of myself now, you know, later in life, that I’m the sum total of all the books I’ve read and all the things that I’ve loved and I haven’t discarded any of my early loves.