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Hello er. How do you doing. Absolutely fantastic. How are you doing

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today? I am well and really
excited to be here. I'm excited to

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talk with you too, because my
entire life I always wanted to have an

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Ivan and to have stories like this. You give us Ivan in our hearts.

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Oh that's very kind to do this, though. I mean, you've

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got to be able to understand the
mindset, because there are so many times

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in reading the book that it's like, oh my god, I didn't know

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that gorillas have the same emotional things
that we go through. I just we

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just know them as what we assume. We know very true. But you

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know what's interesting I have found I've
written a lot of animal characters. I've

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written trees for that matter, and
it's always there's always a degree of anthropomorphism.

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You're you're leaping into the head of
a different species, and no matter

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how much research you do, there's
a big chasm there. And I do

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my best to try to integrate facts
where I can, but of course I'm

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fictionalizing too, and it's a delicate
balancing act. I think, Oh,

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I got to tell you what when
you spoke about writing about trees. I

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live in a forest. We're the
ones that planted these seventeen hundred trees,

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And I mean, I would love
to walk through this forest with you and

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show you all the different ones and
have the personality are willing to care.

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And I think that's what I find
in your stories. I mean, I

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mean, even look at the character
names Ivan, Ruby, Bob. He's

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like, oh my god, you're
so down to earth. My own dog's

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name was Stan. Bob was based
on Stan, and so what that tells

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you where the names come from.
Don't you think that Ivan represents so many

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fathers today with the love and even
admitting that it's a little bit difficult,

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but there's still that family togetherness there. Yeah, I'm glad you picked up

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on that. I think when I
went to write this, I thought it

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was going to be just nothing,
but you know, ram anxious fun because

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it's toddler gorillas. How can you
go wrong? But it turned out that

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the very complications that we all struggle
with as human parents were conflicts that I

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even't had to deal with as well. For example, do you tell your

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kids they may never ever see real
freedom? And you know, our human

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version of that is, how do
we deal with climate change? For example,

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how much do we tell our kids. Kids, you know, pick

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up on things they understand so much
more than we get them credit for,

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and Ivan has to kind of work
through that. Yeah, when you were

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creating the characters, did you come
up with baby voices? Because my dog

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speaks to me in the voice that
I hear in my head. That's the

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way I look at and she probably
has a big bear tone voice or something

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no no in my head. Once
Danny DeVito had played Bob in the movie

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and done the audiobook, Stan sounded
like Danny DeVito forever after that. But

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yeah, Ruby, absolutely. I've
talked to teachers who do I'm not very

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good at at myself, but who
do amazing voices as they're reading. And

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Ruby is always fun because she's just
so silly and you know, incredibly curious.

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So similarly with the two toddlers,
they end up being quite a handful

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and I imagine would be really fun
to voice. So many authors have always

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said that they try to write books
that become the face of who their reader

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is, and I think that you
do that quite well in this one,

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because we all can relate with these
storylines and it's like, wow, yeah,

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I get this yeah, it's the
parallels with the human conditioner are hard

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to ignore, and it's an interesting
it's an interesting balancing act trying to get

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it just right. But I think
that in particular for Ivan, he has

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to decide how much of his past
he's going to share with his kids,

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and how much of the future and
his fears about the future he's going to

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talk about. And you know,
travelers have a way of asking questions and

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being persistent, so he has to
figure all that out. You bring up

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a very interesting point about Ivan sharing
how much of his past. That's the

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one thing that I was disappointed about
that my parents didn't give me their past,

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and because I think where we are
today is because of them. It

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is so important to give your story
to those in front of you so that

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they know what the past was.
Like, Oh, that's vital. You're

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so right about that, and we
hesitate, don't worry because you know,

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you know, you want to protect
kids, you want to keep them safe.

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I just was in Virginia last week
because one of my books had been

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banned, and this instinct we parents
have to protect our kids. Sometimes we

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take too far. So it's a
hard one, but I think it's very

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important to share our stories because that's
how kids learn. Does that give you

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PTSD as an author? Because I
know that when my first book was put

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out, people are going, no, don't do this, and they were,

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they were uneasy with what the subjects
that I covered, and it gave

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me PTSD and going the next book
will not have this, I promise,

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And I thought, what am I? Why am I keeping it away from

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people? That's so funny because it's
true, and those voices in your head,

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the multiple editorial voices telling you what
to do and not do, it's

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it's it's hard to keep them at
bay. I always tell kids to embrace

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their weird and write from their hearts. And you know, because I'm sure

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you found this to be true.
Most of the illustrators and writers I know

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are quirky as can be, eccentric, weird, and I mean that in

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the best most affectionate way possible,
and they look at the world differently.

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And because they look at the world
differently, they're able to write interesting stories.

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So I think it's so important for
kids to know that because there's so

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much pressure to be just like everybody
else. So how much pressure were you

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on when it comes to the illustrators, because I've always had that challenge of

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Okay, do I tell them the
story verbally and then they can draw the

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pictures, or do they have to
have the story and then they get their

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own interpretation. My illustrators are very, very patient human beings because I tend

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to procrastinate, but at the end
of the day, I defer entirely to

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them. I just I can't draw
a straight line myself, so that's part

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of it. But mostly I just
think it's such a magical experience when they

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take a handful of words and turn
it into these absolutely gorgeous illustrations. In

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the case of Ivan, it's Patricia
Castilau, who's done all four books,

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lives in Portugal. I have never
met her, and yet every time I

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see a sketch, I'm just blown
away. Wow, go about you and

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to give you lots of love,
especially those that are just discovering you.

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They need all four of those books. Oh that's very kind. Katherine Applegate

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dot com and I'm on the usual
social media sites. But if you're looking

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for the book, I always say
start with your local indie because independent bookstores

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are the hearts of our community.
It's available everywhere. Yeah, and the

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people inside those bookstores are real people
that look just like us. They're not

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trying to be fancy or anything.
No, they're just amazing human beings.

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Yeah. Please come back to this
show anytime in the future, Catherine.

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The door is always going to be
open for you. Oh you're so kind.

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Thanks. I had a great time. Will you'd be brilliant today?

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Okay, thank you too,