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Speaker 1: Hello and good morning. How are you doing today?

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Thanks for having me.

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Speaker 1: Have you had the opportunity to sit down with a

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young reader and just watch them page through this book,

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because this is a masterpiece of eyesight as well as storytelling.

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I mean you, and it's not over thick, it doesn't

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scare a child away. It's so perfect.

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Speaker 2: Oh thank you, that's high praise. I have sat down

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with some kids and yeah, they always have a lot

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to say about the plants.

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Speaker 1: And that's one of the things. I mean, especially young

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adults as well as big adults. We all love plants,

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and that's what this book is about. It gives us

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the opportunity to go into a moment of exploration. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: That was one of my favorite things about picture books

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as a kid, was like just pouring over a spread

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and seeing something different than the last time I read it. So,

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you know, I wanted to make sure to tuck in

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some things like that.

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Speaker 1: And you like to play with the colors too, I mean,

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I mean the way that you really kind of design

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things out in this book. It just opens up your

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imagination to start paying attention to everything around us. It's

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not just what we see in our own front.

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Speaker 2: Yard, right exactly. And that's funny that you mentioned that

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because when I do school visits, that is my big

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talking point is that a lot of what I do

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as a writer looks like goofing off in my yard

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because I'm out there just kind of noticing things, and

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that that's what you have to do as a writer,

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is pay attention to the world around you and look

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closely at things. And so I'm glad that you brought

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that up.

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Speaker 1: One of the things that you cover inside the book

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is that you know astronauts and it's like, I've never

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seen a weirdo astronaut. But the thing is, though, is

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that we get to talk about it.

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Speaker 2: Well, yeah, so I mean astronauts are weird. Think about like,

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you know, how do you how do you go to

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the basterroom in space? Rh right, You know, like astronauts

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have a weird life. Scientists have a weird life. And

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you know that's again like when I talk to kids,

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that's one of the things I tell them, Like the

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world is enamored with weirdos because you know, new ideas

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are always weird and then they're replicated. So you know,

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we love that. We don't like to see things that

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are exactly the same all the time, so you know,

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be your unrepeatable, unique self.

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Speaker 1: I love that because back in two thousand and two,

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I released the music album then and the name of

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it was they think I'm weird, So I'm going to

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prove it. And I just get it, I really do,

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because but most people just say he's an artist. He's

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an artist.

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Speaker 2: You know. It's like, now, I'm just weird, right yeah,

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And I think you know, so many people hear that

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as like a bad thing. But in our home, wonderfully

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weird has been a mantra since we became parents, and

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I stick by that, like, you are weird and it

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is wonderful that you are, and it's not hurting anybody,

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and we love to see it.

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Speaker 1: The thing that really inspires me about this book is

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when she's building the garden and you're showcasing to young

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readers that it doesn't just happen. It's going to require

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some living, you know, getting the fertilizer, it's going to

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require working the soil and creating signs and planting things

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that there there's work involved.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you know, I think that just came through

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kind of organically. Though. I think writing is like that anyways,

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you know, like you get to the end and you

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have these talks with people and you're like, oh, yeah,

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but I'm a gardener myself. So even though her garden

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like magically grows overnight, there was still work on the

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front end. So yeah, you gotta get a little dirty

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to get to the good stuff.

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Speaker 1: The way that you name the flowers too, I mean

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a glowing jack in the bush, I mean I love

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that stuff. And even a grumpy gilly flower.

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Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, which when I, you know, talk to kids,

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I show them what an actual gilly flower looks like

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and they're like, what does doesn't look anything like a

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real gilly flower? But I didn't want it to. I

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took a lot of creative liberties with all the flowers

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because the publisher was very adamant that none of these

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can be real poison plant, so I deviated a lot.

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Speaker 1: And the community was kind of against this garden, which

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I can relate with because back in nineteen ninety seven,

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when I planted seventeen hundred trees inside this forest, people

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weren't supportive of what I was doing. They didn't understand

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what I was doing. But I mean, I can really

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really relate with Millie here.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know, like she tells the Garden Club

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when they say, like, we just can't have this poisonous

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mess in our town. According to our rules, it's unacceptable,

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she tells them like, it's not poisonous, it's just different

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from yours. Yeah, And I think that that resonates with

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a lot of people, like what I'm doing is not

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hurting you, and I'm actually bringing something kind those like

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cool and different to the world. So you know, like

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you don't have to like it, you just kind of

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have to let me be. And she goes out and

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she finds the people that appreciate what she's planted. And

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I love that because it gives her agency. You know,

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like she doesn't sit around even though her house is

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literally and figuratively on the fringe of society. You know,

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her house is on the edge of Garden Glynn. She's

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not a lonely weirdo. She's a wonderful weirdo who goes

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out and finds people who are her same kind of weird.

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Speaker 1: I would love to be sitting with a parent who

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gets to the page where she's inviting everybody up to

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the gates and the word beware is crossed out and

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it's behold. I would love to hear how a mother

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or a father explains that to a child in the

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way of saying, see, you don't have to be afraid.

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Just behold it.

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Speaker 2: Just behold it. That's right, Like, just give it a chance.

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It's you know, we are often scared of things that

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are unfamiliar or different. And you know, when they go

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through the garden, they don't the kids don't go through

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and automatically say like, oh my gosh, it's wonderful. They

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they're a little grossed out, they're a little nervous, but

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they're also astonished, and by the time they get to

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the end of it, they've seen like, hey, this is

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actually kind of cool. So you just have to give

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things a chance.

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Speaker 1: So is there really a plant called a sneezing sticky weed?

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Speaker 2: Not a sneezing sticky weed? But all of the plants

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in so I gave them all attributes like sneezing, fanged, tentacled.

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But fairy moss is real, sticky weed is real. Cansies

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are real, gilly flowers, real huckleberries, all of those are real.

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But you just don't have belching huckleberries.

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Speaker 1: Sadly the book in the garden, it really reminds me

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of a place too far from here. We call it

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Tom Short Park, and really it's a very nature place

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to go. And just just looking at all these you know,

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the illustrations and things like that, it just takes me

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somewhere as an adult, I just can't imagine what you're

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doing with young imaginations.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, they have so many questions, and you know,

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like since I've written this, you know, it was sparked

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by a real life poison garden. I read an article

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about a real life garden in England. But since then

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I've also found out that here in the US we

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have like there's a garden and it escapes me where

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it is now, but it's an entire carnivorous plant greenhouse.

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So you go in this greenhouse and it's nothing but

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carnivorous plants, And so I think that's so cool, Like

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there are truly wild and weird gardens that kids could

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really visit. And so when I tell them that they're

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you know, they.

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Speaker 1: In a very strange way. Don't you think that your

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book can be compared to Mike Mulligan' Steamshovel in the

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way of building something from nothing.

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Speaker 2: Oh, that is the highest praise I could ever get.

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Mary Anne was one of my favorites. Yeah, yeah, because

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you know, she moves in on it says at the

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beginning of the book, She's moved into this tumble down

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house on a scruffy hill at the edge of town.

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There's nothing there. It's rejected, it's excluded, and it's unloved.

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And Nellie Floor plants her wild and weird garden and

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it's it brings something to that scruffy hill, you know,

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and she loves it. And so now this thing that

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no one had given any attention to is now this

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wild and weird, fantastical place. So yeah, she she literally

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builds it up from nothing.

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Speaker 1: Wow. Where can we go to find out more about

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everything that you do? Because I want people to discovery

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the entire you.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So I have a website, It's Christine Manden at

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It's Christymanden dot com. And you can find the book

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everywhere that books are sold. Independent bookstores are always my

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favorite places to find books. And Milli Flour actually has

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a second book coming out next summer. So if in

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Book one Garden Glenn was afraid of things that are different.

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In book two, they're absolutely afraid of the dark, and

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so it's called Milli Floor Saves the Night, and she's

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going to show Garden Glenn that they're amazing things to

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see in the dark if you're only brave enough to

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turn out the light.

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Speaker 1: Wow, I can't wait to have you back on this

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show just so we can talk about it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that'd be great.

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Speaker 1: Will you'd be brilliant today?

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Speaker 2: Okay, okay, thanks so much for having me