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MEET BUNNY HULL (2/2011)
by Bonnie O'Brian

What did you most like to do when you were a child?

Bunny Hull

As I recall, the most important part of my childhood revolved around the deep friendships I forged early on in my life. I had a lot of friends and it seemed it didn’t much matter what we were doing.  We could be jumping on a trampoline that Lynny had in her backyard, playing kickball on the street in front of the house, taking a ballet class or selling girl scout cookies. I guess it’s no wonder the very first book I had published was called, “The Friendship Seed.”

I blessedly was raised in the arts.  So from the age of three I took dance lessons, at seven started piano lessons and not long after that followed in my mother’s footsteps as a singer.  I later became a professional singer and worked with artists like Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones and a lot of terrific people.  I do wish my mom had lived long enough to see all of that, but those are all activities I loved from the very beginning. 

Interesting that I didn’t really discover the joy of a good book until I was around eleven or twelve, and not long after that my abilities began to take form as a writer.  I was introspective from a very young age, but by the age of sixteen writing became my outlet, my most important method of self-expression and the healing balm for whatever concerns I had at the time.  

What books influenced you most when you were growing up?

Early on I liked The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew -  perhaps sparking my love of a good mystery, but I was always interested in what made people tick, so autobiographies in general fascinated me. 
The single most influential book for me was SIDDHARTHA by Hermann Hesse. It seemed a rather odd reading choice for a Catholic High School, but that book has influenced my life in so many ways.  I’ve read and re-read it since then and I know it’s been an influence to me in my creation of the Young Masters Little Wisdom series.

Did you write stories when you were growing up?

The stories I wrote were mostly told in song.  I began writing songs at the piano from the age of about fifteen.  Those songs were my entrée to story writing.  The music gave my words freedom to fly.  Later down the line I began writing stories without the music, but always the musical score for a story is in my mind and part of my writing process.

What are the topics of some of your books? 
My first six books in the Young Masters Little Wisdom address what I feel are the true treasures of life.  Friendship, imagination, gratitude, creativity, courage and love.  I’m drawn to the transcendent truths that bind us together as people. In this series the characters discover these qualities and how they translate into meaningful actions.   I’ve recently developed curriculum for the books.

What kinds of things inspire you to write?

Almost everything inspires me, but I would say the thing that inspires me most as a children’s author is working with small children.  I have a non-profit called Dream A World Education, Inc. and a six-week residency program called “Secrets of the Heart” that I take with my teaching artists into low-income public schools for grades K-2 in Los Angeles.  Working with these children fires me up with inspiration.Among the other things that inspire me are being in nature, listening to a great piece of music, or hearing someone like Dr. Maya Angelou deliver one of her     poems, being with talented   people, listening to some great truth spoken by a gifted speaker, watching the Alvin Ailey company perform Revelations or perhaps     watching someone overcome some great odd against them.  I could go on and on. It’s hard not to be inspired when you look all the beauty of life.

Have you or any of your books earned special recognition? 

As a children’s author I have won awards for my collection of activity books with music, those awards include two Parents Choice Awards, Two National Parenting Publications Awards, A Parents Guide To Media Award and a Children’s Music Webs award.
     
The first three books from the Young Masters Little Wisdom Series all won Parents Choice Awards and THIS LITTLE LIGHT from the newest additions was nominated for an ALA Most Notable Award in 2011.

In the world of music, I’m a two-time Grammy Nominee and Grammy Award-winner for writing a song called “New Attitude” by Patti LaBelle, which won for appearing in the movie Beverly Hills Cop.   I also have a Dove Award for writing a song called “Ready For A Miracle” that was recorded by Lee Ann Rimes for Universal’s number one box office hit “Evan Almighty.”

You write music and record audio stories with your books, how does that influence your creative process?  

All of the Little Wisdom books are packaged with CDs.  Being able to write and sing music is a big part of my overall creative process.  There aren’t any hard and  fast rules as to which comes first.  I often write the songs first and let the song  inspire  the dialog, but sometimes I write the dialog and a line from a character will inspire a title or a theme for a song.  It works both ways.  Because I  
have  expertise in the field of audio and the recording process it seemed natural to create audio stories to accompany the books along with the songs that support the theme  of each book. Elayn J.Taylor an African American actress narrates the stories as a female  Merlin-like character called Saphinne.  She inspires  me because I always  hear her delivering the lines as I write them.

I know that children learn in many different ways, so delivering the ideas  contained within the books in a variety of ways, written word, images, computer media and music makes me feel as though I’m doing my best to make sure that  the children understand and feel what the books are intended to convey.

Bunny Hull is published by Dream A World®.  Her books are available through Baker and Taylor, barnesandnoble.com and www.dreamaworld.com