Bestselling author and filmmaker Adriana Trigiani talks to Virginia Living about her first picture book for children, set in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia.
Author and filmmaker Adriana Trigiani has written an impressive 20 books of fiction and nonfiction, published in 38 languages and selling 20 million copies worldwide, including the popular Valentine trilogy. And despite making a home in New York City, the Virginia native has never forgotten her roots in the Appalachian Mountains.
Trigiani’s bestselling 2000 novel Big Stone Gap, set in her hometown in the 1970s, was made into a romantic comedy drama film in 2014, starring Ashley Judd, Patrick Wilson, and Whoopi Goldberg; the film was produced and directed by Trigiani herself.
In December, The House of Love, the first picture book by the New York Times bestselling author, with illustrations by Amy June Bates, will be published by Penguin Young Readers. The story is set in Appalachia, with references to the Blue Ridge Mountains, a nod to Trigiani’s childhood home in Big Stone Gap. In late April, Trigiani launched the new book in an exclusive interview with Virginia Living.
Virginia Living: It’s been a challenging 14 months for most people, but for those invested in the arts, staying at home has also been an opportunity to create. Is your new book a product of quarantine life?
Adriana Trigiani: It goes back a little earlier, but I took the time to fine tune, and rewrite, and examine every word, because a children’s picture book is really a very specific form of storytelling. I’m always thinking of the parent who is curled up on the bed with the child reading a bedtime story aloud. Having had that experience myself, a book has to come alive in the telling. We spent a lot of time on that.
Why a picture book?
Picture books are the gateway to lifelong reading for children. I’ve had this notion in the back of my mind for a long time. Then my editor took me for lunch and we started talking, and I said I wanted to contribute something that celebrated the style of the great storytellers in Appalachia set in the mountains in Virginia.
What was it like working with illustrator Amy June Bates?
I saw the illustrations when they were in the final stages, and when I saw them, my hair stood on end because the illustrations really captured the story. Amy had never seen my home in Appalachia, but the details she drew were uncanny. She is a very warm illustrator, a master of movement and color, which made her the perfect choice.
You write about love a lot, first in the Valentine trilogy, now with The House of Love. What makes you so interested in the subject?
Love is the emotion that makes life worth living. I’m very interested in the miracle of love, really. And that begins in your home, where you’re born and raised.
How much of the story is biographical?
It’s inspired by my mom. My mother approached holidays with such joy, all holidays in fact, and she always had so many ideas about how to celebrate them. She would create an ambience and make the day special out of virtually nothing. I thought about how my mother made me feel on those special days. When you are from a big family, it’s about the group, which is wonderful, because life is about thriving and surviving together. I wanted the book to be specifically about a child that feels forgotten in a loving family, so I built a story about the notion of what happens when nobody remembers you. It’s a story about being loved, even when you don’t necessarily experience it. I wanted the reader to come away with a sense of understanding the dilemma of childhood, the difficulties and the pain along with love. This is a happy story where love triumphs, and it turns out the little girl wasn’t forgotten after all. It’s about how you learn to move through the world from the experience of childhood, to love more and better.
What audience are you trying to reach with this book?
Boys and girls, because there is nothing more exciting than opening a new book to be read aloud when you are a child. I love that moment in life. Obviously it’s for little children, three to seven-ish, and I just love this family (in the book) because they don’t have a lot of the material things, and as long as they can have the connection to one another, and the beauty that the mother creates in the home, they’re happy. It doesn’t matter that they don’t have a new car or the latest gadgets. What matters is the family and what they mean to one other.
You write a lot about growing up in Appalachian Virginia. Why this continued interest?
That’s where I grew up, and it remains the place I long for. A lot about art is about what you don’t have. In my case it’s also about where I find inspiration. I have moments in my life that I recall, so many memories I have with my mother, I don’t want to forget them. When you live in a city, it’s about the buzz of the city. But when you go home, it’s about going inward to discover the deeper truths and the memories and the friendships you had, and the place where you last saw your mother, and for me that’s Big Stone Gap. The mountains are very evocative and artful. And Amy was very masterful about capturing the old house on a hill in the mountains and the feelings they invoke.
Moving forward, what is your next project?
The past year was more of the same for writers, we work alone and have to figure out how to hit our deadlines. But because we are empathic, we feel things deeply. The sorrow of the pandemic is not lost on us. I have a novel coming out next spring, written and edited during pandemic. AdrianaTrigiani.com
About the Book:
Mia Valentina Amore loves valentines. After all, her name means “my valentine.” When she wakes up on Valentine’s Day, it looks like just another morning in the rickety old Amore house in Appalachia. But through the course of the day, her home is transformed into the House of Love. Mia and her mama festoon the halls, build a gumdrop tree, bake cupcakes, and most importantly, make valentines for all six of her siblings. But when Mia doesn’t receive her own valentine, she wonders if Mama could have forgotten her.
The House of Love will be published by Penguin Young Readers in December 2021. Click here to preorder from the publisher.
