Family Fun: Former journalist Martha Brockenbrough writes about stories that need to be told

Seattle author Martha Brockenbrough has published a dozen books for children, from picture books about a cheerleading chick (“Cheerful Chick”) to a prize-winning YA novel (“The Game of Love and Death”) and a presidential biography (“Unpresidented”).

And though those may seem wholly unrelated, to Brockenbrough, they’re the stories that needed to be told.

She’s a former journalist who’s wanted to be a writer since she was about 8.

“If there’s anything being a journalist teaches you to do is to think quickly and be on your feet and listen hard and write the story that needs to be written,” she said.

“What I’m trying to do with my career right now is write books that serve the interest of children.”

So that’s why she’s written nonfiction about sharks and Alexander Hamilton, as well as fiction that explores the meaning of life. She’ll talk about her books when she visits Auntie’s Bookstore on Thursday.

She’ll also be part of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Inland Northwest Fall Conference on Friday and Sept. 21 in Spokane.

“It’s great to have a funny book for 5-year-olds, that on its surface is about a chick learning to cheer, but is really about resilience and independence and finding our inner core strength,” Brockenbrough said.

And for teens, it’s really important that they understand who Donald Trump is, she said.

Brockenbrough was just finishing the manuscript for “Alexander Hamilton, Revolutionary” in 2016, so she was intimately familiar with the founding of the nation and Hamilton’s role in it and what he feared.

“And it struck me at the time that a candidate like Donald Trump met the definitions of the demagogue who Alexander Hamilton was talking about,” she said.

When Trump won, she decided it was really important to write a book that looked at his history and family. She wanted it to be deeply sourced.

The final book has more than 1,400 footnotes, “which might seem like a lot for teens, but that’s how you show them, here’s how to be thorough, here’s how it’s done,” she said.

With both the Hamilton and Trump books, “I’ve tried to give something that’s accessible for teens because they’re interested in those things,” Brockenbrough said.

At Auntie’s, she’ll talk a little bit about how she did each book. And she loves to take questions about being a writer, she said.

“For people who are aspiring authors in the audience, I love talking to them about how to make progress in this field.”

Brockenbrough has two new picture books coming soon. “This Old Dog” is “for everybody who’s ever loved an old dog,” she said. It’s about the about the friendship between an old dog and a brand new walker and how they’re perfectly suited to each other, she said.

“I’m so excited for this book. And it definitely came from my own experiences, walking an old dog and a toddler and thinking, ‘Oh, they’re the slowest!’ But then realizing ‘look at how much joy they’re getting out of this,’ ” she said.

The other is about Wong Kim Ark, who was born in San Francisco in the 1800s. His Supreme Court case is the reason that when you’re born in the United States, you’re a citizen.

“Nothing tickles me more than knowing that you can write in such a way that a 5- or 6-year-old will understand this,” she said.

“Books are vital for civilized society. It’s so important that kids have new books to read and books that are written with just them in mind.”