Jellybean, Rosie, Victory, shootings, hot-air, and manga: Author and teacher Danielle DeFauw
Charlie Barshaw coordinates our regular Writer Spotlight feature and interviews writers of SCBWI. In this piece, meet author/teacher Danielle DeFauw.
[Note: the items in italics are from my research into Danielle DeFauw. My questions follow the italicized items.]
Who was young Danielle? What did she like to read? When did she know she would be a writer?
Second grade was my first BEST year with two eye surgeries, reading success, and a writing contest! Although two eye surgeries may sound like the worst experiences a kid could have, that surgeon changed my life. With the muscles in my eyes cooperating, I learned how to read.
Mrs. Periat took me from the lowest to the highest reading level at Sweet School in North Branch Area Schools. She showed me how much reading can change our lives, and she is the reason why I chose teaching as a career and earned a PhD in reading education. Mrs. Periat’s authentic literacy instruction also sparked the dream of becoming a writer.
Vividly, I remember the moment she read my Easter Bunny story as the winning entry for the writing contest that March 1986. I won a stuffed bunny I named Jellybean. The bunny’s long gone, but I still have the original anthology, faded with age.
From that moment on, I saw myself as a writer, so passionate that I actually preferred writing over reading. I simply wanted to write my own stories. My stories helped me to process my life, escape my life in some ways, and become who I knew deep down inside I was meant to be.
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Danielle, circa 1979 Just part of the writing process |
Danielle’s book, Engaging Teachers, Students, and Families in K–6 Writing Instruction: Developing Effective Flipped Writing Pedagogies, published by Routledge in 2020, details her K-6 writing methods course designed to support preservice teachers’ development of their teacher-writer voices and use of authentic writing instruction to support students’ writing development.
What is “Flipped Writing”? How do teachers develop teacher-writer voice?
Before the pandemic, I taught my elementary writing methods course for preservice teachers at the University of Michigan – Dearborn as a flipped course. All lectures, reading, and any content I considered “sit-and-get-in-your-pajamas” were provided through our learning management system. This way, our in-person time together fulfilled writing-community commitments.
In person, we wrote and talked and celebrated our growth as teacher-writers during the first half of the semester. The second half of the semester was held at a local school where we provided writing instruction to students.
Through and through, I am a teacher-writer, and I want my preservice teachers to also develop that identity. Deeply I believe we teach writing better as teachers when we have chosen to experience the continuum of struggles to celebration of writing.
Also, my preservice teachers in the writing methods course and my children’s literature course were required to teach third- through fifth-grade students who attended UM-D’s Young Authors’ Festival. Over the years, we worked with the following incredible Michigan authors and illustrators:
· 2013 Carol Hagen and Matt Faulkner
· 2014 Toni Buzzeo
· 2015 Gary Schmidt
· 2016 Christopher Paul Curtis
· 2017 Kristen Remenar and Matt Faulkner
· 2018 MarkCrilley
· 2019 Jean Alicia Elster
Matt Faulkner helped with other initiatives connected with these courses, always bringing his humor, storytelling, and heart. Thank you, Matt!
Danielle hosted 12 segments for Michigan Learning Channel’s PBS Read, Write, ROAR! show.
What did it take to make Read, Write, ROAR! happen? Take us through an episode, from concept to wrap.
The last time I taught my elementary writing methods course in Fall 2023, two of my preservice teachers commented that they wished I was in the classroom because they’d love to teach with me.
Little did they know that although I LOVE teaching preservice teachers, I miss the community we create as elementary classroom teachers. I miss being a part of our young learners’ lives. Thinking of those two students, Emma and Marissa, I wondered how I could give back and share “my teaching” with my preservice teachers to benefit them and their young students.
I happened to see a social media post that Michigan’s Learning Channel was seeking applicants for a writer and/or host for Read, Write ROAR! Upper Elementary. As a former third-grade teacher for 8 ½ years at Siple Elementary in Davison and then a literacy coach for Siple and Gates Elementaries for almost three years, I felt it was a great fit, so I applied. When they called to say they’d like me to write and host six episodes, I jumped into that project.
And I am so grateful that I did! Anytime the Michigan Learning Channel needs any support, I’ll say yes to these projects as it was one of the most fulfilling experiences of my professional life! I worked with an incredible team and wrote educational content in a way I had never written curriculum before.
It was so fun to force myself to write 6-minute episodes with objectives and content fully aligned to Michigan’s Literacy Essentials and the Common Core State Standards for ELA, social studies, and science.
The first day of filming, I began dressed as Rosie the Riveter and stumbled through the first take. I wonder if the producer, Kyle Vernier, worried they had made a mistake in hiring me. I let them know it was my first time, and I had no idea what to do with my hands.
When Kyle gave me the greenlight to just go with it, I just pretended I was teaching a group of third graders. After the first six episodes were written and recorded, Kyle and his team asked me to write and host six more. Truly, I am so proud of the work our team did on those videos. They’re exceptional resources I am proud to share.
You were a third-grade teacher for a decade. Was there an inciting incident which prompted you pursue higher education? What are some of your favorite memories of the classroom? What are some of the challenges today’s teachers face?
I am a life-long learner. I always feel like there’s more to know, and that longing to learn more never subsides. As a third-grade teacher, I simply wanted to make sure I could meet my students’ needs in every way possible, so I just kept going to school, earning my master’s degree in K-12 literacy at UM-Flint to earn my Reading Specialist endorsement and then a PhD in Reading Education at Oakland University.
There wasn’t an inciting incident that propelled me into the PhD program, but I do remember a Spring morning, leaving my house with my oldest daughter, DeLainey, who was a year old at the time. I remember feeling the sunshine and wishing I could go right back inside and write all morning with a coffee cup beside me.
Although I love teaching, I love writing, too, and a longing to have the freedom and flexibility to write more rippled throughout my heart. Plus, although I have an early childhood background and know the incredible school experiences we provide children within early childhood contexts, it broke my heart to drop my daughter off at daycare. I wanted to be home with her as much as possible, but I also wanted to teach.
When I graduated with my doctorate when DeLainey was two, those needs propelled me into higher education. I’ve learned that teaching is teaching, and it doesn’t matter the age of your students.
Teaching is a privilege and although I know teachers face incredible challenges today at all levels from high-stakes testing to classroom management to new legislation to demands on scarce time—the list is endless—and yet so many of us still show up every day for our students. Teaching is not for the light of heart, but it is incredible heart work.
Another cool experience connected Siple Elementary and UM-Dearborn when some of my former colleagues let me know they were partnering with Ryan Hipp who would provide a yearlong author visit for the K-4 building.
My writer’s heart and researcher’s heart exploded, and I jumped in to research the experience. Check out our interview in the Michigan Reading Journal. It was a privilege to witness Ryan share his passion in creating Little Steps plus all his other creative endeavors.
And I was shocked to see my last name in his Mitten interview! I missed it then, but in preparing for this process, I was reading others’ interviews and was overjoyed to read Ryan’s responses. Right back at you, Ryan . . . Hi! And I know you’ll see this.
How is teaching soon-to-be teachers different than teaching third graders?
The call to teach is filled through teaching, whether you’re teaching young children, adolescents, or adults. It often makes me smile when I find myself using similar strategies with my adult learners as I did with my third-grade students.
No matter our age, when we learn new content we are outside of our comfort zones and we need strong relationships with those from whom we are learning. We need risk-free learning contexts where we can embrace the messiness of learning and have caring educators and peers around us to help us clean up that mess as we build our knowledge.
VICTORY STUMBLES is an upper middle grade, contemporary fiction, 52,000-word novel about grief-stricken, twelve-year-old Sarah who must choose between obeying her alcoholic father and keeping the dog she loves.
VICTORY STUMBLES won the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators’ Michigan Chapter’s Non-PAL mentorship writing contest August 2018; I spent 2019 and most of 2020 revising the manuscript per Kelly Barson’s mentoring. Also, in October 2021, Suzie Townsend, Vice President of New Leaf Literary & Media, Inc., selected VICTORY STUMBLES as one of two full manuscripts she reviewed for the Pacific Coast Children’s Writers Novel and Retreat Whole Novel Critique. Suzie’s feedback informed the next revision of the manuscript. As Katherine Paterson stated, “I love revision. Where else can spilled milk be turned into ice cream.” That revision process brought more success! On April 14, 2024, I won the SCBWI-Marvelous Midwest Conference writing contest. Tiara Kittrell, Editor, Putnam Young Readers, Penguin Random House, selected VICTORY STUMBLES and stated in her written critique, “I can see this getting awards attention and landing on state lists.”
You’ve been revising VICTORY for years. How has the story evolved? How close to ice cream are you?
Sarah’s story is so important to me for so many reasons. Each time I think I am going to put the book in a drawer, a significant “nudge and win” occurs, including last February when I received an agent’s request for the full. Truly, that was the last agent I was going to send the manuscript to and then I was going to put it away forever.
In so many ways, that beautiful story is like a tasty but melted ice cream cone in my sticky fingers . . . I just can’t let Sarah’s story go. For reasons I can’t understand yet, I know that story requires me to not have a “hurried heart” about sharing that book with readers.
I’ve had a lot of contest-like wins with the book. Even though it hasn’t been published yet, there’s power in yet. I haven’t revised the book since January 2024 during my most recent sabbatical. Maybe Sarah’s story will never be published, but I’m grateful for every experience I’ve had with this book from starting the story in 2004 and “finishing” it at some point, even though there’s no way it was to the level it needed to be, to putting it aside until my first sabbatical in 2016 when I definitely reset and refocused on my children’s literature writing.
Now it teeters on the drawer with hope. We shall see, but I do love the contests inherent in this book. Even for my dissertation, my study explored a writing contest experience with third-grade students, unpacked in this Language Arts Journal of Michigan article, so it’s cool to see the contest theme full circle from second grade to my aspirations as a children’s book author to my research as an academic.
ZERO’S HERO—a 69,000-word, hybrid, contemporary realistic fiction, young YA novel with graphic novel elements about secrets, survival, and strength—tells the antagonist’s story in VICTORY STUMBLES: guilt-ridden, thirteen-year-old PATRICK believes his younger self destroyed his own life when he told DAD he saw MOM kiss another guy. Now, Patrick must trust his instincts to protect Mom from her new security-officer boyfriend, TONY, who invades their home.
Patrick, the main character, played an antagonistic role in your previous novel. What about Patrick drove you to write his separate story? How do graphic novel elements play into the storytelling?
As an educator, I’ve always loved the kids who brought a bit of complication to the classroom. I love layered stories, and kids like Patrick show you one story, but hide layers you have to peel back.
Patrick’s story breaks my heart, and honestly, I didn’t know his story while writing Victory Stumbles. I simply needed him to show up late fall to complicate Sarah’s life, so I knew he’d been expelled from school and was staying with Grandpa because Mom couldn’t deal with him, but truly, I didn’t know why.
The night of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting on February 14, 2018, I tucked eight-year-old DeLainey into bed Her blue eyes pooling with tears, she asked, “Mom, are you afraid to go to school?” Some questions have no answers.
Wanting to make sense of the pain, I thought I’d write a picture book to try to help both of us make sense of the pain and trauma. Impossible. Suddenly, Patrick popped into my head. In the dark hallway, walking away from DeLainey’s bedroom, I whispered, “Patrick, what did you do?”
At that point, I started to read books about the topic. I wondered if I could write a story from that perspective. I cannot. On November 30, 2021, we experienced a mass shooting at our beloved Oxford High School. Although DeLainey was in 7th grade and my other two children were in the elementary buildings, my niece was in OHS. I have never felt more powerless in my life.
The pain so many families have experienced is insurmountable, and the trauma that radiates through our community . . . there are no words. I am grateful Marcia Hudson is sharing her book later this year titled After November: One Family’s Walk through the Unimaginable, as she is prolific at giving voice to incomprehensible emotion. I can’t wait to read her book, and I wish we never needed her book.
It took me a long time to stop shaking whenever the experience resurfaced. And then after more reading, learning, and choosing to do something rather than nothing,
I finished Patrick’s story as a kid who makes a terrible choice, but who would never hurt anyone. I cannot comprehend why a school shooter would hurt others. My teacher’s heart aches for kids hurting to the point of hurting themselves and others and writing Zero’s Hero was my way to help heal as a writer.
If we can save the kids who are hurting, we can help them before they hurt others and destroy families . . . before they hurt an entire community . . . before they make choices that can never be reversed. Families play a vital role in attending to their children’s mental health needs, and as educators, our hearts, minds, and souls also long to help these kids.
I’ve written these words and rewritten these words to get to the point I want to make, but I feel I’m lacking. There are times words cannot express all that the heart feels, all that our brains want to understand, all that our hearts yearn for.
I needed to bring in ways for Patrick to heal from the trauma he experienced living within his family dynamics. Of course, he has an ELA teacher who sees through his pain, calls him out on his less-than-helpful choices, and loves him anyway.
She assigns a mixed-media assignment in which he chooses to use the software to create comics. He chooses his own writing project, which is to provide his grandma a high and a low for each year of his life, a task she assigned him after she left Grandpa and flew to Arizona.
As he creates comics that show the backstory of his life, he goes through the process of reflecting on the highs and lows and learns that life ebbs and flows and even despite the lows, he can be okay, maybe not great, maybe not incredibly happy or joyful, but okay. He learns to find the helpers, to reach out to Grandpa for the support he needs, and to choose to put himself in an environment where he can heal.
I love mixed media and use it often in my stories, such as You Never Know the Last Time. The choice helps me to not follow the rules and embrace the creativity inherent in this writerly life.
YOU NEVER KNOW THE LAST TIME, and SCRAP WISHES, grew out of an incident where a hot air balloonist landed in your yard. Tell us about the incident, and the stories that grew from there.
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| First (and only) balloon ride |
Oh the journey these two books have experienced! The main character’s initials are EWW. I knew her voice and her initials well before I knew her story. When a hot air balloon landed in our backyard on July 25, 2020, right in the midst of COVID, I interviewed the pilot to the point he probably wished he could hop back into his balloon and choose another backyard for his landing site.
When he told me that 14-year-old pilots can earn their student license and 18-year-olds can earn their pilot license, the span of the YA range was thoroughly evident. He also told me about hot air balloon competitions, which piqued my interest and EWW’s who spoke up, so I’d know the backdrop of Evelyn’s story. (I trust other creatives are haunted by their characters, too.)
I have learned so much about hot air ballooning and threaded in mixed media for You Never Know the Last Time because 14-year-old Evelyn is gifted an online training. For each module, she creates Sketchnotes, a visual literacy strategy, to support her comprehension.
I wrote the two books in prose, rewrote the book into a novel in verse because I knew I couldn’t get the emotion right through prose, learned from an agent that my word count was way too high for a novel in verse, and teased out two stories.
Scrap Wishes came first in which sixteen-year-old Evelyn meets her biological father, an experience I had when I was 15 years old. You Never Know the Last Time is the prequel to Scrap Wishes in which the original premise of the book falls across the pages. It’s in the clouds as a student pilot, that Evelyn learns why Grandpa’s been so different lately, his memory is slipping.
I also have to give a shoutout to Cordelia Jensen whose novel-in-verse workshops in 2023 through Highlights Foundation (Boyd Mills now) helped me to revise these books in ways I never imagined. As writers, illustrators, and artists, I anticipate we’ve all had those moments of learning when we can’t believe we are capable of “the next level,” and suddenly, someone’s teaching changes that for us. Cordelia’s insight and passion truly made a difference in my writing and I’m forever grateful.
I never thought I’d write a ghost story, but this one demanded to be written. What was the impetus behind this YA supernatural thriller?
This story idea sparked with the opening scene suddenly apparent in my mind, which I had first crafted as a poem. I thought the little sister’s name was Mabrey, but at 2:00 a.m. one day I woke up to a haunting voice in my head that said, “My name’s not Mabrey.” I still get chills thinking of that moment.
She didn’t tell me her name, but I could hear her name on the piano. So, I grabbed the Baby Names book and searched for her name that I knew could be played on the piano: Becca. That moment is highlighted on page one of my book, too, where I include a measure of music so that those who read music will know the meaning of the piano’s “note” before it’s revealed in prose. Mixed media finds its way into my stories.
My daughter Dayana loves to play the piano (plus so many other instruments) and fills our home with beautiful music. One day I had this terrible sadness wash over me in thinking about how painful life would be if she were not here, and in that sadness, Becca nudged my writer’s heart again. I don’t want to give away too much of the story, but I can tell you that the story came to me in snippets that I collected in my writer’s notebook fully unaware of how the story would play out.
But then Smudge came to mind, a main character’s name I’ve always known I wanted to write about. I have a colleague at UM-D who had Smudge on her license plate the first year I taught and many years thereafter. So, in all honesty, this story’s idea began with Dr. Kim Killu’s license plate in 2011.
And last Fall 2025, as I was grading my students’ educational autobiographies, one of my students wrote, “Quiet shapes me,” or something to that effect. The first line of Leave Me a Note centered me. I stopped grading immediately, went upstairs and filled out my trifold display board, a tip I learned from Jean Alicia Elster at one of our Young Authors’ Festivals at UM-D.
The snippets of clues unfolded into a storyline that I laid out that day. I still can’t believe how the story suddenly made itself apparent to me. I didn’t have time to write it during that semester, but having the outline gave me a sense of peace and a longing to write the story as soon as possible, which turns out was right around the corner as I wrote the book for a mentorship with Gary Schmidt.
You worked with Gary Schmidt. What did you learn from him?
My dear friend Kat Higgs-Coulthard, author of Junkyard Dogs, mentioned Whale Rock Workshops to me. I had just missed the short novel workshop for 2025 and waited a year to apply for the 2026 offering.
As a former third-grade teacher and as a mother of two daughters who do not enjoy reading (thank goodness my son does), the short novel intrigued me. I wanted to accept the challenge of writing concisely for readers who may fully avoid a 50,000-word book but be able to manage the short novel to hook them into lifelong reading.
When I found out that I was accepted into the program and would be working with Gary, I cannot even express the joy! Well, actually I did express the joy, and I wonder if people across counties in Michigan heard me.
I had met Gary briefly through UM-D’s Young Authors’ Festival, and I have always loved his books about tough topics with layered characters riddled with challenges. He writes honestly and does not sugarcoat life. I want to write heart-filled stories like that, stories that surround hurt with hope.
I’ll never forget pitching my ideas to Gary over the phone in January 2026. When I mentioned Smudge, he laughed out loud, which made me feel accomplished already that I could make him laugh with my main character’s name.
We weren’t supposed to start the mentorship, I thought, until March, but my 1st third of the book was due to him by the end of February and then the 2nd third the end of March. Needless to say, the first draft was completed by the end of April. I revised my heart out based on his outstanding feedback.
The experience opened me up to a vulnerable state in many ways. Aside from my precious Write Sisters—Diane Bradley, Isabel O’Hagin, Diana Magnuson, and Pat Trattles with whom we’ve been sharing ten pages in five-week rotations since 2013, I had never shared my raw writing with others.
Sharing the first draft with Gary was terrifying in many ways and he gives the feedback you need as a writer, feedback that always pushes you to write better. Truly, this has been the most rewarding experience of my writerly journey. Gary is exceptional in every way, one of the kindest people I have ever met, and a prolific writer with a teacher’ heart.
Ironically, while I awaited news regarding my application to the Short Novel Workshop Mentorship, Kat Higgs-Coulthard told me about the Winona Christian Writers Conference. I signed up assuming Kat was attending. When I let her know I signed up, she said, “Oh, I can’t go. I’m out of town that week. You’ll be fine. You’ll make new friends.”
We still laugh about that because as it turns out, I met with Gary in-person for a critique at the conference. Granted, I had already finished Leave Me a Note, so I started another story currently titled Story Shards of which he read the first 20 pages.
If you would’ve told me I’d finish a book and start another in less than 6 months while working with Gary, I would’ve told you there’s no way that’s possible with the life I balance professionally and personally.
Luckily, I am an early-morning writer, often writing by 4:30 a.m. Staying consistent with my writing time Monday through Friday helped me achieve these goals and meet the deadlines Dr. Schmidt required . . . I mean encouraged. So GRATEFUL for Gary!
The titles above are all middle grade and young adult, but you’ve also got a desire to write picture books. What are some of your picture book dreams?
I find the story ideas tell us the format needed, so picture books are a huge part of my life as an educator and mom. I’ve written picture books with my kids as the main characters simply because it was fun to do.
I love the challenge of writing concisely, so I’ve submitted to Vivian Kirkfield’s #50PreciousWords contest twice, the most recent one, Good-morning Mishap, a true story of my son Drew saving me at the end of our driveway. 100% true story! Sometimes real life is crazier than fiction!
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| Puppy Pouts real-life inspiration |
Drew was also the inspiration for Puppy Pouts when jealousy, not love, filled his little-boy heart for our new Basset-Hound puppy, Reese. I don’t know if I’ll ever publish picture books. I simply love to write stories and sometimes those stories are best fitted for a picture book.
Oh, and I just have to give my husband, Dave, a shout out. After I hurt my ankle in March 2024 (the day Drew saved me), I could not drive myself to the SCBWI Marvelous Midwest 2024 Conference.
Because I couldn’t drive, he came home after work, stayed in a hotel with me that night where we slept for maybe six hours, drove me to Kat Higgs-Coulthard’s place around 4:30 a.m. (we live over three hours from each other), and headed back to work, all within a 12-hour window. Kat and I enjoyed a road trip to Iowa.
I live blessed, surrounded by exceptional people! And had I not been able to attend, I never would’ve experienced firsthand winning the conference’s writing contest for Victory Stumbles.
It was even more special when Diane Bradley, one of my Write Sisters, announced the winner of the contest. With Diane’s voice saying my name and Kat nearly screaming beside me, well, needless to say, it was a very special moment to experience.
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| Diane and Danielle MMW 2024 |
My photo-illustrated NF book was published in 2024 by BrightPoint Press: Anime and Manga: Genres and Themes; this is a hi/lo text written for MG/YA students at a 3rd/4th grade reading level.
How did this work-for-hire opportunity come about? How much did you know about anime and manga versus what you know now?
I attended a session through SCBWI on educational publishing. I have to admit that I was completely shocked when it occurred to me that a lot of the curriculum we use in education is written by writers who may or may not be educators.
A participant in that session said she was working on ELA curriculum and had to Google “schwa,” so as a literacy teacher educator, I felt I had a skill set that could be useful within educational publishing. Taking the advice of the presenters through the workshop, I signed up for opportunities.
One day I received an email asking if I would be interested in writing a book for any of the topics listed. Anime and Manga were new to me, but topics of genres and themes were not so I selected that title and jumped into the process.
Needless to say, educational publishing requires significant time and work and as a professor and mother, I don’t always have time for additional writing projects even though I love writing for the education market.
I read Mike Downs’ and Sandra K. Athans’ Sell a Children's Book NOW!: Quick Success in the Educational Market, which is a goldmine of a resource. Someday, I might try my hand at it again, but right now, I want to focus on my children’s literature writing and my academic writing.
What’s next for Danielle?
Speaking of academic writing, I am working with a few different collaborators. I am working on two articles for The Reading Teacher with one group, a Routledge book proposal with Kat Higgs-Coulthard for the National Writing Project research funded by the National Council of Teachers of English Research Foundation Grant, and awaiting details on a book proposal with another co-author focused on accreditation in teacher preparation.
I think it’s possible I’ll be navigating two book contracts based on the positive feedback we’ve received for both projects so far. Fingers crossed and thank goodness for early-morning writing time.
I am also going to finish Story Shards which is inspired by an Alateen talk I gave when I was 14 or 15 years old. Within this story, Paige finds her voice and tells the truth of her experiences. I’m only 20 pages into the book at this point and plan to play with formatting a bit, perhaps mixing prose and poems.
And I am obsessively compulsive about checking my email for good news. I have rejuvenated reason to hope for a literary agent. I think as authors and illustrators, we are addicted to hope.
I’ve named many of those individuals throughout this interview who share that hope addiction, but there are more key people in my life who have helped me immensely. I am grateful for every writing community I’ve been a part of, online, in-person, or hybrid, writing and learning together.
And thank you, Charlie, for reaching out to me with this invitation to submit an interview. The timing feels special for so many reasons I can’t share at the moment, reasons that may come to fruition or reasons that may just keep this inflamed hope ignited.
Please list any social media you wish to share:
https://bsky.app/profile/danielle-defauw.bsky.social
https://www.facebook.com/ddefauw
https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-defauw-68000a27/
My daughters are pushing me to use Instagram (danielledefauw), but you’ll see I’m in the messy phase of learning with this social media platform.
