"When poppies bloom The same red As a Chinese wedding dress Satiny cups with ruffled edges Purplish black eyes They're a prize for patience, And if I take all that trouble To say something, I promise To try To make it worth The wait too."
-- "Poppies," in "Reaching for Sun," by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer.
It's not crystal clear how long Tracie Vaughn Zimmer's latest work was waiting to bloom, but it has blossomed onto young people's bookshelves with its own quiet grace and majesty. The seedbed for Tracie's literary garden was certainly years in the preparation, like Waxhaw red clay that has been enriched by seasons of mulch and tillage.
I met Tracie for coffee and learned that she has been a Waxhaw-area resident for two years. She's an Ohio native from the Cincinnati region, who sojourned for a few years in Chesapeake, Va., on her way here. It took no time until the two of us were chatting comfortably like old friends. Tracie, I learned, came to writing by way of teaching middle school, with an emphasis on special-needs kids. Her last day in a classroom of her own was the day her daughter Abbie came into the world.
Her son Cole had arrived a year and a half earlier.
While she was home with young children, she decided to get serious about writing, telling herself, "It's now or never." Her first published work was "Sketches From a Spy Tree." She told the story of early teenage twins who cope with change in their family. Tracie told me that "Sketches was a `neighborhood book,' " set in an Ohio town much like the one she grew up in.
"Reaching for Sun," her second work, is a self-described "quiet book." Tracie takes us inside the life, thoughts and dreams of Josie, who lives on a farm that is surrounded by encroaching suburbia. Josie, we learn, suffers from cerebral palsy, but the book is about more than a young heroine overcoming a handicap.
It's about relationships between Josie, her mother and her grandmother, between Josie and her new friend Jordan, and between the women in her family and the garden that remains as a last vestige of their family homestead.
The intended audience for "Reaching for Sun" is a reader age 9-12, according to Tracie. That said, both my wife and I found it hard to put down. The poetry is totally engaging, and the emotions uncovered are universal for all of us who stumbled through the middle school years, or shepherded our own Josie's on their way to becoming adults.
It's not surprising to learn then that Josie isn't based on one child, but is an amalgam of several middle school students that Tracie taught during her classroom years, described by the author as "a girl in a blender." Schools have already added "Reaching for Sun" to their curriculum.
Teacher guides, discussion materials and other support materials await educators who want to come into Josie's family garden.
There are at least four more books on the way.
"Forty Two Miles" is in preview, and it continues the examination of adolescence through poetry. "River Palace" is a departure for Tracie into historical fiction, using prose to examine life on a circus boat in 1853 through the eyes of a young runaway. Next autumn, "Steady Hands" will look at people doing their jobs.
In addition to all this writing, Tracie finds time to go to local schools to speak. Recently, she came to Waxhaw Elementary with a presentation on the writing process. She read a few lines from her own fourth-grade journal, telling aspiring writers, "If I could do this, so can you."
She remarked that she was "in awe of the writing skills" exhibited by the Waxhaw students. Just to fill out her days, she also sits on the board of First Book Charlotte, a national nonprofit that seeks to put new children's books in the hands of local children who need them. They are having a gala May 12 at Imaginon in uptown Charlotte.
Tracie is their volunteer coordinator.
The first day I came to Waxhaw, I was drawn like a magnet to the people I met, who were both interested and interesting. Meeting our neighbor Tracie Zimmer certainly continues that experience.
Charlotte Observer
Sunday, March 18, 2007