Tiny Desk Tour

An author’s desk is not that much different from a kid’s room. What we choose to surround ourselves with says something about who we are. Scroll to the bottom of the post for my favorite kid’s room from a picture book. Between here and there, I give a tiny desk tour, inspired by the set of NPR’s Tiny Desk concerts, where anyone from Vince Gill to Taylor Swift, and my favorite, the incredibly talented cast of Hadestown, perform live from a cram-packed NPR office.

I’m so curious about all the tchotchkes (pronounced CHOTCH-keh or CHOTCH-kee) on the shelves behind them. Defined as small, inexpensive, and usually decorative trinkets, knickknacks, or souvenirs, the term implies that the item has little to no functional value or financial worth, though it may hold sentimental or quirky appeal. From their website, about the things on their shelves, “The Tiny Desk collection embodies something fundamental to all things NPR: stories.” The same is true of my desk. Welcome to my tiny little desk tour featuring some of the things I keep near as I write stories for kids.

“With great power there must also come, great responsibility!” It’s the famous line from Spiderman, The Amazing Fantasy #15, and it’s the heart behind The Minor Miracle. Noah Minor finds out he’s a gravitar, he has the ability to manipulate gravity, and he’s sure it will be the thing that makes him extraordinary. Maybe he’ll finally be as cool as his best friends. But he’s humbled in top-secret training as he struggles to access that power, and then control it. Ultimately, he’ll mess up, like any good character does. Whenever I lost my way writing that book, I glanced at Spidey, flipped through the comic, and reset my course.

And then came book two, The Minor Rescue, where I took the action to New York City. Hence the snow globe. I picked it up on one of my trips to NYC years ago. Somewhere along the way it lost its water. Years later, I plucked it up and put it on my shelf to remind me of that place I love, where my characters would face new challenges and discover hidden places above and beneath the city streets.

Go up a shelf and you’ll find a unique shoe.

It’s what my co-author was wearing when she arrived in our home August 6, 2012, the only shoes that worked for her twisted feet. We had no idea we’d be coauthors someday. She had left her family and home far behind in Rwanda so she could have surgeries on her club feet.

In 2017 we partnered to tell the story of how she crawled the first seven years of her life, then taught herself how to walk on the tops of her feet, and at age nine came to America and lived with our family for almost a year as her feet were slowly turned. The book released with Scholastic in 2019, and her shoe is a constant reminder of how God is able to do far more than we could ever ask or imagine.

Spin in my chair from my shelves to my cluttered desk and see three of my favorite things.

The tree painting reminds me of a character named Demetrius, Tree for short. The pen holder covered in random objects represents Tree’s brain. He’s a kid who can’t forget anything he’s ever read, heard or seen, and his brain is crammed full of useless information he can’t get rid of. Sound familiar? Hello AI, google searches, the internet . . . I’m revisiting Tree’s story as it feels especially timely, and hope to find it a home at a publisher.

The little cairn painting is something I picked up on San Juan Island, WA. I love coming upon cairns on hikes or beaches and wondering who made them. What is their story? Each story I write is like another stacked stone, saying, “I was here.” I made the time, I showed up, and that is significant.

As for my favorite kid’s room, it can be found up the stairs in a little yellow house in The Seven Silly Eaters by Mary Ann Hoberman, illustrated by Marla Frazee.

I love the can tied to the post with paper and pens, books tucked in the rafter, and what looks like a fishing pole dangling from the rail. There’s a yo-yo and a jar with rocks, a hat on a hook, and best of all a bunch of brothers and sisters all tucked into a cozy spot up high. I’ve always loved small spaces, which is why I wanted a small office, tucked at the top of the stairs, filled with, “trinkets, knickknacks, or souvenirs with little to no functional value or financial worth,” but nevertheless, “hold sentimental and quirky appeal.” They embody something fundamental to me and my work. Stories.

• A debut author friend of mine, Mike Hodder, went to his first conference and sold out of his middle grade book! Check out The Talismiths: The Secret Saboteur

• A fox family is living under our porch and the two kits are adorable

• All three kids, their spouses, and two grandkids gathered in our backyard to swim, feast on ribs Clay smoked to perfection, and play pickleball as a sunset blazed across the evening sky

  

  

  My name is Meredith Davis, and I’m an award winning writer of middle grade books, a former indie bookseller, founder of the Austin chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and graduate of Vermont College of Fine Arts with an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. Find teaching resources and author visit information on my website at www.meredithldavis.com. Mother to three, Nana to two, I live with my husband and a crazy doodle in Austin, Texas.