Katherine Applegate is a prolific children's book author whose work spans both genres and generations. She was a part of my childhood library and now my own child's library in almost every aspect (my 10-year-old has written Applegate's name down for every "favorite author" question since the third grade). But depending on what you've read of hers, you might not recognize her name; she used pen names and pseudonyms to work on some of the most quintessential '90s series, including Silver Creek Riders, Girl Talk, and Sweet Valley Twins. Oh, and she and her husband co-authored a little series you might remember from the magical Scholastic Book Fair posters and your own shelf — a sci-fi/fantasy series called Animorphs.
Applegate may not be writing a book each month anymore, but at 67 years old, she has continued to write. Her most recent book, The One and Only Family, is the last installment of the series that began with the book I was most excited to talk to her about: The One and Only Ivan, which won a Caldecott Medal in 2012 and is one of Applegate's most popular books. She's continued to write in the theme of animal voices and points of view, a storytelling vibe I tell her is incredibly popular with all three of my girls.
But Applegate understands another kind of vibe, too — mom life. I actually had to reschedule my call with Applegate after I first made it because of a baby dilemma, and when I thank her again for being so flexible, she tells me in the comforting way all veteran parents do that it's really no problem. And I can tell she means it. "There are days you're just glad you got through it, and then there are days where it's just glorious. I totally understand."
She shares that when she and her husband wrote Animorphs together "many, many, many years ago" (nearly 30 years), they had two kids. "We had a brand new baby, and those books came out once a month, believe it or not. Baby-Sitters Club and Goosebumps, there was a whole lot of stuff that somehow publishers managed to do monthly, and it was like, 'OK, you take the baby; I'll take the coffee. I'll take the coffee; you take the baby.' It was really hard."
I tell Applegate that it never occurred to me just how quickly she was churning out those books, how there was always a new addition to every series available when I went to the store. She tells me she's surprised publishers don't seem to do that as much anymore.
"It may in part be because they can't find writers willing to do it," she says.
We chat about our favorite books as kids, and how special it is to share reading with our own children. I tell her that my oldest, Alice, loves all of her books and gravitates towards animals and what they are feeling and thinking. She used to say she wanted to be an animal rescuer, and then when she rescued them, she'd write a book about them. Applegate gets it, and I think it's one of the reasons why her books and storytelling have been so timeless — she understands how kids feel, about so many things.
"I can remember being your daughter's age and thinking about what my dog was thinking. Just that communication, that chasm between species, it just fascinates me. And so I think I keep going back to that in different ways," she says. "I have a theory that animals are fundamentally quite vulnerable, and kids are actually in a position often to care for them or to at least empathize with them. And they're both looking at this human world and going, 'Jeez, it doesn't make any sense.'"
It's why so many people who grew up with the Animorphs series have now come out to share that the series felt like representation for them, why even her ghostwritten works were on nearly every '90s kid's shelf, why there is a plaque at Zoo Atlanta (the eventual home of Ivan the gorilla, where he finally lived out the rest of his life in peace) about the book she wrote on him. Alice told me recently that one of Applegate's latest series, Doggo and Pupper, is so comforting that she's read each book at least twice. She tells me they're the stories she likes to read at nighttime when she's feeling anxious as she falls asleep.
When I tell Applegate how much reading in the '90s I did and how much I wanted to connect with the authors of my favorite books — the authors who were giving me confidence and comfort and entertainment — she tells me that still happens.
"I was at Tucson Book Festival a couple of weeks ago doing Q&A, and I mentioned that Animorphs fans often would show up at these events and they're now in their 30s-plus [with] kids of their own. And I had someone show up with their baby — they named him Tobias, after one of the characters." She also tells me that when she mentioned seeing a lot of Animorphs tattoos, another person in the audience jumped up and said, "I'm one of them!" and showed off a giant, transforming bird on his back.
Applegate wrote new books in the '90s that were read by kids who are now grown, tucking in their own kids who have new books written by Applegate under their covers with a flashlight. ("It means I'm really old," she says.) That kind of work, that kind of staying power, isn't always easy to come by, and having it come from a little girl who had dyslexia and found reading "really boring" is even lovelier. "To see it come full circle like that, it's so gratifying. And if you told me when I was Alice's age that I was going to be a writer, I would've just laughed," Applegate says.
But a writer she has become and still is — her next book, Mouse and Dog, releases Sept. 17, 2024, and it's the perfect story of friendship and empathy that she believes animals and kids get better than anyone. I can't wait to read it.
I wish I could send a talking pig back to that 10-year-old Applegate to tell her that not only will she love writing and telling stories, but she'll write so many that when my own 10-year-old makes her list of things she wants to do while on spring break, the first thing she writes is "Finish three Katherine Applegate books."
And the list can go on forever.
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