Ahwahnee native launches book

Jill Brackett-Coppler

(Updated: Thursday, December 18, 2008, 11:46 AM)

Saying, "my publicist" or "my book signing" is something easygoing, small-town-girl-at-heart, Julie Crabtree and author of "Discovering Pig Magic" isn't used to -- yet.

"I feel a little pretentious," she said. "I didn't say it for a while. I'd say things like, 'talk to the marketing manager for the publishing company.'

"The whole thing feels surreal."

Crabtree, a Crescent City resident, grew up in Ahwahnee and says her community-oriented life in the Mountain Area played a role in her writing to the pre-teen girl demographic her novel targets.

"Discovering Pig Magic" is the story of three 13-year-olds, Mattie, Ariel and Nicki, and the trials they face -- one has divorced parents and an increasingly agoraphobic mother, one has a brother with Down syndrome and the other finds herself the center of a plagiarism scandal. In the story, the girls discover a book of magic whose spells are meant to grant each a solution to their problems. But as the magic takes effect, the aftermath teaches the girls that in life, you have to make your own fate.

A contract for the book was picked up by the nonprofit, eco-conscious publishing company Milkweed. It was Crabtree's divergence from the "Gossip Girl" craze -- and similar books that paint a New York penthouse lifestyle for young girls, with often sexually active and conniving characters -- that caught the publisher's interest. It also won Crabtree the Milkweed Prize for Children's Literature.

Crabtree says her own memories of life in the Mountain Area in her pre-teen years are still crisp.

"There are periods in your life that stick with you," she said. "I just remember all the drama from those years, feeling overwrought," she said. "So in a vague sense the story carries that overarching emotional tone."

And it is from that clarity of memory that Crabtree offers real-life characters, ones whose lives are not always neat, but who embody coming-of-age struggles that usher the girls from their childish understanding of life into growing maturity.

"I hope it's not messagy, but a gentle year in the life of kids others will relate to -- kids without a Louis Vuitton purse," Crabtree said.

Although she initially planned for the book to take place in Oakhurst or Bass Lake, she said felt she removed from the pulse of the area, having moved after high school to attend college at UC Davis. She set the book in the Bay Area town of Alameda. She still snuck in a character, "Nicki," from North Fork, however, and had plans to delve more into her character in a sequel.

But for now, Crabtree is staying in the moment. After years of struggling to get published, the self-taught author is enjoying the her first taste of success.

"I'm so thrilled I'm getting to do this," she said. "I'm not sure I really believed it would happen."

Carolyn Campbell, Crabtree's mother, had no doubts. Campbell unrelentingly touts her daughter's talent around town -- and just about anywhere else she goes -- but says that her pride is rooted in her daughter's character. Having the character to withstand rejection is real success.

"I just thought to myself that my gosh, her tenacity and spirit didn't wane," she said. "When she got the contract, I just knew it was time.

"It's the most wonderful thing to find something within yourself, in your soul, put that out there and have someone find value in that."

Campbell was on her way out to put a few more fliers around town for Crabtree's book launch on Dec. 20 at Willow Bridge Books.

"To say I'm a stage mother might be an understatement," she said. "I find myself shamelessly marketing. I tell the grocery store clerks, my Bunco group, anyone!"

Crabtree will also visit Wasuma Intermediate and Coarsegold Elementary to share about her struggle to follow her dream.

"I know it's cliche, but in a noncorny way I want to tell the kids that lots of people will tell them what they should or shouldn't do in life, but in the end you have to follow your own desire," said Crabtree.

"It's a strange and wonderful thing."

"Discovering Pig Magic" book launch Ahwahnee native Julie Crabtree will introduce her first novel, "Discovering Pig Magic" at Willow Bridge Books Saturday Dec. 20 at 2 p.m. Meet the author and learn a craft. For more information, Willow Bridge Book (559) 962-2665

Discovering Pig Magic By Julie Crabtree Publisher: Milkweed Editions 204 pages $16.95 suggested retailISBN#9781571316837 Crabtree's website: www.julie-crabtree.com