An Author Interview with Kim Michele Richardson

My Kentucky Moonlight School is a delightful picture book based on the early 20th century’s real-life Moonlight Schools. Pairing engaging, authentic text with vibrant, energetic artwork, best-selling Kentucky author Kim Michele Richardson crafts a heartfelt and timely reminder of the power of education to connect and change lives. In this interview, discover the inspiration behind this story and key takeaways she hopes readers will have from it.

GET THE BOOK

Like all your work, My Kentucky Moonlight School is strongly rooted in a particular place and community. How is place important to you?

It’s very true that books can carry you anywhere, even back home, so as a native-born Kentuckian, and having all my books written in Kentucky, it’s been personal and one of my greatest honors to help spread literacy and honor the literacy pioneers that came before me. Kentucky has such a rich and unique literacy history in the world, and there’s always been the strong belief that literacy accessibility for all is critical. Now more than ever we see its importance for everyone. 

Teachers and teaching are at the heart of the story. Are teachers especially important to you?

I have mad love and respect for teachers. Every day, educators are making a difference. They’re without a doubt the greatest gems of the earth – the important lifelines who shape future generations, motivate, grow readers into leaders, and ensure a brighter and better future for students and their families and communities.

How did you come across Cora Wilson Stewart?

I introduced Cora in several of my adult novels – The Book Woman’s Daughter and The Mountains We Call Home: The Book Woman’s Legacy. Now through the eyes of Jewel, an eight-year-old Appalachia child, My Kentucky Moonlight School shines a brighter light on Kentucky’s historic Moonlight Schools, founded in 1911 by educator Cora Wilson Stewart of Farmers, Kentucky.

The schools were only offered at night and only when the moon was bright enough to light the dangerous mountain paths adults needed to cross to get to the one-room school houses. A prolific educator, Stewart also became the first founder of the US adult literacy movement, helping thousands and thousands around the nation to learn to read and write.

Stewart’s story stayed with me long after I first discovered her powerful movement to educate not only Kentuckians, but [also] Native Americans, Black Americans, new immigrants, and prisoners across the US, to free them from the shackles of illiteracy – and to help them climb out of poverty. This nearly forgotten educator and her footnote in history were profound – moving. And I immediately recognized her lifelong battle to stamp out illiteracy, what she called “a war without the loss of human blood, a war fought with the book and pen.”

Why did you decide to write a book for children inspired by her? Do you enjoy writing for a different audience than your novels? How does the experience differ?

Writing a children’s book is truly challenging, and I stand in awe of children’s authors and artists. I find it more difficult to write a 700-word children’s book than to write a 75,000-word novel for adults. Still, it’s always been my belief that art, music, and storytelling cannot exist without one another. Every work should weave a tapestry of all three, and the greatest storytelling tangles a hymnal of beats across an artist’s palette. So to have the historic Moonlight Schools come alive through the talented artist Chloe Giroux has been a deep joy and privilege to witness.

What do you hope readers will take away from My Kentucky Moonlight School?

The themes in My Kentucky Moonlight School continue to resonate today as educators and families work tirelessly to encourage reading among younger generations. Literacy can change lives and empower the powerless and connect us all in unexpected and beautiful ways. So no matter the age or our differences, the message is ageless because this is the powerful magic of books.

About the Author

Learn more about Kim Michele Richardson and her work. >