Yale Bulletin and Calendar

March 17, 2000Volume 28, Number 24



Dr. Lynn Reiser says that for her the creative process is "similar to making a dream."



Psychiatrist shares her stories
with children throughout the world

Dr. Lynn Whisnant Reiser's dual careers as a psychiatrist and an internationally known author and illustrator of children's books might seem a bit incongruous.

But to the Yale clinical professor of psychiatry, they are not that different at all.

Much of her work as a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, explains Reiser, involves helping adult and older-adolescent patients "discover" and express their own "stories," and then guiding them as they "fit those stories together to make more sense of their lives." Similarly, Reiser devotes much of her free time to creating her own stories, which she usually develops first in pictures and then puts into words.

A major difference in the two professions, she notes, is that the stories she uncovers as a psychiatrist are intensely private and confidential. As a children's book author, however, she can share and "celebrate" her stories with the world.

Indeed, young children around the globe are familiar with the name Lynn Reiser as the creator of such popular books as "Margaret and Margarita, Margarita and Margaret," "The Surprise Family," "Any Kind of Dog," "Tomorrow on Rocky Pond," "Night Thunder and the Queen of the Wild Horses" and "Beach Feet." The author has produced 16 titles since 1991, when her first work, "Bedtime Cat," was published.

Parents have come to link the Yale psychiatrist's name with those of such acclaimed children's book authors as Dr. Seuss, Beatrix Potter and Margaret Wise Brown, who were among Reiser's favorites when she was growing up. In spite of her own acclaim, Reiser remains in awe of the fact that her name is listed among such authors on a wide variety of nationally distributed "recommended reading lists" for children.

In fact, Reiser -- whose books have earned numerous national honors and have been published in several African-language editions -- never intended to be a writer of children's books at all.

"I always loved to draw," says the psychiatrist, "but other than doing academic or scientific writing as part of my career, I had never thought of myself as a writer."

Prior to "Bedtime Cat," Reiser mostly drew as a hobby, creating birthday and other special-occasion cards for her friends. On a friend's recommendation, she was invited in the mid-1980s to draw the illustrations for a songbook by children's singer/songwriter Tom Chapin. She found that experience so enjoyable that she eventually took a class on children's book writing at the Creative Arts Workshop in New Haven.

As a final project in the semester-long class, she created a book of drawings based on her own experience of looking for her cat. A friend suggested that Reiser mail her storybook-without-words to Susan Hirschman at Greenwillow Books, who was immediately taken with the drawings but said that the book needed words.

"I told Susan I thought the story was obvious without words," Reiser recalls. "And she responded, 'Well, if it's so clear, write the words down.'" That message was reinforced by another friend, Yale associate professor Laura Wexler, who reminded Reiser that by their children's bedtimes, mothers are too tired to conjure up imaginative words to text-less picture books.

"So I wrote down the words, and discovered that it was not as difficult as it once seemed," says Reiser. In fact, her 1998 nature book "Little Clam" recently made the Charlotte Zolotow Award's 1999 "highly commended list," where it was cited specifically for picture-book text.

"That honor's not bad for someone who didn't think text was so important," comments Reiser with genuine modesty.

"Little Clam" is among several books by Reiser featured in the Peabody Museum of Natural History's current exhibition "Children's Nature Books: Connecticut's Legacy," on view through July 4 (see related story). The exhibit also includes her most recent book, "Earthdance," the story of a girl whose school play about the Earth begins as her astronaut mother is rocketing back to the planet, and "Beach Feet," a look at the variety of animal feet found on the beach. In the former work, Reiser complemented her own illustrations with actual NASA images of planets and the night sky. "Beach Feet" includes small "footnotes" under Reiser's illustrations that provide scientific information about beach creatures.

Reiser's stories often draw on her own experiences, including her childhood memories, and some offer glimpses of the world through a child's perspective. She creates her vivid illustrations -- which critics have complimented as "sunny" and "homey" -- using watercolor, pen and ink and markers. In addition to nature, Reiser's favorite themes include friendship, family traditions, animals and the efforts of people to "reach across cultural barriers," she says.

In "Margaret and Margarita, Margarita and Margaret," for example, Reiser tells of two children, one who speaks English and the other Spanish, who rise above language difficulties to form a friendship during a brief visit with their mothers to the park. "The Surprise Family" -- about a chicken who has a boy for a "mother" and, in turn, becomes a "mother" to a flock of ducks -- shows how love transcends appearances and expectations. Reiser's companion books, "Cherry Pies and Lullabies" and "Tortillas and Lullabies," describe traditions passed on through generations of mothers and daughters in an American and Hispanic family, respectively.

"Tortillas and Lullabies" is the only one of Reiser's books that she did not illustrate herself. Instead, she turned to a group of six Costa Rican artists, collectively known as "Corazones Valientes" ("Valiant Hearts"), to create the paintings for her story. Reiser had first seen the women's work at a Yale exhibit organized by Rebecca Hart, a graduate of the School of Medicine's public health program and former Peace Corps volunteer, who taught the women artists how to paint during her assignment in Costa Rica.

Like many of Reiser's books, "Tortillas and Lullabies," published two years ago, was selected for the American Bookseller "Pick of the Lists" in the year it was published. It won Silver Honors in The Parents' Choice Awards and the National Parenting Publication Awards competitions.

Reiser's books often evolve from a simple image, character or even just a phrase. Between an active private practice and her work at Yale, where she helps supervise psychiatric residents and medical students in their rotations in psychiatry, she sometimes finds it difficult to devote large chunks of time to her drawing and writing. So, she does some of her work while on the go, such as during airplane trips or in train stations.

"I actually do better when I don't just sit down with the intention to write," explains the author. "For me the creative process is similar to making a dream, where you are putting different images together and putting meaningful words together. The sometimes disconnected images and words eventually come together in a way that makes sense."

As a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Reiser's clinical interests are general. Her scholarly writing has covered subjects ranging from psychological issues particular to women to psychiatric education to the relationship of psychological responses to illness. "Words and dream images appear in my work every day," she once wrote of her work. "Metaphors and stories are part of communicating with students and patients."

Her children's books, however, are also a break from her everyday work, she says. "I find working on them very restorative. And I very much enjoy being a part of children's lives."

In Reiser's next book, children will be able to learn about the five senses through the experiences of a dog and cat. "It is often in the simple, everyday aspects of our lives that some of our best adventures and stories come," comments Reiser.

-- By Susan Gonzalez

Dr. Lynn W. Reiser will discuss the creation of her newest book, "Earthdance," in a Muriel Gardiner Program in Psychoanalysis and the Humanities lecture on Thursday, March 23, at 8 p.m. at the Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall St. In early spring, she will read and discuss her book "Little Clam" in a public program at the Peabody Museum of Natural History. Watch future issues of the Yale Bulletin & Calendar for further information on the latter event.


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