Authors Interviewing Their Characters: Jacqueline Sheehan
In the novel, The Tiger in the House, Hayley, a six year-old girl, is the survivor of a triple homicide. Due to her age, but more importantly the trauma, she is unable to give Delia, a child protection worker, any information that would find Hayley’s parents or information about the violent crime. The author, Jacqueline Sheehan, interviews Hayley.
Jacqueline Sheehan: Hayley, thank you for being with us today. Your courage and determination really comes through the story even though you couldn’t give exact details.
Hayley: I’m a little older now. I’m seven, so I know more ways to talk about things. But grown-ups don’t listen the right way to little kids.
JS: Who was the best listener?
Hayley: Delia tried the hardest, but Louie the Maine Coon Cat was the best because he didn’t keep asking me questions that I couldn’t answer. I felt stupid and afraid when I didn’t know the answers. Louie went with me where ever I went. He slept with me, walked me to the bathroom at night when the house was all scary and dark, he sat next to me when I ate with my foster mom, he walked right next to me when I was in the back yard, and he met me at the door when I came home from kindergarten. He had very sharp claws, but when he touched my face with his paws, he made the claws stay in. Now I know that’s called retracted. I knew that if someone bad came after me, Louie would turn into a tiger and fight them.
JS: How did you know what Louie would do if someone bad came after you?
Hayley: I just knew, like he promised me with his eyes.
JS: What else helped you?
Hayley: The lady with all the drawing paper…
JS: The art therapist.
Hayley: Yes, and she had crayons, and markers. We just colored together and sometimes we’d tell stories about our drawings. Plus, she was small like a kid and she sat on the floor with me.
JS: What was the best thing and the worst thing about living with a foster mom?
Hayley: The best part was that she smelled like a cookie, a snickerdoodle. We made snickerdoodles together. The worst part was how much I missed my mommy. My stomach hurt all the time and I was too sad to cry. My skin felt weird, like aluminum foil.
JS: I don’t want to ask you anything that would give away the ending of the story.
Hayley: Because that spoils the story! I don’t like it when someone does that in school, like they’ve already read the book and they tell all the rest of us how a story ends.
JS: Agreed. But what would you want adults to know about little kids when something really bad happens to them? What would help?
Hayley: First, don’t make them eat weird food that they’ve never eaten before. My foster mom drank green smoothies but she didn’t make me drink them. Also, little kids will like being with a dog or a cat better than with you. And you have to tell the truth all the time. The last thing is, you have to listen to them with little kid ears, not grown up ears.
JS: That’s good advice. Who were your favorite characters in the book?
Hayley: I already told you about Louie the cat, so he was the best. Next was Baxter the dog, who had a favorite song, but I didn’t know him as well as Louie. And there was one more dog, but I can’t tell you about that dog or I would ruin the story.
JS: You are right about that! Thank you, Hayley.
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Jacqueline Sheehan is a NY Times best seller, essayist and radio commentator. Publisher’s Weekly says The Tiger in the House is “a fast moving domestic drama that sheds light on schizophrenia, the foster care system, and the scourge of heroin trafficking and addiction.”
About THE TIGER IN THE HOUSE
“The Tiger in the House is teeming with excitement and heart-stirring emotion. A natural storyteller, Sheehan will draw you in with her finely crafted characters and hold you tight until the very end.” —Heather Gudenkauf
Love and resentment, fear and hope intersect for two sisters as their desire to help an abandoned child forces them to face their past and decide their future . . .
Delia Lamont has had it. Though she loves her job at Portland, Maine’s child services agency, its frustrations have left her feeling burned out and restless. She’s ready to join her carefree sister Juniper and start a seaside bakery, celebrating and serving life’s sweetness for a change.
Then the call comes: a five-year-old girl has been found at the side of the road. She reveals that her first name is Hayley, but little more. The only clues to her family lead to a shadowy web of danger that reaches closer to Delia herself than she would ever guess.
As she seeks to discover where Hayley belongs, Delia is forced to reexamine her own painful history. With no guide but her own flawed instincts, Delia must decide how deep to venture into the unknown, whether in shaping the destiny of the child who has no one else to turn to—or in exploring the fierce dark corners of her own soul.
“The Tiger in the House is at once terrifying and tender, a tribute to this writer’s range in the realm of domestic drama. I read it once, and then I read it all over again. Stop what you’re doing and settle down with this one.” —Jacquelyn Mitchard
“I love Jacqueline Sheehan’s books because they’re about real life with exciting, breathtaking twists. The Tiger In the House is a gripper. From the start where we meet a five year old girl without a last name standing on the side of the road to the ending I wasn’t expecting, I felt like holding my breath. What a great read.” —Cathy Lamb
“The Tiger in the House is an absorbing story about two sisters—the strengths and struggles they share, and the secrets they don’t. Delia is a compelling heroine, sensitively rendered. Jacqueline Sheehan is a perceptive observer of the complexities of family relationships in the face of tragedy.” —Emily Arsenault
Category: Contemporary Women Writers, Interviews, On Writing
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