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Inside the whimsical world of celebrated children's author Sandra Boynton

By John Yang, Juliet Fuisz and Kaisha Young

Transcript

Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.

John Yang: If you’ve got a toddler in your life, chances are you know the name Sandra Boynton reading her bored books to little ones at bedtime as part of the nightly ritual in homes across America. We recently went to see Boynton on her farm in Connecticut, a visit that’s tonight’s Weekend Spotlight.
John Yang (voice-over): Welcome to the whimsical world of Sandra Boynton. It’s a place where pigs sing in a choir, hippos go to parties and chickens rock out and stand well sit century at the gate. She’s written about 90 books that have sold nearly 90 million copies and made it to the New York Times bestsellers list.
Now there are Boynton displays in bookstores and Boynton sections in libraries. Her first book, “Hippos Go Berserk!” has been in print for 47 years.
Sandra Boynton: I was negative five when I wrote it. So, yeah, no, it has. It’s kind of amazing.
John Yang (voice-over): And kind of delightful for the scores of children who love her books. Boynton book is distinguished by her distinctive drawings, clever wordplay and lack of simplified vocabulary.
John Yang: You’re not writing down to them. Your characters don’t dance, they cavort, they don’t walk, they prance.
Sandra Boynton: It’s funny that people think children need a limited language. All words are new to children. They should be percussive, and they should be interesting, and they should be intriguing.
John Yang (voice-over): Unlike some children’s books, Boynton don’t try to teach.
Sandra Boynton: In my books, of course, you learn things from them because I’m not looking to manifestly give a lesson.
John Yang: Your main goal is something they would enjoy.
Sandra Boynton: Yeah.
John Yang: The reader would enjoy.
Sandra Boynton: Yeah.
John Yang (voice-over): And that enjoyment is felt as much by adults reading them aloud as by children listening to them.
Sandra Boynton: One thing that drives me crazy in some children’s books is that they don’t read well out loud and you go, but why? Why wouldn’t you keep working on it till it sounded right?
John Yang (voice-over): Who does she write for?
Sandra Boynton: First and foremost, they’re for me. And very soon, I had my own children. It was a great luxury to be able to write them for my own children. And I knew what would make them laugh, and I knew it would make them want to turn the page. And so it was a collaboration, in a sense, and the best collaboration you can have.
John Yang: So how long have you been on the farm?
Sandra Boynton: We’ve been here 43 years.
John Yang: Oh, wow.
Sandra Boynton: Yeah.
John Yang (voice-over): She lives and works on a secluded Northwest Connecticut farm where she raised a family with her husband, who died in 2014.
Sandra Boynton: It’s a very, very old farmhouse, 1728, it’s on the incorporation maps. So actually, earlier than that.
John Yang (voice-over): It’s a long way from her beginnings designing printing and selling her own greeting cards while in college, because she couldn’t find cards she wanted to send.
Sandra Boynton: Back in the day, you really couldn’t find cards that you say this, I’d be so proud to send this, and this would delight someone. You’d say, well.
John Yang (voice-over): And besides, she thought it was a better way to earn money than her summer waitressing job.
John Yang: Now, is this the card that people most associate with your cards?
Sandra Boynton: Yes, Hippo Birdie to You. Hippo Birdie, Dear You. And then they sing it, Hippo birdie to you.
John Yang (voice-over): On Tuesday, her latest title comes out Cows and Holly is a holiday picture book with a CD reflecting her lifelong passion for music.
Sandra Boynton: Once my youngest went off to kindergarten, I thought the one thing I want to do is make children’s music, but I wanted to make children’s music that was music so that the adult wouldn’t want to leave the room when it was on.
John Yang (voice-over): Rhinoceros Tap was her first song released in 1996 since then, she sold more than 3 million CDs and been nominated for a Grammy. Boynton says it’s been a dream come true.
Sandra Boynton: I never thought that I’d be able to work with most of my musical heroes.
John Yang (voice-over): Like the late BB King.
Sandra Boynton: And it turned out that that his manager had little grandchildren. Said, yes, we can get and it hasn’t been a hard sell. I think it has to do with connecting with people through children.
John Yang (voice-over): And now a holiday album, something she had resisted.
Sandra Boynton: I was terrified to do a Christmas album. Christmas music is glorious. There’s so much of it. It’s centuries worth. It’s all different kinds. There’s so many classics. There’s everything. Where could I fit in to that?
John Yang (voice-over): But of course, these aren’t your typical holiday songs. The voices on the CD include country music star Lyle Lovett. Broadway star Patti LuPone. And actress Zoe Deschanel.
Boynton went to Yale Drama School to be a theater director, and says she feels right at home in the recording studio.
Sandra Boynton: I’m not good at a lot of things. I’m not a natural artist. I’m a terrible dancer, but is what I’m good at.
John Yang (voice-over): Her legions of fans think Boynton is very good at the drawing and writing she’s been doing since the early 1970s a long run she sees no point in ending with retirement.
Sandra Boynton: What would I want to do instead of I can’t even think of what that would be. I just feel so fortunate because I’ve gotten to do whatever I want to do, and I’m still having just as much fun as I ever had.
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John Yang

Juliet Fuisz

Kaisha Young

Canvas supported by

Knight Foundation

Knight Foundation

 Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund

Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund

 The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

 Kettering Foundation

Kettering Foundation
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