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When Maya Gottfried found a cat with matted fur named Mabel in a cage at a Brooklyn adoption event in 2006, she didn’t know the MySpace page she would set up to find the cat a proper home would lead her to the inspiration for her third children’s novel, “Our Farm.”
Virtually befriending Farm Sanctuary on MySpace allowed the 38-year-old author to peruse the non-profit’s website, where she learned about the farm’s mission: to fight the abuses of factory farming, in which animals are often mistreated, and to bring rescued farm animals to one of their two shelter farms, in northern California and Watkins Glen, New York, where they are allowed to live out the rest of their days in peace.
“I became instantly obsessed,” Ms. Gottfried said while eating a light lunch on a recent afternoon at a roadside Mexican restaurant on the East End. She lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, but often visits her father’s house in Amagansett.
The author will be signing copies of her latest novel at Core Dynamics in Water Mill on Friday, August 13, and again on Sunday, August 15, at the East Hampton Children’s Fair on the grounds of the East Hampton Library.
After reading about the organization, she became a vegan and had started volunteering for the farm’s New York City office when she said an idea popped into her head: “This is totally a children’s book waiting to be written.”
Gene Baur, president and co-founder of Farm Sanctuary, read the book shortly after its release in February. “I love it,” he said recently. “I love the artwork, I love the poetry, I think it captures the individual animals, which is a huge part of what Farm Sanctuary is about, telling individual animals’ stories.”
The book brings 20 farm animals to life through poems that decode their different personalities and character traits.
“I’m trying to present these animals as the peaceful, loving animals that they are,” Ms. Gottfried said. “It’s a more quiet book, but I’d like to think there’s beauty in that.”
Ms. Gottfried is also the author of “Good Dog” and “Last Night I Dreamed A Circus.” “Our Farm” is illustrated by Robert Rahway Zakanitch and published by Random House.
Animals have played a significant role before in her family lineage. Her grandfather, Bert Lahr, played the Cowardly Lion in the 1939 film, “The Wizard Of Oz.” “I think having a grandfather like that, you’re not as intimidated by having something you do ‘out there,’” said Ms. Gottfried, who never met the actor. “You’re more confident that you are capable of having something out in the world.”
The idea for a book turned into more of a quest after she was diagnosed two years ago with stage three colorectal cancer a week after her 36 birthday. “It just became so much more important,” she said. “At the end of the road of chemo and surgery, I would have this book. It was a positive force in my life in many ways.”
All the animals in the book, from Mayfly the rooster to J.D. the piglet are illustrated reincarnations of actual animals that passed through the corral gates of either the California or New York Farm Sanctuary shelters.
Ms. Gottfried researched her subjects, visiting and talking to sources about all the animals on the farms—reconstructing their personalities when she couldn’t meet them for herself. Whitaker the brown-and-white calf, who in the book asks readers to run through the fields with him, was first given to the California shelter in 2008 after a couple found the animal, hours old, on the side of the road, too weak to stand for any period of time.
“Every one had their own kind of path into the book,” Ms. Gottfried said.
Based on her extensive research and the often horrific stories of how each animal came to Farm Sanctuary, Ms. Gottfried said she could have written for an older audience.
“I really, really wanted to serve as a channel and not put my own ego into the book,” she said.
“There was this great peace at the farm,” she said. “To me it was really important to share this with children.” The author hoped to reaffirm the inherent connection children have with farm animals.
“Children are very open minded and have a natural connection with animals,” Mr. Baur said. “Sometimes as we get older, we start accepting and developing habits that are not very nice, and as adults we start to rationalize them.”
Some characters in the book are based on real animals that have died.
“Animals pass away,” Ms. Gottfried said, “but hopefully the book lasts forever.”
Meanwhile, Mabel’s MySpace page still exists, a testament to where the author’s journey started.
“Our Farm” is available at all three BookHampton locations, from farmsanctuary.org, and from other retailers. Ms. Gottfried will sign copies of “Our Farm” on August 13 at the “Fresh” documentary film screening, exercise and food event at Core Dynamics at 58 Deerfield Road in Water Mill, which starts at 3 p.m. Admission to the event is $25, or $10 for Core Dynamics members. For more information, call 212-644-2604.
Ms. Gottfried will also be signing books at the East Hampton Children’s Fair at the East Hampton Library on Main Street, from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m, on Sunday, August 15; admission is free. For information, call 324-0222.
on Aug 10, 2010