Children's book author Julianna Baggott says that fantasy and the Red Sox were a perfect match for her latest novel, ''The Prince of Fenway Park.''
(Wendy Maeda/Globe Staff)
G FORCE | JULIANNA BAGGOTT
A Fenway fairy tale
Children's book author Julianna Baggott says that fantasy and the Red Sox were a perfect match for her latest novel, ''The Prince of Fenway Park.''
(Wendy Maeda/Globe Staff)
'The Prince of Fenway Park," Julianna Baggott's latest novel for younger readers, centers on a 12-year-old boy who helps break the curse that once bedeviled the Boston Red Sox. Baggott's story incorporates time travel, racial prejudice, and a cast of fantasy creatures who inhabit Fenway Park's nooks and crannies. Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Bill Buckner, and Tom Yawkey figure in the tale. A Delaware native, Baggott lives in Tallahassee, Fla., with her husand and four children. Among her 14 books are best-selling novels for younger readers (published under the pen name N.E. Bode), adult fiction (as Bridget Asher), and poetry. Baggott also codirects the creative writing program at Florida State University.
Q. Delaware? Florida? What's the Red Sox connection here?
A. I'm married to a diehard, long-suffering Sox fan. Every fall there was death, disappointment, and despair in my household. When that got turned on its head in 2004, we were confused.
Q. And that inspired the book?
A. Right. In 2005, I was into several heavy research projects and wanted to tackle something I already knew about, like the Red Sox. But my kids' books aren't about realism. They're magical, fantastical. Then it came to me: There was a curse on the Red Sox, it was reversed, and this is the boy who did it. The prince of Fenway Park. I said the whole thing out loud, then called my editor. He got it immediately.
Q. In your imagining, racial prejudice on the part of Sox ownership fuels this curse. How so?
A. Ironically, I wound up doing a lot of research anyway. And to me the real issues behind the [ballclub's] dysfunction had racial underpinnings. So I decided it had to be a biracial boy who broke the curse.
Q. What about your idea of populating Fenway Park with fairies and banshees?
A. Well, if there's a curse in Boston, it has to be an Irish curse. And Irish folklore and mythology provide great creatures to work with. Their fairies live under a fairy mound. Fenway has a pitcher's mound. Pookas live in hills. The Green Monster was once a hill. All these creatures started to align themselves with the physicality of Fenway Park.
Q. Hasn't the team's recent success put a damper on this whole curse business?
A. I don't know. I would have loved to have my book out the year after they won [2004], but there is this deep, abiding history in Boston. Plus it's a father and son book, really. To truly understand the current joy in Red Sox Nation, though, you have to understand the sorrow that came before.
Q. Any sequels in mind? The Chicago Cubs and their Billy Goat Curse, maybe?
A. Could be. The Polish have folklore, too.
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