By Pam Walatka

Zoe Sophia

Authors Elisa Smalley and Claudia Mauner - and the inspiration for their books, almost-9-year-old Zoe Sophia Mauner - visited Linden Tree Children’s Recordings and Books for a book signing and conversation about “Zoe Sophia in New York: The Mystery of the Pink Phoenix Papers” (Chronicle Books, 2006).

The book is the second in a series featuring 9-year-old Zoe Sophia and Dorothy Pomander, an older writer who lives in Venice. Their first book, “Zoe Sophia’s Scrapbook: An Adventure in Venice,” was published by Chronicle Books in 2003.

Mauner, who also illustrated the books, lives with the real-life Zoe Sophia and their dachshund in State College, Pa. Smalley lives with her husband and two young sons in Chappaqua, N.Y.

Town Crier: How does it feel to be a character in a book, Zoe?

Zoe Sophia: It feels a little bit normal, because I’ve always been a character in these books.

Mauner: She grew up with these books, and the books grew up with her.

Smalley: She’s now almost 9, the age she is in the book. We started writing the first book when she was a baby.

Mauner: The seeds of the first book started in 1993, when I went to Venice with my mother and started sketching.

Smalley: Dorothy Pomander is a real, older writer-scholar Claudia met in Venice. But she is not really Zoe’s great-aunt.

Mauner: In Venice, I was inspired by Dorothy Pomander and by Venice. The first story grew out of my sketches.

Smalley: The Zoe Sophia character derived from our own 9-year-old selves, the type of children we were.

Mauner: The character is all three of us rolled into one.

Smalley: Our connection goes back over 25 years, since we were 18. We met at Vassar and then were roommates for our junior year abroad in Paris.

Mauner: The idea for the books had been brewing for decades.

Smalley: We were inspired by eccentric family members on both sides.

Mauner: We finally said, “Let’s just do this.”

Smalley: It was an act of love, joy. We feel lucky to have this friendship that’s coming up with ideas.

Mauner: Growing up, we had close relationships with people of Pomander’s generation, eccentric women. They had a strong impact on us as children.

Smalley: They were not all female; they included Claudia’s father and my grandfather.

Town Crier: How is the book tour going, Zoe?

Zoe Sophia: Really, really well. I love the book. Writing and drawing are some of my favorite subjects at school. And dancing and singing.

Smalley: She likes Cole Porter and George Gershwin, performs their music.

Zoe Sophia: Just to have fun.

Mauner: This is her first real interview, although she did help promote the Venice book - she was 6 when it came out. That first book took seven years to publish.

Smalley: It wrote itself, as we collaborated on the phone. We do much of our work by phone or e-mail.

Mauner: Ironically, we never get anything done when we see each other - she has two little boys. So we make phone dates. On this current book, the story came first, then the illustrations.

Smalley: I love to feast my eyes on her art.

Town Crier: Yes, the illustrations are great. I like the story, too. The writing is great. Zoe, do you have any advice for creative children?

Zoe Sophia: When you are onstage or on TV or something, a lot of the time you are shy. Then afterwards you say, “Darn it, it’s over already.”

Autographed copies of the Zoe Sophia books are available at Linden Tree, 170 State St., Los Altos. For more information, visit www.zoesophia.com.