On Fame and Juno

I began writing songs for children in 1975 and recording them on my own "people before profit" label. Over the last thirty years, I've worked steadily as a visiting author and songwriter, sharing my love of books, poetry and song in schools and libraries from Fairbanks, Alaska to Washington, DC.

I have almost 350,000 books and recordings in print and until recently, I thought that was impressive. One of the songs on my second album from 1977 was chosen to be the opening song in the new movie Juno and the soundtrack to that film has already sold almost 600,000 copies in three months.

People consider having my song in Juno to be the pinnacle of success and it sure has brought me a lot of attention, but I measure my success differently: I get emails and letters from adults writing to tell me what it was like discovering my books and music in their local library when they were growing up--and how hearing the things I sang about opened a window for them and allowed them to look at the world in a different way.

I've made a great living as a writer these last thirty years, but people are still more important to me than profit. When I meet kids in my school visits, they always ask me if I am rich and I always say "yes" because I love what I do. True wealth has more to do with being happy and content. I was happy and content back in 1975 and I am happy and content now that my work is finally being heard by so many people.

Barry Louis Polisar
March, 2008