May is Mental Health Month and, as young adults are one of the groups most widely affected by mental illness, it is imperative to have literature that can help them not only understand others, but feel understood themselves. Here are some of our favorite titles to open up the discussion on difficult subjects and, hopefully,…
What inspired you to write Charlotte? I wanted a female protagonist who was tough just by nature, not because something terrible happened to her. Most strong women in fiction are also damaged. I wanted to break that trope. Also, I wanted a tomboy who unabashedly liked and was liked by boys. This was my experience and I…
Do you relate to any of the characters in the book? Yes, I relate to Shanequa and Miss Precious. Shanequa because I know what it feels like to be the new kid outsider, to feel like you don’t really belong or deserve to be in a particular place. In middle school, I became the only…
If you could have dinner with one author, living or dead, who would it be? I’d choose a living author — when you invite a ghost to dinner, you’re the only one eating, and what if they decide they’d rather not leave…?
If you had told me last year that I would be signing my book for a line of readers, I would have thought you were crazy. But that’s exactly what happened this weekend at ALA’s (American Library Association) conference in New Orleans. It was the wildest, most wonderful experience of my writing career so far,…
1. Skyler’s best friend and mom were her go-to confidantes. Who were yours when you were a teen? My confidantes as a teen were…my best friend and my mom! I am still best friends with my high school best friend. Like Skyler and Layla, we’ve been tight since elementary school. She often encouraged bad ideas…