Intro
Hello everyone and welcome to the Books Between podcast! If you love to read, if you are a fan of middle grade, if you want to connect kids between 8-12 to books they’ll love, then you have found the podcast for you! I’m your host, Corrina Allen - a mom of an 8 and 10 year old, a 5th grade teacher, and lately - spending a lot of time on the sidelines of lacrosse fields and tennis courts. But - that gives me more time to read!
This is Episode #29 and today I am welcoming author Corey Ann Haydu to the show to chat about her recent middle grade novel, The Someday Suitcase, and then in the book talk segment, I’ll be chatting about two fantastic new books about friendship.
Main Topic - Interview with Corey Ann Haydu
This week I am excited to welcome to the show Corey Ann Haydu. She is both a Young Adult AND Middle Grade author. Her most recent YA novel The Careful Undressing of Love was released just this past January. And you might know her from her debut middle grade book Rules for Stealing Stars. On today’s show, we chat about snow globes, guilt reading, cheese and - of course! - her latest middle grade novel The Someday Suitcase.
The Someday Suitcase
Tell us about The Someday Suitcase - what is this book about?
One of the aspects of this book that I loved was how it shows that a true, deep best friend can bring a little magic into your life.
Did you have a best friend growing up?
Clover is a very science-minded person.
Do you have a science background?
There is often this mix and a bit of tension between magic & science in the book.
Do you see science and magic as compatible?
I loved all the metaphors in this book - like the snow globe! At one point Clover’s teacher says, “Sometimes you have to turn something over and upside down to really see it.”
How did you pick the snow globe to be a central part of the story?
This is a book about so many things! Friendship, and science, and codependency, and snow, and but maybe ultimately about realizing that a loss can also help reveal a different part of yourself that has been dormant. I don’t want to reveal too much of what form that loss takes for Clover and Danny, but…
Can you talk a bit about how you decided on the ending?
Writing Life
You recently moved… I can imagine that a move might be fairly disruptive to writer.
What were the top three things you had to have in place so that you felt like you had a writing space again?
I saw somewhere (maybe Instagram) that you had posted this really inspiring quote from the book BONE by Yrsa Daley-Ward and it says, “If you’re afraid to write it, that’s a good sign. I suppose you know you’re writing the truth when you’re terrified.”
Did any part of writing The Someday Suitcase scare you?
When we first started talking a few months ago, you mentioned how your first school visits were a combination of exhausting and exhilarating.
When you are visiting schools, how do you keep that balance between bringing your full passionate self and also maintaining your energy level?
Your Reading Life
What have you been reading lately that you’ve liked?
How do you decide what to read next?
Book Talk - Two Fantastic Books about Friendship
In this part of the show, I share with you a few books centered around a theme and discuss three things to love about each book. (Yes - I love the number three! But also - I just need limits!) This week I can’t wait to share with you two books that have been on my mind lately. Both feature girls just venturing into middle school. Both are about what happens when friendships collide over crushes. And both are ultimately about reclaiming a part of yourself that was lost. So, they are - 14 Hollow Road by Jenn Bishop and Bubbles by Abby Cooper.
14 Hollow Road
First up this week is 14 Hollow Road by Jenn Bishop. You might know her from her previous middle grade book, The Distance to Home. This novel is about Maddie. And the night of the sixth-grade dance, a tornado hits parts of her town and destroys her home. And the home of her neighbor and crush, Avery. So - it turns out that a kind couple in the area with rooms to spare lets both families stay in their home for the summer. So - Maddie has to live with her crush. And somehow convince him to like her back instead of that other girl he asked to slow dance with. Here are three things to love about 14 Hollow Road:
14 Hollow Road is a fabulous realistic fiction novel about friendship and change and resiliency. And - I wish I could remember who it was to give them credit - but I heard another author say that the last page of 14 Hollow Road is perfection. And, oh - were they right!
Bubbles
Our second book this week is Bubbles by Abby Cooper! (You might remember her debut novel Sticks & Stones from last year.) This book makes me appreciate the term “speculative fiction” because the premise of this is - what if you could see people’s thoughts above their heads? What insights could you gain? What obligations would that put you under? How accurate is it? And...do you even want to know? Even before reading this book, I was firmly in the camp of “I don’t want to know what people are thinking!” I’ve read those Sookie Stackhouse books - I know the bad is going to outweigh the benefit of knowing people’s thoughts. (By the way - Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire series - not middle grade! Do NOT get those for your 8-12 year old. But you, adult listener - they’re fun. Especially #4 when the witches erase Eric’s memory and he doesn’t realize he’s the bad guy/vampire! Ahhh…. Okay - I digress!)
Anyway - on to Bubbles! This book is about 12 year-old Sophie Mulvaney whose life is in turmoil when her mom loses both her job and her boyfriend within a very short period of time. And then Sophie get assigned a school project to do something that pushes herself to take a risk at a time when she’s not feeling very adventurous. And then - she starts seeing thought bubbles above people’s heads - and everything takes off from there! So, here are three things to love about Abby Cooper’s Bubbles.
Bubbles and 14 Hollow Road both brought me back to those middle school days when your relationship with your friends is everything. And how threatening and scary and socially isolated you can feel when a friend seems to be slipping away from you. In Bubbles, Sophie’s friend Kaya seems to be taken over by another girl, Viv. And in 14 Hollow Road Maddie’s feel left out when her best friend Kiersten is spending more time with Gabriella. And then throw an in-common crush into that mix and ugh! It’s awkward and confusing and just one of those rocky experiences you have to figure out. Also - both of these books get that shaving your legs dynamic absolutely right! At least - it resonated with me. When suddenly your friends start shaving and you feel a hairy troll and how it’s just hard to talk to your mom about. I think I snuck my mom’s razor and shaved my legs like a year before she technically allowed me to. (My mom listens to the podcast, so… sorry mom!) These two books would be great options for a mother-daughter book club. My friend, Julie, did that with Abby Cooper’s first book Sticks & Stones and oh I just love that idea!
Closing
Alright - that wraps up our show this week. If you have a question or an idea about a topic we should cover, I would love to hear from you. You can email me at booksbetween@gmail.com or connect on Twitter/Instagram at the handle @Books_Between. There’s always lots of great conversations happening there so, please jump in!
Thank you so much for joining me this week. You can find an outline of interviews and a full transcript of all the other parts of our show along with all of our previous episodes at AlltheWonders.com. And, while you are there, please take a listen to Matthew Winner’s latest episode of the All the Wonders podcast (#372) where he chats with Hena Khan - the author of Amina’s Voice.
And, if you like what you hear and value the podcast, I would really appreciate a quick review or rating on iTunes or Stitcher.
Thanks again and see you soon! Bye!
Episode Links:
Corey Ann Haydu's website
Other middle grade books we chatted about:
The Girls from Ames: A story of women and a forty-year friendship by Jeffrey Zaslow
Braced by Alyson Gerber
My Life with the Liars by Caela Carter
The Remarkable Journey of Charlie Price by Jennifer Maschari
A young adult book we chatted about:
We Are Okay by Nina LaCour
Author Leanne Shapton's website