An Inside Look with H.M. Bouwman
*Season #SIX (Summer 2019)
How did you come to know JoJo?
I started writing this story by thinking about myself and my own three sisters, and the kinds of games we used to play as kids; I also thought about the four sisters from Little Women and the kinds of games they played; and then I wondered what would happen if my fictional four sisters found something magical. Jojo has never existed outside her sisters—there was a never a Jojo without a Maisie and a Bee and an Amy; and right from the start there was also a Theo. They came into existence as a group.
What do you think is her most admirable quality?
She has so many great qualities: imagination, love for her family and friends, intensely practical fashion sense. But one of the things I love most about her is her anger. She is mad that the universe isn’t fair, that people die, that wishes don’t always come true. She’s not afraid to feel that anger. And I hope she can take that anger and channel it into something powerful as she grows up.
Is there anything she “should have” done differently in her story?
There are so many things that she should have done differently if her goal was to be polite or well-behaved: don’t yell at your sisters, don’t be grumpy, don’t tell lies, etc. But I wanted Jojo to be real, and I wanted her to feel things, and I didn’t want her to have to behave perfectly. Maisie tries to be perfect, and it almost breaks her.
What do you think JoJo can offer to other children that are experiencing similar situations to what she went through?
One of my kids’ and my favorite picture books when they were little was Molly Bang’s When Sophie Gets Angry—because it suggests that it’s okay to feel what you feel. I hope Jojo can offer that to young readers, too: the promise that you are allowed to feel your feelings, even if they make you prickly; and your family and friends will still love you. And of course, the idea that when other people feel theirfeelings, you are there for them, squishing uncomfortably onto the cooler with them and wrapping your arm around their shoulders.
How did you research JoJo and the circumstances she found herself in?
I did zero research for this book in any traditional sense of that word—which is unlike the other novels I’ve written! For this book, my research was simply to remember my own childhood, the childhood of my kids, and some of the books we loved as kids.
Do you and JoJo share any similarities?
Jojo is far more confrontational and assertive than I am! (I admire that in her!) But I think we have similar storyteller imaginations: quirky and fanciful.
What was the hardest scene to write about her?
Hmmm. I’m not sure. Maybe the nighttime sleepover discussion with Theo? Initially, I let her do most of the talking—and so did Theo, since he is a quieter kid than Jojo. But Theo had things he needed to say! So I needed to let Jojo be quiet for moment and let him talk—and I needed her to respond to Theo’s need for friendship and love as he grieved the loss of someone important to him. It took a few revisions to tweak that so that Jojo was still her impulsive self, and yet she could also hear at least some of what Theo was sad about.
Who do you think was her biggest supporter and why?
Really, I think it was Maisie. I know Theo seems like the closest soulmate to Jojo—they hit it off immediately, and it’s clear they’ll be great friends—and Roland is a creation of Jojo, after all, so he knows how she thinks—but Maisie has been with Jojo through everything, and it’s Maisie who understands her best. Their moment on the cooler near the end of the book was really important to the story, which is in part about how your sibling can be your closest ally; but the final moment is also important, where all Jojo’s sisters help her cross the yard to head back home.
Why do you think young people, like JoJo, process their grief in their own special way that may be different from others around them?
I think everyone—old and young—processes their grief in their own unique way. Of course there are similar things humans often do when we grieve (bargaining, anger, acceptance, etc), but for each of us there’s a unique emotional tone in which our grief lives and a unique path that our grief follows. One of the things I wanted to show was how different Jojo and Maisie are in grieving the same loss. (And Theo’s grief—for a very different kind of loss—is quite different, too.)
What do you think JoJo is doing at the present time?
I think that right now, she’s planning a trip back to fairyland to visit Roland; and I think that meanwhile, she’s playing long imaginative games with her sisters and Theo.
*Here are links to the Two Hundred Fifty-Four interviews...
SEASON #SIX (Summer 2019)
Interview #122 with Tamara Bundy (Author of Pixie Pushes On)
Interview #123 with Lindsay Lackey (Author of All the Impossible Things)
Interview #124 with Tae Keller (Author of When You Trap a Tiger)
Interview #125 with Jamie Sumner (Author of Roll With It)
Interview #126 with Hena Khan (Author of More to the Story)
Interview #127 with Phil Bildner (Author of A High-Five for Glenn Burke)
Interview #128 with Leslie Connor (Author of A Home for Goddesses and Dogs)
Interview#129 with Gillian McDunn (Author of Queen Bee and Me)
Interview #130 with Jody J. Little (Author of Worse Than Weird)
Interview #131 with Jenn Bishop (Author of Things You Can't Say)
Interview #132 with Kaela Noel (Author of Coo)
Interview #133 with Rebecca Stead (Author of The List of Things That Will Not Change)
Interview #134 with Gae Polisner (Author of Jack Kerouac is Dead to Me)
Interview #135 with Emily Blejwas (Author of Like Nothing Amazing Ever Happened)
Interview #136 with Joy McCullough (Author of A Field Guide to Getting Lost)
Interview #137 with Kim Baker (Author of the Water Bears)
Interview #138 with Erin Entrada Kelly (Author of We Dream of Space)
Interview #139 with Jess Redman (Author of Quintessence)
Interview #140 with Melanie Conklin (Author of Every Missing Piece)
Interview #141 with Lindsey Stoddard (Author of Brave Like That)
Interview #158 with Rebecca Ansari (Author of The In-Between)
Interview #159 with John David Anderson (Author of One Last Shot)
Interview #160 with Tracy Holczer (Author of Brave in the Woods)
Interview #161 with James Bird (Author of The Brave)
Interview #162 with Marcella Pixley (Author of Trowbridge Road)
Interview #163 with Barbara O'Connor (Author of Halfway to Harmony)
Interview #164 with Alan Gratz (Author of Ground Zero)
Interview #165 with Lisa Fipps (Author of Starfish)
Interview #166 with Ann Braden (Author of Flight of the Puffin)
Interview #167 with Kimberly Willis Holt (Author of The Ambassador of NoWhere Texas)
Interview #168 with Elana K. Arnold (Author of The House That Wasn't There)
Interview #169 with Erin Soderberg (Author of The Great Peach Experiment)
Interview #170 with Donna Gephart (Author of Abby, Tried, and True)
Interview #171 with M. Evan Wolkenstein (Author of Turtle Boy)
Interview #172 with Lindsey Stoddard (Author of Bea is for Blended)
Interview #173 with Jess Redman (Author of The Adventure is Now)
Interview #174 with David Levithan (Author of The Mysterious Disappearance of Aiden)
Interview #175 with Chris Grabenstein (Author of The Smartest Kid in the Universe)
Interview #176 with Ali Standish (Author of The Mending Summer)
Interview #177 with Holly Goldberg Sloan (Author of The Elephant in the Room)
Interview #178 with Jeff Zentner (Author of In the Wild Light)
SEASON #ELEVEN (Fall/Winter 2021)
Interview #179 with Katherine Applegate (Author of Willow)
Interview #180 with Padma Venkatraman (Author of Born Behind Bars)
Interview #181 with R.J. Palacio (Author of Pony)
Interview #182 with Kyle Lukoff (Author of Too Bright to See)
Interview #183 with Barbara Dee (Author of Violets are Blue)
Interview #184 with Anne Ursu (Author of The Troubled Girls of Dragonmir Academy)
Interview #185 with Margaret Finnegan (Author of We Could Be Heroes)
Interview #186 with Jasmine Warga (Author of Shape of Thunder)
Interview #187 with Joseph Bruchac (Author of Rez Dogs)
Interview #188 with Kathryn Erskine (Author of Lily's Promise)
Interview #189 with Elly Swartz (Author of Dear Student)
Interview #190 with Heather Clark (Author of Lemon Drop Falls)
Interview #191 with Veera Hiranandani (Author of How to Find What You're Not Looking For)
Interview #192 with Elizabeth Eulberg (Author of The Best Worst Summer)
Interview #193 with Cathy Carr (Author of 365 Days to Alaska)
Interview #194 with Carol Cujec and Peyton Goddard (Authors of REAL)
Interview #195 with Gillian McDunn (Author of These Lucky Stars)
Interview #196 with Alyssa Colman (Author of The Gilded Girl)
Interview #197 with E.L. Chen (Author of The Comeback)
Interview #198 with J.M.M. Nuanez (Author of Birdie and Me)
SEASON #TWELVE (Winter/Spring 2022)
Interview #199 with Jamie Sumner (Author of One Kid's Trash)
Interview #200 with Chad Lucas (Author of Thanks a Lot, Universe)
Interview #201 with Jenn Bishop (Author of Where We Used to Roam)
Interview #202 with Rebecca Caprara (Author of Worst-Case Collin)
Interview #203 with Leslie Connor (Author of Anybody Here Seen Frenchie?)
Interview #204 with Caroline Gertler (Author of Many Points of Me)
Interview #205 with Margaret Finnegan (Author of Susie B. Won't Back Down)
Interview #206 with Shawn Peters (Author of The Unforgettable Logan Foster)
Interview #207 with Aisha Saeed (Author of Omar Rising)
Interview #208 with Adrianna Cuevas (Author of Cuba in my Pocket)
Interview #209 with Jennifer Swender (Author of Stuck)
Interview #210 with Brenda Woods (Author of When Winter Robeson Came)
Interview #211 with Danya Lorentz (Author of the Book Of a Feather)
Interview #212 with Saadia Faruqi (Author of Yusuf Azeem is Not a Hero)
Interview #213 with Ellen Hopkins (Author of What About Will)
SEASON #THIRTEEN (Summer 2022)
Interview #214 with Nora Raleigh Baskin and Gae Polisner (Authors of What About the Octopus)
Interview #215 with Lauren Wolk (Author of My Own Lightning)
Interview #216 with Rebekah Lowell (Author of the Road to After)
Interview #217 with Gillian McDunn (Author of Honestly Elliott)
Interview #218 with Dan Gemeinhart (Author of The Midnight Children)
Interview #219 with Melanie Conklin (Author of A Perfect Mistake)
Interview #220 with Kyle Lukoff (Author of Different Kinds of Fruit)
Interview #221 with Tracy Edward Wymer (Author of The Great and Mighty Benjamin Teller)
Interview #222 with Louise Hawes (Author of Big Rig)
Interview #223 with Paul Acampora (Author of In Honor of Broken Things)
Interview #224 with Shannon Doleski (Author of Gabe in the After)
Interview #225 with Jennifer Ziegler (Author of Worser)
Interview #226 with Natalie Lloyd (Author of Hummingbird)
SEASON #FOURTEEN (Fall 2022)
Interview #227 with Celia C. Perez (Author of Tumble
Interview #228 with Greg Howard (Author of The Visitors)
Interview #229 with Rob Buyea (Author of The Daredevils)
Interview #230 with Sashi Kaufman (Author of Sardines)
Interview #231 with Lindsey Stoddard (Author of The Real Deal)
Interview #232 with Margaret Finnegan (Author of New Kids and Underdogs)
Interterview #233 with Amanda Rawson Hill (Author of The Hope of Elephants)
Interview #234 with Jasmine Warga (Author of A Rover's Story)
SEASON #FIFTEEN (Winter/Spring 2023)
Interview #235 with Varsha Bajaj (Author of Thirst)
Interview #236 with Torrey Maldonado (Author of Hands)
Interview #237 with C.C. Harrington (Author of Wildoak)
Interview #238 with Margi Preus (Author of Windswept)
Interview #239 with Dayna Lorentz (Author of Wayward Creatures)
Interview #240 with Katrina Nannestad (Author of We are Wolves)
Interview #241 with Anika Fajardo (Author of Meet Me Halfway)
Interview #250 with Sally J. Pla (Author of The Fire, The Water, and Maudie McGinn)
Interview #251 with Chris Baron (Author of The Gray)
Interview #252 with Dusti Bowling (Author of DUST)
SEASON #SIXTEEN (Fall 2023)
Interview #253 with Sarah Everett (Author of The Probability of Everything)
Interview #254 with Andrea Beatriz Arango (Author of Something Like Home)
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