Fourth Grade Journey

A Fourth Grade Teacher's Journey Through the World of Books

Monday, September 9, 2019

An Inside Look #104 (Author INTERVIEW)


An Inside Look with Laurel Snyder
(Author of My Jasper June)

*During the summer of 2016, I added this feature to the blog which was called "Season #ONE".  This first season ran from June of 2016 to March of 2017.  

*I started up the interviews again in June of 2017.  It was great to get back to Season #TWO.  This season ran throughout the summer.  

*Season #THREE ran during the school year of 2017-2018.  

*The next season (season #FOUR) of interviews took place during the summer and fall of 2018.  With each interview I became more and more impressed with the authors I was having interactions with.  

*Season #FIVE ran during the 2018/2019 school year.  I took a little break at the start of June 2019.  

*During my summer 2019 vacation I continued a series of interviews in which I put under the heading of Season #SIX.

 *To kick off my 29th year of teaching, I'm adding Season #SEVEN with a whole new season of authors, books, and interviews.  


*It has been such an honor to connect with authors and "chat" about their novel, characters, and thoughts about the story.

*This is the FIRST interview in which I'm calling Season #SEASON.  

*Thank you to Laurel Synder for being the One-Hundred FOURTH author that I've had the pleasure of interviewing.  I truly appreciate it.  

*Here are links to the first One Hundred Three interviews…


SEASON #ONE (2016-2017)

























SEASON #FOUR (Summer 2018)






















SEASON #FIVE (2018/2019)










Interview #81 with Tony Abbott (Author of The Great Jeff)

Interview #82 with Susan Ross (Author of Searching for Lottie)

Interview #83 with Gillian McDunn (Author of Caterpillar Summer)

Interview #84 with Rebecca Ansari (Author of The Missing Piece of Charlie O'Reilly)

Interview #85 with Ali Standish (Author of August Isle)

Interview #86 with Shaun David Hutchinson (Author of The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried)

Interview #87 with Greg Howard (Author of The Whispers)

Interview #88 with Lynda Mullaly Hunt (Author of Shouting at the Rain)

Interview #89 with Lynda Mullaly Hunt (Author of One for the Murphys)

Interview #90 with Laurie Morrison (Author of Up for Air)

Interview #91 with Jody J. Little (Author of Mostly the Honest Truth)



SEASON #SIX (Summer 2019)

Interview #92 with John David Anderson (Author of Finding Orion)

Interview #93 with Lisa Thompson (Author of The Light Jar)

Interview #94 with Keith Calabrese (Author of A Drop of Hope)

Interview #95 with Alicia D. Williams (Author of Genesis Begins Again)

Interview #96 with Kim Ventrella (Author of Bone Hollow)

Interview #97 with Natalie Lloyd (Author of Over the Moon)

Interview #98 with Cynthia Lord (Author of Because of the Rabbit)

Interview #99 with Tina Athaide (Author of Orange for the Sunsets)

Interview #100 with Elly Swartz (Author of Give and Take)

Interview #101 with Amy Rebecca Tan (Author of A Kind of Paradise)

Interview #102 with Varsha Bajaj (Author of Count Me In)

Interview #103 with Laura Resau (Author of Tree of Dreams)



*Laurel Synder was kind, gracious, and giving with her answers to the questions.  It is an honor to post her responses here on the blog. 

*Thank you Laurel for writing this incredible and thought-provoking book.

*Here is my book review...




My Jasper June

by Laurel Snyder (September 3, 2019)


How did you come to know Leah?
As is always the case with my main characters, Leah is rooted in me. In my own experiences as a kid.  Her world/neighborhood is mine (the one I live in now), and the disconnection she feels is definitely some aspect of what middle school was like for me, generally-- that sense of not quite fitting, feeling inauthentic, awkward.  The major story elements (Jasper's background, and the triggering event for Leah's own situation, which I don't want to give away here) are parts of my own childhood, though reconfigured.  She's not ME by a long shot, but a lot of her parts are transformations for my childhood, if that makes sense. I'm not sure I'm capable of developing my main character any other way in a first person book.
What do you think is Leah's most admirable quality?
Oh, what an interesting question!  I think maybe it changes, from the beginning to the end, a bit, but in an odd way, she's brave.  At the end of the book, her bravery is louder, more self-aware and  evolved. But even in the beginning, when Leah is just sort of drifting and unhappy, I think she's brave, in how she addresses and confronts the parts of her life that feel inauthentic or hollow. That's hard to do for most of us as adults, but in my memory of middle school, that kind of clear communication was nearly impossible.  Leah is, for all her issues, very centered. She checks in with herself, and has an honest eye on herself and her world. She's open to change and risk.  I admire all of that.
Is there anything you wish Leah would have changed or done differently in her story?
Well, I mean, as someone who loves her, sure!  In anyone's life, it's easy to stand back and imagine how a problem could have been fixed sooner or more efficiently. Almost always, we should all find therapy sooner in a moment of crisis, right? We should all tell people how we feel before those feelings fester. But that's not how people grow and learn.  A book is a lot like life-- you have to let people make their own mistakes. You can't "fix" things in your character. They have to fix themselves. That can be very hard.
What do you think Leah can offer to other children that are experiencing similar situations to what she went through?
I guess I don't really think of books as therapy in that direct way. I think of books as friends.  I'd like to think that if there's a kid out there who feels lonely, Leah and Jasper might hold their hand, keep them company as they wade through the hard chapter they're in. I was sad a lot as a kid, and I had problems nobody could really fix for me, medical issues, family struggles, etc. I read a lot of books that made me feel like I wasn't alone.  I guess I still do that today. Books are wonderful that way!
How did you research Leah and the circumstances she found himself in?
I'm torn about how much to give away here. But it's certainly safe to say that there were events in my own family that connect to Leah's circumstances. I've repositioned those memories, but I wrote her household, and its silence, out of a set of personal experiences.
What was the hardest scene to write about Leah?
Oh, definitely the scene on the blanket, the conversation at  the farm that night. And that's interesting to me, because that scene was utterly constructed, imagined. The details of the story she tells jasper were more researched and built than remembered. Sometimes, as with Bigger than a Bread Box, I've written books that border on memoir, where some of the details are imagined or reorganized, but the emotional heart of the scene is lived experience. Those scenes are painful, because I have to relive them, but there's a kind of catharsis it really getting it down on paper.  Inventing pain-- creating a character and putting them through something that approximates the intensity of my own lived experience-- that's HARD.
Who do you think was Leah's biggest supporter and why?
I think the answer has to be Leah.  Does that count? Jasper is an important catalyst, and the whole book is about how we truly need other people, about the fact that nobody can handle the world alone. We CAN save each other.  But at the end of the day, Leah steps forward, advocates for herself, and does the thing that will move her past her pain and into the next chapter. Other people can save us, but not if we don't let them!
Why do you think young people, like Leah and Jasper, display such resilience  compared to the adults in their lives?Hmmmm.  I'm not sure that's entirely true.  We see Leah and jasper's resilience because this is THEIR book.  But I could write another book, from Mom's POV, that would highlight her journey, her work, her pain, and the resilience she displays in waking up every morning..  And we might see that the burden she's carrying is even greater.  

We are all strong in different ways, and Leah can't see her parents clearly, really, can she? She has a part to play, and it's absolutely critical. The whole family is better for her role. But every day, despite their grief, Mom and Dad go to work. They sit in traffic with their thoughts. They do stupid daily tasks, and keep the bills paid, and feed the family, and if they aren't doing a great job, they're still doing it.  They're holding the physical world together for Leah. She can't see that work and she doesn't appreciate it, because she's a kid.  Kids aren't supposed to see everything we do for them.  It would be an unfair burden and create insane guilt.

I actually had someone email me, after reading the book, and accuse me of being unfair to the parents. They said it was ungenerous to show the parents in an unkind way, when they're grieving. But that person really doesn't understand Point of View, in a basic way. It isn't my job to center the emotions of adult characters or adult readers in a book for kids. It's my job, always, to center children.


What do you think Leah is doing as the present time?
Oh, I KNOW the answer to that.  She makes a brief appearance in  another story I'm fiddling with.  She's in high school now, at Maynard Jackson, here in Atlanta.  She ad jasper still hang out at Red's Farm. She seems to be happy, from a distance (because the other story, if I write it, will be in a totally different POV, and so we can't know what she's actually feeling). Point of View is everything!

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)