Fourth Grade Journey

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

Monday, September 16, 2019

An Inside Look #105 (Author INTERVIEW)



An Inside Look with Lisa Bunker
(Author of Zenobia July)

*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 SECOND interview in which I'm calling Season #SEASON.  

*Thank you to Lisa Bunker for being the One-Hundred FIFTH author that I've had the pleasure of interviewing.  I truly appreciate it.  

*Here are links to the first One Hundred FOUR 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)



SEASON #SEVEN (2019/2020)

Interview #104 with Laurel Snyder (Author of My Jasper June)



*Lisa Bunker 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 Lisa for writing this incredible and thought-provoking book.

*Here is my book review...




Zenobia July

by Lisa Bunker (May 21, 2019)


How did you come to know Zenobia?
As with many of my characters, Zen started as a “what if” – in this case, what if there was a teenage trans girl who was a coder/hacker prodigy – and quickly took on a life of her own in my mind. When I am writing a rough draft, I often feel like I’m watching a movie on the screen of my imagination and describing what the characters say and do. I get to know them by recording their words and actions.


What do you think is Zen's most admirable quality?
Like all real humans, Zen is far from perfect. She has a temper, she tends to jump to conclusions, and she can judge other people harshly. But she has a core of steel, a deep inner strength that has sustained her through patches of hard living that might have broken other people.


Is there anything you wish she would have changed or done differently in her story?
Nothing particular springs to mind so far. That said, I intend to write a whole series of Zenobia books, and I’m aware that my choices going forward will be constrained by the choices I have already made. I can easily imagine running into puzzles as I craft later books in the series. Say, for example, in the drafting of book three, I might discover that it would be super-useful if Zen had a sibling. Alas, I’ve already said she is an only child. It could get challenging!


What do you think Zenobia can offer to other children that are experiencing similar situations to what she went through?
In telling Zen’s story I tried to show her strength in a realistic way. She’s not a superhero. She’s a mere mortal human. She gets sad, and angry, and frustrated, and she makes mistakes. But she just keeps trying again.


How did you research Zen and the circumstances she found herself in?
A lot of the story is pretty close to home for me, so mostly I drew from my own experience – the things I’ve been through as a trans person and the community that has helped me. I had to do some research when it came to depicting realistic, un-stereotyped Christian families. I specifically wanted all my characters to be well-rounded humans, doing what they do for reasons that make sense to them. No cardboard cutout villains. And I took some care and got some appropriate help in crafting the character of Dyna, who is an immigrant from Africa, since her life is so far outside my own experience.


Do you and Zenobia share any similarities?
Well, sure, the whole trans experience. And I gave her a version of my own geeky intensity. But we’re different, too. I feel more like she’s a fictional child of mine, rather than a version of myself.


What was the hardest scene to write about Zen?
There’s a scene where she makes a wrong assumption about a close friend, and I had to redo it several times to make it feel right – to have the actions and reactions of both characters seem real and true to who they are.


Who do you think was her biggest supporter and why?
Zen’s biggest support is not a single person, but the family of choice and friends groups that she finds when she moves to Portland, Maine, just before the book begins. This was one of my clearest goals in writing this book: I wanted to depict the power of rainbow community to help young people who have begun to realize that they don’t fit neatly into the standard binary categories.


Why do you think some people, like Zen, are born into the wrong body and have to deal with the transition process and all the difficulties that brings?
Many trans folks take exception to the “born in the wrong body” trope, and while I’m not militant about it, I see their point. It’s more like: perfectly good body, perfectly good brain, but they don’t quite match. I don’t know why people are born trans, but at this point it’s beyond question that they are. It’s also clear that each trans person has every chance of living a full, happy, vibrant life if they are given the support they need to resolve their dysphoria in a way that works for them.


What do you think Zen is doing as the present time?
Sleeping off a three-days-with-no-sleep summer gaming and hacking marathon. :-)
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