ReadWonder: An Inside Look #148 (Author INTERVIEW)

An Inside Look with Alyssa Hollingsworth

(Authors of The Invisible Boy)

*Welcome to my favorite feature of my blog.

*Season #ONE (June of 2016 to March of 2017)

*Season #TWO (Summer of 2017)

*Season #THREE (School Year 2017/2018)

*Season #FOUR (Summer/fall of 2018)

*Season #FIVE (School Year 2018/2019)

*Season #SIX (Summer 2019)

*Season #SEVEN (Fall 2019)

*Season #EIGHT (Winter/Spring 2020)

*I'm excited to be back for season #NINE with brand new interviews/authors.

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

*This is the SIXTH interview in which I'm calling Season #NINE.

*Thank you to Alyssa for being the One-Hundred Forty-Eighth author I've had the pleasure of interviewing. I truly appreciate it.

*Here is my Review of the Novel...

The Invisible Boy Book Review

The Invisible Boy

by Alyssa Hollingsworth

(September 8, 2020)

How did you come to know Nadia?
I knew when I set out to write The Invisible Boy that I wanted my protagonist to be a bit like Catherine Morland/Don Quixote/Harriet the Spy—someone who had difficulty telling reality from fiction or imagination. I needed something for Nadia to obsess over, something that would color her whole view of the world. Lois Lane popped into my mind, but I’d never so much as opened a Supermancomic at that point. So I got reading. And as I discovered more about Lois Lane, I discovered more about my quirky, brave, mistaken Nadia!

What do you think is Nadia’s most admirable quality?

I love that Nadia’s imagination is her biggest flaw and her biggest strength. When she figures out how to combine imagination with truth, she finds a new courage that helps her change her world—and that’s one of my favorite things about her.

Is there anything you wish she would have changed or done differently in her story?

I wish she had talked to the adults around her when she’s faced with a very dangerous decision in the last third of the book. Of course, if she did we wouldn’t have the story’s climax! But even when I reread it now, I want to yell at her to sneak a text to her aunt before she risks her and Eli’s safety. Don’t do what Nadia does, kids.

What do you think she can offer to other children that are experiencing similar situations to what she went through?

The most exciting and most awful part of the teen years is discovering the world and trying to make sense of it. My hope is that Nadia can give children the knowledge they need to recognize signs of danger, and words to communicate what they see to the safe people around them.

How did you research Nadia and the circumstances she found herself in?

My research was divided rather dramatically: One half Superman lore, one half human trafficking. For the latter, I attended the Trust Conference, read a lot of books, and had people who work in the human rights sector critique my manuscript. The most life-changing part of my research was attending advocacy training with the Virginia Beach Justice Initiative. It was amazing to learn from people who are working to rescue and rehabilitate survivors in my own community.

Do you and Nadia share any similarities?

Ha! Yes. As a twelve-year-old, my obsession was Lord of the Rings, and I loved it in the way only a twelve-year-old girl can. My imagination was wild. I even gave Nadia the house I lived in that year—a wonderful place tucked away next to a creek where my dad and siblings regularly canoed. Like Nadia, one of my most difficult transitions in my teen years was learning how to see the hard stuff in reality and figuring out what I wanted to do about it.

What was the hardest scene to write about Nadia?

Ironically, I found the first half of the book harder to write than the second half (where everything gets serious). My favorite scene is actually when Nadia finally connects the dots at the museum, which I think is objectively one of the most difficult to read. But as an author, I found it much more challenging to write the slow unfolding investigation than the action once everything comes together.

Who do you think was her biggest supporter and why?

Aunt Lexie! She’s the cool aunt I aspire to be. I love that she is such an important part of Nadia’s life and a safe person Nadia can go to when needed.

Why do you think some young people prefer the world of imagination and superheroes over the world of their own lives and reality?

As a kid, I wanted to live in my imagination for a few different reasons, but primarily because it seemed more colorful and exciting, and it was a place where right was rewarded and wrong was punished. Justice isn’t always clear or easy in the real world. I think, as a child especially, the world’s great unfairness can feel overwhelming. It’s safer (and more fun!) to work out questions of good and evil in fantasy. And I think that’s great—that’s what I’m still doing as an adult. The strange, almost contradictory trick is to use your imagination not to obscure truth, but to seek it.

What do you think Nadia is doing at the present time?

I like to think that Nadia has spent Summer 2020 reading outside, canoeing with her dad, doing video calls with Eli, and perhaps learning to play computer games with Kenny. She’s probably still patrolling the neighborhood with Wonder Dog, because not even a pandemic could keep this kid indoors for long. But she wears a Daily Planetmask.

*Here are links to the One Hundred Forty-Five interviews...

SEASON #ONE (2016-2017)

Interview #1 with Elly Swartz (Author of Finding Perfect)

Interview #2 with Jeff Zentner (Author of The Serpent King)

Interview #3 with Nora Raleigh Baskin (Author of Nine, Ten, A September 11 Story)

Interview #4 with Cammie McGovern (Author of Just My Luck)

Interview #5 with Kate Messner (Author of The Seventh Wish)

Interview #6 with Paul Griffin (Author of When Friendship Followed Me Home)

Interview #7 with K.A. Holt (Author of House Arrest)

Interview #8 with Abby Cooper (Author of Sticks and Stones)

Interview #9 with Melanie Conklin (Author of Counting Thyme)

Interview #10 with Claire Legrand (Author of Some Kind of Happiness)