ReadWonder: An Inside Look #151 (Author INTERVIEW)

An Inside Look with Anna Staniszewski

(Authors of The Wonder of Wildflowers)

*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 NINTH interview in which I'm calling Season #NINE.

*Thank you to Anna for being the One-Hundred Fifty-First author I've had the pleasure of interviewing. I truly appreciate it.

*Here is my Review of the Novel...

The Wonder of Wildflowers

The Wonder of Wildflowers

by Anna Staniszewski

(February 25, 2020)

How did you come to know Mira?
When I first started working on this project, Mira was a lot like I was as a child: shy and bookish and afraid to speak up. But as the story developed and Mira faced more and more challenges, she really became her own person. It was exciting for me to see her standing up and speaking out in a way I never would have dared to do when I was her age!

What do you think is her most admirable quality?

At one point in the story, Daniel praises Mira for paying attention to the things around her. I think that tendency makes her able to empathize with others and to see the injustices in her community. She not only pays attention to other people but she also cares about them and wants to help them.

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

I’ve had readers ask me why Mira and Krysta are friends when Krysta treats her so poorly, and my answer is that sometimes friendships don’t feel even, that one person has more power than the other. By the end of the story, Mira and Krysta find a friendship that works for both of them, but it does hurt my heart to see Mira get bowled over by Krysta early on in the story! At the same time, I don’t think that’s something I would change because Mira finally learning to stand up to Krysta helps her become a stronger person.

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

One of the reasons this was such a personal story for me to write, even though it’s fantasy, is that Mira struggles with the same things I did when I was younger: feeling different and like an outsider. I think that fear of not belonging is relatable to children—and adults!—in a variety of situations. I hope Mira’s story shows readers that they’re not alone in feeling different, and perhaps also encourages them to speak up when they see others being treated unfairly.

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

The story was rooted in my own experiences as a young immigrant, so I really mined my memories of that time and the challenges of navigating between home and school where the rules were often different. I also spent a lot of time thinking about the way magic works in this world, how it’s a natural resource that’s running out. I did a lot of research on places where gold and oil were discovered and how that changed the physical landscape as well as the attitudes of people living in those communities. Finally, I kept my eyes and ears open for any tidbits about people’s current attitudes about immigration that fit into the story. For example, the moment when Mira’s family finds a “For Sale” sign on their front lawn was inspired by something that really happened to someone I know.

Do you and Mira share any similarities?

As I said earlier, in some ways Mira is a lot like me. I was always shy and afraid of standing out, and I loved writing poems and stories about the things I saw around me. But I think Mira is a lot braver than I am, especially at the end of the story.

What was the hardest scene to write about Mira?

When Mira realizes that the Amber is running out, it was hard to write the scene where she starts stealing it from her family. She knows what she’s doing is wrong and she’s so nervous about getting caught that it made ME nervous to write about it!

Who do you think was her biggest supporter and why?

I think that her father is her biggest supporter, even though he can sometimes be her toughest critic. I believe Tata also feels very much like an outsider in this new world and is trying to fit in and find his voice, so he understands what Mira is going through, perhaps better than anyone else in the story.

Why do you think some people are so open to change and welcoming people from different backgrounds, when others are quite resistant and insist on only living with their “own kind”?

That is such an important question and I thought about it a lot as I was working on this project. Mira’s fear of standing out and her desire to belong propel her to make some questionable choices in the story. Similarly, I think those fears and desires can translate to real-life people doing cruel things to one another in order to hang on to what they think of as the “right way” of belonging. I think being open to change means letting go of that fear and accepting the fact that people can’t (and shouldn’t) all be the same.

What do you think she is doing as the present time?

I hope that Mira is happily writing in her notebook and hanging out with her friends and family and living her life on her own terms, not on anyone else’s.

*Here are links to the One Hundred Fifty 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)