An Inside Look with Gayle Forman
*Season #SIX (Summer 2019)
How did you come to know Josey and Alex?
Joey, the 107-year-old narrator of the book was part of the inspiration of the book. I knew I wanted to write a book about a very old man who had lived through the Holocaust and his relationship with a child who had done something that might seem unforgivably wrong, except that I don’t believe—and neither does Josey—that any thing a child does is unforgivable. Alex took a bit longer. I wrote a draft of the book with Alex as a 17-year-old girl that did not work. But when I realized Alex was a 12-year-old boy, the book came to life.
What do you think is Josey and Alex's most admirable quality?
Josey’s most admirable quality is his spirit, which even after so much hardship, remains open and optimistic about a person’s capability to change and rise to the occasion. Alex has so many admirable qualities—curiosity, caring, resourcefulness— but they have gotten squashed over the years because of his life experience and at the start of the book he is very shut down. Josey encourages some of Alex’s curiosity to come out and this leads Alex to rediscovering some of those old parts and really rising to the occasion to become his better self.
Is there anything you wish they would have changed or done differently in their story?
Alex begins the story steeped in anger and resentment, which is really masking his shame. There is so much he would’ve done differently. Josey understands this regret, even before he knows Alex’s story. Josey also understands you cannot change the past, only use those experiences to inform how you act in the future He encourages Alex not to be defined by the worst thing he’s done but by the so many better things he is now doing and may well do in the future. Neither would have grown to where they are without making mistakes. That’s the thing about mistakes: they are the building blocks to growth and it’s so important to have space and grace to make them and learn from hem.
What do you think Alex can offer to other children that are experiencing similar situations to what he went through?
Alex believes he is defined by his worst act (and it’s a truly bad thing). He is not. No child is. He believes he is nothing. He is not nothing. No child is. While very few young people have done what Alex has done, they all have done things that they wish they hadn’t. It’s important to own up to these acts, to make amends when possible, and to grow from them. And it’s important for all of us to allow other people this grace and forgiveness to do that whenever possible.
How did you research Alex and Josey and the circumstances he found himself in?
For Alex, most of my research was into the legal system and what would be at stake for a 12-year-old boy who’d committed such an act. I reached out to my legal friends and spoke to people in the juvenile justice system. For Josey, I did a ton of research about Krakow Poland before and during the war. I knew the broad strokes of the Nazi regime because my German Jewish grandparents fled Hitler in 1938 but I wanted the specifics to Poland where things happened much quicker than in Germany. And I have spent a lot of time in assisted-living facilities, as a volunteer, visiting my nurse sister where she worked and then my mother-in-law so I didn’t really have to research that part so much as remember it.
Do you and Alex or Josey share any similarities?
I think that like Alex, like most people, shame is my worst enemy. When I feel ashamed of something, it shuts me down and I treat myself terribly and I move away from my better self.
What was the hardest scene to write about them?
The scene where Maya-Jade finds out what Alex has done before Alex has a chance to tell her himself. It broke both characters’ hearts and by extension, mine.
Who do you think was Alex's biggest supporter and why?
Josey is Alex’s biggest supporter. He breaks a five-year-silence to speak to the boy and by telling him the story of Olka, the young woman who went from small and bitter to heroic and loving, he changes Alex’s life—and his own. He sees potential in the boy. He invites the boy to rise to the occasion of his life. No one had done that for Alex before and this invitation changes everything.
Why do you think some young people can show such resilience, strength, and courage during difficult life situations; sometimes even more than the adults in their lives?
That is such a good question and one I’m not sure I have a complete answer to. Maybe because they have had fewer disappointments and fewer people telling them something cannot be done, cannot be changed. If that’s the case, it’s a shame. I want every young person to develop resilience, optimism, their own power, courage and compassion by witnessing it all around them, in friends, neighbors, community members, teachers, and peers. Maybe that’s naive, but young people should not have to do this on their own.
What do you think Alex is doing at the present time?
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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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Interview #199 with Jamie Sumner (Author of One Kid's Trash)
Interview #200 with Chad Lucas (Author of Thanks a Lot, Universe)
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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)
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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)
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Interview #227 with Celia C. Perez (Author of Tumble
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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)
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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)
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Interview #253 with Sarah Everett (Author of The Probability of Everything)
Interview #254 with Andrea Beatriz Arango (Author of Something Like Home)
Interview #255 with H.M. Bouwman (Author of Gossamer Summer)
Interview #256 with Kaija Langley (Author of The Order of Things)
Interview #257 with Elaine Vickers (Author of Half Moon Summer)
Interview #258 with John Gaspard (Author of The Curious Mysteries of Eli Marks)
Interview #259 with Dana Kramaroff (Author of The Do More Club)
Interview #260 with Jessica Vitalis (Author of Coyote Queen)
Interview #261 with Katherine Applegate and Gennifer Choldenko (Authors of Dog Town)
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