As we anticipate the chance to read Allie, First at Last, the just-released second middle-grade novel from Shawnee resident Angela Cervantes, we're reminded that Gaby, Lost and Found, her debut effort a couple of years ago, was much lauded and won multiple awards. To help pass the time until our hold on her new book comes available, we asked the native Kansan (and KU graduate) a few questions.
What do you want those unfamiliar with you and your work to know first and foremost?
For me, it’s an honor to write books for children. I love that I’ve written books that can affect a young person’s life. I receive great letters from parents telling me that their child now likes reading after reading one of my books. That feels awesome and it keeps me at it.
What do you want those familiar with you and your work to also know?
I’m working on a third middle grade novel that will also take place in what I call the "Gaby, Lost and Found universe," but with a new female main character. It’s still in its early stage, so I don’t have a lot of juicy details to share, but I love the idea of continuing the Gaby universe where Gaby and Allie’s separate lives and decisions impact each other and yet…they’ve never met! I like anything that builds upon the idea that we’re all connected. And I think middle graders like that too.
Why middle grade fiction? You’ve also written short stories, poetry, and other works for adult audiences—where do your ambitions lie for the future?
Adriana Dominguez, then an editor at Harper Collins, read a story of mine in a local literary journal and asked me to consider writing a middle grade novel. The resulting book became Gaby, Lost and Found. It ended up being named one of the 2014 best children’s books by the Bank Street College Center for Children’s Literature (ages 9 to 12) and won the International Latino Book Award for best youth chapter fiction. I’ve met so many amazing students and received so many nice letters from kids all across the country that I’m sort of hooked on writing middle grade novels now. In the future, I wouldn’t mind trying a picture book. I have a few ideas, but it’ll have to wait until I get pass these next two middle grade novels I’m working on.
What do you like most about being a writer?
I love the rush of creating new characters and coming up with ways to turn their worlds upside down.
What do you like least about being a writer?
The endless hullabaloo of marketing and promotion you have to do after your book is published. I’d just prefer to sit in my room, stare at clouds and write.
If you could give advice to your inner young writer, what would it be? Is writing what you imagined it to be when you first decided you wanted to be a writer?
I would tell her not to throw away all those short stories she wrote. I would love to see them again. And yes, writing for me is exactly what I thought it would be except that there’s less time. When I was a younger writer, I’d spend a whole day writing and now I don’t get the large gulps of time I used to enjoy as a child with no job and little responsibility.
You wrote a post for the CBC website about diversity in children’s literature. It included:
- As I set forth to write my first middle grade novel four years ago, I knew I would write about my neighborhood, mi familia, and my world.
- It turns out that the lack of diversity in children’s books, although disheartening to me as a child, had motivated me as an adult to create change.
- [Books with Latino main characters] have a place on the bookshelf because these books are not written just for a Latino audience; they are written for all children.
Can you say more about that here?
Sure, I’m happy to elaborate. As an author, I often get asked where my inspiration to write comes from and why do I write about Hispanic/Latina characters. Well, my inspiration to write comes from the fact that I loved to read as a child. I was a serious flashlight girl (someone who stays up late to read after the lights have been turned off for bedtime). However, I also grew up in a culturally rich Mexican American community and I realized at a young age that kids like me weren’t in the books I was reading. I questioned this. For some kids, this invisibility can make them resentful or may even turn them off from books, which is an awful thing to happen. Books are sacred to our society. When bookstores close, we cry. When school library budgets are cut, we protest. It’s because, as a society we still hold books and reading to a high standard. So when students go to a bookshelf at school or at their local library and don’t find books that reflect her or him, it can feel like a betrayal. I know that feeling. I get it. Never seeing yourself or community in books at your library is a big fat “I don’t matter” moment. As young budding writer, I love books and libraries too much to let that happen. I became determined that if I ever had the chance to be a published author, I would use that skill and opportunity to write about the community I knew best and about kids whose last names are Lopez, Chavez, Velasco and so on.
Lately, there’s been a lot of well-deserved attention on the need for more diverse books in kid’s literature. This is an important issue to me and I think publishers still have so much more work to do on this topic because I still get asked by teachers and school librarians to help them identify books featuring Hispanic and African American protagonist that they can put on their bookshelves. Some great websites on the subject include: www.thebrownbookshelf.com and www.diversebooks.org. I also have a long list on my blog at www.angelacervantes.com :-)
What role have libraries played in your life (as both reader and a writer)?
Growing up, my library was the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library (TSCPL). The Topeka Library is where I first gazed up at bookshelves and imagined my name there. I still love that library. My mom was a single mom and she worked two jobs before later getting her college degree and becoming an elementary teacher. Needless to say, she didn’t have a lot of money to spare for things like books when eating and paying the bills were priority. She could afford the occasional comic book for us, but not the real-deal-hard-cover books that I craved. My mom made sure all of her kids had library cards, and we went to the library the same way you go to hang out with family and friends. It was always fun and just very crucial part of our happy childhood.
What's your all-time favorite book?
Nope! No way to answer that. Impossible! I can tell you who some of my favorite authors and poets are: C.S. Lewis, Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, Jane Austen, Langston Hughes, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Neil Gaiman, Sandra Cisneros, Pat Muñoz-Ryan, Rita Williams-Garcia, Kate DiCamillo, Sylvia Plath, Margarita Engle and Junot Diaz.
If you could bring one character to life from a favorite book, who would it be? Why?
I would bring Spike from my book Gaby, Lost and Found to life because I would like him to be my dog and all around partner-in-mayhem.
If you joined the circus, what act would you most want to perform?
I wouldn’t want to be on the stage, but I’d happily care for the circus animals and make sure they were being taken care of properly. If I absolutely had to be on stage, I’d start a puppy act with large Labradoodles and pint-sized Chihuahuas. We’d perform an amazing fetch routine and then conclude with a walk through the audience asking people for a bite of their funnel cakes and pretzels. I would give up writing if I could make a career out of playing with dogs and eating fried sugary snacks.
Which albums, films, and books are you ashamed to admit you love?
The Godfather. I’m a kidlit writer so I feel bad admitting that this gangster movie is one of the movies I love, but it is! Before I married my husband, I found out that he had never seen The Godfather nor attended a KU game at Allen Field House. I insisted that he do both if he ever expected to truly understand me. :-)
If you had to be trapped in a TV show for a month, which show would you choose?
Gosh, I would love to be trapped in one of those Amazing Race reality shows and travel the world and eat and do crazy things to win a prize.