others, where she found her inspiration for the series,
her writing process, and why kids love to read about
disasters (they really do!).
SA: As the mother of an 11-year old, my rst thought
upon seeing the series was gratitude because I can see
that my son, like many children his age and even younger,
is curious about disasters, destruction, tragedy and has
been for some years. But I have struggled to nd a way to
talk about them with him, and I appreciate that the books
address what I’d call iconic or dening national tragedies.
The medium of ction allows for a kind of identication
between subject and reader that diers qualitatively
from nonction (I’m thinking, also, of a recent study
that showed reading novels promotes empathy). Can
you speak to the decision to write ctional accounts (vs.
nonction for kids)? And also (my son asked me to ask
these), how did you rst become interested in writing
about disasters, and how did you decide which ones to
write about?
LT: My rst two novels, “Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out
of a Tree” and “Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell in Love,” were
‘quiet’ middle grade novels for girls published by Dial
Books for Young Readers (Penguin). I was all set to
continue on this pleasant path.
But at the same time that I was learning to write
novels, I was working at Scholastic, where I still work,
creating very delightful magazines and digital products
used by teachers to teach reading and language arts
skills. For years, my main job was creating Storyworks,
a magazine for kids in grades 3-6, which features
nonction, ction, plays, and poetry.
By far the most successful articles in the magazine
were (and still are) the narrative nonction stories I
wrote about disasters and other “high-impact” events
—battles, the dust bowl, adventures gone awry. Kids
loved these stories, and teachers did too, because
they gripped even the reluctant readers. And I noticed
something interesting, which is that when the kids
wrote to me, they didn’t ask about the disasters—the
ood or the volcano or the avalanche. They asked
about the boy or the girl in the story. That is what
fascinated them, the human element.
So as I was planning on writing my third middle grade
novel for girls, I suddenly had the idea for “I Survived.”
It struck me that there really were no books about
these events that were narrative in form and that
would enable kids to connect with characters and
view the events through the eyes of a child like them.
I wrote the proposal very quickly, and Scholastic was
the natural choice as publisher given their amazing
connection in schools. I always pictured the books in
classrooms.
The decision to make them historical ction was based
on exactly the point you raised—that I wanted kids
to connect emotionally with the characters. While I
often discover real kids in my research, I couldn’t count
on always nding a historical character who I could
build a rich story around (without taking too many
liberties). Historical ction seemed that way to go. The
only downside to this is that the books are incredibly
challenging and time consuming to write. I face all of
the challenges of writing ction—creating compelling
characters and plots-- and then have to interweave
the characters’ inner journeys with the often inexible
historical plot. I write many, many drafts of each book
before I give them to my editor and do enormous
amounts of research for each title.
The Scholastic team has led me towards the topics that
they believe will resonate most with kids, and that are
most requested by teachers. When I rst conceived of
the series, I thought I would write about lesser-known
disasters, but the Scholastic team—correctly—felt I