Catching Up with Liz Garton Scanlon
August 6th, 2015 by jules
“It became clear to me that [my character’s] family had religious traditions and that she was going to be reckoning with the comfort and the challenges of those traditions as part of her coming-of-age. Then, as Paul fleshed out as a science kid, I realized that faith and science were going to get to play off of each other, which I thought was awesome (and daunting). I worried that readers on ‘either side’ would be offended, but I really believe that discussions around religion and science are way too polarized, so it felt both true and worth it to look at them in a true and blurrier way.”
Over at Kirkus today, I talk to author Liz Garton Scanlon about her first middle-grade novel, The Great Good Summer (Beach Lane Books), released this May.
We also talk about her forthcoming picture book, In the Canyon (also Beach Lane Books), illustrated by Ashley Wolff and coming to shelves this month.
That conversation is here.
Next week, I’ll have some art and early sketches from In the Canyon, thanks to Ashley.
Until tomorrow …
Photo of Liz used by her permission.
Yaaaay!
One of the few MG books I’ll be reviewing as well.