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When you see the name Ann Brashares, you probably think of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series. I sure do. So when I saw the premise of siblings Ann Brashares and Ben Brashares’s new book, I was intrigued. Here’s the description that got me hooked:
Westfallen is an action-packed middle grade alternate history thriller that asks what it would be like to wake up in present-day America if Germany had won World War II.
It sounds amazing, right? I had the pleasure of reading it (just released September 17!) and interviewing both Ben Brashares and Ann Brashares.
Hi Ann and Ben! I’m so excited to “meet” you both! This was a great read because it combined historical fiction with contemporary fiction. It also had many humorous elements that will really appeal to reluctant readers. Before we begin, here’s the full description of Westfallen.
Henry, Frances, and Lukas are neighbors, and they used to be best friends. But in middle school, things can change fast—Frances has become an emo art-girl, Lukas has gone full sports bro, and Henry has gone sort of nowhere. But when a dead gerbil brings them together again, the three ex-friends make an impossible discovery: a radio buried in Henry’s backyard that allows them to talk to another group of kids in the same town…on the same street…in the same backyard…seventy-nine years in the past.
The kids in 1944 want to know all about the future: are there jetpacks? Laser guns? Teleportation? Most of all, they want to know about the outcome of the war their dads and brothers are fighting in. Henry and his friends are cautious—they’ve all seen movies about what happens when you disrupt the fabric of time—but figure there’s no harm in telling them a little bit, just enough so they can stop worrying so much. And, at first, everything seems fine. Nothing’s changed—well, nothing so big they can’t contain it, anyway.
Until Henry, Frances, and Lukas wake up on May 6, 2024, to an America ruled by Nazis. They changed history. And now it’s up to them to change it back.
As I was reading Westfallen, my daughter noticed that it says Book 1 on the spine. Is this going to be a trilogy or a series? Care to share more on this?
Yes, this is a trilogy. We are currently finishing up our first draft of Book 2. If all goes as planned, Book 2 will be out around this time next year, and Book 3 about a year after that.
So the obvious question for those of us with siblings . . .How did you write this together? Please walk us through how this worked.
Ben Brashares
BB: We settled fairly early on the idea of using two different points of view. It just seemed to make sense in terms of utilizing our two different writing styles and dividing up the work. As far as the sibling thing goes, I think it kept us going at times. We’d disagree about things, as all partners do, but it couldn’t ever really rise above a certain level because we’re kinda stuck with each other. I suppose for that reason we’re always putting our siblingness first (shame I’m not a girl, I could’ve used “sisterhood” there). But, yeah, we probably fall into some classic ‘birth order’ dynamics at times –Ann is seven years older and has a strong maternal sense. I’m a classic youngest in a lot of ways –lack discipline, always try to go for the joke, fold easily, etc.
The process itself is pretty straight-forward. We write a detailed outline together and then set mini-deadlines for our scenes or chapters and send to each other to read and offer notes. Ann tends to have a lot more notes on my stuff.
What character do you each feel you share personality traits with?
Ann Brashares
BB: I’m a solid mix of all three of the modern day kids. I’d say I have Frances’s peanut gallery irreverence, Henry’s anxiety/sensitivity, and Lukas’s jock/bro thing (used to anyway).
AB: Alice is kind of my antithesis, and I love writing her for that reason. She’s bold and impulsive, happy to cheat and lie as needed. I’m probably more like Lawrence, cautious and cerebral.
What is something from your childhood that you snuck into the book?
We recycled some names. We grew up (mostly) on Primrose Street in Chevy Chase, MD. That’s the street where Alice and Henry live. We had a lot of dead gerbils/hamsters/guinea pigs growing up.
Are there any Easter Eggs or nods to other books or movies in Westfallen? (I sensed maybe something related Back to the Future??)
BB: There are a lot of pop cultural references. One of the things we really loved about the series concept was that the kids in Westfallen could use their knowledge of their (our) timeline as sort of a super power. Westfallen folks never got Star Wars or Justin Beiber or any of that, so our kids try to use their inside knowledge to gain an advantage where they can. Mission Impossible plays a role in Book 1. Back to the Future is one my favorite movies of all time, but I think we steered clear of that reference. Maybe too ‘on the nose’. Book 2 has a LOT of this stuff. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off makes a strong showing. We should probably try to be a bit more current in our references.
What books and movies have influenced each of your writing?
BB: I grew up on TV and movies much more than books, I’m a little sad to say. Ann was much more of a reader (nerd) than I was. I was a classic 80’s kid. I loved Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark (my favorite), Michael Jackson, Prince, Atari, He-Man, Three’s Company. TV was terrible back then but movies were generally better. It was until I got out of college that I started really reading. Too late to call anything super influential.
AB: I love classic stories, like The Princess Bride and It’s a Wonderful Life, the kind that are uplifting to the point of corny.
Best sibling story you two have together.
Oh man. That’s tough. How about top five. . . Our brother, Justin (four years older than me, three younger than Ann), had a pair of real police handcuffs (who knows how he got them). One slow summer afternoon when I was about four, he decided to put them on my ankles. After he cinched them real tight, he made a grand display of pretending to swallow the key by throwing it up in the air and catching it in his mouth. I think he saw it in a cartoon or something. Unfortunately, the key went right down his throat. He was as surprised as anyone. Ann walked in soon after and saw my feet turning blue and got very worried. Justin, I remember, was more worried about the key in his stomach. Anyway, Ann threw me on her shoulder and ran me a long block and a half to a neighbor’s house, where a construction crew sawed the handcuffs off in time to save my feet. As a nice capper to the story, Justin called me into the bathroom a few days later and showed me the key.
Who came up with the original idea for Westfallen and how did it come about?
BB: We had been each throwing out ideas for several months. Just about all them involved some type of time travel element and some type of friendship dynamic. But that’s sort of boring so I’ll just go ahead and take credit for the radio. And I’ll cede the WWII stuff to Ann.
Not sure if you’re willing to share, but did one of you write Henry’s point of view and the other write Alice’s? Care to reveal more on that?
BB: Yes, I wrote Henry and Ann wrote Alice. But we were both pretty involved in working out who the characters were when we started. Ann helped more with Henry than I helped with Alice. Because she’s my big sister and that’s what big sister’s do. And when those big sisters have already written a #1 best-selling franchise and spent nine years editing YA/MG before that, you let the big sister do basically whatever she wants to your character.
AB: I’m coming off as a bossy know-it-all here, but I guess I deserve it. I am awed by Ben’s humor, his imagination and intuition, and mostly try to help make it make sense. When it comes to six characters in two different time periods punching holes through time, that’s not easy.
I have also attempted a time travel book and know how hard it can be. What snags did you hit when trying to make this work?
So many snags. So many mind-melting headaches. Because we really tried hard to do it right! It was very important to us to avoid moments where a reader would go, “waaaait a minute, if they. . .how are they. . . ?” But the butterfly effect is notoriously tricky to work with. You just have to make your rules and stick by them. We hope we succeeded in doing that.
Are you doing school visits related to this book?
We’ll be doing a book tour just after the book launches on September 17th. We’ll be visiting middle schools in Richmond, DC, Chicago, Austin, Houston, and maybe one or two others.
How can we learn more about you?
If you’d like to learn way more about me and my wife and kids and pets than you’d ever want to know, you can visit www.thesahdlife.com. It’s a blog I wrote for a few years just after becoming a dad. It’s a (hopefully) humorous look at my life as a stay-at-home dad to three kids. Other than that, I’m hoping to do a little better with my social media presence when we get a breather after Book 2.
My post is taking a little twist on “Inventions that Changed the World.” I am looking to the future. When one thinks of inventions, you think – what? Television, the wheel, steam engine, etc.
Merriam Webster says invention noun: something invented: such as : a device, contrivance, or process originated after study and experiment.
I picture thousands of “inventors” daily going about their jobs as parents, teachers, librarians, child care and elder care workers. People who are dedicated to helping others move into the future as successfully as they can. Each day these frontline workers invent devices, contrivances, and processes that assist themselves and their audience toward a better world.
While there is no substitute for hard work, there are resources that contribute to making the job of “inventing” easier. I advocate for the similarity between the arts and sciences and participating in both can enrich the other.
Scientific process from Science Buddies. https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/science-fair/steps-of-the-scientific-method
There are seven steps to the scientific method: Question, Research, Hypothesis, Experiment, Data Analysis, Conclusion, and Communication. Although scientists may modify, reorder, or revisit steps on occasion, scientists generally use this basic logical approach.
Creative process from Study.com. https://study.com/learn/lesson/creative-process-overview-steps.
1. Preparation
2. Incubation
3. Illumination
4. Evaluation
5. Implementation
As you can see, they follow a similar pattern. A question or idea, do your homework (find out as much as you can, make sketches and plans), more research and experimentation, an “aha” moment when it seems to make sense. Then another look at it. Don’t be satisfied with the first solution. Sometimes this process goes on for a long time.
I have used this comparison as an activity because the procedures are parallel. Doing art projects (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.) is another way of developing the skills of scientific inquiry in students. With some planning and direction, they can overlap.
You can find many examples in the book How To Become An Accidental Genius by Elizabeth MacLeod, Frieda Wishinsky, & Jenn Playford (also mentioned in two previous STEM Tuesday posts). I found the book to be FULL of good advice and very relevant examples. Although, I did wonder about the use of the term “genius.” One does not have to be a “genius” to accomplish remarkable things. Or even regular things successfully.
Right on page 7 in the book is a super list of “qualifications.” My particular favorite is tenacity. I myself am no genius but I managed to make a creative career for myself in the arts. Tenacity is so important. I never gave up.
The book goes on to give examples. Some of the successes were through persistence, some were accidental, some were by making unlikely connections, or seeing a need and working to fill it. There is no ONE path and people of all ages and abilities can accomplish by setting goals and by being sensitive to the world around them.
As the poet Marvin Bell said, “Art is the big YES.” Aspiring artists and scientists should not be afraid to go ahead. Google says Thomas Edison was quoted as saying, “I will not say I failed 1,000 times, I will say that I found 1,000 ways that won’t work.” There is knowledge and experience to be gained in all endeavors.
Margo Lemieux worked as a teacher, kick box instructor, tee shirt designer, newspaper correspondent, children’s book author & illustrator, cookie packer, craft vendor coordinator, and a whole bunch of other jobs before retiring as professor emerita from Lasell University. She still actively maintains a career in visual art and writing.
