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In today’s Author Spotlight, Jo Hackl chats with USA Bestselling author Amalie Jahn about her new middle-grade novel, Team Canteen (Pixel+Ink).  Amalie is the recipient of the Literary Classics Seal of Approval and the Readers’ Favorite Gold Medal for her debut YA novel, THE CLAY LION. Her first YA contemporary, THE NEXT TO LAST MISTAKE, won the prestigious IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award in 2020. She is a contributing blogger with the Huffington Post and Southern Writers Magazine. A TED speaker, human rights advocate, and active promoter of kindness, she lives with her husband, two children, and three extremely overfed cats.

Plus, there’s a chance to win a finished/signed copy of Team Canteen if you enter the giveaway. Scroll down for details. 

All about the book!

On the final night of summer camp, Tasha, Raelynn, Claire, and Billie get busted stuffing themselves with ice cream in the mess hall’s walk-in freezer. But when they slip away without being punished, they’re convinced the pink feather boa Billie put on to stay warm is magic.

Back at home, each member of Team Canteen tests the boa’s powers as they face their own challenges. When her little cousin moves in with her destructive dog, Tasha struggles to find her place inside her adoptive family. Claire’s scared the kids at school will find out how hard life’s gotten since her dad lost his job. Raelynn longs to be someone other than her sister’s twin. And with a hockey-obsessed family charting his every move, Billie’s worried he’ll never be able to share his dream of becoming a figure skater.

It’s going to be a rocky road from the start of the school year back to Camp Happy Hollow. Will the boa continue to protect Team Canteen, or will their friendship end up being the most magical find of all?

Amalie, many thanks for answering my questions.

Jo: Team Canteen combines the best parts of The Baby-Sitters Club and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, turns them upside-down, and modernizes them for today’s kids. Why did you think the market needed a new series like Team Canteen?

Amalie: A lot of recent middle grade series are big stakes books. The Last Kids on Earth series is about zombies and the end of the world. All the kids in The Forgotten Five series have supernatural powers. All of Rick Riordan’s books are full of life and death situations. But I don’t write big stakes. I write small stakes. Quiet stakes. And I think sometimes small stakes are enough. Making it through middle school is tough. There are a lot of obstacles. Parents who don’t understand. Classmates who bully. Siblings who tease. Hormones. The struggle to fit in. And these problems are valid and worthy of discussion. Kids need to see real problems tackled on the page.

Jo:. Team Canteen is told in alternating chapters from four different perspectives. How did you handle the logistics of writing from so many different points of view?

Amalie: It was tough, honestly! At first, I started writing sequentially. A Tasha chapter, followed by a Billie chapter, followed by a Claire chapter, and so on. I felt like I needed to draft chronologically to keep the pacing and plotlines consistent. What I found pretty quickly, however, was that it was nearly impossible to get any traction with regard to each character’s voice jumping from head to head in that way. At about ten thousand words in, I decided to draft each character’s story independently from start to finish and not worry too much about how they would ultimately intersect with one another. Once each character arc was complete, I was able to go back through and layer in places where their stories connected. The text chains between them really helped with that.

Jo: You’ve spent the last ten years writing for young adults. What was different about writing for a younger audience?

Amalie: One of the most obvious differences I encountered between YA and MG was point of view. Although I’d written all of my young adult titles in first person, the majority of middle grade books I encountered were written in third. It didn’t take long to realize the difference in POV could be mostly attributed to voice. In addition to voice, it became apparent that YA and MG characters were compelled by different motivations. For example, the majority of my young adult characters’ choices were influenced by their desire to find their place in the world, but most of the MG characters from my research were more concerned with fitting in with immediate friends and family.

Jo: At the beginning of the book, Tasha finds a feather boa that the kids are convinced is magic because it keeps them from getting in trouble. What is the point of this unique talisman?

Amalie: Honestly, the boa was initially a plot device. A way to connect the four stories and drive the narrative forward with regard to keeping the kids involved in each other’s lives over the course of the school year. Ultimately, however, it became something far more. A confidence booster for the kids to help them face tough decisions and difficult situations. Sort of like Dumbo the Elephant and his magic feather. He could always fly without the feather, but having it gave him the confidence to do what he was always capable of on his own. And in the case of Team Canteen, their friendship was the real magic.

Jo: To which of your four main characters do you relate the most?

Amalie: It’s hard to say which one I relate to the most because there’s a bit of me inside all of them. Like Billie, I understand the pressure of living inside a family with rigid expectations for success. I see myself in Tasha and how jarring it can be when your sense of self is completely shaken. I identify with Claire and the reality of her family’s difficult financial situation. And I empathize with Raelynn and the stress of trying to fit into a world that doesn’t quite understand you. But mostly, I remember deeply what it was to live on the periphery. To be on the outside looking in, hoping to find a way to become cool and popular overnight. That feeling of otherness is what I relate most to, and I think—I hope—lots of readers will too.

Jo: Can you tell us a bit more about your motivation to write Team Canteen? 

Amalie: For the past several months, I’ve been working on not one, not two, but three adult manuscripts. And I have to be honest when I say that writing for adults isn’t tugging at me quite the way writing for young people does. There’s something special about knowing that the children reading my words may see themselves (or others) in the pages and take something meaningful with them long after the final chapter is done. The Team Canteen kids are a tribute to the kid I was and the kids I knew. Their friendships and their stories speak to the type of friendship I think every child longs for, and I count myself grateful to have had strong childhood relationships that endure to this day. We might not have always been the smartest or the richest or the funniest or the coolest, but we met each other where we were and that was enough.

No MUF interview is complete without a lightning round, so.. . 

Favorite cities (besides the one in which you live):  Barcelona and Venice

Favorite musical group or artist:  I’m a huge 90s alternative girl. The Cure. Tori Amos. The Dave Matthews Band. 

Would you rather be able to speak every language in the world or talk to animals?  

Oh I’m definitely talking to animals. 

Favorite ice cream flavor? Mint Chocolate Chip

Do you prefer mountains or beaches or somewhere in between?  I’ve been a beach girl my whole life but my family recently got a little fixer upper on the top of a mountain, and it’s become my peaceful happy place. 

Favorite childhood TV show?  The Muppet Show

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?  First drafts don’t need to be perfect, they just need to be written. 

Jo: Thanks for chatting with us Amalie!

And now. . . .

For a chance to win a signed copy of Team Canteen, comment on the blog—and, if you’re on Twitter/X, on the Mixed-Up Files  Twitter/X account, for an extra chance to win!  (Giveaway ends September 26, 2024 MIDNIGHT EST.) U.S. only, please. Book will be mailed after publication.

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