Posts Tagged Author Interview

STEM Tuesday– Mountains– Author Interview

By on March 24, 2026   /   Mountains/Rainforests/Cloud Forests, STEM Tuesday   /   Leave a comment

Welcome to STEM Tuesday: Author Interview, a repeating feature for the last Tuesday of every month. Go Science-Tech-Engineering-Math!

Today, we’re delighted to welcome Maxwell Eaton, author of Survival Scout: Lost in the Mountains⛰️(May 2023, Roaring Brook Press). This hilarious graphic novel features a strong female main character who has what it takes to survive. The book is a great choice for scouting groups, wilderness lovers, and readers who like a good laugh.

About the book:

Scout’s woe is your gain in the first of the SURVIVAL SCOUT graphic novel series, where Scout endures natural disasters so we don’t have to.

Stay calm, and Scout it out

1) Take inventory of what you have 🔦🧭🧥🧦📿🧻🍪
2) Find shelter⛺️
3) Make a fire🔥
4) Signal for help 🆘
5) Secure water and food 💦🐟

Follow Scout’s trial through the mountains, as she explains how to survive if you ever find yourself lost in the wilderness. A perfect travel companion for those with a knack for adventure, or prone to getting disoriented in the forest.

This humorous and informative comic-format guide showcases all things survival in the great outdoors. ~ The Horn Book

An enlightening guide for aspiring adventurers. ~ Kirkus

Linda: Survival Scout: Lost in the Mountains is a fun way to convey 

information about survival skills. The animals that keep chiming in are hysterical. Where did you get the idea for this book?

Max: The idea came from a chat with my editor. We were brainstorming and discussing some of my interests, which include a lot of outdoor adventure activities, and we thought maybe a book that spells out what to do when things go wrong might be fun. It started as a picture book, but it was so dense that it made perfect sense to open it up, add more humor and depth, and turn it into a graphic novel.

Linda: What was your research process like?

Max: I’ve spent most of my life outside having fun in the mountains and on the water in all kinds of seasons and settings, so I have a decent feel for the reality of being in trouble in the mountains. But I really needed to back things up with a cohesive philosophy and structure for survival. Kind of a flow chart of what to do when things go wrong. And that meant hitting the books! Tons of reading. Everything from first hand survival accounts to wilderness first response manuals. From the mountain of reading I was able to distill a rough framework for what Scout, and possibly a young reader, should do if they’re lost.

Linda: What do you hope readers take away from this graphic novel?

Max: I want readers to know that sometimes the best thing they can do in a stressful situation is pause, breathe, and collect themselves. Too much thinking has rarely made a survival situation worse…

Linda: How can teachers and librarians use this book?

Max: Any element of Scout’s story is useful, fascinating, and possibly lifesaving. Activities in the book like building or seeking a shelter, starting a campfire, or using a map and compass (my favorite) are practical and fun, a chance to get hands dirty, and can all be tied to science, physics, and math. 

Linda:You have a few other Survival Scout Books. Tell us how the other books in the series evolved and if there are more books planned.

Max: Survival Scout: Tsunami is the follow-up to Lost in the Mountains. We decided to go big for this one! And again, beyond the scares and action, it’s overflowing with earth science, physics, and skunk jokes. Survival Scout: Lost at Sea is the same but with the addition of some information about weather systems. It was a ton of fun to research each of them and heartening to have heard from scientists, museums, and professionals in related fields who have written to tell me how blown away they were by the depth and accuracy of these silly little graphic novels! There aren’t any other books in the works, but I hope that kids find and enjoy these three.

Linda: In my college years, I once ran into trouble while hiking Mount Washington. I was on an exposed ridge with the sun setting and the temperature plunging. As the stars came into view, I spotted a ramshackle building. It turned out to be a bustling high-mountain hut. What’s your mountain survival story?

Max: I can’t tell or my family will worry! But, again, I can tell readers from lots of experience that it pays to keep a level head and some perspective in the mountains. And always watch out for skunks!

Linda: Max, thanks so much for being our guest today on STEM Tuesday. I can’t wait to read your next book!

Maxwell Eaton III is the critically acclaimed author and illustrator of dozens of outdoor adventure-based picture books and comics for young readers. All of Maxwell’s books are informed by a life led outdoors in the mountains and on the water. He is passionate about sharing his love for the natural world with young people and empowers them to get outside; make and do with their own hands; to think and act with calm and collected minds; and to maintain perspective and humor. He skis, paddles, and writes in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State. 

Linda Zajac is the author of Robo-Motion: Robots That Move Like Animals and eight Minecraft books for kids. She’s an award-winning science writer who sometimes trades her writing cap for a biking helmet, a hiking visor, or a kitty named Twinky. Find her at www.lindarosezajac.com

 

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Interview with Margaret Gurevich

By on March 19, 2026   /   Articles, Author Interviews   /   Leave a comment
Today, please author Margaret Gurevich to the Mixed-Up Files! Margaret’s latest MG novel, Yasha’s Amazin’ Bar Mitzvah, hailed by Kirkus as: “A loving, carefully delineated portrayal of growth,” is out now from Penguin Workshop. But first…

A Summary

It’s 1986, and 13-year-old Yasha Reznik doesn’t understand why his parents moved from their Russian community in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, to the suburbs of New Jersey. Sure, it may be their American Dream, but it’s not his. Yasha’s dream is to make it through his Bar Mitzvah, watch the New York Mets make it to the playoffs, and fit in at his new school.

But fitting in is harder than he thinks, when he’s one of only two Russian families in town; he even starts going by “Jake” instead of “Yasha.” The only person who seems to really get him is Bernie, his pal from the senior citizen home where Yasha is doing community service for his bar mitzvah project.

When Bernie says his dream is also to see the Mets win the World Series, Yasha knows that somehow, someway, he’s going to get those tickets–even if he doesn’t know his Torah portion yet, or why he feels alone even with his new “friends.”

Yasha’s Amazin’ Bar Mitzvah

MR: Welcome to the Mixed-Up Files, Margaret! Before we dive in, can you tell readers a bit about Yasha’s Amazin’ Bar Mitzvah?

MG: This book means so much to me as it’s based on some of my own experiences growing up as a Russian-Jewish-American in the 1980s. Yasha and his family emigrated from the former Soviet Union to Brighton Beach, New York. Eight years later, they move to the suburbs of New Jersey. While in New York, he lived in a community with many others who were Russian; in New Jersey, he is one of two in his grade. He struggles to fit in while planning for his Bar Mitzvah. He finds a friend in Bernie, a senior citizen he meets for his Bar Mitzvah project. They both love the Mets, and this propels Yasha to try and get tickets to the 1986 World Series.

Memories from Childhood

MR: Like Yasha, you emigrated to the United States from the former Soviet Union as a child. How was your experience similar to Yasha’s? How was it different?

MG: Yasha is a little older than I was. We moved to New Jersey when I was eight, and I was 10 in 1986. Yasha is 13. Also, while we lived in Brooklyn, we did not live in Brighton Beach, so the atmosphere was  different. I never had a Bat Mitzvah project or a “Bernie,” but I was very close to my grandfather and based some of Bernie on him.

The discrimination Yasha experiences is very much based on my own experiences. It took a long time  for me to accept the Russian part of me. I felt really “othered” because of that. Our love of the Mets is the same, and I remember watching (on TV) the Mets win the World Series in 1986 and all the hype around that. Like Yasha, my father’s brother and mother stayed behind in the former Soviet Union when my parents, sister, and I came to the United States. My mother’s parents came with us. So, there are many similarities.

But I feel Yasha’s story is universal. Anyone coming from another country or culture who is trying to fit in will be able to relate to his experiences and struggles with his parents and peers. Even if one did not come from another culture, everyone has felt left out, and I think that theme will resonate. (For more on Margaret’s emigration experience, check out her first-person Newsweek essay.)

Meet the Mets!

MR: Baseball is a huge part of Yasha’s story, particularly his love for the New York Mets. I know you’re a Mets fan, too. How did your love of baseball originate?

MG: To be honest, I’m not sure! It was not a big thing in my family. My parents were not very familiar with baseball. My dad loved soccer and hockey and then got into American football. Every summer, my sister and I went to the Catskills with my grandparents. There were many kids our age. All those kids were into the Mets, so I think that’s where it started. I learned about the sport and team from them. The Mets won the World Series in the fall of ’86, and when we went back to that same bungalow colony the summer of ‘87, everyone was still talking about the win like it was yesterday. So, it was Mets hype all over again.

Intergenerational Friendships

MR: Another important part of Yasha’s story is his friendship with Bernie, a resident of the Heavenly Skies retirement home whom Yasha met while working on his bar mitzvah project. Can you tell readers more about Yasha’s connection with Bernie? Also, what were you trying to say about intergenerational friendships?

MG: I think it’s so telling that the person Yasha connects with first is not in his own age group. Growing up, I loved hearing my grandparents tell me about their parents and what they went through. Even now, I remember that while their exact experiences differed from mine, there were universal moments–first love, loss of friends, loneliness, sibling connections, academic woes and successes, etc.–that resonated with me.

The school where I teach has many opportunities for students to connect with the town’s more senior residents, and it leaves both the seniors and teens feeling fulfilled. In terms of Bernie and Yasha, they are both lonely and have undergone similar family issues. They find hope and a friend in each other, and each help the other heal.

Margaret’s Amazin’ Bat Mitzvah

MR: Speaking of B’nai Mitzvahs, did you have one? If so, was it anything like Yasha’s?

MG: My Bat Mitzvah was close to Yasha’s date, albeit three years later. When I was that age, we were part of a conservative synagogue and women were not permitted to read from the Torah. So, I did not have a Torah portion like Yasha does. I did have to memorize prayers, though. My party was not in a Russian restaurant, and it had a mix of Jewish and American food. However, we did have a DJ who added some Russian songs into the party mix. The thing I remember most about my Bat Mitzvah was the fun, family, and friends. Two of my friends made a memory glass for me. It was a thing back then. They melted candle wax and put flowers and ribbons and things in it.

(For more books that feature B’nai Mitzvahs, check out this article from the Mixed-Up Files archives.)

The Importance of Jewish Books

MR: As a follow-up, Yasha’s Amazin’ Bar Mitzvah is a quintessentially Jewish book, which showcases Jewish joy. Why are Jewish books so important, especially now in our current political climate?

MG: There has been a big uptick in antisemitism in recent years. That is very sad and scary. I think it is important for everyone to see each other as human beings who have more commonalities than differences. If people who hate read Yasha’s Amazin’ Bar Mitzvah, they will hopefully find room in their heart to see humanity rather than whatever image or story they created in their minds about Jewish people as a whole.

Ain’t It Funny

MR: Yasha’s Amazin’ Bar Mitzvah is your second middle-grade novel. Ain’t it Funny, about an 11-year-old wannabe comic with OCD, came out in 2024. How will your experience as a previously published author affect your approach to launching and marketing Yasha? What will you do differently this time? What will remain the same?

MG: I feel this time I put myself out there more. I have been on various podcasts, did more interviews, scheduled a virtual book tour, and promoted publicly more. I am not the best at self-promotion and a part of me feels it will annoy people. I’m trying to push past that. I feel if it bugs people, they can always mute me or keep scrolling. 🙂

In terms of what’s the same, I had my Ain’t It Funny book launch at the local library and will do the same for the release of Yasha’s Amazin’ Bar Mitzvah. For AIF, I had joke stations and people who attended were able to make up their own jokes or share one of the one already there. This time, the theme is Bar Mitzvah party! I’m excited for the party atmosphere and the activities I have planned: Bar Mitzvah games, photo booth, snacks, etc.

The Juggler

MR:  In addition to being a novelist, you are a middle-school teacher, editor, and writing coach. How do you juggle these different facets of your life? What are the biggest challenges? The greatest rewards?

MG: Besides what you mentioned, my friend and I recently started a college consulting business, https://caringcollegeconsulting.com/. We have both worked independently assisting students with college essays and applications and decided to join forces. So, yes, all of these ventures require balance, and sometimes it’s a challenge. However, it has forced me to become more organized, which has been a struggle since elementary school. As I have become older, I have learned what works for me. For the college consulting, my business partner and I make detailed spreadsheets that keep us on track.

Teaching requires daily and weekly planning. And, thanks to deadlines, I can keep up with my writing. The biggest reward of all my ventures is connecting with and helping others. I love encouraging my middle-school students and celebrating their accomplishments. The same holds true for our consulting clients. It’s so rewarding seeing their faces light up when they get into the college or university they want or when they see how far their Common App essay has come.

Finally, I adore connecting with readers as well and hearing their thoughts about my novels. When a student says they saw themselves in my characters, it means a lot.

Writing Routine

MR: What is your writing process like, Margaret? Do you have a specific writing routine? Also, are you a plotter or a pantser?

MG: I write when I can. Usually, that’s on weekends or over school breaks. I used to be a pantser, but I would inevitably get stuck toward the middle of a book. Now I write out all the major plot points and make a chapter-by-chapter outline. I’m lucky my agent is editorial. She always provides great feedback on my outlines and any scene I’m stuck on. One of my closest friends is a writer too, and she and I swap pages and brainstorm all the time as well, and that’s also very helpful.

Next Up…

MR: What’s next on your writing agenda? Any new projects you can tell us about?

MG: My friend and I are working on a book for an adult audience. It’s fun and quirky and still very much in the planning stages. I also have another middle-grade idea, and we’ll see what happens. Fingers crossed.

Lightning Round!

And finally, No Mixed-Up Files interview is complete without a lightning round, so…

Preferred writing snack? Goldfish crackers

Most memorable World Series moment? The ball going through Buckner’s legs in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series

Favorite Mets player, past or present? I can’t pick just one: Past would be Tom Seaver, Keith Hernandez, Mike Piazza, and David Wright. The present would be Francisco Lindor.

Coffee or tea? Coffee to wake up, chamomile tea to calm down

Zombie apocalypse: Yea or nay? Nay, because I have no survival skills at all.

Superpower? The ability to go back in time

Favorite place on earth? Anywhere with my family and my cat, Goose 🙂 

You’re stranded on a desert island, with only three items in your possession. What are they? Assuming I can’t bring my family, then sunscreen, a water purifier, and a huge box of matches

MR: Thank you for chatting with me, Margaret—and congratulations on Yasha’s Amazin’ Bar Mitzvah. I thought it was fab, and I know MUF readers will agree!

MG: I’m so glad you enjoyed it. Thank you so much for having me. This was so fun, and your questions really made me think!

Bio

Margaret Gurevich had wanted to be a writer since she was seven years old. Her first story was about a girl who got kidnapped in the woods, and she entered it in the second-grade writing contest. Unfortunately, her teachers thought the story was too scary, and the prize went to a girl who wrote about a talking strawberry. However, if you ask Margaret, talking strawberries are plenty scary, so she was definitely robbed! Lucky for her, she recovered from this slight and went on to write for magazines (SELF, Ladies’ Home Journal, Parents, and more) and publish novels. Her Chloe by Design series was billed as a “Project Runway for Teens,” and received praise from School Library Journal, VOYA, Booklist, and Kirkus. She is also the author of books in Penguin Workshop’s Who Was series. Her middle-grade novel, Ain’t It Funny, was published by Penguin Workshop in 2024. Learn more about Margaret on her website.

Melissa Roske is a writer of middle-grade fiction. Before spending her days with imaginary people, she interviewed real ones as a journalist in Europe. In London she landed a job as an advice columnist for Just Seventeen magazine. Upon returning to her native New York, Melissa contributed to several books and magazines, selected jokes for Reader’s Digest (just the funny ones), and received certification as a life coach from NYU. In addition to her debut novel Kat Greene Comes Clean (Charlesbridge), Melissa’s short story “Grandma Merle’s Last Wish” appears in the Jewish middle-grade anthology, Coming of Age: 13 B’nai Mitzvah Stories. Learn more about Melissa on her Website and follow her on Facebook, and Instagram.

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Landslides and landfills make for great reads!

By on March 9, 2026   /   Articles  

Betty Culley Young Adult and Middle Grade Book Author

Maine author Betty Culley has lived the effects of a landfill on a small rural community. A commercial landfill situated less than five miles from her home collapsed in 1989. Garbage that had covered 12.5 acres was, within moments, spread across 25 acres. The land surrounding that site still is a landfill (now operating on 158 of their 1,267 acres) and it now supplies waste capacity for towns and businesses all throughout New England and beyond. It also provides jobs and contributes to the community, sponsoring school sporting events and more. Given her experiences, this Maine writer wanted to paint a realistic picture of what it’s like for kids in a small town where a large, commercial landfill is situated.

In Landslide, the main character, ten year old Nathan Savage, lives right across the road from a landfill, where the mountain of garbage is reaching 90 feet. This landfill provides employment for Nathan’s dad, who works on top of the heap driving the huge compactor that compresses the garbage. The landfill also  sponsors Nathan’s hockey team. At the same time, Nathan’s mom closes her curtains during daylight hours and chooses to work  at night when the garbage trucks are not rumbling past the house. She works at home stitching shoes for a local shoe shop. The landfill is on land her own parents once farmed, and where she grew up playing in the fields and listening to birds sing.

Landslide - A Middle Grade Book by Betty Culley

Nathan, the book’s narrator,  has an extraordinary ability to perceive motion. Per Betty, this ability  “is not a documented talent. It’s something I made up. Maybe a bit of magical realism, but also, there’s the suggestion that when you pay close attention to the world around you, you may notice  things other people don’t. I wanted to have kids realize that noticing the natural world can be its own gift. You might observe what  others might not notice because you’re paying attention.”

The downside of living near a landfill is portrayed honestly, including the pervasive odor, the noise of truck traffic and the contamination of a local stream on a organic dairy farm that Nathan loves to visit.  Betty carried out extensive research on the solid waste industry, created sympathetic characters and provided an even handed portrayal of the economic benefits of the landfill. Nathan’s quirky friend, Wilder Bacon, learns about landfills and “garbology” as Nathan observes subtle movements and shifting on the hill. Nathan explains to Wilder that a landslide is inevitable and how he worries that his dad might be hurt or even killed in the collapse.

Betty became interested in telling Nathan’s story in part because the landfill that collapsed in 1989  is now the site of the only commercial landfill operation in Maine and is owned by the largest trash management company in the world.  It’s also where she brings her own trash. As she wrote Nathan’s story, Betty researched the history of trash management in her own town. “I live on 85 acres in a small town in Maine. Our town used to have an open pit dump where the  trash was burnt when it got full.” When open pit dumps were banned, engineered landfills with leachate collection systems became the norm. She learned that a few, like the one near Betty’s home, take special waste such as oily debris and forever chemicals.

Regarding the family that lives across from her local landfill, Betty reports, “They’re in their 80s and still live there, where their parents farmed, right across from the entrance to the landfill and they still have cows. Their persistence and steadfastness was a great part of my inspiration.” Betty strove to write an even handed story because she wanted to answer the question, “How do we live with these things?”

“I also have seen how the waste management industry has changed,” she says. Betty sees that efforts are being made to improve landfill safety as well as urging people to reuse, recycle and reduce reliance on single use products.

In many ways, Landslide parallels community efforts nowadays to deal with giant corporations creating data centers which can create problems such as drought due to water usage, or excessive energy bills.

Betty, who writes realistic young adult and middle grade novels and is a keen observer of adolescent and young adult perspectives, has been writing since she was a little girl. She says, “I always wanted to publish a book but I didn’t have a lot of self-confidence so I didn’t share my writing for a long time. Then I joined a writers’ group and started sharing my writing and learned more about the publishing world and the process of querying agents.” That changed her perspective and approach. “I couldn’t be shy about my writing anymore. It really is a dream come true to have my words out in the world.”

Betty’s interest in writing is definitely coupled with her interest in learning, researching and realism.  Once she decided to portray Nathan’s mother as a shoemaker she researched the Maine shoemaking industry. “I met a woman who was a hand sewer and she showed me her tools. She laid out her tools and showed me her thread and how she taped her hands.” Betty adds, “Shoe shops were very big in Maine at one time and there is still hand sewing being done here.”

Per Betty, Nathan’s mother chooses to work at night and keep the drapes drawn against the landfill, “as a survival mechanism. I think it was the idea that there was something beyond her control out there. It changed her beautiful view and peaceful quiet. Drawing closed the curtains and working at night is her way of trying to deal with it. Not to see it, not to hear it, not to smell it, if she can.”

The message here goes beyond Natham’s mom to the ways we all try to cope. “Whether it’s healthy or if it works, it’s all she can do. On this earth we all try to create beauty in our lives but there are things beyond our control, like a big building might be built near us or a highway might be rerouted, changing our view. That’s what happened to Nathan’s mom.”

At one point, Nathan sees his mom transplanting her perennials from the front yard to the backyard and he helps her, realizing it’s one of her ways of coping while living with the landfill.

There is tremendous reality and depth of life and character in this novel. Betty says this comes about almost magically. “The way I write, I’m not really a plotter. I’m kind of a pantser and when I write sometimes characters appear and there they are. It can feel like the muse is at work, kind of a magical thing. That’s what happened with Wilder. Having Wilder in the story was fun, especially because friendship is an important part of the book.”

“In all my novels that have social issues—Three Things I Know Are True has gun violence issues in it—I don’t really take sides. Instead, I strive to show the truth as best I can. It’s not about this is right and this is wrong. That’s not how I view writing. I try to find a voice and see what the character tells me.”

To assure that she was giving readers a well-rounded view of small communities and their landfills, Betty says she “talked to a landfill compactor operator, toured the giant state run landfill at Juniper Ridge, north of Bangor and stood on the working face watching the trucks come in.” She says everyone on all sides of the solid waste issue appear to share the same sentiment, “Garbage has to go somewhere.” So Betty “tried to look at the whole picture and how this industry affected one boy’s life and where he lives and what happens to him, his family, his friends, and his community.”

Nathan is a character who stays with readers long after we close the last page of the novel. A memorable image is of Nathan looking down at his house from atop a nearby hill as the landfill expansion begins and planning to plant more crabapple trees. That leaves readers wondering what Nathan might do next. Betty says, “I do have my own crabapple orchard with close to 20 crabapple trees. Some of them grow apples big enough to eat. Others have hard berries that birds love . I planted the orchard  simply for its blooms, its beauty.”

There’s a big takeaway in this novel, one that could make it a valuable all-community read for teachers and librarians who want to share the love of reading in their schools and communities. Betty describes that takeaway as “In life, sometimes there are big challenges we have to face, like what Nathan faced. Challenges that are right in front of you that don’t have easy answers and you have to rely on yourself and other people to find your way. And you can still find the beauty in your life.”

Betty had some specific advice for readers of all ages:

For the teachers and librarians – “The nature and volume of our garbage has dramatically changed and the generation coming up is going to have some real challenges. I hope that we can give students the tools for how to think about these things and learn how to help protect the environment. Maybe some of them will come up with ideas that are life changing for all of us.”

For students — “I’ve met with students and I’ve heard some of them talk about their concerns for the earth and the environment. Tell them I believe in them and I have faith in them to help things move forward. They’re thoughtful and they’re caring and I appreciate that. “

For more of Betty’s novels, you can visit her website: Betty Culley – Author of Young Adult & Middle Grade Novels Betty Culley | Author

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