Posts Tagged Author Interview

Interview with Cassidy Wasserman about Graphic Novel ON GUARD!

By on June 9, 2025   /   Author Interviews  

Today, we’re excited to have Cassidy Wasserman with us on the Mixed-Up Files. I had the pleasure of reading her graphic novel On Guard!, which is releasing tomorrow, June 10!  I also got to interview her about the book, her inspiration and process, and more. Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us, Cassidy!Cover of On Guard by Cassidy Wasserman

 

The author’s note in the book shares that the original seed for this story was about a friend breakup but slowly became about the relationship between mothers and daughters. The line you shared about the real story finding you along the way was lovely, and I wondered if you could talk more about how the story on the page came to be. How did you know when that shift needed to happen?

When I started writing On Guard!, I was focused on Grace and Ava, and how they grew apart. As I wrote, I dug deep into the feelings I experienced in middle school that were likely to be a more universal experience for readers. The story of my parents’ divorce was prevalent in my mind, and I realized that there was a natural through line between Grace, Ava, and Grace’s mom. I decided the shift in focus had to come from Grace starting that school year all on her own, where her struggles at home and school are now completely intertwined. Not only do we see her struggling at home while butting heads with her mother’s personality, but even at school she’s faced with how much she believes her mother liked Ava more than her.

 

There is a lot of your own story inside of Grace’s (and it’s awesome that you’re both artists!). How did you approach weaving parts of your own life into the narrative?

I feel the best stories come from personal experiences. I approached adding these parts of my life to Grace’s story by picking the ones that felt the most relatable, and the ones that I hadn’t yet seen told. I mention in my author’s note that I didn’t get to see relatable stories of mothers and daughters growing up, and it was important for me that this feeling of alienation from your maternal figure would come through. I wanted to ensure the story was true to my lived experience.

 

Relationships are handled deftly in your work, whether it’s Grace with her mom, Grace with her dad, or Grace with her friends, old and new. It was fascinating to see how you gave all of these relationships space in the book—both in the text and in the art itself. Could you tell us how you balanced these threads?

It all comes down to pacing, and making sure every story is intertwined with another. Grace is going through quite a lot, and all of those relationships need their time on the page. I like to let the art tell the story where I can. When you can let a reader sit with a silent panel or two, it can have a big impact. I found that when the plotlines organically developed to suit the needs of Grace and the story, they all started to naturally click into place.

 

One of my favorite lines was when Grace admitted she mostly just wants to hold a sword—who doesn’t? There were many other powerful moments that came through analogies to fencing, like when Grace realizes she can only control her own moves, not her opponent’s. Could you tell us about how you got into fencing? Did that experience give you the idea for this book?

I could talk about fencing all day! When I was a kid, I read The Spiderwick Chronicles, and the sister in that book fences. Ever since then, I’d hoped to be able to do it myself someday. I didn’t get to fence in school, but after college I joined a local club. Epee just happened to be the only weapon they taught, as my coach was a collegiate women’s epee coach. (Go, Wellesley!) It worked out nicely, because epee is the simplest weapon to explain. Foil and saber have a few more rules. I was in love with the sport from the moment I walked into the club and heard the bell guards ringing. I had been mulling over a story about my “Ava” for a while, and after I starting fencing, it became clear.

 

You mentioned you’ve always loved to draw and read. Are there any favorite books or artists that have profoundly shaped you as an author-illustrator?

Lucy Knisley is a big influence on me when it comes to graphic novels. Her travelogues were my favorite thing to bring around in art school. I’ve also pored over Jen Wang’s artwork in The Prince and the Dressmaker a million times, and anything from Tony DiTerlizzi. Be Prepared by Vera Brosgol is also one of my favorites. The biggest influence on me as a writer, though, has to be Rick Riordan. I am a Percy Jackson kid through and through—it holds such a special place in my heart.

 

You’re also passionate about video games and work as a UX/UI artist. Do video games influence your creative process or storytelling?

Yes! Some of my favorite plots and stories to study are video games. The Last of Us in particular is incredible—I love how it deals with difficult topics and gray areas. My coworkers teach me to be a better artist and listener every day. As a UX/UI artist, I care deeply about accessibility and inclusion, and that naturally follows me to creating comics. Things like: Are the colors on the page workable for someone who is color blind? What about the font—is it easy to read for those with dyslexia? These are important questions when it comes to both comics and video games!

 

It sounds like book two for Grace is already underway! Will we get to see more fencing as well as more of Asher and Nia?

Yes! I cannot wait to dive deeper into their stories.

 

Do you have any other projects in the works we can get excited for?

I can’t say just yet, but stay tuned—I’m excited to show the world what’s next.

Cassidy Wasserman

If you could give writers any advice on how to keep writing even in the face of rejection or overwhelming odds, what would it be?

Keep going! Your story is worth telling—we need new perspectives on life. Take breaks when you need to and be kind to yourself, but don’t give up. Getting your story out there is sometimes about having it resonate with the right person, so writing something that is meaningful to you will always be worth that initial rejection.

No MUF interview is complete without a lightning round, so here it is!

Favorite place to write? My office!

Coffee or tea? Coffee, coffee, coffee!

Superpower? I want the chalk zone powers, where whatever you draw becomes real. I would draw myself so many ice cream sundaes.

Dream vacation? The Australia Zoo!

Dream job when you were a kid? I specifically wanted to be a “veterinarian, and an artist on my lunch breaks.”

House pet? Dogs and cats

 

Learn more about Cassidy and her projects at her website: https://www.cassidywasserman.com/

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Kat Greene, Clean Freaks, and the Messy Magic of Middle Grade: A MUF Member Spotlight on Melissa Roske

By on June 4, 2025   /   Author Interviews  

What happens when you combine the heart of a middle-schooler, the insight of a journalist, and the deep compassion of someone who’s held space for hundreds of struggling teens? You get Melissa Roske, a fellow Mixed-Up Files team member and middle-grade author whose storytelling is rooted in lived experience, emotional truth, and a whole lot of empathy.

Author Melissa Roske smiling and signing a book at a bookstore event. She is seated at a wooden table in front of bookshelves, wearing a sleeveless purple dress.

In this special MUF member spotlight, Melissa shares the heart behind Kat Greene Comes Clean (Charlesbridge, 2017), a novel that thoughtfully explores mental health, family dynamics, and finding your voice when the world gets messy. As a former advice columnist and life coach, Melissa brings a rare kind of tenderness to her writing. She doesn’t shy away from tough topics, and she doesn’t talk down

 to her readers. Instead, she meets them with honesty, humor, and a deep respect for their emotional world.

Get cozy. This one’s special.

Read more →

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STEM Tuesday– Natural Disasters– Author Interview

By on May 27, 2025   /   Natural Disasters, STEM Tuesday  

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

Today we’re interviewing Jessica Stremer, author of Fire Escape: How Animals and Plants Survive Wildfires a middle grade nonfiction book that examines how animals and plants detect and respond to wildfires as well as the role humans play during these widespread natural disasters.

Fire Escape has been named:

  • A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
  • An NSTA-CBC Outstanding Science Trade Book
  • An ALA Sustainability Round Table Top 10 Selection
  • Named to the Missouri Dogwood Reading List

And now, let’s find out what sparked the idea for this book for a better earth!

Emily Starr: I would love to know more about the evolution of this book’s outline. How did you move from the questions about wildfires you described in the acknowledgements to a book that includes such a wide variety of information. I never considered how a zoo responds to a wildfire!  

Jessica Stremer: You’ll often hear nonfiction picture book writers joke about not getting lost down the research rabbit hole. The great thing about writing long-form nonfiction is that you have the freedom chase different rabbits. Fire Escape started as a picture book, but the more I researched, the more I realized I couldn’t contain the story to forty pages. When I first begin researching, I use different search phrases to see what different responses I get. Often those responses will lead me down another rabbit hole of searches. When I felt I had chased enough rabbits, I organized everything into potential chapters. Of course, there’s always more questions that come up and more research to be done. 

Emily Starr: You include a lot of specialized wildfire response information! What was your process for contacting experts and conducting interviews?  

Jessica Stremer: I made a list of different people whose names I found while researching, then I put on a brave face and emailed them. In my emails I mention a little bit about myself, the project I’m working on, and ask if they’d be willing to chat to help me learn a little bit more and clarify or fill in holes in my research. I also mention that I will credit the interview in the book and send them a copy when its published. 

Emily Starr: Wildfires can be a scary topic for some students–especially those living in fire-prone zones. What was your thought process when considering how to present the information in a way that was realistic yet not too frightening? 

Jessica Stremer: Kids can handle more than we give them credit for. We need to have honest conversations with them by meeting them where they’re at. That’s what I tried to do in Fire Escape. I think a lot of it comes down to voice, word choice, and sentence structure. I shared facts about wildlife and wildfires, and tried to be careful to not go too into detail or include information that I didn’t think kids would find interesting or engaging. Chapter two contains a trigger warning as there are a few graphic photos of injured wildlife.  

Emily Starr: Climate change is such a complicated topic, yet you make it understandable for children. What were your considerations when deciding how much and what type of climate change information to include?

Pine pitch cones release their seeds only after fire exposure. Dmccabe, CC BY-SA 4.0

Jessica Stremer: There are a lot of books about climate change out there, so while I did think it was important to mention, I didn’t want to spend too much time on that topic. Climate change does play a part in the frequency and severity of wildfires, but it’s not the only reason we experience fires. I include mention of climate change in the chapter on megafires, but the real takeaway I’m hoping for is that people see that not all fires are bad. In fact, one of the reasons we’re experiencing so many destructive fires is because we’ve worked hard to prevent fires from happening. Much of the landscape needs fire, and I hope kids see that after reading this book. 

Emily Starr: Throughout the book, you illustrate how we are all part of an interconnected ecosystem. I especially appreciated the inclusion of ways humans help animals after wildfires and how animals help humans prevent wildfires. Were there any animals that didn’t make it into the book? 

Jessica Stremer: Most of the wildlife in Fire Escape can be found in North America. I didn’t have room for it in this book, but there are plenty of animals in different continents that also experience wildfire.  

Emily Starr: The layout of the book makes the information accessible–small blocks of text interspersed with photographs, illustrations and fire fact sidebars. What was your involvement in the layout and/or choosing the photographs? 

Jessica Stremer: I used the Fire Facts as a way to include additional information that I couldn’t fit into the narrative. I put them in places where the break felt natural, for example when transitioning from one idea or topic to the next. For the photographs, I tried to include two to three per chapter, knowing there would also be artwork incorporated throughout. Some were easier to find than others! I presented a handful of photo options for each chapter to my editor, and she told me which ones she preferred. The layout was all her! 

Emily Starr: What do you hope readers understand about wildfires by reading your book? 

Jessica Stremer: While I never want to downplay the human loss experienced from wildfires, I hope that readers see another side to wildfires that’s different than the doom and gloom portrayed on the news. I hope they understand why wildfire is an important natural event and learn about some of the benefits fire brings to the landscape. I also hope it encourages them to spend time outdoors and exploring the world around them. 

Emily Starr: Do you have upcoming projects you can share with our readers? 

Jessica Stremer: I have three picture books publishing this year! They are PLIGHT OF THE PELICAN: HOW SCIENCE SAVED A SPECIES, WONDERFULLY WILD: REWILDING A SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY, and TRAPPED IN THE TAR PIT: HOW SCIENTISTS UNEARTHED A CITY’S PREHISTORIC PAST. I love nature and science and hope readers consider picking up some of my other books. 

Jessica Stremer is an award-winning children’s author who combines her love of science and writing to create books that inspire kids to explore and think critically about the world around them. Her titles include GREAT CARRIER REEF (a NY Public Library Best Book of the Year and JLG Gold Standard selection), LIGHTS OUT: A Movement to Help Migrating Birds, FIRE ESCAPE: How Animals and Plants Survive Wildfires (a JLG Gold Standard selection), PLIGHT OF THE PELICAN: How Science Saved a Species, TRAPPED IN THE TAR PIT, and WONDERFULLY WILD. Jessica obtained a B.S. in Biology, with an emphasis in Ecology, from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. She was a recipient of the 2023 Stephen Fraser Encouragement Award, a 2023 finalist for the Russel Freedman award, and received honorable mention for the 2021 Ann Whitford Paul award. When not writing you can find Jessica cheering from the sideline of her kids’ soccer games, spending time outdoors, and planning her next family adventure.

 

As a former fourth grade teacher and founder of StarrMatica, a STEM publishing company, Emily Starr has developed award-winning K-5 science curriculum and professional learning materials for 20 years. She is a member of the Iowa State Science Leadership Team, a peer reviewer for the National Science Teaching Association’s journal Science and Children, and a frequent presenter at state and national education conferences. Her debut middle grade nonfiction book will be released in 2025 from the Iowa Ag Literacy Foundation.

 

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