In today’s Author Spotlight, Sydney Dunlap chats with author Ali Terese about her middle-grade novel, VOTE FOR THE G.O.A.T.
Ali Terese is a middle grade and YA author who writes funny and heartfelt stories including FREE PERIOD (Scholastic – 2024) and VOTE FOR THE G.O.A.T. (Aladdin / Simon & Schuster – 2025). Her work has received the National Book Award – Longlist honor, a School Library Journal starred review, an Audiofile Magazine Earphones Award, and a Kids’ Indie Next selection. FREE PERIOD is part of the Chicago Battle of the Books and Texas’s Lone Star Reading List. Visit Ali online for book bonuses, giveaways, and resources like discussion guides, recipes, craftivism projects, and more at aliterese.com.
All About the Book!
From the author of National Book Award-longlisted FREE PERIOD comes a new hijinks-fueled comedy about finding your voice, perfect for fans of Carrie Firestone and Lisa Yee!
Sporty Meg and fashionista Jo don’t have much in common besides being 7th graders at Somerset Middle School, where everyone is obsessed with being voted the Greatest of All Time and celebrated at the Harvest Ball. But when their mascot Somerset Babette (aka the world’s cutest goat) is kidnapped, Jo and Meg are wrongfully accused of being the culprits.
The burned-out soccer star and chronically-ill overachiever band together and assemble a rag-tag squad to steal the goat back. Banter, activism, self-care, double-crosses, big shenanigans, and even bigger feelings follow as the girls fight to change how animals are treated at their school and achieve true freedom for their four-legged, sweater-chewing friend in this laugh-out-loud middle-grade heist centering friendship and bodily autonomy.
Interview with Ali Terese!
Congratulations on your new book release! I absolutely adored it! Publisher’s Weekly gives VOTE FOR THE G.O.A.T. a starred review and writes, “Centering an intersectionally diverse cast across Meg and Jo’s alternating first-person POVs, Terese delivers a joyful slice-of-life romp about finding oneself and uplifting others.” I love this description of your book. What inspired this story?
I call this book Ted Lasso for tweens because it is full of hope, hilarity, and people who really care about each other and their goat! The book is set in a sports-crazed suburban town where the middle school mascot, Somerset Babette, has lost her little farm to yet another sports field and is now trapped in a parking lot. Well the kids are not going to let that happen to her! 7th grader Jo is already scheming to set the goat free when she and classmate Meg witness Babette getting kidnapped. Meg and Jo bring together a reverse heist crew to steal Babette back so they can truly change the way animals are treated on their campus. There are wild chases, double-crosses over disco fries, and an accounting fart joke for the ages. In standing up for Babette, the students find their voices in making decisions about their own bodies too, which is what inspired me to write this book in the first place.
When I was younger I had juvenile arthritis like Jo and a sports injury like Meg, but I didn’t know how to make my voice heard. So when the adults in my life said things like champions play through pain, you’re exaggerating, and limping will make it worse, I took all that to heart. I believed that my body existed in service to a game, teammates, a sport. When in reality, our precious bodies belong to us alone, and there isn’t some switch that flips when we turn 18 so that we know how to make decisions about ourselves. We need to learn as children when to rest, when to seek care, and build a society that allows those things to happen. I think kids deserve hilarious, affirming stories to remind them that they have a say over their own health and safety right now, and I feel so lucky that I get to write them.
Characters
Meg and Jo are such interesting main characters, and I enjoyed the rest of the cast as well. Who was your favorite character to write in this book, and why?
This is an impossible question! But I’ll say Meg because she is such an earnest goofball. When she’s injured at the beginning of the book and is forced to take a break from soccer, it gives her a chance to ask if playing this sport nonstop is how she wants to spend her life. Over the course of the story, she realizes she doesn’t actually know! Which I think is good for kids to see. She loves the game, but she isn’t willing to pay the price of her pain to play it at the level her dad and coaches expect. It is so hard to speak up for yourself in these situations, to see something different than the way you’ve always lived, and I loved spending time with Meg as she made her messy way through it. My hope is that young readers will reflect on her story and think about the decisions they’re making.
Craft
The plot has some great twists, and the heist element was fun and suspenseful. Was it difficult to craft? What were your biggest challenges in writing this?
I had so much fun with it! From a craft perspective, I had to keep reminding myself that even though there were mystery elements to figuring out who had taken Babette and why, the real focus was on the heist team. For me, heists are perfect for middle grade stories because they are natural team building exercises. Everyone has to recognize their own special skill and the special skills of the kids around them, figure out how they can all fit together to solve a problem, and then work with people who are different from them to create change. I also really enjoyed that Meg found her love of being part of a team in soccer translated to putting the squad together to save Babette. I hope sporty readers will think about how their creativity and leadership skills on the field can help them make a difference on issues they care about too.
Impact
As an animal lover, I really liked the concern for Babette and her well being. And the fact that the kids cared enough to do something. You are so good at writing stories that spur kids to positive action for their communities. Can you tell us a little about your 2023 debut novel, FREE PERIOD, and how it has spurred positive change in communities?
FREE PERIOD is a middle grade comedy where a couple of chaos monsters fight to get maxi-pads in all school bathrooms for all students who menstruate. It uses comedy, delightfully disgusting desserts including maxi-pad cupcakes and tampretzels, and wildly weird crafts like crochet utersuses to get kids laughing and having fun with an issue that can sometimes be different to talk about. My hope is that it is an entry point to the school period equity movement which is one of the greatest examples of student led action in our nation’s history. When I first started working on the book about a decade ago, no states required pads in schools. Now because of the work of students and their allies, about half the states in the country either require pads in some school bathrooms or provide funding for them. It has been so amazing to hear from young readers that they’ve gone to their principal after reading the book to advocate for period products and to partner with non-profits around the country doing this work. In the bigger picture, I hope kids see from Gracie and Helen’s story that you don’t need fancy or formal training to create change. Advocacy is for everyone, and they can use what they already love to do in life to make their voices heard.
Inspiration
Your new book also addresses the themes of sports burnout/bodily autonomy and a gradual return to playing after injury. These are so timely and relevant for today’s young athletes, and from what I can tell, rarely addressed. Did a personal experience motivate you to explore these areas in your book, or how did you decide to highlight these topics?
As I mentioned earlier, I was motivated by own experiences with sports injury and chronic illness as a young athlete. But when I started research for this book, it seemed so much had gotten worse rather than better in the decades since I played. Of course as a parent, I knew there were still overzealous parents and coaches, all the more complicated as children are pushed to specialize in a single sport and even play on more than one team per season. I was honestly shocked, though, to see the number of specialized children’s sports injury clinics popping up around the country for game nights. If there are so many injuries to justify a dedicated care center, how have the adults not stepped back to say, wait should we reevaluate what is causing all these injuries to children in the first place? That really informed the collective action aspect of the book. Children should be able to play and enjoy sports, but if their adults aren’t going to help them do it responsibly, teammates may have to work together to demand protections like a safe return-to-play plan that involves gradually returning after injury or burnout under the supervision of medical professionals. Also, grown-ups get it together.
Favorite Experiences
What have been some of your favorite experiences since becoming a published author?
If you go to my author website aliterese.com you’ll see a big part of my art is bringing the book world into the real world through craft. If there is a cuterus uterus cookie in the book you better believe I’m baking those in my kitchen. Same with the free bracelets, yarn crafts, t-shirts, games, and other resources on there. A few weeks ago, I heard from a young reader that picked up VOTE FOR THE G.O.A.T. at her local indie and saw the crochet Babette I’d dropped off at the store. And now she is crocheting her own Babette with her mom. My heart!! Can there be anything better than the art you put into the world bringing parents and kids together? I hope they make the cutest goat ever and talk about the intergenerational issues in the story while they do!
Advice
What is your advice for aspiring writers?
Please believe it when everyone says a bad agent is worse than no agent. I know it is so hard to hear when querying gets more challenging each year, but this isn’t gatekeeping. It is writers sharing their experiences which can range anywhere from wasted time to bad deals to dead books to not even wanting to participate in the industry anymore. You need and deserve to work with a professional who has the knowledge and experience to sell your book and advocate for you. Don’t settle for anything less!
Up Next
Can you give us some insights into what you’ll be working on next?
A laugh-out-loud feminist adventure where messy girls change the world.
And for the lightning round:
Coffee or tea?
All of the espresso please
Sunrise or sunset?
Sunrise
Favorite place to travel:
The Dolomites
Favorite dessert:
Whipped cream
Superpower:
Outlining
Favorite music:
Vitamin String Quartet – I actually got to see them in concert this year! They were so funny in addition to playing great music.
Favorite book from childhood:
THE WESTING GAME by Ellen Raskin
PS Thank you so much to Sydney and From the Mixed Up Files blog for all you do to promote children’s literature!!!
