Posts Tagged interview

Author Spotlight: Ali Terese

By on December 11, 2025   /   Author Interviews  

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!!!

Find Ali on Instagram at @alitereseauthor.
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Meet Lauren Galit of LKG Literary

By on November 28, 2025   /   Articles, Editor / Agent Spotlight  
Lauren Galit, literary agent at LKG Literary

Lauren Galit, literary agent at LKG LiteraryAccording to the LKG Agency website, Lauren Galit is “a story cheerleader, a contract negotiator, and a champion of unforgettable kidlit books.” And according to client Clinton Kelly, she’s “a totally chill agent who’s not even a jerk.”

 

Lauren opened LKG Agency in 2005 and has worked hard to build a thriving agency with a robust client list. She loves working with middle-grade authors, and we know that our MUF readers will love getting to know Lauren!

 

Lauren, tell us a little about your background and how you found your way to agenting.

I was the kind of kid who read constantly, and I always knew I wanted to work with words and language. I initially focused on magazines — Tina Brown was my idol — but eventually realized it was the writers themselves I adored and wanted to support, so a move to books made sense. I began agenting nonfiction because it was a natural extension of my editorial work, but I pivoted to kidlit after my assistant asked me to represent her middle-grade novel, and we grew from there. Now I can’t imagine doing anything other than fiction. I primarily specialize in middle-grade, young adult, and now new adult, but I’ve also realized I will go where my authors go — my main job is to support their writing journeys.

 

LKG Agency has been going strong for 20 years now! What’s the secret to your success?

As a boutique agency of one, with support from a foreign rights agent, I focus on offering a highly personalized experience. I may not have the size of a major firm, but I make up for it by being deeply responsive and very editorially hands-on. When an author is struggling with a scene, plot point, or character arc, they know they can send me questions or pages — or we can hop on the phone and strategize together.

 

What excites you most about your job?

While I love many parts of my job, my favorite thing by far is brainstorming with authors as they work through their projects. We talk worldbuilding, how that world influences the plot, who the characters are and how that shapes their choices, and then we dig into craft — how to make all those elements sing. When they send me a revision and I can see the transformation, I get downright giddy.

 

I read that you got your start as a magazine editor. How did that prepare you for the shift to agenting?

Working in magazines taught me the mechanics of editing — I used to constantly ask the copyeditors to teach me every rule of the road. Being an obsessive reader helped me develop a sense of what works on the page. And working closely with so many talented editors across publishing — learning not just their wishlists but their tastes and approaches to craft — has been an education in itself.

 

It’s clear that you love books! If you could be described as a champion of any particular type of book, what type of book would that be?

I tend to be a middle-grade maven. I gravitate toward it maybe because it feels like such a pivotal time in a child’s reading life — hook them then, and you may have them for life. I’m especially drawn to magical realism or contemporary fantasy; those genres create incredible opportunities to explore the emotional changes young adolescents go through. A perfect example is Wendy McLeod MacKnight’s The Change Up. When her protagonist enters adolescence and discovers she’s a shapeshifter who can’t control her transformations, it becomes a powerful metaphor for how kids are still figuring themselves out; they are easily influenced until they learn who they want to be.

 

You’re speaking our language. Here at MUF, we’re all about middle-grade novels! What do you like most about this category?

The sense of wonder. Everything feels new to these readers, and I love seeing a book crack open a world for them. Even an adventure series like Percy Jackson shows kids that it’s okay to be different — that maybe their differences are actually strengths.

 

What are some of your favorite middle-grade novels?

From my childhood, I adored The Chronicles of Narnia, The Chronicles of Prydain, and Anne McCaffrey’s Harper Hall trilogy. In the present day, there are so many of my authors’ books I could name, but I do remember reading Steven Banbury’s Pumpkin Princess submission and immediately thinking, “I must represent this.” That feeling of joy and excitement is unmatched. I recently had that same reaction reading my new author Laura Boggs’s Margot of Manhattan — her voice is so unique, and it’s a love letter to my dear city of New York.

 

What types of books are you drawn to?

As I mentioned, I have a soft spot for magical realism, but my range is fairly wide —contemporary, thriller, mystery, sci-fi, high fantasy, even nonfiction. While not MG, my young adult nonfiction project Obsessed, about the author’s experience with OCD, remains one of my proudest editorial moments. Typically, I’m not a big fan of horror, but after meeting some truly wonderful horror writers at a retreat, I might be softening on that front.

 

Are there any current projects you’re excited about?

So many! I’m not sure what was in the air this summer, but all my authors seemed to finish projects at once and place them lovingly in my lap. I mentioned Margot, which is on sub. I just put the finishing touches on Jaime Formato’s Rogue Richardson and Sly Silver Take Back the Golden Age, an homage to comic books and geek culture. And I’ve been working with Mike Thayer on his older MG A Place Among Heroes, which has one of the best concepts I’ve seen in a while — a boy and his father competing in a reality show that’s essentially a real-life role-playing game, complete with experience points and side quests. The emotional arc is even more compelling than the fictional one.

 

Prospective clients are reading this and asking one question: Are you currently open to submissions?

Yes — though as mentioned above, I’m working through a small backlog thanks to the summer wave of manuscripts.

 

Can you describe any “dream submissions” you’d like to find in your inbox?

OMG, so much pressure! I hate this answer, but it’s the truth: I know it when I read it. What I’ve learned is that when an author LOVES their work, that comes through. When they have a clear vision, a deep understanding of their characters, and genuine joy in the story they’re crafting — that’s what I want to see in my inbox.

 

Will interested authors ever find you participating in pitch parties?

I have participated, and I enjoy seeing what authors are working on, how they distill their stories into just a few lines, and what trends are emerging. I don’t do pitch parties too often because my submissions portal stays busy, and I want to make sure those writers receive proper attention.

 

Where can authors learn more about you?

Mostly through my website and interviews like this. I keep meaning to do more on social media, so stay tuned!

 

What are your favorite things to do that have nothing to do with being an agent?

Other than reading? Hanging with my dog, Luna (whom my 12-year-old named after Luna Lovegood — though personality-wise she’s much more of a Katniss), spending time with my kids when they’re home from college, and traveling with my husband.

 

Lauren, it’s been great getting to know you! Is there anything else you’d like to say before we close out our interview?

Just a thank you to you — and to all the writers out there who keep creating, even as the middle-grade landscape becomes more challenging. With attention spans shrinking and reading levels dropping, we need to work smarter to turn kids into lifelong readers. As research shows, reading builds empathy and has a direct correlation with success. What could be better than that?

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STEM Tuesday– Transportation– Author Interview

By on November 25, 2025   /   STEM Tuesday, Transportation  

 

 

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 Jennifer Swanson, author of Save the Crash-test Dummies. The book discusses how restoring the balance between the primary predator and prey was instrumental in restoring a U.S. park’s ecosystem.

This book won a Parent’s Choice GOLD Award!!

 

“Attractively designed and engagingly written—sure to appeal to readers with a taste for the scientific and technical.”—Kirkus Reviews

★ “[An] innovative blend of history, technology, and engineering. . . insightful fun. STEM at its best.”—Booklist, Starred Review

 

 

Hi Jennifer,

Thanks so much for joining us today!

 

ST: Tell us a little bit about Save the Crash-test Dummies and the impetus behind writing it?

JS: For an earlier book I was doing, I had to research the self-driving car. At the time, Google was the only one making them. I LOVED the idea of a self-driving car! I mean, I am not a fan of driving. For more than 5 years I spent every afternoon from 3pm to 7pm in the car. That’s the price of  having 3 kids in 3 different sports across town all at the same time. Have a robot drive you? YES! Sign me up! (After all, I had alerady survived 3 teenage drivers).

But I knew I wanted this book to be a trade book, so I had to find the right hook. One night I was walking with my husband and we were talking about an old Crash-test dummy commercial that they had brought back (from the 70’s). I said something like, “Hey, if we have self-driving cars, we won’t need the dummies.” He said, “Yes, that would certainly, save the crash-test dummies life.” OMG! That was it! The hook, the title—everything all in one neat package. Suddenly,  the whole book popped into my head. I sat down to write my book about the history of car safety engineering from the Model T to self-driving cars.  The rest, as they say, is, well history.

 

 

ST: It looks fascinating! Everyone should go buy the book, but can you give us one thing that really surprised you while researching?

JS: It might surprise people to know that engineers were always concerned about safety, but the first group to create seatbelts was an emergency room doctor who saw first-hand the dangers of not having them in your car. He made them for his family.

 

ST: Have you ever been to see an actual crash test in person?

JS: Unfortunately, no. I would love to do so, though! I think it would be cool to see all of the equipment that is hooked up to the dummy. These things may be called “dummies” but they are really smart pieces of equipment, holding thousands of sensors to track every tiny movement and impact. We owe our lives to these “dummies” .

 

ST: Yes, we do. You’ve been very prolific in getting books out. How long does it take you to go from concept to finished product?

JS: Well that all depends on the publisher. I have TONS of ideas. But since I write for middle grade readers, I don’t write the entire manuscript, instead I submit a proposal. Sometimes the proposals are accepted right away. Then I start writing. If that happens, it can be about 3-4 months from idea to first draft. But if it takes longer to sell, it can take a while. In the meantime, though, I’m off and running on my next project and proposal. At any one time I may be working on 4-6 different projects (at various stages of publication) at once. It’s fun, if a bit challenging. But I love my job!

 

ST: What was the first book you wrote?

JS: The first book I ever wrote was in kindergarten. I used to write “books” about my dog, Lucky. I even illustrated them (with stick figures). My first nonfiction book that I wrote was called “Uninvited Guests: Invisible Creatures Lurking Inside Your Home” by Capstone Press. Very cool, but creepy if you don’t like crawly things.

 

ST: Can you tell us about any other books you have out recently and what we might expect to see from you in the future?

JS:  Yes, thanks for asking! My two recent books are:

Atlas Obscura Explorers Guide to Inventing the World

 

The Atlas Obscura Explorer’s Guide to Inventing the World 

by Dylan Thuras (Author), Jennifer Swanson (Author), Ruby Fresson (Illustrator)

The team behind the bestselling Atlas Obscura presents a kids’ illustrated STEM-oriented exploration of the world’s most interesting technologies, inventions, and scientific discoveries.

 

3 weeks in the rainforest book 3 Weeks in the Rainforest: A Rapid Inventory in the Amazon
by Jennifer Swanson

A women-led team of scientists protect the Amazon rainforest from destruction as readers get a firsthand account of real-life fieldwork in action.  A compelling, nonfiction, photo-illustrated STEM read for 8-12-year-olds who aspire to be future scientists, environmentalists, and conservationists!

 

As for what’s in the future, I have a middle-grade graphic novel about science coming out in 2027. And a book titled, How to Talk to an Alien (Should You Ever Meet One), also in 2027.

 

Thanks so much for having me!

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