Hi, everyone! Today I'm pleased to present a guest post form Anna Staniszewski, who is the author of many MG novels, including her newest The Wonder of Wildflowers, which released this year.
Just Add Magic
By Anna Staniszewski
For years now I’ve considered myself a children’s author who writes funny books about serious topics. However, when I set out to write my newest middle-grade novel, The Wonder of Wildflowers, which deals with the complex issue of immigration, funny just wasn’t cutting it. I was ready to abandon the project and move on.
Then one day, I had an epiphany. What if my character, Mira, wasn’t navigating a new world that only seemed magical to her because of where she’d come from? What if this new home really was magical? Once I knew that, the rest of the story fell into place fairly quickly. Mixing a little bit of fantasy into reality helped jump-start my creative process.
Telling this story gave me the chance to play with the idea of what “magic” looks like. Instead of “big magic,” I wanted to explore the idea of “everyday magic.” That’s why in Mira’s world, the magic comes in the form of a liquid that makes people just a tiny bit stronger, faster, and smarter. (Considering how quickly our real-life medicine and technology are advancing all the time, perhaps that kind of “magic” might not be far off!)
Adding magic to the story also gave me some distance from the topic I was writing about. As an immigrant myself, I struggled at first with how much of my own story I should include in the novel. But having magic in the mix allowed me to focus on Mira’s story, to write about her experiences and struggles as she navigates her unique world.
I think what most appeals to me about telling these types of stories—ones set in a realistic world but with a sprinkle of magic—is that I have the opportunity to imagine what might happen if our world really did have some magic in it. Not only can fantasy spark our imaginations, but it can make us see our “real world” a little differently.
This was a fantastic post! :)
Thank you to Anna Staniszewski for participating in this event! :)
Author Bio: Anna Staniszewski is the author of over a dozen books for young readers, including the novels Secondhand Wishes and The Wonder of Wildflowers, as well as the picture books Dogosaurus Rex and Power Down, Little Robot, and the Once Upon a Fairy Tale early chapter book series. She was a Writer-in-Residence at the Boston Public Library and a winner of the PEN New England Discovery award, and she currently teaches in the MFA Writing for Children Program at Simmons University. Visit her at www.annastan.com.
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It makes me smile! : )