🎙️ Five Questions With Katherine Marsh
- Jennifer LaGarde
- Apr 30
- 6 min read
Welcome to a new series of interviews, focusing on book love and library joy! In just five questions, I hope to use these posts as a way to shine an light on how book creators and librarians work together to help young people develop empathy, experience joy and find connection!
I'm so grateful to Katherine Marsh who volunteered to be my first guest! I hope you find these conversations as joyful and meaningful as I did!
Hi Katherine! Thank you so much for chatting about The God’s Revenge! I know readers are looking forward to more magical adventures with Ava and her friends! Can you start by sharing one exciting (or special!) detail from the second book that you can't wait for readers to discover?
Hi Jennifer! I always love talking with you about all things books. Okay, my fun detail from The Gods’ Revenge is the new snack bar at the Accademia del Forte, the school for the descendants of the Greek mythological monsters. It’s called the Bro Bar. It serves Bro Burgers, Bro Shakes and Nectarade. Fia gets really mad about the name even when she learns it’s (supposedly) short for Ambrosia. If you know feisty, feminist Fia, you’ll understand why. But just one detail? There’s also a very magical Carnival Ball this year that–you guessed it–goes completely off the rails.
Oh that made me chuckle! As you know, Fia is one of my favorite characters from this series! I’m sure readers will be thrilled to see she is back AND that she’s as feisty as ever! We may need to come up with a feisty, feminist recipe for Ambrosia! In the meantime, can you tell us a little bit more about why it’s important to you that these books feature girls claiming their power and using their voices to change unjust systems?
Why are girls so often the smart sidekicks but not the main protagonists? Look at the big commercial series, Percy Jackson, Harry Potter. The boys’ names ARE the series–they’re not called Annabeth Chase or Hermione Granger. But girls like to be the center of the action, too. I have a son and daughter and I wanted my daughter to feel empowered and not just like the sidekick on someone else’s adventure. This is especially important at this moment, when girls and women’s voices have been sidelined. I want to empower girls to speak up and express their feelings, no matter how complicated they are.
I just got back from speaking to 160 boys at an all boys school. They have moms, sisters, aunts, grandmas. They also have a keen sense of fairness. There has been a longstanding idea that boys won’t read books with girl heroines but I don’t think this is true at all. Every kid can relate to Ava and her friends and their desire to be seen and heard. Also the male characters in these books model a different sort of masculinity, one in which they support and boost the girls. I love that. I’m going to start working on that Ambrosia recipe now…
I’m very serious about that Ambrosia recipe, Katherine, so let’s make it happen! In the meantime, you make a good point about how alongside stories that feature girls owning their power, we also really need books that provide boys (and kids across the gender spectrum) with healthy examples of what it means to be a man - as opposed to the toxic, alpha-maleness that is so prevalent in our media right now. With that in mind, can you talk a little bit about why it was important to you that Ava is surrounded by a strong cast of friends AND allies?
Great question! I feel like toxic masculinity is not only hard on girls–as well as kids across the spectrum–but can constrict and harm boys themselves. What if you’re a boy who isn’t an “alpha,” who is quiet, shy, helpful, thoughtful? In the Medusa series, Arnold, a harpy descendant with a kind heart and confidence issues, and Jax, Ava’s brother who is a gorgon descendant with the power of healing as opposed to harming, embody a much broader definition of masculinity. I was inspired to write them by some of the men and boys in my life who model empathy, kindness, humility and equality. I couldn’t be a writer and parent if I didn’t have a community of friends, family and allies that also includes some great boys and men. It’s funny, Jennifer, we never do talk about alpha and beta women and girls, do we?
Well… we do talk about them, but we use phrases like bossy, aggressive and nasty, instead of the positive language we use to describe the same traits in men/boys, but I digress! That said, I want to switch gears just a little bit, because I’ve only got two questions left, and I really want to make sure I get to this one! In the acknowledgements for The God’s Revenge, you tip your hat to a number of kidlit folks - including me! *blushes* I often say that we, (book creators and librarians), are partners in the work of connecting kids with the life changing power of story. With that in mind, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, it’s a really tough time to be a librarian, so I guess I’m just wondering if there’s anything you’d like to say to the librarians (school and otherwise!) out there who will read this interview?
It really does take a community to get a book out to young readers, so I truly thank you, Jennifer, as well as other curators and boosters of kidlit for sharing word of the Medusa series as well as my other books. Thank you also for the opportunity to share a message with librarians. I am really frustrated and disheartened by the funding cuts to schools and libraries including the IMLS (Institute of Museum Libraries and Studies). We have a serious reading crisis going on and yet, instead of pulling together to figure out how to get kids’ reading, we’re attacking our front-line responders: public and school librarians. Book bans and threats to librarians are not only undemocratic (read The Lost Year for a lesson on why), they’re also a dangerous distraction from this reading crisis. We need to pay less attention to what kids are reading and more attention to whether they are reading at all and how to build their reading skills and stamina. We need to restore funding to our schools and libraries as well as public trust in our librarians. These are people who share a core value: caring for the reading lives of our children. Librarians, kids need you now more than ever.
AMEN! Thank you so much for sharing this message with the librarians (and everyone else!) who will read this. Thank you also for chatting with me about The Gods’ Revenge! This has been so much fun, Katherine! For my final question, I’ll take some inspiration from my friend Mr. Schu, who often asks the authors and illustrators he interviews to share the answer to a question they WISH he had asked them. So… with that in mind, what’s one question I should have asked you AND what’s your answer?
I’d like to redirect a question you asked me. Namely, I’d like to know what librarians and teachers want to tell me. I’ve been writing middle grade books for nearly twenty years and the job has gotten infinitely harder: Attracting readers when fewer kids are reading for fun, adapting to the decline in reading skills and stamina, competing with screens/ social media/ reduced attention spans, the rise of standardized testing that values passage reading over whole books (the topic of my 2024 Atlantic Monthly piece), fewer opportunities for author visits, declining author advances, the rise of algorithms that make critical decisions about the quality of children’s literature based on the bottom line, books bans, the declining number of reviews of middle grade in both trade and mainstream media, school and library funding cuts, I could go on and on…
In short, I am afraid that we’re moving away from being a society of readers and with that, losing the ability to be curious and critical thinkers. But I also believe there are a lot of innovative teachers and librarians out there (as well as parents). I want to invite them to write me at nighttourist@gmail.com and share their ideas on how to get kids–especially 6th-8th graders–reading and reading widely, and how authors like me can help. Thanks, Jennifer, for this amazing conversation!
BONUS CONTENT:
Please enjoy a special discount of 20% off the titles mentioned in this post (or others of your choice) by visiting Bookelicious and using the code JENNIFERLAGARDE. Note: I do not make any money when you purchase books from Bookelicious, but I am delighted that you get to save some! HOWEVER, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that buying books from Bookelicious is the way we keep these events free while also supporting the authors and illustrators who join us each month, so... I hope you'll think of your book purchases from Bookelicous as supporting a good cause!
Fia's Fierce and Feisty Ambrosia!
You knew it had to happen! AND what a fun activity to do with kids! Feel free to download my recipe here for free!
More Greek Goddess Goodies!
If you haven't Book 1 of the Myth of Monsters series yet, (or even if you have!) here are the resources I created last year to celebrate Medusa:
