Photo by Kimberly M. Wang
Sarvenaz Tash is the author of the new middle grade novel The Queen of Ocean Parkway. Her other books include the young adult novel A Whole Song and Dance. She lives in Brooklyn.
Q: What inspired you to write The Queen of Ocean Parkway, and how did you create your character Roya?
A: I was inspired by my neighborhood, which I share with Roya! I also thought a lot about Harriet the Spy when I was writing this book, particularly about how that book made me feel as a kid.
As a shy suburban kid myself, Harriet, with her curiosity and unapologetic personality, living in a NYC apartment building and having so much access to secret parts of the building and its tenants was one of the mostly wildly thrilling concepts I had ever read.
I really wanted to try to capture that feeling of adventure and agency too, with Roya being the super’s kid in her Brooklyn apartment building—and making a secret podcast about the tenants to boot.
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: Not only did I have no idea how the book would end, I had no idea what the solution to the mystery was at all when I first started writing this book. All I knew was that my main character was going to be the super’s kid and that she was going to investigate the disappearance of one of her building’s tenants.
In a way, the mystery unfolded for me just like it did for Roya, and I felt like we solved it together (through many drafts of course!).
Q: The writer Claire Legrand said of the book, “A charming, warm-hearted tale that reads like a classic. This book is for the kids who curl up in corners of the library, reading for hours at a time and daydreaming of mystery and adventure.” What do you think of that description?
A: I mean, I could not be more moved by those words, particularly from such an incredible and deeply poetic writer like Claire. I was that kid who curled up in the corner of the library, daydreaming about adventure, and I definitely wrote this book for that kid, so the fact that comes across is the most thrilling thing that could happen to an author.
Q: What do you hope kids take away from the story?
A: I hope kids are excited by the adventure and mystery. I hope they also feel a little more empowered to talk about how sometimes life can simultaneously present you with the best and worst parts of itself.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m actually working on the sequel to The Queen of Ocean Parkway, currently titled The Treasure of Ocean Parkway, in which Roya takes on another big mystery: a decades-old scavenger hunt that another tenant’s grandfather left for her.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I’m just very excited to return to middle grade, 12 years (and six books) after my middle-grade debut! It’s been really wonderful to come back to this genre I love so much, particularly as a parent now who reads a lot of middle grade with my kids. I definitely felt like I approached it a little differently with my kids in mind.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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