Lauren Abbey Greenberg is the author of The Battle of Junk Mountain, a novel for kids. Her work has appeared in a variety of children's magazines, and she has written and produced videos for National Geographic. She lives in Maryland.
Q:
How did you come up with the idea for The Battle of Junk Mountain, and for your
character Shayne?
A:
I knew from the beginning I wanted to have a main character return to a beloved
summer spot, excited to repeat all the usual rituals and traditions, only to
have unexpected change confront her from the minute she gets there. That throws
her off balance and she spends much of the novel trying to reclaim the fun of
yesteryear.
Meanwhile,
her grandmother is experiencing problems related to hoarding, and in developing
both these characters, I discovered I could use hoarding as a metaphor about
the danger of trying to hold on too hard to one’s past.
Q:
The novel is set in Maine. How important is setting to you in your writing?
A:
Very important. I find I need to have a strong sense of place before I can
begin to sketch out characters. In The Battle of Junk Mountain, the beautiful
coast of Maine was chosen as the backdrop because I’ve been vacationing there
for over 20 years. Much of the setting is modeled after real-life places and
experiences.
Q:
Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you
change things around along the way?
A:
I had a general sense of how it would end. I’m an avid outliner, because I find
plotting very difficult. There’s no way I could write without a roadmap to
guide me. That said, during revision scenes were added and dropped and darlings
killed, but I always stayed true to Shayne’s emotional growth.
Q:
What do you hope kids take away from the story?
A:
In The Battle of Junk Mountain, the power of memory grips both Shayne and her
grandmother in unhealthy ways. Change can be scary for many folks, young and
old, and often we’re reluctant to leave the comforting bubble of what we know.
I want young readers to take away that sometimes “change can surprise you in a good
way.”
Q:
What are you working on now?
A:
I’m working on another contemporary middle grade although this time it’s set at
a bar mitzvah in Maryland during an ice storm.
Q:
Anything else we should know?
A:
I love connecting with kids through school visits! If you’re an educator and
you’re interested in an in-person or virtual visit, please contact me through
my website.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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