Q&A with Jody J. Little

Jody J. Little is the author of Worse Than Weird, a new middle grade novel for kids. She also has written Mostly the Honest Truth. A third grade teacher, she lives in Portland, Oregon.

Q: How did you come up with the idea for Worse Than Weird, and for your character Mac?

A: It’s many different things. I think the main idea came from something that happened a long time ago. I was at a garage sale with my two children, who were 9 and 6, and we heard bells and whistles and saw a group of bicyclists, all naked. It was Portland’s naked bike ride. My daughter was shocked and my son was embarrassed and pretending he wasn’t even watching.

I was thinking about these reactions, how kids are going to react differently when they see something unusual.

Mac came from that moment—I had the notion of Mac at a garage sale with her father and her mother was in the naked bike ride. What would happen to make a character so embarrassed by her parents?

Q: The book is set in Portland, Oregon. How important is setting to you in your writing?

A: I’m from the Pacific Northwest. I use this area of the world a lot. It was a no-brainer that the story had to be set in Portland. There’s the term “Keep Portland Weird.” I was working with that weirdness, trying to evoke it in the book but in a loving way.

Q: As a writer and teacher, how do the two coexist for you?

A: I would be lying if I didn’t say it’s a huge challenge but it’s a great privilege too. Not many writers get to share with their students the process, and how I balance my time.

Summer is the time when I do the bulk of my writing. I would have to come home from teaching and work on this—I could work in the morning or the evening. I have a lot of street cred with my students in terms of my writing. But it’s challenging to go back and forth in sustaining this. Hopefully I do the best I can with both jobs.

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the story?

A: Mac is a very self-absorbed character. It was not until she started to listen to what her friends were saying that she realized, Wow, what I think is a horrible life isn’t close to what some of my friends are experiencing. I need to listen more, pay attention more, and ask more questions.

It’s so true for our time right now—[it’s important] to look at the other perspective.

And there’s the notion that Mac has to be grateful for everything she has, and for her weird parents—they’ll always be weird, but that’s okay.

I was hoping to have discussions with readers, but with Covid I can’t.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I’m working on another book. I wrote the manuscript during NaNoWriMo [National Novel Writing Month], and set it aside. I pulled it out six or seven weeks ago and found enough little gems that I thought I could work with it.

It’s a little different—I’m trying a little magical realism. It has some very sad components, but hopefully the magical piece can lighten it up.

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: One other fun thing is that the treasure hunt Mac goes on is based on a treasure hunt that does exist here in Portland. We have a yearly Rose Festival, and part of that is a yearly medallion hunt. It’s hidden in Portland and clues are released daily.

--Interview with Deborah Kalb