Interview: Sherri L. Smith

I'm honored to be a stop on Sherri L. Smith's blog tour.

In each of Sherri's books, the protagonist's struggles are closely related to her family life: In Lucy the Giant, Lucy was abandoned her mother and feels burdened by her alcoholic father. In Sparrow, Kendall lost her immediate family at a young age, then her guardian grandmother on the cusp of adulthood. In Smith's brand-new story, Hot, Salty, Sour, Sweet, Ana's parents are loving, but her grandparents are competitive. Thus, the first question I posed to the author was:

Which girl is the most like you at that age and why?

Wow, that's a tough question. Readers sometimes assume that all books are autobiographical. I remember my first book signing for Lucy the Giant—the manager of the store took one look at me, frowned and said, “I thought you’d be taller!” I'm a good foot shorter than Lucy, hands down. While I can certainly relate to all of my characters — I have felt as awkward and ungainly as Lucy, and as lonely and determined as Kendall — Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet is the first book I've written based on my life, or at least a version of my future child's life. My husband is Chinese American and I'm African American, like Ana's parents. Ana's story came about from my speculating about the lives our children will lead. Ana's family is actually pretty different from my own—fortunately there are no dueling grandparents—but there are similarities between my and my husband's families that I echo in Ana's story. Lastly, like Ana, I was also a salutatorian in eighth grade, but I didn't learn to make pot stickers until high school.

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Join Sherri L. Smith on her blog tour this month:
February 12th: Finding Wonderland
February 18th: Bildungsroman
February 21st: The YA YA YAs
February 26th: Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
February 28th: The Brown Bookshelf - "28 Days Later" Black History Month Celebration of Children's Literature

Visit Sherri's website.