A Conversation with Stacy McAnulty and a Cover Reveal

Happy Monday morning to you, Stacy.  On Saturday the wind was howling (again) and the rain was so heavy it left standing puddles around the neighborhood (again).  The wet, windy outside made the cozy warmth of inside even more comfortable and appealing.  I’m not taking any chances on the weather today.  While it would be great fun to talk with you as we walk our dogs, let’s settle in cushy chairs for a chat.

Your journey from having a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering and working in the field for almost a decade to writing for children has been one of many years of hard work and eventual success in writing picture books and chapter books for younger readers.  On May 1, 2018 your debut middle grade book is set to be released by Random House.  I am curious about the switch from writing picture books and chapter books for younger readers to a middle grade novel.  What prompted this?

Ha, maybe I’m finally growing up. Actually, it’s probably because my kids are growing up. I originally tried to break into publishing by writing novels intended for adults. But every night, I was reading to my young children and loving it. I was the one asking, “Can we read one more? Please.” It slowly dawned on me that I wanted to write for kids. Now my daughters are long out of diapers and borrowing my clothes, my son--the baby of the family--is learning long division, and we’re all falling in love with new books. So the stories I want to write are changing too. Though I continue to read and write picture books.

According to data at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) the chance of getting struck by lightning in a single year is 1/1,083,000 and if you live to be eighty years old the chance of being struck by lightning in your lifetime is 1/13,500.  Your main character in The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl is struck by lightning.  How did you decide this would be the event to change her life?  Could you explain to us why this happened when she was eight years old? Do you know someone who has been struck by lightning?  

Thankfully, none of my family or friends has been struck by lightning. Me neither. (Knock on wood.) For the story, I needed a major event that was realistic and rare, and also something that the reader could imagine. We’ve all experienced thunderstorms. They occur across the globe. In the book, the main character is struck by lightning at the age of eight, which is four years before the story begins. She is changed by the zap within days and learns to live and thrive with her newfound abilities, basically for those four years. She’s homeschooled and happy, but then her grandmother sends her to middle school, and suddenly she doesn’t know anything.

This lightning strike changed Lucy Fanny Callahan.  Would you tell us about the changes?

The lightning strike rewires Lucy’s brain, and she becomes a mathematical genius. The medical term is acquired savant syndrome, and it’s a real thing. I’ve read cases about normal people after a head injury having sudden genius talents like the ability to do math as accurately as a calculator, or learn any language after hearing it a few times, or playing the piano without any lessons. Not only can Lucy add, subtract, multiply, and divide any numbers as fast as she hears them, she also memorizes numbers without effort and sees math in everything. For the four years before the story begins, she’s dedicated herself to learning higher-level mathematics. But the genius of savant syndrome always comes with a tradeoff. For Lucy, it’s OCD.  

I have to ask: What is your favorite element in the final art for the book’s cover?  

Tough question! There’s so much to love--the torn paper, the hand lettering, the lightning bolts, and the random math equations. I made a few small changes to the math for accuracy. And the cover has my name on it! I still can’t believe I’m going to be a novelist. Cue up Frank Sinatra, “Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you…”

Here’s the cover folks!

I hope you don’t mind answering a few more questions.  We are both fans of our furry friends, dogs.  In fact your picture book, Excellent Ed, is one of my favorite dog books.  I know readers will want to know if a dog plays a part in this middle grade debut novel.  What can you tell us?

Aw, thanks for being an Ed fan. Yes, there is a dog in the novel. Actually, there are several dogs, but one plays a starring role. Unlike you and me, Lucy has not been around pups. It’s a new and challenging experience for her. But dogs have a way of winning over even the weariest of humans.

Do you currently have a dog as a member of your family?  Breed?  Age? Name?

I have three dogs. They spend their days with me in my office while the rest of the family is off at school and work. I’m lucky. Every day is bring your dog to work day for me. There’s Pepper, a German Shepherd, who is almost nine. Jack is the big mutt (over seventy pounds) and he’s about seven. Our newest addition is a small, fluffy Chihuahua mix, who is about a year old. Her name is Munchkin. When we adopted her I had hopes that she’d snuggle on my lap as I write. Nope! She’d rather hang with the big dogs.

My students always want to know if an author has children, what their names are and their ages.  Would you share this with us, please?

I tell people I have those three furry kids and three non-furry kids. Cora is my oldest and she’s in tenth grade. Lily is the easy-going middle child, who is in eighth grade. And then there is Henry, a fourth grader. So three kids in three different schools with three different start and end times keep me hopping.

Thank you Stacy for chatting with me today about your middle grade novel debut, The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl and for the honor of revealing the cover.  I promised myself I would read it closer to the release date but I’ve already read chapter one.  Readers are in for a treat.  I’ll have to shelf it or I’ll finish it in a single sitting.

If you are interested in learning even more about Stacy McAnulty (I was), please feel free to visit WeGrowMedia with Dan Blank, Mile High Reading with Dylan Teut, Literary Hoots with Emily, Picture Books Help Kids Soar with Vivian Kirkfield and Cracking The Cover.  Stacy’s website is here.

Here is the description for this title as seen in the Random House catalog.

Middle school is the one problem Lucy Callahan can’t solve in this middle-grade novel perfect for fans of The Fourteenth Goldfish, Rain Reign, and Counting by 7s.

Lucy Callahan was struck by lightning. She doesn’t remember it, but it changed her life forever. The zap gave her genius-level math skills, and ever since, Lucy has been homeschooled. Now, at 12 years old, she’s technically ready for college. She just has to pass 1 more test–middle school!

Lucy’s grandma insists: Go to middle school for 1 year. Make 1 friend. Join 1 activity. And read 1 book (that’s not a math textbook!). Lucy’s not sure what a girl who does calculus homework for fun can possibly learn in 7th grade. She has everything she needs at home, where nobody can make fun of her rigid routines or her superpowered brain. The equation of Lucy’s life has already been solved. Unless there’s been a miscalculation?

A celebration of friendship, Stacy McAnulty’s smart and thoughtful middle-grade debut reminds us all to get out of our comfort zones and embrace what makes us different.

The Cost Of Becoming

When you look at the definition of perfect the one thing constant in all the synonyms is there is no room for error.  To be perfect is to be flawless, the ideal, exemplary, the best and the ultimate.  To be fair, depending on the individual, the interpretation of each of these may be measured differently based on that person's perceptions.  What is perfect for one may not be perfect for another.

Perfection in one particular area can be a life goal.  Perfection can be a certain moment.  For some perfection is a way at looking at everything on any given day, every single day.  Finding Perfect (Farrar Straus Giroux, October 18, 2016), debut novel written by Elly Swartz, follows twelve-year-old Molly as her beliefs in what makes perfection and the results of striving for perfection shift dramatically.

blue pixie and the
siamese fighting fish

My cowboy boots scuff the wooden floor as I walk onto the stage, and for the next ninety seconds I won't think of anything but the rhythm and sound of each syllable in my poem.  Today is Round One of Lakeville Middle School's Poetry Slam Contest.

Molly has a plan, to win the Lakeville Middle School's Poetry Slam Contest, to bring her mom home earlier than the three hundred, sixty-five days she said she will be away.  (Her mother has left the States to keep her job by working and living in Canada.)  Molly also avoids odd numbers, loves even numbers, aligns her glass animal collection on her dresser by using a ruler, abhors dirt and craves cleanliness.

Her dad is constantly wrapped up in his own work with deadlines, conference calls and meetings.  Her older sister, Kate, a freshman in high school, is convinced their mom is not coming home at all; this job in Toronto is merely an extension of their parent's six-month separation.  Ian, her younger brother, a kindergarten student, can hardly sleep at night from the loss of his mother's presence.  Molly believes it's now her sole responsibility to keep Ian safe from harm and healthy.

Hannah, a nearby neighbor and Molly's life-long friend, knows Molly better than anyone else, offering her support.  Their bond is unshakable.  Bridget another of Molly's friends is more focused on herself and a decidedly unhealthy preoccupation with obituaries.  Both of these girls care for Molly in their own way but they don't necessarily like each other.

Chapter by chapter we step into the world of Molly's mind, how she views every aspect of her day.  Her habits increase as the stress of her mother's absence, her plan and the care of Ian weigh on her heavily.  It is becoming progressively harder for her to present perfect Molly to the world and keep obsessive-compulsive Molly hidden.  She is inwardly frantic about what is happening to her.  She thinks she is truly crazy.  She feels trapped, backed into a corner of herself she wishes is different.  She wants her old self back.

With the passing of each day, she strives to focus on her plan.  Another habit comes charging into her mind, counting by twos.  Her poem during Round Two of the Poetry Slam Contest is one more attempt to share her rising fear at her mental state.  One lie builds on another lie, day after day.  Secrets are discovered and secrets are revealed.  With the ending of one chapter and the beginning of another, the tension builds silently screaming for release.  Numbers erupt.  Exposed.  Nothing will be the same.


One of the first things you realize when reading this novel by Elly Swartz is the exquisite care taken to include a multitude of small but equally important moments in Molly's day to day world.  We are intimately aware of the changes the entire family, but especially Molly, endures with the void left by her mother's absence.  Descriptions of how the kitchen looks and smells when her mom is home compared to now are vivid and heartbreaking.  We are beside Molly when she sits in her mother's now empty closet to clear her mind.

I loved my tenth birthday.  Everything was perfect if you ignored the brownish-green swamp juice we had with my cake.  I'd just turned ten, our whole house smelled like chocolate, and Mom and Dad made me a birthday scavenger hunt.  That was long before their official temporary separation that started just six months before Mom fled to Toronto and our kitchen smelled like takeout all the time.

I crack open the doors and slide onto the honey-colored wood floor.  There are no clothes, no shoes, not even a belt left.  I set my special sea glass down on the bare wood.  Mom and I found it together on Chapin Beach when I was six.  Two pieces had washed up on the sand next to each other.  One turquoise and one gold.  Mom kept the gold and I have the turquoise.  It's always with me, so I never have to be without it and her.

Not a beat is missed from one chapter to the next, minutes flowing into other minutes.  This increases our involvement with Molly and the other characters.  Chapter titles hint at the events to come.  We get a very real sense of the growing concern Molly feels inside through the private poems she writes in her journal.  We are her but also we are separate in wanting to reach out to her, to help her.

The situations each of the characters find themselves in are very real; a parent who is not sure of her way or place, single parenthood, a new high school student with an older boyfriend, a young child feeling afloat in a miserable sea, missing his mother, a girl whose father lost his job and changes loom in her future and another friend who has lost a parent through death.  Their lives are pieced together with Molly's in a truthful tribute to the ups and downs life delivers.  We understand this through the narrative, Molly's thoughts and dialogue.  When Molly's state of mind hangs bright and clear like a Fourth of July firework blooming outward, each person reacts completely as we would expect.  The meticulous and powerful results bring hope...to everyone.  Here are several more passages.

It was the start of last summer and we spent two hours making lemonade and waiting in the hot sun for the customers who never came.  I washed my hands forty-four times that day.  I don't know what was weirder:  that I washed my hands so many times or that I counted.  I remember standing at the sink in Hannah's kitchen.
Soap.
Water.
Rub.
Rinse.

It takes us just five more minutes to get to the bench outside of school.  Hannah looks all serious.  "I need to tell you something.  It's big.  Sit with me."
I stare at the bench.  Peeling paint.  Dried mustard.  Dirt.  I stuff my hands into my pockets and try a cleansing yoga breath, but my Zen moment sticks in my throat.  "Um. I'm good here."
Hannah dumps her backpack next to her and I silently pray it doesn't land in the mustard.  She leans in to tell me her news when Bridget shows up.

We get off at the next stop and I check my phone.  Nothing from Mom.  I know she's probably selling her Beet-Kale-Pumpkin blend someplace where there's no reception, but I get a tug of worry that she's forgotten about me.  I tuck my fear into my back right pocket.  Mom says that's what you do with worries that you can't get rid of and can't control.

When I read Finding Perfect written by Elly Swartz the first time, I was on high alert monitoring the increase in a reaction my puppy was experiencing due to vaccines.  Throughout the wee hours of the morning, while there was still a part of me watching her, I firmly stepped into Molly's life; drawn there by the writing skills and research conducted by Elly Swartz.  I was crying out for people to help her, to notice her beyond her neat-and-tidy actions.  Most of all I cared for her as if she is a flesh-and-blood person.  This middle grade debut novel has my highest recommendation.  Everyone needs to read this...more than once.  Trust me.  Elly Swartz includes experts consulted and resources consulted at the close of the book.

To learn more about Elly Swartz please visit her website by following the link attached to her name. At the publisher's website you can read an excerpt.  There are also a reading group guide and a teacher's reading guide available there.  The cover reveal for this title is at Emu's Debuts.  Elly Swartz stops by Scholastic's Ambassador of School Libraries John Schumacher's blog, Watch. Connect. Read., completing his sentences.  Elly Swartz is interviewed at DEBtastic Reads!, Literary Rambles, and Beth McMullen Books.  At School Library Journal, The Yarn, educator Colby Sharp introduces us to the audio book trailer for Finding Perfect.  Elly Swartz chats with teacher librarian Matthew Winner at All The Wonders, Episode 299.  Debut author Bridget Hodder (The Rat Prince) reviews Finding Perfect at the Nerdy Book Club.