Meg Medina on Latine Stories and Reading as a Family

Episode Transcript

Meg Medina Sometimes people will self-select out. They'll see a book with Spanish in the title, like Tía Isa, and decide that this is not a book for them. Or they see a Black teen on the cover and say, oh, this is a particular kind of story that has “nothing to do with me.” And that's a shame. And I feel like collectively we all have to work to undo that notion. Because every story is a story of all of us.

Adwoa Adusei This is Meg Medina. She’s an award-winning author of picture books, middle grade and young adult fiction, and she was the 2023-2024 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.

Virginia Marshall That’s a two-year position at the Library of Congress in which the ambassador travels the country talking to kids, parents, teachers and librarians about the importance of children’s literature in lifelong literacy. When we talked to Meg a couple of months ago, she told us more about that role, and about the need for more diverse kids books. You may have heard clips from our interview with her in last week’s episode about The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. Today, we’re sharing the rest of the interview as a bonus.

Adwoa Adusei And now, back to our conversation with Meg Medina. I’m Adwoa Adusei.

Virginia Marshall And I’m Virginia Marshall. You’re listening to Borrowed and Returned: a podcast from Brooklyn Public Library about the books that have changed us, and changed America, too.

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Virginia Marshall You just finished up your term as the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. And for our listeners, that's a position that Jacqueline Woodson and Jason Reynolds have both held, which would probably be familiar to Brooklynites. So, I wonder now how you're feeling about the past two years.

Meg Medina [Laughs] Oh, I'm feeling all kinds of ways. I also want to say that I'm originally from Queens, so I just love that Queens got some love in this mix of the ambassadorship! How I'm feeling about it is just, you know, it's a heavy lift. It's two years where you're traveling the country and meeting kids, which is the wonderful part of it—meeting kids and librarians and teachers and so on and talking to them about their book life. So, I'm so grateful for the experience of being able to have served kids in this way and given them a chance to tell me about the books that they love, their feelings about reading, things they wish would change about how we approach reading, and so on.

Virginia Marshall So you did talk to a ton of kids. I wonder, are there things that rise to the top about what they like to read, or what they don't like to read? What are they saying to you?

Meg Medina [Laughs] Oh yeah, so many things. Okay, kids love to be scared. That's really fun when you say, when you ask them, who likes scary books? Almost every hand goes up! It's like, it's the same, you know, group of kids that likes roller coasters, I guess, that feeling that you're doing something really dangerous, but that actually has a safe landing planned for you. A lot of graphic novel fans, visual format fans. But the thing that most stayed with me was how reading works in a family. Because one thing I did as ambassador is that I invited families to the Library of Congress. One family stood out very much to me because you can see generationally how this worked. The dad was just a mad fan of comic books, still kept them all in the little plastic casing and so on. He and his oldest daughter, who's I think about 13, you know, love graphic novels and read those together. And then that sister keeps her favorite books for the next sister. And the little brother gets, you know, everybody's recommendations and so on. And so, when we think about how we knit families together, we think of all the things we think family dinners, let's say, or we think sports events and so on. But reading is also this enormous tool. It gets at the things that you're passionate about, that you find funny, that you find sad, that you think about. And it gives us little windows into each other and ways to be able to talk with each other.

Virginia Marshall That's really beautiful and I feel like reading is one of those things that you don't think about when you think about family connections, sometimes. So that's really powerful. And I wonder, so you were the first Latinx ambassador, how did that feel? And also I wanted to ask too about bilingual books and whether any kind of Spanish storytelling came into your role as Ambassador.

Meg Medina I loved the fact that I was Ambassador for all the children in this country, but also very aware of the special place that I held for Latin kids watching me, and maybe seeing how a reading life looks in our community. You know, we read, you know, we read in different languages. We can read in both languages. We can in Spanglish. We can, you, know, all kinds of things like that. So I made sure that Latin kids felt seen when I was out and about and celebrated and so on. The way it felt was important and a little scary and also a little hopeful at the time. I was feeling like I was the first one, but I'm certainly not going to be the last one.

Virginia Marshall I wonder now if we could kind of switch gears to talk a little bit about Ezra Jack Keats?

Meg Medina Sure!

Virginia Marshall [Laughs] So yeah, I mean, your first picture book, Tía Isa Wants a Car, won the Ezra Jack Keatts Award for writing, right? One of the reasons why that book, to me, feels like so successful is that it is a simple story. It's about so much, but it's also about a little kid looking at the world. And so that reminded me actually of the snowy day, which is a very simple story, right?

Meg Medina Yes, I love that story so much. Here’s my copy!

Virginia Marshall Yeah, tell me about why you love it, maybe when you first read it, why it speaks to you?

Meg Medina I don’t remember when I first read this book. I do remember it from childhood but I don’t remember when I first read it. But what I love about it today when I look at it is just the fabulous audacity of Ezra Jack Keats writing the ordinary happiness of this little boy on a snowy day. I love it. He captures the joy of childhood and opens it up to also include kids of color, a Black child, which at the time I'm sure was a seismic shift, right? But continues to be in some way. You know, so often we want, or people want the story of the immigrant child, the Black child, the marginalized child to be one of suffering and redemption and facing this really hard … And those stories matter. And there are many pieces of that experience that have to be captured and told. But there's also ordinary joy that is alive in all of us. And that has to be captured and celebrated also. And that's, I think, the thing that I love most.

Virginia Marshall Could you tell us a little bit about Tía Isa? Who is she? What's that story about?

Meg Medina Yes! So, Tía Isa—there is a real Tía Isa. A lot of my work always begins with, you know, a seed of truth. I had my Tía Hera and Tía Isa, they were both my mother’s sisters. And they arrived in the late 60s after leaving Cuba. And they arrived, really just like a ball of nerves. They were very broken. And that was especially true of Tía Isa. She was a nervous wreck, jumpy as you can't imagine. Any slammed door, loud voice, phone ringing could set her twitching, you know, she was like that. One day she came home and announced that she was going to take driving lessons. [Laughs] And get licensed and get us a car. And the whole family just looked at her in horror, first of all, because nobody wanted to get into a car with Tía Isa. She was just too, you know, it was dicey. You were gonna take your life into your own hands. But, you know, she went to a bilingual driving school, and she bought this big wildcat. And that car, I think, was the first admission in the family, an unspoken admission that we were staying in this country.

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The thing that I most remember about Tía Isa is that nobody thought she could do this. And she did it anyway, in the face of people saying, no, you can't. And so when I wrote the book, one phrase kept coming to mind, which was, “Tía Isa wants a car.” And when I closed my eyes and I listened, I could see my aunt playing jump rope with me outside and jacks, I could remember. So many things about her and so I wanted to try to capture that relationship of an aunt and her niece. The experience of buying a car and what it means when you don't speak English, when you don't have a lot of money, when your family is separated. And so I was looking at those issues that were true for me then and true for so many kids now. They're sending money home to their families who are abroad. They're sending letters, there's hope, there is longing. And there's also like forward motion, like life has to transpire here somehow.

Virginia Marshall That's really beautiful, thank you. I wanted to ask you too about your involvement with the organization, We Need Diverse Books. Could you tell me a little bit, first of all, what that organization is interested in doing and how you help them do what they do?

Meg Medina Yes, well, Ellen Oh, Lamar Giles and I were at, many years ago, at a festival and we were just, it was rare that the three of us were together. Because so often at that time, you know, we'd find ourselves like the lone person on an all-white panel or, you know, invited like just for this little silo of multicultural books or … it was weird! It was just not working. And Ellen, who is, anyone who knows her knows she is just a fierce leader. She said, something's got to happen. We've got to change this up. We got to change it. Are you willing to help? And Lamar and I said, sure. And it started, I think, simply. We started with a hashtag campaign online. “We need diverse books because …” And suddenly all these people whose kids were biracial or trans or gay … I need books that talk about my family and my experience and my community, et cetera. And so it got legs.

They've really looked at the pipeline of publishing. So it's not only that we need to publish the books, but we also need the editors who know how to acquire them. We need thoughtful editing and thoughtful publicity and marketing plans for these books. We need more diverse librarians. We need to … so the whole pipeline of children's books needs voices that have expertise in different communities and sensitivities that—you don't know what you don’t know, right? So you need folks.

Virginia Marshall In one of your talks, I heard you say that you are interested in the moment when a picture book is not about the words and images anymore, and it sort of, like, enters the child's heart almost, and becomes part of them. And I'm curious, just because like we at the Library, we do a lot around protecting the freedom to read book bans and all of that. And I know so many children's books are being targeted right now, those picture books. And I wonder if you have a thought about why picture books? Is there something about the closeness that a kid creates with a book like that that seems dangerous to people? I don’t know. What’s your thought about that?

Meg Medina [Sighs] Yeah, I have so many complicated thoughts about that. I actually don't think it's necessarily about picture books specifically. I think that what we're seeing now is just sadly, just part of a larger sort of political dynamic. I mean, it’s just been an onslaught opposing any sort of diversity and inclusive language and so on. And it's a very organized political movement. So picture books, children's books have gotten, you know, snagged in there. So, the best position to be in with your child around reading, I believe, is to be in conversation, in shared conversation with your children about reading. That starts young, when you're reading to them those little board books, the books that they're sucking on and things like that. But it can extend over your child's life, where you're talking about what they're reading, what they enjoy. What they want to read, maybe the books that you don't like that they're reading and why. But it should be a conversation versus an obstacle. And that is what I would most want parents to remember. And I think most parents do favor the opportunity to let their children read what their kids want to read. My hope is that authors will continue to write the stories that are true about growing up, and the stories that are respectful and loving and all the things that we think about when we're writing, you know, for young people. And, that we don't allow the fear of this time to stop us.

Virginia Marshall What are some things you're thinking about as you continue to write? If you want to talk a little bit about Graciela and the Abyss, and what’s next for you?

Meg Medina Yes. It is a middle grade novel. Scary, just like the kids told me they wanted. It's set in the deepest part of the ocean where there is no light. And it’s about an unlikely friendship that Graciela, one of the girls, has with a young blacksmith named Jorge. They discover that there is a very dangerous harpoon in existence that has to be destroyed. And the art is by Ana and Elena Balbuso, who are these design queens. They're just fabulous! They live in Milan, they are twin sisters. And the art is breathtaking to me. And so I think … I'm excited and I hope readers enjoy it.

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Adwoa Adusei That’s it for this bonus episode. We’ll include links to books by Meg Medina in our show notes – including her latest: Graciela in the Abyss, a middle grade novel that takes place under the sea.

Virginia Marshall That sounds like just the book we all need now. So check out our show notes for that. Borrowed and Returned is a production of Brooklyn Public Library. It’s written and produced by me, Virginia Marshall, and co-hosted with Adwoa Adusei. You can read a transcript of this episode and our show notes with all of our great links at BKLYN Library [dot] org [slash] podcasts.  

Adwoa Adusei Brooklyn Public Library relies on the support of individuals for many of its most critical programs and services. To make a gift, please go to BKLYN Library [dot] org [slash] donate. Our Borrowed advisory team is made up of Nick Higgins, Fritzi Bodenheimer, Robin Lester Kenton, and Damaris Olivo. Jennifer Proffitt and Ashley Gill run our social media. Laurie Elvove designed our logo. 

Virginia Marshall We’ll be back next week with another bonus episode: our interview with children’s book author Matt de la Peña. Until next time… keep re-reading.