The Fresh Voices series is in coordination with the RHCB DEI Book Club committee.

In conversation with Deb Caletti, author of True Life in Uncanny Valley

With a few well-placed lies, Eleanor lands a summer job as a nanny to her secret half-brother. What is her motivation?
Eleanor’s father is Hugo Harrison, a charismatic, beloved billionaire and the creator of a hugely popular AI art app, as well as a highly anticipated, top-secret new release. Everyone seems to know him except Eleanor herself. In her house, Hugo is the enemy, and she doesn’t dare even try. But when she gets this chance to experience life with Hugo, his glamorous wife, Aurora, and her little brother . . . she has to do it. Even if it means betraying Team Mom with increasingly catastrophic lies.

In the past, you’ve said that all your books are personal. What connects you to Eleanor’s story?
At its heart, the story is about narcissism and how it plays from the smallest private arena—the family—to the largest, societal ones. We’ve all been increasingly witnessing narcissism’s effects in the wider world, but many of us, me included, have either experienced a narcissistic family dynamic or watched it play out with someone close. Eleanor’s dad’s ego is the story’s showiest, but her golden sister and mom’s exclusionary relationship is what pains her most. Unfortunately, many kids will relate.

The rise of AI is dominating headlines. What inspired you to use this timely topic as a jumping off point for Eleanor’s story?
A large part of narcissism is the inability to see others. Not truly seeing others has been an ugly truth for generations, but lately, there seems to be an ever-growing epidemic of it, and certain uses of AI reflect that. When we don’t acknowledge the original makers of art, we aren’t seeing other. When we steal an artist’s deep and personal creation and use it to train AI, we aren’t seeing other. We’re also not seeing ourselves—how our creativity is part of what makes us most human. In the book, I mention other seemingly outlandish tech, too, that zeroes in on our humanity. But it’s all based in truth either here now or currently being researched.

In True Life in Uncanny Valley, Eleanor faces a question that technology can’t answer: What is your true self, and how do you know when you find her? What answer do you hope readers will take away with them?
Mostly that you may or may not be an artist like Eleanor, but you—with your compassion and empathy, your creativity, vision, and unique light—you hold the pen to your own life story.

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In conversation with Andrea Beatriz Arango, author of It’s All 0r Nothing, Vale

It’s All or Nothing, Vale is your third novel in verse. What inspired you to use the medium of poetry to tell your stories?
I love telling stories in verse because I think they are a lot more accessible for kids who have low reading stamina or are learning the language. A 250-page novel doesn’t seem nearly as scary when there is so much white space on the page! When it comes to stories like Vale’s, it also helps readers immerse themselves more in an experience that is foreign to them. Pain and feelings are hard to explain to others, but poetry can achieve a lot in just a few words.

Vale is hardworking, determined, and talented. Is she modeled on anyone from your real life?
I am lucky to be surrounded by many people who fit that description, though I think my family sometimes struggles with knowing when to rest. Valentina is a competitive perfectionist—she has a hard time believing things are worth doing if she’s not giving 110 percent. And I think a lot of readers will relate to that. There is more and more pressure on kids every day, and the list of things they need to accomplish in order to be successful keeps getting longer.

Fencing is Vale’s thing. What did you know about the sport before writing this book? Why did you decide to feature fencing instead of soccer, softball, or another mainstream sport?
My sister was a gifted fencer! She tried out a class around age fifteen, and within a year had qualified to be on Puerto Rico’s national youth team. She ended up representing PR in many international competitions before ultimately deciding she didn’t want to pursue it as a career. Still, I would say my knowledge of the sport was pretty superficial. I asked my sister a LOT of questions while writing this book!

Vale struggles to find her new “normal.” What do you hope readers will take away from her journey?
I hope readers will walk away from the story with an example of someone whose world did not end when she had to change course. Sometimes our plans for the future change; that doesn’t mean we stop being who we are. Valentina is more than her fencing talent. And I hope readers are able to remember that if and when they find themselves struggling with school, sports, or anything they have used as an identifier in the past.

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Author Katherine Rundell reads the first chapter of her captivating, action-packed fantasy adventure, Impossible Creatures.

Praise for Impossible Creatures

★ “An epic fantasy with timeless themes and unforgettable characters.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

★ “Employing plotting reminiscent of works by Ursula Le Guin and Philip Pullman, Rundell deploys fresh language, epic stakes, bonds both tender and devastating, and fierce kid characters. It’s a thoughtfully lore-informed narrative about the kinship of living things and the marvels of being alive—a story that, above all, takes children seriously.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

★ “A quintessential fantasy that will delight readers of all ages.” — School Library Journal, starred review

★ “Rundell has delivered a welcome reminder of what makes the genre great. By taking risks, honoring her ancestors, and weaving a magic of her own, she adds her voice to the ancient, ongoing chorus of storytellers.” — Booklist, starred review

★ “Impossible Creatures is an ode to children’s ability to hope and to make hard decisions … for readers who devour adventure fantasy stories like The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill as well as classics like Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass, Impossible Creatures is a must-read.” —BookPage, starred review

“A powerful drama filled with self-sacrifice and great-heartedness . . . entrancing and refreshing.” —The Horn Book

“Rundell is well nigh irresistible.” –The New York Times Book Review

“With an utterly charming combination of wit and peril, Impossible Creatures is a magical book you race to finish and then immediately want to read aloud to someone little.” —The Washington Post

“An instant classic from one of the most gifted storytellers of our time, Impossible Creatures is an astonishing miracle of a book.” —Katherine Applegate, Newbery Medal Winner for The One and Only Ivan

“An absolute WOW of a book. Utterly enchanting and full of wonder, readers are in for a treat!” — B. B. Alston, author of Amari and the Night Brothers

“I love Katherine Rundell’s writing. . . . Readers who already know her books will seize this with delight, and new readers will love it and demand all her others at once.” —Philip Pullman, author of The Golden Compass

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The Archipelago is a hidden world where magical creatures of every kind thrive. What research did you do to help create your collection of mythological animals?
I spent many wonderful hours in libraries researching the magical creatures that we were once absolutely convinced were real. I read mythical encyclopedias, old manuscripts (in my other work, I research Renaissance literature at Oxford, so I have access to fantastic, dusty archives), and ancient histories, all to create a file with hundreds of pages of notes about my creatures. We used to believe there were unicorns in the wild, which makes perfect sense, really, given that narwhals exist. The line between possible and impossible in the natural world is so very thin: there are many things that seem like they should be glorious myths—giraffes, hedgehogs, swifts—that are true.

Impossible Creatures is already being called an “instant classic.” Which books and authors, both classic and contemporary, were your biggest influences when writing Impossible Creatures?
I’ve always loved fantasy, and grew up reading the masters Narnia, especially, gave me endless happiness. And I adored Tolkien, Ursula K. Le Guin, E. Nesbit’s Five Children and It, Diana Wynne Jones, Philip Pullman—and the older work too: Malory’s Morte d’Arthur, The Odyssey, the old Norse sagas, and Greek myths. I love the scope that modern fantasy gives authors to write about urgent truths—about power, and loss, and endurance—in a way that also offers a thrilling journey and a feast of pleasure.

Impossible Creatures is full of action and adventure. How do bring such gripping action to life?
Thank you so much! I’m thrilled you think so—I wanted to create a story that would grab children by the wrist and not let them go until the last page. I think children deserve huge, wild adventures, so at every step, I asked myself: Would I find this exciting, if I was reading it for the first time? Can I make it bolder, sharper, brighter, swifter?

What message do you hope readers take away from Impossible Creatures?
I wanted to write a book that would be, first and foremost, a great sweep of adventure and action and delight: I don’t think it’s fair to offer children a story and then bludgeon them with a moral. But the book is, in part, about the threat of endangerment: about the idea of fighting with everything you have to protect that which is vulnerable, because what is lost is lost forever. And I wanted to suggest to children that our own world is one of such magnificence that if we were not familiar with it—if we were to discover it anew—it would knock us sideways with astonishment.

★ “This work aptly communicates the issue of land acknowledgments . . . A memorable message.”

—Publishers Weekly, starred review

What inspired you to write/illustrate This Land?

Ashley Fairbanks: I have a 13 year old, and seeing the lack of education about Indigenous people in her schooling was really difficult. I wanted to write This Land to give adults a tool to talk to children about the history of land theft and displacement of Indigenous people. I also wanted them to know why the history of the land we live on—and who lived there before us—is important.

Most American children aren’t taught about Indigenous history until late in elementary; I think it’s critical that the fact that Indigenous people were on this land since time immemorial is introduced long before that. This country has a long, long way to go in reconciling the history of what the US government did to Indigenous people, but we can’t have those conversations if people don’t know the basics of what was done to Indigenous people in their area.

Introducing the topic of displacement in a way that children can understand helps lay the foundation for having hard conversations down the road about the wrongs done to Indigenous Americans, and for figuring out together how we can undo some of that harm.

Bridget George: I was inspired by the need for a book like this to exist! The idea of a book that both acknowledges the uniqueness of the different nations that have always called this land home AND encourages curiosity and perspective shifts about colonization in such a loving, community building way is so exciting.

What was the most difficult part about writing the book? What part was the easiest?

AF: Because the most important part of this book was talking honestly about which tribes originally lived in certain places, it was really important for me to get their names correctly, and for Bridget to illustrate each tribal member in a way that was accurate to their traditional or contemporary dress. Since we are both Anishinaabe, we made sure to talk with people from every tribe mentioned in the book to ensure that all the details were correct.

The easiest part was creating the framing of how to present the story. I’ve done a lot of storytelling and art work about land acknowledgments and the history of Indigenous people on the land, so it was very natural to think about how to explain to children that they weren’t the first people to live where they live, and why it was important to think about it.

BG: As an Anishinaabe person, I’m able to illustrate Anishinaabe design motifs and clothing details easily. When it came to illustrating the other nations in the book I spent a long time trying to get the details right!

What element of the story do you identify with the most and why?

AF: My grandma was an incredibly important part of my life, so the idea that the wisdom in this story is coming from TJ’s feels familiar and warm. Learning from elders is a really critical part of Anishinaabe culture, so it was important that the children learn from TJ’s grandmother.

BG: I think what strikes me the most about the book is the love and gentleness that it carries while approaching a difficult to understand and sometimes uncomfortable subject. You can really feel through the book that there is a beautiful potential for understanding and community building.

What do you want kids today to take away from this story?

AF: My greatest hope for This Land is that it makes kids (and their parents) curious about the Indigenous people that lived in their communities before colonization, and that it makes them ask where those people are today. Are they still there, as neighbors and friends, teachers and shopkeepers? Or were they forced off the land? Where did they go? I’m excited that the answers to this will be different for every child that reads This Land, and where that curiosity takes them in the future.

BG: I hope This Land inspires children and their grown-ups to explore the world around them with a new lens. I hope they finish the book with a new curiosity about the hundreds of different Indigenous Nations that have always called this land home.

What are you currently reading?

AF: I am currently reading and rereading the draft of my next book, which is a middle-grade book about the government-run boarding schools that Indigenous children were forced to attend. [Note: This is another Race to the Truth book, scheduled for Summer 2026!] When I put that down, I’m going between Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig and the array of romance novels I speed read as a treat. I am always reading something serious and something light-hearted to keep things in balance.

BG: I’m currently about to finish The Art Thief by Michael Finkel and am currently having Charlotte’s Web read aloud to me by my little one 🙂

The Fresh Voices series is in coordination with the RHCB DEI Book Club committee.