Interview with Heather Vogel Frederick

I just posted an interview with Heather Vogel Frederick at MotherDaughterBookClub.com. Heather is the author of The Mother-Daughter Book Club, a delightful book about a fictional club that forms with middle school girls in Concord, Massachusetts. She’s also written The Voyage of Patience Goodspeed, The Education of Patience Goodspeed and the Spy Mice series of books. Here’s an excerpt from the interview. To read the complete interview, click here.

You’ve written historical fiction, fantasy and current fiction. Why so many different styles?

HVF: They all seems to have connections to my life. There was the family connection with Patience. Spy Mice was an homage to my misspent youth, because I spent a lot of time watching spy-fi TV. The Mother-Daughter Book Club is set in my hometown of Concord, Massachusetts.

Do you feel a particular resonance with middle grade readers?

HVF: There’s this magic window for kids between eight or nine and maybe about 12 where you still have their attention before they get off into young adult and adult fiction. My books can be read by kids who are younger, they can be read by kids who are older, but I think there’s something about 11 year olds that’s great..

Why do you think it’s important to write for that age range?

HVF: There’s such a push in our world today to thrust our kids further than they need to be. Whether it’s in pop music or fashion or what they’re seeing in movies. I’m really whole heartedly for defending our kids, and maintaining that sense of purity that comes with childhood without being in such a rush to push them on. Let them still be kids.

I understand you have two sons. What inspired you to write a book about mother-daughter book clubs?

HVF: The spark for the idea was from my editor. She called me up one day and said there are mother-daughter book clubs all over the country and wouldn’t it be fun to write a book about one. You could set it in Concord, your home town and have the club read little women. It sounded great to me.

So how did you take the idea and make it into your own story?

HVF: I was one of three daughters. I mined our rich childhood vigorously. I had a world class mother too, so there are strong mother/daughter connections there. But it is at the height of irony that I wrote a book with a pink cover.