Bianca with Sally Pla on The Water, The Fire, and Maudie McGinn

Sally J. Pla discusses her novel The Fire, the Water, and
Maudie McGinn and describes the character of Maudie as a
girl who learns resiliency in the face of life's challenges.
Sally also talks about the importance of reading about characters
different from oneself to broaden empathy and understanding. The
themes of the book include divorce, neurodivergence, and abuse.
Sally's website, Novelmind.com, is a resource for mental health
and neurodiversity representation in children's literature.





Sally J. Pla is the author of the acclaimed novels The Someday
Birds and Stanley Will Probably Be Fine. She has English degrees
from Colgate and Penn State and has worked as a business
journalist and in public education. She has three sons, a
husband, and an enormous fluffy dog and lives near lots of lemon
trees in Southern California.


Transcription:


You can read the transcription on The Children's Book Review .


Order a Copy:


The Fire, the Water, and Maudie McGinn: ⁠Amazon⁠⁠⁠ and
⁠⁠⁠Bookshop.org.


Resources:


You can visit Sally J. Pla online at www.sallyjpla.com.


Visit anovelmind.com, a site about mental health and
neurodiversity in children’s literature.


Discussion Topics:


The premise of The Fire, the Water, and Maudie
McGinn and how it fits with Sally's mission

Sally discusses the struggle of sustaining focus and shares
her secret weapon, a particular software, to block distractions.

She explains how her mission to populate children's
literature with neurodivergent characters came about through her
own experiences with her neurodivergent children and a health
emergency that refocused her priorities.

The importance of reading about characters who are different
from oneself to broaden empathy and understanding.

Sally describes the character of Maudie as a girl who cares
about others and wants to be accepted and loved and learns to
surf as a metaphor for learning resiliency in the face of life's
challenges.

Inherited traumas that parents bring into their parenting and
the resources included in the book.

How the combination of prose and verse in the book was a
natural evolution based on Maudie's thought processes

The message of empowerment and resilience in The Fire,
the Water, and Maudie McGinn.