Interview with Cathy Carr about LOST KITES AND OTHER TREASURES

Anne: Welcome to MG Book Village, Cathy! Your newest MG novel—Lost Kites and Other Treasures—comes out from Abrams tomorrow, February 6. Would you please give readers a brief summary of what the story is all about?

Cathy: Sure! It’s about twelve-year-old Franny who lives with her grandmother and hides how much she thinks about her troubled mom who left years ago. When Nana has an accident and Franny’s uncle arrives to help out around the house, long-guarded family secrets come to light, and Franny has to come to terms with discoveries she makes about her mother—and herself.

Anne: Thank you. I think the book will help lots of people—kids and adults—talk about mental illness. As Nana says to Franny, “Mental illness is a lot more common than people might think. It’s just that no one ever talks about it.” So true! What made you want to tell this story? What was the kernel that got you started?

Cathy: I think there were two kernels.

One was my father’s history. He wasn’t abandoned, but his mother died suddenly when he was four. Even as an adult, my dad could never talk about her death without choking up. In the 1930s there was little understanding or sympathy for the behavioral problems he developed. Instead of getting help, he got a reputation as a bad, hot-headed kid and a whole lot of whippings. In writing this story, I imagined a different outcome for a kid like my dad, a story where a troubled girl gets the help she needs and can have a happier, more stable life.

Anne: Oh, man, my heart breaks for your dad. What was the second kernel?

Cathy: Second was my own history. When I was growing up, some of the people in my family struggled with their mental health. Again, in that time and place there was little understanding or sympathy—mental health was simply not discussed. Psychological problems were not openly acknowledged and often went untreated. If the struggling person was functional, that was good enough. I remember that silence and secrecy as a terrible weight, very isolating.

When I finally started coming clean about my childhood, I was surprised to find out how many people I knew had similar stories. That’s what silence and shame can do–make you feel as if you’re the only person in the world who’s ever struggled with a particular problem. It turns out I was far from the only person I knew who had had to deal with this issue. There is a lot of mental illness out there, way more than some people would think. I wanted to promote honesty and openness around mental health and most of all I wanted kids like Franny to know they weren’t alone, even if they sometimes feel as if they are.

Anne: Honesty and openness rather than shame—yes! Such a valuable realization you had. Tell me about the moment in the book when—after she learns that her mom struggled with bipolar disorder—Franny worries she could inherit it, too. Your down-to-earth way of addressing Franny’s worry is realistic. Authentic. Heart-warming. Would you talk a bit about your process in crafting that delicate moment (chapter 25)? How much revision did you have to do to get Franny’s story right?

Cathy: It didn’t take as much revision as you might think because I had had those same worries about inheritable disorders and my own mental health, and I had a similar discussion with someone—in my case with a therapist instead of a family member. It’s an extremely common fear for kids who have mental-health issues in their families. Like so many other worries, it just seems to get more inflamed the less they talk about it. I’m happy you think that scene was successful, because it was so important to get right.

Anne: Yeah, that was a powerful scene. Now, about the art in the novel—Franny loves to create art with found objects, and the novel ends with a section called, “Why You Should Be an Artist.” Tell us about you! What sort of art do you enjoy doing?

Cathy: The main thing I did, for years, was make quilts. I never took lessons or watched tutorials. One day in my twenties I just cut up some old clothes and found some needle and thread and started stitching away. I make them by hand, even now, because when I started I didn’t have a sewing machine. It takes me years to finish one but the process is very satisfying. Then, during the pandemic, I was helping my son with his art classes and they made me remember how much I loved doing art as a kid. I wondered why I had stopped doing something so enjoyable and absorbing, and decided that maybe I should just start doing it again. Luckily, it’s never too late. It’s literally never too late to get back into art.

Anne: Finding the process satisfying—that says it all.

Cathy: It really does. I do all kinds of things, whatever pleases me. I’m currently working on a weaving made from cut-up cloth strips and an old picture frame, like the one Franny works on in Lost Kites. And I’m always taking photos while I’m out for my walks—having an iPhone makes that so easy. I also collect objects for found art. My son was the one doing found-art pieces and now I’m the one who seems more interested. It always surprises me how many hubcaps I find in our neighborhood. There must be a lot of fender-benders.

Anne: Ouch. Yeah. And speaking of ouch moments, in one scene, Franny bakes a pecan pie that turns out to… well, let’s just say she’ll do things differently next time. Might you share with us a cooking-disaster story of your own?

Cathy: Ha! The last disaster was pretty recent. At Thanksgiving I decided to try a new way of cooking the turkey, starting it off at a high temp and then finishing it on low. I put the bird into the oven at 500 degrees F and set the timer for thirty minutes. Over that next half hour someone working in the kitchen—almost certainly myself—bumped against the oven controls and turned the setting from Bake to Convection Bake. Convection Bake is sort of like a hot wind sweeping through the oven, making it hotter and drier. It’s great for browning things, but it wasn’t the right thing for the turkey. My friend John, who was visiting for the holiday, tells me I let out an actual scream when I discovered Convection Bake was on.

Anne: Oh, no!

Cathy: The turkey was not my greatest. The stuffing was still good, though.

Anne: Too funny. Now, back to the book… In both of your MG novels—365 Days to Alaska and Lost Kites and Other Treasures—the protagonist goes to live with her grandmother. Tell us about you and your grandmother! In your next book for MG readers, will a grandmother play a key role? What are you working on now?

Cathy: Believe it or not—I wasn’t that close to either of my grandmothers. My paternal grandmother died when my father was four, and my maternal grandmother lived several states away from us, so I didn’t see her all that often. I did acquire some found-family grandparents over the years, though, and remember them fondly. Maybe they are the inspiration for my fictional grandmothers.

Grandparents don’t feature largely in my next book. The main character is a 13-year-old girl who lives in rural North Carolina and races gokarts. She does have an uncle she’s close to, though.

Anne: I didn’t live near my grandparents, either, and I’ve always envied kids who lived near theirs.

Let’s wrap up with you sharing your social media links. Where can readers go to learn more about you?

Cathy: You can find me on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @cathycarrwrites, and my website is: www.cathycarrwrites.com.

Anne: Thank you so much, Cathy, for telling us a bit about your process, and for crafting such a heartfelt character in Franny Petroski.

Cathy: Thanks. So happy to be featured on MG Book Village.

Cathy Carr was born in western Nebraska and grew up in Wisconsin. Since high school, she has lived in four different U.S. states, plus overseas, and worked a variety of jobs, from burger flipping to technical writing. Wherever she goes, her observations of the natural world give her inspiration. Her debut novel, 365 Days to Alaska, was called “a wonderful debut novel about compassion, belonging, and finding your way home” by Lynne Kelly. It was a Junior Library Guild selection and chosen for Bank Street’s Best Children’s Books of the Year 2021. Cathy lives in the New Jersey suburbs with her family and a semi-feral cat named Barnaby.

Anne (A.B.) Westrick (she/her) is the author of the older-MG novel Brotherhood. You can learn more about Anne at the MG Book Village “About” page.