Mar 4

Mar 4 Meet Author Stacy McAnulty at the Lexington Book Festival

Arts & Entertainment, Children, Columns, Culture, Education, Local News

I recently conducted an interview for the Second Annual Lexington Book Festival with the talented Stacy McAnulty, who has written over 30 books.

These books include the middle-grade novel, The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl, an Indie Bestseller and the picture book, Excellent Ed, which is a 2017 Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Honor book recipient.

Stacy will be joining numerous other authors that will be attending the Lexington Book Festival on Saturday March 09, 2024 at 202 North Main Street, Uptown Lexington.

Here are some of the highlights from our question and answer interview.

Joel Leonard - Why should people read your books?

Stacy McAnulty - I hope that children pick up my books because they're looking for good stories and interesting characters. I spend a lot of time working on my characters and I want them to feel real and I want young readers to connect with the characters, because the best characters feel like long time friends.

JL - Why do you love writing? Also, please tell me more about your books.

SM - I love being a writer. I love being able to use my imagination and create stories that will resonate with readers. I used to be an engineer, there I got to create as well. It's just what I love to do. I'm a maker and I'm a creator.

My newest book is called Forever Twelve.

It came out last October and it's a little bit fantasy, it's a little bit mystery and this is all new to me, it was super fun to write.

In the book we have Ivy, a 12 year old going off to a boarding school in North Carolina and when she gets there, of course she expects the kids to be very smart and very motivated. But she meets a small group of kids that are well beyond smart and well beyond motivated and it turns out that they are forever 12.

They are 200-300 years old but they look like tweens and Ivy gets involved with them because she's going to help them solve the mystery of one of their friends that disappeared in the 1940’s.

My most popular book is one titled The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl. That book has sold the most copies and I'm proud that it is on the North Carolina elementary school Battle the Books list this year. It's been a favorite with kids and educators.

JL - What are future projects you are working on?

SM - I just finished the sequel to Forever Twelve.

It's called Never Thirteen that'll come out this fall and I'm very excited to finish Ivy, Ronan and Abigail's story.

I'm also currently working on some new picture books in the Our Universe series. So, soon readers will be able to visit Venus

JL - What can people get out of reading your books?

SM - Well, my first goal is to always entertain, because if a young reader is not entertained, they're gonna close the cover and not come back. So that's the number one goal always.

If a reader is entertained, then we can take a look at some of the bigger topics.

Things like struggles in school, being the new kid, friendships and the things that kids face every day.

~ We look forward to welcoming Stacy McAnulty to Lexington on Saturday. I hope that each of you will join us and bring the entire family to support literacy and to meet this stellar panel of internationally celebrated authors.