Hi Hannah! Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview! I am so excited to be working with you! Hannah's novel THE SUMMER OF LOST LETTERS comes out on June 15th, 2021.
Kayla Reads and Reveiws: Are there any tips about writing a book you wish someone told you before you wrote THE SUMMER OF LOST LETTERS?
Hannah Reynolds: I’m not sure of what I wish I’d been told, but these are the two best tips I did get:
Skip the boring parts. I heard this from my best friend, who’d heard it from a professor, who’d maybe heard it from a James Patterson Masterclass. If I found a scene tedious, I skipped it, which meant THE SUMMER OF LOST LETTERS has a lot of parties and bantering and skinny dipping, and I got to avoid writing boring transitional scenes. If the writer is bored, so is the reader, so make sure you’re having a good time.
Trust your reader. I think adults sometimes want to dumb down conversations about sex and pressure and family when talking to teens, and there’s no reason to do that.
KRAR: Was there anything as a Jewish person that you didn’t know about the culture/religion or relearned as an adult while doing research for your main character/novel?
HR: I didn’t know much about the early history of Jews in America! In THE SUMMER OF LOST LETTERS, I wanted the family of Noah, the love interest, to have been in the States for a long time, which led to me researching the arrival of the first group of Jews: in 1654, twenty-three Sephardic Jews arrived in New Amsterdam from Brazil (they were fleeing the Portuguese Inquisition after Portugal took over Brazil). I even ended up visiting the Touro Synagogue in Newport RI, the oldest synagogue in the States, built in 1763.
On a more recent historical note, I learned a lot about American Kindertransport. I knew about European Kindertransport, where many countries organized to take in Jewish children from Germany during WWII. In the States, a similar bill was introduced, but did not pass, and so people resorted to private methods and funds to bring Jewish children to the US. Here, children had to be placed with families of the same religion (unlike in Europe) and so many Jewish American families ended up taking in young German refugees.
KRAR: Why was it important to you to have your main character be Jewish?
HR: I always feel so happy when I read about Jewish heroines! Writing one also makes me happy.
KRAR: Has the current political climate/antisemitism made you hesitant in any way to publish a novel where the main character is Jewish?
HR: If anything, it makes me feel like it’s even more important to write this book. I wrote it during the last years of the Trump administration, very aware of how children were being treated at the southern border. Since THE SUMMER OF LOST LETTERS also deals with child immigration, I felt it was especially important to draw parallels about the way people think about historic child immigration, and the way they think about current events, and what they’re willing to do about it.
KRAR: Have there been any specific instances of antisemitism that you have experienced in your life that have translated into your work?
HR: Well, the girl is slightly too sensitive about her nose, which I cannot say is a lie for myself.
KRAR: Do you have a favorite Jewish holiday?
HR: Passover! Possibly just because I love the food so much.
KRAR: Do you have any tips for Jewish writers who want to write about Jewish characters?
HR: Try not to feel like you have to represent everyone and everything - it’s okay to just write about your experience being Jewish. Don’t worry that your characters are so Jewish that audiences won’t get it - audiences can look up words they don’t understand, and if they’re not willing to educate themselves, that’s not your problem. On the other hand, don’t worry about being bad-for-the-Jews or having a character who isn’t Jewish enough. You’re allowed to write about your experience and any range of experiences is completely valid.
KRAR: Growing up, was there ever a book that made you feel “seen” for your Jewish identity?
HR: I loved The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen. This might have been the first book I ever read about a Jewish girl (I wish there had been more romcoms at the time). My grandmother also spent her teen years in Europe during the war, and so I related to the content. There was also a series of books called The Magic Attic Club, about a group of girls who traveled back in time through the help of a magic mirror, and in one - Viva Heather! - Heather traveled to 1492 Spain and celebrated Passover.
KRAR: Its so funny that you mention The Devil's Arithmetic, when I was in sixth grade we read this book and it's the book I think of every Passover.
KRAR: Can you tell me a secret about THE SUMMER OF LOST LETTERS that no one else knows?
HR: I changed the ending of the book for my mom! I can’t say too much because spoilers, but in the original ending, Abby - the main character - gives her mom something. My mom read this and didn’t think the mother should keep this gift, and now what happens to it is because of my mom. It’s very sweet and the right thing to do.
KRAR: If your characters had instagram accounts, what would they be posting? Inspirational quotes? Cute baby animal photos? Mood boards? Photos of their friends? Or something else?
HR: Book pics! In THE SUMMER OF LOST SECRETS, Abby gets a job at a bookstore on Nantucket so that she can investigate old family secrets dating back to WWII. She’d post a ton of pictures of the books she loves, along with endless photos of beaches, ice cream, and sunsets.
KRAR: Is there anything you want people to know about your book before they start reading?
HR: THE SUMMER OF LOST LETTERS is a beachy, romantic book about two very stubborn people who start off disliking each other (he’s an arrogant rich boy, she’s a nosy bookish girl) and end up madly in love, which is just my favorite dynamic to write. It’s about mothers and daughters, intergenerational relationships, a lost necklace, an exclusive island, and family secrets. Hopefully, reading it will just make you really happy and laugh a lot, so pick it up when that’s the mood you’re going for!
Thank you SO much for answering these questions! I am so excited for your novel!