Young adult author Lauren Myracle is known for her best-selling (and controversial) ‘Internet Girls’ series: ttyl, ttfn, and l8r, g8r. Her most recent novel, Luv Ya Bunches, features four teen girls with real-life families and real-life problems. We talked to Myracle about her new tech-centric book, childrens’ reliance on the Web, and what it’s like to have your books banned. –Andrea Zimmerman

So, what was your inspiration to write your Luv Ya Bunches?

I had a couple of different motivating factors for this particular book. The first being that reading was my saving grace when I was a kid when my parents were going through their divorce. If I could see myself reflected in a book, or if I could see somebody being stronger, and braver, that was inspirational to me. That’s one of the things I always wanted to do for kids. Don’t pretty it up. Don’t be all “pat you on the head you cute little child,” but make it real so that you’ll let kids be good people. That’s my motivation.

My editor and I always have these awesome conversations. I told her I wanted to write a book about 5th grade girls and 5th grade in general. I think a lot of times when adults write about their own pasts, they forget that the present has moved on and changed so I wanted to reflect a classroom that was contemporary. I started naming my cast of characters—one girl is Muslim, one is half-Asian, one has two Moms and one has horrible problems with her Dad. My editor said, “Are there classrooms really like that?” And I said, “Heck, yeah.” So I didn’t want to be didactic. Or say, “Okay, let’s just be multicultural.” But rather, to say this is the way is it these days.

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Scholastic is learning this lesson the hard way: You can’t please everyone, so you better please yourself.

The controversy (this time) surrounds Lauren Myracle’s book for older elementary kids, Luv Ya Bunches. The book, which features a character with two mothers, was initially banned from Scholastic book fairs. When that caused an uproar among parents, Scholastic “compromised” by allowing it into their middle school fairs.

Whew, so that’s settled, right? Wrong.
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I’ve always thought that the Scholastic Book Fairs were pretty cool.  They make kids’ books available at extremely affordable prices in a very convenient and even fun way.  I imagine lots of kids have books because of Scholastic that wouldn’t have them otherwise.  The company is also good to teachers, offering liberal bonuses to let teachers get books for their classrooms cheaply.  Now, however, my opinion of the company is in jeopardy of changing significantly for the worse.

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