On Writing Mari in the Margins

How an idea for a picture book became a middle grade novel in verse

Middle child of nine
lost in a sea of offspring
I am Marivel

Mari in the Margins releases in one month!

Four weeks from tomorrow, to be precise. This moment has been a long time coming. Ten years coming! There have been many times during those years when doubts crept in and I wondered if this project would ever become a “real book,” but I believed in the story and never gave up. And here we are!

When I started working on this story ten years ago, it was not a novel in verse. It wasn’t even a novel. It was an idea for a picture book about a little girl who feels lost as the middle child in a large family. Partly inspired by my own upbringing as the third of seven, the story I imagined was fun, funny, and full of lots of big-family antics. But as I thought about the story and fleshed out the main character, I realized that there was a bigger story to tell. So I kept the heart of the story and wrote it as a middle grade novel about Marivel, a middle child of nine struggling to discover what, if anything, she has to offer—as a daughter, a sister, a friend, and especially a poet.

One of Mari’s doodles from early in the book

I have wanted to write (and publish) a novel in verse since long before my first picture book was ever published. I love poetry as means of storytelling. I love how concise the verse format can be when used to its full effect. It’s like the Ant-man of the literary world—everything about a good story condensed into a small package that packs a big punch. Because Mari is a poet herself, the verse format seemed particularly fitting for her story (not that I believe you have to have a “reason” to write a story in verse, but that’s a topic for another newsletter).

Once I got started all those years ago, this story would NOT let me go. I think that’s because, of all the characters I’ve written about in the past, Mari is the one I relate to the most. I can relate to how she interacts with her family, how she uses poetry and art to process her emotions and experiences, how she struggles with uncertainty as a poet, a sister, and a friend.

We’ve all been at that point in our lives, haven’t we? Where we’re figuring out how we fit in the world, what gifts we have to offer, what kind of person we want to be? In books, some characters fight dragons, defeat evil sorcerers, or go on epic adventures in order to figure this stuff out. But most of us just have…middle school.

So that’s why I wrote Mari in the Margins. Because as much as I love stories about epic adventures and sorcerer-vanquishing, it’s important to remember that it’s usually ordinary, everyday struggles that form us. And those are stories worth telling (and reading and sharing). And I may be biased, but I think verse is often the best way to tell them.

I hope that you are looking forward to reading Mari in the Margins and/or sharing it with someone you think will enjoy it!

Mari’s doodle of dandelions

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If you’ve never read a novel in verse before, here are a few middle grade ones that are great for those new to the genre:

• Love that Dog by Sharon Creech

• Heartbeat by Sharon Creech

• The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

• Gone Fishing by Tamera Will Wissinger