Laura Shovan's new middle-grade novel for kids is Takedown.From her Q&A with Deborah Kalb:
Q: You note that you became interested in wrestling when your son was involved with the sport. What inspired your characters Mikayla and Lev?--Marshal Zeringue
A: My son started wrestling in second grade and stuck with the sport through middle school. There’s a lot of my son in Lev’s character, including his best wrestling friends, the Fearsome Threesome.
When our family was active in the sport, there were no girls on my son’s teams. It was rare to see a girl competing at tournaments. By the time I started working on Takedown, that was changing. Over the past several years, women’s wrestling has been growing as a sport.
I had a lot of fun developing Mikayla’s character. Through her, I got to write about what it’s like to be a girl in...[read on]