Rachel DeWoskin's new YA novel is Someday We Will Fly, which takes place in Shanghai during World War II.From the author's Q&A with Deborah Kalb:
Q: You note that two photos of Jewish refugee children in Shanghai inspired the idea for Someday We Will Fly. How did you create your character Lillia and her family?--Marshal Zeringue
A: My novels are all concerned with human beings in trouble, people on the peripheries, trying to figure out how to transcend contexts that are unfamiliar or excruciatingly difficult. Lillia is that kind of character; she's tough and imaginative, and although her life circumstances are tragic, she manages to demonstrate the sort of resilience teenagers often do.
I came up with Lillia from those photos of children who had escaped Nazi-occupied Europe and were living in Shanghai--their toys and clothes and scrubbed faces made me want to explore how their parents had managed to come to Shanghai in terror, land in a place as unfamiliar as any place could possibly be, and then still build childhoods for their children. They made schools, sports teams, and beautiful dolls for their children.
Of course Lillia is also a composite of my daughters, an imaginary rendering of them forward. She's in many ways parts of me, and I tried to make her both of her own era and recognizable as one of us--someone with the same hopes and dreads we have now.
Part of the way Lillia survives is by...[read on]