Bronzeword Latino YA book Tour: Guest post with Lyn Miller-Lachmann, author of Gringolandia

Lyn Miller-Lachmann is the Editor-in-Chief of MultiCultural Review, the author of the award-winning reference book Our Family, Our Friends, Our World: An Annotated Guide to Significant Multicultural Books for Children and Teenagers (1992), the editor of Once Upon a Cuento (2003), a collection of short stories for young readers by Latino authors, and the author of the novel Dirt Cheap (2006), an eco-thriller for adult readers. For Gringolandia, she received a Work-in-Progress Grant from the Society of Childrens Book Writers and Illustrators.

A History in Books

Often people ask me the kind of books I read when I was a teenager, the books that made me the writer I am today. I have to admit that beyond the age of 13, when I read Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird because my mother said I'd love it (she was right!), I read very little fiction for many years. My favorite books were all nonfiction-mostly having to do with history, or else biographies of famous people. During this time, when I was thinking about what I wanted to do with my life-because I certainly didn't want to do what my parents wanted me to do-I needed to learn as much as I could about the world.

As a teenager, I never thought I would become a writer. I worked at a radio station after school and on weekends, and my dream was to play lead guitar for a rock band. Having poor eye-hand coordination and no musical talent put an end to that dream-at least in real life. But in my imagination I could be anything I wanted.
And that's when I began to combine my love of history and biography with my imagination. My favorite nonfiction books showed the effects of historical events on ordinary people. For example, The Diary of Anne Frank took me into the crowded attic where 13-year-old Anne and her family were forced to live with total strangers as they hid from the Nazis. And while I preferred nonfiction, which told me what really happened during the Civil War, the Second World War, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and other times of war and conflict, I also came to realize that fiction based on real events can convey powerfully what ordinary people feel when they are caught up in events larger than themselves.

To Kill a Mockingbird portrays two children whose father does the right thing by defending a black man falsely accused of a crime in the racist South at the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement. The children encounter danger because of their father's actions, but they also have a role model-a father who does what's right rather than what will make him popular and accepted by his (white) society.
To Kill a Mockingbird served as a huge influence for me when I began to write Gringolandia, which is also a work of historical fiction. My novel features a teenage boy, Daniel Aguilar, whose father stands up for what is right regardless of the cost to himself and his family. In my novel, Daniel's father publishes an illegal newspaper that exposes the crimes of a brutal dictatorship in his country. As a result, Daniel is forced to watch as his father is beaten and arrested. Soon after, the boy, his sister, and their mother flee to the United States, so Daniel has to learn a new language and get used to life in a very different place. After five years, he has come to like the United States-he has a pretty girlfriend and plays lead guitar for a rock band (just like I wanted to do, but that's what's great about fiction; you can give your characters talents you wished you had). Then, his father is released from prison and comes to the United States, too, but he isn't the same father Daniel remembers-plus he wants to take the entire family back to their still-dangerous country to continue the struggle.

Like Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, Daniel's father, Marcelo, has put the family in danger, but he has also provided Daniel with a role model. But that changes when Marcelo arrives in the United States, because the family is now living in a safe place. And because of what happened to him in prison, Marcelo often doesn't act like the role model that he used to be. That's when Daniel, now 17, comes to understand he is part of history, trying to survive against forces that are larger than himself and to develop a relationship with a father he no longer knows.

*Leave a comment with an email address below and be entered to win a SIGNED copy of Gringolandia! (Open Internationally) Thank you to the author for this wonderful opportunity* A winner will be picked late tonight or in the morning! (Remember to comment on yesterdays post for ANOTHER entry)

BONUS ENTRIES:
+2 Ask Lyn a question in the comments!

Also, be sure to check out the other stops of the tour!
Oct 29 Kelsey at The Book Scout http://thebookscout.blogspot.com/
Oct 30 Lilibeth at ChicaReader http://lilibethramos.blogspot.com
Nov 2 Reggie at The Undercover Book Lover (Not Really) book http://theundercoverbooklover.blogspot.com/
Nov 3 Mariah at A Reader’s Adventure! http://mariah-readingadventure.blogspot.com/
Nov 6 Sarah at Sarah’s Random Musings http://sarahbear9789.blogspot.com/
Nov 9 Faye at Ramblings of a Teenage Bookworm http://fayeflamereviews.blogspot.com
Nov 10 Melaine at Melaine’s Musings http://melanies–musings.blogspot.com
Nov 11 Melaine at Melaine’s Musings book review
Nov 11 Hope at Hope’s Book Shelf http://www.princess2293.blogspot.com

Special thanks to Jo Ann Hernández at BronzeWord Latino Authors for setting up the tour http://authorslatino.com/wordpress