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Photo
© Scarlett K. Anderson |
M. Sindy Felin
Touching Snow
Atheneum Books
for Young Readers
Interview
conducted by Rita
Williams-Garcia.
RWG: Now that it’s
all said and done, what is the story decision that you
are most proud of?
Originally, I was going to leave the reader wondering
if Karina did indeed kill her stepfather. Though she
confesses to doing it in the opening pages, Karina is
also quite the storyteller, and so I thought maybe leaving
the Daddy’s demise as a “What really happened
that night” would add to her quirkiness and mystique.
In the end, not only am I glad that it is clear what
happened to the Daddy, I’m also happy that the
sisters each had a part in forming this important part
of their futures.
Please discuss aspects of negotiating darkness
and light in Karina’s world.
Karina knows that her home
life must be more difficult and frightening than the
home lives of her schoolmates. But being a kid, this
doesn’t stop her from experiencing joy where she
can find it – watching fireworks from the back
porch with her sisters, teaching her young cousins how
to roller skate in the hallway of her house, and pinching
church collection plate dollars to buy knishes smeared
with mustard. And Karina creates some of the light in
her life by retelling her day-to-day experiences to
Augustin, the tailor who rents the family’s basement,
as she would prefer to be living it.
There aren't too many characters who get away
with murder. Will we see Karina in the future? (Crossing
my fingers for a resounding “YES.”)
For me, Karina’s story
definitely does not end where Touching Snow
leaves off. She is such a fully formed character in
my mind that I already know bits and pieces of her future
– those things helped me form her identity as
we see it in Touching Snow. I would love to
see her make another appearance in the future –
but she’d have to have quite the compelling reason
to do so.
 Rita
Williams-Garcia is the author of six distinguished novels
for young adults: Jumped, No Laughter Here, Every
Time a Rainbow Dies, Fast Talk on a Slow Track, Blue
Tights, and Like Sisters on the Homefront.
She has also published a picture book and has contributed
to numerous anthologies. Williams-Garcia's works have
been recognized by the Coretta Scott King Award Committee,
the PEN/Norma Klein Award, the American Library Association,
and Parents' Choice, among others. She recently served
on the National Book Award Committee for Young People's
Literature and is on faculty at Vermont College for
the MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults program.
Rita Williams-Garcia lives in Jamaica, Queens, NY and
is the mother of two daughters.
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