Calling All Smart Cookies

Maxwell with author Elly Swartz at her book launch for Smart Cookie at Blue Bunny Books in Dedham, Massachusetts

Elly Swartz, the author of Finding Perfect (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016), a middle-grade novel about 12-year-old Molly Nathans, baked all kinds of cookies to celebrate the birthday of her new novel, Smart Cookie (Scholastic).

I recently met Swartz at Blue Bunny Books in Dedham, Massachusetts. She was there to introduce Smart Cookie to young fans.

The book, which is also for middle graders, centers around a spunky girl named Frankie. After her mother dies, Frankie puts an ad in the paper for a new wife for her father. She wants a three-person family again for the local Winter Festival Family Parade.

But “Operation Mom” proves harder than Frankie expected. Eventually, she learns that your “herd” is anyone who loves you unconditionally, with all of your idiosyncrasies.

STRONG AND INDEPENDENT

Swartz said that she and Frankie are a lot alike. Both of their mothers died at a young age. “Frankie is spunky and has a big heart,” Swartz said. “I share those traits with her. We both have a dash of mischievous in us, as well as being independent and strong.”

Swartz grew up in Yardley, Pennsylvania, and now lives in Massachusetts. She loves hiking, kayaking, doing puzzles, reading, cooking, and spending time with her family. She and her husband have two grown sons.

At the launch, I had the opportunity to enjoy some cookies and talk with Swartz. Here are highlights from our conversation:

What is your favorite kind of cookie?

Hands down chocolate chip. It’s gotta be crunchy on the outside and a little bit gooey on the inside.

Do you have pets?

I have a dog named Lucy—a beagle, just like Lucy the beagle in Smart Cookie. She was seven weeks old when I started writing the book, and now she’s three. I used to have an African pygmy hedgehog named Hippie.

What are a few of your favorite middle-grade books?

I love Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin, Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork, and Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt. My son, when he was in fourth grade, was assigned to read Mick Harte Was Here by Barbara Park. We read it together. I laughed and I cried, and I wanted to make a book that made somebody feel all the feels. This was the book that made me want to write to be published.

What is your advice for young writers?

Read. Write what matters to you. Dream big. If you believe in yourself, and it’s something you really want, there’s absolutely no reason that it can’t happen for you.