 Cover by Rose Bousamra Today we celebrate the book birthday of Grow Up, Luchy Zapata We sat down with Musa Alexandra Alessandri to learn about the inspiration behind this book. Tell us a little bit about the book: It is a funny, relatable middle school drama about two Colombian American girls who have always been BFFs—until sixth grade turns everything upside down. Luchy Zapata is starting middle school, and she’s muy excited. She and her two best friends, Cami and Mateo, will finally be at the same school. Luchy and Mateo will be in art class together, and she and Cami can try out for the same soccer team! As long as they’re all together, Luchy can handle anything. But Cami has been acting weird ever since she got back from visiting family in Colombia. She’s making new, “cool” friends who just seem mean. And suddenly, everything about Luchy and Mateo is too immature for her. Luchy is determined to help Cami remember how special their friendship is. They’ve been BFFs their whole lives, and that can’t just disappear in a poof of glitter! But…what if Cami doesn’t even want to be friends anymore? What a fun read! More after the link... Where did you get the idea to write this particular story? The humble origins of this story began as my son finished fifth grade and embarked on his middle school journey. As I lived through those moments with him, navigating the messy feelings of excitement, fear, and anticipation—and later, as I watched him navigate hallways, teachers, and friendships—I couldn’t help but remember my own experiences. When he went through a friendship breakup, I remembered my own painful one in 5th grade from a friend I’d had since I was two; like Luchy, I was ditched for the “cool” kids when my BFF finally came to my school. As he flourished in his band elective, I remembered my middle school art class and the bullying I experienced there. As I heard about who-likes-whom and who’s-talking-to-whom, I remembered what it was like during my middle school years all those decades ago. Slowly, as I wrote down what I was witnessing and remembering, Luchy jumped onto the page with the strongest and snazziest voice I’ve experienced thus far in my writing career! How would you describe your main character? Why did you create your character that way? Luchy is artistic, athletic, a foodie, and fiercely loyal, but she’s also sometimes oblivious and definitely makes some questionable choices in an attempt at setting things straight. They say write what you know, and in many ways, Luchy is a mashup of my son and me. I love art, and while not as artistic as Luchy is, I took art in middle school, and I love bold, bright colors like Luchy. I also dabbled in scrapbooking, like Luchy and her mom, and adore urban murals. The ones in Colombia have been some of my favorites, and they made their way into the book.  Luchy’s relationship with soccer (and her connection to her Colombian roots) was drawn from my son’s experiences, who also quit club in 3rd grade due to a coach, only to pick it up later in middle school. Soccer served to give Luchy another layer to her identity and a connection with her father and culture. As a second-gen American, my son sometimes feels a disconnect with his roots, but when it comes to soccer and cheering Colombia on, we’re both donning the amarillo, azul y rojo. In writing Luchy the way I did, I wanted to explore the many ways we can connect with our roots, and how people who claim the same identity can have very different connections with it. I also wanted to create a flawed character who is passionate, who means well but messes up because of her own flaws, but who also learns to take ownership of her mistakes. What message are you hoping readers will take away from this story? If my first book was a love letter to Colombia, then this one is a love letter to the Colombian diaspora—and by extension for all those who’ve found themselves wondering if they were enough, if they belonged to their parents’ countries or within their community. My hope is that readers will take away that they are enough and that each of us connects to our identity and heritage in our own unique way. And that’s perfectly okay. What mentor texts did you use for your story? If so, how did you use them? Because most of what I’d written (and read) before Grow Up, Luchy Zapata was either fantasy or picture books, when I first started tinkering with this idea, I thought I couldn’t do it. I don’t know how to write quieter contemporary novels, I told myself. When Luchy wouldn’t leave me alone, I started seeking out contemporary middle grade stories that had the same feel and voice as I was going for in order to study plot. Some key mentor texts were Jennifer Torres’ Stef Soto, Taco Queen, Rebecca Balcárcel’s The Other Half of Happy, Cindy Baldwin’s Where the Watermelons Grow, Amanda Rawson Hill’s Three Rules of Everyday Magic, and later, during my revision, Erin Entrada Kelly’s Blackbird Fly. But there were more! I read so much contemporary middle grade during this time. Understanding how the plot elements compared between high-concept adventure-fantasies and quieter realistic fiction helped me tremendously in understanding what the major story beats in Luchy would look like. And in case you’re wondering, I’m very much a plotter by nature! What comes next for you as an author? Up next, I have a short story in the anthology All the Love Under the Vast Sky, a collection of short stories in verse surrounding the theme of love, about a girl who emerges from grief and battles with fibromyalgia to discover how to love herself and life again. So many rockstar authors are in this anthology edited by Kip Wilson—look for it on January 14, 2025! I also have an unannounced picture book set to release in 2026 that I’m super excited about. Like with my current books, these two are also deeply inspired by my lived experiences, including my own journey with fibromyalgia. 
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