I had spent so much time on another story, and this was my opportunity to start over. I began writing Macy’s story in the middle of my MFA program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Tell us a bit about Macy Weaver and what inspired this story? Thankfully, many of us grew up and decided to create the characters we needed to see growing up, and it feels good that future generations will have more to choose from on shelves. Too many of us grew up in a representation desert-clinging to the handful of characters who looked like us in media. I wanted to write stories about children that I didn’t see on shelves growing up. I began writing seriously as an adult in 2017. There’s no way I would’ve stood for my story being excluded from the Write-a-Book contest, haha. Apparently, I was challenging book bans as a third grader. The first story I wrote for a school assignment was about a girl who accidentally witnessed her mother giving birth. I guess you can say that story was technically the first draft of Be Real, Macy Weaver. He tried everything to get them to like him, but things were hard for poor Sam. It was a story about a boy named Sam who had trouble making friends. Hi! I have always loved writing and actually wrote my first story around six years old. Interview with Author Lakita Wilson Hi Lakita, welcome to Reading Middle Grade, and congratulations on your debut middle grade novel, Be Real, Macy Weaver! It’s not your first rodeo as a writer, so I’m curious, have you always loved writing? When did you decide you wanted to write books–and books for kids at that? Today, I’m chatting with Lakita about the parallels in her and Macy’s life, her relationship with fashion, and why she wrote about a different kind of bad parent.

I enjoyed Lakita Wilson’s new middle grade novel, Be Real, Macy Weaver! about a middle schooler who lies about her life to form new friendships.

Be Real, Macy Weaver by Lakita Wilson