EDITOR'S NOTE: For listeners who are interested in reading "A Taste of Blackberries" after this conversation, please note that the full context of the plot is that a young man dies following a bee sting incident, which his friends don't realize is real until it's too late. The content may be upsetting for some readers.
SAM DINGMAN: When author Tom Leveen was writing one of his novels, which is called "Party," he wasn't thinking in terms of genre. The book is about a group of high school students all headed to the same party to celebrate the end of the school year. The narrative shifts perspectives, telling the story from each of their points of view as the party unfolds.
When it came time to market the book, Leveen’s agent informed him that it would be positioned as young adult fiction. Levine was fine with that, to be clear, but it also surprised him a little. When he was growing up, that genre didn't really exist, and a lot of his favorite books chronicled the inner lives of young people navigating rocky emotional territory.
Leveen publishes a newsletter, and he wrote about some of those books and authors recently. As he put it: “Books from Gen X worth your time to read or reread.” I spoke to him about this, and he told me that when he was writing "Party," he was channeling those books and writers.
TOM LEVEEN: You know, I was just trying to be honest. I was trying to capture things the way Judy Blume kind of does, which is like, hey, these are kids. This is what kids do. This is how they think and act. And we have to kind of make allowances for that. We have to give them some room to be the kids that they are. But it didn't occur to me that that was a genre in and unto itself. And it didn't really exist until, I mean, I would say the early 2000s, maybe. Maybe the late '90s? So it kind of came as a surprise to me when I'm here in 2008 or so and my agent's like, this is young adult. Like, oh, OK.
DINGMAN: You're like, these used to be just books.
LEVEEN: Exactly. Exactly. Back in my day, when you went to Walden Books or B. Dalton, back when you could actually have two bookstores in one mall, we had Stephen King and then Judy Blume. That was it. So there was no middle ground for readers who were teenagers or adolescents.
DINGMAN: Yeah. Before we get to these other books that experience kind of inspired you to write about here, Can you think of anything in "Party," your book, that you felt able to write about with confidence because some of these writers that we're going to talk about today had kind of modeled it for you?
LEVEEN: Absolutely. In the novel, there are 11 chapters, and every chapter is told from the first-person point of view of a different character. So once you spend time with this character, you may see them again, but you'll only see them from someone else's point of view. And that was a very deliberate construction that I did, because one of the points of the book was to kind of point out: We don't know everybody's whole story. And that's the thing that I felt very strongly resonated with me as a kid, and I know lots of people also felt that and still continue to feel that way, as as adolescents.
DINGMAN: Well, so let's talk about some of these books that you featured in the newsletter that you sent out about this recently. One in particular that you featured is — it's called "Maudie and Me and the Dirty Book" from 1980. What why did you decide to feature that one?
LEVEEN: "Maudie and Me" by Betty Miles has got to be one of my top three books of all time. I absolutely adore this book because, again, it points back to friendship and how friendships grow and develop and become so central and important to who we are, what our identity is. This is a book in which the external plot is about two middle-school girls who get wrapped into a whole discussion or argument or problem issue with their town, their small town, over censorship. And so that's what kind of drives the plot. That's the narrative engine. But the story that's unfolding during this is between Maudie and the main character, Kate, and their relationship to each other.
DINGMAN: And what is the dirty book that they're in a debate with the town about?
LEVEEN: So the book, to my knowledge, is a fictional book called "The Birthday Dog." And The Birthday Dog has a scene in which a puppy is born. And when one of the parents finds out about this, all hell breaks loose and they think it's smutty and it's inappropriate and all this kind of thing. And that's what triggers the call for censorship of this particular book.
DINGMAN: It's really interesting hearing you talk about this, Tom, because these are conversations that are very active in 2026. [LAUGHS]
LEVEEN: Yeah. [LAUGHS] ... Noticed that.
DINGMAN: I mean, do you think they're for people who are concerned about efforts to censor books, particularly books that are tailored towards younger audiences. Do you think there's important messaging to be found in books like "Maudie and Me"?
LEVEEN: Absolutely, 100%. They really focus on how the young people are dealing with it, because it's a book for younger readers. So it's not about what the adults in town are doing. It's about how this censorship battle is impacting the kids and what they are coming to realize is important for them. And, you know, touching on issues of freedom of speech, for example, things like that. And doing that at this age, I think the characters are in sixth grade. And what a great time to be having those conversations.
DINGMAN: I mean, that is such a through line for me, Tom, as I look through the list of books that you have on here. Is the idea that these books raise subjects that are at the very forefront of young people's minds, particularly when they enter adolescence. You know, these are things that maybe you're starting to talk about with your friends, but can seem taboo to talk about with the adults in your life.
LEVEEN: Yes, and I've more than once heard stories about that one kid in class who never raises their hand, doesn't say anything, doesn't want to be involved until book, and, you know, fill in the blank, gets across their desk and they start having these conversations in class about this book. And suddenly that kid just lights up and starts talking like there's no tomorrow. And that's the great thing about it, I think, is you just pointed out, whether it's in the classroom or the family room, doesn't matter, an adolescent can talk about a book and use these characters as placeholders. They can talk around things without necessarily feeling like they're being forced to divulge personal things or they're not comfortable talking about this topic or that topic. But they can talk about, you know, Jill in "Blubber" and what she did and how that made them feel.
DINGMAN: Yeah, and Jill I should say is the main character as you mentioned in "Blubber," which is by Judy Blume That's from 1974, deals with bullying and weight stigma. You also have on the list "A Taste of Blackberries" by Doris Buchanan Smith from 1973 which Deals with loss, right?
LEVEEN: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, and that's it. I mean that is a tough, tough book.
DINGMAN: As you put it: "This slim volume wrecked thousands if not millions of fifth graders."
LEVEEN: It did. I don't think it's a spoiler alert because it's the plot of the book. But there are two friends and one of the friends dies very suddenly and very abruptly, unexpectedly, right in the beginning of the book. And the rest of the book is about his friend coming to terms with that. It is so honest and authentic in dealing with how people respond to that kind of tragedy, especially when they're really young.
These books are not, they're not exploitative, I think. Laurie Halse Anderson once said at a book event, think at Changing Hands, she said, “It is immoral to not include hope in books for young people.” And I have carried that very closely ever since I heard her say it, because she's absolutely right. We have a responsibility when we're writing for younger readers and books like :A Taste of Blackberries" take that responsibility very seriously.
DINGMAN: Well, I have been speaking with Tom Leveen, who is a writer of books and a lover of books. As you can tell from this conversation, Tom is the author of the book "Party," which we talked about as well as many others. And you can find him at his website, tomleveen.com ... Where you can also sign up to receive the newsletter that we talked about in today's conversation. Tom, thank you for this.
LEVEEN: Thank you so much for having me. It was great.
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