How to Make Friends with the Dark by Kathleen Glasgow

I am now back in Tucson after the Guadalajara Book Fair. The rest of the fair was incredibly stimulating. I found a few more bilingual books to add to my collection, and was privileged to be able to meet some people using books to work with migrants moving through Mexico. One of my colleagues and I managed to take an Uber into central Guadalajara to have a quick look through a market, and to see the Basilica at the end of a day.

Friday was a normal day back at my desk in Tucson, focusing now on writing a book chapter and planning for our research data collection which will begin after the university winter break.

Yesterday was a special day for the Teenage Reading Ambassador Programme (TRAP) which is organised by Worlds of Words. I have mentioned it before, I think, but briefly, this is a programme for a group of teenagers who are keen readers from a range of Tucson schools. If they are accepted into the programme they are given a YA book. They read it and discuss it, and then meet the author to discuss the book with them. Across the whole year, there are several cycles of this. I met the group a few weeks ago when we met to discuss the group's current book, How to Make Friends with the Dark by Tucson author, Kathleen Glasgow.

This is a story about a teenager whose mother dies and who then has to navigate the foster care system and then being put into the care of an older sister she didn’t know she had. It is beautifully observed and written, traversing many difficult issues, so our discussion about the book held a few weeks ago was deep.

Yesterday (Saturday) was our chance to meet Kathleen Glasgow, the author. She gave us lots of insight into writing the book and the process of writing and being published. It was wonderful to see the teenage ambassadors asking questions and engaging with Kathleen. She discussed the importance of young people being able to read about issues they are dealing with either personally or alongside friends.

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