3 Things Lana & the Water Carrier is About + 3 Things it Isn't!

Friends who haven't read Lana & the Water Carrier occasionally ask me to describe what it's about. I usually reply by asking THEM to tell me what they think it's about. Their answers vary widely. Enough to scare me! I want readers, or rather adults (because kids don't need this explanation!), to know what to expect...and what NOT to expect.

So {minor spoilers ahead} here are three things this book is about:

1. A 13-year-old girl. She happens to be a smart, vegan, home-schooled, pink-obsessed, baseball-playing, no-shoe-wearing, no-hair-combing African-American girl with impulse control issues managed with meditation techniques. I can't think of ANY girl (or boy) who could be summed up in less detail. Can you?

2. A telescope. It happens to be rare and magical. But this is kidlit. So yeah.

3. Worlds--both ancient and contemporary--that exist solely in my imagination. That is, with a heavy dollop of Greek Mythology and a sprinkling of flavor from the town where I live.

And here are three things it isn't:

3. A treatise about Greek mythology. The book revolves around the Greek myth associated with Ganymede the Water Carrier (or Water Bearer), who was summoned to Mount Olympus to serve water to the Greek Gods. But all bets are off after that!

2. An astronomy science book. Yes, the book incorporates real astronomy terms and real historical figures who have played a role in the advancement of astronomy as a science. Readers get to learn about the Aquarius (aka the Water Bearer) Constellation, as it represents Ganymede the Water Carrier. But that's all in service of the story, not the other way around!

1. Catchall category of other things the book isn't. In no particular order: The African-American Childhood Experience; A Guide to Veganism; The Color Pink; An Ode to Baseball (Congrats to the Chicago Cubs, by the way!); Medical Advice on Sensory Issues or Autism; A Meditation on Meditation; or Tween Angst...Wait, that last thing might be true!

In short, it's a book I hope inspires imagination about a subject typically reserved for nonfiction.