Writing the spirit of northern Wisconsin

Wisconsin author Laura Anne Bird grew up reading voraciously, but she missed seeing her home state reflected in pages of the books she gobbled up.

“To be able to say, ‘I live there’ — I wanted to give that gift to kids in Wisconsin,” she said.

Bird has now set two middle grade novels in the fictional town of Alwyn, set in northern Wisconsin. Bird said it’s inspired by any number of northern towns like Minocqua, Rhinelander, Eagle River and Boulder Junction.

“There is such spirit up north and it’s my favorite place on Earth,” she told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.” “I really wanted to capture that spirit in the pages.” 

Some of that spirit appears as the backdrop of hunting and tavern traditions in Bird’s latest novel, “Marvelous Jackson.” 

The titular character, a seventh grader, finds himself in need of a hobby to get and stay out of trouble. An obvious path would be following his father to work at Dutch’s A-1 Tavern. But instead, Jack is drawn to baking, an activity he associates deeply with his late mother.

Bird talked about the new book, father-son dynamics and some of her goals for readers on “Wisconsin Today.”

The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Kate Archer Kent: Jack’s dad runs this tavern — not a baker — and really wants his son to be part of that tavern community, to work in the kitchen to make the recipes. But that’s really not Jack’s calling, and he’s able to flip through his mother’s baking cookbooks and really get pieces of her. Can you talk about the tensions there between father and son?

Laura Anne Bird: What’s funny is they’re both such stubborn characters. Norm is the father, Jack is the 13-year-old. Jack spends so much of the story telling himself that he’s so different from his dad and all his dad wants to do is be in that kitchen at Dutch’s A-1 Tavern. And that’s not of interest to Jack.

But baking and cooking are like two sides of the same coin. And I think ultimately, Jack comes to find out that he and his dad are so much alike in the end.

KAK: Why have you chosen to write for a middle grade audience? 

LAB: I love writing for that audience because so much growth and development is happening during that time, and there are so many competing values that kids are faced with. I think a lot of kids that age are striving for independence. They want to do their own thing, but they still want their parents to tuck them in at night. They want to stand out from the crowd, but they still want to fit in and have friends. 

And those competing values can collide like angry little atoms in real life, as we know because we’ve raised the children. But they sure make for fantastic fiction, and I’m delighted to reach into that age group and to meet them where they’re at. To show them that they’re not alone and that they’re seen and heard and validated.

KAK: One of my favorite moments is when Norm and Jack each are preparing for this first-ever chicken nugget competition. They go on this secret, late-night rival restaurant mission to figure out what is in the “nuggie” recipe. Can you talk about that moment in their relationship?

LAB: Norm is entering his restaurant into the first-ever Northwoods nuggie competition, and he is so dead set on winning. At the same time, Jack is trying to secure an audition for the Marvelous Midwest Kids Baking Championship television show in Chicago. They’re both trying to accomplish these big things.

And I think that whole nuggie intel mission is really important for Jack, because in middle grade fiction, it’s the kids, it’s those main characters that need to move the plot forward. They’re the ones that are the agents for change. No middle grade kid wants to read a story where the adults are calling all the shots. 

And so at this point in the story, Jack begins to realize, “Wow, I actually have some control and some power in this relationship with my dad. It’s up to me to take some baby steps forward to meet Norm where he’s at.” And so it’s Jack that suggests the nugget intel and Norm, of course, is delighted, and they have this really fun outing. 

KAK: You realize just how self-aware Jack is as a kid with his own emotions, counting the days since his mom passed away. Can you speak to that self-awareness about and how we get a sense of it?

LAB: Jack is really self-aware — at least he becomes self-aware throughout the story and I think that’s a really important part of his narrative arc.

I think middle grade fiction, some of it, sure, deals with unicorns and rainbows. But I think by and large, good quality middle grade fiction really dives into big, messy issues like we’re talking about, And it trusts that kids can handle these things — because they can, because they do have a really strong awareness of the world around them and of their blossoming relationships and their challenges and their struggles.

I think it does a disservice to them to not incorporate that into the book. And so I hope that readers do see Jack’s growth and evolution and growing self-awareness. And with that growth, he starts to find himself with more and more people all around him who are friends and who are at the library, who are just really rooting for him in life. You send a strong message that even when you don’t realize it, there are people all around you who are creating a support system in different aspects of your life.

Bake along with ‘Marvelous Jackson‘

Recipe: Whimsydiddles

Recipe: Vanilla Blooms

Recipe: Maple Blueberry Muffins