“A humble monument to the kind of magic only books can summon.”
That’s the description of the fictional bookstore Milagro’s Books on the first few pages of “The Chismosas Only Book Club.”
The tiny bookstore, nestled in the “fiery pink mountains of Nueva Rosita, New Mexico” passed from generation to generation down to the mother of the main character, Cat (Milagro’s great-great-great-granddaughter).
The story follows Cat and her friends as they navigate the transition into high school. Determined to stay connected, they form a book club that meets at Milagro’s Books. As the pressures of growing up pull the friends in different directions, the bookstore reveals a little magic of its own.
“The Chismosas Only Book Club” author Laeken Zea Kemp. Diana Ascarrunz Photograpy / Courtesy
Laekan Zea Kemp, who lives in Austin, is the author of several books. While her books range from early readers to young adults, Kemp said “Chismosas” was something of an experiment.
Kemp is a teacher, and she said she noticed a gap between the middle grade and young adult genres.
“There’s sort of a chasm in terms of books available for kids in like seventh and eighth grade,” she said. “Those are the students that I teach — I teach freshmen and sophomores. So I really wanted to write a book, especially for them.”
She also said the book is something of a call-back to her own childhood. The dedication reads “To me, circa 2003.”
“‘The Chismosas Only Book Club’ is my ode to the very popular young adult series from the early aughts called ‘The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,’” she said. “Those were some of my favorite books from the time I was in middle school and high school, and so that was the initial inspiration, was just wanting to capture that feeling of YA books from the early aughts.”
The bookstore itself feels almost like a character in the book. Kemp says that’s because to her, this was a celebration of “the entire book ecosystem.”
“I used to live across the street from my elementary school, and I could see when the teachers would start arriving in the summer to get ready for the upcoming school year. As soon as I saw my librarian’s car in the parking lot, I would start walking across the streets every day to help her set up the library. I’ve always spent a lot of time in libraries,” Kemp said. “I really wanted to pay homage to that as well.”
Kemp emphasized that regardless of age, a healthy relationship with books can enrich our ability to understand ourselves and our relationships.
“A lot of people, even adults, struggle with communication and the vulnerability required to be able to speak only with someone. So, for the characters in this story, when they don’t know how to express what they’re feeling or when they really don’t understand what they are feeling, the books that they are reading are the key to unlocking that understanding and that ability to be honest with their friends,” said Kemp.
This book has just as much to do with the present as it does the past. In addition to the more traditional “coming-of-age” story beats, the book explores themes around ancestry and family.
“Identity formation is happening at a really rapid speed when you’re in middle and high school, and the first pieces of that identity formation are ‘who are we within our family structure?’ That includes the people who came before us and how those family histories and family stories shape the overall family unit,” Kemp said.
Woven throughout the book are snippets of cartoons and screenshots from the friends’ quirky text messages. Kemp says she wanted to use humor to make her book more approachable to hesitant readers.
“It was really important for me to write a funny book,” she said. “I was thinking about reluctant readers and how to hook those kids who maybe love graphic novels, but haven’t found a right fit prose novel yet.”
The book ends with a full list of the books the girls read throughout the story.
“One of my favorite elements of the book is that the books they read in their book club are real books that you can find in your local library or local independent bookstore. I’m hoping that it inspires kids to just keep reading more.”
“The Chismosas Only Book Club” was published in May of this year by G.P. Puntam’s Sons Books for Young Readers. Readers can learn more about the book and its author at www.laekanzeakemp.com.
