THE BOOK THAT NEARLY DIDN’T HAPPEN, a guest post by Kirby Larson and Quinn Wyatt

Have you ever had a dream come true of a dream you didn’t even know you had? GUT REACTION is that dream for us, a newly minted mother-daughter writing team. But it almost didn’t happen.

Kirby:             It started when Quinn asked if I would write a book about a kid with Crohn’s disease.

Quinn:           My earliest memories include stomachaches. Even as a little kid, I remember lots of abdominal pain and urgently needing the bathroom. For many years, the physicians we consulted chalked it up to my being nervous or to something I’d eaten. In my early teens the symptoms hit with full force. We made desperate trips to one specialist and then to another and another and another. With each one, the diagnosis shifted. It was exhausting and discouraging. After years of searching, failed medications and treatments, and fighting to make my voice heard, I finally found a physician who actually listened to me and diagnosed me with Crohn’s disease and prescribed proper treatments. I really wanted Mom to write a story that kids with similar experiences could relate to.

Kirby:             My instant answer to Quinn’s request to write the book?

No.

                        I honestly didn’t have the wherewithal to revisit that extraordinarily difficult time our lives; I’d watched my daughter suffer and I didn’t want to relive that.

                        But living with Crohn’s has taught Quinn patience.

Quinn:           It only took ten years, but I convinced her. She agreed to write the book. Only if I’d write it with her.

Kirby:             We took ourselves on a weekend retreat to plot GUT REACTION, which started out as YA. We both struggled with that choice so there were lots of false starts. When we settled on a middle grade character and voice, the story clicked. Quinn has a passion for baking and so does our main character, Tess. While Quinn was never a new kid at school, I was — nearly every year of my growing up. So we plunked Tess down in a brand-new middle school, across the state from where she’d been living. And because every character needs one, we gave Tess a secret.

Quinn:           One of my favorite characters is Elly. She’s the true-blue friend I wished I’d had while I was going through the worst of it before my diagnosis. It wasn’t that I didn’t have friends; I didn’t know how to talk to them about the painful and embarrassing things going on with my body. And, honestly, middle schoolers aren’t always capable of putting themselves in others’ shoes. My friends got impatient with my never being able to go out for pizza or to a movie or to make it all the way through a sleep-over.

Kirby:             GUT REACTION is about living with Crohn’s disease but it was important to us to show that having the disease is not all there is to Tess. Among other things, she’s a good baker and a good friend, too.

Quinn:           What I have come to learn about living with Crohn’s is that it’s a journey, a long road with no end (no cure as of yet) and lots of twists and turns. You can be in remission for months, almost forgetting you’re sick, and then everything comes crashing down. Perhaps a previously reliable treatment stops working and so the search for another begins. I have also learned that while having Crohn’s disease sometimes impacts the things I do, it does not define who I am: a proud woman, wife, mother, daughter, friend, and chocolate lover, who also happens to have Crohn’s.

Kirby:             Add one more identity to that list: writer! While I’ve had the honor of coauthoring other books, writing with my daughter is better than an unlimited supply of sea salt caramels. Quinn is patient where I am not and wise beyond her years. I am in awe of her bravery in recalling painful events. I brought the writing experience to GUT REACTION but she brought the lived experience. True confession: I had initially thought, because I’ve been writing for so long, that Quinn would defer to me in all things writing. Who was I kidding? She was as invested as I was! Not only that, when I felt stymied in the face of two big writing problems, it was Quinn who came to the rescue with solutions.

Quinn & Kirby: GUT REACTION is a story of friendship, grief and lots of baking. Yes, Crohn’s (which primarily affects girls/women) is a dreadful disease, but it was critical to us that this story offer hope. As Dr. Lee promises to Tess in the book, we wanted to show that kids with Crohn’s can live full lives. They can be dancers, bakers, computer scientists, gymnasts, writers, artists, engineers – whatever their hearts are drawn to. 

We applaud the burgeoning efforts of literature to normalize conversations about physical and mental health realities and issues. By writing a frank, honest, and sometimes humorous story of living with Crohn’s disease, it is our desire to add to that conversation. We also want to support the Quinns and Tesses of the world who are dealing with various hard-to-discuss conditions—from alopecia to vitiligo—by saying it’s okay to talk, even about the embarrassing stuff. And for those blessedly unaffected by physical or mental health challenges, we hope this story offers insights that may foster greater understanding, empathy, and kindness.

“A powerful story about living with a disease and not letting it define who you are.”

-ALAN GRATZ,
NYTimes Bestselling Author of Refugee and Two Degrees

BIOS:

Author Photo Credit: Copyright Amanda Waltman Photography 2022

KIRBY LARSON is the acclaimed author of the 2007 Newbery Honor Book HATTIE BIG SKY; the Dogs of WWII series: DUKE, DASH, LIBERTY, and CODE WORD COURAGE; AUDACITY JONES TO THE RESCUE and AUDACITY JONES STEALS THE SHOW. With Mary Nethery, she has written two award-winning picture books, TWO BOBBIES: A TRUE STORY OF HURRICANE KATRINA, FRIENDSHIP AND SURVIVAL and NUBS: THE TRUE STORY OF A MUTT, A MARINE AND A MIRACLE. She lives in Washington state with her husband and their very naughty dog, Raleigh.

QUINN WYATT lives in Kenmore, Washington with her two wonderful daughters, fabulous husband and so-so dog. She loves to grow things in her garden, learn new crafting techniques, volunteer at her kids’ school, and bake yummy things (especially with chocolate). She has lived with Crohn’s for most of her life and is encouraged by all the progress that has been made over the years in the treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases.

About the book: GUT REACTION is the story of Tess Medina who bakes her way into friendships at her new middle school, as well as a coveted spot in a baking competition. But she can’t bake her way out of the stabbing pains she calls The Knife. A diagnosis of Crohn’s disease changes her life, but will it change Tess? Learn more at gutreactionbook.com

Filed under: Middle Grade, Middle Grade Fiction, Mind the Middle, Mind the Middle Project