Grief and Loss in Middle Grade: An Interview with Christina Li

I’m grateful to School Library Journal for always giving me so many opportunities to dig deep into topics that interest me and interview so many wonderful authors. I wrote the cover story for SLJ’s October issue, “Good Grief: Middle Grade Authors Normalize Loss.”

SLJ and all the authors I interviewed were kind enough to allow me to share these interviews in whole here on TLT, which is so exciting to me because everyone had such great things to say and I could only share small snippets of these conversations. This article features interviews with K. A. Reynolds, Jess Redman, Gary D. Schmidt, Emily Barth Isler, Debbie Fong, Lisa Stringfellow, and Christina Li.

Please enjoy this interview with Christina Li. Be sure to check out the article in SLJ and come back to TLT for the rest of the interviews in the upcoming days.

MacGregor: What inspired or influenced the idea to center grief and loss in your story (or stories)?

Li: I’ve always been drawn to stories about grief as an expression of love, and stories about the magnitude of love in grieving them and in the process of working through loss.

MacGregor: What are some things your character does to cope with their loss or how are some ways the grief presents itself? How are the grieving characters supported?

Li: In Ruby Lost and Found, my main character, Ruby, is not coping with her loss at all; she is scattered, distraught, and unsupported by family and friends. She is not able to continue as the person she used to be because of her grief, which I think is so valid. It is only after spending her summer with her grandmother, and making new friends that she learns that there can be space made around her grief.

MacGregor: A hallmark of middle grade books is offering hope to both the characters and the readers. Was this particularly challenging for you to do while tackling grief/loss?

Li: Yes, it is challenging. But I do think my stories aim to show that there can be continuation of love for someone after you lose them, and that is the hopefulness that I hope to present in my stories.

MacGregor: Why is it important to address tough topics like death in middle grade? (I’m thinking of all those who say things like, “Why write sad or hard books when life is hard enough?” or those who would like to “protect” children from these storylines, as though they don’t happen all the time to real actual children.)

Li: People go through loss and grief at all ages. It’s important to address topics of death and loss in middle grade because children do go through those experiences, so I hope there can be books about grief out there that provide comfort and companionship during those hard times.

MacGregor: What do you hope readers take away from your book?

Li: I hope readers take away that there can be space for it all: for the comingling of grief, of love, and healing, and loss, all at the same time.

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