Anne: Welcome to MG Book Village, Kekla! You’ve written many award-winning books, and tomorrow, May 7, your latest, The Secret Library, comes out from Candlewick. This novel starts strong and keeps getting stronger. I loved it! Would you please give readers a super short summary of what it’s all about?
Kekla: The Secret Library is a time travel fantasy. Dally’s beloved grandfather leaves her a secret map which leads her to a mysterious library where each “book” on the shelf contains someone’s secret. When you’re inside the Secret Library, time stands still in the real world, but each book is a portal to adventure—a path to a moment in the past when the secret was created or revealed. Through the library, Dally gets to have the adventures she craves, while learning secrets about her family, her friends and herself in the process.
Anne: The twists are surprising! It’s an exciting story. But no spoilers here. My question is: when you began writing, did you know from the get-go that this novel would include time travel? Are you a big fan of time travel stories?
Kekla: Yes, the time travel component was a very early part of the story idea. I heard the phrase “a secret library” in reference to a regular library hidden behind a bookcase in someone’s home. For some reason, my brain heard the emphasis differently that day: not “secret LIBRARY” but “SECRET library”—a library of secrets. What would such a place be? The idea that each book on the shelf holds a secret felt fun, but I knew it wouldn’t be a very interesting novel if the main character just read books all day and never went anywhere, so the idea of time travel solved that problem. Plus, it helped me fulfill the dream of writing a time travel novel, because yes, I love them, and it was a dream come true to find an idea that allowed me to write one.
Anne: That’s a great insight into your writing process.
Now I’m curious about the characters’ names. Dally is a nickname for Delilah, and along the way we learn the origin of her last name. All the names hold significance. How did you go about choosing them?
Kekla: My character names either come easily from the beginning or else I struggle with them all the way to the end. Dally’s came easily. That’s just what she was called from the first scene I wrote. As she entered the library and met the secret librarian for the first time, she introduced herself as Dally and described her whole name, Delilah Peteharrington, as “a bit of a mouthful.” I do feel a deep sense of meaning for Dally’s name that’s hard to explain, but one thing I particularly liked is that I haven’t heard the name before. I don’t know anyone named Dally in real life and that kept her character free of any preconceived influences. That’s not something I always prioritize for protagonists but it felt right in this case. The secondary characters’ names all have particular purposes, too, like Jack and Eli.
Anne: Right. And along the way, Dally learns the origins of their names.
I love the bit about libraries being “dangerous” because “powerful things are always considered dangerous.” Your fictional library includes sections with labels such as “Family Secrets” and “Withheld for Someone’s Own Good.” Ha! Tell us about you and libraries. Growing up, what section of the library was your favorite?
Kekla: My mom took us to the library every week, usually twice a week. I loved the young adult section, and every time we visited I took home all the paperback novels I could carry. I most often read contemporary realistic fiction about kids and teens navigating friendships, family, school and other challenging issues in their social lives. I loved series like Babysitters’ Club and Sweet Valley High, as well as Nancy Drew Mysteries. Historical fiction was another favorite genre, and most of my individual favorite books from childhood are historical, like Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor.
Anne: Love it. Those are such classics. Now, back to The Secret Library...
Dally is a biracial kid who knows race is a social construct. The story provides young readers with language to compare/contrast our current understanding of race with some of the ways people used to view race. Growing up as a biracial kid, yourself, what wisdom does Dally impart that you wish you’d known then?
Kekla: Time travel is complicated when you’re writing Black/biracial characters, because readers expect and hope for time travel to be fun, adventurous and exciting, but going back into the past for Black characters brings many challenges. Traveling to a time of enslavement or segregation is not exactly a walk in the park.
Dally knows that race is a social construct, and also that she enjoys certain privileges because she is wealthy and light-skinned in her real-world timeline. But in the past, she looks like someone who might be enslaved. That creates complications. Dally learns about her family through the library, as she often travels into Family Secrets. Just knowing that race is a social construct gives Dally wisdom that I didn’t know as a kid. It’s been twenty-plus years since I was Dally’s age, but the lessons I learned in school always placed racism in the past, not the present, yet my lived experience contradicted that message. Growing up without really understanding the truth about racism in our past AND present is part of what drives me to write the things I write today. I did my best to grapple with the real issues that would have been present for Black people in the eras Dally visits, while also keeping the book’s tone light and the adventures generally upbeat.
Anne: The Secret Library is a great book for learning about racism in the past AND present.
And you weave lots of wisdom into the story, such as Grandpa telling Dally, “It’s up to you to live your best life, no matter what circumstances the world throws at you.” Or take the line about freedom being the ability “to step out of the roles society [forces on you].” This book has a bunch of lines I want to jot on sticky-notes and post near my desk for inspiration! Do you post inspirational quotes at your desk? Got a favorite quote to share with us?
Kekla: I’m a fan of quotes. I don’t have a particular area right now where I gather inspirational lines, but I used to collect quotes in a journal. One quote I’ve been thinking a lot about lately came from a meme I encountered while researching time travel theories. It said:
“When people think about time travel, they worry that making small changes in the past could drastically affect the present. But they fail to recognize that making small changes in the present could drastically affect the future.”
I don’t know where that quote originates, but it really spoke to me, because I write a lot about social justice and activism. One of the messages I speak to students about is the idea that we don’t have to be the biggest leaders or heroes in the world to do good and create change. We can do small things to stand up for what is right and still be part of transforming our communities.
Anne: Nice. One of the story’s themes is that “true wealth comes from knowing who you are.” Dally went in search of her family’s roots in order to find herself, and what she found surprised her. What about you? Did you ever research your own family and discover something surprising?
Kekla: I’m sure everyone has interesting family secrets to uncover, even me, but I don’t have any surprising stories so far. I knew this growing up, but here’s a fun fact: one of my great aunts was a Women’s Air Service Pilot in WWII. I also remember feeling really proud to learn that I had family members who fought against colonialism in West Africa in the 1950s and 60s.
Anne: Women pilots and anti-colonialism in the ’50s and ’60s. These sound like great topics for future books for young readers!
Before we end, let’s share your social media links. Where can readers go to learn more about you and your books?
Kekla: I primarily use Instagram for book updates, but you can also follow me on X, TikTok, and Bluesky. On Facebook I’m KeklaMagoon-YA Author. And, of course, my website is keklamagoon.com.
Anne: Thank you so much, Kekla, for spending time with us today at MG Book Village, and for writing such a rich and exciting story. It’s been an honor to chat with you!
Kekla: Great to be here!
Kekla Magoon writes novels and nonfiction books for children and teens, often on themes of identity, community, empowerment and social justice. Acclaimed titles include The Season of Styx Malone, The Rock and the River, How It Went Down, and Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People. Kekla received the 2021 Margaret A. Edwards Award for her significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature. She is also a recipient of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, a Michael L. Printz Honor, four Coretta Scott King Honors, two Walter Award Honors, and an NAACP Image Award, in addition to being a finalist for the National Book Award, Kekla holds a B.A. from Northwestern University and an M.F.A. in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts, where she is also faculty emerita. Visit her online at keklamagoon.com.
Anne (A.B.) Westrick (she/her) is the author of the older-MG novel Brotherhood. You can learn more about Anne at the MG Book Village “About” page and her website, ABWestrick.com.