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Hope Larson on the ‘Feeling of Falling in Love With a Song’ and Her New Book, “All Summer Long”

By and | May 29th, 2018
Posted in Interviews | % Comments

Hard to think of a better way to kick off summer reading than Hope Larson’s new graphic novel, “All Summer Long.” The cover design wonderfully sets us up for key pieces of this story: adolescence, guitar music, and the ennui and quiet change of teenage summers. That cover’s colors are part of its pitch-perfect appeal, a tone full of summer chill but with a subtle dash of teen anxiety.

We had the opportunity to get some of Larson’s thoughts about writing and drawing “All Summer Long,” her true-to-life tale of Bina, a young adolescent encountering a first summer without the usual presence of her best friend Austin.


Hope, we are big fans and glad to talk to you about “All Summer Long,” your new graphic novel from First Second/FSG/MacMillan. How do you describe “All Summer Long”?

Hope Larson: “All Summer Long” is the story of a girl who’s beginning to find herself as a musician, and figuring out how to take it to the next level. It’s also about adolescence, and if growing up and growing apart means you’ll lose your friends, or if you can find a way to stay close in spite of differences.

This book feels like it was a lot of fun to create. Was that your experience?

HL: It was a fun, easy book to write, and my editor was happy with it from the start. This isn’t always the case, and to be honest, it made me a little nervous that it was so easy to write! But it seems to be connecting with folks, which is great.

Bina is in that summer between seventh and eighth grade, a coming-of-age crossroads moment. What do you hope young readers will find in Bina’s story?

HL: I hope they find the courage to be themselves.

One great aspect of “All Summer Long” is the variety of relationship bonds that Bina builds on, and the richness of each of them. Were you intentional in avoiding too much focus on, say, one central romantic relationship? Were there certain character connections in this book that you felt most eager to bring to life?

HL: I wanted this to be a book about friendship and family, not romance, so I focused on those relationships.

Can you talk about how you write differently when you’re drawing the work, versus writing for artists like Rebecca Mock or Chris Wildgoose?

HL: I write in the same way no matter who I’m writing for, myself or another artist, but I always try to play to the strengths of the artist in question.

Another teenage touchstone “All Summer Long” taps into: music. Especially that upstart music that feels as fresh as your burgeoning adulthood when you’re thirteen. Music can be hard to capture in comics. How did you overcome that, to make the music in your comic feel so authentic and meaningful?

HL: I don’t think it’s hard to capture music in a comic. It’s not about how it sounds; it’s about how it makes you feel. The feeling of falling in love with a song.

Were you a musician as a teenager? You grasp that yearning so well.

HL: I wasn’t! But I was an artist. A lot of the feelings of being a young person who expresses herself through creativity is fairly transferable from medium to medium.

The story’s set in contemporary suburban Los Angeles. That means urban excitements but everything’s a drive away. Technology makes us hyper connected but also sadly disconnected. A diverse community, but families with common dreams and angsts. Did you have a certain experience in mind when you chose LA?

HL: I was living in Los Angeles at the time, and I wanted to capture some bits and pieces of a city I love.

On the surface, “All Summer Long” seems a departure from the high-seas adventure of “Compass South,” the imaginative fancy of “A Wrinkle in Time,” or the modern superheroics of your “Batgirl” writing. We are curious if you’ve carried over elements of those genre stories into “All Summer Long,” despite its real-world situation?

HL: I try to maintain a level of energy in my contemporary books that’s comparable to that in my genre work. Real life can be exciting and scary, too! It’s just on a different scale.

Thanks for speaking with us, Hope! “All Summer Long” is in stores now, ready to kick off the summer reading season.


John Schaidler

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Paul Lai

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