![]() “The more I got these letters, the more I started to wonder, Well, what does happen to him? I left him in a place that wasn’t that fair,” Knowles said. ![]() One of the characters in Jumping Off Swings, named Josh, was left facing an uncertain future and although Knowles never intended to write a follow-up, a flurry of questions from readers got her thinking. Jumping Off Swings was named a YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) Best Book for Young Adults and See You At Harry’s, the novel before that, was named an Editor’s Choice book by the New York Times. Her most recent book Living with Jackie Chan (Candlewick) is a companion to her previous book Jumping Off Swings, which explored what happens when an unintended pregnancy initiates a crisis in the lives of four adolescents. “I think writing is my way of understanding why things happen the way they do,” Knowles said in a recent interview at the Hartland Diner. One of the reasons that Knowles’ characters strike readers as authentic is that every time Knowles sits down to write she asks herself: Why does that person act that way? ![]() Teetering on the precarious line between childhood and adulthood, they don’t behave as if they’re 30-year-olds in 15-year-old bodies, schooled in Snark 101 by a team of scriptwriters. ![]() They’re more complex, more confused, sometimes inarticulate, hungry for affection, and they don’t always grasp the consequences of their actions. The teenagers in Jo Knowles’ young adult novels aren’t like the teenagers you see in films or television. ![]()
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