In anticipation of the February publication of my new verse novel, Little Cat’s Luck, I sat down and answered a few questions from a reader who has seen an advanced copy. I’ll share my answers here over the next few weeks in the hopes that the background information will help you identify which of your students will most enjoy the book (which Kirkus says is ideal for readers ages 7-12).Question: Marion, Little Cat’s Luck tells the story of Patches, a small cat who has a big reason to face off against the scariest dog in town. Despite containing the satisfying complications necessary to a good story, the book is also packed with examples of kindness, compassion, resilience, and teamwork. I know you receive many letters from your young readers—do those letters tell you whether they identify with hopeful qualities such as these, despite the fact that today’s world often seems bereft of hope?My Answer: I think everyone identifies with hope, adults as well as young readers. We long for the positive in the midst of what seems too clearly to be a collapsing world. I believe we come into the world programmed for the positive, leaning toward it, desiring it, and young people haven’t yet had that desire scared out of them. They respond to kindness and compassion as the world they know or, if their lives are hard, they respond as adults do, to all those good things as the world they long for.In Little Cat’s Luck, Patches approaches the world first in a kitten-like way, all innocent curiosity, openness to the unknown. Partway through the story, though, she becomes “the mother,” and I loved playing out her motherly qualities, her compassion, her very maternal wisdom. And though Gus, “the meanest dog in town,” is a difficult and sometimes not very likable character, I loved finding the creature yearning for love beneath all that loud barking.