Today we are very excited to share an interview with Author Aimee Lucido (Pasta Pasta Lotsa Pasta)!
Meet the Author: Aimee Lucido
Aimee Lucido is the author of several books for kids, including Emmy in the Key of Code, Recipe for Disaster, and Pasta Pasta Lotsa Pasta. She got her MFA in writing for children and young adults at Hamline University and lives with her family in Berkeley, California, where she likes to do trivia, run, and write crossword puzzles.
Mavisu Demirag is an artist living in Izmir, Turkey. She graduated from Dokuz Eylul University with a degree in fashion design, but later turned her sights to her true passion: illustration. She is the illustrator of picture books including Pasta Pasta Lotsa Pasta by Aimee Lucido and many books published in Turkey and internationally.
About the Book: Pasta Pasta Lotsa Pasta
A family dinner gets out of hand as guest after guest arrives with a different pasta request in this rambunctious rhyming picture book. How much pasta is too much pasta?
Ring-a-ding, the doorbell rings, and oh! What did my Nonna bring?
Nonna Ana from Catania only likes to eat lasagna. But Nonno Titi from Tahiti only eats his spaghettini! Zio Tony wants ravioli, Zia Trini wants rotini, the cugini want tortellini… Family dinners can be tricky when the guests are oh-so-picky! As the kitchen gets more and more chaotic, can family pasta night go off without a hitch?
~Author Chat~
YABC: What gave you the inspiration to write this book?
This book came out of a single conversation that happened in a Facebook group with my MFA cohort. One of my friends (Barbara Roberts! You should read her books!) had posted a picture of a table of Italian food and asked if we thought kids might be interested in a book called Ode to an Italian Lunch. This conversation rapidly devolved into me riffing rhymes on different pasta names–Roly poly holy moly ravioli! Teeny weeny bucatini, pasta pasta yum rotini! Hokey pokey naughty gnocchi slippy slidy artichoke-y! I kept noodling (pun intended) on this idea for weeks and months and years and after many (many!) rounds of revisions, PASTA PASTA LOTSA PASTA was born!
YABC: Who is your favorite character in the book?
My favorite character would have to be the parrot Pokey, who only eats gnocchi, because it makes me laugh that a parrot would eat pasta at all, and then also have a very specific preference about it. And then when Mavisu illustrated Pokey, I loved him even more, because of his weird obsession with the redheaded girl’s braids. He’s such a troublemaker! I adore him!
YABC: What’s a book you’ve recently read and loved?
Lisa Riddiough’s PIE RATS is absolutely *delicious* if you like rhyming, food-themed picture books. It’s hilarious, so well-written, and it’s wonderfully illustrated, too. But don’t read it if you’re hungry! You may eat the pages.
In the middle grade space, I thought Kate O’Shaughnessy’s latest book, THE WRONG WAY HOME, was absolutely beautiful and such a page-turner. There’s a fabulous sense of family and setting in the story, and I highly recommend it.
YABC: What’s up next for you?
I am taking PASTA on the road this summer!
June 27th: Worldwide PASTA launch at Books of Wonder in New York, New York
July 9th: West Coast PASTA launch at Mrs. Dalloway’s in Berkeley, CA
July 10th: Read-aloud at Ruby’s in Sacramento, CA with Lisa Riddiough
July 13th: Midwest PASTA launch at Red Balloon in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Check out my website for more details about these events. And, if you can’t make it to these locations in-person, never fear! You can reach out to me at [email protected] in order to set up an in-person or virtual event for you and your community.
YABC: What is the main message or lesson you would like your reader to remember from this book?
I want people to walk away from this book laughing and wanting to read it again, only this time, faster!
YABC: How does one become a puzzle designer professionally?
I fell into puzzle-making completely by accident. I had always been a fan of puzzles in any form–jigsaw, crossword, sudokus, you name it–and when I was at Brown University for undergrad, by sheer luck I became friends with a handful of people who had connections to crossword puzzles. Some solved them competitively, some had been published by the New York Times, and a few had even interned for Will Shortz (the New York Times crossword editor). I was totally star-struck!
We decided it would be fun to make a week of New York Times crosswords all by Brown students, and when we got Will Shortz on board with this idea, I figured this was my chance to learn how to make a crossword. So I roped a friend into teaching me how to construct a crossword while we were supposed to be studying for our philosophy final, and the puzzle we made was good enough for the New York Times! That was my debut, and the process of making it was so fun that it gave me the bug to make more. I was lucky enough to be mentored by excellent people in the puzzling community, and every time I got a puzzle published, someone would reach out to me with an invitation to publish a puzzle in a different venue. Before long, I had a handful of recurring gigs that grew and grew every year I was pursuing them.
Now, I’ve been making crosswords professionally for over a decade, and last year I made more than 100 crosswords for a variety of publications–the New York Times, the New Yorker, indie publications such as the AVCX, alumni newspapers, and even a few standalone books. I take commissions, too, so I also make crosswords for things like weddings and anniversaries. I’ve even made puzzles for a few marriage proposals! It’s a ton of fun and I’m so fortunate that I get to do it professionally.
YABC: How does your love of puzzles and trivia influence your writing?
When I’m making a puzzle (whether it’s a trivia puzzle or a crossword puzzle or something else), I need to think about how the solver is going to solve it. So I write very specific clues and try to imagine how the solver will work their way in to get the final solution. If the puzzle is too hard, it won’t be fun to solve. If it’s too easy, they don’t have the beauty of an “aha!” moment. So I have to thread the needle perfectly and always put myself in the solver’s shoes.
I think writing a book is exactly the same. When I’m writing a book, I want to make sure I know exactly how my reader is going to figure out every little bit of important information. Am I saying it outright, or am I making them work for it? If I’m being too confusing then the book will be hard to read, but I want to make sure there is a beautiful “aha!” moment when you reach the climax of the story, or when you learn an important kernel of information about a character. I have to switch back and forth between writer-brain and reader-brain when I write a book, just like I switch back and forth between maker-brain and solver-brain when I make a puzzle. In both cases, I want the final work to be just as much fun to consume as it was to create.
YABC: What advice do you have for new writers?
My advice changes every time I’m asked this question because I tend to give the advice that I need at any given moment. So right now, my advice is to let yourself *play* with words. Have fun with the writing because I swear it will show up on the reader’s side. Books that were fun to write are often fun to read, too
Title: Pasta Pasta Lotsa Pasta
Author: Aimee Lucido
Illustrator:
Release Date: July 2, 2024
Publisher: Beach Lane Books
