B.B. Alston lives in South Carolina, USA. Amari and the Night Brothers is his debut middle-grade novel, which he pitched on a whim via #DVPit on Twitter. After a whirlwind international auction for rights to the book, Universal Pictures secured film rights. When not writing, Alston can be found eating too many sweets and exploring country roads to see where they lead.
Today, B.B. Alston is on the blog to answer a few books about his amazing debut. Read on!
B.B. Alston
Tell us about your book, Amari and the Night Brothers!
BA: Hello, my name is B.B. Alston, author of Amari and the Night Brothers. It’s the story of Amari Peters, a young Black girl from the Atlanta projects who is desperate to find her older brother Quinton, who’s been missing for six months. To get answers, she’ll accept an invite to a secret summer camp at the very mysterious Bureau of Supernatural Affairs where she’ll learn that supernatural creatures from myths and legends the world over are all very real. But if she doesn’t pass the challenging try outs, where she’ll be up against legacy kids from some of the wealthiest families in the country, kids who’ve known about the Supernatural World their entire lives, then she’ll lose her one chance to find out what happened to her brother.
What inspired you to write this story?
BA: I’m always asking myself “What-if” questions when I write, and my stories kind of spring up from the answers to those questions. So, I’m a huge fan of the Men in Black movie series. And one day, while watching the first movie for the thousandth time I wondered, what if it wasn’t just aliens that secretly lived among us, but everything we consider myths and legends? From leprecauns to werewolves, and even the Abominable Snowman. What kind of agency would handle that? How would would it work? And what would it look like?
Shortly after a second “What-if” question came to mind. What if a kid like I was (Black and from modest means) got to go to Hogwarts, or Camp Half-Blood? And maybe at this special summer camp each kid gets their own unique supernatural talent in order to better exist in the supernatural world that’s hidden right under our noses? And that’s when Amari popped into my head fully formed, with her brown skin and big curly afro. It scared me to write a black kid in a fantasy book because I had never seen it before. But it also thrilled me because I was writing about myself and the kids I grew up with.
The heroine of this story is Amari Peters – can you introduce her to us? What is your favourite thing about her?
BA: Amari Peters is a 12 year-old Black girl from the Atlanta projects. She’s incredibly caring, and also extremely driven, and those things begin to work against when her brother goes missing. She becomes obsessed with finding him, neglecting both schoolwork and a social life. She won’t give up even when the people around her are telling her to move on. She’s also someone who doesn’t have a great deal of confidence when the story begins. Both because she’s picked on at her fancy private school for being a poor scholarship student, and also because she’s lived her whole life in her very accomplished older brother’s shadow. Amari’s learning to believe in herself forms the key emotional journey at the heart of the story.
If I had to choose my favorite thing about Amari, it would be how fiercely she loves the people she cares about. There isn’t anything she wouldn’t do for them and I’d like to think that I am the same way.
This is the first book in a new series. What kinds of things can we expect to see from the Supernatural Investigations series in the future?
BA: I’m most excited for Amari to get away from the Bureau and out into the supernatural world a bit more, where she and the reader will get to see all the cool and fantastical ways the known world and supernatural world connect and overlap. I’ve got so many fun ideas for those scenes! It’ll also be cool to have Amari continue to progress as a Junior Agent, solving mysteries and really learning what it means to be a hero in the supernatural world.
This is an exciting fantasy adventure with a human story at its heart – the story of Amari searching for her missing brother Quinton, but also the story of her experience of being poor and Black. Do you think it’s important for children’s fantasy books to stay grounded in real-life issues?
BA: I do think it’s important for children’s books to be grounded in real-life issues because it makes the story far more relatable, and also much more personal for the reader. If you are a poor Black kid, maybe this is the first time you’ve seen yourself in a fantasy book. And that representation is incredibly important because for me, not seeing Black kids in fantasy books meant that I often felt I wasn’t allowed inside my own imagination. But it’s also just as important that kids who aren’t poor and Black to read about kids who are, because they’ll come to see that those kids aren’t so very different from themselves.
Grounding these stories in real-life issues also means being able to work in themes that are current and pressing for young readers. In this story, the two primary themes are privilege and otherness, and how they shape so much of how we view ourselves and the people around us. Kids aren’t as set in their ways as adults tend to be, so I’m hopeful that they will be more receptive to the book’s overall message of kindness and inclusivity.
Amari and the Night Brothers is your debut book – congratulations! How did you come to be a writer and how does it feel to be published?
BA: I’ve been writing on and off since middle school, when I’d write these humorous horror stories during English about my classmates. The stories were always about field trips that went terribly wrong and the other kids would come over to see which of them made it to the end. It wasn’t until my thirties that I ever thought about trying to get a book published, and spent several years getting no’s. Then one day, I entered a pitch contest on Twitter called #DVPit, and that led to my wonderful literary agent Gemma Cooper. That book was Amari and the Night Brothers and it went on to sell to more than 20 publishers around the world and even landed a movie deal. These past two years have been a complete whirlwind—a real life fairytale. I’m incredibly grateful.
Who do you most admire in the world of children’s writing?
BA: There are too many people to name them all! Anyone who’s ever written a book I’ve ever enjoyed, is someone I admire. Because they’ve given me the feeling I desperately hope to give others with my own writing. Also, I’ve learned so much of writing craft from reading great books by immensely talented authors! If I had to name a few I’d say Jessica Townsend, Nic Stone, and Angie Thomas for sure.
What do you love about writing for children?
BA: There’s real magic to being a kid! The world is still fresh and fascinating and anything seems possible. When you’re a kid, who’s to say there really aren’t fairies living in the woods behind your house, or that a moody ghost doesn’t cause the night time bumps in the attic? Inevitably, you begin to lose that sense of wonder as you grow older and so I suppose my writing for kids is a way for me to hold on to that feeling for as long as possible. It also happens to be a lot of fun!
What do you hope young readers discover in Amari and the Night Brothers?
BA: One of the biggest themes of Amari and the Night Brothers is the idea of otherness. How we treat people we deem to be different from us, whether that be gender, race, social status or even our beliefs. With so much division in the world today, I don’t think there’s any issue more pressing or current than how we treat other people. Amari is an outsider, an other, both as a minority scholarship student at her fancy private school and later as the only kid who’s given an illegal supernatural ability. Both make her a target for prejudice and stereotypes. Amari learns to overcome these struggles and frustrations but she doesn’t do it alone. There are people along the way who extend a helping hand. It’s my great hope that young readers will be discover they have the ability to be that helping hand for those struggling to fit in. And if the reader happens to be that kid who’s struggling with looking different or even feeling different, then I hope they discover that there is real joy and strength to be had in accepting yourself for who you are. If Amari can do it, then certainly you can too.
And finally, what’s up next for you?
BA: Right now I’m writing the second book in the series, which I can’t wait for you all to read! Also, I’ve been chatting with the screenwriter for the movie adaptation and I’m really excited about how it’s going so far.
Thanks B.B.!
—Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston (Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing) is out now.
Amari and the Night Brothers
Supernatural Investigations: Book 1
Amari Peters has never stopped believing her missing older brother, Quinton, is alive. Not even when the police told her otherwise, or when she got in trouble for standing up to bullies who said he was gone for good.
So when she discovers a ticking briefcase in his closet containing a nomination for a summer tryout at the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs, she’s certain the secretive organisation holds the key to locating Quinton – if only she can...
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