Ask Emma Book and Author Interview

Little Bee Books invited my daughter and I to join for a Mother-Daughter interview for the new Ask Emma book with the Mother-Daughter writing pair, Sheryl and Carrie Berk! Opinions are my our own. 

Ask Emma Book and Author Interview

As a mom, I am happy that my kids love reading as much as I do. As a mom of growing kids in this digital age with social media, I’m ecstatic that each still loves to hold a book and turn pages with their hands. Especially with all of the things that can come along with social media exposure and use, the more I can do to keep them reading physical books, the better. Finding books that are relevant to today’s childhood and my kids’ ages is something I spend time doing on a regular basis- if I’m going to be spending money on books, or asking the library to, I want to know that yes, they are entertained, but are also finding characters and stories that are relatable, genuine, and engaging.

About Ask Emma

The new book Ask Emma has it all- it’s co-written by a mother-daughter team (Sheryl and Carrie). Given that Carrie herself is a high school student now, I know it’s going to hit the issues today’s kids are faced with. It’s relatable- what better stories do you get than someone in that same place in life? Carrie herself has only been out of middle school a few years- Emma is still in middle school, but her words, her actions, her thinking, that’s all how any kid would be acting/thinking/talking/reacting to things. Carrie and her mom are a great balance for one another, and they seem to have this magical formula that grabs their readers (even the moms, although the books are meant for middle grades) and just winds them right into the stories.

Emma’s in the 7th grade. She’s got friends, she loves to help others, wants to help them to solve problems or fix things, argues with her brother, makes mistakes, and does all of the things that any 7th grader might in 2018. She also starts a blog, titled just what the book’s title is, and sets out to help solve middle school problems one at a time via this blog. She has some challenges and stumbles along the way, and then a few kids in her school decide to start leaving unkind comments on her blog, and sending messages with similar tones. Cyberbullying hit Emma, and she hit back.

BE BRAVE. BE KIND. BE YOU.

Ask Emma takes the relatable thing one step further. It takes on the subject of cyber bullying head on…and that’s something that’s on a lot of people’s minds these days. There seem to be a large comfort in being unkind to others from the “anonymity” of a computer screen- from the tiniest of phone screens to the largest computer monitors…and everything in between. One thing that people seem to be forgetting is that this unkindness hurts. It hurts real people. It’s not a cyber pain, and it’s not gone when the device is shut down.

 

But how did Sheryl and Carrie Berk even come up with this kid advice blogger cyber bullying thing? {Interview Question}

Carrie Berk: Since Emma’s an advice blogger, I feel like I could relate to her in that regard, so all of those blog posts that Emma has in the book, I feel like that’s coming straight from me.  Those are my words as a teen.  I feel like that’s really reaching out to kids and teens in today’s world.  They could really relate to everything that Emma is saying. 

Sheryl Berk:  Right.  Her being a blogger and dealing with what it’s like to have a social media presence and dealing with cyberbullying, she really thought that this would be a great topic for a book series. We’re having fun with the whole Emma aspect and the Jane Austen nods in the book, but we really feel like it’s an important story to tell right now because tweens and teens are on social media and the statistics are that if you are on social media, at some point you’re going to experience cyberbullying.  And those are scary statistics. 

Being able to teach kids at this age how to deal with cyberbullying, what to do if they feel like they’re being bullied, and get them to a point where they can also understand what it feels like– we hope we’re reaching kids who might be tempted to cyberbully.  I don’t think a lot of kids often realize when they post negative comments that those words are very powerful. 

Ask Emma has a great (you can download a free 8 page sneak peek of Ask Emma here- you’ll quickly see why both my daughter and I fell in love with Emma and her friends in the story. My daughters had fun discussing the book and we all agree that this would make a great family show – because we need more Emma!

Now, I work in social media. It’s my livelihood. My kids are not on social media. Well, truth be told, we tried musical.ly for a short time, but stopped…and the oldest had an Instagram account for a short period, but was going through some things at school and we decided that this wasn’t the right time for an account, and removed it.

I’ve watched my own friends share frustration and anger surrounding things said and done by kids- to, about, or without their children. I’d prefer to hold off a while longer on the social media…there’s too many texting apps, ways to send direct messages, etc. I’ve listened to the worries of a dear friend who’s oldest is about to graduate high school- and I’ve learned a lot from seeing her pain and worry for her daughter over the past several years. I’ve seen kids in tears from a glimpse at a photo on a social media account, and I know in my heart that for my kids, this is not what’s right for them, not at their ages.

Cyberbullying is very real. In this digital world, I think there’s this unspoken feeling that you can be secure in unkind words, actions and photos, because you’re “behind a screen” and that’s scary. Scary, because it’s not really anonymous, but a few unkind words can do a world of hurt. Emma was able to have a happy ending, and that’s great- but not everyone does. Sheryl and Carrie are proud to work with No Bully, an organization committed to leading kids into a cyberbully-free world. Learn more at NoBully.org.

Find Ask Emma at LittleBeeBooks

LittleBeeBooks.com | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | Facebook

You’ll want to follow them- because then you’ll know when the NEXT Ask Emma book hits the stands for purchase! We Martins cannot wait to get our hands on a copy.

 

Sheryl and Carrie Berk Interview Excerpts

Q1 for us: ThisMamaLoves (8 year old Daughter):  I was wondering if you were hoping to make a TV show or a Movie about Ask Emma.

Sheryl Berk:  Yes.  I think that’s Carrie’s dream and the short answer for that is yes.

Carrie Berk:  The Cupcake Club we turned into an off-Broadway musical, and so was Fashion Academy, which was definitely one of our dreams.  I feel like ever since I was eight years old, I’ve dreamed of my writing becoming a TV show on Disney Channel or Nickelodeon.

I’m dying to bring it to TV because, although I feel like these characters do resonate with people, with kids, [it’s different] when you’re reading the writing on the page as opposed to seeing it right before your eyes, sitting in your bed, comfortable, looking at the TV and seeing someone who’s just like you. I feel like that would just be so amazing to watch.

ThisMamaLoves (Brett) THINKING *networks are you seeing this??*

Q2 for us: ThisMamaLoves (Mom):  Why did you guys choose for everyone to know who was writing Ask Emma, the blog?

**I always assumed advice column folks were anonymous, so it made me curious- not in a good or bad way- why this was different…and I LOVE the response so so much**

Carrie Berk:  As a blogger myself, I never considered being anonymous because I don’t think you should be ashamed of your opinions.  I think you should really own your voice.

And, although Emma’s often taking a risk in saying these things and giving the advice- there could be backlash, people could disagree- I feel like what Emma learns is that in middle school you need to own your voice.  Not everyone’s going to like it, and that’s okay.

Sheryl Berk:  Right, and in translating Emma from Jane Austen’s book into modern day, the character is somebody who really wants to make the world a better place and believes in love and is a real romantic at heart.  We wanted to give that to our Emma.

We wanted her to believe in the goodness of people and we wanted her to do all the things that she does out of the goodness of her heart.  It’s almost like a naïveté that she believes that in helping people and in trying to make their lives better, they’re going to appreciate it.

It’s an eye opener for her, but as Carrie says, it’s a really important message, especially at that age in middle school, to know that you should believe in yourself and own who you are and not be afraid to speak your voice, and not just be a follower- be a leader.

Carrie Berk:  A lot of books are anonymous, there’s anonymous bloggers, but being anonymous is overrated.  Who wants to hide behind their voice?  I think the readers want to look up to someone who’s confident in themselves and wants to speak up for what they believe in.  That’s something that the readers are going to enjoy and admire more than someone who’s afraid and hiding behind a piece of paper.

Sheryl Berk:  As the books develop, Emma continues to go through this life lesson of standing up for who she is as opposed to being like everybody else.  It’s something that she starts with her blog and it continues in everything that she does.

She always meets these challenges where she could certainly take the easier road and just do what everybody expects of her, or would have done to fit in.  Instead, she asserts herself and she is who she is and she’s proud of it and that’s what leads her to success.  I think Carrie and I both really strongly believe the most successful people in life are the people who do you, right?  Who do themselves.

Carrie Berk:  Who are unapologetically themselves.

Sheryl Berk:  Yeah, who are unapologetically themselves, a great way of putting it.  A message we really wanted to put out there is that kids should own who they are and never be ashamed of who they are.  It’s what makes you special and different and wonderful.