Jennifer L. Holm, whose books for young readers have nearly 10 million copies in print, made an auspicious publishing debut in 1999 with the historical novel Our Only May Amelia. The book went on to receive a Newbery Honor, as did Holm’s Penny from Heaven and Turtle in Paradise. Subsequent accolades included an Eisner Award for the Babymouse series, illustrated by her brother Matthew, which has sold 3.6 million copies; and an E.B. White Read Aloud Award for The Fourteenth Goldfish. Holm ventures onto chilling territory in her latest middle grade novel, Outside, in which a girl being raised inside a walled compound doesn’t realize how isolated and abnormal her life is until she encounters the outside world for the first time. We spoke with Holm about the genesis of her new book, the range of her fiction offerings, and collaborating with her brother.
What inspired Outside—and had you long pondered writing this story, or did it come to you suddenly?
Maybe a little of both. The original inspiration is from my childhood. My brother Keith is 12 years older than me. When I was five or six, he graduated high school and joined the Navy. One day he was home and the next he was gone, and I was bewildered. Where was the “Navy?” I didn’t understand and was worried, and I guess I drove my dad nuts asking questions. So, one day when we were driving through a corporate park, we passed this imposing building and my dad pointed to it and said, “That’s the Navy. That’s where Keith is living, and he is just fine, and you don’t have to worry about him anymore.” And I believed him and felt better! Years later when I was much older, I joked every time we drove by that building that it was the Navy and my brother lived there. Now as a parent I understand why you sometimes fudge the truth to comfort an upset child. And the more recent inspiration for Outside was the Covid experience of being so isolated.
This is a darker, more intense novel than your previous children’s books. Was it a challenge to switch gears after focusing on lighter fiction for kids?
It was the best writing experience of my career. I usually have terrible writer’s block when it comes to doing a first draft. It hasn’t gotten any easier for me over the years. But for this book, I “locked in”—as the kids like to say—and slammed out a draft in three months. A miracle! Of course, it took a few years to revise, but the first draft phase wasn’t painful.
You’ve written fiction aimed at a range of age levels, including readers six to nine and those nine to 12. Do you find writing for these age groupings equally rewarding?
They are both fun audiences to write for! If I look back at my career, I wrote most of my younger books—the Babymouse and Squish series—when my children were little. And certainly, some of their lives bled into those books.
As my kids have grown—they are now 18 and 22—I’ve unconsciously shifted my focus to writing more complex books for an older audience, including the Sunny series, The Lion of Mars, The Fourteenth Goldfish, and Outside. I think, if I psychoanalyze myself, it’s because my kids’ problems became messier and I wanted to solve them. So, I use my writing to explore issues that older middle-grade kids experience. Of course, the topics you can write about for this age group are much meatier and often darker, and I really enjoy trying to reimagine them.
One thing I am passionate about is keeping my novels very tight and on the shorter side. Why? It seems to me that children are easily discouraged these days. However, if they can power through a shorter novel, that builds confidence. Hopefully, they will be picking up chunkier chapter books in a few years.
You’ve collaborated with your brother on many books, and cowrote The Stink Files series with your husband, Jonathan Hamel. What are the respective rewards of collaborating with others and creating a book on your own—and what is next on your creative agenda?
I do love collaborating. It’s much easier when another creative brain is involved. I still enjoy the solo experience, but it takes a lot longer.
And in terms of what’s next up from me, Sunny is hitting the road! In Sunny Hits the Road, which is coming out from Graphix in fall 2026, she and her family take a summer Winnebago trip.
Looking ahead, what I really, really want to do is cowrite a middle-grade novel with Matthew. We have collaborated on so many graphic novels over the years and are a well-oiled machine when it comes to working together. Before becoming a published illustrator and comics creator, he was an editor of Hearst’s Country Living magazine, so he actually has more formal writing experience than me. I think collaborating on a middle-grade novel may be the next creative adventure for us both.
Outside by Jennifer L. Holm. Scholastic Press, $17.99 Oct. ISBN 978-1-5461-3814-3
