Interview with Aimee Lucido, author of Emmy in the Key of Code

1. What’s the title of your book and can you tell us a little about it?

My book is called Emmy in the Key of Code, and it's about a twelve-year-old girl named Emmy who comes from a family of musicians. Her mom is an opera singer, her dad is a pianist, but even though Emmy loves music, and even thinks in music-like poetry, she feels like she's not good at actually making music. So, when she moves to San Francisco for her dad's job, she finds herself unexpectedly connecting to the material in a computer science class through a language she is familiar with: music. The story is a novel in verse (so, told in a series of short poems) and as Emmy learns various computer science concepts, the poetry of the book starts to mimic the language of code. Emmy in the Key of Code is perfect for fans of SECRET CODERS and THE CROSSOVER.

 

2. Do you have a certain process when it comes to writing?

My process really varies from book to book, but I do tend to feel like I need to write a book all the way through in order to feel like I have a handle on it. I tend to send projects to my friends and family repeatedly throughout the process, because I love getting feedback from people I trust, but I usually enjoy the revision stages of writing more than the drafting stages. Also, I tend to do a lot of my writing in my head before I do the writing on the page, and most of that head-writing happens in the middle of the night when I'm having trouble sleeping. 

3. Are you currently working on a new book?

I'm currently in revisions for my second book, RECIPE FOR DISASTER, which comes out in spring of 2021. RECIPE FOR DISASTER is a hybrid of prose, verse, and recipes about a 12-year-old girl named Hannah whose best friend's Bat Mitzvah inspires her to plan one for herself. But when she finds out that her Jewish and non-Jewish family is split on whether she is "Jewish enough" for one, she takes matters into her own hands to plan the rite of passage she craves, discovering her own Jewish identity along the way. 

 

4. What’s your favorite book to read again and again?

I will never tire of reading Matilda, The Golden Compass, and Harry Potter, all of which I have probably read close to a dozen times a piece.

 

5. What are you currently reading?

I'm currently halfway through a gorgeous novel in verse called The Moon Within, by Aida Salazar, and the next book on my TBR stack is Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds.

 

Aimee Lucido is the author of EMMY IN THE KEY OF CODE and the upcoming RECIPE FOR DISASTER (Versify, Spring 2021). She’s a software engineer who has worked at

Google, Facebook, and Uber, and she got her MFA in writing for children and young adults at Hamline University. She lives with her husband in San Francisco where she likes to bake, run marathons, and write crossword puzzles.