I got to talk about friendship and deep-fried asparagus with Kirkus’s James Feder:

Her time in California’s Central Valley taught her just how central such fairs were to agricultural communities. It’s at a fictional cantaloupe festival that we meet Flor and Miranda—and for Torres, that rural identity is crucial.

“I think we tend to think of diverse families and children, families of color, typically in urban settings,” she says. “But rural communities, especially in California, have been very diverse for a long time—and that’s also true across the country. The Central Valley is full of immigrant communities, both folks who came recently hoping to build a new life and also folks who have lived there for generations.”

Check out the full interview here.