JUST US by Molly Beth Griffin is a children’s book that explores a family navigating unexpected changes to their holiday plans. After a storm prevents them from gathering with more family members, they acknowledge their disappointment and explore new ways to celebrate. In this interview, Molly reflects on adaptability, disappointment, and belonging.
Molly Beth Griffin: I have always loved books and kids, and I’m passionate about wanting to help kids become readers. I decided that as an introvert, I’d do that through writing versus in the classroom. My background is in English and Education, and then I decided to get an MFA in Writing for Children at Hamline. I’ve been writing books for kids ever since.
Just Us was inspired by a Thanksgiving spent snowed-in at a cabin in Duluth. We got 22” of snow that year (2019) and the car wouldn’t budge, so we watched movies and ate spaghetti and meatballs and hiked in the snow. There aren’t movies or meatballs in the story, but I took that experience and wrote a book about traditions, and disappointment, and adaptability.
My partner worked at a grocery store for 15 years, and hated working certain holidays because customers (grown adults) would have a fit if the store was out of something that they considered essential for that holiday. I think we need to work on how we handle disruptions, and show kids a more creative, flexible mindset. The pandemic made that kind of mentality even more essential, and our now-continual climate crises are constantly calling for adaptability. How can we make the best of a not-great situation, and have fun anyway?
Molly Beth Griffin: I hope it gives them tools for weathering disappointment. I’d like for kids and their grownups to talk about traditions, and what they could do if their plans have to change. It’s okay to be upset if things go wrong! But it’s also good to be able to change gears and make something different happen.
Molly Beth Griffin: I hope it can start conversations about holidays, traditions, and family recipes. We all have stories about holidays where things went wrong—delayed flights, bad weather, illnesses, accidents. These stories are sometimes sad, sometimes funny, sometimes uplifting or inspiring. What happened? What did we do instead? How did we salvage the situation? Let’s talk about resilience and problem solving, and how these situations can surprise us with new ways of celebrating.
Molly Beth Griffin: Well, I probably whine and sulk, at least a little. But then I try to move forward and do the next best thing. In general I think the key is to try to hold onto the way things should be LOOSELY. This is hard for me, because I have anxiety, and that means I worry a lot and plan a lot and try to control the unpredictability of life by mapping everything out ahead of time. But life is still unpredictable, no matter what I do! It’s definitely a struggle. Trying to model a more flexible mindset for my kids helps me remember to work on it for myself too.
Molly Beth Griffin: I have to ignore that side of things, in order to get any creative work done. I write what I need to write, and send it out into the world, and I can’t control what gets published and what gets bought for libraries, and what doesn’t. I hope that people will see the universal themes in this book, but I know that most book banners don’t actually read the books they try to censor. I’m very very grateful to the teachers and librarians who are putting kids first, and getting all kinds of books onto their shelves and into their students’ hands.
Molly Beth Griffin: Oh I have so many! This is an unfair question. Queer picture books are dear to my heart, like LOVE VIOLET by Charlotte Sullivan Wild, CINDERELLIOT by Mark Ceilley and Rachel Smoka-Richardson, BIG WIG by Jonathan Hillman, and WORM LOVES WORM by JJ Austrian. I’m also deeply grateful to the folks working to write for kids about the murder of George Floyd and the uprising in my neighborhood: SARAH RISING by Ty Chapman and WE MISS YOU GEORGE FLOYD by Shannon Gibney. There is amazing work happening in YA as well. Check out Junauda Petrus (THE STARS AND THE BLACKNESS BETWEEN THEM) and Mike Curato (FLAMER). I’ll stop!! I’m just so grateful that these beautiful books exist and to everyone who is fighting for kids’ access to them.
Molly Beth Griffin: Belonging means feeling seen and known by the people around you, feeling safe and accepted and valued. I hope kids feel this way in their homes, classrooms, schools, neighborhoods. Books can definitely be part of that – if you see a book with a kid like you on the shelf, you know the teacher or librarian has chosen that book for their collection, for their display, and that means they choose you too. They are saying “you belong here.” If kids do NOT feel safe and accepted in these spaces, finding a book that reflects their experience (online, or wherever) can show them that there are people in the larger world who do value them. They can belong to that wider community even if their immediate surroundings are not supportive. I think that must be a lifeline for kids who are stuck in these oppressive situations.
Molly Beth Griffin: Please keep fighting for kids’ freedom to read, for their access to all kinds of books that show all kinds of experiences of the world. Kids need to see themselves represented in literature and they ALSO need to see people unlike themselves as heroes of their own stories. Reading fosters empathy and connection in the most natural way, and we need it now more than ever.
Thank you, Molly, for your writing that helps children navigate change and disappointment. Your books bring belonging to life. Visit Molly’s website to learn more about her work.