NOT NOTHING by Gayle Forman

I’ve been a fan of Gayle Forman ever since I read her YA book If I Stay. When I found out she wrote middle grade novels as well, I couldn’t wait to feature one of them. NOT NOTHING is just as poignant and emotionally fulfilling as her previous books, and it came out on August 27, 2024.

To say Alex has had it rough is an understatement. His father’s gone, his mother is struggling with mental health issues, and he’s now living with an aunt and uncle who are less than excited to have him. Almost everyone treats him as though he doesn’t matter at all, like he’s nothing. So when a kid at school actually tells him he’s nothing, Alex snaps, and gets violent. Fortunately, his social worker pulls some strings and gets him a job at a nursing home for the summer rather than being sent to juvie. There, he meets Josey, the 107-year-old Holocaust survivor who stopped bothering to talk years ago, and Maya-Jade, the granddaughter of one of the residents with an overblown sense of importance. Unlike Alex, Maya-Jade believes that people care about what she thinks, and that she can make a difference. And when Alex and Josey form an unlikely bond, with Josey confiding in him, Alex starts to believe he can make a difference—a good difference—in the world. If he can truly feel he matters, Alex may be able to finally rise to the occasion of his own life.

You are from Los Angeles, but you now live in Brooklyn. What do you like most about both places?

I was born in LA but I am a spiritual New Yorker and as soon as I visited here in my teens, I knew this was my place. I love the energy of New York, the diversity, the chaos, the anything-goes-ness of it all. LA, I love the mountains (real mountains, not hills like we have here) and the beaches and the access to really rugged wilderness. Plus all of the amazing food you find in strip malls!

My cousin grew up in LA, and she had the same experience you did when she moved to New York (she still lives on the East Coast). Also! I love the bond that forms between Josey and Alex in NOT NOTHING. How did you know this story was one you needed to write?

With the rise in overt hate and hate crimes in the US, I knew I wanted to explore the historical nature of such movements. I also knew that this book had to be narrated by Josey. At first I thought it had to be an adult novel because you couldn’t do a middle grade novel narrated by an old man, right? But I came to realize it had to be this way. The relationship between the very old man and the young boy was always the center of this book.

And the old man offers such a great opening to the book as well! What are the differences you’ve observed between writing for a young adult versus a middle grade audience?

With middle-grade, you are writing on what I think of as Pixar levels, one for the younger readers and one for the adult readers like parents or teachers who may be reading this book along with the youngsters. With YA, there is less intermediary, so the YA, I think, is more emotionally direct. Though I think all my books have all the feels because that’s just how I roll.

It’s also why readers love them! What are some of your current projects?

Though I’m supposed to be working on my next novel (a YA collaboration with my now 20-year-old daughter which is sort of Eat, Pray, Love meets the Gilmore Girls) my next YA book After Life comes out in January and Not Nothing just came out in late August so I’ve been mostly busy promoting and traveling for these two books and doing lots of political work in advance of the election.

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