Happy Tuesday and welcome to my stop on the blog tour for GROW UP, TAHLIA WILKINS! I’m so excited because today I have an interview with Karina evans to share with you! This book is truly amazing and I’m so excited to for you to find out more about it!
Grow Up, Tahlia Wilkins! by Karina Evans Published on April 19, 2022 by Little Brown Books for Young Readers
Genres: Contemporary, Middle Grade
Pages: 304
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Author Links: Website, Twitter, Goodreads, Instagram
Debut author Karina Evans gives modern-day readers their own version of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret with a fun romp about friendship, puberty, and growing up.
Twelve-year-old Tahlia Wilkins is ready to kick off the perfect summer at the popular kid's pool party. But when the Red Goddess of Panties, aka her first period, arrives 24 hours before the pool party, it messes up all her plans. To make matters worse, her mom is out of town, and there’s no way she’s going to ask her dad for help! Tahlia always feared that growing up would be tough, but this is just not fair.
In order to save herself from total embarrassment, it will take all of Tahlia and her best friend Lily’s scheming to keep her reputation—and her favorite jeans—from being ruined. Sneak off to the grocery store only to have the clerk price check your "goods" over the loudspeaker? Check. Trick your mature teenage neighbor into letting you use her bathroom to ‘rehome’ some tampons? Check. Take a dip into a fountain to ‘borrow’ some quarters for a bathroom period product dispenser? Check, check, check!
With the hilarious and heartwarming tone of Dork Diaries and the critically-acclaimed movie Eighth Grade, Grow Up, Tahlia Wilkins! is a coming-of-age middle-grade novel about growing up, in all of its awkward glory.
What would you do if you spent the day with Tahlia and Lily? Where would you go to eat, hang out, relax, etc.?
I’d like to think Tahlia and Lily would want to hang out with me, but in truth they’d probably think I was decidedly not cool. Or at least Tahlia would. Lily would be happy to hang out with me if I took her to some PG-13 movies.
If Tahlia and Lily were to hang out with other fictional characters, who would they be and why?
I think Tahlia and Lily would want to hang out with Claudia Kishi from the Babysitters Club because she would be totally popular in their eyes.
If there was one fictional place you could travel to for a day, where would it be and why?
I would want to travel to the nation of the Air Nomads from Avatar: The Last Airbender so that I could ride Appa!
If you buried a time capsule with three items inside, what three items would you choose and why?
I would choose a photo of my cats, a romcom book, and my spin bike so that when I opened the time capsule back up again, I would perfectly remember things that brought me joy during the pandemic.
What was your favorite bit of research you ended up not using?
I loved hearing all my friends’ true, cringe-worthy period stories! But I did not put any personal stories in the book 😊
What is your favorite quote, scene, or moment from Grow Up, Tahlia Wilkins?
My favorite scene is the car ride home from the pool party with Tahlia and her dad! To me, that scene is the heart of the story.
About Karina Evans
Karina Evans is a children’s author from Santa Barbara, California. She is represented by Jessica Mileo at InkWell Management.
Karina studied English at the University of Delaware before starting a career in the entertainment industry. She works in marketing for Sony Pictures and has previously worked for Lucasfilm and Paramount Pictures.
Some of Karina’s favorite things include: See’s Candies, The Amazing Race, singing show tunes in the car, and volleyball. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two mischievous cats, Sir Pounce and Taika.
What do you think about Grow Up, Tahlia Wilkins? Have you added it to your tbr yet? Let me know in the comments and have a splendiferous day!
