Survivor Girl by Erin Teagan

Hello, Erin! Welcome to Watch. Connect. Read.! Thank you for stopping by to celebrate Survivor Girl’s cover. Please tell us about the scene Scott Brundage featured on the cover.

Erin Teagan: I absolutely love the scene on the cover. My main character, Alison, looks so strong and capable, exactly how she would want to be portrayed. I also love how the camera and sound boom are subtle, almost like you could miss them at first glance. The cover says so much about the story and Alison’s struggle with what is real and not.

Scenario: Alison Duncan’s teacher asks her to booktalk Survivor Girl. Ready, set, go!

Erin Teagan: Survivor Girl is this book I just read about this girl that likes pop tarts and eating all the chocolate out of trail mix and her dad is a super famous survival guy. She wants to be just like her dad, except she’s not so great at the survival stuff, even though she tells all of her friends that she’s going to be the next big Survivor Girl. But then – she gets to go on set with her dad for the Great Dismal Swamp episode and she figures out a lot of things such as: maybe her dad isn’t as great at survival stuff as she thought, and actually she’s not so bad, and also there is such a thing as homemade pop tarts. So, probably you should read this book if you’re interested in swamps that are maybe haunted, yellow flies, and being on a reality TV show.   

I binge watched season 10 of RuPaul’s Drag Race last week. What’s your favorite reality TV show?

Erin Teagan: Ohhh, binge watching reality TV is my favorite. I love Fixer-Upper and American Pickers and recently my kids have discovered America’s Got Talent, so we’ve been making popcorn and binge watching the first round of auditions!

Do you have a favorite snack or beverage while writing?

Erin Teagan: I can’t sit down to write without either an iced coffee or an orange seltzer water by my side (specifically!). To get through a deadline, I have been known to eat handfuls of chocolate chips from time to time…

Please finish these sentence starters:

I hope Survivor Girl shows kids how powerful the truth can be, and how – when in doubt – they can dig deeper and do the research for themselves to discover the truth.

Mr. Schu, you should have asked me all about the Great Dismal Swamp! It is a swamp in Virginia and North Carolina that is infested with yellow flies (which I experienced first-hand!), but rich in history and folklore. It was a stop on the Underground Railroad and a refuge for entire communities of people for generations. The water is a deep chocolate brown in color and was once believed to have healing properties. It’s a swamp full of mystery and speculation, and the more I researched, the more I fell in love with this setting.

Look for Survivor Girl in March 2019.