Mélina Mangal is a library media specialist at a Minnesota district K–5 elementary school in Minneapolis, an author of fiction and nonfiction books for young readers, and a self-proclaimed “nature connector.” Her titles include The Vast Wonders of the World: Biologist Ernest Everett Just, Jayden’s Impossible Garden, named one of the Best Children’s Books of the Year by the Bank Street Center for Children’s Literature, and its sequel, Jayden’s Secret Ingredient. PW spoke with Mangal about the ways her library work and writing cross-pollinate each other, and why she’s passionate about sharing the beauty of nature with her readers.
You began your career in publishing. What led you to working in the library field, and how did you get there?
After working in college textbook publishing as a production editor for five years, I decided that I wanted to work more directly with people, and I thought that becoming a librarian might be a good fit. While I was interning in the reference library at Duke University while getting my MLS, I thought that I might want to be a reference librarian. But when I attended a school library conference, I was just so impressed with the types of things that the school libraries were doing with kids. This conference changed my career trajectory and made me want to become a school librarian. The combination of teaching, working with books, and getting kids fired up about reading were—and still are—right up my alley. And, they have been since 1994.
Out of all of your library and media duties, what brings you the greatest joy? And what do you find to be the greatest challenge?
The greatest joy is connecting kids with ideas and books that will get them to want to read, learn, and to discover more. The biggest challenge is keeping up with the changing technology and how it applies or could apply to teaching my students. I don’t believe in automatically adopting the latest app or device. It must fit with our instructional goals and student needs. New technology can open up different pathways for learning, but other times it can be distracting and extremely challenging.
One thing is the use of AI in particular, and how it could fit into the classroom—or not. We’re already using it to a certain degree with spell check and auto fills, but we’re also still learning more about it. As a library media specialist, it’s my job to help teachers and students understand what AI is, if and when it could be useful for learning, and how to safeguard against inappropriate use in school.
How did you begin writing for children?
I started off writing letters when I was very young. Without the internet, it was the only way that I communicated with family who were far away, especially my father who was overseas in the Vietnam War. We wrote letters back and forth because we couldn’t call him. Also, I am originally from France, and my maternal grandmother would write us letters all the time, and we’d write her back. So that was where I first fell in love with writing. In junior high, I wrote in a diary and to pen pals, and in college I started writing poetry and sending it out to be published.
My first official publishing credit came through an anthology of journal writing, Life Notes: Personal Writings by Contemporary Black Women. I was embarrassed when it came out because I was included with so many amazing writers and my work seemed so unpolished and not as good theirs. As a result, I actually took a couple steps back to gain more experience by taking more classes and attending a Highlights writing retreat. Then, when I began working in a school library, I was fortunate to be surrounded by kids and books. It was then that I discovered wonderful books to read and to share—as well as books that I didn’t see that I needed to write. This sparked my interest in writing for children!
Can you tell us about some of your books including your latest titles?
My first books were biographies on authors including Virginia Hamilton, Mildred D. Taylor, and Rita Williams-Garcia. Recently, I’ve also been writing a biography with the poet Sun Yung Shin about the civil rights, labor, and community activists James Boggs and Grace Lee Boggs. The book will be out in 2025.
As for my fiction, Jayden’s Impossible Garden follows a boy, Jayden, and his neighbor friend, Mr. Curtis, who start a community garden and are always on the lookout for nature in their city. My latest title, Jayden’s Secret Ingredient, is the sequel, in which Jayden partners with his friend again. I’m also working on some board books [also coming out in 2025] that are about kids using their senses and finding nature.
On your author website, you call yourself a “nature connector.” Why is sharing and writing about nature important to you?
I grew up playing in the country, climbing trees, and loving nature. I think there’s a real necessity, especially right now with climate change, to have and/or to develop a real love and appreciation of nature, because with that comes more care and protection. Like my character Jayden, a lot of kids live in cities and not out in the country like I did. While there is nature there, it’s different. So with my books, I am trying to reach kids where they are and show them that there’s nature there, and to help them find it, nurture it, and cultivate it through gardening and protecting areas.
And I think it’s important for kids of color like Jayden to see themselves enjoying nature like so many other kids do. So, with my nature-themed books, I hope to plant seeds of possibility to encourage kids and families to get out in nature, create their own gardens using recycled pots or up-cycling milk jugs and things like that. These actions can create a domino effect. Because once you plant seeds and the plants grow, different insects and birds come, and this invites nature closer.
Being in nature is beneficial to humans in so many different ways. Research says that interacting with nature reduces stress levels, releases endorphins, and helps eyesight, too. As humans, we are designed to look further into the woods—not just screens. Add in imaginative play outdoors, and this can lead to bringing people together to build something bigger and better and help improve our planet.
How would you say your library work and writing cross-pollinate each other?
As my school’s library’s media specialist, I am able to absorb my students’ energy every day: the way they speak and share their concerns and their musings. This helps me stay true to children’s needs and interests in my writing. I’m also able to see holes in today’s book offerings. And when I notice these, I start to think about what books I could write.
On the other hand, my writing helps inform my library work and teaching because in the library it’s all about books. I’m able to explain how a book is made and all the people involved in creating them. I can also show my students that it’s okay to make mistakes when you’re writing because that’s part of the process, along with rewriting and editing. I’d like to think that this might help my students approach their writing with a little more joy and a little less apprehensiveness and annoyance over writing multiple drafts, and to better understand that the whole process can take a long time. Good things take time, just like planting gardens, and protecting the Earth we all love.
