Today, I am excited to welcome Miriam Chernick to share her writing journey with Cynsations. Her debut The Zuzu Secret (Charlesbridge, 2025) is a heartwarming story about spunky Josie, her older brother Abe, and a bearded dragon. Two real life icons: James Herriot the British veterinary surgeon and author, and Manny Machado the American baseball player, are referenced throughout this novel.
I was immediately drawn to this story because like Josie, the protagonist, I grew up in a ‘no pets policy’ home and indulged my love of animals by devouring James Herriot’s books during my childhood.
Congratulations on your debut The Zuzu Secret. Please share a bit about your prepublication craft apprenticeship and experiences that nurtured your love of writing.
My formal writing journey began after the events of 9/11/2001 when, living in downtown NYC, I witnessed the World Trade Towers fall. My family’s apartment was damaged, and our life was upended so, after living for five months in a hotel, we packed up and left NYC for the suburbs of D.C.
My three kids were young at the time, so I started to tell them my own made-up stories. But I struggled. I didn’t know how! Luckily, The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Maryland is close by, and, after my first class in writing for children with Mary Quattlebaum, I was hooked.
That kicked off my long journey to publication—including participating in writing groups, attending SCBWI, Highlights and Whale Rock workshops, and getting an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults at the Vermont College of Fine Arts.
What motivated you to write this particular story for young readers?
When the pandemic hit in 2020, my brother (born with a rare disease called Prader-Willi syndrome) was designated high-risk for catching Covid, so I brought him to live with me and my family. (He ended up staying for fifteen months.) With a house full of people to shop, cook, and care for, I could not make time to finish an in-progress young adult novel.
However, I spent hours reminiscing with my brother while he lived in my house. His distinctive voice played in my head like an earworm, so I journaled stories from our childhood and from life in lockdown. Based on those notes, and an idea from a workshop with Louise Hawes while I was at VCFA, I drafted The Zuzu Secret, a fast-paced, high-stakes story about a sister who loves animals and a brother who loves baseball and their separate—and conflicting—dreams.
The real-life “dumping” of a pet bearded dragon (lizard) on a street in my neighborhood inspired the Zuzu part of the story.
Voice is the most elusive component of storytelling, hardest to define for a beginning writer. I noticed details that augment the voices of the two protagonists—pattern of anaphora and visually separated staccato sentences for Abe, a fifteen-year-old boy who lives with Prader-Willi syndrome, and the use of a different typeface for his twelve-year-old sister Josie. Did you face any challenges while crafting the voices for this dual POV?
Because Abe’s voice is more unusual, you might think it was harder to craft. But it was Josie’s voice that challenged me. As the primary narrator, Josie bears the burden of telling the broader story in addition to her own. Furthermore, having her sound like a “typical” twelve-year-old while maintaining language that reflects her personality had me revising her chapters over and over.
The sprinkled references to two real people, James Herriot and Manny Machado, form a parallel structure that effectively contrasts the behavior of the siblings and their ability to navigate the world. Tell us about the process of weaving in these non-fiction elements into your story.
Though I enjoy baseball, I had to do a lot of research on the Baltimore Orioles in general and on Manny Machado in particular. The Zuzu Secret takes place during the second to last week in June of 2018. Every baseball game referenced is real, so getting those facts right required careful research and lots of editing.
The James Herriot research was much easier as I’m familiar with his stories and he is eminently quotable!
The refrain, “Think, Josie. Think.” signals internal monologue that draws the middle grade reader deeper into the story. How do you build your characters’ inner landscape? Do you have specific revision or editing tips to deepen character interiority?
I worked hard to find the right balance between moments of interiority and action that moved the story forward. Josie, twelve, is young to have the responsibility of helping care for her disabled brother. She doesn’t share her secret with anyone until late in the story, so until then I had to rely on interior language to convey her thoughts and feelings. Repeatedly, Josie is confronted with having to make split-second decisions. The reminder to stop and think is a coping mechanism, a technique to help her navigate new and sometimes dangerous situations in a measured way—even when she makes the wrong decision!
The banter between the main characters: Josie, Abe and Bixby as well as their interactions with the adults reads effortless. What did the drafting and revision stages of crafting dialogue look like for you?
Thank you, Mitu! In general, dialogue is an easier part of a novel for me to write. However, Abe’s distinctive way of speaking created a particular challenge in scenes with multiple characters. Writers are encouraged to vary sentence length to match the pace of a chapter, but that didn’t work here since Abe only uses short sentences. I had to be creative with how he uses his words to keep the banter quick and well-paced.
Short crisp chapters in alternating POV are the building blocks of this novel. When some scenes are split over two chapters with a switch in POV it adds to the tension. What rules did you follow or break while constructing these chapters?
I wrote this story so there’d be no overlap in the timeline between Josie’s and Abe’s stories, so when one character’s chapter ends, the next picks up soon after, whether it’s a new scene or, as you mention, the continuation of a prior one. And yes, mid-scene splits add tension which I hope will have kids turning pages.
Could you share any mentor texts that were useful to you while crafting The Zuzu Secret? Or any recommendations for other writers?
I’ve read numerous books in dual point of view and a lot that include physically and/or intellectually disabled/neurodivergent characters. The ones I found particularly useful as mentor texts are ones where the story is not about the disability per se.
Some favorites include Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco Stork (Arthur Levine Books, 2009), Rosie Loves Jack by Mel Darbon (Peachtree, 2021), The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune (Tor books, 2024) and A Boy Called Bat by Elana K. Arnold (HarperCollins, 2017).
What are some of your favorite books? And what is on your ‘To Be Read’ pile these days?
Right now, my favorite picture book is Pepper and Me by Beatrice Alemagna (Astra Publishing 2024) . I think I’ve read it a hundred times! In MG, I loved Erin Bow’s Simon Sort of Says (Disney, 2023) and in YA non-fiction I learned a ton from J. Albert Mann’s Shift Happens (Harper Collins, 2024)—a beautifully written must-read book for everyone.
My to-be-read pile includes young adult novels Rhonda DeChambeau’s Top Heavy (Holiday House, 2025) and A. A. Vacharat’s This Moth Saw Brightness (Penguin Random House, 2025); middle grade novels Naomi Milliner’s The Trouble with Secrets (HarperCollins, 2025), and Scattergood by H.M. Bauwman (Penguin Random House, 2025). At the top of my adult fiction pile are the 2023 Pulitzer prize winner Trust by Hernan Diaz (Penguin Random House, 2022), and Taylor Jenkins Reid’s The Atmosphere (Penguin Random House, 2025) which is coming out in June.
Your novel is an inspiring SCBWI success story. Could you share how you identified your editor and connected the manuscript with this publishing house?
Some writer friends invited me to visit them in Asheville and to join them at their Carolinas SCBWI conference in Charlotte in the fall of 2022. I’m glad I agreed, because I met my editor from Charlesbridge, Karen Boss, at that conference.
Later, I sent her The Zuzu Secret manuscript, which she was enthusiastic about from the start. That led to me signing with Ginger Knowlton, my fantastic agent, and to a super smooth process through revisions and edits.
I’ve learned a lot from Karen and appreciated her respect for, and careful treatment of, these two characters. Beyond the editing, she and her team took great care to choose the right illustrator and paid attention to every detail around the stunning design of both interior and exterior covers, the poster and a myriad other details. Charlesbridge is phenomenal in that way.
What’s next for you, any new writing projects you can share?
I’m working on several different projects including one written before the pandemic.
How are you approaching the transition from writer to author in terms of your self-image, marketing and promotion, moving forward with your literary art?
Being “out there” is new for me, especially with a story based on my family experience, so I’m glad I’ve had time to prepare for all that comes with that. Writer friends have been super supportive and have advised me on how to transition from the writing phase to the marketing/promotion phase of publishing. I know, from a former life doing marketing full time that it’s hard to measure how much it influences sales, so I’ve chosen to focus on what I enjoy such as connecting with other authors by creating fun social media posts and answering smart questions in interviews such as this one.
Cynsations Notes
Here are The Zuzu Secret Reader Group Guide, an Activity Page for kids and order links: Charlesbridge, Penguin Random House, Bookshop.org
Miriam Chernick is a children’s book author whose middle grade novel, The Zuzu Secret, came out in May, 2025. When not writing, Miriam is a substitute teacher in Maryland. The balance of her time is spent parenting three young adults and helping to care for her brother who was born with a rare disease called Prader-Willi Syndrome.
Previously, Miriam worked for a Fortune 500 company in product marketing both in New York and in Tokyo. In terms of academics she’s earned a bachelor’s degree and two master’s degrees—one from Yale University in Asian Studies and one from the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults. Miriam loves animals and plants, Wheel of Fortune and Wordle, speaking Spanish, drinking French, and eating Japanese.
Mitu Malhotra holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. The 2021 winner of the Katherine Paterson Prize for Literature for Young Adults and Children, Mitu has also won scholarships from the Highlights Foundation, Tin House, and a writing residency at the Djerassi Program. Her short story “Toxins” is part of ELA curriculum. Her writing has appeared in Hunger Mountain, Thin Air Magazine and elsewhere. In previous avatars, Mitu was a textile and fashion designer, and has taught in India, the Middle East and the US. Mitu is an active member of CBIG: Children’s Book Illustrators Group, NYC. More on www.mitumalhotra.com. Follow her on Instagram @mituart or Bluesky @mitumalhotra.