I guess my all-time favorite would be Anne and Diana from Anne of Green Gables. What are some of your favorite fictional frienships? MP: One of the things I loved about Stay Sweet is the thread of friendship that runs through the story as Amelia and Cate navigate their last summer together before college. SV: I love the moment when Amelia discovers Molly’s story and starts diving into the past. MP: Do you have a favorite scene or a scene you are excited for readers to discover? It was incredible to me how young girls who showed career ambitions-then and now-struggled with many of the same issues. I went online and bought a bunch of Seventeen magazines from the 1940s and things really caught fire. It wasn’t until I started researching the history behind the ice cream stand I mentioned above that Molly’s story began to appear. Did you always know that you’d be telling Molly’s story as part of the plot for this book? How did you decide what details to share? MP: In addition to following Amelia’s story, you include excerpts from Molly Meade’s diary as she first starts what will become Meade Creamery. SV: It was inspired by a lot of things, but the impetus for the idea came from an actual ice cream stand I visited years ago, called Durbin’s Magic Freeze in Barberton, OH. MP: What was the inspiration for Stay Sweet? This was when YA novels were just beginning to explode on the scene. I would receive publishing catalogs from all the major houses and found myself gravitating towards the back pages, where the YA book descriptions were listed. Part of my job was to scout for picture books that might make good cartoons. Siobhan Vivian (SV): I started my career working in children’s television. Miss Print (MP): Can you tell me a bit about your path as a writer? How did you get to this point? Today I’m thrilled to have Siobhan Vivian answering a few questions about her latest novel. I knew I would enjoy this story about friends, ice cream, and change but I didn’t expect to fall in love with Amelia as she navigated the murky waters of her last summer before college and figuring out what comes next. Stay Sweet was a surprise favorite for me when I picked it up this summer.

The list siobhan vivian book review