Inclusion and Revolution with Sarah J. Mendonca

Now, a lot of middle grade fantasy and fantasy books in general will explore different aspects of magical systems and how they work within society.

Typically, you'll see the different kinds of roles that magic users will play in society.

And I think it's interesting that the people that trap monsters are seen as the lowest in society.

Can you talk a little bit about how you used kind of the social ladder to the social and economic ladder to establish these roles and these rules in the world that you've built?

Yes.

So how I thought of it is there's two types of magic users.

You have the incantadora, who are the crafts people.

So they are people who do physical charms.

And then you have the ministers who are the ones who do like light-based magic, kind of mental magic.

And I think in society, we tend to respect people who have thinking jobs and we kind of tend to disrespect people who have craftsmen handy types of jobs, you know, plumbers, mechanics.

We don't respect them in the same level as a doctor.

And I just thought that, um, that it was really important to highlight how hard and important people who work with their hands are.

And I think that You know, it's really unfair that in this story, the ministers, the people who have the brain focused magic system, they keep knowledge to themselves and they keep it up in their tower and their mountain tower.

And they only allow people to access knowledge for a fee.

accessing knowledge for a fee that's definitely a powerful sentiment to be including in a magical story and with the story of breaking out of poverty that kind of gives us a gateway into an inciting incident where rosa and her avo are desperate for money and so when it comes to when it comes to the work that rosa finds herself in with the secret society that's called the tea leaves Can you talk a little bit about this idea of fighting against this system of oppression, this system of poverty that these characters find themselves in, and just the overall importance of establishing this idea that sometimes...

Sorry, just kind of went off on a wild thing there.

Can you talk a little bit about this idea, just in general, of fighting against this system of oppression, sort of this dynamic that Rosa and the tea leaves have with the ministers?

I think in the tea leaves' heads, they're not necessarily going against the government.

They're not necessarily going against the big system.

In their head, they are trying to make money.

They're trying to steal a magical item.

But once they get inside of the ministry and they are by the vault, they realize there is a lot of corruption inside to the point that they don't even think people would believe them if they told them anybody and there's this one moment where Tiago goes you know this might not be the thing that tips the scales this might not be the thing that brings the ministry down but it will be the thing that could start the avalanche it could be the first stone that starts a great amount of change And I think that sometimes when we have these enormous systems that seem insurmountable, we don't know where to start.

And sometimes starting anywhere and trying a little bit can make a huge difference over time.