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ENTRY TYPE: new
WORK TITLE: Breaking into Sunlight
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://johncochranauthor.com/
CITY: Washington
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in PA; married; children: two.
EDUCATION:University of Missouri, Columbia.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Jackson Sun, Jackson, TN, reporter; News & Record, Greensboro, NC, reporter; Congressional Quarterly, Washington, DC, reporter. Previously, worked as a journalist for newspapers in Missouri and Virginia.
AWARDS:Everett McKinley Dirksen Award, National Press Foundation.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2024, review of Breaking into Sunlight.
School Library Journal, May, 2024, Tracy Cronce, review of Breaking into Sunlight, p. 69.
ONLINE
American Booksellers Associations website, https://www.bookweb.org/ (July 10, 2024), Holly Weinkauf, author interview.
John Cochran website, https://johncochranauthor.com/ (January 29, 2025).
Nerd Daily, https://thenerddaily.com/ (June 17, 2024), Elisa Dumpleton, author interview.
Publishers Weekly Online, https://www.publishersweekly.com/ (June 13, 2024), Amanda Ramirez, author interview.
John Cochran grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. He studied journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia, and worked for daily newspapers in Missouri, Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina, reporting on everything from crime to state government. He went on to cover Congress and national politics for Congressional Quarterly in Washington, D.C., where he received the National Press Foundation’s Everett McKinley Dirksen Award. He lives on Capitol Hill in D.C. with his wife and their two children. Breaking into Sunlight, his first novel, was named one of the best debuts of summer/fall 2024 by the American Booksellers Association. It received a starred review from School Library Journal, which called it a “poignant, relatable read … an important novel for every library to have.”
John is represented by Isabelle Bleecker of Nordlyset Literary Agency.
Longer Bio:
I was born in Pennsylvania and moved four times before the age of 8, from one side of the country to the other and back again, as my dad was transferred for work or changed jobs. But when people ask where I’m from, I say Kansas City, Missouri, where my family finally settled for good when I was in 5th grade. We moved into a house four blocks from the Kansas state line, in a neighborhood where I could ride my bike just about anywhere I wanted to go – to hang out with friends, get ice cream at a place called Topsy’s, or spend my birthday money at Brookside Toy and Science, an amazing store I’m happy to say is still there. I went to Catholic schools, was an altar boy (which I loved, in part because you got to ring the bells loudly and play with matches when you lit the candles), and sang in churches around town with a group called the Pontifical Choir of Kansas City.
I remember exactly where I was when I decided to become a writer: Sherry Unruh’s sophomore English class at Bishop Miege High School. Ms. Unruh inspired me and helped set me on a path that I’d follow into adulthood. When I decided I wanted to write for the school newspaper, Ms. Unruh recommended me to the teacher who ran my school’s journalism program, Sue Waters. I worked on the school newspaper for two years, eventually becoming the editor, and then went on to study journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
My first full-time newspaper job after college was as a police reporter writing about crime, car wrecks, fires, and other calamities for The Jackson Sun, a daily newspaper in Jackson, Tennessee. As the junior reporter, I also worked general assignment on Saturdays, when I covered small-town parades, “pig-pickings” (which are big community barbecues), and whatever else was happening in town. It was in Jackson that I fell in love with the South.
From The Jackson Sun, I went to the News & Record in Greensboro, North Carolina, where I was a reporter, an editorial writer and then politics editor, before moving to Washington, D.C., to write about Congress and national politics for Congressional Quarterly. For my work in D.C., I received the National Press Foundation’s Everett McKinley Dirksen Award.
What I’m most grateful for from my time as a journalist is the extraordinary people I got to meet, from all walks of life. Hearing their stories broadened my understanding of the world. Listening closely to their voices was also great training for an important part of fiction-writing: writing good dialogue. I documented the stories of families who had lost loved ones to street violence during one especially horrible year in Jackson. I rode with police on patrol, visited jails, and walked fields and woods with volunteers searching for a lost child. I profiled men and women recovering from drug addiction. I spent time with music legend Carl Perkins (the man who wrote “Blue Suede Shoes”) in his Tennessee home, and I explored a beautiful corner of Blue Ridge backcountry that hunters and farmers were fighting to save from development. I crisscrossed North Carolina with political candidates, going to barbecues, fish fries, and political rallies.
I loved it all. When my children came along, though, I felt called to do something else: I left journalism to be a full-time stay-at-home dad. It was a once-in-a-lifetime privilege to be able to spend so much time with my kids, Maren and Liam, as they grew. That’s also when I started writing fiction. For inspiration I drew on my own personal and family experiences, but also memories of the people and places I got to know as a journalist in the South.
Today I live in Washington, D.C., in a 110-year-old rowhouse a little more than mile from the U.S. Capitol, with my wife, our kids, and our three cats, Marley, Nya and Opal.
I love to hear from readers and writers of all ages and to talk about stories and writing. Please send me a note with any thoughts or questions you have.
Q&A: John Cochran, Author of ‘Breaking Into Sunlight’
Elise Dumpleton·Writers Corner·June 17, 2024·7 min read
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We chat with author John Cochran about Breaking Into Sunlight, which is a powerful and compassionate book follows a family’s journey through the turbulence of parental addiction—and the moments of connection and healing that break through the dark days.
Hi, John! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
I was born just outside Philadelphia, but grew up mainly in Kansas City, Misouri. I was a journalist in my previous life, covering everything from crime to state and local government for daily newspapers in Missouri, Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina before moving to Washington, D.C., to cover Congress and national politics for Congressional Quarterly. At CQ, I won the National Press Foundation’s Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguised Report of Congress. When my kids were small, I left journalism to become a stay-at-home dad. That’s also when I started writing fiction, which was a long-deferred dream. I live on Capitol Hill in D.C., not far from Eastern Market, in a 111-year-old row house with my wife and our two kids.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
As a student at Bishop Miege High School in Roeland Park, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City. The school had terrific English and journalism programs, and the teachers there inspired me and encouraged me to write. I owe a lot to four teachers there in particular: Judy Bromberg, Craig Ewing, Sue Waters, and Sherry Unruh.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
The first book you ever remember reading: One of Beverly Cleary’s books, probably Henry Huggins. I loved all her books.
The one that made you want to become an author: The book that first got me thinking about writing fiction for kids, after years as a journalist, was Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo. I read it as an adult, when I had kids of my own, and I was blown away by two things: It’s a powerful and profound story that speaks to both kids and adults, and it’s written with so much grace and compassion. I thought, “I want to do that, too.”
The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Jim the Boy by Tony Earley. It’s a beautiful story, and the writing is luminous. Earley’s writing style is a big inspiration for me.
Your debut novel, Breaking into Sunlight, is out June 18th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
The healing power of friendship.
What can readers expect?
The book is honest and forthright about addiction and its effects on families, because kids who are facing this reality in their lives need to feel seen to know they’re not alone. I also want people around them – their classmates, teachers and neighbors – to really understand the dynamic of addiction in families. These kids need the understanding and support of their friends and community.
There’s fun and summertime adventure in the book, too, as Reese explores a wild blackwater river that runs by the farm of his two new friends, Meg and Charlie, who need his friendship as much as he needs theirs. And that’s ultimately what the book is about: the power of friendship and connection to heal us and help us find our way to the good and joyful lives we deserve.
Where did the inspiration for Breaking into Sunlight come from?
It was inspired in part by my own family experiences with addiction. Like Reese, I’ve watched people I love struggle with addiction, and I wanted to make them better but didn’t know how.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I loved writing the scenes on the river, when Reese swims and canoes with Meg and Charlie. Those scenes were inspired by canoe trips I took on rivers in North Carolina, particularly the Lumber, and trips over the years on the backroads of eastern North Carolina. Of the characters, I enjoyed writing Meg best. She’s hurting and lonely, and also strong, smart, caring and perceptive. I added her to the cast early on at the suggestion of my daughter, Maren, who was not much older than Meg when she read a first draft of the story. Maren wisely told me the book needed more kids and more scenes with only kids figuring this stuff out together. At that point the story was too dominated by Reese’s interactions with adults. There is more than a little of my daughter in Meg.
With Breaking into Sunlight exploring parental addiction, how did you approach tackling this topic for a young audience? Why should children be aware of this?
This story in the end is very hopeful, and in a way that I think is real, not Pollyanna-ish or simplistic. That’s the key, I think. It points to hope and new strength through friendship and connection. None of us is alone. We can open our hearts to each other and share our burdens and pain. Kids need to hear that. We all need to hear that.
Children need to be aware of this problem because millions of young people, almost certainly including kids in their schools and neighborhoods, are facing it. The most recent national study of addiction in families estimated that one in every eight young people was living with a parent with a drug or alcohol problem. That means that in any given classroom, chances are good that not just one but two or even three kids are dealing with this.
This is your debut published novel! What was the road to becoming a published author like for you?
My one regret is I worked in isolation for too long. Because I had been a professional writer, as a journalist, I felt I ought to be able to do it on my own and that a manuscript needed to be complete and just about perfect before I showed it to anyone. But writing a novel is a whole other challenge, and I had a great deal more to learn than I understood going in. It was when I finally began sharing rough drafts with fellow writers that I really began that learning process and the manuscript started coming together more quickly. That’s also when I felt connected again to a supportive writing community, something I missed from journalism. I can’t overstate the value of that community, both for my work and my mental health: No one really understands what you’re going through except other writers.
What’s next for you?
I’m writing a middle-grade novel, also with a boy at the center, that takes on another tough issue, homelessness. It’s set in the Pittsburgh area, where my mother’s family is from and where I lived for a time as a boy.
Lastly, what books have you enjoyed so far this year and are there any that you can’t wait to get your hands on?
Four books that stand out to me are by writers who, like me, moved from journalism to fiction.
See also
Q&A: Kosoko Jackson, Author of ‘The Forest Demands Its Due’
One book I enjoyed a great deal this year is Medusa: The Myth of Monsters, the latest middle-grade novel from Katherine Marsh. It’s a fun and also thought-provoking feminist twist on the Medusa myth. The story is fast-paced and action-packed, and it will hook kids, even reluctant readers. At the same time, Marsh taps into a deep tradition of Medusa as a symbol of female power and protection. Kids and adults will find a lot to think about and talk about here, even while they enjoy the ride of the story. I admire all of Marsh’s writing. Her previous book, The Lost Year, was a finalist for the National Book Award. A mutual friend, another journalist, connected us when I was struggling with Breaking into Sunlight, and she critiqued an early draft. It was a master class for me in writing for kids.
Another book I loved is Kurtz, an adult novel by John Lawson III, a friend who I worked with at the News & Record in Greensboro, North Carolina. Kurtz is a love story and a thriller with two remarkable characters at the center: Annie Kurtz, who follows her own path to the Marines and then deployment to Afghanistan, and journalist Nick Willard, who loves her and faces a wrenching dilemma when he uncovers the horrifying reason Afghanistan has changed Annie. It’s set against the Global War on Terror, and it draws inspiration from Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now and their critiques of imperialism. But it’s totally original, beginning with its portrayal of Annie, a smart, strong woman fighting to make a place for herself in a male-dominated world while remaining true to herself.
For forthcoming books: One is Upon the Corner of the Moon, historical fiction coming next March from novelist, poet and short-story writer Valerie Nieman, another friend from the Greensboro newspaper. This is the first of two planned novels about the historical Macbeths based on original research by Nieman into the family that inspired Shakespeare’s play. I’ve loved all of Nieman’s writing, which is lyrical and often dark and twisty. Her work defies easy categorization by genre, which makes her books all the more interesting. Her novel To the Bones, for example, is part horror, part mystery, and part contemporary story of environmental justice in the West Virginia coalfields. Another, In the Lonely Backwater, is a haunting YA mystery and coming-of-age story that adults will also love, with an absolute shocker of an ending.
Another book I’m looking forward to Truth, Lies, and the Questions in Between, a young-adult novel by L.M. Elliott, coming next January. Elliott, who I got to know originally because of our mutual connection to Algonquin Young Readers, is a master of historical fiction, and this book focues on one pivotal and tumultuous year in American history, 1973. It’s incredibly timely: 1973 was the year of Roe v Wade, as well as the Equal Rights Amendment, and Watergate. Elliott’s main character, a young woman working in Washington as one of the Senate’s first female Congressional pages, is caught in the middle of this explosive time, with very personal reasons for wanting to get at the truth. I love Elliott’s historical fiction and always learn something new about the periods she’s writing about. Walls, her young-adult novel set in Berlin in the days when the Berlin Wall was raised, is terrific. So is her latest, Bea the New Deal Horse, a middle-grade novel set on a struggling horse farm in rural Virginia during the Great Depression.
Will you be picking up Breaking into Sunlight? Tell us in the comments below!
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Senior Acquisitions Editor - University Press of Colorado - University Press of Colorado.NEXT JOB
'Healing Through Connection': PW Talks with John Cochran
By Amanda Ramirez | Jun 13, 2024
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In contemporary middle grade novel Breaking into Sunlight, journalist and debut author John Cochran chronicles a tween’s experience having a parent with a substance dependency. When North Carolina seventh grader Reese finds his father unconscious following another opioid overdose, he expects his family to move on from the incident like they always have. Except this time, his mother declares that she and Reese are leaving, and that they won’t return until his father gets help. While navigating complicated feelings surrounding his parents and their situation, Reese befriends neighbors Meg and Charlie, who face their own difficulties. Together, the trio finds comfort in exploring the local wilderness and learns to let go of the things they can’t control. Cochran spoke with PW about complex familial relationships, seeking peace in tumultuous times, and how his journalism background shaped his debut.
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What made you decide to write a children’s book?
When I sat down to start working in fiction, I was thinking a lot about what kind of audience I wanted to write for. I felt pretty strongly that if I could wave a magic wand and be anything, write for anyone, it would be for kids. It’s such an amazing privilege to be able to write books that, if you had read them when you were a kid, would have stayed with you forever. Kids experience books in a way that adults don’t.
I wrote this book to speak to kids, but I also hope that adults will read it and get something from it. Maybe they’ll read it with their kids and talk about some of what’s happening in it. Ultimately, it’s a story about how you’re not alone and about healing through connection from whatever difficult things you’re dealing with. I hope that the message transcends situations involving addiction. A big reason I added Meg and Charlie to the story was to show that there are a lot of commonalities between addiction and losing a loved one. Both can blow a hole in your life.
Reese has complex relationships with both of his parents. What did you hope to convey by portraying these difficult dynamics?
One thing that I felt strongly about was showing all three of those people—Reese and his dad and his mom—with compassion. It’s a very real thing, kids having parents who are dealing with addiction. They’re navigating complex dynamics with someone that they care for so much, and they’re afraid, and they’re also angry because addiction is wreaking havoc in their loved one’s life and their own life. I didn’t want Reese or his parents to be speaking from a therapy script or saying the right things all the time or doing the right things all the time. They’re people who are in a difficult situation, where they have to make hard choices and have to do difficult things. And they have to, ultimately, come to a kind of peace with each other. That’s why I wanted to show them groping toward that, as I think that’s the way real life plays out.
“
Ultimately, it's a story about how you're not alone and about healing through connection.
”
In your author’s note, you mention using the Seven Cs, developed by counselor and author Jerry Moe, as a basis for Reese’s journey. Can you elaborate?
I didn’t want any of the characters to mention the Seven Cs explicitly, because I don’t think any of them over the course of the story are at the point where they would have discovered those. But it did guide my thinking about where Reese’s head is at and where his mom’s head is at in the beginning. Reese is caught in feeling like he can control everything, that he can cure [his father’s dependency]. And that’s what he’s trying to shake loose. I wanted to show the characters moving through the Seven Cs toward the positive actions and what you can do. That’s why Reese’s 13th birthday party is so central—it’s because he’s moving toward that step of celebrating yourself. But he doesn’t want to. He doesn’t feel like he can do it when his family is separated and going through all these problems. He thinks he needs to get to a better place before he can celebrate himself.
Meg, Reese, and Charlie find solace in exploring the natural world. Why did you choose this outlet for them?
I’ve actually written a number of stories where, for whatever reason, I kept returning to rivers. Those stories never really got off the ground, but it’s always resonated with me. I have really wonderful memories of canoeing on rivers like the one that Meg and Reese and Charlie live next to. It’s not based on any particular river, but it’s very much inspired by a number of different ones in North Carolina. Canoeing is such a peaceful experience, and so calming. Once you’re on the river, everything else feels like it’s miles and miles away. For all three kids, it’s this very real way for them to disconnect for a while, and for them to find some comfort and peace. There’s a scene where they find a snapping turtle that’s been hooked, and it’s a pretty important scene that’s based on something I saw when canoeing with my wife years ago.
How did your journalism experience inform Breaking into Sunlight?
Ultimately, Breaking into Sunlight is rooted in people that I talked to and things that I saw as a journalist, particularly in North Carolina. It wasn’t my primary beat, but I’ve done some writing as a journalist about people in recovery, so I also had a little bit of insight from having talked to those folks. I don’t know whether it’s just me temperamentally or if it’s part of the way journalism wires you, but reflexively, conveying realism was really important to me. I wanted everything to be as realistic and accurate and authentic as possible.
How has working with an editor on a children’s book compared to working with an editor as a journalist?
I really lucked into a terrific agent [Isabelle Bleecker, Nordlyset Literary] and a terrific editor [Cheryl Klein, editorial director at Algonquin Young Readers]. I’ve worked with a lot of editors over the years, and Cheryl was one of the best. She was full of great ideas and was a really good communicator. So, everything has gone pretty smoothly. I found that my experience as a journalist translated well because, as a journalist, you’re writing and being edited often under stiff time pressure, and you have to learn not to take things personally when you’re asked to get rid of writing that doesn’t serve the story, even though you may love it.
On your website, you mention that you’re a “full-time stay-at-home dad.” In what ways did spending this time with your children influence how you approached writing a kids’ book?
Not to ever suggest that people who are not stay-at-home parents don’t have this also, but I was pretty intensely steeped in my kids’ lives on the playground and in classrooms. I spent a lot of time observing them and their friends and listening to them talk. It got me thinking about the way kids think and the way they respond to things.
People find the time to fulfill lifelong goals with a lot of other pressures in their lives, so it was a privilege to be able to do that with a lot of flexibility and freedom that I maybe wouldn’t have had otherwise. My wife is incredibly supportive. [Because of her] I was able to refashion myself as a fiction writer, which was more difficult than I thought it would be going in. It gave me the freedom to try different things and to work my way toward something that I thought was worth putting out into the world.
What’s next for you?
I’m working on a middle grade story about unhoused folks that’s set in a fictionalized town in the Pittsburgh area. My mother’s family is from around there and I lived there for a while as a boy.
Breaking into Sunlight by John Cochran. Algonquin, $17.99 June 18 ISBN 978-1-5235-2729-8
Jul
10
2024
Indies Introduce
An Indies Introduce Q&A with John Cochran
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John Cochran is the author of Breaking into Sunlight, a Summer/Fall 2024 Indies Introduce middle grade selection and July/August 2024 Kids’ Next List pick.
Holly Weinkauf of Red Balloon Bookshop in St. Paul, Minnesota, served on the bookseller panel that selected Cochran’s book for Indies Introduce.
“This moving story of a family dealing with the complexities of addiction is told with incredible sensitivity, compassion, and hope. These wonderful young characters — Reese, Meg, and Charlie — and the rich friendship they develop will stay with you long after the last page is turned. A book that is heartbreaking and heart-filling,” said Weinkauf.
Cochran sat down with Weinkauf to discuss his debut title.
This is a transcript of their discussion. You can listen to the interview on the ABA podcast, BookED.
Holly Weinkauf: Hello, everyone! I am Holly Weinkauf. I'm the owner at Red Balloon Bookshop in St. Paul, Minnesota. And I am so happy to be here today talking with debut author, John Cochran, one of our Indies Introduce authors for Summer/Fall 2024. His book is one that has really stayed with me, and that I keep thinking about over and over. So I'm excited to have this conversation.
Let me tell you a little bit about John: He grew up in Kansas City and studied journalism at the University of Missouri, Columbia. He worked as a reporter and editor at daily newspapers in Missouri, Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina, before moving to Washington, DC, to cover Congress in Congressional Quarterly. The National Press Foundation recognized his work with the Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for distinguished reporting of Congress. He now lives on Capitol Hill with his wife and children. Breaking Into Sunlight is his first novel.
So, John, thanks for being here today.
John Cochran: Thank you for having me. Thanks for the interest in the book.
HW: Yeah! Well, let's start with my first question for you. So, this is your first novel, but you have worked as a journalist, and you have written for adults. Now you've written a book for kids about a very hard and complex topic: parental addiction. This is something that I imagine you could also write about as a journalist for adults. So, I'm curious: what led you to write about this topic in a novel for kids?
JC: Writing fiction was a long-deferred dream, and I was inspired to write for kids before this particular story came to me. I was inspired by Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo, which I picked up as an adult, and I was just absolutely blown away by. This word sounds dull to people, but it it's such an important book, and it's such a powerful book and profound book, and it's written with so much grace and compassion. I read it and I was just floored and I thought, “I want to try to do that too.” So that was, you know, that gave me the inspiration to write specifically for kids.
With this particular subject, I think it's easier to reach kids through a novel, through fiction. I think it allows me to get into a child's head and into his perspective in a way that I couldn't, arguably, as a journalist. So it hopefully has more impact, and it reaches kids in a way that I couldn't otherwise.
HW: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. What were some of the differences you noticed — compared to the other writing you've done — differences in the process?
JC: As a journalist, if I need to fill in the holes in the story, I pick up the phone and call someone: “What came next? What happened? Give me the facts.” With fiction, you have to develop a mental process for getting the ideas to flow and tapping into your imagination and your memories. I remember calling a newspaper colleague of mine, Valerie Nieman, who's a really talented novelist and short story writer and poet. I was hung up on a story, trying to figure out what happened next in a particular plot, and I said, “You know, what do I do?” And she said, “You make it up!” And she talked to me about developing a process.
For me, free writing is helpful. I sometimes just sit and write. Begin with a question: What is Reese thinking at this point? And then I just start typing, and the ideas flow that way. A lot of it also is talking it through with people, particularly my wife, who's a great sounding board. If I get hung up on a plot point, I sit down with her in the evening, and we just talk. She's a terrific help in getting the ideas flowing and figuring out how the plot moves forward from a point that I'm stuck on.
HW: Yeah, so, I imagine talking through things helps generate more ideas too.
JC: Yeah. And one thing I found: it's a part of your brain that you just exercise. It's like learning a musical instrument, or whatever — it does get easier and more productive the more you do it, as you figure out your method for tapping in your imagination. That's a part of my brain that I wasn't using as a journalist.
HW: Alright, you talked about trying to figure out, “Okay, what is Reese going to do next?” And one of the things that I really appreciated about this book — and it sounds like this is how you felt when you read Because of Winn-Dixie — the story really is told with incredible sensitivity and compassion. Trying to tell a story like this in such a sensitive and compassionate way, I wonder if there was part of this story that was particularly challenging to tell, and also, if there was a part of the story that you particularly enjoyed writing.
JC: So, definitely the most challenging part: I knew going in that the story had to be hopeful, and it needed to be hopeful in a way that is realistic and not Pollyanna-ish or simplistic, because that's not doing kids who are facing this situation any favors. And figuring out, “What is the hopeful ending here?” was a real challenge. There's a part of the story early on when the main character, Reese, hears his parents arguing and his mom says to his dad — who is struggling with addiction — “I wish I could just reach inside you and yank this out, and we could all move forward.” And it's not that easy, so writing an ending where the dad is just magically okay forever and everyone moves on, is not realistic. It's not the way things play out. And I think that waiting for that sort of magic cure is just not healthy. For anyone — for kids or for family.
This is where something called The Seven C's came in, and that was where I found my hopeful ending — which I talk about in the author's note. It was really, really helpful to me in plotting the story. I'll rattle it off for you if that's okay. It was developed by a man named Jerry Moe, who is a counselor and a writer who works with kids who are dealing with addiction (drug and alcohol abuse) in their families. So to help them deal with the situation, the Seven Cs are:
I didn't CAUSE it. I can't CURE it. I can't CONTROL it. But I can take CARE of myself by making healthy CHOICES, COMMUNICATING my feelings, and CELEBRATING myself.
And that's where my hopeful ending lies. It's Reese and his mom internalizing that — or at least taking a major step toward internalizing that — in their lives. And that's the whole thing. Honestly, if the story wasn't good news, in some way I didn't really feel that it was worth writing, because kids who are facing this — and also the friends and adults in the lives of these kids — need to know that there's hope.
HW: Right, right. Those Seven C's, I did read that in your author's note, and I imagine that will be helpful for everyone who picks up your book.
JC: It's been helpful for me just personally. No one says it explicitly in the story because I thought that was too pat, but it did shape the plot. Reese moves through those. He begins the book in a place where he is very much trying to cure and trying to control. And he's certainly not communicating. He's very shut down. He's not talking with anyone, even his close friends, because he's so ashamed and frightened of what's going on — which is a really common experience for kids and families.
HW: I think one of the other helpful parts about this, too — and actually, I think this is something that Kate DiCamillo talks about with her books — is that things aren't always going to resolve the way the kid wants it to, but it will resolve by finding people around who can be helpful, who can help build that community. That's very much a part of this book too.
JC: And that's something. We talk about The Seven C's, but the eighth C is really Connection. And that ultimately is where Reese finds his answers, in connecting and friendship.
HW: Back to Reese for a little bit. The other thing I really appreciated about your book was actually all of the characters, and how you were able to bring me into their emotional space as they each were navigating very heartbreaking situations. Reese, as the main character, I especially experience this with him. To me, he seems like such an authentic 13-year-old. You've talked a little bit about that. Can you tell us more about your inspiration and process of creating Reese?
JC: It means a lot to me that you say that. Probably 75% of the revision work of this manuscript from beginning to end was working on Reese and developing his character, deepening his character, bringing his voice forward. The thing that really got me pushing forward on developing him was a critique from a really terrific middle grade author named Katherine Marsh. Katherine was the National Book Award finalist last year for a book called The Lost Year, and she has a book out now called Medusa: The Myth of Monsters. A mutual friend connected us, and she read an early draft, and her major criticism was that Reese was thin on the page. So she talked with me about techniques to use to bring his voice forward, and that was a real game changer for me. It was like a master class in writing for kids and it got me moving forward on Reese.
And a big inspiration for Reese, in pulling him forward and really getting into his head, is The Seven C's, because that gives me insight into where his head is at when the story begins, and what he's moving toward. That guided my thinking about how he's processing what his father is going through and what he's going through, and the disruption in his life and in his family.
Another really important thing is that my son and his friends were about the same age Reese is when I started writing it. At that point in my life, I was spending a lot of time listening to 13-year-old boys. Maybe because I came out of journalism — which is very much based on observation and fact gathering — I don't know that I could have written Reese authentically until I had lived with 13-year-old boys. And I know that's not for every writer, but for me, that was important.
Then my daughter, my older child, also helped a lot. Besides being thin on the page, [early] Reese was fairly passive. The story took shape around him first. I had a sense of what was going on with his parents really early, and in a lot of ways he was a witness in the earlier manuscript. So my daughter read it — she was probably 15 at the time — and one of the things she said was, “He needs to be more active. He needs to be more independent. He reads too young. He doesn't read 12 going on 13.” And that helped a lot. I was telling her, “it helps to have a tough, smart editor in house,” because she was really insightful. She also said, “I want more kids and fewer grownups!” That was the other thing. She wanted more scenes of the kids working through this stuff on their own without grownups around, because early on it was pretty dominated by Reese and his relationships with grownups.
HW: Well, tell your kids thank you.
JC: And I thank Maren in particular at the end of the book, because it was a big help.
HW: I loved the friendship, too, that the three kids in this book develop. It was just done so well. So there is a lot in this book. If there's one thing that you hope readers take away from this book, what do you hope that is?
JC: Well, before I answer that. Do you mind if I go back to one question you asked?
HW: Oh, sure! Yeah!
JC: I forgot to answer. You were asking about what was challenging, and you were asking, what did I enjoy the most about writing it.
HW: Yeah!
JC: I know the scenes that I like writing the most: kind of a major character in the story is this really wild, blackwater river that runs by the farm that Reese finds himself on. That's where he meets his new friends, Meg and Charlie, and they spend time canoeing on the river, swimming in the river, and exploring the land around the river, and those scenes I really enjoyed writing a lot.
They're based on canoe trips I took in North Carolina, particularly on a river called the Lumber River, which is a really magical river in North Carolina — a blackwater river. They’re very sluggish, very slow moving — the kind of place where you get onto the river and you feel as if you're millions of miles away from anything, down among the trees. I really enjoyed writing those scenes and some of those scenes in the book are pretty old. I wrote them quite a while ago for other things that really didn't get off the ground, and I realized they belonged in this story. There's a scene with a snapping turtle that I wrote a version of a long while back.
And then the characters. I really liked writing Meg a lot. She's hurting and she's lonely, but she's also really smart, really strong, really perceptive, really caring. I actually added her after my daughter read that first draft, because she was asking for more kids. And that's actually when I added the river, to give them a place to interact. There's a lot of my daughter in Meg too — in Meg's strengths. So I really enjoyed writing her.
HW: Oh, wow! It's interesting hearing you talk about how much you enjoyed writing that because I do feel like the river gives such a feeling of atmosphere to the story. It just adds a lot of feeling to the place.
JC: This part of the world that it's set in, eastern North Carolina, is just a really amazing place. I worked in North Carolina for a lot of years and spent a lot of time on the back roads of eastern North Carolina, canoeing. It's just real haunting landscapes and lots and lots of rich history. The book began tapping into my memories and my love for that part of the world.
HW: If you could say one thing that you hope people take away from Breaking Into Sunlight, what do you hope that is?
JC: The biggest thing I want people to walk away thinking about and realizing — for kids and adults — is that we're not alone. Even if we have burdens that are with us for the long haul, or pain that's with us for the long haul, we can share the pain and open our hearts to other people. We're here to carry each other's burdens, which is what Reese learns. The power of friendship to heal you, and move you forward to the joyful life that you deserve, despite pain and loss, that's ultimately what the book is about.
That's also why Meg and Charlie, who Reese meets and forms a connection to in the book, are dealing with grief. They've lost their parents. I think the message of the book is more broad than just dealing with addiction in your family. I think it's dealing with any kind of pain or loss, and I saw real commonality between the grief that Meg and Charlie were going through, and the pain that Reese was experiencing with his father's addiction, and the disruption that's causing in life. Both things really have blown a hole in the lives of these kids and has transformed their lives, so they do not look like what they deserve, and do not look like what they wanted. That's the bond that they share and begin with.
HW: It's a complex, difficult topic. And such a beautiful story. So, thank you. Thank you for giving us this book, and I'm excited to share it with readers at our store, and I know others will be excited to share it, too.
JC: Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
HW: Yeah! Thank you for joining us.
JC: Thanks for having me.
Cochran, John BREAKING INTO SUNLIGHT Algonquin (Children's None) $17.99 6, 18 ISBN: 9781523527298
As seventh grade winds down in North Carolina, Reese Buck is eager to spend the summer drawing and playing basketball.
A week before school ends, however, he finds his father unresponsive from an opioid overdose. This wasn't the first incident, and it drives Reese's mother to move the two of them into a trailer on the property of her church friends, the Smiths. Reese struggles with leaving his father, fearing for his safety, and he hides the truth from close friends Tony and Ryan out of shame. As Reese gradually lets go of his anger, he embraces life on the Smith family farm. He befriends the Smiths' grandchildren, Meg and Charlie (who has Down syndrome), and the kids enjoy canoeing, swimming, and caring for Charlie's cats. Reese builds a new, stable life but feels guilty about enjoying himself in his father's absence. Although his parents start repairing their relationship, an incident on Reese's 13th birthday disrupts everything, leading Reese to begin questioning whether his father will ever be well or if he even wants to be. Debut author Cochran delivers a sensitive narrative that captures the complex guilt of self-care among those with addicted loved ones. Meg and Charlie are original characters whose emotional backstories enhance the story; the subplot involving Tony and Ryan could have been developed further but instead feels forgotten. Most characters are cued white
A simple and powerful tale about the impact of parental addiction. (author's note, resources) (Fiction. 10-14)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Cochran, John: BREAKING INTO SUNLIGHT." Kirkus Reviews, 1 July 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A799332892/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=e08927c5. Accessed 9 Nov. 2024.
COCHRAN, John. Breaking into Sunlight. 304p. Algonquin. Jun. 2024. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9781523527298.
Gr 5-8--Cochran's debut delivers a poignant, relatable read. Seventh grader Reese has become an expert at concealing his father's pain medication addiction and the problems it's causing between his parents. Even his best friends have no idea the secrets Reese is hiding. As Reese's world comes crashing down, his strength and tenacity are tested. To get some distance from the situation, his mother decides to take Reese with her (against his wishes), to live in a trailer on a rural property belonging to a friend. It is here that Reese begins to grapple with the feelings he's been bottling up. He finds an unlikely friendship in two kids: Charlie, who has Down syndrome, and Charlie's older sister, Meg, orphans who live with their grandparents. Together, they explore nature and find solace in swimming and canoeing in the river that joins the property. Themes include honesty, friendship, trust, and forgiveness. All characters read as white. VERDICT An important novel for every library to have. Readers will find they're not alone in dealing with a loved one's addiction, as an estimated one in eight children have a parent dealing with substance abuse.--Tracy Cronce
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MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Cronce, Tracy. "COCHRAN, John. Breaking into Sunlight." School Library Journal, vol. 70, no. 5, May 2024, p. 69. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A797499844/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=c9e9a611. Accessed 9 Nov. 2024.