Kidlit Social #71: Alda P. Dobbs on Mining Your Family History to Create Compelling Fiction

On this episode of The Kidlit Social we welcome Alda P. Dobbs, author of the acclaimed middle grade novel The Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna. Laura and Alda talk about mining our family history for inspiration, and how to keep the spirit of the true stories alive while crafting compelling fiction.

Alda is the author of the middle grade historical fiction The Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna (Sourcebooks), which earned starred reviews in Publishers Weekly and Booklist, was named a New York Public Library Book of the Year for 2021, and nominated for the Texas Bluebonnet Master List Award.

The Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna is historical fiction inspired by the story of Alda’s great-grandmother who escaped her burning Mexican village when she was nine years old in 1913 during the Mexican Revolution, and made her way with her father, two siblings and two cousins across the desert by foot to the US border. At the border, their entry into the United States was denied along with hundreds of other refugees.