Tanita S. Davis, in her new novel for young adults, 'Mare's War,' cooks up the story of two willful teenage girls, Octavia and Tali, who dread traveling to Alabama to visit their grandmother. The skinny-cigarette-smoking-fake-finger-nail-wearing grandmother prefers to be called Mare like the French word mere for mother. Mare also drives a red car and wears stilettos. In other words, she is something else, and the girls are dreading the visit.

But during a summer filled with awakenings and life lessons, they discover that Mare also used to be a teenager with an unyielding personality and served as a member of the U.S. Army in World War II. Mare's War is a must-read for young readers who have ever experienced the family summer road trip and endured eccentric relatives.

Davis, who lives in Scotland, told BV Bookshelf via email that she based Mare's character very loosely on her paternal grandmother. Tali and Octavia are based on bits of her sisters, friends and anyone else whom she's come across.
She says more instructional fiction should be written for young adults. "I hope there are more books written for real people-we're not all living the high life and going to prestigious boarding schools, nor are we all in the ghetto, living the thug life. I think there are more of us in between-and it'd be good to see more books about just regular young people, doing what has to be done to get by.''

Davis, an avid singer, gardener, and blogger and author, took time from her busy schedule to answer more questions:

Great story. How did you come up with the idea?
The idea for 'Mare's War' came from a bit of historical research-and a deadline. I was writing my MFA thesis, and was hoping to feature my grandmother, who ran away from home when she was young. I never did find out the back story on her--she was closemouthed to the grave, but I discovered a bit of American history that I did not know, and it lit my imagination.

Did you take a lot of road trips over the summer as a child?
Oh, yes-the summer road trip was biannual, a coast-to-coast thing–we either visited my Florida grandmother or my Louisiana grandparents. Imagine-all the way from Cali, in the backseat of the family station wagon or VW van, with my two sisters, all bickering and sullen and sticking to the seats, while my father tried to drive all the way across the U.S. without stopping. Good times.

Do you think teen girls will be able to relate to the story?
I hope teen girls will be able to relate to this story! There's got to be at least one or two girls out there who bicker with their older sisters and have to take care of their younger ones.

How did you come to decide to write alternating chapters about Mare's experience in WWII? Do you think your readers will understand?

American history is something that is repeated to us at every level in school-and some of us automatically think history is boring and unrelated to us; my hope is that having two stories will help give those readers a break from the past and give a voice to some of their thoughts of "what does this have to do with me?'' I used the more modern voices of Tali and Octavia in order to bridge the gap from the past to the here and now.

What do you hope teen girls will take away from the book?
I hope very much that all girls take away from this book that they have their own two strong hands and can change their world to the way it needs to be, to suit them. I hope especially for girls from ethnic minorities that they see that they, too, were a part of the American story, and that they should seek out other stories where their people were present and made a difference. I hope guys take something from this story, too, that girls are more than good to look at, but are good to work alongside, and that they can be counted on to make the future brighter.