Q&A with Kate Messner, Author of May/June Kids’ Indie Next List Top Pick “The Trouble with Heroes”

Bookselling This Week: Your author’s letter explained how The Trouble with Heroes started in 2015 as a few scribbled poems when you first started tackling the Adirondack. I’d love to hear more about the evolution of this piece over the years.

Kate Messner: I started writing The Trouble with Heroes not long after I began my own quest to become an Adirondack 46er. In the novel, Finn has to climb these 46 mountains in a single summer, but it took me eight years to summit them all. I bring my writer’s notebook everywhere I go, even when I’m climbing mountains, and I found that when I reached a summit, I felt like writing poetry. For the first few years of these hikes, I didn’t realize I was writing a novel in verse — until some of the poems started coming out in a voice that wasn’t mine. A voice that was younger and snarkier. An angry voice with a deep well of sadness underneath.

As a writer, I’ve learned to trust those voices and follow them, so I started thinking about a character climbing the 46 Adirondack High Peaks not by choice but because he had to. But why? I spent some more summers hiking, writing poems, brainstorming, and trying to figure out who this character really was. But it was after the pandemic hit in 2020 that the story really came together. Living through the collective trauma and sadness of the pandemic’s early days helped me understand Finn in a way I hadn’t before.

After the world shut down in 2020, my family and I headed out hiking again as soon as we could. It was the one place where life still felt normal. And the mountains brought me back to being a writer again. On the trails, I met people who inspired the “trail nannies” who accompany Finn on his journey as well as some great hiking dogs who served as the inspiration for Seymour. Once the ideas behind this book had time to soak in the world for a while, I went back to the page, and Finn’s story finally came together.

BTW: I love how much of this story is geographically based in reality and in your experiences — you’re an Adirondack 46er, the mountains Finn tackles (and the details of those climbs) are all real. (I’m especially curious if the photos in Finn’s texts are yours.) Which of the peaks was your favorite? And did Finn’s assessment of it match yours?

KM: Many of Finn’s details about his climbs are drawn from my own hiking journals. Back in the day, if you wanted to become an Adirondack 46er, you recorded each climb by writing letters to the 46er group’s recording secretary, Grace Hudowalski, who was also the first woman to record climbing all of the High Peaks. (Edna in The Trouble with Heroes is loosely based on Grace, who passed away in 2004 and now has a mountain named after her.) By the time I started hiking the High Peaks, aspiring 46ers logged climbs online instead. But I wished I’d had the chance to climb while Grace was around, so I wrote her letters anyway, and instead of mailing them, shared them on my website. I revisited these entries over and over again while I was writing and revising this novel. (And yes…Finn’s photos are from my hikes, too!)

My favorite hike was Big Slide, a peak I hiked solo for the first time on a perfect autumn day in 2015. The trail to this peak first ascends three smaller mountains called The Brothers, a detail Finn laments in a poem called “Somebody Should Have Told Me.” The scrambles up the first two brothers were rocky, steep, and exhilarating, and the fall colors were breathtaking. I loved it so much and gushed about it in my letter to Grace when I got home.

BTW: Through Finn, this book tackles two historic and traumatic events — the pandemic and 9/11 — as well as the universal grief of losing a loved one. It’s a big task for a book, but it seems like it helped you process your experiences, and may help readers of all ages do the same. What are you hoping readers will take away from Finn’s story?

KM: There’s a moment near the end of this book when Finn is amazed by all the people who show up for him, again and again, even after all the times he’s messed up. This is a kid who felt like a lost cause but realizes through a summer of hiking, poetry, unexpected mentors, and a drooly canine companion that he’s not alone. And that’s always what I want my readers to know, too — that no matter what you’ve done or how lost you feel, there are trails you can follow home.

BTW: Now that The Trouble with Heroes is out in the world, what’s next for you?

KM: Oh gosh, this is a super busy year! I have a new chapter book series on the way. Wildlife Rescue launches in September with two books: How to Save an Otter and How to Save an Owl, published by Bloomsbury and illustrated by Jen Bricking.

I have two more History Smashers books coming soon from Random House Kids. That’s our illustrated nonfiction series that smashes historical myths, and up next on the agenda are Ancient Egypt (October 2025) and The Space Race (Spring 2026), both illustrated by Falynn Koch, with cover art by Dylan Meconis.

For picture books, Over and Under the Coral Reef, illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal, comes out this fall. It’s the eighth book in our Over & Under nature picture book series with Chronicle, and Chris’ art in this one is absolutely stunning. 

And I have another outdoorsy picture book coming in August. First Ascent: The Epic Yosemite Rock Climbing Rivalry of Royal Robbins and Warren Harding, illustrated by Stevie Lewis and published by Yosemite Conservancy, is about a fierce rivalry between two climbers who pushed the sport to new heights during Yosemite Valley’s Golden Age.

I’m also working on a new novel for middle grade readers — a ghost story set in a Broadway theater — and continuing to coordinate the multi-author chapter book series The Kids in Mrs. Z’s Class with Little, Brown. We have two fantastic new installments that just came out — Eliot Schrefer’s Wyatt Hill Brings a Lizard to School and Kekla Magoon’s Ayana Ndoum Takes the Stage. And this summer, Linda Urban and Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich join the class with Olive Little Gets Crafty and Synclaire Fields Knows the Store. We’ve had so much fun collaborating on this series!

BTW: This book is a reminder of how powerful a story can be. Would you tell us a bit about the role of books and indie bookstores in your life?

KM: I was a huge reader growing up, but our small town didn’t have a bookstore back then, so I had to make do with the public library and Archie comics from the drugstore. Happily, that’s changed, and Medina, New York, now has the amazing Author’s Note, owned by author & bookseller Julie Berry. I also feel beyond lucky to live near a handful of amazing indies, including The Bookstore Plus in Lake Placid, which is owned by a whole family of Adirondack 46ers! Every time I visited while I was working on my 46, Sarah, Marc, and Norah would not only recommend books but also ask what I was climbing next and offer advice. I can’t spend a day in Vermont without stopping at Burlington’s Phoenix Books or Flying Pig Bookstore in Shelburne. And of course, I love having the opportunity to spend time with booksellers from far and wide when I’m traveling on book tour.

When you walk into an independent bookstore, it just feels different from any other store. There’s the welcoming smile and the smell of fresh pages (and sometimes coffee, too). But even more than that is the feeling of community, knowing you’re in a place where stories are valued, and where everyone’s story matters. I’d love it if the whole world could be more like an indie bookstore.