Book Nook: Bump

 Hugo Award-winning author and former professional wrestler Matt Wallace (Savage Legion) is making his middle grade debut with BUMP, the story of a tenacious young girl with an unconventional dream of becoming a professional wrestler. Exploring themes of self-discovery, community, racism, and processing grief, it can be a good read that will appeal to many middle-grade readers.

With her mom working two jobs, no friends at school, and the loss of her father, MJ finds comfort in her love for wrestling, especially her admiration for the luchadores. When she discovers her neighbor runs a nearby wrestling school, she embarks on the journey to train hard, join the school, and fulfil her dreams. When it finally seems things are going her way, her talent draws the eye of her neighbor’s enemy at the State Athletic Commission, who threatens to shut down her school. MJ will be put to the test in a fight she hadn’t trained for– one to save the school and the her new family. 

I had a chance to interview the author to learn more.

• Why did you decide to incorporate wrestling in the book?

It goes right back to “write what you know.” I was a professional wrestler for ten years of my life, but more importantly to BUMP, I grew up in the wrestling business. I began training when I was barely in my teens, and the pro-wrestling school I attended was practically my home. It felt like the natural environment in which to set my first novel for middle-grade kids.

• Why is it important for authors to include characters from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds in their literature?

I think author Mary Robinette Kowal said it best. “It’s not about adding diversity for the sake of diversity. It’s about subtracting homogeneity for the sake of realism.” Real, everyday life is filled with people from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds interacting with each other. It’s American media that has traditionally not reflected that. Literature excluding that fundamental truth isn’t authentic. Mine certainly wouldn’t be. My upbringing was a wild clash of white, rural Oklahomans and first-generation Mexican immigrants all existing in the same family structure. My wrestling school, the one from which I took many of the experiences in BUMP, was an incredibly diverse place. I couldn’t write a story, particularly about being a kid, that wasn’t filled with the diversity.

 

• What do you hope readers will get from the book?

I wanted to talk to kids about grief, how to process it, and how to let yourself feel it as a healthy part of that healing and acceptance process. I also wanted to talk to kids like my nieces and nephew about being treated and feeling like the Other in parts of their lives. Finally, I wanted to tell a story about finding a family beyond the one into which you were born. That was very important to me as a young person. It saved my life, and a lot of my fiction involves found family because of that. If any of those things resonate with readers I’ll feel like I accomplished what I set out to do in telling this story. 

Matt Wallace is the Hugo–winning author of Rencor: Life in Grudge City, the Sin du Jour series, and Savage Legion. He’s also penned over one hundred short stories in addition to writing for film and television. In his youth he traveled the world as a professional wrestler, unarmed combat, and self-defense instructor before retiring to write full-time. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Nikki. You can visit him at www.matt-wallace.com.