The Pastabilities Are Endless: Q&A with Aimee Lucido About Pasta Pasta Lotsa Pasta

Lest we be unclear, I’m no picture book pushover. You think you’ve got a bouncy, fun picture book ideal for large storytimes (and with a natural food tie-in to boot)? I dunno, man. Rhymes, after all, are tricky things and writing an expert rhyming book can sometimes be a struggle. Maybe that’s why I was so floored by Aimee Lucido’s awesome Pasta Pasta Lotsa Pasta. So much so that I even wrote out my own description for it. Here, check it out:

“Incredible, bouncy cooking energy infuses this delightful tale of a girl and her pasta loving family. Guaranteed to make you hungry! Surely SURELY this cannot be the first pasta-related picture book to realize the rhyming potential of Italian foodstuffs. And yet, I say that I can’t come up with anything to compare to this. It has all the rhythm and bouncy energy of Bee-bim Bop (and that’s the highest compliment I can bestow). We always need books that would work well in a storytime. This book earns your respect. I think we just found a readaloud winner!”

Want to know more? I sure did. So I got a chance to talk to Aimee all about it:

Betsy Bird: Aimee! Such a delight to speak with you today. PASTA PASTA LOTSA PASTA is a readaloud storytime dream of a book. I’ve been wracking my brain trying to think of any other picture book that so completely takes advantage of the internal rhymes inherent in Italian pasta ingredients and I’ve been coming up blank. Where did this book originate for you?

Aimee Lucido: Hi! I’m so excited to be talking to you about PASTA today! I’m absolutely thrilled that you are enjoying it as a readaloud, because that really was the thing that kept me engaged in this story throughout the writing and revising process. The idea for this story originated from a Facebook group conversation between me and my MFA cohort back in 2016 (an eon ago). One of the people in my group (Barbara Roberts! She writes amazing books that everyone should read!) posted a picture of a table full of Italian food and asked if we thought kids might be interested in a book called “Ode to an Italian Lunch.” I was doing a lot of musical improv at the time and had been playing with improvised rhyming, so this conversation quickly turned into me writing nonsense rhymes about different pasta shapes. As goofy as the concept was, these snippets of text were so much fun to read aloud, and the rhythm was so compelling, that I started writing a draft of the book almost immediately. Nearly eight years later… PASTA is entering the world!

BB: I always like to hear about how long a book sometimes takes to percolate. Reading the rhythmic text reminds me of other bouncy rhyme-y books like Bee-bim Bop! by Linda Sue Park. But getting the rhyme scheme down perfectly in any book can be exceedingly difficult. How do you go about making these rhymes? Do you speak them out loud as you write them? Do you read them aloud to an audience of some sort?

Aimee: Bee-bim Bop! was actually the book I had in my head as a mentor text as I was writing PASTA! So it’s very cool that that came through for you. And yes, nailing a rhyme scheme in a book is certainly a challenge, but it’s one that I thoroughly enjoy. Although, if I’m being honest, I feel like I cheated a little bit in this book because so many of these rhymes are not actually perfect rhymes! And if there’s one thing people say over and over again about writing picture books it’s that the rhymes *must* be perfect. But with this book, I decided to treat it less like a picture book in its rhyme scheme and more like a song, or a tongue twister. So even more than focusing on rhyme, I focused on rhythm, the scansion of the text, and whether reading the story out loud felt good not just in my ear, but also in my mouth. So, yes, I do speak these rhymes out loud as I write them, although the only people privy to these early performances are me and my dog. Then, when I feel confident in the text, I make someone who’s never read it before read it out loud to me. If it sounds good when *they* read it out loud, that’s when I know the book is done.

 BB: Kooky question, but did you have to do any pasta research yourself for the book? Which is to say, have you tried every single kind of pasta mentioned on these pages?

Aimee: I eat a *lot* of pasta, which I credit to being part Italian. My dad tells me that we actually have family in the pasta business, so I guess it’s in my blood. And yes, I have tried every style of pasta here at least once. Some are staples in our house (rotini, ravioli, lasagna, gnocchi) and some I only encounter at restaurants (spaghettini, cappellini). 

BB: And now the hard hitting interview question I’m sure you’ve been fearing: What is your favorite pasta shape personally?

Aimee: Ahhh I know you’re joking, but I actually have been fearing this question because it’s SO hard to pick!!! If I had to just choose one, I’d have to say rotini because I like how it captures sauce and also I think the spiral shape is cool to look at. (Random fun fact: did you know rotini means ‘spirals’ in Italian?? Same etymological root as ‘rotate’!) So, officially, my answer to this question is rotini. But my *real* answer is that I like different pasta shapes for different dishes. I like bucatini for carbonara, and cavatappi for pesto, or creamy/cheesy dishes. I like gnocchi best with a light tomato sauce, and ravioli is my favorite when it’s topped with a browned butter and sage sauce. I could go on and on… but I’ll spare you!

BB: It’s impossible not to love the art of Mavisu Demirag. What a find! What was your reaction on first seeing the art? Did you have a mental picture in your mind of what the book might look like when you wrote it, or not so much?

Aimee: I absolutely LOVE Mavisu’s art for this book!!! I feel so lucky that she agreed to work on this project. I am not a particularly visual person, and so I didn’t go into the process with any specific images in my head. But I knew I wanted the illustrations to be bouncy and colorful and chaotic, because that matched the energy of the text. But beyond that I was prepared to be surprised. And Mavisu’s artwork was the perfect surprise! Her art is full of character without veering into caricature, and I love the note of old-world charm in the art. It almost transports me back in time, and makes me feel like I’m in Tuscany, eating dinner in an Italian villa! 

BB: Finally, will we be seeing any more rhymes from you in the future?

Aimee: While I do play a little bit with rhyme in my middle grade novels, which so far all have a verse component, PASTA is my first full book written in rhyme. But I do have more that I’m working on! Hopefully someday someone besides me and my dog will be able to hear those 🙂

I trust most of you didn’t read this on an empty stomach. If you did, my apologies, but Pasta Pasta Lotsa Pasta is on bookstore and library shelves everywhere July 2nd so you won’t have to wait long to satiate your appetite. Special thanks to Aimee for answering all of my questions and to Mitch Thorpe and the team at Simon & Schuster for helping to put all this together.

Filed under: Best Books, Best Books of 2024, Interviews