Author Jennifer Holm finds inspiration in quirky family tales

Every family has a quirkiness to it. Whether we want to admit it or not, it's something we can all relate to on some level. And that's one of the reasons author Jennifer Holm uses her family as a jumping-off point for her novels.

Everybody's got a crazy, interesting family, the two-time Newbery Honor author said in a phone interview from her home in Foster City, Calif.

"There's this image that everybody's got this perfect family with loving brothers and sisters, and everything is great," she said. "But I think the really the interesting part of family is the wackiness. (Young readers) can identify with the crazy relatives and how family situations end up shaping your entire life."

Holm comes from a family that likes to tell stories, a family with a strong sense of trying to keep family history alive. Though her father used to say all of their stories were nickel stories — only worth a nickel — Holm saw the value in their humor and has turned them into a career.

The majority of Holm's novels are historical fiction. And most them have been inspired by family history. In her latest book, "Turtle in Paradise" (Random House, $16.99, ages 8-12), which is set in Key West, Fla., during the Great Depression, the plot was inspired by stories from her mother's family.

Holm's great-grandmother was from Key West, having emigrated there from the Bahamas in the late 1800s. There's such a rich history, Holm said, and her grandmother was always quite homesick for that, making it the perfect departure point for the book.

"Turtle in Paradise" is the story of 11-year-old Turtle, who is sent to live with relatives in Key West when her mother gets a job as a housekeeper for a boss who doesn't like children. There, Turtle begins to unravel family secrets as she romps around the area with a band of raggedy boys called the Diaper Gang.

Holm turned to family and residents of the area to help re-create the feel of Depression-era Key West. "The experience I had was akin to what Turtle feels when she first goes down there," Holm said. "I think that's sometimes fun as a writer; if you go to a place, you recognize things that the locals don't."

There's a lot of work that went into "Turtle," said Holm, who had to do research on both the Great Depression and what it was like to live in Key West in during the Depression.

What Holm found when she went there were a slew of wonderful stories that helped fill in holes during her four-year odyssey to finish the book.