A mostly-true middle grades tail
Daughter & mother duo pen “mostly true” middle grades novel about Lexi Haas
Main Street Books’ Beth Helfrich invited Lexi & Susan Haas to the bookstore to talk about their story.
A few months ago, Susan and Lexi Haas visited with 800 middle schoolers as a part of their continued book tour for The Year of the Buttered Cat, a “mostly true” memoir they co-authored and published in 2021.
"When we walked on campus, the kids were whispering, ‘There’s Lexi! It’s Lexi!’" recounts Susan. “For a mom who’s used to hearing whispers for a different reason, it was all I could do to not sit down and cry right there.”
Susan and Lexi (center) sign copies of The Year of the Buttered Cat at Main Street Books. Photo credit: Haas family
Lexi, the youngest of five Haas children, is a college student studying history and mythology, a voracious reader who averages a book a day, and a published author. She also lives with significant physical disabilities resulting from complications of newborn jaundice.
It feels good to be published, says Lexi, who uses partner-assisted scanning to spell out her response. Her sister Hannah interprets, using a system of colors to find the letters more quickly; Lexi indicates “yes” by sticking her tongue out. “No” is a growl.
"It helps that I know her so well and can usually see where she’s going,” adds Hannah, “but it would be really tiring to write an entire book like that.”
So Lexi and her mom wrote The Year of the Buttered Cat together. Every day for five years, they’d sit together, first engaging back and forth to develop detailed outlines and direction, then composing pages. “I would write it out and read it out to her,” explains Susan, “and she would let me know immediately if it wasn’t right. Especially voice.”
The Year of the Buttered Cat, a middle grades memoir, is written from Lexi’s first-person perspective. Set in the days leading up to an experimental deep brain stimulation surgery she underwent at 13, the book is the story of a large and loving family, a brilliant and funny kid, and the ways in which they navigate disability, friendship, loss, and love.
Empowering and funny, the book and its ensuing publicity have elevated the voice of a now twenty-year-old who is both wonderful… “and wicked,” adds her family. Lexi concurs, erupting in laughter.
Sharing Lexi’s full story matters, says Hannah. “She matters. What she thinks and has to say and can contribute to society - it blows me away that people can be so dismissive of it.”
That dismissiveness is actually what inspired Susan and Lexi to write their book. After waking up to a hateful message left on Lexi’s Facebook page one morning, “We realized there are some people who see people with disabilities as disposable,” Susan laments. “We needed to set the record straight.”
The resulting effort, The Year of the Buttered Cat is warm, complex, and funny, much like Lexi, herself. Its inherent joy is important, says Susan. “There are some sad parts to it, but Lexi’s life isn’t sad. We wouldn’t be doing Lexi’s life justice if we’d written a sad story.”
Lexi doesn’t need the kind of ending others might wish for her story. “I’ve asked her, 'Do you wish you could walk?’ and she’s pretty ambivalent about it,” continues Susan. “One time she told us she was just faking it,” interjects her dad, Ken, as the family once again doubles over in laughter.
While her family hopes that future brain-computer interfacing technology might allow Lexi to communicate and write more easily, they’re also a little nervous about it, because as it turns out, Lexi is her siblings’ primary confidante. “She’s gonna write some tell-all books!” laughs her sister.
Hard at work on their new book with Gus standing by. Photo credit: Haas family
For now, Lexi will stick to her favorite pastimes: Texting with friends, reading, and all things superhero. Which superhero would she most like to write fan fiction about? A quick partner-assisted scan gives us a very clear answer: Loki. “He’s a bad boy,” affirms her dad, who admits that he may have played a role in Lexi’s Avenger obsession. When Lexi was really into mythology, “it was boring for me,” jokes Ken. “So I said, ‘How about Norse mythology?’”
The Haas duo is also working on another book, this time about Lexi and her service dog Gus. “They didn’t really like each other at first,” Susan says, “but Gus was really good at bringing people to Lexi.”
So, it seems, is The Year of the Buttered Cat, which is the perfect addition to a family summer reading list. You can meet Lexi and Susan Haas in person this Thursday, June 9, at 11 am for a book signing at Main Street Books; just don’t get too close to Lexi’s wheelchair, her family warns, or she might pinch you.