Ellen Booraem's "Small Persons with Wings"

Teen fantasy writer Ellen Booraem lives in coastal Maine with artist Robert Shillady, in a house they built with their own hands. She was an editor for weekly newspapers before quitting her job to write The Unnameables, her first fantasy for young teens.

Here Booraem shares some ideas for casting an adaptation of her latest book, Small Persons with Wings:

My second middle-grade fantasy, Small Persons with Wings, features a snarky, smart, and weighty girl named Mellie, who discovers that her family has a thousand-year-old relationship with the equally snarky Small Persons with Wings (who hate being called “fairies”). The perfect Mellie would be Ariel Winter, who plays the younger sister in Modern Family—she’s nailed the snark factor, although she’d have to put on a few pounds. Her partner in crime, the scrawny and freckled Timmo, could be Dawson Dunbar, a kid I found online who’s done a bunch of short films.

Mellie’s best friends among the Small Persons are Fidius and Durindana, who also require attitude. James McAvoy would be a perfect Fidius, and Christina Ricci could pull off Durindana without even breathing hard.

As to the older generation: I’d see Charlize Theron as Gigi Kramer, the evil and spike-heeled real estate agent/plumbing inspector. Robert Duvall would be amazing as Grand-père (again with the snark factor), as would Melissa McCarthy (of the television show Mike & Molly) as Mellie’s magnificent mother, Nick. Mellie’s father, Roly, is the only one of the characters whom I visualized in real life as I was writing: John Hodgman, from the get-go.

Booraem's next book will be Texting the Afterlife, due out in August, 2013. Find out more at Ellen Booraem's website and blog.

--Marshal Zeringue