Stephanie Booth's "Libby Lost and Found"

Stephanie Booth has an M.A. in English from the University of New Mexico and an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College. Her work has appeared in Cosmopolitan, Real Simple, O, Marie Claire, The Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times. Booth has been a contributing editor at Teen People and an advice columnist for Teen, and she has helped with casting for MTV’s award-winning documentary series, True Life.

Her new novel is Libby Lost and Found.

Here Booth shares some ideas for casting an adaptation of her novel:

Forty-year-old Libby Weeks writes the best-selling fantasy series in the world, The Falling Children. (Imagine the popularity of Harry Potter, then dial it up a million.) But before she can finish the last book in the series, which fans across the globe are impatiently waiting to be published, Libby learns that she has early-onset dementia. Desperate to save the characters she loves so much, Libby reaches out to her biggest fan, an 11-year-old girl named Peanut Bixton, to help her finish the very last book.

I did not have any actors in my head while I was writing this, so it’s harder than I thought it would be to answer this question!

Peanut should probably be played by an earnest kid who begged her parents to go to the audition, they said, “No, you’re not missing school for this,” and she sneaked out and went anyway. I also expect that she gave the casting director a few notes about their line reads on the way out.

Libby is quiet and typically prefers to be alone, but she has an exhilarating inner life which she goes to great lengths to hide from others. What if this is a role for Alexis Bledel who does internal angst so well? Plus, everyone knows Rory Gilmore loves a good book and is an excellent writer.

Jessie, Peanut’s overprotective, pugnacious 20-something sister, might be played by Shailene Woodley, while their father, Dr. Bixton, would require an actor who’s folksy, likable, but also able assert an impatient authority. JK Simmons? John Goodman?

I could see Anthony Mackie playing the ambitious, charming, but not totally trustworthy journalist, Glenn, who is determined to figure out who’s writing the Falling Children books. And for Buzz, Peanut’s brother who plays a pivotal role in the book, the role description might read, “Handsome in a sloppy slacker way. Must have the right ratio of surly misanthropy and kindness, and be able to talk clearly with their mouth full of candy.”

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--Marshal Zeringue