As I’ve been doing recently—and in keeping with the theme of my new picture book, We Match!—I’m setting out again this month to see how quickly a chat with another author of books for young readers can turn up three things that we have in common.

And once again, I’m having those conversations with two authors: Deborah Heiligman (see my separate post) and Victor Piñeiro.

Like before, I’m pairing this round of How Do WE Match? with a book giveaway to subscribers to my monthly Bartography Express newsletter (folks can sign up here).

For my October 2025 drawing, I’m giving away four copies of both Victor’s new middle grade novel, The Island of Forgotten Gods (Sourcebooks), and Deborah’s new YA nonfiction book.

If you’d like to be one of the winners, by the end of this month either say so in the comments below or contact me directly, and you’ll be in the running. (Subscribers with U.S. mailing addresses only.)

As he is described in his recent guest post for School Library Journal, “Victor Piñeiro has led digital innovation at HBO Max, run social media for @YouTube and launched @Skittles. He’s also designed games for Hasbro, written and produced an award-winning documentary on virtual worlds, and taught third graders. He is the author of Time Villains and Monster Problems.”

I myself have done none of those things. And when I met Victor briefly at an author event this summer, I learned that he is a congenial fellow Texan (now residing in the Northeast), but I didn’t get to know much more about him, and vice versa.

So when we reconnected a couple of months later, Victor and I had some fun work to do in order to figure out (through a text chat that has been lightly edited)… How Do WE Match?

Chris Barton: Victor, thank you so much for playing How Do WE Match? with me! I’ll get us started: Who was the oldest person in your life when you were a kid?

Victor Piñeiro: Thanks for having me! Hmm, oldest person. Even though I technically had bisabuelos (great-grandparents) when I was a kid, they lived deep in the Puerto Rican countryside, were permanently glued onto their porch rocking chairs, and seemed like raisin-skinned aliens to me.

The back cover of Victor’s The Island of Forgotten Gods

My abuelos were the stuff of legend, though. In fact, I’ve written two books that heavily feature my abuelos, including my latest, The Island of Forgotten Gods. It stars my maternal abuela, who was the most memorable, iconic person I’d ever met. An absolute legend.

Chris: Would you please tell me more about your abuelos? Mine included a football coach, a teacher, a chemist, and a homemaker, all of whom lived in Texas at least for a little while, which played a huge part in my existence.

Victor: Oh wow, that’s a good range of abuelos! Mine were also really memorable. If I were to label them all in one or two words it’d be: The Town Doctor, The Aristocrat, The Poet, and The Charmer.

My parents are from neighboring small towns in Puerto Rico, and their two families were polar opposites in many ways, so hanging with The Poet and The Charmer was a very different experience from hanging with The Town Doctor and The Aristocrat.

But what unified them all was how unique each one was. The Doctor was shy and brilliant but also a master prankster, and The Poet was gruff with a voice so low it was seismic, but she also spent hours every day laying in bed praying for her family. To say I miss them is a grand understatement.

Chris: I miss mine, too—the last of them has been gone now for nearly 20 years, but I think of them all often. And I think I’m going to count our abuelos as a way that we match—you and I both had sets of grandparents that were pretty different from each other!

Victor: Agreed, that’s definitely one way we match. Now I’ve got one for you! I heard a rumor that you also loved the Great Brain books—in fact, you’re the only person I’ve ever met who also read (and loved) those books as a kid! What was it about that series that drew you to it? I’m smiling just thinking about those books.

The Great Brain, the first book in a series loved by both Victor and me. (We match!)

Chris: Oh my gosh—that was the series that I read on repeat. There were seven paperback books at the time (another came out after author John D. Fitzgerald had died), and I would finish #7 and loop right back around and start in on #1.

I’m not sure what drew me to the series in the first place, though we did have a bookstore in my hometown around that time—fourth or fifth grade—and the Great Brain books seem like something it would have carried.

But as a younger brother on a street where so many of the kids were boys my big brother’s age or older, I think I could relate to the narrator, John, as the youngest of three boys.

And I loved the mix of admiration and disgust that he had for his genius brother, Tom, who would alternate between saving the day and swindling all the other kids.

My favorite of all those books, though, was Me and My Little Brain, during which Tom is away at the academy in Salt Lake City. I was riveted by that one, especially the three-chapter arc about the outlaw Cal Roberts. So I’d say it was the appeal of John as a character that most grabbed my interest.

Victor: I love that! It’s a magical thing, stumbling on someone else who’s read the same seemingly-forgotten kids books that you have. I haven’t heard The Great Brain mentioned in decades and decades, and never outside of Texas. At this point I practically thought I’d dreamt them.

Chris: Victor, what do you remember most about those books?

An example of Mercer Mayer’s illustrations in John D. Fitzgerald’s The Great Brain books

Victor: It’s funny what one remembers after so long. I never forgot Andy Anderson, who lost one of his legs to infection after stepping on a rusty nail. That terrified me a a kid, and I still watch out for rusty nails!

I was also terrified by the way their mom dealt with sicknesses in the house. If one kid was sick she’d have all three kids share the bed so the other two got sick immediately and got it over with. Being forced to get sick sounded awful.

I also learned about The Silent Treatment in those books, which made no sense to my kid-self. (“That counts as a punishment?!”)

So, nothing plot or character-related! Strange tidbits, but I also remember having a a deep love for that series’ characters and the tone of those books. This is my sign to go re-read them now!

Chris: Well, then, that’s another way we match—I want to reread them, too!

But what do you usually read—purely for your own pleasure?

Victor: I’m a little all over the place with the books I read. I read poetry the most by far–I’m always scouring libraries and bookstores for new poetry books, or re-reading my favorites. I read a lot of literary fiction too. I’m also obsessed with graphic novels–I read all sorts of comic books and graphic novels. And though I read children’s books to my kids, I of course love them as well.

Overall my favorite type of books are those that have beautiful prose–but also have a really sensational hook or central idea. Those are the ones that really grab me. And finally, I’m one of those people that re-reads The Lord of the Rings annually. (Or as close to annually as a dad of two young kids can manage!)

Chris: I’ve been there, Victor. My time for reading has opened up quite a bit since my kids became adults—it does happen!

Victor: What do you tend to read? I love asking writers this question!

Chris: My go-to reading for pleasure—not for research, or because a friend of mine has a new book—is nonfiction about music. I just finished listening on audiobook to great new biographies of Ella Fitzgerald and the Everly Brothers.

I’m always listening to music or creating playlists, so my reading preferences fuel both of those pastimes.

That said, literary fiction—especially from my fellow Texans—has been creeping onto my to-read pile a lot more lately. Same with nonfiction by Texans, too, even when it has nothing to do with music.

And I have to confess that I have not read Tolkien, but the author sitting next to me on the sofa right at this moment says I should ask who you prefer: Gandalf the White or Gandalf the Grey? (Though I suppose your answer will say more about whether you and Jennifer Ziegler match!) A related question: Are there any Peter Jackson movies that you especially love?

Victor: Ooh, I LOVE nonfiction about music! I recently read a massive book about the history of grunge music called Everybody Loves Our Town, and I also adore Hanif Abdurraqib’s nonfiction music books. Such a great genre! Now I’m curious about your playlists…

I far prefer Gandalf the Grey! He loses his humanity when he becomes Gandalf the White and seems far too formal and pompous. As for favorite Peter Jackson movies—the three Lord Of the Rings movies are probably my three all time favorite movies, so I’d have to go with those. (Though his recent documentaries are great too!)

What are some of your all-time favorite nonfiction books about music? (I have my notebook ready!)

Chris: I just looked up Everybody Loves Our Town, which I see is an oral history—I love reading those! I have a hard time stopping when I’m in the middle of one, so it’s good to know that I’d be making a big commitment with this one.

I had a hunch that the Lord of the Rings movies might be your favorites of Jackson’s! Mine would be another that you alluded to—his Get Back documentary about the Beatles, my all-time favorite group. Which, yes, they’re THE BEATLES—they’re lots of people’s favorites—but when I was in high school many years later in a small city in Northeast Texas, I felt like such an oddball for loving them.

But that ties into one of my all-time favorite music nonfiction books, a John Lennon biography by Ray Coleman—just titled Lennon—that I read over and over when I was in high school, just as I’d done with the Great Brain books several grades earlier.

Another that I’ve spent a lot of time with, much more recently, is Heartaches by the Number: Country Music’s 500 Greatest Singles, by David Cantrell and Bill Friskics-Warren, and Marissa R. Moss’ Her Country: How the Women of Country Music Became the Success They Were Never Supposed to Be has re-opened my ears decades after I thought I was mostly through listening to contemporary country.

Another mutual favorite. (We match again!)

And I’m so glad you mentioned Hanif Abdurraqib, because his Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest is one of the best books I’ve read all this year. He’s someone else who has had a big influence on what I listen to today, thanks to a massive playlist project that he undertook during the pandemic. I’m still making my way through his playlists!

So between The Great Brain, nonfiction about music, an appreciation for Hanif Abdurraqib, and our study-in-contrasts grandparents, we match all over the place!

Thank you for playing this with me, Victor. And keep an eye on your inbox for a link to my own monthly (for nearly five years now) playlist project. I bet there are some other ways you’ll see that we match.

Victor: Whoa, a monthly playlist project?! Did I win the lottery?! I’ve always wanted to do that—Cameron Crowe mentioned that he’s done that his entire life, and I’m that level of music-obsessed too—but the ADHD gets in my way! Ooh, I need to try that Lennon biography. Though the Beatles are not my #1, I do adore their music and their story. Seven years! How do four people create that much 10/10 music in so many groundbreaking styles in just seven years?! And agreed on Go Ahead In the Rain! It blew my mind!

Thanks millions for that chat—this was so much fun!

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Remember, those of you with U.S. mailing addresses: If you’d like to win a copy of Victor’s new middle grade novel, The Island of Forgotten Gods, just say so before November 1, 2025, in the comments below or by contacting me directly, and you’ll be a contender. And if you’re not yet a Bartography Express subscriber, I’ll add you to my mailing list so that you’ll be eligible to win!