In her latest novel, Blood in the Water (Scholastic, July 1), Tiffany D. Jackson tells the story of Kaylani McKinnon, a Brooklyn teen who gets sent to Martha’s Vineyard for a few weeks to stay with the Watsons, her grandmother’s church friends. The trip is partly to take Kaylani’s mind off her father’s recent incarceration, and when she arrives on the island, she’s thrust into a world of Black wealth. While things in Martha’s Vineyard look idyllic, one morning, a teen is found dead in the water, and Kaylani springs into action to uncover the killer and confirm her suspicions that things are not what they seem on the island. Jackson spoke to us over Zoom about the thrilling middle-grade novel; our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

You have a long roster of YA books. Why was this the right time to pivot to middle-grade literature?

I was thinking about Kaylani’s voice and the story that I wanted to tell, and it just felt right. During book tours, I would see 10- and 11-year-olds walk up to me with my books. In the back of my mind, I was thinking that they were too young for some of them, and I wished I had something that spoke to them. That was one of the bigger reasons why I wanted to write something specific for a middle-grade audience.

Where did the idea for Blood in the Water come from?

It came from all my various trips to Martha’s Vineyard. There’s a spookiness and beauty to the island, and I always kind of imagined telling a story from the point of view of a child who was able to frolic around the island. I’ve written a couple of short stories that took place on Martha’s Vineyard, and when I was approached about writing a mystery/thriller set there, I said, “You know what? I’d love to do that.”

Reading the book made me realize how much I didn’t know about Martha’s Vineyard.

I get that from a lot of different people. Martha’s Vineyard has such an amazing history, especially Black history, that you would never know. The first time I visited, I hadn’t heard anything about it. Only recently has Martha’s Vineyard become this social media phenomenon, but before that, it was only known through word of mouth. Lots of wealthy Black people learned about vacationing there or buying homes there from other people.

You also provide a range of representations of Black girls, from the middle-class Kaylani to the Watson sisters, Cassie and London, who’ve grown up in this world of privilege. Do you feel particularly connected to any characters personally?

I feel connected to Kaylani in a lot of ways. I grew up solidly middle class in Brooklyn, and I’ve definitely been in spaces where I felt a little uncomfortable about other people’s upbringing, not realizing there could be these incredibly rich Black folks that live an entirely different existence that I’d never even heard of before. That was really fascinating to me, but I never felt embarrassed about it, just like Kaylani isn’t embarrassed about who she is. I wanted to include these uncomfortable moments for Kaylani where she’s navigating new spaces.

The book mentions Jack and Jill, a social club for well-connected Black families, and it has a bit of underlying commentary about the purpose of these kinds of clubs.

I think there’s an advantage to social clubs in terms of building community and preserving heritage and roots, because this was all some of us had at one point. Black social clubs were a safe space for a lot of people, but I think one of the downsides of being in a social club is the exclusivity.

You spent your childhood visiting Martha’s Vineyard, but what did you learn about the island when you went back to do research for the book?

It was interesting to see how the island is changing. There’s something called the Black Heritage Trail, which is a van tour that takes you around to see sites on the island. Unfortunately, in the last few years, people have been trying to remove the placards because of racist practices. That was interesting, but I didn’t touch upon that in the book because I didn’t want it to be a distraction from the story being told. There was a Jaws exhibit at the Martha’s Vineyard Museum that I’d never seen before [the movie was filmed on the island]. I’d never been to the Edgartown Public Library, which is across the street from [Harlem Renaissance writer] Dorothy West’s headstone. When I was doing research, things that I’d heard about started clicking for me.

Did you find any scenes especially rewarding or especially challenging to write?

There’s a scavenger hunt in the book, and I found that slightly challenging to write because I was trying to find facts that were fun and specific to kids. There’s a real scavenger hunt that takes place on the island, but it’s much smaller, and I wanted to enlarge it to fit the characters in mind, which was a little complicated. But I loved writing about Inkwell Beach and describing the food. I love the food on Martha’s Vineyard, and describing things from my childhood on the island, like the ice cream, was really fun.

I love that you’ve included these specific summer childhood experiences, like sneaking out of the house at night, going to beach parties, and riding bikes around the neighborhood.

When I was writing this, I wanted to nail the middle-school experience. They’re kids—they’re sneaking out and trying to be cool, but they’re also failing at being cool. I think in the high school years, kids are focused on answering [the question of] who they are and who they want to be, and middle graders are focused on finding out what’s going on and why things are happening.

You portray Kaylani as someone who wants to fix everything, but one line stands out in the beginning. Her dad tells her, “Your only job is to be a kid, something you haven’t been doing much lately.” Why is it important for young Black kids to hear that message?

By nature of who we are, we tend to adultify very fast, and not necessarily in the best ways. Because we’re faced with so much, our senses are heightened at a much earlier age. We need to identify racism by the time we’re 8 or 9, and we need to know if microaggressions are happening in our faces. Middle graders tend to want to be older because they want to be out and about, and they want to follow their older cousins, sisters, or brothers. I want kids to understand that it’s OK to live comfortably in your girlhood or your boyhood and that it’s OK to just exist. I understand Kaylani’s perspective in a lot of ways. I, too, was like a kid who wanted to focus on adult things instead of just enjoying the fact that I could be free.

Mariette Williams is a writer in South Florida.