Author Q&A with Tracy Badua and Alechia Dow
It’s Marvelous Middle Grade Monday again, and I’ve got middle grade authors Alechia Dow and Tracy Badua here for a double Q&A.
I’ve read almost everything Alechia Dow has published in middle grade and young adult so far (I missed one short story in an anthology), and I am really excited to read more of Tracy Badua’s books, so getting to chat with both of them about the second book in their middle grade series about baking and solving mysteries was an extra special treat!
I loved the first book in this series, The Cookie Crumbles, which came out last year. The second book, Their Just Desserts, comes out next week and promises to deliver more confectionery surprises and investigations.
About Their Just Desserts (The Cookie Crumbles #2) by Tracy Badua and Alechia Dow
Perfect for fans of The Great British Baking Show and Clue, this enchanting and rollicking follow-up to The Cookie Crumbles follows two best friends caught up in a twisty mystery when jewels go missing at a high-stakes baking competition.
Baker extraordinaire Laila Thomas and budding journalist Lucy Flores are living it up at the top of the junior high food chain as eighth graders. But between busy schedules and kinda-boyfriends, these two best friends haven’t gotten to hang out as much. So, when Jaden, an ex-competition rival, begs the duo to step back into the world of cooking competitions and crime—the answer is yes.
Jaden’s father is accused of stealing prized jewels on the set of an amateur kids’ holiday baking show. The plan is for Laila to smash the competition while Lucy investigates behind the scenes—but their half-baked plan gets turned totally upside down when Lucy ends up in front of the cameras instead.
As the investigation and competition heat up, Lucy and Laila’s bond is put to the ultimate test. Can they solve this bakeoff mystery, or will they—and their friendship—crack under pressure?
Author Q&A with Alechia Dow and Tracy Badua
1. What’s your favorite thing about writing for a middle grade audience?
Alechia: I enjoy exploring themes that I know children can relate to: friendship, compassion, growing up, family, and learning to stand up in a world that sometimes makes you feel small. I want kids to read this and feel empowered!
Tracy: Not only are the readers wonderful, but writing for kids is far more fun than legal writing for adults.
2. I love that this series is about baking and mysteries. As an accomplished baker yourself, is there a relationship between your writing and baking? Do you bake along with Laila as you write?
Alechia: Oh, there’s definitely a relationship! I went to pastry school for four years and have a concentration in food writing, so writing food is relying on the skills I’ve honed for a huge portion of my life, which is a blast. I’m always baking, but especially when I’m trying to figure out if Laila’s ideas are possible. It’s fun experimenting and even better tasting if those experiments worked 🙂
3. What was your favorite scene or moment in Their Just Desserts to write?
Alechia: There are so many funny scenes in the story, though I’m partial to the confessionals, they make me laugh. But my favorite is Laila baking with Raphael. It’s a very soft scene between two characters doing what they love and though they have such different approaches and attitudes, there’s something really lovely about seeing them making scones together.
Tracy: We made up a fake holiday-themed mystery movie for the book, and it was so fun teasing in tidbits of this zany story within a story.
4. What’s your favorite thing about writing this series collaboratively?
Alechia: Tracy and I have been friends and critique partners for nine years, so there’s an ease working together. Also, we tend to be ridiculous and I honestly don’t know how we get anything done between the laughter. This has been one of my favorite writing experiences.
Tracy: Same! Plus, we tend to have different styles of drafting and planning (Alechia knows how I am with my spreadsheets), and it’s nice to have someone come in with a refreshing perspective.
5. If you can share, can you tell us a little bit about a new project you’re working on?
Tracy: I’m gearing up for the release of my next middle grade book, a ghost story titled Ghoul Summer. It’s out September 2, 2026, and I drew from all my “oh no, this vacation rental DEFINITELY feels haunted” experiences. I’m also endlessly revising a young adult novel with some speculative elements and conjuring up more middle grade ideas.
Alechia: My young adult cozy romantasy, Until the Clock Strikes Midnight, comes out Feb 3, 2026. Other than that, I’ve been drafting some more cozy romantasies, adult romantic comedies, and science fiction!!
6. What do you most hope readers take away from your novel?
Tracy: I hope readers leave with some of the courage we infused into Laila and Lucy’s stories. Folks who have read the first book The Cookie Crumbles know Laila is the baker and Lucy is the journalist, and we switched it up in Their Just Desserts. It’s hard to be thrown into situations where you feel inexperienced or disadvantaged, and I’d love if our readers took heart from seeing our girls try their best to thrive.
7. What is one question about your novel you are often asked by readers?
Alechia: Have you made any of the recipes you mention in the book? Yes! Most of them—though Raphael’s character in Their Just Desserts does things I’ve never attempted before and I’m inspired to try.
Tracy: Do you bake? Sadly, the answer is not nearly as well as Alechia. This answer always disappoints students who are hoping I bring tasty treats to my school visits. Sorry, kids, but it’s for the best I don’t inflict my baking on you.
About Tracy Badua
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Tracy Badua is an award-winning Filipino American author of books about young people with sunny hearts in a sometimes stormy world. By day, she is an attorney who works in national housing policy, and by night, she squeezes in writing, family time, and bites of her secret candy stash. She lives in San Diego, California.
About Alechia Dow
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Alechia Dow is an award-winning author of several acclaimed young adult sci-fi fantasies, short anthology pieces, and magical (sometimes mysterious) middle grade stories. When not writing, you can find her baking, reading, traveling, and exploring her local food scene.
Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
I’m sharing this post as a part of a weekly round-up of middle-grade posts called Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday. Check out other blogs with posts about middle-grade books today on Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday at Always in the Middle.