Bookanista Rec: Better Nate Than Ever
It’s time for another Bookanista recommendation: Tim Federle’s hilarious and heartfelt Better Nate Than Ever.
Here’s the summary from Goodreads:
Nate Foster has big dreams. His whole life, he’s wanted to star in a Broadway show. (Heck, he’d settle for *seeing* a Broadway show.) But how is Nate supposed to make his dreams come true when he’s stuck in Jankburg, Pennsylvania, where no one (except his best pal Libby) appreciates a good show tune? With Libby’s help, Nate plans a daring overnight escape to New York. There’s an open casting call for E.T.: The Musical, and Nate knows this could be the difference between small-town blues and big-time stardom.
You know how movie ads used to always feature an announcer saying, “Blah Blah Movie will make you stand up and cheer!” Well, Better Nate Than Ever will make you stand up and cheer. (So since you’ll be standing up and cheering, watch what you’re wearing while you read because it might also make you pee your pants. It’s that funny.) Nate is a protagonist you will root for, cringe with, and want to give a big huge hug. Mostly, you’ll wish you could be there in the scenes with him, to watch him be in the world with such hope and wonder. I love how exuberant the boy on the cover is; I love it even more after reading the book and knowing that Nate encounters some real hardships.
Reading this felt like a bit of bibliotherapy for me. I do a lot of my reading on the subway, and as much as I love New York, sometimes it seems one or more of the following: stressful, crowded, dirty, stinky, rude, exhausting, expensive, noisy. Et cetera. While reading, I felt like I could vicariously fall in love with my new hometown all over again, seeing it through Nate’s eyes. Or at least laugh hysterically at the uber realistic details Tim Federle weaves into the story–and bonus, that makes the people next to you on the crosstown bus scooch away and give you a little more space! Win win.
See what my fellow Bookanistas are recommending today:
What’s Up Wednesday, 10/9
What’s Up Wednesday is a weekly meme that helps readers and writers touch base with blog friends. If you’d like to join in, you can find the link widget on Jaime’s and Erin’s blog posts. I love this idea because it gives a structured, easy way for me to keep up with blogging. Also, the buttons are cute. Thanks for the idea, Jaime and Erin!
What I’m Reading
I’m still reading The Weird Sisters. I’m kind of lingering in the story, which is nice. I tend to read quickly, and sometimes I forget how satisfying it can be to take more time with a book.
What I’m Writing
When Audrey Met Alice odds and ends, which are writing-related. I’ve come to the realization that some of my writing time, going forward, needs to be allotted to the business-y side of publishing. And that’s okay! Otherwise, I’m still on a bit of a writing break. I did open a planning document on Sunday night and had fun brainstorming for an old new idea. I’m toying with the idea of doing a NaNo-inspired November writing marathon.
What Inspires Me Right Now
I’m going to repeat last week’s inspiration: great weather and great books. I’ll also add the camaraderie and kindness in the kid lit writing and publishing community (see below).
What Else I’ve Been Up To
Revealing this new blog, and revealing the cover for When Audrey Met Alice! It was so fun to get to share the cover on Monday, and I am really grateful for the enthusiastic responses to it. (Mundie Kids is helping me give away an ARC, if you’d like to enter to win it!)
IRL: Making progress toward winning the title of Clumsiest Ever–I fractured my toe. By walking into my bathtub. But at least it’s an excuse to sit around and read, right?
So what have you been up to lately?
Cover Reveal!
That’s right, When Audrey Met Alice has a cover!
You can head over to Mundie Kids and check it out. We’re also sharing the ARC cover and details about the process behind creating the perfect cover for Audrey and Alice’s story.
Here’s the link: http://mundiekids.blogspot.com/2013/10/when-audrey-met-alice-by-rebecca.html
Elizabeth Connor, the incredibly talented designer, and the whole Sourcebooks team created what I think is the perfect image for this story. It’s an understatement to say that I’m thrilled with it.
Thanks to Katie at Mundie Kids for her help and enthusiasm with my reveal! It’s so fun to get to share this.
Hello, hello!
Hi! You made it over here to my blog’s new home.
I figured now would be a great time to mention how wonderful working with Biondo Studio has been. I was pretty scared about leaving my comfortable Blogger home and venturing into the world of WordPress and a static website. For a while, I researched web designers and drooled over other authors’ websites. It didn’t take that long of a while before I realized that my favorite sites were always created by–you guessed it–Biondo Studio. So I sent them an email, and here we are now, at my shiny new website, which I love.
Denise and John at Biondo Studio are awesome. When we first started discussing what I wanted my site to look like, I think it sounded like I was creating some kind of bizarre word-association poem: “Doughnuts. I love the beach. Orange cats are my favorite. I write historical and contemporary fiction. I live in NYC. Did I mention that I love doughnuts?” If had made a homepage from that, it would look like this:
But Denise and John took that jumble and made something perfect (and coherent) (and really cute). I hadn’t really known how to communicate what I wanted, but it didn’t matter: Biondo Studio has design ESP.
From there, it was smooth sailing. Denise and John were patient when it took me approximately twenty-seven tries to figure out a) who I had registered by domain with, and b) how to access it. And they didn’t bat an eye when in true production-editor form, I kept finding the tiniest things to tweak, and tweak, and tweak.
So if you find yourself wanting a new website or a blog tuneup, I can’t recommend them highly enough. I’m grateful and happy that they created such a nice home for me online, and that they made the process so easy for someone as scattered and web-designophobic as me!
Blog Remodel
Considering I have been kind of lax about blogging lately (revisions! end of summer! lots of work at work! travel! an overwhelming desire to watch television and eat pizza!), I doubt many noticed yesterday that my blog/site had a little change-up.
www.rebeccabehrens.com will soon be my shiny new website, as designed by Biondo Studio. (Expect a really gushing testimonial about how great Denise and John at Biondo are, soon.) In the meantime, my blog is going to be back at its weird old blogspot address, vicariousreader.blogspot.com. Once all the web design stuff is done, and I have figured out how to use WordPress, my blog will be found within my website. I am not smart enough about web design and the Internets to explain more of what we are doing in terms of the domain transfer, existing followers, etc., but the long-short of it is that you can still follow me here for now, and soon I’ll see you at my shiny new site!
In the meantime, how are you?
Around the Web
Happy Labor Day! I’m back from a trip to the Midwest and taking the day *off* before more revising starts tomorrow.
But in the meantime, I have two posts elsewhere online:
A OneFour Kid Lit interview with YA author (and agentmate) Sara Polsky about her debut, THIS IS HOW I FIND HER. It’s out now!
And Mad for Middle Grade’s September group post, on our favorite elements of writing MG. Mine is friendship.
Back to reading SECOND CHANCE SUMMER for me!
Bookanista Rec: Wonder
It’s time for another Bookanista recommendation: R. J. Palacio’s Wonder.
Here’s the summary from Goodreads:
August (Auggie) Pullman
was born with a facial deformity that prevented him from going to a
mainstream school—until now. He’s about to start 5th grade at Beecher
Prep, and if you’ve ever been the new kid then you know how hard that
can be. The thing is Auggie’s just an ordinary kid, with an
extraordinary face. But can he convince his new classmates that he’s
just like them, despite appearances?
R. J. Palacio has written a
spare, warm, uplifting story that will have readers laughing one minute
and wiping away tears the next. With wonderfully realistic family
interactions (flawed, but loving), lively school scenes, and short
chapters, Wonder is accessible to readers of all levels.
I have to admit that I put off reading Wonder, even though I’d heard such wonderful things about it. I worried that it might be too painful to read about some of the things that happen to Auggie, especially if I loved his character as much as I suspected I would. I got even more
fearful that this would be a tough read when I started reading and
immediately fell in love with Auggie’s sweet MG voice. I read it in a day.
And reading Wonder was sometimes painful–set the book down, close your eyes, and take a deep breath before continuing to read painful–but that, if anything, only enhanced the reading experience. Wonder‘s central message–choose kindness–is important for readers of all ages to hear. The multiple POV structure really builds on that message by creating so much empathy for all of the characters. This is a book that contains moments of heart-crushing sadness and disappointment, but many more of uplifting love and courage.
See what my fellow Bookanistas are recommending today:
Shari Arnold has chills for BY BLOOD, by Tracy E. Banghart
Christine Fonseca has all the feels for DARKEST MERCY, by Melissa Marr
Nikki Katz is gushing about BLYTHEWOOD, by Carol Goodman
Stasia Ward Kehoe has taken a shine to GOLDEN, by Jessi Kirby
Jessica Love has fond memories of ALL OUR YESTERDAYS, by Cristin Terrill
Lenore Appelhans swoons for THESE BROKEN STARS by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner
MMGM: Keeping Safe the Stars
One of my favorite reads of 2011 was Sheila O’Connor’s Sparrow Road. A midwest setting, a creepy mansion/artist’s colony, and mysteries–what more could you want? (Not to mention beautiful prose and compelling characters.) So I was very excited to read the author’s next book, Keeping Safe the Stars. Here’s a summary from Goodreads:
 |
| Such a gorgeous cover |
When crisis hits, a young girl becomes the only one left to take care of her family
Pride,
Nightingale and Baby are the Stars. Orphaned and living with their
grandfather, Old Finn, in rural Minnesota, the children, like their
grandfather, are wary of outsiders. They believe, as Old Finn taught
them, in self-reliance.
But then Old Finn falls seriously ill and
is taken to the hospital all the way in Duluth, leaving the children to
fend for themselves. Pride, as oldest, assumes the lead. Though she
makes mistakes, she keeps them afloat; they even earn money for the bus
trip to Duluth. But when they finally see Old Finn, he can’t walk or
even say his own name, and Pride knows her days of keeping safe the
Stars are drawing to a close. Self-reliance can’t make Old Finn well
again. But maybe, just maybe, a secret from Old Finn’s past might make a
way for them to stay together after all.
In a review somewhere (possibly on Goodreads), Keeping Safe the Stars was compared to the Boxcar Children series. The resilience and love in the Star family did remind me of that beloved series (not just the plot element of kids fending for themselves). This story is set in the Watergate era, and it was so interesting to step back into a relatively recent time when kids were encouraged to be independent in their home/community–I’m not necessarily saying it’s good or bad that middle-graders rarely roam free on country roads today; things are just different.
This book is full of strength and grit and community, and it has a love story, too. I really adored it.
I’m not alone in my feelings for Keeping Safe the Stars; it recently won the Midwest Bookseller’s Choice award for Children’s Literature.
To see what other marvelous middle-grade books readers and writers are blogging about today, check out Shannon Whitney Messenger’s blog for the MMGM links!
Class of 2K14 Launch!
I’m so excited to announce that I’m part of the Class of 2K14, and we’re launching our website today!
We’re a group of 20 authors debuting in middle grade and young adult fiction in 2014. We’re diverse, with members across the country (and one in the UK!) and novels ranging from historical to sci-fi. Like the other classes before us (2K7 through 2K13), we’re working together to share our books with booksellers, teachers, librarians, and readers.
It’s already been a wonderful experience to get to know the nineteen other authors in the group, and I’m looking forward to sharing the debut experience with the other authors.
To celebrate our shiny new website, we’re giving away a $100 e-gift certificate to the book retailer of the winner’s choice (including indie booksellers!). To enter, head over to the website:
Inspiration spots, bubbles, and ideal readers
I have many writing spots, in my apartment, from the desk to the couch to the kitchen table, and writing spots in other places scattered around the city and back in America’s Dairyland, too. But I also have an inspiration spot, one for daydreaming and brainstorming and problem-solving, both for writing problems and sometimes IRL problems.
I wasn’t until I started cultivating my inspiration spot that I realized how important a place–or mental space–that is for writers, too. As important as an ergonomic desk chair.
Anyway, my inspiration spot in a makeshift windowseat. From it I get a nice, sunny view of the sidewalk below my apartment. It makes for good people-watching, as they walk to and from the park or in and out of the candy-and-lotto bodega.
In one of the little walkup buildings on my street lives a nice young family. Their daughter looks like she’s about ten or eleven. Her mom or dad sits on the stoop as she and her puppy play on the sidewalk out front. A lot of times she plays with a simple bubble wand. She twirls around the sidewalk, spinning and marveling at the bubbles floating up into the trees. Her parents join in. It’s really charming. I kind of adore Bubble Girl. (Hopefully it doesn’t sound creepy that I watch her play.)
I write books for young readers, but I don’t have kids. Which is fine, because as that quote from legendary children’s book editor Ursula Nordstrom goes,”I am a former child, and I haven’t forgotten a thing.” But sometimes it’s good to let kids remind me, a little more immediately, of being at the age at which bubbles were all I needed to have a happy afternoon. I smile and watch Bubble Girl play, and I wonder what she’d want to read about. I remind myself that it’s actually her I’m writing for. I’d like to write a book that will make her smile or think or laugh.
Generally, I don’t like to give directives, because really how do I know what anyone else needs to get his or her writing groove on. But I do think it’s helpful for most writers to have a reminder of your ideal reader. Bubble Girl is mine.
And I hope I do right by her.
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