Exciting news: The Disaster Days is now available across platforms as an audiobook, from Tantor Audio!
I love how actress and voiceover artist Jennifer Sun Bell has told Hannah’s story–and I hope listeners will, too.
This is the very first audio edition I’ve gotten for one of my books, so I’m eagerly checking that off my author bucket list!
I’m excited to share that the Children’s Book Award Committee of the Wisconsin Library Association’s Youth Services Section selected ten outstanding children’s and young adult books for 2021, and Alone in the Woods was one!
You can read more about the awards and the other wonderful books being honored here.
For each book I’ve released, I’ve spent time in my home state of Wisconsin, visiting schools and talking with young readers. And during every single Q&A, the same question has come up: Have you written any stories set in Wisconsin?
It took me years, and four other books, to find the right story, but now I can finally answer: Yes!
I was thrilled to read Booklist's review of Alone in the Woods--especially because they highlighted the "moments of peril and bodily danger," but felt that "but the most tender wounds here are the emotional ones nursed by the two girls." That's exactly what I was going for! It's really special to read a review that "gets" what you were going for as the author. 🙂
I’m thrilled to share that The Disaster Days is an official 2020 ILA Teachers’ Choices Selection. From ILA’s website:
Our Choices reading lists, shaped by thousands of students and educators across the United States, serve as a valuable resource—particularly in these times of remote and virtual learning. They bridge the distance by connecting us with stories that kids, teens, and teachers find inspiring, comforting, and empowering. . . . Teachers’ Choices identifies approximately 30 books rated by teachers, librarians, and reading specialists as outstanding for curriculum use.
I’m honored! You can view the whole list here. Also, the release of the Choices lists coincides with Children’s Book Week–an annual celebration of reading with tons of fun resources for kids, families, and educators. Check it out!
I’m really excited to share that The Disaster Days was selected by Bank Street College of Education as one of its “best books” of 2020. From Bank Street’s website:
[The 2020] edition includes more than 600 titles chosen by the Children’s Book Committee as the best of the best published in 2019. In choosing books for the annual list, reviewers consider literary quality and excellence of presentation as well as the potential emotional impact of the books on young readers. Other criteria include credibility of characterization and plot, authenticity of time and place, age suitability, positive treatment of ethnic and religious differences, and the absence of stereotypes. Each book accepted for the list is read and reviewed by at least two committee members and then discussed by the committee as a whole.
Awesome! You can view the whole list here and grow your reading list 🙂
According to my Instagram, these nine photos sum up my 2019:
I see a lot of books (launching The Disaster Days and receiving an honor for The Last Grand Adventure), writing (I took my 2020 release from blank page to revised, final manuscript in 11 months!), and one throwback to my very delicious wedding cake from several years ago. Cakes and books: that seems like the best of a year to me!
Hope you had a happy year, with plenty of opportunities for joy, creativity, and growth.
The Disaster Days has been making its way around the blogosphere and Bookstagram, and I’m so grateful to the reviewers, bloggers, and bookstagrammers who’ve taken the time to read and then write such thoughtful reviews!
“Really, really enjoyed this!” Ms. Yingling Reads
“This story was truly page-turning and exciting” Tara Creel Books
“I was enraptured enough by this book that I kept getting feelings of sorrow with each thing that happened to them. I wanted to reach into the book and, if nothing else, grab hold of them and let them know it was going to be okay.” Reading Authors
“Are you serious with this book?! I was on the edge of my seat the entire time while reading” @TheSmileLines via KidLitExchange
“Rebecca Behrens’s The Disaster Days is a compelling and empowering middle-grade disaster story that will have readers on the edge of their seats and breathless!” Aeicha at Word Spelunking
“Readers who like adventure and wonder what it would be like to live/survive in an earthquake zone will be riveted to every page of Hannah’s story.” The Reading Tub
“Behrens does a great job drawing readers into experiencing the children’s feelings of fear and hopelessness. Each chapter has enough peril and nail biting angst to keep even the most reluctant reader eagerly reading to find out what will happen next to Hannah and her charges.” You Decide: Should I Read It Or Not?
“Very much recommended to anyone who loves kids surviving on their own stories!” Charlotte’s Library
“I really liked how Hannah develops as a character, making mistakes, but doing everything she can to care for herself and the younger children and a cute guinea pig.” Stephanie Tournas, Youth Services Book Review
“The writing was so well done…fun and fresh, and exciting.” The Pages In Between
“Though set in the Pacific Northwest this tense tale of post-earthquake survival is equally relevant to other areas where natural disasters are a constant threat, and may encourage middle grade readers to think and find out about their family and school disaster plans.” Bibliobrit
“This one is a definite must-read, must-have.” Mom Read It
“It’s The Babysitter’s Club meets Hatchet! Enough said.” Miss Print
Check out the amazing emergency kit video from Bookstagrammer @RidaPageTurner!
“Suspenseful reading for students and adults alike!” Ms_D_Reads
“I loved this book and had a hard time putting it down.” The Librarian Is On the Loose
The Disaster Days is a Junior Library Guild selection for fall 2019!
I’m thrilled that it will be on even more library shelves thanks to JLG’s fantastic subscription services and recommendations lists.
On July 21, I was thrilled to be a part of the Amelia Earhart Festival–the annual celebration of her birthday in her birthplace of Atchison, Kansas. Readers of The Last Grand Adventure will know what a significant place Atchison was in Amelia’s (and her sister, Muriel’s) life. For me, it was a place I came to know, and love, through research. This passage from Muriel Earhart Morrissey’s biography of Amelia, Courage Is the Price, shows why:
“Midsummer evenings have always been a time of mystic spellbinding for the young. The long August twilights wrought their peculiar magic upon Amelia and me when we were little girls in Atchison. I remember the symphony of summer sounds; the chirping of crickets and of the invisible tree-toads . . . As the last carnation and saffron clouds faded, bats began to dart across the darkening sky, and, as if in defiance of these harbingers of the nightfall, fireflies twinkled in the garden and across the way among the peach and pear trees in the orchard.”
Such a lovely description! How can you read that and not want to write about Atchison in the summertime?
While writing When Audrey Met Alice and Summer of Lost and Found, I was able to visit my settings in person. For The Last Grand Adventure, the closest I’d gotten was Google Earth. So it was incredibly meaningful to see the town for myself, and to meet the warm and welcoming people who live there. And what a weekend to visit–the festival draws in thousands of Earhart experts and enthusiasts and leaders in STEM and aviation fields to celebrate not just Amelia’s birthday but her incredible life and accomplishments. I had a great time sharing my book and also learning so much more about her life and legacy.
[ngg_images source=”galleries” container_ids=”4″ display_type=”photocrati-nextgen_basic_thumbnails” override_thumbnail_settings=”0″ thumbnail_width=”120″ thumbnail_height=”90″ thumbnail_crop=”1″ images_per_page=”20″ number_of_columns=”0″ ajax_pagination=”0″ show_all_in_lightbox=”0″ use_imagebrowser_effect=”0″ show_slideshow_link=”1″ slideshow_link_text=”Some favorite pictures from the day:” template=”/home/content/20/11722220/html/wp-content/plugins/nextgen-gallery/products/photocrati_nextgen/modules/ngglegacy/view/gallery-caption.php” order_by=”sortorder” order_direction=”ASC” returns=”included” maximum_entity_count=”500″]
The Last Grand Adventure is on shelves today–hip hip hooray!
I have fond memories of the trips I took as a kid and teen, so it surprised me when, a few years ago, I unearthed my childhood travel journal and found it full of worries. From ghosts in New Orleans to grizzlies in Denali National Park, to spiders in New Mexico and seaweed on Coronado Beach. Yes, I was even afraid of seaweed.
Like me, Bea (the protagonist of The Last Grand Adventure) is more of a natural worrier than a natural adventurer. As she heads off on a planes-trains-and-automobiles journey with her strong-willed and eccentric grandmother, Pidge, Bea is constantly faced with the dilemma of whether or not to yield to her fears. Of course, there’s a pretty tantalizing reason for them to keep going, all the way to Atchison, Kansas: the promise of finding Pidge’s long-lost sister, Amelia Earhart.
Travel opened my eyes to the world beyond my quiet neighborhood, showing me about people and places different than those I had known. As Bea’s journey takes her far across the country, she also experiences that feeling of discovery. The best souvenir, though, is the unexpected bravery she finds inside herself.
At its heart, this story is about the power of both an open mind and an open road. I hope readers will enjoy riding along on Bea and Pidge’s adventure.
Thanks to everyone who helped get this book into the world, especially: my agent, Suzie Townsend, and her assistants, Sara Stricker and Cassandra Baim; and my editors, Alyson Heller and Tricia Lin, publicist, Samantha Benson, and the whole team at Aladdin.
If you’d like a signed copy of Adventure and you can’t make one of my events, you can order one from Books of Wonder–or send me an email, and I’ll pop a personalized bookplate for you in the mail.
Bon voyage!
So you might have seen some news in Publishers Weekly:
This is why I’ve been neglecting my blog so far in 2018–I wrote another MG novel! In Case of Emergency will be in bookstores in Fall 2019. This book is a little different than the three I’ve published–it’s not a historical story. But it is a bit of an adventure, and one packed full of research (this infamous article in particular was inspiration), a fascinating setting, and kids with lots of moxie. Growing up, my favorite types of books to read were historical fiction and survival stories, like Hatchet and My Side of the Mountain. Plus The Baby-Sitters Club–which sometimes turned into survival stories (remember the super specials?). In fact, I initially pitched this idea to my agent as “Hatchet meets The Baby-Sitters Club“! I had a lot of fun writing this book, and I can’t wait to share it with you.
I’m excited to work with the fantastic team at Sourcebooks again, too! Many thanks to Annie Berger for giving this book a home, to Suzie Townsend for being such a great advocate for my writing, to Cassandra Baim for all her help and encouragement–and especially to readers, who keep us all going.