Author of award-winning, adventurous realistic and historical fiction

Monday Misc

Apr 14, 2014 | , , , , , , ,

It’s spring!

New York was gorgeous this weekend, and I got to spend all of it wandering around town with one of my best friends, Jessica, who was visiting from Seattle. We walked, we talked, we ate some very tasty vegan chocolate-chai ice cream. We also watched The Butler, which is a great movie. Of course I was interested in the White House setting, and it was a powerful story of life during the Civil Rights movement.

Last week, my mom’s book club met for a proper tea party and discussion of When Audrey Met Alice. This was especially meaningful for me because many of the members of her club are my former teachers and librarian–my mom taught for many years at the middle school I attended. These wonderful educators helped make me into the reader and writer I am–and I’m so grateful for the nurturing learning environment they created for me and so many other students. Here’s a picture of them at the WAMA discussion:

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Thanks, Mom, Sharon, Laura, Linda, Linda, and Mary! (And Jessica and Jane, who aren’t pictured)

And in other WAMA news, I was thrilled to find out last month that it’s already going back to press! As Alice would say, that’s bully good.

Last night, I scooped Natalie Lloyd’s A Snicker of Magic up off my nightstand. This book, guys. It’s spindiddly.

How was your weekend?

Bookanista Rec: Push Girl

Apr 10, 2014 | , , , , , ,

It’s time for another Bookanista recommendation: (my friend and fellow Bookanista) Jessica Love’s Push Girl.

Here’s the jacket copy from the publisher:

An inspiring, real, and fresh young adult novel about how life can change in an instant [cowritten by Jessica Love and] Chelsie Hill, one of the stars Sundance Channel’s unscripted series Push Girls, based on [Chelsie’s] own life.

9781250045911Kara is a high school junior who’s loving life. She’s popular, has a great group of friends and an amazing boyfriend, and she’s a shoe-in for homecoming queen. Even though her parents can’t stop fighting and her ex-boyfriend can’t seem to leave her alone, Kara won’t let anything get in the way of  her perfect year. It’s Friday night, and Kara arrives at a party, upset after hearing her parents having another one of their awful fights, and sees another girl with her hands all over her boyfriend. Furious, Kara leaves to take a drive, and, as she’s crossing an intersection, a car comes out of nowhere and slams into the driver’s side of Kara’s car. 

When Kara wakes up, she has no memory of the night before. Where is she? Why are her parents crying? And, most importantly — why can’t she feel her legs? As Kara is forced to adjust to her new life, where her friends aren’t who they seemed to be and her once-adoring boyfriend is mysteriously absent, she starts to realize that what matters in life isn’t what happens to you — it’s the choices you make and the people you love.

I’ve been telling every YA reader I see about this one, which is both a great contemporary YA novel and a really powerful story of handling adversity with grace, grit, and hope. Kara is a character I won’t soon forget–my heart broke for her many times as I read. I loved how as the story progressed, Kara not only started to rehabilitate physically, but grew emotionally. Her injury brings physical limitations, but the new way she looks at her world and her self brings Kara so much agency. Even before the accident, Kara encounters things in her life that are beyond her control. But it’s only after that she has gained the strength to make healthy choices about how she responds. That’s an important lesson that all teens can relate to: you can’t always control what happens to you in life, but you can control how you respond.

Push Girl is also eye-opening and informative about life with spinal-cord injuries. Reading it, I realized how many incorrect assumptions I had about how people can recover and live independently after sustaining such a traumatic injury. I watched a few episodes of the Sundance Channel show, Push Girls, after reading and I highly recommend it–it’s a really powerful and engaging series.

I think teen readers are going to get so much out of reading this book–a well-written, diverse contemporary story and an invitation to think about how one chooses to live life.

And now I really can’t wait for Jessica’s next YA novel, In Real Life, which will be out in 2015!

Push Girl releases on June 3 from St. Martin’s Griffin.

See what my fellow Bookanistas are recommending today:

What’s Up Wednesday, 4/2

Apr 2, 2014 | , , , , , , ,

RobotWhat I’m Reading

I read a ton of books (or what amounts to a “ton” for me) in March: No Surrender Soldier, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Leading Man, The Secret Hum of a Daisy, The Ninja Librarians, and Push Girl. Now I’m back to Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behavior, which I reluctantly put aside when I was in the middle of a debut-author ARCapalooza.

What I’m Writing

I’m back to revising an old manuscript and doing some research so I can begin outlining a new one. I’d love to be finished with these revisions in the next week or two so I can focus on outlining. In truth, I am itching to get to the drafting stage of this new project. I’m one of those writers who gets caught up in counting new words–sometimes I need to remind myself that reading/researching, outlining, and daydreaming is part of the writing process–and that time “counts,” too.

What Inspires Me Right Now

I am knocking on wood as I type this, but I think it’s finally warming up! Thanks to longer days, I’m loving going home from work while it’s still light out. Hooray, spring. 🙂

What Else I’ve Been Up To

I finally got back to a yoga class, after a few months off due to an injury. It was kind of a bummer to realize how much I still can’t do, but it feels great to know that I’m making progress.

A quick note on an online event I’m doing this week: Booklist Webinars is hosting me and three other New Leaf Literary debut authors for an hour-long presentation on our books and the the debut experience. It’s free, and should be a fun conversation! You can register here: https://alapublishing.webex.com/alapublishing/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=662413562

So what have you been up to lately?

What’s Up Wednesday is a weekly meme that helps readers and writers touch base with blog friends. You can find the link widget (and cute buttons!) on Jaime’s and Erin’s blog posts.

Friday Five

Mar 21, 2014 | , , , , , , , , , , ,

1. This has been a long winter. (That seems like an understatement.) I got some relief from the snow, cold, and gray last week when I went on a nice warm trip. I read a lot of books; I even hung out in a hammock. It was excellent.

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2. But now it’s back to work! I’ve started research for a brand new book (lips zipped on what it’s about, for now) and I’m doing some revising on a less-brand-new one.

3. This Saturday, I’ll be back at Books of Wonder in NYC for a panel with Laura Marx Fitzgerald (UNDER THE EGG) and Aaron Starmer (THE RIVERMAN). More info here: Great Middle Grade Reads!

4. This past week, I’ve gotten my first pieces of mail from readers. There is nothing quite like the joy of opening a card from a young reader. Thank you to Annabelle and Erin for making my day with their notes!

5. When Audrey Met Alice was featured in the March/April issue of Middle Shelf magazine! Check out the whole issue for great interviews, articles, and reviews.Middle Shelf_Last Words

6. Okay, I lied. It’s not Friday Five. It’s Friday Six.* But because I like alliteration, I’m not changing the title of this post. Anyway–huge congrats to my friend Jessica Love, who sold another book this week! Read all about In Real Life here.

*See my inability to cut content? This is why I have my lovely and talented editor. 🙂

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