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The Internet has changed so much about how I write. In the old days, I relied on my faulty memory, things I had seen on TV, and trips to the library where I consulted these green volumes called The Readers Guide to Periodical Literature and then tracked down the relevant magazines.

Now if I want to know a character to give the Boy Scout salute and I don't remember what it looks like, it's right at my fingertips. Then again, so is a bunch of other distracting stuff.

Often, the reader of a mystery or a thriller gets to learn something - something the writer either knows or had the pleasure of researching. (Of course, sometimes what you learn, especially if it’s on TV or in the movies, is wrong. Like female CSIs don’t wear four-inch heels and low-cut tops. And a lot of the flashy technology you see exists only in some screenwriter’s imagination.)

To research Girl, Stolen, I started by reading autobiographies of people who had gone blind. The more I read, the more I realized how having a guide dog can change your life if you're blind. Not only can you walk much faster, but if you have a cane people are worried they might get in your way or you might hit them, so they tend to stay away.  But if you have a guide dog, people are much more likely to talk to you.

I had sort of thought guide dogs were like a GPS with fur, but it turns out you have to know where to go and direct your dog.

I also interviewed people who had gone blind and later asked them to read the book.

I even talked to an ophthalmologist about what happens when you go blind as the result of an accident.

I bought a cane and learned something about how to use it.  Once I brought it on a school visit with me in Detroit. My phone fell behind the motel bed, which was fixed in place. Thanks to my cane, I was able to get it out.

Once I took the cane with me to a signing about 45 mints away. The cane unfurled itself as I walked and the woman at the register looked at me and her mouth fell open. "How did you manage to drive here?" she asked.  I was tempted to tell it I stuck it out the window and pointed it straight ahead.

Right now, I'm working on a sequel to Girl, Stolen, and researching new technologies that might allow my character to regain at least some of her sight. 

Just got my Black-Eyed Susan award from the State of Maryland for Girl, Stolen. I think it's supposed to be a serving tray, since there's no hanger on the back. Maybe next time we have people over I'll put crackers on it and act surprised when they notice what it is. "Oh, is that for an award?"

Sorry I've been such a bad blogger lately. There's been a LOT going on.

- We moved Teen into her dorm room on Saturday. Of course, that night I dreamed about nursing (this dream might only make sense if you've ever been a nursing mother). It's a big change for all of us. Sniff!

- Last week, I heard from a Pennsylvania teen on FB. She wanted to know if there was a sequel to Girl, Stolen. We started messaging back and forth and this is what she told me: "To be honest, I was never, ever interested in books, or anything school related. I found Girl, Stolen in my school library, and the cover looked interesting, the one where she has her hands in front of her face. That was the first time I've ever read a book without being told to by a teacher. You've really inspired me to read, and now I'm taking home books from different libraries everyday! Thank you so much, I can't believe I've been missing out on books through out school, now I'm in love with them."

- I leave for the Writer Police Academy in North Carolina on Thursday.

- I have a bunch of deadlines and they keep getting closer. (Cue spooky music.)

- Look what just got highlighted in School Library Journal - The Night She Disappeared. http://www.slj.com/2012/09/books-media/read-watch-alikes/watch-and-read-spotlight-on-media-tie-ins-house-at-the-end-of-the-street-and-spine-tingling-thrillers-for-teens/

Emanuelle Lo is a girl who was born blind - and with amazing musical ability. When she was 11, she wrote this song, and then last Christmas friends and family helped produce a video for it.

I'm proud to say that she is also reading Girl, Stolen. I was contacted by her librarian, and then asked her family if it would be okay if I posted her video.

I just got an email from a librarian in Oklahoma saying that Girl, Stolen is a finalist for Oklahoma's Sequoyah Book Award.

So it’s a finalist for:
- Oklahoma's Sequoyah Book Award
- Maryland's Black-Eyed Susan award
- 
New Hampshire's Isinglass Teen Read award

- Nebraska's Golden Sower award

- Missouri's Truman award

As well as:
- 
Finalist for Oregon Book Award (Linda Sue Park is the judge!)
- Chosen for St. Louis Book Battle
- 
Chosen for One Book, One Community in Olney, Illinois
- 
Chosen as a Cafe Book in Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania and Stafford schools and the Central Rappahannock Regional Library in Virginia

Pretty good for a book my old Putnam editor turned down...

There's an an ad in Shelf Awareness for The Night She Disappeared. (Pets.)


For the first time in my career, I have a UK edition of a book -in this case, Girl, Stolen.. I've always heard it's hard to sell a mystery or thriller in the UK because they already have so many excellent writers in that genre. Coals to Newcastle kind of deal.

I dreamed that a few years ago I gave birth to a baby, but things didn't work out. It was stunted and never learned to walk. The doctors determined that it hadn't spent enough time inside me. The solution: Push it back up. They did not listen when I protested that the baby was now far too big to go back.

Could this have anything to do with my crazy deadline?

There's restaurant in San Francisco called Opaque. The servers are all blind or vision-impaired, and the food is served in pitch blackness. One woman described her recent experience eating there with a blind friend. When she couldn't identify something in her salad that was oh-so-familiar (it turned out to be a mushroom), her friend told her that all of her senses were handicapped by her sight. Even her taste.

In addition to learning how much she relied on her eyes to tell her what she was eating, the writer of the article also learned how locate things on the table and what it's like to cut and fork up food you can't see (pieces either too big or gone altogether).

Of course, reading it made me think of Girl, Stolen.

Read more here.

I really struggled to get Girl, Stolen "right." My biggest fear was that someone who was blind would read the book and think how wrong it was.

But all that work paid off. I've gotten compliments from several folks who are blind, including today's email:

I just read “Girl Stolen” this morning, and, being I’m totally blind, I read it in the downloaded audio format from the National Library Service. I am writing because I want to say thank you for writing such an interesting and thoroughly researched book. At age 31, I was blinded in an auto accident, and could really relate to Cheyenne’s experiences because you truly understood and presented the emotional adjustment aspect of that process so well. I found myself smiling at the small, almost invisible, nuances of what daily life is like for somebody who can’t see, yet strives to live life to the fullest in a sighted world. My accident occurred 18 years ago, but it seems like it was only yesterday and the adjustment memories are some I think I’ll keep with me for the rest of my life. However, like Cheyenne, I long ago worked through to the acceptance phase of the adjustment process, but I will forever keep a kindling of hope in my heart that one day that miracle of sight restoration may occur.

Additionally, I also commend you on your presentation of the hospitalization and care of burn patients. I found myself nodding my head in agreement several times when you described Griffin’s injuries and the emotional scars that accompanied this. I learned much of this when I did my clinical psychology practicum at Shriners’ Burns Hospital in Galveston. Oh, how the patients loathed and feared the tub room!

This was my first experience with one of your books, but I am about to seek out more. I just wanted to share the appreciation and thoughts of your newest fan.

It's been a year since Girl, Stolen came out.

Right now, even before it's out in paperback, it's up for state awards in Maryland, Nebraska, New Hampshire, and MIssouri. It's on the YALSA lists for Quick Picks and Best Fiction for Young Adults. It's in Scholastic Book Clubs. And it gotten the best reviews of the 11 books I've had published to date:

“Girl, Stolen grabs your attention with the first page you read. . . . Each page holds new questions that are answered in the most unexpected ways.” —VOYA, starred review

“Constantly interesting and suspenseful.” —Kirkus Reviews

“A captivating tale . . . Well-built, complex characters, trapped in their own ways by life’s circumstances, which—paired with a relentlessly fast pace—ensures a tense read.” —Publishers Weekly

Look for a shiny new cover next March when the paperback comes out.


This book almost didn't see the light of day. My old editor didn't like it and said he might buy it if it were completely rewritten from Griffin's point-of-view. So don't let one rejection (even if it's from someone important) make you decide your book isn't any good.

Girl, Stolen is up for Nebraska's Golden Sower award. [Note to self: be careful how you refer to this award, as it would be so easy to make a mistake!]

Here are the other books:
Guitar Boy by MJ Auch.
After his mother is severely injured in an accident and his father kicks him out of the house, thirteen-year-old Travis attempts to survive on his own until he meets a guitar maker and some musicians who take him in and help him regain his confidence so that he can try to patch his family back together.

All the Broken Pieces, by Ann Burg
Two years after being airlifted out of Vietnam in 1975, Matt Pin is haunted by the terrible secret he left behind. Now, in a loving adoptive home in the United States, a series of profound events forces him to confront his past.

The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez
In 1961 after Castro has come to power in Cuba, fourteen-year-old Lucia and her seven- year-old brother are sent to the United States when her parents, who are not in favor of the new regime, fear that the children will be taken away from them as others have been.

Girl, Stolen by me!
When an impulsive carjacking turns into a kidnapping, Griffin, a high school dropout, finds himself more in sympathy with his wealthy, blind victim, sixteen-year-old Cheyenne, than with his greedy father.

Scat by Carl Hiassen
Nick and his friend Marta decide to investigate when a mysterious fire starts near a Florida wildlife preserve and an unpopular teacher goes missing.

A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park
When the Sudanese civil war reaches his village in 1985, eleven-year-old Salva becomes separated from his family and must walk with other Dinka tribe members through southern Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya in search of safe haven.

The Cardturner: A Novel About a King, a Queen, and a Joker by Louis Sachar
When his wealthy uncle, a champion bridge player who has lost his vision, asks seventeen-year-old Alton to be a cardturner for him, Alton has no idea how much he will ultimately learn from his eccentric relative.

Bruiser by Neal Shusterman
Inexplicable events start to occur when sixteen-year-old twins Tennyson and Bronte befriend a troubled and misunderstood outcast, aptly nicknamed Bruiser, and his little brother Cody.

The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen
When a school bus accident leaves sixteen-year-old Jessica an amputee, she returns to school with a prosthetic limb and her track team finds a wonderful way to help rekindle her dream of running again.

A Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame by Brenda Woods
Nine Los Angeles high school students use a creative writing class assignment to shed light on their own lives.

And it still is summer, even if the word "September" doesn't seem like it really belongs with the word "summer."

Anyway, I am interviewed over on the Girls of Summer blog, which focuses on books with strong female heroines. In this case, it's Cheyenne in Girl, Stolen.

http://girlsofsummerlist.wordpress.com/author-interviews/april-henry/

I have always felt a mystical connection to Josh Berk. He's funny, he's a writer, he writes mysteries. And now there's proof:


About 18 months ago, I found this tape in the gutter where the remains of a windblown tree had been taken away. Of course I kept it!

Girl, Stolen is up for a Black-Eyed Susan award in Maryland and was an ALAN [Assembly on Literature for the Adolescent] pick in April.

And it's even on this very cool reading list for girls developed by two authors

While these might totally change, I wanted to share some new covers with you guys (after I got permission from my editor).

This one's for my next book. It's what the cover of the ARE (Advanced Readers Edition, which seems to be the in-term now, instead of ARC, or Advanced Readers Copy). (Does anyone know why ARE is now in vogue?) The cover may change for the real book, which won't come out until March 2012. What do you think?


And here's what they are thinking of using for the cover of the paperback of Girl, Stolen, which also comes out in March 2012. While I love the hands over the face cover, Marketing had some concerns the book looked like a problem novel for girls (you know, Ami has an eating disorder or Amanda's dad is touching her at night). They wanted to project it was a thriller that would appeal to both sexes. Again, what do you think?

 So Google Alerts pointed out this question posted on Yahoo Answers by a girl named Ashley (she's even pictured, complete with head tilt):  

"In the story Girl, Stolen by April Henry what are some passages that contain similes, metaphors, mood, imagery?"

Dear Ashley:

Even I would have to [re]read the book to figure this one out.  My advice to you, and I could be wrong, is for you to do the same....

I even wore my totally cool striped heels, which the interviewer had a long conversation with me about. But as soon as I saw her shoes, I knew mine probably wouldn't show up on camera - she was wearing round-toed flats with dark socks. Not like The Today Show, where guests perch on the couch wearing shoes with six-inch heels that I don't even think I could sit in.

If you want to read what they said about our story: http://www.katu.com/amnw/segments/120494164.html

I think it went okay - what do you think?

Want to know the story of the real stolen girl behind Girl, Stolen?



You can read it right here.

Like this girl's sweet review of Girl, Stolen

Guess what book was featured in School Library Journal’s “Remarkable Reads” feature?

And guess what books is on both!

Girl, Stolen (Christy Ottaviano Books)

As well as:
- The Maze Runner (Maze Runner Trilogy, Book 1)
- Lockdown
- Scrawl
- Some Girls Are
- Nothing
- Glimpse

Look at all those one-word titles!

Here are links to both lists:
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/booklistsawards/bestficya/bfya2011.cfm

http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/booklistsawards/quickpicks/qp2011.cfm

Well, can you?

Girl, Stolen has gone back to press for a third time! Yay!

Okay, I'll admit I have bragged on Girl, Stolen before.

But this book nearly didn't see the light of day, at least not the way it's currently configured. I was told by someone I thought was knowledgable that books about kidnapped blind girls were "overdone." And that I should rewrite the whole thing from the guy - Griffin's - POV. And I almost listened!.

But then I looked deep inside myself and said, "No." Said, "This books feels right the way it is." And found an editor who agreed.

Anyway, here's what BCCB (Bulletin for the Center for Children's Books) thinks: "Sixteen-year-old Cheyenne, waiting in the car outside the pharmacy, has pneumonia, and she just wants her stepmother to come out with her meds and drive her home. Unfortunately, Griffin, who gets in the car thinks he is stealing an unattended vehicle, doesn't see the passenger curled up in the back seat until it is too late. The two teens, both shocked at the turn of events, end up at Griffin's home, where his father, upon realizing that Cheyenne is the daughter of an extraordinarily wealthy man, turns this error into a ransom opportunity. Cheyenne, slowed by her illness, is nevertheless constantly calculating ways she can get Griffin, the only decent person out in the wilderness where she is being kept, on her side in order to escape from a situation that is unlikely to end well. Henry ably presents Cheyenne's blindness as an aspect that is no more relevant than, for example, her pneumonia as an obstacle in her current horrific situation. She willingly shares details of her blindness with Griffin, first as a manipulation tool and then as part of the shaky bond they form, but otherwise, she simply focuses on escape, using her wits, daring, and strong will to get her home. The pace is impeccable, becoming rapidly more frantic as Cheyenne realizes her chances for success are dwindling. In addition, the premise itself is powerfully realistic and compelling, with one small incident (Griffin's jumping into a car that had the keys in the ignition) snowballing into a nightmare series of events that will change everyone. Readers will likely recognize such pivotal—but hopefully far less dramatic—moments in their own lives."

Moral of the story: if it feels wrong, maybe it is. Or conversely: if it feels right, then maybe it is.

Thank goodness for LJ's crcook or I might not have known that Girl, Stolen (Christy Ottaviano Books) had been nominated for YALSA's Best Fiction for Young Adults list.

See the proof here.

Girl, Stolen is my third YA, but the first one nominated for the list, so I'm super excited!

The Oregonian had this to say about Girl, Stolen (Christy Ottaviano Books):

"The book successfully stays what it intends to be -- a page-turner, and Henry isn't afraid to realistically threaten her characters, kill them off and even gray-scale their personalities and actions. But more importantly, the reader is present at that perfect moment when a boy chooses completely opposite of his father even though he knows that will mean the end of life as he understands it. And for a lot of still more important reasons, for both female and male readers, this book allows the title girl to unapologetically be her own rescuer -- because she's smart, strong and collected."

Full Oregonian review.

and TeensReadToo.com gave it five stars and said:

"Author April Henry has created quite a thriller guaranteed to keep readers on the edge of their seats. GIRL,
STOLEN is filled with plenty of excitement and suspense. There is the obvious complication of Cheyenne's
blindness and the added difficulty of her physical illness and her immediate need for antibiotics. Those problems alone would be enough for most authors, but Henry adds other creative plot twists that will keep readers on their toes. GIRL, STOLEN is a must-read for action and adventure fans."

Full Teens Read, Too review.