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Brande, Robin. 2009. (October 2009) Fat Cat. Random House. 336 pages.

"You're all good little machines," Mr Fizer told us. He sat there this afternoon in his tweed jacket and his white shirt and plaid bow tie and glared at us over the top of his half-glasses.

Cat hearts science. And she's thrilled to be in Mr. Fizer's class--Fizer's Special Topics In Research science class. A class that is legendary, "not the least because every few years someone has to run out of there on the first day and vomit because of the stress." On the first day of class, each student randomly selects a picture/photo from Mr. Fizer's hands. Your research topic for the year? A complete gamble. No matter your interest, you'll be forced to be "inspired" by the picture you select. No wonder there is stress! What does fate have in store for Cat?

It was an artist's rendering of how these early humans might have lived. There were three men and a woman out in a meadow of some sort. They were all lean and muscular and tan--and did I mention naked? They were gathered around a dead deer, guarding it from a pack of saber-toothed hyenas who were trying to move in and snatch it. One of the men was shouting. The woman had the only weapon--a rock--and she stood there poised to pitch it at the hyenas. It was a great action scene if you're into that sort of thing--the whole anthro-paleo field of studies where you care more about the dead then the living.

Can prehistoric men and women inspire Cat to greatness? Read and see for yourself in Fat Cat. A transformative story about living life to the fullest.

What did I love about this one? Practically everything. I'm not a science person. Not even a little bit. But I loved this novel. Loved that the heroine's passion for science was so strong and intellectual yet always relevant to real life, to the real world. I liked that the novel made me think. Really think. You see, it in a way goes to the science of nutrition, the science of healthy living. And I think every reader can benefit from that exposure. No, reading Fat Cat didn't make me want to become a vegan, I still love my meat. But it did make me think about what changes I would be willing to make. Encouraged me to stick with those changes I've already made. I also loved that science wasn't Cat's only interest. She was passionate about many things--including cooking and swimming. People were also important to her. Her friends. Her family. Especially her little brother. Loved the development of that relationship. Cat was a complex, very human, character that I just loved.

But this isn't just a novel about a diet or lifestyle change. How a fat girl can go from not to hot...It's so much more than that. It's a reflective and smart coming of age novel. It's a romance too. I love Matt. I do. While our heroine, Cat, was loving-to-hate and hating-to-love him, I was loving to love him and cheering this reluctant couple on. It reminded me of some of my favorite reluctant romances--like Anne and Gilbert, for example. This is one giddy-making romance...

They say your muscles have memory. Once you've trained your arms to swing a tennis racket or your legs to ride a bike, you can quit for a while--for years, even--and all it takes is picking up a racket or jumping on a bike again and your muscles remember what to do. They snap right back to performing the way you taught them.
The heart is a muscle, too. And I've been training mine since I was a kid to fall in love with one particular person.... (313)

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Barzak, Christopher. 2008. The Love We Share Without Knowing.

Everything you think you know about the world isn't true. Nothing is real, it's all made up. We live in a world of illusion. I'm telling you this up front because I don't want you thinking this story is going to have a happy ending. It won't make any sense out of sadness. It won't redeem humanity in even a small sort of way.

This isn't your traditional novel. If you know that going in, I think you will appreciate it more. Think of it more as a collection of loosely woven short stories. Some stories are more 'connected' than others. The stories share a common thread or two--mainly that of theme. To sum it up in one word: Humanity. What it means to be human, to experience the ups and downs, highs and lows of being human. Love. Loss. Pain. Anger. Bitterness. Frustration. Disappointment. Heartache. Homesickness. Loneliness. Some stories are darker than others. Some seem to be without hope or redemption. Others are more uplifting. What they all have in common, however, is the Barzak touch. He, quite simply, has a way with words. Even if you don't like where the story is going, he keeps you so in love with the words on the page, that you just have to keep reading.

Love isn't what we think. It's a living, changing creature that takes as many shapes as the fox women in the old tales my mother used to tell me. Love comes in and sometimes she's a woman who woos you with soft words and promises. Love comes in and sometimes he's a man with a strong smile and a grip on your shoulder. Love comes in and sometimes it's something beyond the usual circumstances of two people becoming one. It can slip through our hands before we even realize what it is we're holding. (97)

"But sweetheart," said her mother, "the things you don't speak of are the loudest things you say." (146)

We wear our masks in between dreams. It's one of the rules of living here. You can't not wear a mask in those spaces of time. But if you want, you can change the one you've been given. All you have to do is be strong and make it so. (188)

Have you seen Because of Winn Dixie? Do you remember the scenes where the librarian is sharing hard candy with Opal? And Opal is then sharing this candy with others? How every single person has a different way of describing how the candy tastes? That's what this novel was like. That's what this novel was trying to do, in my humble opinion, capture the 101 different flavors of life itself.

All of the stories are set in Japan.

My favorite chapter? Perhaps "If You Can Read This You're Too Close." Listen to how it starts off, "This is the truth. A blind man saw me on the train." Within this story there is a beautiful exchange from which the title of the book comes. But I'm not going to share it here! If you think this one is for you, I encourage you to pick it up and read it for yourself!

I won't lie and say I think this novel is for everyone. The book deals in quite a few chapters with the subject of suicide and the seeming 'hopelessness' of life. (I personally did NOT like the chapter with the suicide club. I do not buy into suicide as a good idea for solving life's hiccups.) It is an adult book, and some of the stories may not be appropriate for younger readers. (Though I think most teens could handle it just fine.)

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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Bennett, Veronica. 2007. Cassandra's Sister.

Cassandra's Sister is a novel inspired by the life of Jane Austen--a fictional interpretation of her life--her teen years, her first supposed taste of love, the writing of three of her novels: Sense & Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Northanger Abbey. (They apparently weren't published in the order they were written.) The novel focuses on several things: her family life--her relationships with her sister, Cassandra, and her brothers and their wives, her writing life, and her 'love' life such as it was. It touches upon the limitations of the time--how women didn't have all that many options when it came to life--dependent upon their parents and/or other relatives OR dependent upon a husband. (In that way it reminded me of Katherine Sturtevant's delightful books At the Sign of the Star and A True and Faithful Narrative.) Should a woman marry for security? Should she marry a man because he can provide for her? Or should she remain single, remain an 'old maid' because the right one never came along? Is love a requirement for marriage? Is it wrong to want love? To expect love? To not marry for convenience or security or whatever? It's historical fiction with a tiny bit of romance thrown in--miniscule really--but it's richness in certain details might make it a good choice for young Austen fans.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Bryant, Jen. 2008. Ringside, 1925: Views from the Scopes Trial.

I'll keep this one short. And I mean it. Something about this one just didn't work for me. Maybe it was the fact that it was in verse. (Verse novels sometimes exist when they should just be prose. And nobody--but the author perhaps--know why they're in verse in the first place.) Maybe it had too many narrators to suit me. (I liked one or two of the narrators, but there were just too many in this case. All the shifting P.O.V's annoyed me. Maybe if it had been told in two--or just one for that matter--I would have liked it better.) The title says it all: Views From the Scopes Trial. It's historical fiction. It's based on fact. It's got multiple voices represented. If you're interested in the Scopes Trial and/or you're interested in American history in general, then you might want to seek it out. It may work for other readers. It may even work well for others. But not for me. Reading is subjective after all. So still give this one a chance if you come across it. You could end up liking it much more than I did.

Read Sarah Miller's review for a really positive spin on the novel that will completely balance mine out.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Barshaw, Ruth McNally. 2008. Ellie McDoodle: New Kid In School.

I enjoyed this one. I think I enjoyed it even more than the first Ellie McDoodle adventure. In the second book, our little heroine, Ellie, is getting ready to move. And she is not happy one little bit. New home. New neighborhood. New school. Here's how the book begins,

The End.
Seriously. This is the end. I'm doing this new journal to keep track of my family's move to a new house (new city, new schools, new everything.) There won't be much to keep track of, though, because this is the END of everything good.

But of course this is just the beginning. The transition may not be completely smooth--nor painless for that matter--but Ellie does eventually come around to the move.

Ellie is as lovable as ever. And I definitely recommend this to fans of the first. But I hope as well that this one brings new readers. Ellie McDoodle relies heavily on drawings or sketches. Ellie is an artist you see. And these sketches make the novel fun--they're a charming asset to the whole. It's a quick read with a lot of heart.

One of my favorite parts? Soon after the move--I think the very day of the move unless time has clouded things up--Ellie goes off on her own exploring the neighborhood. She's not liking anything she sees...until she spots the library. "Finally! Signs of life. It's a library. This place is humongous! The kids' books are upstairs. So far, so good...I find the books I like and get cozy. It's not too quiet, not too noisy. Lots to look at. And MILLIONS of books. Icould live here." (19-20). She even makes her first friend, the librarian Miss Claire.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Bosch, Pseudonymous. 2008. If You're Reading This, It's Too Late.

If You're Reading This, It's Too Late is the sequel to The Name of This Book Is Secret. I enjoyed the first book tremendously. I loved it. L-O-V-E loved it. This one....well, it didn't quite live up to my expectations...but I think it's an enjoyable enough read. I think it might be just my mood. (Or maybe sometimes second books have a hard time living up to the first book.)

Like The Name of This Book Is Secret, this one is written in a very informal, casual way. Novel-as-conversation. The narrator-author is speaking directly to the reader. And this works in many ways. It's meant to be humorous and adventurous all in one.

Here's the author's note:

Please read the contract on the following page very carefully. If you refuse to sign, I'm afraid you must close this book immediately.

Turn the page, and this is what you'll see:

I, the Reader of this Book, certify that I am reading this book for entertainment only. Or to avoid cleaning my bedroom or doing my homework. I will not try to uncover the true identities or locations of the people described in this book. Nor will I try to contact any secret society mentioned in this book. Although the story may concern an ancient and powerful secret, I hereby deny any knowledge of this so-called secret. If I am ever asked about it, I will run from the room. Unless I am on an airplane, in which case I will close my eyes and ignore the person speaking to me. And if all else fails, I'll scream. I will not repeat a word of this book under any circumstances. Unless I just can't help it.
If that doesn't make you curious, surely the prologue will.

One thing that I enjoyed about this one is that the chapters count down. We begin with chapter 33 and end with chapter 1. I thought that was unusual but fun.

The narrator is just as fun as ever. And the story is an interesting that is full of adventure, mystery, and humor. Our hero-and-heroine (Cass and Max-Ernest) are back for more secrets, more chases, and more close-calls. And they're ready to join the Terces society, and prepared to go on missions for the greater-good to put a stop to the evil society of the Midnight Sun.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Birdsall, Jeanne. 2008. The Penderwicks on Gardam Street.

Sometimes it's best to read a book without having any preconceived ideas. All I've heard over and over again since this book has been released is how it is even better, even greater than the original. How people loved it just that much more. (I was expecting it to be a WoW book; one that just was so incredibly amazingly good that I wouldn't know what to do with myself.) So I think my expectations were just a tiny bit too high. That being said, I still loved it.

This second book, The Penderwicks on Gardam Street, picks up soon after the original concludes. The Penderwick family consists of: Mr. Penderwick (dad), Rosalind, Skye, Jane, Batty and Hound. The family has returned home. School has begun. Life is going on as usual...mostly. [They do have a new neighbor on their street. A single woman (widow) with a small child of her own.] Each child has their own drama going on; each has their own story line. One that weaves them all together (in a way) is the fact that their dad has started dating again. Each of the girls is a bit worried about that. Worried that he'll find someone he'll like. Worried that he'll find someone to marry. So they're not content to mind their own business. Lots of MOP meetings going on. Lots of schemes--some successful, some foiled.

I enjoyed this one. I did. I liked how the dad was able to fool everyone into thinking he was dating a "Marianne Dashwood." I liked the story of Jane and Skye. How they exchanged homework assignments with some rather unforeseen results. I loved Jane in general.

I enjoyed this book because I loved the characters. I loved the narrative. I loved how Birdsall wrote the story. The narrative voices. The language. The style. But I didn't love this one because of the plot. The plot was just incidental. I didn't like this plot more than the other. Didn't find it greater than the original. This novel is great because the characters are great. And that's the same way I felt about the first book. Neither book's plots stood out as amazing to me. But the characters did. So I loved both books.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Birdsall, Jeanne. 2005. The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy.

For a long time after that summer, the four Penderwick sisters still talked of Arundel. Fate drove us there, Jane would say. No, it was the greedy landlord who sold our vacation house on Cape Cod, someone else would say, probably Skye.

I liked this one. A lot. It was a nice and enjoyable novel. One that a whole family could enjoy. One that was meant to be read aloud and shared. It's not a loud story. Not crammed with action and explosions and bathroom jokes. But it's a good and pleasant one. It's a story of the Penderwick family--Mr. Penderwick, Rosalind (12), Skye (11), Jane (10), and Batty (4), and their dog, Hound. Mrs. Penderwick died when Batty was just a baby. (From cancer I believe.)

The book is about one of their summers. The summer that they visit Arundel, a cottage. It is owned by a rather grumpy and snooty woman Mrs. Tifton. But Mrs. Tifton has a son, Jeffrey, and a gardener, Cagney, and there is where the fun begins. New friends to make. Problems to create and solve. Life to be experienced.

Recommended for those who like a bit of old-fashioned charm in their lives.

About the book:

The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy is on many State Award Master Lists, including those for Arizona, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, and Virginia. Other awards and honors include:

• National Book Award Winner for Young People’s Literature
• New York Times Bestseller
• Book Sense National Bestseller
• Booklist Editors’ Choice
• Kirkus Reviews Editors’ Choice
• Publishers Weekly Best Children’s Book
• School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
• Child Magazine Best Kids’ Book of the Year
• Children’s Book Sense Top Ten Pick
• 2007 Kalbacher Klapperschlange (Germany)

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Bowe, Julie. 2008. My New Best Friend.

As much as I enjoyed the first one, I do believe I loved this one just that much more. I loved it. It just felt right, felt natural, felt good. These books really capture what it feels like to be in fourth grade. Clubs. Fourth grade can be (and often is) all about the clubs. Including and excluding. Creating a hierarchy. Ida May is our narrator once again. And this time she is starting out the book with a best friend. A certain girl we first met in My Last Best Friend, a girl prone to lying at times: Stacey Merriweather. Jenna Drews is the "enemy" of sorts to our heroine. Though not so much as in the first book.

Here's the jacket description: "Ida May and her new best friend, Stacey Merriweather, are two peas in a pod. And when they discover a magical mermaid night-light that seems to grant wishes, they start a secret club--just the two of them. But before long, Ida suspects that Stacey is using the mermaid to tell some big lies...and to cause some big trouble at home. How will Ida set the record straight while still keeping her new best friend."

First paragraph:

"I'm Ida May and I have a lot to be thankful for.

• I have not dropped my lunch tray once since the start of fourth grade.
• I have only tripped twice in public.
• Dodgeball season is almost over.
• So is our science unit on dissecting worms.

I'm thankful for my teacher, Mr. Crow, even though he makes us slice open worms and pin back their skin. Because he doesn't make us touch their insides if we don't want to. And he always comes us with new ways to keep us from getting too bored with school. For example, he makes us learn how to spell big words like influenza, which is what you get if you breathe in too many bad germs, and catastrophe, which is what you get if things don't go the way you planned. Also, he reads to us every day. Not baby books, either. Lately, he's been reading us Greek stories about gods and goddesses and the creatures that work for them. Actually, they're Greek myths. Myth is a Greek word for made-up story. Like the one about the god Apollo driving a chariot across the sky when really it's just the sun. And other myths about pretty nymphs and singing muses who aren't as powerful as goddesses but, still, they can get you to do things that you don't exactly want to do. Mr. Crow says a myth is true if you believe it's true." (1-2)

I loved this one. I loved the mermaid night-light. Loved the secret club. Loved the story. It was funny in all the right places, yet it wasn't just a few pieced together laughs either. It had heart.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Benway, Robin. 2008. Audrey, Wait.

"The day I broke up with my boyfriend Evan was the day he wrote the song. You know, the song. I'm sure you've heard it. Maybe you danced to it at prom or sang it in your car on a Friday night when you were driving and feeling like you must be inhuman to be this happy, the windows down and nothing but air around you. Your mom has probably hummed it while cleaning the dryer's lint trap, and your grandpa has most likely whistled a couple bars. If he's the whistling type.
According to the poll on the front page of USA Today, sixty-three percent of Americans blame me for the breakup, so let me clear the air right now: they're right. Sixty-three percent of Americans are no fools when it comes to knowing about my love life, which is really creepy and isn't helping me sleep well. But it's true: I broke up with Evan, and eight hours later, he had a song in his head, and a guitar in his hand and it snowballed from there." (1)*

This one had me at hello. Talk about a good hook. This beginning is as catchy as the fictional "Audrey, Wait" song is reported to be. Our heroine, Audrey Cuttler was a typical teen girl. A junior in high school. An employee of the Scooper Dooper icecream shoppe in the mall. The third wheel to her best friends Victoria and Jonah, the "perfect" couple. That was before.

Since her ex-boyfriend wrote a song about her, about their break up, Audrey's life hasn't been the same. Not all the changes are bad, but most--if not all--take some getting used to. Instant fame--especially unwanted instant fame--isn't what Audrey ever wanted. She doesn't want to be the new "IT" girl. Now Audrey's life is turned upside down and inside out. Nothing makes sense--not school, not work, not her family at home, and especially not her social life.

This book is fun. Really fun. And it's a quick read.

Other reviews: Teen Book Review, Rocket Girls, Hope's Bookshelf, The YA YA YAs, A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy, Kinsmen of the Shelf, Reviewer X, KarinLibrarian, Like OMG Teens Read, The Book Reader, Book Candy, Jen Robinson, Liv's Book Reviews, The Inkblotter, The Compulsive Reader, Meg Cabot, Patchwork of Books.


http://www.audreywait.com/

*Quote taken from ARC, so it may not match the final published edition of the novel.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Buzbee, Lewis. 2008. Steinbeck's Ghost. (September 2008 release).

"Finally. He finally found the word he had been looking for.
Camazotz.
The moment Travis Williams stepped out of his house into the warm September afternoon, the word came to him. For months, ever since he and his parents had moved into the new house, he'd been trying to figure out what was so creepy about this place. Now he knew.
He stepped off the porch into the bright sunshine and whispered the word.
Camazotz.
A Wrinkle in Time was one of Travis's favorite books. He'd first borrowed it from the library a couple of years ago, when he was eleven, and had probably borrowed it three times since, read it he didn't know how many times. Whenever he thought of the book, he pictured the planet Camazotz.
On Camazotz, everything was perfect. Every house was exactly like every other house, every lawn like all the rest. Every garden grew the same kind of flower, and the exact same number of those flowers. Everyone in Camazotz dressed like everyone else, and they all did the same things and at the same times. One child played ball in front of each house, and each ball bounced to the same beat.
Camazotz was supposed to be a perfect planet. And in a way, Travis thought, it was perfect. Perfectly creepy.
Bella Linda Terrace was supposed to be perfect, too." (1-2)

For anyone who loves to read books about people who love books, Steinbeck's Ghost is the novel for you. Travis Williams loves to read, and he loves his library. When he hears the news that his library, the John Steinbeck library, is closing, he's shocked and disappointed and angry. Luckily, this news effects many people the exact same way. And fortunately, these people--from the elderly to the teens--is willing to put their time, money, and energy into saving it. Set in California, set in Salinas, our narrator, Travis, is fascinated with John Steinbeck. Loves his work. Got a few favorites among his novels, but has a familiarity with the world Steinbeck created. When this fictional world starts coming to life right before his eyes, Travis is both amazed and hesitant. Is he going crazy? Did he saw what he thought he saw? Can other people see these things as well? Travis isn't going crazy--at least we're led to believe that he's not going crazy--and soon Travis and a few select friends are following the trail, following the voices, the messages, that are leading them to discover the story that Steinbeck never wrote. Books. Libraries. Community activism. Friendship. Family. This one has a little bit of everything.

"Every book he recognized opened up the world of that book to him. These weren't stacks of paper bound together with glue or string--they weren't items or products. Every book was an entire universe." (26)

"Reading a library book wasn't something you did on your own. It was something you shared with everyone who had ever read that book. You read the book in private, yes, but other hands had been on it, had softened its pages and loosened its spine. With hardcovers, the clear shiny Bro-Dart, put on to protect the dust jacket, quickly got scuffed and crinkly, and sometimes you'd find a thumbprint pressed into the plastic.
The book, when you were done with it, went back to the library, and from there to other hands. When you read a library book, you were connected to all these strangers." (56)

"When you read, the world really did change. He understood this now. You saw parts of the world you never knew existed. Books were in the world; the world was in books." (89)

Yes, the book has its strange moments. Moments when he's being "haunted" (or prompted) by Steinbeck's fictional characters. But the book is just as much about Travis discovering himself as it is about him discovering the world of books and also discovering the world around him. There is a certain authenticity captured in the pages of this book.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Buckley, Michael. 2008. Tales From the Hood.

Tales from the Hood is the sixth novel in The Sisters Grimm series by Michael Buckley. This is a series that is fun and exciting. A series that I would have absolutely loved if it had been around when I was a kid. One that I still love now even as a grown up. It focuses on Sabrina and Daphne Grimm and their grandmother, Granny Relda, and on their sibling-of-sorts Puck. (Puck isn't a real relation mind you, but he has been unofficially (in a way) adopted into the family by Granny Relda.) Sabrina is beginning to grow up, not mature necessarily, but grow up. In other words, she's starting to get to that age. That difficult age. And as such she's not always the easiest person to get along with. She's not really "listening" or "obeying" the rules laid out for her by Granny Relda and Uncle Jake. This time is difficult for Daphne as well. Daphne has always loved and looked up to her older sister, but now....now her sister is unrecognizable at times. So weird, so mean.

I won't really get much into the plot. It's exciting enough that it will keep you reading. But if I talk about book six, then it would probably spoil some things from earlier books--especially book five--and that just wouldn't be any fun at all.

I like this series a lot. I like how the fairy tales are woven together in a fun, topsy-turvy way. The characterization and the plot twists are just really well done.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Buckley, Michael. 2007. The Sisters Grimm: Magic and Other Misdemeanors.

Typically, I'm not a big fan of prologues. However, Michael Buckley's Sisters Grimm series always proves to be the exception to the rule. With just a page or two, he draws you into some rather intense and emotional scenes...whetting your appetite for more while never revealing too much. Even though I've seen the smallest glimpse of what is coming, I'm still on the edge of my seat. The books are always so action-packed, adventure-fulled, and suspensefully tantalizing that I've just got to read more.

Sabrina, Daphne, and Puck are back! It's always so interesting (to me) to see what trouble these three get in and out of in each novel. For those that may be new to the series, you should definitely read them in order. (This is the fifth novel.) But here's a brief refresher course. Sabrina and Daphne are sisters who have come to stay with their grandmother--Granny Relda--in the small town of Ferryport Landing. The three are descendants of the ever-famous Brothers Grimm. The town is a town where Everafters live--Prince Charming, Snow White, Three Little Pigs, Three Blind Mice, Rapunzel, etc.--and the Grimms are their keepers. They guard the town; they guard these fairy tale creatures from escaping the town's boundaries and preventing some of the darker ones from wreaking havoc on an unsuspecting world. This doesn't always make them popular. Some love them. Some hate them. Granny Relda is training her two granddaughters. And that gives you some idea of what these novels are about. They're intense-but-wacky treats for young readers. Action. Mystery. Humor.

Magic and Other Misdemeanors is about many things--their ongoing quest to save the girls' parents from their enchanted sleep, their ongoing quest to uncover the mysteries of the Scarlet Hand gang, about their adventures trying to save some burglaries of some local witches, and their troubles with the new city government and their new tax problem. The book is exciting. I'm not sure every reader will be as *thrilled* with the time elements. But they made my day. They really did.

http://www.sistersgrimm.com/books.html

The others in the series: The Fairy Tale Detectives, The Unusual Suspects, The Problem Child, and Once Upon A Crime. The sixth book Tales From the Hood came out May 1rst. My review will be coming soon, I promise!

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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By Lindsay Kaplan- Associate Publicist

I was once an English major. I know. Hard to believe.

In the sweet days of my youth I foolishly decided I would waltz into New York upon graduation, diploma in hand, and land a career in Publishing. My naïveté was as common as my resumé, which is to say laughable and extremely unimpressive. Yet I thought that if I could manage to get a foot in the door, I would talk my way into a career at a prestigious house.

I did.

But most undergrads out there lack my charm, sass, and willingness to blackmail. After all, that was way back in 2006, back when an assistant like myself had to walk to Madison Avenue uphill both ways.

Times have changed. Nowadays, an impressive internship is more important than an ordinary sheepskin. Publishing is a hard industry to crack without the right connections. That’s why I’ve decided to organize a publicity internship program starting in January.

If you or someone you know is a student in New York and want to put Oxford University Press on your resume this spring, read on. If not, skip right down to the comments and tell us all about your internship horror stories! (more…)

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