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Everything about Celtic Tales, Fairy Tales and Stories of Enchantment from Ireland, Scotland, Brittany, and Wales calls to be held, read, and visually absorbed. The design is simple but beautiful. Kate Forrester's imagery is beguiling. I've awaited this release with images from the catalog taped to my wall. In the sophisticated art, there's a refined simplicity. The Celtic tales themselves are fresh and surprising.
This is a beautiful pick to gift someone for the holidays. Just be aware:
"Do not think the fairies are always little.
Everything is capricious about them, even their size...
Their chief occupations are feasting, fighting, and making
love, and playing the most beautiful music."
~William Butler Yeats, Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry.
Celtic Talesillustrated by Kate Forrester
Chronicle Books, 2016
In the spirit of celebrating friendship, check out Famous Friends by Jennifer Castle and Bill Spring. The cover doesn't do justice to the breadth of the text. From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, and John Lennon to Paul McCartney, the little features and anecdotes are delicious. I found myself smiling over the bromance between Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart. So fun and dear. Kindred spirits finding each other on our planet should be treasured. Go through a trove in Famous Friends. Too much fun. Yay for Marilyn Monroe and Ella Fitzgerald. I mean, seriously! #beautyallaround
Famous Friends
by Jennifer Castle and Bill Spring
Scholastic, 2014
Over on the readergirlz facebook page, we are sharing the thoughts of YA writers post U.S. election, 2016. Feel free to add your views as well. #wethepeople #inked #andnowwewrite #love.
Onward, rgz. Read, reflect, and reach out! ~Lorie Ann Grover
I've only popped open this exquisite work and already have quotes to share:
"Art-making at its best is a confrontation with the mysterious and the irrational. If we listen to the people concerned mainly with classification or marketing, we end up not making honest and true works of art, but only product, rubber-stamped and made to fit into a prefab box that might as well be a casket." David Small
"Without quite realizing it, these indie artists and writers had invented a new art form--a new kind of book for which people at first did not have a name. By the early 2000s, the books were everywhere." Leonard S. Marcus
Whether you call them graphic novels or comics, the current creators are a force in the publishing industry. Comics Confidential, Thirteen Graphic Novelists Talk Story, Craft, and Life Outside the Box, compiled and edited by Leonard S. Marcus, is a documentary treasure of the creative contribution from thirteen viewpoints. Each interview includes a comic and sketches or manuscript pages about "the city." Those nest among personal stories of out of the box artists, including Harry Bliss, Hope Larson, and Sara Varon.
Thank you, Leonard, for stopping and sharing so beautifully the backstories, practices, and thoughts of this group. And thanks, Candlewick Press!
Comics Confidential
Thirteen graphic Novelists Talk Story, Craft, and Life Outside the Box
compiled and edited by Leonard S. Marcus
Candlewick Press, 2016
~Lorie Ann Grover
Master storyteller Marcus Sedgwick winds four separate tales along a connecting spiral shape. Twirling from prehistory into the future, characters face the symbol of life that "copies itself and builds on itself, forever."
A girl in a cave with a charred stick, an accused woman plunged below water, a poet in a sanitarium, and an astronaut turning in a spiral in space all find the stair to climb higher and higher, while they remember the past and reach forward into the future.
Marcus' woven stories turn the reader round and round, yet he leaves them before the light of wet grass, an apple tree, and love. If you didn't cross paths with The Ghosts of Heaven last year, readergirlz, find it and turn, turn, turn.
The Ghosts of Heaven
by Marcus Sedgwick
Roaring Brook Press, 2015
Just finished The Memory of Light by Francisco X. Stork. The exploration of depression is honest and may give words as well as hope to those within the condition. Learning to exist in the midst of the trial is displayed with a tender compassion.
Watch for Vicky's story of crisis and recovery. It may help you find your own memory of light or assist another along the path beside you.
The Memory of Light
by Francisco X. Stork
Arthur A. Levine Books, Scholastic, 2016
Edited by Cheryl Klein
Each Beth Kephart book which sails onto the shelf is like polished sea glass refracting the light of truth. This is the Story of You is a poetic rendering of loss and isolation after an epic storm. Mira is asked if she is strong enough to stand on her small, destroyed island and help the community that has shaped her every heartbeat. With her mother and brother off-island, she finds her family is broader than she ever expected.
Find the work, readergirlz, and listen to Beth's love of the sea. Draw your mind in directions unexpected, and finish the last page with the sound of the ocean and one girl's resilience shoring you up in your own story of you.
This is the Story of You
by Beth Kephart
Chronicle Books, 2016
Happy new year, rgz! Sending our love and wishes for many great books to fall into your hands.
I started 2016 off with:
How about you?
So many publishers are participating, rgz! Just hashtag #GiveBooks and publishers are matching the mention with donations to #FirstBook. Isn't that amazing? So well done!
Here's the link to make it super easy if you want to hit your multiple sites.
#ReadReflectReachOut
Happy holidays!
We don't often feature books with central male protags, but this one from Jack Gantos also has a fierce senior female, Miss Volker, in the spotlight. And we don't regularly recommend middle grade novels. Yet, why not read outside YA? Isn't it the story that matters, not the age of the main character? Did you read, Dead End in Norvelt? You don't want to miss it. I was literally laughing out loud as I relished each page. I had to read passages to my family which in turn got us all giggling.
Blending truth and fiction, Jack Gantos writes of Jackie who spends the summer helping Miss Volker write the town's obituaries. The original citizens are passing quickly from the scene, even a bit suspiciously. The work brims with memorable characters living and dying in 1962.
The book won the Newbery in 2012 and the Scott O'Dell for Historical Fiction. Here are a few reviews:
A bit of autobiography works its way into all of Gantos’s work, but he one-ups himself in this wildly entertaining meld of truth and fiction by naming the main character . . . Jackie Gantos.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“A fast-paced and witty read.” —School Library Journal
“A more quietly (but still absurdly) funny and insightful account of a kid’s growth, kin to Gantos’s Jack stories, that will stealthily hook even resistant readers into the lure of history.” —BCCB
“This winning novel, both humorous and heartwarming, takes place during the summer of 1962, when narrator Jack Gantos turns 12 and spends most of his days grounded. Jack’s main ‘get out of jail free card,’ and one of the novel’s most charming characters, is Miss Volker. The blossoming of their friendship coincides with the blooming of Jack’s character.” —Shelf Awareness Pro
* “There’s more than laugh-out-loud gothic comedy here. This is a richly layered semi-autobiographical tale, an ode to a time and place, to history and the power of reading.” —The Horn Book, starred review
“Gantos, as always, deliver
rs bushels of food for thought and plenty of outright guffaws.” —Booklist
* “An exhilarating summer marked by death, gore and fire sparks deep thoughts in a small-town lad not uncoincidentally named ‘Jack Gantos.’ The gore is all Jack’s, which to his continuing embarrassment ‘would spray out of my nose holes like dragon flames’ whenever anything exciting or upsetting happens. And that would be on every other page, seemingly. . . . Characteristically provocative gothic comedy, with sublime undertones.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
Find this funny, poignant book, rgz, and get ready to laugh.
Dead End in Norvelt
By Jack Gantos
Square Fish, paperback
From the collection of Gendercide Posters on Polyvore
by Lorie Ann Grover
At the close of October, China announced an end to their One Child Policy. According to the New York Times, Chris Buckley, October 29, 2015:
BEIJING — Driven by fears that an aging population could jeopardize China’s economic ascent, the Communist Party leadership ended its decades-old “one child” policy on Thursday, announcing that all married couples would be allowed to have two children.
The decision was a dramatic step away from a core Communist Party position that Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese leader who imposed the policy in the late 1970s, once said was needed to ensure that “the fruits of economic growth are not devoured by population growth.”
For China’s leaders, the controls were a triumphant demonstration of the party’s capacity to reshape even the most intimate dimensions of citizens’ lives. But they bred intense resentment over the brutal intrusions involved, including forced abortions and crippling fines, especially in the countryside.
The efforts to limit family size also led to a skewed sex ratio of males to females, because traditional rural families favor boys over girls, sometimes even resorting to infanticide to ensure they have a son.
The One Child Policy is what motivated my writing of Firstborn. I was appalled that the practice of gendercide was still occurring in many countries around the world. The book was welcomed with a starred review from Kirkus and is now available in paperback.
Another book recently came across my desk: The Only Child, by Guojing. An illustrator from the Shanxi Province of China, she brings to the page her own memories of isolation in a wordless, graphic picture book. With starred reviews from Kirkus and PW, the book is resonating the loneliness that grew from China's earlier legislation. The black and white artwork is beautiful and captivating.
According to the Author's Note:
"The story in this book is fantasy, but it reflects the very real feelings of isolation and loneliness I experienced growing up in the 1980s under the one-child policy in China."
In celebration, we applaud the reform in China. If you'd like to make an impact, readergirlz, there are organizations dedicated to helping women carry their daughters to full term. One Christian organization is All Girls Allowed. Of course, there are many ways to #ReadReflectandReachout if you hold a different persuasion. The It's a Girl movie will do much to help you understand the worldwide situation.
As I sign copies of Firstborn, "Let them live!"
Firstborn
By Lorie Ann Grover
Blink YA Books, 2015
The Only Child
By Guojing
Schwartz & Wade Books, 2015
As you maybe get dressed up for a party tonight, remember it's the last day of the month we've raised awareness for breast cancer. Hopefully, we've celebrated those who were blessed to recover and remembered those who have passed from the disease.
This was always my intent with the publication of Loose Threads thirteen years ago. I caught the characters in my life, particularly my grandmother, Margie Garber, and her walk with the disease.
I'm thankful that today a book can continue to reach the right readers through e-books and print-on-demand.
Here's to compassion and assistance for those in treatment right now, readergirlz. May books be used as comforts on their journeys, and may they renew those who love and support them.
How wonderful to have three books in one collection: The Underdog, Fighting Ruben Wolfe, and Getting the Girl, by Markus Zusak. Thanks much, Scholastic! (And Arthur A. Levine for bringing the set together in hardback originally!) These books were written prior to The Book Thief and stand strongly. In my mind I've sequestered Markus' beautiful, poetic language to The Book Thief, thinking it fit the tone of that lifework so well. However, reading of the Wolfe brothers, I'm reminded it is Markus' voice which blooms with metaphors across his entire body of work. For me, it creates a sympathy, an understanding, a care for Cameron, the youngest brother making his way through his Australian adolescence.
From crazy schemes, to searches for identity, to family and friend relationships, Ruben and Cameron's exploits entertain and touch the heart with resonating honesty and truth. This is one to look for rgz, if you missed it go by. You have to get to know these brothers. Raise the boyfriend bar.
Under Dogs
By Markus Zusak
Scholastic, paperback, 2013
Jennifer and Matthew Holm have teamed up again, this time to write a semi-autobiographical graphic novel, Sunny Side Up. Illustrated beautifully by cartoonist Lark Pien, the reader is shot back to August, 1976, West Palm Beach, Florida. Gramps and Sunny reunite outside the Eastern Airlines terminal and their journey begins. Sunny is introduced to Pine Palms Retirement Community; life with seniors; Buzz, the groundskeeper's son; and comics. Flashbacks fill in the backstory of what precipitated Sunny's visit down south. Substance abuse is carefully; yet, honestly handled.
The understanding of each other that the characters attain, the give-and-take, and the discovery of the new is beautiful in this treasure. I would watch for this work on the awards lists. Enjoy the book, readergirlz, and then lend it to your little sister.
Sunny Side Up
by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm
illustrated by Lark Pien
Graphix, Scholastic, 2015
I'm rejoicing in the upcoming release of former readergirlz guest, Laura Resau. In The Lightning Queen there's magic, friendship, truth, and beauty in words calling up a former Oaxaca, Mexico. The modern day accompanying story strings the work together like Esma's own silver-coined necklace. The friendship between her, a Romani girl, and the Mixteco boy, Teo, rises up against impediments and barriers.
Favorite quotes to treasure:
"Give yourself a fortune and make it come true."
"Better to be the head of a mouse than the tail of a lion."
"'You know what you are?'
'What?' I called up.
Through hundreds of sunlit leaves, her coins flashed, and her voice sang out, 'The wings of a bird, my friend! A whole flock of birds! You lift everyone up!'"
Thank you, Laura, for another book of hope and beauty! Watch for it, rgz!
The Lightning Queen
by Laura Resau
Scholastic Press, October 27, 2015
It's always fun to find a non-fic pick to recommend to you all. I saw this little treasure and am happy to share it.
Drawn to cats, artists over time have found them to be subjects for their works and companions for their late night creations. How about a collection of photographs of artists and their felines? From Andy Warhol to Georgia O'Keefe to John Lennon, it's a joy to see creators and their muses caught by the camera in Artists and Their Cats. Various backstory is included, enriching the imagery.
"Behind every great artist is a great...cat."
Consider this little gem as a gift to yourself or another cat-lover. Especially with all the Siamese included. :)
Lorie Ann Grover (me) with Yzma
by Alison Nastasi
Chronicle Books, 2015
I have a quick recommend for all the little sibs of readergirlz! Check out Grimmtastic Girls, Goddess Girls, and Heroes in Training. These fun reads will keep your sisters and brothers busy all summer. Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams are the perfect team to spin tales for middle graders. You might even find yourself caught up in a book and smiling at the beloved characters running around in fresh story lines with charming humor.
Word is the collections have been spotted at Costco, too. Keep your eyes open for your siblings. Happy summer reading, rgz!
Goddess Girls
Grimmtastic GirlsHeroes in Trainingby Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams
Scholastic
Pretty Little Liars and Hit, Plot Echoes by lorieanngrover on PolyvoreAs I traveled the country for the
#hitwithgratitude project with author
Justina Chen, I met so many teens who told me my novel
Hit was similar to the TV series
Pretty Little Liars. The first couple of mentions I thought were a bit unusual, but as it kept happening, I needed to investigate.
A month or so back, I sat down in front of
Netflix and entered the world of Rosewood. What I discovered was an echoed plot strand, exactly as my readers described. The parallels between my
Sarah and Haddings with
Pretty Little Liars' Aria and Ezra were incredible. It was as if I watched the show and wrote my work. THAT IS NOT WHAT HAPPENED!
So this is my blog post to set the story straight. I began the novel in 2005, after the
real Sarah was struck in a crosswalk in 2004. Originally a verse novel told in six viewpoints, the novel grew and changed for ten years. In 2009, I fictionalized and added Haddings. In 2014
Hit hit the stores. And now I can sit down and see the scenes play out on screen in
Pretty Little Liars. Even to the brother's participation at the climax. I won't say more to avoid spoilers. :) But, are you kidding me?
Sometimes creative ideas cross and birth at the same time. Stories are all ultimately echoes of each other. I've lost sales in the past, because another writer, at the same publishing house, with the same editor, had the same idea at the same moment. Yes, each story is told differently. Yes, each will present in a different light, theme, motive, and truth. But sometimes, wires cross, and the spark hits two people at the exact same moment.
I thought
If I Stay by Gayle Forman was
Hit's echo.
Pretty Little Liars rings even more loudly. One take-away is that there is a a story to tell. Look at us doing so, similarly and differently. Each can be appreciated; each will reach different people; each was developed independently. That alone is fascinating! Isn't it?
Enjoy!
"Hit by Lorie Ann Grover is a powerful book about tragedy and recovery which shows you both sides of the story, for better or worse." Hypable
What do you do when you are born to sing, yet, suddenly silenced? Stella finds herself in a world without sound. The challenge follows to find beauty in a silent world. It's Hayden, a teen boy who stutters, who will be her guide as she simultaneously leads him to find his true voice by looking at his past.
Deborah Lytton's YA release of Silence from Shadow Mountain is told from two incredibly honest points of view. The growth and truth discovered by the characters is inspirational. As Stella concludes:
"I know that dreams are for today, not for someday. They are for here. And now."
"Music is the silence between the notes." says Claude Debussy. We will be waiting for Lytton's next release, listening to the music resonating from Silence to her following work.
Silence
by Deborah Lytton
Shadow Mountain, 2015
A GIANT thanks to everyone for participating in #rockthedrop! We had publishers, magazines, fabulous teens, teachers, librarians, and parents dropping books in public places to be found and loved. What a celebration of Support Teen Literature Day!
High five to all the droppers. We heart YOU! And congrats to the finders. Welcome!
The day before we #rockthedrop, I wanted to give a shout-out to co-founder Janet Lee Carey for her new release, In the Time of Dragon Moon. Woohoo! I just zoomed it into my own Kindle. :)
Is it not gorgeous? What a special book for readergirlz, as Janet began this series with the publication of Dragon's Keep when we began our online community. Dragonswood soon followed. Here's what VOYA said about the trilogy conclusion:
"A story of courage and romance that readers will not soon forget. While Uma's struggle to help the queen and save her people is intriguing, the depth of her character reaches much further, exploring issues of race, gender, and identity....The text will be a sure favorite of fans of high fantasy."
The launch party was fabbity fantastical:
Katherine Grace Bond, Janet Lee Carey, and Justina Chen
Now, how about the summary:
An epic fantasy about dragons, dark secrets, Pendragons, and magic
On the southernmost tip of Wilde Island--far from the Dragonswood sanctuary and the Pendragon Castle--live the native Euit people. Uma, who is half Euit and half English, and not fully accepted by her tribe, wants to become a healer like her Euit father. But the mad English queen in the north, desperate for another child, kidnaps Uma and her father and demands that he cure her barrenness. After her father dies, Uma must ensure that the queen is with child by the time of the Dragon Moon, or be burned at the stake.
Terrified and alone, Uma reaches out to her only possible ally: the king's nephew Jackrun, a fiery dragonrider with dragon, fairy, and human blood. Together, they must navigate through a sea of untold secrets, unveil a dark plot spawned long ago in Dragonswood, and find a way to accept all the elements--Euit, English, dragon, and fairy--that make them who they are.
Grab this new work, rgz. And then drop a review online, everywhere. Your words matter! Read, reflect, and reach out!
In the Time of Dragon Moon
by Janet Lee Carey
Kathy Dawson Books, 2015
readergirlz! This is our own Diva Martha Brockenbrough's next EPIC work. The stars are zooming in from the critics for this masterpiece. Rights are selling around the world. We are cheering and can't wait for you to read THE GAME OF LOVE AND DEATH!
Here's the overview for you:
Not since THE BOOK THIEF has the character of Death played such an original and affecting part in a book for young people.
Flora and Henry were born a few blocks from each other, innocent of the forces that might keep a white boy and an African American girl apart; years later they meet again and their mutual love of music sparks an even more powerful connection. But what Flora and Henry don't know is that they are pawns in a game played by the eternal adversaries Love and Death, here brilliantly reimagined as two extremely sympathetic and fascinating characters. Can their hearts and their wills overcome not only their earthly circumstances, but forces that have battled throughout history? In the rainy Seattle of the 1920's, romance blooms among the jazz clubs, the mansions of the wealthy, and the shanty towns of the poor. But what is more powerful: love? Or death?
Do you see what I mean? Squeeeeee! Shout out to Martha!
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