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Last year, author Courtney Summers posted:

"I write about girls.

"I write about girls because every girl deserves the opportunity to pick up a book and see herself in its pages.

"I write about girls because girls, and their stories, matter.

"It's my way of letting them know."

On April 14th, 2015, she posted this with the hashtag #tothegirls to tell girls all over the world that they are seen, heard, and loved. People all over the world chimed in on social media, posting messages of support and encouragement, sharing thoughts and quotes both funny and profound.

Today, January 21st, it's time to spread the word again. Use the hashtag #tothegirls2016 along with your personal message of support and encouragement on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, your blog, your vlog, wherever you see fit. Write a note on your wipe-off board on the door of your dorm room or stick a Post-It note on your family's fridge or bathroom mirror. Share the message, and share the love.

For more information, visit http://tothegirls2016.tumblr.com and follow Courtney Summers @courtney_s on Twitter.

A few thoughts from me to the girls in 2016 and beyond: 

You are awesome.
You can do this.
Just breathe.
Just believe.

So many books, so little time! Here are some of the books that I really enjoyed in 2015, listed alphabetically by title. Click on the titles to read my reviews:

This post is part of a series on the blog where I share some of the nuggets of wisdom and inspiration — related to writing and/or life — that I find steeped in the pages of novels that I’ve read.

I seem to have an obsession with horror. Particularly zombies. Why I want to read something that gives me nightmares is beyond me. This started early as a kid — like 11 or 12. Maybe it’s being able to live through an apocalypse and see what how it fares out. At least my zombie survival skills are on point. I think I would be able to make it.

I’m actually reading a zombie book now, The Girl with All the Gifts but one of my most favorite zombie books is by Courtney Summers and I found out recently that there will be a sequel next year. So the first book may be on my summer re-read list. I originally read this book while on vacation in Italy. Lucky for me Rome was so beautiful and consuming that I didn’t have any nightmares.

How can a zombie novel give a nugget of wisdom? Basically you’re in survival mode so you have to stay in the present. You have to be aware of everything in the moment. Stay out of the past. That is something that we can transfer into our own lives.

From Cary to Sloane, the narrator of the novel This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers

“Maybe but you need to bury it,” Cary tells me. “All of that’s over. You have to be here now.”

Enter to win a set of all three books in Julie Sternberg's Eleanor series. Giveaway begins March 13, 2014, at 12:01 A.M. PST and ends April 12, 2014, at 11:59 P.M. PST.

Best Young Adult Books: Top Picks from YA Bloggers in the Know, #3

By Nicki Richesin, The Children’s Book Review
Published: June 9, 2012

Michelle and Andi, the masterminds behind Galleysmith, kindly agreed to choose not 5, but their 10(!) most swoon-worthy and gripping new summer reads. We’re ready to grab a beach blanket, a pina colada, and dive into these books. Thanks to Michelle and Andi for making our summer reading list even better.

The Ten Most Anticipated YA Summer Reads

When The Children’s Book Review asked that I stop by and tell you all about my five most anticipated summer reads I thought to myself, “only five?!?”  You see, on my blog Galleysmith my colleague Andi and I have The List of Ten.  The purpose of this list is to plot out our next ten reads to avoid the indecision that sometimes accompanies book selection.  Moreover, it’s intended to help us keep our reading varied by being comprised of various formats, genres and ages.  Have no fear, readers!  The list below doesn’t follow our usual rules of formation nor does it come with any of the usual selection indecision.  We’re thrilled to share with you some of our most anticipated forthcoming summer releases and we couldn’t just stop at five!

This is Not a Test

By Courtney Summers

Zombies!  Need I say more?  ZOMBIES.  And not just the flesh eating terrifying kind.  The kind that have heart and soul despite their undeadliness.  Oh, and it’s Courtney Summers one of the all-time best writers I’ve read.

Ages 13-17 | Publisher: St. Martin’s Press | June 19, 2012

Burn for Burn

by Jenny Han and Siobahn Vivian

Jenny Han wrote one of my favorite series ever (the amazing Summer series which I encourage you to pick up) and Siobahn Vivian is equally amazing at writing empowered and independent female characters.  Together I have no doubt they will work magic with their story about girls seeking revenge on those that have wronged them.

Ages 14 and up | Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers | September 18, 2012

Such a Rush

By Jennifer Echols

The queen of contemporary drama, Echols has yet to disappoint me with any of her work.  She writes romance like nobody’s business!  When she announces a new book I’m all about pressing that “pre-order” bu

Best Young Adult Books: Top Picks from YA Bloggers in the Know, #1

By Nicki Richesin, The Children’s Book Review
Published: April 9, 2012

We were excited to read the recent debate over “The Power of Young Adult Fiction” in The New York Times. Together, the contributors pose the question: why should we be reading YA novels and why do they matter? To better explain why YA fiction has become such a phenomenon, even with adults, we’ve asked some of the best YA bloggers around to weigh in with their picks for the best new titles. Could they convince you to read YA? We think they’re up for the challenge! In our first monthly installment of Best Young Adult Books, we’ve asked Andrea Chapman of Reading Lark to share her spring and summer must reads.

Andrea Chapman: There are so many books coming out this spring and summer that I am excited about, but I am narrowing down the list to the top 5 that I think all fans of YA should put on their “To Be Read” lists.

Insurgent (Divergent #2)

By Veronica Roth

I am a little late joining the party, but book one in this series, Divergent, is taking the world (and twitter) by storm. This is the first dystopian series since The Hunger Games to catch my eye. I am not typically a big fan of books within this realm, but after having so many friends recommend this one I had to give in. I’m not a fan of cliffhangers when the next book is not set to release for a lengthy period of time so I will be reading Divergent right before the release of Insurgent on May 1st.

In Veronica Roth’s creation, citizens choose a faction to spend the rest of their lives serving. The idea of choosing one path for your life at such a young age is intriguing. Each of the factions stands for different beliefs and serves varying functions for the society. Dystopian novels have carved out an interesting niche in the YA market. They can inspire and teach lessons that other YA novels can’t.

Ages 14-17 | Publisher: HarperCollins | May 1, 2012

Hemlock

By Kathleen Peacock

I am a self-proclaimed paranormal junkie so it’s no surprise that I would have a werewolf book on this list. Before the eye rolls begin, hear me out. This is not your typical werewolf book. Imagine that a werewolf novel and a murder mystery joined forces to create a story that combined the best of both in a highly addictive manner. The werewolf lore in this one is standard fare, but the additional m

This week's focus is on Courtney Summers's Some Girls Are. Courtney writes books that embody this month's theme: Resilience. Regina is a formerly popular girl who's been ousted by her so-called best friends. The brutal immediacy of Some Girls Are is riveting, and the emotional honesty at its core makes accompanying Regina on her journey a truly moving experience.

For discussion: If you've read Some Girls Are, what did you think of Regina? Like Sam in Before I Fall, she's sometimes hard to like because of her past actions.

The amazing Courtney Summers just wrote a great post "on unlikeable female protagonists", and I had to share a bit of it here (though you really must go read the whole thing).

Basically, when people responded to one of her novels saying they loved the guy protagonist, who was not exactly a sweetheart, but hated the girl protagonist, also not sweet (they couldn't connect with her, she was cold, etc), she started feeling... annoyed. Courtney says:

Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers opens with a heart-pounding, thoughts-racing incident, and Summers lets up only for a second to give the reader a chance to breathe before she puts the hold on again. Her second novel for young adults is intense and real.

The premise for SGA is simple: Spurned by the popular crowd of which she was once a part, Regina Afton retaliates. But, oh, the complexities that Summers weaves into this design.

SGA is so tight, so fast, so intense--just overall excellent. The feelings in it are true, and even for those of us who weren't in the popular circle, we know the machinations, so the downfalls and the vengeance are excellent. Regina suffers through a good part of the story like a boxer who refuses to fall, then she comes out swinging. One can't help but revel as Regina exacts her revenge. (I read with blood dripping off my teeth, a wild look in my eyes.)

Summers draws the high school experience with a fine hand: loving but oblivious parents, parents who are largely absent, secret hiding places of the school building in which to hide out for a while, and of course all the drinking, drugs, swearing—none of it gratuitous, all of it real.

In both Some Girls Are and Cracked Up To Be (Summers’ first novel), Summers ends without putting the characters in a circle holding hands in field of daisies (where of course they'd be singing, "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing.") I think these are realistic endings, the only kind of endings for YA readers who know that life doesn't dot all the i's or cross all the t's.

Books like this become a friend to the reader because the secret feelings of being in high school--the insecurities, the ambitions, the alienation--are laid bare for all to see. You know that old writerly saying--"Open a vein"? Courtney Summers has done it with this book.

I recommend this novel for mature YA readers. I also recommend it for writers—Some Girls Are is the epitome of tight writing and excellent pacing. I guarantee you’ll turn every page in one sitting.

Parker has determined that she is not going to be perfect anymore- she’s quit the cheerleading squad, dumped her perfect boyfriend, is failing her classes at school, drinks heavily, and has attempted suicide. What Parker refuses to admit to anyone is that she knows what happened the night her friend Jessica disappeared and the events that unfolded prior to that were all caused by Parker.Summers

Hi, everyone! Courtney Summers here. I write YA novels and my debut, Cracked Up to Be, came out late last year. When Danette asked me to do a guest-blog about book trailers for Summer Friend, I was thrilled. I've been reading her blog since the beginning and I'm a huge fan of her entries, as well as her charming and extraordinary middle grade debut, Violet Raines Almost Got Struck by Lightning. I hope I can do her space on the web justice and offer y'all something helpful and interesting to read at the same time!

So. Let's talk book trailers! I should say right off the bat this guest blog is not going to question their usefulness--it's going to be about how to make one yourself. My personal opinion about book trailers is that they're great and why not? There are worse things to do than, you know, use a new and exciting medium to get word out about your work!

That said, here is the book trailer I made for Cracked Up to Be:



I love book trailers. I love watching them. The unveiling of a new book trailer for an upcoming release is comparable to a cover reveal because, much like a fabulous cover, a well-executed book trailer can get a reader totally amped for a book. That's an exciting experience for author and reader alike! I'm going to take you through the process of making mine and share with you some tips and tricks I learned along the way.

Shortly after Cracked Up to Be sold (September of 2007), I immediately started thinking book trailers. I didn't want my release date to sneak up on me and have nothing to show for it (well, besides the book), so I was teaching myself the in and-outs of Windows Movie Maker (the software that came with my laptop) as early as that October. That's my first tip: don't wait to familiarize yourself with the tools that are freely available to you. Do it as soon as possible. I ended up making A LOT of mock book trailers so I knew how to take full advantage of the program when it was time for me to really start cracking. Playing around on WMM also enabled me to get a sense of how book trailers worked in terms of pacing and structure etc.

After I had the program pretty figured out, I had to decide what I wanted my book trailer to feel like, what kind of tone it would convey. Cracked Up to Be was not a light read, so I wanted to aim for something a little gritty in sound, but "clean" in look (I'm a minimalist at heart and adore white space). A book trailer is a hook; a hint of what's to come. Don't think of it as a literal interpretation of your book--think of it as a teaser, a taste.

In the case of book trailers, I'm a firm believer that shorter is better. You don't have to cram in every bit of information into one. Immediately think of the most concise and compelling way you can get the essentials of your story across. Write the script for your book trailer first. Your script will inspire the other pieces needed to complete the final produce (visuals, sound). So before I started thinking on the visuals and the sounds, I opened up notepad and made up my script.

For Cracked Up to Be's trailer, I took this plot summary from the catalogue copy (written by my wonderful editor):

Perfect Parker Fadley isn’t so perfect anymore. She’s quit the cheerleading squad, she’s dumped her perfect boyfriend, and she’s failing school. Her parents are on a constant suicide watch and her counselors think she’s playing games…but what they don’t know, the real reason for this whole mess, isn’t something she can say out loud. It isn’t even something she can say to herself. A horrible thing has happened and it just might be her fault. If she can just remove herself from everybody--be totally alone--then everything will be okay...The problem is, nobody will let her.

And turned it into this:

Perfect Parker Fadley isn't perfect anymore.
She's quit the cheerleading squad
dumped her perfect boyfriend
her parents are on suicide watch
and she's failing school.
But what no one knows...
the real reason for this whole mess...
isn't something she can say out loud.
A horrible thing has happened
and it just might be her fault.

What's the worst thing you've ever done?

cracked up to be
a novel by courtney summers
coming Janury 2009 from St. Martin's Press
http://courtneysummers.ca

It seems like a lot of text, I know, but I think it translated into a book trailer pretty well. If you'll note, it's broken up into three parts: 1) plot summary 2) the hook ("what's the worst thing you've ever done?") and 3) all the must-have information (title, author, release date, author website). The great thing about scripting your book trailer is it provides you with a HUGE launching pad in terms of figuring out how you're going to do what you're going to do next. How do you want this text to look? What visuals does it inspire? What kind of music would complement it? It will also help you figure out your pacing. Pacing (next to music) is crucial.

In my case, I looked at each line as a beat. I wanted to keep a steady rhythm throughout the book trailer with appropriate pauses for emphasis, building toward the space between "and it just might be her fault" and "what's the worst thing you've ever done?" Having a general idea of what kind of pacing I wanted the book trailer to have, I started to look for music and sounds that would fit it. Music. Is. So. Important. Music will drive your book trailer like nothing else and it will really give your audience an idea of how your book might make them feel to read it.

Getting permission for music or finding free/license free music is crucial--and not as difficult as you might think. In my case, I used a song that fit my end goals (it had a steady rhythm and great beats I could take advantage of) by Brad Sucks. He's a talented, Canadian based musician who encourages people to use his music in their projects for free.

When it comes to finding free/easily licensed music, there are many options out there. Google is your best friend. Look into Creative Commons licensing. Check out The Free Music Archie ("please visit the track page to discover what you can and cannot do with each track"). Is there a talented but little-known band whose music you would LOVE to feature in your book trailer? Don't be afraid to email and ask! You may let you use it under agreeable terms. Cross-promotion is beautiful thing.

And if you play an instrument, perhaps getting the perfect music for your trailer is as simple as sitting down and recording it on your computer. Also, if you're not interested in music for your trailer, think of how you can best use sound. While C.K. Kelly Martin incorporates guitar music in the trailer for her latest release, One Lonely Degree (watch it here), she also uses the sound of someone breathing to great effect.

I edited all of my audio in Audacity, which is a free digital audio editor, and one I found to be very easy to use (but I didn't wait until the last minute to learn how to use it! I played around with it a great deal of time before as well.).

Your script will also give you a great idea of what kind of visual cues to use. I could have picked very literal visual interpretations of each line of my script (perhaps pictures of pom-poms, a couple walking away from each other, a bottle of pills etc), but in the end, I decided to hand draw and scan images, which I felt helped support the kind of gritty feel I wanted to achieve. This approach worked for the first half of the trailer. For the second half, I knew I wanted to incorporate some photographs as well. If you have an eye and a digital camera, getting the perfect images for your book trailer could be as simple as taking them yourself.

While I dabble in photography, my general style wasn't really appealing to me for my trailer (although I did ultimately use one of my photos--the girl in the bathroom). Luckily, I'm blessed to know some very talented photographers and my friends, Kim Hutt (the photo of the girl holding her hair belongs to her) and Veronique Moisan (the party photos belong to her), graciously gave me permission to use their work.

When looking for images yourself, again, check out those that have Creative Commons licensing (but make sure to pay close attention to the type of license! Just because it says cc doesn't mean you can use it freely for every purpose). In fact, Flickr enables you to search specifically for cc works on its search page. Do you have friends who are into photography? Maybe they'd love to be involved in that part of your book trailer.

Once you have the script, the visuals and the sounds you need, it's time to put them all together in the movie making program that comes with your computer! And that should be reasonably easy enough because you've been practicing on it for fun all this time... right?

Happy book trailer making!

All this said, there are many fantastic people out there who will make a rockin' book trailer for you, for a fee. Circle of Seven Productions leads the pack when it comes to making book trailers and I am a great admirer of their work. But if you are unable to hire someone to do it for you, as I was, don't be afraid to DIY! The total cost of Cracked Up to Be trailer was my time. The end result is a trailer that I am incredibly happy with and that has been--thankfully--received very positively.

Hope this was a helpful read!

Parker Fadley was captain of the varsity cheerleading squad. She’d been on the honor roll for the first three years of high school, and Chris, the most popular guy at school, was in love with her, the most popular girl in school. Now, no matter how awful she is to him, she knows he still loves her, but she’s not worth it. Not since the party. Not since her life took a radical one hundred eighty degree turn.

Her parents have her on a tight leash. Early curfews. Weekly meetings with the guidance counselor. Dinners with sad, yet hopeful eyes turned her way, yearning for a glimpse of the Parker they used to know. Everyone has her on a suicide watch, but nobody knows why. What could have caused Parker Fadley to turn away from everything and everyone?

It’s Jake who begins to get under her skin with his unnerving presence and constant questions. How can she possibly be that interesting to him? When Evan comes back to school she can no longer keep the memories of the events of that night at bay. Whether she wants to or not, she’s going to have to find the real Parker Fadley, or risk losing her forever.

The restful cover of CRACKED UP TO BE belies the unrest and turmoil that is Parker Fadley. The voice is incredible, similar to that of SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson. Courtney Summers doles out the secrets in small portions, teasing the reader, and when the events of the party are finally revealed with nothing held back, the tension is palpable. And no matter how many hints Ms. Summers drops, you’ll never be able to guess Parker’s terrible secret. This debut author is just that good.

This review was originally posted here at Teens Read Too.