Here's what Booklist says about Kristin O'Donnell Tubb's middle grade historical, WINIFRED OLIVER DOES THINGS DIFFERENT: "Tubb’s inventive heroine comes across as a female version of familiar characters, such as Gary Paulsen's Harris or Robert Newton Peck's Soup. This homespun tale,f ull of folksy humor and based on historical fact, will appeal to young fans of Deborah Wiles' and Ruth White's books."
Book Chic loves Debbie Reed Fischer's Young Adult, BRALESS IN WONDERLAND. Read the interview here.
SWIMMING WITH THE SHARKS also by Debbie Reed Fischer was given the Gold Star Award for Excellence by TeensReadToo.com. Here is the review.
Guess what independent booksellers for children across the nation are recommending?
THE MAGIC THIEF by Sarah Prineas and THE POSSIBILITIES OF SAINTHOOD by Donna Freitas
Check out the catalog.
GO GANG!
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By: The Class of 2k8,
on 11/15/2008
Blog: 2k8: Class Notes (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: debbie reed fischer, donna freitas, sarah prineas, braless in wonderland, kristin o'donnell tubb, Autumn Winifred Oliver Does Things Different, the magic thief, Swimming with Sharks, The possibilities of sainthead, Add a tag
By: The Class of 2k8,
on 6/18/2008
Blog: 2k8: Class Notes (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: seven impossible things before breakfast, meg cabot, bookshelves of doom, braless in wonderland, sarah dessen, fuse #8, And Another Book Read, book chic, compulsive reader, disco mermaids, Add a tag
One of the many awesome things about getting my book published has been discovering the on-line kidlit community. I think a lot of people know about this community before selling their first book but I lack internet savvy and so it was a wonderful surprise for me. My first discovery was the wonderful Fuse#8 , which is the perfect starting point since she is the center of everything kidlit. Her blog lead me to favorites like Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast and Bookshelves of Doom, as well as clueing me in to some great new books.
MySpace lead me to some great YA review blogs, like BookChic, And Another Book Read and the Compulsive Reader. It also lead me to a bunch of author sites. I follow a lot of author blogs now but my favorites are Meg Cabot’s and The Disco Mermaids. I also love blogs of people breaking into the business, like the wonderful Debbi Michiko Florence and Hip Writer Mama.
For years I was embarrassed to be an adult who read kid books. I thought I was the only one and I’d hide the covers of my books when I read on the subway, stuffing my latest YA favorite into my backpack so fast that no one could see that the thirty-something woman across the aisle was reading a book for teens. But now I’m part of this incredible community that loves kid books as much as I do. I know there are thousands of us around the country, reading and loving our teen and MG books. I now display my books with pride, and smile when I see that people are reading over my shoulder. Who wouldn’t want to read over my shoulder when I’m in the middle of BRALESS IN WONDERLAND or the latest Sarah Dessen?!
What I love the most about all these sites is how warm and open people are. This business could be so competitive and mean but instead it’s a group of people bound together by a love of kidlit, who are thrilled to discover another new book by another new author. Which is pretty much a dream come true for this new author!
By: The Class of 2k8,
on 4/22/2008
Blog: 2k8: Class Notes (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: debbie reed fischer, m.p. barker, braless in wonderland, A Difficult Boy, nineteen teen blog, model booker, University of Miami, Add a tag
2k8: We're back for the second day of debut author Debbie Reed Fischer's launch week. Her young adult novel, Braless in Wonderland, is available everywhere.
Debbie, you've got to tell everyone that great story of how you became a model booker. AND explain the strange pic at the top of today's post!
Debbie Reed Fischer: Well, I sort of fell into it. Or rather, it fell into me.
During my senior year of college, I had an internship at a model and talent agency. On my first day, I was told to file head shots and resumes in these huge, floor-to-ceiling filing cabinets. There were six of them. Wildly curious about the talent repped by the agency, I spent more time reading the resumes than filing. So I wasn’t paying attention to the fact that I had pulled open every single drawer on this one filing cabinet.
Until I heard a strange creaking sound.
And jumped out of the way just in time.
The entire filing cabinet tipped over, knocking into the one next to it, then into the next one, and so on and so on and so on, until the last mammoth filing cabinet crashed into the wall. It was like giant dominoes.
The owner actually had to hire a moving company to set the cabinets straight again!
Certain I was fired, I sneaked out early. Later, I received a call from the owner. “You’re the best intern we’ve ever had,” she said. “I want to hire you.”
I took the job, and the next day, told the story to this stunning model lounging in the waiting area. “Don’t you think it’s weird I got hired?” I asked her.
“No,” the model replied. “That’s the business. It’s crazy.”
And she was right. It was glamorous AND crazy.
2k8: How did get from being a model booker to writing Braless in Wonderland?
Debbie Reed Fischer: I’m a graduate of the University of Miami’s screenwriting program, so my plan was to write screenplays. Although, as fate would have it, I fell into the business side of the film industry, starting out as a talent agent for TV and film.
And then I did the model booking thing in Miami. The modeling world provided me with a treasure chest of material to write about. I usually felt like the blonde on The Munsters, scratching my head and wondering what planet I’d landed on. I kept notebooks on everyone and everything while I worked there, and years later, those notes came in very handy when I sat down to write the Braless in Wonderland. The book is fiction, but the notes make the scenes really authentic.
2k8: Thanks, Debbie!
Oh, yeah, and about those modeling terms from yesterday's post--
backdrop: whatever's behind the model at a photo shoot (eg. seamless paper)
clean-clean: clean hair (as in washed), clean face (as in no makeup), how you might be instructed to show up at a photo shoot
cyc studio: a photo studio with no corners
(From Model Business)
Join us tomorrow for the inside skinny on where Debbie does her writing!
Psssst! In the meantime...hop on over to Nineteen Teen where M.P. Barker, author of A Difficult Boy, is guest blogging today. You don't want to miss it!
By: The Class of 2k8,
on 4/21/2008
Blog: 2k8: Class Notes (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: debbie reed fischer, braless in wonderland, debut author, dutton's childrens books, Add a tag
The Class of 2k8 is thrilled to announce the release of Braless in Wonderland by debut young adult author, Debbie Reed Fischer!
Braless in Wonderland is a humorous, fast-paced teen story about a girl who falls into the world of modeling.
And Debbie Reed Fischer was the perfect person to write this stay-up-all-night-to-finish-it book. She's definitely no stranger to the modeling business, having worked for many years as a model booker in Miami, where she experienced the daily dramas of the weird and the beautiful.
Other job adventures from her past include hosting a cable TV show for teens, picking melons on a kibbutz, teaching middle and high school English, and singing in a USO troupe. Talk about multi-talented!!
Debbie grew up in a sleepy Florida town much like Cape Comet (where her protagonist, Allee Rosen, grew up) and has also lived in England, Greece, and Israel.
In high school, she spent a lot of time in math class writing stories, songs, and long notes to her friends. Now you know why we don't let her figure out the tip in restaurants!
A graduate of the University of Miami's screenwriting program, Debbie currently lives in Boynton Beach, Florida, with her husband and two kids, where she feeds them a steady diet of take-out. Her second teen novel, Swimming with the Sharks, will be released in September. Debbie is our class Energizer Bunny!
And here's a head shot (just to throw a little modeling lingo your way!) of our very own Debbie Reed Fischer, author of Braless in Wonderland.
About Braless in Wonderland...
Allee Rosen is a lot of things: high school senior, overachiever, feminist, brainiac. The one thing she’s not is super model material. She leaves that to pretty people like her little sister (a.k.a. “The Fluff”). That’s why it’s a complete shock when Allee, not her sister, is the one spotted by modeling scouts at the mall and signed by a major modeling agency in Miami.
It’s classic GEEK-to-CHIC – but it’s not like it’s going to change her, right? She’s just doing it for the money that will pay her way through college. Very soon, however, Allee is swept up in the whirlwind of go-sees, designer labels and photo shoots. Will her elusive “It Girl” status lead Allee to drop her dreams and forget who she really is?
Issues of body image, feminism and personal growth are woven throughout the story as readers enjoy a funny, honest insider’s peek at what really goes on behind the cameras.
“The book gets inside of the mind a new model, especially her insecurities and her misconceptions about what models are like,” Fischer commented in an interview in the March issue of Portrait magazine. “It’s also about holding on to the core of who you are, but being willing to grow and change.” In the world of fashion, nothing is ever what it seems, and much like Alice in Wonderland, this novel is a surreal adventure full of self-discovery and transformation, with plenty of glamour and fun along the way.
We're not the only people who love Braless in Wonderland. Here's what others are saying...
"Detailed and realistic . . . Fischer has worked for many years as a booker in Miami, and she really knows the business." --KLIATT
"Such a page-turning book, you might sweep through it as quickly as you can say ‘go-see.’ This book is like watching a fast-paced teen drama . . . you can't help but root for Allee Rosen, in all of her unglamorous glory.” --Today’s Teen of the Palm Beach Post
"Braless in Wonderland thrusts the reader into the world of modeling . . . pick up this book!" *****--TeensReadToo.com
"A good book for growing up and seeing people for who they really are . . . worth the read.” --Romantic Times Book Reviews magazine
"Braless in Wonderland is an unexpected delight . . . I found myself drawn into the character’s adventure . . . an accurate and enticing peek into the real world of modeling, which includes not only the glitz and the glamour, but the downsides and pressures. There is a fun array of characters and scenarios, and I was left feeling that unlike many books, this one didn’t fail to live up to its own plotlines potential."
--Portrait magazine
Populated with a fun vibe, an inside look at the world of Miami modeling agencies, and some great secondary characters, Braless in Wonderland is well worth picking up for some by-the-pool summer reading. I look forward to reading more from Ms. Reed Fischer.
-EnchantingReviews.com
Join us tomorrow for how Debbie Reed Fischer became a model booker and got to use cool terms like "clean-clean" and "backdrop" and "cyc studio." See, Deb, we really do listen to you!
Posted on 5/9/2007
Blog: La Bloga (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Ireland, juvenile fantasy fiction, Iran, Anahita's Woven Riddle, ya fiction graphic novel, The Lighthouse Land, Castle Waiting, Add a tag
I usually review Chicano Kidlit or YA novels on La Bloga and I thought it would be fun to give you all a taste of some of the books I read and recommend on AmoxCalli. I've picked three of my favorite YA novels to give you a little taste of something different - The Lighthouse Land, Anahita's Woven Riddle and Castle Waiting. Enjoy!
Oh and by the way mis compadres y comadre - you've been tagged for the What Books I'm Reading meme. Check out AmoxCalli for the details. 
Author: Adrian McKinty
Publisher: Amulet Books
ISBN-10: 081095480X
ISBN-13: 978-0810954809
Jamie O’Neill and his mother have it rough. Jamie’s lost his arm to bone cancer and since the amputation, isn’t speaking. His parents divorced while he was sick and now he and his mother live in a leaky apartment in Harlem. Things couldn’t get much worse for them but somehow Jamie and his mom are making things work.
Jamie has a friend, Thaddeus an older gentleman that he plays chess with who seems to understand his need to be silent. He’s also become quite adept at duct taping the windows to keep the snow out. Then one day a letter changes their lives. Jamie’s mother has inherited a house in Ireland along with the island it’s on and money to maintain it.
So off they go to Ireland and Thaddeus gifts him with a tablet laptop to help him communicate. Once they get to the coast of Ireland and their new home, they find that there’s also an old tower, a lighthouse on their land and that Jaime is descended from a line of Irish kings. Turns out Jamie gets a title as well, Laid Ui Neill, Lord of the Muck, Guardian of the Passage…yeah, Lord of the Muck. I thought that was hysterical.
Jamie quickly makes friends with Ramsey, a clever and mathematically brilliant boy of his own age. Together they discover a secret room in the tower and an object that takes them hurtling through a portal and into another world where they find an alien girl named Wishaway. Wishaway thinks that Jamie is the Ui Neill come to save her people from the Alkhavans, an evil pirating people who will enslave her race.
The Alkhavans travel the seas on ships made of ice that look like glaciers. It turns out that Jamie’s ancestors had saved her people before. Jamie. mysteriously in this world has both his voice and his lost arm. Now it is up to him and Ramsay to save the world and its people from destruction.
The Lighthouse Land is an astonishing tale of fantasy, sci-fi and ordinary life. I fell in love with McKinty’s writing from the very first two paragraphs. I fell in love with his way of writing a sentence. His use of language is gorgeous and lush while starkly simple.
“Through the window is the uncoiled arm of the Milky Way and the moon the color of narcissus.”
Isn’t that a great sentence? I can eat it, it’s so delicious!
The Lighthouse Land is the first in a planned trilogy and I for one, can’t wait till the next.
About the author:
Adrian McKinty, now a U.S. citizen, was born and grew up in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland. Educated at Oxford University, he then immigrated to New York City, where he lived in Harlem for five years, working in bars and on construction crews, and enjoying a stint as a bookseller. The author of highly acclaimed crime novels that have earned starred reviews and universal praise, he currently lives in Denver, where he teaches high school.
Anahita’s Woven Riddle
Author: Meghan Nuttall Sayres
Publisher: Amulet
ISBN-10: 0810954818
ISBN-13: 978-0810954816
Anahita is a nomad teen aged girl living in early 20th century Iran who loves riddles. She’s also just a little too independent and innovative for her time and culture which causes dissent and trouble within her tribe. One day her father tells her that the Khan, an older man who’s had three wives all of whom have died under mysterious circumstances. Anahita is horrified and has absolutely no interest in marrying this man, but her father is under pressure by the Khan.
Anahita manages to convince her father and the mullah of the tribe to allow her to have a contest in which she will weave a riddle into her wedding carpet. The man to guess the riddle will have her as his bride. This causes more trouble within the tribe as well as jealousy. Why does Anahita get to choose her husband? Why is she so willful? The angry and overbearing Khan is determined to have Anahita and threatens the tribe with one thing after another, even going so far as to block their water which they desperately need. Anahita’s contest goes on however and the suitors start trying for her hand. There are three interesting men in particular vying for Anahita’s hand in marriage – a schoolteacher, a shepherd, and a prince.
Anahita’s Woven Riddle is an incredibly beautiful story rich with Persian culture. The descriptions of Anahita’s everyday life are so detailed and colorful. You can feel yourself on those mountains and hillsides, see the carpet she is weaving, smell the sheep and feel the wind.
I’m fascinated by the art of weaving so I loved the descriptions of her traveling with a caravan into the markets and picking out dyes for the dyemaster of her tribe.
Anahita’s Woven Riddle is a completely engrossing, different and fantastic tale. Highly recommended for anyone who is interested in expanding their world, learning about the history and culture of another land or anyone who just loves a good story.
Author: Linda Medley
Publisher: Fantagraphics
ISBN-10: 1560977477
ISBN-13: 978-1560977476
This wonderful graphic novel brings together the first twelve issues of the Eisner Award winning comic. It opens with Brambly Hedge, a tale of a Sleeping Beauty with a twist. After Sleeping Beauty leaves with the prince the castle is left waiting. Her three ladies in waiting stay there and open it to people in need. The castle is infested with hobgoblins and is a little beat up but it welcomes the needy with open arms.
>
Among its inhabitants are a pregnant woman on the run, Sir Destrier, a horse-headed knight who wants a place to rest between adventures; and Sister Peace, a bearded nun with a wild past. The women of the castle seem to love telling the stories of their lives and it is these stories that are the meat of Castle Waiting.
Linda Medley has created a masterpiece of fantasy, fairytale and just plain good storytelling. Castle Waiting is light-hearted, fun and different. The stories within stories are wonderful and the characters are multi-faceted and interesting. For me, Jain’s story was the most interesting. Jain was the pregnant woman on the run from an abusive nobleman husband and her tale was riveting and so different from the typical fairy tale.
The artwork is as light-hearted and fun as the story. The bearded nuns are a riot and really made me smile. Through the whole book with the intersecting stories is a thread of kindness and caring that really makes me smile. I love that Sleeping Beauty’s left behind castle is used to help those in need. I love the fact the women who remain have so much love to give to those who show up at the castle door and are willing to share whatever they have. I would have loved this book anyway but that just made it so much more special. Highly recommended.
Daphne you are the sweetest for mentioning me!!
I do love the kidlit community. Even though I am a teen I know that I will always enjoy YA and MG books, because I honestly feel like they have more to offer. I definitely think more adults should be open to reading YA books instead of thinking they're just for kids.
I agree, Tasha! If I read adult fiction, it usually has a coming of age theme or younger characters--like say White Oleander. I've turned many adult onto really great YA fiction (and some onto Gossip Girls as well, LOL)
I'm so proud to be part of the community.
I'm also one who reads my MG/YA books proudly in public places. It opens up a lot of conversations...one businessman on a train saw me reading a book with a very pink cover and asked in all seriousness, "Good book?" I said it was and recommended that he buy it for his daughter. Bet she was surprised when he showed up with that as a gift!
Thanks so much for the mention, Daphne!! :) You are awesome.
And I've noticed the exact same thing as you- the kidlit community is just so open and friendly, and it's great to chat with other MG/YA lovers, whether they be readers or authors. I love this community and am so glad to be a part of it.
Also, I used to shy around the fact that I still read YA books. I came very late to them, as I didn't start until I was 18, lol. But now I'm very open about it, and I'll tell people about the books I'm reading without shame. I'll even tell people about my site too.
YA is becoming so much bigger and limitless these days that I do believe that anyone, teen or adult, can pick up at least one YA book (if not more) and identify with it and love it. This genre is one of the best out there, and I'm so proud to be a part of it all.
tasha, i love your blog! and i agree with you and brooke that more adults should read ya and mg books- i think that's where the most exciting literature is.
courtney, i feel the same!
nina, i love that you read proudly and give recommendations!
book chic, YOU are the awesome one! and i agree 100% that this is the best genre out there. and your site rocks so i'm glad you proudly tell people about it!
Daphne- How about this? We're both awesome. :P hehe. Thanks for the compliment about my site too- it's much appreciated!! :)
Yeah, the kidlit community pretty much rocks!
Teri
Thank you, Daphne! Love your book!
I agree, the kidlit community is incredibly supportive. There's even a kidlit conference coming up soon!
Thank you so much for the mention, Daphne! So true about having that little secret YA reading habit, although now, as Book Chic pointed out, there is no shame in being a kid lit lover! Great post. :)