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So manybooks, 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:
"When I got sick the first thing that they tested me for was HIV, and I was so afraid that I got it somehow. I didn't have it, but my disease is caused by the immune system. Even though our diseases are very different, I could totally relate to [Positively's main character] Emmy. I know that if I have 100% lung function by the time I am 40 or if my liver doesn't stop from the pills, I am lucky, and Emmy is faced with that too in other ways. There are days that I want to just throw my pills out or not get shots anymore, but I know that decision is a choice between life and death. When I first got sick, I went to a camp for teens with Primary Immunodeficiency and it was similar to what Emmy experienced at Camp Positive. Some of the friends from that time are dead, but they are far from forgotten. The part about the balloons really got to me, because that it what we do every year on my sister's birthday.
"The plot is real, because you are constantly reminded how hard life can be for some people. This book is really original, because it leaves you with so much hope. Shienmel is a fantastic writer. I loved that this is based by her experience from with working The Elizabeth Glaser AIDS Foundation and is really accurate and realistic. I highly suggest that you read this book, it is a story of a girl with so much strength." --Sarah
Our Featured Title this week is Positively by Courtney Sheinmel, and in her post, she talked about how her hopes for people living with HIV have grown and grown.
One powerful aspect of Courtney's book about 13-year-old Emmy, who's HIV-positive, is that it gives us a character who represents that experience. And isn't there always hope in finding a story that you can relate to?
So tell us, readergirlz, what people in your life, or books that you've read, have given you hope because you felt that they understood or spoke to what you were going through?
PS-Don't forget to read the Cover Story behind Courtney's gorgeous novel.
I'm so excited to welcome Courtney Sheinmel to readergirlz today! I've seen her out and about at various NYC author functions but hadn't "met" her until her fantastic, moving, and oh-so-HOPEful book, Positively, was chosen as postergirlz pick this month. I loved it when I first read it, so I was glad to have the chance to tell her so in "person."
"Emmy is infected with the HIV virus, and her mother, infected before she married Emmy's father, dies of AIDS at the beginning of the book. Angry and alone, the 13-year-old moves in with her semi-estranged father and newly pregnant stepmother. At a loss for how to help Emmy recover from her grief and alienation, they send her to a summer camp for girls with HIV and AIDS. There she realizes that she is not alone, not the only person to take handfuls of pills on a daily basis, not the only girl who worries about the complications of dating with the virus. She returns home with a new perspective, welcoming her half sister into her life and admitting her newfound desire for a happier, more "positive" existence... Emmy's situation is compelling and underrepresented in YA fiction." -- School Library Journal
Compelling is definitely the right word! Here's what Courtney has to say about hope:
Once when I was fifteen years old I was babysitting for three kids, two girls and a boy. The boy had HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and back then, in the early 1990s, that diagnosis was often a death sentence. The conversation turned to what the kids wanted to be when they grew up. The boy said he planned to be a baseball player. I always had hopes his future, and at that moment I truly concentrated on it: Please, PLEASE let him grow up.
Eighteen years have passed, and he’s a grown up now. A few weeks ago I had lunch with another friend. She’s a college freshman and she also happens to have HIV. We were talking about what she wanted to do with her life. I was throwing out suggestions and thinking, Oh, please, let her find her way. Hours later I realized her being HIV-positive didn’t occur to me when we were talking about her future – not once, during the entire conversation. There was just no doubt in my mind that she does have a future – a long and glorious one – ahead of her.&nb
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In honor of World AIDS Day (December 1), I am very pleased to welcome friend Courtney Scheinmel today to tell us her story secrets about her beautiful YA book, POSITIVELY.
I met Courtney in New York City when I went for BEA last summer, and she is honestly one of the nicest YA authors around. I wish I had a pic of us together! After the Teen Author Carnival (yes, another awesome author I met there!), we all went out for yummy Mexican food with a bunch of others and ended up talking the whole time.
I'm very excited to get to feature her today, and also to chat about her upcoming book, SINCERELY. Oh, and check out that amazing Be the Link photo (by Andy Tsagaris) below.
Welcome, Courtney!
*****
POSITIVELY is about a thirteen-year-old girl named Emerson (“Emmy” for short) who was born with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. After her mom dies, Emmy has to move in with her dad and his new wife – who is pregnant and preoccupied with things like baking cookies and getting the house ready for the baby. Emmy feels isolated and filled with grief. Her dad ends up sending her to a camp for girls with HIV, where she finds hope and the will to live, even in a world without her mother.
Holly Cupala: I've been fascinated with this story even before I met you. Where did the idea come from?
Courtney Scheinmel:Okay, to tell you that I have to go back to something that happened nearly two decades ago. It was February of 1991, and I was in eighth grade. I read an article about a woman named Elizabeth Glaser. She was infected with HIV and had unknowingly passed the virus onto her two children. Her daughter died of AIDS in 1988, during a time when there weren’t many medications around to treat people with the disease. A couple months later, Elizabeth founded the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, in hopes of raising money to fund research that would save her son. It was one of the most remarkable stories I had ever heard, and I decided I wanted to get involved...
I arrived in New York on rainy Thursday to catch the last few days of the Teen Author Festival. That afternoon I met my friend Aaron Hartzler (who is the Director, Communications & Design for SCBWI) for a 4 o'clock reading at the 67th branch library featuring Rachel Vail, Courtney Sheinmel, Martin Wilson, Lisa Ann Sandell, and Cecily Von Ziegesar (pictured below in my rather dark photo, L to R, holding up their books).
Oh...I really adore listening to authors reading their own work. There's something sort of magical about it. I'd love to have a continuous bedtime rotation of YA authors reading me a few chapters every night before I fall asleep. Courtney Sheinmel told us she got the idea for her book My So-Called Family, featuring a girl whose father was a sperm donor, from a "The Today Show" story. Cecily Von Ziegesar read a scene from an early Gossip Girl title showing us the book version of why Blair Waldorf didn't get into Harvard (no cocktail parties or text messages involved). Rachel Vail's reading from her upcoming book Lucky offered humor and a great character. Lisa Ann Sandell's writing was lyrical and beautiful and I wasn't surprised to hear that her book A Map of the Known World is her first first prose work, her previous books written in verse. As for Llambda Literary Awards finalist Martin Wilson--after the reading teens were fighting over who got to read his book What They Always Tell Us first as he gave his copy to the library.
And that was another wonderful thing about this reading: teens. There were a bunch of them. And they (pretty much all) paid attention and they asked thoughtful questions and they seemed to have a relationship with the YA librarian which was wonderful to see.
We've got lots to celebrate here at 2k8 with contests and rave reviews. Please give us a woot!
SLEEPLESS author, Terri Clark, is giving away an authentic Navajo dream catcher on her blog. For your chance at sweet dreams and for a sneak peek of her paranormal thriller, click here.
Also, Terri is pleased to announce that her essay in FLIRTING WITH THE MONSTER, an anthology about Ellen Hopkins and her work, will be published by BenBella books in May of '09.
PJ Hoover celebrated the launch of her middle grade science-fiction novel THE EMERALD TABLET! THE EMERALD TABLET received a great review from Brianna over at Balanced Steps. Brianna compares THE EMERALD TABLET to Harry Potter and says this: "Anyone who enjoyed discovering the world of magic with Harry Potter will enjoy diving into a different magical world with Benjamin Holt and his friends...for you Potter fans, the experience is TOTALLY different from Harry's." Thanks, Brianna!
Tasha at And Another Book Read gave THE EMERALD TABLETa fantastic review! She had this to say: "I loved every minute that I was reading it, and I feel like I want to reread the book over and over again. ... While reading the book I kept thinking that in a way it was almost like a myth that was being told and how cool it would be if it was actually true... Fans of Rick Riordanʼs PERCY JACKSON series will particularly enjoy this book." Thanks, Tasha!
And Book Chic also gave THE EMERALD TABLET an awesome review including this tasty morsel: "This is a wonderful beginning to a fantasy middle-grade trilogy. Hoover's writing is extremely compelling and makes the book hard to put down." Thanks, Book Chic!
And speaking of Book Chic, this has been one busy reviewer. He's also written a great review for THE OPPOSITE OF INVISIBLE by Liz Gallagher and plans to feature Courtney Sheinmel as November's Fresh New Voice in YA and Barrie Summy as December's Fresh New Voice in YA!
Thanks so much for the mention! I'm happy to be reading and reviewing these great Class of 2k8 books, and aside from Courtney's and Barrie's, I have a couple others in my TBR pile! I'm excited to get to those too! :)
You absolutely CAN and SHOULD have your cake and eat it too!
On October 21, 2007 – exactly a year before My So-Called Family was set to be published, my mother invited me and a couple friends of my over for dinner. After we finished our burgers, my mom brought out a cake that said “Happy Book” across the top in bright red letters. As my fellow Class of 2k8 member, Sarah Prineas, observed, the book was -1 years old. It seemed like an important milestone to me; and really, who am I to turn down an excuse for chocolate cake? My second book, Positively, comes out on September 8, 2009, and on September 8th of this year (the -1st birthday of Positively), I was in Lancaster, PA visiting family. Not to be outdone by my mother, my stepsister bought a cake that said “Positively Successful” in bright orange icing. She even stuck candles in it, and took pictures as her kids and I leaned forward to blow them out. The cake was delicious, and the kids were extremely generous, letting me eat most of the flowers made out of orange icing.
My book party for the official release of My So-Called Family is coming up fast – actually, by the time this blog is posted, it will already have happened. I have been planning this for so long, celebrating negative book birthdays, and not quite believing that this thing I wrote is going to be a real-live book. Almost all of the people closest to me are coming to my party – my family, my friends, my favorite teacher from college, the kids I used to babysit (and their parents too), my dentist, and even a couple members of the Class of 2k8 who live in the New York area. It’s going to be at the art gallery of a family friend; there won’t be cake, because I’m afraid of getting icing on the paintings. But there will be wine and cheese and tons of pictures.
We wish we could all be there!Thank you for spending the week with us, Courtney. Best of luck to you and MY SO-CALLED FAMILY. We look forward to reading your upcoming titles, POSITIVELY and SINCERELY, SOPHIE/SINCERELY! And now, we'd like to unveil the trailer for MY SO-CALLED FAMILY.
1 Comments on Day 5: Party On, Court!, last added: 10/27/2008
I'm a little behind the times (story of my life) but wanted to say, what a great week of posts! Congratulations on all your success, and here's to more of it in 2009.
Courtney feels blessed to have a lot of support, but her BFFs have been her greatest strength.
The acknowledgments section at the front of my book is pretty long – two pages packed full of people who supported me all through the years, and not just when I was writing. But there are four people in particular who mattered a lot during the writing of My So-Called Family: my friends Lindsay, Amy, Jackie and Llen.
Lindsay, Amy and I met during law school; Jackie and I met when we were studying for the bar; and I have known Llen for so long that I barely remember life without her. (Actually, Llen and I overcame incredible odds to become friends; I didn’t invite her to my Halloween party in the fourth grade, but she showed up anyway. The rest is history.)
I had been tossing the idea for My So-Called Family around in my head – I didn’t really know anything about it, other than who the narrator would be. I decided her name would be Leah, and I sat down and wrote a first chapter. Then, not really knowing what to do with it, I forwarded it to four of my friends. I told them they didn’t really have to read it, but in case they were bored and looking for something to do, there it was.
Within a couple of hours, I had heard back from all of them – Lindsay, Amy, Jackie and Llen said they loved it and wanted to see more. To this day, I’m not sure I would have really continued with the story if I didn’t have them rooting me on. They read the whole book, chapter by chapter, as I wrote it. If I took too long between chapters, I would get emails asking for more, pushing me forward.
My So-Called Family is dedicated to my parents – and I think they deserve the honor. But I gratefully acknowledge my wonderful friends for their love, support, and incredible cheer.
Tomorrow is our last day with Courtney, but before she goes buh-bye she shares some celebratory milestones and screens her book trailer.
0 Comments on Day 4: Courtney's Clique as of 10/23/2008 11:12:00 AM
Yay! We've got another exciting sale story for everyone. Give a listen to Courtney's "call."
In the fall of 2005, I received two BIG calls from the guy who is now my agent – one offering representation for my book; and another letting me know that Simon & Schuster had officially made an offer to buy it. I had known that Simon & Schuster was considering the manuscript. I’ve been a huge Carly Simon fan for as long as I can remember, and this part of an email I sent to myself on October 27, 2005, the day the offer was supposedly coming in, so I could record what I was thinking:
My palms have been sweating all day today, literally. I listened to Carly Simon music on my commute to work this morning, hoping that she would send luck my way and somewhere some cosmic force would make the connection between my adoration of Carly Simon and my hopefulness about publication by Simon & Schuster -- her father's company. I'm so impatient. It is one o'clock now. I'm impressed for making it to the other side of morning. How many more hours could it be? What if I don't find out today at all? What if it is bad news? What if I never get published?
It seems so silly to reread it now. I mean, I still love Carly Simon – but I can’t believe I actually thought listening to her music would determine whether I was published . . . or maybe it did. A few hours after I sent myself that email, I received THE CALL from my agent – the second big call. I was sitting in my office right off of Wall Street in New York City, where I should have been reading legal briefs, or something like that. But instead I was listening to my agent, saying Simon & Schuster was in fact offering representation.
The next month, November of 2005, my sister and I went to Carly Simon’s concert at Lincoln Center. It was absolutely incredible – the perfect way to celebrate everything that had happened.
Now that's a story! And we know you're going to listen to Carly now. ;) Tomorrow Courtney talks about her dedication of MY SO-CALLED FAMILY.
4 Comments on Day 3: Calling Courtney, last added: 10/23/2008
What if Carly Simon reads this; wouldn't that be great? Imagine: it shows up on her google alerts, she'll think it's such a cool story, she'll call you and that will be your THIRD big call in October! Carly Simon are you reading this? Call Courtney, but before 6:30 tonight b/c she's having a big launch party.
This is me and my super fabulous editor Jill Santopolo, who is an excellent author in her own right. She introduced my reading. I was pretty nervous about it but it was a sympathetic audience and they cheered me on. Afterwards I signed books.
This is my friend Keith Bunin who is a terrific playwright and screenwriter. He was one of a group of friends from high school who came out to show their support. It’s neat to have friend who actually knew me as a teen read my teen book!
Here are some other friends and my awesome-beyond-words agent Alyssa Eisner-Henkin. Writer Kathryne Alfred is in there too along with a couple of other friends. After the signing we headed out for food and drinks at a nearby restaurant.
Had to let you know....when I was at Barnes and Nobles yesterday I saw your book and then proceed to push the other books to the side and turn yours out so everyone got a good look at it!! Couldn't pass up a chance to give it the credit it deserves:)
This was my first time at BEA. I'm somewhat of a camera addict, which drives my family crazy, but at least we have all the important events in our lives for posterity (as well as some not-so-important ones). My 2k8 classmates Donna Freitas and Nancy Viau were at BEA with me, and they didn't seem at all annoyed that I was following them around with my camera . . . but maybe they were just being nice.
Here are a few pictures from the first day at BEA, Friday May 30th (which also happened to be my grandmother's 93rd birthday -- Happy Birthday, Grandma!): Nancy holding up a copy of our friend Debbie Reed Fischer's book, Swimming With Sharks, which was prominently displayed in the Flux booth. Donna and me, posing in front of the poster for her excellent book, Possibilities of Sainthood, in the FSG booth, and later Donna signing in the autographing area (the guy in the yellow shirt in the far right is Cheech Marin). Children's book ambassador Jon Scieszka holds up a copy of my book, My So-Called Family, right after I finished signing copies of my ARC. Donna met me in the autographing section of the convention hall right after my signing. We went to Nancy's signing for Samantha Hansen Has Rocks in Her Head -- I can't wait to read it! Then we walked back to our hotel together. We meant to take a cab, but there were no cabs, so we carried ALL the books and galleys we had collected over the course of the day. I mean, bags and bags of books. It was about a mile to our hotel, but it seemed like 10 miles. The whole not getting a cab thing was kind of my fault because I made Donna leave through a different exit than the one she wanted to use. But she says she forgives me and that we're still friends. Anyway, it was a great workout.
4 Comments on BEA with Courtney Sheinmel, last added: 6/12/2008
Hey, I recognize that book! Thanks, Nancy! So glad you're a camera-holic. And what great photos. Wish I could have been there. Maybe next year . . . :)
Forget the TV/movie stars like Brooke Shields, Cheech Marin, and Barbara Walters. The real stars were our debut authors! Signing in the autograph area were:
Thousands of terrific books were up for grabs for anyone brave enough to weave through the crowd, stand in line, or fight for floor space. What a great day!
Stay tuned tomorrow we have more from the floor of BEA!
3 Comments on BEA Up Close & Personal, last added: 6/11/2008
A Web site offers fun features. There is one part on my Web site that I had a lot of fun doing: thinking of my all-time favorite girl and guy characters in YA lit for my Favorites page. I wanted to write YA because I read it all the time. Because much as I enjoy adult novels, I love YA more. Which means I've read, and loved, an awful lot of YA books with some pretty awesome characters. There are some amazing girl characters out there, and some pretty fabulous guys who spring to life off the written page. So who did I choose to feature on my site? Click on the link below to find out! ~Daphne Grab, Author of Alive and Well in Prague, NY, http://www.daphnegrab.com/
A Web site is proof. My publisher tells me that kid readers are especially interested in the authors of the books they read. It's as if they can't believe an actual person wrote the book. A website proves an actual person did write the book, and a well-designed site gives extra interesting details about that person, like how many cats she has. It’s a great way for readers to continue to interact with the book. ~Sarah Prineas, Author of The Magic Thief, http://www.sarah-prineas.com
Teens spend time online. I think it's important to have a personal web site because the world is so Internet-ty! Especially because I write for teenagers, who seem to spend lots of time online and be very savvy, it's the most efficient way to reach out to them, let them know about me and my book, events, news, and whatever else is going on in my book-world. I happen to be a writer who's interested in communicating with young readers, so it's a step to accomplishing that. I think teenagers almost expect the experience of a book they love to go beyond the page. Everything else seems to go online somehow! Look at popular TV shows, like Lost, who are doing webisodes to accompany the television broadcasts. Not to mention message boards! ~Liz Gallagher, Author of The Opposite of Invisible, http://lizgallagher.com/
A strong Web presence can do amazing things for your career. It cultivates your readership, creates word-of-mouth interest, gains press, excites your publisher, and more. With that in mind I started researching Web site designers by visiting author sites. I noted what layouts and features I liked, what I didn’t and which designers I could afford. I wanted a website that was user friendly, had teen appeal and that I could build on as my career grew. I thought of it like a starter home. I couldn’t spend $5000 on a site (or even $2000), but I could build an affordable base site and add on to it. And later on, if I wanted to, I could always remodel. My site designer, Barb of Jaleroro Web Designs, did a fantastic job oftaking my ideas and making them a reality. I’ve already received positive feedback on my site and it has generated interest in my upcoming books. ~Terri Clark, Author of Sleepless, http://www.terriclarkbooks.com/
Anybody who’s anybody has a Web site. I think it's important to have a personal web site because everyone keeps telling me that it is, even though I'm not entirely sure what I should put on it. Frankly, I'm a pretty boring person. If I were all that interesting, I wouldn't be spending my time making upstories, now, wouldI? ~M.P. Barker,Author of A Difficult Boy, http://mpbarker.net/
Web sites keep Amazon.com in business. Personal websites make me want to read more books. Sometimes the websites give the back-story of a particular book, and I feel compelled to go straight to Amazon and order the book right away. I’ve discovered some of my favorite books this way, and I suspect I’m not the only one. ~Courtney Sheinmel, Author of My So-Called Family http://courtneywrites.livejournal.com
0 Comments on More insight on sites! as of 1/1/1900
M.P. Barker said, on 2/14/2008 2:36:00 PM
Oh, my, I sound terribly Grumpy, don't I? (As opposed to Dopey and Sleepy, which are the dwarves I usually channel.) Thinking back on when the 2k8 blog moms originally posed the question, though, I remember being in the midst of feeling like "AUGH! Everybody says I need a website and what do I put on it and why the heck would anyone want to read anything about ME anyway?"--which feeling was intensified by a power of several hundred after looking at all the nifty cool websites of my 2k8 classmates! Yes, I confess to major website envy, but I'm slowly working on overcoming my website-panic. So blog moms, add to that list of reasons: "Making a website is a character-building exercise that forces you to confront your fears and insecurities."
M.P. Barker A DIFFICULT BOY Holiday House, April, 2008
Anonymous said, on 2/14/2008 5:01:00 PM
M.P. I love your honesty. I loved your post. :) -Faithful 2k8 Blog Reader
I LOVE Archie and the gang! Actually aside from the clock and the malt, they look like a more modern hipper version of the Little Archie stories. Very nice work!
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"When I got sick the first thing that they tested me for was HIV, and I was so afraid that I got it somehow. I didn't have it, but my disease is caused by the immune system. Even though our diseases are very different, I could totally relate to [Positively's main character] Emmy. I know that if I have 100% lung function by the time I am 40 or if my liver doesn't stop from the pills, I am lucky, and Emmy is faced with that too in other ways. There are days that I want to just throw my pills out or not get shots anymore, but I know that decision is a choice between life and death. When I first got sick, I went to a camp for teens with Primary Immunodeficiency and it was similar to what Emmy experienced at Camp Positive. Some of the friends from that time are dead, but they are far from forgotten. The part about the balloons really got to me, because that it what we do every year on my sister's birthday.
That's Donna!
& 
LOL.
That looked awesome. I loved the pics- and the play by play! Very nice job, Alice.
Ooh! I love your bedtime fantasy. I'd like that, too! And the conversation with Aaron and cupcake Kara...Ha!