This particular "Debbie--have you seen" is here, not because someone asked me about it, but because it was recommended on child_lit a few days ago because it has an Ojibwe character.
The character in The Case of the Portrait Vandal is "Raining Sam" as shown in the synopsis:
There's a vandal in the Capitol City Museum of American History, and he or she is intent on defacing priceless artifacts. Raining Sam, the son of the Head of Educational Programs and local Ojibwe tribe member, is determined to get to the bottom of things before anything else can be destroyed. But when Raining himself is considered a suspect, he and his friends must race against the clock to unmask the real culprit and solve the museum mystery before it's too late.
The name, "Raining Sam" and then "Raining" as his first name throughout is a bit of a stumbling block for me. But I do like this part about Wilson (Raining's friend):
Wilson knew about Raining's interest in American history, especially the history of his own people, the Ojibwe. The tribe had been on the continent known as North America a lot longer than some other people.
I also like the part where Wilson can tell that their two friends are approaching because Wilson knows what their footsteps sound like (p. 15):
"Amazing," said Raining, standing up from his spot at the table. "And people think we're supposed to be the trackers." It bugged Raining that people he met still assumed certain things about North America's indigenous people."
The book is part of a mystery series starring four kids whose parents work in museums. Here's a screen capture of them. On the far left is Wilson. Next to him is Amal. By her is Clementine, and, that's Raining on the far right.
Published in 2015 by Capstone, there's a copy of
The Case of the Portrait Vandal on the new books shelf in my local library. I'll be back when I get a chance to read it. It
We try to keep our links list (over to the left, if you're reading this at stonearchbooks.blogspot.com) updated when Stone Arch Books is mentioned elsewhere in the blogosphere or on Internet news outlets. But today, there are a couple of things worth pointing out specifically.
Over at Paul Kupperberg's blog, the author of The Kid Who Saved Superman has posted a detailed write-up of his tour to the DC Comics headquarters with some of our staff and the winner of the DC Super Heroes contest. Check it out here.
And author Steve Brezenoff is hosting a contest for a bunch of books at his blog. Click here and leave a comment about a school memory for a chance to win.
Enjoy!
The primary goal of any librarian or educator, when he or she hands a book to a reluctant or “striving” reader, is to present something appealing: that is, not at all like the nonfiction titles or assigned work the reader is used to. Among the genres most effective for these readers are sports, graphic novels, and speculative fiction.
Speculative fiction — and particularly its subgenres fantasy, sci-fi, and supernatural thrillers — are perfect for these groups of readers. “High interest” texts like these — with adventure, magic, fantastic technology, and suspense — are as far from the drudgery of nonfiction and school assignments as the reader can get. Applying striving reader methods — like larger fonts, ragged rights, larger spaces between paragraphs, and even urban settings and characters of color — make these high interest texts appropriate for not only reluctant readers (whose success finishing a book will lead them to read more), but also striving readers, who might read at a grade level or two below their own, or might be English language learners.
As we’ve all seen with reader-grabbers like Harry Potter, Twilight, and Maximum Ride, speculative fiction can often be the “gateway” books that make new readers.
Steve Brezenoff has always been a slow reader, and his gateway book was The Book of Three.
Posted in Steve Brezenoff Tagged: reluctant readers, striving readers
Today we have author Steve Brezenoff, a New Yorker living in exile in Minnesota. He’s a member of the Tenners because his first Young Adult book debuts in 2010, but he’s no stranger to publishing. In fact, if you look him up on Amazon you’ll find a whole page of books he’s written and co-written. In addition, Steve used to work as a production editor at Simon & Schuster and he has an agent with a name that I precede with “Count” in my mind every time I read it, because Edward Necarsulmer IV just begs for a title of continental nobility. Oh, and his book deal was inked in Italy! So yeah, Steve is fancy in every possible way.
Here’s Steve’s deal report from Publisher’s Marketplace:
Steve Brezenoff's untitled book, about four Long Island teens whose lives unravel suddenly and dramatically (and with a fair amount of pot), to Andrew Karre at Carolrhoda, for publication Fall 2010, by Edward Necarsulmer IV at McIntosh & Otis (NA).
(Note: The working title is SPLINTERS, but that will probably change.)
Hi Steve! Welcome. So, can you tell us how you met your agent?
I haven't actually met my agent yet, though I did see him on a panel at SCBWI NYC conference earlier this year. I liked the cut of his jib; he was the only one up there in a suit, which for some reason struck me as awesome.
I came to be working with Edward Necarsulmer IV at Mac & Otis because, like I said, I liked his jib cut, and my editor (see below) put him at the top of a short list of agents he thought would work well with me and my manuscript. Once I sent it along, he was mind-blowingly enthusiastic about the partial, and just as enthusiastic with the full. I was flattered and there was much stammering on both our parts, and some disagreement on JD Salinger's best work, and the Grateful Dead's best work, and we agreed we ought to work together.
Can you tell us how your book deal happened?
I joined SCBWI in 2007, I think, and went to the local (Minnesota) chapter's conference in the fall of 2008. There, I went to
Andrew Karre's presentation on YA--he contrasted Kurt Cobain and John Cougar Mellancamp to great effect. Riveting, naturally. Afterward, I approached him with this wacky resume thing I made (at my wife's suggestion!): it was on one side my work-for-hire writing experience, of which there is a fair amount, and on the other my WIPs, summarized in snappy little blurbs. I don't know how much value that resume had; it may have been enough that my name and email address left with him. Either way, Andrew emailed me pretty much right away, asking for fulls on all the WIPs on that resume. Little did he know, that was essentially impossible, since none of my WIPs were actually finished. Rookie mistake FTW!
I banged through my YA WIP, realizing it was the stronger MS (I'd been working on it, on and off, since around 1999), sent it along (though it was WAY too short) and he liked it. If I can pat my own back a little, he read the whole thing in one night! Granted, it was much shorter then, but still. I was over the moon.
Six months later, after I'd nearly doubled the length of the thing, Andrew was ready to make an offer. That's when I decided to get an agent (see above). What was the inspiration for your 2010 debut book and how long did it take you to write? The initial inspiration for the novel was a short story I wrote in a college creative writing class in 1995 (yikes). The protagonist was a few years younger than the one in Splinters, but his obsession with death and his closeness with and admiration for his older sister were already evident. After my own father passed away, it became very obvious that the protagonist's father would die as well. From there, the bulk of the novel wrote itself. What's your publication date and where in the process are you now?I'm on the schedule for fall 2010 at Carolrhoda. Right now, I'm waiting for my editor's first official round of notes so I can get started revising. He assures me it will be a fairly light series of revisions. I hope he is right.
If you could choose any writer or writers to blurb for your debut, who would you choose?
Since we're strictly fantasizing here, I am free to choose JD Salinger. However, more realistically, I'll say Blake Nelson (author of Girl, years ago, and Destroy All Cars, this year) and Sara Zarr (author of Story of a Girl and Sweethearts). Both of those writers are masters of YA voice, in my opinion, and I would be beyond thrilled to have even a drop of respect from either or both of them.
What are you working on now?
I always have a few work-for-hire jobs going on, about which I usually can't say much. They're almost always hella fun to write, and I think of them as my day job. (That and being a stay-at-home dad, both of which are pretty awesome!) In my spare time, I'm working on another YA novel; this one has one foot slightly in urban fantasy, but is still mostly about a foul-mouthed teen. I like writing foul-mouthed teens.
Do you have any words of wisdom for writers trying to get published?
Go to conferences! Meet editors and agents and writers at those conferences. Practice your elevator lines, and if you're just not that good in person, write them down, so you just have to introduce yourself and put a piece of paper into editors' and agents' hands.
Oh, and, ummm, don't do that until your WIPs are no longer IP. Have something finished.
Where can we find out more about you on the web?
Thanks, Steve! Great interview. As a seasoned professional, we’ll be looking to you for advice when 2010 rolls around...
Should I admit that I haven’t read The Book of Three? I did see The Black Cauldron movie, though!
I haven’t read it either! Maybe I should!
I love the idea of a book turning a kid into a reader. It’s so encouraging!
I appreciate any efforts to draw attention to reading, and attract reluctant readers to it.
That’s because I grew up as a reluctant reader, in spite of the fact that my father published over 70 books. Now I write action-adventures & mysteries, especially for tween boys, that avid boy readers and girls enjoy just as much.
My blog, Books for Boys http://booksandboys.blogspot.com recently reached # 1 on Google.
Keep up your good work concerning reading.
Max Elliot Anderson
Not read it yet, but will give it a try.
Another new easy reading novel just being released is Classes Apart, a sporting comedy.