Our Books Around the World

Readergirlz diva, Justina Chen, is on the road this week.
She took this photo when she spotted her books in Dubai!

More proof readergirlz authors reach around the world.

May your stories flourish everywhere.

Readergirlz wish you happy and safe travels, Justina!

Watch for it: HIT

 

Lorie Ann Grover swings by readergirlz to chat with Janet Lee Carey  about her new book HIT on its launch day! Welcome Lorie Ann.

JLC -- HIT is a riveting read! Tell us what inspired you to write it.

LG -- Thank you, Janet! HIT was inspired by a true story. Ten years ago, my daughter's best friend was hit in a crosswalk on the way to school. With her life threatened, her urgent brain surgery sent her family and friends spinning through a dark wait. Inspired by her experience, my novel tells the story of one girl struck down by the very grad student she is crushing on. Plans, goals, and dreams are shattered, as everything comes screeching to a halt. 

JLC – You chose to write the book in two viewpoints: Sarah, the girl who’s struck by a car, and Mr. Haddings, the young man who was behind the wheel. I was amazed by your choice which worked beautifully! Can you tell us when you decided to write the book this way and share some of the challenges faced?  

LG -- Well, it was originally six voices!

JLC -- Wow, six?

LG -- :~)

JLC -- Who were they?

LG -- Sarah, Haddings, Cydni, Luke, Janet, and Mark. Different editors along the publishing journey suggested reducing it to four, then finally two. Without introducing some sort of fantastic element, like Sarah wandering the hospital in spirit form, I needed at least two voices to tell the story as she is so long in surgery.

JLC – You write so deeply and truly about family and family relationships in HIT. Can you give us a peek into your process for this?

LG -- I think the real event was so charged and poignant, gestures, words, and phrases became haunting notes in my mind. It was simple to stream those straight into the novel. I also include the struggles I’m having or have had in the past: how to mother and let go, how to love the right person, how to separate your identity from another, etc. By digging deeply and bringing battles to light, there’s a chance the work will ring with a reader.

JLC—They say every story is about character change. Sarah’s accident forces not only the central characters but every character in the book to change. How did you determine the way each of these unique personalities would change through the events of the story?

LG -- Thank you for noticing, Janet! I started from a place where everyone was caught up in the everyday. They were selfishly focused. The accident arrests each of them, giving them a chance to stop and assess where they are and what is important. So often, this is one of the gifts within a hardship. I naturally landed on their starting points, riffing off my friends and my own traits. I amplified every facet to better the tale. Seriously, my friends are blessed with so much grace, I had to work hard to weaken them. :~)

JLC— What would you like readers to take away from this book?

LG --’d really like readers to consider the concept that within every hardship there are sweet red seeds. Like Dottie tells Sarah, under the leathery pomegranate skin, there is beauty. We just have to look for it. The truth lines up beautifully with Hit-and-Run: the Gratitude Tour. We're doing. Both Justina Chen and I tend to write about this.

JLC-- The tour will bring out HIT and Justina Chen's A BLIND SPOT FOR BOYS.

 

 

JLC -- Tell us more bout the tour!

 

Hit-and-Run: The Gratitude Tour:

When trials hit, how do we run in triumph? When we have a blind spot for blessings, how do we embrace gratitude? Award-winning authors and readergirlz co-founders, Lorie Ann Grover and Justina Chen, share the trials and triumphs within their own lives and their books’ characters, inspiring teens and adults to #hitwithgratitude.

 

What we now realize is that our message is going to stretch beyond this tour across four states. We will continue to hit the road, encouraging readers to #hitwithgratitude now and in the years to come. For example, how about a 30 Day Challenge to #hitwithgratitude daily through the month of November? Why not tweet, fb, and Instagram shout-outs for those you are grateful for? Who are the people who have crossed your life that you’d like to #hitwithgratitude?

JLC -- I love this idea!

LG -- There are so many ways we can encourage each forward, right? Let’s do it.

I officially #hitwithgratitude: readergirlz and Janet Lee Carey!

 

JLC -- :~) 

Hit 

By Lorie Ann Grover
Blink, 10/07/2014

Drop a Banned Book on Thursday!

The latest list of banned books is out from ALA, and it includes all of the titles pictured below. Why not put one out in the world on Thursday for Rock the Drop and make a statement against book banning...

The ALA's Youth Media Award Winners!

The American Library Association announced its Youth Media Award Winners today. Our congrats to all the Winners and Honors!

Here's a short list to whet your appetite. For a full list (including all of the awards plus the Honors books, which are also amazing!) go here.

John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children's literature
Moon over Manifest, written by Clare Vanderpool

Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children
A Sick Day for Amos McGee, illustrated by Erin E. Stead

Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults
Ship Breaker, written by Paolo Bacigalupi

Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award recognizing an African American author of outstanding books for children and young adults
One Crazy Summer, left, written by Rita Williams-Garcia

Schneider Family Book Award for books that embody an artistic expression of the disability experience

The teen (ages 13-18) award winner is Five Flavors of Dumb, written by Antony John and published by Dial Books, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Pura Belpre (Author) Award honoring a Latino writer whose children's books best portray, affirm and celebrate the Latino cultural experience

The Dreamer, written by Pam Munoz Ryan, illustrated by Peter Sís

Stonewall Children's and Young Adult Literature

Award, given annually to English-language children's and young adult books of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered experience
Almost Perfect, right, written by Brian Katcher

William C. Morris Award for a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens
The Freak Observer, written by Blythe Woolston

YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults honors the best nonfiction book published for young adults during a November 1 – October 31 publishing year.

Janis Joplin: Rise Up Singing, written by Ann Angel

Awards Season Round-Up!

Here is your click-through guide to the awesome winners.

Hooray! Confetti for all!

See the complete list of 2010 Notable Children's Books

See the complete list of 2010 Best Books for Young Adults

See the complete list of 2010 Great Graphic Novels for Teens

See the complete list of 2010 Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults

See the complete list of 2010 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers

See the complete list of 2010 ALA Rainbow Project Selections

So what happened at ALA, you ask?

Ok, other than the books (which I will get to in a moment)...

Besides stalking the HarperCollins booth for a glimpse of TELL ME A SECRET advance copies (!!!), I teamed up with Loriene Roy of If I Can Read, I Can Do Anything, an organization devoted to the literacy of Native teens and children, to talk about readergirlz/GuysLitWire/YALSA and publisher's third annual Operation Teen Book Drop!



We chatted with several groups of librarians who were working tirelessly in both urban and rural settings, community libraries and school libraries, to bring books into the hands of many teens. These people are passionate and dedicated, and we're really excited to have a chance to work with them. Many thanks, especially to Susan Hanks and Liana Juliano for everything!

And as a side note, LIBRARIANS ARE AWESOME! I knew when I met a bunch of Seattle/King County area librarians in the airport - including Judy Nelson, Angela Nolet, Dave Sonnen, Cecilia McGowan, and lots of others - that the trip was going to be fab (and it was really cool that they wanted my TELL ME A SECRET bookmarks - the first to receive them besides my mom!). Then I sat by Nancy Pearl on the way home! (Nancy: the answer to the secret question is..."takeoff decision speed.")

Highlights included meeting YALSA folks and being deemed an honorary YALSA rock star (thanks to Beth Yoke!), hanging out with my peeps at the HarperCollins meeting school/library/account divas Laura and Camilla and editors Tara, Rosemary, Molly, and Sarah - who are all rock stars in my book , seeing copies of TELL ME A SECRET fly off the table (and even signing some - surreal!), catching some of the Best Books for Young Adults panel discussion, especially hearing my editor's work with Jenny Valentine honored for Broken Soup (yay, Catherine!), and being present for the 2010 Youth Media Awards!!!! (Hooray for all of the very deserving winners, especially Libba Bray, Tanita Davis, L.K. Maddigan, Grace Lin, Jerry Pinkney, Tanya Lee Stone, and others!)

At the Kidlit/YA Tweetup organized by Mitali Perkins and Deborah Sloan, I ran into Kate Messner, Dawn Metcalf, Edith Cohn, Mitali Dave, Marissa Doyle, Ann Haywood Leal, Jennifer Rummel, EgmontGal, HipWriterMama, and so many others! Here are a few pics (my camera takes terrible inside shots, so I include credits...):

Here's one I stole from Edith Cohn (taken by Mitali Perkins - my first book-signing!) with Anindita, Edith, me, and Mitali of Alley of Books in the background:

And with EgmontGal Elizabeth Law and Mitali of Alley of Books (photo from Elizabeth's tweet, taken by Ann Haywood Leal!):

Plus a couple from the album of Judith Jango-Cohen with Harper friends Tara Weikum and Sara Shumway:

And here's one the inimitable Mitali Perkins and Vivian Mahoney (HipWriterMama!) after meeting Vivian in person for the first time, after working together on readergirlz for years!

I stayed with friends Kasson and Kathryn in Boston, who not only fed me, housed me, and even turned up their heat for me, but they carted me to and from the T-station so that I wouldn't get lost in the big (well, bigger) city. Then there was new music from Kasson and knitting wonders from Kathryn. Thanks, K&K! Here's my favorite thing I spotted in their house:


Plus some envy-worthy art from Etsy:

Now...on to the book stack. Here, let's look at them one more time and drool:


The publishers at ALA were exceedingly generous to us YA book groupies, and I picked up copies of (in order of the stack, release month in parentheses):

The Heart is Not a Size, by Beth Kephart (4/10)
Stranded, by J.T. Dutton (6/10)
Borderline, by Allan Stratton (3/10)
Very LeFreak, by Rachel Cohn (1/10)
The Timekeeper's Moon, by Joni Sensel (3/10)
Captivate, by Carrie Jones (1/10 - see her Story Secrets!)
Life As We Knew It/The Dead & The Gone/This World We Live In, by Susan Beth Pfeffer (3rd book in 4/10)
Tangled, by Carolyn Mackler (1/10)
Before I Fall, by Lauren Oliver (3/10)
Will Grayson, Will Grayson, by John Green & David Levithan (4/10)
Illyria, by Elizabeth Hand (5/10)
Happyface, by Stephen Emond (3/10)

And a couple of copies of Tell Me a Secret for upcoming blog giveaways! What a weekend!