Rock the Drop: Photo Op!

Danielle dropped A Northern Light (a featured readergirlz title!) by Jennifer Donnelly in Cambridge, MA outside a coffee shop.

Thank you, Jennifer Donnelly!

Here's a big gracias to the amazing Jennifer Donnelly for joining us at readergirlz this month! Things we learned about Jennifer include:

1. Her secret writing ritual ("tea plus chocolate = jet fuel!")
2. She would not want to live in caveman times ("Too dreary.")
3. She wrote "Egregious poems in High School."

Also, we learned that she makes us laugh, as well as making us want to read 100 more of her books.

We had so much fun this month!

Reach Out: NASAR

Jennifer Donnelly was inspired by an actual crime when she wrote A Northern Light. In 1906, a woman went missing and was found murdered in the Catskills Mountains of New York.

When young girls like Grace from A Northern Light go missing, the search isn't all up to the cops. Search parties often include volunteers, too--people like you, with a passion for getting involved, a desire to help others, and endless faith in a happy ending. (Does that describe rgz or what?!)

If pitching in on a search and rescue (SAR) team sounds like something you're suited for, check out the National Association for Search & Rescue website.

They offer loads of classes and conferences throughout the U.S. to train volunteers - usually ages 15 and older. You can also contact your local police department, as many communities have SAR programs and welcome all the help they can get.

A Northern Light: The Party!

If you're reading A Northern Light, you're probably thinking about friends who'd love it, and how exactly to celebrate this great book! Lucky for you, we have ideas.

Invite: Tea-stained parchment, old-fashioned copperplate font, tied with a blue ribbon

Food: Lemonade, ice cream, pie . . . and fiddleheads!

Games: Language duels

Décor: Japanese lanterns, daisy chains, vases of wildflowers

Movies: An American Tragedy, A Place in the Sun

And don't forget the awesome soundtrack, hand picked by author Jennifer Donnelly!

Join us for Rgz LIVE! This Thursday!

Discuss the book with the author herself! Jennifer Donnelly will be chatting live at the readergirlz forum on Thursday, January 15th at 6 PM PST/9 PM EST.

The chat will last for about an hour, and we'll get to ask all kinds of fun questions about Mattie, the main character in A Northern Light, and we can grill Jennifer about her inspirations, writing practices, favorite foods--all's fair game!

Things to Know About Featured Author Jennifer Donnelly

Besides the fact that she writes a riveting novel, we found out the following about A Northern Light author Jennifer Donnelly:

On the nightstand: Wodehouse and Beckett. The first makes my laugh till I cry. The second makes me cry till I laugh.

Favorite drink while you write: Castleton Estate's First Flush Darjeeling

Favorite bookstore: All of them. Every single one on the planet.

Favorite library: Tivoli Free Library, Tivoli, NY

Pets: My beloved greyhound, Scotty.

Place to write: My quiet, serene, light-filled office in a cottage on a horse farm in the country. No phone, no e-mail, no FedEx or DHL or UPS. Bliss!

Inspiration: The brawling, sprawling, appalling mess that is history.

Dream book tour: One that starts in the Balkans and ends up in Tibet.

Writer buddies: Just met Valerie Martin. She's so cool. She's scary-smart, but for some reason, she still hangs out with me.

Cure for writer's block: Writing. Cringe, cry, swear, scream, threaten suicide, but keep on writing.

Favorite outfit: Levi's and Blundstones. And a shirt of some nature.

Website: www.jenniferdonnelly.com

Come join us in the rgz forum to find out more about Jennifer!

Writers lie.

Over at rgz we are chatting with Jennifer about A Northern Light. I just posted a thread to get discussion going on this quote:

"I have read so many books, and not one of them tells the truth about babies. Dickens doesn't. Oliver's mother just dies in childbirth and that's that. Bronte doesn't. Catherine Earnshaw just has her daughter and that's that. There's no blood, no sweat, no pain, no fear, no heat, no stink.

Writers are damned liars. Every single one of them."

I love this so much! And then the following passage about Minnie giving birth is incredibly real.

Certainly in 1906 writers were restrained, especially in their portrayal of women. Thankfully, we are not so inhibited today. Although there still are a few harnesses left for writing YA, and certainly many more are in place for middle grade novels.

Despite those, I have a driving aim to tell the raw truth. Truly, that was my goal for Loose Threads.



But even when we bust through barriers with publishers, we can still be held back. I was asked at a school visit for Loose Threads not to mention the word "breast" when discussing breast cancer with the fifth graders. I'm-not-kidding.

May we female writers push to tell our stories. Without one lie. To everyone who will listen.

January's Pick: A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

Happy New Year, everyone!


Help us welcome the fabulous Jennifer Donnelly!

In A Northern Light, Sixteen-year-old Mattie Gokey has big dreams but little hope of seeing them come true. Desperate for money, she takes a job at the Glenmore, where hotel guest Grace Brown asks her to burn a bundle of secret letters. But when Grace's drowned body is fished from the lake, Mattie discovers the letters reveal the grim truth behind a murder.

Set in 1906 against the backdrop of the murder that inspired Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy, this astonishing novel weaves romance, history, and a murder mystery into something moving, real, and wholly original.

A Northern Light has received a ton of honors:

Winner of the Carnegie Medal

Winner of the L.A. Times Book Prize

Winner of New York State's Charlotte Award

A Michael Printz Honor Book

An ALA Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults

Come join us at the forum!