Little Willow's Book Bag

This Week's Picks
11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass (juvenile fiction)
Dog and Bear: Two's Company by Laura Vaccaro Seeger (picture book)

This Month's Spotlighted Title
Long May She Reign by Ellen Emerson White (Read all about it in this month's issue of readergirlz!)

Cover Stories: Unraveling by Michelle Baldini & Lynn Biederman

A posting from my blog's Cover Stories series, for readergirlz!

Lynn Biederman is my facebook friend, and I fell so in love with her profile pic/book cover, that I had to ask her for a Cover Story. Little did I know there was drama, a teen survey, and saggy boobage involved. Exciting! Here's Lynn:

"I thought about the cover of Unraveling 24/7 as my co-author and I were finishing edits. I'm very visually oriented, and everything in my eclectically cluttered house "speaks to me." So, it was only natural for potential covers to appear nightly, like fashions coming down a runway. (Hello, Violet!) But cover ideas halted when, last minute, we decided to change the title from The Deal on the DL, which stood for The Deal on the Down Low, to Unraveling. The generally accepted meaning of "down low," a situation kept quiet and private, suddenly had an alternate usage according to Wikipedia and a NY Times article released the day our edits were due -- 'down low' also refers to men discreetly having sex with each other. No judgments at all, but not exactly matching the content of our book!

Despite a new title, we still wanted a cover that related to a pivotal part of the story—The Deal. Fifteen-year-old Amanda, frizzy-haired, and frazzled by a toxic relationship with her mother, whom she calls The Captain, thinks a solution to her problems has arrived when Rick, a popular senior, offers her a deal on the down low. The Deal is a date to the big Homecoming Dance in exchange for her promise to sleep with him. Amanda gets caught up in a whirlwind of analyzing friendships, virginity, and family as she weighs The Deal, all of which leads to her unraveling. We offered our ideas for the cover--Amanda in a prom-type dress with a thread coming out of the hem, as if pulling the gown apart, and spelling out Unraveling, our new title, in loopy string-like letters. Our editor, Stephanie Lane, liked the idea and passed it along to the powers that be. Soon after we received cover #1.

So, what did we think when we first saw this cover? We freaked. We screamed. We thought about torching the project and moving to Alaska (pre-Palin!). But we're not dramatic, so we called our editor, who listened to our objections which included that the female pictured looked nothing like a 15 year old. In fact, we thought she appeared older than us--"even our boobies are perkier" my co-author and I told Stephanie. We agreed, however, to take a few days to let the cover sink in and see if our opinions changed.

During this brief totally-sweating it period, I looked at covers in bookstores and online, took note of trends, and developed a quick cover survey for girls 14-16, which I arranged to have handed out in a local high school. (Survey asked about fonts, colors, fave covers, etc.) Michelle lived in Ohio at this point, so she also gave out the survey and we compared NY teens and Ohio teens for more information. Then, we took our new wish list to Stephanie. We told her we wanted a photographic cover, set against white background, with a young teen matching the description of Amanda, and we wanted to see her face, not have a headless image. And we sent pictures of prom dresses and asked that it be lavender like the one Amanda wears in the story. We also talked colors and fonts for title (teens said font matters!) and Stephanie graciously took our comments to the art department.

When we saw Take Two, we again freaked and screamed but this time out of total joy. What emerged is our beautiful, glorious cover. Our editor and everyone at RH loves, LOVES the cover. We get so many awesome comments about it and it completely matches the mood and tone of the story and captures Amanda, our main character, right down to her wild frizzy hair. We are so grateful to our editor and Kenny Holcomb, the art director. They both cared deeply about two never-been-published authors' opinions. How great is that?!"

It's so great! I love that Lynn and Michelle got their voices heard--and the cover is 1000x improved because of it, and the willingness of their editorial team to rework things. How gorgeous is that final cover? I love her hair, her dress, her gaze. Yay. Happy story.

What do you guys think?

Ellen Emerson White's Artful Covers!

Alea, also known as The Pop Culture Junkie, has a great series on her blog about Lookalike Covers. The whole series is fun to read through, and we especially love that she's been focusing on our featured author's covers this month.

In the spotlight are Ellen Emerson White's The President's Daughter, as well as White House Autumn. Check out the covers, and then come talk about them with Ellen and the readergirlz at the forum for the few days we have left in November!

Happy Thanksgiving, readergirlz!

Diva to Diva: Shanghai Fashion

Remember when I started Diva to Diva with a video awhile back, and I asked Justina in Shanghai, China to show us the teen fashion scene? Well, here's her response, for crying out loud. Ha!

Lorie Ann ~rgz diva/author

So my good friend and co-diva of readergirlz, Lorie Ann Grover, challenged me to find the most fashionable figure in Shanghai. Out to lunch with my family, I spotted The One:

Hip down to the dog's four-sneakered paws.

Fashionable or questionable?

Today I am thankful for all things ludicrous that make me laugh.

Justina, ~rgz diva/author

Letters to a Bullied Girl

When teens Emily and Sarah Buder read a newspaper story about Olivia Gardner, a girl at a nearby high school who was being bullied relentlessly by her classmates, they knew they had to do something.

Olivia had transferred schools twice, but her epileptic seizures made her an easy mark for bullies. Emily and Sarah were appalled to read about the way she'd been treated, and they decided to write Olivia a letter, and ask friends to do the same. They hoped for 50 letters. They got 6,500.

Their inspiring story was in USA Today last week, and Letters to a Bullied Girl, a book with 200 of the letters, from people of all ages all over the world, is on sale now.

Hooray for girl heroes, changing the world.

Little Willow's Book Bag

This Week's Picks for Teens

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly (We'll be discussing it at readergirlz in January, so read it over the holidays!)
Just One Wish by Janette Rallison (Coming out in March)

This Month's Spotlighted Title

Long May She Reign by Ellen Emerson White (Read all about it in this month's issue of readergirlz!)

Cover Stories: Dead Girl Walking by Linda Joy Singleton

The lovely Linda Joy Singleton shared the Cover Story for the first two books in her Dead Girl... series on my blog this week, and I want to share her with readergirlz! She did such a great job summarizing the stories within her interview that I'll just let her take it away...

Here's Linda:

"I was asked for ideas for the cover and I said that I wanted a shadowy image of a girl with a bright light behind her as she walked away, to represent when my heroine Amber has a near-death experience where she sees her beloved grandmother and childhood dog, but then on the way back from the light she makes a wrong turn into the body of a popular, beautiful, troubled girl.

"Flux/Llewellyn often asks the author for cover suggestions. Then they let the art department and whoever is at their top secret meetings make the decisions (okay, the meetings probably aren't top secret, but as as author who would love to know what really goes on, they always sound mysterious to me).

"They hired a professional photographer to design a silhouette cover and they also have an art department that works on it, too. When I saw the first version of the cover (left), I thought it was dramatic and I liked the skeleton-ponytail DEAD GIRL logo.

"To be honest, I had hoped for a beautiful cover like TANTALIZE or WICKED LOVELY. I was pleased, though, because this cover was dramatic and what I like to call a 'selling cover' -- meaning it would grab readers' attention in a bookstore. Still the first version was a little too quiet with a silhouette of a cut-out girl with her hands on her hips, looking sort of like a SuperGirl pose. I liked it--didn't love it.

"Fortunately when they created the cover for DEAD GIRL DANCING (left), they came up with a different style with more action, showing a silhouette girl dancing with a fiery orange-red background. My (ex) editor Andrew liked this style better, so switched the first cover of the first book to make this design before it went to print (below).

"I'm very glad they came up with the more active design and I'm eager to see what they decide to do with the third book (tentatively titled DEAD GIRL IN LOVE).

"DEAD GIRL WALKING did have two different versions but that's not normal. Usually I don't see covers until they're ready to go. DEAD GIRL WALKING was the only exception since they changed the cover from the original version -- which really pleased me.

"I like the cover a lot. I think it's mysterious, dramatic and hints at romance, too. But it's DEAD GIRL DANCING, the second book, that has the cover I really, really love. I can't wait for that book to come out in March 2009. It's more mysterious, too, with a stalker, an evil cute guy and spring break wildness."

I really like the final version for the DEAD GIRL WALKING cover, too--having the character look over her shoulder like that brings more energy, I think. Thoughts from you guys?

Robin Hobb/Fantasy Author "chooses" a Professional Assassin to "marry!'

Readergirlz divas Lorie Ann Grover and Dia Calhoun had a fascinating lunch with Robin Hobb, acclaimed fantasy author.





Robin graciously consented to an interview. Dia Calhoun thought of all the questions she would love to asked as a fantasy author, and never is, and posed these to Robin.

1. What magical power that you have created in your fantasy novels would you choose for yourself and why?

Robin: Oh, I'd definitely want the Wit!

I've always been very close to my faithful animal companions. J I do talk to them a lot and I've always felt that in return, I've understood a great deal of what they've tried to tell me. And teach me. So I'd truly relish the chance to converse with them in detail.


2. Which of your fantasy worlds would you best like to live in and why?

Robin: I'd want to live in Buckkeep, in the time of Fitz's youth. I'd love the wild place around it, and the action of a lively seaport time.

But if I were given the chance to go for a month-long shopping spree, then I'd want to head down to Bingtown. The wonderful items in the stores there are things that I'd love to own: windchimes that play endlessly varying melodies. Precious gems that are also perfume. A box that allows you to share a dream with your beloved.

After all, if you can imagine a thing, you can probably find it for sale in Bingtown.



3. Which of your fantasy characters would you like for a best friend and why?

Robin: I'd choose Nighteyes, the wolf. Especially since the first question in this interview gave me the Wit. I've always been much more comfortable with animals than people! I've always loved how animals live in the moment without endless worrying about yesterday or tomorrow. I think that's why they're so restful to be with.



4. Which of your fantasy characters would you marry (let's assume you have to pick one!) and why?

Robin: Now there's a tough question! 'Marry' to me means forever and ever. That takes someone steady and rational, even though I'll admit that in my reckless youth it was the bad boys who attracted me. At the age I am now, I'd be much too old for any of my dashing and handsome protagonists. I think I'd have to settle for Chade and try to reform him! Professional assassins aren't steady and reliable, perhaps, but at least we'd never run out of interesting things to talk about. And I think our housekeeping styles would mesh remarkably well.



5. If you had to bring one of your fantasy characters to live in our world, which one would you choose and why? Where would you take him/her first?

Robin: I think I'd choose Patience, because with her endless curiosity and willingness to try new things, I think she'd be the most adaptable. As to where I'd take her first, why the Japanese gardens at Point Defiance. I think she'd be charmed and fascinated. Of course, if I took her to the glass museum here in Tacoma, she'd instantly want to get involved with that. That's why she would be so much fun to bring into our world. She'd immediately want to engage with all of it.

Thank you, Robin, for a fun interview! Learn more about Robin Hobb at her website

Dear Mr. President...

Ever wanted to write a letter to the president? Thousands of teenagers across the country are penning their thoughts for President-Elect Obama at Writing Our Future (Little Willow first saw this at Sno-Isle Teens!) Add your voice to a google doc, and see your silhouette appear on the map!

And there are still a few more days when you can come chat with featured author Ellen Emerson White about her Presidential Daughter series and our featured book, Long May She Reign. Join us in the forum.

See you there!

PS-Don't forget to enter our Blog-o-Hunt contest!

Twilight: The Lost Script

Wondering what the dialogue will be like for the upcoming Twilight movie? Well, wonder no further. Martha Brockenbrough, readergirlz media specialist and MSN Cinemama columnist,
has imagined it for us, based on the movie's publicity shots, in her singularly hilarious style.

Thanks to the lovely CuppaJolie for the link!

Holly Cupala, author & rgz diva

2008 Winter Blog Blast Tour Schedule

Per the fabulous Chasing Ray, here is the schedule for the Winter Blog Blast. Lots of great author chats at super blogs. What are you waiting for?

Monday
Lewis Buzbee at Chasing Ray
Louis Sachar at Fuse Number 8
Laurel Snyder at Miss Erin
Courtney Summers at Bildungsroman
Elizabeth Wein at Finding Wonderland
Susan Kulkin at The YA YA YAs

Tuesday
Ellen Dalow at Chasing Ray
Tony DiTerlizzi at Miss Erin
Melissa Walker at Hip Writer Mama
Luisa Plaja at Bildungsroman
DM Cornish at Finding Wonderland
LJ Smith at The YA YA YAs
Kathleen Duey at Bookshelves of Doom

Wednesday
Ellen Klages at Fuse Number 8
Emily Jenkins at Writing and Ruminating
Ally Carter at Miss Erin
Mark Peter Hughes at Hip Writer Mama
Sarah Littma at Bildungsroman
MT Anderson at Finding Wonderland
Mitali Perkins at Mother Reader

Thursday
Martin Millar at Chasing Ray
John Green at Writing and Ruminating
Beth Kephart at Hip Writer Mama
Emily Ecton at Bildungsroman
John David Anderson at Finding Wonderland
Brandon Mull at The YA YA YAs
Lisa Papademetriou at Mother Reader

Friday
Mayra Lazara Dole at Chasing Ray
Francis Rourke Dowell at Fuse Number 8
J Patrick Lewis at Writing and Ruminating
Wendy Mass at Hip Writer Mama
Lisa Ann Sandell at Bildungsroman
Caroline Hickey/Sara Lewis Holmes at Mother Reader
A.S. King at Bookshelves of Doom


PS-Check out even more Bookish Sites To See at SparkLife!

Rgz LIVE! with Ellen Emerson White, on Tuesday!

Discuss our featured book, Long May She Reign with the author herself! Ellen Emerson White will be chatting live at the readergirlz forum on Tuesday, November 18th at 6 PM PST/9 PM EST.

The chat will last for about an hour.

See you there!

Little Willow's Book Bag

This Week's Picks for Teens
Same Difference by Siobhan Vivian (Coming out in March 2009)
Skinned by Robin Wasserman

For Your Younger Sister
Piper Reed, the Great Gypsy by Kimberly Willis Holt
Vunce Upon a Time by Siobhan Vivian and J.otto Siebold

This Month's Spotlighted Title
Long May She Reign by Ellen Emerson White

Today's Pretty Special.

First, it's America Recycles Day, and you can find a cool event going on year you on the National Recycling Coalition's website. Like, near me in NYC, there's "Green Screens" Electronic Recycling Event, where I'm totally getting rid of my old phone with zero guilt. Yay!

Second, it's National Adoption Day! This year's goals are to: "Finalize adoptions from foster care in all 50 states, celebrate and honor families who adopt, raise awareness about the 129,000 children in foster care waiting for adoption, encourage others to adopt children from foster care and build collaboration among local adoption agencies, courts and advocacy organizations."

I actually just donated a ton of Young Adult books to a foster care center near me, which was really fun, and cleared space for new reads. Think about what you guys can do today to celebrate these events!

Our own Little Willow has a list of great books that deal with adoption up on her blog. Anyone have more picks?

Secrets of Our Featured Author

A few secrets we've learned about featured author Ellen Emerson White and Long May She Reign:

* What our heroine Meg likes most about living in the White House ("It would be a tie between the tennis court and the live feed at the White House of speeches and press briefings and the like.")

* Ellen herself really likes Jack, Meg's love interest in the book ("To me, he seems like a perfect freshman year boyfriend... Picking a guy like him is a sign of genuine healing on her part.")

* Ellen wants to know what readers think about President Powers (in the book) vs. President-Elect Obama...

Join in the readergirlz forum to discuss these topics with us, and with our featured author. I mean, how often do you get to go back and forth with the author directly? F-U-N.

Word cloud for Holly's work-in-progress novel

This is a Wordle word cloud for my current work-in-progress, CREED:



Wow. That's pretty cool.

readergirlz, try it and post your clouds!

Holly Cupala, rgz diva & author

Not Reading NEW MOON... Yet

Sci Fi Wire posted about the fact that Kristen Stewart, the actress playing lead character Bella Swan in the movie version of Stephenie Meyers' Twilight, hasn't read the full series--just the first book.

Stewart's rationale is that Bella doesn't yet know what happens in the next chapters of her life, so the actress doesn't want to either. It sounds like fairly solid method acting to me, but others are criticizing her for not finishing the books.

What do you guys think?

Write4Kids honors Mitali Perkins!

The good people over at Children's Book Insider have put together a video to highlight some great blogs of the day, including our own, awesome Mitali Perkins! Check it out!



Happy Veteran's Day!

Holly Cupala, author and readergirlz diva

First Families

Since Long May She Reign, our featured book this month, is one about a first daughter, I thought it would be fun to post some photos of our recent (and future) first families. Imagine how hard it must be growing up in the White House, especially if they catch you in your awkward years. At least none of these girls have had quite the adventures that Meg Powers has! Are you reading, readergirlz?





PS-I'm adding the Kennedys because they're so photogenic. Sorry, had to!



PPS-Don't forget to enter our Blog-o-Hunt contest!

Long May She Reign Roundtable

Two readergirlz divas and two members of the postergirlz (our teen lit advisory council) recently got together to discuss Long May She Reign by Ellen Emerson White, our book pick for November 2008. Here's a sneak peek at the roundtable:

Little Willow: I was pleased to read a story with a female President of the United States. What did you think about Meg's mother? And her father, the First Gentlemen? And her little brothers?

Lorie Ann Grover: It was believable, I thought. Each character was equipped with skills and a personality fitted to the role carried in the story. And each acted accordingly with the trials they were presented. I think Meg's mom is an awesome president!

Dia Calhoun: Amazing the horrible dilemma her mother faced as president: duty to her country or duty to her daughter. I can't even begin to comprehend this. I thought Meg's relationship with her mother was realistically portrayed in all its complexity. I'm so glad they come together at the end of the book.

Jackie Parker: Each and every character around Meg had a backstory - a reason why they acted they way they did. EEW wasn't afraid of showing the repercussions of their humanity. It's staggering.

Want to read the entire discussion? Click here!