Cover Stories: She's So Dead to Us by Kieran Scott

The fantastic Kieran Scott is here to talk about title changes, taglines and Tiffany blue on the cover of her latest novel, She's So Dead to Us (I've heard her read from it, and in case you're not familiar with her books, Kieran -- who also writes as Kate Brian -- pens a great novel).

Here she is:

"The story of my cover is all tied up with the story of my title. When I first pitched the idea that eventually became SHE'S SO DEAD TO US, it was titled RETURN TO ORCHARD HILL. In my mind it was a coming-home story wrapped up in a romance. I had all these thoughts of Dawson's Creek-style, sepia-toned images of autumn trees and quaint neighborhoods. It was all very romantic and dreamy.

"Unfortunately, my publisher didn't love the title. It sounded too old-fashioned and literary. They wanted something more immediate. Something that would grab the reader, rather than lull them into a state of nostalgia. So I went back to the drawing board. I came up with lists and lists of potential titles. I brainstormed with my agent and I brainstormed with my editor. I even brainstormed with my sister and my best friend. But somehow, we couldn't all get on the same page. There was one title we all liked, but we already knew there were going to be three books, and we couldn't come up with accompanying titles that made sense. We went back and forth about this for weeks, until it was basically do-or-die time. Catalog copy had to be set. Covers had to be made. We were playing with fire..."

Read the rest of Kieran's Cover Story at melissacwalker.com.

Little Willow's Book Bag

This Week's Picks
The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May & June by Robin Benway
The Dragons of Noor by Janet Lee Carey

Rgz Salon: Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes, Reviewed by Lyn Miller-Lachmann

Rgz SALON member Lyn Miller-Lachmann has been the Editor-in-Chief of MultiCultural Review; the author of the award-winning multicultural bibliography Our Family, Our Friends, Our World; the editor of Once Upon a Cuento, a collection of short stories by Latino authors; and most recently, the author of Gringolandia, a young adult novel about a refugee family living with the aftermath of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. The book is in its second print run and is available for order. (Don't forget to read the fascinating Cover Story for Gringolandia.)

We're honored to have Lyn here as part of the rgz SALON, a feature where four of the top kidlit experts clue us in to the best YA novels they've read recently. Today, she reviews Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes (Little, Brown, 2010).

"Lanesha, who has just turned 12, lives in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans with the midwife and seer Mama Ya-Ya, who has taken care of her ever since Lanesha’s mother died in childbirth. Lanesha was “born with a caul, a skin netting covering my face like a glove” and because of it, Mama Ya-Ya says she has the 'sight.' In the week before Hurricane Katrina, Lanesha—who has always been seen by the other children as an outcast because of this connection to the spirit world and who has been spurned as well by her wealthier Uptown relatives—makes two new friends and hears Mama Ya-Ya’s prophecy of a great darkness following the storm. When Hurricane Katrina hits, the Lower Ninth Ward floods, and 82-year-old Mama Ya-Ya enters her death throes, Lanesha brings everyone, including neighbor, classmate, and new friend TaShon, to the attic and then onto the roof. Gifted in mathematics as well as in sight, she uses her skills to calculate how much time she and TaShon have to escape before the water submerges them.

"An acclaimed author of novels for adult readers, Rhodes brilliantly captures the setting and the experience of so many young people trapped in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Most of the novel takes place before the hurricane hits, allowing her to show the lives of people in the Lower Ninth Ward, who have been depicted in the media as faceless victims. Lanesha is a singular character, rooted in the folklore of Africa and the American South but also with dreams of her future as an engineer. Bridges are an important symbol throughout the novel: Lanesha wants to build them; she and Mama Ya-Ya serve as bridges between the living and the dead; and Lanesha and TaShon (along with their dog, Spot) find safety on the Martin Luther King overpass, a bridge over the flooded city." -Lyn Miller-Lachmann

Diva in the News - and an Experiment!

If you're like us here at rgz, then books are your escape, your pleasure, and sometimes even your therapy! Well, the editors at Babble.com agree, as you can read here. Note the quote from our own Holly Cupala!

And a quick note about Monday's Featured Title, Love is the Higher Law: I'm trying something new this week, which is that I want to hear from YOU what your favorite examples of compassion are in David Levithan's moving story. DM or @-reply me on Twitter (@micolz) and I'll work your thoughts into my post.

Let's see how it goes!

And in the meantime, yay, Holly!

Story Secrets: LANGUAGE OF LOVE by Deborah Reber + giveaway!

I'm very pleased to welcome author friend Deborah Reber to the blog today to chat about her first YA novel, LANGUAGE OF LOVE!

But Debbie is no stranger to writing for teens: she's written a bunch of fabulous books to empower teen girls and help them connect to their purpose and passions,
like IN HER SHOES, CHILL, and she compiled and edited the amazing teen-authored memoir series Louder Than Words (you might be familiar with titles ALEXIS, RAE, and HANNAH).

Welcome, Deborah!


*****

LANGUAGE OF LOVE is about a shy girl named Janna whose “bad influence best friend” convinces her to impersonate a Hungarian exchange student in order to keep the interest of Julian, a cute boy from another school. At first she thought her prank was harmless - Janna didn’t expect to like her outgoing alter ego so much, and she certainly didn’t realize that Julian was “the one” for her until she’s in way too deep. That’s when things really get complicated…

I’m soooo excited about LANGUAGE OF LOVE because it’s my first stab at writing YA fiction. The book is part of Simon Pulse’s Romantic Comedies series, which they’ve just rebranded by packaging two novels in one book. So Language of Love is actually paired with Caroline Goode’s Cupidity in a new book called Love, Love, Love.

Holly Cupala: Great title, too! So where did the idea come from?

Deborah Reber: How many of us wish we could be someone else every now and then – try on a more interesting persona and see what happens? I wanted to play with that idea, and thought back to an episode of the original Beverly Hills 90210 where Brenda is spending the summer in France with Donna and fools an American boy into thinking she’s French. And the story just evolved from there...


Find out more of Deborah's secrets and enter to win LANGUAGE OF LOVE here...

~Holly Cupala

Featured Author Quote: Holly Black on White Cat

Holly Black stopped by to add her input on our discussion of Compassion and White Cat, so we thought we'd highlight that for anyone who missed it! Holly says:

"It is so interesting to hear people talk about my characters like they're people you know -- it's one of the things that I think writers like best, because most of the time we're alone with these characters for long stretches of time. They become real to us and we have strong feelings about them - but we're the only people who do - so when we meet readers who want to talk about them, it makes us feel less crazy.

"The thing I have been continuously surprised by is the compassion that readers have for Barron. He's a troubled and troubling guy, but many feel sorry for him in a way that I don't!"

Thanks, Holly! White Cat readers: Thoughts? Have you ever felt compassion for a character who wasn't necessarily "good"?

White Cat: Characters with Compassion

This week's focus is on Holly Black's White Cat and it's an excellent representation of this month's theme: Compassion. Cassel is a character with great compassion in the midst of a cold, calculating, con-artist family.

For discussion: If you've read White Cat, how do you think Cassel developed his own deep compassion in this harsh setting?

And, in general, what books have you read where a character has great compassion, and how did it shape the story?

rgz Newsflash: Little Willow on 90210!

*squeeeee* Our own Little Willow was recently cast in an episode of 90210! In the below trailer watch for one girl to say, "Did Naomi Clark just say hi to us?" Little Willow is the one she is talking to! Look for dark hair and glasses. When the show airs, she'll respond, "I think so."

Click here to watch the preview on The CW YouTube Channel.

Click here to watch the preview at the 90210 website.

We are so proud of you, LW! Let us know when the show is set to air!

A Novel Gift: Update

Thanks to everyone for the GREAT response to A Novel Gift! First Book says they are knee deep in registrations. But there's room for more! Seriously. Hundreds of thousands of more books are coming! Publishers are opening their warehouses for low-income teens. We still need help connecting organizations to First Book to receive these awesome works of YA lit.

Did you catch the SLJ article by Rocco Staino? It's spot on, fantastic. Thanks, Rocco!

So keep those registrations coming! Let everyone know. Talk about it at your holiday parties. Post notices at your blogs. I'll pop on weekly to give tidbits, updates, and reminders. Let's ride this sleigh until the 31st!

Thanks, rgz!

 

Cover Stories: Freefall by Mindi Scott

Mindi Scott's debut, Freefall, has already garnered some impressive praise. The New York Journal of Books says, "In a genre overloaded with bubble-gum-pink teendom and paranormal dark fantasy full of fangs and fur, Mindi Scott's debut novel Freefall stands out as fresh, realistic, young adult fiction... sure to be one of the best contemporary young adult books of the year."

Very cool. And the cover? It's stark and mysterious. Here's Mindi to share the story:

"The day I saw my cover for the first time, I kept my Twitter followers in the loop. But I was secretive about it, so they had no idea that that's what I was doing.

"After hearing a rumor that I might be seeing the cover art, I tweeted this: 'Something cool(ish) might happen today, but it probably won't. I should really unplug the internet so I stop checking my email!'

"A little more than an hour later, my editor sent an email with the subject line 'COVER!!' In her note, she mentioned that at the meeting for the sales, publishing, and marketing team, there were literal sharp intakes of breath around the room when the cover art for Freefall was

revealed.

"While preparing myself for what I was about to view, I posted this on Twitter: 'Heart is racing.'

"I clicked to download the attachment and held my breath while I waited. And then, this appeared on my screen:

"I stared at it.

"I thought: I love it!

"I thought: It's gorgeous!

"I thought: But... what does it mean?..."

Read the rest of Mindi's Cover Story at melissacwalker.com.

Featured Title: WHITE CAT (The Curse Workers, Book One), by Holly Black

Cassel comes from a family of curse workers -- people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they're all mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn't got the magic touch, so he's an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail -- he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.

Ever since, Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He's noticing other disturbing things, too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him, caught up in a mysterious plot. As Cassel begins to suspect he's part of a huge con game, he also wonders what really happened to Lila. Could she still be alive? To find that out, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen.


With White Cat, Holly Black has created a gripping tale of mobsters and dark magic where a single touch can bring love -- or death -- and your dreams might be more real than your memories.

Holly Black, bestselling author of Tithe, Ironside, and The Spiderwick Chronicles (to name a very few), has a reputation which precedes her in the best possible way. My most-respected grad-school colleagues and aficionados of urban fantasy have had nothing but lavish praise for her work, and likewise her original acquiring editor at my old stomping grounds of Simon & Schuster. When she came to speak at my Vermont College Alumni Mini-Residency this past July on the subject of world-building, I knew I was in for a treat. 

Holly's opening words of wisdom? When considering one's writing, it is best to keep in mind that "hard things are hard." Believe you me, it's a bon mot I've trotted out on many occasions since. 

It is perhaps precisely because Holly has such abiding respect for the value of solid world-building that her new series draws so compelling a parallel between the black market of magic and such historical prohibitions of vices like alcohol. Her newest urban fantasy is in point of fact a smooth exercise in hardboiled noir that deftly synthesizes genres in a way that should captivate fans old and new. 

December's theme at readergirlz is Compassion, and I imagine there are a myriad of ways that the theme could be applied to White Cat: compassion for a society living with seemingly unreasonable restrictions; compassion for a teen boy uncertain of his place in the world. Compassion, indeed, for the writer, who grapples with the minutia of authentic, believable world-building. 

So, readers, we divas put the question to you -- in what ways does White Cat embody this month's theme of compassion? Let us know what you think!

Cover Stories: You Are Not Here by Samantha Schutz

"The cover for my first book, I Don't Want to Be Crazy (left), is made up entirely of the title. There's no image. I had a really hard time when I first saw it. It just wasn't what I imagined it would be. I always assumed it would be a photo of a girl. So, it took me awhile to get used to the type-only treatment. But I've grown to really like the cover--especially because if it's facing out on a shelf, you can't miss it! It's very unique.

"So, when I thought about what the cover might be for You Are Not Here, I was really hoping for a photograph. As I wrote, I envisioned a photo of a gravestone (maybe the title of the book would look like it'd been etched into the stone) with a really bright blue sky and deep/emerald grass. I didn't want the cover to look creepy or paranormal (although, that may have been hard to do if we used a cemetery image). You Are Not Here is love story (although, unrequited and impossible to maintain) so even though death is a central image, I still wanted the cover to be beautiful. Also, since You Are Not Here is set in the same neighborhood I grew up in, I had a very distinct images in my head of what everything looked like. I wrote a blog post about this.

"I mentioned my ideas to my editor and printed out some stock photos that I found. Although I am not sure if he actually asked for it. I hoped that they would take my idea, but wasn't holding my breath. By day, I am a children's book editor and when it comes to decisions like this, I have to remind myself that I am the WRITER in this situation, not the editor. And that means I don't always know what's best--because I am just too close to the work.

"When I saw my first cover, I LOVED IT! My editor planned to do a photo shoot, but the designer came across a great stock image. They did a rough mock-up of it and sent it to me [the image shows a girl lying in the grass, as Samantha's main character does in the cemetery]. But only a few weeks later, my editor saw the cover for Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver. They were just too similar. So that cover got scrapped.

"When I saw the second cover, I was really bummed. It was good, but not great. The stock image they had chosen was nice enough [another girl-in-grass, but differently placed]--and I liked how most of the image was grass--but nothing about it stood out. It was also hard to tell what the girl in the photo was feeling. She looked peaceful. Like she was sleeping. And that didn't really fit with the book--Annaleah, the main character is terribly depressed. I spoke with my agent about my concerns (which he shared) and he spoke to my editor. Weeks later I got a new cover (the final)--which I LOVE! It's very striking. And I think it conveys the feel of the book well.

"As an editor it is SO hard not to make notes about nerdy things like leading (the amount space in-between the lines), fonts, colors, etc. I did send excessive notes, but they were mostly ignored. And that's ok. In the end, I had to realize that adding an extra space between lines (or other subtle things like that) would not make my book sell a single more copy.

"I really, truly love my final cover. I am so glad that the designer took another stab at it--and that she was able to think outside the box and get away from the cover needing to be of a girl or a cemetery.

"I think the cover relates to the story perfectly. It's a beautiful image, but also sad. I'd like to think that's how people will describe You Are Not Here.

Thank you, Samantha! I adore this cover, and I recently saw a cover that reminded me of it--the new cover of the Flowers in the Attic + Petals on the Wind combo book (right)... but I think Samantha's is much prettier!

What do you guys think?

PS-Check out Samantha's website for a PHOTO CONTEST, excerpts from her books, and more!

Little Willow's Book Bag

This Week's Picks
Will Work for Prom Dress by Aimee Ferris
Be Healthy! It's a Girl Thing: Food, Fitness, and Feeling Great by Mavis Jukes and Lilian Wai-Yin Cheung
The Search for WondLa by Tony DiTerlizzi

Poetry Friday: Nancy Pearl

 

Nancy Pearl is our

super hero, brandishing 

books to marvel hearts.

Lorie Ann Grover, 2010

Nancy really is. We heart her as much as she hearts books. Marvel. :~)

 

Rgz Salon: Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, Reviewed by Rene' Kirkpatrick

René Kirkpatrick has been a bookseller and book buyer, specializing in children's and teen literature, for many years. She has a degree in elementary education and reads widely across all genres. She is currently a buyer at Third Place Books.

We're honored to have her here as part of the rgz SALON, a feature where four of the top kidlit experts clue us in to the best YA novels they've read recently. Here's René, reviewing Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. (Ages 14 and up. Little Brown, $17.99).

"Beautiful Darkness is the sequel to Beautiful Creatures, and is just as romantic and atmospheric as the first. Beautiful Creatures introduces us to Lena and Ethan, two people who’ve never met. Ethan, though, has been dreaming of a young woman (dreams filled with water and danger, he wakes covered in mud and water) and one day he meets her. Their meeting shakes up this world and the others. In Beautiful Darkness, Lena begins to separate from Ethan, feeling the pull to the dark side, while Ethan’s nightmares and the visions only he can see are becoming dire. These are great books for anyone who likes romance and southern atmosphere. The adults I know who have read them absolutely love them and are waiting, impatiently, for the next one."

December Playlist

Hey readergirlz! We asked you to suggest songs suitable for this month's theme, Compassion, and here's what you came up with:

(If you can't see the playlist above, you need Flash.)

Note: Not all of the recommended songs were available at the Project Playlist website. Here's the full list of tracks suggested by readergirlz:

Sally by Jonatha Brooke
Serena by Duncan Sheik
Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon & Garfunkel
One by U2
Fix You by Coldplay
Explode by The Cardigans
Love a Diamond by Tonic
When You Come Back Down by Nickel Creek

December Community Service Spotlight

Ready to reach out? Join the Young Artists for Peace and Justice!

In their own words: Young Artists for Peace and Justice (YAPJ) is a youth outreach division of Artists for Peace and Justice, founded by Paul Haggis and friends, an organization that has been providing basic healthcare and education in Haiti since 2008, and has most recently opened the first free secondary school for the children of the slums.

Inspired by her experiences in Haiti before and after the earthquake, Olivia Wilde created YAPJ with friend and fellow APJ enthusiast Barbara Burchfield to mobilize America's Generation Y to be a part of a movement to empower youth throughout the developing world with education.

Visit the Young Artists for Peace and Justice website.

Visit the Artists for Peace and Justice website.

Attend or book an event.

Want to get active in your community, but not sure where to start? Check out Yes You Can!: Your Guide to Becoming an Activist by Jane Drake and Ann Love. This awesome book will inspire you to get up, help out, and speak out. Yes You Can! shines the light on some of the world's most famous organizations, such as Greenpeace, as well as groups that may not be as well known but could make just as much of an impact. It details how these groups began and what they do, and why and how the authors themselves have been moved to help change the world.

Story Secrets: POSITIVELY by Courtney Sheinmel + giveaway!

In honor of World AIDS Day (December 1), I am very pleased to welcome friend Courtney Sheinmel 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 Sheinmel: 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...


Find out more of Courtney's secrets and enter to win POSITIVELY here...

~Holly Cupala

November Resilience Roundup: Featured Books and Discussions!

In case you missed it, here's what we've discussed this month with authors and rgz. Jump in!

Resilience:
Before I Fall with Lauren Oliver

Before I Fall: Do you like the narrator?

Hold Still with Nina LaCour

Hold Still: Balancing Grief With Hope

Hate List with Jennifer Brown

Hate List: Characters Who Face Tragedy

If I Stay with Gayle Forman

If I Stay: Powerful Emotions

The River with Mary Jane Beaufrand

Some Girls Are with Courtney Summers

Some Girls Are: What did you think of Regina?

rgz and First Book Partner for A Novel Gift! Over 125,000 free books to low-income teens

BREAKING NEWS! readergirlz and First Book are partnering to give away more than 125,000 brand-new books to low-income teen readers.

They’re great books, too, donated by generous publishers. Among the three dozen choices are P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast’s HOUSE OF NIGHT series and Alyson Noël’s SHADOWLAND.

We need your help getting the word out about the A Novel Gift campaign. Right now! Right now! As in, now!

Let's get organizations serving these teens registered with First Book so they can be matched with inventory during the holidays.

Here’s what we need you to do:

Post to Facebook and tweet your beak off about these books using the hashtag #novelgift.

Here’s a tinyurl link to their registration page: http://tinyurl.com/2a5mwpj.

Or you can link to this blog post: http://readergirlz.blogspot.com/2010/11/novel-gift-over-125000-free-books-to.html

Then, get in touch with every group you can think of that works with young adults–schools, after-school programs, church youth groups, community centers, etc.—and let them know that these books are available now.

The five-minute online registration these groups can use is here:
http://booksforkids.firstbook.org/register/.

First Book is also eager to answer questions, either by email to help@firstbook.org, or by phone at 866-READ-NOW or 866-732-3669.

If you participate, drop us a note at readergirlz@gmail.com to be included in our blog roll of thanks to run December 31.

Be a part of A Novel Gift! OK, go! And thanks, sincerely, from First Book and the readergirlz teams.