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Darcy Miller’s debut MG novel “Roll” is a refreshing take on some universal trials of early adolescence: identity, fitting in and friendships. Ren, Miller’s funny and very likable protagonist, meets Sutton, his new neighbor, one morning while he’s supposed to be out training for the cross country team. Sutton has a unique interest: pigeon rolling. Ren and Sutton strike up a friendship and Ren begins helping her train her birds. What will his best friend Aiden, who’s suddenly started hanging with the “cool kids” think? I’ve seen this book compared to the work of Jerry Spinelli (who is one of my all-time favorite young adult and middle grade authors), and that comparison is apt; at times “Roll” reminded me of “Star Girl.” “Roll” is a quick read, with tight pacing that will keep MG readers interested, and Miller provides Ren with a great voice; he’s equal parts smart, funny and sweetly naive. Sutton is also an interesting and enjoyable character. I was intrigued by the inclusion of pigeon rolling, and the book provided enough information about the hobby that I was able to catch on quickly, without bogging down the story in too much detail. This quirky, ‘clean’ book has a lot of heart! Recommended for MG readers!

“Roll” is available on May 23, 2017!

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AND WE STAY is a Printz honor book from 2015, and I think the novel, which is partially in verse, is very worthy of that accolade! Emily Beam’s boyfriend Paul commits suicide in front of her in their school library; Emily then retreats to a Massachusetts boarding school to process this event. At this all-girls school, Emily begins writing poetry and discovers a kinship with Emily Dickinson.

The story is very engrossing; Hubbard reveals the events leading up to Paul’s death slowly, a thread that kept me reading. Emily’s reactions and grief seemed quite real to me, as did her poetry. She’s a little bit spunky, which gives the book a bit of levity, though the subject matter is treated with depth and sensitivity. Overall, this book is a well-written exploration of grief and survival.

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I'm on pace to read 58 books this year! Here are some of my favorite adult fiction and non-fiction books! I'll have to create a separate post for YA/MG. A couple of these books in fact didn't come out this year; I just happened to dive into them in 2016:

Fiction:

1) Underground Airlines
by Ben H. Winters

2) Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell

3) A Hundred Thousand Worlds by Bob Proehl

4) After Birth by Elisa Albert

5) You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott

Non-fiction:

1) Find a Way by Diana Nyad

2) Girls & Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape by Peggy Orenstein

3) Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer

4) Jujitsu Rabbi and the Godless Blonde: A True Story by Rebecca Dana

5) Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein

Last month I was invited to read at Rosemont College as part of the MFA Reading Series.  I earned my MFA from Rosemont in 2015, and now I’m honored to be teaching Writing YA Literature there.  Rosemont has a fantastic MFA program!  The hybrid writing/publishing degree offered is one-of-a-kind.  The program is small enough that students can develop meaningful relationships with their professors, and get invaluable feedback about their writing.  I learned so much there, and became a better writer due to my time in the program.  For undergrads, Rosemont is a steal!  The school has slashed its tuition by 43%, making it a huge bargain.  The campus is beautiful, and the location couldn’t be better.

Below, you can watch me read a brief excerpt from “Flight Risk,” which will be released by Roaring Brook Press on July 18, 2o17!

 

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About the Book:

Sam knows she wants to be a drummer. But she doesn’t know how to afford a drum kit, or why budget cuts end her school’s music program, or why her parents argue so much, or even how to explain her dream to other people. But drums sound all the time in Sam’s head, and she’d do just about anything to play them out loud—even lie to her family if she has to. Will the cost of chasing her dream be too high?

I AM DRUMS can be ordered from amazon, barnesandnoble.com, powells.com, booksamillion.com, and indiebound.org.

About the Author:

Mike Grosso is a musician and a fourth-grade teacher who always keeps a guitar in his classroom. His father gave him his first lesson, and his mom taught him how to keep a steady rhythm. Mike continues to write and record music at his home in Oak Park, Illinois, where he lives with his wife, son, and a drum set he plays much too loud. I AM DRUMS is his first novel.

Mike can be found online at his web site, twitter, facebook, and instagram.

The Interview:

Jennifer: Are you a drummer?

Mike: Yes! I’m pretty rusty from living in an apartment building – neighbors tend to frown upon noise levels that cause plaster ceilings to crumble – but a recent move to a small home with a drum set is helping me get my chops back.

Jennifer: I am always interested by authors who can write well in the POV of the opposite gender. What made you decide to write from a middle school girl POV?

Mike: I knew long before the plot emerged that Sam was a girl because the words came easily when I imagined her that way. I let her talk and act the way she wanted and she filled in the blanks from there. I’m still not sure why she had to be a girl, but if I’d written her as a boy I doubt I’d have finished the book.

Jennifer: What kind of music were you into when you were Sam’s age?

Mike: I was Sam’s age (11) the year Nirvana released Nevermind and Pearl Jam released Ten, so I was a hard rock kid. My parents exposed me to a lot of great folk and bluegrass and my drum teacher was turning me on to jazz, but I was hyperactive so headbanging appealed to me. I rocked out to a lot of Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, and some of the grimier rock that came out in the early 90s. My brother was into Led Zepellin and Hendrix, so I got into them by osmosis.

Jennifer: Did you listen to music while you wrote this book? If so, what?

Mike: This is really odd, but I find music distracting when I write. I love it so much, but I see fret patterns and chord formations in my head when I listen to it. That’s great for composing, but less so for writing focus.

Jennifer: In “I Am Drums,” the music program at Sam’s school is cut. As a teacher, what are your feelings about the importance of arts education?

Mike: The research consistently shows that amazing things happen in the brains of kids who participate in music programs, but, unfortunately, percentiles and finger pointing are all the rage right now. If you can’t position music as a way to beat Finland, nobody listens for very long.

And it doesn’t help that people making cuts are seldom the ones interacting with kids. It’s easy to slash a program when the student population is reduced to data points on a chart.

Jennifer: When and how did you know that you wanted to be a writer?

Mike: I’ve always enjoyed writing, but I had to convince myself it was possible to be a writer before I could want it. That didn’t happen until my late twenties.

People are terrified of being bad at things, and this is amplified when you put a work of art out there. It’s okay, though, to write a bad story, draw an awful picture, or compose a terrible song, because you can always try again and hope the next one stinks a little less. I tried really hard to improve and get published after realizing that.

Jennifer: Are you part of a critique group? If so, how did working with your CPs benefit you?

Mike: I’ve never been part of a critique group, but I minored in creative writing and found the courses to be a great way to meet other writers. Musicians naturally find each other, but aspiring authors experience a special kind of solitude that can feel like a prison if you don’t step out of it every so often.

Jennifer: How did you come up with the idea for your novel? Did you know this was “the one”?

Mike: I started with a shell of a character and wrote the first two pages multiple times. They were in the voice of a girl who couldn’t sit still because of the rhythms in her head. The title came to me the day I started writing, and it never changed.

I hoped it was “the one”, but I brace myself for failure with every new manuscript, even now. Doubt seems to be an organic part of my writing process.

Jennifer: How did you find your agent/editor?

Mike: In a Topps agents/editors booster pack!

Except that’s not true at all. I found my agent through a typical query letter. I knew I wanted an editorial agent, and his comments about an early draft of I AM DRUMS were priceless.

Because my first publisher closed, I’ve had the odd experience of working with two editors for I AM DRUMS. I’m so lucky that both of them have been perfect fits – most writers are lucky to work with one great editor, and I’ve worked with two!

Jennifer: What was your revision process like for this book?

Mike: It was my first time implementing what I now call the Six Week Wait. Whenever I finish a first draft, I set it aside for a minimum of six weeks so I can return to it with a reader’s eyes.

I AM DRUMS was my first time trying this, and it successfully found a publisher twice. I’ve since turned it into a ritual.

Jennifer: Imagine your perfect reader. How would you describe that person?

Mike: My perfect reader is a kid dressed in neon colors and reading books while jumping on their bed without getting motion sickness. They probably love turtles, too.

Lightning Round

Favorite writing snack?

Coffee!

Oddest job you ever had?

I was briefly a talk radio producer for an ABC affiliated radio station in Chicago. I collected news articles, ran the board, and screened callers before they went on air for a show that broadcast in the middle of the night.

Big brother, little sister, in the middle, or one and only?

I’m the youngest of three brothers. It’s a miracle that my parents are still standing.

Music to write by?

None, surprisingly. I see fret patterns and chord formations in my head when I hear music, so it’s much more likely to distract me than help me concentrate.

What were you reading when you were 16?

Vonnegut. I read an average of zero books per year between the ages of 11 and 16 because I had so much trouble focusing. Vonnegut got me back into reading because his books were so odd and accurate to how I was feeling at the time. I read his stuff and thought, “Is it really okay to write like that?”

Robot revolution or zombie apocalypse?

Zombie apocalypse. The robot revolution will probably fall down a flight of stairs and break its touch screen.

Favorite Broadway musical?

Um… uh… the Chicago Cubs! Wait, no…

A band you loved when you were 16 that you still listen to.

Failure. Their name makes people shake their heads, but they’re the only band that makes an electric guitar sound like the world exploding.

I also still love Helmet. This sometimes scares people who know I teach elementary school, but I met Page Hamilton and confirmed that there is a sixty-year-old Kindergarten teacher in Oregon who also loves Helmet.

Pets?

Two cats, but I’m truthfully a dog person that married a cat person. I’ve come to understand and appreciate cats over the years, though.

Do you write longhand or type?

I always type. I understand the allure of longhand, but it doesn’t match the tempo of my brain. I forget sentences halfway through writing them. My handwriting is also terrible and I obsessively scratch out things.

 

Check out my review of I AM DRUMS here!

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Ben H. Winters takes his already-intriguing fiction to the next-level with this suspenseful alt-history, in which slavery remains legal (in fact, critical and institutionalized) in the “Hard Four” southern states. Victor grew up a slave, but somehow escaped the slaughterhouse where he was kept, fled north, and was recruited into government work. And here’s where Winters ups the ante: Victor works to locate escapees, just like he once was, so they can be returned to the Hard Four. He’s given the case of Jackdaw, and is plunged into a web of deceit and betrayal.

Winters’ story is tightly plotted and briskly paced. His economical writing style means not a word is wasted, but his characters remain deep and the conflicts are thought-provoking. He pulls off an inventive premise while commenting on today’s social issues. This book is intended for an adult audience, but I believe upper high school readers would find it entertaining and thought-provoking as well! Highly recommended!

Buy on Amazon!

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No one writes quite like Beth Kephart. She pulls off the extraordinary trick of writing books that both captivate readers and inspire writers. I can’t toss enough adjectives at her uniquely lyrical prose style. Poetic. Gorgeous. Inventive. Revelatory. Kephart captures the atmosphere of her small-island setting beautifully, and crafts sentences that twist in the most unexpected, evocative directions. Readers will savor while writers will be tempted to highlight and underline. If you’re a writer plodding through a difficult draft or polishing your prose, this book will inspire you to return to the keyboard or crack back open that notebook. Kephart’s style is that strong a breath of fresh air.

Beyond the prose that shines in all her work, Kephart crafts a compelling narrative in the YA novel “This is the Story of You.” Mira, a life-long resident of Haven (a place just one ‘e’ short of heaven, she muses) finds herself cut off from her mother and brother on the eve of a massive, destructive storm reminiscent of Hurricane Sandy and the havoc it wrought on New Jersey several years ago. Kephart’s cast, including seasoned outcast Old Carmen and Mira’s classmates, the O’Sixteens, must pull together to survive the aftermath. Add a bit of a mystery to that compelling premise—who tried to break in to Mira’s house right before the storm, and why?—and you’ve got a beautifully written, memorable page-turner that will have readers seeking out Kephart’s other novels. Highly recommended!

Buy here!

Learn more about Beth Kephart here!

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About the Book

Eighteen-year-old Blanca has lived a sheltered life. Her entire childhood has been spent at Tabula Rasa School where she’s been protected from the Internet. Blanca has never been online and doesn’t even know how to text. Her lack of a virtual footprint has made her extremely valuable and upon graduation Blanca, and those like her, are sold to the highest bidders. Blanca is purchased by Cal McNeal, who uses her to achieve personal gain. But the McNeals are soon horrified by just how obedient and non-defiant Blanca is. All those mind-numbing years locked away from society have made her mind almost impenetrable. By the time Blanca is ready to think for herself, she is trapped. Her only chance of escape is to go online.

 

 

About the Author

Jennifer Bardsley is the author of GENESIS GIRL, which debuts June 14, 2016 from Month9Books. She also writes the column “I Brake for Moms” for the Sunday edition of The Everett Daily Herald and blogs at Teaching My Baby to Read.

You can find Jennifer online on her website, Facebook (at The YA Gal), and Twitter.

THE INTERVIEW

Jennifer F: Without giving too much away, it’s fair to say the characters in “Genesis Girl” have complicated relationships with technology. The book explores how technology can be used for both good and evil. How would describe your own relationship with technology?

Jennifer B: [Insert evil laughter] Two years ago I didn’t even own a smart phone. My husband was constantly bugging me to buy a new phone because I never had my dumb phone turned on. I finally gave in, bought a Samsung Galaxy, and then became addicted to tech a couple of weeks later.

I’ve worked so hard to build up my Facebook page, “The YA Gal,” and my Instagram account, @the_ya_gal, that I’m basically online all the time. Now my husband says that when my phone sits on the kitchen counter it sounds like an electric toothbrush because it’s constantly buzzing.

Jennifer F: Blanca finds strength in different mantras throughout the book. What would be your mantra?

Jennifer B: My mantra would be something cliché like, “You can do it!” There have been so many times where “experts” have told me I could never achieve something that was important to me, that now I try to focus on small steps towards my goals instead of what the naysayers say.

Jennifer F: In some ways, despite the peculiarities of her circumstances, Blanca’s journey reminded me of many teenagers that grow up in the spotlight, tracked by paparazzi (Britney Spears, Justin Beiber). Were those celebrities an influence or inspiration for this story?

Jennifer B: The inspiration for Blanca and the Vestals were 17th century opera stars called “castrati.” These were boys who were castrated at a young age in the hopes they would become famous opera superstars who could hit the highest notes. Some of the castrati died on the operating table, some actually did become celebrities, and the rest were left horribly maimed for life.

Jennifer F: Are you part of a critique group? If so, how did working with your CPs benefit you?

Jennifer B: My critique partner while writing “Genesis Girl” was “Rider’s Revenge” author Alessandra Clarke. I also had a small army of beta readers who provided excellent feedback. I didn’t give “Genesis Girl” to my agent until it had gone through twenty two revisions.

Jennifer F: How did you come up with the idea for your novel? Did you know this was “the one”?

Jennifer B: When I was thinking up a concept to write about, I tried to think of something that had never been done before. As soon as I came up with “Teens who shunned the Internet,” I thought that sounded so bizarre that it might possibly work.

Jennifer F: How did you find your agent/editor?

Jennifer B: When writers become members of SCWBI—which I highly recommend—they receive this massive tome called “The Book” that has everything they need to get started in publishing, including a list of literary agents. I queried at least thirty agents before I found my perfect match, Liza Fleissig of the Liza Royce Agency.

Jennifer F: Imagine your perfect reader. How would you describe that person?

Jennifer B: Anyone who likes YA books with twists, turns, virgins and bad boys should hopefully enjoy “Genesis Girl.”

Lightning Round

Favorite writing snack?

Chocolate and Nespresso

Oddest job you ever had?

Girl Scout camp counselor in charge of the taxidermy exhibit

Big brother, little sister, in the middle, or one and only?

Big sister

Music to write by?

Johnny Cash

What were you reading when you were 16?

Anything with “AP” on the title

Favorite Broadway musical?

“Into the Woods”

A band you loved when you were 16 that you still listen to.

“The Beatles”

Pets?

Merlin the poodle

Thank you, Jennifer Bardsley, for taking the time to chat about this incredible book!

Buy “Genesis Girl” here!  

Read my full review here!  

The post Twists, turns, virgins and bad boys: My interview with Jennifer Bardsley, author of “Genesis Girl” appeared first on Jennifer Fenn: YA Author.

Beach book season is almost here!  Among the many fantastic YA novels hitting the shelves in the coming weeks, these four have made my to-read list!!!  Conjoined twins?  Royalty?  Alternate Earths?  Fierce heroines? It’s all happening in these new upcoming releases!!

 

1)  “My Lady Jane” by by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadow

 

From Amazon:  The comical, fantastical, romantical, (not) entirely true story of Lady Jane Grey. In My Lady Jane, coauthors Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows have created a one-of-a-kind fantasy in the tradition of The Princess Bride, featuring a reluctant king, an even more reluctant queen, a noble steed, and only a passing resemblance to actual history—because sometimes history needs a little help.

Out on June 7th

 

 

2)  “Mirror in the Sky” by Aditi Khorana

From Amazon:  For Tara Krishnan, navigating Brierly, the academically rigorous prep school she attends on scholarship, feels overwhelming and impossible. Her junior year begins in the wake of a startling discovery: A message from an alternate Earth, light years away, is intercepted by NASA. This means that on another planet, there is another version of Tara, a Tara who could be living better, burning brighter, because of tiny differences in her choices.

Out on June 21st

 

3)  Genesis Girl  by Jennifer Bardsley 

 

Eighteen-year-old Blanca has lived a sheltered life. Her entire childhood has been spent at Tabula Rasa School where she’s been protected from the Internet. Blanca has never been online and doesn’t even know how to text. Her lack of a virtual footprint has made her extremely valuable and upon graduation Blanca, and those like her, are sold to the highest bidders. Blanca is purchased by Cal McNeal, who uses her to achieve personal gain. But the McNeal’s are soon horrified by just how obedient and non-defiant Blanca is. All those mind-numbing years locked away from society have made her mind almost impenetrable. By the time Blanca is ready to think for herself, she is trapped. Her only chance of escape is to go online.

Out on June 24th

 

4)  “Gemini” by Sonya Mukherjee

From Amazon:  Seventeen-year-old conjoined twins Clara and Hailey have lived in the same small town their entire lives–no one stares at them anymore. But there are cracks in their quiet existence and they’re slowly becoming more apparent. Clara and Hailey are at a crossroads. Clara wants to stay close to home, avoid all attention, and study the night sky. Hailey wants to travel the world, learn from great artists, and dance with mysterious boys. As high school graduation approaches, each twin must untangle her dreams from her sister’s and figure out what it means to be her own person.

Out on July 26th

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Listening

“Wednesday Night Melody” by Bleached! For fans of Best Coast, Joan Jett and 90s grrrl bands!

Looking Forward To
Hunt for Heroes,  a family-friendly scavenger hunt at beautiful Marsh Creek State Park on April 24th.  The proceeds from the event will assist with the costs of service dogs being placed with U.S. Military veterans living with PTSD, TBI and other combat-related disabilities.  Fun time for a good cause!


Reading
“The Land of Forgotten Girls” by Erin Entrada Kelly.  MG magic from the acclaimed author!  As School Library Journal says, this book has “a little bit of everything-fantasy, realism, sisterhood, friendship, suspense, and humor.”  Are those bags under my eyes?  Blame this engaging book for keeping me reading past lights out!

Thinking About
Sloths.  No, seriously.  Thanks to my daughter, it’s been all sloths all the time this week.  Sloths sleep 70% of the day and apparently spend the rest of it being groomed, posed and photographed for children’s books.  A trip to the zoo to see the

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