Krista Mathews's Blog: Making It Up Along The Way

Boy21


What I Knew Going In: Like my A of Z book: nothing.

What You Should Know: Finley McManus is a nice kid who doesn’t talk and centers his world around basketball. He’s got ‘character,’ they say, but what they mean is he’s a classy kid who does what he’s told. He’s growing up in the racial tension of his town, Belmont, where black kids didn’t have white best friends and people aren’t allowed to say Irish Mob. But then his basketball coach asks a favor of him: make friends with a kid who’s just come to town, and you think it’ll be about his relationship with that kid. It’ll be about basketball. You would be wrong. It’s about a young man finally finding his words

Moment I Cried: After the first practice, when he and Boy21 talk to coach and you realize that Boy21 really does consider him his friend and Finley just GIVES HIM EVERYTHING

Best Thing: The trick of the narrative that I wasn’t prepared for. He literally lays it out in the first sentence of the book that he PRETENDS his first memory is basketball, but that’s a TRICK. A lie! And that didn’t even occur to me as something to keep watching for.

The image I associate with the book: Finely in the back of the car with his co-captain, quietly answering questions and staying silent about so many other things. Because he couldn’t talk

The sentence I wish I would have written: “You can lose yourself in repetition—quiet your thoughts; I learned the value of this at a very young age."

What I’ll remember most: the final scene. The heartbreak of it, and the lack of ‘hope,’ if that makes sense. It wasn’t a hopeful ending. It was a desperate one.

Love level out of 1000: 9500. So good. So much

What my 14 year old self would have learned from the book: that there are places in America where people can’t escape?

Main character’s mojo: quiet and kind

Finished the first book in by 26 book A to Z challenge, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, and it was glorious.



What I Knew Going In: Nothing. I needed a book that started with an A to kick off my A to Z challenge, and this was one I stumbled upon on Target.com. I am not a planner.

What You Should Know: Aristotle is a lonely boy living in the eighties. He’s thoughtful and introspective and utterly, uniquely Aristotle. He gets lost in his thoughts and doesn’t like to talk. He’s a second generation mexican kid (maybe first generation) and he meets his first friend the summer he’s fifteen. You will love him. And his best friend. And the cover of this book.

Best Thing: Aristotle, aka. Ari. Ari’s lack of communication extends to his role as narrator. There are entire chapters with only dialogue and no look into Ari’s thoughts or opinions on that dialogue. You as a reader are sometimes as much in the dark as everyone else in the kid’s life. (BUT YOU LOVE HIM. BECAUSE HE IS BEST)

Image I associate with the book: a boy in a red truck staring up at the sky and wishing he understood it more. SIGH. The dessert!!!

The sentence I wish I would have written: “I laughed. I got to thinking that one of my jobs in the world was to laugh at Dante’s jokes. Only Dante didn’t really say things to be funny. He was just being himself.” Because that’s the tone of the entire book, and I love the flow of "I got to thinking." I just love it.

What I’ll remember most: the quiet, bold confidence of the main character who is neither arrogant nor… anything definable. And the way it sucker punched me when I realized that he understood himself better than he let on. The way I felt so proud that this book was written. So happy for the kids who'll read it who'll need it most.

Love level out of 1000: 9995. Yep. That’s right. First book in the challenge kind of set a ridiculous bar. I lowered it to leave room for future improvement but…

What my 14 year old self would have learned from the book: I literally have no idea, and that HAUNTS ME. Hopefully ALL THE THINGS but… I don't know.

Main character’s mojo: being reticent

Hello Goodreads!

Today I am challenging myself to read 26 books in 52 days. The rules are below, and you may feel free to join along on this journey or belittle it as you please. I will be posting the results here and on tumblr at kristamathews.tumblr.com

The Challenge:
- read 52 young adult novels in 52 days
- End Date: November 21st, a Friday when I will most likely begin sleeping for multiple days from eye exhaustion

The Rules:
- I will read a book on average every other day
- Each book will start with a subsequent letter of the alphabet (example: day 1: The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, Day 2: the Black Pearl
- Definite and indefinite articles don't count toward the letter. #scattergoryrules
- All books must be either the first in a series or stand alines
- No author will be read more than once
- All books will be chosen from Target.com because… I like Target. I just do.

My Goal:
- Read them
- Write about them on here and on tumblr

What I Shall Write About:
- The image I associate with the book
- The sentence I wish I would have written
- What I'll remember most
- Love level out of 1000, because 10's kind boring
- Main character's mojo: best thing

Feel free to join in. Or suggest a book for a letter day. A book is October 2nd: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe which can be found here for $7.99

Let's start reading

The best things that I did when writing The Names They Were Given was draw a map on the back of my notes in a spiral notebook. I had realized that while I aware of the shape of the Consortium in theory and in my head, the actual distance between places, the travel time, and size of the islands really mattered to the plot. A lot.

So I sat in the corner of the coffee shop, pulled out a pencil and started making circle-like island shapes. I recalled my ancient Greek from college and starting naming the islands, thinking of their government types, and designating their seasonal patterns. I remembered one greek island that had a hole in the middle and mimicked that. I remembered an old man I'd worked with at a state retirement hole describing growing up in Micronesiasn and learning to sail from the bowels of the ship, with the movement under his feet, and drew something similar.

All just in my head, sitting, again, in this super dark coffee shop.

The next day at work, I pulled up PowerPoint and drew the islands in that, used it as a constant reference point. Circled things, but never changed the islands from that first moment. It made the world real in a way it never had been before.

And then I went to elance.com and found the amazing, amazing illustrator who made it look like it does now in the book. So happy. So proud.

Published my book to Amazon last Tuesday, and spent the last week smiling to myself like a lunatic whom people on the street have to walk around. And letting all of my Facebook, twitter, real world, and online friends know that I did it.

Then I found a typo in chapter one and MY WHOLE HEART SHATTERED LIKE A WEAK PIECE OF PIPING CARRYING TOO MUCH WATER. An explosion of feeling. Explosion.

Moved on. :)