Wicked Cool Overlooked Books: The Possibility of Lemonade

"I am telling you this just the way it went
With all the details I remember as they were,
and including the parts I'm not sure about.
You know, where something happened,
but you aren't convinced
you understood it?
Other people would maybe tell it different
but I was there."

First lines of Virginia Euwer Wolff's, Make Lemonade, Henry Holt and Co ©1993.

Probably my voice was shaking as I tried to read loudly but with some kind of feeling. My students were... loud, not with their voices, but with their bodies. They shuffled and pulled up the hoods on their coats. Their actions spoke of disgust and amusement that their teacher was reading them ...a story. I mean, they were too old for that.

My students at Crestmont were at the school because they had been incarcerated for a variety of reasons. They were a strange mix of ancient and young, iron-hard and vulnerable, so it was fitting that I read a story that was rooted in the ground from which my students grew -- the rocky ground of urban poverty. It was not a story of a person of a particular race -- and my students were Caucasian, African American, Latino, and Filipino -- but of a particular class, the category of "poor" into which all of my students fit. The girls in the story were poor -- but one was poor and dreaming, and the other was poor and hopeless. One was a fourteen year old girl with a VERY determined mother, who'd grown up with the word COLLEGE in her house like a large piece of furniture that she had to step around during her day to day. The other girl was seventeen, already a mother of two with no mother of her own, and was advertising for a sitter.

Two girls from different sides of the street, but when their lives intersected, there was ...possibility.

I deeply wanted to introduce 'possibility' to my students. Most of them had the idea that they were going to die before they turned twenty-one, that they would never find any other kind of life, and that this was how it had to be -- nobody they knew had ever done anything different. They all wanted to somehow ascend the hill of fame, be Somebody Big, and then -- die. Because they couldn't imagine anything more than that.

And so I read them Make Lemonade.
I never really got to know what they thought of it, not really.
It wasn't an assignment. I didn't make them write response sheets (although our principal preferred that I had); we didn't do any experimentation with blank verse or follow a study guide. I didn't want them to have to do anything more strenuous than listen.

In time, they stopped moving, stopped shuffling, pulled down their hoods and were still. They listened, at times with a frightening intensity. They would ask me -- sometimes in the middle of a math class, apropos of nothing, sometimes just when we were ending our session for the day -- what something meant, why something had happened. I answered what I could, and others jumped in and put forth their own answers. I left those answers as they were -- I didn't try to gather them up or refine them or make them make sense. They felt too fragile -- and amazing -- to touch. As a group we were thinking. That on its own was enough.

With as much critical praise as this book has garnered, it maybe doesn't warrant being a Wicked Cool Overlooked Book, but it was to me. None of the other teachers had read it. Quite a few older teachers in our system implied that "teaching poetry" to our school's population was out of the question. But since this book was reissued in 2006, I know someone else must support my opinion: Make Lemonade is wicked cool.

I will always remember the first book I read to my Crestmont students. They listened, then like small children, they asked if we could read it again.

In Search of Home

This book is a 2007 Fantasy & Science Fiction Cybils Award Nominee

Sometimes home isn't where you think it is. Sometimes you have to go out looking for it, and it's not where you expected to end up. That's true for Gavir, who was raised as a house slave for a noble family and lives in relative comfort, training to become the next teacher for the children of the house, both slaves and nobles.

He's always had a secret, though; one only his sister knows. Gavir remembers things—things he should have been too young to remember, or things he's read in books down to the smallest detail...and sometimes, just sometimes, he "remembers" things that haven't happened yet. For instance, he knows that one day, an army is going to invade his town. What he doesn't know is that after the invasion, life as he knows it will change.

Tragedy strikes, and, finding himself the target of a violent bully, Gavir escapes what was once his sanctuary and flees in grief, searching for something he's only seen in visions. What he finds is a new life. He meets friends in unexpected places, finds freedom fighters in the forest, and even makes new enemies. And eventually, he finds the land he, his mother, and his sister had been stolen from—but even that isn't what he expects.

In her latest novel, Powers (the third novel in the series that began with Gifts) Ursula LeGuin weaves together adventure, family, danger, and politics into a gripping coming-of-age story. Another excellent read by a master of the craft.

Thoughts on a Magnum Opus

Just out of college, I published with a very small religious press, two books. They were, in a word or two, stunningly dreadful, but I was, as I said, just out of college, and not brilliant at anything but being twenty-one and regurgitating facts to get grades. I was lacking life experience, but what I had, I was (alarmingly) willing to share. These books were rather moral-of-the-story tales where everyone was either safely and stultifying good or they were bad and justly punished, and all lived happily ever after. I like to think they weren't that predictable, but I know for sure the narrator's voice was wrong -- the wrong character was speaking because I was too fearful to let the boldest character take over the story; too afraid to let things get that out of control. (This is a tendency I hope to avoid in the future!)

I remember just after the books were released having an acquaintance ask "Don't you want to write something else? I mean, something better than just writing for kids?" To his mind, the combination of publishing both a slightly religious book and a book for children was just the kiss of death. I mean, no Nobel Prizes here, no borrowed glory in which he might bask. I was, of course, offended...



But then the idea took hold. Couldn't I do better than this? Shouldn't I? Were series the thing? Didn't Little House get read forever? What about Make Way for Ducklings or Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. Shouldn't I be writing a Classic?

The books faded quietly out of print, and after a bit more life and a bit more school and a lot more practice and thinking, I've got another chance.

Now Read Roger has asked The Question again: "Is there a mountain a writer is expected to climb? Do you feel the need to write a Big Book?"

What is a Big Book? Catcher in the Rye, which I kind of hate? Or something close to Judy Blume's Forever? Do we have to write The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants? Something that gets film optioned or picked up by a television studio? What does "Big Book" mean to you? A series? An award-winner?

I could wimp out and say that I'm too new to the game to have any answers but all I can say for sure is that no matter the metaphorical size of the book, the fact that I'm able to share what I write is still a gift. Sure, I want to sell books, justify my school bills and all, maybe even one day write a Big Book, some Magnum Opus that garners me a National Book Award and a lot of flashbulbs, but in all honesty, the idea of that gives me hives. The gift to me is the ability to write -- that someone is allowing me publication is still a major thrill. I'll worry about Big Books -- the next Chris Crutcher/Rob Thomas/Catcher in the Rye/Forever amalgamation -- maybe next week...


'Til further notice,
I'm in-between
From where I'm standing,
My grass is green.

Magic...or Love?

This book is a 2007 Fantasy & Science Fiction Cybils Award Nominee

"Other people aren't us." That quote from Heather Tomlinson's The Swan Maiden is haunting—but it's what star-crossed lovers Doucette and Jaume want to, must believe in order for their love to work.

For others in similar straits have been doomed. Doucette is the youngest daughter of a noble house, and in training to learn all the complicated aspects of running a castle household—while her two older sisters, Azelais and Cecilia, flaunt the sorcerous magic they've been learning. They're swan maidens--sorceresses who, like selkies with their seal skins, can turn into swans and take flight with the help of a feathered swan skin.

Doucette wants nothing more than to perform magic, and experience the thrill of flight...well, nothing, maybe, except one humble young man, Jaume. Jaume is a shepherd, and her parents would never view their match as a suitable one. And her parents have told her she wasn't born a swan maiden like her sisters, so she'll never fly; though of course she'll make a wonderful prize as a wife with all the right skills.

Until the day she discovers her own swan skin hidden in her parents' bedroom. Her parents have been keeping it from her, but no more. But when Doucette takes flight, the new world she opens up is not one of soaring freedom as she'd thought, but one with its own rules and its own ruthless prices for happiness.

I was afraid this absorbing French-inspired fairy tale would be more like Hans Christian Andersen than I wanted (the original versions, not the Disney ones). But after all the fear, danger, and risk, I was ready to cheer at the end. This is a really well-done and touching story of love and of learning inner strength—not just the powers granted by a magical swan skin. It also reminded me how so many of the traditional fairy tales glorified codified Christian virtues such as humility, suffering, and hard work; and vilified envy, greed, and laziness—while also being written down in a time period that still admired chivalrous love. Tomlinson deftly captures all of these aspects of fairy tales while also investing her story with more than enough wit, charm, and adventure to appeal to modern readers.

Weekend Edition! (With Apologies--and a Link--to NPR)

On this morning's Weekend Edition on NPR, Andrea Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz--authors of The Daring Book for Girls--talk to NPR's John Ydstie as well as five girls who made use of the book's advice. I haven't listened yet (heard the program advertised last night) but plan to as soon as I get a spare minute.

Speaking of spare minutes, if you have a few, cruise by the SF Crowsnest and check out the latest issue of the e-zine (available on the front page)--currently edited by UK sci-fi writer Stephen Hunt. A few stories down you'll see a reprint (with permission, of course) of our fabulous WBBT interview with Connie Willis. Plus you'll notice we get to be Darth Vader. Whee! Thanks, Stephen, for the great plug and for helping get the interview to more readers.

What's In A Name?

This book is a 2007 Fantasy & Science Fiction Cybils Award Nominee

Jinx Honeychurch might just be the clumsiest girl in the world. Her real name, Jean, doesn't really suit her any better than her nickname, because it's boring and safe -- everything Jinx would prefer not to be. Still, she is who she is -- nice, but clumsy, a girl living under a Jinx. She's hoped that moving to New York to stay with her aunt and uncle would have changed all that.

It has -- but it hasn't.

Jinx is still clumsy, but she's got friends now -- sweet Petra, the nanny, and cute Zach, the one of Tory's friends who doesn't make Jinx cringe. Jinx also has an unexpected ally -- her cousin Tory, who claims she knows the reason for Jinx's unpleasant clumsiness. It's not a curse -- it's because Jinx is a witch. And if Jinx doesn't join her coven, and fully come into her power, which is, after all, practically a family heirloom, so it's half Tory's anyway -- then Tory's going to be sure Jinx doesn't share her magic with ANYONE else.

The poisonously mean cousin Tory and a sweet and naive Jinx don't seem to have anywhere to go but where the plot leads them. Tory is all evil -- to the point of psychosis, and Jinx is all good, even though her past has a tiny blemish. Perfect Zach also lends a shiny Ken-doll smile and a handsome hand as the Hunky Neighbor in this lightweight and predictable but fun-for-an-airport read from Meg Cabot.

She Has To Be The One

This book is a 2007 Science Fiction & Fantasy Cybils Award Nominee.

From the moment Keenan sees Aislinn, he wants her. He needs her. He believes that the sun could rise in her, if he could only get her to look at him.

But Aislinn's not going to look.
She's been told too much and too often: Don't look at the invisible. Don't see what isn't there. Throughout history, bad, bad things have happened to people who have looked and seen, with their Sight, what they ought not to have seen. Aislinn's grandmother has told her often enough. Don't look. Don't see. Don't hear. Don't listen. Even if there are faeries following you. Even if one of them has... a wolf.

Even if one of them has a wolf and another one is so gorgeous he makes your heart stop and you dearly dearlydearlydearly want to not only look at him but be with him and feel the sun on your face...

"Just Say No" has never been so close to impossible.

Aislinn isn't seriously thinking about Keenan, but she's not seriously thinking about Seth, either. Gorgeous, good Seth who has been a friend, such a good friend for such a long time. He's a safe friend, someone who lives surrounded by cold iron. Nobody can touch her in Seth's boxcar. There, she's safe from everyone... except the gorgeous boy who lives there, and except her own heart.

Seth could be the whole world for Aislinn. Except for one little thing: Keenan.

Keenan insists that she's the girl he's been searching for -- for nine long centuries. Donia, The Winter Girl, warns Aislinn that Keenan once thought she was the one, too. So much is at stake if Keenan is wrong. Too much.

There is only one Summer Queen. And none of the rules Aislinn's grandmother has taught her amount to a hill of bills when it comes to the Summer King's wish: that Aislinn be his -- no matter the cost.

Romance and myth collide deliciously in Melissa Marr's Wicked Lovely. From the moment the freeze-dried rose cover is opened to the last word at the end, there are unexpected turns. Most fun about this book is that though there are moments when Aislinn is unsure, but there are no fairytale damsels in distress or any victims here.

Nobody messes with the Queen.

Poetry Friday: Shades of Gray

Youth and age. Big and Small. Black and White. Heavy and Light. The opposing ends of any given spectrum become obvious to us early on, as the difference between on and off, yes and no, stop and go are introduced to us before preschool.


It's less easy to understand when we encounter shades of gray, things that don't belong so sharply divided. It's having my eyes opened to degrees of right and wrong that so made the fiction of Chris Crutcher so impactive for me. And so my poems today are from both edges of the spectrum in multiple ways. The first poem I memorized in high school (and I don't think I entirely understood it at the time), the other I first discovered scrawled on a white board in a classroom, and it's struck me with such thoughtfulness that I wrote it for years on other white boards in empty classrooms, hoping that it encouraged someone else to think as I had.

The Veteran

When I was young and bold and strong,
Oh, right was right, and wrong was wrong!
My plume on high, my flag unfurled,
I rode away to right the world.
"Come out, you dogs, and fight!" said I,
And wept there was but once to die.

But I am old; and good and bad
Are woven in a crazy plaid.
I sit and say, "The world is so;
And he is wise who lets it go.
A battle lost, a battle won-
The difference is small, my son."

Inertia rides and riddles me;
The which is called Philosophy.

- Dorothy Parker

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In Men Whom Men Condemn As Ill

In men whom men condemn as ill,
I find so much of goodness still.
In men whom men pronounce divine
I see so much of sin and blot
I hesitate to draw a line
Between the two
Where God has not.

- Joaquin Miller, 1837-1913

It's all a matter of balance and perspective, isn't it? In life as in art: balance and perspective...

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Two Writing Teachers. Enjoy your weekend.

Toon Thursday Is Back!!

Woo hoo! Toon Thursday is back, bringing you the two remaining contest winners this week and next week. (For the other contest winners, click here, here, and here. Thanks and congrats to Little Willow for this week's entry.

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In other news, in case you've been following the fascinating discussion on Chasing Ray about the NEA report on reading in the U.S., you might be interested in the segment from today's Talk of the Nation radio program, which featured the NEA chair talking about the report.

Last little bits from today

Read Roger talks about "also-rans" in terms of book awards, and wonders if a book is nominated another award -- say, for instance the Coretta Scott King Award or the Pura Belpré Medal, do Newbery and Caldecott people unconsciously discount them, figuring they can win "something else." After all, wasn't it the relative lack of award attention ... that brought these new awards into existence in the first place?" Kind of a good question...

I got a little "squee!" (as Jackie says) from reading Chicken Spaghetti's post about multicultural sci-fi and fantasy. I have had people suggest various books to me over time, and I have a someday hope of writing YA fantasy -- a dim someday hope, granted, because my agent hates fantasy, and I'd have to do a bit of work to convince him that it was a good idea. Anyway, Susan has reposted, with permission of Prof. Craig Svonkin and the others at Child_Lit a list of multicultural and ethnic fantasy which includes dystopia, time travel and others in the loosely categorized genre. I don't know about you, people, but as SOON as my readings for Cybils are done, I shall begin tracking down ALL of these gems for the bedside reading table. (Yes, yes, I know in theory I'll be revising a manuscript by then. When I drop everything and get into bed with a bowl of popcorn and a book I'll call it... um, research...)

It's unbelievable that we are reaching the end of the month! Congratulations to everyone slogging away at National Novel Writing/Reading/Blogging Month -- hope it was fun, at least... Sometimes it's also fun to abstain from shoving yet one more thing into an over-packed month, too!

Ephemera

"Apparently, instead of eating an apple from the Tree of Knowledge, all you have to do is buy a pair of slacks from Banana Republic."

As always, Minh at Bottom Shelf Books has the skinny on what's really up with children's literature -- today is Disney v. Seinfeld... and it's disturbing, let me tell you, how much Minnie Mouse and Julia Dreyfuss have in common.

Meanwhile, OH MY GOSH have my peeps moved into some exalted circles. First Jenn Robinson has gotten the label of "Expert" emblazoned across her superhero outfit. She's helping grow bookworms all over the place.


And I hear Mitali is also part of the judging panel for the 2008 Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship, along with Christopher Paul Curtis and Sid Fleischman. Way to go, Mitali! If you're at all interested in nominating a fellow writer for the fellowship, hop on over to the site for information on how to apply -- you only have until January 14, so hurry. It's a tremendous gift to be able to share with a fellow writer.

And CONGRATULATIONS are in order for illustrator Irisz Agocs of Artista Blog who has just received the first copy of her first picture book illustration. This artist was listed in someone's 7-Kicks ages ago, and I loved her work (Picturebook Nerd Alert!) so much I've kind of kept up with her, even though her posts aren't always in English. So, yay Ms. Agocs!

Stay tuned for 'Toon Thursday...

The Dutton Writers' Room

Many writers spend a lot of time wondering what publishers want. Dutton has answered that question by coming up with the Dutton Writers' Room, which includes guidelines and writer's tips to help authors give them what they need for their various publishing lines.

Also, there is an interesting Guide to Literary Agents on the web now, put out by F&W Publications. You can sign up for their free newsletter, and they have a place specifically to talk about children's book agents, too.

Oh, And One More Thing...

Forgot to link to Mindy's great post on Jeanette Rankin. Had you not heard of her? She is on my Heroines List: as Congresswoman Barbara Lee spoke out, as the choking clouds of dust and debris from the collapsed towers was still hanging in the air, so did Jeanette Rankin speak while the name Pearl Harbor was on the front page of every newspaper.

Pacifist she was, right or wrong, and she stuck with it when people wanted to KILL HER for her opinions.

From her beginnings to her life as a suffragist, to her outspokenness against wars, this woman was a trailblazer whose story should be taught in every school. And now you've heard of her, too!

Just another awesome book nominated for the Cybils Award in Young Adult Nonfiction. Go, read.

The Darker Side of Fairies

Just recently on Readers' Rants I had remarked on the surge in popularity of books with fairy themes or characters. Many of these explore the darker side of faerie, but that's nothing new, as I was reminded today by a fascinating essay in The Guardian by AS Byatt. Her article explores the more conflicted and even menacing side to some of the great artworks produced in the Victorian and Edwardian eras in England (featured in an exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery in London--making me wish I had money for another trip abroad...). Byatt points out that

The British, at the beginning of the 20th century, might be said to have been obsessed by childhood. A reviewer remarked that the great books of the time were arguably those written for children - by writers such as E Nesbit, Rudyard Kipling, JM Barrie and Kenneth Grahame. Children and childhood became very real and very important.

Nevertheless, there is a darker side to both the idea of fairies as well as the authors and artists themselves, and this article reveals some uncomfortable facts about JM Barrie, Kenneth Grahame, and other beloved children's authors--so beware. "The bright Edwardian nursery frieze can be seen with real goblins and greenteeths, wurricoes and strangling willows just visible behind the bright-cheeked children in their aprons with their nice apples and dolls." A deliciously written, fascinating essay. Thanks to Morfablog for the link.

Tour de Blogosphere

All right: I've got my excuses for why I've been blog mum lined right up. First up, Cybils - the great "drop everything and read" days have begun in earnest! Second, just today I've been on a train for two hours, walking through the gorgeous town of St. Andrews for another hour, window-shopping (It's the best way to shop right now; one avoids the caroling, which one DOES NOT WANT TO HEAR UNTIL DECEMBER), and I've been reading blogs for the past two hours, just trying to catch up. What is with you people that you all have something to say the minute I turn my back?! (BTW: this is a picture of Glasgow Uni; don't have my photo-sucking-off-the-cellphone-camera gear here in St. A's. Oh well.)

Had a good laugh over Meg Cabot er, revitalizing Little Women. She tells the story as it's never been told, probably for good reason... I am having to admit a grudging affection for ol' Meg. Drat.

More bizarre-ness comes in the form of the newest Gilda Joyce -- I am SUCH a fan of this wacky sleuthing chick, with her bizarre couture choices, though they worry Gail at Original Content just a bit.

Have you ever heard of The YoungMinds Award? It is sponsored by the ever-amazing Phillip Pullman. YoungMinds is the UK's leading mental health charity, providing information and help for various populations. The book that won the award this year is Still Here With Me, by Suzanne Sjöqvist, which deals with young adults expressing themselves after the loss of a parent. I love that Pullman sponsors this; the premise of the whole award is to recognize "the role that writers can provide in allowing adults to see the world through children's eyes." Fitting.

Poor Mitali bemoans her inability to remove her critical thinking cap when viewing Disney movies. Heck, I can't either -- I tend to get tetchy when I see sexism, racism, and other little bits of intolerance disguised as the status quo. As I've said in the Brown Bookshelf discussion, I think aggressive idealism is needed in this world. If we can point out that things aren't right, using humor and charm, we can support things being different. After watching Aquafortis' suggested film, The Miniature Earth Project, I can only appreciate that point of view even more.

Another interesting thought on ethnicity in the United States comes from Salon, who recently published a piece on the idea that race is dying. This really tied in to some of the discussions in which a group of intrepid thinkers has engaged on the topic. We've talked about what are the markers of "white," and why it seems that authors who portray African American or brown or minority characters in books always seem to portray them as issue stories where their race is a factor. We've talked about the fact that this is often forced upon the writers, but no one has broached the subject of what it might mean to have novels filled with characters who don't make race an issue. No one has discussed what I call "the snack schizophrenia" -- Oreos, Bananas, Crackers... I will always appreciate Justina Chen Headley's Nothing But the Truth (& A Few White Lies), because she fearlessly took on the subject of "acting white," which is such a wearisomely common accusation.

And what does that mean? Isn't that a good question...

Every year I snicker over this "only in the UK" news item -- the Bad Sex Award. YA author Meg Rosoff on why she really doesn't want to ever write a sex scene...

While everybody and Roger Sutton have been fussing about that Kindle thing from Amazon, the Booksellers Association and the Publishers Association have adopted a resolution to reduce their carbon imprint by 10% by 2015. There are some pretty big publishing houses in those two groups, including Penguin and HarperCollins, so it is hoped that this can actually make a difference. The question I have is how it will make a difference to writers. Will publishers and agents finally begin te discussion about electronic rights that has been so long in coming?

Finally, Cloudscome posts a great review on The Daring Book for Girls, and the authors take over at the Powell's Blog for a few more thoughts on girlhood. I now want to learn how to make a willow whistle and read up on their section on dangerous things -- which encompasses high heeled shoes, which I still haven't really learned to navigate, and roller coasters, which I (kind of) have. Here's to girlhood -- if you're not careful, it can fly by too fast. Kind of like childhood, which, as Kim & Jason say, is up to us, this time around.

If I can't make a willow whistle, I'm at least going to try out the high-heels...

Monday Miscellanea

Boy, have I collected some links. I've been so busy lately--what with travel and Thanksgiving and getting caught up--that all I've had time to do was shove them into a (virtual) folder for later posting. Well, later is now, guys. Firstly, I wanted to make sure everyone knows about the fabulous customizable Cybils widget that the excellent folks at JacketFlap have created--you can set the colors and even the categories, and what you get is a different Cybils-nominated title each time your web page reloads. It really is cool. I just need to get around to updating our template!

In other Cybils-related news, Colleen has posted an excellent interview with Nick Abadzis, creator of the Cybils Graphic Novel nominee Laika, on Chasing Ray. And, peripherally related (to graphic novels, anyway) comes the announcement (via Publishers Weekly) that Francoise Mouly--wife of Art Spiegelman, the author of Maus--is launching a new publishing venture called TOON Books, focusing on color hardcover comics specifically for young readers 4 and up. Sounds like a great endeavor to me!

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Another fun interview: Minh of Bottom Shelf Books brings us some entertainment straight from the mouths of Max and Pinky, characters from the picture book The Adventures of Max and Pinky: Superheroes, as they apply for full-fledged Justice League membership.

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After all of the fascinating discussion over the past week about the Brown Bookshelf and issues of ethnicity in publishing and literature, I thought that this movie might give everyone some food for thought about our identity as...well, as a country and as a planet, and remind us of the various literacy initiatives and other worthwhile endeavors, as well as the little ways we all help, that we can all give thanks for.

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Got a teeny tiny story? The Writers Digest Short Short Story Competition ends December 3rd. First prize is $3000--not bad for $1500 words or less!

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More fun from Publishers Weekly--evidently Libba Bray said that finishing the final book of her trilogy that began with A Great and Terrible Beauty was harder than being in labor: "That was awful, but it was over in seven hours," she said. Click the link above to read more about Bray, her series, and her writing process, and don't forget to cruise by her blog while you're at it.

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Phew - I think that's it! Finally caught up with the linkage. This Thursday I'll be back with another toon (another winning contest entry--yay!) and I hope to be more active again in the coming weeks, even though I'm still sulking about having no opportunity to participate in NaNoWriMo this year. Oh well...I guess going to Italy was worth it!! :)

Double Seventh, Seventh = Zero

This book is a 2007 Science Fiction & Fantasy Cybils Award Nominee.

Thea feels like a big fat zero. In a family of magic-users, she, the seventh child of two seventh children, can do NO magic at all. Her aunt is deeply sympathetic. Her siblings are disbelieving, but it's her parents that are the worst -- they are deeply, deeply disappointed. Thea's been both pushed and protected all her life, and her only response to her failure is baffled rage. Because it's night right! It's not fair that she's a null -- it's not supposed to be that way!

Thea can't stand anymore to see the look in her father's eyes as he sees her magical homework. She's smart at school - writes great essays and does well, but none of that matters to her father, she's afraid. Her stupid brothers tease her about her inability to even light a candle with her power. Everyone expected such great things of her -- there were beings who wanted to buy part of her power before she even manifested.

But now the cameras have stopped rolling, and Thea has been sent away -- first to Cheveyo, a mage and teacher who may or may not be in the same time as Now, and to The Academy -- where children with no magic at all are sent.

But Thea is finding that what she thought was weakness may be strength.
Maybe it's just in choosing where you choose to display your power that counts.

A fantasy that intertwines many traditions and cultures, Worldweavers: Gift of the Unmage looks to be the first in a long line of fabulous novels that combine coming-of-age stories with stories of finding one's gifts and the power of self-esteem.

Live to Fix: Fix to Live

This book is a 2007 Science Fiction & Fantasy Cybils Award Nominee.


Okay, so he was already brilliant -- when Becker Drane was a third grader, he was already studying biology. He was just interested in things, and the world rewarded his interest by making him really, really smart. Becker was so smart that he took tests for fun, like the cool little aptitude test he'd found in his favorite coffee shop, Chapter 1. It was just a little test for something called The Seems, and there was a question about "what would you do, if you had to remake the world from scratch - what kind of world would you create?" Becker had more than just "an idea" of what kind of world he'd create. Becker's response included charts and diagrams and arrows.

That's why he got the job.

That was all three fast-paced years ago. Becker Drane has been working for The Seems -- the people who work in the background to maintain the world and everything in it, including you, your dreams, your hopes and your sleep, all with trademarked and patent-pending tools. He's been working his way up, and now he's a Fixer -- but already on his first Mission, he's in trouble. Unfortunately, the cool tools aren't always enough. Sometimes, things in The Seems just break down. And that's just it -- there's something wrong in Sleep. It seems that there's a glitch loose in the system, and it may be that The Tide has struck again.

The Tide is a guerrilla organization who believes that The Seems should step aside and let them run The World -- and they may have recruited one of Becker's best friends in The Seems to work with them. How can you work against your best friend? If it's The World that you have to save, however -- how can you not?

The Seems: The Glitch in Sleep looks to be book one of a fascinating series for younger teens. Clever and fast-paced against the background of a benevolent organization who only wants the world to work right, this story has almost an allegorical feel as it pits those on the side of good against the changes that The Tide wants to make. A lighthearted quick adventure and loads of fun.

(P.S. - 20th Century Fox recently optioned the rights to the film version of "The Seems," with Shawn Levy, director of "Night at the Museum," attached to direct. Because this is an action/adventure novel, the potential for this being fun is excellent!)

You Have No Right to be Silent

This book is a 2007 Fantasy and Science Fiction Cybils Award Nominee.

The Zero Tolerance Party: it's no longer just a name or a political theory held by a few. It's invaded Marena's life. It's taken away her mother, and put her father under house arrest. And now it's invading her school.

It wouldn't be so bad if Mr. Greengritch had come to just talk -- everybody at the Spring Valley Re-Dap Community is used to that, just like they're used to fingerprint scans, random body searches, no privacy and no recourse. But, it's still school, and school is always the same, right? The JJ-girls -- jingle-jangle they call themselves, because of their jewelry -- are air-headed and cute, and used to ignoring people in favor of their own prattle. The nukes - new kids - are too scared to listen, separated as they are from their families and sent to the community to learn what Zero Tolerance really means. Marena is used to being able to give her boyfriend a sidelong glance and ignore the static from the adults. But Mr. Greengritch is right there, in their faces. He got their favorite teacher "disappeared." He's brought in vicious people who shave their heads, make them fight for their food, train them until they're at peak physical excellence -- and on the verge of complete physical breakdown. He's told them that it's time to change who they think they are. He does this by telling them they are no one at all.

Marena has already begun to suspect that she was no one at all -- her father has faded into being wallpaper, under the thumb of the Zero Tolerance party, he's not the same person her mother had loved. Her mother had died for her beliefs, why can't Marena's father at least live for his? Marena believes it's all up to her -- to preserve her mother's memory. To act.

She is tired of being one of The Silenced.

This brilliant and terrifying dystopian novel sucks the reader down in one swallow. Based loosely on the history of Sophie Scholl, the young German woman who reisisted the Nazi ideology by forming and participating in the resistance cell called the White Rose, this book is a hopeful and strongly heard clarion call for young people to become active in their beliefs. In the face of tyranny, you have no right to be silent.

Quayles Guide to Adventure: Standard Hero Behavior

This book is a 2007 Fantasy and Science Fiction Cybils Award Nominee.

Mason knows what heroes do: they're great, they save the day and do Heroic Things. Mason's village of Highsmith has a "Hero's Alley" and the names of the greats are on the doors of their homes. There's Roland Warbringer. Cassius Coldhammer. Brendlor Bowbreaker. The names have a sound as amazing as the people who did amazing things like battling orcs, goblins and dragons. Their deeds were memorialized by the Anonymous Warrior Poet of Highsmith, who recorded their fabulous history. Highsmith has a past as bright and bold as solid gold, but it's all in the past. In Highsmith, there are no more enemies. They aren't really needed, according to Duke Darlinger, who single-handedly is hero for the entire village. He decapitates orcs and arm-wrestles goblins, all without letting one blonde curl get mussed.

Mason kind of hates him.
Yet, there's nothing left in Highsmith. The people are poor, and Mason wants a different life than barding for people who haven't got an heroic bone in their bodies.

Mason and his best friend, Cowel know that the age of heroes is over, but they long for adventure anyway, and when it comes to them in its truly terrifying form, they're ready -- at least they try to be. After all, if the Duke can Save the Day, how hard is it to buckle some swash, kill some goblins and get home in time for dinner? Isn't it all just Standard Hero Behavior?

A funny and fast paced adventure for younger teens, this book reveals the true nature of heroes as people who just do a job that needs doing.