guest-post – Heise Reads & Recommends

Cover Reveal & Guest Post from Josh Funk

Jillian — Mon, 07 Mar 2022 12:30:00 +0000

Seven years ago, in a little town in Michigan, before his first picture book was even published, I met Josh Funk at a #nErDcampMI event. Reconnecting yearly at NerdCamp, and bonding over sharing a birth year and love of picture books, it has been a delight to follow Josh’s career.

Today, 18 picture books later(!), I am thrilled to host Josh for a fantastic GUEST POST (not to be missed!) on how he writes twisted tales along with the COVER REVEAL of the next book in the It’s NOT… a Fairy Tale series: It’s NOT The Three Little Pigs.

If you don’t already know all of these titles, make sure you check them out soon! I love a good twisted tale – I even did a themed recommendation list for the genre earlier this school year! Josh has been a huge supporter of #ClassroomBookADay from the very beginning, and his books have often been recommended.

In the It’s NOT… a Fairy Tale series Josh adds the perspective of characters who question the narrator trying to hold them to the constraints of the classic tales. Paired with Edwardian Taylor’s exuberant, cartoonish illustrations, they are a joy to read and share. I have the best memories of Julys past sitting in the lobby of a hotel with fellow Nerdy friends doing some extremely entertaining readers theater readings of the upcoming book from Josh’s laptop so we could all get a sneak peek. And there was never a lack of laughter or joy. Sharing these books with kids elicits much of the same amusement.

Coming 10.25.22… It’s NOT The Three Little Pigs!

In this fairy tale mashup, a fourth little pig attempts to usurp storytelling duties from the narrator, causing the beloved tale to veer off course into chaos.

Welcome to the blog, Josh!

It’s good to “see” you again. I’m eager to hear your insights into how you take classic tales & twist them for the entertainment of all. And I know one of my 3rd grade teachers, who is doing a unit on twisting classic tales right now, will be especially thrilled to have this to share with our students. Thank you for visiting & letting me reveal the super fun cover of It’s NOT The Three Little Pigs! I particularly love the hot air balloon.

Hey, Jillian! Thanks so much for letting me visit and share some big news – the cover of the 4th (!!) book in the It’s Not a Fairy Tale series that Edwardian Taylor and I have been working on.

I thought I’d also share a little about how (and why) I write fractured fairy tales. (by “I thought” I mean that Jillian suggested this might be useful to educators and students who teach and write fractured fairy tales … and I agreed because Jillian knows her stuff)

Start by asking “What if …?”

One of my favorite prompts that fits almost any situation is asking the “What if?” question – and then writing a story about what follows.

What if … the letter R disappeared from existence?
What if … my pen pal was a dragon?
What if … there was only one drop of syrup left in the bottle?

This also works incredibly well for fracturing fairy tales.

What if … Little Red Riding Hood was a pencil?
What if … The Three Little Pigs were ninjas?
What if … Cinderella lived in space?

Now hold that thought.

Bad Choice Make Good Stories

I learned this five word lesson from author Erin Dionne (who even wrote a craft book with this title).

When characters make bad choices and that leads to conflict and tension (and usually more bad choices). Without conflict and tension, a story is not really a story – it’s just a bunch of stuff that happens. And often kind of boring.

But I’d always noticed that characters in fairy tales often make really bad choices. Choices so bad that they’re almost unbelievable and unrealistic – in a ‘doesn’t make sense a character would ever do that’ kind of way. For example:

If a giant beanstalk grew in your backyard overnight, what would be the first thing you’d do?

Climb the beanstalk all the way to the clouds, break into a giant’s home, and steal gold from the giant or
Call a gardener.

I’d probably go with b.

If you lived in the woods your entire life, don’t you think you’d know that if you dropped breadcrumbs on the ground, animals would probably eat them? I mean, really?!

And maybe worst of all, if you walked into your grandmother’s house and in your grandmother’s bed was a furry, four-legged, talking wolf, wouldn’t you know it wasn’t your grandmother? Obviously you would.

Put it all together

So if we need bad choices to make a good story, but not these bad choices, what can we do? Ask “What if …?”

What if … the characters in the fairy tale were smart and didn’t want to make the traditional bad choices?

What if … the bad choices in OUR story are made by the narrator instead of the smart fairy tale characters?

For example:

What if … the bad choice is the narrator encouraging Jack to steal from a giant, but Jack doesn’t want to?

What if … the bad choice is the narrator trying to get Hansel and Gretel to drop breadcrumbs in the woods, but they won’t because “who drops breadcrumbs on the ground during a famine?”?

What if … the bad choice is the narrator trying to convince Little Red that a wolf is actually her grandmother?

In short, I’ve essentially flipped the format of the story and made the unseen narrator the main character and the one who makes mistakes and (possibly) learns a lesson.

I also added lots of other twists like making the giant a vegan named Fred, introducing a unicorn friend to Gretel and Hansel, having Captain Hook fill in for an ill wolf in Little Red’s story, and more.

And now for the big news!

So what’s the deal with It’s Not the Three Little Pigs? What bad choices will the narrator make in this fractured fairy tale? (and what other silly twists are added?)

Here’s what the publisher says:

Meet the three (ahem—four!) little pigs as they convince the narrator to tell a slightly different version of their fairy tale:

First there’s Alan, the one pig in the bunch who is actually a builder. He’s got a BIG problem with building a home out of flimsy straw. Next there’s Alfred, who wants to be an actor and wouldn’t dream of getting his hands dirty. Then we have Alvin, whose dream is to be . . . a pumpkin. Last but not least is Alison, the fourth pig who is ready to bring some flair to this story, if only she can get the narrator to agree to a few changes. . . . And what about that wolf?

Grab your jet-packs and get ready for this rollicking retelling of the popular tale.

Thanks so much for letting me stop by, Jillian!

It’s Not the Three Little Pigs, written by Josh Funk, illustrated by Edwardian Taylor, and published by Two Lions, is available for pre-order NOW and will be available on October 25th, 2022.

Josh Funk writes silly stories such as the Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast series (including The Case of the Stinky Stench, Mission Defrostable, Short & Sweet, and the forthcoming The Great Caper Caper), the How to Code with Pearl and Pascal series (including How to Code a Sandcastle and How to Code a Rollercoaster), the It’s Not a Fairy Tale series (including It’s Not Jack and the Beanstalk, It’s Not Hansel and Gretel, It’s Not Little Red Riding Hood, and the forthcoming It’s Not the Three Little Pigs in the fall of 2022), the A Story of Patience & Fortitude series in conjunction with the New York Public Library (including Lost in the Library and Where Is Our Library?), Dear Dragon, Albie Newton, Pirasaurs!, A Night at the Bookstore: A Barnsie & Noble Adventure, and coming soon: My Pet Feet in the summer of 2022 and Dear Unicorn in the fall of 2023!

Since the fall of 2015, Josh has visited (or virtually visited) over 500 schools, classrooms, and libraries and he is a board member of The Writers’ Loft in Hudson, MA.

Josh grew up in New England and studied Computer Science in school. Today, he still lives in New England and when not writing Java code or Python scripts, he drinks Java coffee and writes manuscripts.

Josh is terrible at writing bios, so please help fill in the blanks. Josh enjoys _______ during ________ and has always loved __________. He has played ____________ since age __ and his biggest fear in life is being eaten by a __________.

For more information about Josh Funk, visit him at www.joshfunkbooks.com and on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at @joshfunkbooks.

photo © Carter Hasegawa

Book Trailer Premiere: SHORT & SWEET (Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast book 4) & #classroombookaday Recommendation List from Josh Funk

Jillian Heise — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 15:30:00 +0000

Josh Funk has been a huge supporter of #classroombookaday since the early days, and the Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast books are popular with those participating. And now there is a 4th book coming in the series! I’m honored to host the premiere of the book trailer for SHORT & SWEET today!

Take a peek and then scroll down below as Josh shares a list of his picture book recommendations for #classroombookaday read alouds!

Here are three weeks worth of #ClassroomBookADay picks from Josh Funk:

ALFIE by Thyra Heder

For those who think they see all the endings coming … I didn’t.

MAGIC RAMEN by Andrea Want and Kana Urbanowicz

For those who like to (or are afraid to) experiment with food.

THE BREAKING NEWS by Sarah Lynne Reul

For those days when your community really needs it.

OGILVY by Deborah Underwood and by T.L. McBeth

For those who like sweaters or dresses or sweaterdresses.

CHICKS RULE! by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen and Renée Kurilla

For those who like to have their peeps heard!

THE REMEMBER BALLOONS by Jessie Oliveros and Dana Wulfekotte

For those who like their picture books with heaps of emotion.

IVER & ELLSWORTH by Casey W. Robinson and Melissa Larson

For those who like neverending friendships.

COUNTING BIRDS by Heidi E. Y. Stemple and Clover Robin

For those who want to protect all the animals.

THE OLDEST STUDENT by Rita Lorraine Hubbard and Oge Mora

For those never want to stop learning.

THE AIRPORT BOOK by Lisa Brown

For those who see magic in the everyday.

DRAGONS RULE, PRINCESSES DROOL! by Courtney Pippin Mathur

For those opposites who attact.

YOUR FIRST DAY OF CIRCUS SCHOOL by Tara Lazar and Melissa Crowton

For those who are nervous about starting school (but aren’t afraid of clowns).

BALLETBALL by Erin Dionne and Gillian Flint

For those who aren’t quite sure they’re excited for opening day.

LOVE, Z by Jessie Sima

For love.

BOATS FOR PAPA by Jessixa Bagley

For everyone.

September #cbadspotlight – Spotlight on Alma and How She Got Her Name with Author/Illustrator Juana Martinez-Neal

Jillian Heise — Mon, 30 Sep 2019 23:53:00 +0000

Today I’m shining the spotlight on Juana Martinez-Neal,

author/illustrator of #cbadspotlight pick & Caldecott Honor book
Alma and How She Got Her Name

and also illustrator of La Princesa and the Pea, La Madre Goose: Nursery Rhymes for Lost Niños,
Babymoon & Frybread: A Native American Family Story

What’s in a name? For one little girl, her very long name tells the vibrant story of where she came from — and who she may one day be.
If you ask her, Alma Sofia Esperanza José Pura Candela has way too many names: six! How did such a small person wind up with such a large name? Alma turns to Daddy for an answer and learns of Sofia, the grandmother who loved books and flowers; Esperanza, the great-grandmother who longed to travel; José, the grandfather who was an artist; and other namesakes, too. As she hears the story of her name, Alma starts to think it might be a perfect fit after all — and realizes that she will one day have her own story to tell. In her author-illustrator debut, Juana Martinez-Neal opens a treasure box of discovery for children who may be curious about their own origin stories or names.

Thank you, Juana, for joining me for a #cbadspotlight guest post today!

Hi, there! I’m Juana Martinez-Neal, author and illustrator of Alma and How She Got Her Name and Alma y cómo obtuvo su nombre, published by Candlewick Press.

It is hard to believe that it has been almost eighteen months since ALMA was released. As this book was the first one that I both wrote and illustrated, I didn’t know what to expect. I am happy to report that the experience has been unbelievable and that ALMA has changed my life.

Seeing how ALMA has been welcomed into schools, libraries and homes has been heartwarming to say the least. Thinking of all the name stories shared by children and their families during these past months has been moving. With that in mind, I would love to dedicate this post to everyone and anyone who has taken the time to include ALMA in their lives. A special thank you to all the teachers and librarians who have shared ALMA with their students.

Sometimes I get to see posts and peek at how ALMA is shared in the classroom. I love this so much that I will share some of those posts here. Earlier this month, Mrs. Ramirez a teacher at Lancaster Elementary in El Paso, TX, posted a picture of how her classroom read the book and then discussed it. You can see how the students shared their family trees and name stories. Reading the “wonders” her students had was truly touching:
“I wonder if Alma goes to school.”
“I wonder if Alma had friends.”
It is a yes to both those wonders.

In a classroom in Chicago, IL (@DrydenLMC) first graders made their names with lego blocks.

In Henrico, VA, Mrs. Lingerfeld’s second graders created their names with maker materials. Then, went home, interviewed their families to find out about their origin name stories, and recorded their responses in Flipgrid.

Anna Lingerfelt (@anna_lingerfelt @hcpslib) shared how 1st graders built names for their lego wall after reading ALMA.

Younger grades at a school in Liberty, TX worked on creating their names with playdough.

Ms. Sebastián in Austin, TX had her students work on nameplates. The second graders went home and found out the stories behind their own names. The following day, they got a chance to share their name stories with their friends.

I was stunned to see the activity Mrs. Miller and Ms. Amabile developed for her fourth graders in Edison, NJ. One of my very favorite posts!

Mrs. Sterns (@mrs_sterns) in Nebraska had a similar and empowering activity for her young ELL students.

Some teachers have used ALMA to talk about identity. I love hearing that as Alma’s search for her own identity is a key part of the book. Ms. Rodrigo is a dual language teacher in Barrington, IL. She and her fifth graders worked on identity webs.

Here is how Ms. Carr and her first graders in Los Angeles, CA discussed identity after reading the book.

Mrs. Robles from El Paso, TX went deeper and shared details about Peru with her students. For those of you who don’t know, I was born and raised in Peru. And, I was so taken to see what Mrs. Robles had done that we got in touch. We had a super fun Skype visit with her third grade Dalmatians.

I would not be here writing this post if it wasn’t for Jillian Heise’s support and her brilliant #ClassroomBookADay and #cbadspotlight. She has been a huge supporter of ALMA since the very beginning.

I hope this post sparks some ideas on how YOU can include ALMA in your classrooms. If you post what you do, feel free to tag me at @juanamartinez (twitter) or @juanamartinezn (instagram). I’d love to see what you are doing, too! You can always visit this page (bottom of the page) for other resources, activities, discussion guides and more on ALMA.

Alma and I wish you a very successful school year. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts!

Keep reading, keep going, keep sharing your stories!

Be sure to check out all of the #cbadspotlight choices for this school year!

Visit classroombookaday.com for more information on #classroombookaday,
a goal to read aloud a picture book every day of the school year, at any grade,
inspired by Donalyn Miller’s #bookaday.

September #cbadspotlight – Spotlight on The Day You Begin with Illustrator Rafael López

Jillian Heise — Tue, 17 Sep 2019 21:32:00 +0000

Today I’m shining the spotlight on multiple time Pura Belpré & Américas Illustrator Honor & Award Winner Rafael López, illustrator of #cbadspotlight pick The Day You Begin

and also Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl’s Courage Changed Music, We’ve Got the Whole World in Our Hands, Maybe Something Beautiful: How Art Transformed a Neighborhood, Book Fiesta!, The Cazuela that the Farm Maiden Stirred, Bravo!: Poems About Amazing Hispanics, My Name is Celia: The Life of Celia Cruz, Tito Puente: Mambo King, and the recently published Dancing Hands: How Teresa Carreño Played the Piano for President Lincoln and Just Ask!: Be Different, Be Brave, Be You

National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson and two-time Pura Belpre Illustrator Award winner Rafael Lopez have teamed up to create a poignant, yet heartening book about finding courage to connect, even when you feel scared and alone.
There will be times when you walk into a roomand no one there is quite like you.
There are many reasons to feel different. Maybe it’s how you look or talk, or where you’re from; maybe it’s what you eat, or something just as random. It’s not easy to take those first steps into a place where nobody really knows you yet, but somehow you do it.
Jacqueline Woodson’s lyrical text and Rafael Lopez’s dazzling art reminds us that we all feel like outsiders sometimes-and how brave it is that we go forth anyway. And that sometimes, when we reach out and begin to share our stories, others will be happy to meet us halfway.

Thank you, Rafael, for joining me for a #cbadspotlight guest post interview today!

Teachers, librarians and students in the #classroombookaday movement. I’m here to challenge you to read aloud a picture book every day of the school year to students at any grade.

As a child growing up in Mexico City, I commuted by metro over an hour to get to the public library. I liked spending an entire day in the stacks, where I discovered that books inspired me to dream. Each week I brought home all I could check out and carry to hold me over till my next visit. Although I struggled with mild dyslexia, picture books comforted and engaged me by answering questions and creating new ones. Without leaving home, I visited distant lands to unearth new ideas and ways of seeing beyond my own experience. I was drawn to the pictures and maps of distant places, strange bugs from foreign lands and creatures so exotic that even my own vivid imagination couldn’t dream them up. Opening books grew my confidence and I began to read more and draw pictures at the library. Books gave me the chance to explore the world before I had to go out in it. The words and images I found on the pages, watered the seeds of my imagination giving me the power to discover new worlds of art and literature.

For this post, I’ve been asked to answer some questions about illustrations I created for our book The Day You Begin written by the gifted Jacqueline Woodson.

What was your inspiration for the illustrations in this book?

The initial spark for the illustrations in The Day You Begin, began with Jacqueline’s poetic words, “There will be times when you walk into a room and no one there is quite like you”.

There is a boy in our story named Rigoberto from Venezuela who gets teased for his accent. This triggered my own memories connecting me to the emotions in our story. When my family moved to the border in Ciudad Juarez, I became part of a school exchange program. At a young age, I traveled alone to live with a host family in the Midwest attending school there to practice my English.

Rigoberto emerges

I will never forget feeling so out of place, so different, so alone.

I also remember a new friend who listened to my story and confided that she too felt different.

At school, Rigoberto remembers his homeland

I hoped the pages of our book would bring comfort to children struggling to find their place. I couldn’t help but see myself, my own child and many children in this story. In crafting the imagery I wanted children to see themselves and translate the story into their own voice. The visual journey and inspiration for the illustrations began there.

What message do you hope kids (of all ages) take away from this book?

Going back to school is a moment charged with emotion. There is fear, uncertainty, then hopefully relief and joy all rolled up into one. This is a book about encouragement, acceptance, diversity and finding your voice when you feel alone.

I wanted children to know that it doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from or what your life experience is, your voice matters.

What was your process for creating & revising the illustrations for this story?

Sketching is thinking with your pencil. It takes piles of tracing paper to find a character like Angelina. How does she think and move through the world? What are her hopes and dreams, struggles and strengths?

Searching for Angelina

Angelina Arrives

She wasn’t able to travel and collect souvenirs like her classmates but spent summer at home reading books and caring for her little sister. Still, her imagination and courage took her places.

When developing a story, many original ideas don’t make the cut. Still you have to try things out and keep pushing forward. It’s a combination of instincts and experimentation as you dance around the right answer with your pencil. After developing 2-3 versions that feel solid, I reached out to the creative team at Penguin Random House for feedback.

Take the cover for example:

Initial brainstorming for cover

Thinking about how the design could wrap around

Using substitution with typography and figure

How will it all fit together?

Communicating emotion with body position and expression

Trying out all the angles

Finished Cover Design with hand rendered type.

You might notice the school ruler on the cover, a visual metaphor I incorporated on several of the spreads. I hoped children would see this repeating element and ask questions. How many times have we asked ourselves how we measure up?

Was there any part of the process where you worked together on the vision for this book?

Making a book is a collective effort and somehow it all comes together. There is input from writer, artist, editor, art director and it’s about striking that balance without diluting visual concepts with too many opinions. I feel gratitude for the collective effort of the amazing team at Nancy Paulsen Books that collaborated guiding our book to the finish line.

Checking for consistency and flow of the story in progress

It all ends up on the studio wall to check for pacing, transitions, consistency to consider how it will connect to young readers.

What is your favorite part of making picture books?

Everyone has a story to tell and the question is how will you tell it? Creating children’s picture books is a platform to do my part to craft the kind of diverse world I want to live in. It’s the opportunity to share where I’ve been and how I got here as well as where I want to go. The language of an illustrator is ideas.

#cbadspotlight is putting the spotlight on inclusive #ownvoices books. What can you share with students about the connection you have to this book or the choices you made while writing/illustrating it to add diverse representation?

It meant a lot to me that our book was also released at the same time in Spanish El Día En Que Descubres Quién Eres!

Both my parents were architects and teachers and as a child, my family moved from Mexico City to the border. I lived in Ciudad Juarez and crossed the bridge as an international student to begin my artistic path at the University of Texas in El Paso where many of my family members and friends live today. Like many around the country, I’m grieving for kids and families struggling with fear. I feel solidarity with people in beautiful communities like El Paso, in homes and schools around the world. Every child deserves to feel safe and valued. Each day we have to model kindness and humanity with our work, words and actions.

To mirror Jacqueline’s comforting and inclusive text I developed a diverse range of characters. I wanted the illustrations to give voice to unspoken feelings and dreams. Scenes from The Day You Begin was inspired by my own son who is a gifted storyteller and artist with autism.

The voice of every child makes a difference.

Truly valuing and respecting each other and diversity empowers us to explore our differences in a safe, nurturing environment. Behind every child’s face, language and culture there is the spark of promise. I want to continue to use my work to unleash the power of diversity.

#classroombookaday is a goal to read aloud a picture book every day of the school year to students at any grade. What would you like to say to the teachers who are taking on this challenge?

Speaking of power let’s talk about teachers. What you do each day goes well beyond the classroom. The value of a teacher to encourage, care, enrich, inspire and make a genuine difference is fact. Your commitment to read a picture book aloud each day will create connections in your classroom encouraging dialogue and the sharing of ideas. You have the power to expand their vocabulary and universe. Books will grow the skills of your students to learn to think independently and collectively. To escape, have fun, find comfort and themselves and achieve their dreams.

What are you waiting for?

Be sure to check out all of the #cbadspotlight choices for this school year!

Visit classroombookaday.com for more information on #classroombookaday,
a goal to read aloud a picture book every day of the school year, at any grade,
inspired by Donalyn Miller’s #bookaday.

Guest Post: Dev Petty – There’s Nothing to Do

Jillian Heise — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 13:09:00 +0000

I adore Dev Petty’s Frog books and kids’ giggling reactions when they read these stories of a complaining frog whose highly entertaining reasoning for his opinions cracks me up. Add in Mike Boldt’s bright, enthusiastic illustrations that jump off the page, and it’s a pairing made for read aloud heaven.

I was lucky enough to meet Dev in person at nErDcampMI this summer, and am honored to host her on the blog today to celebrate the newest Frog book, that I think will be a hit with all kids who have ever claimed to be bored, THERE’S NOTHING TO DO!

Frog can’t find ANYTHING to do—even when his animal friends make good suggestions, like sleep all day, lick between your toes, or hop around and then stare off into space. Will he find a fun and exciting way to spend his day? Featuring the beloved Frog, this new story is sure to bring a smile to every kid (and adult) who has ever felt like there was nothing to do. This is another surefire crowd pleaser that lets every kid know that being bored . . . doesn’t always have to be boring.

And don’t miss the first two books in the series:
I DON’T WANT TO BE A FROG & I DON’T WANT TO BE BIG

Small Books Can Help Kids Ask Big Questions

Being an actual, real, live parent is a different beast entirely than the parent I thought I would be before I had kids. I began this adventure waiting for the moments when I could answer fun life questions with total parental sureness (and hopefully having also prepared an Instagram-worthy meal with colors and multiple food groups, and wearing mascara). Having had a strange childhood, I expected the best times would come when I felt really confident in my answers. And it’s true, when it’s about friendships or school, or math, I usually have a pretty solid reply. But my FAVORITE moments as a parent? When I am stumped. I love when my kids ask me things I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA HOW TO ANSWER. Examples: “Why are we here?” “Why am I me?” “Why do I have to get a job?” “Why do you have to work?”

So I guess as a parent and a picture book author, I’ve found a huge draw to writing books which ask questions that are open-ended. The kind of questions kids ask their parents in the middle of dinner and find their mom, with a crumpled face, standing in the kitchen ten minutes later, trying still to figure out an answer worth giving. I love it when my kids ask me questions and I begin with “I JUST DON’T KNOW…” It forces me to think about my own life and to think about how to write books that speak to that unsureness. We all share a lot of knowledge, but perhaps- more interestingly- we share a lot of NOT knowledge…that space in the in between where we’re just figuring things out. Parents, kids, grandparents, siblings, friends. We’re all just muddling through, wondering a lot of the same things. The fun is that we share the not-knowing and find ourselves in the wild variety of what we figure out.

I hope that kids take away from my books that it’s okay to ask questions and to be uncomfortable. It’s in those moments of wondering, waiting, wishing, sometimes being angry or not knowing where to put your hands (why I wear pockets!) that we learn things. Kids can sometimes feel bad when they don’t know the answers, so I hope my books remind them of the joy of not knowing. In my latest, THERE’S NOTHING TO DO!, my little somewhat-sarcastic, oft-complaining Frog character wrestles with an empty day and the deep desire to do something fantastic with that day, something really, really super, but he doesn’t know what. This story is a direct result of my life with my kids who are not lazy (seriously, never, they always want to be doing something or other), but they often don’t know what to do. They have expectations, hopes, big dreams of what a lazy Sunday may hold for them and no real idea of how to find that special thing to do.

Most of my books, in fact, center around those subtle questions that speak to our inner desires as kids…to accomplish, to create, to not be too idle for too long. I have two daughters and I sometimes can’t comprehend the complexity of the world in which they find themselves. It is surely more complicated than my 1970s childhood, if only because it predated call-waiting and even answering machines. I went out looking for my pals if they weren’t home and had long swaths of time to be alone, sometimes adrift, sometimes unsure. Things were, for lack of a better way of phrasing it, less specific. I see how my daughters now have specific skills, favorite authors, apps they’re hooked on, friends they always do or don’t hang out with. They are much more sure than I ever was, and maybe more sure than I am now.

I love helping kids discover that they share concerns, wonders, questions, fears, and a whole lot more not-knowing than knowing. That not-knowing creates friendships, fun, and thankfully (at least for ME) picture book ideas!

Dev Petty is a Berkeley native who writes picture books that, hopefully, make you laugh a little and think a little. She used to be in visual effects, working on The Matrix trilogy and many other film projects and loves making picture books because they’re sort of like little, paper movies. Her debut book, I DON’T WANT TO BE A FROG, has been published in eight languages and sparked two follow-ups including her latest, THERE’S NOTHING TO DO!. She is also the author of CLAYMATES and more stories to come.

A Podcast Interview About #classroombookaday

Jillian Heise — Sun, 06 Aug 2017 21:52:00 +0000

I was honored to be invited to participate in a Books Between podcast by Corrina Allen last week. It was a great conversation on the start of #classroombookday, why it was so successful, and includes MANY book recommendations! I wasn’t expecting the final version to be an hour, but it is, so make sure you have time if you’re sitting down to listen.

You can find the podcast & a typed list of all of the book recommendations right here.
*Corrina also asked me about some non-picture books I’ve been reading and loving lately (and that starts around 55:00 on the recording).

Happy (listening &) reading!

#classroombookaday is on Nerdy Book Club Today

Jillian Heise — Tue, 04 Jul 2017 00:25:00 +0000

I’m honored to be the guest poster over on the Nerdy Book Club blog today.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to share the origin story of #classroombookaday & testimonials from some wonderful teachers who have seen the power of shared stories to positively impact their own classroom communities. I also started a #classroombookaday group on Facebook last week, so if you’re participating and want to join our community, join us there.

BREAKOUT by Kevin Emerson

Jillian Heise — Thu, 26 Mar 2015 10:30:00 +0000

Title: BREAKOUT
Author: Kevin Emerson
Publisher: Crown Books for Young Readers
Release Date: February 24, 2014
Number of Pages: 304
Source of Book: ARC from author in exchange for honest opinion

When Anthony’s angst-ridden rock ‘n’ roll lyrics go viral, he’s unwittingly cast as the school rebel. The truth is, he’s not trying to be anyone’s hero.
Anthony Castillo needs a new life. His teachers are clueless autocrats except for Mr. Darren, who’s in charge of the rock band program. The girls at school are either shallow cutebots or out of his league. And his parents mean well, but they just make things worse. It’s as if Anthony is stuck on the bottom level of his favorite video game, Liberation Force 4.5. Except there is no secret escape tunnel and definitely no cheat code.
Fed up, pissed off, and feeling trapped, Anthony writes his first song for his rock band, the Rusty Soles. His only problem: Arts Night. If he exercises his right to free speech and sings his original lyrics—where his own bombs will drop—he and his band will be through.
The clock is ticking. Time for Anthony to pick his battles and decide what’s really worth fighting for.

There is something about this book that struck a chord with me as a middle school teacher. Anthony reminded me of students I have currently and had in the past who feel misunderstood by their teachers…and seeing events from his perspective makes me want to do better by them. For this reason, I think Breakout is a book that teachers should read (especially Emerson‘s author’s note about the inspiration for this character).

Breakout will appeal to the boys in my classroom, but also some of the girls who want to get into the head of the boys and figure out what they’re really thinking. But the best audience for this book will be the musicians or kids who feel misunderstood. They will relate to the main character and root for him as they go along on this twelve day journey with Anthony, to Arts Night when his band will play for the school, to figure out how to stand up for what he believes and be true to himself.

At it’s heart, this is a book about perspectives and words and choices and wanting to be heard and being true to our feelings. That f-bomb word is a major factor in this book (although the actual word is never written out), but it’s about so much more than just one polarizing word and a choice about whether to use it during a performance or not. The power of one word comes more from the intent behind it and the purpose for using it – it’s about the emotion that caused that word to come out, as Anthony figures out and defends.

All of that being said, there were some specific references to things woven throughout that at times felt a little overused to me, but they did all end up connecting together at the end in a way that made sense. This could be more because I do not play video games, and so these references throughout would connect more with the intended teen audience who have more familiarity with them.

Kevin Emerson has again written a novel that is an ode to the music-loving teen, a call to action for teachers to understand their students, a story with universal themes of acceptance and finding one’s own strength and figuring out what’s right that will resonate with many readers, and rocking good writing that teens will relate to and devour.

Although Breakout is a different tone (and gender of main character) from Emerson’s Exile, it is one to hand to students who enjoyed his writing and the music-centric elements.

Book Birthday Guest Post: Elizabeth Eulberg’s WE CAN WORK IT OUT

Jillian Heise — Mon, 26 Jan 2015 23:30:00 +0000

I adore Elizabeth Eulberg, a fellow Wisconsite/Cheesehead, and all of her books. She writes the best kind of fun romantic comedy books that I race through and can share with my middle school students, and I have thoroughly enjoyed every one of them.

I became a fan of Elizabeth’s after first reading The Lonely Hearts Club, her debut novel, in 2010, and have continued to wonder what happened to Penny Lane afterwards (as we often do with characters we enjoyed spending time with). So I was thrilled to hear that Elizabeth was writing a sequel to that fabulous book! And to help connect the two, Elizabeth wrote three free novellas to see some of the events with Penny to help you remember the characters and story to prepare for We Can Work It Out.

In honor of the release of We Can Work It Out, I invited Elizabeth to share a guest post here to help celebrate her sixth book going out in the world.

Under Pressure

Guest blog: Elizabeth Eulberg

I’d dreamed of writing a sequel to my debut novel even before I finished writing The Lonely Hearts Club. I was ecstatic when I got word in the summer of 2013 that my publisher wanted me to write my sequel.

I cheered! I danced! Even though I knew exactly how the book would open and what would happen in that first chapter, I made myself do all the work to plan out the book before diving in: re-reading first book, doing character arches, outlining, timeline, etc. Then I was finally ready to start writing! My fingers flew as I wrote the opener, excited to be back with Penny Lane Bloom and her friends.

Then a strange thing happened: I completely froze.

Sure, there have been times when I got stuck writing a book, but this was different. I was freaked out. This was the first time I was writing a book where there would be expectations. While I feel that my readers probably expect certain things from my books (humor, music, boys being stupid, you know, the usual), I was writing something where people would have ideas on what should happen to the characters. People picking up this book would already be invested in them.

What if I made people mad? What if I couldn’t live up to expectations?

I stepped away from the book for a bit and got myself together. For years, I knew what I wanted to do, so I didn’t let that affect the story. I know there is at least one point (maybe two) in the sequel where the reader may throw the book across the room at something Penny Lane has done. But I stuck to my guns and did what I knew the character had to experience. There were times when I felt bad for Penny Lane and what I had to do to her, but I also knew that I couldn’t write a 320-page book where everything is awesome! That’s not real life. That’s not what these characters are about. Plus, how boring would that be to read?

I’m not going to lie and make it seem that I was perfectly fine after the one frozen moment. I had my first full-on meltdown on the phone with my editor and almost pushed the book back (to my credit, my editor informed me that it was pretty impressive that I didn’t have a breakdown until my sixth book). There was a week that I would breakdown in tears and curl up into the fetal position for a couple hours. That was the self-imposed pressure that I had put on myself. It wasn’t pretty.

I finally shared this with a few of my author friends who all had the same response: “Sequels are THE worst!” Now they tell me!

Looking back at the tears and stress of writing We Can Work it Out, I can honestly say that it was worth it. I loved getting to revisit these characters that changed my life. I made some decisions that may not be popular with some readers, but I stayed true to the characters. It’s a book that I’m proud of. Plus, I survived it!

Although if someone could tell the stress hives that have conveniently broken out two weeks before the release that everything will be okay…

Thanks for visiting and sharing your authorly insights with us, Elizabeth!

If you’d like to see Elizabeth in person to help celebrate her newest book, check out her events schedule as she just may be coming to your area!

Title: WE CAN WORK IT OUT (sequel to THE LONELY HEARTS CLUB)
Author: Elizabeth Eulberg
Publisher: Point (a Scholastic imprint)
Release Date: January 27, 2015
Number of Pages: 320
Source of Book: ARC from Publisher at NCTE

When Penny Lane started The Lonely Hearts Club, the goal was simple: to show that girls didn’t need to define themselves by how guys look at them, and didn’t have to value boyfriends over everything else. Penny thought she’d be an outcast for life…but then the club became far more popular than she ever imagined it would be.
But what happens when the girl who never thought she’d date a good guy suddenly finds herself dating a great one? She doesn’t need a boyfriend… but she wants it to work out with this particular boyfriend. And he wants it to work out with her.
Only, things keep getting in the way. Feelings keep getting hurt. Words keep getting misunderstood.
Penny Lane worked hard to declare her independence. Now she needs to figure out what to do with it — and how to balance what she wants with what everyone else wants. In We Can Work It Out, Elizabeth Eulberg returns to the world of her first novel, The Lonely Hearts Club, and gets to the heart of how hard relationships can be… and why they are sometimes worth all the drama and comedy they create.

Guest Post & Giveaway: Jess Keating – How to Outswim a Shark Blog Tour

Jillian Heise — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 11:30:00 +0000

Jess Keating’s middle grades debut book, How to Outrun a Crocodile When Your Shoes are Untied, was mentioned by a lot of my teacher friends last year as one to read, and now the second book in the series, How to Outswim a Shark Without a Snorkel, is out. I’ve been following Jess on twitter and always interested to hear her perspective on things, so I’m thrilled to be welcoming her to my blog today as a part of her release week blog tour, and I’m especially excited about the topic she chose that can be used with students!

Twelve Nonfiction Books to Pair with How to Outswim a Shark Without a Snorkel!

Hey, guys!

I’m so happy to be hanging out on Jillian’s blog today to celebrate the release of my latest book, How to Outswim a Shark Without a Snorkel! Thank you, Jillian!

As a zoologist turned author, I am always looking for ways to integrate real life science and biology facts into my stories. I think fiction and nonfiction don’t need to celebrated individually—they can be buddies! As you saw with the first book in the series, How to Outrun a Crocodile When Your Shoes are Untied, every chapter of this new book starts off with a fun animal fact. (Did you know that the Japanese spider crab can grow to be thirteen feet wide? Crazy, right?!)

I think combining nonfiction with fiction not only gets readers interested in awesome topics, but also keeps them curious and engaged—learning without even realizing it. To help further integrate How to Outswim a Shark Without a Snorkel into classrooms, I wanted to share some wonderful nonfiction picture books that you can pair with it! Without any adieu whatsoever, here are some favorites!

1. For a look at the man who helped pioneer marine exploration, try MANFISH: A STORY OF JACQUES COUSTEAU, by Jennifer Berne.

2. For an inspiring story of a young girl who became one of the world’s most renowned oceanographers, try LIFE IN THE OCEAN: THE STORY OF OCEANOGRAPHER SYLVIA EARLE, by Claire A Nivola.

3. CORAL REEFS, by Jason Chin is a beautiful look at reef systems of our oceans.

4. I don’t know a single kid who isn’t into sharks, and NEIGHBORHOOD SHARKS by Katherine Roy is a must read for shark lovers.

5. Many readers have already asked me how they can help out animal species, and books like PROJECT SEAHORSE, and THE DOLPHINS OF SHARK BAY, both by Pamela S. Turner are great examples of marine conservation efforts.

6. As you’ll see in How to Outswim a Shark Without a Snorkel, sharks can have some nasty reputations. Explore this further with SWIMMING WITH HAMMERHEAD SHARKS, by Kenneth Mallory. Excellent read!

7. For the animal nuts, LIFESIZE OCEAN by Stuart Jackson-Carter, is a gorgeous look at animals up close, in their actual size. This won’t stay on your classroom shelves for long.

8. What about the shoreline? You’ll get an amazing view with LOOKING CLOSELY ALONG THE SHORE by Frank Serafini, with incredible photographs.

9. To explore the deepest parts of the ocean with readers, check out DOWN, DOWN, DOWN: A JOURNEY TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, by Steve Jenkins. Many species are covered in this one.

10. All of the creatures in the ocean depend on invisible critters. OCEAN SUNLIGHT: HOW TINY PLANTS FEED THE SEAS by Molly Bang is great for a broad look at ocean ecology.

And a bonus! Are you looking for a book to pair with both of my books? WHAT’S NEW? THE ZOO: A ZIPPY HISTORY OF ZOOS by Kathleen Krull is a wonderful introduction to the history of zoos!

Did I forget any? What ocean and marine animal titles do you love?

Thanks for visiting today, Jess, and Happy Book Birthday Week!

Thanks to Sourcebooks, you can enter to win a paperback copy of Jess Keating’s newest book!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Happy Book Birthday, EXILE by Kevin Emerson!

Jillian Heise — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 11:30:00 +0000

One of my very favorite books of the year finally came out yesterday! I say finally because I read it back in November and have had to wait five months for it to be available to everyone to read, which I hope happens soon because I want to talk to people about it. Luckily, I’ve been able to have several students read it and talk with them about it, and they loved it, too. As soon as I finished the book, I declared it one of my favorites of 2014…and it wasn’t even 2014 yet.

Title: EXILE
Author: Kevin Emerson
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books (a HarperCollins imprint)
Release Date: April 29, 2014
Number of Pages: 320
Source of Book: ARC from author/publisher at NCTE

Catherine Summer Carlson knows how to manage bands like a professional—she’s a student at the PopArts Academy at Mount Hope High, where rock legends Allegiance to North got their start. Summer knows that falling for the lead singer of her latest band is the least professional thing a manager can do. But Caleb Daniels isn’t an ordinary band boy—he’s a hot, dreamy, sweet-singing, exiled-from-his-old-band, possibly-with-a-deep-dark-side band boy. And he can do that thing. That thing when someone sings a song and it inhabits you, possesses you, and moves you like a marionette to its will.
Summer also finds herself at the center of a mystery she never saw coming. When Caleb reveals a secret about his long-lost father, one band’s past becomes another’s present, and Summer finds it harder and harder to be both band manager and girlfriend. She knows what the well-mannered Catherine side of her would do, but she also knows what her heart is telling her. Maybe it’s time to accept who she really is, even if it means becoming an exile herself. . . .
On sale in April 2014, Kevin Emerson’s EXILE is a witty and passionate ode to love, rock and roll, and the freedom that comes in the moment when somebody believes in you, even if you’re not quite ready to believe in yourself.

To celebrate the release of Kevin Emerson’s newest book, EXILE, a contemporary book about rock and roll, romance, mystery, and figuring out how to belong, my review/recommendation/gushing thoughts about the book are posted on the Nerdy Book Club blog today. Head on over there to find out more about why you should read this amazing book!

New Book Read Alike Recommendations on Nerdy Book Club Today

Jillian Heise — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 12:12:00 +0000

I’m the guest poster on the Nerdy Book Club blog today. Instead of just reviewing/recommending one new book, I’m giving 8 recommendations for newer books in an “If you liked this, try this…” read alike format.

Happy reading!

Blog Tour: THE SNATCHABOOK Author & Illustrator Guest Post

Jillian Heise — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 11:30:00 +0000

THE SNATCHABOOK is a cute picture book about a small town where all of the animals’ books and bedtime stories are disappearing. Today I get to share a guest post from the author and illustrator in response to my question: Where did you come up with the idea for this
picture book, and if/how did it change through the revision/illustration process? You can read their responses below (with early sketches of the artwork and what the main character might have looked like as a different animal…or even human!)

Title: THE SNATCHABOOK

Author: Helen Docherty
Illustrator: Thomas Docherty
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Release Date: October 1, 2013
Number of Pages: 32
Source of Book: eARC from Publisher

Where have all the bedtime stories gone?
One dark, dark night in Burrow Down, a rabbit named Eliza Brown found a book and settled down…when a Snatchabook flew into town.
It’s bedtime in the woods of Burrow Down, and all the animals are ready for their bedtime story. But books are mysteriously disappearing. Eliza Brown decides to stay awake and catch the book thief. It turns out to be a little creature called the Snatchabook who has no one to read him a bedtime story. All turns out well when the books are returned and the animals take turns reading bedtime stories to the Snatchabook.

Helen: The
idea of a book thief who steals children’s bedtime stories popped into my head
at the end of a long day of trying (and failing) to think up interesting
storylines. At first I wasn’t sure what this book thief would be like,
or what to call him, so I played around with names; the book cruncher? The book
snatcher? These seemed to suggest quite a menacing character, which wasn’t at
all what I wanted, so I tried inverting the words – and that’s when the
Snatchabook was born. As soon as I had named him, an image started to form in
my mind of a pitiful, lonely little creature who just needs someone to read to
him. Once I had established his character, I soon saw the potential to
develop the story as a mystery with plenty of suspense and a brave heroine to
confront the thief.

In my original version, Eliza was going to be a
human girl (called Eliza Jones) and Burrow Down a village. However, our UK
publisher, Alison Green, was very keen for Eliza and the other inhabitants of
Burrow Down to be woodland animals, as she felt this would have more universal
appeal. Looking back, it’s hard to imagine it any other way now! Apart from
this, the changes to the text were very minor (by the time I sent it to the
publisher I had already worked through several drafts myself), but it was great
to have such an experienced editor to help guide the story gently in the right
direction.

Tom: As occasionally
happens, my idea for the Snatchabook as a creature came very easily and hardly
changed at all. However, since Helen originally imagined Eliza as a girl, my
first sketches of her were very different from how she eventually turned out.
It soon became clear that she was going to be an animal and I tried her out
various creatures (my
favourite being a Badger) before we arrived at a rabbit. How
Eliza was going to look was probably the biggest change that took place for me
working on this project and it all happened quite early on. So once that had been decided, it was a
question of working through the possibilities of a woodland community and
designing all the houses and their inhabitants. This was loads of fun as I grew
up in the countryside and had always loved playing in the woods near our house.
I also really enjoyed adding the visual stories to the amimals that run
independently to Helen’s text, like when they are all accusing each other of
stealing the books. I did make quite a lot of tests to work out how exactly I
was going to paint the twisty trees, falling leaves and windswept skys and these
all helped me add the suspense to the illustrations without making them scary.

MMGM: THE REAL BOY Blog Tour & Author Interview

Jillian Heise — Mon, 14 Oct 2013 11:30:00 +0000

Title: THE REAL BOY
Author: Anne Ursu
Publisher: Walden Pond Press
Release Date: September 24, 2013
Number of Pages: 288
Source of Book: ARC & finished copy from publisher in exchange for honest review

On an island on the edge of an immense sea there is a city, a forest, and a boy. The city is called Asteri, a perfect city that was saved by the magic woven into its walls from a devastating plague that swept through the world over a hundred years before. The forest is called the Barrow, a vast wood of ancient trees that encircles the city and feeds the earth with magic. And the boy is called Oscar, a shop boy for the most powerful magician in the Barrow. Oscar spends his days in a small room in the dark cellar of his master’s shop, grinding herbs and dreaming of the wizards who once lived on the island generations ago. Oscar’s world is small, but he likes it that way. The real world is vast, strange, and unpredictable. And Oscar does not quite fit in it.

But it’s been a long time since anyone who could call himself a wizard walked the world, and now that world is changing. Children in the city are falling ill, and something sinister lurks in the forest. Oscar has long been content to stay in his small room in the cellar, comforted in the knowledge that the magic that flows from the trees will keep his island safe. Now, even magic may not be enough to save it.

My Review/Recommendation Post

I am so thrilled to be participating in The Real Boy Blog Tour today!

THE REAL BOY was a joy to read and is, without a doubt, one of my all time favorite middle grades books. It is so beautifully written. I’m extra excited today because I get to welcome Anne Ursu to my blog with an interview conducted by her editor, Jordan Brown.

I enjoyed reading their conversation and hope you will, too.

JORDAN: It’s interesting to me that this is the first book you’ve written that takes place in a completely invented world – your previous fantasy books have all had some sort of significant tether to our world (America, specifically), and feature characters from the present day.

ANNE: A few months before starting this book, I thought confidently to myself that I was most interested in contemporary fantasy–that is taking characters from our world and putting them in fantastical situations–and I probably would never write a true fantasy. It was a convenient decision because I’ve always thought writing a fantasy like that would be impossible.

I’ve noticed that the instant you proclaim anything confidently about your writing, the writing gods smite you. And so naturally the idea I became enraptured with could only be told as a high fantasy. So to say I wanted to try something new would not be quite accurate. I was dragged kicking and screaming.

JORDAN: Always the best way to start a new manuscript. What inspired the story, and inspired you to make such a shift in how you write?

ANNE: The entire idea for the book came to me while I was watching a marionette show, and so by the time I walked out of the show I knew a few things. I knew I was in a magical forest where the trees were the spirits of old wizards, I knew magical goods would be a commodity, I knew Oscar, my protagonist, was servant to a magician and worked with herbs. I tend to make a few decisions and then just start writing and see what happens. It’s not a particularly clean or efficient process!

JORDAN: And yet, at the same time, the world still manages to feel “real,” and did even in your first draft.

ANNE: Well, good. I wanted to have a few unifying principles so everything felt coherent. This involved making some decisions that wouldn’t end up in the book, but would help me as I went along. I placed the island in an alternate universe eastern Mediterranean–and I put the book in time so I could keep the technology consistent. I chose the year 1675–I knew I wanted an early modern society–and so when I needed to put in some detail I would figure out, say, what a carriage might have looked like then. I also tried to account for those pesky human needs like food and shelter, making sure there were resources on the island as well as a history of trade with other countries. I’m not a detail person, so I needed some things to ground me.

I’m glad the world held together in the first draft. I felt like I was handing you a drawer full of unmatched socks.

JORDAN: Oh, it was a huge mess, generally. But the world, at least, was baseline consistent. When I first started to dig into the editing work, the first thing I started making notes on was the wizard trees, and the long history of this world that we’re only given brief glimpses of in the book itself.

ANNE: It was a small mess.

One of the many reasons writers need editors, aside from editors’ obvious charm and gentle attention to their writers’ psyches, is we might not have put all of the things in our head actually on the page. So if you’re not living in our head, which few people are, things that are perfectly clear to the writer are not clear at all to the reader. I needed you to tell me what you weren’t getting–even if I maybe didn’t seem so grateful at the time.

Sometimes we’d spend a long time trying to discuss a plot point and eventually realize there was some baseline thing about the world I hadn’t communicated–like you assumed the Shining City was rather small, speaking in terms of geography and population, and so a lot of what happened didn’t make sense to you. Maybe because I never gave any sense of how big it was in the book. But mostly we ended up needing to get on the same page in terms of ideas–what I was going for with some of the plot elements. We’d talk back and forth about details of the world and its history, and sometimes in that conversation it would become clear that we’d need to go back and talk about the fundamental themes of the book–how people react to fear, etc–before we could do anything else. You needed to know what the heck I was trying to do.

JORDAN: Exactly. I think it was when we were talking about the backstory of the wizard trees that we realized the important thing at issue wasn’t the backstory itself, or even the way in which the backstory had been twisted into a lie – but rather why the people of the Shining City needed the lie.

ANNE: Right. And I’d start babbling about master narratives and Puritans and making things even more confused. I knew what I was trying to do on an instinctive level, but that wasn’t quite enough to put all the pieces together on the page. And then there was a time when I was working on the last draft I called my mom over and she and I sat down at the dining room table and talked back and forth for an hour only about the backstory, the things that happened hundreds of years before the book opens, before we got it solidified. Sometimes you need your mom.

Of course, little of this backstory we generated actually shows up in the book. But I needed to know it so the book itself made sense.

Which gets back to the first point: fantasy is hard.

JORDAN: True words. Do you ever see yourself writing another fantasy set in an invented world?

ANNE: There you are again with your Can we talk about the next book? You should live in the moment.

Click Here to enter

Check out the other stops on The Real Boy Blog Tour

Monday, 9/30 – Maria’s Melange – Maria’s Take on The Real Boy + Giveaway

Tuesday, 10/1 – There’s a Book – Danielle’s Take on The Real Boy + Giveaway

Wednesday, 10/2 – sharpread – Colby Interviews Anne

Thursday, 10/3 – Novel Sounds – Elena’s Take on The Real Boy + Giveaway

Friday, 10/4 – Word Spelunking – Aeicha Interviews Anne

Saturday, 10/5 – The Hiding Spot – Sara’s Take on The Real Boy + Giveaway

Sunday, 10/6 – The Brain Lair – Kathy’s Take on The Real Boy + Giveaway

Monday, 10/7 – Read, Write, Reflect – Anne Talks Oscar with Katherine

Tuesday, 10/8 – Librarian’s Quest – Margie’s Take on The Real Boy + Giveaway

Wednesday, 10/9 – Buried in Books – Heather’s Take on The Real Boy + Giveaway

Thursday, 10/10 – The Book Monsters – Kristen’s Take on The Real Boy + Giveaway

Friday, 10/11 – Cari’s Book Blog – Cari’s Take on The Real Boy + An Interview with Anne

Saturday, 10/12 – Unleashing Readers – Kellee Interviews Illustrator Erin McGuire

Sunday, 10/13 – Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers – Gina’s Take on The Real Boy + Giveaway

Monday, 10/14 – Heise Reads and Recommends – Editor Jordan Brown Interviews Anne

Tuesday, 10/15 – Bulldog Readers Blog – The Bulldog Readers Debut Their Book Trailer

Blog Tour: THE YEAR OF SHADOWS by Claire Legrand (Guest Post & Giveaway)

Jillian Heise — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 12:00:00 +0000

I was so excited when Claire contacted me about hosting a stop on her blog tour. I played cello when I was younger, so something set in a concert hall and with an orchestra? Sign me up!

I asked Claire if she would talk about her revision process for her guest post, and she graciously agreed. I have to say, I was fascinated reading her guest post and am so glad she is sharing it here. Read what she has to stay, and stick around for the giveaway at the end of this post!

Title: THE YEAR OF SHADOWS

Author: Claire Legrand
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Release Date: August 27, 2013
Number of Pages: 416
Source of Book: ARC from publisher

Olivia Stellatella is having a rough year.
Her mother left, her neglectful father — the maestro of a failing orchestra — has moved her and her grandmother into his dark, broken-down concert hall to save money, and her only friend is Igor, an ornery stray cat.
Just when she thinks life couldn’t get any weirder, she meets four ghosts who haunt the hall. They need Olivia’s help — if the hall is torn down, they’ll be stuck as ghosts forever, never able to move on.
Olivia has to do the impossible for her shadowy new friends: Save the concert hall. But helping the dead has powerful consequences for the living . . . and soon it’s not just the concert hall that needs saving.

Claire Legrand used to be a musician until she realized she couldn’t stop thinking about the stories in her head. Now a writer, Ms. Legrand can often be found typing with purpose at her keyboard, losing herself in the stacks at her local library, or embarking upon spontaneous adventures to lands unknown. Her first novel is THE CAVENDISH HOME FOR BOYS AND GIRLS, a New York Public Library Best Book for Children in 2012. Her second novel, THE YEAR OF SHADOWS, releases August 27, 2013, with her third novel, WINTERSPELL, to follow in fall 2014. She is one of the four authors behind THE CABINET OF CURIOSITIES, an anthology of dark middle grade fiction due out in July 2014 from Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins. Claire lives in New Jersey with a dragon and two cats. Visit her at claire-legrand.com and at enterthecabinet.com.

I’m so
excited to be here at Heise Reads & Recommends for day 14 (yowza!) of The Year of Shadows blog tour!

Today
I’ll be giving you a sneak peek into the revision process for The Year of Shadows—and I’ll admit, I’m
a little nervous! Although revising is a normal, necessary part of the writing
process (and my favorite part of the
process, in fact), I’m always irrationally frustrated that I can’t just, you
know, write the book the way it needs to be written the first time around. Admitting that I’m unable to do that, and
sharing what I’ve put my book through to make it shine, wounds my pride.

But my
pride is silly; no one can write a good book without also putting that book
through revisions—and maybe even rewrites! So, with that in mind, let’s take a
look at how The Year of Shadows evolved
from wee baby manuscript to shiny final book.

My
inimitable editor, Zareen Jaffery, and I have worked together on three books
now, and the revision process for each started the same way: Zareen sent me a
thorough, thoughtful editorial letter. Each letter began with her overall
thoughts about the book in question, and then continued with sub-sections of
comments focused on major characters, world building elements, and themes.

Zareen
asks a lot of questions in her editorial letters, which I love. Instead of
telling me, “This needs to be this way instead of that way” or “Do this here
instead of that,” she asks me questions that prompt me to think more critically
about what I’ve written. With The Year of
Shadows, our main focuses during revisions were 1) world building (the hows
and whys of the ghosts and their anchors), 2) pacing (there’s a lot going on in
this book!), and 3) Olivia herself. Olivia is a complex heroine, and it was
important to me that readers fully understood the motivations behind her anger,
bitterness, and loneliness.

One of
the most important relationships in the book is between Olivia and her father,
the Maestro. The nuances of this complicated relationship took a while for me
to get just right. In that first editorial letter, Zareen asked some great
questions about their relationship:

The Maestro is easily hate-able when we see him through
Olivia’s eyes. But, just

as her opinion
of him softens, I’d like to introduce a more complicated reasoning

behind his neglect, and soften some of the passages
where he is verbally abusive

towards her.

Pg 70, 165. It’s hard to
understand why the Maestro is so mean to Olivia. Neglectful I can justify. But
to lash out at her and accuse her of wanting him to be ruined? That seems so
unnecessary. Why does he do this?

Zareen brings
up excellent points here. I could have easily made the Maestro a
one-dimensional villain, and in fact, he was much less complex and sympathetic
in this early draft. But the world isn’t black and white, as much as angry
Olivia might at first see it that way, and the Maestro is no exception. By doing
just as Zareen suggested—softening some of the passages where he is more
temperamental, and giving the reader (and Olivia) more of an insight into why he acts the way he does—I was able
to create a much more well-rounded character in the Maestro.

Below is an
excerpt from the first draft of the manuscript. Olivia snuck into her father’s
room during a concert, searching for a ghost’s anchor. When the Maestro finds
her there, he gets angry:

“What were you doing in my room?” the
Maestro whispered. His eyes were wild, but I wasn’t afraid. I could think only
about those unopened letters, one after another after another.

“I was . . . cleaning,” I said.

The Maestro looked past me at his
bedroom, just as dirty as it had been before. “And what a cleaning job. Perhaps
you will tell me the truth now?”

“I told you: cleaning.”

“You awful child. You plot with
Walter to ruin me!”

“Who’s Walter?”

“Rue. Walter Rue. Don’t play stupid,
Olivia.”

I wiped the Maestro’s angry spit
from my cheek. “I didn’t know Mr. Rue’s first name, so sue me!”

“You search my room, looking for my
secrets,” he said, pointing a shaking finger at me. “Secrets to share with him,
to speed up the process. You want me to fail just as he does, don’t you? You
would love to see this Hall crumble to dust, see me turn to dust!”

He stepped closer to me, his eyes
wild. I had never seen the Maestro this angry, all crazy-eyed and deathly
quiet.

“You’re
crazy,” I said, backing away. “Just look at you. No wonder Mom left.”

See how
unstable the Maestro seems? How his words and attitude border on violent?
Olivia even seems afraid of him. He calls her an “awful child”! It’s all a bit
cartoonish and over-the-top. Compare that with the same passage from the final
book:

“What were you doing in my room?” The Maestro
was in his full-blown post-concert state—skin flushed and sweating, hair wild,
the permanent bags under his eyes even darker than normal. People didn’t like
to mess with the Maestro after concerts, especially not these days. But I could
think only about those unopened letters, one after another after another.

“Cleaning,” I said, glaring at him.

The Maestro looked past me at his
bedroom. “And what a cleaning job. Perhaps you will tell me the truth now?”

“I told you. Cleaning.”

“You shouldn’t go in people’s rooms
without their permission, Olivia.” The Maestro wiped his face with a stained
handerchief. “I give you your privacy. You should give me mine.”

. . .

“I don’t know what [Mom] ever saw in
you.” The sight of him repulsed me. He was too sweaty and too skinny and too
tired. “No wonder she left.”

Everything
is more subtle in the final version of the scene. We see signs of the Maestro’s
exhaustion—the bags under his eyes, the stained handkerchief. We even see that
Olivia knows how tired she is—and maybe, underneath her anger, feels sorry for
him. Instead of raging at Olivia, the Maestro calmly admonishes her for going
through his belongings. This allows both Olivia—and the reader—to feel more
sympathy for him. We see a man overwhelmed by terrible circumstances, rather
than a man bordering on abusive—but we still understand Olivia’s anger toward
him.

Here’s
another great point made by Zareen in her editorial letter:

Olivia seemingly idolizes her
mother… except for the little detail that Cara left her, which Olivia seems to
blame solely on her father. Why doesn’t Olivia blame her mother more?

When I
read this, I felt, I confess, a bit flabbergasted. Of course Olivia would blame
her mother! Why didn’t I think about this before? (This is a common refrain
during the revisions process, by the way, and why editors are so invaluable. By
asking all the right questions, they help you discover nuances of the story
that you missed the first time around, and help clarify sentiments you thought you had expressed clearly but ended
up getting lost on the page.) I realized that Olivia should want her mother
back, yes, and miss her, and most of her anger should be focused at the parent
who is actually present, the parent easy to blame—the Maestro—but she should
also be angry at her mother, and then feel guilty for that anger. Because of
this great question from Zareen, I was able to tease out a whole new level of
emotion from Olivia, and add another layer of emotional conflict to the story.

Notice
that Zareen didn’t say, “Olivia should blame her mother more.” She asked, “Why
doesn’t Olivia blame her mother more?” Good editors don’t direct; they guide,
nudge, inspire. If I had a solid reason for Olivia not blaming her mother, I
could have explained it to Zareen, and she would have accepted that. But even
in that case, her question would have made me re-examine my thought process.

Sometimes
entire passages didn’t make it into the book, passages that were fun for me to
write but derailed the story’s focus. In an early draft of the book, I added a
Greek chorus of three elderly men who liked to sit on the bench outside Emerson
Hall. Olivia talked to them occasionally, and they offered advice or just
uttered entertaining non-sequiturs. But their addition slowed the overall
pacing, so I ended up deleting them entirely. For fun, here is their first
appearance from an early draft:

There was this bench on the sidewalk there,
up against the wall of the Hall. It was green and its paint was peeling, and
there were these three guys that sat there most mornings, watching the traffic
and reading the paper. One was Hat Guy (he wore a hat). One was Cigar Guy (he
liked cigars). The third was Cool Guy (he wore sunglasses, even if it was
raining).

I never asked them their real names,
and they never asked me mine. It was this unspoken thing of ours. Used to, they
called me Music Girl. You know, being the daughter of an orchestra conductor
and all.

But ever since Mom disappeared nine
months ago, they started calling me Shadow Girl. I wore black a lot now. My
hair was long and black, too, and shiny, and I wore it down most of the time. I
liked to hide behind it and pretend I wasn’t even there.

“You all right, Shadow Girl?” Hat
Guy said.

Cigar Guy peeked out over the top of
his paper. Cool Guy chewed his gum.

“Not really,” I said. “Everything’s
wrong.”

Cool Guy said, “Maybe you should go
on back inside.”

I nodded and picked up my suitcase,
hiding my face., I didn’t want the Bench Guys to see me cry.

See? Fun! But not entirely relevant to the
proceedings. I transferred any useful exposition from their deleted scenes into
scenes that already existed, thereby streamlining the story’s pacing. I am,
however, still quite fond of Bench Guys. Maybe they need their own story
someday! And that’s something important to remember about revisions: Sometimes
the nature of the book requires you to delete favorite passages, characters,
even entire storylines! This can be painful. But just because this material
doesn’t fit into this book doesn’t mean
you can’t re-work it for use in another book.

After I integrate comments from that first editorial
letter into the manuscript, I send the updated version to Zareen. Sometimes we
talk over the phone about the changes I’ve made before she reads the newest
draft. Zareen then begins line edits, leaving comments throughout the
manuscript. Sometimes she will also send another, much more brief editorial
letter addressing any remaining, overarching issues, but the bulk of edits this
time around are on the micro level rather than the macro level.

Zareen’s line edits include everything from word
repetition, to world building clarification and consistency, to making sure
there’s enough Igor. (Igor is Olivia’s cat, and he seems to be a huge fan
favorite.) Zareen also, blessedly, includes a lot of positive comments in her
line edits: “I love this!” or “Such a great moment!” or “AWESOME visual.”
Revisions can be both exhilarating and excruciating. Those tiny, happy comments
are welcome boosts to my morale!

Below are some of Zareen’s line edits:

Above, Olivia says Frederick can’t touch things, but
right now he’s touching her cheek. Rephrase? (Ah! Such a tiny but important inconsistency. Good catch, Zareen!)

They have to relive the deaths of 51 ghosts? That sounds
traumatic! Would they so easily agree? (No,
they wouldn’t agree so easily! Hence why, in the final book, Olivia and Henry
are much more reluctant to help the rest of the ghosts, and end up having to
find help because they simply can’t handle the stress.)

Should there be a little more fanfare to the audience
growing? (Yes! In the final book, I
emphasize everyone’s excitement about the growing audience, and even brought
the press into the mix.)

Any way to insert Igor in this scene? Is he trying to
comfort her? (Answer: ALWAYS MORE
IGOR.)

I hope you enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look at the
revision process for The Year of Shadows!
Revisions can be tough—but they can also be the most rewarding part of bringing
a book to life. I know they are for me! As they say, revisions are where the
real writing begins, when you take the huge hunk of marble that is drafting and
start chipping away at it to turn it into something truly beautiful. (For a
more humorous take on the editorial process, check out this post on
my blog, illustrated by yours truly.)

Be sure to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway below for a
chance to win a beautiful hardcover copy of The
Year of Shadows! And you can check out the other blog tour stops here for
multiple chances to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blog Tour: SIDEKICKED Author/Editor Interview & Giveaway

Jillian Heise — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 11:00:00 +0000

Title: SIDEKICKED
Author: John David Anderson
Publisher: Walden Pond Press
Release Date: June 25, 2013
Number of Pages: 384

With not nearly enough power comes way too much responsibility.

Andrew
Bean might be a part of H.E.R.O., a secret organization for the
training of superhero sidekicks, but that doesn’t mean that life is all
leaping tall buildings in single bounds. First, there’s Drew’s power:
Possessed of super senses – his hearing, sight, taste, touch, and smell
are the most powerful on the planet – he’s literally the most sensitive
kid in school. There’s his superhero mentor, a former legend who now
spends more time straddling barstools than he does fighting crime. And
then there’s his best friend, Jenna – their friendship would be
complicated enough if she weren’t able to throw a Volkswagen the length
of a city block. Add in trying to keep his sidekick life a secret from
everyone, including his parents, and the truth is clear: Middle school
is a drag even with superpowers.

But this was all before a
supervillain long thought dead returned to Justicia, superheroes began
disappearing at an alarming rate, and Drew’s two identities threatened
to crash head-on into each other. Drew has always found it pretty easy
to separate right from wrong, good from evil. It’s what a superhero
does. But what happens when that line starts to break down?

I’m so excited to be sharing this guest post with you for this blog tour. I’ve always been interested in the dynamic between author and editor, so I jumped at the chance for this post: SIDEKICKED’s author, John David Anderson, was interviewed by his editor for this book, Jordan Brown. The entertaining result is below.

Jordan Brown: Let’s get the classic question out of the way first:
if you could only have one superpower, what would it be?

John David Anderson: It changes every day. Running late
to take the kids to tennis lessons I found myself wishing for teleportation.
Mind control would have been handy the other day when I tried to convince the
cable company that they were overcharging me.
Or telekinesis for those times you are stranded without toilet paper (if I could just open the cabinet under the
bathroom sink…). It might be fun to be able to rearrange the entire
molecular structure of the universe: Like playing with an infinite number of
Lego bricks, except I’d be afraid I wouldn’t be able to put it back together
right.

Let’s be honest, though. If I did have a superpower I
would still just use it for mundane stuff: like using laser vision to make
water boil faster by looking at it or frost breath to lower my air-conditioning
bill. You probably don’t want me saving the world.

Jordan Brown: Were you a big fan of comics and superheroes growing
up? What inspiration did you draw (or not draw) from this?

John David Anderson: I was and I wasn’t. I didn’t collect
comics—just mooched off of friends—but I was profoundly influenced by the
mythology. I remember pretending to be every tights-wearing paragon imaginable,
flying through the house, leaping over couches in a single bound, smashing
potato chips between my fists in threatening gestures as I warned imaginary henchmen
that I was not to be trifled with. My imagination was populated by a tableau of
superheroes, Star Wars characters,
and cartoon miscreants. I’m not sure where all this came from: books, film,
clubhouse conversations, advertising. I think it was important, though, that I
never got overly immersed in comics. I
have an appreciation for the genre and its practitioners and enough of a basic
understanding of the conventions of superhero narratives that I could pervert
them to my own ends.

Jordan Brown: You did some great work throughout the drafting
process developing the various minor and major superheroes we meet in the book,
building out the history of the completely original superhero world you created
here. Is there anything in particular you discovered while digging into
this backstory?

John David Anderson: That you could edit a book and
actually make it longer. The great thing about going back to the novel to revise it was
stepping outside of Drew’s head to get a sense of the bigger picture. My
initial draft was so focused on his remarkable (and yet myopic) vision of the
world, that I sometimes overlooked how rich that world could be. There are
things Drew takes for granted that readers might not. So as the book evolved, I
tried to flesh out Justicia and its inhabitants a little, rounding out the
heroes and villains that populated it, drawing out the motives of other
characters, but still trying to keep Drew’s often ambivalent attitude about the
whole thing as the focal point. I think several of the adult characters grew as
a result of that process, but perhaps the character who benefited most from the
revision was Jenna, who, in my opinion, ends up being even more conflicted than
Drew. Like him, I still don’t quite understand that girl. And I created her.

Jordan Brown: Many of the powers with which you imbue your
characters seem to be particularly suited to their personalities: for instance,
our hero, Andrew Bean, a thoughtful and sensitive guy, is quite literally
possessed of super-senses. How did you go about choosing the various
powers for your characters?

John David Anderson: Some of them are admittedly typecast
(Gavin’s literally rock-hard muscles). Some provided much needed comic relief
(Mike’s shocking fear of self-electrocution). Most of the sidekicks have powers
that compliment their personalities, but for Drew the power provided something
extra: a way of looking at the world—and writing about it—from a slightly
skewed perspective. His power is as much a burden as a blessing, I think, and
much of the novel is him struggling to decide if it’s even worth having,
especially given the circumstances he finds himself in. Like many kids his age,
he sits on the cusp of a more adult world full of responsibility and codes and
severe consequences and yet barely equipped to tackle them. Even with his
powers, he still has a lot of growing up to do.

Jordan Brown: Most of the characters in the book are struggling with
the concept of heroism – the moral questions, the responsibility, the moments
when being “good” might just not be good enough. What do you think is the
hardest part about being a superhero?

John David Anderson:
The hours. When do they sleep? And for the flyers all those
bugs—shouldn’t they wear goggles? And then there’s the revolving door
prison—that’s got to be frustrating, knowing that almost as soon as you put
somebody behind bars they are going to bust out and hold the city for ransom
again. And I hear the paparazzi are terrible. And the underground lairs almost
always have mold.

In all honestly, though, I think it must be hard being
that selfless. At their best, superheroes are purely altruistic, willing to
sacrifice everything for the “greater good.” They don’t have time to
watch Animal Planet with their kids
(that they probably don’t even have), or go on a date, or just lay in the
hammock with a good book. I remember watching the first Superman, the scene with him flying through the air with Lois Lane,
and thinking “Dude, there are probably eighty crimes going on RIGHT NOW
and you’re just showing off for some GIRL!? So unrealistic!” Of course at
the time I was twelve and just wanted Christopher Reeve to punch something, but
even now I think about the real heroes in the world and admire them for all of
the time, sweat, money, and lives they sacrifice so the rest of us can pursue
our often self-motivated ends.

Jordan Brown: Do you think that, deep down, everyone is either a
hero or a villain? Or is it more complicated than that?

John David Anderson: I think, deep down, we have
the capacity to be both, but that our default is actually bystander. In some
ways I worry that our primary impulse is to sit back and watch as crimes or tragedies unfold around us. Most of us are voyeurs—the
gaping gawkers that stand outside the pool in the first chapter of the book,
oohing and aahing as the action unfolds before them. I’m not sure that’s
admirable. Bystanders, yes, but does that mean we are innocent?

The question is, when we are compelled to act, where do we stand? Do we gravitate more to the
nefarious or the noble? There is something alluring about villainy: the chance
to undermine or circumvent all the codes and laws in order to pursue your own
ends, especially if you question the codes and laws to begin with. Ultimately,
though, I think that, if pressed, our capacity for love and empathy and our sense
of community take hold, and we err to the side of heroism. Our history and
culture are not without their share of villains, but our heroes still outnumber
them in droves—we just don’t hear about them as often. Still, it’s a choice…that
is, once you realize you don’t need a pair of tights and a snazzy mask to go
make a difference in the world.

Jordan Brown: Can you tell us a bit about your next
book, Minion?

John David Anderson:
Minion tackles many of
the same issues as Sidekicked, but
from the other side of the metropolis. The book’s protagonist is an antihero
who is decidedly anti hero. He is
undoubtedly a criminal; yet he struggles with many of the same issues as Drew
does: the difference between what’s right and what’s best, the search for
identity, and the desperate need find someone to trust in a world of men in
masks.

Oh yeah. And there are explosions and battles and bank
robberies and crushes and people being
crushed and people who shoot thorns out of their skin and all the things that
make a book really worth reading too.

Spoiler alert: It doesn’t have any pill-shaped,
suspenders-wearing, banana-loving henchmen. I love those guys.

Thank you so much to Walden Pond Press and John and Jordan for sharing this interview!

And now, you have a chance to win your own Signed, Hardcover copy of SIDEKICKED

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Check out the other stops on this tour for more chances to win

SIDEKICKED: The Superhero Blog Tour

*Note ALL tour stops are offering signed hardcover giveaways of SIDEKICKED! U.S. Residents only.*

Monday, 7/8 – Ms. Yingling Reads – A Collection of H.E.R.O. Haiku

Tuesday, 7/9 – There’s a Book – An Interview with the Author

Wednesday, 7/10 – Read Now Sleep Later – A Podcast Chat with the Author

Thursday, 7/11 – Adventures of Cecelia Bedelia Top Ten Lamest Superpowers

Friday, 7/12 – Word Spelunking A Comment on Superheroes Today

Saturday, 7/13 – A Reader of Fictions – A Chat with the Cover Artist

Sunday, 7/14 – Library Fanatic – An Interview with Andrew Bean

Monday, 7/15 – Heise Reads and Recommends – Editor Jordan Brown Interviews the Author

Tuesday, 7/16 – Literacy Toolbox – The Writing of Superhero Novel

Wednesday, 7/17 – The Brain Lair Posts – A Review of SIDEKICKED

Thursday, 7/18 – The Brain Lair – A Never-Before-Read Scene

Friday, 7/19 – Maria’s Melange – The Top Ten Innocent Bystanders

Saturday, 7/20 – Unleashing Readers – A Review of SIDEKICKED

Sunday, 7/21 – I Run Read Teach – A Review of SIDEKICKED

Monday, 7/22 – Librarian in Cute Shoes – A Review of SIDEKICKED

Tuesday, 7/23 – Book Egg – A Review of SIDEKICKED

Wednesday, 7/24 – This Kid Reviews Books – A Review of SIDEKICKED & an Author Interview

Thursday, 7/25 – Small Review – The Titan

Friday, 7/26 – Wastepaper Prose – A Review of SIDEKICKED

Saturday, 7/27 – The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia – An Interview with the Author

Click here for Walden Pond Press’ Superhero Giveaway on facebook for a chance to win an ereader and more!

Blog Tour: THE WIG IN THE WINDOW by Kristen Kittscher Guest Post

Jillian Heise — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 12:00:00 +0000

I’m so excited to have been asked to be a part of the blog tour for THE WIG IN THE WINDOW, a fun middle grades mystery by Kristen Kittscher (a middle school teacher!). I’m especially excited that Kristen offered up a guest post on her revision process (an aspect of the author’s writing life I’m looking to share more examples of with my students – and in fact am co-chairing a session about at NCTE in November).

Title: THE WIG IN THE WINDOW
Author: Kristen Kittscher
Publisher: HarperCollins Children’s Books
Release Date: June 18, 2013 (tomorrow!)
Number of Pages: 368

Sophie Young and Grace Yang have made a game of spying on their
neighbors, but when they stake out the home of notoriously phony middle
school counselor Dr. Charlotte Agford (aka Dr. Awkward), they stumble
across a terrifying scene.

Or do they? The girls are convinced that Dr. Agford’s sugary sweet
façade hides a dark secret. But as they get closer to the truth about
Agford, the strain of the investigation pushes Sophie and Grace farther
apart. Even if they crack their case, will their friendship survive?

Perfect for fans of The Mysterious Benedict Society, The Wig in the
Window is a smart, funny middle-grade mystery with a Rear Window twist.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kristen Kittscher was a child neighborhood spy but
(allegedly) grew up to be an upstanding citizen and middle school
English teacher. A graduate of Brown University, she now works as a
writing tutor in Pasadena, California where she lives with her husband,
Kai, and their hyperactive lab mix. The Wig in the Window is her first novel. Visit kristenkittscher.com to investigate more about her and Young & Yang’s next adventure, The Tiara on the Terrace.

I’m
so delighted to be continuing my blog tour for The Wig in the Window at Heise Reads & Recommends!

Given
the prying nature of my enterprising tween sleuths, Young & Yang, I’ve been
taking you all behind-the-scenes for some top secret investigations into how a
manuscript is turned into a real, live book.

If
you’ve been following the tour, you’ve already investigated what goes intodesigning a cover and gotten some insight into the naming of characters. Today
we’re getting down to the nitty gritty and taking a look at what goes into the
editorial and revision process.

Before I wrote THE WIG IN THE WINDOW, I cursed
my own lack of talent. If I were a real
writer, I thought, I’d be able to produce tighter, cleaner prose – and I’d be
able to do it faster. Though I’d been preaching the importance of getting
feedback and revising work to my own students, for some reason I thought my own
writing should be better from the get-go. I’d start projects, fall into despair
far too early, and toss my work into the trash.

Fortunately,
I had not one, but two, fantastic editors at Harper Children’s who worked as a
team to guide my revisions: Editorial Director Rosemary Brosnan (who edits one
of my favorite authors, Rita Williams-Garcia) and Associate Editor Andrea
Martin.

They
were kind enough to let me share with you some of their notes on an earlier
draft of The Wig in the Window. If
you read the final product, you’ll see just how much their questions and
comments improved my work!

First,
Rosemary and Andrea collaborated on what’s known as an “editorial letter” to
outline what was working in my manuscript and what bigger picture story and
character problems needed to be addressed.

One
challenge in writing a kids’ mystery is ensuring the kids are driving the
action while those pesky, hovering parents stay out of things! I was so focused
on Sophie Young and Grace Yang’s sleuthing hijinks that I found far too
convenient ways to sideline parents. In an early draft, Sophie’s parents were
very easily manipulated by the (potentially) villainous school counselor, Dr.
Agford. Rosemary and Andrea weren’t about to let me get away with that!

Sophie and Grace’s families
could stand to be developed more. We barely see Sophie’s parents, and it’s a little
hard to believe that they would so quickly accept all of Agford’s suggestions.
Sophie’s parents would understandably be mortified by her behavior, but would
they completely cave to Agford?

Uh,
nope. They sure wouldn’t. My editors were right. To revise, I dove down into my
story and tried to see it from my main character’s parents’ point-of-view. I
found a new way to keep them out of the main action and also tried to give more
true-to-life interactions with Sophie and Dr. Agford throughout the book. I’ve
gotten a few compliments on the parents in the final version, which always
makes me laugh—little does anyone know how bad they’d be without that editorial
help!

In
their editorial letter, Rosemary and Andrea always provided possible solutions
for problems they saw. In most cases, though, I found that I’d discover
different “cures” to the symptoms they diagnosed—ones that felt natural to me
in the story. Though I agreed with most of their notes, there were always
times, too, when I felt I couldn’t address them without wreaking too much
havoc. We’d talk it out together, then, and decide how I could best work around
those flaws.

I’d
send them updates and questions sometimes, too. (The references here are to
characters in the book):

I just wanted to let you know I’m still
alive and working. Everything is progressing normally, which is to say that
some days I feel very certain this manuscript is the equivalent of Sophie’s
turd volcano and others, it spews its fake lava as splendidly as Marisa’s Mt.
Etna. Assuming neither impression is entirely accurate, I press on.

I
then asked if I should be weaving in descriptions of my potential villain’s
Halloween décor. I had noticed that I point out her love of over-the-top
holiday displays throughout the book, but the book takes place at Halloween and
I don’t mention so much as a pumpkin!

Their
replies:

Rosemary:
I would go with some Halloween decorations, as
they are in character for Agford, they add humor, and it seems counterintuitive
that Agford would draw attention to herself that way, as you say. What do you,
think, Andrea?

Andrea:

I really like the idea of a smattering of Halloween
decorations. They’re very much in keeping with who Agford is, and it’s
also a nice way to set the time period of when the story takes place. And
it’s another great instance of phony outward appearances!

A
snippet from my revision:

The first
Halloween pumpkins and decorations were starting to pop up. I was surprised
Agford’s house wasn’t fully mummified in fake cobwebs yet. She’d gone so
overboard for Flag Day, we were positive she’d hauled out a Ouija board and
conjured up Betsy Ross to consult on the project.

After
my revision, Rosemary and Andrea then did what’s called a “line edit” of the
manuscript, where they look at how the book is working on a sentence level.
While some editors now work with MS Word’s comment feature to give that
feedback, I’m glad that Rosemary and Andrea still send back pages with their
handwritten notes – it’s much more fun—and feels all the more caring. Besides,
how great is that? Here Rosemary spilled a little soup from her lunch and
apologized:

In
the line edit, Rosemary and Andrea provided a few more detailed notes on specific
moments or phrasing that weren’t working—or things I hadn’t been ready to let
go of yet in the earlier draft. Take, for example, the opening chapter:

There are many
things we love about your opening (how Sophie keeps track of summers, for
example) but we thought they weren’t as critical as the need to keep Sophie and
Grace moving forward to Agford’s house. If you dearly miss those passages,
perhaps we can find a place for them…or you can always save them for a blog
post about all the beautiful, witty gems that your editors foolishly asked you
to cut.

What
do you say? Shall this be the blog post for it? Here’s a peek at a deleted
paragraph right near the beginning:

I couldn’t tell you exactly when we started the patrols.
Southern California’s vague seasons make it hard to track time. To make it
easier, I’ve developed my own system of charting years. It’s pretty basic. I
remember every year by its summer, and each summer has a theme. For example, my
guinea pig Agatha died shortly after the Summer of the Highly Unprofitable
Lemonade Stand but before the Summer of Truth or Dare at the Petersons’.

We started spying on our neighbors sometime before the
Summer Everyone Started to Shave Their Legs….

Maybe
the voice and observations are nice enough, but it was slowing down the action.
When supposedly “good writing” is getting away of the story—it’s no longer
any good!

Hope
you enjoyed this little behind-the-scenes investigation – and that you’ll take
heart the next time you’re looking at one of your own messy first drafts of
writing. The magic comes in revision.

I
hope, too, you’ll check out THE WIG IN THE WINDOW to see how the final product
turned out! It hits stores tomorrow. Available at your local independent bookstore, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon.

Want more? Links to the author online and book extras:

Kristen Kittscher’s website

Author Interview on YouTube

Discussion Guide

Facebook

Twitter

Follow the whole WIG IN THE WINDOW Blog Tour:

BLOG TOUR SCHEDULE

Mon | May 20 – I Am a Reader, Not a Writer

Wed | May 22 – Hobbitsies

Thu | May 23 – The Book Smugglers

Mon | May 27 – (Review by The Book Smugglers)

Tue | May 28 – Read Now Sleep Later

Wed | May 29 – Teaching in Cute Shoes

Mon | June 3 – Great Kid Books

Wed | June 5 – Mod Podge Bookshelf

Mon | June 10 – Cracking the Cover

Wed | June 12 – Kid Lit Frenzy

Mon | June 17 – Heise Reads & Recommends

Tue | June 18 – THE WIG IN THE WINDOW RELEASE DAY

Wed | June 19 – The Brain Lair

Thu | June 20 – Teach Mentor Texts

Fri | June 21 – The Windy Pages

Mon | June 24 – Sharpread

Thu | June 27 – There’s a Book

Fri | June 28 – Bookalicious.org

I’m Kirby Larson’s Teacher Tuesday today!

Jillian Heise — Wed, 15 May 2013 01:30:00 +0000

I am so honored to have been asked by Kirby Larson to be a guest on her Teacher Tuesday feature. I’m so appreciative of Kirby’s support of teachers and spreading the word of some of the things we’re all working so hard to do in our classrooms for our students.

When Kirby asked me what I wanted to talk about, I of course knew that I would have to share how I incorporate choice reading in my classroom to engage and motivate my students in reading. If you’d like to read more about it, head over to Kirby’s blog.

Thank you so much for having me, Kirby!

I’m over on Stacked today!

Jillian Heise — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 12:01:00 +0000

I’m today’s guest poster at STACKED for their “So you want to read YA?” series.

I love this series and seeing everyone’s picks, and am so glad they’re running a second round. I’m honored to have been asked to share my thoughts in a guest post.

So head on over there and check out my personal YA starter kit recommendations.

I’m Over on Nerdy Today

Jillian Heise — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 11:00:00 +0000

You can find me on the Nerdy Book Club blog today!

I’m guest posting to talk Retro Books and share Student Reviews.

Please come visit me there.

And while you’re there…take a look around. After all, you’re all members of the Nerdy Book Club.

The first requirement is that you have to read. And that’s it. There’s nothing beyond that required. However, if you’d like to share your reading life in anyway, they’re always looking for more Nerdy members to post on the blog.

Just look for this link on the right

and clickity click.

Holiday Blog Tour: THE CARPENTER’S GIFT Guest Post & GIVEAWAY

Jillian Heise — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Title: THE CARPENTER’S GIFT: A Christmas Tale about the Rockefeller Center Tree
Author: David Rubel, illustrated by Jim LeMarche
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Release Date: September 27, 2011
Number of Pages: 48

This new classic
Christmas gift book “brings together two great traditions: the
Rockefeller Center Christmas tree and the neighbor-helping-neighbor
program of Habitat for Humanity.” Opening in Depression-era New York
City, The Carpenter’s Gift tells the story of eight-year-old Henry and
his father selling Christmas trees. They give a Christmas tree to
construction workers building Rockefeller Center and celebrate together.
Through the kindness of the construction workers and neighbors, Henry
gets his wish for a nice, warm home to replace his family’s drafty
shack. He plants a pinecone from that first Rockefeller Center Tree. As
an old man, Henry repays the gift by donating the enormous tree that has
grown from that pinecone. After bringing joy to thousands as the
Rockefeller Center tree, its wood will be used to build a home for
another family in need.

Written by children’s nonfiction author
David Rubel in collaboration with Habitat for Humanity. Gorgeous
illustrations crafted by Jim LaMarche.

Behind the Scenes: The Making of THE CARPENTER’S GIFT

You can check out all four of the Habitat for Humanity and THE CARPENTER’S GIFT videos here.

Because The Carpenter’s Gift is my second project with Habitat for Humanity, people
sometimes think the two books are linked. They’re both about Habitat, right? But that
isn’t how I see them. The first book I wrote is about Habitat and the people who work
with it; but The Carpenter’s Gift is about something else. It’s about me, and maybe it’s
about you, too.

My association with Habitat began in 2008, when I received a call out of the blue asking
me whether I’d like to collaborate on a book celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of
the annual Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project. I had heard of Habitat, of course,
but I really knew very little about the organization beyond its association with housing.
As a presidential historian, however, I knew quite a bit about Jimmy Carter, and it took
me only about thirty seconds to recover and say yes. The result was If I Had a Hammer:
Stories of Building Homes and Hope with Habitat for Humanity, published in the fall of
2009.

In researching If I Had a Hammer, I had an important early decision to make: should I
volunteer as part of my research or not? After some back-and-forthing, I decided against
volunteering because I didn’t want my experience to color the stories that other people
were telling me about their experiences with Habitat. So I waited until after the book
was written before traveling to Chiang Mai, Thailand, to volunteer with the 2009 Carter
Work Project. Having talked to so many people about the Carter builds, I thought I knew
what to expect. But there is still a great difference between listening to a description of a
rollercoaster ride and taking the plunge oneself.

It turned out to be a good thing that I postponed volunteering, because my experience in
Thailand gave me a lot to think about. Working hard for ten or more hours a day with two
thousand other people, building a community of eighty-two homes that didn’t exist the
week before, is so thrilling while it’s happening that it inevitably raises the question, Why
can’t my life be like this every day?

Returning from Thailand, I took advantage of the Thanksgiving break to collapse on the
living room couch for a few days. While I dozed, my young children watched holiday
television. One night, they turned to the lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.
Having grown up in Manhattan, I’d visited the tree many times, and from my Habitat
research I knew that since 2007, Tishman Speyer, the owners of Rockefeller Center, had
donated lumber milled from each year’s tree to build a Habitat home. As I watched the
lighting with my kids, I thought about this remarkable gift and realized that it could be
the touchstone for a different kind of story about Habitat—one that expressed what I had
thought and felt in Thailand.

When I interviewed President Carter for If I Had a Hammer, he told me something that
has stuck with me ever since. He said that the distance between the haves and the have-
nots in our society is so great that no single person can span it by himself. The president
called this gap a “chasm,” and he said that the only way to cross it was over a bridge. He
started the Carter Work Project, he said, because Habitat provides exactly this kind of
bridge, allowing people from both sides to come together and connect with one another in

a mutually redeeming way.

President Carter’s insight helped me to make sense of my own experience with Habitat
and thereby inspired The Carpenter’s Gift, which is fundamentally a story about giving
and receiving. Material resources change hands in the story, and they’re certainly
important, but much more important are the feelings that pass between the characters.

For me, the great joy of writing is the opportunity it gives me to express myself. Because
I write primarily history, most of what I express in my work are ideas—intellectual
constructs that attempt to make sense of what has happened and explain why events tend
to take the course they do. With The Carpenter’s Gift, however, I had a chance to express
something else—a feeling, which is altogether different from an idea.

I’ve often thought that people become attached to books for one of two reasons: either
the book teaches them something they don’t know, or it reminds them of something they
already know but have forgotten. Whichever is true, beloved books inspire readers to
become better people. It’s my hope that The Carpenter’s Gift can have a similar effect,
helping young readers learn something they may not know about giving and receiving
and helping older readers remember something they may have forgotten.

Thanks to Random House Children’s Books, you can win a copy of THE CARPENTER’S GIFT of your own just in time for the holidays! Enter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don’t forget to check out the rest of the stops on the Holiday Blog Tour!

Wednesday, November 21^st, 2012: TheChildrensBookReview.com

Thursday, November 22^nd, 2012: CrackingtheCover.com

Friday, November 23^rd, 2012: The Book Maven’s Haven

Saturday, November 24^th, 2012: BookingMama.com

Sunday, November 25^th, 2012: {Eat the Book}

Monday, November 26^th, 2012: Maestra Amanda’s Boohkshelf

Tuesday, November 27^th, 2012: HeiseReads.com

Wednesday, November 28^th, 2012

· Nerdy Book Club

· Watch. Connect. Read

· SharpRead

LOST IN PARIS Blog Tour – Guest Post & Giveaway

Jillian Heise — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Title: MIRA’S DIARY: LOST IN PARIS
Author: Marissa Moss
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Release Date: September 4, 2012
Number of Pages: 224

Mira is shocked when she
receives a postcard from her missing mother from Paris. Her father
decides it’s time for a trip to France to search for her. While visiting
Notre Dame, Mira touches a gargoyle and is whirled into the past. There
she meets the famous painter Degas and catches a brief, shocking
glimpse of her mother. Mira begins to suspect that her mom didn’t run
out on them but is a prisoner of the past. Can one family on an
incredible worldwide adventure stop a plot in time?

Around the World
by Marissa Moss

I’ve lived in Paris and Rome, each a wonderful experience. Living in a foreign city broadens your sense of who you are and how you want to live in ways that are delightfully unpredictable. In both cities, I explored the cultural riches in a way you can’t during a brief visit, but more than that, I learned the rhythm of a different lifestyle. There’s no such thing as rushing in Rome, no sense of urgency – or, frustratingly – of efficiency. You learn the Italian shrug of acceptance.

Travel in general demands that kind of flexibility. Planes are delayed. Connections are missed. A drive into the Amazon jungle that was supposed to take five hours ends up taking ten because roads have been washed out. But being open to what happens during travel mishaps means you end up having tea with Bedouins in Petra or are invited into a house-raising for a newly married couple in Vietnam. I love the expected parts of travel, the amazing sites, the great art, but I also love the completely unplanned, the moment you have to be open to in order to experience it.

I’ve been to more than 30 countries. The ones that have been the most difficult, have also been the most rewarding – India, Peru, Vietnam, Jordan, Egypt. I hope I can keep adding to this list. I’d love to see Indonesia, South Africa, Namibia, anywhere new. But the place I keep going back to, the city that has my heart, is Rome. Must be the gelato.
Guest post generously provided by Sourcebooks.

Sourcebooks has been generous enough to offer a book for giveaway through this blog tour. Enter below for your chance to win your own copy of MIRA’S DIARY: LOST IN PARIS!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Secrets & Lies Blog Tour, Guest Post & GIVEAWAY (THE LIAR SOCIETY)

Jillian Heise — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 11:00:00 +0000

I’m so excited to be a part of the Secrets & Lies Blog Tour because I adored Kate and her story in THE LIAR SOCIETY last year. Now that the sequel, LIES THAT BIND, is out (and is also great fun like the first book), Lisa & Laura Roecker have a little bit to say about what’s going on.

Title: THE LIAR SOCIETY: LIES THAT BIND
Author: Lisa and Laura Roecker
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Release Date: November 6, 2012
Number of Pages: 320

Just when Kate Lowry
thought she had life at elite private school Pemberly Brown figured out,
she cracks open a fortune cookie to find a message from her best friend
Grace–who’s supposed to be dead.

Another Sister Gone

A
classmate has gone missing, and Kate soon realizes that the
disappearance is tied to the secret societies that rule her private
school. Her best friend died for their secrets, and there’s no way
she’ll let them get away with it twice. It’s up to quirky outsider Kate
to get some answers, but in a school where every answer leads to more
questions and nothing’s as it seems, who can she trust?

The One Way to Keep a Secret is by Using a Dead Language

by Lisa & Laura Roecker

There are
three girls in the Roecker family and when each of us turned thirteen, we were
sent to board at an all-girls’ school in upstate New York. It was within these
prep school’s walls where we first fell into secret-society-like all-girls’
clubs. This experience is no doubt the inspiration behind not only Pemberly
Brown, but the secret societies as well.

Just kidding.

All of us
graduated from Solon High School. Picture scuffed tile floors, institutional
grey walls and those uncomfortable chair/desk units that make your butt fall asleep.
Solon was a fabulous school system and we were more than prepared for college,
but we wore regular clothes, hung out with regular people and learned regular
things (Latin? Um…no). We weren’t exactly infiltrating secret societies in
order to solve the mystery of our best friend’s death. More like applying
concealer to the gigantic pimple on the tip of our nose.

But that’s the
whole point. Pemberly Brown is for all the girls (and boys!) out there who go
to those boring high schools. Anything can happen at PB and every time we write
a new story, the school grows larger and a bit more magical. Kate stumbles upon
the Sisterhood and Brotherhood in THE LIAR SOCIETY because we wanted to play
around with sororities and fraternities at the high school level as well as
hazing and competitiveness. The
societies stand for everything Kate wants to destroy because they inadvertently
killed her best friend, but you’ll see in THE LIES THAT BIND, the struggle she
faces when she’s not sure who to trust. She gets it wrong. She’s not perfect.
And even though she’s fighting much greater problems than we faced in high
school, she’s relatable and fun. Plus, she makes us thank our lucky stars we
weren’t sent away to that boarding school in upstate New York.

Guest post generously provided by Sourcebooks.

Thanks to Sourcebooks (love them!), I get to giveaway one copy of THE LIAR SOCIETY: LIES THAT BIND. Enter below.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Artifacts & Lies Blog Tour

Jillian Heise — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Welcome to my stop on the Artifacts and Lies Blog Tour!

I’m excited to be hosting Jordan Jacobs, author of a new middle grade mystery with an archeological twist, SAMANTHA SUTTON AND THE LABYRINTH OF LIES.

A legendary ghost, an ancient treasure, a mystery only Samantha Sutton can solve.

What
happens when Indiana Jones meets Nancy Drew? You get Samantha Sutton,
twelve year-old archeology buff with sharp wit and an insatiably curious
personality. SAMANTHA SUTTON AND THE LABYRINTH OF LIES is the
incredible page-turner about a young girl from California who is given
the chance to follow her archeologist uncle to the excavation of an
ancient Peruvian temple.

What she doesn’t expect, though, is the
legend haunting this ancient site. When important artifacts begin to
disappear overnight, Samantha must navigate the disapproving eye of her
uncle’s acerbic assistant, the bungling boyishness of her annoying big
brother, and the ever-present stories swirling among the locals of the
hysterical spirit that wanders through the town late at night. Using her
keen sensibility and her knack for mapping the unknown passageways of
Chavín de Huántar, Samantha uncovers a mystery far bigger than she could
have ever imagined. This is a novel for children (and adults!) who love
history, mystery, and heart-stopping plot-twists.

In SAMANTHA SUTTON AND THE LABRYNTH OF LIES real-life archeologist Jordan Jacobs brings
to life Samantha Sutton, the curious, twelve year-old daring-do heroine
of his debut novel. Combining everything you love about history,
mystery, and heart-racing adventure, Jacobs weaves
a plot full of non-stop fun and incredible facts. From what it’s
actually like to be on a real archeological dig to the delightful tastes
and smells of South America, the plot is woven from Jacobs own experience working at the actual site of this exciting adventure—an ancient Peruvian temple shrouded in mystery.

For my stop on the blog tour, I’m hosting author, and real life archeologist, Jordan Jacobs’ guest post:

Did That Really
Happen?

Chavin
de Huantar almost killed me.

I lost 35 pounds over the 10-week archaeological field season–a
not-so-pleasant combo of high-altitude labor, giardia, and the cunning Peruvian
parasites that detected my innocent gut as soon as I arrived. A mystery
fever confined me to bed for three full days mid-summer, with only the team’s
shared copy of Lord of the Rings to keep me company. To this day
I’m not sure which remembered scenes I read and which I merely hallucinated.

And when I wasn’t ill or raving, I was struggling to adjust to life in the
Andes. Over the course of the summer, I was gored by cacti, attacked by
bats, chased through the village by unfriendly dogs, and badly bruised when my
shower exploded–clogged with mud from its riverine source. A taxi
I’d hired to take me back from an outing never appeared, and I had to hitch a
ride back in a truck full of half-dead chickens. A collision on a
cliffside road almost sent our excavation van tumbling over the edge.

I’m not a sickly person. Not at all. I tend to do well in
remote and foreign places (in subsequent travels to Asia, Africa and elsewhere
in Latin America, I’ve never encountered such a shock to my system). But my
Andean summer took its toll. In September, when my parents came to meet
my return flight to California, I looked so weak that my dad insisted on
carrying my filthy duffel. My mom just cried.

It was the best summer of my life.

For a young archaeologist, there can be nothing better than Chavin de
Huantar. The site dates to about 1200 BCE, and continued in active use as
a religious and political center for at least a thousand years. Roughly
10,400 feet above sea level, it’s a vast complex of platforms, terraces, and
plazas, all flanking a central temple–six stories tall and the width and
breadth of a New York City block. Threading through the site are narrow
passageways— called “galleries”–their entire network still unmapped.
Exploring the pitch black depths of the ancient temple was an
unparalleled thrill, and realized some childhood dreams.

So, too, did the science. The Stanford professor leading the
project was exacting in his methods, and led our team patiently through the
survey, excavation, and analysis. All energy was applied to a simple
series of questions: How had this place been built? What was its purpose?
How had it been so successful?

The answers that emerged that summer–and in all the years of research
before and since–have been as shocking and as thrilling as anything in the
movies. The whole experience made me feel like I was twelve years old. The
place was begging for a kids’ book.

And so I wrote one.

I’d always wanted to write something for kids about
archaeology–probably because, as a kid, I was always reading about archaeology
myself. And while I knew that most children might not have the patience I
had had to track down dense college textbooks and dry academic journals, I
wanted to present a realistic view of the discipline I love so much, and share
with them the real-world excitement that it offers.

Setting the book in Chavin made things easy. In writing Samantha’s
adventures, I was able to throw all my adventures on her and her compatriots,
the good as well as the bad. I chase them with dogs and bats. I
explode their showers. I threaten them with falls off Andean cliffsides,
and strand them, then retrieve them, in trucks of half-dead poultry. But
they get a stake in the scientific discoveries, too. I took pains to get
these right–both those made during my summer in Peru and in the years of
excavation that have occurred there, before and since.

In many ways, Samantha Sutton and the Labyrinth of Lies is a true
story. It’s my story. And it’s a story that my younger self would
have been eager to read.

Thanks so much for visiting, Jordan! I’m eager to get this story into the hands of my middle school readers.