Kevin Brooks

by

Dave Amaditz

Kevin Brooks is one of my favorite authors. Read a little bit about him, and check out a list of his books here. Http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/contributor/kevin-brooks If, however, you haven't yet read anything he's written I suggest that you do. Here's a review of his latest, Bunker Diary. http://librarianwhodoesntsayshhh.com/ If you're like me, you won't want to put it down. And beware,  the ending might surprise you!

First Friday - Five Favorite Things - Debut Novel Day

by Dave Amaditz & Marcy Collier

Marcy and I are excited and proud to unveil the premier post for our new feature - First Friday - Five Favorite Things - Debut Novel Day. In this monthly series, we ask five simple questions about a debut novel that will hopefully entice anyone reading this post to pick up the novel and read it themselves. We also want to give our readers some insight into the author's writing style and voice as well as how some of the characters might think or act. We do this by presenting, first, answers to our Five Favorite Things, followed by the author's answers in a follow-up post.

This month we're pleased to highlight debut author, Jill Hathaway's, novel Slide.

1) What is your favorite line or paragraph from the novel as it relates to the main character's development and/or growth?

Dave - This passage comes from fairly early in the novel, but gives me so much insight into what the main character is thinking and feeling.

 "My left hand hovers over my sister's shoulder. I feel like I should rub her back the way Sophie's mother rubbed hers when she was upset, but I can't quite bring myself to do it. Something in the gesture would be false. I can't offer her the comfort she needs right now. In order to give something, you need to have it inside of you to give. And right now there's nothing inside me at all."

Marcy - Vee treasures her mom’s CD collection, but right now she knows that her sister needs the music more. Vee understands that her sister doesn’t remember as much about their mom, and she gives up this treasured keepsake to help her sister.

 “When I’ve loaded the CDs all back into the box, I push the flaps closed and carry it to my sister’s room. She hasn’t returned from breakfast yet, so I place the box on her unmade bed and leave the room. I’ve attached a pink Post-it note. It says: This is who she was. Love, V.”

2) What is your favorite chapter ending or cliffhanger?

Dave - There were many great chapter endings, but I chose this one from early in the novel.

"I hear the man set the phone down. A second passes, stretching out into forever. Another second. Another.

And then the screaming begins."

Marcy - This ending kept me up at night. I had to see what happened next!

“But she won't wake up, no matter how hard I shake her. I grab her arms and drag her off the couch. I can barely see my way to the door. Gasping, I take in a mouthful of blackness. The smoke invades my lungs, and I feel myself choking. Everything goes black.”

3) Who is your favorite secondary character and why?

Dave - Rollins is my favorite secondary character because he is so strong and confident at times, yet so vulnerable at others to being hurt by the ones he loves. He's just like one of us.

Marcy - Rollins is my favorite secondary character. He is this quirky, eclectic guy who has a heart of gold and can be quite a rebel. He has a unique style and shows Vee how much he cares about her through his thoughts, words and actions like finding vintage t-shirts for her or making sure she's okay after she blacks out. We see he has an even bigger heart when we learn about his home situation, but I won't spoil it for those of you who haven't read the novel yet!

4) What is your favorite line or paragraph of description?

Dave - There were so many to choose from, but in the end, I picked this passage, as it gives me a snapshot of the main character's life.

"I scoop the pancakes onto a plate. I spend a long time standing in front of the refrigerator, looking at a picture of my mom when she was in college, tan and skinny and smiling, with blond hair and a white tank top. Below it, there's a picture of my sister at her eighth-grade graduation. Dad and I stand on either side of her, giving her double bunny ears. On any other fridge, this would look like a happy collage of memories, but on our fridge it's a mockery of what once was, what could have been. A happy family."

Marcy – I loved this line – it painted such a clear picture for me of the two girls.

“The girl is Mattie. She is my sister and my exact opposite in every way. If she’s the pink glitter on your valentine, I’m the black Sharpie you use to draw mustaches on the teachers in your yearbook.”

5) What is your favorite line of dialogue?

Dave - This is spoken by the main character Vee.

"It's just a really weird time for me," I say finally. "With this whole Sophie thing and my sister freaking out. I feel like I'm stuck in this nightmare and everyone's insane but me. Or maybe I'm the one who's insane. I don't know."

Marcy - Need I say more? Who wouldn' t be intrigued by this line.

"Really? Conjoined twins?”

Look for Slide author Jill Hathaway's responses for First Friday - Five Favorite Things - Debut Novel Day on Monday, January 7, 2013!

You can find Jill at:

Blog - http://jillscribbles.blogspot.com/

Twitter - @jillscribbles

Amazon - Slide

An Evening of Stardust, Hope and Secrets

by Jenny Ramaley

Pittsburgh is a great city on so many different levels. Rock solid people, great food, hidden architectural gems tucked into neighborhoods, and an endless bounty of learning opportunities. Of these, my favorite is the Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures series featuring children's writers --  “Black, White & Read All Over.” In the past I’ve posted articles on seeing John Green and Gayle Forman. The lectures are great fun. Good writers are generally good speakers and the latest visitor was exceptionally entertaining -- the creatively versatile, inimitable Neil Gaiman. What made the night extra special was that Neil wasn’t on a speaking tour. He knows Dr. Drew Davidson, from Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center, who convinced him to come and talk about the 15^th anniversary and re-release of Neil’s book, “Stardust” -- for one night only. The Music Hall at the Carnegie Museum was packed. How cool is it to see authors treated like rock stars?

Neil talked about getting his initial inspiration for the book after accepting an award for his comic “Starman #19” at the 1991 World Fantasy Convention in Tuscon. If you’ve ever spent time in the desert away from city lights, you know what he’s talking about when he tells of seeing a lone shooting star against a “thick black vehement night’ filled with stars. He thought ‘what if it was a blazing diamond streaking across the sky . . . or a girl with a broken leg? (in case you haven’t read the book, I’ll stop here.)

Neil shared a bit about the writing process for the book. He told about buying a new old fashioned fountain pen and notebook, settling in to housesit at Tori Amos’s quirky bridge/house to write, and dictating into a cassette machine so his collaborator could illustrate the story as he wrote. To go from the handwritten word to typing it into the computer acts as an editing step for him, since he refuses to type any sections he feels aren't worthy of the time. After the book was printed and released, the model Claudia Schiffer fell in love with the story and nudged her director husband, Matthew Vaughn, into making a movie. (Robert DiNiro in drag is supposedly fabulous.) The film has done very well outside of the U.S. but Neil says he often ends up apologizing for all the extra ‘stuff’ the movie people added when they ‘mucked about’ with the story.

The audience was also treated to a reading from his new book due out in June (“The Ocean at the End of the Lane”). It started out as a short story, and deals with a few members of the Hemstock family – reoccurring characters sprinkled throughout several of his books, including “The Graveyard Book.” Then the story turned into a novella, then a very long novella, and surprised him by ending up as a novel. Be forewarned. Neil determined by the end of writing the story that although this book focuses on young people, the story is too dark for children. During the Q&A he clarified his thoughts on when a book is for children and when it is for adults. Using his book “Coraline” as an example, he explained that while parts of that story are dark, Coraline was a hopeful character and certainly not helpless (Okay for Kids); the new book gets quite dark and in it the child is truly helpless (Not Okay for Kids). Hope = children. Remember that. And if the youngsters are drawn to this new book, he assured us that the first two chapters are quite dull and will surely turn off any child who attempts to read it. We’ll see about that in June.

Truly an entertaining evening. But here’s the best part. Neil Gaiman told us a secret about an upcoming project. And he asked the hundreds of people to not post this tidbit on line and keep it to ourselves. And, since the packed auditorium was filled with Pittsburghers, I’m betting his secret is safe.

And hopefully he’ll come back.

Sarah Dessen is coming in January. I’ll report on her next month.

Bad Calls: A Coach's Real Life 'Turning Point'

by Jenny Ramaley

One of Lyle Lovett’s lyrics says something like “…one bad move can turn your world upside down…” In a preemptive strike against those bad moves, our community’s incoming freshman attend a special program before they start high school. The administration tries to make the evening entertaining by bringing in a motivational speaker, a personable police officer who warns about getting into trouble with drugs and drinking, and our home-spun local magistrate who’ll dish out sentencing for the students who fail to heed the officer’s advice.  Why go to all this trouble? Because the administrators want to get through the heads of these kids that one bad decision, one single moment, can negatively impact the rest of their life.  Does the program work? Maybe.  While my girls rolled their eyes after the program, they’ve never been arrested for underage drinking.

                I suspect that it helps young people when the ‘make good choices’ message bombards them from multiple directions: schools, parents, TV & movies, and of course, books. Key, life-altering  moments are often used as ‘turning points’ or ‘1^st crisis’ in the structure of a novel or screenplay.

                Here’s an example. The main character in Kevin Brooks’ Martyn Pig  http://www.amazon.com/Martyn-Pig-Kevin-Brooks/dp/1905294166/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2

shoves his alcoholic dad during an argument and accidently kills him. Overwhelmed and shocked, the teenager doesn’t call the police. This one bad decision snowballs until it’s too late the call for help and spirals into a gut-clenching resolution filled with betrayal.

                Good novels subtly demonstrate without a whiff of preachiness how these ‘bad calls’ can turn out. As parents, teachers, librarians and writers, we hope that fictional stories will subtly reinforce the need to make ‘good calls’ when young people are faced with thorny situations --where they have a split second to make a decision.  

                Unfortunately, sometimes real life gives us horrific examples of people making really ‘bad calls.’ Unless you’ve been locked in a room finishing a young adult novel, you’ve probably heard about the sex abuse scandal at Penn State. My daughter is in her junior year at “Happy Valley”, or so it’s called, although it wasn’t a very happy place for the children who were abused, so we are horrified by what’s happening at her school.

                What’s especially dismaying about this case is how many people are supporting the now-former head coach, Joe Paterno.  JoePa, as he is known by students and alumni, is a powerful man at Penn State and in Center County. For him to cling to the legal argument that he did what he was required to do (ie, kick the news of a brutal rape upstairs to his bosses), but not to demand police involvement when he saw his superiors do nothing, is beyond comprehension.

                JoePa’s moment of decision making, his ‘one bad move’, will now tarnish his long, reknown career. Shame on him and all of the adults who failed these children.

Granted, this isn’t a typical topic for a children’s book blog, but I'm just trying to make some kind of sense out of all this. Can we use this awful situation to help teach our young adults to make good decisions, so as adults, they can make sound decisions when they are confronted with an injustice? If you’ve been following the sorry Penn State story, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has some insightful articles and editorials about the case:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11312/1188192-192.stm

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11314/1188817-192-2.stm

by Gene Collier  http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11314/1188869-143.stm

by Maureen Dowd  http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11314/1188774-109.stm