Categories
Book Radar

There’s a Ta-Nehisi Coates Novel Coming in 2019 and More Book Radar!

Welcome back, book lovers! It was a VERY exciting week for book news last week. And I don’t just mean the National Book Award finalists. So many announcements! I have lots of that fabulous news today. Enjoy your upcoming week, be kind to yourself as well as others, and remember that I love you and I like you. – xoxo, Liberty


Sponsored by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

In a palace of illusions, nothing is what it seems. One girl must compete to become the next empress while keeping her keeping her identity and forbidden magic a secret in this Ancient Japan-inspired standalone fantasy.


OH! And don’t forget to enter our giveaway for a custom book stamp for your personal library.

Here’s this week’s trivia question: What was the first name of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple? (Answer at the bottom of the newsletter.)

Deals, Reals, and Squeals!

500 Words or Less by Juleah del RosarioGabrielle Union acquired the film rights to 500 Words Or Less.

MUPPET ARMS: One of our eagle-eyed Rioters, Jessica Esquire, spotted a sign at The Frankfurt Book Fair announcing the arrival of a novel from Ta-Nehisi Coates in 2019!!!

To celebrate the third anniversary of the release of Carry On, Rainbow Rowell shared a sentence from her upcoming book, Wayward Son.

Lakeith Stanfield will star with Chris Evans and Daniel Craig in Knives Out.

Renée Ahdieh is writing a new YA vampire series!

And Sandhya Menon is writing an adult rom-com!

Sneak Peeks

pet sematary posterHere’s the first official trailer for the remake of Pet Sematary!

And some of the biggest news out of NYCC was the first trailer for Good Omens. (I would like David Tennant to be in everything, please and thank you.)

And here’s a look at several of the characters in the upcoming Umbrella Academy series.

And the trailer for the series adaptation of The Little Drummer Girl.

Cover Reveals

Alyssa Cole tweeted the first look at a new Reluctant Royals book: A Prince on Paper. (Avon, April 30, 2019)

Katherine Howe announced the follow-up to The Physick Book of Deliverance DaneThe Daughters of Temperance Hobbs. (Henry Holt and Co., June 25, 2019)

Here’s the first look at Tiffany Jackson’s Let Me Hear a Rhyme. (Katherine Tegen Books, May 21, 2019)

And Daniel José Older revealed the cover of Freedom Fire, the second Dactyl Hill Squad book. (Arthur A. Levine Books, May 14, 2019)

And Mira Jacob shared the cover of Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations. (One World, March 26, 2019)

And scroll down to see the just-revealed cover of The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead!

Book Riot Recommends 

At Book Riot, I work on the New Books! email, the All the Books! podcast about new releases, and the Book Riot Insiders New Release Index. I am very fortunate to get to read a lot of upcoming titles, and learn about a lot of upcoming titles, and I’m delighted to share a couple with you each week so you can add them to your TBR!

Note: Both of these are super early releases, so I apologize, the covers haven’t been revealed yet.

Loved, loved, loved:

The Lost Man by Jane Harper cover imageThe Lost Man by Jane Harper (Flatiron Books, February 5, 2019)

Harper just keeps getting better and better! This is a tense mystery about three brothers in a VERY remote part of Australia. One of the brothers has just died under strange circumstances and another brother – the black sheep of the family – comes home to find out why. (He is his brother’s closest neighbor and he still lives three hours away. It’s THAT remote.) The story is really well-written, but it’s her description of the country itself, with its harsh climate and isolation, that make this exceptional.

Excited to read:

the nickel boysThe Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday, July 30, 2018)

Pretty sure that wherever you are in the world, you heard me squealing when this was announced last week. I am a huge fan of all of Whitehead’s books, so I am over the moon at this news! This novel is going to be about a reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida.

What I’m reading this week.

upon a burning throneUpon a Burning Throne by Ashok K. Banker

Famous Adopted People by Alice Stephens

Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves by Glory Edim

Melmoth: A Novel by Sarah Perry

The Consuming Fire (The Interdependency) by John Scalzi

And this is funny.

This made me laugh more than it should have.

Trivia answer: Jane.

Categories
Today In Books

Procedural Accusations Filed In Shooting Of Salman Rushdie’s Publisher: Today In Books

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Flatiron Books, publishers of Good Me Bad Me, now in paperback by Ali Land.

Good Me Bad Me cover image


Procedural Accusations Filed In Shooting Of Salman Rushdie’s Publisher

A little history: In 1989 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling on Muslims to kill Rushdie and anyone associated with his novel The Satanic Verses. In 1993 Publisher William Nygaard was attacked in Oslo. Now Norwegian police have filed accusations against several suspects.

New Academy Prize In Literature Awarded

After the rape scandal left no viable committee in place for the Nobel Prize for Literature, essentially cancelling it this year, The New Academy was created in hopes of filling in the void. And they’ve awarded Guadeloupean novelist Maryse Condé the New Academy prize in literature!

My Sister, The Serial Killer is the top pick for November’s Library Reads list

And totally belongs there! Not does Oyinkan Braithwaite‘s upcoming novel have a fabulous title but the book measures up to it. Prepare your TBR and check out the other 13 books on Library Reads November list.

And don’t forget to enter our giveaway for a custom book stamp for your personal library. Stamp all the books!

Categories
Giveaways

Win a Copy of THE WITCH OF WILLOW HALL by Hester Fox!

 

We have 10 copies of The Witch of Willow Hall by Hester Fox to give away to 10 Riot readers!

Here’s what it’s all about:

New Oldbury, 1821. In the wake of a scandal, the Montrose family and their three daughters—Catherine, Lydia and Emeline—flee Boston for their new country home, Willow Hall. The estate seems sleepy and idyllic. But a subtle menace creeps into the atmosphere, remnants of a dark history that call to Lydia, and to the youngest, Emeline. All three daughters will be irrevocably changed by what follows, but none more than Lydia, who must draw on a power she never knew she possessed if she wants to protect those she loves. For Willow Hall’s secrets will rise, in the end…

Go here to enter for a chance to win, or just click the cover image below:

Categories
Riot Rundown TestRiotRundown

101218-BlackWingsBeating-Riot-Rundown

Today’s Riot Rundown is sponsored by Fierce Reads

Brysen strives to be a great falconer but his twin sister, Kylee, rejects her ancient gifts. She’s nearly made it out, too, but with a war on the horizon, no bird or falconer is safe.

Together the twins must journey into the treacherous mountains to trap the Ghost Eagle, a solitary killer that could save them. Brysen goes for the boy he loves and the glory he’s long craved, and Kylee to atone for her past and protect her brother’s future. But both are hunted by those who seek one thing: power.

In this YA fantasy series starter, Alex London launches a soaring saga about the memories that haunt us, the histories that hunt us, and the bonds of blood between us.

Categories
What's Up in YA

🌏Hot In Here: Must-Read YA Climate Fiction

Hey YA readers: it’s not a happy topic today, but it’s an essential one.

“What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by Disney Publishing Worldwide.

The worst thing that’s ever happened to Craig is also the best: Amy. Craig and Amy should never have gotten together—Craig is a Dungeons and Dragons master with no life skills and Amy is the beautiful, fiercely intelligent student body president of their high school. Yet somehow they did…until Amy dumped him. Then got back together with him. Seven times. Seven breakups. Seven makeups. Seven of the highest lows and lowest highs. Told non-sequentially, acclaimed playwright Don Zolidis’s debut novel is a brutally funny, bittersweet taste of the utterly unique and utterly universal experience of first love.


With the recent climate change report, it’s essential to continue talking about ecological disaster. YA books have been taking this topic on for many years, and it’s become a topic that remains timely and relevant; more, it’s interesting to see how back list titles remain at the forefront of the topic itself.

Climate fiction — also known as Cli Fi — has been gaining ground across all categories of books, especially as imminent disaster is clear. It feels apt to share some of the strong titles in the world of YA which fall into this growing genre.

Descriptions come from Goodreads. Stars denote a first book in a series.

If you’d like to learn a bit more about Cli-Fi as a genre, this piece on Medium from one of the folks behind the push for it is worthwhile reading.

After The Snow by SD Crockett

Fifteen-year-old Willo was out hunting when the trucks came and took his family away. Left alone in the snow, Willo becomes determined to find and rescue his family, and he knows just who to talk with to learn where they are. He plans to head across the mountains and make Farmer Geraint tell him where his family has gone.

But on the way across the mountain, he finds Mary, a refugee from the city, whose father is lost and who is starving to death. The smart thing to do would be to leave her alone — he doesn’t have enough supplies for two or the time to take care of a girl — but Willo just can’t do it. However, with the world trapped in an ice age, the odds of them surviving on their own are not good. And even if he does manage to keep Mary safe, what about finding his family?

Blood Red Road by Moira Young*

Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. The Wrecker civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her family to scavenge from. That’s fine by her, as long as her beloved twin brother Lugh is around. But when four cloaked horsemen capture Lugh, Saba’s world is shattered, and she embarks on a quest to get him back.

Suddenly thrown into the lawless, ugly reality of the outside world, Saba discovers she is a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent. Teamed up with a handsome daredevil named Jack and a gang of girl revolutionaries called the Free Hawks, Saba’s unrelenting search for Lugh stages a showdown that will change the course of her own civilization.

Breathe by Sarah Crossan*

The world has no air. If you want to survive, you pay to breathe. But what if you can’t? And what if you think everything could be different? Three teens will leave everything they know behind in Sarah Crossan’s gripping and original dystopian teen novel of danger, longing, and glimmering hope.

Ever since the Switch, when the oxygen levels plummeted and most of humanity died, the survivors have been protected in glass domes full of manufactured air. Protected . . . or trapped? Or controlled? Alina’s a revolutionary who believes we can save the environment. Quinn’s a Premium who’s never had to worry about having enough air. His best friend, Bea, is an Auxiliary who’s never worried about anything but having enough air. When the three cross paths, they will change everything.

The Islands at The End of the World by Austin Aslan*

Right before my eyes, my beautiful islands are changing forever. And so am I …

Sixteen-year-old Leilani loves surfing and her home in Hilo, on the Big Island of Hawaii. But she’s an outsider – half white, half Hawaiian, and an epileptic.

While Lei and her father are on a visit to Oahu, a global disaster strikes. Technology and power fail, Hawaii is cut off from the world, and the islands revert to traditional ways of survival. As Lei and her dad embark on a nightmarish journey across islands to reach home and family, she learns that her epilepsy and her deep connection to Hawaii could be keys to ending the crisis before it becomes worse than anyone can imagine.

A powerful story enriched by fascinating elements of Hawaiian ecology, culture, and warfare, this captivating and dramatic debut from Austin Aslan is the first of two novels. The author has a master’s degree in tropical conservation biology from the University of Hawaii at Hilo.

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

In a futuristic world ravaged by global warming, people have lost the ability to dream, and the dreamlessness has led to widespread madness. The only people still able to dream are North America’s Indigenous people, and it is their marrow that holds the cure for the rest of the world. But getting the marrow, and dreams, means death for the unwilling donors. Driven to flight, a fifteen-year-old and his companions struggle for survival, attempt to reunite with loved ones and take refuge from the “recruiters” who seek them out to bring them to the marrow-stealing “factories.”

Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis*

Lynn knows every threat to her pond: drought, a snowless winter, coyotes, and, most importantly, people looking for a drink. She makes sure anyone who comes near the pond leaves thirsty, or doesn’t leave at all.

Confident in her own abilities, Lynn has no use for the world beyond the nearby fields and forest. Having a life means dedicating it to survival, and the constant work of gathering wood and water. Having a pond requires the fortitude to protect it, something Mother taught her well during their quiet hours on the rooftop, rifles in hand.

But wisps of smoke on the horizon mean one thing: strangers. The mysterious footprints by the pond, nighttime threats, and gunshots make it all too clear Lynn has exactly what they want, and they won’t stop until they get it….

Orleans by Sherri L. Smith

After a string of devastating hurricanes and a severe outbreak of Delta Fever, the Gulf Coast has been quarantined. Years later, residents of the Outer States are under the assumption that life in the Delta is all but extinct… but in reality, a new primitive society has been born.

Fen de la Guerre is living with the O-Positive blood tribe in the Delta when they are ambushed. Left with her tribe leader’s newborn, Fen is determined to get the baby to a better life over the wall before her blood becomes tainted. Fen meets Daniel, a scientist from the Outer States who has snuck into the Delta illegally. Brought together by chance, kept together by danger, Fen and Daniel navigate the wasteland of Orleans. In the end, they are each other’s last hope for survival.

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi*

In America’s Gulf Coast region, where grounded oil tankers are being broken down for parts, Nailer, a teenage boy, works the light crew, scavenging for copper wiring just to make quota–and hopefully live to see another day. But when, by luck or chance, he discovers an exquisite clipper ship beached during a recent hurricane, Nailer faces the most important decision of his life: Strip the ship for all it’s worth or rescue its lone survivor, a beautiful and wealthy girl who could lead him to a better life…

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse*+

While most of the world has drowned beneath the sudden rising waters of a climate apocalypse, Dinétah (formerly the Navajo reservation) has been reborn. The gods and heroes of legend walk the land, but so do monsters.

Maggie Hoskie is a Dinétah monster hunter, a supernaturally gifted killer. When a small town needs help finding a missing girl, Maggie is their last—and best—hope. But what Maggie uncovers about the monster is much larger and more terrifying than anything she could imagine.

Maggie reluctantly enlists the aid of Kai Arviso, an unconventional medicine man, and together they travel to the rez to unravel clues from ancient legends, trade favors with tricksters, and battle dark witchcraft in a patchwork world of deteriorating technology.

As Maggie discovers the truth behind the disappearances, she will have to confront her past—if she wants to survive.

Welcome to the Sixth World.

+While technically an adult title, it has such great YA appeal that it’s worth including.

____________________

Thanks for hanging out & we’ll see you later this week!

–Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars on Twitter and Instagram

Categories
True Story

Harry Potter Fact Checks at the New Yorker

The National Book Award finalists were announced this week, and I am very excited about the nonfiction list because of the variety it represents. We have memoir, natural history, politics, and straight history, which is pretty good when you think about the kinds of books that typically get nominated in nonfiction.

The titles include The Indian World of George Washington by Colin G. Calloway, American Eden by Victoria Johnson, Heartland by Sarah Smarsh, The New Negro by Jeffrey C. Stewart, and We the Corporations by Adam Winkler. The winners will be announced on November 14.


Sponsored by Fierce Reads

Rebels, rulers, scientists, artists, warriors and villains Women are, and have always been, all these things and more. Looking through the ages, Anita Sarkeesian, founder of Feminist Frequency, along with Ebony Adams PHD, have reclaimed the stories of twenty-five remarkable women who dared to defy history and change the world around them. From Mongolian wrestlers to Chinese pirates, Native American ballerinas to Egyptian scientists, Japanese novelists to British Prime Ministers, History vs Women will reframe the history that you thought you knew. Featuring beautiful full-color illustrations of each woman and a bold graphic design, this standout nonfiction title is perfect for anyone who wants the true stories of phenomenal women from around the world.


If you’re feeling particularly angry these days, as I am, then I cannot recommend this proposed syllabus for A Master Class in Women’s Rage, put together by Kate Harding, one of the editors of Nasty Women. She acknowledges books on women’s rage that have come out this year – there are so many good ones! – then offers a selection if books, essays, and other contemporary writing on anger. It’s such a good list.

If you love a good con artist story, as I do, this July article about the best books on con artists, according to true crime experts, has a plethora of suggestions.

Daniel Radcliffe shadowed the New Yorker’s fact-checking department while he was doing research for his newest role in the Broadway adaptation of The Lifespan of a Fact by John D’Agata and Jim Fingal. The story about his visit is fascinating because it’s Harry Potter, and because it’s a meta peek inside that job and that magazine.

Finally, let’s wrap this newsletter up with another smattering of new October nonfiction:

Invisible by Steven Carter – “The forgotten story of the black woman lawyer who took down America’s most powerful mobster.” Steven L. Carter’s grandmother, Eunice Hunton Carter, was the only black woman on a team tasked with taking down a New York mobster in the 1930s.

The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis – Michael Lewis takes another look inside the Trump administration, this time exploring the “engine rooms of a government under attack by its own leaders” that are more focused on short-term gains rather than long-term cost. If anyone can make bureaucracy interesting, I think it’s Michael Lewis.

People Like Us by Sayu Bhojwani – The story of “ a diverse and persevering range of local and state politicians from across the country who are challenging the status quo, winning against all odds, and leaving a path for others to follow in their wake.” Woo, democracy!

Dare to Lead by Brené Brown – A new Brené Brown is always something to celebrate! In this book, Brown writes for “everyone who is ready to choose courage over comfort, make a difference and lead.”

My Squirrel Days by Ellie Kemper – “A hilarious and uplifting collection of essays about one pale woman’s journey from Midwestern naïf to Hollywood semi-celebrity to outrageously reasonable New Yorker.” If you need something cheerful, I bet this will be it.

Thanks again so much for reading! You can find me on Twitter @kimthedork, and co-hosting the For Real podcast here at Book Riot with questions and comments!

Don’t forget to enter our giveaway for a custom book stamp for your personal library!

Categories
Unusual Suspects

Argument That Mystery Books Should Be Less Than 400 Pages

Hello mystery fans! So Netflix has a new buddy cop type show starring Tony Danza and Josh Groban–yes, the popera singer. I’ve seen the first two episodes and they’re entertaining and didn’t have violence towards women. So if you need a break from dark crime check out the first two episodes of The Good Cop.


Sponsored by Flatiron Books, publishers of Good Me Bad Me, now in paperback by Ali Land.

Good Me Bad Me cover imageWhen your mother is a serial killer, how far does the apple really fall from the tree? Good Me Bad Me is a dark and compelling psychological thriller.


From Book Riot and Around The Internet

Mycroft and Sherlock cover imageA wonderful interview with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as he Dives Back Into Mystery with Mycroft And Sherlock

Came across this delightful podcast episode where a married couple discuss their mystery likes and dislikes and rec a bunch of books for fall reading: Mystery Recommendations for October, sassy lady detectives vs. macho man investigators 

How Does ‘Killing Eve’ The Book End? It’s A Lot Different To What You Saw On TV (Obviously spoilers!)

The 5 Best L.A. Crime Novels: Nonfiction

Highly Recommended: Pastry Murder Mysteries Inside best-selling author Joanne Fluke’s addictive book series, where food is the main character

Rincey makes the argument that mystery books should be less than 400 pages and girl, same!

Can you solve the mystery of the missing opera diva?

Giveaway: Remember to enter our giveaway for a custom book stamp for all your book stamping needs!

Adaptations And News

The Little Drummer Girl cover imageHere’s the trailer for AMC’s six-part miniseries of John le Carré’s The Little Drummer Girl. It premieres November 19th and stars Florence Pugh, Alexander Skarsgård, and Michael Shannon.

We’re getting a fourth Veronica Speedwell Mystery!

And now Armie Hammer has signed on to Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile adaptation.

Kindle Deals

The Child cover imageThe Child by Fiona Barton is a very good book that is $1.99!! (Review) (TW rape)

From my TBR list the first in a series of funny, cozy historical mysteries is $1.99: A Quiet Life in the Country (A Lady Hardcastle Mystery #1) by T E Kinsey

And if you’re looking for an 80% character driven novel that focuses on the politics between police and media in Japan which ends with a twist you won’t see coming and like a thriller in the last 20%: Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama, Jonathan Lloyd-Davies (Translation) is $3.99!!

Browse all the books recommended in Unusual Suspects previous newsletters on this shelf. And here’s an Unusual Suspects Pinterest board.

Until next time, keep investigating! And in the meantime, come talk books with me on Twitter, Instagram, and Litsy–you can find me under Jamie Canaves.

If a mystery fan forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like your very own you can sign up here.

Categories
The Kids Are All Right

An Interview with Alan Gratz

Hi, Kid Lit fans!

I am very excited to have New York Times bestselling author Alan Gratz on the newsletter today! Alan is the author of multiple books for young readers, including Refugee, Ban This Book, Projekt 1065, Code of Honor, and The League of Seven series. His most recent book, Grenade, is set during World War II, the day the Americans land on Okinawa. The Japanese Army pulls Hideki Kaneshiro and all the other boys out of middle school and gives them each two grenades. One grenade, they tell Hideki, is to kill an American soldier. The other grenade is to kill himself.


Sponsored by Zola’s Elephant, written by Randall de Sève and illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski.

In this stunningly illustrated book about making a new friend and moving into a new home, two-time Caldecott-honor winning illustrator Pamela Zagarenski and New York Times bestselling author Randall de Sève create a dazzling world that celebrates both the power of imagination and the bravery it can inspire.


I had a chance to ask Alan about his research, writing habits, and the historical middle grade books he loves. Enjoy!

Photo Credit: Wes Stitt

Karina Yan Glaser: I absolutely loved Grenade. I read in an interview you did with the Cybils Awards that this book began when you visited Japan and met an old man who was a boy on Okinawa during World War II. Did you keep in touch with this man while writing the book?

Alan Gratz: Hi Karina! Thank you! Yes, I was first turned on to this story by a man I met when I visited Japan almost eight or nine years ago, but alas, no, I haven’t been in touch with him in a long time. I was in Tokyo as an Artist in Residence at the American School in Japan in 2010, and he was introduced to me casually by one of the teachers at the school. His story stunned me, and stuck with me.

I don’t know about you, but there are some ideas I know I am not ready to write when they come my way. I could have never written Refugee at the beginning of my career, for example. That was a book I needed a lot more experience to be able to write. Grenade was the same for me. I knew this was an incredible situation—untrained Okinawan middle school boys given grenades and sent off to kill trained American Marines—but I didn’t even know where to begin to tell that story. So I filed it away in my brain with all the other book ideas I have, and sat on it for years.

Cut to 2017. I’ve just tackled the biggest story of my career so far, Refugee, and the story of the battle of Okinawa resurfaced for me. In fact, it was Refugee that showed me the way in to telling the story that became Grenade. Refugee is the story of what happens to three kids and their families when war comes and they have to leave their country to find safety. Grenade would be the story of what happens when war comes and a boy and his family are unable to leave. Grenade is, essentially, a story about refugees in their own land.

When I decided I wanted to write about the Battle of Okinawa, I tried getting back in touch with the teachers at the school to see if they could reconnect me with the man who had told me the story, but folks had moved on by then. I wish I’d had him as a resource! If I had, I might have written specifically about him and his experiences, the way I did with Jack Gruener and his personal experiences in the Holocaust for my book Prisoner B-3087. Unable to track him down, I had to use the story he told me only as inspiration. From there I had to find other resources to bring this piece of history to life.

KYG: What type of research did you have to do to write Grenade?

AG: I read a number of books about the war in the Pacific, some specifically about the Battle of Okinawa. Much has been written about the battles in the Pacific, and I read historians’ accounts as well as the accounts of soldiers and Marines who were on Okinawa and other islands where the Americans and Japanese fought. But those books only told one side of the story: the American side. And the American military side at that.

History, as they say, is told by the winners. But I wanted to tell a different history. One that isn’t often told. I wanted this book, as I said before, to be the story of the civilians on Okinawa. The people who became refugees in their own country when two powerful nations chose their island to wage war against each other. For those stories, my primary course was a wonderful book of interviews done with dozens of Okinawans who survived the Battle of Okinawa. Many stories were told in that collection—stories of boys sent into battle, of girls recruited as nurses, of families separated by war, and always of civilians in harm’s way, sometimes deliberately so. Nowhere on the island was safe during the month-long battle. From those stories, I built my fictional Okinawan boy and his family, basing everything that happens to them on things that really happened to the Okinawan people during the battle. I read other books about Okinawa as well—books about Okinawan history, and culture, and religion. And we had Okinawan readers to help me too.

KYG: You have a very busy travel schedule! How do you find time to write?

AG: I block my travel out so that I have three months on the road doing school visits and conferences, then three months home, then three months on the road again doing visits, then three months off again. I have to get most of my writing done in those six months I’m home! It certainly forces me to focus if I want to have a new book out each year…

KYG: What first got you interested in writing books for middle grade readers?

AG: The first three books of my career were really more young adult than middle grade. I thought that was the direction I was going to go the idea for The Brooklyn Nine came along. The Brooklyn Nine is nine “innings”—nine short stories—about the nine kids in nine successive generations of an American family, and their connections to baseball and American history. The kid in one story is the parent in the next, and the grandparent in the next, and so on. It made sense for most of them to be between the ages of 8 and 12, and suddenly I found myself writing my first truly middle grade novel. And I loved it. Which shouldn’t really have come of as much of a surprise as it did. I was an eighth grade English teacher in a former life, and in some ways I feel like I never left middle school. 🙂 I am very happy where I am now, writing middle grade fiction. I wouldn’t want it any other way!

KYG: What are you working on now?

AG: Next up is a novel about D-Day! It’s middle grade, and told from the perspectives of a number of different people, both kids and adults, who came together to make the Allied invasion of France a success. I wrote the first draft over the summer, and will jump into revisions when I’m home for the winter!

KYG: What are some other middle grade historical novels you would recommend?

I love Between Shades of Gray and Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys. I’m also a big fan of The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. Gary Schmidt’s Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy is a favorite. Laurie Halse Anderson’s Revolutionary War era trilogy Chains, Forge, and Ashes are amazing. Linda Sue Park’s A Long Walk to Water was a real inspiration when I was writing Refugee, and her books about Korean history—The Kite Fighters, A Single Shard, and When My Name was Keoko—are terrific. Lauren Tarshis’s I Survived series is a great introduction to historical fiction for a lot of kids.

KYG: What great book recommendations! Thank you, Alan, for taking time to chat with me!

Check out Alan Gratz’s terrific new book, Grenade, available now. More information about all of his books is available on his website.

 

I’m really enjoying Donna Gephart’s In Your Shoes. It’s about two middle school students: Amy is new to Buckington Middle School, and Miles is an anxious boy who enjoys working at his family’s bowling ally. Their lives intertwine in unexpected and beautiful ways.

Don’t Touch My Hair! by Sharee Miller (Little, Brown, 11/6) is a great picture book! Aria gets frustrated because wherever she goes, someone wants to touch her hair. In the street, strangers reach for her fluffy curls; and even under the sea, in the jungle, and in space, she’s chased by a mermaid, monkeys, and poked by aliens…until, finally, Aria has had enough!

Nathan Hale continues his bestselling Hazardous Tales series with Lafayette!, a story about the Marquis de Lafayette, a French noble. He was a captain at eighteen and a major general by nineteen, but he was eager to prove himself in battle. When he heard about the Revolution going on in America, he went overseas and fought alongside Alexander Hamilton and George Washington for America’s independence.

 

Around the web…

Finalists for 2018 National Book Award in Young People’s Literature Announced, via Publisher’s Weekly

7 #ownvoices Native American Picture Books, via Book Riot

Be Loud: 28 Best Kindergarten Read Aloud Books, via Book Riot

Podcast: 20 Years of Magic, Part 2: The Artists of Harry Potter, via Scholastic

 

Giveaway!

Don’t forget to enter our giveaway for a custom book stamp for your personal library! Click here to enter.

 

I would love to know what you are reading this week! Find me on Twitter at @KarinaYanGlaser, on Instagram at @KarinaIsReadingAndWriting, or email me at karina@bookriot.com.

Until next time!
Karina

Annabelle says hello!

*If this e-mail was forwarded to you, follow this link to subscribe to “The Kids Are All Right” newsletter and other fabulous Book Riot newsletters for your own customized e-mail delivery. Thank you!*

Categories
Today In Books

Take A Tour Of Dracula’s Castle: Today In Books

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Are You There God? It’s Me, Margarita by Tim Federle, Running Press.

Are You There God? It's Me Margarita cover image


Take A Tour Of Dracula’s Castle

Or, you know, Bran Castle–the one associated with Bram Stoker’s Dracula that everyone visits. How exactly does a place Stoker never even traveled to become the place everyone connects to his novel? Well that involves a communist government and marketing.

Research Study Finds People Who Grow Up With Home Libraries

Have better math, literacy, and technological skills. “Adolescent exposure to books is an integral part of social practices that foster long-term cognitive competencies,” writes a research team led by Joanna Sikora of Australian National University. (Let’s pretend I don’t debunk the math part.)

The National Book Awards 2018 Finalists Have Been Announced

Want to see who is still in the running under fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translated literature and young people’s literature? Here you go–hope your favorites made the cut!

And don’t forget to enter our giveaway for a custom book stamp for your personal library. Stamp all the books!

Categories
Events

It’s National Coming Out Day and We Have Content!

Hello, book lovers! Today Book Riot hosted tons of excellent content for National Coming Out Day, and we wanted to share it all with you.


Sponsored by This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson

There’s a long-running joke that, after “coming out,” a lesbian, gay guy, bisexual, or trans person should receive a membership card and instruction manual. THIS IS THAT INSTRUCTION MANUAL. You’re welcome.

Inside you’ll find the answers to all the questions you ever wanted to ask: from sex to politics, hooking up to stereotypes, coming out and more. This candid, funny, and uncensored exploration of sexuality and what it’s like to grow up LGBT also includes real stories from people across the gender and sexual spectrums, not to mention hilarious illustrations.


Start here, with our Guest Editor Aly Ross’s account of coming out as gender non-binary to her high school students–NCOD still matters, especially in this administration.

There’s this post about coming out and the influence of the YA novel (and now film!) The Miseducation of Cameron Post. Romance readers, this Bud’s for you–a recommendation post about romances featuring queer women involved with folks from different genders.

Looking for queer women represented in comics? This reader recommends the DC Bombshell comics. And here’s a post on the importance of reading about queer characters of color. And a gay contributor on why coming out is a creative endeavor.

Be sure to check out all our queer content for National Coming Out Day (and take a peek at the rad rainbow homepage!) by heading over to bookriot.com.