Via the Sweet Sixteens, I had the chance to interview 2015 debut middle grade author, Jennifer Chambliss Bertman. I also count myself lucky, because as part of this interview, I got my greedy little hands on an advanced reader’s copy of Book Scavenger. It’s out in the wild now, and man, are readers in for a treat. If you like bookish adventures, solving ciphers, San Francisco, and mysteries, this book is for you!
You can read my interview with Jennifer here.
Family and friends close to me know that in the midst of the many, many (I kid) things I do well, there’s one area where I have a significant deficit.
Picture-taking.
It’s been that way for as long as I can recall. As a kid, I had my photogenic moments…
But they were few and far between. You will note I am holding back from posting any pictures of my teenage self. Yes, they are that bad. (Also, they are not on the computer from which I’m writing this blog post.)
As I became an adult, I discovered a way to work around the fact that I was not a fan of the camera: costumes! As long as I was dressed in a costume, I didn’t mind having my picture taken. In fact: I enjoyed it.
Yep, that’s me dressed as Dumbledore for my library’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows all-night lock-in back in 2007.
Oh, and again, me, willingly wearing an astronaut costume to promote the library’s summer reading program. (The deranged expression was for the camera. I do not generally look like that. I promise.)
After wedding photos were achieved last summer, I thought I was home free. I didn’t need to have serious pictures taken ever again! For the rest of my life!
Until I sold my book. And realized I needed headshots.
I am happy to report from the other side that after much angst (and, okay, a lot of shopping for headshot ensembles), headshots were a surprisingly fun activity. Last Sunday, I traversed Fort Point with a local photographer, Kate L., who may or may not have taught me how to smize! It wouldn’t be a photo session with Jenn (slipping into third person here for a moment) if it didn’t involve at least one moment of goofiness.
One second, I was acting like a serious model-type…
And then the next thing I knew…
What’s that behind me?
Oh yes! A horse! Of course, I got photobombed by a horse.
Though many of my friends advocated for the horse photobomb picture as my official author photo, in the end, I went with something a bit more professional.
The world is not fair. People don’t (or hardly ever) get their just desserts. Where are the angels that are supposed to watch over us?
Orbiting Jupiter, Gary D. Schmidt’s latest young adult novel, is a slim book that packs a powerful punch. In the opening scene, sixth grader Jack, a good boy in a quiet rural Maine town, meets his foster brother Joseph, an eighth grader just released from a juvenile detention facility who almost killed his teacher. A lot of kids, upon learning that about a foster sibling, 
might keep their distance, but not Jack. He sees the way Rosie the cow acts around Joseph, and figures there’s got to be more to Joseph than that story. Jack sticks up for Joseph like a brother when other kids at the school hassle him and when teachers expect little from him. He’s ready to listen, and when Joseph finally shares his story–what’s behind the words and phrases he shouts out in his sleep at night–Jack learns how heartbreaking it is. His fourteen-year-old foster brother is a father to a baby girl named Jupiter, whose mother is deceased. He can’t see her because the mother’s family doesn’t want him to meet them, his father’s tangling up the situation trying to get money out of it (all for himself), and the machinations of the system aren’t geared toward giving Jason (a minor) any rights.
It’s not fair. But though no one’s looking out for Jason above, there are people looking out for him, down on earth. His foster brother, whom he calls “Jackie”, for one. And Jack’s parents, Joseph’s foster parents, who are doing everything they can in his interest to help him see his daughter.
But it’s hard. And like I said, the world is not fair.
There’s little else I can say about the plot without giving too much away. And that’s the last thing I want to do. But I will say that I wept — truly wept — at the end of this book. Gary D. Schmidt has complete control over this story, and especially over Jack’s voice. The telling is spare, but it serves the story so well. This is the kind of story that can be shared with all ages of readers (middle school and high school alike). It’s completely accessible for reluctant readers up through high school, and it’s the kind of book I would’ve shared with all of my teens in urban communities, who know, first-hand, how sometimes you just get dealt a raw deal.
What does it mean to be a family? A brother? This story asks, again and again.
Love.
Love.
Orbiting Jupiter comes out on November 3, 2015 from Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
This past week, the New York Times summer reading list was rightly called out for being 100% comprised of white authors. While I wonder if Maslin herself noticed this in creating the list (my hunch is she didn’t), the question it raised for me is: why was this esteemed paper’s “summer reading list” curated by just one person? When it comes to diversity in literature, I think the root of the problem is the history of certain folks being intentionally excluded from the table. We’re not there anymore, but the data about diversity in publishing doesn’t lie, and we still have a long way to go for the industry to accurately represent the makeup of the United States.
Now, I’d hate to think the way to resolve this problem is by forcing some kind of quota on the reviewer. Rather, it seems like it would make sense to have more voices contributing to the creation of such a list. The more diverse voices invited to contribute, the less likely any list is to be so focused. At the same time, more voices would also broaden the appeal. Out of all the titles being published this summer (or recently in print), none of the seventeen listed really inspired me. Okay, I guess on further thought, I’m a little curious about The Royal We, but still. One out of seventeen: not so great.
I’m just one person (and in truth, a straight, white female), but here are some of the books I’m looking forward to reading this summer (some newbies, some oldies, from middle grade to adult):
For a fantastic list of picture books middle grade, and YA books written or illustrated by authors and artists of color (African American, Asian America, Latino, and Native American), some of which include LGBTQIA protagonists or protagonists with disabilities, click here. Lyn Miller-Lachmann, a fellow writer and book reviewer (also the author of Surviving Santiago on my summer reading list), created this list along with several colleagues who are similarly passionate about diversity in children’s literature.
Of the many things I have to do as part of creating an entirely fictional world, naming my characters is one of the trickiest parts. I don’t just mean the main character(s), but also all of the people in my main character’s world. Since I tend to write in first person, I’m in my character’s mind and body, and so I’m supposed to know the names of all the people she/he knows. This means I have to come up with a LOT of names!
I have a tendency to change names as I’m working through the story. (Thank goodness for the “find and replace” feature.) I wish I could say that all of my names are steeped in symbolism and significance, but the truth is, they aren’t. For me, it’s important that the names sound realistic for the time and place of the story, and also that they stand apart from each other– can’t have too many starting with the same letter.
As I’ve been working on my latest work-in-progress, a young adult novel set in a New England boarding school, I realized that my character (like I did in high school) knows nearly everyone in her school by name. What this meant was that all of those characters, even the ones that appear briefly, should have a name. So “that girl from my Chem class” had to become a real person. But how to come up with a ton of names without spending FOREVER creating and deciding on them? (Truth: I can easily spend an afternoon poring over name books and website of the top 100 first names for a particular birth year. It’s a super fun thing to get lost in and call “work,” but…. perhaps not the best use of time).
New solution!
My nephew’s commencement book! (He graduated over the weekend from UConn.) Over 100 pages of first, middle, and last names to mix and match. Who knew this thing had a purpose beyond graduation day (as we sat in the stadium watching a thousand young adults receive their diplomas)?
Here’s to hoping the next time I have to name a random and very minor character, I don’t spend two hours doing it.
It’s undeniable. No matter how wonderful anything I wrote seems on the day I wrote it, a day later it’s lost its luster. A few days later? A month later? Hoo boy. I start to see it for what it is: something that needs work.
That’s where revision comes in. What I’ve discovered by talking to many other writers about their processes is that no two processes are alike. What I’ve discovered works for me, but even then, I’m not sure it’ll work for the next book. Each book is essentially its own beast that I must wrangle into submission. And then repeat.
That said, I still feel like I can learn from other people’s revision processes. For me, the niggling thing I hate about revision is that it’s not as quantifiable as first drafting. With a first draft, I can say: I wrote X many words today, therefore I am done. With revision, I guess I could say: I deleted X many word today, hurrah! Except… it doesn’t really have that same feeling of achievement.
Because I need some sense of accomplishment, and because I’m wading through a 150-300+ page word document day after day, it’s essential for me to break it down.
1. Hence the list! The list is very key to my revision process. It’s visually pleasing! I can cross things off! Aha, I have tackled you.
2. I can add things to the list as I go along and discover more things that need work.
3. But how do I even know what needs work?
4. Personally, I can’t revise until I have some distance from the manuscript. If we’re talking tiny line edit changes and tweaking words, I can do that the next day, but for big picture things, it needs to sit. Stephen King suggested putting your draft aside for at least a month upon writing “the end.” If it works for him, I decided it works for me.
5. And so far, so good. But what do I do in the month away from my book? What if I want to take a peek?
6. NO, Jenn. No. No peeks allowed. If you really want confirmation that what you wrote is brilliant, genius stuff, by all means, send it to your mother. And then find something else to keep you busy until a month is up.
7. When I’m gearing up for revision, or needing to take a break from it, I find it helpful to return to a couple writing books to get me in the right frame of mind. Some of my favorites are: Cheryl Klein’s Second Sight (soon to be released in a new edition), Kate Messner’s Real Revision, and John Truby’s The Anatomy of Story. If I’m needing a real pick-me-up, then Anne Lamott’s Bird By Bird. And every couple years, Stephen King’s On Writing.
8. I also tend to read a lot for pleasure in the month after finishing a draft. And, okay, some Sims might happen, too (for a few days max!).
9. When I finally reopen the manuscript after a month or so has passed, I try to read it once through without doing anything to it. Just to remember the story and see what’s actually on the page. The next time I read it, I have a pad of paper next to me and I start a running list of all the things that need work. We’re talking macro level here (tiny sentence things and typos I’ll fix as I move through).
10. Then the list gets typed up. And printed out. And that’s when the accountability begins. As items on the list are tackled, they get crossed out. I tend to skip around the list for things that feel achievable in a given moment or day. Often, I tackle some of the smaller things first (something limited to one scene, for example) because honestly, IT FEELS SO GOOD TO CROSS THINGS OFF!
11. There are always those little pervasive things — the big picture stuff that really affect every little bit of the manuscript. Like, say I need to tone down one character. Or add a nuance to a relationship, in a way that doesn’t affect the plot or main story arc. I tend to save those for the end, as I make several passes through the manuscript, tweaking and tweaking.
12. The final stage of my revision is the one that I think a lot of other people do not do, but which is so essential to my process. I read my ENTIRE book out loud. (I am not looking forward to doing this with my 300+ page behemoth WIP, yet it must be done.) The reading aloud stage holds huge value for me. It’s how I catch accidental tense switches, typos, repetitive word choices, moments that unintentionally echo, etc. I also think it’s helped develop my ear for dialogue.
13. After I feel I’ve taken the book as far as I can, I share it with my beta readers — my critique buddies. Many of them have read several of my books now, and I hold their feedback in high esteem. It’s so essential to see what another person finds in your book that perhaps you didn’t intend to put in there. And sometimes discover genius things you did that you’d never give yourself credit for. Love, love, love my critique partners.
14. What comes next? I sift through the feedback from my critique partners. Some of what they say will jive with each other, so I know it’s stuff I need to work on. I start making a list (oh dear, another list!) and gear up for the next round of revision.
15. Repeat with critique partners, agent, and eventually editor…. and then voila! It’s done!
16. I’m sure I won’t be one of those writers marking up their now-published book with a pen before readings. Right?
17. We’ll see.
This is a bit of a cheat, since in truth I read The War That Saved My Life while I was on vacation in France last week. But wifi was hard to come by, so the review is coming a bit belatedly.
I’ve been hearing such great buzz about this book, and I have to say, it’s very well-deserved. I was sucked into this story immediately by our engaging narrator, nine-year-old Ada, whose worldview has been so limited prior to the story’s beginning. Because of her clubfoot (and her 
mother’s emotionally abusive nature), Ada has never stepped outside their London apartment. But everything changes with World War II, as along with many other London children, Ada is shipped to the countryside, along with her younger brother Jamie. Taken in by Susan, a stern, aloof woman with wounds of her own, Ada finds her world opening up in ways both startling and profound. She connects with Susan’s pony, other children, and eventually with Susan herself. At the same time, though, Ada struggles to believe in the possibility of a real connection with Susan. Her whole life experience has kept love an arm’s length away, and to some degree, she’s waiting for her experience in the countryside to disappear like the mirage she expects it to be. It’s expectations like that which feed a reader’s connection to Ada. The mixture of her hope and fear of disappointment is powerful, and a big contributor to the story’s pacing as, like Ada, we read in fear of the other shoe dropping.
Reading Ada’s story while traipsing around wet, soggy France and visiting the Maginot Line tunnels, it was hard not to think about the actual, confusing experience of World War II. With the Great War still in everyone’s conscience, being back in that position again was deeply unsettling. For Ada, with such a limited worldview, it’s even more confusing. In many ways, Ada is such an ideal vehicle for a historical story because her limited understanding of what is going on around her mimics the reader’s. A child of 8 to 10 years–the book’s intended audience–is not going to have a very full understanding of World War II. Bradley manages just the right amount of telling, which feels entirely appropriate for Ada, who’s trying to make sense of everything. The immediacy and novelty of the wartime experience was palpable.
There’s still this lingering sentiment that historical fiction is “boring,” I think because in some historical novels, the protagonist is not playing an active enough role in the story. While Ada is a victim of two circumstances–growing up with an abusive mother and being evacuated from London–she doesn’t passively experience the war. It’s her yearning and attempts at connection and significance, whether it’s with the horse or the neighbor girl or the suspicious man she spots on the beach, that give this story serious momentum. Add to that the just-the-right-length short chapters, and this was a book I zoomed through.
It’s early yet in my 2015 reading, but I can definitely see this title being in the mix for the 2016 Newbery award. It’s one I’ll be recommending widely.
I’m fairly proud of myself for only buying three books on my trip: a French copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, a French copy of Perks of Being a Wallflower, and a book for my father about Fort Vaux (en francais aussi — sorry, Dad!).
This winter, in the absence of my spring-fall soundtrack of endless baseball games, I’ve gotten hooked on podcasts. I’ve been an on and off listener of This American Life for years, but outside of that radio show (and podcast), I hadn’t found any others that consistently engaged me. Now, to be fair, I am easily distracted and not good at sitting still. But I’m also a multi-tasker, and as an adult who spends countless hours every week doing chores, I’ve found podcasts as my new best friend. After hours sitting at my desk writing, combining podcasts and washing the dishes or scrubbing the floor or folding laundry gives me that much-needed mental and physical break.
Now, where does my cat come into this? Well, for Christmas, my husband and I received a portable speaker (the UE boom) and it has totally changed the way I listen to music, podcasts, baseball games, etc. in my house. We are probably the last people to discover bluetooth portable speakers, but, OMG, the sound quality is incredible, it can go anywhere, and it’s super cute to boot. So now, instead of blasting a podcast on my tinny iPhone speakers, I connect to the UE boom. The sound quality is so good that it really messes with my cat. Every time I start up a This American Life episode and Ira Glass starts talking, she’ll wander in with the most puzzled expression on her face. Where is that man? He comes to our house once a week, but he’s… invisible. And he only stays for an hour. What the heck, Moms? She’s seriously creeped out at this point.
Right now, in addition to This American Life (which, by the way, absolutely blew me away with the latest episode–I was so riveted by the stories of the young adults who’d participated in the exchange between the elite private high school and the public school in the Bronx), I’m a huge fan of the following podcasts.
1. Narrative Breakdown – Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic editor Cheryl Klein and director James Monohan bring in a wide variety of guests to discuss topics related to writing/publishing/creativity. There’s a great backlog of episodes (they are a bit sporadic, but usually there’s a new one about once a month) of this podcast, nearly all of which I’ve listened to. I love hearing writers talk about their process, and also Cheryl’s keen insights from the editorial perspective.
2. This Creative Life – In Sara Zarr’s podcast (a bit more sporadic than Narrative Breakdown), she interviews a variety of fiction writers who discuss their process and different aspects of the writing life. The sheer honesty in these conversations is so refreshing.
3. Finish Line – As someone who lives a mile from where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found in a boat two years ago this April, I’m finding it impossible not to pay some level of attention to his trial, which started a few weeks ago. I’ve found that this 10-15 minute, almost-daily podcast gives me just the right balance of information and reflection. I tried following Globe reporter Kevin Cullen’s Twitter feed, but found it both overwhelming and too emotional (for me).
4. Serial – This was the one that started it all and got me hooked back on the podcast format. The first season ended back in the fall, but oh man, did Serial have me hooked. I listened to each episode as soon as it posted on Thursday morning, and then the Slate Serial Spoilers Special Podcast every Saturday morning. Obviously, I was not alone in my obsession, as Serial became such a cultural phenomenon. I’m very curious to see where Sarah Koenig takes it for season two, and how well the intensity of the listening experience holds up when it switches away from a true crime story.
So, those are my favorite podcasts as of today. What else should I be listening to?
What is love? As she sits at the table wearing her cats ears, 7th grader Bridge tries to answer that question in her own words for a homework assignment. But she’s not sure what to write, and doesn’t think too much about what she scribbles down. Seventh grade seems to be the year that could test Bridge’s BFF threesome with Tab and Emily. They’ve been best friends forever, but it doesn’t take long into the school year for Tab to fall under the sway of her activist/feminist teacher “the Berperson” or for Emily to start crushing hard on Patrick, sending body part pictures back and forth on their cell phones. Having survived being hit by a car when she was eight years old, Bridge is obsessed with the idea of her life having greater purpose–what is the reason she made it–but is still stumped on the answer. And then there’s Sherm, a new friend Bridge makes, who could maybe be more–Sherm (short for Sherman), the writer of unsent notes to his grandfather.
In this touching, intelligent, and timely novel, Stead inches us through the school year as these characters come to greater understandings of love, friendship, and themselves. Just as in Where You Reach Me, there is a puzzle aspect to Stead’s latest. In addition to the front story of Bridg
e and her friends and Sherman, there’s a more mysterious story with an unknown teenage protagonist, written in second person. As readers delve deeper and deeper into the story, they’ll work to figure out this person’s identity, and enjoy making the connections as we get closer and closer to Valentine’s Day, when all the threads comes together.
Goodbye Stranger displays Stead’s uncanny sensibility with dialogue and exquisite precision with storytelling. Every moment unfolds at exactly the right pace with an astonishing economy of language. I must admit, I’m curious to see the age recommendations for this title, in part because of the content. The language and situations are more mature than in Stead’s previous two middle grade novels. That said, I admire the way she takes such a touchy topic–cyberbullying, the oh-so-common teen challenges–and applies her own twist. At no point does this story come across as didactic. Every moment is grounded in the characters’ age-appropriate sensibility. Every moment feels authentic.
This one won’t hit the bookshelves until August, and man, do I feel lucky to have had a sneak preview. (Thank you, ALA Midwinter!) Y’all are in for a treat.
In summation: I would not be at all surprised to see this title up on the big screen at the 2015 ALA Youth Media Awards.
