YA For A Day: The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon

The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon

What It's About (from Goodreads):
Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story.

Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store—for both of us.


The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true?

Opening Lines:
From a Prologue: "Carl Sagan says that if you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. When he says "from scratch" he means from nothing. He means from before a time the world even existed."

What I Thought:
This was a fast read, and will appeal to the hopelessly romantic. As such, it is a tonic for this cynical and querulous age. I liked that the MCs were kids of color: Natasha is from Jamaica, and Daniel's parents are Korean. The main time frame of the novel takes place within 24 hours, and it is about chance and the different paths life can take.

Daniel is a poet, and Natasha has a scientific bent--but both of them impart some of their world view to the other. I liked the way Yoon dealt with the limitations of a first person narrative, by having chapters from a secondary characters viewpoint, and even interludes about multiverses, hair, and eyes.

While I was reading, I kept thinking in cinematic terms--so I wasn't surprised to read that it had been made into a movie!

About the Author:
Nicola Yoon grew up in Jamaica (the island) and Brooklyn (part of Long Island). She currently resides in Los Angeles, CA with her husband and daughter, both of whom she loves beyond all reason. The Sun Is Also a Star is her second novel, after Everything, Everything.

YA For a Day: I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez

 I AM NOT YOUR PERFECT MEXICAN DAUGHTER by Erika L. Sánchez (Alfred A. Knopf, 2017)

What It's About: 
Perfect Mexican daughters do not go away to college. And they do not move out of their parents’ house after high school graduation. Perfect Mexican daughters never abandon their family.

But Julia is not your perfect Mexican daughter. That was Olga’s role.

Then a tragic accident on the busiest street in Chicago leaves Olga dead and Julia left behind to reassemble the shattered pieces of her family. And no one seems to acknowledge that Julia is broken, too. Instead, her mother seems to channel her grief into pointing out every possible way Julia has failed.


But it’s not long before Julia discovers that Olga might not have been as perfect as everyone thought. With the help of her best friend Lorena, and her first kiss, first love, first everything boyfriend Connor, Julia is determined to find out. Was Olga really what she seemed? Or was there more to her sister’s story? And either way, how can Julia even attempt to live up to a seemingly impossible ideal.

First Lines:

What's surprised me most about seeing my sister dead is the lingering smirk on her face. Her pale lips are turned up ever so slightly, and someone has filled in her patchy eyebrows with a black pencil. The top half of her face is angry--like she's ready to stab someone--and the bottom half is almost smug. This is not the Olga I knew. Olga was as meek and fragile as a baby bird.

My Thoughts:
I always like reading books about other experiences, and this one did not disappoint. Julia is a typical rebellious teenager, except she's straddling two worlds: the America she's grown up in, and the traditional values of her Mexican family.  The whole family is thrown into crisis by the death of her older sister, Olga. Julia moves from experiencing grief through anger, to realizing that her sister might not have been the perfect daughter everyone thought her to be.

The word I'd most use to describe Julia is caustic. She says what she thinks, and it often gets her into trouble. As is common in the teenage years, Julia feels she belongs nowhere, and this leads her to dark places.

In an attempt to readjust her view of life, her parents send her to spend time with family in Mexico. At this point in the book, Julia is ready to change and learn some lessons. This interlude is where the novel opened up. We got to learn the back story about an event which totally changed her parents' lives, and this gives Julia crucial insight into them.

I liked that the novel still wasn't all sweetness and light after this. Julia still struggles as she learns about her sister's secret life, as she receives college rejection letters, and she tries to figure out what to do with Connor, the boy she met at a bookstore, and with whom she might or might not be in love.

The insights into Mexican culture were fascinating, the narrative flowed well, and it was an engrossing read. What else could a predominantly middle grade mafioso ask for during an infrequent venture into YA? Hooray!

About the Author:
Erika L. Sánchez is the daughter of Mexican immigrants. A poet, novelist, and essayist, her debut poetry collection, Lessons on Expulsion, was published by Graywolf in July 2017, and was a finalist for the PEN America Open Book Award. Her debut young adult novel, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, published in October 2017 by Knopf Books for Young Readers, is a New York Times Bestseller and a National Book Awards finalist.

You can learn even more about her at her website. Twitter

YA-For-A-Day: THE WILD LANDS by Paul Greci

THE WILD LANDS by Paul Greci (Imprint, January 29, 2019)

The Mafioso has to admit straight-up that he counts Paul as a friend--and that Paul was a member of the group blog Project Middle Grade Mayhem, which I managed. This, of course, has made The Don wildly happy. As he was famously quoted by Mario Puzo, "Friendship is everything. Friendship is more than talent. It is more than the government. It is almost the equal of family."

And, as he just told me, "You should be doing nuttin' but writing 'bout your friends. 'Cos, when I'm gone, that's all you'se gonna have left. Capice?" I guess that's a strong green light.

What It's About (from Goodreads): 
Natural disasters and a breakdown of civilization have cut off Alaska from the world and destroyed its landscape. Now, as food runs out and the few who remain turn on each other, Travis and his younger sister, Jess, must cross hundreds of miles in search of civilization.

The wild lands around them are filled with ravenous animals, desperate survivors pushed to the edge, and people who’ve learned to shoot first and ask questions never.


Travis and Jess will make a few friends and a lot of enemies on their terrifying journey across the ruins of today’s world—and they’ll have to fight for what they believe in as they see how far people will go to survive.

Opening Lines: 

"With any luck we'll be gone by tomorrow," Dad says.

I nod and keep stuffing the tent into its sack, looking forward to getting out of this ash bucket but not to the four hundred mile walk north. And not to cramming my six-foot frame into a small tent with my mom, dad, and sister." 

Why I Loved It:
Paul Greci lives in Alaska, and seems to have taken the land into his very sinews and bones. As in his debut middle grade, Surviving Bear Island, the setting is a character in itself. Around Fairbanks, the land has been ravaged by fires, and what is left of society is living on the very edge.

The characterization is great. Paul deals with a large cast of characters, but the ones who truly matter are made indelible by his deft descriptions. 17-year-old Travis chafes against his father's hard-nosed commands, but comes to an understanding of why his father was the way he was. His ten-year-old sister, Jess, misses her mother deeply, yet Jess shows amazing grit and resolve as she keeps up with the older characters as they make their way through many miles through treacherous terrain. The main antagonist, Dylan, is a truly frightening character because he seems to have some sort of power to read the land and sense what's going on.

There are many high-intensity scenes and, at times, I was on the edge of my seat. (At one point, a chapter ended with a cliffhanger when it looked like Dylan would make a surprise reappearance. I defy any reader not to scream.) [I told the Don I was screaming because his favorite soccer team, Juventus, had just scored a goal. He believed me.]

The issues of climate change, environmental destruction, and the collapse of society hang over this masterful YA dystopian novel--but it is never a polemic because the characters are so well-formed and the writing so self-assured. I wholeheartedly recommend this novel to all those who love survival stories, heart-pounding thrillers, and novels set in wild places.

Because I know Paul, I was able to bug him with some questions I was curious about. Here are his answers:

MGM: Was there anything in particular that sparked your idea for The Wild Lands?

Paul Greci: I spend a lot of time in the Alaska wilderness and love writing wilderness survival stories. I am fascinated both with survival and with climate change, so putting the two together was a story idea that resonated with me.

MGM: How long did you work on the novel?

Paul Greci: The Wild Lands took about ten months from the first word of the first draft to a final draft where I was offered representation by a couple of agents. When we finally found a publisher a few years later, I did a couple revisions based on the notes I received from my editor. In contrast, Surviving Bear Island, my first novel, went through about 50 revisions over a ten-year period before it was published.

MGM: Are you writing a sequel?

Paul Greci: I have ideas for a sequel for The Wild Lands but am not actively writing one right now. I am working on revisions for Follow the River (the sequel to Surviving Bear Island) which is due out sometime in the late fall 2019 from Move Books, and on revisions for another YA Alaska wilderness thriller (title forthcoming) due out in January of 2020 from Macmillan. (MGM: Sounds like a busy man!)

And, if you're wary of taking my word for it, because of this friendship thing, this is what some others have said of The Wild Lands: 

This fast-paced book contains all the hallmarks of a classic wilderness survival novel (deadly terrain, vicious predators, literal cliff-hangers) and the best of the postapocalyptic genre ... The author’s decades of Alaskan wilderness experience is evident throughout ... A great high-stakes wilderness survival tale.” ―School Library Journal

“This rugged survival story places a group of teens in a dark, burned-out post-apocalyptic nightmare. Your heart will pound for them as they face terrible dangers and impossible odds. Gripping, vivid, and haunting!” ― Emmy Laybourne, international bestselling author of the Monument 14 trilogy

“A compelling story that wouldn’t let me stop reading. Greci has created both a frightening landscape and characters you believe in and want to survive it.” ― Eric Walters, author of the bestselling Rule of Three series.

“Heart-racing... A rugged wilderness lover's post-disaster survivalist tale.” ―Kirkus Reviews

About the Author (from Macmillan Publisher's page):

Paul Greci has lived and worked in Alaska for over twenty-five years as a field biology technician in remote wilderness areas, a backpacking trip leader for teens, and a naturalist for several outdoor education programs. His middle grade adventure novel, Surviving Bear Island, was a Junior Library Guild Selection and a Scholastic Reading Club Pick. WEBSITE  Twitter  Facebook

YA FOR THE DAY: Beth Kephart's THIS IS THE STORY OF YOU, interview and giveaway

The Don and I are huge Beth Kephart fans, and when Chronicle Books invited us to be part of the blog tour for Beth's latest YA novel, we jumped at the chance. (We're taking down all the middle grade wallpaper and being YA for a day! The Don's even allowing himself to smoke a cigar in the press room.)

I've raved about Beth before--on my dearly departed blog THE YEAR OF WRITING DANGEROUSLY--and in reviewing her previous novels, Small Damages and You are my Only, I wrote: "Kephart's stories are full of secrets and hurts, of small and sometimes painful declarations of love, and of what it means to expose one's heart to the joys and sorrows of the world." In this new novel, I stand by these assertions.

This is the Story of You takes place on Haven, a six-mile-long, one-half-mile-wide barrier island. It's linked to the mainland by a bridge, a bridge over which Mira Banul's younger brother, Jasper Lee, must regularly cross to get the infusions that will allow him to live with Hunter Syndrome.

Mira describes herself as "medium everything." She's not going anywhere because, on Haven, she has "responsibilities." These include not only her family, but also her friends--particularly Deni and Eva. Into this 'haven' then, rides a colossal storm. The bridge is out, property destroyed, lives lost. Amid the devastation, though, people hang on. There are rescues, and the rise of a patchwork community. Secrets are revealed.

If there is a more wonderful fashioner of sentences than Beth Kephart, then lead me to her, because in my book Beth is the best. Her sentences sing on the page. They are sinews, and sparkles, and strong undertows. Beth Kephart's writing is proof positive that writing can rescue us, can lead us into dark places and back to the light again. At several points in the novel I cried, and the Don claimed that the cigar smoke was bothering his eyes.

I am thrilled that Beth took time to answer our questions. Here we go:

Middle Grade Mafioso, thank you so much for making room for This Is the Story of You—and for your questions.

1. Do your stories germinate from a "what if?" question, or from a glimpse of a character, or some other inciting factor? Was Hurricane Sandy's devastation the catalyst for This is the Story of You?
Oh, the mysteries of the writing process. I wish I could name all the inspirations, all the influences, but perhaps it is best that some of this remains a mystery even to me. When I am writing I am in a mood. I am hearing voices. I am seeing something far away that is coming closer and closer, so close that now I trap it with words.

I love the Jersey shore. I am devastated by rising seas. I imagine the future.  I study these storms. And I love young people, these kids who survive in the wake of calamity. I love Jasper Lee, my young character with Hunter’s syndrome because I had, as part of my job, twice interviewed a person with this condition and grown to be so fond of him.

But in the beginning, I heard a handful of words. I knew I’d be writing about the sea and storms. My husband and I went to Beach Haven off season so that I could feel that world deeply. I got up before dawn each morning and watched the dolphins and the dogs. And the story began there.

2. You have written many wonderful things. What is the greatest challenge for getting words on the page? What is the greatest delight?
Well, first, thank you. I appreciate your words. And — the greatest challenge for me is finding the time. This past year, I have spent most of my time with my father, sorting out and packing up and cleaning and staging and hoping to sell his home, while helping him move into his new home. There was no room for words in all that until, finally, the silence in my writing head burst and I discovered stories waiting for me. Too many stories, perhaps.

When I began to write again—only for a half day here, two hours over there—it seemed as if I had never written before. And I think that maybe it always feels this way. That the new story is the first story. And, all things being new, I have to teach myself how to write again. It’s all hard. It’s all worth it.

3. What words of wisdom would your current self impart to your younger writer self?
Don’t be afraid of all the time you will (because of family responsibilities, because of your paying job, because of how life gets in the way) spend not writing. Something is churning. Your stories will find you.

4. In This is the Story of You, one of your characters has a rare syndrome. How did you learn about this syndrome, and what steps did you take to research it for your character?
As part of my day job, I have interviewed patients for many, many years. Patients with all different conditions, hopes, therapies. I interviewed a young man with Hunter syndrome and met others with the condition. I wrote about the infusion medicine that helps him for many years. I was deeply inspired. I wrote Jasper Lee to honor those who are living with Hunter.

5. Morning person or night owl? Cheesesteak or hoagie?
Morning person, starting at 4 AM. But since my husband is a night owl, I don’t often go to bed until 11 or later.

Can I have a chicken cheesesteak, please? And if you are visiting my hometown of Philadelphia, I think we ought to talk about hoagies. (MGM: If I ever get the chance to visit Philadelphia, I would love to talk about hoagies, as well as writing and life, with Beth Kephart. Beth, I'm holding you to the hoagie conversation!)

Thanks for taking time on a Saturday, no less, for this very special post. A comment here, or on my Facebook link, will give you the opportunity to win a copy of THIS IS THE STORY OF YOU from Chronicle Books. (US and Canada only, please.) Have a great weekend, cari amici.

YA for a Day: EVIL LIBRARIAN by Michelle Knudsen

(Occasionally, Middle Grade Mafioso goes YA for a day. This is one of those days.)

EVIL LIBRARIAN by Michelle Knudsen (Candlewick Press, September 2014)

What It's About (from Goodreads blurb): #EvilLibrarian He’s young. He’s hot. He’s also evil. He’s . . . the librarian.

When Cynthia Rothschild’s best friend, Annie, falls head over heels for the new high-school librarian, Cyn can totally see why. He’s really young and super cute and thinks Annie would make an excellent library monitor. But after meeting Mr. Gabriel, Cyn realizes something isn’t quite right. Maybe it’s the creepy look in the librarian’s eyes, or the weird feeling Cyn gets whenever she’s around him. Before long Cyn realizes that Mr. Gabriel is, in fact . . . a demon. Now, in addition to saving the school musical from technical disaster and trying not to make a fool of herself with her own hopeless crush, Cyn has to save her best friend from the clutches of the evil librarian, who also seems to be slowly sucking the life force out of the entire student body! From best-selling author Michelle Knudsen, here is the perfect novel for teens who like their horror served up with a bit of romance, plenty of humor, and some pretty hot guys (of both the good and evil variety).

Opening Paragraph: "Italian class. The shining highlight of my Tuesdays, Wednesdays , and Fridays. Not because I'm any good at Italian (I'm not), or because I like the teacher (I don't). It's because Ryan Halsey sits one row over and two rows up from where I sit, which is absolutely perfect for forty-five minutes of semi-shameless staring."

Why I Liked It: The cover is great! Cyn's voice is pitch perfect, and there is a lot of inner lusting going on (hence the YA rating.) As the father of thespians, I also liked the fact that both Cyn and Ryan are heavily involved in the school musical, Sweeney Todd which, wouldn't you know, is also a demon favorite. And these demons aren't pussy-footing around either, folks. There are several adult deaths during the course of the novel, and a sort of demon gunfight at the OK corral which was pretty exciting action stuff. I wasn't surprised to hear that Evil Librarian won the 2015 Sid Fleischman Award for Humor from the SCBWI. In summary: it's a funny, fast-paced frolic, complete with sharp-looking teeth and hooked talons.

About the Author (from her website bio): Michelle Knudsen is a New York Times best-selling author of more than 40 books for young readers, including the picture book Library Lion (illustrated by Kevin Hawkes), the middle-grade fantasy novels The Dragon of Trelian and The Princess of Trelian, and the young adult novel Evil Librarian, which was awarded the 2015 Sid Fleischman Award for Humor. Her most recent book is the picture book Marilyn's Monster (Candlewick, March 2015), illustrated by the wonderful Matt Phelan. Michelle also works as a freelance editor and writing teacher, and is a member of the Writing for Young People MFA faculty at Lesley University. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.