Winner of HOW TO OUTRUN A CROCODILE WHEN YOUR SHOES ARE UNTIED Announced

 

The winner of Jess Keating's stellar debut is....

Ms. Hendrix

Please e-mail me with your snail mail address, and I'll send it right along.

Thanks, everyone for entering! Have a great week.

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday: How to Outrun a Crocodile When Your Shoes are Untied by Jess Keating--plus Interview and Giveaway

How to Outrun a Crocodile When Your Shoes are Untied (by Jess Keating, Sourcebooks Jabberwocky June 2014)

What it's About (from Goodreads): Ana didn't ask to be named after an anaconda. She didn't ask for zoologist parents who look like safari guides. And she definitely didn't ask for a twin brother whose life goal seems to be terrorizing her with his pet reptiles. Now, to make matters worse, her parents have decided to move the whole family INTO the zoo! All of which gives the Sneerers (the clan of carnivorous female predators in her class) more ammunition to make her life miserable-and squash any hope of class tennis stud, Zack, falling in love with her. Ana tries to channel her inner chameleon and fade into the background, but things are changing too quickly for her to keep up.

Opening Lines: "Don't. Freak. Out.
It was the day before my twelfth half-birthday, and I was spending it holding the business end of a crocodile."

What I Liked About It:  Did I say 'liked"? I meant LOVED! This is one of my fave reads of the year, because it's the sort of book I myself would love to write. It's funny, the characters are compelling, and Jess Keating utterly nails the middle grade voice.

And she utterly nails middle grade concerns as well. Ana is not an extrovert like her parents and grandfather. The last thing she wants to do is be in front of a TV camera because, well, what if everyone--particularly the mean girl clique (so beautifully named the "Sneerers"--judges her? What if her best friend, who's gone to live in New Zealand, no longer wants to be best friends? What if her crush looks at her when she's doing something stupid? As Ana would say: Oh. My. God.

I think middle grade readers are going to love this novel. The cover is immensely eye-catching, and there's going to be a series!!! (The next book is called How to Outswim a Shark Without a Snorkel.) And furthermore, Jess Keating is a zoologist and totally knows her animal stuff. I mean, didn't you know that armadillos sleep for an average of eighteen hours a day?! [Each chapter begins with an animal fact such as this.]

Speaking of Jess, she is really good at Twitter (so go follow her), really fast at replying to e-mail, and lives in Canada. So three Mafioso cheers for her!

Interview:
Jess took some time to answer the usual Mafioso questions. Please enjoy:

Middle Grade Mafioso: Hi Jess

Jess: MG MAFIOSO! Thank you for having me!

1) Who are your favorite (middle grade) writers?

Ack! It's cliché, but the truth is I just have too many favorite authors to choose just one! I think books are like vitamins. Sometimes, you're low on Vitamin Kate DiCamillo, so you pick up one of her books. Then one day you wake up and you find you need some Linda Urban, so you go for that instead.

I learn so much from nearly every book I read, so I truly do see many authors as mentors in a way. I will say that while I don't have a favorite, I often find myself turning to Meg Cabot, Rachel Renée Russell, and Judy Blume when I need something really voicey. I'm also inspired by Katherine Applegate, Jennifer Nielsen, Tom Angleberger, Jenni Holm, Eliot Schrefer, and the two ladies mentioned above!

There are also several picture book writers whose books constantly inspire me, such as Mo Willems, Ame Dyckman, Bob Shea, Molly Idle, and Oliver Jeffers. I know, I know, you said middle grade authors only, but I think that MG writers can learn a lot by studying picture books—it takes a lot of skill to distill that much voice and story into so few words!

Do you like how I turned what should have been a two word answer into several paragraphs?

MGM: Love it! But hey, the floor is yours, so be my guest.

2) What's on your nightstand now?

A TBR pile that's taking over the rest of the room. I just finished THE CABINET OF WONDERS, by Marie Rutkoski, which features the best fictional spider since Charlotte. I'm also rereading THIS JOURNAL BELONGS TO RATCHET, by Nancy Cavanaugh, along with THREATENED by Eliot Schrefer. There's also a tattered copy of WE ARE IN A BOOK!, by Mo Willems, just for good measure.

MGM: I love Charlotte! So now I've gotta find THE CABINET OF WONDERS!

3) Pick a favorite scene from your novel, and say why you like it

My favorite scenes to write were the ones where Ana suffers the most. That's pretty terrible, isn't it? I'm learning now that these are also the scenes where readers laugh and cringe the most! I love the scene where she botches her live television interview. I also loved the night time caveman scene with Daz, mainly because he's an absolute nutjob. (MGM: He certainly is!)

On the flip side, my favorite scene to read is the ending. Without spoiling things, I can say that I thought about this ending a lot, and knew I was opening a can of worms for Ana. I already can't wait to surprise readers in book two! (MGM: Hooray!)

4) Fill in the blank: I'm really awesome at.... finishing sentences! I'm also great at making popcorn in fun flavors like caramel apple, and lime parmesan. (MGM: Well, the Don will like the lime parmesan...)

5) My favorite breakfast is... second breakfast.

6) If you could visit any place, where would it be?

If we're talking real places, I'd love to visit Australia! I was lucky enough to travel through New Zealand, but never got a chance to skip across and visit the Land of Oz. There are so many amazing animals there (most of which can kill you by simply looking at you), that's hard to pass up!
If we're talking fictional places, I would visit Hogwarts, so I could take Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures class.
What about YOU, Mr. Mafioso? Where would you visit?

MGM: I've lived in Australia, and it is all that it's cracked up to be. Hey, I've even held a koala. I do think now that I'd like to revisit Italy. I haven't been there since I was about 9. And I really want to check and see if the gelato is as good as I remember it. Thanks for asking, by the way.

About the Author: You can catch Jess at her great website, which has a ton of good things. And, as I said, she's an ace at Twitter.

One More Thing: I'm giving away my ARC of How to Outrun a Crocodile When Your Shoes are Untied. All you need to do is comment. International entries welcome, seeing that Jess is an international author. If you tweet, let me know--and I'll give you an extra entry.

Until next time, ciao!

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday: THE SUMMER I SAVED THE WORLD... IN 65 DAYS by Michele Weber Hurwitz

THE SUMMER I SAVED THE WORLD... IN 65 DAYS by Michele Weber Hurwitz (Wendy Lamb Books/Penguin Random House, April 2014)

What It's About (from the author's website): It's the summer before freshman year in high school and 13-year old Nina Ross is feeling kind of lost. Her beloved Grandma died last year; her super-lawyer parents work all the time; her brother's busy with his friends and his job at the pool; and her best friend Jorie is into clothes, makeup, and boys. While Nina doesn't know what her "thing" is yet, it's definitely not shopping and makeup. And it's not boys either. Though, has Eli, the boy next door, always been so cute?

This summer, Nina decides to change things. She hatches a plan. There are 65 days of summer. Every day, she'll anonymously do one small but remarkable good thing for someone in her family or neighborhood, and find out: does doing good actually make a difference? Along the way, she discovers that people are full of surprises and secrets. In this bighearted, sweetly romantic novel, things might not turn out exactly as Nina expects. They might be better.

Opening Lines:

It starts with Mrs. Chung.

And flowers.

Marigolds.

My grandmother believed in what she called STs--Simple Truths. This was one of her favorites: Things happen when they're meant to happen, and the sooner people realize that, the more content they'll be. Most people, she said, don't understand, even when those things are right in front of them."

Why I Liked It: I admit it--Michele Weber Hurwitz is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. I loved her debut, CALLI BE GOLD, which I reviewed in November 2011. I said then that I loved the combination of humor and heart, and THE SUMMER I SAVED THE WORLD... IN 65 DAYS pulls off a similar feat.

Michele Weber Hurwitz has an uncanny ability to get into the mind of a 13-year-old, and Nina's worries about her family, about her friends, and about the neighborhood in which she lives ring very true to life. Each family in the cul de sac--including Nina's own--has problems. For Nina, it's that her parents are workaholics, and her brother seems to have gone off the rails a bit and she feels disconnected from him.

Spurred on by her memories of her grandmother, Nina decides she'll do a good deed for each of the 65 days of summer. Some of the good deeds, like picking up her friend Jorie's lip gloss on the bus and slipping it back into Jorie's bag, seem inconsequential (except that we know Nita has an increasingly complicated relationship with Jorie, who is also interested in the boy that Nita likes.) Others, like helping the injured Mrs. Chung with her mail and her garden, are more practical. What they all have in common, however, is that they bring the neighborhood closer together.

One of my favorite librarian bloggers, Karen Yingling, wrote in her review that THE SUMMER I SAVED THE WORLD... IN 65 DAYS is "pitch perfect for girls on the cusp between middle school and high school. It also made me want to go do random acts of kindness." As I laughed and cried through this wonderful ode to the power of community, I couldn't agree more!

Being the Mafioso I am, I just had to get to know Michele Weber Hurwitz a bit better. Here's how she handled the customary Mafioso grilling:


1) Who are your favorite (middle grade) writers?

There are so many authors I love, it's hard to choose. I'm a big fan of Sarah Weeks, Deborah Wiles, Tom Angleberger, and Rainbow Rowell, although she's more YA. My favorite all-time middle grade book is Holes by Louis Sachar.

2) What's on your nightstand now?

Bird by Crystal Chan, and a grown-up book, which I don't read as often -- The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin. I loved her YA book Elsewhere.

3) Pick a favorite scene from your novel, and say why you like it.

It's hard to choose! There's one scene early on where an older neighbor, Mrs. Milllman, calls the police after the main character, Nina, starts doing some of her secret good deeds. That scene is so funny to me, because Mrs. Millman is suspicious and thinks "someone" has been trespassing in the neighborhood. She grows more and more hysterical (in both senses of the word) throughout the book. There's also a pivotal moment in the story when Nina does something in memory of her grandma, who died a year earlier, and the poignancy of that scene gets me every time! And, any scene with Thomas, the five-year old boy in the neighborhood, tugs at my heart and makes me smile at the same time. {Mafioso here: Thomas rocks!}

4) Fill in the blank: I'm really awesome at...

Organizing things! Shelves, closets, desks, you name it and I can organize it in twenty minutes flat. It's a weird talent. More like an obsession. I often drive my family crazy :) {You totally have to come and organize the Don's compound, Michele. He's bound to give you The Order of the Eggplant after that!}

5) My favorite breakfast is...

French toast with berries and maple syrup or a really gooey cinnamon roll. {My wife'll join you in that gooey cinnamon roll...}

6) If you could visit any place, where would it be?

Paris. I took French through high school and college but I've forgotten most of it. I'd love to try to speak the language again, as well as spend time in that beautiful city. {Mais oui, Paris!}

Michele Weber Hurwitz, courtesy of Rinker Photo

About the Author: In my dealings with Michele Weber Hurwitz, I can say she is a lovely person. She has a fabulous website, with a great ABOUT ME page. (where you can learn that she is obsessed with post-it notes, and dislikes tomatoes.) You can also find her on Twitter @MicheleWHurwitz.

Thanks so much, Michele, for answering my questions--and for writing two amazing novels!

My Writing Process--the tour... continues with Joy McCullough-Carranza

Joy McCullough-Carranza

Thanks to all who commented on my (and the Don's) conversation about my writing process last week. I love this feeling of being part of a chain!

I tagged my Project Mayhem friend, Joy McCullough-Carranza, to continue the tour after me. Please go to Joy's blog and say "hi" and learn about her process. Joy is very wise, and I really hope to hear that she gets a middle grade boom deal soon. (Her agent is the awesome Sara Crowe, so I wouldn't be surprised if something is in the cards.)

Joy has linked to three other writers--Sharon Roat, Laura Shovan, and Darian Lindle. I'm looking forward to reading all about their process next week.

Ciao for now!

My Writing Process, the tour

Cartoon by BrainPop on Flickr

So, there are these two writers--R.L. Saunders and Joe McGee--who are pretty amazing. Their agent, Linda P. Epstein, is at the same agency as my agent--which is kind of how I got to know them. I started reading their blogs, and I was all "holey moley, this is some interesting stuff." Both of them write engaging sentences. Both of them make you think. And both of them have gotten themselves involved in this writing process blog thingy.

Joe McGee

R.L Saunders

Which is where I come in.
You see, Joe tagged Rhonda, and Rhonda passed the torch to me--and now I get to bend your ear for a coupla minutes about this whole writing thing which, if you've thought about it, you have to admit is a bit of a mystery.

I've been writing since I was knee high to a 6th-grader. And I've been writing for publication for more years than I'd like to admit--which means that when I do eventually get published, I will label myself an overnight sensation. (The kind of "overnight" that Rip Van Winkle woke from, of course.) What little I do know can basically be boiled down to: "Just Keep on Trucking," and "One Size Most Definitely Does Not Fit All."

And now, my answers to the tour's questions:

What are you working on?
Will you think badly of me if I admit that I am working on more things than I should be? I am the poster child for the bright and shiny new idea--and unfortunately such things plague me daily. In the shower, on a walk, chopping vegetables: here they come. I have notebooks filled with ideas, four different starts of novels--all of which are magnifico; and a couple of things "in revision," (and which probably will remain in revision for the same time as The Phantom of the Opera has been on Broadway. Hey, we're here for the long haul, ain't we?)

But I probably should say I'm working on a chapter book about a couple of crazy housepets--while I wait for word from the agent about what he thinks of my latest chapter book which I am sure will be the next big thing, and which I can't tell you about because I am superstitious. I also abide--like a good middle grade mafioso--by the code of Omerta.

Speaking of Omerta, here comes the Don to check in on me now--so I'll have to pretend I'm working on his autobiography, VITAL VITO: PUTTING THE GOD IN GODFATHER.

Oh no. He speaks.

Don Vito: Michale! Long time no see. Youse up for a game of cards? Winner take all.

Me: Sorry, Boss. I'm on deadline.

The Don, pinching my cheek: That's what I like about you writer types, always dreaming up some crazy scheme or another. Did you hear Luca's got himself a new blog, too? "In Da Cement," he's calling it. Says it's his restaurant reviews. (Winks). You believe him?

(Luca's my main blogging rival, so making him look bad is kind of my major goal in life.)

Me: I did hear about that. Last week he was claiming some place in Manhattan makes an eggplant parmigiana better than your wife's. (Let the Don stew on that for a while. He doesn't look pleased.) But hey, I do need your advice. I've got to write something about how my work... let me look up the question... oh yeah, here it is: How does your work differ from others in its genre?

The Don: Easy. You're better than everyone else. Look at the top of this blog. What did I say to ya when ya started this thing? "You're not middle anything. You're top grade. Top grade, you hear me? Anybody else call you this middle thing, and I bust some knee caps. Capice?"

Me: Well, thanks for the vote of confidence, Boss. But apparently I shouldn't consider myself a snowflake.

The Don: Hey, don't talk to me of snowflakes, Michale. You hear it snowed in Denver on Mudder's Day? Snowed! And right after we bought the ice cream truck franchise out west, too. Jiminy Cricket wid bells on.

Me:  Sorry to hear that. Hey, here's another question: Why do you write what you do?

The Don: What?! Are youse getting all mumbo jumbo and psychological on me? The answer's simple: Because I pay you.

Me: I think it means why do I write middle grade, and not adult romance, or something like that...?

The Don: Romance? I'd like to see you try that stuff. You get squeamish when you see people kissin'. Nah, let me tell ya the answer. You write your kinda stuff because you can barely tie your shoelaces. No offence, ya understand? But you're a kid.

Me: Well, I like to think I'm a kid at heart...

The Don: Listen, you're still a kid. Now, any more of dem questions? I'se got a lawyer waiting I gotta speak with.

Me: There's one last one: How does your writing process work? Let's see, I get interrupted a lot. I'm at the mercy of the "powers that be." I try and do a couple of hours daily, in the morning because that's when the kids are at school and my biorhythms are at their best...

The Don: You read about dem biorhythms in Reader's Digest?

Me: Some place like that. Let's see... I get ideas from all over the place. Usually, a character comes into my head. This character has a great name, and I start asking him or her questions, and then he or she riffs, and then I go "What if...?" and then, the character and I, we come up with a plot, and then...

The Don: Whoa, youse reacting badly to some medication, or what? I'll call in Daffara, that medico who helped me with my inflammation...

Me: I'm fine. You might wanna check in on Luca, though. I guess my final answer is that I work and work, and I laugh at my own jokes, and pretty soon I've got something down. And then the heavy lifting begins and...

The Don, circling finger around by his ear: Woo-woo. Would you look at the time? Youse making me late for bocce. Don't forget, next week I wanna see dem page proofs on the God in Godfather bidness. Capice? Ciao!

Phew! Well, as you can see, writing can be a whole lotta fun when you got someone like the Don breathing down your neck. Hey, speaking of next week, this writing process tour is going to feature my pal from Project Mayhem, Joy McCullough-Carranza. Here's her bio from Project Mayhem:

Joy McCullough-Carranza – Joy grew up in San Diego (where she was a total bookworm), went to college in Chicago (where she studied theater and became a playwright), and lived in Guatemala for a year (where she met her husband). Now she makes her home in Seattle with two book-obsessed kids and an equally book-obsessed husband. A walk through their home includes the ever-present danger of a falling stack of books. Between homeschooling her children, freelance writing and editing, answering someone else’s fan mail, and writing her own middle grade fiction, Joy makes room for Project Mayhem in her life. She is represented by Sara Crowe of Harvey Klinger, Inc.  Website  Twitter  Blog
Thanks, all! See you for some more Marvelous Middle Grade Monday next week. I've got a goodie for you... (P.S. The winner of last week's ARC of The Meaning of Maggie was Andrea Mack!)

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday: THE MEANING OF MAGGIE by Megan Jean Sovern (Interview and ARC Giveaway)

THE MEANING OF MAGGIE by Megan Jean Sovern (Chronicle Books, May 2014)

What It's About (from Goodreads): For Maggie Mayfield, turning eleven means she's one year closer to college. One year closer to voting. And one year closer to getting a tattoo. It's time for her to pull herself up by her bootstraps (the family motto) and think about more than after school snacks and why her older sisters are too hot for their own good. Because something mysterious is going on with her cool dude Dad, whose legs have permanently fallen asleep, and Maggie is going to find out exactly what the problem is and fix it. After all, nothing's impossible when you're future president of the United States of America, fifth grade science fair champion, and a shareholder in Coca-Cola, right?

Opening Lines: (Prologue) ~~ Beep. Beep. Beep. My dad won't stop beeping. And it's impossible to concentrate while my dad is beeping. He's been beeping for almost a whole day now. And it's not the friendly beep of an ice cream truck backing up after you chased it halfway down the block either.

What I Liked: This novel has VOICE in spades. Maggie is intelligent, self-aware, and humorous--particularly when writing about her older sisters, Tiffany and Layla, who are high schoolers.

I laughed a lot while reading this book--even though the subject matter is fundamentally serious and a little sad. Maggie's "cool dude" dad has multiple sclerosis, and it's getting worse. He's had to give up his job and stay home, while Maggie's mom has gone to work as a head housekeeper at a large hotel. But while this situation upends Maggie's life, the humorous way in which she sees the world is redemptive. Here's a taste, just after she's arrived at the hospital after her dad has had a seizure:

"We went back up to the waiting room where it was minus one hundred degrees. I  nuzzled in close to Mom's side again because it was warm there because her body functioned at a temperature higher than most adults because she had more to do than anyone else.

She winked at my sisters. "You know your father, he loves making a scene. But don't worry, girls. Everything's going to be okay."

I felt safe next to her molten side. And I believed her."

Each of the supporting characters is incredibly well-drawn--from the parents, to the sisters, to the negative grandmother who is totallly self-absorbed. I also loved all of Maggie's escapades at school, including her B at the Science Fair (all because she does a project on her dad's illness, but of course there's no cure, so she gets docked points for that. Here is her riff on the winner--and I dare you to keep a straight face:

"Getting a B on my science fair project really wrecked me. Not only because Bs were for losers but because some idiot went on to win MY blue ribbon. Jeremy Smith did some boring report on windmills and how they solve the energy crisis. Yeah right, the only thing that was going to solve the energy crisis was math and A LOT of it. The worst part? He didn't even have a ta-da moment. He just made a lame three-panel board covered in a bunch of pictures. I just didn't know what those judges were thinking. Didn't anyone have standards anymore? You think Albert Einstein ever made a three-panel board? Of course not! He had awesome hair and people with awesome hair only did awesome things, just like Dad and me."

And then there's the footnotes. Pure genius! Read the book, and see what I mean

I enjoyed this book so much, I decided to shoot the author my trademark Mafioso questions. Here's what she came up with (my comments in italics):

1) Who are your favorite (middle grade) writers?

Rebecca Stead, Kate DiCamillo, R.J Palacio, Lemony Snicket, Beverly Cleary, Judy Blume, Roald Dahl and my eight-year-old niece Lane. Her imagination is ahead of its time. 
(I don't know Lane (yet!)--but you have to admit Megan Jean Sovern has excellent taste with all the others...)

2) What's on your nightstand now?

Going Over by Beth Kephart, Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell and L is for Lollygag because you just never know when you’re going to need a quirky word. (Ooh! Beth Kephart. I have some serious Beth Kephart love going on!)

3) Pick a favorite scene from your novel, and say why you like it

I think the truest words written are buried somewhere in the final chapters when Maggie says, “Because no one loved anyone as much as we loved Dad.” It’s my favorite because that thought means everything. To Maggie. And to me.  (Amen!)

4) Fill in the blank: I'm really awesome at....  

Being really bad at dancing, whistling and sleeping.  (Yikes! I'm great at all this. I'll have to send some of my magic Megan Jean's way...)

5) My favorite breakfast is...

Cinnamon rolls and CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood. 

6) If you could visit any place, where would it be?

Mr. McGregor’s vegetable garden. (Greatest. Answer. Ever. The imagination boggles!)

About the Author: Megan Jean Sovern has one of the coolest websites ever. She is one hilarious person, who lives in Atlanta, Georgia, and is represented by Marietta Zacker.

Giveaway: I received the ARC of THE MEANING OF MAGGIE from Chronicle Books, in exchange for an honest review, and I am so in love with this story that I want one of you to win it from me so you can laugh and cry over it too. Just leave a comment, and I will pick a winner next week. Thanks for stopping by!

My New Series on Project Mayhem: Celebrating Young Writers

I'm at Project Mayhem today, interviewing 10-year-old Felicia, who has already written and published her first novel,  The Perpetual Papers of the Pack of Pets. Check it my interview HERE.