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Q & A with Megan Whalen Turner
A Conspiracy of Kings is Megan Whalen Turner's fourth book in the series that began with The Thief, a 1997 Newbery Honor winner. Bookshelf caught up with Turner in California, where her husband's job has taken the family for a sabbatical year.
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The Future Is on the Line...
Author Sarah Mlynowski writes about how a tweet promoting her new book has taken on a life of its own.
Gimme a Call is about a high school senior who accidentally drops her cell phone in a fountain. When she fishes it out, she discovers the only call she can make is to herself—as a high school freshman, at age 14. Since Gimme a Call comes out next week, I thought it would be fun to ask a few fellow YA authors what they would tell their high school selves if, say, they had magic cells of their own. So on Monday I tweeted "Ever wonder what YA authors would tell their high school selves? (If they had magic cell phones that could call the past?) #gimmeacall." What started as a question to fellow authors has spread to their followers and their followers' followers. Click through to read some of my favorite responses. -
Q & A with David Pogue
David Pogue is the personal technology columnist for the New York Times, and is a tech contributor to both CBS News and CNBC. He has authored a number of technology books, including the Missing Manual series of computer guides. Pogue has just written his first children's novel, for middle-grade readers, and he spoke with Bookshelf about it.
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Q & A with Kathryn Erskine
Kathryn Erskine's second novel, Mockingbird, sprang from the intersection of two life-changing events—a daughter diagnosed with Asperger's, and the April 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech near Erskine's home in Charlottesville, Va.
Q: Your daughter, Fiona, has Asperger's Syndrome. When did you decide you wanted to write a novel about a character with that condition?
A: I had been jotting down notes, mulling over the idea of a main character who had Asperger's almost as an exercise—trying to see the world through her eyes, but I didn't have a compelling plot.
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Rick Riordan's Big Year
With two new trilogies launching this year, Percy Jackson author Rick Riordan stands likely to boost his already (ahem) Olympian output—and sales. Disney-Hyperion will release one million copies of The Red Pyramid, first in his Kane Chronicles series inspired by ancient Egyptian magic. An as-yet-unnamed Percy Jackson spin-off will follow, which will combine familiar characters with some new half-human, half-Greek-god kids.
Until now, Riordan has stuck to one book a year. "I've set myself a challenge of putting out two books a year so the readers don't have to wait longer than a year for either series," said Riordan. "That's a pretty big jump for me." -
Q&A with Deb Caletti
Deb Caletti knows she was "meant to be holed up in my room wearing my pjs and talking to my imaginary friends." And, even though becoming a young adult author wasn't part of her original plan, her complex stories about distressed families and complicated romances have certainly connected with teen readers—and critics. Her book Honey, Baby, Sweetheart was named a finalist for a National Book Award in 2004. Here, Caletti talks with Bookshelf about what it's like to write after winning such an honor, the inspiration behind her newest novel, The Six Rules of Maybe, and the actual rules she chooses to live by.
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Q & A with Carrie Ryan
Carrie Ryan is the author of The Forest of Hands and Teeth (2009) and The Dead-Tossed Waves (Mar.), both from Delacorte. Ryan is currently crossing the country on tour to celebrate the publication of her new novel. PW caught up with her via phone on her Lansing, Mich., stop.
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Q & A with Ally Carter
In Ally Carter's Heist Society, a crew of teenage thieves—led by Kat, youngest in a clan of accomplished heistmasters—gets down to the sticky business of retrieving valuable paintings stolen from an Italian mobster. Kat has strong incentive for recovering the masterpieces: to clear the name of her father, prime suspect in the theft, and to return the paintings, plundered by the Nazis decades before, to their rightful place. Launching a series, this latest work by the author of I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You and subsequent Gallagher Girls novels was published by Disney-Hyperion with a 200,000-copy printing. Carter talked to Bookshelf about why—and how—she dunnit.
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Q & A with Elisha Cooper
Author of such picture books as Ballpark, Dance!, and Beach, Elisha Cooper has transported young readers to numerous child-pleasing locales. His latest book takes them to yet another. Due from Orchard, Farm follows the workings of a Midwestern farm over the course of a year.
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Q & A with Ricky Gervais
British comedian, actor, and writer Ricky Gervais's Flanimals and More Flanimals, illustrated by Rob Steen, introduced a cast of absurd creatures, which are now taking on additional zany dimension in Flanimals Pop-Up, due from Candlewick. Gervais spoke with Bookshelf about this and his earlier book projects.
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Q & A with Carrie Jones
Carrie Jones has been spending lots of time with pixies, shape shifters and other fantasy creatures-and it doesn't look like she'll be stopping anytime soon. Her books Need and Captivate, about a smart girl being stalked by a pixie, have struck a chord with readers; both books landed on the New York Times bestseller lists. Now the series could be as many of five books. Jones spoke with Children's Bookshelf about how she became enchanted by pixies, what comes next in the series, and why teen readers need fantasy books right now.
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Q & A with Frank Cottrell Boyce
Q: What inspired you to write this insanely funny and wonderful book?
A: Two things, really. People of my age, we all wanted to go to space. Fly to the moon? That was the dream. So I started with that. And then, my family went away for a year, and when we came back one of my son's friends had had a growth spurt. He was barely recognizable. His mother said something that I actually put in the book. She said, "That's not a growth spurt. That's a mutation." -
When the ALA Calls: Stead and Pinkney on Winning the Big Prize
When you win a Newbery or a Caldecott Medal, you find out in a phone call — usually very early in the morning—and then your life is instantly changed. Both Rebecca Stead and Jerry Pinkney got recently that phone call; we spoke with both of them to find out where they were when the phone rang, what their reactions were, and what came next.
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PW Talks with Gabrielle Zevin
Credit card debt plagues a modern American family in Gabrielle Zevin’s The Hole We’re In, a witty, frightening look at how we spend now.
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Fall 2009 Flying Starts: Nina LaCour
“It was a surprise for me to end up writing a YA novel, but I'm excited about it,” says Nina LaCour, author of Hold Still, the emotionally charged story of Caitlin, a teen photographer struggling to understand the suicide of Ingrid, her best friend and fellow artist.
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Fall 2009 Flying Starts: L.K. Madigan
Like many debut novelists, L.K. (the initials stand for Lisa Kay) Madigan has a day job. Unlike most, hers involves math. She works for a money manager.
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Fall 2009 Flying Starts: Lauren Kate
The 28-year-old writer known as Lauren Kate has just published her first two books. The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove (Razorbill), is about a Texas high school queen bee. Fallen (Delacorte), is the first in a four-book series about two star-crossed lovers—one of whom is a fallen angel. She also learned that Disney has optioned the movie rights to Fallen. And she moved into a new house with her new husband—and changed her last name, from Velevis to Morphew. (Her children's book nom de plume will remain Lauren Kate—her first and middle names.) Phew!
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Fall 2009 Flying Starts: Alex Beard
Alex Beard is an artist on a mission. With schools cutting arts funding and what he calls a “schism” between the fine art world and much of the population, Beard wants to encourage kids to embrace creativity in their own lives. And his first book for children, The Jungle Grapevine—a moral fable based on “telephone,” the childhood game of misunderstanding—is just one piece of the puzzle.
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Fall 2009 Flying Starts: Malinda Lo
With Ash, 35-year-old Malinda Lo makes her debut as a novelist—and Cinderella makes her debut as a lesbian.
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Q & A with Hilary McKay
Q: Do you have strong childhood memories of reading A Little Princess?
A: Oh, yes. As a child, I read the novel so many times. In fact I read it and reread it until my copy almost fell to pieces. My sister and I knew the novel so well that we could actually recite it. It became almost like theater to us.
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