Featured Book of the Week: Tesla's Attic by Neal Schusterman & Eric Elfman

Tesla's Attic 

by 

Neal Schusterman & Eric Elfman

After their home burns down, fourteen-year-old Nick, his younger brother, and their father move into a ramshackle Victorian house they've inherited. When Nick opens the door to his attic room, he's hit in the head by a toaster. That's just the beginning of his weird experiences with the old junk stored up there. After getting rid of the odd antiques in a garage sale, Nick befriends some local kids-Mitch, Caitlin, and Vincent-and they discover that all of the objects have extraordinary properties. What's more, Nick figures out that the attic is a strange magnetic vortex, which attracts all sorts of trouble. It's as if the attic itself has an intelligence . . . and a purpose.

Ultimately Nick learns that the genius Nikola Tesla placed the items-his last inventions-in the attic as part of a larger plan that he mathematically predicted. Nick and his new friends must retrieve everything that was sold at the garage sale and keep it safe. But the task is fraught with peril-in addition to the dangers inherent in Tesla's mysterious and powerful creations, a secret society of physicists, the Accelerati, is determined to stop Nick and alter destiny to achieve its own devious ends. It's a lot for a guy to handle, especially when he'd much rather fly under the radar as the new kid in town.

About the Authors'

Neal Shusterman is the author of many novels for young adults, including Unwind, which was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and a Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Readers, Everlost, and Downsiders, which was nominated for twelve state reading awards. He also writes screenplays for motion pictures and television shows such as Animorphs and Goosebumps. The father of four children, Neal lives in southern California.

Eric Elfman is an American writer interested in Science Fiction, Fantasy, UFOs and paranormal events. He is the author of 12 books for middle-grade and young adult readers, including the first book of the Accelerati Trilogy, Tesla’s Attic (Disney-Hyperion Books, 2014, Publisher’s Weekly review here), which he co-wrote with Neal Shusterman. Among Elfman's other books are Almanac of Alien Encounters (Random House, 2001), Almanac of the Gross, Disgusting, and Totally Repulsive (Random House, 1994, an ALA Recommended Book for Reluctant Readers), and Very Scary Almanac (Random House, 1993). He is also author of several The X-Files novelizations.

Edison's Alley, which Elfman also co-wrote with Shusterman (the sequel to Tesla's Attic, and the second book in the Accelerati Trilogy), will be released by Disney-Hyperion Books in February 2015.

Feature Book of the Week: The Haunting of Gabriel Ashe by Dan Poblocki

FEATURE BOOK OF THE WEEK

THE HAUNTING OF GABRIEL ASHE

by

Dan Poblocki

Has Gabriel created a monster?

Something sinister lurks in the woods outside of Slade.

Gabe has seen it, or he thinks he has - a shadow standing at the tree line, watching Gabe's house with faintly glowing eyes.

Despite Gabe's misgivings, his new friend, Seth, relishes the creepy atmosphere of the forest. It's the perfect setting for his imaginary struggle against the Hunter, a deformed child-eating creature said to leave the bones of his victims in his wake. It's just a game, but it's all a bit much for Gabe, who quickly loses interest as summer ends and the days grow shorter.

But then strange things start to happen. Frightening things. And Gabe knows it has to do with the dark figure watching him from the edge of the woods.

Is Seth out to teach Gabe a lesson? Or is the Hunter more than just a myth? Gabe isn't sure which option is more horrifying, but he's determined to learn the truth before someone gets hurt . . . or worse.

Author's Post

No ghost, no monster, no Darkness can match what it feels like to encounter a bully, to learn how to stand up for yourself, to finish a test on time and get a passing grade, to come home to an empty house, to make yourself dinner, to do what’s right when you face so much pressure to do what you know is wrong, to be good. This is why I wrote The Haunting of Gabriel Ashe. I needed to. I’m sharing it with you because I know you can handle it. Because we all went through it. Because some of us still are. 

About the Author 

Dan Poblocki is an American author of mystery and horror novels for young people. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island, During his pre-teen years, his family moved to Basking Ridge, New Jersey. Dan currently lives in Brooklyn, NY with his partner and their two scaredy cats. 

Dan graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in theater. Subsequently, he toured the United States playing ultra-challenging roles such as Ichabod Crane in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and the Shoemaker in The Shoemaker and the Elves to packed houses filled with literally thousands of screaming children. (He hopes they weren’t screaming in fear.) Though “the profession” begged him to continue, Dan gave up early on his promising acting career to focus on other creative endeavors. While exploring those various artistic options, Dan held a number of jobs in New York City including: a floral groomer, an audience-wrangler for a popular game show, a computer analyst, a chemotherapy-unit assistant, and a traveling bathing suit sales-dude. 

That’s right. A traveling bathing suit sales-dude. 

Dan now writes full time. He's probably working on something new this very minute!

To find out more about Dan Poblocki visit his website.

 

Feature Book of the Week Sky Raiders by Brandon Mull

FEATURED BOOK OF THE WEEK

SKY RAIDERS

by

Brandon Mull

In a world that lies between reality and imagination, a “fanciful, action-packed adventure” awaits (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Come and claim it in this first book of the Five Kingdoms series, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Fablehaven and Beyonders series.

Cole Randolph was just trying to have a fun time with his friends on Halloween (and maybe get to know Jenna Hunt a little better). But when a spooky haunted house turns out to be a portal to something much creepier, Cole finds himself on an adventure on a whole different level.

After Cole sees his friends whisked away to some mysterious place underneath the haunted house, he dives in after them—and ends up in The Outskirts.

The Outskirts are made up of five kingdoms that lie between wakefulness and dreaming, reality and imagination, life and death. It’s an in-between place. Some people are born there. Some find their way there from our world, or from other worlds.

And once you come to the Outskirts, it’s very hard to leave.

With the magic of the Outskirts starting to unravel, it’s up to Cole and an unusual girl named Mira to rescue his friends, set things right in the Outskirts, and hopefully find his way back home…before his existence is forgotten.

About the Author

Brandon Mull is the author of the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling Beyonders and Fablehaven series. Brandon resides in a happy little valley near the mouth of a canyon with his wife and four children. He spent two years living in the Atacama Desert of Northern Chile where he learned Spanish and juggling. He once won a pudding eating contest in the park behind his grandma’s house, earning a gold medal.

I’ve always secretly wanted to write books.

I often kept the desire secret, because I knew that succeeding as a novelist would be a challenge, and I didn’t want people worrying about me or thinking I was crazy. As a kid, I lived in my head a lot, making up adventures, and sometimes sharing my imaginary games with siblings and friends. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always spent a huge portion of my free time daydreaming and making up stories. As I aged, those stories became more elaborate and compelling, and I decided that I wanted to share them with others. That was when I became serious about writing.

I figured that if I could learn to write a good scene, I could eventually write a good novel,

so through high school and college I mostly practiced by writing short fiction. After graduating from Brigham Young University in 2000, I started working on my first full-length novel. It was rejected by many agents and publishers before an editor at Shadow Mountain Publishing found promise in it. Shadow Mountain did not purchase that first book, but they asked to see something else, and the book I wrote for them was Fablehaven. So Fablehaven was published by the first publisher who saw it, after I did a lot of work shopping around that first book. The first book has not yet been published, but I expect to rewrite it someday and show it to publishers again.

Learn more about Brandon Mull on his website