EATING Y.A. BOOKS BOOK BATTLE BLOG

And the Answers Is....#2

2012-02-03T02:16:00.000-08:00

Happy Friday! Another great week for participation in the Question of the Week.

This week's question was...

In which book does a character's broken leg swell up so much that his boot must be cut off?

and the answer is...

Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James Swanson

Here are all the schools who correctly posted the answer for this week's question.

Hisxon Middle School

Hazelwood Central Middle School

Ladue Middles School

Remington Traditional

Hillsboro Junior High

Cross Keys Middle School

Washington Middle School

Hazelwood Northwest Middle School

Oakville Middle School

Maplewood Richmond Heights Middle School

Hazelwood North Middle School

Hoech Middle School

Thanks to all the schools who participated this week. Make sure you check back Monday for another question of the week, and congratulations to everyone who successfully answered the question.

Question of the Week #2

2012-01-30T01:55:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday and Welcome Back to the Area Wide Book Battle's second Question of the Week! We had a great first week participation and I hope you are all enjoying this year's books.

So here is this week's question...

In which book does a character's broken leg swell up so much that his boot must be cut off?

Don't forget to provide the correct title and author in your answer, and the name of your school. Also your comment will not show up until Friday.

If you have any problems leaving a comment you can email your answer to me at areawidebb@gmail.com

And the Answers Is....

2012-01-27T06:02:00.000-08:00

Excellent participation for our first question of the week. I understand a few of you might have had some problems, and I apologize for any inconvenience you might have experienced. It does help if you follow the blog, and don't forget that the comments do not show up till Friday in order to prevent other schools from seeing your answers.

Question of the Week #1

In which book do neighbors help build a room without being asked?

And the Answer is....

Bull Rider by Suzanne Morgan Williams

and the winners are...

Oakville Middle

Hillsboro JH

Washington Middle

Ladue Middle

Hazelwood Central

Cross Keys Middle

Rockwood South Middle

Bernard Middle

Hixson Middle

Hazelwood Northwest Middle

Hazelwood North Middle

Congratulations to all the schools who correctly answered the question this week. Look for a new question every Monday.

2012 Question of the Week # 1

2012-01-23T06:04:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the first Question of the Week for 2012.

The idea behind this feature is to help all the teams competing in this year's Area Wide Book Battle to practice with sample questions from the books on the list.

The school correctly answering the most questions will be announced and awarded a prize at this year's competition. So make sure you stop by once a week and provide your school's answer.

It's easy to participate. Just leave a comment giving your school name, the title of the book, and the author. If you have any problems with the comments you can also email your answers to areawidebb@gmail.com. Be sure to leave your answer before Thursday at 11:59 PM.
While the comments have been disable from viewing, I will be able to see them.

Answers will be provided on Friday, and the schools who correctly answered the question will be announced.

This week's question is:

In which book do neighbors help build a room without being asked?

Feature Book of the Week #11 The Last Thing I Remember by Andrew Klavan

2011-12-13T04:25:00.000-08:00

FEATURE BOOK OF THE WEEK

THE LAST THING I REMEMBER

ANDREW KLAVAN

Charlie West just woke up in someone else's nightmare.
He's strapped to a chair. He's covered in blood and bruises. He hurts all over. And a strange voice outside the door just ordered his death.
The last thing he can remember, he was a normal high-school kid doing normal things--working on his homework, practicing karate, daydreaming of becoming an air force pilot, writing a pretty girl's number on his hand. How long ago was that? Where is he now? Who is he really?
And more to the point . . . how is he going to get out of this room alive? (Publisher's summary from Goodreads)

AUTHOR'S GUEST POST

What Is A Tough Guy?

by Andrew Klavan

I am what is sometimes known as a “tough guy writer.” This, I’m sorry to say, does not mean that I’m a tough guy who is also a writer. It means I’m a writer who writes stories about tough guys.

Well, okay, you may say, but what does that mean? What is a “tough guy” exactly? And that’s a good question, because a tough guy is not what you might think. For instance, a tough guy is not someone who is so big or so strong that he wins every fight. In fact, sometimes, it’s only when someone loses a fight that you find out how tough he really is! Also, a tough guy is not someone who is never afraid. After all, who is tougher than a guy who does what has to be done even when he is very much afraid?

So what is a tough guy? To give an example from my books, I think Charlie West, the hero of the Homelanders series, is a tough guy. In the first book in the series, The Last Thing I Remember, Charlie goes to sleep in his own bed one night—and wakes up strapped to a chair being tortured by terrorists. Bad news! Charlie isn’t stronger than the terrorists—obviously, or he wouldn’t be strapped to the chair. And Charlie isn’t fearless—he’s scared out of his mind!

But Charlie is honest and he’s determined. He’s honest because he doesn’t kid himself about the situation. He doesn’t say, “Oh, maybe if I’m nice to the terrorists, they’ll be nice to me.” He knows the terrorists won’t be nice to him no matter what he does. After all—duh!—they’re terrorists! And he doesn’t say, “Oh, maybe if I just wait patiently someone will come and rescue me.” Someone might rescue him—it’s possible. But it doesn’t make much sense to wait around and find out.

So what does Charlie do? He acts. He tries to rescue himself. He thinks about what he can do, what skills he has, what powers he can muster. He thinks about the fact that he has a black belt in karate. He thinks about the words of a famous man who once said, “Never surrender.” He looks for any chance—no matter how small—that he can escape from this horrible situation.

And that’s what makes Charlie “tough.” He doesn’t lie to himself; he uses whatever tools he has to do what he needs to do; and, no matter what happens, no matter how bad things look, he never, ever, ever surrenders.

People like Charlie are the kinds of heroes I like to read about, so they’re the kind of heroes I like to write about too.

And that’s why they call me a “tough guy writer.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Award winning author, screenwriter and media commentator Andrew Klavan is the author of such internationally bestselling novels as True Crime, filmed by Clint Eastwood, and Don’t Say A Word, filmed starring Michael Douglas. Andrew has been nominated for the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award five times and has won twice. His books have been translated around the world. His latest novel for adults, The Identity Man, has been praised by Nelson Demille as “fast paced, intelligent and thought-provoking; a great read!” Television and radio host Glenn Beck says “Andrew Klavan never disappoints…one of the best illustrations of the power of redemption that I’ve ever read.” His last novel Empire of Lies was about media bias in the age of terror, and topped Amazon.com’s thriller list.

Andrew has also published a series of thrillers for young adults, The Homelanders, which follows a patriotic teenager’s battle against jihadists. The books have been optioned to be made into movies by Summit Entertainment, the team behind the mega-successful Twilight film series.

Andrew is a contributing editor to City Journal, the magazine of the Manhattan Institute. His essays and op-eds on politics, religion, movies and literature have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, The Washington Post, the LA Times, and elsewhere. His video feature, “Klavan on the Culture,” can be found at PJTV.com. Andrew is a frequent media guest on television and radio stations from coast to coast, where he is known for his quick wit, humor and commentary on politics and entertainment.

As a screenwriter, Andrew wrote the screenplay to 1990’s A Shock to the System, which starred Michael Caine, and to 2008’s One Missed Call, which stars Ed Burns and Shannyn Sossamon. He lives in Southern California.(Author's bio from http://www.andrewklavan.com/about/)

I want to thank Andrew for taking time out of his extremely busy schedule to write such a fantastic post for the 2011/2012 Book Battle. I also hope that those of you who have read the book will read the rest of the book in the series.

Special Announcement

This will be the last Feature Book of the Week until the New Year. Also make sure that you continue to leave comments on the posts. Finally, be sure to watch in January for the beginning of the Question of the Week.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

from the

Area Wide Book Battle Committee

2011/2012 Feature Book of the Week #10Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James Swanson

2011-12-06T01:38:00.000-08:00

FEATURE BOOK OF THE WEEK

CHASING LINCOLN'S KILLER

BY JAMES SWANSON

When actor John Wilkes Booth raced from Ford's Theatre after assassinating President Abraham Lincoln, he began a mad flight that lasted 12 days. James Swanson's Chasing Lincoln's Killer recapitulates the exciting chase through small towns and swamps by drawing on letters, manuscripts, trial transcripts, government reports, and contemporary newspaper interviews. This juvenile nonfiction hardcover displays history as it should be seen: up close and personal. (Publisher's summary from Goodreads)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

James L.Swanson is the Edgar Award–winning author of the New York Times bestseller Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer. In 2009 in Newsweek magazine, Patricia Cornwell named Swanson's Manhunt and Truman Capote's In Cold Blood as the two best nonfiction crime books ever.

In 2006, Entertainment Weekly magazine named Manhunt one of the ten best books of the year. Swanson has degrees in history from The University of Chicago, where he was a student of John Hope Franklin, and law from the University of California, Los Angeles. He has held a number of government and think-tank posts in Washington, D.C., including at the United States Department of Justice. He serves on the advisory council of the Ford’s Theatre Society.

His other books include the acclaimed photographic history Lincoln’s Assassins: Their Trial and Execution, as well as Chasing Lincoln’s Killer, and adaptations of Manhunt and Bloody Crimes for young readers. James L. Swanson was born on Lincoln’s birthday. (Author's bio from Harper Collins http://www.harpercollins.com/author/microsite/About.aspx?authorid=25032 )

2011/2012 Feature Book of the Week #9The Potato Chip Puzzles by Eric Berlin

2011-11-28T23:08:00.000-08:00

FEATURE BOOK OF THE WEEK

THE POTATO CHIP PUZZLES

BY ERIC BERLIN

When puzzle addict Winston Breen and his best friends head to an all-day puzzle hunt with a $50,000 grand prize, they're pumped. But the day is not all fun and games: not only do they have a highstrung and highly competitive teacher along for the ride, but the puzzles are hard even for Winston, the other schools' teams are no joke, and someone in the contest is playing dirty in order to win. Trying to stop this mystery cheater before it's too late takes an already tough challenge to a whole other level. . . .

Packed with a variety of fun puzzles to solve, this fast-paced sequel will pull readers right into the action from start to finish. (Publisher's Summary from Goodreads)

AUTHOR GUEST POST

Sometimes people ask me how I came up with Winston Breen's name, and the truth is, I don't remember. (Honestly, I wish I knew.) Or people will ask me how I came up with all the puzzles for my books, and the answer is, it's just something I know how to do -- probably as a result of solving a million puzzles over the span of my life.

But then people ask me how I came to write books with puzzles in them, and THAT question I can answer.

I'm friends with a lot of people who, like me, love puzzles. We're all scattered around the country, and so we get to see each other only a few times a year. So when we do get together, large groups of us go out to dinner and catch up. It was at one such dinner, perhaps in 2000 or 2001, that we got to talking about all the things in our childhood that made us realize we would be lifelong puzzle people. We had all played the same video games, and we all loved patter songs like Tom Lehrer's "Elements." We were all madly addicted to Games magazine. We were all a little on the nerdy side. Or maybe more than a little.

And everybody at the table, as a child, had read the same book: "The Westing Game," by Ellen Raskin. It won the Newbery medal in 1979. It's still read and beloved by children today. And somehow -- impossibly -- I had never heard of it. This book that all my puzzle-loving friends had read, I had missed it entirely.

Well. Obviously I wasn't going to let THAT stand. So I ordered a copy the very next day, and read it as soon as it arrived.

It's a fine book. There's a reason it's considered a classic.

BUT... I was expecting something a little different. Because this book had come to me via all my puzzle friends, I thought it was going to be a mystery filled with different kinds of puzzles -- things you could solve as you read along. It's not. There's only one real puzzle in "The Westing Game." It's a doozy of a puzzle, to be sure. But it's only one.

And soon I thought: Well, I could write a mystery with lots of puzzles in it, can't I? I could write the book I had expected "Westing Game" to be! I could write the sort of book that if I had found it on a library bookshelf when I was a kid, I would have grabbed it immediately. Out of another person's hands if necessary.

That was the spark behind Winston Breen, and I'm happy to say that today's puzzle-loving kids ARE discovering him. That's why I was able to write the second book, "The Potato Chip Puzzles," and that's why a third book, "The Puzzler's Mansion," comes out in May 2012. You don't have to solve any of the puzzles as you read, of course -- if you want to skip the puzzles and enjoy the story, that's fine with me. But I'm hoping that even kids who don't like puzzles will stare at one of Winston's challenges... and have that"aha!" moment of solving satisfaction. The same kind of moment that turned me into a puzzle addict a long time ago.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Eric Berlin creates puzzles for all ages, from kids to adults (his crosswords appear often in the New York Times). He is a member of the National Puzzlers' League, and enjoys creating puzzle events for schools and other groups. He lives in Milford, Connecticut, with his wife and two children. (Author bio from The Puzzling World of Winston Breen web site)

Thanks so much to Eric from participating in this year's Feature Book of the Week. Make sure you leave your comments about his guest post and about his book.

2011/2012 Feature Book of the Week #9Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John

2011-11-22T01:33:00.000-08:00

FEATURE BOOK OF THE WEEK

FIVE FLAVORS OF DUMB

ANTONY JOHN

The Challenge: Piper has one month to get the rock band Dumb a paying gig.

The Deal: If she does it, Piper will become the band's manager and get her share of the profits.

The Catch: How can Piper possibly manage one egomaniacal pretty boy, one talentless piece of eye candy, one crush, one silent rocker, and one angry girl? And how can she do it when she's deaf?

Piper can't hear Dumb's music, but with growing self-confidence, a budding romance, and a new understanding of the decision her family made to buy a cochlear implant for her deaf baby sister, she discovers her own inner rock star and what it truly means to be a flavor of Dumb.

AUTHOR GUEST POST

AND SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

Hey there, Book Warriors! A huge thanks to all of you for including me in your battle plans. I can’t wait to meet you on May 8^th next year! I’ll be the one who isn’t Heather Brewer :)

If you’ve been reading all the posts, you may have noticed that authors sometimes take long and winding paths to getting published. This is not unusual. It’s really not even surprising. We’re the sum of our experiences, and the more experiences we have, the more we have to draw from when we write.

But what’s just as interesting to me is that we all take different paths to becoming readers too. Some of you may have been devouring books for years, while others may only now be discovering the joys of reading. If you’re in the latter group, then you’re just like me.

When I was a middle school student in England in the 1980s, a lot of the books felt terribly similar. There was always a little (non-violent) adventure, some wholesome friendships, contented siblings, and at least one or two fluffy puppy dogs (because no English family is complete without a fluffy puppy dog, apparently). To be honest, these books didn’t exactly excite me, and so I pretty much gave up on reading altogether. I was what librarians and teachers call a “reluctant reader.” Sad, but true.

Then, when I was 13, my English teacher handed me a copy of “The Outsiders” by S. E. Hinton. It blew my mind! Suddenly I wasn’t reading about other well-adjusted English kids, I was reading about gangs in an Oklahoma high school. The language felt raw and real. Everything moved along at breakneck speed. I was hooked.

At the time, I didn’t know that Susan Hinton wrote “The Outsiders” when she was only 16 years old. She was writing from her own experience. But the key thing is that her experience was not the same as mine. “The Outsiders” removed me from my world and put me in hers. It made me view the world differently.

And that is why I read and write books. I want to constantly rethink what the world is, and what it might be. I want to see a familiar scene through the eyes of someone I’ll never be. I don’t have much in common with Piper Vaughan, the narrator of “Five Flavors of Dumb”—she’s a girl at a co-ed US high school, whereas I went to an all-boys school in England. She’s deaf and has little interest in music (at first, anyway), whereas I’m hearing and have Ph.D in music. But seeing the world through her eyes allowed me to think about music from an entirely new perspective. It taught me a lot about deafness. And it reminded me how important communication is to everyone, hearing or not.

As you read the books in the challenge, think about how they change your view of the world. And if you feel inspired to write you own book, go for it!

One last thing: If a book gets you really fired up, please tell your friends about it. If you think one of the challenge books will appeal to a friend or family member, check it out from the library and put it in their hands. Share the gift of your favorite books. Who knows—maybe you’ll change someone else’s

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Antony John is the author of young adult novels Busted: Confessions of an Accidental Player and Five Flavors of Dumb (winner of the American Library Association’s Schneider Family Book Award). His novels Thou Shalt Not Road Trip and Elemental are forthcoming from Dial/Penguin in 2012. A native of England, he graduated from Oxford University with a degree in music, and received his Ph.D. from Duke University. Now he lives with his family in St. Louis, Missouri. Check out his website: www.antonyjohn.net.

First, I want to thank Antony for taking time to participate in the Feature Book of the Week. And in case you missed it in his opening comments, the Book Battle Committee is very excited that Antony

WILL BE JOINING US THIS YEAR AT THE BOOK BATTLE!!!!

Enjoy his book! And Happy Thanksgiving!

2011/2012 Feature Book of the Week #8Priscilla the Great by Sybil Nelson

2011-11-08T01:35:00.000-08:00

FEATURE BOOK OF THE WEEK

PRISCILLA THE GREAT

SYBIL NELSON

Meet Priscilla Sumner, an ordinary seventh grader with extraordinary gifts. As if middle school isn’t hard enough, not only does Priscilla have to fight pimples and bullies, but genetically enhanced assassins trying to kill her and her family. Armed with wit, strength, and a genius best friend, Priscilla must defeat the Selliwood Institute, an organization dead set on turning children into killing machines.

Add an older brother annoyingly obsessed with Christina Aguilera, mischievous baby twin brothers who could scare the sin off of Satan, and parents more puzzling than a Rubik’s cube in the Bermuda triangle and expect a smoking page-turner! (Publisher's summary from Goodreads)

GUEST POST FROM SYBIL NELSON

Hi Bookbattlers! Thanks so much for having me this year. I’m so excited for you to get to know Priscilla Sumner, the title character in my Priscilla the Great series. I’ve written a lot of books and she is by far the most fun to write. While I was writing the series, many times during the day I’d have to stop what I was doing in order to jot down something funny I could imagine Priscilla saying.

So how did I come up with the idea for my feisty little fire-thrower? Well I started thinking about all the problems kids have when puberty comes along. I mean, what does puberty bring besides pimples and confusing hormones? So I thought how cool would it be if puberty brought awesome powers as well. But Priscilla the Great isn’t your ordinary superhero story. Even without her fire-shooting fingers, she is a riveting character. She’s addicted to superhero movies, comic books, and racing bikes down Main Street with her friend Kyle. Plus her school cafeteria has a soft serve ice cream machine which is home to the monthly seventh grade versus eighth grade Ice Cream Challenge (ICC). Imagine being able to stick your head under the nozzle of your favorite ice cream and gorge yourself while humiliating the eighth grade bullies. Awesome!

While Priscilla is totally competitive in a tomboy kind of way, she is also completely in touch with her feminine side. A major plot point of the book is Priscilla trying to capture the attention of her crush, Spencer Callahan who barely knows she exists.

On top of all this, Priscilla also has to deal with her quirky family: five-year-old twin brothers who like to throw frozen waffles at her for no reason at all, a sixteen-year-old brother who can’t stop singing Christina Aguilera songs, a father who looks like a professional wrestler but would rather bake cookies and a mother who has never heard of Oprah!

I wrote Priscilla the Great while I was a high school teacher in South Carolina. I often found my inspiration for characters and situations from my students. In fact, Priscilla is a mix of two my students Ellen and Helen. It’s a complete coincidence that their names happen to rhyme. They weren’t even related. Anyway, I remember Helen would come into class every day with the craziest stories of something that happened to her. Once she shaved her armpits without shaving cream and they burned so badly that she spent the day with her hands tucked in her armpits. I haven’t used that story yet but expect it soon!

So basically, if you haven’t already been introduced to Priscilla’s great world, be sure to check it out. Soon, she’ll most definitely be the hottest girl you know!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sybil has always had a love of books and writing. During her school years, shed choose a different author each summer and devour their complete works. Riding public transportation from her low-income housing, she always dedicated Wednesdays to her library pursuits.

Sybil also spent her time jotting down poems and stories in her beloved notebooks. She even won a full scholarship to Washington and Lee University for one of her essays. Though her scholarship was for journalism, she soon lost confidence in her writing and ended up changing her major from English and Journalism to Mathematics and Music Theory.

During the years after college, while working as a math teacher at Georgetown Day School, Sybil never lost her love of words. She continued to devour novels in her free time. In all of her reading however, she began to notice that the novels she enjoyed most never contained any black female characters. This observation bothered her.

After years noticing the role models (or lack thereof) for black girls in the media, Sybil finally decided to pick up a pen and do something about it. While working as a math teacher at Ashley Hall School in Charleston, South Carolina, finishing her masters thesis at the College of Charelston, she began writing stories poems and novels that featured strong black women. She now attends the Medical University of South Carolina pursuing her Ph.D. in Biostatistics. She continues to write and, to date, has written ten complete novels.

Sybil has three books published under pen name Leslie DuBois. Visit www.LeslieDuBois.com to learn more.

A BIG thanks to Sybil Nelson for taking time out to support all you lovely book battlers. Hope you are enjoying Priscilla the Great as much as it sounds like Ms. Nelson enjoyed writing about her. Make sure you leave a comment to let her know and enter in the Comment Challenge.

Also make sure you stop by next Monday for a very

special and exciting announcement!!

2011/2012 Feature Book of the Week #7The Bull Rider by Suzanne Morgan Williams

2011-11-01T00:26:00.000-07:00

FEATURE BOOK OF THE WEEK

BULL RIDER

BY SUZANNE MORGAN WILLIAMS

Cam O'Mara, grandson and younger brother of bull- riding champions, is not interested in partaking in the family sport. Cam is a skateboarder, and perfecting his tricks — frontside flips, 360s — means everything until his older brother, Ben, comes home from Iraq, paralyzed from a brain injury.

What would make a skateboarder take a different kind of ride? And what would get him on a monstrosity of a bull named Ugly? If Cam can stay on for the requisite eight seconds, will the $15,000 prize bring hope and a future for his big brother? (Publisher's summary from Goodreads)

AUTHOR GUEST POST

Today I was at a high school and one of the students asked me “Why do you write your books?” My answer? – so people will read them. Yes, most writers love language and play with it the same way a star basketball player may practice six ways to do a layup shot. Yes, most professional writers hope to make money and almost everyone likes to be told they are special and their work is good. That just feels great. But the reason I spend a couple of years writing a book is because somewhere in that process I found the story’s heart, the thing that I’ve struggled with in my own mind, the question that I want to think about, and maybe a little bit of my answer that I want to share with readers.

When I started writing Bull Rider it was a story about a kid who wanted to be a bull rider and his mom wouldn’t let him do it. It was simple and the book had nothing to do with the story it became – the story of a family dealing with the aftermath of war. But one of the smaller characters in that first (unpublished) manuscript was Cam O’Mara’s older brother Ben. As I designed the O’Mara family, I needed Ben to be doing something, and being from a small ranching town, I figured he’d join the service as so many young men and women do. And I was writing the book during the height of the fighting in Iraq, and I had a hard time ignoring that if this brother was in the service, he’d probably be in the Middle East fighting a war. That was a really different story from the light one I’d started out to write. But that was the one that grabbed my heart. What if that brother came home injured and fundamentally changed? How would Cam handle that? So I found the heart of Bull Rider and the passion of writing this story for you.

Please know that every author of every book in your library wrote those books to be read. An unread book is like a text message that you don’t pick up or a conversation that you pretend to listen to but really blow off while you play a video game. A book that sits on a shelf doesn’t matter. But when you read a book you connect with the author. You become part of a conversation with someone you may never meet, but whose words may touch you. That’s the possibility, the promise, every time you pick up a book.

I just love knowing that you guys are reading Bull Rider. The things you think about and care about will be the basis for what happens in all of our futures. This is the absolute truth. School isn’t really about getting good grades and doing assignments – although that’s how you get through and on toward what you want to do. It’s about becoming the great people you are intended to be. Every time you read a good book, you not only (hopefully) are entertained, but you get to crawl inside someone else’s head and try on their ideas. You won’t always agree with the author or with each other, but like exercising to get better at sports, reading lots and lots of books will strengthen your own sense of who you are. As an author, a citizen, and a human being, I couldn’t hope for more than that. I’m honored that Bull Rider is on your Truman Award List, is part of the Book Battle and that, for a little while, we may share some thoughts. Enjoy.

Suzanne Morgan Williams

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Suzanne Morgan Williams is the author of the novel Bull Rider (Margert K. McElderry, 2009) as well as eleven nonfiction books for children. Bull Rider is a Junior Library Guild Selection, is on state award lists in Texas, Nevada, Missouri, and Indiana, and received a Western Heritage Award from the National Cowboy Museum in Oklahoma City and represented the state of Nevada at the National Book Festival in Washington D.C. Suzanne’s nonfiction titles include Pinatas and Smiling Skeleton (Outstanding, Parents’ Council and Best Multicultural Book, Independent Publisher’s Book Award), The Inuit , Made in China, and the upcoming China’s Daughters (Pacific View Press 2011). Suzanne’s work takes her into classrooms and communities across the US and Canada, from Mexico to the Arctic. Visit www.suzannemorganwilliams.com

I want to thank Suzanne for taking the time to be a part of this year's Feature Book of the Week and writing a guest post especially for all who will be competing this years.

2011/2012 Feature Book of the Week #6 The Latte Rebellion by Sarah Jamila Stevenson

2011-10-24T23:58:00.000-07:00

FEATURED BOOK OF THE WEEK

THE LATTE REBELLION

SARAH JAMILA STEVENSON

Our philosophy is simple: Promote a latte-colored world! —from the Latte Rebellion ManifestoWhen high school senior Asha Jamison gets called a "towel head" at a pool party, the racist insult gives Asha and her best friend Carey a great money-making idea for a post-graduation trip. They'll sell T-shirts promoting the Latte Rebellion, a club that raises awareness of mixed-race students.Seemingly overnight, their "cause" goes viral and the T-shirts become a nationwide fad. As new chapters spring up from coast to coast, Asha realizes that her simple marketing plan has taken on a life of its own-and it's starting to ruin hers. Asha's once-stellar grades begin to slip, threatening her Ivy League dreams, and her friendship with Carey is hanging by a thread. And when the peaceful underground movement turns militant, Asha's school launches a disciplinary hearing.Facing expulsion, Asha must decide how much she's willing to risk for something she truly believes in. (Publisher's summary from Goodreads)

AUTHOR'S GUEST POST

Hi Book Battlers! I'm honored to be part of this year's mayhem.

Funny thing about reading: when you sit down to get absorbed in an amazing story, that story seems like such an independent force, like it came into being fully formed and couldn't have existed any other way. Harry Potter, he of the green eyes and lightning-shaped scar, could never have been Henrietta Potter, with two Harley-riding parents and an orange mohawk, for instance. (Although, if I had written it, maybe...)

But the truth is, a story can take a lot of different forms before it sees the light of day. Some stories never manage to see the light of day at all, but the important part is to keep writing. The Latte Rebellion is my first published novel, but I wrote two-and-a-half novels and a whole bunch of short stories before I even started Latte. But it would not have been possible for me to write Latte without having written those novels and stories, without sending them out and getting rejection notes and being inspired and determined to do better next time.

Heck, I wouldn't have been able to write Latte if it weren't for EVERY bit of writing that came before. Even the really, really bad stuff, like the unfinished dystopian cyber-thriller starring a guy with a robot arm, and the angst-filled poems that made me sound like I should be put in a comfy padded room without any sharp objects. Yes, even those fashion magazines for cats that I made when I was a kid, complete with advice columns. (I'm sorry to report that I did indeed write all of those things.)

Fortunately, NONE of that made it into The Latte Rebellion. What did make it into the story, even if indirectly, was the fact that I kept on going, didn't ever give up on writing or let rejection or failure get in the way of how much I love putting words together to create stories. I stayed focused on trying to improve, trying to become a better writer. And my favorite method of trying to become a better writer is to read a lot. In fact, I think I can credit my immense, sometimes out-of-control, love of reading for the fact that I'm a writer now.

I hadn't planned to be a writer—I thought I'd be illustrating the covers of books rather than writing the stories inside. But even though I still draw, paint, and do other artistic things, I always come back to words. I start the day with reading. (And coffee.) I read as the last thing I do before I go to bed.

And one of the thoughts that gives me the most joy and amazement is to picture some other book addict, reading under the covers at night before bed, with MY book in their hands--my little story, The Latte Rebellion, about a girl whose moneymaking scheme spirals out of control and causes both havoc and hilarity. If that's you, sneaking in a few more minutes of your book addiction before bed, well, thanks for reading!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sarah Jamila Stevenson is a writer, artist, graphic designer, introvert, closet geek, enthusiastic eater, struggling blogger, lapsed piano player, household-chore-ignorer and occasional world traveler. Her previous lives include spelling bee nerd, suburban Southern California teenager, Berkeley art student, under appreciated temp, and humor columnist for a video game website.

Throughout said lives, she has acquired numerous skills of questionable usefulness, like intaglio printmaking and Welsh language. She lives in Northern California with her husband, who is also an artist, and two cats with astounding sleep-inducing powers.

She earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Mills College in Oakland, CA, a post-baccalaureate certificate in Printmaking from the San Francisco Art Institute, and a BA in Art Practice and Psychology from the University of California at Berkeley.

I want to thank Jamila for taking time out of her writing and blogging schedule to talk to us about reading and writing.

Don't forget to leave a comment about the book and her post.

2011/2012 Feature Book of the Week #5 Jane in Bloom by Debby Lytton

2011-10-18T00:51:00.000-07:00

FEATURED BOOK OF THE WEEK

JANE IN BLOOM

DEBBY LYTTON

Jane's big sister, Lizzie, has always been the center of attention. No one ever pays attention to boring, plain Jane. But when Jane's twelfth birthday marks the beginning of Lizzie's fi nal descent into a fatal eating disorder, Jane discovers that the only thing harder than living in her big sister's shadow is living without her.

In the wake of tragedy, Jane learns to look through her camera lens and frame life differently, embracing her broken family and understanding that every girl has her season to blossom. Spare and vulnerable prose marks this beautiful debut that is at once heartbreaking and uplifting. (Publisher's summary from Goodreads)

AUTHOR'S GUEST POST

Imagine you and I are sitting together in my favorite tea room in Los Angeles. Maybe we would talk about our favorite books. You would tell me what books you love.

And then I would tell you that I love Pride and Prejudice, The Scarlet Letter, historical fiction about Queen Elizabeth I, Alice in Wonderland, the Wizard of Oz and Island of the Blue Dolphins.

Then you might ask me how I knew I wanted to be a writer.

I have had many careers. I’ve been an actress, a singer and an attorney. But I became a writer because I love books. I love staying up until three in the morning because I can’t stop reading. I love laughing out loud, weeping in sorrow and falling in love. I love making new friends. Books are an escape for me. Writing them is like embarking on a journey without knowing my destination. Because I never know exactly what is happening next. For me, writing is freedom. I have to write, like I have to breathe.

Perhaps you would want to know why I decided to write Jane in Bloom.

I wrote Jane in Bloom for anyone who has ever felt invisible. Many years ago, I saw a television news segment about forgotten siblings. They were lost in a family that was focused on a child with a problem. That child took all the attention. And the forgotten brother or sister was left alone. Feeling invisible. I wanted to tell their story. And that became Jane’s story. Jane is a girl who has been forgotten. Because everyone around her is only looking at her older sister, Lizzie. Lizzie could have had any number of problems. But I decided to give her an eating disorder. So many girls and women today struggle with their body images. Our society tells us we need to look a certain way to be considered beautiful. I wanted to show that beauty comes from within. True beauty comes from being true to yourself. From believing in yourself. Jane learns this lesson. Sadly, Lizzie does not.

Many readers have asked me why Jane becomes a photographer in the book.

I wanted to give Jane a creative outlet to express herself. I believe in writing what I know, so I needed to choose something I could understand. I am a really terrible artist, so art was out. I am a fairly good photographer, though. Photography is a way to express yourself while being able to remain invisible. You aren’t in the photograph, rather it is your vision that is seen in the photograph. This allows for expression without exposure. I liked this for Jane. In order to write about Jane’s experience as a photographer, I took my camera and went out and shot photos of roses. It was much more difficult than I imagined it would be. But it let me into Jane’s world even more.

I hope before we finish our tea, you would tell me about your own writing.

I believe all of us have stories to tell, and that no one can tell a story exactly the way that you would tell it. The best lesson I have learned about being a writer is to write. Because the lovely thing about writing is that it improves with practice. And you don’t need anyone else to help you. You can take a pen and paper, or write on your computer. All you need is your imagination. And if you let it, your imagination will take you on a fantastic journey.

Thank you for reading Jane in Bloom. I am really grateful to know that Jane’s story is being shared.

Deborah Lytton

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Deborah Lytton is a writer and actress who grew up in front of the camera, beginning her career at age six when she was discovered by a Hollywood agent. Her acting credits include five years on the hit daytime soap opera Days of our Lives as “Melissa Anderson” and numerous television roles on shows such as Mod Squad, Family, The Waltons, The Incredible Hulk, Stone, Next Step Beyond and Streets of San Francisco.

Debby signed her first record deal with Curb Records at the age of twelve. She went on to sing songs on the soundtracks for numerous films including Hot Lead and Cold Feet, Mac and Me and Let It Be Me. She sang Time which appeared in the feature film Ballistic Ecks vs. Sever and was also on the film soundtrack. In addition, she was one of the cast of the animated musical Rudolph the Movie for Good Times Entertainment.

Debby is educated as an attorney, having graduated cum laude from both U.C.L.A., where she received a B.A. and from Pepperdine University School of Law, where she received a J.D. Debby then went on to pass the Bar Exam in two states, California and Tennessee.

Debby resides in Los Angeles, California with her daughters, Ava and Caroline. In her free time, Debby enjoys photography, studying martial arts and going to Disneyland.

Jane in Bloom is her first novel.

I want to thank Debby Lytton for taking time out and providing such a wonderful guest post.

2011/2012 Feature Book of the Week #5 Shifter by Janice Hardy

2011-10-11T03:04:00.000-07:00

FEATURED BOOK OF THE WEEK

SHIFTER BY JANICE HARDY

Loading...
Nya is an orphan struggling for survival in a city crippled by war. She is also a Taker—with her touch, she can heal injuries, pulling pain from another person into her own body. But unlike her sister, Tali, and the other Takers who become Healers' League apprentices, Nya's skill is flawed: She can't push that pain into pynvium, the enchanted metal used to store it. All she can do is shift it into another person, a dangerous skill that she must keep hidden from forces occupying her city. If discovered, she'd be used as a human weapon against her own people.

Rumors of another war make Nya's life harder, forcing her to take desperate risks just to find work and food. She pushes her luck too far and exposes her secret to a pain merchant eager to use her shifting ability for his own sinister purposes. At first Nya refuses, but when Tali and other League Healers mysteriously disappear, she's faced with some difficult choices. As her father used to say, principles are a bargain at any price; but how many will Nya have to sell to get Tali back alive? (Publisher's summary from Goodreads)

GUEST POST FROM

JANICE HARDY

Hi guys! I’m so excited to be part of your Book Battle this year. I wish they had these when I was in school.

People always ask me where I got the idea for my trilogy, The Healing Wars, especially the first book, The Shifter. How did I ever come up with shifting pain from person to person? Well, it was actually inspired by a movie.

I went to see the first X-Men movie, and Rogue is my favorite surperhero of all time. (If you don’t know, her power is that she accidentally steals other heroes’ powers when she touches them) After the movie, I started thinking about stealing things from people by touch, and that led to me wondering what would happen if someone could heal by accidentally bumping into people. Would they feel all the injuries they healed? Get sick? What would they do with it afterward?

I wrote up a ten-page outline for this story and it was terrible. I mean really, really bad. So I stuffed it in a drawer and forgot about it for years. But one day I found it again, and while the story idea was still ghastly, the idea of taking someone’s pain stuck with me. I kept thinking about pain and healing, and suddenly realized I’d rarely seen anyone portray healing as anything but good before. What if it could be used for evil as well? Could there be a dark side to healing? What would be the consequences?

I couldn’t stop thinking about this. I knew my hero for the book had to be a healer, but how was she unique? What made her different from “normal” healers? And thus Nya was born, a girl who could heal, but only by shifting pain from person to person. She wanted to help others, but her skill was better used to hurt people, so to help one she had to hurt someone else.

Once I had Nya and knew how her powers worked it was easy to put her into the story and get her into trouble. Because stories are all about interesting people, solving interesting problems in interesting ways.

I hope Nya’s story (and her problems) are as much fun for you to read as they were for me to write.

Battle on!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Janice Hardy always wondered about the darker side of healing. For her fantasy trilogy THE HEALING WARS, she tapped into her own dark side to create a world where healing was dangerous, and those with the best intentions often made the worst choices. Her books include THE SHIFTER, and BLUE FIRE. DARKFALL, the final book of the trilogy, is due out October 4, 2011. She lives in Georgia with her husband, three cats and one very nervous freshwater eel. You can visit her online at www.janicehardy.com, chat with her about writing on her blog, The Other Side of the Story (http://blog.janicehardy.com/), or find her on Twitter @Janice_Hardy.

A warm thanks to Janice Hardy for the lovely guest post written especially to all of our book battle teams. Shifter is a wonderful book and I hope you all enjoy reading it as you get ready to strut your stuff this May.

2011/2012 Feature Book of the Week #4 Dead Boys by Royce Buckingham

2011-10-04T00:11:00.000-07:00

FEATURE BOOK OF THE WEEK

DEAD BOYS BY ROYCE BUCKINGHAM

In the desert town of Richland, Washington, there stands a giant sycamore tree. Horribly mutated by nuclear waste, it feeds on the life energy of boys that it snags with its living roots. And when Teddy Matthews moves to town, the tree trains its sights on its next victim.

From the start, Teddy knows something is very wrong with Richland-every kid he meets disappears before his eyes. A trip to the cemetery confirms that these boys are actually dead and trying to lure him to the tree. But that knowledge is no help when Teddy is swept into the tree's world, a dark version of Richland from which there is no escape. (Publisher's summary from Goodreads)

GUEST POST FROM

Royce “Atomic” Buckingham

Hey reading warriors! I hear you are going to battle, and I am so psyched that my book THE DEAD BOYS is one of the weapons. I write fantasy and monster novels, so a good raging battle is right up my alley.

What’s really cool about my book THE DEAD BOYS is that it’s set in my home town of Richland, WA, where I grew up near the Hanford nuclear plant (you can Wikipedia Hanford for more info). Turns out radioactive waste was dumped in my drinking water until I was about five years old. Once I started writing fantasy books, it seemed the perfect setting for a mutated monster story (I’ll stop there…I don’t want to give any more away). The locations in the book are authentic (check Mapquest to further investigate), as is the history of Hanford. Well…okay, I did take a few liberties in order to monsterfy the town.

I now live in Bellingham, WA, overlooking the islands in Puget Sound. My other novels, DEMONKEEPER and GOBLINS, are also set in places I’ve lived. They are even more monstery than THE DEAD BOYS, if that’s possible. DEMONKEEPER is a bestseller in Germany and was even optioned for a movie, once upon a time. You can write me at royce@demonkeeper.com.

My advice for aspiring writers is to create your story completely in your head before you start writing. My favorite way is by telling it to others out loud over and over before I whip out the laptop. My advice for aspiring readers is: do it a lot! It’s fun, it’s cool, and it makes you smart.

Have a great battle.

Royce

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I was born in 1966 in Richland, Washington and grew up in the 70’s near the Hanford nuclear plant. Richland is in the eastern Washingtonian desert on the Columbia river, one of the largest rivers in the world. I used to take a trip each summer with my family to my grandparents’ working ranch in the mountainous Bozeman/Livingston area of Montana. As a young child in Richland, I was a Cub Scout, loved sports, and I was fascinated by fantastic tales such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Phantom Tollbooth and The Mouse and the Motorcycle.

As I grew older, I moved on to The Hobbit, Conan the Barbarian and anything Stephen King. I collected comic books too. Movies were a big event in my small, government town. I saw Jaws at the theater the day it opened in 1975. I was nine years old. I stood in the sold-out line again in 1977 for Star Wars when I was eleven, and again for Alien when I was thirteen. We didn’t have VCR’s back then.

Around twelve, I discovered the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons&Dragons and began to create my own fantasy worlds. I was a Little League baseball player filled with wonder and dreams and a fascination for stories.
When I graduated from high school, I left home for Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. It’s a small liberal arts school. I played college baseball there for a couple of years, but was primarily there for the academics. I majored in English literature and traded Stephen King and the X-men for Milton and Hemmingway. I also gave up baseball my junior year to go abroad and study English in…England.

I had begun tinkering with creative writing by this time. However, I felt that I should be responsible and pursue a “real career.”

I applied and was accepted at the University of Oregon School of Law. I didn’t know anything about law, but it seemed a good bet to provide a “real career.”    I discovered an area of law I found interesting—criminal law. In my final year at law school, I studied all things crime and even wrote a fifty-page thesis-style paper on juvenile criminals. I also took an undergraduate creative writing class for fun in my spare time and wrote a dark little literary/horror story. At the suggestion of a professor, I sent my thesis to a law review. At the suggestion of a friend, I sent my story to a literary magazine.

As law school came to a close, I was contacted by the Willamette Law Review. They wanted to publish my article on juvenile offenders. About the same time, I got a call from Reed Magazine, the Literary Magazine of San Jose State University. They wanted to publish my short story…as written. These were two early writing successes that couldn’t have been more different.

My legal article went onto my resume, my short story went into my drawer, and I began looking for a job to begin my “real career.” My first interview was at the Whatcom County Prosecutor’s Office (DA’s Office) in Bellingham, Washington, a gorgeous little University town north of Seattle overlooking the San Juan Islands. When I arrived, the receptionist told me that there were over 100 inquiries for the job. The interview consisted, in part, of the entire office of experienced attorneys watching me do a mock opening statement and mock cross-examination of a witness in a real courtroom. It was terrifying, but I prepared hard and apparently did well, because I got the job. I passed the bar exam and began to prosecute criminals as a real attorney.

As I went after bad guys in real life, I began to write fantasy, sci-fi and horror short stories in my spare time and submit them to publications. In 1993, I collected over one hundred rejection letters. One especially mean-spirited letter said, “your story is moronic, don’t you have anything better to do with your time?” It was discouraging, but I made up a file entitled, “reasons to keep writing,” and kept all of those letters as motivation. Eventually, I had seven short stories published in small magazines that nobody had ever heard of, including me. I discovered later that a 7% publication rate for short stories is actually pretty good. I also did well in some story competitions, which made me think, “hey, I can do this.” I showed my stories to anyone who was willing read them. People often said my stuff was weird, which I took as a compliment.

I sat down and wrote a novel. It took a year. I didn’t know anything about the publishing industry at the time, and I couldn’t sell it. I was discouraged. It took too long to write a novel just to learn at the end that nobody would buy it. But short stories didn’t get me many fans or much money. I wanted to tell stories to a larger audience. About this time, I discovered the screenplay format.

It was the mid-90’s, and I had advanced to a position as a juvenile court prosecutor. Rap songs about violent gang members were popular, and I handled many serious juvenile offenders.

I was writing screenplays at this point. My first was an adaptation of my novel. I loved the screenplay form. It was very direct, like me. I wrote another and entered a contest. To my delight, I was a finalist, and my script was performed as a stage reading in Seattle. I was encouraged to write more scripts.

Then Demonkeeper happened.

Demonkeeper began as a short story inspired by a street kid I used to prosecute regularly in juvenile court. He was thirteen, had a green Mohawk, and I’d see him downtown begging change. One day he disappeared, and nobody seemed to notice. Even his parents didn’t know where he’d gone, or care. I imagined the chaos of street life as a monster that rose and ate him up while people weren’t paying attention, as it does with so many lost children. I wrote a screenplay from that story. The script evolved into a much more lighthearted and fun tale than that short tale I wrote years earlier, but the message remained—kids need stability, family and a home.

The Demonkeeper screenplay married my love of fantasy with the themes I was seeing in the courtroom during my very somber day-job. It began to win competitions. I wrote other scripts, and they earned me awards as well, but Demonkeeper was always the favorite and garnered the most notice. The awards kept me going like addictive little nibbles at success, and they regularly reminded me that, “hey, I can do this.” By 1999, I was writing more scripts and sending my work to L.A. in the hope that I could sell something.

For the next five years, I wrote hard and tried to sell a script. As a result, I ended up winning the quadruple-crown of northwest screenwriting competitions, including the Washington State short script competition, the Pacific Northwest Writers Association feature length script competition, the Washington State feature length competition (with Demonkeeper), and the Seattle International Film Festival’s Pitch Competition all in the space of two years. Some Hollywood producers got interested in Demonkeeper, and I thought I was about to break through. I even took the time to translate Demonkeeper into a novel.

But as excited as I got about my amateur success, my big-budget fantasy about street monsters eating lost kids did not get picked up by a studio. In the meantime, I had children of my own. I also got promoted at work. I moved to adult felony prosecutions—robbery, arson, abuse, negligent homicides, burglary, etc.. My wife was working full-time too. I had to write at night after everyone else went to bed. I was typically up until two a.m., and often later, either writing or preparing for jury trials. This…was a problem. My intense day job and my writing were taking time away from my family. I even fell asleep sitting upright at my desk once. As good as the signs were for my writing, the fact was: I wasn’t breaking through, I wasn’t making any money at it, and I’d been doing it over ten years. It was tough to justify the commitment. I had a “real career,” and I questioned why I was still chasing what seemed a silly dream.

I’d submitted Demonkeeper to the Nicholl Fellowship, a contest put on by the Academy for amateur screenwriters. I’d done so every year for some time. They receive up to 5000 entries annually and are regarded as the best competition for screenwriters—heck, they’re the Academy Awards people! Winners often obtained representation and/or sold scripts. I’d done well in the competition before, but, as with my attempts to sell my work, I’d never won. In 2004, with all of my other obligations weighing on me, I resolved to quit writing seriously after I received the results of that year’s Nicholl Fellowship.

That same week, Microsoft e-mailed me. They’d heard about Demonkeeper from a friend of mine in Seattle. They wanted to hire a screenwriter to create an original story for an Xbox video game. I was floored. After they read my script, they offered me the job. I sat down with my wife. This was not what I had planned, but it was an opportunity to write a fantasy story for a real audience for real money. My amazing wife took one look at our choice between my dream vs. my secure “real career” and told me…“go for it.” Completely contrary to every conservative lesson I’d ever been taught, I “went for it.” I left my “real career” and wrote Microsoft an incredible story. A few months later, Microsoft cancelled the project, and I came crawling back to the prosecutor’s office to beg for my job back.

This time I felt I was truly done with writing. I’d been doing it for almost twelve years now. I’d won almost everything I could win, and still I hadn’t sold anything. And I almost lost my hard-earned, secure government job as a prosecutor.

Then I received a letter from the Nicholl Fellowship. Demonkeeper had made it to the top 2% and was being considered for the final round of the competition. I was elated.
Then it lost. I was done, this time for good. I shut off the computer.

Along about here, Michael Kuciak at Atchity Entertainment International (AEI) gave me an innocuous call and asked if he could read the script that had done well in the Nicholl Fellowship. I sent Demonkeeper down to him and, frankly, forgot about it. I’d sent lots of scripts out, and only once had producers gotten legitimately interested. I returned to my stabbings, shootings, and robbings prosecutions. At least, I thought, I’d given my dream of being a writer a shot with the Microsoft gig. On my deathbed, I could say that I tried.

Then Mike called me. He’d read Demonkeeper. He loved it. His bosses had read it. They loved it. They wanted to represent me. I mentioned that I had written it into a novel and asked if they cared. The response from them was surprise and delight. It turned out that AEI specialized in taking literary properties first to New York, then to Hollywood. Ken Atchity at AEI told me that they’d sell my novel in NY, then sell my script in LA. Yeah, right, I thought, but they did indeed work quickly to get my novel ready for publishers in New York to review.

In late 2005, Penguin Publishers read it Demonkeeper…and they loved it. They bought my novel sometime around Christmas of that year. Wow! We celebrated. I jumped up and down.

The sale was announced in Publishers Weekly shortly thereafter, in January of ‘06. It turns out that Hollywood studio scouts read Publishers Weekly looking for new material. Fox 2000, a division of 20th Century Fox, called AEI the day the announcement was printed. They wanted to read the novel. Ken was ready. He asked them, “wouldn’t you rather read Royce’s award-winning screenplay?” Fox read the script and made an offer the next day. Double wow! I spent a week pinching myself each morning to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.

THIS WAS IT—AFTER THIRTEEN YEARS OF TRYING TO GET DISCOVERED, I’D SOLD A BOOK AND A MOVIE ALMOST SIMULTANEOUSLY.

Ken and AEI had delivered exactly as promised. And that hasn’t been the end of it. My second novel, Goblins, sold to Penguin later that same year. I now have three books out in the U.S.: Demonkeeper, Goblins! and The Dead Boys. Demonkeeper I was a best seller in Germany and third book of that series will be released in November 2011. Demonkeeper has also sold to and/or been released in France, Italy, Finland, Spain, Peru, Russia, Romania.

The whole idea of Penguin publishing my novels and 20th Century Fox making a movie out of my crazy monster fantasy was overwhelming at the time, and I still pinch myself some days. But looking back over this letter, I think things were meant to work out this way. The other day I found a scrap of paper in my Cub Scout handbook in my parents’ basement. It was a one-page story written in a childish cursive script with a No. 2 pencil. The story was about a man who found a ray gun and accidentally made himself disappear—a spooky science fiction tale. The story had my name printed neatly at the bottom, and my age. I was eight years old. (retrieved from author's website)

A picture of the boy eating tree from Dead Boys

A big thanks to Royce for participating in this year's book battle. I am sure he would love to hear from all the teams about your experience reading Dead Boys.

2011/2012 Feature Book of the Week #3 Girl Stolen by April Henry

2011-09-27T02:07:00.000-07:00

FEATURED BOOK OF THE WEEK

GIRL STOLEN BY APRIL HENRY

Sixteen year-old Cheyenne Wilder is sleeping in the back of a car while her mom fills her prescription at the pharmacy. Before Cheyenne realizes what's happening, their car is being stolen--with her inside! Griffin hadn’t meant to kidnap Cheyenne, all he needed to do was steal a car for the others. But once Griffin's dad finds out that Cheyenne’s father is the president of a powerful corporation, everything changes—now there’s a reason to keep her. What Griffin doesn’t know is that Cheyenne is not only sick with pneumonia, she is blind. How will Cheyenne survive this nightmare, and if she does, at what price? (Publisher's summary from Goodreads)

GUEST POST FROM APRIL HENRY

A Confession about Girl, Stolen

I have a confession to make. In the course of writing Girl, Stolen, I killed myself and blinded my teenage daughter.

Not literally, of course.

A couple of years ago, my daughter and I were walking down an unlit road when she noticed something almost magical. Each car that came up behind us would throw our shadows ahead of us. At first the shadows were long and thin, but as the cars got closer, our shadows grew shorter and thicker. But that wasn’t the only thing. “Look!” She pointed. “Our shadows are walking backward.”

And it was true. (If you are ever in a similar situation, watch what happens to your shadow.)

At the time my daughter showed me our backward-walking shadows, I already knew I wanted to write a thriller about a blind girl who is kidnapped. The idea was sparked by a story on our local news. A blind girl, who had gone out to dinner with her step parents, decided to stay in the car while they did some Christmas shopping. Her mom left the keys in the ignition. A man saw the keys, jumped into the car, and drove off - and then realized there was a girl in the back seat. Three blocks later, he forced her out.

But I thought:

What if the thief had kept her?

And what if he was a also a teenager?

And what if his dad was running a chop shop?

And what if they thought about letting her go - until they learned her family was rich?

But how had the girl become blind? I considered making her blind since birth, but decided it would be too difficult to portray accurately. So my character would have to have been blind for only a few years. But how had she lost her sight?

And when my daughter showed me our shadows, I thought - What if one of these cars hit us? And killed me? And threw my daughter into a signpost, leaving her blind? And so that’s what happened to my character and her mother.

Don’t worry, my daughter is fine with this. She’s used to have a writer for a mother - one who sees not what is, but what if.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I grew up in a small Oregon town, and I still remember my mom teaching me with alphabet flash cards. White with a picture of an object on one side and a letter on the other, those cards glowed with magic.

When I was 12, I sent Roald Dahl, the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, a short story about a frog named Herman who loved peanut butter. The day he received it, Dahl had lunch with the editor of an international children's magazine and read her the story. She contacted me and asked to publish it.

But as I got older, even though I read all the time, I didn't even dream of being a writer. It would have been like thinking I could fly by flapping my arms really, really hard. Then I got a hospital job with lots of down time and started thinking maybe I could try to write a book about the life and death that surrounded me every day.

That first book I wrote attracted no interest from agents. My second book got me an agent (and we're still together many years and many books later) and nice rejection letters from editors. My third book didn't even get nice rejection letters from editors. My fourth book sold in two days. It was a four-year overnight success.

Since then, I've written nearly a dozen mysteries and thrillers for teens and adults. The first in the Triple Threat Club series, co-written with Lis Wiehl, was on the New York Times bestseller list for four weeks. It was followed by Hand of Fate and Heart of Ice.

My first young adult novel, Shock Point was an ALA Quick Pick, a Top 10 Books for Teens nominee, a New York Library's Books for the Teen Age book, named to the Texas Tayshas list, and a finalist for Philadelphia's Young Readers Choice Award. It was followed by two more teen thrillers: Torched and Girl, Stolen. Girl, Stolen was an ALA Quick Pick and an ALA Best Books for Young Adults.

My books have been short-listed for the Agatha Award, the Anthony Award, and the Oregon Book Award, and chosen twice for Booksense by the independent booksellers of America. They have been translated into Japanese, Spanish, Dutch, German, Polish, and French.

Look for two new books 2012. In April, the fourth Triple Threat Club mystery, Eyes of Justice, will be out. And for teens, The Night She Disappeared, about a pizza delivery girl who goes out to make a delivery and doesn't come back, will be out in March. (Retrieved from author's web site)

2011/2012 Feature Book of the Week #2 Invisible Lines by Mary Amato

2011-09-20T03:22:00.000-07:00

FEATURED BOOK OF THE WEEK
INVISIBLE LINES BY MARY AMATO

Trevor is just plain funny, and he’s lucky, he is. Because this year he needs a sense of humor. Moving to Hedley Gardens is hard enough. The move to a fancy new school is even harder—all the kids from “Deadly Gardens” seem to be in the same classes and keep to themselves, but somehow Trevor’s ended up in an advanced science class with kids who seem to have everything and know everything, including how to please their strange new teacher.

But Trevor has plans. This is going to be his year. And he is going to do whatever it takes to make it at this new school. He may not have what these other kids have, but no one is better at juggling in soccer, and his drawing is so good that he’s called the Graffiti Guy.

Xander, a star in the classroom and on the soccer field, has other plans for Trevor. He doesn’t like anyone trespassing on his turf and sabotages Trevor at every opportunity. Who is going to believe Trevor over the school star? Is there any way that Trevor can achieve his goals against a guy who is as good at bullying as he is at everything else he does? (PUBLISHER'S SUMMARY FROM GOOD READS)

GUEST POST FROM MARY AMATO

I am intrigued by the idea for a Battle of the Books and am excited to know that my book, Invisible Lines, is part of it. Often, I write because I am haunted by a character. It is as if the character is real, a person outside of my imagination, who is asking me to write his or her story. My main character for this story, Trevor Musgrove, haunted me for years before I finally wrote his story. While I am writing, I carry the characters in my head everywhere I go. I am almost constantly thinking about them. When I'm finished with all the writing and the many revisions and the book is finally in production, it is always a relief. I'll think about how exhausting it was and decide to take a break. But almost immediately, a new character will begin to haunt me and I find myself pulling out my little notebook and beginning the scribble down that new character's voice. To see my process and all my drafts, watch my video, Writing Invisible Lines: http://www.maryamato.com/new-3-minute-video-on-the-writing-process. Cheers...and remember to "rise above it." --Mary Amato

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mary Amato is an award-winning children’s book author, poet, playwright, and songwriter. Her books have been translated into foreign languages, optioned for television, produced onstage, and has won the children’s choice awards in several states.

I always wanted to be a writer, but it took me a long time to believe that I could actually become one. I started writing at the age of seven when my mother handed me a little spiral notebook and told me to keep a journal of our trip to California. I liked the fact that I could record something in my journal and then read it later. My favorite book as a child was Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh because Harriet was a terrific journal keeper.

I love to write. Not all writers enjoy writing, believe it or not. I especially love to write books for children. I think that’s because I needed books when I was a kid. I turned to books when I was lonely or sad or confused or bored. It is extremely fun to think that kids are reading my books.

I love to play music and write songs. I perform in the Maryland-Washington, D.C. area. I was a dancer and choreographer for many years and still work from time to time in the theater. Currently, I collaborate on ballets with my sister who was my inspiration to dance and is a ballet teacher and choreographer. I was also the co-founder of Firefly Shadow Theater, designed and made many puppets, and directed many shows.

In graduate school, I studied fiction writing and poetry at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC. As an undergraduate, I studied special education and dance at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. (Retrieved from author's website)

I want to thank Mary Amato for the lovely post and for graciously agreeing to participate in this week's Feature Book of the Week.

2011/2012 Feature Book of the Week #1 Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool

2011-09-13T01:32:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the first Feature Book of the Week post for the 2011/2012 Area Wide Book Battle.

Every week I will feature one of the books on this year's list. Along with a summary about the book, many of the authors have graciously written a guest post especially for this year's book battle teams. Hopefully, their words will inspire you and entertain you just as much as their books. Feel free to add your thoughts about their books and posts in the comment section at the end of the post.

FEATURED BOOK OF THE WEEK

Abilene Tucker feels abandoned. Her father has put her on a train, sending her off to live with an old friend for the summer while he works a railroad job. Armed only with a few possessions and her list of universals, Abilene jumps off the train in Manifest, Kansas, aiming to learn about the boy her father once was.
Having heard stories about Manifest, Abilene is disappointed to find that it’s just a dried-up, worn-out old town. But her disappointment quickly turns to excitement when she discovers a hidden cigar box full of mementos, including some old letters that mention a spy known as the Rattler. These mysterious letters send Abilene and her new friends, Lettie and Ruthanne, on an honest-to-goodness spy hunt, even though they are warned to “Leave Well Enough Alone.”
Abilene throws all caution aside when she heads down the mysterious Path to Perdition to pay a debt to the reclusive Miss Sadie, a diviner who only tells stories from the past. It seems that Manifest’s history is full of colorful and shadowy characters—and long-held secrets. The more Abilene hears, the more determined she is to learn just what role her father played in that history. And as Manifest’s secrets are laid bare one by one, Abilene begins to weave her own story into the fabric of the town.

Powerful in its simplicity and rich in historical detail, Clare Vanderpool’s debut is a gripping story of loss and redemption. (Publisher's summary from Goodreads)

GUEST POST FROM CLARE VANDERPOOL

In looking over guest posts from last year, I see there are a variety of ways authors have done their posts. Some were more biographical, others did an interview format. I like the interview idea and figured who better to conduct the interview than my 11-year old daughter, Lucy, who will also be competing in her school’s Battle of the Books this year. Moon Over Manifest is on her book list as well. If your competition runs the same way, the answer always consists of the title of the book and the author's name, so we've been practicing her buzzing in and saying, "Moon Over Manifest" by Clare Vanderpool. She hasn't been able to say it with a straight face yet.

So here is our interview.

Lucy: One of my favorite parts of the book was when Lettie sings her sad train songs. Did you make those up?

Clare/Mom: Yes, I did make up the songs and rhymes in the book (all except the one about the Little Teddy Bear – I learned that from my grandmother). I did a lot of research for the book and listened to lots of Depression-era train songs, hobo music, old-timey music. I wanted to make up songs and rhymes that could have come from that time period. I even have a melody in my head for how Lettie's song goes. Do you want me to sing it for you?

Lucy: No. How has winning the Newbery changed your life?

Clare/Mom: The Newbery has affected my life in a lot of wonderful ways. I’ve had lots of opportunities to travel and speak at different places to children and adults. Because of the Newbery, a lot more people are familiar with my book than before. It does put a certain amount of pressure on the next book, however, so I’m working really hard on writing that next one. But as we said in our family meeting right after the Newbery was announced, as a family, we want to keep things pretty normal. We still shop at Target, everybody still has Saturday jobs (even though someone usually forgets to do her job of emptying the bathroom trash can… Lucy) and we just want to appreciate the opportunities that the Newbery has provided.

Lucy: If you could jump into any book and be in the story, what book would you pick?

Clare/Mom: Ooh, good question. There are lots of books I’d love to jump into. Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. There are lots of World War II spy novels that I would like to be in. A Wrinkle In Time would be fun. And probably A Long Way from Chicago. I’d love to meet Grandma Dowdel!

Lucy: Who is your favorite character in Moon Over Manifest?

Clare/Mom: Hmm, I love them all, even the persnickety ones like Mrs. Larkin. But if I had to pick favorites it would probably be Abilene and Shady. Who is your favorite character?

Lucy: I like Ned and Jinx because their story is interesting to read about. Okay, last question. What do you like about being a writer?

Clare/Mom: I love writing because it allows me to create characters and get involved in their stories. I kind of feel like writing is ½ making things up and ½ just going along for the ride!

Lucy: Okay, that’s it.

Clare/Mom: Wait, I have a question for you. Why do you want to be in Battle of the Books?

Lucy: Because I like reading.

Clare/Mom: And what is your favorite book?

Lucy: I have two… well, really six. The five Percy Jackson books and your book.

Clare/Mom: That’s nice, Lucy. Thanks.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

If you ask anyone who knows me, they will tell you that I have a very strong connection to place. I live in Wichita, Kansas, about four blocks from where I grew up, in an old neighborhood called College Hill. From my house I can walk to my parents' house, my sister's house, the school I went to and where my kids go now, the pool, the sledding hill, and two bookstores!

I grew up reading many wonderful books in a lot of strange places. Books like Harold and the Purple Crayon, Anne of Green Gables, and Island of the Blue Dolphins in places like dressing rooms, the bathroom, and church. (Like you never read a book in church.)

While I do have a college degree in English and Elementary Education, my best education has come from reading, listening to family stories, looking out the car window on road trips, pretending to be pirates with my brother, and just plain imagining.

Besides writing I like to go to the pool with my kids, browse at the bookstore, have a neighbor over for tea, watch re-runs of Monk, have a lot of kids playing at our house, and go out for dinner with my husband. Life is good. (Retrieved from author website)

I want to thank Clare Vanderpool for agreeing to provide a guest post and congratulate her on winning the 2011 Newbery Medal.

Welcome Back Are You Ready to READ?

2011-09-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

Well, if you have not already started back to school yet, today should find all the students flooding the halls of schools and gearing up for another year.

Once again The Area Wide Book Battle committee has been working hard to make sure that the 2011/2012 Book Battle is a success.

On this blog you will find all the forms to get your team registered, the official book list and important announcements about which authors will be on hand for the competition.

In addition the blog will once again post The Question of the Week (beginning in January) and

The Feature Book of the Week (starting next Tuesday Sept. 19, 2011)

We hope you will encourage your students to take part in these posts. One way is to have students leave comments about the authors' posts, biographies, and their books, as each author takes time out of their writing schedules to personally write for our participants.

The other is to have your team use The Question of the Week as a way to prepare for the battle in May.

This year in addition to a awarding a prize for the school who has the most correct answers for The Question of the Week, we will also award a prize for the school who has the most comments on The Feature Book of the Week as well.

If you have any questions regarding the blog do not hesitate to contact Jan at areawidebb@gmail.com

You may also use this new email to leave comments if you run into difficulty with the comments

Area Wide Book Battle 2012 Book List

2011-07-19T08:26:00.000-07:00

The committee has met...

The choices were difficult...

The selections have been made...

PRESENTING

THE

AREA WIDE BOOK BATTLE

2012 BOOK LIST

The Official 2012 Book List is now available for downloading as are the revised Procedures complete with forms for registration.

Make sure you read through the procedures for changes!

Both are in pdf format and are located at the top of the right hand column.

Make sure you check the blog once school begins for more news and for the Featured Book of the Week posts. Several authors have already agreed to do guest posts, and we are still waiting to hear from the rest.

If you have any technical difficulties, please email Jan von Harz at

vonharzj@gmail.com

2010/2011 5th Area Wide Book Battle Highlights

2011-05-11T01:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was one of the most exciting day of the year. There was more electricity in the Pattonville Heights' gym than there was outside in the gathering storm clouds as all 34 Book Battle Teams came together to strut your stuff ... and strut you did. Everyone did a fantastic job and the whole committee wants to thank all the students and their coaches for making this battle the best ever!

Kudos to the top three teams are certainly in order.

In First Place Ladue Middle School

In Second Place Pattonville Heights Middle School

In Third Place Hixson Middle School

Even though there can only be one top placed winner you are all winners for working hard, reading the books, and giving it your all.

YOU ALL ROCK!

A very special thanks to James Dashner and Heather Brewer for taking time out of their busy schedules and making this a very special event. The students loved having you at the battle and the committee is very grateful to your both.

Also thanks to Scholastic Book Fairs and the St. Louis County Library for providing their support for this amazing event.

Until next year keep reading!

And the Answer Is...

2011-05-06T02:15:00.000-07:00

This week's question was ...

In which book does the a character win a competition she didn't want to enter?

And the answer is ...

When the Black Girl Sings by Bil Wright

Here is the list of schools who correctly identified the answer to this week's questions.

Hixson Middle

Cross Keys Middle

Danby Rush Tower

Ladue Middle

Pattonville Heights

Hoech Middle

Bernard Middle

Oakville Middle

Hazelwood Northwest

Hollenbeck Middle

Hazelwood North

Congratulations to all the schools who correctly identified this week's book.

As you know this was the last Question of the Week for the 2010/2011 Book Battle. The school who has correctly answered the most Question of the Week will be announced at the Book Battle on Tuesday. We have a terrific blog buster prize for the the winning school. Thanks you all for participating and I wish you all well in the upcoming battle.

See you Tuesday!

Question of the Week

2011-05-02T00:51:00.000-07:00

Today is the last Question of the Week, and I want to thank all the school who participated in this year's blog competition.

The Area Wide Book Battle will announce the winner next week at the Book Battle and the school who has answered the most questions will receive a special prize.

This week's question is...

In which book does the a character win a competition she didn't want to enter?

Don't forget to include in your answer the title and author of the book as it appears on the 2011 book list and the name of your school.

And the Answer Is...

2011-04-29T02:59:00.000-07:00

This week's Question of the Week was...

In which book is there a blacksmith named Little John with "hands the size of geese"?

and the answer is...

The Youngest Templar: The Keeper of the Grail

by Michael Spradlin

Here is the list of all the schools who correctly answered this week's question...

Hixson Middle

Hollenbeck Middle

Hoech Middle

Ladue Middle

Hazelwood Northwest Middle

Pattonville Heights Middle

Wahsington Middle

Bernard Middle

Danby Rush Tower

Cross Keys Middle

Hazelwood North Middle

Oakville Middle

Congratulation to all 13 schools. Don't forget to stop by Monday for the last question of the week for this year.

Question of the Week

2011-04-25T01:28:00.000-07:00

Only two more weeks before the Battle and I hope everyone is getting excited. I know I am. There will be one more Question of the week posted after this one and the school who has answered the most questions correctly will be announced the day of the Battle.

This week's question is...

In which book is there a blacksmith named Little John with "hands the size of geese"?

Don't forget to include the title and author of the book as it appears on the 2011 Book list along with the name of your school.

If you have problems leaving a comment email your answer to vonharzj@gmail.com

And the Answer Is...

2011-04-22T00:59:00.000-07:00

This week's question was...

In which book is starvation a common fate where the protagonist lives?

And the answer is...

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Here are all the schools who correctly identified the answer

Hixson Middle

Hollenbeck Middle

Hoech Middle

Parkway Northeast Middle

Ladue Middle

Hazelwood Northwest Middle

Pattonville Middle

Wahsington Middle

Bernard Middle

Danby Rush Tower

Cross Keys Middle

Hazelwood North
Sperreng Middle

Congratulations to all the schools who correctly answered this week's question. Only two more weeks to go.

Question of the Week

2011-04-18T01:54:00.000-07:00

This week's question is...

In which book is starvation a common fate where the protagonist lives?

Remember to provided the title and author of the book along with your school's name when leaving your answer in the comments. If you have trouble leaving a comment you can email you answer to vonharzj@gmail.com

And the Answer Is...

2011-04-15T02:29:00.000-07:00

This week's question asked...

In which book does the protagonist realize his nightmares are really happening to someone else?

And the answer is...

Tenth Grade Bleeds by Heather Brewer

Here is the list of all the schools who answered correctly

Cross Keys Middle

Oakville Middle

Hollenbeck Middle

Ladue Middle

Hazelwood Northwest Middle

Sperreng Middle

Congratulations to the above schools, and thanks to all eleven school who participated. See ya Monday for another question of the week.

To view all the comments for the Question of the Week post click on where it says 11 Delicious Comments. This will allow you to view all the answers posted.

Question of the Week

2011-04-11T00:52:00.000-07:00

This week's question of the week is...

In which book does the protagonist realize his nightmares are really happening to someone else?

Don't forget to include in your answer the title and author of the book as it appears on the book list and the name of your school.

Also do not forget that the comments left will not appear until Friday when the answer if posted. If you have any problems leaving a comment you can also email your answer to vonharzj@gmail.com

And the Answer Is...

2011-04-08T08:44:00.000-07:00

I apologize or being late with the Answer Post this week. To be honest I forgot this morning when I normal do the blog that it was Friday. Once I got to school well too much to take care of fo rme to get to it till now.

Any who, this week's question was...

In which book does a character live to be a 100 years old?

And the answer is...

Faith, Hope, and Ivy June by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

and here is the list of school who correctly answer this week's question

Hixson Middle

Oakville Middle

Ladue Middle

Hollenbeck Middle

Hoech Middle

Washington Middle

Cross Keys Middle

Sperreng Middle
Hazelwood Northwest Middle

Congratulations to all the schools who correctly answered the question. Check back Monday for another question of the week.

Question of the Week

2011-04-04T00:56:00.000-07:00

Only five more weeks until the competition. I hope you are all getting excited! I know I am. As you continue to prepared I want to remind everyone again about the two authors who will be joining us this year...

Heather Brewer

James Dashner

Don't forget to bring your books for signing.

This Week's question is...

In which book does a character live to be a 100 years old?

Don't forget to include in your comment the title of the book as it appears on the 2011 book list, the author's name and you school.

Comments will not appear until Friday when the answer is revealed.

If you have trouble using the comments you also email me your answer at vonharzj@gmail.com.

And the Answer Is...

2011-04-01T00:55:00.000-07:00

This week's question was...

In which book does a fourteen year old drive a car for the first time, but doesn't even know how to stop?

And the answer is...

Stolen Children by Peg Kehret

Here is the list of all schools answering the question correctly

Cross Keys Middle

Danby Rush Tower

Pattonville Heights

Oakville Middle

Washington Middle

Hixson Middle

Ladue Middle

Hazelwood Northwest

Sperreng Middle

Congratulations to all of the school who correctly answered this week's question.

Question of the Week

2011-03-28T07:00:00.000-07:00

This weeks question is...

In which book does a fourteen year old drive a car for the first time, but doesn't even know how to stop?

Remember to include the title of the book and author as it appears on the book list along with the name of your school. If you have problems with leaving a comment, email your answer to

vonharzj@gmail.com

And the Answer Is...

2011-03-25T07:07:00.001-07:00

This week's question of the week asked...

In which book does a character call the ASPCA everyday to check on a dog he found that had been hit by a car?

And the answer is...

Miracle Boys by Jacqueline Woodson

An the school's who correctly answered this weeks question are...

Hollenbeck Middle

Danby Rush Tower

Sperreng Middle

Hixson Middle

Hazelwood Northwest Middle

Oakville Middle
Washington Middle
Hazelwood North Middle

Congratulations to all the schools who correctly identified the title and author this week. See you all next week for another question.

Question of the Week

2011-03-21T02:12:00.000-07:00

Time for another question of the week and this week's question is...

In which book does a character call the ASPCA everyday to check on a dog he found that had been hit by a car?

Remember to include your school name along with the correct title of the book and the author's name.

If you have trouble with posting your comment email your answer to vonharzj@gmail.com

And the Answer Is...

2011-03-18T02:28:00.000-07:00

This week's Question of the Week was ...

In which book does the protagonist write her cell phone number on a magazine?

and the answer is ...

Jump the Cracks by Stacy DeKeyser

And the schools who correctly identified the title and author are...

Washington Middle

Hollenbeck Middle

Cross Keys Middle

North Middle

Hoech Middle

Hazelwood North Middle

Oakville Middle

Danby Rush Tower

Hazelwood Northwest Middle

Hixson Middle

Congratulations!

Question of the Week

2011-03-14T00:20:00.000-07:00

Eight weeks and counting till the the competition. I want to thank all the schools who have been leaving comments on the various Featured Books of the Week.

One question recently asked was whether or not Heather Brewer and James Dashner would be on hand to autograph books. The answer is yes! However, we will not be selling books at the competition so make sure you bring your own copies.

This week's questions is...

In which book does the protagonist write her cell phone number on a magazine?

Don't forget to include in your answer the name of the book as it appears on the book list, the author's name and your school's name.

Also do not forget that your answer will not appear until Friday when all the school's correctly answering this week's question is announced. Should you have difficulties leaving a comment you can email your answer to vonharzj@gmail.com.

And the Answer Is...

2011-03-11T01:47:00.000-08:00

It would seem that this week's question...

In which book does the protagonist let loose balloons for children to play with?

was a puzzler and the answer is...

The Compound by S. A. Bodeen

Here are the schools who answered correctly:

Hixson Middle

Hazelwood Northwest Middle

Oakville

Cross Keys

Congratulations to all the winners this week.

Questions of the Week

2011-03-07T00:21:00.000-08:00

It's Monday, which means it's time for another question of the week.

This week's question is...

In which book does the protagonist let loose balloons for children to play with?

Remember to include the correct title and author's name as listed on the book list along with your school, when answering the question.

Your comments will be saved and published until Friday. If you should have problems with the comments you can also email your response to jvonharz@psdr3. org.

And the Answer Is...

2011-03-04T00:50:00.000-08:00

Wow! What a great turn out this week. We had 13 schools (almost half to teams) participate and all but one correctly answered this weeks question.

A reminder: you must give the correct name of the book and author's name as listed on the book list, otherwise your answer will be considered incorrect (this is way the competition is too).

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me about this at vonharzj@gmail.com

Even though your comment does not show up, after you submit it, they are stored and published on Friday along with the "Answer is" post, and you can see them at the bottom of the "Question of the Week" post then by clicking on comments. For those of you sending your answers via email, I save these too.

This week's question was...

In which book does the protagonist's roommate agree to cover for him in exchange for help studying Chaucer?

and the answer is...

Steel Trapp: The Academy by Ridley Pearson.

Here is this weeks list of winners.

Sperreng Middle

Oakville Middle

Pattonville Heights

Parkway Northeast

Hixson Middle

Hoech Middle

Danby Rush Tower

Hazelwood Northwest Middle

Washington Middle

Rockwood South Middle

Hollenbech Middle

Cross Keys Middle

Hazelwood North Middle

Thanks to all the schools who participated and congratulations to all the schools who correctly identified this week's book and author.

See you next week for another questions.

Question of the Week

2011-02-27T23:33:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to all the schools who correctly answered last weeks question. Nine out the the 12 schools successfully used the comments. If you still are having problems with using the comments you can email your answer to me at vonharzj@gmail.com/

This weeks question is...

In which book does the protagonist's roommate agree to cover for him in exchange for help studying Chaucer?

Don't forget to identify both the title and the author's name and the school you are from in you answers.

And the Answer Is...

2011-02-25T01:03:00.000-08:00

Well, based on the number of responses to the question of the week, it seems as we finally have all the kinks worked out. Thanks for everyone who participated.

This week's question was...

In which book was reading taught in a laboratory with pictures?

And the answer is...

Mrs. Frisby and The Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien

Congratulations go to the following schools for correctly answering this week's question.

Sperreng Middle

Hollenbeck Middle

Oakville Middle

Pattonville Heights

Bernard Middle

Hazelwood North

Cross Keys

Washington Middle

Danby Rush Tower

Hixson Middle

Hoech Middle

Hazelwood Northwest

Since we have finished featuring all 20 books on our list there will be no new post on Tuesday. None-the-less, those posts are available for the teams to read and comment on.

The Question of the Week will, however, continue every Monday until the week before the competition.

Feature Book of the Week Miracle's Boys by Jacqueline Woodson

2011-02-22T07:04:00.000-08:00

FEATURED BOOK OF THE WEEK

Nothing is like it used to be. If it were, Mama would still be alive. Papa wouldn't have died. Thirteen-year-old Lafayette's older brother, Charlie wouldn't have done time at a correctional facility. And oldest brother Ty'ree would have gone to college instead of having to work full time to support the three of them. If things were the same, Lafayette wouldn't be so full of questions, like why Mama had to die, why Charlie hates him so much now, and how they're all supposed to survive these times together when so much seems to be set against them.

This is the story of three remarkable young men; brothers who have only each other to rely on and who must decide whether they'll work with that or let it tear them apart. (Publisher's summary from Goodreads)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Although she was born in Ohio, Jacqueline Woodson grew up in South Carolina and in Brooklyn, New York, where she still lives. When she was a child, her Brooklyn neighbors were mostly Hispanic and African American. "Everything from the food I grew up eating to the music I learned to dance to had the flavors of both the South and Puerto Rico," she remembers. This background has served her well as a writer because the characters in her fiction are from a variety of ethnic groups and social classes.

Woodson often writes about difficult issues that young people face and characters who feel out of place. "I think, growing up, I felt like I was on the outside a lot; and I think, as a grownup, I've… realized that it's okay to be on the outside," she says. If she has a single message to share with readers, it's that "no matter who you are in the world, it's okay to be who you are."

Jacqueline Woodson's advice to young writers is this: "Write every single day, at least for thirty minutes — just sit down and write in your diary or write a letter to a friend or write a poem or anything, but just try to practice writing every day." She also recommends reading books by writers you admire. (Retrieved from Houghton Mifflin Reading)

Question of the Week

2011-02-21T06:10:00.000-08:00

After the problems last week, I am almost 100% sure that commenting will be a breeze this week. I also added two schools name who did answer the question correctly but were not originally posted.

I hope everyone will try using the comments first, but should you run into any problem email me your answer to

vonharzj@gmail.com

Now onto this week's question:

In which book was reading taught in a laboratory with pictures?

Remember to identify the school you are from along with the correct title of the book from the book battle list and the author's name in your comment.

And the Answer Is...

2011-02-18T01:02:00.000-08:00

First let me apologize to everyone having problems posting this week. In an effort to keep all comments hidden, I somehow managed to also hide the comment link. I apologize for this technological hiccup and have it corrected. You should be able to view the delicious comment link now, so that next week everyone will be able to post on the post.

If you still have problems for any reason, send me an email with your answer at vonharzj@gmail.com

This week's question was ...

In which book does the protagonist meet an uncle for the first time and think his driver is in the Mafia?

And the answer is...

Middleworld by J. & P. Voelkel

Schools correctly identifying the book and authors for this week's question are...

Hazelwoood Southeast

Hazelwood Northwest

Sperreng Middle

Bernard Middle

Ladue Middle

Oakville Middle (OMS)
Hixson Middle
Danby Rush Tower
Bernard Middle

If anyone tried and was unable to post or did not know to send me an email, please let me know. If more schools attempted to answer this week's question than those I received emails from, I will throw this question out when tallying up correct responses for the prize at the end of the year.

Again my sincere apologies, I hope you all will continue to participate in the Question of the Week, and encourage your students to read all the great quest posts and leave comments about the books on this year's list.

Featured book of the WeekTenth Grade Bleeds by Heather Brewer

2011-02-15T01:18:00.000-08:00

FEATURED BOOK OF THE WEEK

It’s another sucky year at Bathory High for Vladimir Tod. The evil vampire D’Ablo is hunting for the ritual that could steal Vlad’s powers. His best friend Henry doesn’t want to be his drudge anymore. And as if all that weren’t enough, it’s getting harder for Vlad to resist feeding on the people around him. When months go by with no word from Uncle Otis and D’Ablo shows up demanding Vlad’s father’s journal, Vlad realizes that having a normal high school year is the least of his concerns. Vlad needs to act fast, and even his status as the Pravus won’t save him this time . (Publisher's summary from Goodreads)

A VERY SPECIAL GUEST POST AND ANNOUNCEMENT FROM AUNTIE HEATHER

When you're a successful author, you often travel around the country, visiting really amazing people that you might never see again at incredible events. I've been all over the place, and every time, I wish that I could return and experience it all over again. That wish has been fulfilled twice now, and I couldn't be happier about it!

In 2088, I was asked to attend the Pattonville Book Battle, and I was absolutely floored by how much fun it was! The list of books that everyone had to read in order to participate contained some of my current faves, and it was fun watching students scramble to the front to turn their team's answers in. Afterwards, I was happy to do an autographing session.

I was thrilled in 2009 to be asked back. So much so that I gave away a school visit to the lucky winners - and this year, I'm going to do it all over again! Last year, I had lost my voice just days before the book battle and had to whisper my congratulations, but I'm keeping my mouth closed this year, so I can shout how proud I am of all of you, Minions!

This time I'll have the brilliant James Dashner (author of THE MAZE RUNNER and THE SCORCH TRIALS) by my side at Pattonville Middle School, and I cannot wait to see your anxious faces. It makes me so proud to know that not only are tweens and teens working hard to be part of something special, but that you're all cool enough to stand up and say, "Reading is cool!" Because it so is. And so are all of you.

I'm currently hard at work on my next books - one is a spin-off of THE CHRONICLES OF VLADIMIR TOD called THE SLAYER CHRONICLES and the other is a YA fantasy epic called BLOODBOUND - but I can hardly wait to see you all again. Here's to reading! And best of luck, everyone

MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Heather Brewer was not your typical teen growing up. She wore black, danced under full moons, and devoured every book in sight. She hasn't changed much. Today, Heather can be found writing in her funky, black Happy Bunny jammie pants, dancing under a full moon, devouring every book in sight, and attending renaissance faire in full costume (and in character).

When Heather's not writing, dressing up, dancing and reading, she's answering email, which she loves to get over at her website.

I want to thank Heather for taking time out of her busy schedule to write this guest post for the Area Wide Book Battle Teams.

Heather has become a very important part of the competition and we are honored that she also willingly attends the Book Battle every year. So make sure you have your books with you to have Auntie Heather autograph them.

Question of the Week

2011-02-14T00:35:00.000-08:00

I want to congratulate all the schools who participated last week and answered the question correctly. I also want to remind you to stop by tomorrow for the Featured Book of the Week as I have a special announcement to make that will be of interest to all the book battle teams.

And now without further ado this week's question is ...

In which book does the protagonist meet an uncle for the first time and think his driver is in the Mafia?

Remember to identify the school you are from along with the correct title of the book from the book battle list and the author's name in your comment.

And the Answer Is...

2011-02-11T01:18:00.000-08:00

I am very excited with to see that participation for the Question of the Week increased this week. I know some of you may have had problems with commenting and a step by step instruction sheet is being sent out via email to all schools.

I also hope that all the teams will take the time to read through all the guest posts on the Featured Book of the Week. More than half of the authors on our Book Battle Book List took time out from their busy writing schedules to write something especially for YOU! Many of the post are informational and show the lighter side of the author. It would be great if students and teachers left messages letting the authors know how you liked their post and/or their book.

All past posts are listed on the left sidebar for easy accessibility, just click on the title of the book and it will take you directly to that Featured Book of the Week post.

This week's question was...

In which book does a character save a sick friend from prison by loading him in a wheelbarrow and telling people he is dead?

And the answer is....

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

Here are the school's who correctly answered this week's question

Hazelwood North Middle

Rockwood South Middle

Hoech Middle

Washington Middle

Danby Rush Middle

Hixson Middle

Spering Middle

Hollenbeck Middle

Hazelwood Northwest Middle

Great Job!

Next week make sure to check out The Featured Book of the Week as there will be another announcement that is sure to be exciting news for all the teams.

Feature Book of the Week Bringing the Boys Home by N. A. Nelson

2011-02-08T00:52:00.000-08:00

FEATURED BOOK OF THE WEEK

"I've seen what the world does to the weak. It'll eat you alive."

Tirio was cast out of the Takunami tribe at a very young age because of his disabled foot. But an American woman named Sara adopted him, and his life has only gotten better since. Now, as his thirteenth birthday approaches, things are nearly perfect. So why is he having visions and hearing voices calling him back to the Amazon?

Luka has spent his whole life preparing for his soche seche tente, a sixth-sense test all Takunami boys must endure just before their thirteenth birthday. His family's future depends on whether or not he passes this perilous test. His mother has dedicated herself to making sure that no aspect of his training is overlooked . . . but fate has a way of disturbing even the most carefully laid plans.

Two young boys. An unforgiving jungle. One shared destiny.

GUEST POST FROM N. A. NELSON

Battle of the Books? Cool-io. I love it!

In a traditional sense of Battle of the Bands, let’s assume that Bringing the Boy Home would sound something like this: staccato violin sounds, broken up by huge cymbals clashing, then joined by some deep and dangerous cello sounds, shaken up with maracas “sh-sh-sshushing” in the background, interspersed with some techno piano synthesizer, and big ol’ booming drums, crescendoing with a horn and ending with birds tweeting. In other words, this: http://www.ninanelsonbooks.com/video.html.

Thank you so much for including BTBH in this battle. Is it to the death or do we all shake hands and say “Good Game” at the end? Probably the latter, eh? Alright. I’m in.

So what can I say about my book. It was my very first—my debut and it poured out of me like water out of an underground spring. I did a lot of research: survival techniques, jungle flora and fauna, endemic Amazonian tribes, but when it came time to actually writing the book, I remember just sitting back and watching a movie play out somewhere in my head and just trying to keep up as I typed the scene down.

It was fun and easy and I was able to finish the novel in nine months. Sure, there were times when I got “stuck”. For example when I got to the point where I had to know how the two boys were related, I remember panicking, “How am I going to do that without it being obvious?” So I went for a walk and 25 yards into my jaunt, the answer came to me. My two dogs were completely confused (not to mention bummed out) when I turned on my heels and headed back home so I could keep writing.

What I’m trying to say is that while writing BTBH, I was on a bit of a “soche seche tente” a lot like Tirio and Luka. And I followed my gut. I didn’t doubt. A scene would come up and I’d type it down. Not once did I think, “this is stupid.” or “Why am I putting this it there?” I just listened and typed.

This “gut feeling” is called intuition and I’ve learned to stand up and PAY ATTENTION when it comes knocking—not just in my writing but in my life. Where does this feeling come from? Well with Tirio, it came from his dad, but for me? I’m not sure. But I do know that it comes from someplace magical and amazing and when you follow it magical and amazing things happen.

So if you feel like you should “Go left” when everyone else goes right, go for it! If you want to wear purple and pink pants, then wear them...even if everyone else is wearing blue jeans. Like Tirio, if you listen to that sixth sense, that intuition, that gut feeling—you’ll end up exactly where you’re supposed to be in the end. Happy. Giddy. And feeling like everything is right with the world.

Look at me. I did. And I’m rockin’ and sockin’ it out in the Battle of the Books. Trust me on this one.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I was born in London, England to German parents, who were stationed abroad because my father was in the American Air Force. (Wow—that sounds like the beginning of a spy novel, doesn’t it?) My father, mother, sister and baby-me lived in Martin Manor, an ivy-cloaked, ten bedroom, drafty mansion with only fireplaces to ward off the damp, foggy chill. Although I don’t remember much about that time of my life, I look happy enough in my baby pictures, so let’s move on.

After leaving England, my life becomes less spy novel, more Little House on the Prairie as my parents bought a thousand acre farm in rural Missouri. We had cows, pigs, sheep (until they got killed by coyotes), chickens, guineas, peacocks, ducks, geese, Shetland ponies (until one reared back and fell on my sister on an electric fence), cats and dogs. I was in heaven: fishing for snapping turtles in the pond with my brother, riding my black and yellow BMX bike, building hay houses in the barn, eating apples off the trees and reading lots and lots of books. And when I got bored, I wrote—mostly poetry—and listened to Elvis Presley records.

Then came high school—and the realization that living thirty minutes from town wasn’t really conducive to a thriving social life. I graduated from Rolla High School never having been nominated queen, princess or president of anything, but I did gain valuable fast food experience working at Wendy’s. (Everyone should don polyester and answer the call of the drive-thru window at least once in their lifetime.)

When I entered college (University of Missouri-Columbia,) I had no idea what to major in, but remembering how much I loved to write, I decided on English. Two semesters later I changed my mind—too many rules: “write like this,” “don’t write like this.” It didn’t feel right to write that way—not for me, at least.

And then in the middle of my “What am I going to do with my life?” dilemma, somebody told me “Figure out what you love to do and then find a way to get paid to do it.” So I mulled and pondered and brooded and then—light bulb moment: recreation. I’d been a lifeguard since I was sixteen, had just gotten certified to teach water aerobics (before you laugh, I dare you to take one of my classes) and loved to travel. So after spending a summer lifeguarding at Disney World (Disney College Program) Apply if/when you’re eligible.), a year studying at the University of Hawaii-Manoa, (Honors Exchange Program, good grades=cool opportunities), and a six month internship at a hotel in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands (Please be nice to the front desk staff, folks.), I received a BS in travel, tourism and recreation—or as my father calls it: underwater basket weaving.

My first job after college was as an aerobics instructor/personal trainer/sales rep at a health and racquet club in Pensacola, FL. Soon after starting there, I was set up on a blind date (yikes!) with a Marine Corps pilot. We fell in love, got two dogs, moved to New York City and became betrothed. (See the dogs in the background?)

I immediately enrolled in acting classes (What IS it about NYC that makes everyone think they can act?) and met people so passionate about acting, they shamed me. With my tail between my legs, I bowed out, in awe of the crazed look in other student’s eyes when they talked about movies and how they wished they could have gotten so-n-so’s role. I was jealous. I wanted that crazed look. Acting didn’t give it to me. What would? I had an idea—writing.

So I bought a yellow legal pad, sharpened my pencils and signed up for a Gotham Writers workshop. Every week my supportive husband would walk me home from class so we could “discuss” how it went. The poor guy didn’t get a word in edgewise. I ranted, I raved, I raked my hair and gestured madly. I talked too loud, too fast and interrupted myself. I was right where I wanted to be…with that crazed look in my eye.

However, it wasn’t until one baby and a move later that I started to write in earnest. With my second pregnancy, I had insomnia. Since sleep was no longer an option, I’d trudge downstairs, prop my laptop on my belly and from about midnight to 4 a.m. I’d write. Nine months later I gave birth to a healthy baby boy. It took me an additional three months to complete the manuscript. Yes, finishing my novel was harder than having a child.

So there you have it, my life: spy novel turned Little House on the Prairie, turned chick lit, turned travelogue, turned…

I don’t know—as with my books, I’m never quite sure of the ending until I write the last word. (Retrieved from author's website http://www.ninanelsonbooks.com/)

I want to thanks Nina for taking time out of her busy schedule writing and agreeing to do a guest post.

Question of the Week

2011-02-07T02:06:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, we didn't have too many participates in our first Question of the Week. I really hope more schools incorporate this week post into their team plans. Don't forget the school getting the most questions correct will win a prize to be awarded at Book Battle.

This weeks question is...

In which book does a character save a sick friend from prison by loading him in a wheelbarrow and telling people he is dead?

Don't forget when submitting your answer to include in your comment...

Identify what school you are from

Provide both the complete title of the book from the book battle list and the author's name

Remember you have until Thursday to answer the question .The correct answer and the list of schools who answered correctly will be posted on Friday.

Good Luck and Good Reading!

And the Answer Is...

2011-02-04T00:06:00.000-08:00

Despite the winter blast I am happy to say that three school participated in this week's Question of the Week, which asked...

In which book is one of the character's mother an anthropologist?

And the answer is...

Bringing the Boy Home by N. A. Nelson

Here are the schools who correctly identified the title and author.

Northwest Middle

Ladue Middle

Hixson Middle

Congratulations!

Make sure you check back on Monday for another Question of the Week.

Featured book of the WeekWhen the Black Girl Sings by Bil Wright

2011-02-02T00:28:00.000-08:00

FEATURE BOOK OF THE WEEK

Lahni Schuler is the only black student at her private prep school. She's also the adopted child of two loving, but white, parents who are on the road to divorce. Struggling to comfort her mother and angry with her dad, Lahni feels more and more alone. But when Lahni and her mother attend a local church one Sunday, Lahni hears the amazing gospel choir, and her life takes an unexpected turn.

It so happens that one of Lahni's teachers, Mr. Faringhelli, has nominated her for a talent competition, and she is expected to perform a song in front of the whole school. Lahni decides to join the church choir to help her become a better singer. But what starts out as a way to practice singing becomes a place of belonging and a means for Lahni to discover her own identity.

In this moving book, acclaimed author Bil Wright, tells the story of one girl's search to find a home where she truly belongs. (Publisher's summary from Goodreads)

About the Author

Bil Wright is the author of When the Black Girl Sings, a Junior Library Guild selection, and Sunday You Learn How to Box, which was one of Booklist's best adult books for teens; a New York Public Library Best Book for the Teen Age; a Coretta Scott King Celebrating the Dream Book; and on the ALA's list of Books for Gay Teens. His poetry and short fiction have appeared in several anthologies, including Shade, Black Like Us, The Road Before Us, and Black Silk. An associate professor of English at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, Bil Wright lives in New York City. Visit him at www.bilwright.com. (Bio and photo retrieved from Simon and Schuster)

Question of Week

2011-01-31T07:00:00.000-08:00

This week's Question is...

In which book is one of the character's mother an anthropologist?

Leave a comment with the following information:

Name of your school

The complete title of the book as it appears on the Book Battle Book List
Author's name

The correct answer along with all schools submitting the correct answer will appear in a Friday post.

Good Luck!

Featured Book of the Week and An Exciting Announcement

2011-01-25T07:01:00.000-08:00

FEATURE BOOK OF THE WEEK

Imagine waking up one day in total darkness, unsure of where you are and unable to remember anything about yourself except your first name. You're in a bizarre place devoid of adults called the Glade. The Glade is an enclosed structure with a jail, a graveyard, a slaughterhouse, living quarters, and gardens. And no way out. Outside the Glade is the Maze, and every day some of the kids -- the Runners -- venture into the labyrinth, trying to map the ever-changing pattern of walls in an attempt to find an exit from this hellish place. So far, no one has figured it out. And not all of the Runners return from their daily exertions, victims of the maniacal Grievers, part animal, part mechanical killing machines.

Thomas is the newest arrival to the Glade in this Truman-meets-Lord of the Flies tale. A motley crew of half a dozen kids is all he has to guide him in this strange world. As soon as he arrives, unusual things begin to happen, and the others grow suspicious of him. Though the Maze seems somehow familiar to Thomas, he's unable to make sense of the place, despite his extraordinary abilities as a Runner. What is this place, and does Thomas hold the key to finding a way out? (Publisher's summary from Goodreads)

Announcement and Special Guest Post From

James Dashner

The Area Wide Book Battle Committee with the help of Scholastic Book Fairs is happy to announce that James Dashner will be attending this year's battle.

Hi guys! I'm honored to be part of the Book Battle this year, and I can't wait to come out there and meet a lot of you. I hope you'll enjoy my book, The Maze Runner. It's a dark story and might give you some nightmares, maybe even cause some permanent psychological damage. I hope you're cool with that! Just get a therapist afterward and watch lots of Spongebob and you should be back on track.

I had a lot of fun writing this book, as well as the two sequels (Book 3 comes out this fall). It was heavily inspired by two books I loved in high school: Ender's Game and Lord of the Flies. It was also influenced by the TV show Lost, which I was watching while working on the manuscripts. There is a lot of mystery, action, intrigue, and suspense, and I hope that you find yourself wanting to tear through its pages.

There are a lot of exciting things coming down the pipeline related to this series, including a movie by 20th Century Fox, so crack it open and have at it! I hope you have as much fun reading my story as I did writing it. See you soon....

James Dashner

About the Author

James Dashner is the author of both children's fantasy series The 13th Reality, and the Jimmy Fincher Saga. His novel The Journal of Curious Letters was chosen for a 2008 Borders Original Voices pick. He has been published by Cedar Fort, Inc and by Shadow Mountain Press, known for their popular children's novels series Leven Thumps and Fablehaven. However, Delacorte—a division of Random House— published his new series, The Maze Runner, the first of which was out Fall 2009, and The Scorch Trails, which was released Oct. 2010. The third book in this dysptopian series The Death Cure (working title) is planned to be release Oct. 2011.

James Dashner was born in Georgia and attended Brigham Young University. Dashner. He currently lives in South Jordan City, Utah and is married with four children.

The Return of the Question of the Week!

2011-01-24T07:04:00.000-08:00

Last year The Area Wide Book Battle and our official Book Battle Blog posted a question a week to help teams prepare for the competition in May.

I am happy to report that starting next Monday, 1/ 31/11, the Question of the Week will once again be a part of a weekly post. All schools are invited to participate, and the school who answers the most questions correctly will receive a prize that will be announced at the book battle.

Here's how it works!

Each Monday a new question pertaining to one of the books on the 2010/2011 Book Battle List will be posted. Schools wanting to participate will leave a comment with their answer. On Thursday, the correct answer to Monday's question will be posted along with the names of each school who correctly answered that week's question. The school with the most correct answers will win.

When leaving a comment please make sure you...

Identify your school's complete name
Identify both the title of the book and the author's name

Any comments without both of the above written in the comment will be disqualified.

Good Luck!

Also make sure you check out the Feature Book of the Week every Tuesday. This week I have a very exciting announcement to make and it will greatly affect everyone's Book Battle experience this year. Don't miss it!

Featured Book of The Week Faith, Hope and Ivy June by Phyllis Naylor

2011-01-18T00:08:00.000-08:00

FEATURED BOOK OF THE WEEK

Ivy June Mosely and Catherine Combs, two girls from different parts of Kentucky, are participating in the first seventh-grade student exchange program between their schools. The girls will stay at each other’s homes, attend school together, and record their experience in their journals. Catherine and her family have a beautiful home with plenty of space. Since Ivy June’s house is crowded, she lives with her grandparents. Her Pappaw works in the coal mines supporting four generations of kinfolk. Ivy June can’t wait until he leaves that mine forever and retires. As the girls get closer, they discover they’re more alike than different, especially when they face the terror of not knowing what’s happening to those they love most. (publisher's summary from Goodreads)

Guest Post from Phyllis Naylor

I'd been thinking a long time about two girls from different cultures, trading places--inspired, I suppose, by Mark Twain's "The Prince and the Pauper," which Dad read to me as a child. But more than that, I wanted to explore stereotypes as well as our defenses--the things we should examine in our own backgrounds as well as the things we should cherish.

But somehow the plot just wasn't coming together for me, until Michelle Poploff, of Delacorte, wrote to ask if I would consider doing a book about a coal mining family. My first thought was to decline, as I had written about a coal miner many years ago in my novel, "Wrestle the Mountain." But the more I thought about it, the clearer the plot became. I still had a huge amount of old research in my files, but it was a fairly recent news story on a mine accident that tipped the scales for me and brought it all into focus.

I dearly love the characters in this book. I rarely base characters on people I know, but in many ways Papaw in the story is my dad's father, though Ivy June's grandfather is a coal miner and mine was a country preacher. And my paternal grandmother, Mammaw, became Ivy June's grandmother (though mine was a midwife). Both families in my book, the rich and the poor, have their failings, but also much to admire, and as I wrote their stories, I came to understand my own background even better. --Phyllis Naylor

About the Author

Naylor was born on January 4, 1933 in Anderson, Indiana. Her father was a traveling salesman so they were always on the move. Many of her novels were set where her grandparents lived in Iowa and Maryland. She spent many summers with her grandparents in these places.

Naylor grew up during the Depression. She never really thought that her family was poor because her family owned a number of good books, which her parents read to her and her siblings. When she was in primary school, Naylor began making up her own stories. She also illustrated them. Her reputation as a good writer followed her, and she was often called upon to give poems and stories for special occasions at school.

When Naylor was sixteen, her Sunday school teacher asked her to submit one of her stories to the church magazine she was publishing. Naylor's story was accepted and this encouraged her to write and submit more. Naylor admits that these stories were, in her own works, "not very original" and "predictable." (Grummond)

At the age of eighteen, Naylor married. After she graduated from junior college, she moved to Chicago with her husband. Here she worked as a clinical secretary while he attended graduate school. She also worked as an elementary school teacher. She was assistant editor for the NZA Journal. Years later Naylor's husband began showing signs of severe mental illness. He was later diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. When it became apparent that her husband was not going to recover, she filed for divorce and married Rex V. Naylor.

Soon after, she returned to college and majored in clinical psychology at America University. By the time she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree, she decided she would become a full-time writer. Her first book, The Galloping Goat and Other Stories. Since then she has published a book every year. She has won many awards over the years including: Junior Literacy Guild, the Edgar, the Newberry Award for Shiloh (1991).

Naylor and her husband live in Bethesda, Maryland. They have two grown sons. Despite her busy schedule, the author is active in peace and civil right organization. (Grummond) Biography written by Laura Beil and Sarah Lasham Campbell County High School, Gillette, Wyoming)

Feature Book of the Week Scorpia by Anthony Horowitz

2011-01-12T01:51:00.000-08:00

FEATURED BOOK OF THE WEEK

When an investigation into a series of mysterious deaths leads agents to an elite prep school for rebellious kids, MI6 assigns Alex Rider, fourteen-year-old reluctant spy, to the case. Before he knows it, Alex is hanging out with the sons of the rich and powerful, and something feels wrong. Very wrong. These former juvenile delinquents have turned well-behaved, studious-and identical-overnight. It's up to Alex to find out who is masterminding this nefarious plot, before they find him. The clock is ticking-is Alex's luck about to run out?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anthony Horowitz's life might have been copied from the pages of Charles Dickens or the Brothers Grimm. Born in 1956 in Stanmore, Middlesex, to a family of wealth and status, Anthony was raised by nannies, surrounded by servants and chauffeurs. His father, a wealthy businessman, was, says Mr. Horowitz, "a fixer for Harold Wilson." What that means exactly is unclear — "My father was a very secretive man," he says— so an aura of suspicion and mystery surrounds both the word and the man. As unlikely as it might seem, Anthony's father, threatened with bankruptcy, withdrew all of his money from Swiss bank accounts in Zurich and deposited it in another account under a false name and then promptly died. His mother searched unsuccessfully for years in attempt to find the money, but it was never found. That too shaped Anthony's view of things. Today he says, "I think the only thing to do with money is spend it." His mother, whom he adored, eccentrically gave him a human skull for his 13th birthday. His grandmother, another Dickensian character, was mean-spirited and malevolent, a destructive force in his life. She was, he says, "a truly evil person", his first and worst arch villain. "My sister and I danced on her grave when she died," he now recalls.

A miserably unhappy and overweight child, Anthony had nowhere to turn for solace. "Family meals," he recalls, "had calories running into the thousands…. I was an astoundingly large, round child…." At the age of eight he was sent off to boarding school, a standard practice of the times and class in which he was raised. While being away from home came as an enormous relief, the school itself, Orley Farm, was a grand guignol horror with a headmaster who flogged the boys till they bled. "Once the headmaster told me to stand up in assembly and in front of the whole school said, 'This boy is so stupid he will not be coming to Christmas games tomorrow.' I have never totally recovered." To relieve his misery and that of the other boys, he not unsurprisingly made up tales of astounding revenge and retribution.

So how did an unhappy boy, from a privileged background, metamorphose into the creator of Alex Rider, fourteen-year-old spy for Britain's MI6? Although his childhood permanently damaged him, it also gave him a gift — it provided him with rich source material for his writing career. He found solace in boyhood in the escapism of the James Bond films, he says. He claims that his two sons now watch the James Bond films with the same tremendous enjoyment he did at their age. Bond's glamour translates perfectly to the 14-year-old psyche, the author says. "Bond had his cocktails, the car and the clothes. Kids are just as picky. It's got to be the right Nike trainers (sneakers), the right skateboard. And I genuinely think that 14-year-olds are the coolest people on the planet. It's this wonderful, golden age, just on the cusp of manhood when everything seems possible."

Alex Rider is unwillingly recruited at the age of fourteen to spy for the British secret service, MI6. Forced into situations that most average adults would find terrifying and probably fatal, young Alex rarely loses his cool although at times he doubts his own courage. Using his intelligence and creativity, and aided by non-lethal gadgets dreamed up by MI6's delightfully eccentric, overweight and disheveled Smithers, Alex is able to extricate himself from situations when all seems completely lost. What is perhaps more terrifying than the deeply dangerous missions he finds himself engaged in, is the attitude of his handlers at MI6, who view the boy as nothing more than an expendable asset.

The highly successful Alex Rider novels include Stormbreaker, Point Blank, Skeleton Key, Eagle Strike, Scorpia, Ark Angel, Snakehead and most recently Crocodile Tears. And 2010 sees the Alex Rider series celebrate its 10 year anniversary!!!

Anthony Horowitz is perhaps the busiest writer in England. He has been writing since the age of eight, and professionally since the age of twenty. In addition to the highly successful Alex Rider books, he is also the writer and creator of award winning detective series Foyle’s War, and more recently event drama Collision, among his other television works he has written episodes for Poirot, Murder in Mind, Midsomer Murders and Murder Most Horrid. Anthony became patron to East Anglia Children’s Hospices in 2009.(Author biography retrieved from author's website)

Featured Book of the Week The Academy by Ridley Pearson

2011-01-04T03:21:00.000-08:00

Featured Book of the Week

Steven "Steel" Trapp has been placed in an East Coast boarding school for gifted kids by his FBI agent father. He soon discovers that there's a clubby element of the faculty and upper classmen that is very secretive and protective. To his surprise, his friend Kaleigh arrives to board at the school and it isn't long before the two realize that this is not your normal boarding school. It seems a select few students are recruited, while still minors, to serve as special "translators" for the US Government. People—including diplomats and dignitaries—will say things around kids that they wouldn't otherwise dare speak outside of embassies. The willing student "agent" takes a semester abroad and ends up spying for his country.

But there are dark elements at play at the school. Foreign agents may have penetrated the school's secrecy and may have sleepers in place: kids spying on future kid spies. There is conspiracy and competition among the elite faculty that threatens security. As Steel and Kaileigh are recruited for their first test run—trying to break a ring of pickpockets in a Boston hotel—things go impossibly wrong. Betrayal and conspiracy cloud what should have been a straightforward assignment. And all too soon, their very lives are in danger. (Publisher's summary from Amazon)

Interview With Ridley Pearson

Mr. Pearson graciously took time out of his busy writing schedule to answers a few questions about Steel Trapp and his writing life.

Jan: Where did the idea to create an adolescent protagonist with a photographic memory come from, and did you know when you first began developing Steel that his mind would be so useful to creating suspenseful plots?

Ridley Pearson (RP): I think photographically, so creating this character came naturally. The more I wrote in Steel's world, the more unfolded and I realized how big the canvas was.

Jan: Your first adult novel was released in 1985. What prompted you to begin writing books for adolescents, and how is writing for this audience different than adults?

RP: I became a dad. That's about it. That led me on unexpected adventures; and since I read each night to my kids and invented stories at bedtime, I started to want to write something more permanent.

Jan: I read that you often work on four books a year? Can you explain a little about the process it takes for you to accomplish such a feat?

RP: I'm writing three at the moment. I actually enjoy the process. Nothing gets stale -- to say the least.

Jan: Steel Trapp seems like a natural extension of your adult crime novels, all of which have intricate and twisting plots, and like your crime novels, both of the Steel Trapp novels are “aerobic fiction,” a term you used to named “good old page turners”. Can you provide insight into your writing process that helps you create fast paced exciting plots?

RP: With Steel, and to a certain degree the Kingdom Keepers, I wanted to write books of a slightly more "adult" level. Not "See spot run," as so many YA books are. I wanted to write my crime novels but PG-13 or PG instead of R.

Jan: In addition to creating such great plots in the SteelTrapp novels, you also write very realistic characters and carefully described settings. Is there any one element of fiction that you feel is more important than another or that seems to be more difficult to create?

RP: Character is what carries the reader through a book. Place can be an important character. Plot is the engine. If the engine's too loud it can drown out the characters -- it's that balance that either works or not in "fun" fiction. I'm not writing to deliver a message; I leave that others. My message is: have fun.

Jan: Steel Trapp is told from third person limited. Why did you choose this perspective instead of writing it from first person?

RP: As much as I like writing in 1st person, I rarely publish in it. 3rd person allows the writer multiple view points -- inside the head of the girl, the boy, the criminal. It expands and is a more complex world to create. I like to be challenged.

Jan: You have a home in Idaho and in St. Louis. From what I’ve read you spend the school year here in St Louis do you consider yourself a Missouri resident or an Idaho resident? What advantages does St Louis have over other cities?

RP: I am very much a Missouri resident, but my heart is probably more firmly rooted in Idaho where I spent 20+ years of my middle life. There is nothing like a hike or ski in the Idaho countryside.

Jan: You are a bass guitar player and play in a band called the Rock-Bottom Remainders with other published authors. How did the band begin? How often do the members get together to jam, and when and where is your next gig?

RP: Most of this can be read about on my web site. The Remainders had a strange beginning indeed! Our next tour is April: Washington, DC; Philadelphia; New York City; Boston. Should be a great one.

Jan: What is up next for Steel Trapp?

RP: China? My family just got back from living in Shanghai for a year.

Jan: You will be releasing a new Kingdom Keeper book in April 2010. Can you tell us about this series and what to expect from Disney in the Shadow.

RP: This is SUCH a fun series to write. Disney gives me full access to their parks, and the Imagineers give me back stage, behind the scenes tours when the park is closed at night, or in the early, early morning. I translate that research into the lives of five teenagers battling Disney villains. Shadow enters the world of EPCOT and takes us to places we have not been before.

About the Author

Ridley Pearson is the author of more than twenty novels, including the New York Times bestseller KILLER WEEKEND; the Lou Boldt crime series; and many books for young readers, including the award-winning children's novels PETER AND THE STARCATCHERS, PETER AND THE SHADOW THIEVES, and PETER AND THE SECRET OF RUNDOON, which he cowrote with Dave Barry. Pearson lives with his wife and two daughters, dividing their time between Missouri and Idaho. (bio retrieved from Bookreporter.com)

Happy Holidays/Winter Break

2010-12-21T08:38:00.000-08:00

The Area Wide Book Battle Committee would like to wish you all Happy Holidays

The Feature Book of the Week will resume after Winter Break.

Also look for the question of the week which will begin late January.

~ The greatest gift is a passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination. ~
Elizabeth Hardwick

Featured Book of the Week/A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park

2010-12-15T04:50:00.000-08:00

FEATURED BOOK OF THE WEEK

Tree-ear, an orphan, lives under a bridge in Chulpo, a potters village famed for delicate celadon ware. He has become fascinated with the potters craft; he wants nothing more than to watch master potter Min at work, and he dreams of making a pot of his own someday. When Min takes Tree-ear on as his helper, Tree-ear is elated — until he finds obstacles in his path: the backbreaking labor of digging and hauling clay, Mins irascible temper, and his own ignorance. But Tree-ear is determined to prove himself — even if it means taking a long, solitary journey on foot to present Mins work in the hope of a royal commission . . . even if it means arriving at the royal court with nothing to show but a single celadon shard.

The winner of the 2001 Newbery Medal is now in paperback. Set in 12th-century Korea, "A Single Shard" is the story of an orphan boy who dreams of making beautiful pottery at the King's Court. An ALA Notable Book and ALA Best Book for Young Adults.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Linda Sue Park was born in Urbana, Illinois on March 25, 1960, and grew up outside Chicago. The daughter of Korean immigrants, she has been writing poems and stories since she was four years old, and her favorite thing to do as a child was read.

This is the first thing she ever published—a haiku in a children's magazine when she was nine years old:

In the green forest
A sparkling, bright blue pond hides.
And animals drink.

—Trailblazer magazine, Winter 1969

For this poem she was paid one whole dollar. She gave the check to her dad for Christmas. About a year later the company wrote to her asking her to cash the check! Linda Sue wrote back explaining that it was now framed and hung above her dad's desk and was it okay if he kept it? The magazine said it was fine, and her dad still has that check.

During elementary school and high school, Linda Sue had several more poems published in magazines for children and young people. She went to Stanford University, competed for the gymnastics team, and graduated with a degree in English. Then she took a job as a public-relations writer for a major oil company. This was not exactly the kind of writing she wanted to do, but it did teach her to present her work professionally and that an interested writer can make any subject fascinating (well, almost any subject ...).

In 1983, after two years with the oil company, Linda Sue left her job and moved to Dublin when a handsome Irishman swept her off her feet. She studied literature, moved to London, worked for an advertising agency, married that Irishman, had a baby, taught English as a second language to college students, worked as a food journalist, and had another baby. It was a busy time, and she never even thought about writing children's books.

In 1990, she and her family moved back to the U.S. because of her husband's job. Linda Sue continued teaching English to foreign students. It took her quite a while, but she finally realized that what she really wanted to do was to write books for children. In 1997, she started writing her first book, Seesaw Girl. It was accepted that same year and published in 1999.

The Kite Fighters came out in 2000. This book was especially exciting because the chapter-heading illustrations were done by Linda Sue's dad.

A Single Shard was published in March 2001 and was awarded the 2002 Newbery Medal. Since then, Linda Sue has published several other novels, as well as picture books, poems and short stories.

Linda Sue now lives in upstate New York with the Irishman, their two children, and a dog. The dog is a Border Terrier named Fergus.

Besides reading and writing, Linda Sue likes to cook, travel, watch movies, and do the New York Times crossword puzzles (daily and Sunday). She enjoys baseball and soccer (watching); board games (playing—Scrabble and trivia games are her favorites); and video games like Tetris and Dr. Mario.(Biography retrieved from author website)

Linda Sue Park has new book, A Long Walk to Water that was released November 15, 2010. The book trailer has Ms Park discussing the book and its real life characters.

Featured Book of the WeekMorpheus Road: The Light by DJ McHale

2010-12-07T00:02:00.000-08:00

FEATURED BOOK OF THE WEEK

Marshall Seaver is being haunted. In the first installment of this chillingly compelling trilogy, sixteen-year-old Marshall discovers that something beyond our world is after him. The eerie clues pile up quickly, and when people start dying, it’s clear whatever this isit’s huge.

Marshall has no idea what’s happening to him, but he’s soon convinced that it has something to do with his best friend Cooper, who’s been missing for over a week. Together with Coop’s sister, Marsh searches for the truth about what happened to his friend, ultimately uncovering something bigger than he could ever have imagined

A GUEST POST FROM DJ MACHALE

I’m very psyched to hear that my book Morpheus Road: The Light has been chosen to be a part of your book battle. A book battle. I’m picturing books with arms and legs holding swords fighting each other. I guess the big books would win. Or the smart books, though I guess all books are smart. So maybe the scariest book would win, and in that category, I’ve got a shot.

I love scary stories. That’s why I’m writing the Morpheus Road trilogy. I’m the kind of reader who loves to get lost in a book and be taken to another place. Certainly fantasy books do that, and so do scary books. There’s something exciting about seeing a world where supernatural events become “natural” and anything can happen. (It’s also great to know that it isn’t true and that once you close the book, you’re safe) I also love the mystery of a scary story. There’s always something going on that the heroes have to try and figure out in order to solve the puzzle.

Or save their lives.

The main character in The Light, Marshall Seaver, has to deal with a couple of mysteries. His best friend has disappeared and he must try and find out what happened to him. But stranger than that, he is being haunted by a frightening character that he himself created, a ghoul named Gravedigger. Working through the clues and trying to solve the mysteries along with Marsh is what the story is all about. I hope you have as much reading it, and experiencing it along with Marsh, as I had in writing it.

D.J. MacHale

MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

D.J. MacHale is a writer, director, executive producer and creator of several popular television series and movies. As an author, his ten-volume book series: PENDRAGON – JOURNAL OF AN ADVENTURE THROUGH TIME AND SPACE became a New York Times #1 bestseller.

He was raised in Greenwich, CT and graduated from Greenwich High School. While in school, he had several jobs including collecting eggs at a poultry farm, engraving trophies and washing dishes in a steakhouse…in between playing football and running track. D.J. attended New York University where he received a BFA in film production.

His filmmaking career began in New York where he worked as a freelance writer/director making corporate videos and television commercials. He also taught photography and film production.
D.J. broke into the entertainment business by writing several ABC AFTERSCHOOL SPECIALS. As co-creator of the popular Nickelodeon series: ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK?, he produced all 91 episodes over 8 years. D.J. also wrote and directed the movie TOWER OF TERROR for ABC’s WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISNEY which starred Kirsten Dunst and Steve Guttenberg. The Showtime series CHRIS CROSS was co-created, written and produced by D.J. It received the CableAce award for Best Youth Series.

D.J. co-created and produced the Discovery Kids/NBC television series FLIGHT 29 DOWN. He wrote every episode and directed several. His work on FLIGHT 29 DOWN earned him the Writers Guild of America award for “Outstanding Children’s Script” and a Directors Guild of America award nomination.

Other notable writing credits include the ABC AFTERSCHOOL SPECIAL titled SEASONAL DIFFERENCES; the pilot for the long-running PBS/CBS series GHOSTWRITER; and the HBO series ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN, BOY DETECTIVE for which he received a CableAce nomination for writing.
In print, D.J. has co-written the book THE TALE OF THE NIGHTLY NEIGHBORS, based on his own teleplay and penned the poetic adaptation of the classic Norwegian folk tale EAST OF THE SUN AND WEST OF THE MOON. He is currently writing three new book series. MORPHEUS ROAD, a spooky trilogy; THE EQUINOX CURIOSITY SHOP, a fantasy adventure and THE MONSTER PRINCESS, a picture book.

D.J. lives in Southern California with his wife Evangeline and daughter Keaton. They are avid backpackers, scuba divers and skiers. Rounding out the household are a Golden Retriever, Maggie; and a Kitten, Kaboodle.

A very special thanks to DJ McHale for providing a guest post. If you enjoyed Morpheus Road: The Light, then make sure you check out the sequel Morpheus Road: The Dark which will be release in April 2011. I know I cannot wait to find out what happens next!

Featured Book of the Week/Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert C O'Brien

2010-11-30T04:47:00.000-08:00

FEATURED BOOK OF THE WEEK

Mrs. Frisby, a widowed mouse with four small children, is faced with a terrible problem. She must move her family to their summer quarters immediately, or face almost certain death. But her youngest son, Timothy, lies ill with pneumonia and must not be moved. Fortunately, she encounters the rats of NIMH, an extraordinary breed of highly intelligent creatures, who come up with a brilliant solution to her dilemma. And Mrs. Frisby in turn renders them a great service. (Publishers Summary from Powell's Books)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

In real life, Robert C. O'Brien was Robert Leslie Conly. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, attended Williams College and graduated from the Universtiy of Rochester. While there he studied piano at Eastman School of Music, and at one time considered being a musician. Instead, he became an editor and writer for Newsweek magazine from 1941 to 1944, and for Pathfinder from 1946 to 1951. From 1951 until the time of his death in 1973 he was employed as a writer and editor by the National Geographic Magazine. He made his home in New York City before 1944 and in Washington, D.C. after that. He also had a home in Morgan County, West Virginia, after 1965, a place he loved and visited as often as he could. He was married and the father of one son and three daughters. His books include The Silver Crown, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, which won the Newbery Award, and A Report From Group 17. His last book, Z is for Zachariah was nearly completed at the time of his death; the last few chapters were written from notes by this wife and one of his daughters. (Author biography from Powell's Books)

Featured Book of the Week/Middleworld by J & P Voelkel

2010-11-23T00:09:00.000-08:00

FEATURED BOOK OF THE WEEK

Fourteen-year-old Max Murphy is looking forward to a family vacation. But his parents, both archaeologists and Maya experts, announce a change in plan. They must leave immediately for a dig in the tiny Central American country of San Xavier. Max will go to summer camp. Max is furious. When he's mysteriously summoned to San Xavier, he thinks they've had a change of heart.
Upon his arrival, Max's wild adventure in the tropical rainforests of San Xavier begins. During his journey, he will unlock ancient secrets and meet strangers who are connected to him in ways he could never have imagined. For fate has delivered a challenge of epic proportions to this pampered teenager. Can Max rescue his parents from the Maya Underworld and save the world from the Lords of Death, who now control the power of the Jaguar Stones in their villainous hands? The scene is set for a roller-coaster ride of suspense and terror, as the good guys and the bad guys face off against a background of haunted temples, zombie armies, and even human sacrifice! (Summary from Powell's Books)

GUEST POST FROM AUTHORS

Jon and I would like to thank you very much for choosing Middleworld for your Battle of the Books. We had a blast writing it and, for me in particular, being an author is a dream that I never thought would come true.

The problem was that I got bad advice early on. A teacher told me that great writers always write about what they know. For me, as a kid, that was like a door slamming in my face. I hated the world I knew. I had an unhappy childhood because my mother was very ill for most of it and I had no desire to write about it, ever.

Some people find that writing about their problems helps them feel better. I found it just made everything more real and more painful. I wanted to pretend that none of it was happening and I escaped by reading books. Adventure stories, boarding school stories, anything where kids lived in worlds without parents. (In those days, at my school anyway, they didn't have books about unhappy families - no Laurie Halse Anderson or Ellen Hopkins to reassure me that other kids’ lives weren’t perfect either.)

When I left college, I looked for jobs with writer in the title. For twenty-five years I wrote catalog captions, book reviews, and advertising copy. I was resigned to never writing a book because I didn't want to write about what I knew. Then my husband, who was not a writer by trade, became obsessed with the idea of us writing a book based on his childhood. He'd had a wildly adventurous time growing up in Latin America and had always kept our children entranced with his action-packed bedtime stories.

It was the perfect solution! I would get to know his world! And now, thanks to the many trips we've taken down to Central America to research the rainforest and the Maya, it’s become my world too. (And that of our three children.) We’ve tracked howler monkeys in the jungle, made our own tortillas, and sailed down the mighty Usumacinta river with crocodiles watching from the bank. We've got to know many famous archaeologists, and made friends with teachers, librarians and booksellers all over America.

I wish I could go back to that unhappy little kid I used to be and tell her that it would all work out. That one day she'd have exciting adventures, and a happy family, and finally get to write books. But the funny thing is that The Jaguar Stones trilogy is about a lonely boy and a girl who’s had to grow up too quickly. Okay, so he’s from Boston and she’s a Maya, but – guess what? – in some ways, they’re both me.

So my advice to students who want to be writers is this: remember that the story of your childhood is not the story of your life. But whether you’re having an interesting youth like Jon’s or a miserable one like mine, remember how you feel right now - because one day you’ll want to write about someone who feels the same way. And if you’re brave enough to follow where your new story leads you, you’ll find yourself in places that you never dreamed existed.

Enjoy the adventure!

MORE ABOUT J & P VOELKEL

Jon Voelkel grew up in Peru, Costa Rica and Colombia. He was not a natural-born adventurer and found life in the jungle difficult, to say the least. Having survived monkey stew, an attack by giant rats, and a plane crash in the middle of the rainforest, he escaped to college in Minneapolis and went on to business school in Barcelona. After working in advertising agencies in Spain, Holland and England, he started his own agency in London with four other partners - one of whom would be his future wife. In 2001, the London Financial Times named him one of the top fifty creative minds in Britain.

While Jon was battling the daily perils of the jungle, Pamela Craik Voelkel was dreaming of adventure in a sedate seaside town in the north of England where nothing ever happened. After graduating from Leeds University in English Language and Literature, she fled to London to take any job with “writer” in the title. After stints reviewing books, writing catalogs and penning speech bubbles for photo-romances, she became an advertising copywriter. As Creative Director of Craik Jones Watson Mitchell Voelkel, she helped the agency win literally hundreds of creative awards.

In 2001, the Voelkels moved to rural Vermont and began work on ‘Middleworld’, the first book they have written together. In an interesting male/female collaboration, Jon plots out the action (much of it based on his own childhood memories and the bedtime stories he tells their three children), then Pamela fleshes out the characters and decides how they feel about things. (Author Bio from authors website)

I want to thank J & P Voelkel for being a part of the featured book of the week and encourage all you book battlers to visit their wonderful website to learn more about their lives and books.

I am also very excited to tell you that the next book in this exciting series is due to be released in December, so you will have a chance to go on another thrilling adventure with Max and Lola.