Imagine a time in the future where not only do you struggle to survive, but each year you must face the Hunger Games lottery. Each young person from 12 to 18 years old is a tribute candidate. If you’re like Katniss, you are in for more than once for each year you’ve been eligible; you’re also in for the times you purchased grain and oil to feed your family. At age 16 Katniss has 20 entries for the reaping.
When her 12-year-old sister is chosen as tribute, Katniss volunteers to go in her place. She and Peeta, the chosen boy from their district, are taken to the capital to prepare for the Hunger Games. The 24 young people are put in a situation where they must fight to the death until only one remains.
Suzanne Collins has created a scary and believable world in The Hunger Games (Scholastic Press, 2008). It’s a book you won’t want to miss.
Check out the interview on her website.
Category: YA Novels
young adult novels (for 13+ yo)
Interview with Pamela Ehrenberg – Tillman County Fire
Since I enjoyed Ethan, Suspended so much, I thought I’d chat with author Pamela Ehrenberg about her newest book, Tillman County Fire (Eerdmans, 2009), which unfortunately I haven’t gotten to read yet, but will!
QUESTION: What lead you to write the book as a series of stories?
PAM: I was inspired by the Ernest Gaines novel, A Gathering of Old Men, which tells about a community event (in that case, a murder on a plantation) from the viewpoints of various people involved. That book really made me think about what it means to be part of a community, and how everyone’s got just a piece of whatever the story is.
QUESTION: How/why did you choose to write about the topic of an anti-gay hate crime?
PAM: You know, for this book I actually knew what the format would be–the different stories from different perspectives–before I knew what the book would be about. So I knew something was going to happen in this community that had the potential to bring people together or pull people apart as much as that murder did in the Ernest Gaines book . . . I don’t know that I ever decide what happens in my books–it feels more like I discover what happens, by being open to the world of the story.
QUESTION: I understand each story is about the same event, yet each focuses on a different character. Are the stories written from each character’s viewpoint or is there a narrator? If the former, did you struggle with writing in so many viewpoints?
PAM: Each story is first-person from a different perspective, except that the last story is told in the third person and there’s one story where multiple voices come together, with different characters narrating a section. I think I avoided a lot of the struggles that might come with the multiple voices by really viewing the project for a long time as a collection of short stories–it took my writing group a fair amount of effort to convince me that I was really writing a novel. Even though I agree with them now, each story is still pretty well self-contained–as I think real teenagers (and real grown-ups) are–each narrator sees his or her own concerns as the central ones.
QUESTION: What was the most difficult thing for you in writing this particular book?
PAM: It’s not technically part of the writing of the book, but I’d have to say the hardest thing is not having my husband, Eric, here to celebrate with me. He died last summer at age 37–and though he got to read two drafts, provide valuable legal consultation, and even see the cover art, it was hard not having him here when the box of books showed up on the doorstep. He was always the one to remind me to stop and celebrate these moments in life, and not be so focused on forging ahead to the next thing that you don’t take time to celebrate what’s in front of you.
QUESTION: What’s been the best about working on this book?
PAM: The best thing was the chance to “live,” for a while, in Tillmon County. The county was inspired by the place in far western Maryland where I was an AmeriCorps member in the mid-1990s, and working on the book is the closest I’ve come to a second chance to live in the mountains.
QUESTION: Reading your writing tips on your website, I noticed in the revising section, you said, “Make it Shorter.” You said you have a list of weak words that you search for in your manuscript. Do you mind sharing that list?
PAM: Gosh, I’d forgotten all about that! It turned out I didn’t use it as much this time around–maybe the exercise of searching for all of these things in Ethan, Suspended meant that fewer of them turned up in the early drafts of this book? I don’t know. But I’m happy to share!
WORDS TO SEARCH FOR
WORDY:
a little
a lot
about
all
all of a sudden
all over
almost
already
and everything
as soon as
at least
at the same time
be
decided
depends on
done
even
felt
finally
gotten/getting
had
had no idea
it
it was like/it’s like/it wasn’t like/it isn’t like/it’s not like
just
kind of
knew
look(ed) over
-ly words
maybe
myself (telling_, thinking to__)
notice
off
on the other hand
on top of
or anything
or something
out
pretty
probably
realize
really
right
said
seem
some kind of
sometimes
start
stuff
suddenly
suppose
that
that had
that was
that were
there
this
thought
try
was sure
well
whole
wondered
you know
Saving Francesca
This book sticks with you! And offers hope.
Saving Francesca (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2004) by Melina Marchetta is not a book to easily forget. One morning Francesca’s depressed mother won’t even get up. Francesca is also one of the new girls at a boys’ school that has been forced to add girls. She thinks she has nothing in common with anyone there. Discovers the ones she thought were her friends at her previous school were sucking the individuality out of her. Her new friends accept her for who she is. The story ends with hope as the family begins to work out their problems.
Francesca is very real and believable. Enjoy the journey of her learning that it’s okay to be who she is. The story is set in Australia. (No surprise since the author is from there!)
Author Melina Marchetta recently won the 2009 Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature for young adults for Jellicoe Road (HarperTeen). Read more about her at her website.
Two novels in verse about grief by Lisa Schroeder
I heart you, you haunt me (Simon Pulse 2008) and Far from You (Simon Pulse 2009) by Lisa Schroeder both deal with the grief caused by death.
In the first book, I heart you, you haunt me, Ava’s boyfriend has died and we see what she’s thinking in short tight verse. One moving example:
“If tears
could bring him back,
there’d be enough
to bring him back
a hundred times.”
But then Ava starts hearing and seeing Jackson. Is she going crazy or is he a ghost? If he’s a ghost, why is he haunting her?
In Lisa’s second book, Far from You, Alice’s grief is much older than Ava’s, but still Alice has not let it go. She’s resentful of her stepmother and her newborn half-sister (emphasis on half!). She and her best friend have had a disagreement and aren’t really talking. Alice’s dad makes her go on a trip with the three of them and a snowstorm changes her life.
Read about this Oregon author at www.lisaschroederbooks.com. I met Lisa through the creator of KidLit Central. Thanks, Kim, for the introduction and for loaning me the last book.
Graceling
Katsa is Graced (talented) with Killing. She’s very good at it, and her uncle King Randa takes advantage of that fact and has her deal with people who have angered him, disobeyed him, etc. Katsa hates what she is and what she does. She hates how most people won’t even look into her mismatched eyes. If it wasn’t for her few friends, and the council she started to right wrongs, how could she keep on?
Thanks, Laura M., for turning me on to Graceling (Harcourt 2008) by Kristin Cashore. I hope this well-written fantasy becomes a classic. It’s another book that I’ll be rereading.
In October this debut author has another book coming out–I can hardly wait! Check out her website for more details on the upcoming Fire and to learn more about this talented (or should I say “graced”) lady. The title of her blog/website is: This is My Secret.