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The Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore giveaway is now closed, but we have some exciting giveaways coming up very soon:
- A signed copy of Castle of Shadows by Ellen Renner, a wonderful fantasy adventure for ages 9+
- A signed copy of Princess for Hire by Lindsey Leavitt, a brand new release full of sparkly fun
- A copy of My Worst Best Friend by Dyan Sheldon, the story of a friendship between two very different girls
Watch this space! (Or somewhere above it...)
Luisa interviews Lindsey Leavitt, author of Princess for Hire, which is out in the UK on 1st February 2010. We'll have a signed copy to give away very soon!
Hello, Lindsey! Do you remember the moment you first had the idea for Princess for Hire?
I think it was more a series of moments. I grew up a total tomboy, yet had a fascination with beauty queens, old Hollywood, and royal history. The girly stigma was such an enigma to me that I thought such research would suddenly teach me how to part my hair the right way. It didn’t. Would attach picture, but some memories are just too painful.
Next, I was at a writers conference a few years back and an editor joked that her perfect book would involve princess dinosaur vampires (or some other assortment of high concept trends). I thought… well, I can’t write that book, unless I wrote the anti-princess book.
From there, I began taking notes for a picture book about a little girl who tries out to be a princess for a bunch of countries but never measured up. I shared the idea with a friend, and she said it sounded more like a mid-grade. That one comment brought me back to thirteen-year-old me. Wouldn’t it have been cool if I could still be myself and do all the things I liked doing back then, but every once and awhile pretend to be someone else, someone popular and crazy rich? And viola, my main character, Desi became a substitute for princesses (Sorry kids. No dinosaurs or vampires).
Would you like to be a princess substitute like Desi, and do you think you could do a better job than her?
Heck ya. It’s a total dream job. First off, thanks to some nifty time travel tricks, Desi always returns right back to the moment she left. So she misses nothing in her real life, but gains all sorts of experiences while gone. And forget the dresses and assorted finery. Think of all the FOOD in the world, particularly sweets! (um, maybe I shouldn’t answer interview questions before lunchtime)
As far as whether I would do better, I can’t say. I would handle it differently, yes. Each sub has her strengths and weaknesses that help them through the jobs so each sub is special in her own way. I will say I was a high school mascot for one whole football game (someone stole my head, wasn’t pretty), and that would have come in handy for one job in particular. Read to find out which one J
If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
Mind reading, hands down. Mind reading that I can turn off though, so I don’t cheat on tests and don’t know what the other driver is really thinking when I accidentally cut them off. But I DID always want to know what boys were thinking… er, particularly about me. And if I were in combat with Mr. Super Jump Man or something, I could always know what his next move was. Actually, it’s probably safe to guess Mr. Super Jump Man’s next move would involve, you know, jumping, so nevermind on that one.
Would your teenage self have been impressed that she was going to grow up to be an author?
Teenage Lindsey would be shocked. Shocked and also alarmed that last name on her book is Leavitt, and that is the same last name as the annoying boy who sat by her in anatomy class (obviously, the annoyance eventually subsided).
I read loads of books and believed becoming an author was so impossible, it wasn’t even worth my efforts. Not to mention I imagined it involved years and years of school and a vast collection of berets and tweed jackets. What I later learned is that although becoming an author is a challenge because there are many publishing factors beyond our control, being a writer is something anyone can do. If it’s something you enjoy, as I always did, do it. Don’t worry yet about the publishing part. Write to write.
What will be your next book to be released, and what can you tell us about it?
I don’t know the answer to this just yet because I have two books coming out at roughly the same time in 2011. One is the next Princess for Hire book (Egmont UK, Hyperion US) and I can’t say much about it without being too spoilery. The other is a contemporary YA called SEAN GRISWOLD’S HEAD and will be out with Scholastic UK and Bloomsbury in the US. This is the blurb…
After discovering her father’s big Multiple Sclerosis secret, Payton Gritas’s structured life crumbles. So begin her excruciating ‘chats’ with Ms Callahan, a school counselor aiming to save Payton from drowning in denial by encouraging her to write Focus Exercises on any random object. Payton chooses Sean Griswold, her alphabetical connection since kindergarten. More specifically, she chooses his somewhat over-sized head.
As Payton’s research grows into something a little less scientific and a little more crush-like, it spawns more and more questions about Sean and his dome. Like what’s with the scar? And why is a fifteen year old training to be the next Lance Armstrong? Payton finds answers to these questions by getting inside Sean’s head, while Sean somehow finds a way into her guarded heart. But when Payton realizes her Sean obsession won’t ultimately mend her battered relationship with her dad, she must shift her focus to the one person who can find the way forward - herself.
I can't wait to read this, and all of your books. Thank you very much, Lindsey Leavitt!
There's a reason for that pic of Johnny Depp, I promise.
Saci Lloyd, author of The Carbon Diaries, has turned down an offer from actor Johnny Depp to make a film version of her book. Instead, she has chosen the producers of the Channel 4 series Skins for the job, saying, "These books are really about London."
For more details, including a short video of Saci Lloyd talking about this, see the BBC News Site.
Alexandra interviewed Saci Lloyd for Chicklish last year, and reviewed The Carbon Diaries 2015. Here is an extract of her 5-star review:
This book is perfect from cover to cover. It’s my favourite book this year by far. It’s original, clever, funny, well worked out… It’s 2015 and climate change has taken hold. First to introduce carbon dioxide rationing is the UK. This means big changes to how Laura’s family view everything - from taking a shower to switching on the lights. Whilst Laura and her Dad seem to quickly find their feet in trying to adjust, Laura’s sister and Mum seem to struggle. As the changeable weather conditions take hold, and her Dad loses his job, things slide even deeper into the unknown...
And yesterday we got hold of the sequel, The Carbon Diaries 2017 (out now) - complete with extracts from Alexandra's review and interview in the front and back! Review coming soon...
Review by Amber
Frankie is thrilled when she's chosen to skate with Paul in a high-profile competition. He's a good friend and brilliant on the ice. But Paul wants to skate alone. He wants to keep the spotlight - and the chance to win gold - to himself. It's a real problem when they're meant to be competing in Perfect Pairs. Together!
Frankie lives at an Ice Skating school in the mountains of Switzerland. Frankie and her class mates decide to go and do some skiing. Frankie can't actually ski, and she's too embarrassed to tell her friends, so she skis down the mountain. But then remembers something important. She doesn't know how to stop! Scarlett said that skiing was just like skating, so Frankie tries The Snowplough Stop, a basic stop in skating. She tumbles down the slope... and injures herself.
Frankie isn't better in time for the skating competition, but she is better for the Perfect Pairs competition! She gets paired with Paul but there is something wrong with him - he skates as if Frankie isn't even there, always saying 'I' instead of a 'we', and he's always grumpy. Then Paul comes up with a secret plan. If Frankie goes along with it, she might get kicked out of Skate School. If she doesn't do it, she'll upset Paul. What should Frankie do?
This book was just as good as the first in the Skate School series and I give it 5/5. I really enjoyed it and I can't wait for the third book to come out!
Review by Amber, aged 11
Review by Alexandra.
This book takes a dark but funny angle. Lorelli and Ovid are thirteen year-old twins, orphaned and looked after by the staff of the huge house they live in. Since their parents’ mysterious deaths they have been kept in a somber setting and know little of the world outside their estate. While the rest of their village has been overshadowed by their wealthy land-owning ancestors, the twins haven’t even been very far outside their own grounds, not even to school or the local library.
With no television or outside influences, their favourite pastime is…
…trying to kill each other…
Elaborate plans have been devised and interesting means used, yet they have both survived, and now they are considering a truce.
Can they live peacefully with each other and break what people say is the family way - of murder? When their lawyer and son come to stay things become even more interesting and complicated…
This is different. Definitely ‘dark’ in places but at the same time funny and entertaining. I was frustrated by the ending; it changes track in a way that didn’t really feel ‘real’ to me – things felt ‘fitted in’ to conclude the book, and I missed that element of thinking: “of course” and “ooh, yes”. It was more like “ok, I see…”
Overall, good fun in spite of the dark plot.
Review by Alexandra
Review by Summer
“I’d always been fascinated by the tales of the new country. I was given to visions, to glimpses of the future. All my life I’d seen pictures of a strange place, a country I didn’t recognize. The tales I’d heard of Iceland matched the pictures in my mind. I was meant to go there one day. I knew it with absolute certainty. It was my destiny. Inescapable and unchangeable.”
Daughter of Fire and Ice is the amazing third novel by Marie-Louise Jensen. The story follows the life and adventures of Thora, a gifted fifteen-year-old Norwegian girl who is prone to ‘visions’ and ‘glimpses of the future’. Life for Thora will never be the same - snatched away from her family by the cruel Viking chieftain Svanson, a chain of events is set into motion and now there is no chance of Thora’s life returning to normality.
But even then, things change. Her evil captor is killed by a fellow captive, a man Thora recognises from somewhere. It is after this that the familiar stranger offers Thora the chance to embark upon a new adventure alongside him in another land, while he lives under the pretence of being Svanson or the opportunity to return to her family. Forced to rely on her ‘visions’ once more, Thora makes a decision which will change her life forever, and there is now no turning back. Her destiny seems inescapable, a life in which she will always be able to predict the future, or seemingly will be able to.
When I first started to read this novel I was excited about the amazing story I knew I was about to read, just as I had been when I had read Marie-Louise Jensen’s other novels. But nothing could have prepared me for how great this novel actually was. Thanks to the amazing descriptive writing used, I felt that while I was reading this book I was actually there, seeing it play out before my eyes, while eagerly anticipating the next move.
I absolutely loved this book, and cannot wait for the next brilliant novel by Marie-Louise Jensen.
Review by Summer
Review by Kate
Clay Jenkins returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers 13 cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his classmate and crush - who committed suicide two weeks earlier.
On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out how he made the list.
When I first heard about this book, I imagined it would be about the death of Hannah and a rather morbid story. However it was very different to what I imagined. While the main character is dead, it was a story about life and rarely ventured into the awkward topic of her suicide. Death is something that people try to avoid, despite being a subject that makes people curious, and Asher has done well to satisfy the reader’s curiosity without writing a depressing story.
Thirteen Reasons Why is thought-provoking, with some serious themes that makes you think about your own actions. It’s impossible to read without thinking, “If one of my friends did this, why would I be on the list?” One of the main themes in the book is how small actions that are considered unimportant can lead to bigger things, as well as how not taking action is as bad as encouraging something.
It was interesting to meet the different characters throughout the book and see how their perceived image is different from reality. The tapes that Hannah records in the book show how the people she knew let her down, and throughout the book various characters act in different ways to what was recorded. Some tried to find a scapegoat, some set out to get revenge, while others tried to change their ways to make sure they didn’t make the same mistake twice.
I thought the story was very well-written, keeping me up late at night when I felt the need to find out what happened next. I would recommend it to fans of more serious teenage fiction, such as Blue by Sue Mayfield or even Before I Die by Jenny Downham. Asher writes in a way which tells the reader what they need to know without slowing down the progress of the story.
A fine read which I will be recommending to everyone I can.
Review by Kate
Review by Keris
I adore E Lockhart's books, but I have a special place in my heart for the Ruby Oliver series, of which The Treasure Map of Boys is the third (after The Boyfriend List and The Boy Book - Lockhart is currently writing a fourth).
Ruby is still without a boyfriend (or, as she puts it, in a state of Noboyfriend), but, as in the previous books boys are all around, complicating matters and endangering her friendships. Nora, unlike former BFFs Kim and Cricket, is speaking to her again, but Nora likes Noel and Ruby thinks she might like Noel too.
She's also been roped in to organising Tate Prep's bake sale and has an idea to mix things up, by making it about deliciousness rather than cuteness (the previous organiser made marshmallow snowmen) and getting boys involved.
She is, of course, also still seeing her therapist, Doctor Z, but things aren't simple even with her. And of course her parents are being their usual selves.
Much as I love Ruby and Noel, Ruby's mother may be my favourite character in this series. I just find her completely hilarious and every scene in which she appears is a total joy. This book is a total joy, actually, much as the previous two books. I practically read it in one sitting, telling myself to slow down and not gorge myself, but I just couldn't help it.
It's romantic and funny and sweet and, at the same time, painfully true about teenage friendships. (It made me think of a line from When Harry Met Sally: "Tell me I'll never have to be out there again." Thank goodness I'll never have to be at high school again. Oh and Lockhart quotes WHMS too, which is okay with me.)
I was a bit worried for Roo halfway through this book, but by the end was hopeful that the next book is going to be the best one so far. And that's saying something.
Review by Keris
This week's "Waiting on Wednesday" is by one of my long-time favourite authors, Dyan Sheldon. She's the author of many wonderfully funny and touching books including Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. (The one that was made into a film starring Lindsay Lohan.)
Dyan Sheldon's latest novel is called My Worst Best Friend and it's actually already out - just - but as I'm currently waiting for my copy to arrive in the post, I figure it qualifies.
Here's more about it:
Gracie and Savannah are best friends - despite being totally different. Savannah is beautiful, outrageous and irresistible to the opposite sex. Gracie is shy, smart and would rather be learning about lizards than meeting boys. Together they make a great if surprising team and it seems like nothing could come between them - but over a long summer Gracie begins to question Savannah's reliance on lies and manipulation to get her own way and wonder whether her friend is quite as confident as she seems. When Gracie meets a boy she really likes, and Savannah comes between them, Gracie realizes that maybe it's time she started thinking for herself. This is a witty and very funny story about friendship, keeping your own identity and moving on.
Is the post here yet? :)
by Luisa
Waiting on Wednesday idea from Jill at Breaking the Spine.
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl is the story of Ethan, Lena, a curse and a passionate love. Our review is here.
Read sample chapters now on Penguin's 'tasters' site here, here and here.
Also look out for the Spinebreakers Literary Lovers Poll:
To celebrate publication of Beautiful Creatures , the hottest new love story of the year, we want you to vote for the most romantic literary couple ever. Is it the classic story of star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet or the obsessive love between Bella and Edward?
Terms and Conditions
1. No purchase necessary to vote in the poll.
2. This poll is open to UK residents aged 13-18 years.
3. Entries must be received by 23.55 on 12th February 2010.
4. Only one entry per person
