Tween Tuesday Review: Where You'll Find Me

Right before eighth grade, Anna's life changed. Her best friend dumped her to hang out with the more popular girls and her mom attempted suicide. Anna's the one that found her.

Now she's living with her father, his new wife, and their baby. Anna's not sure who to talk to about her life.

She starts eating lunch with other outsiders. The more time she spends with the misfits, the more she realizes she's one of them.

After hanging out with them, maybe she'll be able to find herself again.

My Thoughts: I would never ever go back to middle school. Anna's at the age, where everything she does is uncool. My heart went out to her as she struggled hard with the problems in her life without having a support system. I loved how she spent time with the misfits and eventually came to accept them as friends. I love how they owned their differences and how they had fun together. I liked how Anna's relationship evolved with her family.

I devoured this book and didn't want it to end. 

Cover Thoughts: Charming
Source: Purchased
Fun Fact: I got my copy of the book signed at an author event. Read about it here.

Final Thoughts: This one should be in every library - grab it up and read it first though. 

RJ Julia's: Natasha Friend

Last night, I attended an author event for Natasha Friend for RJ Julia's bookstore. It was a packed house for the local author.

I've seen Natasha speak before, she came to talk at a library event at Otis Library.

Her brand new book, Where You'll Find Me came out yesterday. I've only read the first chapter, but it's great so far!

Natasha spoke about her memories from middle school (those dreaded terrible years.) She talked about how her clothes weren't right, the trouble with friends, and how she remembers it all like it was yesterday. These memories come in handy for her writing.

At the previous author event, she had told a story about meeting Judy Blume and how wrong it went. Here she retold the story, adding how she met her again. The meeting was a little better than the previous meeting, but what happened after is amazing! 

For more details - check out the back of the book!

Book Summary from Goodreads:

In this powerful and buoyant YA novel, a thirteen-year-old girl learns to navigate the shifting loyalties of friendships in middle school and deals with challenges at home.

The beginning of the eighth grade is not what Anna thought it would be. Her lifelong best friend has ditched her for the cool kids, and her mom is in the hospital after a suicide attempt. Anna finds herself where she least expects to: living with her dad, his young new wife, and their baby, and starting a new year at school without a best friend. With help from some unlikely sources, including a crazy girl-band talent show act, Anna learns that sometimes you find what you need to pull you through in the most unlikely places.

Sounds great right? I can't wait to read more!

Meg Cabot at RJ Julia's

Meg Cabot was at RJ Julia's at the beginning of the week. Of course I rearranged my work schedule to be there! If you've been following the blog, you know that not only is she one of my favorite authors, but she's also the reason I became a YA Librarian. In grad school, I wasn't sure which librarian road I was going to take. I read the first Princess Diaries book and it changed me. I chose to be a YA Librarian because of the amazing books in the field. And it was right choice. So how could I pass up meeting her? It was a fantastic night.

We learned some secrets of her past. She started writing when she was very young, making up all kinds of stories.  She hated Math (as does Princess Mia). Here's a photo of her.

She was an Art Major in college. At first she thought of majoring in writing, but she met a boy at party who advised her against it. He said that majoring in something you love would crush your love for it. So she majored in art instead. (She ended marrying that boy after meeting him again years later). Here's one of her illustrations of laundry. 

She thought she would go to NYC and get an illustrating job.  That didn't happen. Instead, she found herself with a job at NYU in the dorm (much like Heather Wells - only there were no dead bodies).

When her father passed away, she realized that life was short. She didn't want to regret not trying for her dreams. The day she got home from the funeral, she started seriously writing query letters. She wrote query letters and started sending them in daily for two years. And got a pile of rejections in return. But rejections weren't the worst thing that could happen, so she kept trying. She has folders of manuscripts that will never be published.

She asked her friends for some advice after learning that her story about a girl finding out her mother's dating her teacher didn't have enough of a plot. She wondered if the girl should turn out to be a princess or be kidnapped by aliens. The princess plot won and the main character turned 14 instead of 30. 

For the Heather Wells books, she wanted an average woman. At the time, that was size 12 but it's now size 14. She used a lot of her background from her previous job in the series. Yes, people really did elevator surf. To keep more up to date on current student life, she reads blogs. When she's stuck with procedure questions, she calls her brother who works as a cop.  Other covers for the first Heather Wells book:

For the current cover, they couldn't find a male model who portrayed Cooper. The book covers in France for the series use a cake topper. That seemed like a fun alternative. I can't wait to read The Bride Wore Size 12. 

Here we are together with the cake topper from the cover!

Fierce Reads Tour

On Sunday, I attended the CT stop at RJ Julia's and it was a blast! Lots of laughter and lots of talking. Here's some notes on the tour. Sorry - the pictures I took came out terrible. 

Emmy Laybourne:

Can't stop smiling when describing her book about death and destruction. Blood type determines course of action. Intruders. Trying to escape to a evacuation site. Put aside issues (drama/romance) to find a way to survive. The storefront came from Target (because she's there a lot with her kids). Inspired by an article on blood types in Asian countries where blood determines your personality (kinda like horoscopes)

On Writing: She tries to write 5-8 pages a day - following a system. Inviting her characters each day to come chat with her, so she had to be there to to listen to them. Last thing she does each day is to read ahead on the outline to get her mental prepared for the next day.

Details outlines and send publishers and then starts to write the book when agreed but still surprised by the HOWs

Next book (after the last book in the trilogy) will be a fantasy

Jessica Brody: Wanted to try something different - a scifi suspense. Blank slate  for her character that's inspired by Bourne. It's about a girl who wakes up in the middle of a plane crash wreckage (there's a hidden significance to Flight 121) - unharmed except for the loss of her memories. She has no idea who she is - and no one else seems to either. The sequel will be out in February. 

When Writing: She only drinks coffee when she writes and she uses the computer without battery so she must finish writing before it dies. She follows a screenwriting writing technique where she has 15 plot points figured out and starts with those. If something changes (often happens), she replots from that change before starting to write again.  

Inspirations: Any book that was done well as you knew you couldn't write it is inspiring, Sophie Kinsella, and 

Christopher Pike

She didn't expect to like twitter - but treats it like a game. How can I say something significant in 140 characters or less!

Anna Banks: Mermaids! Merman prince searching for a girl who can communicate with fish. This girls seems to have the Gift of Poseidon, but she doesn't know why she has this rare gift.. He tries to help her figure out who she is, knowing that if she's the girl he thinks she might be - she will have to marry his older brother. 

On Writing: Recently quit job and realized that in order to focus, she must actually get dressed and leave the house. She doesn't rely on outlines because she without them. She started reading romances at the age of nine and every book she writes will always have kissy scenes and a love story. 

Gennifer Albin: All the names in book have double meanings and she tried to make them easy to pronounce. Space and time can be seen manipulated and changed by young girls. Adelice has that gift, but her parents have been training her to hide it. They don't want her using her power, but they haven't told her why. On the day of her testing, something goes wrong and Adelice life changes.

On Writing: Used to be creature of habit, but since having kids, she has learned to write anywhere. She completed the first draft of Crewl in November for Nanowrimo. However, when she tried to write the next book in the same manner, she found that it really needed an outline. Each book needs something a little bit different in terms of planning.

Would love to meet J.K. Rowling - who inspired her greatly.

Leigh Bardugo: Her Fantasy novels were inspired by czar Russia. Where Darkness comes with monsters. Alina is the orphan underdog. She a huge fantasy fan. Most fantasy worlds take after Medieval Europe (mainly England) and she wanted to change that - so she made her world Russian. 

On Writing: For her first draft, she needs noise, but in revising she using her computer without the internet so she won't be distracted. She sometimes skips ahead in the book to avoid writer's block. 

Inspirations: Dune, Wrinkle in time, and George R. R. Martin (whom she's met)