All the Truth That’s in Me is set in the village of Roswell Station, in a very non-specific time and place. The only clues are in the descriptions of clothing worn, weapons used, foodstuff and other cultural mores. What was your intention in doing this?

From the beginning, Judith’s world felt like a colony to me, a fledgling settlement scrabbling for survival. It felt small, new, and very much alone in the world, separated from larger humanity by wilderness and ocean, clinging to that liminal place between the two. I knew I needed to create the world that Judith’s story required, rather than tether her story to an actual historical timeline. I love historical fiction, but I didn’t want Judith’s story to take on the weight of the genre’s conventional expectations. I wanted her narrative to enjoy the prerogatives of contemporary fiction, where character can reign supreme, and the backdrop can be Anytown, USA, Now-ish—as non-specific as Roswell Station feels.

Though these impressions were instinctual as I wrote, after I was done I came to see Roswell Station as mirror of Judith’s character.  It’s a young settlement, inexperienced at cohering as a community. It teeters on the brink; it’s small and powerless against formidable threats. It has little in the way of neighbors from which to draw support when attacked. Odds are long against its survival. It still bears the scars of past tragedies, wounds for which no healing seems possible. Inexplicably, though, it survives. With slight adjustments, I could make all of these statements about Judith herself.

When Judith returns to town after being released by her captor, she is treated as a pariah, even by her own mother. After seeing her endure so much pain, it was difficult, as a reader, to experience that emotional withdrawal, especially after discovering that Judith’s father had died while she was gone. Only her oafish brother Darrel tries to maintain a normal relationship with her. Comment?

Heaping pain on Judith wasn’t a willful choice on my part–it was already there surrounding her. Suffering can destroy people, and pain isn’t necessarily sacred. But in Judith, it’s part of what draws me to her. Her experiences and wounds have forged in her an intensity of feeling, an exquisite wisdom and poignancy, and even a deep well of irony and humor. She’s more resilient than she could have imagined herself to be, and more inspiring than she could possibly know.

Her trials have not only given her courage, but they’ve liberated her, to some extent, from the repressions of her society. She grieves for lost intimacy with her mother, but by severing emotional ties with her daughter, the mother has also set Judith free from her influence and control. All this isolation has taught Judith that she can only look to herself to create the life she wants, and her invisibility lets her fly under the radar and do it.

As for Darrel, when Judith returned from her captivity, he was already well-practiced in the art of heaping misery on her. That’s what younger brothers do. There’s something disarmingly honest about Darrel’s mistreatment of Judith. He’s rotten to her as spoiled younger brothers are, not as sanctimonious bigots are. They share the solidarity siblings do, with a common parental enemy, and then Darrel’s injury only increases that solidarity, and shows them how they can help each other.

When Judith agrees to help Darrel get to school each day, she encounters Rupert Gillis the schoolmaster, who is quite a despicable creature. And there are the Robinson sisters, the “mean girls” of Roswell Station. Is it her love for her brother or her own desire to learn that motivates her to keep going?

I think it’s both, and both at a very deep level. Having committed herself to a path of learning to read, nothing will deter her from that. The same is true with the commitment she made to help Darrel gain his education. Both goals are audacious acts of defiance. She will not allow Darrel’s lost foot to destroy his chance at a full life, any more than she will allow her own injuries to destroy hers. I think she needs Darrel to win to reinforce her own hopes for herself. It helps, perhaps, that their mother is furiously opposed to both objectives. It makes trudging Darrel to school a double-whammy in the stick-it-to-mean-old-Mom department.

The relationship between Judith and Maria is quite striking and remarkable. It appears, at first, that they are rivals for Lucas’ affections, but that quickly changes, partly as the result of a territorial skirmish. As you were writing the book, did you foresee the close relationship that eventually develops between these two young women?

Not at all. It took me very much by surprise. This book was a figure-it-out-as-I-go journey, with Judith at the helm. The moment when I had my first inkling that Maria might become more than a bewitching rival was when Judith chucked an egg at Leon. That’s when I realized Maria had enough confidence and self-possession to be kind, if she wanted to. She had no need to bow to the collective will.

Phantom is absolutely my favorite animal character in YA lit this year. She serves as a bridge between Judith and Lucas, as well as Lucas and his father. I am a sucker for horses; I’m a big fan of Dove from Maggie Stiefvater’s The Scorpio Races. Is Phantom modeled after a horse you knew as a child, or from a horse story that you loved?

Oh, I wish I’d known a horse as a child. I did grow up on a farm, and I knew families with horses, but I’ve never in my life even ridden a horse. Isn’t that tragic? I was an enormous fan of the Black Stallion series as a child–I can see my set of 1970s paperbacks from where I sit writing now, so perhaps that’s where some of my horse-love began. I did grow up surrounded by animals, if not horses, and I’ve noticed that a deep connection to an animal always seems to find its way into my writing again and again. No protagonist is complete, in my world, without her familiar. There’s something so pure and faithful about a pet’s love, so perfectly unjudging and forgiving.

Judith has been in love with Lucas since he was “a lisping, curly-headed boy,” who she and her mother journeyed with across the sea, their families eventually settling just acres apart in Roswell Station. As a teen, she proclaims about Lucas, more to herself than anyone else, that “It was always you.” Her love grows from a girlish crush to a love so deep she is willing to see him be happy with someone else rather than be alone. Comment?

While All the Truth That’s in Me clearly has a lot to say about speech, courage, and injustice, I hope readers will also find it has a lot to say about love. Most of us learn our lessons in love through a long line of infatuations, friendships, and relationships, leading (we may or may not hope) to The One. For Judith, there was only one person, start to finish. I think that idea frightens some people. Ask most adults how life would be for them now if they’d married their first crush, and they shudder (myself included). But I do love the idea of this kind of loyalty and devotion going back to those early moments in life when the heart is soft, and the eyes wide-open. I think it says a lot about Judith that she’s capable of such devotion, and a lot about Lucas that he’s worthy of it. Devotion and loyalty don’t require us to marry our kindergarten sweeties, thank goodness, but they are still hallmarks of real love. I don’t see Lucas’s capacity for love as diminished by his affections having shifted elsewhere for a time. They both had a lot to learn.

Love will force upon us this dilemma: if we truly, deeply care for another, we will put their happiness above our desires for them, and if their real happiness is to be found with someone else, love requires us to say goodbye. It stinks, but there it is.

I think the book took its significant turn in the moment when Judith came to see, painfully, how absurdly she’d given her heart away, how cloying her obsession had become, and how unhealthy. Her choice to walk away was a dramatic moment, and an act of tremendous courage and self-love. This isn’t a story of a girl who wants a boy, finally gets him, and lives happily ever after. It’s a story of a girl who learns to choose what is best for her, rather than letting fear of loneliness choose for her. To me, this is her real triumph.

With the exception of the National School Library Program of the Year Award, the deadline for AASL awards and grants is February 1, 2014. The National School Library Program of the Year Award deadline is January 1, 2014.

Applications now open include the Innovative Reading Grant ($2,500), sponsored by Capstone, which is designed to fund literacy projects for grades K-9, and the Intellectual Freedom Award, which grants $2,000 to the winner and $1,000 to the school library of the winner’s choice, sponsored by ProQuest, and given for upholding the principles of intellectual freedom as set forth by AASL and the American Library Association (ALA).

With the exception of the National School Library Program of the Year Award, the deadline for AASL awards and grants is February 1, 2014. The National School Library Program of the Year Award deadline is January 1, 2014. All applications will close at 4:30 p.m. CST on the day of the deadline.

What is Mix It Up at Lunch Day? This program, now in its tenth year, was developed by Teaching Tolerance, a project of The Southern Poverty Law Center. Since the cafeteria is common ground to all school students, it also is the place where most cultural and social lines are drawn. By encouraging kids to sit at a different table and hang out with someone new, these divisions can be broken down through the simple act of breaking bread together, and sharing a conversation.

Teaching Tolerance has many resources available, from posters to discussion guides. You can also register your school as an official Mix It Up participant—over 2000 schools have already registered. Plan now to take advantage of this free and easy-to-implement program.

Please send your name, the name of your library, and complete mailing address (US only) to leah@beyondword.com with “So, You Want to Be a Chef? Giveaway” as the subject line by September 30, 2013. Fifty winners will be chosen at random and will be notified via email by October 15.

The third title in the “Be What You Want” series, So, You Want to Be a Chef? provides tips and advice from kids as well as seasoned professionals. Recipes, activities, and sidebars with fun factoids, like the history of the cupcake, keep readers engaged.

Discover more in the “Be What You Want” series with So, You Want to Be a Writer? and XXX, both available now. Don’t wait to grow up to discover your dreams, get started today!

RAINFIELD, Cheryl. Stained. Houghton Harcourt. Oct. 2013. Tr $16.99. ISBN  9780547942087.

Gr 9 Up—Sarah is a pretty teenage girl who hides behind her birthmark, which covers half of her face. She tries to stay strong when facing bullies, but sometimes she just feels like curling up into a ball. She thinks that bullies are her worst fear, but she soon learns what true fear is. As she walks home from school one day, she is kidnapped by a deranged killer. Most girls would cry themselves to sleep, but not Sarah. She becomes determined to escape from her prison. However, as minutes blend into days, and days blend into months, she begins to lose hope. Will she ever see her parents, best friend, or school yard sweetheart ever again? And worse, could the killer’s words become reality? Will he kill her or her family if she does anything against his will?

Stained was an exciting, action-packed story that kept my heart racing the entire time. Every chance I had, I was reading this book. I felt drawn into the book, like I was actually in it. I felt like it was me clawing at the boards on the windows until my fingers bled. I became extremely close to all of the characters in this book. I was sad when they failed and happy when they succeeded. The author did an excellent job in creating this closeness. She made me long to know what happened next. This is a wonderful book that all teens will enjoy.—Michaela B., age 14

NESS, Patrick. More Than This. Candlewick. Sept. 2013.Tr $19.99. ISBN  9780763662585.

Gr 9 Up–Seth Wearing has woken up in what he assumes is his own personal hell. After his death, he did not expect to wake up in his childhood home in London—it brings back too many bad memories. This seemingly real world is abandoned and dust-covered. How did he get here? He clearly remembered the waves thrashing him beneath the surface, breaking his bones. So how is it that he is alive? And why does every moment of rest bring back vivid, agonizing memories from the past? Seth doesn’t know what’s going on but he hopes that the rest of his afterlife will be more than just this…

More Than This was a breathtaking read. I enjoyed the unknown setting and all there was for Seth to discover about his life. But behind the mystery, the book has a good moral message. I would recommend this book to any teen but especially a teen that feels like there isn’t anything more to life than what they’re currently experiencing.—Paris E., age 17

POLAK, Monique. So Much It Hurts. Orca. Sept. 2013. pap. $12.95. ISBN 9781459801363.

Gr 9 Up—Iris has caught the eye of acclaimed movie producer, Mick. As an aspiring actress, this is an amazing thing. So what if Mick is fourteen years older than her? He’s sophisticated and she’s happy to call him her boyfriend. Except she can’t quite call him that—Mick wants their relationship to be a secret. After lying about her affiliations with Mick, Iris doesn’t find it hard to keep quiet about Mick’s temper; she even lies about how she got a black eye. Mick loves her, it’s evident—Iris just causes him to get so angry sometimes. Relationships are all about getting used to each other, she just has to get used to Mick’s fits. Right?

So Much It Hurts is a realistic tale about the psyche of teenage girls in abusive relationships. Iris blames herself for Mick’s behavior and only hides the truth, from her best friend, from her mother, and from herself. This short novel can aid in bringing awareness to domestic violence in young adults and just how badly it can end.—Paris E. age 17

PFEFFER, Susan Beth. The Shade of the Moon. Houghton Harcourt. 2013. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9780547813370.

Gr 7 Up—Jon Evans is a slip—simple as that. He can never claim the privileges of the elite enclave dwellers, those that are needed and deserve the best food and the best houses, but he also avoids the dirt-poor life of a grub, outsiders who work as servants or farmers and can be easily replaced. Instead, he can enjoy the benefits of living within the enclave but can never escape the fact that his family are still grubs. And in a postapocalyptic America, being of these two worlds will soon test Jon’s ability to choose between right and wrong.

The fourth in “The Life As We Knew It” series, The Shade of the Moon picks up the story of a family struggling to survive after the moon was knocked out of orbit, causing major changes to the Earth’s environment. Amid the chaos, a new kind of society formed, one where the spoiled kids of doctors and lawyers forget that those with lower paychecks are still human and deserve happiness as much as they do. Susan Beth Pfeffer does an excellent job of showing this moral struggle within Jon, although she falters in writing a more realistic display of Jon’s emotions. Overall, a good read.—Abrania M., age 16

Amulet Books, an imprint of Abrams, recently announced that the Splintered story will continue as a trilogy. The sequel, Unhinged, releases in January 2014 and will be followed by the final title, Ensnared, the following year. Readers will be thrilled to see that the love triangle heats up in the second installment and they will have to decide if they are Team Jeb or Team Morpheus. Visit the Unhinged blog for more about the trilogy, and to check out the creepy book trailer!

The IRA Arbuthnot Award recognizes an outstanding college or university teacher of children’s and/or young adult literature. The award honors the memory of May Hill Arbuthnot (1884-1969) who, along with educator William Scott Gray, created and wrote the Curriculum Foundation Readers— better known as the “Dick and Jane” series—for children, published by Scott, Foresman and Company (now Pearson Scott Foresman). Arbuthnot then went on to write and edit many seminal texts on children’s literature and reading, including The Arbuthnot Anthology of Children’s Literature. The deadline for submission is November 15, 2013; nominees must be IRA members.

The IRA Jerry Johns Outstanding Teacher Educator in Reading Award is a $1,000 award supported by Jerry Johns, a distinguished teacher, writer, outstanding teacher educator, and popular professional development speaker for schools, school districts, and conferences. This award honors an outstanding college or university teacher of reading methods or reading-related courses. Nominees must be IRA members, affiliated with a college or a university, and engaged in teacher preparation in reading at the undergraduate and/or graduate levels. Nominations for this award are also due November 15, 2013.

Capstone distribution center employee with book shipment

The tornadoes decimated the city’s schools and completely destroyed its libraries. When Sharon Hagge, Capstone’s Distribution Center Coordinator, learned of the destruction in Moore, she knew her department would want to pitch in to help. They have been busy organizing the shipment, but the schools were only recently prepared to receive the large donation. “We know there’s a lot more work to be done, but we hope that Moore’s first school year after the storms is a happy and safe one,” Hagge said.

Each year Capstone donates more than $1 million in books worldwide, and will continue to help rebuild Moore’s libraries in particular with its “Buy a Book, Give a Book” promotion through its trade publishing program, Capstone Young Readers. The publisher donates one book to the Moore schools for every book purchased through its website. Consumers can simply use the Promo Code “MooreRelief” when placing an order online.

Teen Tech Camp: Raspberry Pi

Photo credit: Rebecca Murphey

Our library partnered with local tech professionals Julia Elman and Sarah Kahn (UNC-SILS MLS 2008) to host a daylong event focused on programming Raspberry Pi using the Python programming language. Thanks to a generous donation from the Python Software Foundation (PSF), we were able to provide each attendee with a Raspberry Pi, power supply, an SD card, and two books on programming in Python to take home.

The event was open to students ages 12 to 18, regardless of previous computer programming experience. Sign up was first-come, first-served, and teens who attended a similar event in Fall 2012 were given a bit of advance notice. Only twenty spots were available due to the limited amount of equipment we received from our PSF grant. Volunteers from the tech community set up the network and provided instruction. Noted Python educator Kurt Grandis developed the curriculum outline for the day, but when Kurt had a family emergency, Clinton Dreisbach stepped in at short notice to provide the actual instruction.

Seventeen students spent from 10 am to 5 pm learning the basics of programming in Python as well as the ins and outs of using a Raspberry Pi. We were able to send them home with the materials provided by the grant, as well as a free monitor, keyboard, and mouse. In other words, a free computer. How much did this cost my library? About $30, spent on name badges and painter’s tape.

Powerful Partnerships

Photo credit: Rebecca Murphey

How was it possible to provide such high quality STEM programming to the teens in Durham for almost no cost to the library? We were able to benefit from powerful partnerships. When the PSF grant came through (in a mere six weeks), Sarah and Julia began canvassing for volunteers and materials.

They gathered gently used peripherals from individual donors as well as from Triangle Ecycling, a local ewaste recycling organization. Julia’s company, Caktus Consulting Group, provided funding for a healthy breakfast and lunch for campers and volunteers. Splatspace, a local hackerspace, donated nifty 3D printed Raspberry Pi cases. The City of Wilson (home of North Carolina’s first community owned gigabit broadband network) provided the campers with goody bags and cool promo sunglasses. Providing these extras was a great way to show teens and their parents that they are valued members of the library community.

Lasting Results

Teen Tech Camp attendees ranged from 12 year-olds with no programming experience to 18-year-old veteran hackers. Teaching complex concepts to a diverse audience was not easy. Some of our attendees were definitely more motivated by the copy of Minecraft we preloaded on to their Pi than anything else.

Photo credit: Rebecca Murphey

But to quote organizer Julia Elman, our “goal for the 2013 Teen Tech Camp was not to have the students walk out of the library, ready to take on complex computer programming challenges. It was to spark interest in the students and get them excited… By using varying techniques and providing a safe space for learning, we were able to engage every student at an individual pace. They will take away the motivation, energy and drive to keep on learning, because someone believes in them.”

During the 2013-2014 school year, we plan to support the young coding community created at Teen Tech Camp by hosting library sponsored hackerthons and providing further resources online. By providing high quality materials and technology instruction to young people, we hope to empower the next generation, increase diversity in the technology field, and encourage teens to be digital content creators as well as consumers. You can do it too!

Autumn Winters, Teen Services Manager at Southwest Regional Library, a regional branch of the Durham County Library system in Durham, North Carolina

From now until Rouge‘s release on September 10th, each stop on the blog tour will reveal an image that represents a chapter in the book, such as the setting, plot, an important object, or mood. Each image also contains a hidden letter. Collect the letters every day, and on the final day, Tuesday, September 10th, return to the blog tour page, where you will use the letters you collected during the tour to solve a puzzle. Enter your answer, and you will be entered into a random drawing to win signed copies of all the books in the series.

Five lucky winners will discover Cia’s fate in this new dystopian series when they receive the ultimate Testing prize pack which includes a copy of The Testing, an ARC of Book 2 in the series, Independent Study, as well as a t-shirt, bracelets and more!

Enter to win The Testing Giveaway at http://goo.gl/aX0Nrz by 8/28/13. Winners will be chosen at random, and will be notified via email by 8/30/13.

Credit WBFO News photos by Eileen Buckley

UB’s Center for Literacy and Reading Instruction (CLaRI) is a non-profit center that has served hundreds of children and families in Western New York for 50 years. There is no charge for the reading program. While the children benefit from the reading and writing instruction, this program also provides the grad students with intensive hands-on teaching time before they head off to the classroom for their practicum.

Do these kinds of programs exist for library school students focusing on early literacy and children’s services? If so, SLJTeen would love to hear about them. If not, what are you waiting for?

Teen Read Week is an national literacy initiative of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association. It’s aimed at teens, their parents, librarians, educators, booksellers and other concerned adults.

Wow!  School is starting soon and the lazy-crazy days of summer are drawing to a close! My guess is we all had a season jam-packed with travel, family, learning, reading, recreation, mountain climbing, rebuilding, and (I hope) relaxing.

No matter what you did, as you return to school, you’re bound to hear that traditional phrase, “What did you do on your summer vacation?” Just like you, many of our kids have had some remarkable experiences this summer. Some have taken advantage of leadership opportunities, internships, travel and exploration, team events, books and literature, movies, and concerts. They’ve learned rules, refined lessons, conquered challenges, and oh, did I mention, read a few books?

Our students’ experiences demonstrate their knowledge and diversity, and it’s worth sharing. Get your “tech on” and you’ll learn that students’ ability to share this information using 21st-century skills is incredible.

Here are the top 10 ways to kick off the school year that will allow your students to share the richness of their summer experiences.  These activities just might help teachers and classmates to better know, understand, and appreciate each other.

1) Use Instagram to create a collage of pictures with daily prizes. You might want to suggest themes such as:

○     Sports, books, travels, jobs, concerts, pets, family, friends, etc.

○     Use a free collage app for your phone or tablet like Framatic,  Instaframe, or Instacollage.

○     Post collages on your library web page or blog, display them in the library and online.

2) Start a contest where students vie for the most ‘Pinterest-ing’ summer.

○     Use Pinterest to post movies watched, food eaten, places traveled, books read, concerts attended, lessons learned, sports played, etc.

○     Award cheesy prizes to the best pages like this one.

3) Have a video contest using Vine or Instagram Video (or similar video tool) to create persuasive short videos about why their summer was the “awesome-ist.”

○     Announce rules, select top-notch judges, and advertise prizes.

4) Post a “back-to-school” survey you create using Google Forms. Then compile the answers with hyperlinks and post on your website.

5) Use Socrative to help select a slogan or theme to encompass students’ summer experiences.

○     Set up Socrative’s short answer form so students can submit slogans and/or themes.

○     After several slogans have been submitted, initiate the voting feature and have students vote for the best slogan/theme.

6) Start a Twitter hashtag contest:

○     Solicit tweets to a common hashtag on twitter such as #mascotvacation

○     Have a daily theme for tweets such as best books read, hottest/coldest place traveled, highest elevation, farthest traveled, concerts attended, sports played, etc.

○     Display tweets and give daily cheesy prizes.

7) Have a summer photo contest:

○     Have students submit online and use Thinglink to provide links or videos to explain what it is about the photo or experience that stood out for them.

8) Have an essay contest using a theme such as something new tried, class taken, skill learned or job completed in 150 words or less. You can simply use GoogleDocs, or a site like Stage of Life, which features a free blogging community for teens.

9) Have students anonymously submit their best summer memory and make a game of trying to match the experience to the student.

10) Use Aurasma to showcase things that inspired your students over the summer.

You might be surprised how sharing these experiences can enhance your relationships with your students in the coming year. But what may really surprise you is how this may strengthen their relationships with each other. I think you’ll find that the combination of experiences your staff and students have accumulated over the past few weeks will astound you.

The Big Brain Club is a non-profit organization that helps students become the best version of themselves. Founded by author and broadcaster Dom Testa, of the award-winning “Galahad” series (Tor Teen) and the bestselling “Mindbender” books (Profound Impact), the Club and its members believe that smart is cool!

The organization was formed to provide free programs and resources to students, schools, teachers, and parents. The Big Brain Club professionally publishes the creative writing of kids in grades 6-12, donates technology to classrooms, and provides a clearinghouse of resources for teachers and students interested in encouraging good reading and writing skills, leading to success not only in the classroom, but in life as well.

“The magical wizard Harry Potter (the “older” end of the generation): These “first wave Millennials” (today’s 20-somethings) came of age in the economic boom of the 1990s/2000s, a time infused with the spirit of “Yes We Can” and the belief that college, working hard, and playing by the rules would guarantee future success. Raised by idealistic Boomer parents, they were told they were special and gifted, with a magic wand capable of changing the world. They were shaped by a context of seemingly limitless possibilities.

The Hunger Game’s trailblazing survivalist Katniss Everdeen (the younger end of the generation, peeking into Gen Z): This second wave of Millennials, today’s tweens and teens, have known a very different youth. They came of age in an economic downturn, seeing college grads struggling with huge student loan debt and living through “a cascade of social media-amplified tragedies like Hurricane Sandy and Sandy Hook. For them, life has always been a 24/7 social media show.”

According to MTV, the younger Millennials have high expectations for themselves, want to have clear goals and plans for the future, and are likely to engage in DIY learning. So what does this mean to teen services librarians? Possible library programming for the “Katniss” group could include SAT prep for tweens, financial planning, and “share an expert” presentations. And because “57% like to take a break from technology to make things with their hands,” consider cooking, woodworking, sewing, or pottery classes to share with teens.

The Lockwood Lions’ crosstown rivals, the Grovehill Giants, seem to have it all. Or do they?  When the cheer squad and the football players get together, it always gets intense. But there are two sides to every story—whose side are you on?

Do you know any struggling or reluctant teen readers? Enter to win a collection of leveled readers, including the new Truly Fine/Forever Hot from the Grove Hill Giants Series. Send an email to SLJTEEN@SDLBACK.COM with your name, title, your library’s name, shipping address and email. Five winners will be selected in a random drawing on August 1, 2013 and notified via email. One entry per person; prizes will only be shipped to U.S. addresses.

Saddleback Educational Publishing has been the leading source of solutions for struggling learners in middle school and high school for over 31 years.  Saddleback believes that by engaging the reader with age-appropriate covers and content, even the most at-risk and struggling learner can achieve success.

Please tell me about the inspiration behind Somebody Up There Hates You—I understand it grew out of a short story, but your dedication in the foreword  leads me to believe there is a greater personal connection.

Yes, this novel grew out of a short story called “SUTHY Syndrome” that I wrote some years ago. The story was published in the Bellevue Literary Review, one of my favorite literary journals, in 2009.  After the story came out, I thought I’d heard the last from Richie—but, no. He just kept on talking in my head and he let me know that he had a great deal more to say and to do. So I expanded the story into the novel, adding many new characters and events but keeping the time frame of 10 days for the whole story to take place.

But you’re also right that the real origins of this book go back much farther, to the many times that I stayed with my son in Babies Hospital at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City. There, I met all sort of kids—sick, wounded, all hurt in some way. The ones who have always stayed in my mind—and my dreams—are the teenagers, who were both heartbreaking and hilarious. Full of wit and spirit and rebellion, even in the face of devastating illnesses. I’ve never forgotten their voices. That’s really where Richie and Sylvie came from.

Richie, believing this to be his last lap through a hospital, takes Marcus Aurelius’s advice to heart: “Wait for death with a cheerful mind.” And a mischievous mind as well, wouldn’t you say?

Absolutely.  Richie, no matter what his physical condition, is still a seventeen-year-old boy who likes to laugh and who likes to disobey the rules, especially rules that make no sense to him. He has a keen sense of absurdity and a sharp wit. He’s just like any other teenage boy—full of passion and sexual longing. And he has a deep desire to pack as much living as he can into whatever time he’s got.

Early on in the book, I became very aware of Richie’s use of his sense of smell to get a “read” on something or someone. His Uncle Phil, coconspirator in springing Richie from hospice on Halloween night, is described as smelling like “bacon and marijuana smoke and outdoors air.” On the way back to the hospital, Richie again notes the smells—”Exhaust, dead leaves, wetness from the storm drains, and beyond all that, the river.” His Grandma smells like “perfume and hair spray, cigarettes and a little bit of sweat.”

That’s an interesting observation. I hadn’t really thought about it but I do tend to use images of smells in my writing, perhaps because smell is such an evocative sense, one that can transport us to different times and places with one whiff.  Also, it makes sense for Richie to rely on smells to read people, since his eyesight is failing. And he’s in a place where smells are often stale and sterile. So when Richie finally gets to go outdoors, he really inhales the whole rich atmosphere because he misses it so much. And the same holds true when someone comes in from the outside world:  Richie has a deep appreciation for the new air that they carry with them. It’s like a gift to him.

Sylvie is the only other teenager in hospice, and she and Richie quickly become the darlings of the ward. But her illness seems to have come on quickly, while Richie describes himself as the “Incredible Dying Boy” and has been in and out of hospitals since he was 11 years old. It obviously affects their acceptance of the terminal nature of their disease, and the reactions of their families. What made you decide to set it up this way?

I wanted Sylvie and Richie to be very different, in many ways. Sylvie comes from a wealthy family; she was a pretty, popular and successful private school girl before she became sick.  Richie was raised in near-poverty by a single mom and has some fairly disreputable relatives (like his Uncle Phil). Out in the “real world,” Sylvie and Richie would never have been a couple, would probably never have even met. But, here, in the world of hospice, they have been thrown together under the most intense circumstances. So they bond, in all sorts of ways. And, yes, it’s true that Sylvie in no way accepts her diagnosis as terminal. She is fierce in her belief that she will survive. This may be because she hasn’t been sick as long as Richie but her ferocity is also part of her essential personality. She is, in many ways, her father’s daughter; Richie says that both Sylvie and her father have dragon’s blood running in their veins.

I really love the way you played with Richie’s character through the other characters’ nicknames for him. Edward, the tender-tough nurse, calls him Richard. His grandmother calls him Richie Rich, after the comic book character. Uncle Phil treats hims like royalty, calling him King Richard and addressing him as “my liege.” Did you plot this out, or did it just happen as those characters developed?

I had no plan to have various characters use different terms for Richie but as characters entered the book, they just naturally started in using their own pet names for him. I think that the names they choose do help to characterize the people who interact with Richie; the nicknames help to establish individuals as different and each relationship as unique. Phil, for example, tries always to make a game out of their time together; he’s always, in his own way, trying to distract and entertain Richie. That is Phil’s way of showing love. He’s never sappy or sugary, but always funny and a bit outrageous. Phil also has another way of showing his strong feelings for Richie and all of the other hospice patients, and that is through his drawings.

Despite his seemingly powerless position, Richie actually puts a lot of major changes in motion for those around him, some on purpose, some accidental—pushing together his mother and her estranged mother, forcing the issue of getting restitution from his long absent father, and by chance, the cop assigned to guard him has a long-standing crush on his mother. I felt respect for Richie, not pity.

I’m so glad that you feel respect for Richie. I do, too. He’s managed to grow up in this short amount of time. He’s fallen in love and done everything in his power to protect the girl he loves.  He’s tried to provide for his mother, to make her life a bit easier when he’s gone. Richie, by the end of the book, has accomplished what he set out to do, under enormously difficult circumstances. He hasn’t planned it all but he takes advantage of every opportunity to help the people he loves get by when he is gone. For me, Richie really is a hero.

Respected for her adult short stories, Hollis is a recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Fiction Fellowship. She is Professor of English at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY and teaches for the Fairfield University MFA in Creative Writing Program. Her latest collection of short stories, Corporeality, was published in January 2013 by Able Muse Press. She lives in Kinderhook NY.

Seamon, Hollis. Somebody Up There Hates You (Algonquin Young Readers, Sept.  2013, Tr $16.99, ISBN 9781616202606) Gr 9 Up.

The 2013 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award finalists are:

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz (S & S)

Ask the Passengers by A.S. King (Little, Brown)

Endangered by Eliot Schrefer (Scholastic)

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (Dutton)

The winner will be announced on Monday, July 29.  The winning title and finalists will be honored on Monday, November 25, at the 2013 ALAN Workshop in Boston, MA, and will be invited to participate in a panel discussion.

Thirty publishers submitted titles for consideration, and the 2013 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Committee considered nearly 300 young adult titles throughout the process. It was comprised of eleven members representing the university, K-12 school, and library communities.

For more information on the award, please visit ALAN Online: The Official Site of the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents.

DOKTORSKI, Jennifer Salvato. Famous Last Words. Holt. July 2013. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9780805093674.

Gr 9 Up—Sam is just about to turn 17, and like many teenagers, she has a summer job. Sam’s job, however, is quite unique; she writes obituaries for a local newspaper. While writing about people who are no longer living, Sam faces some road bumps in her own life. The secretary in the office hates her, her best friend is driving her crazy, and she might have a crush on the drum playing college intern. As she deals with her teenage struggles, she also works to uncover political corruption in order to make her way up the newspaper-climbing ladder. What ensues is a summer filled with friendship, romance, endings, and a near-death experience.

I was really excited about reading Famous Last Words, but it did not quite live up to my expectations. I did not particularly like Sam, as she sometimes came off as whiny and irresponsible. I felt that a couple of plot points were left unresolved, especially Sam’s conflict with her best friend. However, I really loved Sam’s experiences working with the newspaper and I liked her coworkers, especially AJ. Perhaps if the novel had focused mainly on Sam’s job with the newspaper, I would have enjoyed it more. Still, I am glad that I read Famous Last Words and thought it was a fun, light read.—Kayla T., age 16

Another take… Since You Asked was first reviewed in SLJTeen June 4, 2013.

GOO, Maurene. Since You Asked. Scholastic. 2013. Tr. $17.99. ISBN 9780545448215.

Gr 8 Up—Sophomore Holly Kim is her high school newspaper’s copy editor. Holly  is unlike your typical teenage girl character; she is not boy obsessed, she doesn’t wear makeup, and she follows Korean values even though she may not agree with them. After accidentally submitting an article to the school paper that was written as a joke, she is given her own column. In this column she can write about her opinions on upcoming events such as the homecoming dance or Valentine’s Day. Holly also has to write about things that she is against, like the life of a jock that she and her friends claim to hate. With typical high school dramas, she deals with her Korean family and their values and traditions.

Although I was hesitant to read this book after reading the description, I’m glad I did. It was captivating and witty. There is something in this book that almost every teenage girl can relate to whether it is annoying mothers or secret admirers. I liked the diversity of many of the main characters. It gave me a different perspective on the way of life for other ethnic groups who live in America. I will admit nothing really exciting happens in the story because it is just a slice-of-life of a teenage girl, but it definitely is a page turner. I would recommend this book to teenage girls who are looking for a quick read.—Sarah A., age 15