As I’m sure you all noticed, yesterday the National Book Award announced its shortlist for the Young People’s category.  A couple surprises there.  M.T. Anderson’s removal will come as a nasty shock to anyone who has read his book and the elimination of Shabazz/Magoon effectively turns the remaining writers into a pretty white fivesome.

The five titles make for an interesting cross-section of YA literature, of course.  With the exception of The Thing About Jellyfish they are all for the 12-18 year old set.  There’s nonfiction, realistic fiction, graphic novel fantasy, and  . . . The Bone Gap by Laura Ruby.  Neither fish nor fowl, the book doesn’t slot well into any one single category.  What to make of it?  Why not hear from the author herself?

It was with great pleasure that I sat down with Laura Ruby to talk about her book.  Unlike many of my other Fuse #8 TV interviews, Ms. Ruby delves deep into the writer’s process.  She discusses not just the book’s roots but how the human brain can organize a novel without you being aware of what it’s doing.  By the end of this talk you won’t just be curious about her National Book Award nominee.  You’ll be moving heaven and earth to get yourself a copy.

Oh. And I get to do a crazy interpretation of The Cat in the Hat Comes Back.  That’s fun!

Some of the other Fuse #8 TV episodes are archived here.

Finally, thanks to Harper Collins for being my sponsor and helping to put this together.