Tera Lynn Childs Q&A

Oh. My. Gods. was such a fun read that I asked Tera Lynn Childs if she would be willing to participate in a Q&A. I hope you enjoy reading more about the background behind the book.

I loved that Phoebe was a long distance runner. Were you a cross country runner?
"Hahahahaha. Um, no. Running is very much not my thing. This means I had to channel other experiences to realistically portray my running-obsessed character. I was an athlete in school (tennis, basketball, and swimming). I still remember the burn of running endless sprints in basketball camp, the agony of suffering through a multi-hour tennis match in sweltering heat and humidity, and the boring exhaustion of swimming a long-distance race. So, although my memory of the experience is real, my actual running expertise is not."

What inspired you to incorporate the Greek gods and goddesses into your writing?
"I've always loved ancient things: ancient architecture, ancient cultures, ancient mythology. When I came up with a fun title (Growing Up Godly, which eventually became Oh. My. Gods.) I saw my chance to use myth in my writing."

The Books, Boys, Buzz is one of the blogs that I regularly check now. How did the buzz girls join together and come up with the blog?
"It was one of those friend-of-a-friend things that just came together. Most of us knew each other through various Romance Writers of America chapters. Heather Davis and Dona Sarkar-Mishra had the initial idea for the blog (they were both unpublished at the time). They invited, I think, Simone Elkeles and Stephanie Hale. Steph and I share an agent, so suggested me (and I jumped at the chance). One of us (Simone?) suggested Marley Gibson, and we were all thrilled to invite her on board. That left one slot for our girl-a-day plan. We were down to deciding between Tina Ferraro and another author, and finally chose Tina because she had sold to a different publisher than the rest of us--we wanted the most diversity possible. Shortly after the blog started, Heather and Dona both sold. I think the blog has been a great platform/support group/launchpad for all of us!"

Will there be more books about Phoebe after Goddess Boot Camp?
"That's up to my publisher. I have the story ideas (including a really good one for the third book that FINALLY reveals who Nicole's ancestor god is--you'll never guess!) but it will all depend on how well the first two sell. Publishing is a business, and if the books aren't making money then the publisher can't put out more. So, if you want to find out the truth about Nicole, tell everyone to buy up the first two books so my publisher will want to publish more!" (Note: The first of my students to read this book absolutely loved it, and I expect the same reaction from others. Hopefully we will get to see the third book!)

If you could share an anecdote or advice with my 6th grade writers, what would it be?
"Keep an open mind. Although this advice is generally good in every context, it has been particularly important in my career. Growing up I was always the science girl. My 8th grade Algebra teacher wanted me to be a mathematician (no thank you). I was going to be a marine biologist or an environmental biologist. Maybe even a doctor. Or an architect. Or a biotech lawyer. But not a writer, never a writer. (Shhh, I'd secretly hated English class all through school.) After I got my college degree and did some graduate school, I still hadn't really decided what I wanted to be and had a lot of free time. So I started reading. A lot. And the more I read the more I wanted to tell stories, too. One day I decided to try. That was six years ago, and if I hadn't been open to a completely unexpected career path, then I would never have found out that writing is my passion."

Oh. My. Gods.

There is so much to love about Tera Lynn Childs' Oh. My. Gods. from the cover design, to the fun topic, to the unexpected, to the inclusion of cross country. Phoebe Castro's life is going great. She is crossing the finish line that will clench her a full ride cross country scholarship to USC in the fall as long as she can keep a B average her senior year; however, her mom shocks her by saying that she is going to marry a man from Greece who she barely met and they will be moving to a Greek Island for her senior year. Once she arrives, they tell her that everyone on the Island, including her step-dad, are descendents of the gods. She realizes first hand how teenagers with supernatural powers can be an inconvenience to say the least and will keep her on her toes. Luckily, she is able to continue her passion for long distance running, even though complications make her train harder than ever. (In high school I ran cross country, so I really enjoyed that aspect of the book.) Through it all there is also romance.

During book clubs a group of my students were reading The Lightning Thief. I mentioned how one of my students loved the book but also wished that Percy would have had a crush or a little romance. Right around that time I started regularly reading the Books, Boys, Buzz blog that I found out about via Simone Elkeles' site. When I saw Oh. My. Gods. I knew it would be a perfect fit for my student since it had both mentions of Greek Mythology and more importantly for my student, romance.

Once the book arrived my student could not wait to read it and asked to check it out before I had even put it on the shelves. She flew through it and really enjoyed it. I told her about Goddess Boot Camp coming out this summer. While I will be getting it for the classroom library, she said that she will probably buy it in June when it is released because she doesn't want to have to wait until August when school is back in session. I am really excited to add this to my classroom library after spring break. I can already think of a few other girls who will really enjoy this book as well.

This will be coming out in paperback on May 14th, and it has a really cute cover as well. I can't decide which one I like more. One creative aspect to the hardcover, that I am not sure if the paperback includes, is quotes raving about the book from different gods and goddesses.

Freaky Monday

I was so excited to see that Mary Rodgers, the author of Freaky Friday, co-wrote a new book, Freaky Monday with Heather Hach. This time an overachieving student and teacher that don't see eye to eye switch places. I cannot remember if I read the actual Freaky Friday book, but I clearly remember loving the original movie and later the Lindsay Lohan version while I was growing up.

I cannot wait to share this book with my students after spring break. It was fun to see how the two reacted to the switch, and par for the course, it was the worst possible day for both of them to have this experience. Ms. Pitt has an interview to be the English Department Chair with her principal and the school board at the end of the day, and Hadley has a huge oral report that she forgot to prepare for due. In addition, both have crushes that chose that day to finally share their feelings. The mixture of events and always wondering what would happen next made for a fun read.

I also love that the cover matches one of the re-release Freaky Friday covers.

Book Club #2 Student Comments

With my book clubs, students do a half page response about the assigned reading. The response is open and its options are basically literature circle roles, such as they can say their favorite part, ask questions, make connections, make predictions... The only thing that their response can't be is a simple summary since that would not add a whole lot to a group discussion because everyone has already read the same book. Then at the end of the book they write a book review. I already posted on my students 2nd round of book club oral reactions to the book from our meetings. Here are some excerpts from their responses and reviews:

Touching Spirit Bear:
"I won't believe it if they don't make a second one because it left it wide open for a second book." (I will have to tell him about Ghost of Spirit Bear and get a copy for our classroom library.)

"It's another good book that I thought I would not like. [...] Then I started reading it, and I loved it! I wonder what I am missing in the world."

Heat:
"Manny is my favorite so far. [...] Manny makes me laugh. He sure asks questions A LOT. He should be an interrogator."

"My favorite part was when Uncle Timo had his arms out telling Michael to come give him a hug and says 'Top that dude'. I had a joy moment right there, but I still hate reading though."

"This is another job well done by Mike Lupica. This book is funny and smart."

"[I] hate and I mean HATE reading, but I loved this book."

The Mother Daughter Book Club:

"I really like how the book has so many point of views."

"Those mothers are crazy! I mean it. My mother isn't even that evil. I mean, Little Women? Honestly, I don't know where these women get these ideas."

"Okay, this book is getting a little cheesy for my taste. What is wrong with these moms? I mean who gets upset when two girls dress up as the same girl? Oh heaven forbid they dress up as the same character. Oh and don't even get me started on the party itself (scoff)."

"Okay, I know last time I gave this book a hard time but its not all that bad if you can get past the cheesyness."

"I guess if anyone's a little cutie it's Darcy. Not to mention I love Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice. Did you know Edward Cullen is supposed to have some of his traits? That's what Stephenie Meyer said."

Thanks for Nothing, Nick Maxwell

Twenty five year old Rachel Covington of Thanks for Nothing, Nick Maxwell by Debbie Corbin stands back in her unique narration style to tell us how she went from "having it all" to becoming pregnant with a relationship that only lasted a week. She told us the events looking back almost a year as if she is watching her own life on rewind. While she did not know all the pieces at the time, she is able to fill in some of the gaps for us with information that she now knows in her present day life. I had never seen this style before, and I always love to see authors think outside of the box. Rachel would zoom in on certain parts, pause, and shift away from certain scenes. Her story takes a lot of twists and turns; the characters have a lot of unexpected connections. Throughout the book there are a lot of misunderstandings, such as Rachel thinks Nick (her baby's father) is married most of the book when in reality what she does not know is that he is just 19! It was interesting to see how all the different plots fit together and how Rachel evolved throughout the book.

Sister Chicas

Sister Chicas tells the stories of three distinct young Latinas with interconnected lives written by three authors: Lisa Alvarado, Ann Hagman Cardinal, and Jane Alberdeston Coralin. The three girls (Taina, Grachi, and Leni) met each other in high school because of their involvement with the school newspaper. Although this year Graciela is going to college, they still touch base weekly at a local coffee shop, El Rinconcito del Sabor. The main event of the story is planning for Taina's dreaded quinceañera that her mom is forcing her to have, but all three girls make important steps to finding out who they are and what is important in their lives, while navigating their first loves. It was fun to see how each character evolved, and I personally loved when Graciela briefly talked about Morelia in Mexico since that is the main city I visit when I travel there.

Book Club #2

The second round of book clubs was also a success as the students were reconfigured into three groups, reading Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen, Heat by Mike Lupica, and The Mother Daughter Book Club by Heather Vogel Frederick.

The Touching Spirit Bear group was happy with the book and the outcome. When one student who was known to be behind with the first round of book clubs said that there was not a lot of action at our first meeting, I said, "What about the bear attack? That was filled with... Wait a minute, you didn't do all the reading did you?" However, after being behind on the first meeting he was right where he was supposed to be for every other meeting. The book sparked a lot of great discussion.

None of the Heat members were first time Lupica readers. Three read Miracle on 49th Street during the first round, while the fourth read Travel Team on his own. While all of the students enjoyed the previous Lupica books they had read more, they were satisfied with Heat. Their favorite characters were Manny and Uncle Timo.

The three who read Mother Daughter Book Club were very involved in the book in some parts but thought it was slow in other parts. None of them liked the ending, as they thought it lacked climax. However, when I asked them whether they would read Much Ado About Anne, the sequel, if I bought it for the classroom library, they all said they would and their book club discussions were always lively and involved.

Tomorrow I will pass out their books for round three.

How to Ruin a Summer Vacation

Once again Simone Elkeles had me completely into one of her books. After reading Perfect Chemistry earlier this year, I was interested in checking out her other books. How to Ruin a Summer Vacation was just one of those books that once I started I could not put down. Even though I kept looking at the clock saying I absolutely had to go to bed in 5 minutes, I just could not pull myself away from it until I got to the end.

I loved Amy Nelson's voice and personality. She had me cracking up and I could quickly feel her emotions. I found myself laughing out loud at various sections, such as the hilarious names and crafty chapter titles like "I'm not rude, I'm just a teen with attitude". The tension in Amy and Avi's interactions were also a great asset to the book. When those to got together, I never knew what to expect since they were both very vocal with each other. The book's humor was balanced out by Amy's struggle to decide just where she fits in her "sperm donor's" life.

One of the reasons why I chose this book as my next Elkeles read was because I thought it would be an interesting companion to Mackenzie, Lost and Found. Although they are both unique in their own right, they did have some strong comparisions. Both Mackenzie and Amy were drug to Israel by their fathers. However, once there, they realized that it was not so bad afterall and learned a lot about themselves and had a little romance. While Mackenzie was in an urban city, Amy got a taste of rural Israel.

I can't wait to get a copy of the sequel to this book. I will have to do it by October '09 in time for the third book. I also want to read Leaving Paradise. It looks like it will have alternating voices that Elkeles pulled off so well in Perfect Chemistry.

I love books that make me imagine how fun it must have been for the authors to write. Even though I am currently in my dream job position, authors like Simone Elkeles make me wish that I was teaching high school just so I could share her books with my students. For now I think that I will have to settle for loaning them to my niece for some fun summer reading!

Stubborn Twig

This year the Oregon Library Association is asking, "What if 50,000 Oregonians read the same book in our sesquicentennial year?" The Oregon Reads 2009 has full information on the project encouraging Stubborn Twig for adults, Bat 6 for adolescents, and Apples to Oregon for children. This book took me a while to read because it is a lot of information and reads like a text book; however, I was fascinated by the topic. The book traces the lives of three generations of the Yasui family, mainly in Hood River, Oregon. It outlines how Masuo Yasui and his family worked hard to build a new life for themselves in the United States, despite struggles because of anti-Japanese sentiments, which got progressively worse with World War II.

I had never heard of the internment until I was in college. Once my professor mentioned it I was shocked that there had not been a single mention of it before during my k-12 experience. The whole scenario seems so unbelievable. It was enlightening to learn more details about this sad time in history through the book.

I was inspired by Minoru Yasui's courageous attempts to make the country realize and take ownership in its mistake. His actions in the book fit in perfect with our current unit "Take a Stand" with a focus on civil disobedience and non-violence. Here are two of Min's quotes from the book on this topic that I especially liked and will share with my students, "If we believe in America, if we believe in equal democracy, if we believe in law and justice, then each of us, wehn we see or believe such errors are being made, have an obligation to make every effort to correct such mistakes" (pp. 156-157) and "By adhering to principles of democracy, and fighting for a legal recognition of those principles even in times of ware, I feel that somehow I am contributing to democracy" (170).

I am reading aloud Bat 6 with my 6th graders right now. While Stubborn Twig would be a hard read for them, it is an excellent resource for me as a teacher to explain more about the context of Bat 6.

A last reason why the book was intriguing was because of a personal bias. I worked in Hood River for my first year of teaching. While a brief experience, I have many fond memories of Hood River. Having a first hand connection to the community, it was fun to see what the town was like earlier in history and to reflect more on how the community was when I lived there. Also, I had brief interactions with a couple of Yasuis while I was there who were briefly mentioned at the end of the book, adding another layer to the pull of personal connections.

The end of the book mentioned a PBS documentary created by a descendant of Masuo Yasui that I would love to see. Below is a YouTube clip:


I recommend the book to anyone who is fascinated with culture and history.

El color de mis palabras

Friday I finished reading El color de mis palabras by Lynn Joseph and translated by Alberto Jimenez Rioja (also available in English). The main character Ana Rosa is discovering a lot about herself, her family, and her country (the Dominican Republic). Despite government enforced restrictions, she loves writing and composed poems in her mind and later converts them to any piece of paper she can find. Each chapter begins with one of her poems followed by prose unveiling another layer of her story with its interesting twists and turns. My students were captivated with different sections, although some of them were unsatisfied with the ending which they thought was a little too open ended. I think some of them are still learning to enjoy endings open to interpretation. Another student was excited to point out the meaning of the front cover upon reading the last chapter. The book also fit in well with our unit theme "Take a Stand", and the students were familiar with the Dominican Republic from reading Cuando Tia Lola vino (de visita) a quedarse as a class earlier this fall.

Ten Things I Hate About Me

"Maybe you think the whole 'Who Am I?' identity question is about as interesting as a biology assignment on the mating habits of blue-tongued lizards. But listen up. It's the type of question that can keep me awake at night as I stare at moving shadows on my wall and pretend that they're ghosts dancing at a nightclub. It's the kind of question that makes me feel like a berry in a jar of Fruits of the Forest jam who wonders what burst of goodness and flavor she'll bring to the whole jam-and-toast experience" (p. 261).


I have always loved exploring the complexities of cultural identity. In fact, a lot of my biggest college assignments and projects revolved around the topic in one way or another. Ten Things I Hate About Me by Randa Abdel-Fattah does a great job of showing the inner-struggles that some have when trying to decide exactly who they are and the type of person they want to be. Jamie/Jamilah's voice and humor pulled me in throughout the book. I also like how my students will be able to see glimpses of perceptions in Australia and relate them to life in the United States. I can't wait to read Does My Head Look Big in This?, which I also bought for my classroom library.

Heart of a Shepherd

Since the setting of Heart of a Shepherd by Rosanne Parry is the county where I live, I thought it would be fun to read and that my students would enjoy that connection even though the majority of my students live in a larger town in the county farther removed from the ranching communities described in the book. Yet, there were many ways in which my students (as well as any other middle grade student) could relate to Brother, the main character such as relationships with siblings, dealing with parents going to war, and finding what they want out of life.

It was fascinating to see how a visit to a college friend's home in eastern Oregon left such an impression on Parry to inspire the book. She captured a lot of glimpses that I could tell were authentic to the area such as ranching, Basque dancing and influence, and having to go to a boarding school for high school. If I had not heard of Crane's boarding school in neighboring Harney County I would have been wondering about whether or not that was realistic. I still can't imagine having my girls in boarding school as high schoolers.

I thoroughly enjoyed Heart of a Shepherd. I already know that I am going to recommend it to others in the community (including at my church - I had not expected the religious component of Brother's life to play such a big role based on what I had heard about the book).

The Underneath

For my birthday my parents got me a bunch of books -- a few from my Amazon wishlist and a few more that my mom chose. Among the group was The Underneath by Kathi Appelt. In her note my mom mentioned, "This book was not on your list -- but I thought of you and your class as soon as I saw it. [...] I was going to read the fly cover but once I got started I couldn't put it down."

I, like my mom, quickly read the book and loved trying to connect the different plot lines together. From the front cover and jacket I was not expecting the magical component of the book. I was surprised at first to see how the characters involved not only the cats and dogs, but also creatures that have been alive over a thousand years and the trees. The chapters were quick and brought up bits and pieces of the various characters' lives revolving around love, hate, betrayal, and promises. With each chapter more of the diverse stories are unveiled until little by little they all blend together in a meaningful way.

A fun coincidence is that Kathi Appelt will be at an institute that I get to go to this summer. I can't wait!

More Than This

I caught my first glimpse of Margo Candela's More Than This with her contribution to the New Year's Chica Lit Blog Tour. I was quickly interested in the idea that the main characters, Alex and Evelyn, were living very similar lives and catching glimpses of each other without actually meeting each other. The anticipation built as both became intrigued by the other wondering what it would be like to have more than chance encounters without even talking.

The book spans ten days and is divided into sections by the day, which is then subdivided into chapters. It was easy to forget that everything was happening in such a short amount of time since it was filled with events and major life changes. As always, I loved seeing multiple perspectives. It seemed like it would have been a really fun book to write to think about how Alex and Evelyn's lives would be so intertwined, yet distant. I look forward to reading Margo's other books.

Sleepless

I know, I know. You are probably a little stumped to see a Sleepless review that is not preceded by a Stubborn Twig review. Just yesterday I did the Sleepless teaser post explaining that it would be my motivation to finish Stubborn Twig. Well, you know what they say about best laid plans... I did make some progress on Stubborn Twig and it is a well-worth it book to read; however, I don't exactly fly through it since it is more like reading a textbook. In comes my new plan. I now have two to-be read piles. One is for books like Stubborn Twig that I am excited to read but that I traditionally put off reading for other books that I devour. With this pile, I will read a certain amount a day before I can do my other reading from my "fun" to-read stack.

This afternoon I finished up my prerequisite Stubborn Twig reading for the day while the girls just started taking a nap. I was tempted to take a little nap with them but decided to read just a little bit of Sleepless. It gripped me from the beginning, and I could not put it down. Luckily, the girls took a nice, long nap and I was able to nearly finish it. When they did wake up, they were playing together while I was reading through the suspenseful ending. I love suspense, but I almost never read from that genre. What a nice treat to curl up and read a great book on a chilly Sunday afternoon.

Here's the YouTube trailer that shows more about the book's interesting plot that captivated my interest.