My Ode to the Debut Novelist

I love that I have the luxury on this Sunday morning to sit with my coffee, enjoy some chocolate chip banana bread that my daughter baked yesterday and actually read the fine script of the Sunday New York Times.  This is one of my vices, when I have the time.  We actually get it delivered on Sunday...Ahhh...it brings me back to my Queens childhood.

In the back of the Book Review, the first section I pull out so I can see what beloved books and authors have made it to the bestseller list albeit a few weeks old, is a column I like to read called, "Bookends."  There's always a question with two authors offering differing opinions.  Today's topic completely struck me--

Why do debut novels command so much attention?

I am a huge fan of the middle grade debut novelist.  In fact, I get a little jolt when I read the biography that says, "This is _____ first book."  Yes!  I don't know if it is because I feel that I, and I alone, can help this author's career.  Hardly, but I love a good book for kids and boy do I love promoting that book, sharing reader enthusiasm with the debut author and just waiting to see how the future unfolds.

Did you know that there are Twitter accounts and hashtags for the middle grade debut writer community?  This year it is 

The Sweet Sixteens

@TheSweet16s

I'm embarrassed that I've only read five of these so far MG novels but I've heard great things about more of them! I loved all of the ones I read--I actually think I blogged about all of them--Paper Wishes, Fenway and Hattie, Counting Thyme, The Adventurer's Guide to Successful Escapes, Hour of the Bees and The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary School. In fact, my students read The Adventurer's Guide and loved it so much they read way ahead for book group. We had a blast in early August with our summer book group chatting with Last Fifth Grade's Laura Shovan.  I don't think a non-debut novelist would do this, but she offered to Skype with us only a day or two before and we were able to make it happen!  It's a win-win situation for both of us--my students are thrilled with the opportunity to meet an author and the new author gets to experience enthusiastic readers first hand.

 

 

Here's the link for the debut novelists from last year:

Fearless Fifteeners

We loved a bunch of those, too!  Circus Mirandus was one of our top Newbery 2016 books, winning an honor from our Newbery Consensus club and we loved Skyping with Cassie!  We also loved Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman and Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer by Kelly Jones.  Both of those were book groups for Newbery and we had the wonderful opportunity to Skype with those fabulous debut women, too. On a side note, I hear there is a Book Scavenger hiding in NYC right now--I keep saying I'm going to hide one in Albany. I have to make that happen.

And I can't let this go without talking about Kwame Alexander.  Even though The Crossover wasn't his debut novel and he had been writing poetry (and prose) for 20 years before, The Crossover is what introduced this incredible poet novelist to the world. I got on board with the book from the beginning, got my students to love it and him and the rest, as they say, is history.

All in all, I love how Leslie Jamison put it in the "Bookends" column.  

"Part of the thrill of watching the [NBA] draft is the possibility of watching the future before it happens, which is also the thrill of of the debut novelist:  the chance to read an author before she has become a legacy, before she has become part of the canon.  It's a chance to imagine yourself, as a reader, inside the greater wingspan of literary history:  Witnessing the ascendance of a debut novelist means witnessing a career when it's just beginning, being part of a moment that will ultimately matter."

-Leslie Jamison

I couldn't have said it any better.  I thrive on being part of history and being "one of the firsts."  Now off to read to be part of history...

ps-Looking ahead, here is the link for next year's debut MG and YA novelists:

The Swanky Seventeens

Fenway and Hattie by Victoria J. Coe

You need to meet Fenway!  As an un-dog person for 40+ years I think I finally became one.  In fact, my son begs us almost daily for one, and after reading Fenway and Hattie by Victoria J. Coe, I might be convinced...

Written from Fenway's point of view, you really get in the mind of a dog who has moved from the city to the suburbs and how all those changes affect him.  Hattie, his best buddy, changed with the move, too, and it is hard for Fenway to understand.  The "ladies" (dogs) next door try to warn him but Fenway just doesn't get it. Doesn't want to get it.  So many times you want to just bark and explain to Fenway all that is happening.  Your heart aches.  Your eyes well up with tears.  "Please FEN-way listen to me, the reader.  It will all be ok if you just relax a little and let me break it all down for you on what's going on."  Fortunately, with time, Fenway does get it.  Just not after a rising blood pressure and anxiety on the part of the reader, especially when Fenway is working on the "Easiest Job Ever."  Oh, Fenway...

I don't know how Coe did it.  The noises (the ice cream truck), the observations (the UPS truck). The squirrels. The white ball in the glove.  The evil floor.  Either she speaks "dog" or her dog speaks human, because those observations were spot on.

After reading Fenway and Hattie a dog really may be in our future sooner than I ever imagined.  Just don't tell my son I said that!

ps-I just noticed a "1" on the spine.  Could this be a first in a series?  My student dog lovers (and I) will be leaping!

The Key to Extraordinary by Natalie Lloyd

I knew Natalie Lloyd was special after reading and sharing A Snicker of Magic with all my students last year. I just didn't realize how extraordinary she is. Now I do. And if I were you I would move "lickety-split fast (p.35) to your nearest bookstore on Tuesday, February 23, to pick up a copy of her newest book, The Key to Extraordinary so you, too, could be inspired and dazzled by Natalie's magical way with words.

12 year old Emma is waiting for her Destiny Dream to happen. When she does have it, she's hoping it will be clear what her destiny will be.  This may not be as easy as it sounds.  Women in her family for generations and generations have done extraordinary things so there is quite a lot of pressure on Emma to live up to her own destiny. Even when she has the special dream, things become a bit more complicated.  

To make matters worse, Warren Steele is threatening to come to town and tear down Emma's beloved family owned Boneyard Cafe.  Emma's got to find the treasure, knowing that if she does, she will be able to stop Mr. Steele.  Or will she?  What could possibly be in that treasure that could save her family and her town? Needless to say, Emma is determined.  She will "save [her] town's heartbeat--the Boneyard Cafe." (p.85)

There is so much in this novel to love.  The language for one.  The morning after Emma has her dream she is so nervous that she wonders, "Is it possible to be so nervous your brain coughs up words you didn't even know it'd stored?" (p.60) or "Everything wonderful is possible." (p.149) or "When life gets heavy, sometimes your heart needs to cut loose." (p.163) or....and I could go on and on.

I love all the characters and want to enjoy a long mug of Boneyard Brew with each and every one of them. Well, maybe not Warren Steele or Beretta Simpson.  But everyone else, of course! And believe me, you can taste and smell that delicious, undeniably unique Boneyard Brew through the pages. Are they making books now with "smell-i-vision" or "taste-i-vision"?  If so, this one has it! It's that special ingredient for sure.

And then there's the music!  There are obvious music references and other more subtle ones, like the crow named, "Penny Lane."  Some you didn't think fit in but they actually did, like Emma listening to "White Stripes."  I know I was happy when Patsy Cline was mentioned.

I'll tell you what, we don't have to think twice about what Natalie Lloyd's Destiny Dream was--It's writing these incredibly magical lovely middle grade novels, with fun loving characters who you want to become BFFs with, join their Club Pancake. Seriously, although this is not a sequel or even a companion novel to Snicker, but Felicity's way of seeing words has certainly rubbed off on Natalie through Emma Pearl Casey's voice.  

ps-I have to thank Victoria Coe, author of the next book on my TBR pile, Fenway and Hattie,  for sending me her ARC after reading a tweet of mine on how I tried to reserve a copy from the library  only realizing it was not out yet!  Victoria went that morning to the post office and mailed me her copy!  The #kidlit world is amazing all around!  I owe her a cup of Boneyard Brew for sure!