Children & YA
Debunking Revolutionary War Myths
Gary Paulsen, the wildly popular and prolific children's author, talks with Chapter 16 about his latest novel, Woods Runner
by Lyda Phillips
In Woods Runner, Gary Paulsen creates a tale that returns to the wilderness of his beloved Hatchet but takes it back in time to the Revolutionary War. "I wanted to dispute the mythic, clean, even antiseptic qualities in many histories, because war is never, not ever, clean," he writes. He will read at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville on March 2. Prior to the visit, he took some time to correspond by email with Chapter 16.
Published Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Casting a Southern Gothic Spell
Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl whip up a froth of teenage angst and love, topped with a tangy drizzle of dark and light magic
by Lyda Phillips
Ethan Wate, the sixteen-year-old scion of an old Southern family, feels as if complete stagnation is slowly destroying his soul. Then Lena Duchannes arrives. The mysterious new girl is the niece of the town's reclusive—and unpopular—eccentric, who lives in a crumbling mansion on the outskirts of town. It's only a matter of time before voodoo charms give way to graves in this debut YA novel. Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl will read from and sign copies of Beautiful Creatures at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Memphis on January 27 at 6 p.m.
Published Thursday, 21 January 2010
Starting Over
Why Helen Hemphill gave up a successful career in business to write novels for children
by Susannah Felts
Not very long ago, YA novelist Helen Hemphill was doing PR for the finance industry—about as far from the bright colors and characters of the children's-book section as it's possible to get. Then, after more than two decades in the business, Hemphill walked away. The gamble paid off: in the past four years alone, she has published three novels, and all of them have racked up accolades and starred reviews. Her second title, Runaround, has just been released in paperback.
Published Thursday, 3 December 2009
Another Mother's Day
John Carter Cash writes a new tribute—this time a picture book for children—to his mother June
by Margaret Renkl
John Carter Cash is Grammy-winning music producer. He has worked on albums by virtually everyone in the Nashville pantheon—stars like Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Kris Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Rosanne Cash, Vince Gill, and John Prine—but he's still best known as the only child of Johnny Cash and June Carter. In 2007, Cash published a biography of his mother, Anchored in Love: An Intimate Portrait of June Carter Cash, and earlier this year he brought out a children's book inspired by her, as well. He talks with Chapter 16 about his mother, his wife, his children—and his next book.
Published Wednesday, 4 November 2009
The Prize in the Cereal Box
A Nashville nanny enters a Cheerios contest … and wins a publishing contract
by Margaret Renkl
Nashville nanny Shellie Braeuner didn't learn about the first Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories Children's Book Contest until the final day to enter. Undaunted, she came up with a charming rhyme about bathing the family dog and entered the contest online, barely in time to pick up the older children from school. Despite a typo in the title, The Great Dog Wash beat out a thousand other entries to win the grand prize—five thousand dollars and the chance at a hardcover publishing contract.
Published Monday, 19 October 2009
Fireworks, at Home and Elsewhere
In his new YA novel, Silas House explores post-Vietnam tensions and summertime self discovery
by Susannah Felts
Today's young readers, coming of age in a post-9/11 world, should be deeply familiar with a central question of our times: what does it mean to be patriotic, to love—and protect, or protest—one's country? It's one question, among others, that they'll find tenderly explored in Silas House's first young-adult novel, Eli the Good.
Published Wednesday, 7 October 2009
Voices of Stone
Poetic interpretations of a master sculptor's work
by Maria Browning
Nashville sculptor William Edmondson believed he worked at God's command. In a collection of poems for young readers, Elizabeth Spires gives his creations voices of their own.
Published Friday, 2 October 2009
Hot Popcorn, Cold War
Ronald Kidd's new Young Adult novel takes kids to the movies during the red scare
by Chris Scott
The 1950s was a scary time, full of drop drills, McCarthyism, and Soviet boasts. It was also the golden age of horror movies. Aliens, mutants, zombies, and werewolves filled theater screens. Coincidence? Not in Ronald Kidd's The Year of the Bomb, a young-adult novel that explores the angst of growing up surrounded by real and imagined horror.
Published Monday, 14 September 2009
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