YA Friday: The Haters

The Haters
by Jesse Andrews
Harry N. Abrams (April 5, 2016)
Audience: Young Adult
Fiction * Performing Arts * Music
Indiebound | Worldcat

Description from GoodReads:
Do you have a favorite band?

Okay. Good. Unfortunately, it also sucks. And Wes and Corey can tell you exactly how.

There is nothing Wes and Corey can’t hate on. Even bands they love. In fact, they are incapable of loving anything without relentlessly figuring out ways to hate it, too.

And so when they are sent to a place as soul-crushing as jazz camp—which is populated almost completely by competitive maniacs who are trying to seem chill by talking in Jazz Voice—Wes and Corey hate on it with extreme prejudice. Fortunately, so does a girl named Ash, who may even be a bigger and better hater than the two of them combined.

When the three of them run away from camp, start their own band, and go on tour, it seems like a great idea. Except that they are faced with a basically unanswerable question: How can confirmed haters even try to make music that maybe doesn’t suck?

The answer takes the form of a catastrophic, hilarious, romantically tangled road trip from Jesse Andrews, bestselling author of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. You can feel free to hate on it. But you can also love it, too. Because maybe those are kind of the same thing.

Amaya's Recommendation: 
If you think this book about a kid who hates everything and is complaining the entire time you’re wrong.

The Haters by Jesse Andrews is about three teenagers Wes, Corey and Ash who all have a common interest: Jazz Camp Sucks. For Wes and Corey, Jazz Camp tends to be lame and then they encounter a girl named Ash who that they click with. Ash decides to break out of the god-awful jazz camp and barely convinces her soon to be outlaws to join her. Ash dreams they’ll become a band and get discovered on the road touring all around with endless money. This book will make you wonder why these three ever got together in the first place and what they did in their humiliating yet crazy and hilarious adventures.

If you like Looking For Alaska by John Green you’ll love The Haters by Jesse Andrews. Both books are about friendship, crazy adventures and discovering who you are when you stop focusing on what others think.

New teen blogger:

Amaya is a high school senior and an avid reader. She is a member of her school's Mock Trial Team and Service Coordinator of the National Honor Society. Amaya volunteers for Pasadena Families in Transition which provides assistance to homeless students in her school district. She also tutors local elementary students with Reading Partners of America, and assists with Friends of the Pasadena Library monthly book sale. Amaya plans to major in English with a Concentration in Creative Writing. 

How to Disappear Blog Tour & Giveaway

How To Disappear
by Ann Redisch Stampler
Simon Pulse (June 14, 2016)
Audience: Young Adult
Fiction * Thriller/Suspense
Indiebound | WorldCat

Description of the book: 
This electric cross-country thriller follows the game of cat and mouse between a girl on the run from a murder she witnessed—or committed?—and the boy who’s sent to kill her.

Nicolette Holland is the girl everyone likes. Up for adventure. Loyal to a fault. And she’s pretty sure she can get away with anything...until a young woman is brutally murdered in the woods near Nicolette’s house. Which is why she has to disappear.

Jack Manx has always been the stand-up guy with the killer last name. But straight A’s and athletic trophies can’t make people forget that his father was a hit man and his brother is doing time for armed assault. Just when Jack is about to graduate from his Las Vegas high school and head east for college, his brother pulls him into the family business with inescapable instructions: find this ruthless Nicolette Holland and get rid of her. Or else Jack and everyone he loves will pay the price.

As Nicolette and Jack race to outsmart each other, tensions—and attractions—run high. Told in alternating voices, this tightly plotted mystery and tense love story challenges our assumptions about right and wrong, guilt and innocence, truth and lies.

 Carolyn's thoughts on the book:
Those of you familiar with my blogging experience know that the majority of books I review are fantasy and historical fiction, so it was a treat to get to review a thriller for once. How To Disappear is a tense and suspenseful thriller centering around two characters, Jack and Nicolette, and their fraught pursuit of their individual goals. For Jack, catching and killing Nicolette is his only chance to protect his mother and the closest way to avenge his friend's death. For Nicolette, running is her only chance at safety. But when the two of them meet, each hiding their own secrets, they find themselves drawn toward one another - with deadly consequences. 

At the beginning, as both characters make their separate ways across the country, each are deeply developed to gain the reader's trust (not an easy task, seeing as one is a hit man, but one that Stampler deftly achieves). Sympathy is further garnered with each character's equally tragic backstory: Nicolette's mother died at a young age, leaving her in the hands of a stepfather embroiled in underground crime; Jack's crime-boss father was killed by a rival, leaving him to take care of a criminal brother and a mother all-too-vulnerable to threats. Parents also provide each character with their motives: Nicolette flees from her stepfather after she witnesses him bury a body, and Jack is ordered to kill Nicolette (or his mother will be killed). Their fraught family lives serve to further complicate their already-troubled consciences, which each wrestle with throughout the book.

When Jack and Nicolette finally meet in Los Angeles, each is living under an assumed name and has their own agenda. But when they become romantically entangled, the stakes are only further raised. Together, they have a shot at preventing any more bloodshed...as long as they aren't hiding any more ulterior motives. Twists and turns abound, and nothing is what you think - while I can't give anything away, I will say that Stampler is a master of the coup de théâtre.

How to Disappear is perfect for fans of mysteries and thrillers, with twists right to the end.

About the author: 
Ann Redisch Stampler is the author of the young adult novels Afterparty and Where It Began as well as half a dozen picture books. Her work has garnered an Aesop accolade, the National Jewish Book Award, Sydney Taylor honors, the Middle East Book Award, and Bank Street Best Books of the Year mentions. How to Disappear (Simon Pulse, 2016), her first young adult thriller, will be released on June 14, 2016. Ann lives in Los Angeles, California, with her husband Rick. You can find Ann on Facebook | Twitter

Check out how to Preorder HOW TO DISAPPEAR and win a Swag Pack on Ann's website, here.  Or enter to win a copy of the book below. Follow the Blog Tour, here. 

Enter to win: Complete the rafflecopter in order to win the prize pack above. Winner must be 13 or older and have a US mailing address.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Carolyn is a teen blogger who shares her favorite YA reads and favorite book related finds with readers on Fridays.

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday: The Great White Shark Scientist

The Great White Shark Scientist (Scientists in the Field)
by Sy Montgomery; Photographs by Keith Ellenbogen
HMH Books for Young Readers (June 7, 2016)
Audience: Grades 5 to 7
Nonfiction * Animals * Marine Life
Indiebound | WorldCat

Description from GoodReads:  
Dr. Greg Skomal, biologist and head of the Massachusetts Shark Research Program, is investigating a controversial possibility: Might Cape Cod’s waters serve as a breeding ground for the great white shark, the largest and most feared predatory fish on Earth?  Sy Montgomery and Keith Ellenbogen report on this thrilling turning point in marine research and travel to Guadeloupe, Mexico, to get up close and personal with the sharks. This daring expedition into the realm of great whites shows readers that in order to save the planet and its creatures, we must embrace our humanity and face our greatest fears. 

My thoughts on the book:
One of my favorite nonfiction series is the Scientists in the Field series. There are currently over forty books in the series on a range of topics. I have to admit that I am a bit partial to the marine life books in the series. Last year, Sy Montgomery had The Octopus Scientists book which I fell in love with. Her current book is still connected to the ocean, The Great White Shark Scientist. 

Here is a video of Sy Montgomery talking about her newest book and some of her older ones:

In typical fashion of the Scientist in the Field series, the book focuses on a particular scientist. In this case, Greg Skomal, a great white shark biologist, takes center stage. Another focus of the book is on the importance of understanding the needs of the great whites and their importance to understanding the needs of the ocean. 

Montgomery takes readers into the lives of the biologists studying great whites but also into the lives of individual sharks who have names, personalities, and are tagged and followed through a site like Ocearch.org (see below). 

Montgomery begins the story of great whites on the coast off of Massachusetts, but takes readers on a trip to Guadalupe Island off of the coast of Mexico. Here, readers experience what it is like to go down in a cage to get a more close up look at the great whites. For young readers who love sharks, this book provides them with great information to better understand these incredible creatures. For others, who are new to sharks, the stories and information will draw them in.

At the end of the book, Montgomery includes a variety of resources including information on being "Shark Smart", Shark Maps, bibliography, web resources, and index. One of the resources Ocearch provides real-time telemetry. 

For more about the Scientists in the Field Series, click here.

Look for Sy Montgomery's newest book, The Great White Shark, at your local indie bookstore or public library.

Don't forget to link up your nonfiction reviews:

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday: Ada's Violin

Ada's Violin: The Story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay
by Susan Hood; Illustrated by Sally Wern Comport
Simon & Schuster (May 3, 2016)
Nonfiction * Music * Multicultural * Recycling
Audience: Grades 2 to 5
ink to the book in Spanish

About the book: 
From award-winning author Susan Hood and illustrator Sally Wern Comport comes the extraordinary true tale of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay, an orchestra made up of children playing instruments built from recycled trash.

Ada Ríos grew up in Cateura, a small town in Paraguay built on a landfill. She dreamed of playing the violin, but with little money for anything but the bare essentials, it was never an option...until a music teacher named Favio Chávez arrived. He wanted to give the children of Cateura something special, so he made them instruments out of materials found in the trash. It was a crazy idea, but one that would leave Ada—and her town—forever changed. Now, the Recycled Orchestra plays venues around the world, spreading their message of hope and innovation.

Today, I am excited to welcome author, Susan Hood to Kid Lit Frenzy to talk about her new book, Ada's Violin: The Story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay. 

Video of The Recycled Orchestra of Cateura:

After reading Ada's Violin, I had to go on-line and see one of the videos about the
Recycled Orchestra. What led you to write Ada's story and were you able to see the Orchestra perform live?

Editor Christian Trimmer at Simon and Schuster deserves all the credit for the idea. He
saw Bob Simon’s profile of the Orchestra on 60 Minutes and thought it would make an
amazing picture book. He called my agent and asked if she could suggest an author. She recommended me and I’m forever grateful that she did.

I have not yet seen the Orchestra live, but trying to find a way to bring them to the Northeast is among my fondest hopes.

Several years ago, I was working with a group of children and doing an extension activity for a book we had read. The main character liked to recycle and she also played the tuba. For our activity, we created instruments from recycled materials. Of course our instruments were not truly playable. I can't imagine creating actual, functioning instruments. What did you learn about these individuals who create the instruments?

It’s astonishing, isn’t it? I think we’ve all made those shoebox/rubber band guitars and cardboard tube kazoos, but imagine playing Mozart on them! It all started when Favio Chávez remembered a favorite Argentine band called Les Luthiers, famous for its home-made musical instruments. Chávez shared the idea with some of the gancheros on the landfill, particularly a quiet, ingenious carpenter named Nicolás “Cola” Gómez. Gómez never imagined making instruments like these, but he discovered a few broken instruments in the trash and fiddled around with ways to fix them. For example, he found a drum with a big hole through the middle and repaired it with an X-ray film. Gómez and another man named Tito Romero made flutes from drain pipes, cellos from oil drums, and violins from baking pans, tinkering around with the sounds. Chávez and later the kids helped the builders tune the instruments.

In writing this story, what was most inspiring or even life changing for you?  As you have shared Ada's story with students, what kind of reception has it received?

Writing this book was life-changing. I try not to take things for granted, but let’s face it. I have clean running water and electricity at the flick of a wrist. There’s green grass outside my door. It sounds ridiculous to say, but my family and I don’t think twice about phone service, air-conditioned transportation, police, firefighters, public schools, and garbage collection. Or something as simple and life-changing as shoes. It was shocking to realize that 20,000 people live on a garbage dump, with kids running barefoot in toxic chemicals and polluted waters, while their parents make the equivalent of $2 a day working 14 hour-days in 100-degree heat. (And it’s even more shocking to realize that this is not an isolated case. The more research I did I found that people live on garbage dumps all over the world—in Mexico, India, the Philippines, and on and on.)

It gets worse. The people of Cateura face a natural disaster every year when the river that runs through the town floods, causing hundreds of families to evacuate their tin shacks. What was a mountain of garbage becomes floating garbage. And yet, despite ALL of this, these people remain hopeful and dedicated to the art of making music for the world. Their story was inspiring in another way. I’ve always been an advocate of the arts, but their story vividly demonstrates the POWER of the arts. Music gave these aimless, forsaken kids with a sad past, a dangerous present, and a bleak future something to focus on, to strive toward, to hope for. For many, it was the only beauty in their lives. And now, it is a source of great pride that is helping to rebuild their lives and their community. Sharing their story has been a huge privilege. Kids are dumbfounded and adults are often teary. As am I!

Do you play an instrument? And if you could play a recycled instrument, which one would you want to play?

I used to play a little piano as a child, but since I’ve loved listening to my daughter play flute, I think I’d like to try that.

You currently have a number of books coming out this summer and fall. Any other projects in the works that you can talk about and do you plan to do any further nonfiction titles?

Yes, 2016 is a busy year! Matthew Cordell and I just published a companion book to ROOTING FOR YOU called LEAPS AND BOUNCE with Hyperion. It’s a rhyming celebration of growing up with a little nonfiction about frog metamorphosis woven inside.

In July, Mary Lundquist and I are publishing a sequel to MISSION: New Baby called MISSION: Back to School with Random House. Both books are set up as top-secret information manuals for kids setting off on new missions, like having a new sibling or starting school.

In November, HarperCollins is publishing THE FIX-IT MAN, about a little boy who loves to build, tinker, and invent Rube Goldberg machines with his sister. Illustrated by Arree Chung, it’s all about creative problem-solving.

I have two firsts coming up in 2017—my first picture book with Candlewick (more about that later) and my first middle-grade book called LIFEBOAT 12, a historical novel based on true events. It will be published by my ADA’S VIOLIN editor at Simon and Schuster.

I spent several weeks last summer in England researching the book at the National Archives, the British Library, and the National Maritime Museum. I find that I LOVE doing research and look forward to doing many more nonfiction books.

Can you describe your writing process? Do you have any place that you prefer to write in? 

I don’t necessarily write every day, but I think about my books all the time—on walks and bike rides, out gardening, in the middle of the night. My husband is a teacher and gets up at 5:30 am; I get some of my best ideas in that pre-dawn hour when I’m half asleep. Once I get an idea, I write like a maniac and can go hours without stop. I like to write wherever I can sit in the sun and look out the window—at my kitchen counter, in our little library/den or in the summer on our screened porch. I save every revision (by date) and share my stories with a critique group I’ve been with since 2009.

What is your favorite indie bookstore, where is it and why do you like it?

The Dinosaur’s Paw in Newtown, CT; R. J. Julia in Madison, CT; The Hickory Stick Bookshop in Washington Depot, CT; and Books of Wonder in New York City. I love Indie bookstores for the depth of knowledge and level of service they offer readers and for the support and community they offer authors and illustrators. They are my people!

Thank you Susan for stopping by and sharing about such a powerful story. If you are interested in ADA'S VIOLIN, enter the rafflecopter below to win a copy in English or Spanish. Winner must have a US mailing address and be 13 years old or older. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget to link up your nonfiction reviews?

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday: Check These Books Out

OWLS! Strange and Wonderful
by Laurence Pringle; Illustrated by Meryl Henderson
Boyds Mills Press (March 16, 2016)
Nonfiction * Animals * Birds
Audience: Grades 2 to 4
Indiebound | Worldcat
Educator's Guide

About the book: 
This latest installment in the popular Strange and Wonderful series by Laurence Pringle is an easy-to-read and comprehensive introduction to owl species from all over the world. Stuffed with scintillating science facts and large, colored illustrations from Meryl Henderson, this great educational book is sure to resonate with young animal lovers seeking to learn more about these elusive ghost birds.

From the tiny elf owl that weighs less than two ounces to the Eurasian eagle owl that can have a wing span of over five feet, each individual species is described and masterfully pictured in vivid detail through clear, informative text with accompanying artwork. Various facets of the owls’ lives are discussed, including their habitats, diet, mating habits, vision, physiology, digestion, and parenting. This miniature encyclopedia, complete with a glossary, index, and further resources, offers a wealth of knowledge to aspiring avian enthusiasts and contains enough factoids to allow even fledgling readers to soar to new heights.

Quick thoughts:
Laurence Pringle's Strange and Wonderful series continues with OWLS! Young readers learn about early perceptions people have about owls and then the book delves into facts and information about various species of owls.  

Readers learn about the size and physical characteristics of owls to ways owls communicate to hunting patterns to mating behaviors and more. 

As I read through the book, I was surprised by some of the facts and realized how little true facts I knew about owls and how fascinated I was about the information I learned from this introduction to these amazing birds. 

Back matter includes a glossary, additional resources and sources.

The Slowest Book Ever
by April Pulley Sayre; Illustrated by Kelly Murphy
Boyds Mills Press (April 5, 2016)
Nonfiction * Science & Nature * Discoveries
Audience: Grades 2 to 7
Indiebound | Worldcat
Educator's Guide

About the book: 
April Pulley Sayre’s wry, quirky storytelling tone shines from the warning on the first page (“This is a S-L-O-W book. Do not read it while surfing, water skiing, or running to escape giant weasels.”) right through to the glossary at the end. In between, readers will explore an astounding variety of information about all things slow—in nature, geology, art, outer space, etc. Throughout, The SLOWEST Book EVER playfully encourages readers to slow down and savor everything. As Sayre shows: “If you think slowly enough, the entire world is amazing.” This innovative nonfiction work is a treasure trove of information that begs for multiple readings.

Quick thoughts:
Did you know that moths can retain some information from when they were caterpillars? Okay, granted it is not the kind of information we retain as we grow, but the fact that someone asked a question and then researched the answer was inspiring. 

Most children love fact books and books that they can share with peers or information that they can use to "show off" knowledge learned. April Pulley Sayre has created a book with dozens of these facts presented in a page or two and encourages readers to take it slowly and read and re-read the pages and to take time to think. The book also inspires curiosity and the asking of more questions. 

Definitely a fun book to read and one that can even be used as a read aloud in those moments when you only have a few minutes.  Back matter includes a glossary, index, and some additional thoughts on each chapter. 

Look for both of these books at your local indie bookstore or community public library. 

Don't forget to link up your nonfiction reviews: