A Teen Reader Interviews MarcyKate Connolly About MONSTROUS

Alexandra B. is an 8th grader at King Philip Middle School in West Hartford, CT. She recently read MarcyKate Connolly’s MONSTROUS and had a few questions for the author.

Alex: What part of this book is special to you and why?

MarcyKate: This is the hardest question! The whole book is special to me, but I think one of my all time favorite parts is when Kymera and Ren are just getting to know each other and he still has no idea what she’s really made of.  It’s both sweet and bittersweet because she gets to be herself with a human and gets a taste of everything she lost in her former life.

Alex: Is Kymera’s personality similar to yours? How?

MarcyKate: In some ways, yes, she’s a bit naïve like I was when I was 13, and that naiveté does get her into a bit of trouble…

Alex: How did you come up with the idea to write the book?

MarcyKate: I’d wanted to write a fairy-tale-inspired book for a while, but hadn’t quite found the right concept. Then one day, while stuck in gridlock traffic and literally parked on the highway, the first line of Monstrous popped into my head. I had to write that line and the rest of the first page down immediately, and for the rest of the day I could not stop wondering who would say that and why. The plot pretty much came together that day, and I was so taken with the idea and the character that I had to begin writing the book right away.

Alex: To you, is Kymera more a monster or a human?

MarcyKate: I think Kymera is a better person than most of the people who are physically human in the book, which was intentional. What we look like does not define our character or whether we’re good or bad.

Alex: What made you decide to end the book the way you did?

MarcyKate: I’m glad you asked this, and I’m going to try to answer without spoiling the book J

The ending is something I wrestled with a lot in the first few drafts. I tried writing a pat little Disney-fied ending but it was so wrong and completely out of character for Kymera. The final epilogue went through many iterations and tweaks along the way (its current form was the result of 11^th hour line edits that had me rewriting the entire epilogue!).

First, the book is more like a Grimm’s fairy tale than a Disney one – it’s dark, and some characters do die. At the end of the book, the main character makes a decision to do something very dangerous to protect her friends and the result is…unexpected (I know what you’re thinking and no, Kymera does not die – it’s something else entirely!). She actually gets exactly what she wants, but in a way that never occurred to her. While it might sound like it would be easier to let an adult character do the difficult task or to change the rules of magic in the world, it’s crucial to the story and her character that it be her. Monstrous is Kymera’s story, her battle – letting someone else make the hard choices in her stead would take away her hard won agency. It would be a huge let down, and, really, kind of a cop-out.

Part of Kym’s struggle throughout the book is that she needs to realize she must step outside the barriers that others would set around her to protect her. She has to take responsibilities – and the responsibility of protecting her city belongs to her. At the start of the story, she only has inklings of what that entails. A big part of her internal arc is discovering what that truly means. Her character may be a monster but she is constantly caged by others. Her father gives her restrictions, her dragon friend would whisk her away to hide her in his mountain home, and even when she finally breaks free, she’s captured and caged by others who would do her harm. It isn’t until the end of the story that Kym has true freedom and agency and the ability to finally succeed at the mission she’s had from the very beginning.

In other words, having anyone or anything else complete her mission for her would send a rather negative message to readers, especially young girls. It’s critical to Kymera’s story and character that when she has real agency, she makes the choice to bear the full weight and cost of the responsibility she’s taken on. Importantly, her actions are not done out of hate (which she was acting on in the beginning), but out of love – because the love she has for her city, family, and friends has grown so much larger than that hate and they’re more important to her than anything else. Kymera may be a monster in physical sense, but she is truly the best person in the book.

MONSTROUS is available wherever books are sold, including:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound

MarcyKate Connolly is an author and arts administrator who lives in New England with her husband and pugs and writes weird little books. She’s also a coffee addict, voracious reader, and recurring commuter. She blogs about all those things and more at MarcyKate.com, and can often be found on Twitter. Her debut upper MG/Tween fantasy novel,MONSTROUS, released with HarperCollins Children’s Books in Winter 2015.

A Teen Reader Interviews David Fulk About RAISING RUFUS

Delnaz is a 7th grader at King Philip Middle School in West Hartford, CT. She recently read David Fulk’s RAISING RUFUS and had a few questions for the author.

First, here’s the book’s description:

Martin Tinker may be the smartest kid in the sixth grade, but who cares? His classmates just think he’s weird. To the good folks of Menominee Springs, Wis., he’s practically invisible. Even his dad has a hard time relating to his bug-collecting, woods-exploring, maddeningly oddball ways. But when Martin accidentally unearths an ancient, frozen egg in a local quarry, he’s in for whole new dimensions of oddness.

When the egg thaws and hatches, he finds himself surrogate mom to a bright-eyed little lizard with a voracious appetite for meat and a tendency to GROW at an alarming rate. Pretty soon Martin figures it out: What he’s got is a living, breathing, honest-to-carnivorous baby T. rex! Martin bonds with his prehistoric pet, but knows this outlandish creature must be kept a secret.

Teaming up with Audrey Blanchard, another misfit from school, Martin struggles to keep “Rufus” fed, entertained, and hidden from the world. But when Rufus grows to 7 feet tall—and starts getting in touch with his inner primeval predator—the secret is blown, and all of Martin’s worst fears come to pass.

Somehow he will have to find the strength and self-confidence he’s never had to save Rufus (or the town?) from an unthinkable fate—and finally, maybe, win a little acceptance from his peers and his dad.

Delnaz: Where did you get the idea to have a boy find a dinosaur egg?

David: In answer to this question, let’s do a multiple-choice quiz. Choose the correct answer from the following:

A. I got it at Walmart. Book ideas were on sale.

B. I was going to have him find an Easter egg, but a dinosaur egg was much more interesting.

C. I saw a boy walking his T. rex on the street one day, and I thought, hey, I could do a book about that!

D. It was originally going to be a girl finding the egg, but I thought, “Wait, I’m a boy,” so I did it that way.

E. I was basically sitting around trying to think up good story ideas.

If you answered “E,” you are correct! I know it’s kind of boring and disappointing compared to the others, but it’s true.

Delnaz: How long did it take you to complete this book?

David: Well, if you’re counting from the first germ of the idea to the final book―and I know it’s a bit shocking and I know I’m seriously dating myself by saying this―it was over 20 years! But I kind of have an excuse, because it was originally written as a screenplay (I used to be a screenwriter type). I shopped it around Hollywood, and even almost got a movie deal at one point, but not quite. So I decided to try it as a book, and that part of it took “only” about 8 years. But that was because I kept putting it aside, and didn’t get serious about finishing it until the last 3 years or so. So there’s your answer: 20 years, 8 years, and 3 years.

Delnaz: What was the hardest part about writing this book?

David: The hardest part was turning it from a screenplay into a book! In the screenplay, there were all kinds of scenes with just the other characters―Martin’s mom and dad, Ben Fairfield, the sheriff. Which is fine in a movie, but in a book, the rule is you have to tell the whole story from one character’s point of view. So I had to figure out how to do it all through Martin’s eyes. And, in spite of all my teeth-gnashing, I have to admit it works better that way!

Delnaz: What is your favorite scene and why?

David: You might be surprised by this, but it’s a scene that has nothing to do with Rufus. It’s when Audrey follows Martin and they go to his house and they first become friends. For some reason I got a little choked up writing that―probably because there’s just something special about that time when you first realize you like somebody and you can see yourself hanging out together. Especially if, like Martin, you’ve never really had a friend! So there, I said it: I’m a secret softie.

Delnaz: Who in this book do you relate to most?

David: Well, I could say Ben Fairfield, the greedy carnival guy, but then a) you’d probably hate me, and b) I’d be lying. Or I could say Rufus, but then you’d probably think I was slightly soft in the head. So I’ll fess up to what you probably expect: Martin. No, it’s not an autobiography (for one thing, my pet dinosaur was a stegosaurus, not a T. rex), and I didn’t grow up lonely in a small town. But I’ll have to admit a few of his characteristics probably came from yours truly. I’ll leave it to you to figure out which ones.

RAISING RUFUS releases Tuesday, June 9 and is available at:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound

David Fulk is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter/director, and novelist. He grew up near Chicago and has lived in Missouri, Louisiana, Michigan, California, Pennsylvania, New York, Texas, Belgium, India, and Wisconsin. He currently lives near Boston with his pet T. rex, Rosie.

He can be found here:

Web: www.davidfulk.com

Twitter: @davidfulkwrites

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davefulkthewriter

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/361905.David_Fulk

A Teen Reader Interviews Gail Nall about Breaking the Ice

Ashley G. is a 7th grader at King Philip Middle School in West Hartford, CT. She recently read Gail Nall’s BREAKING THE ICE and had a few questions for the author.

First, here’s the official description of the book:

Kaitlin has always dreamed of being a champion figure skater, and she’s given up a lot to pursue her passion. But after having a totally uncharacteristic and decidedly NOT figure-skating-approved tantrum after getting her scores at a major competition she’s dropped by her coach and prestigious skating club.When no other club in town will have her, she’s forced to join the ridiculed and rundown Fallton Club, jokingly referred to as the Fall Down Club. At first Kaitlin thinks this is a complete disaster, but after meeting some of the other skaters, including a boy (who happens to have the most perfect hair she’s ever seen) Kaitlin thinks it might actually not be so bad.

But when she’s tasked with learning a whole new program right before Regionals and figures out that almost all the other skaters target Fallton, she thinks joining the Fall Down Club may just be the second biggest mistake she’s ever made.

In this figure skating themed debut, Kaitlin learns that when you fall down, you have to pick yourself up – even if it’s in front of judges and a crowd

Ashley: Are you a figure skater? If not, how do you know so much about the life of a competitive figure skater who is seriously training and trying to get to Nationals and then the Olympics?

Gail: I am! I grew up skating. I still skate for fun now, and I teach learn-to-skate. I loved competing, but I was hardly competitive. Meaning, I was never anywhere near Kaitlin’s level. I was more like Miyu. 🙂  So, I filled in the gaps of my knowledge for this book with a lot of reading and research, IceNetwork-watching, and paying attention when I went to the rink. What I love about skating is that it’s something you can do your whole life, whether you make it to an elite level or not. My favorite jump is the flip, and my favorite spin is a simple, fast scratch spin. And spirals — I love spirals!

Ashley: In the beginning of the book, Kaitlin places 11th out of 13 girls at the Praterville Open Ice Skating Competition. She is extremely disappointed and has a meltdown in front of the judges. She then loses her coach and her club. If you were her coach, Hildy, would you have abandoned Kaitlin? If you were in charge of the decision, would you have kicked Kaitlin out of the Ridgeline Skating Club? Do you think Kaitlin deserved these consequences?

Gail: If I were Hildy, or were in charge of the club, I hope that I would’ve been a little more tolerant. I would’ve much rather talked to a student who acted so uncharacteristically to find out what was going on, and then figured out together how to work through it. Kaitlin definitely deserved some kind of consequences for her actions, but probably not as drastic as what actually happens to her in the book. However … it would’ve been an awfully boring book if all she’d gotten was a lecture and warning to never act like that again. 😉

Ashley: Do you think the mistake ended up changing Kaitlin in a good way?

Gail: Oh, definitely! Not only does she figure out when it’s good to speak up (and when it’s not), but she also learns what a real friend is. One of my favorite things about writing this book was showing how Kaitlin’s experience affected her skating. I won’t give away how that happens, but it was interesting to think about, and fun to convey that change through the skating descriptions in the book. I think it was also important to show how it is possible to get back up and keep going even after it feels as if your life has fallen apart. Through this experience, Kaitlin learns about her own inner strength.

Ashley: At Ridgeline, Kaitlin had top coaches and a great facility, but no real friends. The Fallton (Fall Down) Skating Club had a horrible reputation, but Kaitlin made friends there. If you were/are a skater, which would be more important to you: A good reputation as a skater and getting to skate at a prominent skating club, or having friends to cheer you on and support you? Which do you think is more important to the average skater?

Gail: This is a hard one. I think a lot of skaters would love that elite club with the excellent reputation, but if it came at the cost of never having real friendships, it would be hard to stay there and be happy. I would much rather have friends that I enjoyed seeing every day, whether that’s at an elite club or at some place more like Fallton.

Ashley: What is your favorite scene in the novel and why? Does it present anything that happened in real life?

My absolute favorite scene is the one in which Kaitlin takes an ice dance lesson with Svetlana. That was the most fun to write because of awkwardness with Braedon, and, of course, Svetlana’s Russian accent and coaching style. I pulled the actual dance-related parts of that scene from real-life skating (because, wow, hitting that perfect position in dance can HURT!), but the rest is completely made up. (Thankfully. I’d have died of embarrassment if that scene had ever happened to me in real life!)

I have to mention my second-favorite scene too, which is the one where Kaitlin, Miyu, Addison, and Braedon are having a spin-off and jump-off. I played this same game with skating friends when I was that age, except we used to string together really bizarre, unrelated things — for example, a jump into a sit spin into a lunge into some weird move that someone would make up on the spot, etc. It was always hilarious watching everyone try to get through it all without falling over.

BREAKING THE ICE is out now and available wherever books are sold, including:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound

Gail Nall lives in Louisville, Kentucky with her family and more cats than necessary. She spends her early mornings writing, her days practicing law, and her evenings trying to stay up past eight o’clock. She chats about writing and figure skating on her blog Writing and Stuff, and spends too much time on Twitter. Her debut contemporary MG novel, DON’T FALL DOWN, will be out from Aladdin/Simon & Schuster in Spring 2015.

A Teen Reader Interviews Krista Van Dolzer About The Sound of Life and Everything

Lauren M. is a 7th grader at King Philip Middle School in West Hartford, CT. She recently read an ARC of Krista Van Dolzer’s THE SOUND OF LIFE AND EVERYTHING and had a few questions for the author.

First, here’s the official description of the book from Goodreads:

Twelve-year-old Ella Mae Higbee is a sensible girl. She eats her vegetables and wants to be just like Sergeant Friday, her favorite character on Dragnet. So when her auntie Mildred starts spouting nonsense about a scientist who can bring her cousin back to life from blood on his dog tags, Ella Mae is skeptical—until he steps out of a bio-pod right before her eyes.

But the boy is not her cousin—he’s Japanese. And in California in the wake of World War II, the Japanese are still feared and despised. When her aunt refuses to take responsibility, Ella Mae and her Mama take him home instead. Determined to do what’s right by her new friend, Ella Mae teaches Takuma English and defends him from the reverend’s talk of H-E-double-toothpicks. But when his memories start to resurface, Ella Mae learns some shocking truths about her own family and more importantly, what it means to love.

Lauren: Did the Clausens receive their son’s body? If so, why did they use the blood on the dog tags to attempt to bring Robby back if they had a whole person to work with?

Krista: This is a fantastic question, and if I’m being totally honest, I’ve never really thought about it. Many families never saw their loved ones again, but I do think Uncle George and Auntie Mildred would have gotten Robby’s body back. (I’ve seen pictures of the bodies of the Allied soldiers who died on Iwo Jima, and it looked like they were planning to ship them home.) I guess they used the dog tags because they were more accessible. Auntie Mildred wouldn’t have been able to keep what she was doing a secret if she’d exhumed her son’s body.

Lauren: How did you get your ideas for this book?

Krista: The first line came to me as I was falling asleep one night. The voice in my head intrigued me–though I didn’t know it yet, Ella Mae came to life at that moment–and I wondered what story she would tell. I started writing it down and didn’t stop for another 50,000 words. 🙂

Lauren: Why did you have Mildred Clausen change her mind about Takuma?

Krista: It was important to me to show that people can change their minds, that they can become better. Because Auntie Mildred was so dead-set against Takuma when he first came back to life, she was the perfect character to show this transformation.

Lauren: Did you have a hard time writing the book emotionally as you wrote how people reacted to Takuma’s ethnicity?

Krista: It did make me wince, especially as I tried to decide how and when to use the racial slur that appears in the book. But the whole point was to show how terribly some people treated Takuma so that readers could see how they grew and changed over time.

On a more personal note, my grandpa was Filipino, so I know that he experienced some of the same prejudices that Takuma faced. (The Philippines was one of our allies during the war, but when he immigrated to the United States, he found that the color of his skin still unsettled some people.) Despite the way he was treated, my grandpa never grew bitter, so I tried to draw on his example.

Lauren: How did Daniel die?

Krista: Daniel died in the Battle of the Bulge in January of 1945. The battle was fought in the Ardennes, a heavily forested region in northern France, and it was the last major German offensive on the Western Front. Daniel was part of the infantry, so he would have been exchanging rifle fire with his German counterparts. He died of a gunshot wound.

Lauren: What is your favorite scene in the book and why?

Krista: I have several favorite scenes, but the one that immediately jumps to mind is the scene in which Ella Mae, her mama, and Takuma go shopping at a department store in Los Angeles on a Sunday. When their small-town reverend won’t allow Takuma to set foot in his chapel, Ella Mae and her mama storm off in a huff and go shopping instead, but they’re horribly self-conscious. I know exactly how they would have felt, since I believe in keeping the Sabbath day holy, too, so that scene was an easy one to write.

THE SOUND OF LIFE AND EVERYTHING releases May 5 and is available for preorder.

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound

Krista Van Dolzer is a stay-at-home mom by day and a children’s author by naptime. She holds degrees in Mathematics Education and Economics from Brigham Young University and lives with her husband and three kids in Mesquite, Nevada. She is the author of the forthcoming THE SOUND OF LIFE AND EVERYTHING (G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers, May 2015) and the forthcoming DUEL/DUET (Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, Fall 2015).

A Teen Reader Interviews Susan Adrian About Tunnel Vision

Rachel J. is an 8th grader at King Philip Middle School in West Hartford, CT. She recently read Susan Adrian’s debut novel, TUNNEL VISION, and had a few questions for the author.

First, here’s the official description of the book:

Jake Lukin just turned 18. He’s decent at tennis and Halo, and waiting to hear on his app to Stanford. But he’s also being followed by a creep with a gun, and there’s a DARPA agent waiting in his bedroom. His secret is blown.

When Jake holds a personal object, like a pet rock or a ring, he has the ability to “tunnel” into the owner. He can sense where they are, like a human GPS, and can see, hear, and feel what they do. It’s an ability the government would do anything to possess: a perfect surveillance unit who could locate fugitives, spies, or terrorists with a single touch.

Jake promised his dad he’d never tell anyone about his ability. But his dad died two years ago, and Jake slipped. If he doesn’t agree to help the government, his mother and sister may be in danger. Suddenly he’s juggling high school, tennis tryouts, flirting with Rachel Watkins, and work as a government asset, complete with 24-hour bodyguards.

Forced to lie to his friends and family, and then to choose whether to give up everything for their safety, Jake hopes the good he’s doing—finding kidnap victims and hostages, and tracking down terrorists—is worth it. But he starts to suspect the good guys may not be so good after all. With Rachel’s help, Jake has to try to escape both good guys and bad guys and find a way to live his own life instead of tunneling through others.

Rachel: What inspired you to write this book?

Susan: I was actually originally inspired by a TV show that I love, called CHUCK. It’s about a nerd who gets the government’s secrets downloaded into his brain and is forced to become a spy. I riffed off of that for my own story, and ended up discovering Jake and his family.

Rachel: What made you think about making the character(s) have an ability to tunnel?

Susan: I’ve read about all different kinds of psychic abilities, and many involve personal objects. I wondered what it would be like to be able to connect to someone through their personal objects, and the idea spiraled from there.

Rachel: What gave you the idea to have Jake use his “ability” for the government?

Susan: That’s the natural use of that kind of ability, I think. He really is the perfect spy. I often see things on the news and think how easily Jake could solve them. Missing planes? Jake could find them with one object from one of those people. If I worked for a spy agency, I’d want to use him.

Rachel: Why did you name the book “Tunnel Vision?”

Susan: The book was originally called THE TUNNEL, for what DARPA calls Jake’s project, but I ran across the phrase “tunnel vision” and realized it was even better. Jake’s tunneling is a kind of vision, after all. He always called it tunneling in my head, though–because he tunnels through the object to the person he’s locating.

Rachel: Why did you add the girl into the story and suddenly have her caught up in Jake’s life?

Susan: Rachel was always in the story, but when I was asked to add an “act 3” to the story, she clearly was going to to be in it. He was thinking of her the whole time he was with the government–so what better conflict than to have her be the one who finds him?

Rachel: Will you be writing a sequel?

Susan: I am working on a sequel! I am hoping to release it sometime the end of this year. Keep your eyes out for it!

TUNNEL VISION is out now and available at:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound

Susan Adrian is a 4th-generation Californian who somehow stumbled into living in Montana. In the past she danced in a ballet company and worked in the fields of exotic pet-sitting, clothes-schlepping, and bookstore management. She’s settled in, mostly, as a scientific editor. When she’s not with her family, she keeps busy researching spy stuff, eating chocolate, and writing more books, both YA and MG. Her debut YA novel TUNNEL VISION was recently published by St. Martin’s Press. You can visit her website at susanadrian.blogspot.com.

Release Day: When Reason Breaks in Three Gifs

Today is the release day for my debut novel, WHEN REASON BREAKS, published by Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books. YAY!!!!

And the Fearless Fifteeners have decided to mark book birthdays with three gifs. That first one doesn’t count :.)

So here goes: WHEN REASON BREAKS in three gifs—

The book is about:

The main characters are Emily Delgado and Elizabeth Davis. Both embody aspects of the great American poet Emily Elizabeth Dickinson–her talent, anger, depression, and reclusive tendencies. Dickinson’s life and poetry greatly influence the novel.

The book is really about:

Both girls battle personal issues that leave them feeling alone. They will have to fight their way through their darkest moments to feel connected and hopeful again.

The book may leave you like this:

Thanks to the countless people who helped to make today a reality. I hope you enjoy the novel!

You can connect with me in these ways:

Author Website / Twitter / Facebook / Goodreads / Instagram / Pinterest / 

You can buy WHEN REASON BREAKS here, among other places:

Indiebound  / Barnes and Noble / Amazon  / Powell’s  / Book Depository / Books-A-Million

Cindy L. Rodriguez is a former journalist turned teacher and fiction writer. She is a reading specialist at a middle school and previously worked for The Hartford Courant and The Boston Globe. She lives in Connecticut with her young daughter and their rescue mutt. Her contemporary YA debut, WHEN REASON BREAKS, was published by Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books on 2/10/2015.