Summary: Sixteen-year-old Jules Verity knows exactly what’s in store at her new job at castle-turned-dinner-theater Tudor Times. Some extra cash, wearing a fancy-pants dress, and plenty of time to secretly drool over the ever-so-tasty–and completely unavailable–Grayson Chandler. Except that it’s not quite what she imagined. For one, the costume Jules has to wear is awful. Then there’s the dead body she finds that just kind of…well, disappears. Oh, and there’s the small issue of Jules and her episodes of what her best friend calls “Psychic Tourette’s Syndrome”–spontaneous and uncontrollable outbursts of seemingly absurd prophecies.The only bright side? This whole dead body thing seems to have gotten Grayson’s attention. Except that the more Jules investigates, the more she discovers that Grayson’s interest might not be as courtly as she thought. In fact, it’s starting to look suspicious…
This book has it all – a winning heroine, a quirky cast of characters, a chilling mystery, an unexpected love triangle , not to mention a gorgeous castle. The reader is carried along by Jules’ funny and warm narration as she approaches the fantastical events of the story – including her own inconvenient psychic blurts – with practical humor. This is the kind of book you’ll be excited to dive into each time you sit down to read; spending time with Jules and her friends is just fun (dead bodies notwithstanding).
Summary: It’s been a year since the shocking death of August Moriarty, and Jamie and Charlotte haven’t spoken. Jamie is going through the motions at Sherringford, trying to finish his senior year without incident, with a nice girlfriend he can’t seem to fall for. Until strange things start happening to him. Strange things that might mean nothing at all—or that someone is after him again. Charlotte is on the run, from Lucien Moriarty, and from her own mistakes. No one has seen her since that fateful night on the lawn in Sussex. Charlotte wants it that way. She knows she isn’t safe to be around. She knows that her Watson can’t forgive her. Holmes and Watson may not be looking to reconcile, but there is someone who wants the team back together. Someone who has been quietly observing them both. Making plans. Biding their time. Someone who wants to see one of them suffer and the other one dead. Holmes and Watson face the ultimate test: they must unravel the case of their lives without unraveling each other.
Given how much I absolutely adored the first two books in this series, it will come as a surprise to no one that I savored this third installment twice, just basking in its awesomeness, before I could bring myself to review it. I was afraid, in the beginning, that this would be an anxiety-inducing book, because the idea of Jamie and Charlotte being apart was difficult for me. But Cavallaro is such a masterful storyteller that even when they are apart, we see, in chapters alternating Jamie and Charlotte’s points of view, how much they are still entwined in each other’s lives, and how they are being irrevocably drawn back together. And when their paths do collide again, at exactly the right time and place, and in the most Holmes-and-Watson way possible, well, it’s just magic. Jamie and Charlotte occupy an important place in my heart, of course, but Cavallaro made me fall in love with so many other characters too, even when I was resisting like mad. (Especially Elizabeth, the girl Jamie dates when he’s trying to get over Charlotte. There is no earthly way I should like Elizabeth, and yet, she won me over in a few pages.) With gripping action, realistic relationships, and characters that are funny, flawed, and real, this book does not disappoint. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to read it again.
This winter has been full of cuteness, because we got two new adorable feline family members for Christmas:
The black and white one is Gruntle, named by my son because she is almost always content and never disgruntled – get it? The grey and white one is Mary, named after NASA engineer Mary Winston Jackson because she is independent and determined and loves to explore.
As you can imagine, this much cuteness in one household can be distracting, especially when you’re trying to get your writing done! Fortunately we still have our wise elder cat, Pancake, to keep the little ones in line:
I also just got word that my upcoming board book, Nita’s First Signs, which was due out April 3 from Familius Press, has been pushed back to June 16. The book has a unique slide-open design and lots of moving parts, so I guess the engineering required more time. I so excited about how the design and artwork and story came together for this book, and I can’t wait to share it with you! In the meantime, you can see some of the artwork in the sign demonstration video here.
The MD/DE/WV Region is pleased to host a FREE webinar, open to everyone, featuring young adult authors Kathy MacMillan, Linda Budzinski, Meg Eden, Pintip Dunn, and Christina June! This webinar is presented as part of the Read Local Challenge, which gives you the chance to win prizes by reading books by featured authors from Maryland, Delaware, Washington, D.C., and Virginia! Join us as these authors discuss their inspirations and challenges and answer your questions! A recording of the webinar will be available after the event. Please register below to receive access information for the live event or recording. Register at https://mddewv.scbwi.org/events/free-webinar-a-conversation-with-young-adult-authors/
2-day conference featuring keynotes, breakouts, and intensive workshops for creators of children’s books. Opening Keynote: James Ransome. Closing Keynote: Hena Khan. I will be facilitating the Marketing Forum as well as serving as co-chair for the conference. Find the complete schedule and registration information at https://mddewv.scbwi.org/events/2018-annual-conference/
Nerd Girl Books at AwesomeCon in Washington, D.C March 30-April 1, 2018
I am so excited to be a part of Nerd Girl Books, promoting female speculative fiction and nerdy authors, as well as female protagonists in new and familiar worlds. Authors include: Beth Woodward, Lynn Almengor, Mary Fan, Leigh Goff, Meg Eden, and me! We will also be offering a discount bundle deal with all of our books for a special price. Our books include genres of: magical realism, fantasy, urban fantasy, and contemporary.
nErDCamp NJ (Chatham, NJ), Sat, April 21, 8:00am – 3:30pm
This is a FREE EdCamp “unconference” with an exclusive focus on literacy instruction. More information and registration at http://nerdcampnj.weebly.com/ I’ll be presenting “Creating a Calmer Classroom With American Sign Language” and participating in a panel on “Author Visits Using Skype and Google Hangouts”.
Washington Writers Conference 2018, May 4-5, 2018 at the College Park Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in College Park, MD.
Summary: Amina has never been comfortable in the spotlight. She is happy just hanging out with her best friend, Soojin. Except now that she’s in middle school everything feels different. Soojin is suddenly hanging out with Emily, one of the “cool” girls in the class, and even talking about changing her name to something more “American.” Does Amina need to start changing too? Or hiding who she is to fit in? While Amina grapples with these questions, she is devastated when her local mosque is vandalized.
My 12-year-old son and I listened to the audiobook version, beautifully narrated by Soneela Nankani in a way that perfectly captures Amina’s loving heart and earnest nature. Khan has accomplished the remarkable feat of creating a warm, funny school and family story that takes on a variety of issues – dealing with prejudice, navigating friendships, overcoming fears – without ever once feeling like an “issues” book. Religious details that may be unfamiliar to non-Muslim readers occupy the story in a natural, straightforward way that informs without lecturing or information dump. This book also contains, through Amina’s mentions of the treatment she has received from classmates over the years, some of the truest depictions of microaggressions I have ever read – how they occur, how they are discounted by the people who perpetuate them, but how heavily they can weigh on the psyche of a marginalized person. As a reader, I was spellbound by Amina’s story; as a writer, I was inspired by Khan’s masterful use of craft; as a parent, I was grateful for such an engaging story that has led to many important conversations with my son.
Summary: New York, 1882. A dark, forbidding city, and no place for a girl with unexplainable powers. Sixteen-year-old Avery Kohl pines for the life she had before her mother was taken. She fears the mysterious men in crow masks who locked her mother in the Tombs asylum for being able to see what others couldn’t. Avery denies the signs in herself, focusing instead on her shifts at the ironworks factory and keeping her inventor father out of trouble. Other than secondhand tales of adventure from her best friend, Khan, an ex-slave, and caring for her falcon, Seraphine, Avery spends her days struggling to survive. Like her mother’s, Avery’s powers refuse to be contained. When she causes a bizarre explosion at the factory, she has no choice but to run from her lies, straight into the darkest corners of the city. Avery must embrace her abilities and learn to wield their power—or join her mother in the cavernous horrors of the Tombs. And the Tombs has secrets of its own: strange experiments are being performed on “patients”…and no one knows why.
Sixteen-year-old Avery Kohl has been working as a welder in an ironworks factory ever since her mother was locked in the Tombs asylum and she and her father had to flee their respectable middle-class life. The skills Avery has developed in creating perfect metal connections are only appropriate, as she discovers that she has powers that let her see the connections between lives, and help heal other people’s auras. But in New York City in the throes of the Industrial Revolution, such powers are dangerous, and there are plenty of greedy men who want to use Avery’s powers for their own gain – just as they have been using her mother’s. When Avery’s burgeoning powers attract attention from the mysterious men in crow masks who drag people off to the Tombs, she has to go into hiding with her mother’s Romany friends. She hatches a desperate plan to free her mother…only to find that the greedy industrialists are getting ready to unleash an awful plan on New York City, one that threatens the lives of every worker in every plant and factory. And Avery and her friends may be the only ones who can stop it. Filled with intrigue, adventure, romance, and all the cool steampunk flourishes a reader could ask for, Schaumberg’s debut melds history and fantasy to create an absorbing world just beyond the known.
I also just got word that my upcoming board book, 
Stories By Hand with Kathy MacMillan 