Spotlight/Interview with MG author Joanne Levy!

A few weeks ago I posted a review for the amazing middle grade title, SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE (I trust that you have since read and enjoyed it).

Today, I'd like to shine a little spotlight on the author of Small Medium at Large. Joanne Levy was kind enough to humour me and answer a few questions for my readers. Enjoy!

1. In relation to Small Medium at Large and writing the story...I'm just curious how the CAUSE came about for Lilah's new ability. Was there a struggle for you to discover a way to give Lilah her new ability to communicate with ghosts? Or is this something that came to you right away...the lightning idea?

I first wrote the book many years ago and I honestly can’t remember if I struggled with the how of Lilah getting her new ability. But I can tell you that when I first wrote it, the book was intended for an older, YA audience. So in the first scene, Lilah was at her mom’s wedding and had stolen away with her new step-brother and was about to kiss him when she gets hit by the lightning. I thought that was a really funny scene and set the stage for a lot of almost-but-not-really incest jokes for the rest of the book. Obviously, that all had to go when I aged the book down a bit. I hated having to cut some of my ‘for a more mature audience’ jokes that were in the book, but still managed to come up with lots of opportunities for humour throughout.



2. I really like what you did with Dolly. Bully stories very seldom turn out the way this one does. I know bullying is not the major theme of this story, but it does play an excellent role in it. I would just like to hear your thoughts on how this whole thread in the story came about. I found it so fascinating that Lilah was able to be compassionate towards a person who's go-to action was repeatedly to be mean to Lilah and her friends. Was it hard for you to construct this aspect of your story...the heroine reaching out and rescuing her bully? Was it liberating? Any thoughts you would like to share would be awesome. I think you did an amazing job with this concept...it's a lesson your target audience could really benefit from. And yet you pulled it off in the least preachy way I've ever seen.

Thank you! Bullying is so prevalent these days in so many forms and although I didn’t want to get into really deep issues with this light book, I did want to accurately portray what it’s like for kids of this age. I remember when I was in middle school, there were some girls who seemed to go out of their way to chip at my self-esteem and try to make me feel inferior. I had been very okay with who I was and truly never had self-esteem issues until other people pointed out my failings. One girl, in particular, was relentless in making me feel not cool. I distinctly remember a moment in sixth grade when she said, “I bet you don’t even like Rick James (sadly, it was the 80s)!” Truly, I didn’t even know who he was, but I went out and bought his album (which I hate to admit, I kind of liked, even though the lyrics probably weren’t appropriate for me at that age). And even though there was no physical threat, it was still very hurtful in a different way.

As for making Lilah compassionate towards her tormentor. Well, she does have a few thoughts about revenge, which is natural, but in the end, she does the right thing. And I kind of modeled her on Elle Woods from Legally Blonde. Her character faces discrimination and vitriol at every turn, but she is only ever positive and helpful, even to those who try to trip her up and ruin her. I loved that about her—in the end she is loved because she never lets anyone really change her from a good person, even though it would be very easy for her to retaliate. That’s what I wanted for Lilah.  I wanted her to be human and have thoughts about revenge, but in the end, do the right thing and show that you can be a good person and turn things around.

 

3. You appear to be very busy with events to promote your book Small Medium at Large. Do you want to share a bit about how that feels? Are you getting fan feedback at events from those who have already read the book? Tell us a bit about your experiences on the circuit. (-:

It feels exhausting! I’ve been doing a lot of local signings and also participate in local networking events, which, on top of the day job, has presented challenges as far as finding time for new writing and you know, sleeping. For a debut, it’s hard to drum up big crowds at events, but I have had some Twitter friends show up at my signings and that has been amazing! I made a commitment to myself very early on that I wanted to do whatever I could to help get the word out about my book; the long term goal is to write full-time, so any investment into this first book is a big stepping stone towards that. I’ve learned a lot and am getting more comfortable in my own skin when standing at a table in a bookstore (a tough, tough thing to do for an introvert) but it’s necessary to get out there and talk to people if I want to sell books to more than just my family.

One of the funniest things has been the running joke about helping people find the bathroom in bookstores. My husband and I were joking about it, but then at my last event, I actually did have to help 3 separate people find the bathroom. Hey, at least I’m useful in the down times. ;-)


4. What are you reading? Want to share some awesome reads you found over the summer?

I wish I had more reading time, but over the summer I read and adored Jennifer Nielsen’s THE FALSE PRINCE, (fellow Canadian) Jocelyn Shipley’s HOW TO TEND A GRAVE and Lynne Kelly’s CHAINED. I highly recommend all of these books. And I’m just about to get into Lisa McMann’s ISLAND OF SILENCE, the second book in THE UNWANTEDS series and am eager to start (also Canadian) Vikki VanSickle’s WORDS THAT START WITH B.



5. What are you writing now? Can your readers expect to see another book coming soon? If so, could you share a little bit about your next book--or the one you are working on now?

I have a lot of balls up in the air right now, but nothing concrete just yet. I’m hoping to continue Lilah’s adventures in a sequel to SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE and I’ve written another MG about a boy who gets lost in the woods when his family’s camping trip goes very wrong. Also, I’ve been tinkering with some other ideas, but with the first book coming out over the summer and all the marketing/events I’ve been doing, I haven’t been actively writing for a while. Things should calm down after November and then I plan to really hunker down and will hopefully have a clear idea of what I want to work on by then. Keep an eye on my website joannelevy.com and Twitter @joannelevy as I’ll post any news there.

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions, Joanne! I’m sure your readers will appreciate your thoughtful responses. So interesting to hear how Small Medium at Large began, now that we can see the finished version. And I’m sure those who read Small Medium will be thrilled to learn that Lilah’s adventures will continue. Lilah is a great character for middle grade kids to sink their teeth into—thoughtful, intelligent and humourous. We’ll be sure to keep our eye on your website and twitter feed! Thank you so much!

You can find SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE ON GOODREADS

And ON AMAZON & CHAPTERS INDIGO

 

Small Medium at Large - Review

Title: Small Medium at Large

Author: Joanne Levy

Release Date: July 3, 2012

Format/Page Count: Kindle/208

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Purchased: Amazon

Synopsis:

After she’s hit by lightning at a wedding, twelve-year-old Lilah Bloom develops a new talent: she can hear dead people. Among them, there’s her overopinionated Bubby Dora; a prissy fashion designer; and an approval-seeking clown who livens up a séance. With Bubby Dora leading the way, these and other sweetly imperfect ghosts haunt Lilah through seventh grade, and help her face her one big fear: talking to—and possibly going to the seventh-grade dance with—her crush, Andrew Finkel. (From GOODREADS)

The Book Trailer for Small Medium at Large

Expectation: Levy had me at the title! This is yet another title I became aware of while on Twitter. Thank Twitter for all my finds lately! My expectation was high for this book, based solely on my love of the title. (-:

Market/Genre: Middle Grade/Contemporary with a dollop of supernatural/paranormal

Review:

It has been a while since I read a middle grade novel…at least a few months. My first thoughts on Small Medium at Large were; kid-friendly, a delight to read, fun and funny, well written in a great age-appropriate voice and, well…FUN (It bears repeating).

Lilah Bloom is 12. She comes from a broken family (that term really needs to be refreshed—a lot of families these days are not so much broken, as they are realigned). As the story opens, we are at Lilah’s mother’s wedding. Everything is going well until the real fun is about to begin—the dancing. At the outdoor reception, Lilah is literally on the threshold of the temporary dance-floor when the skies darken and a tempest brews.

This is when Lilah is struck by lightning!

Thankfully, she makes a speedy recovery. No lasting damage, but a challenging new talent. Lilah becomes aware of disembodied voices. Levy has written these voices so tremendously well that the reader can sense she had a blast bringing this story to life. What must have been a difficult task for Levy was keeping a story like this so utterly kid-friendly. With humour, excellent characters, friendly and mischievous—but by no means dark—ghosts, and a plot that could stand on its own without the supernatural element, Levy accomplishes this in spades!

Throughout the course of the story, the reader is introduced to several ghost characters. One of the delightful things I found about these characters is that they were actually so well portrayed I could envision what each of them looked like, even though, obviously, there were no physical descriptions to speak of. We have Lilah’s Bubby Dora (her grandmother), Prissy LaFontaine (fashion icon extraordinaire), Mr. Finkel (Andrew Finkel’s father—Andrew being the boy that Lilah is head over heels for) and also watch for the young boy ghost Lilah runs into in her school.

There are some truly delightful scenes in this book, scenes that will make your middle grade reader giggle and totally relate to. Keep your eye out for the bra shopping scene and slumber party—truly authentic! Also, there are some great father/daughter scenes with Lilah and her dad—funny, poignant and powerful scenes (also funnily awkward scenes as Lilah and Dad discuss his new dating life).

A sign of a great middle grade book is its ability to resolve the issues of the main characters without coming off as too cheesy or predictable. Small Medium at Large does this. There are plenty of things going on in this story. Levy deals with bullying, divorce, death, first crushes, jealousy—you name it. Her ability to tie up all the threads in a satisfactory way is astonishing. Perhaps one of my favourite threads was the one with Lilah and her grade eight nemesis, ‘Dolly’ Madison. Of course, Dolly was going to be the bully of the story—she’s far superior to Lilah and her friends, being as she’s in grade eight and they’re mere grade sevens. Thankfully, though, Levy played this thread perfectly. Another sign of a great middle grade story is that not all bad characters are all bad and not all good characters are all good. I’m confident readers will love the way this thread plays out. I won’t go into details—as I don’t want to give away any spoilers—but sometimes help comes from the most unlikely of places.

If you have a young reader in your life, share this book with them! I’m sure it will become an instant favourite for them. Lilah’s a good kid—they’re gonna love her!

Expectation: Met and surpassed. I am not surprised that I fell in love with this wonderful book! It will be my go-to for gift-giving for years to come!

Size: 5 (1/2)

LOOK FOR A SHORT AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT/INTERVIEW with Joanne Levy in the near future!

 

Zombie Tag - Review

Title: Zombie Tag

Author: Hannah Moskowitz
Release Date: December 20, 2011
Format/Page Count: Kindle Edition, 240 pages

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

Purchased: AMAZON

Synopsis: Wil is desperate for his older brother to come back from the dead. But the thing about zombies is . . they don’t exactly make the best siblings. Thirteen-year-old Wil Lowenstein copes with his brother’s death by focusing on Zombie Tag, a mafia/
capture the flag hybrid game where he and his friends fight off brain-eating zombies with their mothers’ spatulas. What Wil doesn’t tell anybody is that if he could bring his dead brother back as a zombie, he would in a heartbeat. But when Wil finds a way to summon all the dead within five miles, he’s surprised to discover that his back-from-the-dead brother is emotionless and distant.  In her first novel for younger readers, Moskowitz offers a funny and heartfelt look at how one boy deals with change, loss, and the complicated relationship between brothers. (From GOODREADS)

Expectation: Extremely high. Poor Hannah Moskowitz had a LOT to live up to--most recently, INVINCIBLE SUMMER. It's hard to live up to the expectations of a reader who loved your last work.    

Market/Genre: Middle Grade, Zombie, Hannah Moskowitz Brothers (Yes...Hannah seems to be starting her own genre. And doing frighteningly well at the dynamics between brothers) (-:

Review: 

“Graham and I spit on our hands and promised we would never, ever grow up. He’s not going to get out of that just by dying.” ~ Hannah Moskowitz, Zombie Tag

“Talking to you is like talking to myself.” ~ Hannah Moskowitz, Zombie Tag (This is a truism for ALL brothers in the throes of their child years together. It’s a shame we forget it when we grow up.)

ZOMBIE TAG has very little to do with zombies. Don’t tell Hannah Moskowitz I said that. I will deny it vehemently.

This was, quite frankly, a beautiful read. You can see by the synopsis that it really does have a lot to do with zombies. But the undercurrent of this book is not quite an undercurrent. It screams to the reader from the gate. This is a Peter Pan tale. This is a story about the complications of being a brother, and about not ever wanting to lose the bonds that brothers have in childhood. It’s about knowing when it’s okay to be intimate with your brother and knowing when it’s not okay. It’s about knowing when to wrestle and hurt each other. It’s about sleeping out in a tent under the stars and talking to each other about the wonders of life and the fear of death when it’s dark and you can no longer see each other and you know precisely what the other one looks like; the expression on his face, the way his hands are worrying into fists and stretching out into wings at his sides as he describes the way he thinks death might be. This is a story that every brother should read. And a story that everybody who was never a brother of a brother should read so they know that boys can have big hearts too, boys can be intimate and filled with dreams too.

Okay. What you see above is not quite a review. It was more about the emotional rollercoaster I went through yesterday as I read ZOMBIE TAG. I’m still relatively new at reviews. I’ll try to bring it back down to earth now.

Wil. Wilson. He’s a kid who has lost his older brother. There is the story. Moskowitz sets up the world in which Zombie Tag takes place with amazing skill. The reader is brought into this contemporary setting that is almost like home. In it, children are playing a game created by young Wil (& his brother, Graham). Zombie Tag is the game. As soon as I started reading those first scenes, I was brought back to my childhood. I could perfectly envision ‘our’ group playing Zombie Tag during a sleepover—creeping through the dark house crying out for BRRRRAAAIIIINNNNSS and banging on closed ‘barricaded’ doors, searching for humans to feed off of. The whole time, our parents sleeping obliviously in their bedroom. It was so real, I could almost swear we did this!

There is, though, a little difference between the world we live in and the carefully constructed world in which Moskowitz chooses to put us in with this story. The world where Zombie Tag takes place has a past history of real live zombies. Around 30 years ago zombies walked the earth for a brief time. There is no real solid evidence, though, of what went on from the time they left their graves to the time they were discovered dead in another location. There’s just the empty graves and the bodies in a different location. Clearly, zombies HAD walked.

Wil and his friends have fun playing Zombie Tag, but Wil has ulterior motives. He LIVES zombies. He devours everything he can find out about zombies. He misses his brother SO much. If only…

Moskowitz puts the reader deep into the land of brothers with this story. Through Wil, we understand what it’s like to be both beaten and protected in the same day by one’s older brother. We see those soft moments of whispered words between brothers, and we see those moments of meanness that older brothers dole out just to see the younger brother squirm. And we understand that under all the crap, under the beatings and the name callings and the leave-me-alones there is this bond that can not be broken. Not by the span of years between you and not in death. Wil suffers terribly over Graham’s loss, over the loss of his protectiveness and the loss of his soothing and the loss of his its-gonna-be-okay talks. He might even suffer over the loss of the not so nice things that Graham put him through as his big brother. That’s what it means to have a brother. There’s good and bad and it’s very easy for this brother to imagine missing both, should they be suddenly taken.

Yeah, this is a tale of zombies. It’s a tale for children and teens and near-teens. But it is also one for everybody else. And it is also NOT a zombie tale. I’m not going to tell you a whole lot about what goes on in Zombie Tag. I’ll just say that Wil DOES discover a way to get his big brother back. And that he is faced with a dilemma bigger than that of suffering the loss of his big brother, once he does bring him back. With the friends he played Zombie Tag with, Wil will figure things out.

It’s hard to grow up. It’s one of the hardest things we’ll ever do. And when you make a pact with your big brother to skip this part of your life, you REALLY believe it. You believe it because, in the moment, it just seems right. You don’t want to lose those whispered conspiratorial moments with the boy you look up to. You want to be able to be comforted by that larger than life hero for forever. Because nobody can comfort him like he does. You want to run to him at night when you have a nightmare, no matter how old you are, and get under his sheets and feel safe. But Moskowitz knows this isn’t possible. She weaved a perfect Peter Pan tale with ZOMBIE TAG. It will pull on your heartstrings long after you finish the book. For me, it was a wickedly poignant look at brothers. I don’t know how Moskowitz is so wise and knowing when it comes to the relationship that two brothers have…but she is a master at it. Her mastery was witnessed in BREAK and in INVINCIBLE SUMMER and, now, more than ever, in ZOMBIE TAG.

Don’t let the MG market rating fool you. If you are 40 or 90, you’ll love this book. I’m going to call it a classic. Some may scoff. Some may say a classic can’t have cartoon boys on the cover. A classic’s cover wouldn’t depict one boy hitting another boy over the head with a spatula. But I defy you to prove me wrong. READ IT. You’ll understand where I’m coming from. The Peter Pan in me wants to laugh and cry, simultaneously. The brother in me wants to buy more copies. I have 3 brothers. None of them are dead and none of them are zombies. But imagining myself in Wil’s shoes kept me completely invested in the story. Thank GOD I’m not him. And thank Hannah Moskowitz for an incredible read, yet again!

 

SIZE: 5 (.5)

Expectation was blown out of the water. This should be on Young Adult shelves and Adult shelves too. It's Christmas soon. My brothers and I don't usually exchange gifts. I'm sending a print copy of ZOMBIE TAG to my older brother. I know he'll 'get' it. (-:

Invincible Summer - Book Review

Title: Invincible Summer

Author: Hannah Moskowitz
Release Date: April 19th, 2011
Format/Page Count: Kindle Edition, 288 pages

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Purchased: Kindle

Synopsis: Noah’s happier than I’ve seen him in months. So I’d be an awful brother to get in the way of that. It’s not like I have some relationship with Melinda. It was just a kiss. Am I going to ruin Noah’s happiness because of a kiss?

Across four sun-kissed, drama-drenched summers at his family’s beach house, Chase is falling in love, falling in lust, and trying to keep his life from falling apart. But some girls are addictive.... Not your typical beach read.

Expectation: After reading BREAK (Moskowitz's debut novel), I knew I would eventually read Invincible Summer. After hearing the buzz, my expectations were very high.

Market/Genre: Young Adult/Contemporary

Review: 

 

“Gideon keeps falling down.”

Within the opening line of Invincible Summer, is a hint of what will follow as the story of the McGill family unfolds. And who better to tell their story than Chase McGill. Chase, the self-appointed oldest brother (who is chronologically the second oldest), narrates this family saga over four summers as he struggles to keep it together and keep making sense of a dynamic that is sometimes impossible to make sense of…the modern family.

The thing that really touched me on a visceral level about this story was the relationship between Chase and his older brother, Noah. Noah is a wanderer, a bit of a lost soul perhaps. Chase so desires to keep Noah within the family fold that it’s sometimes the only thing on his mind. But when the brothers are together, that’s the real magic of this book. The two are so touching together, so achingly close and intimate. As someone who grew up with three brothers, this bond that Moskowitz has somehow perfectly captured resonated so loudly for me it became the whole focal point of the story. Whatever happens between these two boys, the love they feel for one another is so solid—so breathlessly there—that it leaves you aching within its pulse.

But as beautifully written as their relationship is, it is not entirely the focus of Invincible Summer. As the opening line alludes, this could in fact be considered a story of falling. We meet up with the McGills every summer for four years. The first summer, we meet the boys, their parents, their younger sister Claudia and deaf brother Gideon. And we also meet the Hathaway family that the McGills intimately share their summers with. There is Shannon, Bella, Melinda and their parents.

There is a reason I listed all the characters here. In the first few pages of Invincible Summer, as a reader, I thought I was going to have a hard time keeping track of this rather large cast. My fears were quickly alleviated, though, as I got deeper into the McGills’ saga. Each character was so well drawn there was never any question about who was who. Moskowitz did a wonderful job making each one unique and memorable.

There is another character in Invincible Summer worth mentioning. Albert Camus. He plays as big a role as some of the other characters. Moskowitz weaves beautiful Camus quotes throughout her story, as the boys become almost obsessed with his views and opinions of the world. After their introduction to him through Melinda, who has sex with both Chase and Noah, they are able to spout off Camus quotes for every event in their lives. This was done perfectly by Moskowitz, someone who clearly knows her Camus. It was such a delight to see the chosen quotes co-mingling with the story Moskowitz so expertly wove.

I’m not going to go too far into the story of Invincible Summer. I feel to give details would be to give away too much. I’ll just say that there is always something happening. In the first summer, we see Chase and his clan deal with a new addition, the tie breaker baby sister who throws off the balance of blond and brunet in the McGill household. In the second summer we see a rift in the family that has them fracturing in such a unique way it’s as tickling as it is tragic. The pivotal moments in Invincible Summer seem to occur in and around Chase’s yearly summer birthday, a fact not lost on our narrator. Each summer, there are issues for the family to deal with. And as the reader sees them arrive and erupt on the page, we are filled with nostalgia, angst, regret and pain. We laugh with the McGills and we cry with the McGills.

This book is one I will return to again and again. It’s an expertly woven tale of family dynamics, teen relationships and childhood summers. Every reader will connect to these memorable characters. Every reader will recall their own childhood summers as they dive deeper into this book… and how they felt both sickeningly vulnerable and powerfully invincible all at once as they struggled through those summers. And if they have siblings, they will ache with the familiarity of the sibling love that is so perfectly texturized in the bond between Noah and Chase. Moskowitz nailed the modern day family in this tale. I feel certain it will work its way into the hearts of all who read it.          

This book exceeded my expectations by so much, I can't even quantify it. I seriously expected to enjoy it, as I enjoyed Break. But this one...it felt like it hit me on a visceral level. Such an emotional roller coaster--the good kind!  
Size: 5

The Near Witch - Book Review

Title: The Near Witch

Author: Victoria Schwab

Release Date: August 2nd, 2011
Format/Page Count: Kindle Edition, 288 pages
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Purchased: Amazon.com


Synopsis: A darkly romantic young adult novel about a sixteen-year-old girl who lives on enchanted moors. A strange boy arrives in her small village, and right away, children start disappearing.

Expectation: Really excited about this one. Got caught up in the whirlwind of discussion on Twitter about the release of The Near Witch. 

Market/Genre: Young Adult/Paranormal Romance

Review:

“It starts with a crack, a sputter, and a spark. The match hisses to life.”

So begins the beautiful and beautifully lyrical The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab. This reader was immediately mesmerized by the intoxicating poetic prose in which this enchanting fairy tale/paranormal love story was written. Schwab’s debut novel is a fast paced charmer destined to be a classic. Her storytelling prowess, combined with her excellent ability to mash the best elements from the Gothic horror novel with those from modern YA romance and paranormal novels, and, remarkably, those from the latest wave of dystopian YA, leaves the reader hooked from page one to the end.

 The town of Near seems trapped in a near trance of fear and suspicion as they live their lives deep inside a whirlwind undercurrent of fairy tales, rumours, truths and half-truths swirling around the presence of the witches on the town’s outskirts…both living and dead.

One of the best aspects of The Near Witch is the headstrong and independent main character, Lexi Harris. Lexi lives in a small secluded town dominated by its male citizens. But Lexi doesn’t accept her station in her male dominated society; and she certainly doesn’t take no for an answer. When the rest of Near gets up in arms over the arrival of a new stranger—something the isolated town doesn’t usually deal with—Lexi is the only one capable of keeping a level head. It is her determination to do the right thing that propels this story forward at such a galloping pace. And the first person present tense voice of our protagonist puts the reader right at her side, cheering her on along the way. Schwab picked the perfect voice to tell her story.

When the town’s youngest children begin to disappear, Lexi will do anything to prevent her little sister Wren from becoming one of the missing. She will also do anything to save those who are already gone. But the men of her town, led by a Council of three and her own Uncle Otto, do whatever they can to prevent her intrusions and interventions.

This story is so well written, the reader will want to devour it in one sitting. But it’s also one of those books they will want to take their time with, so they can cherish the ride. Every character is well drawn, from the stranger Cole, to the sisters Thorne (Magda & Dreska), to Lexi’s jilted paramour Tyler Ward.

This was a remarkable adrenalin spiked read. Schwab is a master storyteller with a beautiful lyrical style readers will fall in love with immediately. The Near Witch is marketed as a YA, but it is absolutely a story for all ages. I look forward to seeing the next offering from Victoria Schwab. And the next and the next. A writer who can tell such a tight fast-paced story in such a lovely voice is definitely a writer to watch.

Expectation exceeded in spades.

Size: 5