Tag Archive for In the Path of Falling Objects

“Bystander” on 2011 Kentucky Bluegrass Award Master List

June 2, 2010 / / 4 comments

Still pleased about the good news from Vermont, I’m happy to announce that Bystander has been also named to the 2011 Kentucky Bluegrass Children’s Book Award Master List.

It is an honor to be one of the few titles selected for consideration. Now may the ballot box-stuffing commence! Vote early and vote often! That’s P-R-E . . . L-L . . . E-R . . . like the shampoo, but with an E-R at the end.

My books will leave you more radiant!

Wait. Was that not dignified? I’m getting the feeling that maybe Jean Craighead George might have handled it differently.

Also included from Feiwel & Friends, in the grades 9-12 category:

In the Path of Falling Objects by Andrew Smith

The other titles in the grades 6-8 category along with Bystander:

All The Broken Pieces/By Ann E. Burg.
Scholastic Press, 2009.
Two years after being airlifted out of Vietnam in 1975, Matt Pin is haunted by the terrible secret he left behind. Now in a loving adoptive home in the United States, a series of profound events forces him to confront his past.


Bystander/By James Preller.
Feiwel and Friends, 2009.
Thirteen-year-old Eric discovers there are consequences to not standing by and watching as the bully at his new school hurts people. Although school officials are aware of the problem, Eric may be the one with a solution.


Faith, Hope, And Ivy June/By Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.
Delacorte, 2009.
During a student exchange program, seventh-graders Ivy June and Catherine share their lives, home, and communities. Surprisingly, both girls find that although their lifestyles are total opposites, they have a lot in common.


Flawed Dogs: The Shocking Raid On Westminster /By Berkeley Breathed.
Philomel Books, 2009.
After being framed by a jealous poodle, a dachshund is left for dead, but comes back with a group of mutts from the National Last Ditch Dog Depository to disrupt the prestigious Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show and exact revenge on Cassius the poodle.


Jane In Bloom/By Deborah Lytton.
Dutton Children’s Books, 2009.
Devastated when her beautiful, older sister dies from anorexia, twelve-year-old Jane recovers slowly from the tragedy with help from unexpected sources.


Leviathan/By Scott Westerfeld.
Simon Pulse, 2009.
In an alternate 1914 Europe, fifteen-year-old Austrian Prince Alek is on the run from the Clanker Powers who are attempting to take over the globe using mechanical machinery. Alek soon forms an uneasy alliance with Deryn, a girl secretly disguised as a boy so she can serve in the British Air Service, who is learning to fly genetically-engineered beasts.


Million-Dollar Throw/By Mike Lupica.
Philomel Books, 2009.
Eighth-grade star quarterback Nate Brodie’s family is feeling the stress of the troubled economy, plus his best friend Abby is going blind. When he gets a chance to win a million dollars by completing a pass during halftime of a New England Patriot’s game, he is nearly overwhelmed by the pressure to succeed.


Slob By Ellen Porter.
Philomel Books, 2009.
Picked on, overweight genius Owen tries to invent a television that can see the past to find out what happened the day his parents were killed.


The Storm In The Barn/By Matt Phelan. Candlewick, 2009.

Eleven-year-old Jack Clark struggles with everyday obstacles while his family and community contend with the challenges brought on by the Dust Bowl in 1937 Kansas.


Woods Runner/By Gary Paulsen.
Wendy Lamb Books, 2010.
From his 1776 Pennsylvania homestead, thirteen-year-old Samuel sets out toward New York to rescue his parents from the band of British soldiers and Native Americans who kidnapped them after slaughtering most of their community. Includes historical notes.

When I was a kid, I sat like a zombie and watched commercials like this 1970 Prell advertisement. Younger people don’t understand, even people just 5-10 years younger don’t always get it, but my childhood was like the show “Mad Men” . . . but all the time. Like, I mean, it wasn’t an artful, critically-acclaimed television show that millions watched on HBO. It was the WORLD I lived in, without the knowing wink-wink of irony. Crazy, right? Trust me on this, people, and watch . . .

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

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“Bystander” Reviewed, Sort of, by Author Andrew Smith

June 16, 2009 / / No comments

Author Andrew Smith, in addition to writing YA novels and teaching in a high school, writes a lively, informative, open-hearted blog. He’s nothing if not tireless. Though we’ve never met, Andrew and I seem to share a lot in common. We publish with Feiwel and Friends, have more than half-a-dozen brothers between us, blog regularly, love music — and we both share the (fading) dream of one day becoming catwalk models for Dolce & Gabbana.

Andrew’s debut book, Ghost Medicine, earned a starred review from Publishers Weekly and was listed as an ALA Best Books for Young Adults. But that’s nothing. VOYA said, “This book is a pitch-perfect coming-of-age tale destined to be held aloft alongside other classics of young adult literature. The story flows like stark, lovely poetry shared by best friends around a mountainside campfire.”

Great review. My only quibble is that whenever I’ve sat around a mountainside campfire with friends — which I did a few nights ago, in Vermont — the only things we shared that “flowed” came in cans, and it sure wasn’t “stark, lovely poetry.” (I must be hanging out with the wrong class of campers.)

His upcoming book is titled In the Path of Falling Objects (September, 2009). Man, I love that title. There it is, already a suggestion of menace, of trouble coming, violence. Yet at the same time, flat, even-handed, clear. Just a sign on the side of the road. First paragraph:

The only shade there is blackens a rectangle in the dirt beneath the overhang of the seller’s open stall. The girl stands there, behind a row of hanging wooden skeletons that dangle from the eaves.

Nice, right? The specificity and clarity of the language. The concreteness. A whiff of Cormac McCarthy there, don’t you think?

Anyway, last week Andrew blogged about my upcoming book, Bystander. He began by talking about his desire to highlight that rare, most misunderstood of creatures, the book for boys. While I don’t see Bystander as exclusively for boys — I sure hope it’s not, as compared to, say, Six Innings, which pretty much is — the book does center on the male variants of middle school bullying (with a crucial female character, Mary O’Malley, going through her own thorny friendship issues and cyber-struggles).

Andrew hopes to continue to feature books for boys in upcoming posts, so you may wish to bookmark his most excellent blog. He writes of Bystander:

If you’re a middle-school teacher, I think you should buy an entire class set of James Preller’s Bystander, a tense, suspenseful, fast-paced study of bullies, their victims, and the consequences involved with being a “bystander.”

Ultimately, bullying connects all of these players, whether they see themselves as intentional participants or not . . . . Every boy who’s gone through junior high and high school has found himself in these same situations that Preller sets down so clearly in Bystander. The real value for boys here, I think, is the no-nonsense realism of the plot: There are no tidy and clear-cut answers; and just being “good” isn’t always good enough.

Boys are going to love the fast-paced arc of this story. The first 20 pages build so much understated tension that it’s impossible to stop reading. Most importantly, Bystander is a powerful and valuable resource for any school looking for additional perspectives on educating kids about bullying.

Recommended for ages 10 and above.

Thanks, Andrew!

NOTE: I have to say this. I recognize that at its worst, the kidlitosphere is filled with back-slapping and suspect praise. A cynical reading would deduce that we all read each other’s books and blogs, and praise each other, so that we in turn will “earn” some praise, that we’re an inbred group, that we’re a “we” at all, and that it all amounts to a swirling vortex of sycophantical blather. I get that. I really do. And I guess you could submit all of the above as evidence of that crime. But, but, but. In the end, as my father would say, you have to consider the source. And judge for yourself. I now throw myself on the mercy of the court.

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. . . and Friends?

April 17, 2009 / / 7 comments

I got a fat package in the mail yesterday, sent by my editor at Feiwel & Friends, Liz Szabla. It contained their Fall 2009 catalog, along with ARCs for eight upcoming novels:

Everything for a Dog by Ann M. Martin

In the Path of Falling Objects by Andrew Smith

Spellbinder by Helen Stringer

The Sweetheart of Prosper County by Jill S. Alexander

Buck Fever by Cynthia Chapman Willis

The Eyeball Collector by F.E. Higgins

Bystander by . . . that would be me (and for the record, I can’t wait to talk about this book, and the topic of bullying in general)

One of Jean Feiwel’s stated missions for her new publishing venture, after something like 20 years at Scholastic, was to Keep It Small. And so far, she’s stuck to that goal, despite the temptations to grow, and Grow, and GROW. But still: Feiwel AND Friends. If you are like me (read: hopelessly cynical), then you probably think, “AND Friends,” yeah, right.

But I do feel a difference. Part of that is based on my association with the merry crew that makes things happen at F & F. It’s a small staff and I think I’ve met them all, even the person who gives Liz and Jean their weekly pedicures, and I’ve even Facebooked a few. (Yes, it’s a verb now.) But there’s also, for me, a sense of community with the other authors and illustrators. We’re all on the same team, so to speak, and like a fan in the stands, suds in hand, I’m rooting for them.

Will I read all these galleys? Nope. I mostly read adult books. But I’m eyeballing that new Andrew Smith book, curious about what he’s done with it. And Julie Halpern is a fresh, original voice — so uncool that somehow she’s totally the coolest one of all. Then there’s Spellbinder, a debut novel, which on the surface seems familiar and yet strange at the same time. Who is Helen Stringer, anyway?

A confession: I’ve never had much interest in cultivating friendships with other authors. I know a few on Facebook and whenever I read their status updates on new galleys or their writer’s block or revision process or whatever — well, it just turns me away. I’m just not interested (as I sit here, blogging, semi-ironically, at this Shrine to Myself). The idea of going on, say, an “artistic retreat” with a bunch of other writers makes my skin crawl. I’m not sure why that is, exactly, but it’s real for me. Maybe I like regular people better. Or maybe I’m too competitive, or too insecure. Maybe it’s like ordering a Bud in a can when there’s some snazzy cherry-flavored micro brew available. I don’t know.

But this crowd at Feiwel and Friends? It’s hard to explain. Just a sense I guess, a feeling that’s kind of sloppy and formless, like a first wet kiss. A little creepy, but kind of nice, too. A little like . . . friendship. With benefits. Like free ARCs!

And by the way: I’m back from vacation. Hear me roar.

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