The Best Reader:
Penguin

Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony & Rodrigo Corral
Publisher: Razorbill (February 2nd, 2012)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Paperback: 272 pages
After her mother died, Glory retreated into herself and her music. Her single father raised her as a piano prodigy, with a rigid schedule and the goal of playing sold-out shows across the globe. Now, as a teenager, Glory has disappeared. As readers flash back to the events leading up to her disappearance, they see a girl on the precipice of disaster.

Click to expand
Chopsticks is such a cool book and Penguin has developed some creative ways to be interactive with the book. You can download the book app and go to the website.

There are so many beautiful images in this book. It's a lot of fun to browse through. By downloading the app, you can really interact with the story and the photographs.

You can view a demo of the app here.

Official Website http://www.chopsticksnovel.com Chopsticks App http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chopsticks-novel/id497983366?mt=8=4

Prize:

• One (1) winner will receive: · A copy of Chopsticks · $10 iTunes gift card to experience the Chopsticks app

• You must be at least 13 (or have permission) to enter.
• Name and email must be provided.
• Extra entries are possible and links must be provided.
• Contest is US only and ends April 20th.
• Once contacted, the winner will have 48 hours to respond.
• The form must be filled out to enter.

About the book CHOPSTICKS was born out of the desire to tell a story with multiple medias, without losing the fundamental truths which make reading fiction an emotional human experience.
The novel’s digital format will still allow you to encounter the lives of Frank and Glory, the characters that fill the pages, but the additional videos, songs and digital links will create a new novel experience.
CHOPSTICKS is a novel, an app, a website. It is a collage of original drawings, objects, text, sounds, and video. It is a love story. It is a mystery. Read it. View it. Experience it.
About the authors Rodrigo Corral runs Rodrigo Corral Studio and is the creative director at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. He has designed covers for the Pulitzer Prize winning author Junot Diaz and the bestselling author Chuck Palahniuk among many others. He also designed the New York Times bestselling books Decoded by Jay-Z, Classy by Derek Blasberg, and Influence by Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen. He has taught at the School of Visual Arts in New York City and lectured around the country. Through it all, he remains deeply committed to transcending the visual possibilities in art, in culture, and throughout the universe. www.rodrigocorral.com
Jessica Anthony’s debut novel, The Convalescent (McSweeney’s/Grove 2009), was an ALA Adult Notable Book, a B&N “Discover Great New Writers” selection, an Editor’s Choice in the San Francisco Chronicle, and has been taught in several universities across the country. Her short fiction can be found in Best New American Voices, Best American Nonrequired Reading, McSweeney’s, New American Writing and elsewhere. She was raised amidst the farms and bowling alleys of Upstate New York, and currently teaches at Bates College and Southern New Hampshire University.

Freshman Year & Other Unnatural Disasters by Meredith Zeitlin
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons (March 1st, 2012)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Paperback: 288 pages
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5 of 5 stars
Kelsey Finkelstein is fourteen and FRUSTRATED. Every time she tries to live up to her awesome potential, her plans are foiled – by her impossible parents, her annoying little sister, and life in general. But with her first day of high school coming up, Kelsey is positive that things are going to change. Enlisting the help of her three best friends — sweet and quiet Em, theatrical Cass, and wild JoJo — Kelsey gets ready to rebrand herself and make the kind of mark she knows is her destiny.

Things start out great — her arch-nemesis has moved across the country, giving Kelsey the perfect opportunity to stand out on the soccer team and finally catch the eye of her long-time crush. But soon enough, an evil junior’s thirst for revenge, a mysterious photographer, and a series of other catastrophes make it clear that just because KELSEY has a plan for greatness… it doesn’t mean the rest of the world is in on it.

Kelsey’s hilarious commentary throughout her disastrous freshman year will have you laughing out loud—while being thankful that you’re not in her shoes, of course…

Review:

First, Kelsey is hilarious. I highly enjoyed her internal commentary on her life. She was so enjoyable and I felt bad for the crazy stuff she had to go through. Kelsey is smart, pretty, and had a terrific group of friends, but her quirky nature sometimes gets her into embarrassing situations.

I really enjoyed the way Meredith Zeitlin captures the good, the bad, and the ugly of the high school experience. I think that pretty much every teenage girl can relate to some of the things Kelsey went through.

Kelsey's friends, JoJo, Em, and Cass were fabulous as well. They were all so different and they each brought something unique to the story. Although Kelsey deals with a few issues involving each girl, her friends always try to be there for her.

Something else unique about this book was the cute flirtations between Kelsey and a"mystery guy" she meets. It was a very nice touch and I couldn't help but get all giddy when he was mentioned. It really brought me back to when you can't help but get all flustered every time you see your crush walk down the hall in school.

This book isn't all fun and games. There are some more serious topics mentioned and they cover some very relevant topics for many young teenagers.

Meredith Zeitlin did an outstanding job taking many readers back to the glory days of high school. Kelsey was the perfect character for this story and I only wish I would have been as brilliantly quirky as she was when I was a teen.

Recommended: Contemporary fans looking for something funny!

Website | Goodreads | Twitter

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

Today I have the wonderful Beck McDowell here to talk a little about her new book, This is Not a Drill.

Be sure to check the links below to follow along with the rest of the tour.

1. As someone who taught in schools, were you ever afraid of a situation like what happens in your book, happening in your classroom or school?

I was never consciously afraid of violence in my classroom, but I dreamed about it several times, so I know the anxiety was there. It’s just such a huge responsibility, knowing that – if something happens – the lives of those 20 or 30 kids are in your hands. I also traveled in Europe with my students in summers, so I was very aware of safety issues.

Fortunately, nothing like this ever happened to me, although I remember several occasions when a student was found carrying a gun in our building. The only time I ever felt danger was when I was pregnant and got knocked to the ground while trying to break up a fight. A huge crowd of students was surging forward to watch and couldn’t see me on the floor. It was terrifying! Fortunately, another teacher came, broke it up, and rescued me. I haven’t tried to break up a fight since.

2. What inspired you to tell this story?

My then 2nd grade nephew told me they’d been instructed, if they were in the bathroom and heard gunshots in the hall, to lock the stall, sit on the toilet, and pull their feet up so an intruder wouldn’t see them. It was heartbreaking to picture him in there alone and terrified. It made me feel like kids were already losing their innocence when we had to paint that kind of scenario for them. I hate that our world requires those kinds of scary conversations with our children, but it’s obvious, in light of recent events, that teaching them to hit the floor if shooting starts might save their lives. How do you teach that without traumatizing them – but how can you risk not teaching it?

3. What can you tell us about Emery and Jake?

Emery and Jake are both fighting their own inner battles long before they’re involved in the classroom one. She’s dealing with an absentee parent, a domineering one, and a puzzling illness. Jake is reeling from the death of a parent, a difficult step-parent, and a damaged reputation. But I don’t think I’ve overloaded their lives with unrealistic conflict. So many of the teens I taught were facing these huge life issues – several at once – and yet they moved through the school day with poise and strength that amazed me. I only knew about those incredible hardships through their writing or sometimes when they came after school to talk; I was honored by their trust when they shared problems with me.

Emery and Jake are a lot like the students I taught – they’re smart and strong and brave when the need arises. They draw on inner resources they didn’t even know they had when facing down an armed gunman. I’d trust my kids to respond with the same calm competence in a real crisis.

4. What was the most difficult part of writing such an emotional story?

The last few chapters were the hardest part to write. There can’t be a truly happy ending to a story like this. When unstable people are armed, we can’t always protect the innocent. I wanted a resolution that made sense – one that readers could accept if not embrace. I wrote what I felt would actually happen in a situation like this — but with a twist or two to keep readers guessing.

5. What do you hope readers take from this story?

I hope to foster a little better understanding of post traumatic stress. Our culture frowns on what’s considered “weakness” if someone needs help, when – in reality – any reasonable person would be deeply troubled by war or abuse or an accident or tragedy. Our soldiers face a huge adjustment coming home from war. Brian Stutts is the “bad guy” – no doubt – but would he have instigated this horrific tragedy in a first grade classroom if he’d had psychological help?

I’d also like to increase awareness of POTS, which is easy to treat but tricky to diagnose – and affects 1 in 100 teens. I hope, too, that the bravery of Emery and Jake will inspire any readers who find themselves in a dangerous situation to stay calm and help those around them.

This is Not a Drill by Beck McDowell
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books (October 25th, 2012)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 224 pages
Two teens try to save a class of first-graders from a gun-wielding soldier suffering from PTSD

When high school seniors Emery and Jake are taken hostage in the classroom where they tutor, they must work together to calm both the terrified children and the gunman threatening them--a task made even more difficult by their recent break-up. Brian Stutts, a soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in Iraq, uses deadly force when he's denied access to his son because of a custody battle. The children's fate is in the hands of the two teens, each recovering from great loss, who now must reestablish trust in a relationship damaged by betrayal. Told through Emery and Jake's alternating viewpoints, this gripping novel features characters teens will identify with and explores the often-hidden damages of war.

Website | Goodreads | Twitter

Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Check out the next tour stops: Monday, Nov. 12
KATIE’S BOOK BLOG — http://www.katiesbookblog.com/

Tuesday, Nov. 13
ALLURING READS — http://www.alluringreads.com/

Wednesday, Nov. 14
PAGE TURNERS BLOG — http://www.pageturnersblog.com/

Thursday, Nov. 15
MY BEST FRIENDS ARE BOOKS — http://bestfriendsrbooks.wordpress.com/

I am super excited to be a stop on the tour for EASY by Tammara Webber. I knew when I first spotted this book that I would love it and it is truly one of my all-time favorite books. It didn't surprise me at all to hear that it was picked up by Penguin. If you are interested in a New Adult title, you gotta pick this one up!

Tammara Webber’s TOP 5 YA Novels:

The Truth About Forever

Please Ignore Vera Dietz

If I Stay/Where She Went

Lea ving Paradise

Graceling

Easy by Tammara Webber
Publisher: Berkley Trade (November 6th, 2012)
Reading Level: New Adult
Paperback: 310 pages
Rescued by a stranger.
Haunted by a secret
Sometimes, love isn’t easy…
He always saw her, but never knew her. Until thanks to a chance encounter, he became her savior…

The attraction between them was undeniable. Yet the past he’d worked so hard to overcome, and the future she’d put so much faith in, threatened to tear them apart.

Only together could they fight the pain and guilt, face the truth—and find the unexpected power of love.

Prize:

• 1 winner will receive a paperback copy of EASY.

• You must be at least 13 to enter.
• Name and email must be provided and counts as 1 entry.
• Extra entries are possible and links must be provided.
• Contest is US Only and ends November 16th.
• Once contacted, the winner will have 48 hours to respond.
• The form must be filled out to enter.

Website | Twitter | Goodreads

B arnes & N oble | A mazon | I ndiebound

Next Tour Stop
Monday, November 5th — GONE WITH WORDS blog (http://www.gonewiththewords.com/)

TOP 6(66) CHILDHOOD TERRORS
by
Elizabeth Richards

Here are the top 6 things that kept me up at night as a kid…

6: THE KANDY MAN – ‘HAPPINESS PATROL, DOCTOR WHO’

I don’t think any television show scares the heebie-jeebies out of kids more than Doctor Who. From Cybermen to the Weeping Angels, the writers certainly know how to create the perfect bogeyman to keep kids up at night. But it was the Kandy Man from the episode ‘Happiness Patrol’ that scared me the most as a kid. In this episode The Doctor and his companion Ace visit a colony on Terra Alpha, where all the citizens are forced to be happy all the bleeding time. If they’re caught being a ‘Killjoy’ by the secret police (known as the Happiness Patrol), they’re arrested and fed to the Kandy Man – a sweet-based robot who looks oddly like the Bassett’s Liquorice Allsorts man. As a little girl who loved her sweeties, the idea of a candy that bit back did not sit well with me. I still keep a wary distance from liquorice allsorts… you know, just in case.
5: ‘REMEMBER ME’ BY CHRISTOPHER PIKE

In my early tweens, I was a massive fan of horror authors like Christopher Pike, RL Stine, and James Herbert. One of my all-time best reads was Remember Me – a story about a girl named Shari Cooper, who is murdered and has to solve the mystery of her own death. It had ghosts, murder, cheating boyfriends, and a shocking revelation. But it was the Shadow that gave me chills, and makes this number 5 in my list.

4: GHOSTWATCH

On October 31,1992, the BBC ran a mockumentary called Ghostwatch, starring popular children’s TV presenter Sarah Greene. It was shot as if it were a live news broadcast, covering a ‘live, on-air investigation’ of a house in Northold, which was reputably haunted by a poltergeist called Pipes. Now at the time, I had NO idea this was a drama. I thought it was real, and sat down to watch it with my buddies, thinking we were about to witness a real-life ghost hunt. What larks! Erm… no. It turned out to be 90 minutes of the most TERRIFYING TELEVISION I HAVE EVER SEEN. If you can get your hands on a recording of it, I highly recommend you view it. Then show it to your kids and tell them it’s real, and sit back and watch the hilarity unfold.

3: ‘LITTLE MY’ FROM THE MOOMINS

Back in the 1980s, there was a very popular television show in the UK called the Moomins, which featured these unbelievably cute trolls which—for some random reason—looked like white hippopotamuses, with wide eyes, round snouts and pudgy tummies. I loved them. They were adorable. What I didn’t love was their side kick Little My. She was supposed to be brave and fearless. All I knew is she wanted to eat my soul.

2: SPIDERS

I absolutely and utterly refuse to believe that something with four eyes, eight legs, drains all the blood out of its victims, and can kill me with one bite is ‘more scared of me, than I am of it.’

1: PENNYWISE THE CLOWN

Black City by Elizabeth Richards
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons (November 13th, 2012)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Hardback: 384 pages
Series: Black City, #1
A dark and tender post-apocalyptic love story set in the aftermath of a bloody war.

In a city where humans and Darklings are now separated by a high wall and tensions between the two races still simmer after a terrible war, sixteen-year-olds Ash Fisher, a half-blood Darkling, and Natalie Buchanan, a human and the daughter of the Emissary, meet and do the unthinkable—they fall in love. Bonded by a mysterious connection that causes Ash’s long-dormant heart to beat, Ash and Natalie first deny and then struggle to fight their forbidden feelings for each other, knowing if they’re caught, they’ll be executed—but their feelings are too strong.

When Ash and Natalie then find themselves at the center of a deadly conspiracy that threatens to pull the humans and Darklings back into war, they must make hard choices that could result in both their deaths.

Prize:

• 1 winner will receive some SIGNED bookmarks!

• You must be at least 13 to enter.
• Name and email must be provided and counts as 1 entry.
• Extra entries are possible and links must be provided.
• Contest is US Only and ends November 6th.
• Once contacted, the winner will have 48 hours to respond.
• The form must be filled out to enter.

Website | Goodreads | Twitter | Facebook

Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Reminder: If you are interested in the COMMENT CONTEST, remember to include your email address with your comment for an extra entry! Please read full entry rules here.

True by Erin McCarthy
Published: Penguin (May 7th, 2013)
Reading Level: New Adult
ebook edition: 222 pages
Rating: 5 of 5 stars
Summary:
When Rory Macintosh’s roommates find out that their studious and shy friend has never been with a guy, they decide that, as an act of kindness they’ll help her lose her virginity by hiring confident, tattooed bad boy Tyler Mann to do the job… unbeknownst to Rory.

Tyler knows he’s not good enough for Rory. She’s smart, doctor smart, while he’s barely scraping by at his EMT program, hoping to pull his younger brothers out of the hell their druggy mother has left them in. But he can’t resist taking up her roommates on an opportunity to get to know her better. There’s something about her honesty that keeps him coming back when he knows he shouldn’t…

Torn between common sense and desire, the two find themselves caught up in a passionate relationship. But when Tyler’s broken family threatens to destroy his future, and hers, Rory will need to decide whether to cut her ties to his risky world or follow her heart, no matter what the cost…

Review:

In comes Tyler. Tyler is the bad boy. He's the complete opposite from Rory, it seems. They meet a few times and while they may feel some attraction, they both know they have nothing in common.
But Rory's roommates won't stop obsessing about Rory's love life. They want her to let loose and have fun so they recruit Tyler to help her out of her shell.

Over time the two do connect and see their similarities. Tyler may be a"bad boy" but he's a nice guy and very protective of Rory. It's easy to see that his feelings for her run pretty deep. But things don't stay good for long and Tyler finds his horrible past coming to bite him. He works really hard to try to take care of his siblings because of his terrible mother, but it puts a ton of pressure on him.

Rory and Tyler must find ways to deal with these issues. Some aspects of this book were a bit predictable but I still really enjoyed it and didn't put it down while reading. I am excited to read more from Erin and I hope she writes more NA titles.

Website | Goodreads

Amazon | Barnes & Noble