I first read Robert K. Massie’s Nicholas and Alexandra (Atheneum, 1967) the summer between my seventh and eighth grade year after pulling it off my mother’s bookshelf.
“You’re not going to like that,” she warned. “It’s pretty dense history.”
She was right.
New Adult Covers
Just as the difference between a middle grade story and a young adult story is more than the characters’ ages and grades in school, the difference between a young adult story and a new adult story is more than the characters’ ages and their graduation from high school.
From the promotional copy of Born To Be Wild: Baby Mammals and Their Parents by Lita Judge (Roaring Brook, 2014):
What do grizzly bear cubs eat? Where do baby raccoons sleep? And how does a baby otter learn to swim?
Every baby mammal,
The seed of The White House is Burning: August 24, 1814 (Charlesbridge, 2014) was planted on 9/11.
Sometime during that day, as we all tried to get a handle on what had happened, a TV reporter compared the terrorist attacks with other national tragedies like Pearl Harbor.
By Chris Barton
There’s never an answer I that I find quick, simple, and faithful to the full truth when someone asks what inspired one of my books.
Take Shark Vs. Train (Little Brown, 2010), for instance.
Yes, I’m sure the seed was planted by my now 15-year-old son’s love of sharks and trains.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Chris Barton on Writing & Cross-Generational Interests »
From the promotional copy of Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out, words and photographs by Susan Kuklin (Candlewick, 2014).
A groundbreaking work of LGBT literature takes an honest look at the life, love, and struggles of transgender teens.
Author and photographer Susan Kuklin met and interviewed six transgender or gender-neutral young adults and used her considerable skills to represent them thoughtfully and respectfully before,
By J.L. Powers
What would your life be like if it felt like you were looking into a kaleidoscope every time you opened your eyes?
What would it feel like to experience strange visions twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, even at night when you dream?
That’s what happened to George Mendoza when he started going blind as a teenager.
