Promo: Flying Lessons and Other Stories - Edited by Ellen Oh

In a partnership with We Need Diverse Books, industry giants KWAME ALEXANDER, SOMAN CHAINANI, MATT DE LA PEÑA, TIM FEDERLE, GRACE LIN, MEG MEDINA, WALTER DEAN MYERS, TIM TINGLE, and JACQUELINE WOODSON join newcomer KELLY J. BAPTIST in FLYING LESSONS & OTHER STORIES (Crown BFYR ǀ on sale January 3, 2017 ǀ $16.99 ǀ ages 8–12), a story collection edited by ELLEN OH that is as humorous as it is heartfelt. This impressive group of authors has earned among them every major award in children’s publishing and popularity as New York Times bestsellers. 

From these distinguished authors come ten vibrant stories and a collection of poetry that highlight the unique experiences of minority voices with authenticity and astute insight. Covering everything from basketball dreams and family fiascos to first crushes and new neighborhoods, this bold anthology celebrates the uniqueness and universality in all of us through stories that will resonate across all audiences. 

 “Inclusive, authentic, and eminently readable, this collection of short stories is an excellent addition for libraries and classrooms.” —School Library Journal, starred review

 “The collection as a whole highlights the importance of perspective, perseverance, wonder, courage, and creativity during the middle school years. . . . Thought-provoking and wide-ranging, this first anthology from WNDB should not be missed.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

 “There's plenty of magic in this collection to go around.” —Booklist, starred review 

ELLEN OH is cofounder and president of We Need Diverse Books (WNDB) and author of the YA fantasy trilogy the Prophecy series and the middle-grade novel The Spirit Hunters, to be published in fall 2017.  She was named one of Publishers Weekly's Notable People of 2014.  Oh resides in Bethesda, Maryland, with her husband and three children.  Discover more at ellenoh.com.

WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS is a grassroots organization of children’s book lovers that advocates for essential changes in the publishing industry to produce and promote literature that reflects and honors the lives of all young people.  Their mission  is to put more books featuring diverse characters into the hands of all children.

FLYING LESSONS & OTHER STORIES edited by ELLEN OH | Crown BFYR | Ages 8–12 years | On sale January 3, 2017 Hardcover: 978-1-101-93459-3 | $16.99/$22.99 Can. | Ebook: 978-1-101-93461-6 | $10.99 

Crown BFYR is an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, the world’s largest English-language children’s trade book publisher. Random House Children’s Books is a division of Penguin Random House LLC. 

Visit us online at @RandomHouseKids | Facebook.com/RandomHouseKids | RandomHouseKids.com

 

Review: The Hunted (The Living #2) by Matt De La Pena

 

First thanks to Edelweiss and Delacorte Press for allowing me to read an egalley of the sequel to The Living.  I read the first book as an egalley over a year ago, and then was lucky enough to get to meet the author and get an autographed copy of the first book.  Here I am at BEA last summer with the author.

Anyway, on with my review.  Now, of course if you haven't read the first book, I can't promise any spoilers for that book.  In fact I'll have to start out with that in my summary!

We're back with Shy, Carmen, Marcus, and Shoeshine.  Their boat has finally made it to the coast of California from the island where they almost died. They have run out of food and water, and are so glad to be back on land.  Until the get off the boat and are immediately met by one of the gangs that patrols its section.  They are told they must get out, even if they are not sick, no one is allowed in a different section.  So as they hurry out they end up in another section, and this time someone tries to burn them out of the trailer they find to spend the night in.  It turns out there is a biker gang that tries to kill them for entering their area.  But something strange happens. One guy stops when he gets a close up look at Shy's face.  He gives Shy an envelope and tells him to take his friends to the movie lot where it seems to be a kind of safe place.  Shy and his friends are still immune to the disease that has taken people out because of the vaccine they got back on the island.  Their goal, even with the safe place to stay, is to get the extra vials of the vaccine they have to scientists in Arizona.  Not only the vaccine though, they have proof of the pharmaceutical company that caused the disease in the first place, and they want to make sure they have to pay for it.  While at first they want to get to their families, when they see the devastation from the earthquake, tsunami, and the disease, they know they must first get the vaccines to those who can get it to save people left. 

Along the way Shy will run into his deadbeat dad, who will try to win his son back by being a better father, his way anyway.  People will get shot, Shoeshine and Marcus.  They will run into Addie, the daughter of the scientist from the company that caused the whole thing, and while she seems to be on her side, her dad will show up at one point and throw a bit of a wrench into their plans.  They will have to try to make it to Arizona while being tracked by helicopters, humvees, and other military/secret agent types of guys. They even have a guy on a motorcycle following them part of the way.  One of them won't make it till the end alive, and only two will make it to Arizona to pass on the vaccine.  Once there they hope to also be reunited with their families, or at least know what has happened.

I won't tell anymore.  Just that while it definitely had what could be an ending, I feel there could definitely be a sequel as I want to know what happened for sure to the person who didn't make it to the end.  And I want to know about the family members we don't know for sure about. 

Those of you who want more diverse characters, Matt de la Pena is one of the authors that does it very well.  His stories usually are more contemporary types of stories, and I loved the extra Sci-Fi and disaster parts of this story. 

Waiting on Wednesday - The Hunted (The Living #2) by Matt de la Pena

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting.  My choice this week is a sequel to a book by an author that I really admire, and the first book in the series, The Living, was actually a bit of a different type of book than he usually writes.  And I was lucky enough to get to meet the author at BEA this past summer.  Well here is the blurb from Goodreads about this next book:

When the Big One hit, Shy was at sea in style. The Paradise Cruise luxury liner he worked on was a hulking specimen of the best money could buy. And now it's at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, along with almost all of its passengers.

Shy wasn't the only one to survive, though. Addie, the rich blond daughter of a mysterious businessman, was on the dinghy he pulled himself into. But as soon as they found the rest of the survivors, she disappeared.

The only thing that filled the strange void of losing her was finding Carmen, his hot coworker, and discovering a way to get back home. But Shy's luck hasn't turned. Not yet.

Back on the dinghy, Addie told him a secret. It's a secret that people would kill for-have killed for-and she has the piece that could turn everything on its ear. The problem? Shy has no idea where Addie is. Back home in California seems logical, but there are more ways to die back home then Shy could ever have guessed.

And thanks to what Shy now knows, he's a moving target.

That's my choice for this week.  And here is my picture with the author:

Matt de la Pena and me!

 

The Living by Matt de la Pena

First of all, thanks to Delacorte Press and Edelweiss for allowing me to read an e-galley of this.  I've read one book by this author before, We Were Here, when I was reading to help select one of my state library association's book award nominees for the year.  And it was a good book.  But basically a realistic fiction story, and it seems the other books by this author that I've seen on library shelves are also realistic fiction.  So, I guess that might give this one a way a bit.  It seems to be more of a thriller than a drama type piece.  Not that there isn't drama, relationship, Mexican boy problems, family problems are all ones that you see.  I'm normally not the biggest reader of realistic fiction, not that I don't always seem to enjoy the ones that I read, I just don't seek them out to read.  So I was very pleased to get not only this author's great writing, but also a story that was more like what I normally enjoy.
The main character is Shy.  And to help raise money for his goal of going to college, he's taken a job for the summer aboard a cruise ship.  The first cruise started out pretty well until one of the passengers commits suicide by jumping off the boat right in front of Shy.  So now he is still having trouble sleeping because he keeps seeing the moment reply over whenever he closes his eyes.  Fortunately he has found a confidante in one of the other staff members, and her name is Carmen.  Carmen is great because she comes from a background very similar to Shy's.  Unfortunately, Carmen is already engaged to a law student back home.  So while Shy finds himself very attracted to Carmen, he must struggle to keep their relationship as friends only.  But Carmen has said she is there for him any time he needs someone to talk to.  Which Shy will even take her up on late at night.  On this 2nd cruise things seem to be okay.  Until Shy is alerted to the fact that there is someone in a black suit going around asking questions about him.  Shy has only told people the basics, not any of the odd conversation he had with the man before he jumped.  So now he feels like he's being watched, plus at one point he goes back to his cabin to find it's been ransacked.  Nothing is missing, just everything has been pulled out as if it has been searched for something. 
One thing in their background that both Shy and Carmen have in common is that they've lost someone to this new disease called Romero's disease.  Shy's grandmother, and Carmen's father.  While all this stuff is going on, Shy also gets an email from his mother telling him it is urgent for him to try to Skype with her the next day.  When he is finally able to do that, it is as he dreaded, bad news.  Now his nephew has been diagnosed with Romero's disease.  His mother does say there is possibly a vaccination that if they caught it in time can help.  Shortly after this talk, Shy has another strange interaction with some passengers.  An older gentleman starts talking to him at the pool and invites him to dinner with his daughter and her friend.  These two girls are kind of snooty, and so of course Shy doesn't want to go, especially since the crew is not allowed to do this anyway. 
At dinner, an announcement comes over the ship's speakers saying that a storm is headed their way and they will have to ask all passengers to stay inside and off the decks.  Shy goes out to clear the deck and pull the tables and chairs and even the stand he uses to pass things out and put them into a safe area to make sure they don't go off the side of the boat.  Shy knows this means a serious storm, as he's never had to do this, and he can see the fear in his co-worker/boss's eyes.  On the deck he sees the snooty girls from before, one of them is crying. 
Then he goes back in to the dining hall.  And there is another announcement, this one saying that a huge earthquake has hit the west coast of the United States, and there is massive damage from Washington state all the way down to Mexico.  When images of the destruction are shown on the dining room screens, areas that are where Carmen and Shy are from are shown in complete disarray.  About this time passengers are told to go back to their rooms, not to stay in larger areas like the dining room because a tsunami is headed their way.  Life jackets are passed out to everyone.  But as they begin panicking, it soon becomes too late for them to get to safety because the  ship is hit.  Shy watches the wave come through one of the windows.  At this point the story takes the turn for suspense.  There are not enough life boats as the wave hits and knocks many off.  Many people won't even make the life boats as the first strike of the first wave has killed many.  And even once they get into life boats, there are sharks, and the waves aren't done coming.  And who will be able to help with all the destruction back in the United States where the help would come from.  The ship is supposed to be near something called the Hidden Islands.  So if they can only make it that far, what could they find?  Help?
I'll stop there, and let you read the story yourself.  There are many other little side stories and characters I've not talked about, so much for you to read and discover yourself.  I will say it is going to have a sequel, thank goodness, because it ends on a major cliffhanger.