Posts Categorized: speak

Sirens In The Time of Gatsby Janet Fox Blog Tour- Post #8

15 May, 2013 by in penguin teen, Sirens, speak 1 comment

Thanks to ModPodge Blog Tours and Janet Fox for inviting us to be today’s stop on the official Sirens Blog Tour.

Janet is here with  Post #8. Calling All Ghosts: Ouija Boards, Spiritualism, and Harry Houdini


“One of the central images of SIRENS is that of ghosts and spirits and magic. I found this facet of the 1920s by accident, but it fit so perfectly into the novel I couldn’t ignore it. Cue the spooky music…

Maybe it was the war, maybe it was the influenza outbreak, but people in the 1920s became obsessed with life after death.




There were (well, yeah, there still are) two camps: those who believed in life after, and those who didn’t. Harry Houdini didn’t. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Howard Thurston did.


Houdini and Thurston were both magicians, so they knew how to pull the wool over someone’s eyes. Doyle – Mr. Sherlock Holmes – knew how to uncover secrets. These three were all good friends, and they argued this point excessively. Were there spirits? Ghosts? Was there life after death? Who could prove the point?


Two of the popular parlor games of the 1920s were séances and Ouija boards. Both of these purported to channel the dead through a medium, in the case of a séance, or through the group emotions, in the case of a Ouija board (if you’ve never played with the latter, it’s kind of fun. But you have to suspend your disbelief. That makes it spooky.) The dead would send, through these media, obscure messages back to the living.



Magic shows were a public phenomenon of the 1920s, and two of the greatest magicians were Harry Houdini and Howard Thurston. Houdini was a skeptic: he knew how to make people think one thing, but “it was all a trick. Fakery.” Thurston, too, was an excellent magician, but he actually believed that there was something guiding him, a kind of spirit life. The two engaged in a friendly competition, culminating with a wager that the one who died first would haunt the other.


Thurston’s shows were all about spiritualism. He would make a girl float magically in the air; he would make a girl vanish altogether; he would call forth floating apparitions to “speak.” His illusions were some of the best and his popularity high. But Houdini’s renown was greater, due to his amazing performances in escaping dire circumstances. And Houdini’s premature death of peritonitis gave a legendary aspect to his name, since the secrets of his magic act – ironically – went with him to the grave.


Thurston lived on but his magic shows were supplanted by a new public fixation: the moving picture.


As the decade progressed and Americans forgot their heartbreak over the war and their losses during the flu pandemic, and became more and more obsessed with the “new” things – cosmetics, automobiles, wealth, and glamour – preoccupation with spirits slipped away. They didn’t know it, but at the end of the 1920s Americans would bump up against a whole different kind of haunting experience: the Depression.”



Sirens book summary: When Jo Winter’s parents send her off to live with her rich cousin on the glittering island of Manhattan, it’s to find a husband and forget about her brother Teddy’s death. But all that glitters is not gold.. 


Caught up in the swirl of her cousin’s bobbed-hair set—and the men that court them— Jo soon realizes that the talk of marriage never stops, and behind the seemingly boundless gains are illicit business endeavors, gangsters, and their molls. Jo would much rather spend time the handsome but quiet Charles, a waiter at the Algonquin Hotel, than drape herself over a bootlegger. But when she befriends a moll to one of the most powerful men in town, Jo begins to uncover secrets—secrets that threaten an empire and could secure Jo’s freedom from her family. 


Can her newfound power buy her love? Or will it to ruin Jo, and everyone around her?






About the author:
Janet Fox is the author of award-winning books for children and young adults. FAITHFUL (Speak/Penguin Young Readers 2010), set in Yellowstone National Park in 1904, is a YALSA Best Fiction for YA nominee and an Amelia Bloomer List pick, 2011. FORGIVEN (Speak 2011), set in 1906 San Francisco during the great earthquake, is a Junior Library Guild selection 2011, and a 2012 WILLA Literary Awards Finalist. Her most recent novel, SIRENS (Speak 2012) is set in 1925 New York. Janet has numerous MG and YA projects underway. She is a former high school English teacher and received her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults in 2010 (Vermont College of Fine Arts). Janet lives in Bozeman, Montana.

Learn more about Janet Fox on her website/ facebook/ blog


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Teaser Tuesday-Impossible by Nancy Werlin

02 Mar, 2010 by in nancy werlin, penguin teens, speak 3 comments

This is a weekly book meme hosted by Miz B. of Should Be Reading.

This is how it works:
Grab a book that you are currently reading
Turn to any page and grab two teaser sentences from that page
Make sure it’s not a spoiler in case anyone wants to read the book
Include the author and name of the book

“Lucy directed her gaze accross the street, to Miranda’s abandoned shopping cart that stood next to Mrs. Angelakis’s front steps.
“She stripped the ruined camellia off her wrist and tossed it to the ground”.” p.62
Book: Impossible by Nancy Werlin, a National Book Award Finalist

Teaser Tuesday-Book Birthdays Today!

09 Feb, 2010 by in robin palmer, speak 3 comments



published February 9th 2010 by Hyperion Book CH

details Hardcover, 304 pages

isbn 1423116399

When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents took her on a trip to the Louvre…to case it. For her seventh birthday, Katarina and her Uncle Eddie traveled to Austria…to steal the crown jewels. When Kat turned fifteen, she planned a con of her own–scamming her way into the best boarding school in the country, determined to leave the family business behind. Unfortunately, leaving “the life” for a normal life proves harder than she’d expected.

Soon, Kat’s friend and former co-conspirator, Hale, appears out of nowhere to bring her back into the world she tried so hard to escape. But he has good reason: a powerful mobster has been robbed of his priceless art collection and wants to retrieve it. Only a master thief could have pulled this job, and Kat’s father isn’t just on the suspect list, he is the list. Caught between Interpol and a far more deadly enemy, Kat’s dad needs her help.

For Kat there is only one solution: track down the paintings and steal them back. So what if it’s a spectacularly impossible job? She’s got two weeks, a teenage crew, and hopefully just enough talent to pull off the biggest heist in history-or at least her family’s (very crooked) history.



published February 9th 2010 by Speak

details Paperback, 288 pages

isbn 014241123X

Sophie Greene gets good grades, does the right thing, and has a boyfriend that her parents— and her younger brother—just love. (Too bad she doesn’t love him.) Sophie dreams of being more like Devon Deveraux, star of her favorite romance novels, but, in reality, Sophie isn’t even daring enough to change her nail polish. All of that changes when Sophie goes to Florida to visit her grandma Roz, and she finds herself seated next to a wolfishly goodlooking guy on the plane. The two hit it off, and before she knows it, Sophie’s living on the edge. But is the drama all it’s cracked up to be?





published March 1st 2010 by Harperteen

details Hardcover, 352 pages

isbn 0061686514

Before he died, Melissa’s father told her about stars. He told her that the brightest stars weren’t always the most beautiful—that if people took the time to look at the smaller stars, if they looked with a telescope at the true essence of the star, they would find real beauty. But even though Melissa knows that beauty isn’t only skin deep, the people around her don’t seem to feel that way. There’s her gorgeous sister Ashley who will barely acknowledge Melissa at school, there’s her best friend Ryan, who may be falling in love with the sophisticated Courtney, and there’s Melissa’s mother who’s dating someone new, someone who Melissa knows will never be able to replace her father.

To make sure she doesn’t lose her father completely, Melissa spends her time trying to piece together the last of his secrets and completing a journal her father began—one about love and relationships and the remarkable ways people find one another. But when tragedy strikes, Melissa has to start living and loving in the present, as she realizes that being beautiful on the outside doesn’t mean you can’t be beautiful on the inside.

This is a lyrical tale of love, loss and self-discovery from the author of THE SEPTEMBER SISTERS

Eleventh Grade Burns

published February 9th 2010 by Dutton Juvenile

details Hardcover, 208 pages

isbn 0525422439 (isbn13: 9780525422433)

The penultimate chapter in the thrilling vampire series!

Things have taken a darker turn for the half-human teenager with an appetite for blood. Joss, a vampire slayer and Vlad’s former friend, has moved back to Bathory. A mysterious and powerful new vampire, Dorian, appears with a shocking secret and an overwhelming desire to drink Vlad’s blood. And Vlad’s arch enemy, D’Ablo, has a sinister plan to eliminate Vlad once and for all. With death threatening from every angle, Vlad will have to use every ounce of his skill and training to survive, but nothing can prepare him for what awaits him in the end



published February 9th 2010 by Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers

details Hardcover, 248 pages

isbn 0375956999

Being a hefty, deaf newcomer almost makes Will Halpin the least popular guy at Coaler High. But when he befriends the only guy less popular than him, the dork-namic duo has the smarts and guts to figure out who knocked off the star quarterback. Will can’t hear what’s going on, but he’s a great observer. So, who did it? And why does that guy talk to his fingers? And will the beautiful girl ever notice him? (Okay, so Will’s interested in more than just murder . . .)

Those who prefer their heroes to be not-so-usual and with a side of wiseguy will gobble up this witty, geeks-rule debut.

HAPPY BOOK BIRTHDAYS!!

Book Review-Wintergirls

06 Feb, 2010 by in book review, penguin USA, speak, Wintergirls 3 comments

Wintergirls
by Laurie Halse Anderson
published March 9th 2010 by Speak (first published March 19th 2009)
details Paperback, 288 pages
literary awards An ALA/YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers (2010), Cybils Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction (2009), An ALA Best Book for Young Adults (2010)
isbn 014241557X
“Dead girl walking,” the boys say in the halls.
“Tell us your secret,” the girls whisper, one toilet to another.
I am that girl.
I am the space between my thighs, daylight shining through.
I am the bones they want, wired on a porcelain frame.
Lia and Cassie are best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies, competitors in a deadly contest to see who can be the skinniest. But what comes after size zero and size double-zero? When Cassie succumbs to the demons within, Lia feels she is being haunted by her friend’s restless spirit.

In her most emotionally wrenching, lyrically written book since the multiple-award-winning Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson explores Lia’s descent into the powerful vortex of anorexia, and her painful path toward recovery.

I read Wintergirls a couple of weeks ago and it took me a while to process. Laurie Halse Anderson does a wonderful job of taking her readers into the mind of an anorexic. Counting calories with each meal, feeling guilt and anger eat her from the inside out. Lia is born to a perfectionist physician mother who is cold and measures worth by her accomplishments. Her father isn’t quite sure how to handle the situation and step-mother is stuck in the role of weigh-in nurse. Lia’s thoughts become more and more erratic and disorganized as she spirals further into the pit of self-destruction, telling herself over and over again “must not eat.”
This is not a fun read by any means, nor a feel good fuzzy book. It has graphic descriptions of cutting, suicidal thought and anger. Wintergirls may not be a wise choice for any girls recently in recovery for eating disorders because of triggers to relapse.

This is my favorite review I read on the book http://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/nm_reviews/?detail=129276kd
Some really good quotes from the book
“I am beginning to measure myself in strength, not pounds. Sometimes in smiles. “

“Do I want to die from the inside out or the outside in?”
“I am angry that I starved my brain and that I sat shivering in my bed at night instead of dancing or reading poetry or eating ice cream or kissing a boy…”
“I don’t just use yarn from a store. I buy old sweaters from consignment shops. The older the better, and unravel them. There are countries of women in this scarf/shawl/blanket. Soon it will be big enough to keep me warm. ”
“I’m learning how to taste everything. ”
“There is no magic cure, no making it all go away forever. There are only small steps upward; an easier day, an unexpected laugh, a mirror that doesn’t matter anymore.

I am thawing. “
Laurie Halse Anderson (Wintergirls)

Visit Laurie Halse Anderson’s website at http://www.wintergirls.net/ for a view inside the book, resources for teacher and other products
In this video Laurie talks about why she wrote the book and her conflicts in writing it…