Margolin father-daughter team interviewed for VANISHING ACTS

In a follow-up to the other week's post, we have a fantastic video of Phillip Margolin and Ami Margolin Rome being interviewed on the morning show AM Northwest for the release of their middle-grade novel VANISHING ACTS!

GHOSTS IN THE FOG reviews, videos, and WWII revelations

Just released this month, GHOSTS IN THE FOG by Samantha Seiple is a gripping narrative nonfiction account of the little-known Japanese invasion into Alaska during World War II.  Seiple's website has a wealth of intriguing photos and videos about this facet of history, which you can view at this link!  Be sure to also check out Seiple's editor at Scholastic talking about the book at the video below.  GHOSTS IN THE FOG is in great company!

"Grabs the reader...Ms. Seiple has brought us a treasure." --Library Media Connection

"Just when you thought everything that could be written about the major battles of World War II had been, along comes GHOSTS IN THE FOG...Riveting descriptions and insights." --North County Times

"An enlightening account full of compelling stories of survival and perseverance." --Kirkus

"Well-researched and incredibly detailed." --VOYA 

Scholastic, October 2011

Bookstores prepping for the release of VANISHING ACTS

VANISHING ACTS, an exciting new middle grade mystery from New York Times bestselling thriller author Phillip Margolin (SUPREME JUSTICE, FUGITIVE) and his daughter Ami Margolin Rome, is coming out next week. Bookstores across the US are already preparing for the release, with Powell's Books in Oregon highlighting the authors and their upcoming local talk and signing on the bookstore marquee! 

Check out this great early review for the book:

"[VANISHING ACTS] pulls a few Nancy Drew parallels into a wholly contemporary story.  Like titian-haired Nancy, 12-year-old Madison Kincaid lost her mother in early childhood and lives with her well-known, highly successful attorney dad.  And, like Nancy, Madison is a well-rounded high-achiever...The authors work in realistic emotional tensions as they thread their way through the two central plot strands...A budding romance and vivid court scenes give readers more reasons to hope for future installments of Madison's adventures." --Booklist

 HarperCollins, October 2011

MY CELEBRITY, MY NEW YORK featured on Pix 11 News

Journalist Jeryl Brunner's MY CELEBRITY, MY NEW YORK: Famous New Yorkers Share Their Favorite Places comes out next week, and the book and author have just been featured on Pix 11 News!  Brunner has written for InStyle Magazine, O Magazine, People, and Us Weekly.  Her interviews with celebrities inspired her book, which features the secret hot-spots celebrities love to visit in New York City.  Brunner calls the book "a love letter to New York." 

Be sure to check out the Pix 11 video below!  In a neat twist, Brunner's interviewer also happens to be a JVNLA author: Karen Schaler, author of TRAVEL THERAPY (http://traveltherapytrips.com/).   

MY CELEBRITY, MY NEW YORK comes out from Globe Pequot Press in October 2011.  Learn more about Jeryl Brunner and MY CELEBRITY, MY NEW YORK at www.mycitymynewyork.com!

 

Italian trailer for A SEA IN FLAMES

Carl Safina's A SEA IN FLAMES (Crown, April 2011) has just been released in Italy, and the publisher, VerdeNero, has created a fabulous trailer for the book!  Now, it may be a little difficult to understand the entire trailer if you don't speak Italian, but we thought this was just too cool not to share!

US reviews for this incredible book: 

"[A SEA IN FLAMES] offers a revealing, thoughtful history of a moment when human manipulation of nature malfunctioned spectacularly...Written in a clear, conversational style...Readers will find the book accessible and agreeable...An insightful work." --The New York Times Book Review

"Not since Rachel Carson wrote her sea trilogy has a conservationist written about marine ecosystems with the factual elegance of Carl Safina." --The Washington Post

Rave review for LIGHT FROM A DISTANT STAR

Mary McGarry Morris's LIGHT FROM A DISTANT STAR has just received a stunning rave review from The Associated Press, and it has been reprinted and re-posted by newspapers across the US!  You can read the full review by clicking here.  An excerpt is below.

Including this new rave, several reviews have now compared Morris's novel to Harper Lee's TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD.  Lee's widely beloved classic has been popular in the media lately, with UK readers having just voted it as the #1 book they want to receive on the next World Book Night (see link here).  For anyone who's ever read and enjoyed TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, be sure to pick up what's sure to become a new classic: LIGHT FROM A DISTANT STAR!

LIGHT FROM A DISTANT STAR was released into bookstores this week.  Learn more about the author here: http://marymcgarrymorris.com/
 
From The Associated Press:

Morris laces new novel with growing sense of dread
By Monica Rhor

Morris's finely crafted prose--simple and lyrical--captures perfectly that sliver of pre-adolescence when the very world around us seems to shudder and shift, when the adults we admire suddenly reveal their flaws, and everything we treasure seems to be slipping away...The journey of Nellie, smart, independent, and unwilling to bend, into being a traditional girl, recalls the central thread of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD where violence and tragedy also propel Scout Finch into a deeper understanding of human nature.  

But unlike that book, in which Atticus Finch forms an unassailable center of honor and integrity, LIGHT FROM A DISTANT STAR portrays a muddled adult world, where honor can often hide weakness, success can mask cruelty, and even heroes can harbor dark impulses.  

Morris...nimbly laces her latest novel with a growing sense of dread, hinting at the awfulness that is about to enter the lives of Nellie and her fragile family.  But it is that awfulness the violence itself, the aftermath, or simply the terrible knowledge that comes when all veneers are stripped away?

The lessons of LIGHT FROM A DISTANT STAR may not be as uplifting as the clearly drawn morality of Harper Lee's classic, but Nellie Peck's stubborn belief in the goodness of a fellow human being offers a much-needed counterpoint to our culture of cynicism and moral muddiness.

Crown, September 2011