Every single story is original, fresh and new --- there are distinct characters who get into crazy adventures, twists and turns, strange unexplored lands and the author’s unique take on language. However, that doesn’t mean that the overall idea for the story --- the inspiration --- has to come from thin air.
As author Fiona McIntosh explains, lots of books are born from a trope, or “a recurring idea in fiction.” In fact, her new middle grade novel, THE WHISPERER, came from the same trope as Mark Twain’s THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER --- two twins are separated at birth but maintain an unbreakable bond.
Read Fiona’s blog post, below, to learn more about how an author can take a tried-and-true idea and make it their very own, as well as to get some inside info on THE WHISPERER!
Teenreads loves National Poetry Month, and so do our Teen Board members! To celebrate these 30 days of haikus, sonnets, limericks and everything in between, Teen Board member Mary M. wrote a series of poems addressing Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of THE CATCHER IN THE RYE. As Mary notes, "In all of the poems, the 'you' is Holden. Most of them are written from a character's perspective (whose name is in the title), but two of them are written from a third-person perspective." Read Mary's poems below, and perhaps you'll be inspired to write some poems based off of one of your own favorite books!
April 8, 2015
This Bookreporter.com Special Newsletter spotlights a book that is now in stores. Read more about it, and enter our Spring Preview Contest by Thursday, April 9th at 11:59am ET for a chance to win one of five copies of THIS HEART OF MINE: A New Whiskey Creek Novel by Brenda Novak. Please note that each contest is only open for 24 hours, so you will need to act quickly!
The kids in the National Book Foundation’s BookUp program do a lot of things --- they participate in an after-school reading group led by an acclaimed, local author. They go on field trips to libraries and bookstores to get their own books. They learn the importance of reading and develop their literacy, social and emotional skills. And, sometimes, they get to go on cool field trips!
Below, Mariam, an 11-year-old BookUp member who is part of the Williamsburg, Brooklyn group, writes about the trip that all Book-Up members took to the New York Academy of Sciences a couple of weekends ago. While there, they not only got to speak to groundbreaking professionals in the science field, but also to Katherine Duckett, who works at the acclaimed science fiction publisher Tor and writes her own speculative fiction.
Below, see Mariam’s post about the field trip, and how science and reading are more related than you might think.
April 7, 2015The following are lists of books releasing the weeks of April 6th and April 13th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers.
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