Jacqueline Houtman
This week, we’re celebrating Jacqueline’s debut! Jacqueline spent way too many years learning to be a scientist (27, if you count kindergarten). The best part of all that school is that some people, especially her parents, now call her Dr. Houtman. In the rare moments she did not spend in the lab, she did theater to feed the rest of her brain. Then she came to her senses and started over as a freelance science writer and editor. She has written for physicians, scientists, and the guy down the street. She is equally comfortable writing for students in Medical School and Middle School, because the writing isn’t really that different. Med students just use bigger words. The writing she enjoys most is “sciency fiction” for kids, where science is integral to the theme and plot but, unlike science fiction, it’s all real. Jacqueline lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with her engineer husband and two sciency kids.
Here’s a little bit about THE REINVENTION OF EDISON THOMAS (Front Street).
Eddy Thomas can read a college physics book, but he can’t read the emotions on the faces of his classmates at Drayton Middle School. He can spend hours tinkering with an invention, but he can’t stand more than a few minutes in a noisy crowd. With his prodigious science knowledge, Eddy invents a traffic-calming device to solve a safety problem, but he can’t invent a solution to his bully problem. Or can he? By trusting his new friends and accepting their help, Eddy learns that even the mechanics of friendship can be learned.
THE REINVENTION OF EDISON THOMAS by Jacqueline Houtman
If you had to give your book a movie rating: G through Rated R, which one would you give and why?
I would give it a G. There are no swear words (unless you count “snap”). There is some mild violence in the form of bullying, but it’s tamer than most Saturday morning fare. No blood is spilled, only ketchup.
What topics, issues, or themes does your book address? What drove you to write about them?
Science
I’m a scientist by training and I’ve been a freelance science writer for about ten years. I wanted to write a book that truly incorporates science into its plot and themes. I wanted my main character to think like a scientist, because science is a process, not just a collection of facts (although there are plenty of science facts in the book).
Asperger’s syndrome
Although I never state it in the book, Eddy has Asperger’s syndrome, which is part of the autism spectrum. I didn’t label Eddy because I wanted readers to get to know him as a character first, not a diagnosis. His autism is only part of who he is. There are a lot of great books coming out lately with autistic/Aspergian characters, which I applaud, because people on the autism spectrum need to be fully represented in literature as a diverse population, not as stereotypes.
Bullies and Friends
Bullying is a huge problem in our schools, and there are all kinds of bullies. Kids on the autism spectrum are frequent targets of bullies. They can also be great friends.
Name a few examples of readers who would identify or like your book.
- A 12-year-old boy who likes nonfiction, but doesn’t usually care for fiction.
- An 11-year-old girl who loves science.
- A teacher who wants a better idea of what life is like for her students on the autism spectrum.
List a few statistically improbable phrases or sentences one might find in your book. These are phrases or sentences you might never find anywhere else.
- woolly mammoths in the biography section
- the nutritive value of paper
- a tiny little walrus
- aunt Aquinas Thomas is no saint
- Terry’s hair reminded Eddy of lapis lazuli
How can your book be used in the classroom?
Students can discuss the subjects of bullying and friendship, and why it might be a good idea to befriend someone who’s a little different. There are also ample opportunities for cross-curricular tie-ins, especially with science. I have written a reader guide, which is available on my website and includes ideas for tie-ins with science, art, math, social studies, language arts, and music. (http://www.jhoutman.com/pages/ReaderGuide)
Now tell us about other already-published books that readers of your book might enjoy.
- Science fans will like THE GREEN GLASS SEA by Ellen Klages and THE EVOLUTION OF CALPURNIA TATE by Jacqueline Kelly.
- Those interested in seeing life through Aspergian eyes will like MOCKINGBIRD by Kathryn Erskine.
Now whet our appetites with a teaser.
Eddy sat on the steps outside Drayton Middle School, where the noise from the science fair in the gym still roared in his head. Tiffany always told him to picture a calm place when he felt stressed. He thought of the rocky beach. He tried to remember the rhythmic lapping sound of the waves and the feel of the rocks pushing up against the soles of his feet.
Are you offering authors visits to schools, libraries, or other organizations?
Yes.
Are you willing to speak nationally?
Yes.
List a few example titles of presentations, talks, or workshops you might give for an author visit.
I can talk about science, autism awareness, the writing and publishing process, or a combination of these subjects. Titles include:
- How to Write (Revise, Revise, Revise) and Publish a Book
- The Spectrum: More than Roy G. Biv
- Not in So Many Words: How to Make your Manuscript Lean and Mean
- Elements of Good Science Children’s Writing
This concludes our interview with our latest author, JACQUELINE HOUTMAN. We wish her much success with her debut novel THE REINVENTION OF EDISON THOMAS. To see what Jacqueline is up to these days, visit her website at http://www.jhoutman.com or her blog at http://jjhoutman.livejournal.com.
*GIVEAWAY ALERT* Jacqueline is giving away a signed copy of THE REINVENTION OF EDISON THOMAS. Tell your friends and leave a comment for the author! Enter by September 7th, 2010 11:59 PM CST. (U.S. and Canadian residents only, please.)
Your email address will not be displayed publicly and will only be used to contact you if you win! And don’t forget to participate in our other AuthorsNow! giveaways.
Categories: Author Spotlight · Contests
This week, we’re celebrating Inara’s debut! Inara Scott grew up in the winter wonderland of Buffalo, NY. Consequently, she spent much of her childhood complaining about being cold. To spare the world her whining, she fled the cold climate and eventually wound up in the Pacific NW, where the old Doug Fir trees and thick ferns make you think you’ve wandered into a fairy tale. Inara loves to hike, canoe, and play outside. She is addicted to yoga. Despite being a writer, Inara fears deep, intellectual books, loves romance and fantasies, and listens to cheesy, happy music.
Here’s a little bit…
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Categories: Author Spotlight · Contests
CBAY Books is conducting a book trailer contest for The Secrets of the Cheese Syndicate. Kids ages 7 - 12 are eligible and can work together in teams. The winners (inside the continental US) will get an in-person author visit from me. You can find all the details here:
CBAY BOOKS VIDEO TRAILER CONTEST. Entries must be received by September 30, 2010.
Happy Creating!
Donna St. Cyr…
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Categories: CBAY Books · Contests · Louisiana · Middle Grade · St. Cyr, Donna
Depending on your geography, school has already started or will be in session shortly. If you are geographically lucky, you won't hear the chiming of the school bell until after Labor Day. In south Louisiana we return to school in early August, the absolute nastiest time of the year (unless you enjoy 95 degree heat and 99 percent humidity).
In the school library, my favorite part of the new school year was introducing new books to my students. Boxes from orders placed the previous May always greeted me like Christmas presents waiting to be opened. After a summer of reading from…
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Categories: Connect · Louisiana · School · St. Cyr, Donna
Who: Book bloggers (any teacher, teen, librarian, bookseller, reader, etc. who blogs about books)
What: Win the chance to host the exclusive cover reveal of FIXING DELILAH by Sarah Ockler on your blog and receive a signed hardcover of the book
When: 8/12 through 8/15, winner announced 8/16/2010
How: Leave a comment with a link to your blog at
Who Will Reveal the Fixing Delilah Cover?
Where: For more details and to enter your blog, visit
Who Will Reveal the Fixing Delilah Cover?
Categories: Contests · Ockler, Sarah
There has been a lot of talk lately of adult readers' interest in YA novels--specifically, this
New York Times Article. Some explanation is that this literature is supposedly easier to read and has less pages. I believe this is definitely true in some cases but not all or even most. My take on why more adults are gravitating toward YA? The connection.
There are common themes in YA lit, be it in fantasy, paranormal, or realistic genres. There is usually a romantic scenario, a friendship gone wrong (or one that characters are struggling with), search for identity and/or meaning in…
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Categories: Connect
One thing people often say about Cindy Pon's SILVER PHOENIX is that it will make you hungry. And it's true; the young heroine of this story has plenty of delicious meals in between riding dragons and fighting off monsters.
In "The Literary Glutton," an essay in EX LIBRIS: CONFESSIONS OF A COMMON READER, Anne Fadiman theorizes that food is most appealing in books when the character is hungry. ("The best food writing is associated not with decadent repletion but with hunger.") Some of the most memorable food scenes I've read have been in Laura Ingalls Wilder's LITTLE HOUSE books. Life on…
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Categories: 0Content · Connect
This week, we’re celebrating Patti’s debut! One of Patti Zelch’s fondest childhood memories is of her family’s’ weekly visit to her hometown library in East Liverpool, Ohio. That family ritual created a love for books that traveled with her when she and her husband moved to south Florida. There she read to her three children, shared books with the pupils in her elementary school class and used picture books to introduce lessons to her middle school students. After fifteen years of teaching, Patti retired and became a student. She earned her MFA at Spalding University in…
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Categories: Author Spotlight · Contests
This week, we’re celebrating Tameka’s debut! Tameka Fryer Brown has gone from medical supply sales rep, to stay-at-home mom, to children’s book author. She’s worked with children of all ages in various church and volunteer organizations, and as a Teacher’s Assistant at her children’s Montessori school. Around Our Way on Neighbors’ Day is Tameka’s first published picture book.
Here’s a little bit about AROUND OUR WAY ON NEIGHBORS' DAY (Abrams Books for Young Readers).
Neighbors gather on a hot summer day for a joyful block party: Kids play double Dutch; men debate at the barber shop and play chess; mothers and aunts…
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Categories: Author Spotlight · Contests
- Publication Season/Year: Fall/2010
- Publisher: Sylvan Dell Publishing
- Release Date: Aug. 10, 2010
- ISBN (hardcover): 9781607180722
- ISBN (paperback): 9781607180838
Watch out! A hurricane is brewing! Humans prepare for the storm, but what about wild animals? How do they survive the hurricane? On a reef below the water’s surface, fish band together in large schools. Dolphin pods squeeze close and birds gather in flocks. They know the storm is coming, so they band together and wait for it to pass.
The Author: Patti Zelch
Location: Key Largo, FL
Influenced by wildlife around her, Patti Zelch’s stories have been published in magazines and an anthology. While preparing for hurricane Wilma, her…
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Categories: 2010 Fall · Animal · Creative Nonfiction · Debut · Events · Florida · Local · National · Picture Book · Rated G · Science · Stand-alone · Sylvan Dell Publishing · Zelch, Patti R.
- Publication Season/Year: Summer/2011
- Publisher: Simon Pulse
- Release Date: TBD
- ISBN (hardcover): TBD
- ISBN (paperback): TBD
In a world where Thinkers control the population and rules aren’t meant to be broken, fifteen-year-old Violet Schoenfeld does a hell of a job shattering them to pieces. When secrets about her “dead” sister and not-so-missing father hit the fan, Vi must make a choice: control or be controlled.
The Author: Elana Johnson
Location: Pleasant Grove, UT
Elana is a young adult author, and has also penned From the Query to the Call, an ebook that every writer needs to read before they query. She runs a personal blog on publishing…
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Categories: 2011 Summer · Conformity · Debut · Johnson, Elana · Local · National · Rated PG-13 · Science Fiction · Simon Pulse · Stand-alone · Utah · Young Adult
- Publication Season/Year: Spring 2011
- Publisher: Speak
- Release Date: January 6, 2011
- ISBN (hardcover): N/A
- ISBN (paperback): 978-0142417713
In the year 2150, being a girl isn't necessarily a good thing, especially when your sixteenth (read sex-teenth) birthday is fast approaching. That in itself would be enough to make anyone more than a little nuts, what with the tattoo and all – but Nina Oberon's life has taken a definite turn for the worse. Her mother is brutally stabbed and left for dead. Before dying, she entrusts a secret book to Nina, telling her to deliver it to Nina's father. But, first Nina has to find him…
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Categories: 2011 Spring · Death · Debut · Discrimination · Events · Friendship · Indiana · Karr, Julia · Local · Love · National · Rated PG-13 · Science Fiction · Speak · Stand-alone · Young Adult
- Publication Season/Year: Fall/2010
- Publisher: Jabberwocky
- Release Date: October 12, 2010
- ISBN (hardcover): 978-1402240195
- ISBN (paperback): TBD
For most kids, accidentally starting an interspecies war on Halloween would be the biggest event of their lives. But for Elliot Penster, it was only the beginning. Three years later, the Brownies, who are hopelessly losing that war against the Goblins, make 11-year-old Elliot their king.
Elliot dodges the Goblins’ attempts to do away with him, until they finally go too far and blow up his house. Now it’s time for the king to fight back and end the war once and for all.
The Author: Jennifer A. Nielsen
Location: Northern Utah
Jennifer…
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Categories: 2010 Fall · Action/Adventure · Bullies · Debut · Events · Fantasy · Humor · Jabberwocky · Local · Magic · Middle Grade · Mythology · National · Nielsen, Jennifer A. · Rated PG · Stand-alone · Utah
- Publication Season/Year: Spring, 2011
- Publisher: Razorbill
- Release Date: March 22, 2011
- ISBN (hardcover): 978-1595143976
- ISBN (paperback): [XXX-X-XXXXXX-XX-X or TBD]
Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.
Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone—one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship—tried to kill…
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Categories: 2011 Spring · Debut · Events · Local · Mystery · National · North Carolina · Rated R · Razorbill · Revis, Beth · Science · Science Fiction · Secrecy · Stand-alone · Survival · Young Adult
- Publication Season/Year: Spring 2011
- Publisher: Frances Foster Books/Farrar Straus Giroux
- Release Date: Spring 2011
- ISBN (hardcover): TBD
- ISBN (paperback): TBD
Nick Gardner is having a rough year. His brother’s a jerk, his big fat dad has hit the road, and his sort-of best friend is dying. When a feverish hallucination puts Nick on a collision course with a water tower, a television news crew, and one Jaycee Amato, a girl with Siberian Husky eyes, his whole life begins to change. Together, they set out on a secret journey to keep a promise to their dying friend. Will they accomplish what they set out…
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Categories: 2011 Spring · Contemporary · Death · Debut · Family · Farrar, Straus, and Giroux · First Love/First Crush · Friendship · Literature · Local · Love · National · New York · Polisner, Gae · Rated PG · Stand-alone · Young Adult
