UNDER MY SKIN by Judith Graves

• Publication Season/Year: Spring, 2010
• Publisher: Surge (Leap Books)
• Release Date: March 27, 2010
• ISBN (hardcover): N/A
• ISBN (paperback): 978-1-61603-000-1

All her parents wanted was for Eryn to live a normal life…

Redgrave, Alberta had its share of monsters before Eryn moved to town. Mauled pets, missing children. The Delacroix family is taking the blame, but Eryn knows the truth. Something stalks the night. Wade, the police chief’s son and Redgrave High’s resident hottie, warns her the Delacroix are dangerous. But then so is Eryn–in fact, she’s lethal. But she can’t help falling for one of the Delacroix boys, dark, brooding–human Alec. And then her world falls apart.

A normal life? Now that’s the real fairytale.

ISLAND STING by Bonnie J. Doerr

• Publication Season/Year: Spring 2010
• Publisher: Leap Books
• Release Date: January 6, 2010
• ISBN (hardcover): TBD
• ISBN (paperback): 978-1-61603-002-5

Island Sting is a contemporary eco-mystery set in the Florida Keys. Though it is fiction, details about the natural environment and endangered species are authentic. It’s a tale of intrepid teens who change the effects of disappointment and heartache by taking positive action.

Kenzie Ryan has been forced to move from New York City to Nana’s cottage on an island in the Florida Keys. Talk about culture shock! She’s been torn away from her circle of lifetime friends at St. Joseph’s Academy for girls, her swim and softball teams, and her rapid-fire city life.

On her first day in the Keys, Kenzie rescues a drowning animal with the help of Angelo, a young Cuban-American local, whose rock-star face and savvy attitude are as exotic to Kenzie as her new environment. She learns the animal is an tiny endangered  Key deer that was chased into the canal by a poacher’s hound. But there’s more trouble on the island than the senseless slaughter of an endangered species: trap thefts threaten fishermen’s livelihoods; boaters destroy sea grass habitats; discarded garbage on land and sea kills wildlife. And Kenzie thought this place would be dull…

Kenzie and Angelo make a pact to expose the vicious deer killer and clean up the environment. They recruit a team, organize Keys Teens Care, plan an environmental cleanup crusade, and wage a dangerous undercover operation to solve the Key-deer-killer mystery. Though they work with a team to tackle their mission, each silently deals with traumatic loss. Throughout the investigation, Angelo and Kenzie experience a confusing magnetic attraction while struggling with cultural differences. But bit by bit they learn how much they have in common, and as Angelo and Kenzie work to protect the fragile tropical environment and its wildlife, both begin the slow process of healing.

Book Trailer

A BLUE SO DARK by Holly Schindler

• Publisher: Flux
• Release Date: May 1, 2010
• ISBN (hardcover): TBD
• ISBN (paperback): ISBN-10: 0738719269 ISBN-13: 978-0738719269

As A BLUE SO DARK opens, Aura Ambrose struggles to hide a secret.  Her mother, a talented artist and art teacher, is slowly being consumed by schizophrenia, and Aura has been her sole caretaker ever since Aura’s dad left hem.  Convinced that “creative” equals crazy, Aura shuns her own artistic talent.  But as her mother sinks deeper into the darkness of mental illness, the hunger for a creative outlet draws Aura toward the depths of her imagination.  Just as desperation threatens to swallow her whole, Aura discovers that art, love, and family are profoundly linked—and together may offer an escape from her fears.

Author Visit Information

I’d prefer to keep personal appearances to the Southwest Missouri area.  But I’m always available for a Skype visit!  Don’t hesitate to get in touch…

THE OWL KEEPER by Christine Brodien-Jones

• Publication Season/Year: Spring 2010
• Publisher: Delacorte Press
• Release Date: April 13, 2010
• ISBN (hardcover): 978-0-385-73814-9
• ISBN (paperback): TBD                         

Maxwell Unger has always loved the night.  He used to do brave things like go tramping through the forest with his gran after dark. He loved the stories she told him about the world before the Destruction — about nature, and books, and the silver owls. His favorite story, though, was about the Owl Keeper.

According to Max’s gran, in times of darkness the Owl Keeper would appear to unite owls and sages against the powers of the dark.

Gran is gone now, and so are her stories of how the world used to be. Max is no longer brave. The forest is dangerous, the books Gran saved have been destroyed, and the silver owls are extinct. At least, that’s what the High Echelon says. But Max knows better.

Max Unger has a secret. And when a mysterious girl comes to town, he just might have to start being brave again.  The time of the Owl Keeper, Gran would say, is coming soon.

THE OWL KEEPER Book Trailer:

Discussion Guide for THE OWL KEEPER

EXIT STRATEGY by Ryan Potter

• Publication Season/Year: Spring/2010
• Publisher: Flux
• Release Date: March 1, 2010
• ISBN (hardcover): TBD
• ISBN (paperback): 978-0738715735

EXIT STRATEGY tells the story of seventeen-year-old Zach Ramsey. Looming above Zach’s hometown are the smokestacks of the truck assembly plant, the greasy lifeblood of his Detroit suburb. Surrounded by drunks, broken marriages, and factory rats living in fear of the pink slip, Zach is getting out of Blaine after graduation. But first, he’s going to enjoy the summer before his senior year.

And Zach’s having a blast until he uncovers dark secrets that shake his faith in everyone, including his best friend Tank (a state wrestling champion), whose ‘roid rages betray a shocking habit. Falling in love with Tank’s twin sister Sarah, an Ivy League-bound scholar, doesn’t exactly make Zach’s life any easier. Eventually, with enough evidence to nail the town’s steroid kingpin, Zach is faced with the toughest decision of his life—one that will prove just what kind of adult he’s destined to be.

IVY’S EVER AFTER by Dawn Lairamore

• Publication Season/Year: Spring 2010
• Publisher: Holiday House
• Release Date: May 15, 2010
• ISBN (hardcover): 978-0-823422-61-6
• ISBN (paperback): TBD

The kingdom of Ardendale has always locked its princesses in a white tower guarded by a dragon. It’s the only way to lure gallant young princes to the tiny, out-of-the-way kingdom to marry them. But Ivy is a princess who doesn’t care to be rescued, and Elridge a dragon afraid of being slain. Neither wants anything to do with Romil, a scheming prince from the frozen North who has his own less than romantic reasons for wanting Ivy’s hand in marriage. Never mind that humans and dragons have loathed each other for centuries, it isn’t long before this feisty princess and rather undragonly dragon have fled the tower and set off on a perilous journey to find Ivy’s long-lost fairy godmother, the only one who might help them escape the not-so-fairy-tale fates that await them. Full of humor and high adventure, Ivy’s Ever After is a twist on the typical princess-needs-rescuing-from-a-dragon storyline so common in traditional tales, featuring a princess and a dragon who actually team up to thwart the handsome prince.  Read Chapter 1 at www.IvysEverAfter.com.

The Book Trailer

SEEDS OF CHANGE by Jen Cullerton Johnson

• Publication Season/Year: Spring 2010
• Publisher: Lee & Low Books
• Release Date:  05-31-2010
• ISBN (hardcover): 160060367X,  9781600603679
• ISBN (paperback):                                

SEEDS OF CHANGE is  picture book biography of scientist Wangari Maathai, the first African womanand first environmentalist to win a Nobel Peace Prize (in 2004), for her work planting trees in her native Kenya.

TIME FOR BED, BABY TED by Debra Sartell

• Publication Season/Year: Spring 2010
• Publisher: Holiday House
• Release Date: February 15, 2010
• ISBN (hardcover): 9780823419685
• ISBN (paperback): TBD                         

TIME FOR BED, BABY TED is a sweet bedtime story done in rhyme.  With vibrant, lively illustrations by Kay Chorao.

It’s time for bed, but where is baby Ted?  He’s not baby Ted!  Try and guess what he is instead.  With a quack, a snack, a cluck and a tuck, a loving father prepares his child for bedtime in this charming story.

THE WITCHY WORRIES OF ABBIE ADAMS by Rhonda Hayter

• Publication Season/Year: Spring 2010
• Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers
• Release Date: April 6, 2010
• ISBN (hardcover) 978-0-8037-3468-5
• ISBN (paperback): TBD                         

THE WITCHY WORRIES OF ABBIE ADAMS is about a regular eleven-year old girl with normal problems like a really strict fifth-grade teacher. (Meet Miss Linegar. Rhymes with vinegar.)  She’s chronically behind in homework, struggling to remember all her lines in the drama club play, and tormented  by having to keep a big secret from her very best friend. And on top of all these problems, she’s also a witch and has to deal with outsized crises, like her little brother morphing into a werewolf and trying to eat his first-grade teacher.  Not to mention helping a famous young inventor, magically transported to the 21^st Century, find a way to return to his own time.

Thank you!

CHANGE OF HEART by Shari Maurer

• Publication Season/Year: Spring 2010
• Publisher: WestSide Books
• Release Date: April 23, 2010
• ISBN (hardcover): TBD
• ISBN (paperback): TBD

CHANGE OF HEART: When you’re 16 years old, it never occurs to you that you might die.  Emmi Miller’s got a fabulous life.  She has tons of friends, does great in school and is an all-star soccer player who played in Europe last summer.  It even looks like Sam Hunter, a totally cute baseball player, might be interested in her.  And then she got a virus.  No biggy, right?  Until the virus goes to her heart and weakens it so much that without a transplant, Emmi will die.

Will Emmi get a heart in time?  Is Sam too good to be true?  What about her new friend Abe, who has also had a transplant and guides her through these scary times?  Is he just being supportive or is there more going on between them?  And will Emmi realize it before it’s too late?

BEFORE I FALL by Lauren Oliver

• Publication Season/Year: Spring 2010
• Publisher: HarperTeen
• Release Date: March 2, 2010
• ISBN (hardcover): 978-0061726804
• ISBN (paperback): TBD

Samantha Kingston has it all: the world’s most crush-worthy boyfriend, three amazing best friends, and first pick of everything at Thomas Jefferson High—from the best table in the parking lot to the choicest parking spot. Friday, February 12, should be just another day in her charmed life.

Instead, it turns out to be her last.

Then she gets a chance. Seven chances, in fact. Reliving her last day during one miraculous week, she will untangle the mystery surrounding her death—and discover the true value of everything she is in danger of losing.

TELL ME A SECRET by Holly Cupala

• Publication Season/Year: Spring 2010
• Publisher: HarperTeen
• Release Date: June 22, 2010
• ISBN (hardcover): 978-0061766664
• ISBN (paperback): TBD

It’s tough, living in the shadow of a dead girl…

In the five years since her bad-girl sister Xanda’s death, Miranda Mathison has wondered about the secret her sister took to the grave, and what really happened the night she died. Now, just as Miranda is on the cusp of her dreams—a best friend to unlock her sister’s world, a ticket to art school, and a boyfriend to fly her away from it all—Miranda has a secret all her own.

Then two lines on a pregnancy test confirm her worst fears. Stripped of her former life, Miranda must make a choice with tremendous consequences and finally face her sister’s demons and her own.

In this powerful debut novel, stunning new talent Holly Cupala illuminates the dark struggle of a girl who must let go of her past to find a way into her own future.

THREE RIVERS RISING by Jame Richards

• Publication Season/Year: Spring 2010
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Release Date: April 13, 2010
• ISBN (hardcover): TBD
• ISBN (paperback): TBD

THREE RIVERS RISING: Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania: 1888-1889. Three Rivers Rising includes a forbidden cross-class romance between a guest and a hired boy at the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, site of the dam that burst releasing 20 million tons of water into the valley below. The main characters are in the city of Johnstown when the wave hits and piles debris at the stone bridge, damming up the water once again. The city of Johnstown is under water and the debris at the bridge is on fire. Each thinks the other is dead. Will they find each other? Survive? Endure being disowned by their families?

In the city of Lovecraft, the Proctors rule and a great Engine turns below the streets, grinding any resistance to their order to dust. The necrovirus is blamed for Lovecraft’s epidemic of madness, for the strange and eldritch creatures that roam the streets after dark, and for everything that the city leaders deem Heretical-born of the belief in magic and witchcraft. And for Aoife Grayson, her time is growing shorter by the day.  Aoife Grayson’s family is unique, in the worst way-every one of them, including her mother and her elder brother Conrad, has gone mad on their sixteenth birthday. And now, a ward of the state, and one of the only female students at the School of Engines, she is trying to pretend that her fate can be different.  Aoife is gifted in the mechanics that run her world, but no amount of study can erase the memory of the day Conrad lost his mind and attacked her before going on the run from the Proctors. Or from the knowledge that her own sixteenth birthday is fast approaching.  Aoife’s s future seems bleak. Until one day she receives a letter that reads simply:

Find the witch’s alphabet

Save yourself

Aoife knows the letter is from Conrad, but is he a rambling madman or warning her to get out while she still can? In order to save herself, Aoife must find her brother. And in order to that, she must leave Lovecraft and venture into a world of Heretics and air pirates, hidden rooms and dark family secrets…before the clock winds down, and she too succumbs to the necrovirus.