I’m excited for May 5 because that’s when The Stars of Summer publishes, but I’m even MORE excited to be sharing a book birthday with a debut novel I have loved for a long time: The Sound of Life and Everything by Krista Van Dolzer.
Krista and I have been fans of each others’ writing for a while now. In 2011, I entered the project I was working on in her “An Agent’s Inbox” series on her blog; it didn’t win a bid from the judging agent, but I’ll always be happy I entered, because that’s how I connected with Krista. Soon after that, she let me beta-read her middle-grade work in progress, which I adored, and we both ended up selling our books to Shauna Rossano at Putnam. And now we have books publishing from the same imprint, with the same editor, on the same day. What could be better??
To celebrate, I’m giving away an advance copy of this terrific book, which is also a Junior Library Guild selection. Here’s the description:
A fascinating speculative historical fiction debut set in 1950s California—perfect for fans of When You Reach Me.
Twelve-year-old Ella Mae Higbee is a sensible girl. She eats her vegetables and wants to be just like Sergeant Friday, her favorite character on Dragnet. So when her auntie Mildred starts spouting nonsense about a scientist who can bring her cousin back to life from blood on his dog tags, Ella Mae is skeptical—until he steps out of a bio-pod right before her eyes.
But the boy is not her cousin—he’s Japanese. And in California in the wake of World War II, the Japanese are still feared and despised. When her aunt refuses to take responsibility, Ella Mae and her Mama take him home instead. Determined to do what’s right by her new friend, Ella Mae teaches Takuma English and defends him from the reverend’s talk of H-E-double-toothpicks. But when his memories start to resurface, Ella Mae learns some shocking truths about her own family and more importantly, what it means to love.
(Doesn’t that sound fantastic? It is!)
Krista’s website (with preorder links)
GIVEAWAY ALERT! You can enter to win an ARC of The Sound of Life and Everything by leaving a comment on this post. You can also earn up to two extra entries by posting about this giveaway on Twitter and/or Facebook. (Please mention or link your follows and extra posts in your comment to get credit for them.)
Sample Tweet:
Win an ARC of @KristaVanDolzer‘s fantastically original #MG debut, THE SOUND OF LIFE AND EVERYTHING! http://bit.ly/1OC9MyF #giveaway
Sample FB status:
Win an ARC of Krista Van Dolzer‘s fantastically original #MG debut (and Junior Library Guild selection) THE SOUND OF LIFE AND EVERYTHING! http://bit.ly/1OC9MyF #giveaway
I‘ll announce a winner at 9 am Mountain Time next Tuesday, 5/28. Good luck!
This book sounds so interesting! Fingers crossed for an ARC!!
I will Tweet and be posting on FB as well! 😊
Sounds like a quirky read – fun!
This book sounds great. It’s definitely going to be on my To-Read list!
How fun that you two are book “twins”! I look forward to reading Krista’s debut! I tweeted about it to (https://twitter.com/GomezWrites/status/591325754421485568).
What fun…thanks for sharing!
This looks amazing!
I tweeted https://twitter.com/jpetroroy/status/591404273319202816
Wow. This sounds like my kind of book! Congratulations, Krista! And thanks for hosting this giveaway, Tara!
I tweeted here: https://twitter.com/PriscillaMizell/status/591406464020914177
This is a great giveaway! Krista is awesome!
Dana E
Sound like a terrific read!
https://twitter.com/MTurnerLeonard/status/591429268221067266
This book sounds like a lovely one to read!
I tweeted! Can’t wait to read it!
I would love to enter!!!
I’d love to win this ARC! I’ve been following Krista’s blog since . . . oh, I don’t know. I entered a contest there. And then I think we both entered a contest somewhere else. LOL! I don’t know, but my book just released, so I’m happy to be sharing my debut release year with you all! Yay for the 2015 debut authors!
Shared on Twitter (@AJCattapan) and Facebook (A.J. Cattapan) too!
This sounds like a fun book! I’d love to read it and share a review with our school librarian.
I like World War 2 kids novels.