Going Over: a sweet and surprising first mention in School Library Journal

After a long (good) day with a beloved client, I came home to the other parts of my life—to a wonderful call from my agent, Amy Rennert, to an unexpected Handling the Truth moment provided by George Kelley.org via Serena Agusto-Cox, and to these very kind words in School Library Journal, as shared with me by Lauren Strohecker.


It all made a very tired girl weepy—in a good way.

Thank you to everyone who makes my life so rich.

And thank you to Amy Cheney of SLJ, who wrote these words:

Yet Beth Kephart’s Going Over (April) is the galley that I am most looking forward to reading. We learned some interesting back story: editor Tamra Tuller visited Berlin for the first time a few years ago; as she walked the graffiti-lined streets from West to East Berlin, she thought about what it must have been like to live in the city while the Berlin Wall was still up, and what it must have been like to be entirely cut off from loved ones by it. About a year later, Kephart visited Berlin and similarly fell in love. The two compared notes and, within months, Kephart had completed the book.

Kephart’s story so exceeded Tuller’s expectations, she says, that she cried when she first read it. Also of note is that the design of the book is meant to bring the reader further into the experience: its cover shows the actual Berlin Wall, and its endpapers show the different layers of the wall: the watchtower, service barriers, signal, and hinterland fence. Our immediate reaction? So cool!

A link to the entire preview is here.