Some GOING OVER news—from Common Sense Media and Booklist

Today, as I worked on the Going Over launch presentation, I learned that the book has received a five-star review from Common Sense Media.

Parents need to know that Beth Kephart's Going Over portrays harsh experiences on both sides of the Berlin Wall in the early 1980s: political oppression, of course, along with murder, rape, depression, and domestic abuse. Though the violence is described in small details and references, it's gut-wrenching and emotionally difficult. Yet the overall tone of the story is of strength and hope. It's an intense, absorbing read that shows how the personal and political can be fused together, and how small, personal acts can have life-changing implications for many people. Teens who stick with the challenging prose will be richly rewarded with a unique, passionate story illuminating a fascinating time and place.

This news joins the news I received late last week that Booklist had named Going Over a Top Ten Historical Fiction for Youth.

The sort of news that matters so deeply to writers like me.

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Going Over: The Trailer, The News

Sometimes, a whole lifetime's worth of specialness happens in a few short days.

Those few short days were these past few days. That Handling the Truth/Meredith Vieira moment in New York City, that trip to see old friends and make new ones in South Carolina. And the gifts leading up to the release of Going Over.

First, today, I want to thank the extraordinary Chronicle team—for everything, really. But in particular, for the trailer, above. I had no idea a trailer was in the works. It just arrived one day. It is perfect, in my eyes, in every way.

Second, the news, which is here, below:

School Library Journal Pick of the Day

Junior Library Guild Selection

iBooks Spring’s Biggest Books 

An Amazon Big Spring Book

“A stark reminder of the power of hope, courage, and love.”—Booklist, starred review

“An excellent example of historical fiction focusing on an unusual time period.” —School Library Journal, starred review

"Going Over carefully balances love and heartbreak, propelling readers through the story."— Shelf Awareness

"Readers will finish the book and continue to think about how effective one wall can be in separating a country and in fashioning attitudes toward life." —Reading Today

"At once compelling and challenging... this gripping effort captures the full flavor of a trying time in an onerous place." —Kirkus Reviews

  “A profound read meant for discussion.” —VOYA: Voice of Youth Advocates

"Gritty, painful and lovely."--Emma, age 17, SLJ Teen, Young Adult Advisory Councils Reviewer

Some very generous bloggers have agreed to participate in a blog tour that will kick off when the book officially launches on April 1. I've written pieces about history, graffiti, titles, editing—and I'll be answering questions—throughout it all.

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complete gratitude for the Booklist review of Handling the Truth

National Book Award finalist Kephart, who has written several memoirs and teaches a college course on the subject, offers an exploration of the genre that is informative and enjoyable. Drawing on the work of dozens of great authors (Annie Dillard, Mary Karr, Jeanette Winterson) as well as student comments, Kephart dives deeply into all that memoir can offer writers while acknowledging the pitfalls of oversharing and naming high profile memoir-abusers. Her insights are thoughtful and erudite. “Real writers,” she says, “do not write to trump or abolish. They write . . . to rumble or howl, or because language is salvation or because they’ve been alive or because they have survived”. As instructive as Kephart’s book is, it is not a how-to but rather a careful argument for the value of memoir, a form that allows writers to know themselves and readers to join them in the journey. Intense, provocative, endearing, and kind, Handling the Truth recalls Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird (1995). The appendix alone is a reading course not to be missed. Delightful.
— Colleen Mondor

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Dangerous Neighbors: A Booklist Hot Teen Title

According to that wonderful Egmont USA team, Dangerous Neighbors will appear on the Hot Teen Titles list in the September issue of Booklist, accompanied by this gracious review.  I am grateful, to say the least.

Even though the twins’ father warns them to take care of each other with the admonition that “dangerous neighbors” live nearby, the girls are convinced that together they are invincible. Yet Anna is no longer here, and Katherine, tormented by grief and guilt, is determined to join her. Using the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibit where ice cream and elevators are introduced to a rapt nation as her backdrop, National Book Award finalist Beth Kephart juxtaposes Anna’s and the nation’s optimism with Katherine’s grief and refusal to face the future alone. Kephart gradually unwinds the twins’ tragic story of Anna’s surreptitious love affair with the baker’s boy, the couple’s isolation of Katherine in their frantic search to be together, and Katherine’s gradual refusal to be responsible for Anna’s welfare. Similarly she unfolds the Centennial itself, slowly exposing its seamy underbelly, even the fire that destroys the shantytown that surrounds it and threatens the glorious fair and its participants. It’s a beautifully crafted, carefully researched historical novel that captures the essence of a single historic event while exploring the universality of love, grief, guilt, and the mysterious twin connection.

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