Dr. Radway and Dangerous Neighbors: a side-by-side review

Readers of this blog know that Dr. Radway's Sarsaparilla Resolvent is a story featuring a boy named William—a child of Bush Hill and Baldwin Locomotive Works, the brother to a young man murdered by a cop. William has lived in my imagination for many years. He was a primary character (but not the primary character) in my Centennial Philadelphia novel, Dangerous Neighbors. He rescues lost animals for a living. He matters to me.

Earlier today, I discovered that my friend Ed Goldberg, a librarian in the New York system, put Dr. Radway and Dangerous Neighbors side by side in a review. I love that he did this. I learned from his study. I'm deeply appreciative.

Ed's entire report can be found here, on his lovely blog, 2HeadsTogether. He ends his musings like this:

What both books do so well is describe one city, Philadelphia of the 1870s, although two different worlds. Both books delve into their main characters, William and Katherine, making them come alive. And both books use language as only Beth Kephart uses language.

It was a luxury reading the books one after the other, because it highlights the contrasts that otherwise would have been hidden. So, Dr. Radway’s Sarsaparilla Resolvent and then Dangerous Neighbors. The one-two punch in books.

Thank you, Mr. Ed. And thank you, Elizabeth Mosier, for the extraordinary note you wrote to me after you read the book through. No one can ever know just how much words like these matter to an author—especially in the case of this particular book.

I'll be talking about the research that fueled both books tomorrow, during the Week of Writing at Drexel University. If you're in the city I hope you'll join us, especially so that you can meet my most esteemed co-panelists, Rita Williams-Garcia and Eliot Schrefer.

Read more...

A Week of Writing at Drexel University: Join Us!

The crowd at Drexel University has put together an extremely interesting program for this very week, and I'm so happy to be part of it. On Wednesday, at 2 o'clock, I'll be joining Rita Williams-Garcia and Eliot Schrefer for a panel called Strange and Familiar Places in Young Adult Fiction (see below). But the entire week is full and rich, and I hope you'll double click on the poster above to find out more.

Strange and Familiar Places in Young Adult Fiction

Explores the complexities of conducting and incorporating research to create a sense of time and place in YA fiction. Attention to setting is crucial for any writer, but readers often overlook the breadth of historical, scientific, and philosophical inquiry that culminates in successful settings.  Panelists include: Beth Kephart, who will speak on the surprises and challenges of bringing 19^th-century Philadelphia to life in Dangerous Neighbors (2010) and Dr. Radway’s Sarsaparilla Resolvent (2013); Eliot Schrefer, whoseEndangered (2012) depicts a bonobo sanctuary as war breaks out in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and Rita Williams-Garcia, who will describe her research process in recreating the Black Power Movement in 1968 Oakland forOne Crazy Summer (2011) and its sequel in Brooklyn P.S. Be Eleven (2013).  Join us to discuss the craft of translating not just physical and geographical detail, but larger social and political contexts to the page.

2:00 pm – 3:20 pm
Lobby of Drexel University Recreation Center
Moderator: Dee McMahon
Panelists:
Beth Kephart, Eliot Schrefer, Rita Williams-Garcia

Read more...

Strange and Familiar Places in Young Adult Fiction, with Eliot Schrefer and Rita Williams-Garcia, at Drexel University

I'm honored to be included among friends in an upcoming YA panel—open to the public—at the Drexel University Week of Writing event. To see all the offerings, go here. (I am particularly intrigued by the panel that will help those of us who receive unusual comments from anonymous commenters know, um, what to do or think.) To join Rita Williams-Garcia, Eliot Schrefer, Dee McMahon, and myself for a discussion about research, time, and place in young adult fiction, make room for us on May 22.

See you there?

Strange and Familiar Places in Young Adult Fiction

Explores the complexities of conducting and incorporating research to create a sense of time and place in YA fiction. Attention to setting is crucial for any writer, but readers often overlook the breadth of historical, scientific, and philosophical inquiry that culminates in successful settings.  Panelists include: Beth Kephart, who will speak on the surprises and challenges of bringing 19^th-century Philadelphia to life in Dangerous Neighbors (2010) and Dr. Radway’s Sarsaparilla Resolvent (2013); Eliot Schrefer, whoseEndangered (2012) depicts a bonobo sanctuary as war breaks out in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and Rita Williams-Garcia, who will describe her research process in recreating the Black Power Movement in 1968 Oakland forOne Crazy Summer (2011) and its sequel in Brooklyn P.S. Be Eleven (2013).  Join us to discuss the craft of translating not just physical and geographical detail, but larger social and political contexts to the page.

2:00 pm – 3:20 pm
Lobby of Drexel University Recreation Center
Moderator: Dee McMahon
Panelists:
Beth Kephart, Eliot Schrefer, Rita Williams-Garcia

Read more...

Lamp Lighters and Seed Sowers: Tomorrow's YA: the keynote address, in full

I was so grateful for the opportunity to give the keynote address at the Publishing Perspectives Conference, YA: What's Next, held at the hospitable Scholastic auditorium in New York City this past Wednesday.

Today the fine folks at Publishing Perspectives share the text in full, along with the illustrations by William R. Sulit.  These illustrations were modeled with 3D software, all with the exception of the beautiful face and hands, which belong to my niece (daughter of my famous I Triple E brother), Miranda.

In her keynote address from the YA: What’s Next? publishing conference, author Beth Kephart makes an impassioned case for YA books that are heartfelt, authentic and empowering.......

(Just added:  gratitude for a week of kindness toward Small Damages.)

Read more...

What is the what in publishing? How funny is Anne Lamott? And Alyson Hagy: thank you.

New York City was at its hospitable best yesterday.  Through the windows of a train I watched the sun both rise and set on Manhattan.  In between I opined on the future of YA at the Publishing Perspectives Conference, saw old friends (Rahna Reiko Rizzuto, Jennifer Brown, Laura Geringer, Melissa Sarno, Dennis Abrams, Ed Nawotka), made new ones, did a little Amen shout as Doris Janhsen, David Levithan, Francine Lucidon, Eliot Schrefer, and Dennis Abrams (pictured above), reminded people what publishing is really about, or should be about:  good books.  By mid-afternoon, I was sitting with the remarkable team at Gotham, discussing the future of Handling the Truth.  I was thinking—truth—how lucky I am.  (Then got even luckier sneaking in a little stolen time with Jessica Shoffel of Philomel and my own son, at 30th Street Station.)

It took every bit of driving craftswomanship I have (and there isn't much) to get to Anne Lamott's talk (and promotion of her new book on prayer, Help Thanks Wow) at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church by the 7:30 start.  My father had saved a seat for me in the balcony, and a lucky thing that was, for there were at least 1,000 people gathered in this church where I grew up, wed, and baptized my son.  Anne does what I cannot do.  Talks without a plan ("I have prepared nothing," she began), works her way toward a theme, gets grace right out there, where it belongs, and triggers a bout of group hysteria with a single word (Okay) and a prop (my father's pen).

And so we laughed.  And so it was ten before I finally got home, after a day that had begun at 3 AM.  The mail had been brought in.  There was a card, the smart, precise handwriting of an amazing writer whom I love.  Alyson Hagy, you of the million things to do, you of the bad bronchitis, Good Lord, girl, you didn't have to.  But I love this from you.  I will treasure it, always.

Read more...

Lamp Lighters and Seed Sowers: Tomorrow's YA (keynote address for Publishing Perspectives Conference: YA: What's Next?)

I'm honored to be giving the keynote address at the upcoming Publishing Perspectives Conference, "YA: What's Next?," which will be held this coming Wednesday in the Scholastic Building in New York City.

My talk, "Lamp Lighters and Seed Sowers: Tomorrow's YA," will feature illustrations by my husband-collaborator, William R. Sulit.  These images have been modeled with 3-D software and amplified by small human interventions, including the lovely "real" hand shown here, which was donated to the cause by my niece, Miranda.

If any of you wish to attend this half-day event—which will feature Ellie Berger, Carl Kulo, David Levithan, Eliot Schrefer, Mara Anastas, Jennifer Brown, Andrew Losowsky, and many more—let me know.  I might just have a discount coupon for you.

Opening words from my talk:

In the days following the colossal storm called Sandy, stories held us captive, terrifying aerial views, the news that began to leak in from friends.  Trash bags strapped on like shiny boots, brand-new adults walked through rising fumes and fresh flotsam, looking for signs of ordinary life.  Heartbroken by saturated eggplants and devastated garden fruits, they crouched to gather seeds.  Asking What can we do?, they collected blankets, baked tins of lasagna, emptied their personal libraries of books and took their spontaneous gifts into darkened neighborhoods.  Meanwhile, the 19-year-old Rutgers student who lost both her parents to a capsized tree and will now raise three younger siblings on her own, was reaching into some impossible well of suddenly-now-adultness to help others suffering the ravages of weather.

Read more...

I'll be keynoting at the Publishing Perspectives YA: What's Next Conference

I'll keep this short, because it's one of those days, and because sometimes the headline is the story.

Ed Nawotka, editor-in-chief of Publishing Perspectives, has just shared the news that I'll be delivering the keynote address at the upcoming Publishing Perspectives conference.  The date is November 28.  The hour is 9 AM.  The place is the Scholastic headquarters, which recently hosted Taylor Swift, among other greats.  The attire is whatever I choose to wear and whichever pair of shoes I feel can walk me through Manhattan at that hour.

I will also be moderating a panel. 

I've written about this well-orchestrated event at other times, most recently here. I am hopeful that those of you who are interested in the future of children's literature and who want to hear from industry leaders such as Aimee Friedman (Scholastic Trade), Dan Weiss (St. Martin's Press), Mara Anastas (Pulse/Simon & Schuster), Stacy Lellos (Scholastic Trade), Andrew Losowsky (Huffington Post), Jennifer Brown (Shelf Awareness), Doris Janhsen (Oetinger, Germany), Larissa Faw (Your Markets Alert), Francine Lucidon (The Voracious Reader Bookstore), David Levithan (Scholastic/Author), Eliot Schrefer (NBA nominated author), and others will attend.  It will be, I promise, a good time.

More information here.

Read more...

Returning to New York City for the Publishing Perspectives YA: What's Next Conference

We have felt—we still feel—paralyzed by the storm.  Those of us who love New York City and the Jersey Shore, those with friends in Connecticut and south, have watched the news and wondered about how those affected will survive the immediate flood waters and losses, and about how we, entrusted with this world, will somehow correct the devastating weather course we are on.  We have thought about those who died in the terror of the moment.

Shortly before the storm hit, I was invited by Dennis Abrams to return to New York City on November 28th for the second Publishing Perspectives conference, this one titled:  "YA: What's Next."  I said yes in a second (ask Dennis).  The first Publishing Perspectives conference was so well conducted, so informative and classy, that it is a thrill to return, this time as a panel moderator, to that Scholastic stage, where Taylor Swift sat in her signature red not so long ago.

I am always grateful on those days when I travel to New York City.  I know I will feel especially grateful for the ground beneath my feet as I make my way to the Scholastic headquarters on Wednesday, November 28, for the half-day event (9 AM to 1 PM).

I'll be moderating the panel, "YA: What's Next," where I'll be joined by David Levithan (author and VP and Publisher at Scholastic Trade), Francine Lucidon (owner of The Voracious Reader Bookstore), and Eliot Schrefer (2012 National Book Award finalist).

The full slate of speakers can be found at the link here. 

Finally, thank you to Ed Nawotka, the editor-in-chief of Publishing Perspectives, who has published so many of my stories on people who matter in publishing—Ruta Sepetys, Tamra Tuller, Michael Green, Lauren Wein, Pamela Paul, Jennifer Brown, Vaddey Ratner, Alane Salierno Mason, Eric Hellman, among them.  Click here to read my most recent story, an interview with 2012 National Book Award finalist Patricia McCormick.

Read more...

celebrating the wisdom of the 2012 National Book Award jurors

Sometimes book juries convene and read and talk and get things right, and this year the National Book Award judges cited three books that I loved for special recognition. 

I am eager to read all the books on all the lists this year.  But for now I want to celebrate the honoring of Patricia McCormick for her smart, powerful, daring Never Fall Down (my interview with Patty will soon run on Publishing Perspectives) and Eliot Schrefer for his important Endangered. 

In nonfiction, the remarkable House of Stone by Anthony Shadid is a most-deserving nominee.  I have highlighted (in this entry) my own thoughts about these books, from posts produced earlier this year. 

Read more...

Endangered/Eliot Schrefer: Reflections

Hold a book in your lap and it will take you some place.  If you let it take you.

This morning I have sat with Eliot Schrefer's Endangered, which is to say that I've been living in the Congo.  That skittering spectrum of butterflies.  That sizzle of manioc and wild garlic.  Those high, rattling screams of animals, and of war. 

Sophie, our guide, is a teen whose American father lives in Miami, and whose mother has stayed behind in her own country to lead a bonobo sanctuary.  In the opening pages, Sophie saves an orphaned bonobo from a cruel fate by buying him from a starving pedestrian.  It's not the right way to save this endangered species, but it is the only way, and soon Sophie, now at living for the summer at her mother's sanctuary, becomes this scrawny, mangled Otto's best friend. 

Paradise is, however, short-lived.  A coup has occurred.  All madness breaks out in a part of the world whose mineral resources make it wealthy beyond compare, but whose people have learned to live with little and survive on less.  Sophie will have to journey through a war-torn country to safety.  She will have to earn the trust of bonobos, find a way to eat, determine what matters most, keep her Otto safe, allow Otto to protect her.  She will have to understand love and its limits.  Along the way Schrefer's readers come to know a part of the world and a species of animal that deserves our knowing—and attention.

Schrefer comes by his love for bonobos honestly, having spent some time in the Congo himself.  (He has the photos to prove it!)  He (and his book) exude, as well, great purpose—elevating readerly compassion with a determined heroine, hinting at the complexity of life in a fragile country, making it clear that survival comes, always, at great cost.  It's the perfect conversation book, the perfect story for a classroom, the perfect ticket to the Congo.

Three final things:

The photographs above are not of bonobos, but they are the closest I had in my own photo library (images snapped in Berlin last summer).

I loved reading, in the acknowledgments, that my friend and former editor Jill Santopolo had a hand in shaping Eliot's book.  Everything that Jill touches sparkles. 

If you want to see pictures of Eliot debuting his book at Children's Book World this past Friday, go here. 

Read more...

Every Day/David Levithan: Reflections

Last Friday evening I joined David Levithan, Eliot Schrefer, Jennifer R. Hubbard, and Ellen Hopkins for an evening of books and talk at Children's Book World, Haverford, PA.  That was then, celebrated here.

Today I'm celebrating Every Day, the new novel from which David read that evening.  You can tell from the way a writer reads how invested he or she is in the work.  David Levithan is fully invested. 

He has a right to be.  With Every Day he has crafted a book with an original premise, placed a likable narrator named A at its heart, and wondered what it would be like to wake up each morning in the body of another.  To be a boy, then a girl.  To be angry, then peaceful.  To be forsaken, to be depressed, to be the football king, to be his twin.  To be all these things on the outside, a succession of traits and 'tudes, while all along holding utterly true to the inherent A-ness of A.  To be an impermanent self falling permanently in love.  What would that be like?  And could anyone in the world love this body-swapping soul so much that appearances won't ultimately matter?

The plot carries forward.  Love is at risk.  One of the borrowed bodies gets a little miffed, exposing a raw seam in the universe.  Every Day is clever, but it's more than that. It is a portal—enveloping and philosophical.  It asks questions that have no answers and forces us to live with that.

Why is David Levithan so popular that he had to stand on a Friday night in a Main Line bookstore to see all the way back to the last row in the crowd?  Why do his fans know his birthday, in a snap, and tout his novels with religious fervor, and send the T-shirt makers into a LeviFan frenzy?  It has something to do with who David Levithan is.  It has to do with his transcending kindness, a quality that A believes (rightly) is so much more powerful than simply being nice.  David Levithan writes from a moral center.  He encourages his readers to think brightly, like this (the xxx's here to avoid spoiling anything for future readers):

Every person is a possibility.  The hopeless romantics feel it most acutely, but even for others, the only way to keep going is to see every person as a possibility.  The more I see the xxx that the world reflects back at him, the more of a possibility he seems.  His possibility is grounded in the things that mean the most to me. Kindness.  Creativity.  Engagement in the world.  Engagement in the possibilities of the people around him.

 Possibility.  It's almost political.

Read more...

drowning in books (what's on my floor, iPad, heart)

My house has officially succumbed to books.  Bowed its head, elbowed out its own frame, said yes.  Yes, Beth, you can have the newest pubbed books by David Levithan (Every Day) and Eliot Schrefer (Endangered) co-mingling with the galleys for This Close (short stories by your dear friend Jessica Francis Kane), and alongside these please add a dollop of Mary McCarthy's The Stones of Florence, a book on the history of eggs, three maps of Florence (one laminated), one old diary, several Florence guides, many tomes on domes, not to mention weather forecasts, three unread New Yorkers (unread, save for the back pages), and while all of that is going on, please add more to your iPad Kindle because having not yet read your e-versions of Code Name Verity (Elizabeth E. Wein), Salvage the Bones, and The Marriage Artist is no shame at all.  Also, while you are at it, imagine A.S. King's Ask the Passengers (not yet released) sitting near.  Just do it, Kephart.  Do it.

So what did I do, in the midst of this?  I took a walk with my best friend from college days, Ellen.  We headed out to Valley Forge National Park, where my mother is buried and where Ellen and I often meet to talk life, not books.  It was a ripe September day, crisp as a green apple.

I want it all, always.

I manage it poorly, more times than not.

Today, no books again.  Instead, a trip to the city, to see my glorious, happy, smart, successful son.  No prize greater than his glorifying smile.

Read more...

The Fab Five: David Levithan, Ellen Hopkins, Jennifer R. Hubbard, Eliot Schrefer, (and me): our night at Children's Book World

We think it's pretty special out here when generosity, talent, humility, spark, and through-and-through writerliness live within one person.  The fact that all that (and more) defines David Levithan—Scholastic editor, mold-smithering author, and genuine conversationalist—explains, at least in part, his ricocheting popularity.

Last evening, at Children's Book World in Haverford, PA, David shared his stage with the wildly popular Ellen Hopkins, the delightful Eliot Schrefer, my new and powerfully talented friend Jennifer R. Hubbard, and me.  We each read briefly.  Eliot took our breaths away with baby bonobo photos.  A very generous CBW plied us with special treats, even customized cookies.  And writerly/readerly teens do what they do so well—let us into their world with questions and thoughts.

A.S. King, we're all coming right back there for you on October 30, to celebrate your much-anticipated new book, Ask the Passengers.  Please bring your duplicate.  We love her.  K.M. Walton, we are indebted, always, to your immaculate kindness and talent (and your photographs; thank you for the last one!; thank you, Heather of CBW, for the second to last!).  To my many friends (and client/friend!) who slipped into the crowd, thank you.

I have come home with some glorious new books to read.  I'll start with Every Day, David Levithan's newest.  Many times in the past few weeks I have had to stop myself from buying the book.  Sometimes waiting for that moment is worth it.

Read more...

The Fab Five (I feel like a Rock Star)

Today, another short note, a simple reminder:

I have the great privilege of joining David Levithan, Ellen Hopkins, Eliot Schrefer, and Jennifer Hubbard this coming Friday, 7 PM, at Children's Book World in Haverford, PA.  CBW is billing us as the Fab Five, and I have Philomel publicist (every author's dream publicist and my good friend) Jessica Shoffel to thank for making me Feel So Fab.

I hope that you will join us. The photograph above was taken during the Publishing Perspectives "What Makes a Children's Book Great?" conference held earlier this summer, where I had so much fun joining moderator Dennis Abrams on the author panel.  The smart and savvy notables from left to right are Roger Sutton (The Horn Book), Pamela Paul (New York Times), David Levithan (Scholastic editor and author phenom), and my good friend Jennifer Brown, a former school teacher, editor, reviewer, and jury panelist (not to mention head of children's books for Shelf Awareness) whom I always rightly refer to as this country's ambassador for children's books. 

Read more...