THIS WEEK IN NINJA-ING: Tuesday's Book of the Week is Lizzy Speare and the Cursed Tomb, Wednesday we're discussing Chapter 6 of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and Thursday author Ally Malinenko will face the 7 Questions. Saturday, as ever, we'll be joined by a surprise literary agent.
Today, we are incredibly fortunate to have our first guest post ever from our old friend Joanna Volpe:
Why Joanna Volpe Loves MG
I am re-opening to new submissions again soon, after an 18-month hiatus. During that time I did sign a few new things that I found via conferences, referrals and contests. (Yes, I did sign something because of a critique win! And sold it, too.) I'm both excited and nervous to re-open. It feels like I've been out of the game for so long. Will query reading and reviewing be like riding a bike? Will I get 10000000 queries? Or will no one query me at all? Well, pretty soon I'll have the answers to those questions and more, I'm sure.
So I reached out to an old acquaintance of mine, the Middle Grade Ninja himself. What I'm looking for has changed a bit since 2011, and I knew that Robert was the person to help me to get the word out. He graciously agreed to let me write this post for his blog (thank you, Robert!). You see, I'm not re-opening to much in the juvenile market. I'm hoping to build my adult list up a bit more. But in terms of what I am looking for most in Children's books, it is more middle grade.
To me, the most important genre/market for the book business is middle grade. Because it is the last chance where, as adults, we can really influence young minds en masse and turn them into life-long readers. This doesn't mean that we always succeed, but it's an opportunity. (This also doesn't mean that it's the ONLY time one can become a reader. I'm speaking in generalizations here.) During this time, kids are at a point when they're deciding what they do and don't like, but they're still accepting the suggestions of their elders. After the MG years, teens pick and choose what to buy on their own (for the most part), and WOAH do they NOT listen to the suggestions of their elders. So because MG is the last stop of Big Opportunity, I feel it's the most important market. But I also love monsters and boogers and kickball and adventure and first crushes. So I'm probably just biased and a middle-grader forever at heart.
Because I love middle grade so much, when I re-open to submissions on April 1, I am specifically looking for a lot of it. I already have some wonderful things on my list (see full list below), but there is room for more. And like I said, it's an important genre/market to me.
When I think about middle grade that keeps me up late into the night reading, it's usually something with high stakes, either emotionally or plot-wise (or both). I'm not afraid to get scary or real with young readers. I know that kids can handle it, and not only that--they're often intrigued by it! So horror, yes please. Dark stories? Send them my way! Awkward and quirky, check and check. Real and difficult and honest and raw--I want to see it. The friendship storyline in When You Reach Me made me ache with familiar pain. And Wonder is both heart-warming and heart-aching at the same time. Coraline scares the bejeebies out of me (button eyes!). And Zombie Tag is a fun-but-honest look at how grief affects kids.
I also love humor, too. So do kids. They can laugh loudly, without feeling self-conscious. I try to remind myself that's OK to still do that as an adult. I absolutely adore the Wimpy Kid series and Origami Yoda.The Great Hamster Massacre cracked me up, and I'm reading Better Nate Than Ever right now and loving it. And I can't wait to get my hands on an ARC of My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish!
And finally... adventure! Well, for that the sky is the limit--fantasy, historical, sci-fi, action thriller. This might be my favorite MG genre of all because it makes me feel like I can do anything.
So please. Send me all the middle grade you've got! I am dying to read some good MG. Boogers and monsters and all.
Joanna Volpe is the president of New Leaf Literary and Media, Inc. She is a sucker for sushi, chihuahuas, pizza, good whiskey, Zelda, movie popcorn, and anything green. But not all at once. And she appreciates a good prank. She represents a variety of middle grade literature already, including the Ever Afters series by Shelby Bach (Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers), the Bot Wars series by J.V. Kade (Dial Books for Young Readers), The Rotten Adventures of Zachary Ruthless by Allan Woodrow (HarperCollins), Sway by Amber McRee Turner (Disney*Hyperion), Chained by Lynne Kelly (Margaret Ferguson Books), The Seven Tales of Trinket by Shelley Moore Thomas (Farrar Strauss and Giroux Young Readers), the works of Kirk Scroggs (Little Brown Books for Young Readers) and upcoming: The Lost Planet series by Rachel Searles (Feiwel and Friends), The Contagious Colors of Mumpley Middle School series by Fowler DeWitt (Atheneum), The Pet War by Allan Woodrow (Scholastic), Circa Now by Amber McRee Turner (Disney*Hyperion) and The Last Summer of the Swift Boys by Kody Keplinger (Scholastic).
WARNING:New Leaf Literary has engaged in some poor practices that have negatively impacted a number of authors. I and other authors I know have had very negative experiences with this agency. Query at your own risk.
Allan Woodrow grew up outside of East Lansing, Michigan and was cursed with a boring, happy and loving family, giving him nothing interesting to write about. He resented it for years. Despite this hurdle, he tried to piece together his Great American Novel but failed miserably. Meanwhile, Allan went into advertising, a career where writing and knowing nothing go together surprisingly well. He spent years crafting TV commercials and print ads, winning awards and occasionally hobnobbing with B-list celebrities—yet never lost the author itch. Allan became fascinated with what his elementary school-aged daughters were reading, and decided he knew just enough to write children’s books. The Rotten Adventures of Zachary Ruthless is his debut novel, releasing in May, 2011.
Allan juggles his day job, writing, talking to school groups and libraries, and struggling to find time to sleep, eat and brush his teeth. He is currently writing his next 12 novels, which are in various states of assembly.
And now Allan Woodrow faces the 7 Questions:
Question Seven: What are your top three favorite books?
I managed to narrow it down to 1,386 books but my fingers cramped when I was typing so I’ll just list a somewhat smaller, random assortment: classics like The Count of Monte Christo (I’ve read if four times, although one of those times was the abridged version so that might not count) and Great Expectations (Sorry -- I’m sounding a bit pretentious now with my Dumas and Dickens) — but it’s kid lit that inspired me to write: Holes, the Harry Potter series, The Giver,Lord of the Rings, funny stuff like Captain Underpants and Diary of a Wimpy Kid … wait, my fingers are cramping again. Curse you, left hand!
Question Six: How much time do you spend each week writing? Reading?
I work full time in downtown Chicago as a writer, so I’m writing 60-70 hours a week when you add everything together including my regular job, grocery lists, birthday cards, My 7 questions blog entry, etc
I have a one-hour train ride each way downtown. That’s my book writing time. Weekends can be a more unpredictable, but I try to never skip a day. Ever. Even if it’s a half hour on a Sunday in the Bahamas (I’ve never actually been to the Bahamas, but if I did I’d still write for that half hour). I average somewhere around 10-15 hours/week of book writing. My dream is one day, to have time to write more.
Reading time … probably 15-20 hours a week if you throw in newspapers, magazines and Bahamas Travel Guides.
Question Five: What was the path that led you to publication?
I set a goal to be a writer when I was in 3rd grade, but just never got around to doing anything about it. So instead of going down the path I sat on the bench admiring the gate and wondering if I was wearing the right shoes. When my kids entered elementary school I became interested in the stuff they were reading and it inspired me to get up off the bench once and for all. Once I started walking it turned out I was wearing hiking boots the entire time. Who knew?
Question Four: Do you believe writers are born, taught or both? Which was true for you?
As I wrote, I declared I was going to be an author way back in third grade, so that was all born-to-be writer stuff. You can certainly be taught to be a good writer. But I think being “a writer” — something inside you making you write instead of paying attention to your kids or taking the burning roast out of the oven — is innate.
Question Three: What is your favorite thing about writing? What is your least favorite thing?
I love revising, and I love plotting. I hate writing the first draft. It’s way too slow and hard and my first drafts are always terrible and I convince myself about a million times I’m a talentless slug, so who do I think I am trying to write something? Actually, that might be an insult to slugs, which tend to get a bum wrap just because they’re slimy and a wee bit disgusting.
Question Two: What one bit of wisdom would you impart to an aspiring writer? (feel free to include as many other bits of wisdom as you like)
Write. Write. Write. Commit yourself to writing every day. For years I thought of writing a book, but didn’t. Remarkably, it turns out books don’t write themselves, at least not yet. I think someone is coming out with an iPhone app for that (available for Android in 2013). You meet people who have been working on a book for twenty years. That’s easy to do if you write a sentence a month. Believe me. I know.
Question One: If you could have lunch with any writer, living or dead, who would it be? Why?
First of all, I would not want to have lunch with a dead writer. I can’t imagine the conversation would be any good, and I’d be stuck with picking up the tab (which is too bad because I would have loved to meet Roald Dahl). Of living writers I’m going out for burgers with Dav Pilkey, Jeff Kinney, Lincoln Pierce and Daniel Handler. Kinney’s paying.
Do you like winning free stuff, Esteemed Reader? You don’t? Oh. Awkward. Well… why don’t I offer you something for free anyway and you could just pretend you like free stuff. Sound like a plan? The free thing I’m offering is your very own copy of The Rotten Adventures of Zachary Ruthless. And it’s an Uncorrected Proof version that is Not For Sale! Can you find the last minute line corrections that still need to be made before the book goes to press? Could be a fun afternoon:)
I hear the sound of a hundred red correction pens being eagerly uncapped, so I sense you must want this book. What must I do to win this book, you ask. Make out with a hedgehog? What? No, Esteemed Reader! Why would you ask that? Is it because you secretly want to make out with a hedgehog and were just looking for an excuse? Well, if that’s the case, head to a petting zoo, because what happens at the petting zoo stays at the petting zoo. And when you get back—please keep the sordid details to yourself—you can enter this contest.
To be fair, it’s not me that’s giving away this book, but our old friend Joanna Volpe of the Nancy Coffee Literary Agency. To win your own rare and valuable Uncorrected Proof copy of The Rotten Adventures of Zachary Ruthless, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post that includes the phrase “You rock, Joanna Volpe!” You have until next Tuesday, April 26th to leave a comment and the winning comment, chosen by random drawing performed by a severely traumatized and emotionally fragile hedgehog, will be announced Wednesday, April 27th.
All of this, no doubt, raises many questions, such as why did I write “what happens at the petting zoo stays at the petting zoo” on a blog about books geared toward children? Also, why Wednesday? Is the Book of the Week not posted on Tuesday (except when the Ninja runs behind)? Right you are, Esteemed Reader. But there will be no Book of the Week next week. Allan Woodrow, author of The Rotten Adventures of Zachary Ruthless will be here on Thursday to face the 7 Questions and after that the blog will be quiet for a full week.
I agree, Esteemed Reader. This is an outrage! But, you see, this weekend I will be attending a children’s book conference here in Indianapolis hosted by the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and next week instead of interviewing authors and literary agents, I will be posting about my experiences at the conference. You are right to call this a rip-off, Esteemed Reader, but be assured that I will back to regular posting the week after. If you’re planning to be in Indianapolis this weekend, make sure to introduce yourself to me as I’d love to meet you and apologize in person for accusing you of harboring hedgehog lust. You can just yell out “Hey, Middle Grade Ninja!” or look for the goofy white guy wearing a name tag that reads “Rob Kent.” I look forward to meeting you.
Now then, let’s get down to business. The Rotten Adventures of Zachary Ruthless is a whole lot of fun and hilarious throughout. You’re going to laugh at least once or twice every chapter and you’ll fully enjoy yourself from beginning to end. Children are sure to love this tale of rottenness, but I suspect their parents will enjoy it equally. If “you’re going to have a good time” isn’t reason enough to read a book, I’m not sure what is.
Zachary Ruthless has big dreams of evil schemes, but he keeps being mistaken for a nice boy. I’ll give you a bit more summary in a paragraph, but first I want to share with you the opening passage from The Rotten Adventures of Zachary Ruthless:
Zachary Ruthless tightened his grip around the snake he had found lurking in the bushes below his tree fort that morning. No one was watching him. Perfect. He slipped the snake into Mrs. Snyder’s mailbox.
“Bwa-ha-ha!” he cackled. Zachary knew every self-respecting rotten evildoer needs a gleeful, evil cackle. But although he practiced almost every day, his cackle needed work. It sounded like a hyena with the hiccups.
How great an opening is that? I’m curious to know how many times Alan Woodrow rewrote it to get it pitch perfect. It hooks the reader right away because we want to know what happens when Mrs. Snyder opens that mailbox, but also because it establishes character right at the start. Without reading further, we know who Zachary Ruthless is and I suspect most of us like him already. I’m not sure why, but I love bad guys. Most readers do, especially when they’re sympathetic. And a bad guy who needs to work on his cackle is immediately sympathetic.
More, the opening sets the tone for the entire book and gives the reader a pretty good idea what to expect from the story ahead: a tongue-and-cheek tale about a rotten, but not unlikeable ten-year-old boy and the mischief he is about to get up to. It’s not a serious opening and the book isn’t so very serious. It just wants to show the reader a good time, and this it accomplishes in spades. In this way, The Rotten Adventures of Zachary Ruthless reminded me quite a bit of the Melvin Beederman, Superhero series by our old friend Greg Trine. In fact, I’d love to read a book in which Melvin and Zachary meet up and have an epic battle. No matter who won, I’m sure it would be very funny.
The thing about Zachary Ruthless is that no one knows he’s evil. This is because he keeps it hidden from everyone except his new henchman, Newt, and Amanda Goodbar, who is the victim of Zachary’s exploding mustard-filled inflatable fish (long story). Every time someone suspects Zachary of being evil, he blinks a lot, convincing them he must be innocent. His parents haven’t got a clue and they want to send Zachary off to Good Samaritan School, “a summer school for good boys and girls who eat their broccoli and never think rotten thoughts.”
Zachary Ruthless will have none of this. He wants to join The Society of Utterly Rotten, Beastly, and Loathsome Lawbreaking Scoundrels, or SOURBALLS. But only the most rotten and beastly scoundrel will be accepted. To get in, Zachary must do something truly rotten, so he and Newt hop on evilbadguystuff.com where they can order a laser that will turn the town into zombies and/or popcorn balls. Unfortunately, they can’t afford the laser, so they order a surprise box of rotten, that contains several items Zachary will need including hypno-glasses.
Zachary plans to hypnotize the mayor and then he can do all sorts of evil, but what if the mayor is evil himself? Dum, dum, dum! And that’s where we’ll leave the summary, but I did enjoy that Woodrow introduces to children early that though an elected official may appear nice, he could actually be evil. If this book has a theme, it’s that a book should never be judged by its cover. After all, Bernie Madoff surely seemed like a sensible financial advisor and Adolf Hitler was once a charming and commanding orator (for folks who like their racist rhetoric to be charming).
I see we’re running out of review fast and that’s all right. The Rotten Adventures of Zachary Ruthless is a short book and that’s the first of two craft points I want to discuss. A book like this one needs to be short to work. It’s only 140 pages and it’s half illustrated and has a very large font. I’ve read longer short stories and I fear you may have read longer Book of the Week reviews:)
Brevity is the soul of wit and The Rotten Adventures of Zachary Ruthless is less a story than a stand-up act. Oh, there is a story. Of course there is. We have a character with a goal, however devious, and he encounters obstacles and must overcome them, or fail to do so and arrive at a greater understanding of the nature of rotten. But the story never takes itself that seriously and therefore the reader won’t either, which is fine for a short book, but not a long one.
After all, the plot events are often gloriously ludicrous and the characters behave in ways that are usually funny rather than honestly motivated. A little of this goes a long way. Woodrow knows when to take his final bow and leave them laughing and eager for book two, which I’m sure is coming seeing as how there’s a ‘1’ on the spine of this first adventure.
The second point I want to make about craft is how effortlessly Woodrow creates set-up and pay-off gags throughout the book. Many jokes echo previous jokes, rewarding the reader for paying attention and making the gag funnier each time without every beating any one gag to death. Remember my gag about you making out with a hedgehog, which I then repeated in different variations for four paragraphs? Hopefully, you found it amusing, but I’m not going to make another hedgehog joke as that time has passed and at this point it would just be overkill. Perhaps you thought it was overkill by the second paragraph or perhaps you’re a member of the Society of Prevention of Folks Making Out with Hedgehogs, in which case you probably didn’t find it that funny at all.
My point, Esteemed Reader, is that The Rotten Adventures of Zachary Ruthless is a funny and charming book and you’re going to love it. If you would like to win a copy, be sure to leave a comment on this post that includes the phrase: “You rock Joanna Volpe!” and also be sure to come back Thursday when Allan Woodrow will be here to face the 7 Questions. I hope to see you at the conference this weekend and until then, I shall leave you with some of my favorite passages from The Rotten Adventures of Zachary Ruthless:
This would be as easy as steeling candy from a baby, or even easier since it was hard to find a baby with candy to steal. They usually just had rattles and things covered in spit.
“I’ve got it!” Zachary cried out. “I’ll launch a rocket that will destroy all life on the planet.” Newt paused. “That seems a little too evil.” “I guess so. Besides, if all life was deystroyed, there wouldn’t be anything good to watch on TV.”
“What’s with the smell?” whispered Newt. “All zombies smell like tuna fish. Didn’t you know that?” “How would I know that?” asked Newt. Zachary shrugged. “I thought everyone did.”
Snodgrass harrumphed. “Harrumph,” he said.
STANDARD DISCLAIMER: Book of the Week is simply the best book I happened to read in a given week. There are likely other books as good or better that I just didn’t happen to read that week. Also, all reviews here will be written to highlight a book’s positive qualities. It is my policy that if I don’t have something nice to say online, I won’t say anything at all (usually). I’ll leave you to discover the negative qualities of each week’s book on your own.
Kody Keplinger was born and raised in rural western Kentucky, where she attended high school and began writing her first long pieces of fiction. She wrote THE DUFF during her senior year at McLean County High School.
Kody Keplinger is now eighteen and attending Ithaca College in New York where she's majoring in writing and finishing her second novel to be published by Poppy in Fall 2011.
She loves books, Converse tennis shoes, New York City, and popular TV teen dramas. When she isn't writing, she's spending time with her friends and, most likely, doing piles and piles of homework she has neglected.
Kody Keplinger contributes to the popular YA writing and reading blog, YA Highway as well as the vlog group, The YA Rebels.
Question Seven: What are your top three favorite books?
This is a HARD question!!!! But, let's see . . . .
1. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen
2. HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN by J. K. Rowling
3. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee
(this list changes weekly)
Question Six: How much time do you spend each week writing? Reading?
It really depends on a A LOT of things. I'm a student, too, so I have a lot of work outside of my writing career. It also depends on deadlines. For example, I haven't written a word this week. But 2 weeks ago I was scrambling to meet a deadline and I wrote like 20,000 words in a week - 8,000 of those were in one sitting, actually.
With reading, it depends, too. Am I reading for fun or for school? I read more during the summer for fun, more during the semester for school. It's so dependant on a million different things.
Question Five: What was the path that led you to publication?
I've been writing since I can remember. Since before it was "writing." I liked to tell stories. I liked to draw pictures and make up stories (which usually meant talking to myself) about the characters I drew. When I got older, I wrote some short stories - I was nine, so most were about talking animals. When I was twelve, I wrote my first "novel" which was really only like sixty-four pages in size sixteen font and it was basically Harry Potter with a girl protagonist.
In middle school, I started writing fanfiction. I wrote about Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Harry Potter mostly. When I was fourteen, I wrote another "novel" and several fragments of novels that never got finished. In high school, I wrote LOTS more fanfiction - mostly in the same fandoms but also throw in a few anime series.
The summer before my senior year, I wrote my first real novel. It was actual novel length and had a real plot that was all mine. I queried it BRIEFLY because it didn't take long for me to realize that it so wasn't ready. I put it aside and started writing other things - all fragments of urban fantasies, weirdly enough.
But in January of my senior year, I started this contemporary romance, inspired by Chuck and Blair's love/hate relationship on Gossip Girl and a conversation I had with a friend of mine about the word "DUFF." I had no idea what the book would be about - just the word "DUFF" and the characters. But a month and a half later, I had a novel. I had some friends beta it, and they encouraged me to query. I never ever thought it had a shot, but I knew I'd regret it if I didn't try.
I started querying THE DUFF shortly after that. Then, in May, I got an offer of representation from the lovely, amazing, superb Joanna Volpe. It was a great day! And then about 2 months later, my book sold to Poppy, an imprint of Little, Brown. It was all such a shock! I never thought I'd get published, but to have it happen like that - I knew I was blessed and lucky, and I'm still in awe. So grateful to everyone who encouraged me.
Question Four: Do you believe writers are born, taught or both? Which was true for you?
I don't really think either. I was born a storyteller, not a writer. But I don't necessarily think someone taught me how to write, either. I learned by reading A LOT and by never stopping. I think writers are usually readers. I think you can definitely learn how to hone your craft, but I think the majority of good writing comes from reading good books and seeing how others before you have done it and how a good story is woven.
I think storytellers are born, though. I don't know how to teach someone to make up a story. And I think that those people who WANT to be writers are probably already born storytellers, simply for wanting to tell them. I've never met someone who wanted to be a writer who didn't have that creative instinct in them.
My advice to writers is always read the books you love and the genre you want to write. Read EVERYTHING but especailly that genre. See how others made it work, and then find your own voice.
Question Three: What is your favorite thing about writing? What is your least favorite thing?
I love coming up with stories. I love meeting these new characters and learning who they are and what their stories are. That is so fun and exciting to me.
I hate getting stuck. I hate when I can't find to words for a scene I have so vividly in my head. It's maddening!
Question Two: What one bit of wisdom would you impart to an aspiring writer? (feel free to include as many other bits of wisdom as you like)
Two things.
Again, READ A LOT. Read everything you can get your hands on, and pay attention to the books you love the most. Learn from those authors. It doesn't matter if they are critically aclaimed or best sellers - if YOU love them, then learn from them.
Second, write what you want to read. I wrote THE DUFF because I wanted to read about a teenage love/hate relationship where the girl wasn't necessarily a super model. I also wanted to write an ugly duckling story that didn't have a swan ending a la SHE'S ALL THAT (even though I LOVE that movie). So I wrote it. Everything I write is a book that, had someone else written it, I would read. If you don't love what you write, why should anyone else? Don't worry about what others will think of your writing. Tell the story you want to tell, and then let others weigh in.
Oh, and one last thing. Don't worry about publication when you write. If you're writing just to be famous, it's not worth it. Most writers aren't famous anyway. Instead, write because you LOVE to write. Write because, even if no one else reads your book, you want to tell the story anyway. Even if THE DUFF hadn't gotten picked up, I would still be writing because I enjoy it and it makes me happy. Let the writing make you happy, and if you pursue publication after, then good for you!
Question One: If you could have lunch with any writer, living or dead, who would it be? Why?
Note: This week’s book is actually edgy YA and it is filled with adult language and adult content. It is absolutely not appropriate for younger readers and adults should view it as the equivalent of an ‘R’ rated movie.
All right, one more again for the people in the back: although me calling myself the Middle Grade Ninja might lead you to believe I only review middle grade books, it turns out I sometimes review young adult as well. This is our second edgy YA Book of the Week in a row and I solemnly swear not to do another for at least a while. Next week we’ll be back to MG and the righteous path of the true ninja.
But this week, I again have to ask anyone under the age of consent to stop reading without proper authorization from a parent or legal guardian. I had suspected some younger Esteemed Readers were finding their way here and this week I got a follow from the coolest blogger ever. Her name is Melina and she reviews middle grade books. And she just this weekend turned eleven. How cool is that? Here’s a link to her blog, Reading Vacation. Thanks for the follow, Melina, but if you’re reading this, please stop. I promise to get back to MG next week and I’ll see you then.
Okay, from this paragraph on I will assume that everyone reading is an adult or has the consent of one or is a rebellious teenager who doesn’t care what their parents think and that’s okay. This book is actually meant for you.
If you have been in anyway associated with the YA blogosphere for the past year, I’m sure you’ve already heard of Kody Keplinger and her amazing debut novel, The Duff. I first heard about it last year at the Midwest Writer’s conference from Saturday’s literary agent extraordinaire, Joanna Volpe, who represents Ms. Keplinger. Since then, I’ve been seeing Kody Keplinger everywhere online. The word-of-mouth buzz for this book has been astounding. It even led to events that moved Janet Reid to tears. The Query Shark, for crying out loud! Ever since last year I have been scheming to get my hands on an ARC and I finally have by cleverly posing as a book reviewer and convincing Little Brown to send me a free copy. Which reminds me, Little Brown was adamant about me having to disclose that they gave me the book at no cost. Well, they did. Disclosure, check. A lot of people send me free books, actually. It’s pretty sweet.
So the big question is after a year of waiting, does eighteen-year-old debut author Kody Keplinger’s book live up to the hype? No, it doesn’t. It surpasses the hype. However good other bloggers and reviewers have declared this book, it’s actually better than that. The thing to do, Esteemed Reader, is to preorder your copy now and prepare yourself for a great read that will make you laugh, cry, and think, but especially laugh. Keplinger has a style all her own and the advantage of being able to sound like a genuine seventeen-year-old girl. You don’t want to miss this one.
The Duff doesn’t come out until September, so I’m going to restrict plot details revealed here to only what appears on the back cover. This book is a must-read and it wouldn’t be fair for me to go ruining it for you when you can’t have read it yet. But the story of The Duff is thus: seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper is sarcastic and cynical. You’re going to love her. She feels like she’s the ugly duffling in her group of friends. She swears a lot and mocks all high school relationships because no one could ever really find true love in high school. Having not found true love until college, I’m inclined to agree with her. But like Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, for all of her squawking about a disdain for love, fate might just be out to prove poor Bianca a fool for love.
Bianca bumps into Wesley Rush at The Nest, a local joint for teens to hang out and dance and do teenager stuff. Here is how Bianca describes Wesley: He sleeps with everything that moves, and his brain is located in his pants... which means it's microscopic... Everything about him screamed date rape! to me. Ugh... Maybe if you could put him on mute… and cut off his hands… maybe—just maybe—he’d be tolerable then. Otherwise, he was real piece of sh**. Horn dog sh**. I thought of Wesley as a teenage version of Hugh Grant's character in Bridget Jones Diary (I know I should actually reference Pride and Prejudice, but give me a break--I already referenced Shakespeare and the ninja loves Hugh Grant movies).
Wesley informs Bianca that she is the Duff. So what is the Duff? Well, no one can put it like Wesley: “You see, your friends are hot. And you, darling, are the Duff… Designated. Ugly. Fat. Friend,” he clarified. “No offense, but that would be you… Think about it. Why do they bring you here if you don’t dance… you have hot friends… really hot friends… The point is, scientists have proven that every group of friends has a weak link, a Duff. And girls respond well to guys who associate with their Duffs… So by talking to you right now I am doubling my chances of getting laid tonight.”
Naturally, Bianca does what anyone would do upon hearing this news. She kisses Wesley, and then she sleeps with him and they become “enemies with benefits.” Bianca insists that she is using Wesley and the sex is just a distraction. But of course, she’s an unreliable narrator and the reader may suspect there is more to her relationship with Wesley than she admits. And there’s another guy in the mix, but he’s not listed on the back cover so I’ll leave him out of this review. And that’s the plot of The Duff in a nutshell: two dudes, one chick, a lot of drama, and a meditation on the phenomenon of Duffs.
If some readers have a gripe about The Duff, I suspect it will be the casual nature with which Keplinger handles teenage sex. I can hear my childhood minister squawking about it in my head. And to warn you, there is a lot of sex in this book. For my part, I don’t care who does what to whom or how they do it so long as everyone is legal, consenting, and I don’t have to watch. But I suspect some parents will be up in arms about this particular aspect of The Duff. Ironically, because this is America, I suspect certain adults will find this casual sex more disturbing than the drug use by teens in last week’s Beautiful, or the violence of teens killing teens in The Hunger Games.
I’d much rather teens sleep together than do drugs together or kill each other (I miss you middle grade). Sex, like drugs, among teenagers is something some adults prefer not to acknowledge the existence of. But it does happen. There were a few people in my high school senior class who graduated virgins, I think, but everyone else probably would have preferred Keplinger’s frank address of sex as opposed to abstinence literature. And “friends with benefits” is a pretty common occurrence among teens and it’s good that someone is writing about it.
For those unfamiliar, “friends with benefits” refers to two people not in a relationship, not monogamous to one another, who meet for sex without emotional attachment. Ahh, the great myth of the f*** buddy (remember, I told the younger readers to take off already). There may somewhere in the world be two people who have actually made this situation work the way it’s supposed to, but I suspect 90% of the time “friends with benefits” either become an item, have been an item, or have a painful falling out. In fact, one of my favorite headlines from The Onion reads: “F*** Buddy Becomes F*** Fiancé.”
Can Bianca have non-emotionally-involving sex with Wesley Rush in a purely sterile, just physical manner? Does Wesley really think she’s ugly and fat even though they’re doing it? Is he really a player with no heart who can’t see how awesome Bianca is? These are the questions that drive The Duff and to learn the answers you should go ahead and preorder your copy. Keplinger has crafted a fine work you’re going to enjoy and I have no business spoiling it further over a month before it hits shelves.
So let’s it call it a review and talk craft. I highlighted all sorts of wonderful moments in The Duff and most of them I can’t share as they’re spoilers. But the two things I noticed that Keplinger does extremely well in this book are character and conflict. I’m tempted to list voice, but as this book is written in the first person from Bianca’s perspective, I’m going to consider the voice of the book to be a major contributing factor to character. And Bianca is a quite a character. She’s witty, she’s fun, she’s totally unaware of who she is, and readers everywhere, boys as well as girls, will identify with her. Here are some of my favorite of Bianca’s observations:
Once again, Casey and Jessica were making complete fools of themselves, shaking their a***s like dancers in a rap video. But I guess guys eat that sh** up, don’t they? I could honestly feel my IQ dropping as I wondered, for the hundredth time that night, why I’d let them drag me here again.
“Of course. I mean, there is a reason its initials are VD. I bet you more people contract syphilis on Valentines Day than on any other day of the year. What a cause for celebration.”
So what if she was as thin as my pinkie and had boobs the size of basketballs! I bet she had an IQ of twenty-seven.
“We don’t hang out anymore,” I told him, using that voice that made it clear he shouldn’t ask questions. All teenage girls know that voice and use it on their fathers frequently. Usually, the unspoken order is followed. My father loved me, but he knew better than to delve into the drama of my high school experience.
Smart Dad.
Wesley Rush is quite the character as well and he was probably my favorite person in the book. But Keplinger didn’t write a single flat or uninteresting character and here’s how you know: there isn’t one character in this story that, if they weren’t involved in Bianca’s plot, would cease to be interesting or believable. From her friends to her parents, all of the secondary’s have concerns of their own and are compelling outside of the book’s allowance for them. We can’t follow Bianca’s mom around the world because there isn’t space in the story for it, but if we did we would enjoy the trip. And that’s how you write great characters. The people we meet in life are the main characters of their own plots outside of ours. Why should it be different in fiction?
But of course the world’s greatest character (Batman, obviously) isn’t enough to fuel a novel without conflict. Anyone who reads Bianca Piper’s story will remember her. But we writers have to notice what Keplinger has done to make Bianca so interesting. There is not a scene in The Duff that is not fraught with conflict. The great sage Stan Lee once said of Spider-man, surely one of the world’s most well known teenagers, that his primary concern week after week was to give Peter Parker enough problems to keep him interesting (it totally worked, by the way, as we’re still talking about him more than fifty years later).
At one point or another in The Duff, Bianca is in conflict with every secondary character. I can’t describe them all without spoiling, but take my word for it, she is. It isn’t enough that Bianca is involved with the guy she hates who calls her "Duffy." She has problems with her friends. She has problems with her parents. And the more problems she has, the more interesting she becomes. And by her reaction to every one of these problems, we learn who Bianca is.
And that’s it, except to close by pointing out the obvious: at the heart of The Duff is a killer concept, a universal idea that needs very little set up or explanation. Because we’ve all felt like the Duff, haven’t we? Before I met Mrs. Ninja, I felt like the Duff once or twice and spent a couple of nights eating ice cream and watching Hugh Grant movies. And every girl I’ve talked to about this book knew exactly what The Duff was and was interested in reading more. If you want to be a fast rising star in the literary world like Kody Keplinger, you’re going to need a great concept like hers. And if you think of one, let me know so I can steal it:)
Don’t forget to check back Thursday when Ms. Keplinger herself will be here to face the 7 Questions and on Saturday we’ll have another wonderful agent with us. I won’t spoil the surprise, but if you follow the world of agents at all you’ve heard of him and you don’t want to miss it. I’ll be at the Midwest Writers Conference this week and if you’re there, Esteemed Reader, please don’t be shy. I’d love to shake your hand.
STANDARD DISCLAIMER: Book of the Week is simply the best book I happened to read in a given week. There are likely other books as good or better that I just didn’t happen to read that week. Also, all reviews here will be written to highlight a book’s positive qualities. It is my policy that if I don’t have something nice to say online, I won’t say anything at all (usually). I’ll leave you to discover the negative qualities of each week’s book on your own.
Joanna represents all brands of fiction, from picture books to adult. She has an affinity for stories that have a darker, grittier element to them, whether they be horror, drama or comedy. Her recent publications include The Sharpest Blade by Sandy Williams (Ace), Allegiant by Veronica Roth (Katherine Tegen Books), Henny by Elizabeth Rose Stanton (Paula Wiseman Books), Erased by Jennifer Rush (Little Brown Books for Young Readers), and Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo (Henry Holt). Joanna is currently on the lookout for solid fiction in the following genres: women's fiction, thriller, horror, speculative fiction, literary fiction and historical fiction. Joanna prefers her stories dark, in tone, style and even in humor. Some recent reads that she enjoyed are: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn,World War Z by Max Brooks, The Breach by Patrick Lee, and The Second Duchess by Elizabeth Loupas. In terms of the juvenile market, Joanna would love to find (Young Adult) horror, dark high fantasy, or literary novels; (Middle Grade) all genres (Picture Book) art-focused, 200-500 words. Joanna is NOT looking for: chapter books, text-only picture book submissions, hard science fiction. She is a sucker for sushi, chihuahuas, pizza, good whiskey, Zelda, movie popcorn, and anything green. But not all at once. And she appreciates a good prank.
WARNING:New Leaf Literary has engaged in some poor practices that have negatively impacted a number of authors. I and other authors I know have had very negative experiences with this agency. Query at your own risk.
Question Seven: What are your top three favorite books? Wow...almost impossible. I'll narrow it down to my 3 favorite middle grades (no, make it 6...I just...I just can't!). 1-The View from Saturday 2-Wayside School is Falling Down 3-Harry Potter 4-Diary of a Wimpy Kid 5-Coraline 6-The BFG I'm missing so many more on there because I *love* Michael Buckley, Brandon Mull, Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, and Richard Peck (plus more I'm probably forgetting). Seriously, this question is just downright unfair! :-) Question Six: What are your top three favorite movies and television shows? Okay, I'm going to be the jerk that gives a really looooong answer to this. But I have a reason! Since I grew up in a movie theater, it's impossible to pinpoint just a few favorite movies because so many were so important to pivotal moments in my life. I remember sitting on the steps to the projection booth, watching Jurassic Park and Shawshank Redemption over and over while my dad worked the weekends. I love those films. And I can still pick up at any point of the movie and watch them again. But I'm also a huge LOTR buff, and I've seen the original Star Wars movies more times than I can count. I'm also a big fan of clever, fun, feel good movies like Love Actually or Never Been Kissed. And I'm a *huge* fan of dark comedies or quirky movies like Lars and the Real Girl, Rushmore, or Being John Malkovich. Anything by Wes Anderson or Tarantino I will go see, without question. I love action films too! Big blockbuster types are always a good time (The Expendables looks awesome!). Oooo, and foreign films with a speculative aspect are some of my favorites too (Pan's Labyrinth, Let the Right One In). And I like to be scared. I will watch a good scary movie over and over. I saw 28 Days Later in the theater over 20 times. I mean, I was also working at the theater at the time too, so I could afford to do that, but still...scared the CRAP out of me the first few times! And I guess if we're talking kid films...The Neverending Story, Labyrinth, The Princess Bride (also love this book!), The Sandlot, and for teens--I think Empire Records is one of the best. I don't watch as much TV, and the shows I love the most tend to get canceled, leaving me in mourning for good TV for months: Freaks and Geeks, My So-Called Life, Arrested Development, Family Guy (that one came back--woot!), and the tried and true: The Simpsons. I watched a ton of Buffy and Saved by the Bell growing up, too. I'm sorry I went outside your guidelines! But I always feel like answers to these define you in a way, and there is no way I can pick just three that define me. Impossible! The same goes for books! Question Five: What are the qualities of your ideal client? Enthusiastic about reading and writing...and above all, patient and realistic! Question Four: What sort of project(s) would you most like to receive a query for? If we're talking middle grade...I'm open to anything. It's my favorite genre, hands down.
Question Three: What is your favorite thing about being an agent? What is your least favorite thing? My favorite thing is all of the reading I get to do! My least favorite thing is when I have to remind myself that this is a business and make some tough decisions (this includes rejections, parting ways with clients, etc). Question Two: What one bit of wisdom would you impart to an aspiring writer? (feel free to include as many other bits of wisdom as you like) Remember that everything you write is important, even the stories that will never see the light of day. Each one you learn from and it gets you to the next. It's okay to put something in the trunk to work on something else. Every author I know has trunked stories.
Question One: If you could have lunch with any writer, living or dead, who would it be? Why?
J.R.R. Tolkien. He's a genius, a scholar, and an eccentric--I'd love to chat with him.
is his debut novel, releasing in May, 2011.
during her senior year at McLean County High School.
