Tag: YA fiction

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Interview With Beth Steury

Beth Steury, one of The Scriblerians authors, immerses herself in the YA world via substitute teaching, reading YA fiction, and connecting with the teenage staff at the local fast-food joint, where she claims the back booth as her office.

She’s a cheerleader for saving sex for marriage. Her “Waiting Matters … Because YOU Matter” blog helps people of all ages navigate the choppy waters of saving sex for marriage and “renewed waiting.”

Beth is also a genetic genealogy enthusiast who used DNA to find her birth parents. Her journey to find and connect with her biological family is chronicled in “A Doorstep Baby’s Search for Answers.” Her “Slices of Real Life” posts find GOD in the day-to-day moments of real life.

All of Beth’s writing endeavors can be found on her website. Connect with her on Facebook, Goodreads, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter. Check out her books available on Amazon in both print and ebooks.

Below are the interview questions I’ve been asking the Scriblerians. In Beth’s case, we’re talking about her first novel, Before I Knew You.

  1. What was the seed of this story? What got it started?

The inspiration for Preston and Maggie’s story came from a radio interview I heard many years ago. Following a presentation, a well-known youth speaker met outside in the parking lot with a young man from the audience.

The young guy leaned on his truck and looked up at the speaker. “What happens when true love didn’t wait?” he asked.

The speaker went on to say how that young man’s question changed how he approached the subject of teenagers and sex. For days, that scenario played through my mind accompanied by the faces of the many teenagers I knew who also had stumbled into premarital sex. For many, that one decision changed the course of their life. Too often they felt like since they had already messed up, what was the point in even trying anymore? 

I’ve always believed in saving sex for marriage. And now, I believe even more in “renewed waiting.”

2. In your writing process, what was the balance between research and your own experiences?

Many people have asked me if this is my story. It is not nor is it any one person’s story. However, everything that happens has happened to someone that I know. So, my “research” consisted of sorting through memories and stitching them together as a new story.

   3. How did you come up with your cover design?

Covers are difficult!! My goals were a YA look as well as a series concept. I perused the local high school library, noting what I did and didn’t like about the book covers in their fiction section. I also scrolled through the YA section on Amazon. While I was uncertain whether to use people on the cover, I did choose that route. The same couple will be featured on each cover in the three-book series, thanks to a talented photographer who combed through her friends to find the right pair for the job. I took the photos to a designer who created the three covers with a series concept.

4. How do you come up with names for your characters?

They just came to me! I’ve been asked that several times, and honestly, that’s how it happened. I liked the sound of the names together. At the time, I didn’t personally know anyone with either name.

5. If you could meet one of your characters in real life, which one would it be and what would you do together?

Because the story premise began with Preston, I think I’d like to sit down with him and pick his brain.

6. Are you a plotter or a pantser? What works for you in that modality?

I’m a hybrid who leans more toward the pantser side. I definitely do not create detailed outlines. Notes jotted here and there, yes. And a continuous streaming of the story in my brain. I wrote book #1 in scenes that I later “stitched” together, rather easily. I wrote book #2 in chronological order, I think because I was more familiar with the character arcs and story line.

7. What do you hope readers take away from your book?

Two concepts. First, that saving sex for marriage does matter, despite how much of our society has cast the idea aside, And, just as important, that “renewed waiting” also matters, because it’s never too late to make healthier, wiser decisions.

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Of Sound Mind by Jean Ferris

Third in a series of reviews about deaf characters and their siblings, Of Sound Mind zeroes in on the burdens a CODA (child of deaf adults) carries when his parents cannot or will not connect with the hearing world.

Synopsis

Theo, a senior in high school, learned sign language before he learned to talk.. His mom is a famous artist—with a stereotypical temperament to match—and his dad is a carpenter. Both are deaf and rarely speak, which means Theo is their live-in interpreter. He hates the never-ending responsibility.  Then there’s Theo’s little brother Jeremy, who is also deaf.

A loner, Theo takes refuge in mathematics until he meets Ivy. Ivy lives with her deaf father, also serves as his interpreter on occasion, but she embraces the world with a vitality that Theo has never witnessed before. He’s smitten.

As he spends more and more time with Ivy, he meets her dad and the people she serves in her after-school catering business. She welcomes Theo’s family into her circle, especially Jeremy, who is one lonely little kid. Theo begins to dream he can break free of the family chains and actually attend MIT next year. Then his dad has a stroke, and the dream disintegrates. It’s Ivy who provides a solution to the dilemma, at which point Theo must come to terms with the flaws in himself.

Pros

  1. Jean Ferris provides the best view of Deaf Culture at home that I’ve ever read. She has Theo point out where hearing people commit errors in etiquette, from turning away while you’re speaking to grabbing a person’s hands who is signing.
  2. In life, people make choices as to how they will respond to the situations that come up. Ferris demonstrates how a hearing child living with deaf parents reacts in a variety of ways. Theo started to look at his life more optimistically with Ivy’s help. Ivy also had to face some of the negatives in her life, things she had repressed, covering them with an almost-manic desire to nurture others.

Cons

For some younger readers in this overlapping category of middle grade and young adult, the life issues that come up might be overwhelming. Theo’s mother is not in the least bit motherly, and his father dies. Ivy’s mother abandoned her.

Discussion questions

  1. If you were the only hearing person in your family, would you resent being given the job of interpreter for your parents and brothers and sisters, or would you be happy to help out every day?
  2. Why did Theo’s mother refuse to talk in public (and hardly ever at home either)?
  3. Why did Theo resent other people coming in to help his dad, even when they knew sign language?
  4. Theo decided to attend MIT in spite of everything that went wrong. Why did he make that decision?

Conclusion

With the best of intentions, people often fall into the trap of needing to be needed. Of Sound Mind teaches us how to climb out of that trap.

 

 

 

 

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Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John

When Antony John’s wife challenged him to write a book about rock music and its personalities from a deaf person’s point of view, Five Flavors of Dumb was the result.


Synopsis

Eighteen-year-old Piper Vaughn lost her hearing in fifth grade, so her speech is pretty clear, and she’s mastered the skill of reading lips. Communicating to others is so much easier for her if she uses sign language, but only her brother and mom have learned it. Dad is ashamed of his imperfect daughter. However, Piper’s baby sister, Grace, who is also deaf, has just received expensive cochlear implants—paid for with Piper’s college fund. It doesn’t take much imagination to know how she feels.

The chip on her shoulder gets her into the sticky situation of managing, and getting a paying gig for, a high school rock band, Dumb. (That’s the name of the band, not my opinion of Piper!) The five personalities in the band range from arrogant to oppositional to placating, and Piper has her hands full getting them to listen to each other, both on instruments and in life. How can she do that when she can’t even hear the music properly? She depends on her feet to feel the rhythms through the floor, but her hearing aids only give her vague clues on the harmonies.

With the help of an aging ex-rock singer, Piper fumbles her way through the maze of rehearsals, public relations, and contracts. She gains a better understanding of her family while on the journey, learns to accept the hand of friendship as well as extend it, and is stunned by the discovery of romance.

Pros

1. I love a complicated story! With one main character and eight supporting roles, the opportunities for complex relationships abound. Antony John does a masterful job of building the relationships between Piper and her family and Piper and the band. He keeps those relationships true to life, too. She doesn’t succeed with everyone.

2. While the novel is set in the twenty-first century, the author adds wonderful nuggets of rock and roll trivia of the Eighties.

3. Piper gives the reader a good sense of Deaf Culture and what it’s like to be deaf in a hearing world.

Cons

Since Five Flavors of Dumb is not a Christian YA novel, the language can get pretty salty, so I don’t recommend the book for younger readers.
Discussion Questions
1. Why does Piper think her father is ashamed of her? Is she right or wrong? What makes you think so?
2. How does Piper’s opinion of her brother change over the course of the story?
3. How does Piper judge each of the band members at first? List what she thought about each of them. When was she right and when was she wrong? What does she learn about them as individuals?

Conclusion

Directly after the first chapter and directly before the last chapter, Piper creates a list which reveals how she looks at the world. When I compare both lists, I can see how much she’s grown in maturity and in loving others, a great lesson for all readers!

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Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

They killed my mother.
They took our magic.
They tried to bury us.
Now we rise.

Synopsis

Once, Zélie Adebola’s world was filled with magic. The land of Orïsha had Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zélie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls.

But when the ruthless king kills all the maji the magic disappears leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope.

Now Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.

Pros:

  • wonderful writing
  • engaging characters
  • lots of action
  • rich story world and history
  • timely topic

Cons:

  • there is a sense of mysticism (magic) if a reader is opposed  to that which includes necromancy/blood magic.
  • has at its base African mythology and those deities associated with it
  • hints at sex/romantic interlude at one point but no graphic descriptions

Conclusion:

I love, Love, LOVE this book! I cannot recommend it enough. My friends are tired of me talking about this book. lol One person I recommended it to was a little taken aback by the anger of the main character but if you read the note from the author at the end you will understand why. What I really love is how Adeyemi can see that unbalanced power is not good on either side.

I gave this book only 4 stars because of the sense of earth magic that runs through it that may be off putting to some Christian reading.

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The Milk of Birds by Sylvia Whitman

 

When a tree leans, it will rest on its sister.

Synopsis:

Fifteen-year-old NAWRA from Darfur lives in a camp for refugees displaced by the Janjaweed’s trail of murder and destruction. She can’t read or write but when an organization called “Save the Girls” pairs her with a girl in the states, she gets her best friend to be her scribe her thoughts and experiences.

K.C., an American teen in Virginia hates reading and writing. But when she receives letters  from Nawra she is forced to look beyond her own struggles.

Through the letters the girls form a bond that bridges two continents. Both girls find that strength is found in numbers and together they can fight for a brighter future.

Pros:

  • informative book about the atrocities of Darfur
  • Nawra and her experience in Darfur are very relatable
  • addresses issues of learning issues and how it doesn’t mean a person isn’t intelligent just because they don’t learn like everyone else.

Cons:

  • I found the character of K.C. was written a little stilted (stereotypical teenager)
  • there is rape in the book however the author doesn’t dwell on the details of it.

Conclusion:

I was instantly attracted by the cover and the saying on the front cover of this book. It is a book full of rich details about Darfur. It did keep my turning the page although I often found K.C. to be not as full of a character compared to Nawra. If you have teens who want to know more about world affairs and how they can help this is a great book.

Discussion Questions:

There are reading group questions inside. 🙂

 

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Fawkes by Nadine Brandes

Fawkes is a stand-alone YA historical fantasy. 

Synopsis

Thomas Fawkes is turning to stone, and the only cure to the Stone Plague is to join his father’s plot to assassinate the king of England.

Silent wars leave the most carnage. The wars that are never declared, but are carried out in dark alleys with masks and hidden knives. Wars where color power alters the natural rhythm of 17th century London. And when the king calls for peace, no one listens until he finally calls for death.

But what if death finds him first?

Keepers think the Igniters caused the plague. Igniters think the Keepers did it. But all Thomas knows is that the Stone Plague infecting his eye is spreading. And if he doesn’t do something soon, he’ll be a lifeless statue. So when his Keeper father, Guy Fawkes, invites him to join the Gunpowder Plot—claiming it will put an end to the plague—Thomas is in.

The plan: use 36 barrels of gunpowder to blow up the Igniter King.

The problem: Doing so will destroy the family of the girl Thomas loves. But backing out of the plot will send his father and the other plotters to the gallows. To save one, Thomas will lose the other.

No matter Thomas’s choice, one thing is clear: once the decision is made and the color masks have been put on, there’s no turning back.

Pros

  • A fresh spin on history. As a homeschool parent, I could see assigning this story when studying this period of history and then challenging students to write a report comparing the story’s events against the historical record.
  • The author uses magic (color power) as an allegory to represent the different ways historical English religions (Catholic and Reformed Protestant) interacted with God. I love the way her character, Thomas, searches for truth and ultimately learns that God desires a relationship with us first and foremost.
  • I enjoyed the mystery behind the Stone Plague. It added more complexity to the plot and was a clever concept.

Cons

  • It took me a long time to warm up to the main character (Thomas Fawkes). I almost stopped reading the book because I didn’t like him or identify with him. That would have been a mistake, because I loved him by the end of the book. But be warned – it might take you a bit to like him too.

Final Word

Worth Reading.

Discussion Questions

 
  1. The Gunpowder Plot is a real historic event. Do a little research and see how the author changed the events to fit the story.
  2. Emma Areben and Guy Fawkes both refused to be seen without their masks, but both for different reasons. Have you ever wished you could hide behind a mask? Who do you allow to see the real you?
  3. The Igniters and Keepers had different views of the White Light. Which viewpoint was correct? Or was the answer somewhere in between?
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Once a Princess by Sherwood Smith

Once a Princess by Sherwood Smith is an epic adventure fantasy with magic and swords, pirates and princesses, and a conniving villain.  It is appropriate for ages 12 and up.

Synopsis

Many people on Goodreads dinged this books as a cliff-hanger, but that is not the author’s fault. Blame the publisher, instead, for trying to wring every groat from a story they could easily sell as two books. You must plan to read the second part of the story in Twice a Prince, the second book in the “series,” Sasharia en Garde!

This so-called series is set in the beloved world of Crown Duel, one of my all-time favorite books. While this story is much lighter fare, it still sweeps you along.

Pros

This is a fun book with lots of clever conversation.

Politics reign. If you like political intrigue, scheming villains, and even craftier heroes, this is the book for you.

Pirates and princesses.

Also, this is a clean story that doesn’t revolve is light on romance.

Cons

Sometimes, I wished for a grittier, harder-hitting plot. However, it is entertaining, and that’s great for a rainy day.

It has a silly cover, but who doesn’t love a heroine who loves books?

Personal Thoughts

Plan to read both books: Once a Princess and Twice a Prince Duh. I know, it should go without saying, but readers should know what they are getting into when they start the first book. And raspberries to the publisher that artificially separated two parts of one story.