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Juvie by Steve Watkins

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In early September, I wrote a post over at Book Riot featuring YA books about teens serving time. When I was doing my research for it, I ran across a book coming out in October by Steve Watkins called Juvie, which I immediately ordered for the library and put a hold on.

And I am so glad that I did. It was supremely satisfying.

Sadie and her older sister Carla find themselves in a bad place one night, after Carla convinces Sadie to come out to a party with her and be her designated driver. Carla has a bit of a history — she’s been in trouble before, and she was a teen mom to a daughter named Lulu. But for the most part, Carla’s pulled things together. She has a job and she and Lulu have their own place. Sadie believes this decision to take her sister to this party will be fine, especially because she’ll be the designated driver. She knows that means Carla will get home okay.

Except, things don’t go down quite that way.

Carla drinks a lot that night, and both Carla and Sadie find themselves face to face with a couple guys begging for a favor. Carla ensures Sadie that it’ll be okay to drive the boys to the 7-11. Sadie, unable to rationalize it all and unable to fight her sister or the pressure of the two boys, decides she’ll make the drive. But once they pull into the 7-11 lot, it’s clear those boys aren’t simply running in to pick up soda or beer. They’re there for something more troubling.

That’s the night Sadie and Carla are arrested.

Sadie’s always been a good girl — good grades, member of the basketball team, has a steady and solid boyfriend. That arrest marks the first time she’s ever been in trouble. And because of that, she’s pressured to do something in order to help save the reputation of her sister, as well as the rest of her family: take the fall for the entire evening’s activities so that Carla doesn’t find herself behind bars and little Lulu doesn’t have to lose her mother. Because Sadie’s record has been so good, she should have no problem with a short sentence, some probation, and having her record sealed. She’s under 18. Carla is not.

It’s a tough position for Sadie to find herself in, but it’s clear her love for Carla and her family’s well-being are what convince her to make the decision to take this deal. She could do a little jail time, have the records sealed, and move on with her life. Besides, she was there, she was aid to a crime, and, well, it shouldn’t be so awful, should it?

There is, of course, a twist. It comes in the form of a judge who wasn’t aware of how the case had been discussed already, wasn’t keen on the fact Sadie wouldn’t spill the names of the boys who caused the crime (she didn’t have names), and who felt she was being a little insubordinate at her trial. She’s sentenced to the full six months, and she’s ordered to report to her sentence on Monday.

It wasn’t as easy as she thought it would be, even though Sadie never believed it would be easy.

Juvie is set up very smartly: it’s not a straight narrative. The story begins with Sadie preparing to turn herself in to juvie, but then it cuts back and forth between the night of the incident and her time in prison. No details about prison life are spared, and in many ways, that’s what made this book so strong. There are cavity searches, there are hard and fast rules that must be followed, and there are cliques among the girls. There are fights and brawls. Juvie is no pleasant place, and Watkins has clearly done his research to make it clear this isn’t the kind of place a girl like Sadie should ever be in — nor the kind of place someone like Carla, who has been a girl with trouble in her past, would ever want to be, either.

Just because Sadie had been a good girl, though, doesn’t mean she gets special treatment. She’s like any other inmate. Except, she does befriend one of the guards. And it’s that guard who becomes an ally to her and that guard finds Sadie an ally, as well.

Watkins’s writing is pretty straightforward, but he doesn’t need to make the prose spectacular because the story itself shines. He’s developed a captivating character in Sadie because she is a good girl in a terrible situation, but she never plays that card. She believes it internally, but because she is a good girl, she realizes that following the rules inside prison are vital. And even more than that, she realizes that there are times when breaking the rules is also important. Or as she herself learns, there’s a difference between being not guilty and being innocent.

Juvie will appeal to reluctant readers, as it zips along and tackles a really interesting topic with a setting that is hard to make unappealing. That’s not to say this book won’t appeal to non-reluctant readers; it definitely will. I think there’s something here that has a wide range of appeal to readers who want hard realistic fiction that isn’t afraid to be honest and painful. Sadie’s a character who is easy to like, but she’s not easy to like because she’s put into this position. She’s easy to like because she’s relatable to many teens — she comes from a family life that, yes has some challenges (aside from her sister and sister’s child, Sadie’s father is very ill and her parents are separated), but it’s a family that still loves and supports despite those hangups. The position Sadie’s in, wherein she’s asked to make a choice that would impact her more than it would impact her sister, is one that readers understand she takes a lot of time to consider. And it’s one that weighs on her over and over — did she harm herself more in the end? Can she come out of this better? What would the future hold for her after six months in prison?

There are weaknesses in some of the characters in the book. I found the storyline with Sadie and her boyfriend to be underdeveloped. I wanted a little more of their backstory so that their separation had more emotional heft to it. Sadie and Carla’s parents could have been further developed, too, as I found their father’s story to be really fascinating. Of course, it wasn’t the point of the story, but it offered enough that I think a little more backstory there would have made this even stronger. I’d argue this book could have used more emotional connection, as well: we know how Sadie feels by her actions, but I’d have enjoyed a few more internal moments. We get some — particularly at the start of her sentence (she muses about F. Scott Fitzgerald’s quote about the dark night of the soul) — but even more would have taken this from a really good read to a great one.

The ending is entirely satisfying.

Pass Juvie along to readers who love stories about teens put into tough situations, particularly those who find themselves digging stories about teens in prison (your teen fans of Beyond Scared Straight or those who may have watched and enjoyed Orange is the New Black will find a lot to enjoy here). But more than that, this is a story about a teen forced to make an excruciatingly tough decision and who has to face the consequences for it — for better or worse.

Juvie is available now. Reviewed from a library copy. 

On Book Packagers and Literary Development Companies

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I was perusing old college newspapers a few weeks ago and reading some of the columns I used to write. It’s probably not entirely shocking that I wrote a lot about books back then. As I was rereading, I stumbled upon a story I wrote that I remember finding endlessly fascinating at the time and one which still captures my interest: ghostwriters. I can’t put my finger on why ghostwriting is so interesting to me, but whenever I hear about a book or series that’s been ghostwritten, I can’t help finding out as much as I possibly can about the book, the “author,” and why it was published that way. Most of the time, there aren’t answers. But I find a lot of satisfaction in the questioning process.

Which leads me to a topic I’ve been thinking about now for a while — book packagers and “literary development” companies. Like ghostwriting, it’s a topic I seem to have more and more questions about and fewer and fewer answers to. The excitement and interest to me is in that mystery and in that endless series of “what about” and “why” questions.

It’s likely you’re well aware many big franchises in the YA book world are the result of book packagers. Packagers are companies that come up with concept and hire someone either within the company — though more usually outside the company — to write the concept. Pretty Little Liars, for example, isn’t the original concept of Sarah Shepard, but instead, it was developed at Alloy and she is the name at the helm of the project. Other well-known older and more recent books from Alloy that might sound familiar to YA readers include Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares, Shadowlands by Kate Brian, The Luxe series by Anna Godbersen, and plenty of others you can check out over on Alloy’s page. Many of Alloy’s projects are meant to go beyond print, which is why many of these books do end up on television or made into movies — they exploit the rights of as many avenues as they can in order to bring in bucks.

There’s nothing seedy or off-putting in what Alloy does. It’s a company that comes up with ideas that appeal to a wide audience; in Alloy’s case, the bulk of the concepts for YA appeal specifically to teenage girls. They know what teen girls like and they know what will sell. Whereas many envision books as the work of one (or two or three) authors brainstorming, outlining, writing, revising, and selling their book in that manner, Alloy is a step inside many of those phases of the process as a means of ensuring their business of selling books is indeed a business. Although I cannot link to it directly because of the pay wall, I highly recommend checking out “The Gossip Mill” by Rebecca Mead in the October 19, 2009 edition of The New Yorker to read more about Alloy (if you have access to a good library database, you should find it without problem). 
Since that piece, Alloy’s developed another arm in their company, which they’ve called The Collaborative. Rather than have all of their products come from within, this is an opportunity for writers to pitch Alloy a manuscript and have Alloy work on the business end of it. One of the recent Collaborative products is a book you might have seen buzzed around lately: Katie Contugno’s How to Love. There’s a nice piece in Publisher’s Weekly about this book and about her decision to go with Alloy’s Collaborative. 
The idea of the packager isn’t anything new: Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys were products of a packager as well, known as the Stratemeyer Syndicate. 
But what’s been interesting over the last few years is that the face of the book packaging industry has shifted from being headed as a business by someone in the business world to being headed by authors themselves. It’s likely unfair to call them packaging companies since many of these businesses aren’t necessarily developing an entire package. They don’t always pursue every avenue to sell the idea, though some do or note that that’s one of their goals as a company. Instead, most are developing ideas and hiring writers to pursue this ideas, which are then sold to the publisher on behalf of the business (sometimes via an author’s personal agent and sometimes the agent who is involved with the company). “Literary development” has been the popular term for these companies, though they don’t operate much differently from packagers — it’s just on a smaller scale. 
A few years ago, news emerged that author James Frey developed his own packaging company, Full Fathom Five. If you’ve not yet read the piece in New York Magazine about Full Fathom Five, spend a few minutes reading it because it’s eye-opening.  The long and short of it is Frey hires authors to write stories which have already been conceptualized, they get sold, and the authors who have worked to make the story happen are paid pennies for their work. There’s not a question that the goal of Full Fathom Five is the money, as Frey’s noted again and again how the YA market is where there are opportunities to be had when it comes to making bank on a story idea. He points to Twilight as proof.
What’s come out of Full Fathom Five? Well, Frey’s own collaborative effort with another author under the pseudonym Pittacus Lore titled I Am Number Four is one of them. But that’s not the only one. Perhaps you’ve seen any of these books either on shelves or in catalogs for near-future publication:

Much of who is working for Full Fathom Five is not disclosed, and a quick search doesn’t bring up a website for the company (though there are plenty of pieces about the company, beyond the one I’ve linked to above). Discovering which books are a product of Full Fathom Five comes through a little Googling about the author. Or, if you’re an avid reader of Publishers Weekly reviews, you’ll discover a Full Fathom Five product at the end of a review in lieu of a traditional agent listing. 
Before I go further, let me make something clear: most readers do not care. They don’t care where the book comes from if it’s a good book. And they shouldn’t — a good read is a good read, regardless of the origins, and this is an argument that comes up again and again. Just look at how people have read and interpreted Frey’s A Million Little Pieces. Some people love it, even though they know the history of the “memoir.” Other people find the means through which the book came to be off-putting and deceptive. But for the most part, readers don’t care, as long as they get what it is they’re looking for within the book itself. 
Since these books are written by an author who is the face to the book, it’s not like these books are lies or fabrications. Sure, they might be part of a team of writers (look at Erin Hunter), but the author still becomes the brand. Sometimes, the author will continue working for the packager exclusively and sometimes they will branch out on their own, either through using a pseudonym or the same name they’ve used before (more on that in a second).

What readers want is a good book and a good book will make them want to try the next book by that author. 

So there’s Alloy and there’s Full Fathom Five, and then there are a few other literary development/packagers that have  emerged even more recently. Let’s start with one that might be familiar: Paper Lantern Lit. Founded by Lauren Oliver — yes, that Lauren Oliver — and Lexa Hillyer, the packager has produced a number of concepts that have gone on to be written and published. Both Oliver and Hillyer have backgrounds in editorial, and they’ve got their own staff of editors who help along with the writing process prior to the books being pitched to publishers. 
Many of these Paper Lantern Lit titles may be familiar on your shelves:

Like Full Fathom Five, Paper Lantern Lit is spearheaded by a well-known author. Unlike Full Fathom Five, the ethics aren’t questionable. Authors “try out” to write for Paper Lantern, and those who have the chops to do it get the opportunity to write the concept as given to them. In other words, these authors have the ability to write, and this is their chance to break into the industry. Paper Lantern doesn’t want stories; they want the writers for the stories they’ve created. 
I noted earlier that sometimes authors choose to pursue publication in addition to what they’ve written and sold through a packager. Fiona Paul is one case. While the Venom series is through Paper Lantern Lit, Paul is “debuting” her first novel as herself in the spring of next year. It’s called The Art of Lainey and it’s written under a different name: Paula Stokes. I put debut in quotation marks because it’s not a debut in the purest sense. She’s published before; this is simply under a different name.  
Paper Lantern talks on their website that so far, their success rate is 100%. That means every book they’ve pitched so far to the publishers has been picked up. Oliver and Hillyer’s connection to the industry likely has helped their company and their authors secure the deals they’ve had. Likewise, those connections have most likely been a boon for Oliver and Hillyer’s understanding of the market and what sells — these aren’t books that have done poorly. I highly suggest spending a little time reading this profile of Paper Latern Lit over at Fast Company to get an even better idea of how they operate and what their goals are. 
Since Oliver and Hillyer’s success has hit, two more literary development companies have emerged — both within the last few months.

Wildcard Storymakers, spearheaded by author Veronica Rossi (of Under the Never Sky), her husband, and their friend, editor and ghostwriter Lorin Oberweger, kicked off earlier this year. Like Paper Lantern, Wildcard Storymakers develops concepts and chooses writers to develop them. Also like Paper Lantern, it was created by an author herself, one who, like Lauren Oliver, saw success with her own YA series.

Wildcard plans to focus on middle grade, young adult, and “new adult” titles. They’ve had one deal pop up so far, which was for a book called Boomerang, a “new adult” that will published through William Morrow next year. It’s being written by Rossi and Oberweger under the name Noelle August, and you can learn a little more about it on Goodreads. As of this writing, that is the only book under contract so far from the studio.

The second development company to spring up recently is Cake Literary, which made its announcement last week when founders Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton’s first book from Cake was announced in Publishers Weekly. The book, titled Dark Pointe, will be authored by the pair who founded the company, and you can read more about the book over here. 


Unlike Oliver or Rossi’s companies, Cake wasn’t founded after the authors had published. Instead, this is the first book the two have developed and written and it’s the first sale for the company. Likewise, the focus of their company differs a little bit from that of Paper Lantern and Wildcard — the goal is to develop, produce, and publish more diverse titles within the middle grade, YA, and women’s fiction arenas. The company’s site, which isn’t complete yet, suggests their vision is for books that are highly commercial but also decidedly literary, an interesting use of terms that have, for a long time, been used as binaries to one another, even if they aren’t necessarily so (in other words, many believe a book is either commercial or literary, rather than a combination of the two, though such combinations certainly exist and get published). The pitch for Dark Pointe likens the book to Pretty Little Liars — a highly commercial book (…developed by Alloy).

What does all of this mean? In all honesty, not a whole lot when it comes to reading books and getting them into the hands of the readers who will love them. But I find the growth in packagers/development companies recently to be fascinating, particularly because two of them are headed by authors who’ve had success and made connections within the industry. It’s clear they’re looking at this from a business perspective and proceeding with that in mind. I’m interested in seeing what comes of Cake, too, particularly as their goal is to develop more diverse titles and have them published — and I’m curious, too, whether the backing of a literary development company such as theirs really adds more diverse titles to the YA field. What is it they’d be able to make happen that, say, other authors who’ve been writing these stories are not as successful at achieving?

There’s a lot more complexity to packagers and the non-reader end of the industry I’ve not even touched on (such as pay and exploitation of rights) that interest me, too. And why now? What’s the field of middle grade, YA, and “new adult” offering at this moment that’s brought these development companies out and what will keep them going? How many authors who get their starts here will continue with them through their careers and how many will go on to publish independently — and how different will their works read and feel?

It’s an endlessly fascinating series of questions that don’t have answers to them yet and that might not ever have answers.

Have you read any books from the packagers or literary development companies? Does knowing their origins change the story for you as a reader? Does it change how you approach selling the book to other readers, especially teenagers? I’d love to know your thoughts! 

Bright Before Sunrise by Tiffany Schmidt: A Short Review, an Excerpt, and Giveaway

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Over at Book Riot this week, I wrote about books that take place in 24 hours or less. It’s a time constraint I find endlessly fascinating, and I talked a little bit about why over in that post, as well as included a lengthy reading list of YA books that take place in that short a time span.

One of the books I talked about was Tiffany Schmidt’s forthcoming Bright Before Sunrise, which comes out next February 18. It’s really unfair to talk about a book this far in advance, but I wanted to talk about it a little bit today not just because it fit with the theme of short time frames, but also because it hits on a theme that is near and dear to my heart: girls and the expectation that they be “nice.”

You may remember I talked about the idea of girls having to be nice last winter. There’s an expectation that girls have to be nice, even if it means sacrificing what it is they desire. Socially, girls are told that they need to be nice and kind. They’re shown that in the media over and over, and it becomes ingrained in how they act.

Schmidt’s book plays against this very idea. Brighton, one of the main characters in the book, is led to believe that being nice is more important than going after what it is she wants. She fears breaking beyond the label of nice — she can’t imagine what it would be like to be seen as anything but nice. But in the today of this story, something huge is going on in her life, and for once, Brighton wants to be anything but “nice.”

Jonah, the second main character in the book, is a new boy in town. And before you start to believe this is going to be a whirlwind romance, let me assure you it’s not. Yes, there might be a little bit of romance near the end, but this isn’t about Brighton asserting her independence and undermining her “nice” reputation by getting with a bad boy. It’s about Jonah challenging Brighton to examine her own conception of self. He asks her to look at herself and her needs and wants and consider the importance of those over the importance of being seen as “nice” and “kind” and “liked” in the eyes of other people.

No, this isn’t a story about a boy who changes Brighton’s life. And no, this isn’t a story about a girl who changes Jonah’s life. It’s about two people who challenge one another to critically examine their own lives on their own terms and come to conclusions for themselves. Can you strip yourself down to your barest essentials and be happy with what’s looking back? If not, how can you make that happen? Those are the questions at the heart of Schmidt’s book.

I plan on a longer review when the book is nearer to publication, but in the tradition of doing previews of books I’ve read and loved a little early, I wanted to get this book on the radar of readers who are looking for realistic fiction of this ilk. I had the opportunity to read this a few months ago, and it’s still on my mind. I loved Brighton for being imperfect and striving to figure out how she can better herself while fretting about how others would think about her for doing so — it’s realistic. We all do this. I loved Jonah and how, despite not having all of the best cards in his hand, makes what he can of them while not worrying what other people think of him, even when maybe he could consider that and find his experiences in his new school enjoyable, rather than something to simply get through. Both characters are complex and dynamic, and the ways their lives collide in one night are equal parts funny as they are authentic.

When Tiffany asked if I’d be interested in giving away an advanced copy of Bright Before Sunrise, I couldn’t say no. This is a book that I am very enthusiastic about and one which I hope gets into the hands of many, many readers when it’s available.

Before that, though, I’ve got an extra treat. Tiffany was kind enough to choose an excerpt from the book for me to share with readers. I had hoped to post this as full text, but for a number of reasons, including formatting and design, I had to keep it intact as a document.

This particular scene is one I feel really sets us up to understand what Brighton’s goals are prior to questioning her need to be liked. It’s here when she challenges herself to make Jonah like her. Because her goal to this point has been to be liked and be nice, in what could have been an awkward and real situation, she chooses to pursue being liked to fill that silence.

Curious now? I’ve got THREE copies to give away, along with a tote bag featuring the book cover, and the bag itself will be stuffed with swag. That is THREE prize packs all together.

Open to US residents, you can enter below. It looks like this:

This is a book I cannot wait to talk about more and it’s one I cannot wait to get into the hands of my teen readers, particularly those girls who believe the way through life is being nice and sacrificing their own voices in the name of being liked.

Kid Lit Con 2013: The Details!

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Have you been thinking about coming down to Austin for Kid Lit Con but haven’t felt ready to commit? Now we have all of the details for this excellent, intimate, and more than worthwhile conference set — and we extended the registration deadline until November 1.

The sessions have all been picked out and slotted, and you can check them all out right here. We’ve also got plans set for Friday’s pre-con to be held at the University of Texas’s iSchool.

Kimberly and I are really excited to share she and I will be presenting together — for the first time ever! — and we’re going to talk about critical reviews and why they matter. We’ll talk a little bit about our process in writing them and why we find them to be so valuable.

I love Kid Lit Con and I love Austin (the iSchool is where Kimberly and I met and where this whole blog started) and I’m excited to connect with old friends and meet new ones.

What I’m Reading Now

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I actually haven’t been reading much lately. I moved recently and got a new job, which was hugely stressful (as I’m sure many of you know), and when I’m stressed, I find it really difficult to get focused enough to take in a story. Audiobooks are a lot easier, but print books, something I have to stay still for…not so much. Thankfully, over the past few days, I’ve started feeling more “at home,” and I’ve started back up reading at a more usual pace for me.

And here’s what I’ve been reading lately. Longer reviews will come later, but for those of you with short attention spans – this post is for you.

Sekret by Lindsay Smith
Yulia is a teenager in the Soviet Union in the 1960s. She’s psychic – she can read people’s thoughts and see memories via touch – which makes her a prime target for the KGB. When she slips one day, the KGB gets her and forces her to work for them as a spy, threatening her family if she doesn’t comply. I actually really dig the combination of historical fiction and supernatural powers. The writing is good, and Smith is very skilled at stringing the reader along – giving us just enough information at just the right time to ensure we need to read just one more page. It’s clear there are a lot of secrets here (please forgive my pun), and I hope the final revelations don’t disappoint.

Tin Star by Cecil Castellucci
Aliens! Space stations! Attempted murder! This book has nearly everything I love. Tula Bane is preparing with her family and other members of the Children of Earth to head toward their new colony, the planet Beta Granade, when she notices something amiss: the grain they are supposed to take with them isn’t on the ship. When she points this out to the leader, he tries to kill her. She’s left for dead, the ship takes off without her, and she has to find a way to survive on the space station where she’s been stranded, the only human among hundreds of aliens who all regard her species as less than desirable at best and unworthy of life at worst. It reminds me a bit of Babylon 5, complete with a version of “Down Below” where Tula scrapes by, except Tula’s space station has nothing to do with diplomacy. I always love seeing what writers envision for the future, particularly when the future involves aliens, but I found this future world a bit too sketchy for my tastes (albeit fascinating nonetheless).

Will in Scarlet by Matthew Cody
Cody re-imagines the story of Will Scarlet, one of Robin Hood’s merry men. Will is 13 years old, and his story reads as older middle grade or younger YA. It’s great on audio, which is how I’m consuming it. It feels like a bit of a throwback to the stories I listened to a lot as a kid myself: lots of adventure, a little (light-handed) moralizing, plus a kid who acts like a kid and has kid thoughts. (For example, Will is more concerned with Christmas presents than learning about diplomacy.) The only thing that isn’t working for me are the excerpts at the beginning of each chapter. There’s a brief quotation taken from somewhere in the middle of the chapter, placed at the beginning of the chapter, and attributed to the character who says it. Then we hear it again in context later on. I know it’s meant to serve as a teaser, an enticement to read on, but the choice of quotations so far hasn’t made me think “Oh, I simply must figure out how that fits into everything.” Instead it just seems repetitive.