First Page Panda

It starts with a crack, a sputter, and a spark.

The match hisses to life.

“Please,” comes the small voice behind me.

“It’s late, Wren,” I say. The fire chews on the wooden stem in my hand. I touch the match to each of the three candles gathered on the low chest by the window. “It’s time for bed.”

With the candles all lit, I shake the match and the flame dies, leaving a trail of smoke that curls up against the darkened glass.

Everything seems different at night. Defined. Beyond the window, the world is full of shadows, all pressed together in harsh relief, somehow sharper than they ever were in daylight. Sounds seem sharper, too, at night. A whistle. A crack. A child’s whisper.

“Just one more,” she pleads, hugging the covers close. I sigh, my back to my little sister, and run my fingers over the tops of the books stacked beside the candles. I feel myself bending.

“It can be a very short one,” she says.

My hand rests against an old green book as the wind hums against the house.

“All right.” I cannot deny my sister anything, it seems. “Just one,” I add, turning back to the bed. Wren sighs happily against her pillow, and I slip down beside her. The candles paint pictures of light on the walls of our room. I take a deep breath.

“The wind on the moors is a tricky thing.”

Excerpt © 2011 Victoria Schwab

About the book:

The Near Witch is only an old story told to frighten children. 

If the wind calls at night, you must not listen. The wind is lonely, and always looking for company. 

And there are no strangers in the town of Near.

These are the truths that Lexi has heard all her life. But when an actual stranger—a boy who seems to fade like smoke—appears outside her home on the moor at night, she knows that at least one of these sayings is no longer true.

The next night, the children of Near start disappearing from their beds, and the mysterious boy falls under suspicion. Still, he insists on helping Lexi search for them. Something tells her she can trust him.

As the hunt for the children intensifies, so does Lexi’s need to know—about the witch that just might be more than a bedtime story, about the wind that seems to speak through the walls at night, and about the history of this nameless boy.

What people are saying:

“Romantic, haunting, and truly original—The Near Witch cast a spell on us from the very first page.”–Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, NYT bestselling authors of Beautiful Creatures and Beautiful Darkness

“Victoria Schwab has crafted a richly atmospheric and lyrical masterpiece. This novel mesmerized me from the first line to the last.”–Carrie Ryan, New York Times best-selling author of The Forest of Hands and Teeth

Released: August 2, 2011

About the author:

Victoria is the product of a British mother, a Beverly Hills father, and a southern upbringing. Because of this, she has been known to say “tom-ah-toes”, “like”, and “y’all”. She also possesses a dangerous case of wanderlust, and a penchant for staring at clouds. You can visit her at www.victoriaschwab.com.

It was close to midnight when the last train left the station. On board sat an American woman in a fluttery shirt, a famous musician on her way to the biggest music festival in Chennai. But the festival wasn’t the reason she was in India after so many years. If she could go back to the store, the shopkeeper might have the answer she was looking for.

Outside the air grew damp and foggy as the train rumbled through the darkness. The woman closed her eyes and fell asleep next to her husband, but not before wrapping her arm tightly around the instrument case on the other side of her.

At dawn the fog thickened, creating a mist over the countryside that was dreamy and beautiful. The fog was also nature’s way of covering up dusty village streets, roaming animals, and makeshift huts, brown with filth.

And then the unthinkable happened.

Excerpt © 2011 Sheela Chari

About the book:

Eleven-year-old Neela dreams of being a famous musician, performing for admiring crowds on her traditional Indian stringed instrument. Her particular instrument used to be her grandmother’s—made of warm, rich wood, and intricately carved with a mysterious-looking dragon.  When this special family heirloom vanishes from a local church, Neela is devastated. As she searches for it, strange clues surface: a teakettle ornamented with a familiar-looking dragon, a threatening note, a connection to a famous dead musician, and even a legendary curse. The clues point all the way to India, where it seems that Neela’s intrument has a long history of vanishing and reappearing. If she is able to track it down, will she be able to stop it from disappearing again?

What people are saying:

“Chari, in her debut novel, strikes the right note with this engaging, intricate story that spans generations and two countries.”–Kirkus Reviews

“Indian history and culture (musical and otherwise), well-observed family and friendship dynamics, and elements of fate, luck, and tradition bring depth to this quiet but enthralling mystery.”–Publishers Weekly

“Mystery! Intercontinental intrigue! Curses! Music! Cocoa! Vanished has all that and a bag of chips. Several bags of chips, actually. Just read it!”–Adam Rex, The True Meaning of Smekday

Released: July 26, 2011

About the author:

Sheela Chari was born in Bangalore, India and has lived in Iowa, Washington State, California, Massachusetts, and New York. She has degrees from Stanford University, Boston University, and New York University, where she received an MFA in creative writing. Sheela lives in New York with her husband and two daughters. VANISHED is her first novel.

Win a copy of Pearl! Details at the end of this post.

Henry and I get comfortable in our usual Days of Our Non Lives positions on his mother’s scratchy plaid couch in their tiny living room. We’re just in time for the familiar hourglass. Sally hushes us for the opening voice-over.

Like sands through the hourglass …

Henry and I look at each other and telepathically exchange a single, familiar phrase: We are pathetic.

… so are the days of our lives.

The small air conditioner duct-taped into the only window in the cramped living room hums mournfully over the tragedy about to play out on the TV, as well as the sagging couch the three of us sit on—Sally in the middle, as always. I close my eyes and feel the cool air against my sweaty face as the opening scene starts.

Sally leans forward to watch. Her huge breasts rub over the top of the metal mixing bowl filled with Doritos she holds in her lap. She grips the edges of the bowl, her dimpled arms blocking Henry and me from reaching in to grab a chip, as if we don’t know the rule or might try to break it: No eating during Days. Sally says the crunching is too distracting. Instead, we wait for the commercials and crunch during the ads while Sally fills us in on whatever we’ve missed since the last episode we watched with her. Her face always gets a warm glow when she talks about TV love, like it’s going to ooze into her own life any day now. Sally believes with every molecule that makes up her large pink body that somewhere out there is the perfect man for her. Henry always looks sad when his mom says this. Neither of us believes it. Even if that man did exist, how could he find Sally when she never leaves the house? There is only one man who knows where Sally is, and he left fifteen years ago, two months after Henry was born.

Henry doesn’t know much more about his father than I know about mine, and maybe that’s how we got to be such good friends, sharing our soap-opera-like dreams about who our real fathers are and how they might come back into our lives. The only things I know about my father are the hints I get from listening at closed doors. Not that I get that many opportunities. But sometimes, when my mom comes home particularly late from her waitressing job, I can get lucky. Whenever she’s late, it means she’s spent her extra tips at the bar on half-priced booze. If her keys jingle in the lock for more than fifteen seconds, I know it’s a night to listen for information. The first thing my mom does after going to the bathroom is head to her bedroom and call her best friend, Claire, to recap the last fifteen years of her life and all the places it’s gone wrong.

Excerpt© 2011 Jo Knowles

About the book:

Love can be a lot like a soap opera. Pearl (aka Bean) has watched enough hours of the TV version to know all about sudden plot twists and dark secrets… But this is real life, not a TV drama, and some things are too important to lose.

What people are saying:

“A touching family melodrama about the corrosive nature of secrets and the cleansing power of honesty.”–Kirkus

“Bean’s grief at learning the unfortunate situation surrounding her birth and its ramifications is deftly rendered, offering up a raw, unmitigated picture of a little girl lost… the hopefulness of Henry and Bean’s relationship is a welcome bit of optimism in this evocative tale that is sure to linger with readers.”—The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

“PEARL is so many things… it’s part family drama, part romance, and part mystery. It’s peopled with characters so rish, so beautifully imperfect, that it’s hard to believe they’re not real.”—Kate Messner, author of Sugar and Ice

“Quiet, powerful, and absorbing: this is a novel that will, like that tiny piece of grit, gnaw on the reader, driving her forward to find the pearl that awaits.”–Teri Lesesne, author of Reading Ladders

Released: July 19, 2011

About the author:

Jo Knowles is the author of the novels Pearl, Jumping Off Swings, Lessons from a Dead Girl and See You At Harry’s (spring 2012). She lives in Vermont with her husband and son.

Giveaway:

Jo has been kind enough to contribute a copy of Pearl for a giveaway.

Just comment on this post to enter.

For extra entries:

-Be a follower of this site (just click “Join this site”) or a follower on Twitter [+1 entry each].

-Link to this contest on Twitter, Facebook, etc. [+1 entry per each link].

Please list your extra entries in the comments.

The contest is open in the US only and ends on August 3rd at midnight EST.

Good luck and happy reading!

Win a signed copy of Falling for Hamlet! Details at the end of this post.

Prologue

“Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Oh, thank you!” Zara shouts as she feigns surprise at the audience’s outpouring of affection and its standing ovation. She gestures for the audience members to sit down, though she smiles broadly when they continue to stand. “Please. Please,” she gestures, and since they have all been watching her for years, they know that she means business even when she’s giving a casual instruction. They settle into their seats as Zara flops precisely onto her overstuffed cream couch, smoothing her dark hair.

She leans forward and begins: “Today we have a guest who will amaze you.” She pauses to punctuate the drama and yells, “Ophelia is in the house!” Her tone sends the audience members to their feet again. They know how lucky they are to have been in the audience on this day, and this is their moment to show it. The camera cuts to mostly middle-aged women in seasonal sweaters gasping, clapping, smiling. One even dabs a tear of excitement, or is it sadness? Who can tell, and who really cares? It’s a tear that some cameraman was lucky enough to capture, a cameraman who is planning, as he films, what he will buy with the bonus the segment producer will give him for catching an actual tear wipe.

The audience calms down after a last twitter and exchange of amazed glances. “Our nation has been so deeply saddened by the tragedies surrounding the royals of Denmark. Today, we will speak to Ophelia herself and find out how this young woman was caught up in the secrecy, the revenge, and the madness . . . madness that we all thought had consumed her.

“You are a lucky audience, indeed, to be here this afternoon. Ophelia has agreed to make one appearance, one exclusive appearance, to tell her story. So, ladies and gentlemen, here she is. Ophelia, come on out here, girl.”

Excerpt© 2011 Michelle Ray

About the book:

Meet Ophelia, high school senior, daughter of the Danish king’s most trusted adviser, and longtime girlfriend of Prince Hamlet. She lives a glamorous life, has a royal social circle, and her beautiful face is splashed across magazines and TV. But it comes with a price — her life is dominated not only by Hamlet’s fame and his overbearing royal family but also by the paparazzi who hound them wherever they go.

After the sudden and suspicious death of his father, the king, Hamlet spirals dangerously toward madness, and Ophelia finds herself torn between loyalty to her boyfriend, her father, her country, and her true self.

This is a contemporary retelling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet from Ophelia’s point of view filled with drama, romance, tragedy, and humor. And this time, Ophelia doesn’t die.

What people are saying:

“Sexy and searing, Falling for Hamlet is much more than a riveting retelling of a Shakespearean classic. Michelle Ray has crafted an artful story of a girl who comes unapologetically and forcefully into her own.”–Justina Chen, author of Girl, Overboard

“To read or not to read will never be the question for Falling for Hamlet. Michelle Ray’s clever debut gives readers an Ophelia who is in turns humorous, clever, and full of girl power. I’m simply mad for this book.”–Elizabeth Eulberg, author of Prom and Prejudice

“Falling for Hamlet is incredible.  Michelle Ray has a real gift for the inclusion of those subtle but important details that make a story absolutely real.  I found myself thinking about the characters as if I knew them as real people long after I finished the book.  If you don’t love Falling for Hamlet you’re as crazy as Hamlet himself.  There’s something wonderful in the state of Denmark.”–Trent Reedy, bestselling author of Words in the Dust

Released: July 5, 2011

About the author:

Michelle Ray is a graduate of Tufts University where she majored in drama. She is now a sixth grade English teacher in Silver Spring, Maryland, where she lives with her family.
Michelle spends a great deal of time trying to convince people that Shakespeare is not scary, both in her professional and personal life. Falling for Hamletis her first novel. You can visit her at www.michelleraybooks.com.

Giveaway:

Michelle has been king enough to contribute a signed copy of Falling for Hamlet for a giveaway!

Just comment on this post to enter.

For extra entries:

-Be a follower of this site (just click “Join this site”) or a follower on Twitter [+1 entry each].

-Link to this contest on Twitter, Facebook, etc. [+1 entry per each link].

Please list your extra entries in the comments.

The contest is open in the US and Canada and ends on August 2nd at midnight EST.

Good luck and happy reading!

Win a copy of Scary School! Details at the end of this post.

Introduction

I suppose the proper way to start an introduction is with an introduction, so…Hello! My name is Derek The Ghost. What’s yours? I know your probably didn’t say your name out loud just now, but I read your mind, and I want you to know that I think you have a fantastic name.

How did I read your mind? Let me tell you.

Last year, when I was just eleven years old, I died in science class. One of Mr. Acidbath’s experiments went terribly wrong (more about that later), but things like that happen all the time at Scary School, so nobody made a big fuss about it. Right after class they simply wheeled out my charred corpse, and the next class walked in without so much as a blink. Scary School is a very strange place.

Excerpt© 2011 Derek Taylor Kent

About the book:

SCARY SCHOOL details the spine-tingling and outrageous happenings at a school where monsters and normal kids tread the halls together and just making it to lunch with all your limbs intact is considered a good day. Teachers include Ms. Fang, a 850-year-old vampire, Dr. Dragonbreath, who just might eat you before recess, and Principal Headcrusher, who, well, the name says it all. Things get extra scary this year when the school is chosen to host the annual Ghoul Games––a junior-olympic event between all the “scary” schools in the world. The winners get to eat the losers! Faced with their superior monster opponents, it’s do or die for the normal kids at SCARY SCHOOL. Together they hatch a plan that will change the future of SCARY SCHOOL forever.

What people are saying:

“Kent takes school integration to a new level with breezy tales of ‘learning, horror, and mayhem’ at a grade school attended by a mix of humans and monsters.”–Kirkus Reviews

“I died laughing.”–Dan Gutman, author of My Weird School Series

Released: June 21, 2011

About the author:

Derek Taylor Kent started writing children’s books at the age of 15. Many of his other children’s books have gone on to become films and children’s plays with sold-out runs at Los Angeles theaters. Derek has also worked as a counselor at camps and after-school programs, overseeing creative writing activities and arts & crafts. Derek also teaches Children’s Writing and Young Adult writing for The Los Angeles Writing Pad. For more information about Derek T. Kent and SCARY SCHOOL, please visit: http://www.scaryschool.com.

Giveaway:

One lucky winner will receive a copy of SCARY SCHOOL! Just comment on this post to enter.

For extra entries:

-Be a follower of this site (just click “Join this site”) or a follower on Twitter [+1 entry each].

-Link to this contest on Twitter, Facebook, etc. [+1 entry per each link].

Please list your extra entries in the comments.

The contest is open in the US and Canada and ends on July 27th at midnight EST.

Good luck and happy reading!

The pandas are excited to have two contest winners to announce today.

The winner of the Sirenz prize pack is:

Gina!

The winner of Breath of Angel is:

Rachel Strolle!

Congrats to the winners!

The dress in the window of Shelly’s Boutique was not a tasteful pink. It was an unnatural, overly shiny, shout-in-your-face pink. Barbie-aisle pink. Putrid anti-diarrhea medicine pink. Slutty disco-queen on LSD pink.

Or, as the residents of Barton, Texas (population 5,853) would probably refer to it: hawt pank.

Gabriella Rivera automatically curled her upper lip – her “tilde mouth” as her mother liked to call it – and muttered, “God, look at that. When did hooker fashions become formal wear?”

Mule quit slurping down his 64-oz Dr Pepper and shrugged. “What do you expect? It’s prom season.”

“It is not prom season,” Gabby replied. “It is the beginning of March. I barely survived the big Valentine’s freak-out without throwing myself off a cliff. Now I have to see this crap everywhere for two months?” She gestured toward the display window.

Mule considered the dresses while continuing to sip from his near-empty soda cup, making loud squelching noises through the straw.

“Besides, prom shouldn’t even be a ‘season,’” Gabby went on. “Not like a holiday season or flu season. It’s just a dumb party.”

Excerpt© 2011 Jennifer Ziegler

About the book:

For fifteen-year-old Daphne, the glass is always half full, a dab of lip-gloss can ward off a bad day, and the boy of her dreams—the one she’s read about in all of her beloved romance novels—is waiting for her just around the corner. But Daphne’s older sister Gabby wishes Daphne would get real. In Gabby’s world, everyone’s out for themselves, wearing makeup is a waste of time, and boys only distract you from studying before they break your heart. The only boy Gabby trusts is her best friend, Mule, who has always been there for her.

When the richest boy in town befriends Gabby, and Daphne starts to hang out more and more with Mule, Gabby is forced to confront the emotional barriers she has put up to stop the hurting. And for once, her sassiness may fall prey to her definition of stupidity.

What people are saying:

“This fun and fresh retelling will leave you cheering, swooning and hugging your sister.”–Sarah Mlynowski, author of Gimme a Call 

Released: July 12, 2011

About the author:

Jennifer Ziegler is a YA novelist, speaker, coffee addict, and champion daydreamer . Her novel How Not to Be Popular (Delacorte, 2008) was an International Reading Association’s Young Adults’ Choice and an ALA Best Books for Young Adults nominee.  When she isn’t busy being Author Woman, she is a mild-mannered, slightly frazzled, usually ketchup-stained mother of two who is considering getting a tattoo. Feel free to contact her (and suggest tattoos) via her website at www.jenniferziegler.net.

Win a copy of My Forever Friends! Details at the end of this post.

I’m Ida May and I’m feeling a little squished. That’s because I’m sitting on a piano bench between Jenna Drews and Brooke Morgan. I was saving half of the bench for my best friend, Stacey Merriweather, but Jenna budged in before Stacey could. Jenna is my sometimes friend. Then Brooke budged in on the other side of me. Brooke is my sometimes-not friend.

We’re all here, at Jenna’s house, for a shower. Not the wet kind. The party kind. Jenna’s mom is having a baby, so Brooke’s mom decided the PTA should give her a baby shower. Mrs. Drews is the PTA president. Mrs. Morgan is vice president, which means she and Mrs. Drews are supposed to get along.

Excerpt© 2011 Julie Bowe

About the book:

Not only does Ida May have the best, best friend ever in Stacey Merriweather, she’s also got a great best frenemy in Jenna Drews—so there’s always someone special to sit with on the bus and hang out with after school. But when Ida May’s best friend, her best frenemy, and the other girls in class start fighting, Ida isn’t sure she can stay friends with all of them or if she’ll have to choose sides. And if she has to pick just one friend, who should it be?

What people are saying:

“Throughout the [Friends for Keeps] series, Ida May has shown herself to be a sensitive girl juggling the ups and downs of friendship with thoughtfulness and wisdom. In My Forever Friends she exhibits a level of maturity which is simultaneously admirable and bittersweet. Young readers will see a girl they would like to emulate and love to be friends with themselves.”–Not Just for Kids

“I loved this one. Julie Bowe knows how to tell a good story.”–Becky’s Book Reviews

Released: July 7, 2011

About the author:

Julie Bowe grew up in Luck, Wisconsin. She is the author of the Friends for Keeps series: My Last Best Friend, which is perfect “for readers who have graduated from Sara Pennypacker’s ‘Clementine’ stories, Barbara Park’s ‘Junie B. Jones’ series, and Megan McDonald’s ‘Judy Moody’ books,” according to School Library Journal; My New Best Friend, My Best Frenemy, My Forever Friends, and the forthcoming My Extra Best Friend (Dial, 2012). She doesn’t live in Luck anymore, but she still feels very lucky to be a children’s author. Julie can be found online at www.juliebowe.com and http://juliebowe.livejournal.com.

Giveaway:

Julie has been kind enough to contribute a prize pack for a giveaway! One lucky winner will receive a personalized hardcover copy of My Forever Friends, a snazzy bookmark, and a very cute Friends for Keeps mini-button.

Just comment on this post to enter.

For extra entries:

-Be a follower of this site (just click “Join this site”) or a follower on Twitter [+1 entry each].

-Link to this contest on Twitter, Facebook, etc. [+1 entry per each link].

Please list your extra entries in the comments.

The contest is open in the US and Canada and ends on July 20th at midnight EST.

Good luck and happy reading!

Chapter 1

I thought by the time I’d transferred to the Kansas and Arkansas Valley Railway, this foolish tendency to jump at every sound, to blush each time someone looked me in the eye, would have subsided. If Papa had been sitting next to me, he’d have patted my hand, his mustache curving into a smile. “All the world’s a stage, Willie,” he’d have said, “and you’re playing your part out of necessity, as have many before you.”

But Papa was dead, and the space next to me was empty. Staring at that void, I knew in my heart I was something much worse than a player on the world’s stage. And more than the summer heat made the perspiration trickle down the back of my neck. I jumped and blushed and perspired for good reason.

I was a liar and a thief.

The conductor called all passengers aboard, and I breathed a sigh of relief. But before I had time to celebrate my solitude, a young man bounded up the steps of my car and slid into the opposite seat. I stiffened, bracing myself for the prying questions strangers asked so freely of young ladies traveling alone. But he only removed his hat and, with a quick nod to me, slumped against the window with his eyes closed. The train jerked into motion with a great metallic screech, but even this did not rouse him. Grateful, I turned back to the window and studied what I could of Van Buren, Arkansas, branding my memory with details of the landscape before we entered Indian Territory.

Excerpt© 2011 Sonia Gensler

About the book:

When Willie arrives in Indian Territory, she knows only one thing: no one can find out who she really is. To escape a home she doesn’t belong in anymore, she assumes the name of a former classmate and accepts a teaching job at the Cherokee Female Seminary.

Nothing prepares her for what she finds there. Her pupils are the daughters of the Cherokee elite—educated and more wealthy than she, and the school is cloaked in mystery. A student drowned in the river last year, and the girls whisper that she was killed by a jealous lover. Willie’s room is the very room the dead girl slept in. The students say her spirit haunts it.

Willie doesn’t believe in ghosts, but when strange things start happening at the school, she isn’t sure anymore. She’s also not sure what to make of a boy from the nearby boys’ school who has taken an interest in her—his past is cloaked in secrets. Soon, even she has to admit that the revenant may be trying to tell her something. . . .

What people are saying:

“This first novel effectively covers a good deal of ground: race and class issues, history, and a compelling ghost and love story are all entwined as plot points are teased out a bit at a time. The uncommon setting and time period add to the appeal . . .”–Booklist

“This debut presents an intriguing look at a little-known piece of American history . . . the well-drawn characters and suspenseful plot should keep readers fully engaged.”–Kirkus

“Gensler makes a solid debut with an eerie and suspenseful work of historical fiction in which everyone is a murder suspect . . . Readers should be drawn in by the mystery and moved by Willie’s struggles to fit in and negotiate her independence.”–Publishers Weekly

Released: June 14, 2011

About the author:

Sonia Gensler grew up in a small Tennessee town and spent her early adulthood collecting impractical degrees from various Midwestern universities. A former high school English teacher, she now writes full time in Oklahoma. So far, her husband and cat are putting up with this. The Revenant is her debut novel. You can visit her at www.soniagensler.com.