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My 2 cents: Q: I love Shirley, your 8th grade super-sleuth! Where did you get the inspiration for her? Shirley came from years of listening to girls (and parents) complain about the female heroes in their books. I mean, how many stories can you have about a girl "fitting in"? How many heroines are thrown into adventure against their will and eventually stumble upon victory? I shared their frustration. I wanted to offer a series where the main character uses her intellect to stay one step ahead of everyone. The result was Shirley Link. Shirley seeks out adventure. She gets bored if she's sitting around. Shirley is the smartest person in a really smart town, and everyone around her knows it. And she uses those smarts to overcome all obstacles. It's funny, I saw a filmed interview with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ( here's the link ) where he details the origins of Sherlock Holmes. Apparently, he created Holmes when he became frustrated with protagonists

My 2 cents: Middle readers will love Ben Zackheim's new series about an 8 th grade super sleuth named Shirley Link. Hindered (I mean, assisted) by best buds, Wylie and Marie, Shirley tackles a mysterious theft at school in The Safe Case. Picture a middle-school Velma (minus Scooby Doo), add a little Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys with a wicked sense of humor, and you just about have it. In The Hot Comic (second book in the series), Shirley and company confront a dangerous thief, and maybe discover a new ally. Shirley's powers of observation are staggering, and the dialogue is sharp and zippy. Zackheim's YA novels are short, easy-to-read, and will interest and engage both the advanced and reluctant reader. My 12-year-old daughter loved both books, and flew through the pages, partly because of lines like these: “We do things just because it's always been that way. But we shouldn't. We should always question, always pry, and never, ever get so bored with

My 2 cents: “ You are what you eat.” Everybody's heard that. But, what if “you are what you read ” was true? In that case, I'd read One White Dolphin, by Gill Lewis, again and again. Lewis's YA novel is set on a coastal English town, a small fishing village, present day. The story revolves around the families of three young villagers - Kara Wood, Jake Evans and Felix Andersen. Kara, the only daughter of an out-of-work fisherman, is dyslexic, and missing her marine biologist mother, who disappeared the year before. Jake, a classmate, is the son of the town's richest boat owner. Felix, the newcomer, is brilliant, talented, a natural sailor and was born with cerebral palsy. Then, there's Angel, the albino dolphin who gets injured, and beaches herself in the cove near Kara's home. One White Dolphin is a story of discovery and loss, boats and bullies, fishing and friends, salt-spray and water, the past and the future. Full of twists and turns,

My 2 cents: Dante and Aristotle Discover the Secrets of the Universe is like its title – large . Benjamin Alire Saenz's new YA novel covers a large amount of territory between its end flaps. It's a coming-of-age story, for sure, about two high-school boys, Dante and Ari, who experience a lot of “firsts.” First car, first job, first kiss, first great poem, first fight, first serious accident, and first time smoking pot. Some parents will not want their teens reading this book, because <spoiler alert> not all the first kisses are between a boy and a girl. Some parents will not want their kids reading this book, because a few of the characters try marijuana and alcohol. I would say this to those parents: read the book for yourself before you decide. Saenz addresses a number of sensitive topics in Secrets of the Universe with a tender, insightful touch. Length: 359 pages Worth Your Time? Yes, for high-schoolers and up. 

My 2 cents: I like a book that includes recipes. Alex Witchel's new novel is called All Gone (A Memoir of My Mother's Dementia, with Refreshments) . Every chapter ends up with at least one recipe; some are Jewish comfort food, some are retro 70's fare, most look fairly easy to do, and all belong in somebody's cookbook. And that's just dessert! The main course of the book is the lovely story of a mother and daughter; the good and bad, the beginning and the end, some of it funny, and some of it, of course, sad. Alex Witchel chronicles her mother's illness, a stroke-induced form of dementia. She weaves doctor's visits and nerve-wracking, late-night telephone calls together with memories of her own childhood, lavish get-away-weekends, holidays with relatives, and stories from her mom's career as a college professor. If you're facing the challenge of caring for a parent with dementia, or you have a teen or adult child whose grandma or papa i

My 2 cents: I'm not a fan of horror movies or gore. I skip past the newspaper articles with headlines screaming atrocities. So you will understand when I say I did not enjoy reading Mike Mullin's newest YA novel, Ashen Winter. Ashen Winter is the second book of the Ashfall trilogy. A shfall is the story of Alex Halprin, an almost-16-year-old boy living in Cedar Falls, Iowa whose life is disrupted and forever changed by the eruption of a supervolcano at Yellowstone National Park. Meant to be home alone for the weekend, while his sister and parents visit family in nearby Warren, Illinois, Alex finds himself fighting for survival in a desperate search to find his family. Along the way, Alex meets Darla, befriends her, and together the determined duo fight murderers, hunger, thirst, cold, ash, darkness, bandits, injuries, grief and more, as they band together to reach Illinois. Well-written, Mullin's riveting, debut novel garnered all kinds of award

1) Will there be a sequel to BEACH HOUSE MEMORIES? Yes, there will be another in this popular series.  I still work with sea turtles, after all, and there are more stories to tell.   As there are as yet many questions to be answered for Cara and Brett. I'm eager to revisit my favorite characters.   In my upcoming book (July, The Summer Girls), I bring Toy and Ethan back!  It's the first time I've had fictional characters from other books reappear.   The reader can see where this couple is in their life, their children...    I did this because it makes sense that people involved with marine life in our community would know each other.    Charleston  is really a small town that way.  It was fun to write and I'm sure my readers will enjoy seeing the characters again.    2) Do you have a favorite place to write? Where? I've always needed to be in my own private space to write a novel. This is because i must lose myself and absorb the

My 2 cents: I didn't expect to get hooked so completely. When I recently re-read Mary Alice Monroe's bestselling novel, Beach House Memories, I didn't know I'd get so immersed in the characters of Lovie Rutledge, Lovie's daughter, Cara, and best friend, Florence Prescott, and of course, the other main characters of the books, the turtles and the Isle of Palms itself. But, of course, I did. Beach House Memories takes place in South Carolina's barrier islands, both in present-day and the summer of 1974. Read it for the love story. Between Lovie and Russell Bennett, a marine biologist, university professor and pilot. Read it for the 70's flashbacks. Joy perfume, Watergate, Carole King, bell-bottom jeans, the resignation of Richard Nixon, 10 cent newspapers, the Smothers Brothers and “Cherish” on the radio. Read it for the turtles. Cara's first “hatching” is mesmerizing. “She arrived just as there was a cave-in, and seconds later, the

My 2 cents: Mermaids! Mermen! Ninth grade. Jade and BFF Cori, boyfriend Luke and frenemy Lainey Chamberlain. Add all this to a small town on a lake and the ocean, and you have just hit the jackpot for YA Literature. Helene Boudreau's newest mermaid novel, Real Mermaids Don't Need High Heels , comes out this month (February, 2013). Sweet, funny (and suspenseful), this little treat of a book is ready for publication just in time for Valentine's Day! Just as Jade enters ninth grade at Port Toulouse Regional High, ready for lockers and lunch (free of teacher supervision), and walking to class with her cool, new boyfriend (Luke), she finds herself suddenly back in Defense Mode, preparing to fight off a new attack from the errant Mermish Council. New friendships form, discoveries and rescues are made, but will Jade save her mermaid family and friends in time to attend the Fall Folly Dance? And, more importantly, if she is free to go, what will she wear? 12

Tell my readers a little about yourself I’m a writer and children’s book editor, and a self-confessed lover of pop culture and all things nerdy. I’ve had lots of odd and varied jobs in my career, including working very briefly as a high school teacher, but making books – writing and editing – is really my dream job. Melbourne, Australia is home, though I have lived all over the place, including stints in London, and northern Minnesota for a short time when I was younger. Life in Outer Space is my first published novel, although like most writers, I have a bottom draw filled with half-finished manuscripts. How did you get the idea for your characters, Sam and Camilla? Sam’s voice really came first; one of those odd moments where I was looking for inspiration for a new project (having decided to abandon the novel I had been working on), but really had no idea what the ‘new’ thing was going to be. I was attempting to write in a café when I spotted a poster for a horror fil

My 2 cents: You know it's a good YA book when your own teen picks it up, and 15 minutes later, you glance over at her, and she hasn't moved (except to turn the pages as quickly as she can). That's what happened this week when I handed my daughter Melissa Keil's debut YA novel, Life in Outer Space. It's a good thing I got to it first. Sponsored by Hardie Grant Egmont Publishing, Keil's new novel is the 2012 first-ever winner of the Ampersand Project. Sam Kinnison (a year-11 movie-geek and screenwriter-in-the-making) and Camilla Carter (new-girl-at-school and daughter of a famous music critic) win readers' hearts immediately with their nerdy, brilliant, funny, cool selves. Sam and Camilla's story is heartbreakingly authentic. I laughed (a lot), winced (a little), and nodded my head in empathy (more than once). But, mostly (like my daughter), I just turned the pages as fast as I could. Sam's friends, Mike, Allison and Adrian, round out this c