The Offenders - Jerry Craft

The Offenders: Saving the World While Serving Detention! is an action / adventure story designed to teach kids about the negative effects of bullying. It's the story of 5 school bullies who get superpowers, but instead of turning into cool heroes, they take on the characteristics of the kids they pick on.

I write for young people because when I was a kid, I didn’t like to read. I only read Marvel Comics and whatever books I was forced to read in school. As an adult, I realize the importance of reading and do what I can to reach reluctant readers. I focus on creating characters that are interesting enough to get a kid to read a book on his or her own.


Guided Reading level – W
Grade level Equivalent- 5
Interest level- grades 5-8 (middle school reader) Ages 12-up

You can see more of my work and learn more about me on my website. http://jerrycraft.net/

Tell us why you wrote this book and created these characters

I wrote “The Offenders: Saving the World While Serving Detention!” because it seems as if bullying has reached epidemic proportions. Many books that I see are about kids who ARE bullied. My book is about the kids who are DOING the bullying. One teacher told me she read one of my books in class and a young girl gasped and said, “Oh no, I just did that to someone this morning! I didn’t realize it was bad. I have to go apologize.” I couldn’t ask for more than that.

Tell something about the characters you would like young readers to grasp.

Since I have loved superhero stories since my Marvel Comic days, The Offenders is about 5 school bullies who get superpowers, but instead of turning into cool looking heroes, they look like the kids they pick on. So one gets really smart, but physically uncoordinated; one gets super thin; one gains 100 pounds; one gets two large metallic buck teeth; and the girl who calls kids mousey shrinks down to the size of a mouse! Now they have to protect the school, but they’re too embarrassed to go outside. It’s a lesson in Karma!

Plus, when the kids transform, they trade physical characteristics with each other. So it’s hard to like a kid, or not like him because of how he or she looks. Because it changes.

How do you see your book fitting into schools and into the concept of Windows, Mirrors and Sliding glass doors.

One of the things I’m most proud of is that the main characters are 3 boys and 2 girls from very diverse backgrounds; both racially and economically. I did a LOT of research to avoid traditional stereotypes and to create characters that kids want to know better. It’s also a perfect book for schools because it makes kids aware of how their words and actions can affect other kids’ lives. There’s also plenty of humor and excitement, so it never comes across as a lecture. We all know how much kids “love” lectures. ;)

I tried to be descriptive enough where kids can see what it’s like to be in someone else’s shoes, and enjoy the walk.

Share a little about your research and other efforts to make the portrayal of your characters culturally accurate

I am most proud of Dexter Diaz, who is Puerto Rican. As an African-American man, I have always been acutely aware at how stereotypes have shaped the way that our kids have been portrayed. So the last thing that I wanted to do was to be guilty of that myself. So after I wrote Dexter’s chapters, I gave them to two friends who are Puerto Rican, and asked them to be VERY critical. One is a male author, the other is a mom (obviously female).

They told me what they liked, and told me where they thought that my portrayal was inaccurate. So I kept working on it, until it had passed both of their tests. The same goes for Bobby Bonderman, who is a Korean boy adopted by White parents. In fact, this was probably the most research I have ever done for a book, and I’ve illustrated and/or written about 18.

I also hired my two teenage sons as co-authors to give authenticity to the characters. So if the characters are playing a video game, they made sure I didn’t have them playing Pac Man or Space Invaders. I had a mom email me to say that after reading the book, she finally knew what her kids were talking about!

What you have done to insure quality in the finished product in terms of content, editing, and appropriateness for the age range.

First, I never do any book that I don’t want my kids to read, so there’s never anything inappropriate in my work. I was also fortunate to get 2 schools to test my book, before releasing it to the public. One school in upstate NY chose it for their “One School, One Read” program. So not only did I hear from kids, but I also heard from teachers and librarians. To me, that’s the ultimate seal of approval.

Most recently it was chosen for PACER’s first ever bookclub. PACER is one of the world’s leading anti-bullying organizations. They are the ones who made October National Bullying Awareness Month.

Here’s what they had to say:

Creative, funny, and engaging – this book presents a unique look at the dynamics of bullying. With a diverse cast of characters, the book illustrates that bullying affects everyone – and that the students who are bullying can change their behavior and make their school a more positive place.

— PACER's National Bullying Prevention Center

So after gathering initial feedback, the version that I have now is EXACTLY the way that I want it.

Books Outside The Box - characters with physical disabilities

The annual United Nations' International Day of Persons with Disabilities is a time to focus on issues that affect people with disabilities worldwide. The theme is: “Break barriers, open doors: for an inclusive society for all.” More than a billion people, 15% of the world population, live with disabilities. This is the world’s largest and most disadvantaged group. And a perfect theme for the resurrected Books Outside The Box

The Drowned Cities features Mahlia, a heroine with only one hand. This book serves as a companion book, not a sequel, to Paolo Bacigalupi's debut YA novel, Ship Breaker. In this dystopian future, the US has been devastated by climate changes that lead to a flooded east coast and anarchy. Roving warlords fight for power over the remnants of the east coast. Chinese peacekeepers arrived on US soil and spent years trying to stop the violence. When they gave up and left, one left behind a daughter. 

Mahlia's hand was deliberately amputated by one warlord celebrating the departure of the hated peacekeepers. But she doesn't let the missing limb, or the missing father, plunge her into despair. She works assisting a local doctor in a small village and struggles to rescue Mouse, a young boy who is kidnapped by a gang and forced to become a soldier. 

This book covers more than just what a handicapped heroine can accomplish. It also deals with issues of prejudice and standing up for ones self, of being forced to be a child soldier and the sacrifices people sometimes have to make to survive.


Pinned, by Sharon G. Flake, published in 2012 by Scholastic Press, tackles the tough subjects of disability and stereotypes head-on. Autumn is a wrestler, the only female wrestler in her high school. She is in love with Adonis, the brilliant, hard-working, determined, and legless team manager. She has visions of a future where she sits in his lap as he wheels her into the prom. Unfortunately her low skills at reading and math threaten her position on the team. And the voices inside her head tell her to give up, she may be able to wrestle and takedown the big boys, but she will never be able to learn. But at least Autumn is sincere and speaks openly and honestly, admitting her faults and weaknesses. 

Adonis may be in a wheelchair, but the star student has no patience with weakness. He views Autumn’s difficulties in school as a sign that she is weak, wasting her talents and abilities.  Adonis won’t be pitied. He is arrogant and never let his lack of legs keep him from standing tall—until the day bullies tossed him into the lake and left him to drown.

Now the boy who could do anything finds his self-confidence shattered.  He can't really believe that any girl really wants to date him.  He's always been confident about himself and can't see ever letting another person inside his innermost thoughts, not even the super strong wrestler who makes him cry out in his sleep.  This book gives readers two strong characters, both having to accept that they have faults, and both having to learn to overcome them.


Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card, is a companion novel to Ender's game, telling roughly the same story, but told from the point of view of Bean, a boy who grows up on the mean streets of a dystopian future Rotterdam. He is small for his age, extremely small, but that is not his handicap. He uses his difference effectively against everyone except Achilles, a boy with a crippled leg and a bad attitude. Achilles (pronounced Asheel) is the villain of the book, a street bully who has the brains to take advantage of everything including his crippled leg, and the cruelty to kill anyone who sees him as helpless. He isn’t the hero, but he is a reminder that being handicapped does not automatically make one a saint, or a target of bullies.  He knows how to work the system, especially adults who feel sorry for him or make the mistake of seeing him as a handicapped saint, making him one of the most effective villains I've seen in a long time.


Cinder, written by Marissa Meyer and published by Feiwel & Friends in 2012 features a cyborg Cinderella in Beijing China…that is, New Beijing, (after all, this is the future.) Lihn Cinder is missing a foot. The teenaged cyborg has outgrown the model she wore as a child and her stepmother refuses to buy a bigger one. She is also a gifted mechanic, a talent that brings her to the attention of Crown Prince Kai, who sees her as a girl, not a machine. Cinder’s life becomes intertwined with Prince Kai’s but what can a cyborg who has no rights, is only barely considered human, and an artificial foot, do with a prince?


Girl, Stolen written by April Henry, and published 2010 by Henry, Holt & Co. introduces readers to a blind Cheyenne Wilder. in this contemporary novel,  Cheyenne is a teen sick with pneumonia and left to sleep in the back of the car while her mother runs into the pharmacy to fill her prescription. Then the car is hijacked and readers are taken along in this quiet thriller with a sick, blind heroine and a young man who never intended to be a kidnapper. But now that he has, his father intends to make use out of having the daughter of a corporate executive in his power. 

Think about being kidnapped. And then imagine being kidnapped and being in the power of a man who hates everything your parents stand for when you are sick, and blind.

Crazy Beautiful, written by Lauren Baratz-Longsted and published in 2009 by Houghton Mifflin, is a modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast featuring Lucius Wolfe and Aurora Belle. Lucius is a double amputee who blew his own arms off.  Lucius tells readers:

I don't blame my parents for what I became, and never have. It wasn't my parents' fault I wanted to blow something up. It wasn't my parents' fault I was so angry with the world. And why was I so angry? I suppose—and I know this is no excuse, but it is the reason—I was exhausted with being so different from everybody else. Sure, many, many people survive extended abuse of bullying and never snap. But some do snap. It is a thing, I think, worth thinking about.

Now he wears hooks to scare people and keep them away, and to remind himself of the monster inside.  But in spite of those hooks he is still a young man in pain.

If you have other books about teens with disabilities, please add them to the comments.  I would love to hear about them.

See other Books Outside the Box columns on TheHub by clicking here.


Return to Books outside the Box in January for YA books deal with mental illness.

Empowering the Voice of the Black Male in Children’s and Teen Lit - NCAAL 2013

I spoke at the 8th National Conference of African American Librarians on August 8, 2013. The topic was Empowering the Voice of the Black Male in Children’s and Teen Lit. [Click here to read the YALSA Hub post about the conference] At one point we had a discussion on the role of non-fiction. One librarian spoke of a young man who only wanted to read about cars. Not fiction about cars or anything else. There was not a lot of time to talk about this issue during the 45 minute session, but I have some additional thoughts here.

First, reading non-fiction, manuals and magazines is reading and all reading will help with vocabulary growth, reading speed and comprehension. The Common Core empahsizes non-fiction for a reason.

However, fiction gives something non-fiction cannot. The right story in the right hands at the right time gives readers the feeling that someone understands them, that they are not alone. 
Here are some ideas that might help that young man, and others, take a second look at reading in general and fiction in particular.

1. Short stories - quick reads that can help the reader regain a feeling of enjoyment in reading and a sense of mastery by finishing something quickly and easy.
2. Books in verse. With most, readers can open it to almost any page and find a new verse, each of which can be considered it's own story about his relationships with parents and peers.
   
3. Audio books. Listening can be a stepping stone. Hearing a story read can help kids return back to the younger days when they loved the idea of a story. Listening to stories read aloud is not just for preschoolers. I love my audio books!
4. Better still, solicit male volunteers, teachers, staff, parents, community members, to read aloud to kids. A surprising number will say yes. With only ten you have a reader/role model each month. Help the boys see that reading is too a masculine activity, not something just for girls.  
5. Poetry slams. I have found many boys interested in their own poetry/lyrics, and those of peers. I recently judged a poetry contest and gave a workshop on the use of  free verse to high school students. One young man in the workshop only because the teacher had the entire class come in perked up as he listened. By the end he came up to me as other students were filing out and told me he understood one of the poems. He also  said that while he hadn't entered the poetry contest this year, he was already planning for next year.
6. Give them a book of their own, to keep. Kids who own a book are more likely to read it.
7. Have them write, whatever they want, their own stories, or song lyrics, or instruction manuals. 
8. My daughter's school not only had the kids write, they had the results bound and put int he school library for anyone to check out.
9. Most of all, learn about the kid's issues, interests, problems and recommend a book to him or her that matches them.

"That's my life in that book." I have heard teen readers say that. When they see themselves, and their friends and family, they see the world, develop empathy, and come back for more.

These are my ideas. If you have any more, please add a comment and share them with others.

Boy Book Review - Colin Fischer

Colin Fischer by Ashley Edward Miller

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

All I can say is I loved Colin, his style, the way he let me inside the life of a kid with Aspergers, and the way he handles crime solving and everyday stress. I sincerely hope this is the first of many books about him, his personal Watson, and the totally sinister Moriarty clone.
Colin can't interpret facial expressions without the aid of a cheat sheet. He's smart, gifted in many ways, but in some areas he understands less than a typical five-year-old.

When a gun goes off in the school cafeteria, he figures out that the shooter could not possibly be the prime suspect, Wayne, a boy who has bullied him since grammar school. Instead of taking the opportunity for revenge, Colin's only thought is to solve the crime and find the truth.

Most of all, I loved Colin's family, its nice to have loving parents who aren't trying to hinder the kid or villains in disguise. But that younger brother of his...he's as realistic as he is trouble.

I loved this enough to make it the star of my story on books featuring protagonists on the autism spectrum on the YALSA blog, http://www.yalsa.ala.org/thehub/2013/07/26/books-outside-the-box-different-operating-systems/

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Boy Book Review - Remember Dippy

Remember Dippy by Shirley Reva Vernick

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Thirteen year old Johnny has an unwanted summer job, helping his aunt care for his autistic cousin, Remember Dippy (and that is his real name thanks to weird parent).

During the course of the summer, fifteen-year-old Remember or Mem as Johnny calls him, joins in with the other neighborhood kids for fun and adventure and the mystery that is girls. Johnny narrates the story, and through his eyes we see how life with his cousin Mem changes both boys.

Mem shows that being autistic is no barrier to being a real friend. He saves an old man’s romance, a girl from being sent away, his cousin from a bully, and the bully from drowning. There is even the possibility of romance, for both boys.

This is a good book for anyone with an autistic family member. It would also be useful in classrooms to spark discussions on autism and what it means to be “normal.” It’s a true feel good book, and I hated to see it end.

I read a copy supplied by the publisher as part of my investigation of books featuring protagonists on the autism spectrum done for YALSA. You can catch the entire post and booklist at http://www.yalsa.ala.org/thehub


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ALA 2013 - Attracting Reluctant Readers

I am now the author of two YA novels, one of which was a YALSA 2012 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers list, and was on the School Library Journal list of best books for youth in detention in 2011. Being noted by on those two lists made my proud, because one of my goals in writing was to reach out and try to turn around the so-called reluctant reader and remind them of the joys of reading. I knew I had made it when a teacher told me a reluctant reader not only finished Pull in record time, but asked for another one just like it.

Since 2011, I have met with teachers and librarians and discussed ways to reach out to reluctant readers at a number of venues, including individual libraries, the Illinois Reading Council, Indiana Library Federation, and Ohio Educational Library Media Association. I was overjoyed last fall when my proposal for a presentation on the subject was accepted for ALA 2013. Last Saturday, June 29, was d-day (delivery day)

I recruited another author, Jim Klise, teacher, school librarian, and book club leader at a Chicago charter school, to join me for the presentation, Jim Klise. Jim is the author of Love Drugged, a story about a gay teen who thinks a drug can make him "straight" and therefore acceptable at school. Together, Jim and I represented public and school libraries, and populations (gay and teens of color) that are traditionally under served. Jim talked about the boys in his school, and how many of them enjoyed reading, including one who admitted to enjoying romances as long as the other boys didn't know. He confessed to being one of those boy eager readers as a child, and the family's trips to the library to bring home stacks of books are some of his fondest memories.

We had a room filled with both school and public librarians; a standing-room-only crowd that extended into the hallway, proving how much libraries and librarians care about pairing books and kids.


Being the science type, I began by handing out data on the problem. I entitled my piece of the presentation, Why Johnny, Jaime, Jose and sometime even Jane won't read (because there are girl reluctant readers too, just as there are boys who are eager readers.) Although both boys and girls are read to by their parents, during the early school years, the "learning to read" stage, boys begin falling behind in the amount of time spent reading for fun, and the very idea that reading might be "fun." Some of this is due to different children maturing and learning at different speeds. Another reason is that some of the reading material available may not interest some kids. The result can be two self-fulfilling prophecies. First that a number of kids learn to view themselves as non-readers - and all too frequently those as males. Second, that publishers think boys don't read books, and therefore concentrate all their efforts on "girl books."

The remainder of my presentation focused on strategies librarians can use to attract reluctant readers, including arranging shelves and displays that make books guys like (mystery, science fiction, non-fiction) easier to find, book trailer projects and other uses of technology, and recruiting male staff and community members to show that they read too to make reading seem like a masculine activity. Even the most reluctant reader might be pulled in by a "Don't Get Mad, Get Even" book display.


I handed out a list of suggested books for reluctant readers (the list and more information can be found at my website, and highlighted a few, including science fiction like The Rookie (football set hundreds of year in the future), Acceleration, a classic YA mystery, Lexapros and Cons, a humorous look inside the mind of a kid with OCD, and War Brothers, a graphic novel about children kidnapped and forced to become soldiers. I also talked about books with girls as protagonists including Pinned a story about the only female wrestler in her school, and Yaqui Delgado is Going To Kick Your Ass, (just the title alone would suck in any kid male or female) about a girl being bullied by another girl, but that will suck in both boys and girls who know how dangerous and friendless high school can be.

Jim provided some statistics from a survey of the boys and girls at his school about the kinds of books both genders like, and how they chose new books. His strategies for librarians include making sure they buy books for ALL patrons of all demographics. He noted that at his school he has kids from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, and sexual orientations. He makes sure to have books with protagonists from as many areas as possible. He reminded librarians to expose the kids to different options. And to give the kids books they can keep, books they feel are theirs. He found that a key to getting kids to both read and retain what they read.

Comments and questions from the attendees included a desire for more books with gay characters of color, and a wish that publishers would understand they need to feature other groups in their books.

Attracting Reluctant Male Readers @ ALA 2013

I'M PRESENTING!!

This Saturday at 1:00 pm, I will be making a presentation to the American Library Association in Chicago on Attracting Reluctant Male Readers. Normally I don't start gathering butterflies in my stomach until the day before a presentation. But then I made the mistake of looking and saw that almost five hundred people had indicated a desire to attend my program. Now I have three days of feeling like I want to vomit.

I have spoken on this subject many times in multiple venues over the last few years, including at the Illinois Reading Council, the Ohio Educational Library Media Association, and the Indiana Library Federation, and a number of libraries across the Midwest. This time I am part of the YALSA at the ALA group of session.  I will be discussing the problem of Reluctant Readers, giving program and activity recommendations to change them into eager readers, and recommending a number of YA books geared at attracting those guys who think they don't like reading.

I also recruited a male author and school librarian to work with me. he will be giving a number of first hand tactics that have worked with the boys in his school. maybe if I sink into a puddle of goo at the sight of hundreds of faces he will be able to hang on.  Seriously, my biggest audience so far has been about a hundred people.

Once I finish on Saturday I will be putting a copy of the recommended books and my presentation on my website.  If you are a librarian and attend ALA, stop by the convention center in room 106b Saturday at 1. There will be door prizes (copies of Pull, Being God and/or Die Trying)

I promise not to faint. Not even if you turn out to be the five hundred and first person in the room.

Book Review - As fast As Words Could Fly

As Fast as Words Could Fly by Pamela M. Tuck

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Somebody’s got to make a change.

This is the theme brought to life in As Fast As Words Could Fly, a MG picture book about fourteen-year-old Mason Steele, his family, the American Civil Rights movement, and a typewriter. The art beautiful, realistic, the perfect complement to the simple, heartfelt story. The story begins by showing a handsome, well-groomed, baseball and football loving young man bent over his studies. I wanted him for my son. Seriously. On every page we see Mason's world, loving parents, anxiety, and the power of change.

Mason helps his father’s civil rights group. His skill with pencil and paper helps him create business letters used to advance the cause. The group gives him a manual typewriter (the pictures really help since too few people today even remember those things, much less have seen one). He teaches himself to type over the summer and his words and abilities expand.

Life changes when school resumes. Mason's efforts have helped the civil rights group desegregate the local school. Instead of the daily thirteen mile trip to the black school, Mason and his brothers begin the even harder journey to the formerly all-white school. At first the bus driver refuses to stop to pick them up. When they get to school, they are met at the door by officials who do not want them to enter. White students, even the few who had been friendly before, now shun the black boys. But Mason excels in typing class, earning a job with the school librarian (does anyone remember actual card catalogues) and the right to represent his school at a typing tournament where he wins because he remembers where he came from. The pictures show the stunned surprise on the faces of the other competitors. No one cheers for Mason. But his words speak for him, "loud and clear."

In the end we feel hopeful for Mason and for his family's future. And we know that future will involve writing. The book includes an author's note about her father and his own life during this time period, her inspiration for the book.


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Book Review - War Brothers

War Brothers: The Graphic Novel by Sharon E. McKay

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


War Brothers is the kind of graphic novel that makes me want to go out and grab the original. I need to know if that book rips at the emotions the way this one did. The book takes us into history and politics and everyday life in Uganda, Africa. In so doing, it shows that life, and human nature, are the same all around the world. Especially the bonds of friendship.

Jacob just wants to be a kid. He excels in mathematics (he and his friends can do calculations in his head that I have trouble with on a calculator). He has a scholarship to attend a special school, one designed to train future leaders. He and his friend Tony arrive filled with hopes for the future. But the local warlord needs recruits, and kids make good cannon fodder. Not even the special guards hired by the parents stop The LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) soldiers from raiding the school and abducting students. From then on, Jacob’s main job becomes survival as he waits for his father to rescue him. Meanwhile, the soldiers begin the process of turning the boys into killers.

The book pulls few punches. Readers’ hearts pound as a frightened boy is told to choose between short-sleeves or long: being amputated at the wrist, or above the elbow. We watch female captives, one maimed for trying to escape, others forced to be the “wives” of soldiers and bear babies while they themselves are still children. The boys are told that if they even speak to one of the girls they will be beaten…and the girl will be killed. The graphics are excellent and enhance the story. We see and feel the shock and fear, the grief as friends die or agree to become killers in exchange for food and shelter. We feel the fatigue and the jungle heat. Watch as adults turn children into brutes.

“The commanders can tell which boys can be broken like glass. Shattered glass cannot be put back together. When the good boys become LRA they become especially mean, especially dangerous.”

Jacob witnesses atrocities committed in the name of God; watches his friend Tony, the boy who once wanted to become a priest, become a gun-toting convert after being forced to kill another child. He believes his father will rescue him, rejects the religious zeal of his captors and does everything he can to keep a frail boy alive during weeks spent trekking through the African jungle. Jacob’s hopes sink when he learns the government refuses to make a deal to get the schoolboys back. If he is going to survive, he has to make that happen, even if it means agreeing to join the soldiers on a raid. The rules are simple: only those who fight and kill get food. Jacob is handed a panga (machete) and told to kill the enemy. An enemy who turns out to be a mother struggling to protect her screaming child.

Five boys, including Jacob and Tony, and one girl manage to escape. When they return from the jungle they are looked on with fear. Some parents refuse to take their children back.

“People watched us. They thought we were killers with a thirst to kill again.”

When a boy who has been handed a weapon and taught to take life turns around and saves a life, does he earn absolution? Can he be trusted or forgiven? Even by himself? The book asks the questions. It does not hand out easy answers.

This book is justifiably labeled 9th grade and up. The brutality begins on the opening panels. We see children armed with guns and machetes attacking a mother trying to defend her own child. It makes an effective hook, I had to keep reading when I turned a page and the book went into the past, to scenes of tranquility in Uganda before the boys became pawns in a war. This makes an ideal “gateway book” for High School youth who might be considered reluctant readers. By that I mean the book has a sound hook for older high school students. I admit to reading frantically to see what would happen next. I visualize many reluctant readers doing the same.

War Brothers does a good job of depicting the universality of family life, friendship, the dreams of the young, and how those dreams can be ripped apart by the irrationality of war. Teachers, parents and librarians can use this story to evoke discussions of combat situations in the present and the past, street wars, and other areas relevant to young readers’ lives and futures.

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Being God review

The Pirate Tree, a group of Children's and YA bloggers, selected Being God to review for Valentine's Day. The reviewer, J. L. Powers, admits the book is "an unlikely choice for Valentine’s Day but a good one nonetheless."

The review says:

I would hate to see this complex novel reduced to any of the “issues” it tackles in nuanced and unusual ways—alcohol abuse, violence, teen pregnancy, gangs, bullying, deteriorating urban neighborhoods. This is not an “issue” novel (thank goodness, I don’t really like reading “issue” novels). In fact, what I love about this novel is that there isn’t a singular, unifying “idea” or “theme” or “truth” that runs throughout it, emphasized in multiple ways. Instead, just like real life—and certainly, real life as teens experience it—the messages that Malik receives and the messages that he sends are confusing, contradictory, and ambiguous.

I love that the reviewer got what I wanted to display.  I hesitated trying to call Being God a novel about a teen alcoholic, or about a bully, or teen pregnancy, that always seemed to reduce it just a notch to me.  It's about a life, and a teen needing to decide just what he wants to be when he grows up...and he doesn't have much more time to make his decision because he's growing up right now.

You can read the full text of the review at The Pirate Tree blog. And like every other post in my Being God tour, leave a comment for a chance to win a $25 Amazon Gift card. A winner will be selected on March 17.

Release Day!!!

It's here. I can't believe it, but the wait is over. Being God is available on amazon.com.  TGIF, because tonight I go an party in a way my poor 17-year-old character can't. Or at least, he's not supposed to, because Malik Kaplan knows how to party.

I stop in the men’s room, pull off my glasses, and stare into the mirror. I’m not Horst the rapper. I don’t look like him. I barely look like myself. In the strained light of the single bulb hanging from the ceiling, my face is distorted. Usually, I feel exposed without my glasses, but the girl was right. I was a fool to wear them tonight. The glasses go in my pocket; this place is my disguise.

“Let the fun begin,” I mutter, and head for the dance floor. Give me a few drinks and I won’t care about either of those girls.

Being God, copyright© 2013 by B. A. Binns

Teen reviews for Being God (feedback from Chicago High School students based on reading advance reader copies)

Job, age 17 - I want to start off by saying that your your character depictions for "Being God" were exact. I love the relationships Malik and Cesar had, although they were not related or from the same background. I really liked how you incorporate the family issues Malik was faced with. As teenagers, a problem we face is probably getting along with our parents, and witnessing all the issues Malik had with his dad gave me a sense of knowing that I wasn't the only who sometimes hates his father.

Overall, "Being God" was a great book, highlighting an African American boy's journey of living above the influence.

Louis, age 17 - The book BEING GOD was really good! I was able to relate to what the main character was going through. This book shows that there is always a way out of trouble, and also how the decisions we make can affect us in the long run. I loved it.

 You can love it too.

Enter the contest for a chance at one of three prizes. Purchase copies of Being God on Amazon.

   

Countdown to Being God

Backcover blurb for Being God:

My first blow is an uppercut. A crack sounds in the cold air, the impact shivering up my arm as his head snaps back. I bend, move in close, and get in a second blow. He stumbles and steps backward.

I’ve boxed before, in a ring, facing trained fighters. I start to relax. I’ll put this dude down in no time. With Barney as a witness, this fight will provide a major boost to my rep.

Then Deadlocks pulls a knife.

The knife changes everything.

This isn’t a fight anymore. It’s combat, and only one side has a weapon.

Dreadlocks is out to kill.

Screw pride, screw anger, screw everything except survival. I grab Barney’s hand and yank her to her feet. We start to run, but she’s limping. I don’t have to turn to know how fast he’s closing on us. We get maybe four steps and she falls.

Time slows.

Two choices flash through my head. Leave the girl and run like hell. Or turn to face him, knowing there will be blood.

Most of it mine.

Being God, copyright© 2013 by B. A. Binns

Being God is the sequel to the award-winning Pull published in 2010. The book becomes available in paperback and eBook on Feb 1, 2013, and I can barely keep from nibbling my fingers to the knuckles. As hard as it is to change a bad guy in real life, I think it's even harder to do it in fiction. I was supposed to control the pages, but this character frequently seized control and made things happen his way.

 

But now it's over. There is nothing to change, nothing more to do except flip the switch and make things live on Thursday night. Which leaves me antsy. Luckily, I do have a few things I'm supposed to be doing.

• Like prepping for a workshop on diversity in YA literature I have been asked to give at the Virginia Hamilton conference at Kent State University in April. (I know that sounds like a lot of time, but I know from past experience deadlines come sooner than I expect them to)
• Sprucing up the series of lectures I will be giving for the Man Talk online class I start teaching  next week (gulp!)
• Prepare for the initial session of a library sponsored writing workshop I begin leading in two weeks. (Did I really say yes?)
• Start working on the speech I will be giving at the summer ALA meeting as part of YALSA at the ALA on ways to reach reluctant male readers (I actually asked to make this speech)

 

Oh yes, I also have to work on the next book.

 

Give-aways

In the meantime, I am giving away copies of Being God. The name my dog contest runs until Feb 1, when a winner and name will be chosen. Leave me a comment with a name, that's your entry fee.  I am also planning to give away books at the Chicago Principals conference on Feb 7, and to hand out books at my old high school, Hyde Park.  I have been asked to judge the entries submitted during the Poplar Creek teen holiday writing contest, and I will give everyone who entered a copy of Being God.

 

I am also sending copies of all three of my books to the Denney Juvenile Detention Center school in Washington. There my books will help many reluctant and at-risk kids. I would like to do more. I hope to donate books to at least four other facilities. So if you know of any deserving juvenile facilities, youth centers, alternative schools, or other groups that help needy kids who could use additions to their libraries, let me know. I would like to chose some to make donations to.

 

Page 12 for 12-12-12

First, I admit to being a copycat. I saw another blogger doing a page twelve for 12-12-12, and thought, hey, why not.  So, for your entertainment, page 12 of Being God, due out January, 2013 from AllTheColorsOfLove press. It's YA, contemporary, gritty, and the sequel to Pull.

On this page, seventeen-year-old Malik Kaplan and his best (only) friend Cesare Russo, are at a party.  Only they are not having much fun:

“Down, Jekyll, it was an accident,” Cesare says. “Not the first tonight and probably not the last.”

“I thought Spencer said I was Hyde,” I growl as the kid rushes back into the crowd.

“Whatever. He’s not known for having all lights lit. I still think he was talking ‘bout himself. Sometimes that crazy dude plays both roles.” Cesare shrugs. “This whole thing sucks. I mean, chips and dip, what does Spencer think we are, eighth-graders? We should leave.”

“You just want to leave because Giselle didn’t come. At least there’s plenty of booze.” I finish off my second beer, or maybe it’s my third. Who’s really counting? I toss the bottle toward an already overflowing garbage can. The bottles inside rattle as I connect.

“Two points,” Cesare says.

I laugh and head for the basement. Cesare follows me. There’s a second beer stash in a wooden tub filled with ice down there. I need another beer and don’t want to face the kitchen mayhem again. There are only a few people in the basement. Unfortunately, Spencer is one of them.

I walk down the creaking staircase and see Spencer standing with a small group of guys. His AstroTurf-green shirt barely covers his stomach rolls.

He laughs and says, “Seriously, the Barn-girl had Malik shaking.”

“Oh no.” Cesare tries to grab my arm. “Let’s go back upstairs.”

“Like anyone cares what comes out of the big mouth attached to the useless hands,” I say loudly and step forward.

Spencer’s head snaps up. “Don’t go there”

“Like you didn’t go where you were supposed to on the football field?” I say. The tub filled with beer bottles sits in the middle of the room. I dig through the freezing cold, grab a bottle from the bottom, and twist off the cap. One chug sends fire streaming down my throat. I wipe moisture from my mouth with the back of my hand and wait for his next move.

“At least I play on a team where people aren’t afraid to hit,” Spencer says.

“Do you have a problem with the basketball team?”

“Not the team,” Spencer says. “Just the self-appointed god of the court calling himself the captain.” He sniffs and runs his hand under his nose, as if wiping away sweat. Or a booger.

 

 

 

Don't forget my contest to win autographed copies of my second book, Die Trying. Find out more HERE!

Book Review - Fighting For Dontae

Fighting for Dontae by Mike Castan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This story depicts the struggles of a young man and his friends in the inner city. Javier is in seventh grade and joins a gang because the gang says so - they jump him and after being badly beaten in the initation he is in, no choice in the matter. But he does chose to stay as out of things as possible. Students will understand his struggle to be himself, when the friends he has grown up with turn to drug use and violence. His father is in and out of jail, more in than out. When he comes home things are great, but eventually he breaks a law and ends up back inside.

Javier has one thing going for him. A teacher that he learns to like and respect takes an interest in him. When he is forced to do a service project, that teacher recruits him as an aide to the special ed class she teaches. At first concerned that his friends will call him just another "retard", he learns to care for the kids he cares for, and have pride when he can help them. And when that teacher lets him know she beleives in him, his natural intelligence and empathy come to the fore. Dontae and the other kids need him, and that need serves as a counter pull to the call of the gang, the increasing violent confrontations his friends are involved in, and the drugs that surround him.

At times the story gets a little preachy. But it shows the difference a caring adult can make if he/she says just the right word at the right time in a young person's life.

Yes, there is cursing, there is a gang, and these are real kids, not saits. And yes, there is drug use, one of many temptations Javier and other real kids have to confront and learn to avoid. Watching Javier say no may help other kids learn to do the same thing. And watching Javier help Dontae and the other kids int he class serves as an example of the power that caring for someone else can have for the giver.

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Book Review - Never Fall Down

Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This reads like fiction, but it's true to the core, a bigraphy of a victim of child war.

Eleven-year-old Arn Chorn-Pond is sucked into the Cambodian war when he, his sisters, aunt and entire village are taken into virtual slavery by the Khmer Rouge in 1975. Before they day he was force-marched fom his home under the promise that it would only be for three days, until the day almost four years later when he found himseld on a plane for America where he was adopted by an American minister, he was forced to endure an almost unimaginable hell where all he could do was survive while wondering if he should keep bothering. This is told from the child's point of view, his gradual realization that the three days might never end, watching people he knew being left dead at the side of the road or being led away to never be seen again, while the rotting pile at the edge of camp keeps growing larger. The broken English used makes the story all the more compelling. This is not a book for those with a weak stomach, and not just because diarrhea becomes a part of daily life.

Before he is fourteen he deals with the kinds of moral dilemmas that would destroy many adults. He faces a woman who first curses him for being an enemy and then begs him to kill her and save her from a slow painful death. Then he confronts his younger sister, gray as an old woman semi-conscious and dying by the side of the road, knowing that it would be a kindness to kill her and save her from future rape and torture or being eaten by animals as hungry as the people.

In spite of the death all around him, including being forced to witness executions of people he knows and help bury the bodies, he fights the growing "tiger in his gut." Somehow he is chosen to survive.

Even though we know this is the true story of a man who has become a powerful speaker for children and peace, founding Cambodian Living Arts (http://www.cambodianlivingarts.org/) the writing keeps us at the edge as we wonder what next can happen to this child, and how will he live through it and retain his humanity.

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Illinois Reading Council

I presented a workshop at the 2012 Illinois Reading Council in Springfield on March 15, to a room full of teachers and librarians, all interested in the subject of attracting reluctant teen boy readers. I feel i've come full circle from 2008 when I attended a discussion about the same subject at the AWP (Association of Writing Professionals) conference. That session, that featured a panel of teens (five girls and one brave boy) showed me the issues and problems involved in getting boys back to books.

I am very pleased that the research I did on the subject, including inverviews with psychologists, socila workers, teen boys, teachers, and fathers, left me prepared to realistically portray teen boys in my novel, PULL. PULL has earned a spot on the 2012 YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers list, and School Library Journal's 2011 list of Top Choices for Youth in Detention. It also gave me the information to help the cause of getting boys back to books. You can check out a copy of my presentation, Attracting Reluctant Teen Readers.

Many of my listeners remained after the session with their questions. One in particular made sure she sat at my table during the Local Author's Luncheon, because everyone there got a free, autographed copy of PULL.  Every copy at the Anderson's Booksellers booth sold out, and I spent the evening autographing copys at the SCBWI booth.  One of my best moments was when one of the hotel servers at the luncheon asked if he could purchase a copy for his teen son. I sold him one of my own at cost and signed it for the boy there.

I'm already looking forward to next year in Springfield.

P. S. On April 10 I will be at Barbara Vey's Reader Appreciation Lunch in Oak Brook, Wi. The deadline to sign up to attend is March 31. Everyone signing up for my table will receive a free copy of PULL.

Boy Book Review - Revolver

Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Easy to tell why Revolver is highly honored. it's a thrilling historical story of adventure and survival for boys that girls and adults will also enjoy. It takes readers to a place most have never been before, the other side of the arctic circle. I spent some time in  took me right back.

We start in 1910 in Giron, Alaska inside a lonely cabin, with 14-year-old Sig and his father's corpse. The story question, what made his father, a veteran of the climate, try to cross the lake at a time and location where the ice was thinnest, and where he fell through and froze to death. The answer comes with a knock on the cabin door, and a man who has been chasing the family since they left Nome ten years earlier, looking for gold he claims Sig's father owed him, and that Sig knows does not exist.

The story moves back and forth between the events of 1899-1900 that sets a killer on the family’s trail, and 1910 when Sig has to face a man ready to kill for the gold he thinks the family has. We get a picture of the history of the Alaskan Gold Rush, where the only people who really made money after the original discovery were the service providers, saloons, and men like Sig's father who worked in an assay office. We learn about the Colt revolver in the lessons Sig’s father taught him about the way guns work and why they are sometimes the only answer to problems. We also learn lessons Sig's murdered mother tried to teach him, about Faith, Hope and Love. And finally, we learn the lesson Sig has to teach himself about survival as the boy struggles to save himself and his older sister from the invader killed his mother and intends to continue killing and raping until he finds the gold he believes this family living a subsistence life in the middle of emptiness has hidden.

The beauty, simplicity and total justice of the ending should appeal to young readers of all ages. Not to mention the real secret Sig's father worked hard to keep from taking to his grave with him.

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Men like YA books too

Last Tuesday my local library, the Arlington Heights Memorial Library, sponsored me as their guest at the Illinois Library Association conference in Rosemont Illinois. While there, one of my readers came up to me and told me he was almost finished with my book and he loved it. Part of my goal in writing PULL was to attract boys back to reading, so the gender of my fan wasn't a surprise.

His age was.  He was an adult male.

This is the third time this has happened to me. I have been told, by adult MEN, that they enjoyed the book, did not find it childish or "young adult" (the protagonist is a 17 year old African American male living in Chicago's inner city) and felt that I accurately captured what it meant to be a boy.  BTW - all three men were middle-aged and white.

I have heard some negative comments--mostly from mothers--about the language, the sexual situations and, especially, the ending. None of the men had a problem with either of these. Nor have teens, although one girl wrote that she couldn't do what David, PULL's hero, did herself, but she fully understood why he did it.

I find it interesting,  unexpected, and strangely exhilarating to think that my book has crossed-over from the YA shelves into the hands, and hearts, of adult males.

What made this most interesting is that a week earlier I gave a presentation at the Ohio Educational Media Library Association, on Attracting Teen Boy Readers.  One of the attendees mentioned how difficult it was to find male role-models who would admit to reading, and that even the Principal at her school seemed proud to announce that he "did not read."

Maybe she could think about a father-son book club, armed with male-oriented YA books. 

Obviously, PULL should be first in line.

PULL Wins the National Reader's Choice Award!!

I just returned to Chicago from the American Library Association meeting in beautiful--and incredibly hot--New Orleans.  When I arrived I was greeted by the news that this morning, at the OK RWA breakfast during the Romance Writers of America contest in New York City, PULL was awarded first place in the National Reader's Choice Awards.

I wish I could have been in New York at the reception, but I had to make a choice and ALA and librarians won. I had a friend aaccept my award (and my wonderful breakfast) for me.  This is a major honor that I hoped for, but didn't dare expect. It's just great to know that there are people who believe that books about teen guys can be just as wonderful and enjoyable as those about teen girls. PULL features a multi-cultural cast and two gay boyfriends, and themes involving both domestic and sexual abuse.  I am so glad the book is finding an audience that appreciates it.


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BOOK Review - The Doomsday Box

The Doomsday Box: A Shadow Project Adventure by Herbie Brennan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this book first, before it's predecessor, The Shadow Project. It's the first time a book sent me on a mission to finds it's prequel. Turns out this is even better than the first book, all the suspence and pace with none of the confusion.

The three teens from the first book are joined by a new member, Fuchsia, with a new power, one she is still developing. The four British teens working for MI6 find their way from Britain to New York where they are to investigate a long-forgotten CIA experiment in time travel, one that never really died. Seems you can rip a hole in the space-time continuum, but you can't put it back together again even when you shut off the power.

Just as the teen Shadow Project crew determine there is no danger at the site of the rip, danger appears, in the form of a box a military man opens to unleash a virulent plague, one that kills in less than a day and leaves billions at risk unless the kids, who have been vaccinated, go through the rip into 1962 to stop the man who will eventually unleash that plague on the 21st century. The catch - that man is a CIA agent who doesn't know what he will do in the future. The other catch - if they can't persuade him they have to kill him.

The kids end up back in the height of the cold war, travel to Russia, and end up captured and interrogated by the KGB and a pair of torturing twins you never want to meet in a dark alley. Young readers will see the height of the Cold War for the first time, older readers will revisit the dark days before the Cuban Missile Crisis, and see an alternate scenario that would have plunged the world into nuclear war before those dark days in October. One member of the Shadow Project team is an African prince, and he gets to see a touch of 1962 racism as well. Fuchsia’s developing power reveals that the 21st century plague they were sent to stop has to take second place to a nuclear holocaust due to begin in weeks and plunge the world into an alternate future in which they and billions more are dead.

It’s a high-stakes story, a true cross-over book, one that middle grade, young adult and adult readers will all enjoy.

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