When it comes to relationships, there are always two sides to the story. 
In Girl Meets Boy, 12 top young adult authors came together to create an anthology of diverse, original, he-said/she-said stories of love and heartbreak. One of these dual narratives is a collaboration between bestselling author Chris Crutcher and the mastermind and editor behind the book, Kelly Milner Halls.  The two of them recently got together again in this exclusive author one-on-one.–Seira

Kelly Milner Halls on Girl Meets Boy: Creating Girl Meets Boy, a he-said, she-said anthology for Chronicle books was a new challenge for me because I am best known for creating high interest nonfiction. But picking the writers I wanted for my YA project was a no brainer. I wanted the writers about whom I’d written and I wanted the best. My friend Chris Crutcher is the best of the best, and he was my partner in our interactive story pairing. So I caught up with him to ask a few questions about writing for Girl Meets Boy, as well as a few questions about his upcoming Fall 2012 release, Period 8.

Kelly Milner Halls: How did you feel about contributing to Girl Meets Boy –the concept of two authors exploring the same plot points from two different points of view?

Chris Crutcher: It’s a very interesting idea, and novel. Perspective is always an author’s friend, and the idea that perspective alone can create two different stories from one point of view is intriguing.

Milner Halls: You created the lead story for the pair of stories we wrote together. Were John Smith and Wanda Wickham characters you created just for Girl Meets Boy or were they rooted in other creative projects?

Crutcher: They were created for Girl Meets Boy. I’m sure I’ve used pieces of their personalties elsewhere, but they were specific to this anthology.

Milner Halls: Have you ever considered writing a book from alternating points of view as Joyce Carol Oates did in Big Mouth & Ugly Girl?

Crutcher: I haven’t read that particular book. Angry Management contains a novella that tells the story from three different perspectives. It’s not all that hard to do.

Milner Halls: Girl Meets Boy is often controversial in the topics it examines including sexual abuse, homosexuality, transgenderism and inter-racial relationships. Is there emotional value in fictionalizing realistic life issues?

Crutcher: I’m sure there is, but the emotional value of any story comes from the reader.

Milner Halls: Which is more difficult, writing a full-length novel or writing a short story for an anthology like Girl Meets Boy?

Crutcher: It’s probably a toss-up. Short story is easier from a plot point of view because usually it’s about a single thing and there’s not room for great complexity like there is in a novel. But short story requires word economy and straightforwardness to a degree that a novel might not. Writing Short Story is a great way to train for writing longer material.

Read the rest of the conversation between Chris Crutcher and Kelly Milner Halls here

It’s Valentine’s Day, which I think is fitting for the on-sale date of Wonder, our spotlight pick for February’s Best Books of the Month in Middle Grade and a book that I want to give everyone I know.

Wonder is a perfect Valentine because it has love and heartache, but it’s also a story about choosing kindness and having the courage to be our authentic selves–both attributes of the heart, in my opinion.

August “Auggie” Pullman is a 10-year-old boy with extreme facial abnormalities that are the result of a rare genetic mash-up.  Homeschooled all his life, Auggie enters school for the fifth grade and he is not the only one changed by the experience. Author R.J. Palacio has created characters that are incredibly authentic–from Auggie’s inner dialogue to the intensely honest perspectives of his sister and new friends. I didn’t want the story to end, but of course, it does, in a conclusion that was everything I’d hoped for. It reminds me of a Jerry Spinelli book, like Loser, something I would recommend without hesitation. 

Wonder is R.J. Palacio’s first book, and I look forward to seeing what she comes up with next.  Read more about Wonder in an exclusive interview with author Laurel Snyder, who also writes books for middle graders (Bigger Than a Bread Box, Any Which Wall, Penny Dreadful)–an excerpt of their interview is below along with a trailer for the book.  You can read the whole interview here (under A Best Books of the Month for Kids Exclusive).  Happy Valentine’s Day! –Seira

 Snyder: Let’s start at the beginning. Why Auggie? How did you arrive at the idea for this book? Was there a moment, a catalyst, a person who inspired this story?

Palacio: There’s a scene in the book in which Jack talks about the first time he sees Auggie. He’s sitting on a bench in front of an ice cream store with his babysitter and his little brother, who’s in a stroller. At a certain point, both he and his brother notice Auggie—and they don’t react well at all. The babysitter, in her attempt to shield Auggie from their reactions, makes things worse by hastening away in a rather obvious manner. As they’re leaving the scene, Jack overhears Auggie’s mom say to her kids, “Okay, guys, I think it’s time to go.” Her voice is calm and sweet, and the babysitter is mortified at how badly she and Jack and his little brother have handled the situation.

That scene actually happened to me about four or five years ago. I was with my sons visiting a friend who lives out of town, and at some point we found ourselves sitting next to a little girl who looked like Auggie. The scene played out exactly as it played out in the book—and afterward, I couldn’t stop thinking about how poorly we had handled that encounter. My sons I could excuse: they were still young. But I hated the way I had responded. What could I have done differently? What should I be teaching my kids to prepare them for something like this? Is “don’t stare” even the right thing to teach them? What would it be like to walk in that child’s shoes? Since I’m a mom, that other mom just broke my heart. “Okay, guys, I think it’s time to go.” Her voice had been so serene, so gentle. She’d seen it all a million times before, I’m sure. I was in awe of her.

I couldn’t stop thinking about it as we drove home that night, and after a while, just to distract myself, I turned the radio on. Natalie Merchant’s song “Wonder” came on right away, and it was something about the combination of that song and what had just happened that sparked the book. The first line of the book, the first paragraph, came to me in the car. I started writing the book the moment I got home.

Snyder: Wow, so you began with the outsider’s perspective, in a way. That’s fascinating. That makes me wonder—did you feel at all nervous, crafting a kid with a condition you haven’t experienced yourself? How did you research Wonder? How did you get inside Auggie’s head? There are some absolutely amazing touches—like how Halloween is his favorite holiday because it’s the one day of the year that he can go unnoticed. Did you imagine those touches, or did you gather those details from other people?

Palacio: I did some research on genetics and different types of craniofacial syndromes. There are websites, including those of organizations involved with these concerns, and I spent some time on them. But I really didn’t talk to anyone who had this kind of condition. Of course, it’s truly impossible to know what it’s like to experience something like that if you haven’t lived it yourself, but the feeling of being an outsider, not having friends, not fitting in—those are universal themes that aren’t that hard to tap into. In the book, every one of the characters has their own “issue” to deal with—Auggie just happens to have the one that’s the most obvious to the world.

I don’t know why, but I really felt like I understood Auggie, so it wasn’t hard for me to put myself inside his head. It seemed natural that he would love Halloween; most kids do anyway, but for Auggie it would be the most liberating feeling to be able to walk around wearing a mask. To not get noticed. That’s what he really wants, and Halloween’s the one night a year when he can do that. 

Finding Auggie’s voice wasn’t a stretch because I have two sons. I’m around boys all the time. Sometimes I’d come home from work and there would be hordes of them hanging out, playing video games, being really loud. Since Auggie really is just a normal little boy—albeit one that looks very different from other little boys—it wasn’t hard to imagine what he would think about things, how he would respond. 

Read the rest of the interview between Laurel Snyder and R.J. Palacio and watch a book trailer below.

Whenever I hear the name Laura Ingalls Wilder, or even just think it, a warm homey feeling comes over me like being covered in my grandma's quilt.  Today I'm getting that feeling a lot, since February 7th is Laura Ingalls Wilder's birthday (born in 1867) and she is very much on my mind.

It's been said that Wilder wrote the Little House books to preserve the stories of her childhood for today's children, to help them to understand how much America had changed during her lifetime.  Thanks to her foresight, generations of children have vicariously lived the pioneer experience and gained an appreciation of the difficulties the early homesteaders faced in a way that no history book or adult recitation of "how good we have it" could ever accomplish.

The Little House books have also given readers an opportunity to bond across generations, when the books are lovingly passed along from a parent or grandparent who fell in love with the series during their own childhood. Personally, I read my mother's set–which didn't include The First Four Years, discovered many years after Wilder's death–with their odd square shape and cloth covers, purchased during a time when the author was still alive (Wilder died in 1957 at the age of 90). I have warm memories of reading those old books, pretending I was living in the Ingalls cabin alongside Laura and Mary, and I can't wait to share the series with my own daughter.  Reading even a fraction of the hundreds of customer reviews tells me that the Little House bond is shared by many, and one of the beautiful things about these books is that they are loved by boys and girls alike.

Wilder was 65 in 1932 when her first book, Little House in the Big Woods, was published and her books have remained in print ever since.   In 1954 the American Library Association founded the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, the first one given to its namesake, and now awarded every two years to "an author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children." The current winner is Tomie dePaola, who received the award in 2011.  Besides the children's book award, there are museums, elementary schools (including one in my hometown), countless books, blogs, and websites–even a crater on Venus named for Laura Ingalls Wilder. And then, of course, there was the wildly popular television show that brought Laura, most notably in the form of Melissa Gilbert, into the homes of millions every week (along with Nellie Olesen, the quintessential mean girl).  It's quite a legacy.

Please join me in some Little House nostalgia, as I reminisce about maple syrup candy and falling asleep to the sound of fiddle playing–what are some of your favorite Little House moments? –Seira

The nine books in the Little House series:

• Little House in the Big Woods
• Little House on the Prairie
• Farmer Boy
• On the Banks of Plum Creek
• By the Shores of Silver Lake
• The Long Winter
• Little Town on the Prairie
• These Happy Golden Years
• The First Four Years

Today marks the 50th anniversary of a children's book classic, A Wrinkle in Time. To celebrate this milestone Farrar, Straus and Giroux (who published the book 50 years ago) have released gorgeous commemorative editions with the original hardcover and paperback jackets and new extras that include an introduction by Katherine Paterson and an afterword by author Madeleine L'Engle's granddaughter.

A Wrinkle in Time is as relevant and captivating in 2012 as it was in 1962, and it's incredible to me that such an iconic story began with a random thought during a cross-country vacation, "…the names Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who, and Mrs Which popped into my grandmother’s head, and she told her three children—twelve, ten, and seven—that she would have to write a book about them…"–from the afterword [PDF].

Many prominent authors have been influenced by Madeleine L'Engle, including Judy Blume.  Blume was interviewed for a book about L'Engle (titled Listening for Madeleine) coming out in the fall, and we have an exclusive excerpt, a sample of which is below. You can find the rest of the excerpt here (under More to Explore).

"Madeleine and I really bonded over the issue of book banning. Her books were being
challenged all over the country. They were being challenged—and I love this and have used it in
every speech about book banning that I’ve ever given—for teaching “New Ageism” to children. I
always say that I can guarantee you that when Madeleine wrote her books she had never heard of
New Ageism. The attacks on her books made her absolutely furious. She was beside herself, not
just because her books were being attacked, but because any books were being targeted in that
way. We would go out and do TV shows together in defense of banned books. An evening news
show might have a segment on the censorship of children’s books. This was during the 1980s.
She was so elegant and so down-to-earth, and some of her answers were so funny, as much as to
say: Why are you guys so stupid? Why would you be asking questions like this? She never
actually said those things, but it was absolutely clear what she meant. I just loved her."–Judy Blume in an excerpt from Listening for Madeleine: A Portrait of Madeleine L’Engle in Many Voices.

A Wrinkle in Time has been read, loved, and shared, by countless readers over the last 50 years, and I'm certain that trend will continue.  This anniversary inspired me to re-read the book for the first time in decades and I fell in love with the words and characters all over again.  Those of you who adore this book as I do will understand when I say that I got a little bit giddy when I saw the photo posted below, and if A Wrinkle in Time is one of the unread classics on your list–treat yourself to an amazing read. –Seira

A photograph of page one from the original manuscript of A Wrinkle in Time (click on it to see a larger image). 

This morning award-winning author Walter Dean Myers was announced as the 2012-13 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature.  I had the good fortune to be a part of the selection committee this year, and it's been exciting (and a little agonizing) to keep the secret of our unanimous choice over the last few months (we met in August).

Walter Dean Myers was the very first author to receive the Michael J. Printz award (for Monster) and his body of work is amazing.  Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, books for children, and books for teens–if ever there is a fitting successor to the legendary Katherine Paterson, who held the post from 2010-2011, Myers is it.  As National Ambassador, Myers will help to raise national awareness of the importance of young people's literature as it relates to lifelong literacy, education, and the development and betterment of the lives of young people.  And he gets a really cool medal at the inauguration ceremony on January 10th at the Library of Congress.  Here is a sampling of some of Walter Dean Myers's books, or you can visit his author page to see more. — Seira

• Monster
• We Are America: A Tribute from the Heart
• Sunrise Over Fallujah
• Brown Angels: An Album of Pictures and Verse
• Jazz
• Bad Boy: A Memoir