I fell in love with the story and the writing from the very first word of ORCHARDS and can’t wait for Holly’s next book, THE LANGUAGE INSIDE when it comes out in May 2013. Let’s welcome Holly Thompson to World Reads!

What is the title of your book? The pub date and publisher?

* Orchards (2011, Delacorte/Random House)

Where is it set?

* Shizuoka, Japan and a small town north of New York City

In 70 words or less, provide a succinct plot description of your story.

After a classmate commits suicide, Kana Goldberg—a half-Japanese, half-Jewish American—wonders who is responsible. She and her cliquey friends said some thoughtless things to the girl. Hoping that Kana will reflect on her behavior, her parents pack her off to her mother’s ancestral home in Japan for the summer. There Kana spends hours under the hot sun tending to her family’s mikan orange groves. Kana’s mixed heritage makes it hard to fit in at first, especially under the critical eye of her traditional grandmother, who has never accepted Kana’s father. But as the summer unfolds, Kana gets to know her relatives, Japan, and village culture, and she begins to process the pain and guilt she feels about the tragedy back home. Then news about a friend sends her world spinning out of orbit all over again.

Click here for a link to starred reviews.

How are you connected to the setting of your story?

* I’ve lived in Japan for over 17 years and worked for 18 months on a mikan orange farm like the farm in Orchards.

What inspired you to write this story?

* Orchards was a story that began to develop as I was doing research at a mikan orange farm in Shizuoka, Japan, for an adult novel. Midway through my work assisting a mikan farm family and absorbing everything I could about mikan cultivation and Japanese agricultural village life, the farmer’s American-born niece came to visit. Seeing her there, a family member yet out of her element, inspired the character of Kana. The other element of the story, Ruth, was sadly inspired by the suicide death of the thirteen-year-old daughter of a friend. I never truly expected to write about it, but the idea of Kana’s summer in Japan, the mikan and apple orchards, the girls in New York all began to merge into a tale I felt needed to be told. I hope that Orchards raises questions for readers and starts discussions.

What was the biggest challenge you had writing your story? How did you overcome it?

* The biggest challenge for me in writing Orchards was facing the pain of teen suicide—creating Kana’s character meant dealing with all the complex emotions of suicide survivors. I cried and cried as I wrote, but I knew that the story needed to be told.

What kind of story can we expect next from you? Is it set outside of the United States? If so, where? And what is it about?

The Language Inside (Delacorte/Random House) is due out in May 2013 and is a verse novel that explores language both spoken and unspoken and features poetry that crosses boundaries. The story takes readers from Japan to the Cambodian-American community of Lowell, Massachusetts, and to the world of a woman who can only communicate through eye movement. It is a story layered with love, loss, movement and words, and I hope that readers enjoy it.

Also, the middle-grade novel I just finished is set in Japan, and I’ll soon be at work on my next YA book set in Japan and the U.S.

What else would you like us to know about you or your story?

* There are many interviews with background info about Orchards on my web page.

Can you remember the first book that made an impact on you? And why?

*  A Wrinkle in Time. At age 12 I was a slow reader and easily discouraged by any slow-moving novel. This book excited me; I was immediately hooked and glad to have a female main character.

Where can readers go to learn more information?

* For information about Orchards and my other works of fiction and poetry, as well as various interviews, reader’s guides, news and speaking info, please visit my website. 

Thank you so much for joining us today, Holly! Look for Holly’s next World Reads interview on Monday, August 13, 2013!

I’d like to start with an excerpt of the ***starred*** review from Kirkus Reviews, which calls The Queen of Water “riveting”:

“Bright spots of humor and warmth are woven throughout, and readers will agonize for Virginia while seething at her tormentors. The complexities of class and ethnicity within Ecuadorian society are explained seamlessly within the context of the first-person narrative, and a glossary and pronunciation guide further help to plunge readers into the novel’s world.  By turns heartbreaking, infuriating and ultimately inspiring. (Fiction. 13 & up)”

And there’s more!  VOYA calls the book “a richly described coming-of-age story set in a culture both foreign and familiar… by turns, shocking and funny.”

From Laura Resau’s blog: “I’m so glad these reviews mention the humor… I really love this aspect of Maria Virginia’s story, too.  She was an incredibly spunky girl (and still is!), and she found all kinds of creative and funny ways to resist her oppressors.  And although she went through very rough times, she wasn’t a victim, not at all… her girlhood was indeed inspiring.”

Where is The Queen of Water set?

Ecuador

In 70 words or less, provide a succinct plot description of your story.

Co-written with Maria Virginia Farinango, this novel based on a true story begins in an impoverished Andean village where seven-year-old Virginia is taken from her indigenous family to be an unpaid servant in a mestizo household. For the next eight years, she struggles to hold on to her spirit. After escaping as a teenager, she must build a life for herself and reclaim her identity. Ages 12 and up.

How are you connected to the setting of your story?

My good friend and co-author, Maria Virginia, is from the Ecuadorian Andes.  I took two research trips there to get to know the people and places that appear in the book.

What inspired you to write this story?

The novel is based on the true story of Maria Virginia’s amazing girlhood.  It had been a lifelong dream of hers to write a book about her experiences, and it had been a longtime dream of mine to collaborate with an indigenous Latin American woman about her life.

What was the biggest challenge you had writing your story? How did you overcome it?

We began this project thinking it would be straight non-fiction, but after a few years, realized that slightly fictionalizing it would make the story more accessible and engaging.

What other YA/MG books have you written? Are any of them set outside of the United States? If so, which ones and where? What are these stories about?

All of my YA books are set mostly outside of the US. WHAT THE MOON SAW—a story of a girl finding her true self– is set in a rural, indigenous village in Oaxaca, Mexico.  RED GLASS—a roadtrip adventure– is also set partly in a Oaxacan village and partly in Guatemala.  THE INDIGO NOTEBOOK—first in a travel-mystery-romance trilogy– is set in Ecuador; THE RUBY NOTEBOOK, the second in the series, is set in southern France; THE JADE NOTEBOOK, the conclusion, is set in coastal Oaxaca, Mexico.

What kind of story can we expect next from you? Is it set outside of the United States? If so, where? And what is it about?

I’m now writing a YA novel that is partly set in the Lacandon Mayan jungle in southern Mexico.  It’s a fantastical adventure involving chocolate!

What else would you like us to know about you or your story?

If you do read THE QUEEN OF WATER or any of my books, you should check out my website and blog to read about the inspiration behind the books and see pics of places in the books.

Can you remember the first book that made an impact on you? And why?

I loved A WRINKLE IN TIME.  It made me think about the possibilities of the universe and existence and space and time in a whole new way.

For more information about Laura Resau, her books, and adventures, click here.

Thank you for joining us today, Laura! Your books are well researched and bring new worlds to readers who otherwise would not experience them. Big hugs to Maria for telling her story!

Let’s welcome Mary Hooper today. I first read NEWES FROM THE DEAD when I was an MFA student at VCFA and just LOVED this book. Mary nailed the voice of the maidservant girl and kept me turning the page until the end. It’s a book I’ve recommended to others and have used in the writing classes I teach. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

AOB: What is the title of your book? The pub date and publisher?

Mary: NEWES FROM THE DEAD, published by Roaring Brook Press, 2008

AOB: Where is it set?

Mary: The City of Oxford, England.

AOB: In 70 words or less, provide a succinct plot description of your story.

Mary: Anne Green was a servant girl accused of killing her own baby. She was sentenced to be hanged and afterwards taken to be dissected by the Oxford physicians, but somehow survived the hanging and awoke to find herself in her coffin, surrounded by Oxford students ready to dissect her.

AOB: Links to starred reviews or blurbs you wish to share:

“Keeps you captivated until the very last page” – The Bookseller.

“Stunning!” the Historian and novelist Alison Weir.

AOB: How are you connected to the setting of your story?

Mary: I live about 20 miles away so was on hand to do the research.

AOB: What inspired you to write this story?

Mary: It’s a true story and no one had really told it before. I think Anne had a rough deal and I wanted to tell it from her point of view.

AOB: What was the biggest challenge you had writing your story? How did you overcome it?

Mary: Trying to get the authentic voice of a young maidservant in the Seventeenth Century. I (hope I)overcame it by living and breathing Anne; immersing myself in reading about the life she would have lived.

AOB: What kind of story can we expect next from you? Is it set outside of the United States? If so, where? And what is it about?

Mary: I was born and still live near London, so all my books (except NEWES FROM THE DEAD) are set there. I have a new book coming out in May called THE DISGRACE OF KITTY GREY, and am at present working on a book set in the Great War (1914-1918) and titled (at the moment)POPPY.

AOB: What else would you like us to know about you or your story?

Mary: Someone has bought the stage rights to NEWES and hopes to turn it into a Musical. If you look at my website, there is an excellent spooky trailer.

AOB: Can you remember the first book that made an impact on you? And why?

Mary: When I was a teenager I absolutely loved FOREVER AMBER: romantic, stirring, dangerous, passionate – and you learned a little bit of history at the same time. When I wrote AT THE SIGN OF THE SUGARED PLUM, a book on the Great Plague (set in Seventeenth Century London) I found I could remember great chunks of that original book.

AOB: Where can readers go to learn more information?

Mary: About me? Click here to go to my website.

I hope to invite Mary back to showcase her other stories set outside of the United States.

Thank you for joining us, Mary!

I have the great pleasure to introduce J.L. Powers and her wonderful book This Thing Called the Future. I saw several drafts of this story and am so glad to see it in print. Powers’ books are exactly what I enjoyed reading as a young adult. She tackles the tough questions and makes her readers think.

AOB: What is the title of your book?

JL Powers: This Thing Called the Future

AOB: Where is it set?

JL Powers: ost-apartheid South Africa

AOB: In 70 words or less, provide a succinct plot description of your story.

JL Powers: Set in modern-day South Africa, the story follows Khosi, a 14-year-old girl faced with a slew of extraordinary circumstances: falling in love, getting stalked by a shapeshifter,  a local witch targeting her and her family for extinction, and losing a loved one to AIDS.

AOB: How are you connected to the setting of your story?

JL Powers: I first traveled to Africa by mistake when I was 19. I had intended to work with street gangs in New York but the agency I applied to work with decided to send me to Kenya instead, to work with street kids. I fell in love with the continent and ended up earning two graduate degrees in African history. At some point, I settled on South Africa as my main region of interest, and the Zulu people as the people I wanted to get to know and learn about their history. So I learned Zulu and spent time living in South Africa with local Zulu families.

AOB: What inspired you to write this story?

JL Powers: While I was living in South Africa, I found myself fascinated with several aspects of life there that were truly different from American life. I became fascinated with how involved traditional healers (sangomas) were in people’s medical problems. They are so involved, and so common, that some AIDS organizations work with sangomas to make sure that HIV-positive people are taking their anti-retroviral medications, the medicines that keep HIV-positive people alive. I found that really interesting. I decided to write the book when three things became absolutely fascinating to me: 1) the fact that many people are more likely to seek medical treatment from a sangoma than a medical doctor (or they will seek treatment from both a sangoma and a doctor at the same time); 2) the problem of witchcraft; and 3) how common it is for older men to have young girls as girlfriends (they are called sugar daddies).

AOB: What was the biggest challenge you had writing your story? How did you overcome it?

JL Powers: Because I am not African, it isn’t easy for me to always understand the spiritual point of view from which an African young girl approaches the world. My character sees the spiritual world; her ancestors—that is, her dead grandfather in particular—speak to her out loud and also make appearances in her dreams that end up having consequences in real life; a witch has put a curse on her and her family. I really had to submerge my own grew-up-in-a-Christian-family-am-now-an-American-agnostic world view in order to write it.

AOB: What other YA/MG books have you written? Are any of them set outside of the United States? If so, which ones and where? What are these stories about?

JL Powers: My first novel, The Confessional, is set on the U.S.-Mexico Border. It’s something of a murder mystery, though it also delves deeply into the racial politics of the Border, where Mexicans are seen as inferior, even by many Mexican-Americans. It is a story of faith, friendship, and violence, and follows a very brief (4 day) period in the lives of six young men whose friend gets murdered in what appears to be a racially motivated event.

AOB: What kind of story can we expect next from you? Is it set outside of the United States? If so, where? And what is it about?

JL Powers: Actually, I am currently working on a psychothriller set in New Mexico.

AOB: What else would you like us to know about you or your story?

JL Powers: I love that it’s being called an alternative fantasy! But even though I love that, I want to remind readers that it’s just the way people live in South Africa—it isn’t magical realism, it’s just reality.

AOB: Can you remember the first book that made an impact on you? And why?

JL Powers: The first book that made an impact on me was the first book I remember reading by myself. It was a picture book biography of Harriet Tubman, an escaped slave from the American South known as “Moses” to her people because she kept returning and helping more slaves escape to Canada via the “Underground Railroad.” Not only was I proud of reading it all by myself, but Tubman’s story captured both my creative imagination and my moral imagination. I think it’s no surprise, therefore, that I gravitate towards books with real depth and meaning, so-called “serious” literature.

For more information about J.L. Powers and other books she has written, click here.

Thank you for joining us J.L. Powers! We look forward to your next book!

A few weeks ago, Tami Lewis Brown sent me a link and asked me if I had seen the borzoi illustrations Maurice Sendak had done for Nikolenka’s Childhood, Leo Tolstoy’s first publication and near autobiographical account of his childhood.

Shamefully I had not and immediately placed an order. Via mail I received a collector’s copy of Nikolenka’s Childhood with Sendak’s signature prominently featured under his printed name.

Although a million errands demanded my attention, I decided to cuddle up in bed under a down blanket with a movie-sized box of Milk Duds, a cup of chai, and my faithful borzoi and silken windhound to keep me company as I was transported to pre-Revolutionary Russia.

All I can say is, “Double Wow!”

I wish I had discovered Nikolenka’s Childhood before Lara’s Gift went to print! Talk about authentic details I could have “borrowed” from Tolstoy like: wattle fence, abacus, the borzoi names “Milka” and “Zhiran,” fichu, caracole, nankeen coat, hussar, a calash, a britzka, vellum paper, Moscow clothes, tortoise-shell snuffbox, epaulets, turned-up little nose, game of robbers, birdlike face, scullion, hot iron pincers, use of “thou” and “thee,” mantilla, music of the quadrille, mazurka, drawing room, Hoffman’s drops, cornice, kutya, dropsy, unction, and tallow.

Borzoi fans will not only savor chapters six thru seven, we will thank Tolstoy for planting us in an actual hunting scene and making us feel like we are also on the hunt. Unlike in Tolstoy’s War and Peace, readers experience a hunt from a childlike perspective and fully relate to Nikolenka’s desire to earn his father’s praise and the devastation he feels at failing in the hunt.

Besides relishing the details in Tolstoy’s writing, along with Sendak’s lovely illustrations of borzoi and life on a Russian country estate, my favorite scene can be found in chapter seventeen entitled, “The Ivins,” for Tolstoy’s timeless and truthful approach in capturing Nikolenka’s desire to befriend Seryozha to the uncomfortable point where Nikolenka chooses to remain silent over Seryozha’s cruel treatment of another boy rather than question it and risk losing Seryozha as a friend.

What child doesn’t understand the fear and pain caused by a bully?

By chapter end, Nikolenka tries to make sense of “the only dark spot on the pages of his childhood recollections.”

I am quite unable to explain the cruelty of my behavior. Why did I not go up to him, protect, or console him? Where was the feeling of compassion which made me sob at the sight of a young jackdaw thrown from its nest, or of the puppy being taken to be thrown over the fence, or of a chicken the scullion was taking to make soup of? (108)

There are many other moments of truth throughout Nikolenka’s Childhood that remind us of our own childhood and tap into a wide range of our emotions: sorrow, joy, hope, love, and loss. Tolstoy once said that, “fiction, in order to be successful, should come singing from the author’s soul.” In Nikolenka’s Childhood, we hear Tolstoy’s song on each page and in every word.