If I was into fan girl kinds of squealing, you would likely have heard me from miles away yesterday.
I was skim reading an advertisement from Barnes & Noble and saw mention of what they termed "a very special young reader's pick." Mildly curious, I looked...and looked again. It was a book by Gary D. Schmidt. A book I'd never heard of. A NEW book.
Cue squealing.
And then I read the publisher's description and skimmed a little bit of the early reviews and saw...be still my heart...that I knew some of the characters. That this book, titled Okay for Now, is a sequel of sorts (or at least a "companion novel") to The Wednesday Wars, which in my humble opinion is one of the best mid-grade/young adult novels written in the past few years.
Cue whooping!
I'm seeing words like "poignant" and "heartbreaking" scattered in early reviews. And phrases like "instant classic." The kind of raves that must make an author's heart palpitate.
I have a copy on hold at the library and can hardly wait to get my hands on it. Of course I do have to wait because the book's release date (officially yesterday) means all new copies are still in process. And there's already a wait.
Clearly lots of squealing and whooping going on amidst Schmidt's readers yesterday.
I don't know how I missed hearing this was coming out, but what a delight to get the news yesterday...on a rainy/snowy April morning. It brightened my whole day!
6 comments:
Hooray for great news! And thanks for the reminder that I still need to read Wednesday Wars...
Oooooh! You suggested Wednesday Wars ages ago and Isaac so loved it that it was on his recommendation that I sat down with it too. It is a modern classic... the thought of a new one makes me just squeeeee with you. Eeeeeeee!!!!
Erin, you will just flat-out love it. I've read it twice -- once to myself, and once out loud to Dana (true indication of how much I love a book -- my desire to read it aloud to him almost right away!) and it is just beautiful. So funny, so heart-breaking. I was being cautious when I said it was one of the best mid-grade/YA books in recent years -- I think I could safely put it on a short list of all-time favorites.
Tara, so glad Isaac loved it -- and you too. I have become an unabashed fan of Schmidt's work. I love everything he does -- novels, Bible re-tellings, lit crit. I've got a review in draft of his retelling of Pilgrim's Progress which was excellent.
Oh how I would love to get to the next Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin College (where he teaches...)!
Beth
How old is your daughter? I noticed you are also reading Little House books...my daughter is only 4, so we've just been listening in the car. For her sixth birthday she will get the set, I think! In OCt for her 5th she'll get Betsy-Tacy!
Annette, what a delightful 5th birthday present! Almost as good as Betsy's fifth birthday! :)
My daughter is eight. She LOVES the Betsy-Tacy books, though she has only read the first four so far. (Well, we've read all four aloud together -- she's read a couple on her own as well.)
I've been trying to hold her off a bit from the h.s. books because I don't think she's quite ready for them (it took her a while with Downtown -- the first time we tried it, she wasn't quite ready for it). I'm thinking I may encourage her to try Winona's Pony Cart soon.
She also adores the Little House books. We've made it through the whole series (except for The First Four Years) and we're now starting the Melissa Wiley books on Laura's great-grandmother Martha. It was actually Melissa Wiley's blog where I picked up the link to your giveaway!
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