Read This Book: HATE LIST
So are you looking for some outstanding YA reading? How about a PW starred book: Jennifer Brown’s HATE LIST is a “riveting debut…piercingly real". Wow! What? You don’t have your copy yet? Check out all the details below, then head on over to Indiebound or Amazon. You can also read the first chapter on Jennifer’s website, and check out all the fun stuff going on for her online September debut party.
A bit about the book:
Five months ago, Valerie Leftman’s boyfriend, Nick, opened fire on their school cafeteria. Shot trying to stop him, Valerie inadvertently saves the life of a classmate, but is implicated in the shootings because of the list she helped create. A list of people and things they hated. The list her boyfriend used to pick his targets.
Now, after a summer of seclusion, Val is forced to confront her guilt as she returns to school to complete her senior year. Haunted by the memory of the boyfriend she still loves and navigating rocky relationships with her family, former friends and the girl whose life she saved, Val must come to grips with the tragedy that took place and her role in it, in order to make amends and move on with her life.
Jennifer answered my three fave questions:
--I think teen books can, and should, be read by grown-ups. Tell my grandma Grace why she should read your book.
Because school shootings affect all of us, and because I think we can all learn a thing or two about acceptance.
--What would your 16-year-old self say if she read your book?
"Well, it's not Stephen King..." (I was such a King devotee back then! ...Okay. Still am...)
--I am fascinated by writers' inspirations. Tell me about a real-life setting that found its way into your book.
My husband's office, which is Dr. Hieler's office without a doubt, from the wooden hot air balloon to the chess set to the gumball machine.
And finally, all about Jennifer:
Jennifer Brown is the author of HATE LIST, a YA novel coming out in September 2009. As a two-time winner of The Erma Bombeck Global Humor award and weekly columnist for The Kansas City Star, as well as Saturday Featured Blogger for Mom2MomKC.com, Jennifer spends a lot of time dressing up her dog for laughs and thinking of new ways to works words such as "Puh-lease" and "Ch-yeah!" into sentences. Jennifer grew up in the Kansas City, Missouri area, where she still lives with her husband, three kids, and whole herd of uncooperative pets.