We Are All Made of Molecules Blog Tour: Review + Giveaway

We Are All Made of Molecules by Susin Nielsen

Release Date: May 12, 2015
Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books
Rated: YA 14+
Format: Hardcover
Source: Publisher
Buy: Amazon ● The Book Depository
Goodreads ● Website

“There’s so much to love about this story . . . but what grabbed me the most is the humor.”
—Christopher Paul Curtis, winner of the Newbery Medal

Thirteen-year-old Stewart is academically brilliant but socially clueless.

Fourteen-year-old Ashley is the undisputed “It” girl in her class, but her grades stink.

Their worlds are about to collide when Stewart and his dad move in with Ashley and her mom.  Stewart is trying to be 89.9 percent happy about it, but Ashley is 110 percent horrified, especially when “Spewart,” the freakazoid brainiac, transfers into her ninth-grade class. She already has to hide the real reason her dad moved out, and Spewart better not tell anyone the truth about her parents’ divorce.

They are complete opposites, but they have one thing in common: they—like everyone else—are made of molecules.

A laugh-out-loud novel that will also have you wiping tears from your eyes, WE ARE ALL MADE OF MOLECULES is wonderfully entertaining.

I hadn’t really heard of Susin Nielsen’s latest novel until I got the offer to join the blog tour. I was aware of Nielsen’s other novels, but I’d never been lucky enough to get my hands on a copy to read...until now. We Are All made of Molecules was a fantastic read: it had the right amount of heart and the right amount of hilarity to make this one of the best books I’ve read this year.

Most of what made me fall in love with this book was one of the two narrators–Stewart. I don’t think I’ve ever loved a character as much as I love Stewart. This character, this beautiful, creative and goofy character, stole my heart from the start. I really enjoy learning from books and through his character I felt a whole lot smarter coming out of Nielsen’s book. Ashley’s character on the other hand...well, it’s a whole other deal. I like that her character got to grow, but at the start she’s absolutely AWFUL, and it’s obvious that she’s supposed to come off this way. You do feel little pangs of sympathy for her now and then, but otherwise the way she treats Stewart, while somewhat reasonable for her situation, totally had me hating on her for the most part.

Although the characters are a little younger, I definitely think that this is a young adult book due to the content. There were quite a few issues that were brought up during the course of the story: homophobia, bullying, and sexual consent, just to name a few. I thought the story dealt with these topics in such a great way–there aren’t too many books out there that do this.

I am insanely in LOVE with this book. Head-over-heels in love. All it took was a few pages to get sucked into this absolutely gorgeous story. We Are All Made of Molecules was a beautiful novel that moved me so much. I seriously can’t wait to pick up more of Susin Nielsen’s books, because if they are all this captivating and this hilarious then I’m bound to fall in love once more.

If you like this, try...

• Ana of California by Andi Teran ● Goodreads
• The Summer of Letting Go by Gae Polisner ● Goodreads

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SUSIN NIELSEN

Susin got her start feeding cast and crew on the popular television series, Degrassi Junior High. They hated her food, but they saw a spark in her writing. Nielsen went on to pen sixteen episodes of the hit TV show. Since then, Nielsen has written for over 20 Canadian TV series. Her first young adult novel, Word Nerd, was published in 2008 to critical acclaim. It won multiple Young Readers’ Choice Awards, as did her second novel, Dear George Clooney: Please Marry My Mom. Her third novel, The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen, was published in August 2012. It went on to win the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Award, the Canadian Library Association’s Children’s Book of the Year Award, and a number of Young Readers’ Choice Awards. Author Wally Lamb named it his top YA pick for 2012 in his “First Annual Wally Awards,” and recently Rolling Stone magazine put it at #27 in their list of “Top 40 Best YA Novels.” 
Her books have been translated into multiple languages. Susin’s new novel, We Are All Made of Molecules, will be published in Canada, the US and the UK in Spring of 2015. She lives in Vancouver with her family and two naughty cats.

Website ● Facebook ● Twitter ● Goodreads

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Giveaway time!

Since Random House sent me two copies, you can enter to win...

A copy of We Are All Made of Molecules!

But first, some rules:

• This giveaway is open internationally.
• You must be 13+ to enter.
• I am not responsible for any lost/damaged packages.
• This giveaway will end on the 18th of November at 11:59 pm.
• I won’t use your information other than to send you the package...I swear!
• You must reply to the email within 72 hours or another winner shall be chosen.

Enter via the rafflecopter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Thank you so much to Colton Cox at Random House Children’s Books for having me on this blog tour and for sending me copies of the book for review and a giveaway!

Cover Reveal + Interview + Giveaway: Don’t Get Caught by Kurt Dinan

Hey guys! Today, I’m super excited to share the cover for Don’t Get Caught by Kurt Dinan! But before I get to the cover, here’s what it’s all about:

17-year-old Max Cobb is sick of being “Just Max”—the kind of guy whose resume boasts a measly 2.5 GPA and a deep love of heist films. So when an invitation appears in his locker to join the anonymous, untraceable, epic prank-pulling Chaos Club, Max jumps at the opportunity to leave “Just Max” in the dust.

Except that the invite is really a set-up, and Max—plus the 4 other kids who received similar invitations—are apprehended by school security for defacing the water tower.  This time, Max has had enough. Time for Heist Rule #7:

Always Get Payback.

Let the prank war begin...

I LOVE heist films (Ocean’s Eleven, anyone?!) and this one sounds absolutely fabulous. Here’s a bit about the author, Kurt Dinan:





KURT DINAN

Kurt Dinan is a high school English teacher. He’s had several short stories published, including one in 2010’s The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror. He lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, with his wife, three young sons, and baby girl. Don’t Get Caught is his first novel.

Website ● Twitter ● Goodreads

Check out the original cover reveal post on his website!

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Interview with Kurt Dinan

(by Sourcebooks)

Describe your book in 140 characters or less?

A high school nobody recruits a crew of misfits for heists and pranks to get revenge on the mysterious Chaos Club. #DontGetCaught

How did you come up with the idea for Don’t Get Caught?

Look, who hasn’t wanted to rob a bank?  Or at least hasn’t thought about it?  I can’t be the only one, right?  Right? So, I suppose Don’t Get Caught is my way of robbing a bank without risking actual jail time because, let me make this clear, I would not do well in prison.  I love capers, heists, and schemes, and while the crew in this novel aren’t robbing banks, they are satisfying my criminal thoughts by doing the teenage equivalent of bank robbery--wrecking havoc in their high school.

Tell us about the main character.

Max is a high school nobody, a kid who’s smart enough and nice enough to get by, but who doesn’t really fit in anywhere.  So basically, he’s me at sixteen.  But what Max has that I certainly didn’t have is a genius-level ability to scheme and a newly discovered gift for leading misfits.  He’s underestimated by everyone, a fact that works to his advantage when he decides it’s time to write his name in the wet cement of the universe by destroying a forty-year-old secret society.

Did your class in high school pull any memorable pranks? Or is there one you wish you had pulled?

My prank life didn’t begin until college when I helped mastermind a promotion for a fake campus concert that almost led to my arrest.  But in my final year of high school, the six-hundred members of my senior class were crowded onto bleachers for an all-class picture.  I look at that picture now and see an opportunity for chaos.  I mean, how much would it have cost to hire an airplane to drop a hundred gallons of water at the precise moment the picture was taken?  Or to organize a group of kids to all wear neon shirts and arrange themselves into something profane within the crowd?  It’s missed opportunities like this that keep me up at night.

What books formed your thinking or reflected who you were as a child and teen reader?

I read a lot of early Stephen King probably before I was old enough, and then through high school it was mostly comic books and classics.  I do specifically remember reading Helter Skelter during my junior year, dragging that non-fiction monster around with me for a month or so.  Looking back on it now, that’s probably all of the evidence needed to explain why I didn’t have a girlfriend in high school.

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EXCERPT

I may not be a fan of heights, but I especially hate ladders. I always think the rung I’m on is going to break away and send me plummeting. So climbing the water tower ladder in the dark, the rungs sticky for some reason, only worries me more. But despite that, I’d be lying if I didn’t say how awesome this was. The higher I climb, the harder my heart pounds from the adrenaline. I feel like a jewel thief scaling a skyscraper at midnight on his way to stealing the Hope Diamond.

Up ahead in the darkness, Wheeler goes into a mock newscaster’s voice announcing, “Five Asheville High School students fell to their deaths last evening when—”

“Shut up,” Malone says.

The climb takes only two minutes but feels like an hour when the ladder ends at the base of a metal grating no more than four feet wide. If a strong wind blows, a waist-high railing is all that’s there to keep me from hurtling to my death.

“Wow, this is higher than I thought,” Ellie says, looking out over the lights of the town.

Malone, recording everything with her phone, says, “I wish I had my climbing gear. I’d love to repel off this.”

“What was it Jesus said, Ellie?” Wheeler says. “‘I think I can see my house from up here’?”

And me, I want down. And not just down, but to roll in the grass and kiss the earth. Then, as I’m about to wuss out, Ellie’s hand is in mine and she’s leading me along the platform.

“Come on,” she says. “Let’s look for the next clue.”

Her hand is soft and warm, and if the platform gives away right now, I can die a happy man.

“You get to open the next envelope if there is one,” Ellie says. “Or maybe it’ll be like in the movies, and there’ll be a cell phone that rings and—”

My foot kicks something metal sending it clanking and skittering across the platform before dropping into the night.

From the other side of the tower Malone says, “What was that?”

I look down at my feet and see four more of what I’ve just booted—spray paint cans.

And in one horrifying moment, I realize why the rungs were sticky when we climbed.

Red paint covers my hands.

Oh shit.

I lean back for a better view of the water tower to see what’s been spray-painted there. The wet paint trails down from certain letters like red teardrops.

Double shit.

Heist Rule #5: When in doubt, run.

But we don’t get that chance.

Suddenly, the water tower lights blaze to life illuminating the newly painted message for the entire town to see.

Assville High School, Home of the Golden Showers.

Both Malone and Wheeler say, “Shit.”

Ellie says, “Wow.”

Adleta says nothing.

And then a voice booms from a bullhorn below where red-and-blue lights flash in the parking lot.

“This is the police. Come down immediately.”

So much for Don’t get caught.

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Okay... I think I’ve made you all wait for a really long time now. HERE’S THE COVER!

April 2016 ● Goodreads

PRE-ORDER

Amazon ● Indiebound ● B&N ● The Book Depository

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But wait! THAT’S NOT ALL!
Time for a giveaway!!!

Enter to win...

An Advanced Copy of Don’t Get Caught!

Please read the Terms & Conditions in the Rafflecopter.
Enter via the Rafflecopter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Thank you so much to Kathryn Lynch at Sourcebooks for contacting me about this cover reveal!

Cover Reveal: Spark by Holly Schindler

Hey everyone! I’m super excited today because I’m going be sharing with you the cover for Holly Schindler’s upcoming YA novel, Spark. Before I get to revealing the cover, here’s a little bit about it:

When the right hearts come to the Avery Theater—at the right time—the magic will return. The Avery will come back from the dead.

Or so Quin’s great-grandmother predicted many years ago on Verona, Missouri’s most tragic night, when Nick and Emma, two star-crossed teenage lovers, died on the stage. It was the night that the Avery’s marquee lights went out forever.

It sounds like urban legend, but one that high school senior Quin is now starting to believe, especially when her best friend, Cass, and their classmate Dylan step onto the stage and sparks fly. It seems that magic can still unfold at the old Avery Theater and a happier ending can still be had—one that will align the stars and revive not only the decrepit theater, but also the decaying town. However, it hinges on one thing—that Quin gets the story right this time around.

Holly Schindler brings the magic of the theater to life in this tale of family ties, fate, love, and one girl’s quest to rewrite history.

“In my hometown, the restoration of a former movie theater on the town square provided the genesis for my new YA novel, SPARK. Who among us hasn’t dreamed of seeing their name in blazing neon across a gigantic marquee? Let me invite you to dim the lights and draw back the velvet curtains—let your imagination run wild as you enter my fictional Avery Theater, where literally anything goes…” 
—Holly Schindler

Holly Schindler is the author of three previous YA novels: PLAYING HURT as well as the critically acclaimed FERAL (starred PW review) and A BLUE SO DARK (starred Booklist review, ForeWord Book of the Year silver medal, IPPY gold medal). A writer of books for all ages, Schindler’s MG, THE JUNCTION OF SUNSHINE AND LUCKY, has made the master list for children’s book awards in Illinois, South Carolina, and Alabama. She is also a hybrid author, having independently released comedic women’s fiction (FIFTH AVENUE FIDOS) and the forthcoming PLAY IT AGAIN, her adult follow-up to her YA PLAYING HURT. She can be reached through her author site: hollyschindler.com, and hosts special sneak peeks and giveaways for subscribers of her newsletter: tinyletter.com/hollyschindler.com.

Okay I think I’ve made you guys wait enough... HERE’S THE COVER!

Isn’t it absolutely gorgeous?! I can’t wait to read Spark–I really loved Holly Schindler’s novel Feral (check out my review here), so this one is definitely a must-read for me.

Spark “Premieres” May 17, 2016, but you can buy your “tickets” now.

Amazon ● B&N ● IndieBound ● Goodreads

Waiting on Wednesday – Week 155

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. It’s to spotlight upcoming books that I’m DYING to get my hands on!

This week’s WoW is:

Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum

What if the person you need the most is someone you’ve never met?

Julie Buxbaum mixes comedy and tragedy, love and loss, pain and elation, in her debut YA novel whose characters will come to feel like friends. Tell Me Three Things will appeal to fans of Rainbow Rowell, Jennifer Niven, and E. Lockhart. 

Everything about Jessie is wrong. At least, that’s what it feels like during her first week at her new ultra-intimidating prep school in Los Angeles. Just when she’s thinking about hightailing it back to Chicago—the closest place she has to something like home—she gets an email from a person calling themselves Somebody/Nobody (SN for short), offering to help her navigate the wilds of Wood Valley High School. Is it an elaborate hoax? Or can she rely on SN for some much-needed help?

The thing is, Jessie does need help. It’s been barely two years since her mother’s death, and because her father eloped with a woman he met online, Jessie has been forced to move across the country to live in LA with her stepmonster and her pretentious teenage son.

In a leap of faith—or an act of complete desperation—Jessie begins to rely on SN, and SN quickly becomes her lifeline and closest ally. Jessie can’t help wanting to meet SN in person. But are some mysteries better left unsolved?

April 15, 2016 ● Goodreads

I’ve only been noticing more recently how many AWESOME books there are to come in 2016! IT CAN’T GET HERE FAST ENOUGH. Tell Me Three Things sounds like all kinds of awesome. I’m a little afraid of it being more tragic than cute and funny–which I desperately want because of how cute that cover is (I’m seriously craving waffles now). Can’t wait to get my hands on this one!

What are you waiting on?