We’re not the only ones who are crazy about NEVER SAY DIE. Here’s what reviewers are saying:

“Spectacular.”—The Horn Book

 “A plot lit up with extremes of privation and deadly danger.”—Booklist

 “The imagery is truly majestic.”—SLJ

 “A nonstop survival adventure.”—Kirkus Reviews

Don’t miss this Q&A with Will Hobbs, in which he talks about his own experiences in the Arctic, his research, and whether or not the grolar bear is a real thing (it is!). Featuring photos from Will’s trips to the Arctic, the Q & A (and the book of course) is perfect for sharing with students who just can’t get enough of wilderness adventure stories.

In case you’d like to share the video with students or others whose attention spans are more suited for brevity, here’s a shorter (but equally warm and fuzzy) version:

Don’t forget to download an Amelia Bedelia Party Kit and join the celebration! Here’s to 50 years of hilarity and delicious baked goods.

Both of these authors are the kind of accomplished, multi-talented people that make us feel a little inadequate (but in a good way, we swear!)– they’re total movers and shakers, and, you heard it here first, doing big things.  Also, they both have terribly snazzy websites and gorgeous author photos!

A little bit more about each of their books…

PROPHECY, by Ellen Oh

She’s the demon slayer.
She’s the most feared girl in the whole Kingdom.
And now she’s on the run.

Kira’s the only female in the king’s army, and the prince’s bodyguard. She’s a demon slayer and an outcast, hated by nearly everyone in her home city of Hansong. And, she’s their only hope…

Murdered kings, traitors, and a demon invasion sends Kira on the run with the young prince, who may be the true heir to the Dragon King’s throne, destined to reunite the seven kingdoms. But without the lost treasures, there will be nothing left to reunite. With only the guidance of a cryptic prophecy, Kira must battle demon soldiers, evil shaman, and the Demon Lord himself to find what was once lost and raise a prince into a king.

Intrigue and mystery, ancient lore and action-packed fantasy come together in this heart-stopping first in a three book series.

• Marie Lu, author of the LEGEND trilogy, raved of PROPHECY, “What an adventure! I fell in love with the lush, richly woven world of PROPHECY. Kira is truly a force to be reckoned with. When I finished my journey with her, all I wanted was more. Spectacular!”
• Watch the trailer for PROPHECY here.

THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL, by Soman Chainani

The School for Good and Evil series unleashes a dazzling new fantasy world, one in which ordinary boys and girls are trained to be perfect heroes or perfect villains. Book One subverts the assumed roles of our indelible heroines, when witch-girl Agatha is “mistakenly” sent to the School for Good, and wannabe-princess Sophie to the School for Evil. As rivalries bloom and jealousy sets in, Agatha and Sophie discover that these fates may not be a mistake, after all…

• Gregory Maguire, author of WICKED, had this to say about THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL: “Invention in overdrive, indulging in a gnarly smackdown of folklore conventions, THE SCHOOL OF GOOD AND EVIL is a comedic education by a writer primed to shoot to the head of the class.”
• And Entertainment Weekly said this: “If I could bewitch you all to read it, I would.”
• Download the discussion guide here.
• And watch the AMAZING trailer here!

Thanks, Liz!

From Liz Coley:

E Pluribus Unum: From Many, One

A Brief Introduction to Dissociative Identity Disorder

What is dissociation?

Most likely everyone has experienced the simplest level of dissociation, when part of your mind detaches and does its own thing, leaving no memory behind. You might drive for fifty miles without realizing the passage of scenery and time; daydream away an entire class; tune out all sounds in the room while you write an article about DID. Part of your mind is in touch with your environment on some level (you didn’t crash; there are some notes on your page; you responded automatically to a question from your boyfriend or girlfriend), but your thoughts are “elsewhere.” You don’t remember driving, writing, or speaking. That’s quite ordinary, but it gives a hint to the flexibility and mystery of our mental processing power.

What is identity?

Philosophers and psychologists can debate this question. I am neither, but I’ll suggest that at the simplest level, our identity is who we think we are; it is based on a stream of memories and consciousness that reboots every morning when we wake. My grandmother insisted she felt like exactly the same person on the inside as when she was a nine-year-old girl emigrating from Romania to the U.S. on a filthy ship with huge, black roaches; she was the same person who skipped school the day everyone’s hair was cut off to prevent lice. She was the same person who married three times, had one child, and worked as a bookkeeper in middle life. She was the same person who, in her sixties, crocheted ponchos, sewed pantsuits, and stitched together teddy bears for me. In her eighties, she disappeared down the rabbit hole of Alzheimer’s. Perhaps at that point, her sense of identity was lost to herself except in moments of lucidity, but we knew who she was because we had seen the continuity from the outside.

Imagine, though, holes and jumps in memory. Imagine feeling like you are a stranger in your own body. Imagine not knowing how you got here or why you own certain things. Imagine not having that sense of continuity of your own identity. Imagine waking up as a different person.

What exactly is dissociative identity disorder?

By the late 1970s, psychiatrists had recognized about one hundred cases of what was then called multiple personality disorder (MPD), a condition in which the patients demonstrated different identity states with some degree of mutual amnesia. In 1980, the American Psychiatric Association formally recognized the condition, renamed dissociative identity disorder, in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) among the personality disorders. The criteria for DID were (in layman’s terms): the presence in one person of two or more distinct identities that alternately take control of the person’s behavior, and an inability to remember events that cannot be accounted for by ordinary forgetfulness. Beyond that, the symptoms in the patient cannot be otherwise explained by substance abuse, a medical condition, or fantasy. (DSM-IV 300.14)

The number of diagnoses exploded through the 1980s, particularly in the United States, leading to controversy and debate over whether DID had been underreported or misdiagnosed in the past or whether it was a “fad” diagnosis projected by overenthusiastic therapists onto suggestible patients. Estimates of the prevalence range from one in ten thousand people in the general population to one in one hundred people in mental health treatment, but no firm numbers based on epidemiological studies are available. For a good recent discussion of the difficulty in counting cases, see “The Problem of Prevalence” by Karen Johnson.

Where does it come from?

DID is a human defense mechanism at the most basic level. It is widely believed to develop as a result of repeated childhood physical, sexual, or emotional abuse or neglect in some individuals who have the capacity to compartmentalize their experience. One aspect of the person’s mind and memory absorbs the traumatic abuse events and then switches off, leaving the dominant personality in a state of amnesia about the terrible times. Increasingly complex reactions to trauma can splinter the personality into multiple coping states for different situations. This is called the traumagenic explanation.

The controversial counter-explanation is that under hypnosis, patients generate false memories of abuse or portray themselves as having multiple personalities to conform to a therapist’s prompting or expectations. This is called the iatrogenic explanation.

In favor of the traumagenic explanation is physical evidence that doesn’t rely on self-reporting. Scientists have been working for several years using PET scans, EEGs, and fMRIs to study the brains of people with a diagnosis of DID compared to neurotypical controls. These studies have been able to capture changes in brain structure and also document physiological changes during alter-switching. The research is ongoing. A multinational, multicenter project headed by Dr. A.A.T. Simone Reinders now coordinates much of this research into the imaging and psychobiology of DID.

How do different personalities coexist?

A gatekeeper or librarian or master controller seems to be a common executive function to monitor the switching between the personalities sharing a single mind. Sometimes the identities take it upon themselves to step aside or step forward. Some identities may be mutually aware, even listening in on each other’s encounters, while others are isolated and unaware. Each one, however, considers him- or herself a person with a personality, autobiographical history, tastes, and what is called “agency,” that is, the ability to make choices and initiate actions. Chronological age, sexual identity, and handedness can differ among personalities, as can allergies, abilities, and states of health. These independent personalities are referred to as alters.

This condition may persist for years into adulthood without the patient being aware of what’s happening. The first notice may be long periods of amnesia, finding oneself in a strange place or wearing strange clothes, or being told of unremembered events and behaviors. DID is often associated with other issues, such as substance abuse, depression, anxiety, or PTSD, which may be the initial reason for an individual seeking counseling.

While a person may develop alters as a defense mechanism to preserve the ability to function, ultimately the sharing of waking life between personalities with different memories and goals can create chaos and despair. That’s why the goal of treatment is to deal with the compartmentalized traumatic memories, desensitize the emerging dominant personality to the emotional content of them, and allow/convince the personalities to reintegrate. As the alters have their own sense of survival, reintegration can be extremely slow, complex, and even incomplete. Some patients consider their treatment successful when they attain a stable way of living with more than a single personality still inhabiting their mind. The alters may switch or share control depending on the skills and temperament needed at a given time. Fully integrated individuals comment on how “quiet” it is inside themselves when the competing, conferring alters fuse and think as one.

How can I find out more?

The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation and the Sidran Institute offer much more detailed information, links to many resources, and lists of therapists who specialize in this area.

We also have some very very stellar authors at panels and signing in the Author Signing Aisles.  Check it out!

THURSDAY, APRIL 25TH:

11—12                   Peter Lerangis
AISLE: 3

11—12                   Chris Rylander
AISLE: 2

11—12:30           Jon Klassen
AISLE: 6

12—1                     Bob Shea
AISLE 12

1—2                       Patrick Carman
AISLE: 9                                                              

1—2                       Kelley Armstrong
AISLE: 7

2—3                       Kiersten White
AISLE: 11

2—3                       Melissa Marr
AISLE: 10

3—4                       Tera Lynn Childs
AISLE 11

3:30—4:30       Amy Krouse Rosenthal
AISLE: 3

FRIDAY, APRIL 26TH:

10:30—11:30       Seymour Simon
AISLE: 5

2—3                       Jarrett Krosocszka
AISLE: 9

3—4                       Jennifer Archer
AISLE: 4

We can’t wait!  And none of us have ever been to Fort Worth before, so if you have any recommendations, let us know!  See y’all soon.

Click on the jacket below to start reading FYRE, and say goodbye to Septimus, Marcia, Jenna, and the rest of the gang in whatever way you see fit.

Will you be in San Antonio too? If so, come visit us at HarperCollins Children’s Books Booth #3451!  We’re going to be giving out oodles of galleys, teaching guides, bookmarks, and other materials– with lots aligned to the Common Core State Standards.

Here’s where you can find our authors:

SATURDAY, April 20th

2:00–3:00PM, JANE O’CONNOR, Anderson’s Booth #1003

SUNDAY, April 21st

1:00–2:00PM, WALTER DEAN MYERS, HarperCollins Children’s Books Booth #3451

1:00–2:00PM, JON SCIESZKA, Anderson’s Booth #1003

2:00–3:00PM, SEYMOUR SIMON, HarperCollins Children’s Books Booth #3451

MONDAY, April 22nd

MO WILLEMS IRA Closing Keynote:
“A Hippopotamus Wouldn’t Fit on the Page and Other Reasons that Mo Willems Writes About Pigeons”
Convention Center Exhibit Hall D
Book signing immediately following

12:00–1:00PM, MICHAEL HALL, HarperCollins Children’s Books Booth #3451

Come by our booth and say hello!

There are so many reasons to love poetry– it evokes emotions, feelings and sensations.  The rhyme schemes, vocabulary, free verse– it’s all so rich and powerful.  And when we think of poetry, novels in verse might not usually jump to the front of our minds.  But one of our most acclaimed books last year was a novel in verse: INSIDE OUT AND BACK AGAIN, by Thanhha Lai.  While there were many (many!) reasons I loved this Newbery Honor-winning book, one of the things I loved most while reading was the beautiful, poignant, and at times hilariously funny language.  And the coming-of-age immigration story that sticks to you like glue after reading doesn’t hurt either…

Enjoy and share this poem from INSIDE OUT AND BACK AGAIN (now available in paperback!) and enjoy Poetry Month!