Charlesbridge Unplugged #16: Middle Grade Panel

Today we're talking to two of our esteemed middle grade authors, as well as one of our middle grade editors! Joining us today are Ellen Wittlinger (Someone Else's Shoes) and HP Wood (Fakers: An Insider's Guide to Cons, Hoaxes, and Scams, illustrated by David Clark) as well as Editor Julie Bliven. You can have a listen by clicking HERE or clicking play below:

Charlesbridge Unplugged - Charlesbridge Unplugged #16: Middle Grade Panel

About the Books:

Someone Else's Shoes:
Twelve-year-old Izzy, a budding stand-up comic, is already miserable about her father's new marriage and the new baby on the way. Then Uncle Henderson and ten-year-old cousin Oliver move in with Izzy and her mom because Oliver's mother committed suicide only a few months ago. And to make matters worse, Ben, the rebellious sixteen-year-old son of Izzy's mother's boyfriend, winds up staying with them, too.

But when Uncle Henderson—who has been struggling with depression after his wife's suicide—disappears, Ben, Izzy, and Oliver set aside their differences and hatch a plan to find him. As the trio travels in search of Henderson, they find a surrogate family in each other.

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Fakers: An Insider's Guide to Cons, Hoaxes, and Scams:
In this era of daily online hoaxes, it's easy to be caught off-guard. Fakers arms kids with information, introducing them to the funniest, weirdest, and most influential cons and scams in human history. Profiles of con artists will get readers thinking about motivation and consequence, and practical tips will help protect them from falsehoods. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is—except in the case of this book!

About the Authors:

Ellen Wittlinger is the author of fifteen YA and middle-grade novels. Her novel Hard Love won both a Printz Honor Award and a Lambda Literary Award. Her books have been on numerous ALA Best Books lists, Bank Street College of Education lists, and state award lists. Wittlinger has taught at Emerson College in Boston and in the Simmons College Writing for Children MFA program. Ellen is also the author of Saturdays with Hitchock and Parrotfish. She currently lives in Haydenville, Massachusetts. Visit Ellen online here.

H.P. Wood is the granddaughter of a mad inventor and a sideshow magician. Instead of making things disappear, she makes books of all shapes and sizes. She has written or edited works on an array topics, including the history of the Internet, the future of human rights, and the total awesomeness of playing with sticks. Her novel, Magruder’s Curiosity Cabinet, was published by Sourcebooks in 2016. She lives in Connecticut with a charming and patient husband, a daughter from whom she steals all her best ideas, and more cats than is strictly logical. Visit HP online here.

Julie Bliven is an editor of fiction and nonfiction books for children, including board books, picture books, and middle-grade novels. She holds an M.A. in Children’s Literature from Simmons College.

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