Biggest Little Apple

Publishers take note. This is how you do a YA cover. Love it...

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 11:54:13 -0400

Publishers take note. *This* is how you do a YA cover. Love it so much.

EXCLUSIVE COVER REVEAL: PAPER VALENTINE by Brenna Yovanoff

Brenna Yovanoff is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel THE REPLACEMENT (a 2010 Breathless Read!) and The Space Between. Paper Valentine is her new novel, and today we’re revealing the cover right here on Penguin Teen! Brenna was nice enough to answer a couple of questions about Paper Valentine for us and give us her thoughts on the cover. What are YOUR thoughts?

So Brenna: Tell us about PAPER VALENTINE! What is it about? What inspired you to write it? Does it relate to your previous novels (THE REPLACEMENT and THE SPACE BETWEEN) in any way?

Okay, so PAPER VALENTINE is a story about a pair of best friends who don’t really know how to get along without each other. Also, one of them happens to be dead. It’s a serial killer story, and a love story (in more ways than one), and has upcycled fashion and ghosts and kissing. Although the majority of the book does not take place in a photo shop, my biggest inspiration absolutely came from the fact that I worked in a color-process lab in college and one of my responsibilities was printing the crime scene photos for the local police department.

Even though the characters and the subject matter are pretty different from my previous books, I definitely think you could look at them side by side and notice common threads. Despite taking place during an outrageously hot summer, the world of PAPER VALENTINE is decidedly dark, not to mention kind of moody and surreal.

What are your thoughts on the cover? Does it do a good job of representing PAPER VALENTINE?

Oh, I love this cover so much! I think the iconic quality of it, coupled with the strangeness and the intricacy of the paper-cut design, is just very evocative and elegant, and maybe most importantly, totally creepy! Even though the actual narrative of the book takes place in the summer, so much of the story is informed by things that have happened during the winter months and I think the woods and the pale, rolling sky capture that icy undertone perfectly.

Who is your favorite character in PAPER VALENTINE?

Well, first I’d like to say that I’ve really enjoyed getting to know most of the people in this book and had an excellent time writing about them. And second, I’d like to say that I definitely, definitely have favorite characters, and those characters are Hannah’s little sister, Ariel, and Ariel’s best friend, Pinky. They don’t function as comic relief exactly, but they are just so matter-of-fact and so joyful and honest and just absolutely prepared to have fun, whatever they happen to be doing!

What are you working on now?

I’m only in the very early stages of my next book, so I can’t really talk about it in a useful, detailed way that would tell you what it’s actually like, but I can say that what I’m working on is a macabre adventure in the Southern Gothic style, filled with magic, danger, family legacies, and romance in the most, sweeping, traditional sense ofthe word.

Add PAPER VALENTINE to your Goodreads shelf.

Pre-order PAPER VALENTINE on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Indiebound.org!

Re-reading The Giver. Re-Having Mind Blown

Wed, 23 May 2012 11:07:30 -0400

Re-reading The Giver. Re-Having Mind Blown

considertheaesthetic: “Old Chicago Gin is a brand of American...

Wed, 23 May 2012 11:06:31 -0400

considertheaesthetic:

“Old Chicago Gin is a brand of American Gin inspired by the spirit’s notorious history in Chicago during the 1930’s Prohibition Era. It aims to compete with other brands within the category as well as another popular cocktail spirit, vodka.”

By Kitman Leung.

Photo

Wed, 23 May 2012 11:02:33 -0400

Photo

Wed, 23 May 2012 11:01:49 -0400

rembrandtofroundball: Rajon Rondo (source) GAME THREE AT...

Tue, 01 May 2012 22:13:52 -0400

rembrandtofroundball:

Rajon Rondo

(source)

GAME THREE AT HOME.

There Will Be Bourbon: Bourbon Women Visits Boston

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:28:42 -0400

There Will Be Bourbon: Bourbon Women Visits Boston:

therewillbebourbon:

Bourbon Women, a membership association for women who like bourbon, recently held a reception and bourbon tasting at Eastern Standard in Boston. I was a little bit nervous about going as I had next to no information about what the event was or who would be attending. What I found upon…

Jessica Simpson has a Charlotte’s Web-inspired baby...

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 12:24:43 -0400

Jessica Simpson has a Charlotte’s Web-inspired baby shower; I have conflicting feelings of almost really liking her a lot.

Ridiculous people overreacting to profanity in YA.

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 12:10:23 -0400

Ridiculous people overreacting to profanity in YA.

Photo

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:53:45 -0400

penguinteen: So Much Closer by Susane Colasanti comes out in...

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:52:52 -0400

penguinteen:

So Much Closer by Susane Colasanti comes out in paperback on May 1, 2012!

YA + Death Cab reference. I’ll take it.

Tuesday = Books

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:27:54 -0400

Tuesday = Books:

New releases from Simon Pulse, Balzer + Bray, and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Family drama, pregnant future teens, and alternative proms, respectively. Check ‘em out.

unypl: in the middle he’s reading “The Devil in the White City:...

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:25:14 -0400

unypl:

in the middle he’s reading “The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America”, by Erik Larson. on the right he’s reading “Bite Me”, A Love Story by Christopher Moore.

Read The Devil in the White City

Read Bite Me

considertheaesthetic: I wont say too much about this delicious...

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:24:56 -0400

considertheaesthetic:

I wont say too much about this delicious looking design created by Viction:ary, mainly because every other design blog has already featured it. I love it so much though I couldn’t pass it up.

How perfectly quirky is this book? I not only want to buy it, but I want to eat it too! It is really lovely.

danceabletragedy: by Lina Kusaite

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:23:04 -0400

danceabletragedy:

by Lina Kusaite

factoseintolerant: The Fitzgeralds’ passports

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:22:21 -0400

factoseintolerant:

The Fitzgeralds’ passports

*all right.

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:21:47 -0400

*all right.

unypl: “A Clash of Kings”, by George R.R. Martin Read A Clash...

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:43:35 -0400

unypl:

“A Clash of Kings”, by George R.R. Martin

Read A Clash of Kings

The only time I’ve ever had anyone on the subway ask me about what I was reading, I was reading A Clash of Kings. Reading is cool!

Re-reading From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:41:20 -0400

Re-reading From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler:

“Basically, they are awesome in a way that I want to be awesome, and I fundamentally don’t understand how anyone can dislike this book.”

penguinteen: Jess Rothenberg, Nina LaCour, and Stephanie...

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:40:26 -0400

penguinteen:

Jess Rothenberg, Nina LaCour, and Stephanie Perkins on the YA or Bust tour! Do we think they dressed alike on purpose? :) (Thanks to Steph, from whose blog I blatantly stole this photo.)

Love this!

Biggest Little Apple

Publishers take note. *This* is how you do a YA cover. Love it...

Re-reading The Giver. Re-Having Mind Blown

considertheaesthetic: “Old Chicago Gin is a brand of American...

Photo

Photo

rembrandtofroundball: Rajon Rondo (source) GAME THREE AT...

There Will Be Bourbon: Bourbon Women Visits Boston

Jessica Simpson has a Charlotte’s Web-inspired baby...

Ridiculous people overreacting to profanity in YA.

Photo

penguinteen: So Much Closer by Susane Colasanti comes out in...

Tuesday = Books

unypl: in the middle he’s reading “The Devil in the White City:...

considertheaesthetic: I wont say too much about this delicious...

danceabletragedy: by Lina Kusaite

factoseintolerant: The Fitzgeralds’ passports

*all right.

unypl: “A Clash of Kings”, by George R.R. Martin Read A Clash...

Re-reading From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

penguinteen: Jess Rothenberg, Nina LaCour, and Stephanie...

Publishers take note. This is how you do a YA cover. Love it...