Jordan Sonnenblick

But I have a really good excuse for not updating this blog: I’ve been writing!  In fact, I have two books coming out in the next 9 months.

Hi all -

I just got back from my first-ever official book tour (see my publisher’s blog here for details: http://feiwelandfriends.typepad.com/feiwel_and_friends/2008/05/jordan-and-dodg.html ).

While I was gone, DODGER got a rave review in the Kirkus ALA/BEA Big Book Guide:

“Dodger and Me is a love letter to my late father, my dear

son and our almost sacred love of baseball,” says Jordan

Sonnenblick. The book is also a magical tale of affection,

family and a boy’s imaginative (imaginary doesn’t do it justice)

friendship with an inspired, demented blue chimpanzee,

Dodger. Willie has a few wishes, a couple ill-considered:

That that girl Lizzie would leave him alone, that his

mother would trust him with his own safety and that he

would be a baseball star. “I can relate,” says Sonnenblick,

“not to the chimp part, but to baseball and the desperate

wish to succeed on the field. I was a miserable little leaguer;

I just could…not…hit…a…fastball.” Dodger has

lots of smart patter and perhaps a few wishes to grant. With

cool style and throat-tightening panache, Sonnenblick

sends a screamer Willie’s way.

Thanks, Kirkus!

Sorry about the all-capitals header, but I’m pumped up.  My newest book, DODGER AND ME, hit stores last week.  Also, the past few weeks have brought a flood of good news about my first novel, DRUMS, GIRLS & DANGEROUS PIE.  It turns out that DRUMS has won the state book awards for both Illinois (Rebecca Caudill Award) and Minnesota (Maud Hart Lovelace Award)!  Really, really exciting.

Also, I just got the details of my first-ever official multi-city book tour:

http://us.macmillan.com/Tour.aspx?id=84&publisher=feiwelfriends

Please come and visit if you live in Seattle, Portland, Denver, or Chicago, OK?

Hey, I hope all you website-visitor types are having a good 2008.  I’ve been super busy.  Just finished writing the sequel to my forthcoming middle-grade novel, DODGER AND ME (Feiwel and Friends, April ‘08). Check out the cover for the first book — I love it!

I am really, really excited about these books — now I can’t wait for the first one to come out so I can start telling everyone in the world about the second one.

In other news, I’m currently doing heavy research for my next young adult novel for Scholastic Press. I can’t spill any beans about the plot, the title, or anything. However, I will tell you that the research for this book has entailed interviews with a child-abuse expert, a criminal-defense lawyer, and a gravedigger.

Hmmm . . . I think I’m getting mysterious in my old age!

Oh, one last thing.  The Italian translation of NOTES FROM THE MIDNIGHT DRIVER recently won a big children’s literature award there: The Premio Cento.  AND there was a cash prize in Euros, which means a family trip to Europe is in my future.  The Italian version’s title is UNA CHITARRA PER DUE (A Guitar for Two).  Cool, huh?  The translator, Roberta Magnaghi, was awesome.  She contacted me several times during the process to ask me subtle questions about my intent.  Her hard work really helped me out, obviously — mille grazie, Roberta!!!

I’ve been super-lucky with the reception that _Drums_ has gotten out there in the world. It has been published in eleven languages (!!!), and was a BookSense pick for both fall 2004 and fall 2005, a Booklist Editors’ Choice for 2005, and a Borders Original Voices pick; it also placed fifth on the American Library Association’s Teens’ Top Ten list for 2005. So far (because state book award lists usually wait for a book to be out for a year or two), _Drums_ has made it onto the teen book award lists for the following states: TX, TN, UT, NE, SD, and PA. I keep waiting for somebody to pinch me!