I first heard about this book last year, January 2010, at the Winter Conference of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). The publisher and president of Razorbill (Penguin), Ben Schrank was singing it's praises. He was so excited about it. He couldn't name the book or writer at the time, but he did tell us what the story was about. He stayed up through the night reading it, passed it around the publishing house and everyone was stoked about it. It even came to the attention of Hollywood for movie adaptation at that early stage. As soon as the book was officially announced, I knew this was the book Mr. Schrank had spoken of. He wasn't exaggerating. It is good.
You know what seemed to impress the publisher? This author was sitting in a quiet, rural community in the South, just writing her "little" story. And when she had taken it as far as she could go, she put it forth into the "universe" to see where it would go. As you can see, it's going far. Let this be a lesson to all writers. First rule: write a good story. Everything else will follow.
