Publishing Giant Acquires Giant Novel - Written by a Filipina!

Press release:

David Fickling Books is enormously proud to announce the acquisition of a new stand-(tall)-alone novel, TALL STORY!

TALL STORY by Candy Gourlay is an outstanding and highly original novel for 10yrs+. The deal was negotiated by Hilary Delamere from The Agency and David Fickling.

This is a book about Bernardo, a boy who lives in the Philippines, and Bernardo is tall. Not just tall, he’s 8ft tall. Bernardo is actually a GIANT! In a novel packed with humour and quirkiness, Gourlay explores a touching sibling relationship and the comedic results of two very different cultures colliding.

Editorial director, Bella Pearson, knew there was something special from the first page: “It isn't often that I am in fits of laughter one minute and in tears the next - TALL STORY is one of the warmest, funniest, most moving books I've read in a long time - and Candy Gourlay is a rare and new voice in children's fiction. We are feeling immensely excited (and smug!) to be able to add her name to the DFB list.”

Candy Gourlay was born in Manila during the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. She was in her twenties when she moved to the UK after covering the revolution that overthrew Marcos. In addition to journalism and writing for children, Candy is involved in a range of media: blogging, designing websites and even creating
YouTube videos.

Candy is passionate about embracing and exploiting the digital world to promote books, meeting other likeminded people and reaching out to younger readers online. She runs the popular blog Notes from the Slushpile for aspiring writers. TALL STORY will be Candy’s first full-length published novel.

TALL STORY will be published in June 2010 in hardback and will be launched with widespread digital publicity and buzz; David Fickling Books in the US will publish later in the year and Hilary Delamere has negotiated a separate edition to be launched in the Philippines by Ramon Sunico’s Cacho Publishing House.

For more information about Candy Gourlay see: www.candygourlay.com

For more information about DFB see: www.davidficklingbooks.co.uk

Notes for Editors

David Fickling Books is publisher of quality picture books and fiction, and is home to some of the most bestselling and highly acclaimed authors including Philip Pullman (published by DFB in the UK only), John Boyne, Mark Haddon (published by DFB in the UK only) and Jenny Downham. Its authors have won all of the major literary prizes including the Costa Children's Book of the Year, the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, and most recently the Carnegie Medal. David Fickling Books is an imprint of Random House Children’s Books UK and Random House Children’s Books in the United States and is based in Oxford, England and New York, USA.

For more information please contact:

Georgia Lawe, Deputy Publicity Director at RHCB
T: 020 8231 6413 or E: glawe@randomhouse.co.uk

Author Interview: Sang Pak

Today, I welcome debut author Sang Pak to Into the Wardrobe! Sang has English and Psychology degrees from the University of Georgia and is a denizen of Georgia, Southern California, and Seoul. His coming-of-age novel, Wait Until Twilight, was published in August. :o)

Sang, what motivates and inspires you to be a writer?

Writing makes me feel connected and gives me a sense of purpose and meaning.

Can you tell us a bit about your debut novel?

Wait Until Twilight is a story about a high school boy, Samuel, who comes across a set of deformed triplets and their psychotic adult brother. Samuel finds himself obsessing about the triplets, though he is repulsed by them. All this coincides with re-emerging emotional memories of his dead mother. It’s a southern gothic / coming of age tale full of grotesques, adolescent life, and violence.

Why did you write Wait Until Twilight? What's the story behind the story?

The story is based on a set of dreams I had one summer a few years ago. Over a two week period I had many vivid dreams I wrote down all set in high school. So I put the pieces together and fleshed them out into a novel.

What were the challenges and rewards of writing Wait Until Twilight? What was the path to publication for the novel?

The challenge was getting a strong central story arc for the disparate vignettes that comprised the book. Once I got the story arc it was fine. Getting published took a few years of submitting to agents until one of them loved it and was able to get a deal with HarperCollins.

Where were you and what were you doing when you found out that your novel was going to be published? What were your first thoughts and feelings? How did you celebrate the good news?

I think I was about to go out on a Friday night when my agent called me to tell me about getting the deal. My thoughts and feelings were basically it’s about time I finally got published!

I had drinks with friends! Woohoo!

What are your favorite coming-of-age novels? How have they influenced your own coming-of-age novel?

I love the psychological exploration and transformation in Demian by Herman Hesse and I love the humor and youthful angst of Catcher in the Rye by Salinger.

Well, the aspects I love about them, I hoped to incorporate those aspects into my novel. The psychological exploration of Demian and the humor and angst of Catcher. Also these novels showed how a coming of age novel can be done in a literary style without being boring....

What do you think is the importance of coming-of-age novels?

A coming of age novel is more or less a story of transformation, which is always interesting and relatable. It just so happens to be in the framework of child to adult.

What books would you like your own work to match or surpass (in terms of writing, impact/influence, popularity/sales, or awards)?

I really can’t say. I can’t compare. I don’t think I’m competitive enough!

What is your strongest or favorite memory from when you were Samuel's (your main character's) age (16)?

Wow so many. But what comes to mind this moment is just the impression of driving country roads with friends without a care in the world.

Are you working on another novel right now?

Yes I am but I don’t talk about them until they are finished! I’m superstitious that way!

Sang, thanks so much for stopping by and chatting with me!

Almost Wordless Wednesday: The Coming-of-Age Edition

Yes, that's me on the left. My best friend Luningning is in the middle, and my other best friend Amor is on the right. We were all fifteen and juniors in a Catholic high school for girls when this picture was taken.

Please don't comment if you have nothing nice to say. :P LOL!

Pieces of You by Daniel Armand Lee

Pieces of You is a collection of short stories written by Daniel Armand Lee. Lee is better known as Tablo, the frontman of Epik High, which is one of the best - if not the best - hip hop groups in South Korea. The ten stories in the collection were all written from 1998 to 2001, when Lee was studying creative writing and literature at Stanford University. (The Korean translations of the stories were published in 2008 and the original English versions were published just this year.) They are slices of life about family, friends, romantic relationships, secrets, being lost, unhappiness, and sickness, among other things. Several of the characters are creative types.

These are all stories I would like to read and puzzle over and reflect on again and again. Stories I would love to discuss with others. My favorite is "Andante" (written in 1998), which is a story about Jonathan, a Julliard student majoring in piano, his mother, and how they are dealing with Jonathan's Alzheimer-ridden father - who was a master pianist before he was stricken with the disease. It has been a while since a short story has touched and moved me the way "Andante" did. There is the immense strain from taking care of a very sick family member. There is a loving but incredibly complicated father-son relationship. There is a lost young man trying to find his way. And there is a real and palpable love for music in every sentence. Beautiful.

I hope Lee writes and publishes more short stories soon. He leads such a rich and fruitful life and career as an artist. I can't help but be curious about what he would come up with more than ten years after writing "Andante."


[I borrowed a copy of Pieces of You from my good friend. Thank you, Nice!]

Halloween Reading

Here are three books I highly recommend for your Halloween reading!


"On the first day of Halloween, / my good friend gave to me: / a vulture in a dead tree."

The 13 Days of Halloween, written by Carol Greene and illustrated by Tim Raglin (Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, 2009), is a Halloween twist on the classic Christmas carol "The 12 Days of Christmas." Children will love singing "The 13 Days of Halloween." And they will be tickled by the funny illustrations. The song is about what one friend gives another for the 13 days of Halloween, but the illustrations show a man ghoul courting a lady ghoul. And they show the hilarity that would certainly ensue with such gifts as "eleven bats a-swooping" and "four giggling ghosts"! The ending of this picture book is engaging. It doesn't reveal the thirteenth gift, so kids can have fun guessing what it is and making up their own ending to the song!


I Need My Monster, written by Amanda Noll and illustrated by Howard McWilliam (Flashlight Press, 2009), is simply stunning. It's a truly unique story: a little boy named Ethan absolutely needs the monster under his bed.

"The whole point of having a monster, after all, / was to keep me in bed, imagining all the / scary stuff that could happen if I got out."

His monster, Gabe, is gone for the week to go fishing and substitute monsters try to fill in for him. However, none of them are as scary as Gabe, so Ethan just cannot fall asleep!

The illustrations in I Need My Monster are amazing. They were drawn with pencil on paper, then rendered with digital acrylic paint that jump off the glossy pages quite nicely. Ethan is adorable and has a very expressive face. Plus, the interesting shapes, monsters, and perspectives in the illustrations (as well as the story itself) balance humor with a little bit of scary stuff for children.

Below are a few of the illustrations from the book, as shared by Howard McWilliam on his official website:




The monster under author Amanda Noll's bed is Gertie. The monster under Howard McWilliam's bed is Brompton. There is no monster under my bed, which probably explains why I have trouble falling asleep at night. :o(

What's the name of the monster under your bed?


The last of my Halloween reading was Horrid Henry's Underpants and Horrid Henry and the Scary Sitter, both written by Francesca Simon and illustrated by Tony Ross (and both published by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, 2009). I'd like to share a bit about Horrid Henry and the Scary Sitter because it contains a Halloween story.

Halloween is Henry's favorite holiday because it is a day devoted to gorging on candy and playing pranks on people. But this Halloween, Henry isn't allowed to go trick or treating as punishment for giving his younger brother Perfect Peter a scary haircut: one side of his head gets a big bald patch. LOL. But hey what was Henry supposed to do? He was dressed as a red and black devil and didn't want to be seen with Peter in his pink bunny costume!

How will Henry make sure that he still gets to fill his trick-or-treat bag? Read Horrid Henry and the Scary Sitter to find out!


[My copies of The 13 Days of Halloween, Horrid Henry's Underpants, and Horrid Henry and the Scary Sitter were provided by their publisher. My copy of I Need My Monster was provided by the author.]

Happy Halloween!

The winners of the Halloween book giveaway are...

Third prize: Petrufied

Second prize: Angelica Louise (Angel)

First prize: Bendrix

Congratulations!!! Please email me (peteredmundlucy7@yahoo.com) your contact details. :o)

Yay! =D

I have never been on any kind of "best" list, so I am really happy that Into the Wardrobe is part of the 100 Best Book Blogs for Kids, Tweens, and Teens. I'm especially thrilled about Into the Wardrobe being categorized under "Well-Rounded Book Blogs." Yay! =D

Thank you, Online School. I am glad there are people who enjoy reading this blog and find it helpful.

Halloween Giveaway for Book Lovers in the Philippines

Calling all book lovers in the Philippines - this is for you! I am giving away five books and all you need to do for a chance to win is leave a comment for this post.

Third prize:


The third prize is a copy of Defining Twilight by Brian Leaf (Cliffs Notes, 2009), a vocabulary workbook for students that uses words from Stephenie Meyer's Twilight. Now, I know what you are thinking, because I thought it too at first. "No more Twilight please!!!" And I was thinking this even though I love Twilight and am a fan of Stephenie Meyer's. We can only take so much, right? So why am I promoting this book? Because it's a pretty darn good vocabulary workbook. Words are presented (some examples are "sauntered," "chortling," "unequivocally," "furtively," and "proprietary") and the reader/student is directed to the pages where they appear in Twilight so that they can be read in context. The reader/student is encouraged to determine the definitions of the words using context clues. She can then check her guessed definitions against the definitions provided by the book. Many times the synonyms, antonyms, etymology, and morphology of words are also given. And of course there are multiple choice, matching type, and fill-in-the-blank vocabulary exercises to help the reader/student review the words and their definitions. All in all, six hundred words are discussed in Defining Twilight, and the entire workbook is in simple, accessible, and even fun and friendly writing. I honestly can't think of a better way to make vocabulary lessons enjoyable for pre-teen and teen girls.

Second prize:


Every parent's worst nightmare is up to his old tricks in the early chapter book Horrid Henry and the Mummy's Curse by Francesca Simon (Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, 2009). (For more about Horrid Henry, click here to read my review of the earlier books in this series for grades 2-5 / ages 7-10.) It's actually really nice reading about, laughing at, laughing with, and rooting for a naughty little boy!

The second prize is a copy of Horrid Henry and the Mummy's Curse and a copy of Defining Twilight.

First prize:


The first prize is a copy of Defining Twilight and a signed copy of The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl (Graphia, 2007). That's right, a copy of The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl signed by its awesome author Barry Lyga. Signed I tell ya, SIGNED!!!

*calms herself*

Okay, so their adventures aren't really astonishing, but Fanboy and Goth Girl are likable, very interesting, and authentically flawed teenage characters that seem so real. I am sure teenage readers (as well as the teenager in older readers) will relate to their insecurities, problems, hopes, and dreams. Plus all the comic book geekery in the novel is exciting!

(For more about the awesomeness that is Barry Lyga's writing, click here to read my review of one of his other novels, Boy Toy.)

So there we have it, folks. Those are all the prizes. If you are in the Philippines, please leave a comment below. These are all great books for yourselves or for your children, nieces/nephews, godchildren, grandchildren, or students. I will randomly choose three winners and post their names / contact them on Saturday, October 31.

Good luck and Happy Halloween! =D


[Horrid Henry and the Mummy's Curse was provided by its publisher. Defining Twilight and The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl were provided by their authors. Thank you!!!]

Cybils Update

Heeeeeey! Yes, I know, it's been awhile. Just been REALLY busy. I'm checking in today to share a link. Nominations for the Cybils awards are closed. Click here to see the complete list of nominees for the science fiction and fantasy category!

It's quite a list. Any of you have predictions for what will make the shortlist???

PaperTigers.org Puts a Spotlight on the Philippines

For the months of October and November, PaperTigers, a website on multicultural books for young readers, is featuring children's and YA books from and about the Philippines, as well as their talented authors and illustrators. I am absolutely thrilled that a spotlight has been put on Filipino children's and YA books!

I had the great privilege of contributing four articles to this latest edition of PaperTigers:

Click here to read my interview of author Carla Pacis.

Here to read a reprint of my interview with author Dorina Lazo Gilmore.

Here to read a reprint of my interview with author/illustrator Edna Cabcabin Moran.

And click here to read my fully revised review of "I Hate My Mother!": Magnetic levitation, a grain of rice & 3 women by Perpilili Vivienne Tiongson.

I'd also like to point out the special feature on illustrator Sergio Bumatay III. I especially like his illustrations for Naku, Nakuu, Nakuuu! (PaperTigers reviews the book and shares some of Sergio's illustrations from the book.) The man's work is FREAKIN' AWESOME.

Check out all this and more at PaperTigers! :o)


P.S. For all Filipinos in America, all Filipinos who grew up in America, and all who are half Filipino/half American, Happy Filipino American Heritage Month!