Amy Fitzgerald

Continuing to hit the heart icon until an "I totally agree that this sucks" button is introduced

Cover image for WILD SONG by Candy Gourlay. Green-tinted photo of a teen girl gazes at the reader. Translucent orange title text overlays the girl's face.

WILD SONG by Candy Gourlay is out in the US! Frustrated by her hometown's limitations, Luki agrees to be part of an exhibition of Indigenous Filipinos at the 1904 World's Fair in St Louis.

What
could
go
wrong?

See the starred reviews, excerpt, teaching guide, etc.: lernerbooks.com/shop/show/25...

Love this, thanks for sharing!

You have my sympathies! He's a disgrace.

If you've been remiss about calling your Dem senators (raises hand) now's a great time to get back in the saddle. Tell them not to betray our trans friends & neighbors for a "deal." It's not even Lucy with a football—it's Lucy with a tear gas canister, insisting we're safe to come closer.

(So by "next week" I meant the week after next, because what is time? WILD SONG releases Tuesday, October 7, and meanwhile you can preorder it! ZEYNA is out now. This concludes the Friday Fact Check.)

Cover image for WILD SONG by Candy Gourlay. Green-tinted photo of an Indigenous girl from the Philippines, shown from the shoulders up, looking directly at the reader. Title text in translucent orange text overlays the girl's face. Behind her in the background are buildings with tall towers.

And Candy Gourlay's YA historical novel WILD SONG, about an Indigenous girl from the Philippines at the 1904 World's Fair, has gotten TWO starred reviews!

Booklist praises its "nuance and sensitivity." SLJ predicts "Lovers of historical fiction will thoroughly enjoy" it. This one's out next week!

ZEYNA LOST AND FOUND is also on the September/October Indie Next list!
www.indiebound.org/indie-next-l...

Cover image for ZEYNA LOST AND FOUND by Shafaq Khan. Full-color illustration of a girl running through a marketplace at night, holding a shining red jewel aloft in her right hand, while two other kids trail her

Today marks another Things That Happened Thursday: in which I post about stuff I meant to post about earlier.

First up: Shafaq Khan's middle grade debut, ZEYNA LOST AND FOUND, was selected for the American Booksellers Association's Indies Introduce program!
www.bookweb.org/indies-intro...

Amazing!! Congratulations!!

"Many people are saying it's weird that a Black guy got the Nobel Peace Prize"

"When you think about it nonviolence is really the same as violence"

"You preach nonviolence, yet you are a victim of violence! CURIOUS"

Screencap from the book Martin Luther King, Jr.: Nonviolent Strategies and Tactics for Social Change by John J. Ansbro: "Many of King's critics have implied that he was guilty of a self-contradiction by practicing a nonviolent protest that generated violence. Tim in a 1964 article on him as Man of the Year asserted, 'King preaches endlessly about nonviolence, but his protest movements often lead to violence.' US News and World Report in its analysis of how he won the Nobel Peace Prize indicated that many Americans thought it 'extraordinary that this prize should go to a man whose fame is based upon his battle for civil rights for Negroes—and whose activities often led to violence.' Hanes Walton Jr in The Political Philosophy of MLK maintained that in one respect King's nonviolence was similar to violence in that it could result in the destruction of property and life. Frank Meyer, in a 1965 article in National Review, 'The Violence of Nonviolence,' accused King of employing a nonviolence that had a 'violent essence' since it involved 'the provocation of violence,' 'the use of force against civil society,' and a ' violent assault upon representative, constitutional government.' Unlike Walton, who conceded that King's intentions and means differed from the advocates of violence, Meyer charged King's Nonviolent Movement with 'hypocrisy on a grand scale' since the movement aimed to provoke the supporters of the civil order so that they would initiate the first act of violence, and proceeded by 'relying upon the terror inspired by mobs to destroy the processes of constitutional civil government.'"

Me, a rube: What is up with journalists being so credulous and/or disingenuous about [insert issue, pretty much any issue]? Do they not realize how ridiculous they sound? How could they possibly think this is responsible coverage?

The historical record, every time: lol

What if the Rapture already happened but literally everyone got left behind

Picture Peter waiting at the gates like a debut author at a book signing

Heaven's version of Y2K

Every line in that sequence is gold. "How about lunch? You could chaperone..." "NO. I WILL NOT DO THIS."

Sneakers is an underrated gem for all the reasons laid out here and also because James Earl Jones has to promise Dan Aykroyd a Winnebago at the end

@shafaqjaleeskhan.bsky.social @lernerbooks.bsky.social

Cover image of Zeyna Lost and Found by Shafaq Khan: full-color illustration of three kids running through a market at night; the girl in front holds up a gleaming red jewel.

Zeyna Lost and Found by debut author Shafaq Khan is out today! Think National Treasure (with a stolen jewel, not the Declaration of Independence) on the Hippie Trail (a pre-1980 route across the Middle East) for middle graders: an adventure wrapped in a mystery wrapped in an international heist!

We're days away from this clown discovering that autism is caused by women having credit cards in their own names

Thank you!!

Historical Flicktion nonserious musings about period dramas

Waited to start my goofy period drama recap blog until I'd had time to figure out a non-Substack option:
historicalflicktion.beehiiv.com

"If you compare the kids of my sycophants to random kids I stare at in airports, their reactions to my radioactive vibes are completely different"

Dante had some great ideas but I would like to know if there are any new circles under construction

Congratulations, this sounds so cool!!

The weather in Minneapolis is beautiful and it feels like a sick joke and I hope this finds you well because I have to circle back on something

Evergreen take

Long past time for Frey to get to the "find out" stage of his career

I too need this info (though my instinct was to assume drugs and G3, dunno what kind of Rorschach test that is)

That should be Lizzy with a y, for which I'm blaming autocorrect

Of course people also wanna use AI to be polite to randos (their wives) for them and this also would not have worked on Elizabeth Bennet for the record

When people say they're not "naturally talented" at XYZ art and that's why AI should make it for them, I think of Darcy going "I'm not good at being polite to randos" and Lizzie going "so what man, I'm not good at playing piano because I never PRACTICE"

More Things Have Happened because more Things are always Happening, but for now I'll leave it there, with three books that couldn't be more different except that I know they'll each be, for somebody, exactly what's needed right now.