The Next Big Books from Sourcebooks Fire!

 

This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp ($17.99, 9781492622468) begins on the first day of a new semester at Opportunity High School in Alabama. At 10 a.m., the principal finishes her welcome address to the student body. By 10:05, the students find themselves trapped in a locked auditorium with a classmate and his gun.

Told over 54 minutes in real time, from the perspectives of four students, all with their own reasons to fear the shooter, This Is Where It Ends is a chronicle of their struggle to survive this tragically realistic scenario, and elicits equal parts terror and hope.

The unfortunate, timely topic and strong narrative hook of this title created immediate in-house noise at Sourcebooks. "Lots of people have called it harrowing, important, shocking," says Beth Oleniczak, "but we were left with an important marketing question. How do you create 'buzz' around something that's clearly so tragic? We had to figure out how to spread the word while respecting the subject matter." So, she worked with senior publicity manager Heather Moore to put together a launch plan that would help enhance the conversation that they knew would surround the difficult content. "One of the first things we saw was how strongly educators were responding to this book--so many mentioned in early reviews that they couldn't wait to share it with their students," says Oleniczak. So they used the reviews as an opportunity to start these conversations. They contacted the teachers directly about holding pre-publication book clubs with their teens, ultimately distributing more than 550 ARCs to 26 schools and libraries in 20 states--and sent the author on a virtual Skype tour. Each student also received an individual chalkboard--to mimic the title's cover--and was asked to record their reaction to the book. Says Oleniczak, "Feedback from teachers was unbelievable: one teacher passed out 30 advance-reader copies on a Friday, and Monday morning there was a line out the door of students who had finished the book and wanted to talk about it."

They extended the chalkboard campaign to bloggers, asking them to record their reactions and post them on social media with #thisiswhereitends, and Moore has also been maintaining a special Tumblr page to keep all of these assets in one place. Trade and consumer advertising, successful author signings at BEA and ALA Midwinter, a Winter 2015-2016 Kids' Indie Next Pick, broad media attention and librarian support have helped round out the plan, and the strong word-of-mouth that's been building over the past six months foreshadows even bigger buzz following the book's January 5 release.

Marieke Nijkamp is the founder of DiversifYA, an executive committee member of We Need Diverse Books and a founding contributor to YA Misfits. She was born, raised and lives in the Netherlands, where she maintains an international social media presence. This Is Where It Ends is her first book.


 

You Were Here by Cori McCarthy ($17.99, 9781492617044) chronicles the lives of five, small-town high school students who are dealing with the uncertainty that comes with high school graduation, and grief from a tragedy that occurred years prior--when Jaycee's daredevil older brother died during one of his stunts. To deal, the group embarks on a mission to visit the derelict places where her brother played with death and eventually lost.

McCarthy's novel, which author Jo Knowles calls "wrenchingly beautiful" and an "achingly accurate portrayal of grief" is told through an ambitious combination of prose, graphic novel panels and word art poetry."Put it in someone's hands and give them the opportunity to page through it," says Beth Oleniczak. "It's not a format that they've seen before."

Cori McCarthy signing ARCs of You Were Here at ALA Midwinter in Boston.

These various art styles and five character perspectives move through real locations in Ohio, from the ruins of a mental asylum to the remnants of what was once the world's largest amusement park. "The setting is as much a character as the characters themselves," says Annette Pollert-Morgan.

Cori McCarthy's previous Sourcebooks Fire book, Breaking Sky, is dystopian science fiction with Top Gun overtones that garnered critical acclaim--including two starred reviews--and has been optioned by Sony Pictures. McCarthy studied screenwriting and poetry before earning an MFA in children's and YA writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. You Were Here comes out March 1.


 

Don't Get Caught by Kurt Dinan ($9.99, 9781492630142) gives average high school student Max an unexpected chance to break the bonds of teenage mediocrity. With his 2.5 GPA and nonexistent social life, Max seems an unlikely candidate for entry into a secretive group of skilled high school pranksters called the Chaos Club. Yet he and four other students have mysteriously received invitations. When the group of misfits realizes that their summoning was merely a setup, they set out on a mission to expose the Chaos Club... in a very public way.

When looking at the wide range of contemporary novels that are out in the market right now, it's critical to remember that different readers are looking for different things--ranging from dark and angst-ridden, to riotously funny and entertaining, and, as made clear by these forthcoming Sourcebooks Fire titles, "It's important for us to have a spectrum," says Annette Pollert-Morgan, "to have both ends of it on our list."

Don't Get Caught's bright cover, featuring three cows, one upside-down, conveys the novel's lightheartedness. In flipbook style, similar cows cartwheel across the bottom right corners of the book's pages. "The unique prankster angle could spark some really creative, funny April Fools displays," says Valerie Pierce, marketing manager.

Kurt Dinan has been a high school English teacher for 21 years. Expect to see him at the Winter Institute. Don't Get Caught is his debut novel, and its release date is, appropriately, April 1.

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