Friends: Crystal is going to be taking a break from being on the road for 2020. Even the earth needs fallow seasons to rejuvenate, and so does Crystal. Feel free to contact her for events and her availability in 2021. Here is to nurturing the creative spirit!
News
Another listing in a mental health roundup, this time in Canada!
Toronto Public Library chose ALL THAT I CAN FIX for a roundup for mental health books. Huzzah, my Canadian friends! And, of course, lots of other terrific books on an important topic, too. The reviewer said:
“I liked [how this book shows]…how one person’s mental health affects others. A central teen character is holding things together while a parent is struggling with poor mental health. The teens’ feelings about it are pretty authentic, and this could be a great thing for other teens to be able to read, particularly if it reflects their own experience and can show them they are not alone in this.”
Mental health + zany dark humor + exotic zoo outbreak + social critique = ALL THAT I CAN FIX.
https://torontopubliclibrary.typepad.com/bookbuzz/2019/01/books-about-mental-health-staff-picks-for-the-2019-reading-challenge.html
ALL THAT I CAN FIX mentioned in Bookriot’s 50-state roundup!
I like the words Bookriot uses to describe ALL THAT I CAN FIX: “Compelling”. “Strange.” “Heartwarming.”
Yup. That’s about it.
“Romney and his family are known in their small Indiana town. They’re mixed race and Romney’s father tried to kill himself. That would be enough, of course, but the story adds even more to it: there’s a zoo that’s on the loose. That’s literal. Oh, and with that comes those who want to shoot the dangerous animals and those who are advocating animal rights and gun control. Makersville is making quite a name for itself in this story that throws together many compelling and strange pieces in a heartwarming, worthwhile way.”
https://bookriot.com/2019/02/11/young-adult-books-set-in-each-us-state/?fbclid=IwAR0l-iaYQLAJeb678OhMjC5k08l05Ia7vTeQK15_bdQfn7F3xXt-kklbC4Y
CRYSTAL WILL TEACH COLLEGE STUDENTS COURSE ON COMPASSION, SPRING 2019
I’m very happy to announce that I will be an adjunct professor at Benedictine University for the spring semester of 2019.
ALL THAT I CAN FIX is Book of the Week!
Huzzah! My book, ALL THAT I CAN FIX, is the Cooperative Children’s Book Center’s Book of the Week! Some great quotes of the review:
“This compelling, ambitious novel has just the right touch of the absurd to balance its serious themes.”
“[Ronney’s] experience as a brown-skinned teen is that people want to categorize him, and do judge him. He is an irresistible force at the center of this story, a heart that won’t be denied, caring with each beat despite every claim he makes to the contrary.”
https://ccblogc.blogspot.com/2018/09/book-of-week-all-that-i-can-fix.html
Where is ALL THAT I CAN FIX? Book roundups
Here are some of the places that have put ALL THAT I CAN FIX on their book roundups:
Buzzfeed’s Books You Will Devour This Summer
Stacked: Mental Health Books To Read
Bustle: The New Book You Need to Read This Summer, Based on Your Favorite Childhood Classic
Bustle: The 11 Best YA Books to Read in June
Brit and Co: Books Featuring All Types of Fathers
Young Adult Books Central: Prom Looks Inspired by Asian-American New Releases!
Buzzfeed has found ALL THAT I CAN FIX
Huzzah! Buzzfeed has included ALL THAT I CAN FIX on its lineup of fantastic summer books.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/farrahpenn/ya-books-youll-want-to-devour-by-the-pool-this-summer?utm_term=.kqxb7wd6P3#.hjm19JOk2P
Bulletin for the Center of Children’s Books – starred review!
The BCCB gave ALL THAT I CAN FIX a starred review – it’s third one!
Here’s the lineup of starred review so far:
Kirkus
School Library Journal
BCCB
http://bccb.ischool.illinois.edu/stars/
School Library Journal has given a starred review!
School Library Journal’s review for ALL THAT I CAN FIX:
“This quirky coming-of-age novel is full of hardships that the protagonist must endure, while still maintaining a lighthearted tone. VERDICT A strong choice for YA collections, this complex selection with a variety of relatable characters in extraordinary circumstances will win over teens.” –Caitlin Wilson, Meadowdale Library, North Chesterfield, VA
Kirkus has given a starred review!
My upcoming book, ALL THAT I CAN FIX, has received a starred review from Kirkus, one of the hardest reviewers in the industry. My favorite line of the review: “Ronney is refreshingly and defiantly multiracial (his family’s exact heritage is not specified, but he is at one point mistaken for Latino), and readers will fall hard for him in this novel that balances the heartbreak of a parent’s emotional abandonment and a child’s fear of violence with plenty of absurd, laugh-out-loud moments.”
The entire review:
Ronney kept believing his dad would snap out of it and shape up—until his hope turned into anger.In Makersville, Indiana, a local eccentric with a collection of neglected exotic zoo animals sets all the animals free and then kills himself. But 15-year-old Ronney is focused on keeping things together for his precocious, sensitive younger sister, prescription drug-addicted mother, and suicidally depressed father. He’s also in love with a perfectionistic girl who only wants to be friends, and he has a best friend whose desire to go viral with photos of the escaped animals veers into death-wish territory (both characters are light-skinned). Ronney is deeply flawed, with a rage that simmers close to the surface, but readers will sympathize with his burning resentment toward his father’s mental illness and its impact on the family. He doesn’t much care about flunking algebra, not with half the town arming themselves with guns and a motley crew of animal rights and gun (pro and con) activists descending in protest. Ronney is refreshingly and defiantly multiracial (his family’s exact heritage is not specified, but he is at one point mistaken for Latino), and readers will fall hard for him in this novel that balances the heartbreak of a parent’s emotional abandonment and a child’s fear of violence with plenty of absurd, laugh-out-loud moments. A superbly entertaining read that weaves issues of mental health and gun control with adolescent angst. (Fiction. 13-18)
