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The Summer of Broken Things by Margaret Peterson Haddix (Book Giveaway)

Posted on April 24, 2018 Written by


Welcome to Day #7 of The Summer of Broken Things?Blog Tour!
To celebrate the release of The Summer of Broken Things?on April 10th, blogs across the web are featuring exclusive content from Margaret Peterson Haddix and 10 chances to win a copy of the book!

 

Acknowledgments
If authors were completely honest, most of our acknowledgments pages would probably be about as long as the entire rest of the book. And they would include sentences like, “I need to thank Sean White, whom I only knew in eighth grade, but whom I saw spit a wad of chewing gum into the school water fountain on a Tuesday in May—or maybe it was April—and that’s what inspired the scene on page 34 of this book where…”
Sure, authors make stuff up. But pretty much everything we make up is rooted somehow in reality. Sometimes the reality just comes from the author’s life; other times there’s a lot of research.
With my newest book, THE SUMMER OF BROKEN THINGS, I set a record for myself in terms of the number of people I thanked on the acknowledgments page:? I ended up thanking people from four different continents. (I do not expect to break that record, ever.) So here are some other records I think I set for myself while researching this book, which then also set a record for my acknowledgments page:
1. Most reliance on one of my kids’ experiences. I got the first inkling of the idea for this book on a family trip to Spain. When my daughter returned to Spain a few years later to spend a semester of college there, she promised to do a little extra research for me. A few years after that, she and I returned to Spain for a very concentrated research trip, where she acted as a combination tour guide and translator. This book wouldn’t have been possible without her help. And lots of things that she or I or both of us together really witnessed or experienced found their way into the book.
2. Most number of experts with advanced degrees consulted. I got help with this book from a cardiologist, an internist, three psychologists, and at least three people who hold Ph.D.s in other fields. I really wanted to make sure I was depicting the medical and psychological experiences in this book accurately, and I’m very fortunate that so many experts were willing to help.
3. Most serendipitous link to a research subject. As I was getting ready to write this book, I struggled to find someone to interview who’d had a particular life experience. (I’m being vague about the exact experience on purpose—saying what it is gives away too much about the book.) Then one day I was glancing through my Facebook feed and saw that an author I know in Utah was sharing her niece’s post… which was about exactly the experience I wanted to write about. I contacted my friend; she contacted her niece; and then we had a very lovely and helpful interview.
4. Most frustrating interview with someone who answered all my questions—and then some—even as she told me she didn’t want to be interviewed. I can’t identify this person because she did not want to be identified. But her concerns about secrecy and privacy made me feel even more that the secrecy displayed by Avery’s and Kayla’s families in THE SUMMER OF BROKEN THINGS would be totally plausible… and totally frustrating for Avery and Kayla.
And right there, in my last two examples, I’m also being secretive, because I don’t want to ruin the surprises in the book for potential readers. Which brings me to my last point about acknowledgments page: the reason authors don’t make them as long as the book itself.
Wouldn’t everyone rather read the book than the acknowledgments?

 

*****

 

Blog Tour Schedule:
April 16th?—?BookhoundsYA
April 17th?— The Book Rat
April 18th?—?Book Briefs
April 19th — Parajunkee
April 20th?— A Dream Within a DreamApril 23rd?—?Crossroad Reviews
April 24th?— I Am a Reader
April 25th?—?Page Turners
April 26th?—?Once Upon a Twilight
April 27th?— Tales of the Ravenous Reader

Follow Margaret: Website | Twitter | Facebook?| Instagram

From New York Times bestselling author Margaret Peterson Haddix comes a haunting novel about friendship and what it really means to be a family in the face of lies and betrayal.

Fourteen-year-old Avery Armisted is athletic, rich, and pretty. Sixteen-year-old Kayla Butts is known as “butt-girl” at school. The two girls were friends as little kids, but that’s ancient history now. So it’s a huge surprise when Avery’s father offers to bring Kayla along on a summer trip to Spain. Avery is horrified that her father thinks he can choose her friends—and make her miss soccer camp. Kayla struggles just to imagine leaving the confines of her small town.

But in Spain, the two uncover a secret their families had hidden from both of them their entire lives. Maybe the girls can put aside their differences and work through it together. Or maybe the lies and betrayal will only push them—and their families—farther apart.

Margaret Peterson Haddix weaves together two completely separate lives in this engaging novel that explores what it really means to be a family—and what to do when it’s all falling apart.

 


About the Author: Margaret Peterson Haddix is the author of many critically and popularlyChildren of Exile series, The Missing series, the Under Their Skin series, and the Shadow Children series. A graduate of Miami University (of Ohio), she worked for several years as a reporter for The Indianapolis News. She also taught at the Danville (Illinois) Area Community College. She lives with her family in Columbus, Ohio.
acclaimed YA and middle grade novels, including the

 





GIVEAWAY

  • One (1) winner will receive a?finished copy of The Summer of Broken Things
  • US only

Ends 5/1/18

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Comments

  1. Danielle Hammelef says
    April 24, 2018 at 10:28 am

    This is one of my favorite authors. Thanks for hosting and for the chance to win a copy.