Cover Reveal: One Small Hop

Signed preorders: https://www.onemorepagebooks.com/one-small-hop

MR: Prior to ONE SMALL HOP (Scholastic, May 2021), I was steeped in the 1980s for two books with writing partner Wendy Shang. ONE SMALL HOP is set in the future, but I haven’t shaken the 80s, which might be why Billy Idol’s Dancing with Myself has been stuck in my brain for the last two days. That made me think: How about Interviewing with Myself? It doesn’t quite work as a song (too many syllables/the meter is wrong) but I need to reveal the cover for my upcoming book somehow, and that would be a good way to do it, right?

Self: Solid!

MR: Solid! So, OK, let’s start with that vibrant cover. What can you tell us about it?

Self: That I absolutely love it. And that when I first saw it, it reminded me a smidge of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (space + world + brilliant green), which made me love it even more. The art is by Joyceline Furniss and the designer was Baily Crawford, who also designed the cover for Not Your All-American Girl. Alph (the frog) has a Mona Lisa smile, don’t you think? He obviously knows something we don’t.

MR: Talk a bit about the story.

Self: Ahab wants to save the world. But his parents are pretending that the climate isn’t changing and his sister cares more about her Friday night date than the fact that the ocean has been declared off limits. Fortunately, Ahab has friends. And a bicycle. And he has Alph. (More details about this middle-grade novel at the end of this post.)

MR: You’ve been working on this book for a long time now, right?

Self: So long. And I’ve had the concept even longer. When we first moved into our house in Arlington 14 years ago, we discovered that the small pond in back had bullfrogs, and I decided I’d write a story about them one day. I’ve made it a point to include frogs in stories in the intervening years, but I’m pretty sure it’s been building up to this.

Detail from How to Behave at a Tea Party, illustrated by Heather Ross

MR: This book is considered science fiction. What made you decide to go there?

Self: Every time I do a school visit, a kid asks me: What’s your favorite genre? My answer is Fantasy and Science Fiction. But I tend to write realistically. Weirdly, I even consider my first novel, about a talking canary, to be “realistic fiction,” though I know that’s not quite the case. This time around, I felt that to talk about the things I wanted to talk about, the world had to be ahead of where we are now; to think about the future, I had to go there.

One of our frogs. Our neighbors named him Frank.

MR: You wrote some novels by yourself, but your last two novels have been with writing partner Wendy Shang and before that, you wrote a book with Mary Crockett. How did it feel to write a novel alone again?

Self: I talked to myself an awful lot.

MR: How did the pandemic underscore the writing of this book?

Self: This book was completed before the pandemic – we were going over copyedits at that point, I think. But the pandemic shows us all how the world can change in a minute. I mean, the world is constantly changing but most of the time, we’re not really hyper aware. Writers put those bits into their stories constantly – we’re keen observers, after all — and maybe later, we look back and say “Oh, remember that detail? That was so 2018! Remember when we thought this or when the political landscape was that? Remember when scooters were everywhere or when they invented the Segway? Remember when we ate fudge pops? Remember when we dabbed?” But in this case, everything changed drastically, over the course of a weekend, really. Suddenly, there we were, sewing masks with fabric and shoelaces, businesses shut down, the streets and highways empty. I think that makes science fiction and fantasy more real – more realistic – for everyone.

MR: Preorders help a book have legs, yes?

Self: Yes! If you want a signed copy, please order through One More Page. They ship!

https://www.onemorepagebooks.com/one-small-hop

You can also order from an indie near you, from all traditional online retailers, and most anywhere books are sold.

(Marketing jingle: Order today! Read it in May!)

MR: And about those other book details that you mentioned?

Self: Right!

When Ahab and his friends find a bullfrog in their town — a real, live bullfrog, possibly the last bullfrog in North America — they have several options:

A. Report it to the Environmental Police Force. Too bad everyone knows the agency is a joke.
B. Leave it alone. They’re just a bunch of kids —what if they hurt it by moving it?
C. Find another real, live bullfrog in a secret location. Talk their parents into letting them bike to Canada. Introduce the two frogs. Save all of frogkind.

Ahab convinces the rest of the group that C is their only real option. Because if they don’t save this frog, who will? Their quest, which will involve fake ice cream, real frog spawn, and some very close calls, teaches Ahab that hope is always the logical choice and that science is always better with friends.

With humor and empathy, acclaimed author Madelyn Rosenberg builds an all-too-imaginable future ravaged by climate change, where one kid can still lean on his friends and dream up a better tomorrow.

Perfect for fans of Carl Hiaasen’s classic Hoot, this humorous adventure story set in a not-so-distant future celebrates the important differences we can make with small, brave acts.

Thanks to the team at Scholastic for making this happen, especially Lisa Sandell and Olivia Valcarce.

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A poem for poem in your pocket day

A poem I wrote this morning

Disinfectant

It is hard to make a decision

in relentless rain

when you have no idea how things are

normally

when normal is a stray dog, anyway.

You saw it through the window

on a highway once

before it disappeared

in the scrub.

“Go with your gut” we say.

You want to punch us

in ours.

No blame here.

We struggle to help

We being parents

We being friends

We being the guy behind the mask

at the grocery checkout

We being the people who say

“This is your life.”

“These are your years.”

“There are no bad choices.”

You are smart enough to know that

(though they may be true)

these are all clichés.

Spit on them, then.

Disinfect yourself

from our dreams

(if the stores have even restocked on disinfectant.)

Ramen

reddit

milk tea

money –

all go into a spreadsheet

that pretends this is obvious

or logical

that pretends this isn’t hard.

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Writing prompt: For the birds

Hi, all. A new writing prompt today. You can write a poem or a paragraph or even turn this one into a comic. What I want you to do is look at the animals around you — birds, squirrels, pets, deer. Watch them for a few minutes and imagine a conversation they’re having with someone else. It could be another animal. It could be you!

Here’s something I wrote this morning based on two cardinals that I like to watch from my office window. If you have something you’d like to share, please let me know, I’d love to see it!

Before the Rain

He might say: Come this way.

And she might ignore him

For awhile

Before flying down and taking a peck

At the railroad tie

Before flying up and balancing triumphant

On the phone wire.

She might say: You’re late again

And he might ignore her

Before raising his wings in an almost-shrug

A way of secretly showing off his red,

A way of making her wonder why he’d never been

a model in an LL Bean catalog

(fall, not spring).

They’ve been together, these two

For all of the seasons now

And he hasn’t put a ring on it

Not even a Swarovski crystal.

She might say: It doesn’t matter.

She might mean it.

(Photos by my kiddo)

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Grim Nursery Rhymes

Some of you have probably heard the theory that the nursery rhyme “Ring Around the Rosie” is actually rooted in the plague. (Scholars say the rhyme actually predates the plague, but I grew up hearing that the “rosie” was a rash, and that falling down meant we all fell… dead.

Nursery rhymes (the tree limb breaks and the cradle falls, for instance) didn’t always attempt to spare kids from horror. Some of them brought it on.

Lizzie Borden had an axe
She gave her mother 40 whacks
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father 41

So this prompt is dark, but if you want to try it: Write some nursery rhymes for COVID-19. Social distancing. Physical distancing. Hand washing. Coughing.

Touch your mouth

Touch your cheeks

And  you’ll be sick

Within two weeks

(Well. You get the idea.)

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Writing prompt: Spring

It’s spring. And, okay, maybe that’s not the first thing on everybody’s mind these days, but it’s here. It’s happening. I’ve loved seeing photos of flowers blooming and of that fresh, yellow-green color of new growth. Today’s writing prompt is simple and broad.

Write about spring.

You can try a poem, rhyming or not. You can write a prose paragraph.

You can sit outside and listen and just make a list of sounds that you hear. You can make a list of the colors that you see.

Share if you’d like. I’m glad to be your audience!

If you’re interested in more prompts, go here: WRITE.

Madelyn 

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