anicarissi

[anicarissi]

Honestly pretty mad at AI for taking away my ability to joke that I wish my book would write itself

#author life #writing life #bummer

[anicarissi]

Czech, Polish, and Russian editions of HIDE AND DON’T SEEK: AND OTHER VERY SCARY STORIES

#booklr #spooky books #scary stories #autumn aesthetic #foreign editions #books in translation #books and things

[anicarissi]

WISHING SEASON has been out in the world for four months today, so here’s page four of chapter four, which earned the Tato chomp of approval. (He says if you like this taste, you should eat the whole thing.) This scene is a flashback to the first time Lily sees Anders, her twin, after his death.

Chapter Four

Before and After

“How long has it been?” he asked.

She stopped the swing. “Three days.”

He nodded. She waited for him to say more, but he didn’t. She wasn’t sure how much he remembered about the infection or the seizure or the ambulance or the end. He hadn’t been fully conscious for all of it. But Lily had. She would never forget.

“Did it hurt?” she asked.

He looked surprised. “What, dying?”

“Yeah.”

He paused. “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

Anders gave the kind of shrug most people assumed meant he was finished talking, but which Lily knew meant he needed space to think with less pressure. She shooed her impatience and it scurried away.

Anders squinted at the clouds, then at his sister, like he was trying to bring her face into focus, or maybe see through something hazy right in front of it. She kept still. “That’s not how it works,” he said finally. “It’s not what matters anymore.”

She held in a sigh of frustration. He was reaching the end of his words, but she needed him to explain. Nothing about his dying made any sense, except for the fact that he’d come back to her. Nothing about it seemed at all fair. “What does matter?” she asked.

#booklr #reading #book love #books and dogs #sad books #books and flowers #books and nature #sibling story #middle grade reads #chapter four #wishing season #anica mrose rissi

[anicarissi]

Finished one, started the other

#booklr #reading #book love #dogs and books #dyscalculia #salt houses #hala alyan #camonghne felix

[anicarissi]

Excited to read this gorgeous debut, THE NIGHT FOX by Ashley Wilda

#the night fox #Ashley Wilda #booklr #reading #book love #currently reading #ya debut

[anicarissi]

I recently learned the hardcover of HIDE AND DON’T SEEK: AND OTHER VERY SCARY STORIES is now in its 3rd printing, which set my heart aflutter like an attic filled with bats. Thank you, librarians, educators, booksellers, and readers! 🦇🖤 If you don’t have one yet, you can also find it in paperback or ebook—Carolina Godina’s full-page illustrations are absolutely gorgeous in all three. (And the audio version has multiple talented narrators!)

#booklr #books #spooky books #spooky stories #scary stories #short scary stories

[anicarissi]

I love when my reading seems in conversation with ideas I’m exploring in my own work

#booklr #reading #author life #book love #currently reading #terrace story #hilary leichter

[anicarissi]

If you missed the release of NOBODY KNOWS BUT YOU three years ago today, well, I have no idea what else you could been thinking about in fall 2020. 🙃

I loved writing this YA novel about an intense friendship formed over a single summer at camp—a summer cut short by murder. It’s a fast read and more of a “why done it” than a “who done it,” so if you like short books, psychological suspense, complicated friendships, and unusual formats, this thriller might be your jam. The story is told in unsent letters interspersed with news clips, text messages, a trial transcript, interview statements, and social media posts. You can find it in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and Dutch(!), but my favorite format is the audiobook, because the main narrator, Jesse Vilinsky, gives a killer performance as Kayla.

Here’s a peek at the opening page:

September 3

Channel 5 News

“Tragic accident or deadly revenge?

“Sources from within the state prosecutor’s office say the D.A. is close to filing charges against a teenage suspect in the sensational case that has shocked and gripped viewers across the region since the fateful night three weeks ago that left one sixteen-year-old summer camper dead and another under suspicion of murder.

“Michael Desir, an attorney for the teen who is at the center of the ongoing police investigation, maintains his client’s innocence, even as prosecutor Marsha Davis is expected to bring charges within the week. Despite few official facts having been released in the case, rumors and speculation run rampant online, fueled by social media posts from other campers and their parents and counselors. Some have suggested that the delays in pressing charges could indicate major weaknesses in the state’s attempt to build a case proving the camper’s untimely death was a passion-fueled crime, not a tragic accident.

“The prosecutor’s office would not comment on whether the teenage suspect will be charged as a minor or—given the severity of the alleged crime—as an adult.”

Shoutout to illustrator Hokyoung Kim and designer Molly Fehr, who created the gorgeous cover 💙 And thanks to all who have read and shared it!

#booklr #reading #book love #ya thriller #quick read #summer camp #twisted love

[anicarissi]

The way I ~shuddered~ at this headline…

Please only try this if your favorite writer is deceased

#booklr #horror story

[anicarissi]

Today marks two years since HIDE AND DON’T SEEK: AND OTHER VERY SCARY STORIES crept into the world to haunt and thrill middle grade readers. And this week, I’m on the very first episode of @danpoblocki’s new podcast, Our First Fears, talking about a book that shaped and inspired us both as kids and creators: SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK by Alvin Schwartz, illustrated by Stephen Gammell. I reread Schwartz and Gammell’s book for the first time in 30+ years in order to discuss it with Dan, and our conversation was such a delight. I hope you’ll take a listen! 🖤👻 https://www.buzzsprout.com/2215085

#reading #scary stories #scary stories to tell in the dark #gateway horror #spooky summer #spooky stories #spooky books #podcast #horror podcast

[anicarissi]

New @danpoblocki book! Spooky summer is ON

#spooky books #booklr #reading #book love #spooky stories #spooky summer #Dan Poblocki #tales to keep you up at night

[anicarissi]

We love a hot pink paperback

#erika l sanchez #crying in the bathroom #booklr #reading #books

[anicarissi]

My friend Derya and I made Pokémon cards of our pets.

It was fun.

#pokemon #crafts #dogs and cats

[anicarissi]

Go ahead and try to convince me aliens didn’t do this. 🌾

#aliens #supernatural #the unexplained

[anicarissi]

In TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY, Steinbeck wrote, “All I knew about Deer Isle was that there was nothing you could say about it” and, “I can’t describe Deer Isle. There is something about it that opens no door to words.” Yet I tried my best to capture it in this book.

WISHING SEASON is a love letter to the place where I grew up—to the saltwater-spruce-granite air, the pets and wild animals, and the community of storytellers that shaped me. This is my fifteenth book, but it’s the first set on Deer Isle, and I was more nervous about getting the island “right” and trying to capture the spirit of this place that means so much to me than I’ve been about anything else I’ve written. In part those nerves stem from the fact that although I was born in Maine and raised on the island, my parents and grandparents are “from away,” so I am not quite considered *from* there by many of the people I’ve known my entire life. I tried to capture the feeling of that in this book too.

So it means the world to me that early reviews have noticed that this is a book about siblings, yes, and about friendship, grief, isolation, change, and hope—but at its heart is the small Maine island where the story is set: the people and landscape that make Deer Isle a singular place. (Steinbeck again: “One doesn’t have to be sensitive to feel the strangeness of Deer Isle.”) Lily’s barn is my barn. Her tire swing was my tire swing. We skate on and catch frogs in the same pond, perch on the same granite rocks, dip our toes in the same cold ocean, love the same woods, field, and clam flats. She lives on my hill, in a house slightly different from but inspired by mine. We share a few neighbors. We pick blueberries from the same wild patch. We love the same place, for many similar reasons. I hope when you read WISHING SEASON you will love Deer Isle too.

#booklr #books #author life #book love #deerisle #deer isle #maine coast #books and nature #books and dogs #books and things #books and writing #atlantic ocean #travels with charley #john steinbeck

[anicarissi]

I typed the first pieces of the idea for WISHING SEASON into my phone on a train home from NYC at 10:21pm on September 22, 2016, but the story didn’t start there. It pulls from so much of who I am and have been—things I’ve been thinking, feeling, noticing, wondering, caring about—for decades. Tomorrow (June 27, 2023) is publication day, and I’m excited for this story and these characters who have lived in my head, heart, notebooks, laptop, and notes app for so long to go out into the world and meet readers. Would you like a peek at the opening chapter? Here it is.

Chapter One

The Question

At ten minutes past the usual time, the school bus rolled to its usual stop, opened its doors, and coughed out a girl. Her sneakers landed in the gravel with a crunch.

The girl paused, looking right for any cars coming up the tall hill—all clear—and crossed in front of the bus’s flashing red lights. She hurried up the slope on the other side of the road, but as soon as the grassy ground evened out, her steps slowed.

She did not turn to wave at any friends as the bus grumbled along to the next stop. She didn’t run to the door of the big white house, or even smile as she approached it. She hunched her shoulders, hooked her thumbs through the straps of her backpack, and braced for what she would find inside.

Two red-breasted nuthatches chirped on a nearby branch. “That poor girl,” one said. “That poor, unfortunate child.”

The other bird hopped closer. “She’ll be all right.”

“Will she?” the first wondered.

They tilted their heads and watched.

#booklr #reading #books #author life #book love #currently reading #wishing season #talking birds #kid lit #new book #chapter one

[anicarissi]

“Stack WISHING SEASON next to BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA. Anica Mrose Rissi paints a picture and sings a song with a tremendous, unforgettable voice. As emotionally healing as it is ultimately joyful.” —Rita Williams Garcia, Newbery Honor author of ONE CRAZY SUMMER

“Beautiful and moving, this book will make you cry. But it will also mend your heart. A story that reminds us that love will help see us through, even in the darkest of times.” —Jasmine Warga, Newbery Honor author of OTHER WORDS FOR HOME

“Tender, heart-shifting, and deeply absorbing, Anica Mrose Rissi’s latest novel is a magical exploration of what it means to love and let go. A truly beautiful and profoundly intimate story.” —Corey Ann Haydu, author of EVENTOWN

“With beautiful prose and quiet humor, Anica Mrose Rissi tells a story of grief and loneliness and love and joy, the meandering, maddening mess that is healing from a great loss, and the (kind, awkward, surprising) people who help you through it. A quietly powerful tale that feels like an ageless classic.” —Claire Legrand, author of SOME KIND OF HAPPINESS

"A startlingly honest portrayal of grief, WISHING SEASON carries us through the bewildering beauty of a perfect Maine summer and a season of terrible loss. I loved this wise, lovely, delicate story of what we hold onto and how we let go.” —Laurel Snyder, author of ORPHAN ISLAND

#booklr #book love #book blurb #book recs #rita williams garcia #jasmine warga #Corey Ann Haydu #claire legrand #laurel snyder #books and nature #sad books