Wednesday Giveaway!

Is it August already? How did that happen? 

I went into the summer dreading it, thinking it would spread on forever with three kids - but it has gone faster than ever imaginable. Now I'm gearing up with sports schedules, auditions, back to school supplies, and more.

Of course I'm also looking forward to the time when they're behind desks and I get to write again. And blog again. Because this summer has been dismal in both those areas.

Since I don't really have any writerly advice this week - I thought I'd do a giveaway of one of my ALA ARCs!

To enter, just leave a comment below (make sure to leave a valid email) by midnight EST on August 6th. I'll choose a winner and contact him/her via email. Good luck!

Up for grabs: Your choice of Lost Girls by Ann Kelley or Fire in the Streets by Kekla Magoon.

Lost Girls:

No parents. No rules. No way home. 

Fourteen-year-old Bonnie MacDonald couldn't be more excited for a camping trip on an island off the coast of Thailand with her fellow Amelia Earhart Cadets-the daughters of the men and women stationed there during the Vietnam War. But when a strong current deposits the girls on what their boatman calls the "forbidden island," things take a turn for the worse: A powerful storm comes to destroy their campsite, the smallest of the junior cadets is found dead, and their boatman never returns. What once seemed like a vacation in paradise has become a battle against the elements.

Peppered with short, frantic entries from Bonnie's journal,

Lost Girls is a page-turning, heart-pounding adventure story about a group of teen girls fighting for their lives.

Fire in the Streets

What means more, shared values or shared blood? Maxie's choice changes everything in this acclaimed companion to "The Rock and the River."Bad things happen in the heat, they say.

"Maxie knows all about how fire can erupt at a moment's notice, especially now, in the sweltering Chicago summer of 1968. She is a Black Panther--or at least she wants to be one. Maxie believes in the movement. She wants to belong. She wants to join the struggle. But everyone keeps telling her she's too young. At fourteen, she's allowed to help out in the office, but she certainly can't help patrol the streets. Then Maxie realizes that there is a traitor in their midst, and if she can figure out who it is, it may be her ticket to becoming a real Panther. But when she learns the truth, the knowledge threatens to destroy her world. Maxie must decide: Is becoming a Panther worth paying the ultimate price?