Book News: Delacorte Press Acquired OFF THE PAGE by Jodi Picoult & Samantha van Leer

DELACORTE PRESS TO PUBLISH JODI PICOULT AND SAMANTHA VAN LEER’S 

YOUNG ADULT NOVEL OFF THE PAGE IN MAY 2015

Full Press Release:

New York, NY (October 1, 2014)—Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, has acquired OFF THE PAGE by #1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult and her daughter and co-writer Samantha van Leer, it was announced today by Barbara Marcus, President & Publisher, Random House Children’s Books. The deal, for world rights (exclusive of UK and Commonwealth) was brokered by Marcus and Laura Gross of Laura Gross Literary Agency. Beverly Horowitz, Vice President & Publisher, Delacorte Press, will edit, and the novel will be published on May 19, 2015, with a first printing of 250,000 copies.

OFF THE PAGE is a humorous, magical, and romantic YA novel that continues the characters introduced in Picoult and van Leer’s first bestselling YA novel, Between the Lines, a story about what happens when happily ever after . . . isn’t.

“We are so pleased that Jodi Picoult and Samantha van Leer will join the Random House Children’s Books family, and that together with our publishing colleagues at Ballantine, we can continue to bring Jodi’s future teen and adult novels to a vast audience of readers,” says Marcus.

“Teen girls are going to absolutely love the enchanting and contemporary story that Jodi and her daughter Samantha have written in OFF THE PAGE,” says Horowitz. “I am thrilled to share this novel, and dynamic author pair, with the ever-growing audience for young adult books and with their dedicated fan base.”

In OFF THE PAGE, sixteen-year-old Delilah is finally together with Oliver—a prince literally taken from the pages of a fairy tale. To exist in Delilah’s world, Oliver must take the place of a regular boy. Enter Edgar, who agrees to take Oliver’s place in Delilah’s favorite book. In this multilayered universe, the lines between reality and fantasy are blurred, and all must be resolved for the characters to live happily ever after. The interior of OFF THE PAGE includes twelve full-color illustrations and black-and-white decorations throughout.

Picoult’s newest adult novel, Leaving Time, will be published by Ballantine on October 14, 2014.

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JODI PICOULT is the author of twenty-three novels, including the #1 New York Times bestsellers Lone Wolf, Between the Lines, Sing You Home, House Rules, Handle with Care, Change of Heart, Nineteen Minutes, and My Sister’s Keeper.

SAMANTHA VAN LEER is a sophomore at Vassar College majoring in psychology with a minor in human development. She has four dogs: Alvin, Harvey, Dudley, and Oliver—for whom the prince in this story is named.

Random House Children’s Books is the world’s largest English-language children’s trade book publisher. Creating books for toddlers through young adult readers, in all formats from board books to activity books to picture books, novels, ebooks, and apps, the imprints of Random House Children’s Books bring together award-winning authors and illustrators, world-famous franchise characters, and multimillion-copy series. The company’s website, Kids @ Random (randomhousekids.com), offers an array of activities, games, and resources for children, teens, parents, and educators. Random House Children’s Books is a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company.

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Previous book written by Jodi Picoult and her daughter Samantha van Leer:

Book Review: Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult & Samantha Van Leer

Between the Lines
Authors: Jodi Picoult & Samantha Van Leer
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy | Fairy Tales | Romance
Release Date: June 26th 2012
Review Source: Simon Pulse

Summary: (from goodreads) What happens when happily ever after…isn’t? 

Delilah is a bit of a loner who prefers spending her time in the school library with her head in a book—one book in particular. Between the Lines may be a fairy tale, but it feels real. Prince Oliver is brave, adventurous, and loving. He really speaks to Delilah.

And then one day Oliver actually speaks to her. Turns out, Oliver is more than a one-dimensional storybook prince. He’s a restless teen who feels trapped by his literary existence and hates that his entire life is predetermined. He’s sure there’s more for him out there in the real world, and Delilah might just be his key to freedom.

Delilah and Oliver work together to attempt to get Oliver out of his book, a challenging task that forces them to examine their perceptions of fate, the world, and their places in it. And as their attraction to each other grows along the way, a romance blossoms that is anything but a fairy tale.

As a huge fan of Jodi Picoult, I dove into Between the Lines already expecting to thoroughly enjoy it. The idea for this novel was conceived by her teenage daughter and teaming up, they created a magical story together.

Delilah McPhee is a fifteen year old loner who comes across a fairy tale in her school’s library. She immediately feels a connection to the story because Prince Oliver and Delilah have both lost their fathers. However, within the fairy tale, Prince Oliver has become just as intrigued with Delilah. He decides he will try to speak with her and, to his surprise, she hears him! At first, she is determined that she is hallucinating or going insane. She takes the book everywhere with her, reads and rereads it, to the point where her mother thinks she needs to see a psychiatrist.

Slowly, Delilah and Prince Oliver get to know each other. They share their deepest wishes and secrets. He tells her how hard it is to be part of a story and live out the same life over and over. Each time the book is cracked open, the characters must all take their places and play out a story that ends the same every time. He must marry the princess and live happily ever after, even though he’s not even attracted to her. All Oliver can think of is how to escape the story and live a life where he can make his own decisions. He and Delilah start brainstorming and the outcome of these attempts vary from funny to heart-wrenching.

Several of the chapters are straight from the fairy tale, Between the Lines, that Delilah is reading. Those chapters give you some insight to the fairy tale itself and allow you to get to know the other characters, Oliver’s friends. You’ll meet fairies, mermaids, pirates and trolls, but discover they lead a very different life when the book is closed. You will also find several illustrations scattered throughout the novel, which I found very cute. They added a lot to the imagery of the story.

I loved the book and all of its characters. Jodi Picoult did a beautiful job of bringing her daughter’s ideas to us in these pages. Although it’s not her usual genre, she is a master at wrapping the reader up in her stories. I’d recommend it to anyone who believes “Everyone Deserves A Happy Ending”.

Book Review: Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult

Lone Wolf
Author: Jodi Picoult
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Contemporary/ Chick Lit
Released: February 28th 2012
Review Source: Simon & Schuster
Available: Amazon

Summary: (from goodreads) A life hanging in the balance…a family torn apart. The #1 internationally bestselling author Jodi Picoult tells an unforgettable story about family, love, and letting go. 

Edward Warren, twenty-four, has been living in Thailand for five years, a prodigal son who left his family after an irreparable fight with his father, Luke. But he gets a frantic phone call: His dad lies comatose, gravely injured in the same accident that has also injured his younger sister Cara.

With her father’s chances for recovery dwindling, Cara wants to wait for a miracle. But Edward wants to terminate life support and donate his father’s organs. Is he motivated by altruism, or revenge? And to what lengths will his sister go to stop him from making an irrevocable decision?

Lone Wolf explores the notion of family, and the love, protection and strength it’s meant to offer. But what if the hope that should sustain it, is the very thing that pulls it apart? Another tour de force from Jodi Picoult,Lone Wolf examines the wild and lonely terrain upon which love battles reason.

A dysfunctional family has to come together after years of separation, due to a car accident involving the dad and daughter that has left the father in a coma. The estrange son has to come back and become the decision maker for his Dad outcome, further separating him from his sister. The mom and her new family become the home for the recovering daughter, and is wedged in between the fighting siblings. The sister uses all her wit to try change the decision made by her brother and fight the system to be the decision maker even as a minor, convinced that she know best what their Dad would want.

The story is told using each characters point of view and includes Luke's (dad) adventures with the wolf in a very extensive detail, where you learn what caused the breakage of the family. There are expected outcomes and very unexpected twists and turns thru out the story. The chapters with the wolfs were not very satisfying and contained a lot of unnecessary details, in my opinion this should have been traded for more inside information on the Mom and the new family.

I finished the book, because I couldn't stand the suspense and wanted to know the secrets that kept this family apart, but in the end I never really connected emotionally to the characters.