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Book Blurb
Suburgatory meets Indiana Jones...on a farm
Fifteen-year-old Tabitha
has had the kind of life that would impress even the greatest adventurers. She's
escaped a croc attack in the Amazon, walked the length of the Great Wall of
China, and earned a black belt in taekwondo in Korea. She owes her
worldly experience to her mother's career in archaeology, but when her mother
takes on a dangerous new assignment, Tabitha is devastated to learn she can't
tag along.
Instead, she's forced to live on a Midwestern farm with
her grandparents where she'll have to attend a full year of public
school. It's Tabitha's greatest nightmare, because despite all her
adventures, she has no practical experience with the one thing that frightens
her the most - other teenagers.
Her math teacher is her mom's old high
school boyfriend, she can't tell the friendly girls from the mean ones, and
she develops a major crush on a boy she knows she can't trust. And just when she
thinks she'll never get the hang of this normal teenager thing, an attack brings
the danger of her previous life right up to her Midwestern porch. Who could have
ever guessed getting totally shucked would bring her face-to-face with her most
exciting adventure yet?
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Book Excerpt
His back to me, all I could see was his stringy blond hair. I had the strangest urge to run my fingers through it - fingers covered with shampoo, that is. I shuddered at the grossness of it. What? Did he just get off the tractor before heading into school?
“Excuse me.” I nudged him with my knee as I ducked under the outstretched arm of the boy next to him. The other boy moved, maybe about a centimeter, as he turned his head to look down at me. Then I was struck.
Oh, Aphrodite, his eyes alone forced my stomach to plummet down to my toes. Gorgeous, dark brown Asian eyes. Who was this boy and what planet did he come from?He looked unlike every other Midwestern homegrown pod person in this high school. My jaw dropped. My brain scrambled.
“Annyong hashimnikka.” I wanted to hit myself on the head with a blunt object. Stupid, stupid, stupid, speaking Korean instead of English.
“Huh?” he asked, a smile spread across his face. Dimples, there were dimples. “Did you just tell me good afternoon in Korean?”
I nodded.
“That’s cool.” He reached down and put his arm around my shoulder. “How’d you know I’m Korean?”
“I lived there for a year,” I stammered, struck by his eyes.
“My parents taught me a little here and there when I was growing up. Too bad there isn't an opportunity for me to learn more with the Korean adoption groups in Chicago. There isn't enough free time on the farm for that.”
My knees quivered as he led me over to an empty desk. What was wrong with me? Did my exile to cheerleading turn me into a weak-kneed teenage girl? I dropped my math book on the desk and gazed up at him.
“Long day?” he asked. “You look a little glassy eyed.”
Buddha give me strength. It was obvious. He knew.
“Leave her alone, Alex.” Becky elbowed her way between us. His arm slipped off my shoulders, leaving my skin hot and tingly. I wasn’t feeling well all of a sudden.
Maybe my vomiting fears were about to come true.
Alex turned around and skulked to the back row. He struck up a conversation with a geek next to him. A girl geek. Jealousy gnawed at my gut. I might need to kill Becky for sending him away.
“Sorry about Alex,” Becky said, rolling her eyes. “He’s such a player.”
“You think he’s a player?” I asked. “Really?”
“He’s dated almost every girl in school.” Becky drew quotes in the air when she said dated.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, eyeing him again. He leaned over closer to the geeky girl and twirled a bit of her hair around his index finger. She giggled. I reached to my belt for a sword before I realized I wasn't in taekwondo and that I wasn't allowed to hurt unarmed geeks.
“He’s a serial dater. He’s different. He’s hot. He knows it. Everyone has fallen for him at one time or another. Anyway, Alex is trouble. Stay away from him.”
Toot's Review by Stacy Sabala
I really liked this YA story. It seemed to have a lot of accurate teenage
emotion without being too serious. The
action was just the right amount to keep the reader engrossed. The main character is Tabitha and she finds
herself having to stay longer with her grandmother than she thought. She is used to traveling the world with her
mom who is an archaeologist. She has
never attended school, instead the world has been her classroom. Now she finds herself having to attend high
school for the first time. She has no
idea how to relate to the beasts known as teenagers. Her first week of school is a disaster. She enters
the building believing the worst about kids her own age and some of her
classmates don’t disappoint which reinforce her ideas. However, she does find a friend in Becky, who,
as the reader learns, has secrets of her own. Tabitha also decides Alex is the
total hottie who is worth getting to know and enters the strange world of
flirting. Too bad he is dating the girl,
who threw her in cheerleading practice.
Yes I said cheerleading practice.
She finds herself having to join the squad which was so not her
idea. She is hoping to get dismissed
from the team when she protects herself from Alex’s ex. Unfortunately she finds herself stuck and has
to make the best of it. Her experience
at school begins to get better when she is completely lost in her math class
and Alex becomes her tutor. However, She
wants to kill her mom for dumping her in this situation.
Once she starts getting used to school and normal everyday
life as a teenager, her mom’s world invades her new found life. Shocking secrets come out which changes
Tabitha’s life forever. Danger also
emerges when her mom sends her a Japanese artifact. She enters a fact finding mission which leads
her to Chicago
with Becky. Tabitha also encounters
ninjas as she continues the quest of survival as a teenager. Yes I said ninjas. She was a bit surprised herself. There are lots of twists and turns with all the
secrets coming to light and Tabitha’s ordeal with fitting in. I would definitely recommend this book. In fact I am going to make this a book of the
week for my students. They will love it
I’m sure.
I give this a 5 books out of 5
Author Q & A
A: Shucked has been floating around my brain for close to seven years, but I always wanted to be known as a fantasy author, so I kept pushing Tabitha to the side. In January, she decided to grab a hold of me and not let go.
Q: Why did you set the novel on a farm?
A: I grew up on a farm and have always wanted to write about life there. Shucked gave me a chance to do that. It was a lot of fun writing about some of the thing that were normal to me as a kid that aren't normal to everyone else. I adore my farming community and loved incorporating that small town spirit into the book.
Q: Where did you come up with the idea for the cover? I love it!
A: It wasn't easy. I have a fantastic cover designer, Steven Novak (www.novakillustration.com). Usually he designs a cover, I say yes, and we’re done. This time I felt like the concept was a lot harder to nail down. He worked through four or five different version with me. I couldn't be happier with the cover that you’re seeing now.
Q: Tell me about the title, Shucked.
A: Haha, that was another toughie. From the beginning, the file on my computer for this book was Adventure. It wasn't until I became serious about publishing it that I realized I needed a unique title. I went through close to a hundred different ideas, but none of them felt right. Eventually I settled on Digging In. I figured it was the best I would come up with. About two weeks before publication, I finally had that stroke of brilliance with Shucked. Not only does it scream farm (shucking corn), it also is representative of what happens to Tabitha during the book (having her emotional layers peeled away), and there’s always the street meaning, which you can look up on Urban Dictionary if you want. Lol
Q: Will you write more contemporary novels?
A: I hope so! Right now I’m working on my next high fantasy, but Tabitha’s still in the back of my mind, begging for a continuation of her story. While Shucked easily works as a stand-alone novel, I think we all know that no one’s story really ever ends. There’s always tomorrow.
Author Info
I've been a freelance parenting journalist since 2003 and began writing YA
novels in 2009. I co-run DarkSide Publishing, am a member of SCBWI, and I blog
about writing while juggling freelancing, volunteering, and family life. I live
in the Chicago suburbs with my husband, two kids, and our miniature schnauzer,
Ace.
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