I’m excited to share with everyone my debut early MG novel, QUINNY & HOPPER, releasing Tuesday June 10, 2014, from Disney-Hyperion!
Here’s the jacket copy:
Quinny has a lot to say. Hopper gets to the point.
Quinny has one speed: very, very, extra-very fast. Hopper proceeds with caution.
Quinny has big ideas. Hopper has smart solutions.
Quinny and Hopper couldn’t be more different. They’re an unstoppable team. But when summer ends, things suddenly aren’t the same. Can Quinny and Hopper stick together in the face of stylish bullies, a killer chicken, and those Third Grade Rules – especially the one that says they’re not allowed to be friends anymore?
Ann M. Martin, in her foreword to the beloved 1940s classic Betsy-Tacy and Tib, wrote, “These were small stories…but when Maud Hart Lovelace told small stories, she made them seem big.” I just love that. I love books that do that. Schoolyard politics, sibling squabbles, neighborhood adventures…I find all the “small stuff” of childhood to be the biggest stuff of all.
Of course, what kid doesn’t also crave a suspenseful, action-filled plot? But, along with juicy storylines, I believe young readers deserve dimensional, developed characters that hold a mirror to their own rich interior lives. Not just at ages 10, 11 and 12…but also at 7, 8 and 9.
Combining emotional realism and adventure-driven plotting, Quinny & Hopper alternates between the first-person perspectives of two kids whose intense summer friendship runs smack-dab into the uncertainties of a new school year. I wrote this young MG story in two voices because that felt like the most visceral way of exploring the characters’ blooming but fragile, ripped-to-shreds-and-stitched-back-together friendship. To me this friendship is really the book’s main character. I watched it grow and falter due to misunderstandings, fear, outside pressures. I watched it survive and strengthen.
When it comes to friendship, and life in general, I feel like we’re always telling kids: follow your gut, not the crowd. But it’s so hard at times. Showing the struggle and eventual pay-off of social courage is important. Someone who is radically different from you can often teach you a lot about yourself. By the end of their story, I hope Quinny and Hopper would agree.
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<td><img class=”alignleft” src=”https://onefourkidlit.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/adrianabradschanen.jpg” alt=”” width=”175″ height=”175″ /><a href=”http://adrianabradschanen.com”>Adriana Brad Schanen</a> was born in Romania, raised in Chicago, and now lives in Montclair, NJ with her husband, two lively daughters and a shaggy 60-pound lap dog named Oliver. She can often be found in her attic study, writing books for kids and teens or the occasional screenplay. Her first early middle-grade novel, <a href=”http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18656193-quinny-hopper”>QUINNY & HOPPER</a>, releases June 10, 2014 from Disney-Hyperion.</td>
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OneFour KidLit 
