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Title: The Last Boy and Girl in the World
Author: Siobhan Vivian
Published: 2016
Source: Edelweiss

Summary: With her hometown threatened by torrential rains and a failing dam, Keeley is determined to keep everybody's spirits up, to save her town, and to ride off into the sunset with her adorably perfect crush. And no matter how many people abandon her, she's going to have her happy ending.

First Impressions: Sniff! Everyone is so screwed up and flawed and messy. It felt so realistic.

Later On: Keeley's not an easy character to like at times, but she's so very real. She's the clown, the person who keeps everybody smiling. As things like her town, her school, her childhood friendships, and even her relationship with her parents are changing, she's having a difficult time realizing that a smile and a laugh are not the right expression in all circumstances. Her slow realization that sometimes you do need to be serious, you do need to accept change, and you do need to give in to the inevitability of loss (loss of home, loss of identity, loss of friendships) is wrenching,
because you see people all around her at different stages of the same journey.

The interesting thing about the love triangle was that the "other boy" wasn't wrong for her - he was wrong for her at that time. While these two class clowns could have made it in another setting, they were too much alike, trying to ignore the end of their world and laugh away the sadness.

When Keeley wants to get serious, he pulls away. That's not to say he's a bubblehead - he has his own life issues. But Vivian doesn't use these to excuse him or to bring about a happy ending for them. Keeley learns to recognize that the relationship is going nowhere and walk away on her own, without the romantic intervention of her other possibility.

I haven't read all of Vivian's books, but if they're all this thoughtful, and all her characters are this beautifully drawn, I have some catch-up to do.

More: Not Acting My Age

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Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing has launched a new young adult literature-themed website called Riveted. The creatives behind this venture plan to feature lists, articles, quizzes, videos, giveaways, news pieces, and behind-the-scenes information.

Some of the writers who have signed on to contribute content includes Jenny Han, Siobhan Vivian, and Scott Westerfeld. To launch this website, the Riveted team will host a community “binge reading” of Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series.

Here’s more from the press release: “Leading up to the March release of the next installment of the Shadowhunters Chronicles, Lady Midnight, members from the editorial board will host live video chats every Friday to discuss the week’s #TMIBingeRead. In addition, the site will feature original content such as DIY videos on how to get the perfect book character-inspired hair, “word of the week” videos, and exclusive serialized bonus stories.” Click here to watch a video to learn more about the binge reading event.

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Part 2 of the Philadelphia Stories YA Roundtable continues here, as Elizabeth Mosier, Siobhan Vivian, Melissa Walker, and I talk about character, plot, and the advice we give to other writers. Our great thanks to Michelle Wittle!

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In a wall-to-wall session at the BEA, the season's top YA authors—Melissa Marr, Tonya Hurley, Siobhan Vivian, Jenny Han, Elizabeth Norris, and Bethany Griffin—gathered to talk about trendmaking, book writing, and teen readers. 

I covered the story for Publishing Perspectives here. 

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What a thrill to be joined by my friends Elizabeth Mosier, Siobhan Vivian, and Melissa Walker in a two-part conversation about favorite young adult books, writing influences, and process.  A big thanks to Michelle Wittle who pulled this all together for Philadelphia Stories.

Please visit this link to 'hear' us talk (Part 1).

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I first met Siobhan Vivian in a town called Lititz in the dark of a hotel restaurant.  It was after hours; the crowd was gone.  She was there with her best friends, her writing friends, each a lit star in her own right.  They were a raucous foursome, those girls at the other table, and I was feeling quiet, and besides, I was there with my husband, a man now nearly famous for avoiding what is known in my circles as lit talk.

Still, Siobhan insisted that we join them at her table.  She talked, they talked, I listened.  By the end of the night and a bottle of wine, I was talking, too.  More than talking, I was laughing.

In the years since, Siobhan and I have found each other in Florida, say, or in the mire of Facebook.  I have watched her career take off, her books earn praise; I have cheered her on.  Last week, when I realized that Siobhan was in my city for the Public Library Association meeting, I set off to find her once more.  We missed each other by minutes, no more.  We talked by phone instead.

We want the people we care about to write good books so that we can say—with all our hearts— I love it.  I am saying here, with all my heart, that I love Siobhan Vivian's new book, THE LIST, which is due out in early April, near my birthday (a good omen), and which tackles big issues—self worth, discrimination, vulnerability, beauty and all that beauty isn't.

There is so much that beauty isn't.

The premise is delivered in the very first lines:

For as long as anyone can remember, the students of Mount Washington High have arrived at school on the last Monday in September to find a list naming the prettiest and the ugliest girl in each grade.

This year will be no different.

Eight girls, then—four named pretty, four named ugly—and with thoughtful, third-person omniscience their stories get told.  It's a risky proposition, a novel that could only work if Siobhan went beyond stereotype and delivered fresh tales, if she made us think newly, if she hinged the whole thing around a searing who-dunnit, and if she wrote the heck out of every sentence. 

All this she does.  Siobhan is smart.  She pays attention.  To how teens think and talk, to the details that will matter to those who pick up THE LIST looking for some semblance of herself, or of them.  Siobhan's books resonate with teens because she has never forgotten what it feels like to be one, and because, on her tours with other books, she has stopped to ask the teens she meets what is going on right now, what is real right now, what is shaping young lives.  She has asked, and she has listened, and with compassion she has reached back out, writing a novel that is equal parts story and salve.  She's still inviting people to her table, that Siobhan Vivian.  I'm glad to sit there with her. 

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Siobhan Vivian's Not That Kind of Girl is our featured title this week, and in her guest post on Monday, she wrote the following:

"One thing I really wanted to impress upon my readers is that making a 'mistake' doesn’t mean that you are a bad person and are not deserving of respect. I think we, as a culture, are so quick to judge. We expect girls to be perfect, to never make mistakes, to always be smart and rational and make the right decisions. I’m sorry, but that’s just not possible!"

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Are you Team Steinfeld? Team Lawrence? (Or Team Somebody New? Hailee Steinfeld leads the poll to star in “Hunger Games,” though finding an “unknown” to embody the role of Katniss might be pretty stellar. In other YA news,... Read the rest of this post

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We drove toward Lancaster on a sour-skied day—past sheep, goats, horses, cows, corn-stuffed silos, chicken cathedrals. The sun kept trying to come out, and sometimes, in a skittish mood, it did, but once we reached the town of Lititz, I wasn't thinking about weather. I was thinking about the town itself—cohesive, grounded, charming. I was thinking about that marvelous independent, Aaron's Books, which had engineered its first Kid's Lit festival and invited me to take part.

The first order of business was a panel seamlessly (and, because she's beautiful) beautifully moderated by Julie Peterson. Together with A.S. King, Lisa Greenwald, Lee Harper, Matt Phelan, Eric Wright, and Mara Rockliff I reflected on questions big and small; more importantly, I got to listen to what the others had to say about ambitions and priorities, about stories not yet told. It was be far one of the best panels I've ever sat on. It elevated book making, stayed focused on the true why for.

Later, there was pizza with local teens. After that, a long evening of clamoring and dishing with Caroline Hickey, Jenny Han, Siobhan Vivian, and Lisa Greenwald—long-time best friends who travel the children's/YA circuit together and (when you're lucky, as last night I was profoundly lucky) let you in for some of their outrageous (and so smart and it all comes from loving, seriously, I know it comes from loving) drubbing. An evening at the truly gracious Lititz House was next, a B&B you can't help but love, a B&B, let it be known, in which I actually slept five purified consecutive hours. That's no small thing. That's Lititz speaking.

This morning I rose early, walked the town, took photographs. Had a delicious Heidi breakfast at the B&B we were already calling home. Went off, then, to hear the writers read, to read a bit from Undercover.

We drove home on the same country roads, this time glossed by sunny skies.

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I am so pleased to present an interview today with the ever-fabulous Siobhan Vivian. She has written two young adult novels, A Little Friendly Advice (my review) and Same Difference (my review), along with a picture book, Vunce Upon a Time. She has quickly become one of my favorite YA authors, and I absolutely can't wait to read all of her future books. You can find her online at her blog or website.

What gave you the idea for A Little Friendly Advice?

I had this group of friends in high school and we were all very involved with one another’s lives. One friend had been dating this pretty awful guy on and off for about a year. They would fight, break-up, and then make-up—that was their cycle. Anyway, another girl in our group got so tired of our friend putting herself in this horrible situation over and over again, she finally said something like “If you take him back again, don’t come crying to me when he does it again.” I was really moved by that situation, because I could see both sides of it. I didn’t want my friend to get hurt anymore, but also you have to love and support your friends unconditionally. That’s what I wanted to explore in ALFA.

Which of the four girls in ALFA were you most like as a teenager?

I would say I was most like Katherine—loud, full of false-bravado, a tough exterior hiding a lot of deep insecurities.

Your second book, Same Difference, was inspired by your experience as a teen at art camp. How it very autobiographical or mostly fiction?

The book is biographical in that I had spent the summer between my junior and senior year of high school attending a fine-art program in Philadelphia, and I mirrored a lot of my personal experiences in Emily’s journey. But Emily is Emily, and Siobhan is Siobhan.

I love how the focus on friendship in your books is heavier than the focus on romance. Do you make a conscious effort to showcase friends vs. love interests in your stories?

I do tend to focus on friendship more because, to me anyway, my friendships have always been more passionate and intense than any relationship I had with a boy. I’ve fallen in love with soooo many guys in my lifetime (ha!) but finding a true friendship seems much more rare.

What's your journey been like as a writer? When did it start? How did you get published?

Well, everything started when I was living in Los Angeles, working in kids television. I really wanted to be a writer, but I realized that the kids of stories that I wanted to tell didn’t seem to fit well with TV. At the time, I had been working for The Disney Channel, and while I love those kinds of characters and shows…I was definitely not thinking up stories that worked well with a laugh track. So I decided to leave LA and move back to NYC and pursue YA writing.

For about two years, I pursued my MFA at night while editing books for Alloy Entertainment (The Au Pairs, The It Girl, a bunch of Hailey Abbott novels). Those experiences combined basically equaled Teen Fiction Boot Camp! And it was at grad school when I started writing A Little Friendly Advice. My thesis advisor was David Levithan, and he made an offer on the book after I graduated. It was pretty much a fairy tale!

What's the hardest thing for you as a writer? The easiest?

I think I am pretty good at plotting stories, but I have a really hard time developing characters.

What were some of your favorite books as a teenager?

I loved really trashy 1980’s stuff, like Sweet Valley High and any book that was a murder-mystery-thrillers, like when a girl’s boyfriend is found dead on prom night type thing.

What is your favorite thing about being a writer?

I love hearing from girls who’ve felt connected somehow to my books. The ideas that I could imagine something up and it would mean something to a person I don’t know is such an amazing feeling.

Thank you ever so much, Siobhan!

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by Siobhan Vivian

Same Difference centers around the main character Emily's adventures at a summer art camp in Philadelphia. It's a coming-of-age story in the true sense: throughout the book, Emily undergoes a complete transformation of self, the way she sees the world, and the way she sees the people and world around her.

This book started off a little slow for me, but I'm so glad I stuck with it, because I enjoyed it a lot. Just as with the author's first book, I loved and was grateful for the focus being on the friendship vs. romance. Yeah, there was a romance, but it wasn't the sole defining experience of Emily's time at the art program.

The best thing about Same Difference was all the wonderful themes it explored. For instance, it showed that transitional time of being a teenager; the defining moment when you realize that your world is a slate that you can experiment and draw on, and if you don't like what you are right now, you can erase and start over. But you also realize that even if you want to start completely over, there's stuff you can't simply make go away. You can change yourself, but you can't (as much as you might want to) make the people around you change. Sometimes you can't even make them realize that you've changed.

I also liked how it showed that sometimes friendships change, and change drastically, and it's not possible to be the way you were before. But just because that happens, that doesn't mean you can't still be friends. You might not be as close or even as compatible as you once were, but you can still be there for one another.

Even though Emily changed a ton in the book, it didn't feel at the end as if she was suddenly a completely different person. She was still very much herself, only different--a good different--than before. But she was still Emily. The book is a compelling portrait of one girl's growing up. Recommended.

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by Siobhan Vivian

This story begins on the eve of Ruby's 16th birthday. Her mom's given her a present, all of her friends have arrived, and she's gearing up for a fun night. That is, until her dad--who she hasn't seen since he left her and her mom, years ago--shows up at the apartment. Pretty soon it feels like all the relationships in her life are unraveling, and Ruby doesn't know who to turn to or what to do.

A Little Friendly Advice was refreshing in that its focus was on relationships with friends and family, which are two of the biggest factors in a teenager's life. But usually those themes tend to get neglected in a lot of YA books to make room for a focus on problems/issues (which are factors too, but always alongside friend-and-family relationships) and romance. When a boy does show up in Ruby's life, he doesn't suddenly sweep her off her feet and solve all of her problems. That relationship is muddy and unclear, too. Complicated. The book really nailed how, as you grow older, relationships that used to be black and white - with relatives, or with friends - suddenly aren't clear-cut anymore. Suddenly there's angst and grayness.

Everything about A Little Friendly Advice felt incredibly real. It had passages that hurt a little to read (out of either a sharp loveliness or out of pain) because it was as if it was myself I was reading about. Not necessarily because I've been in the same situations as Ruby (although a couple of them rang specifically true), but because I have felt the same things. Little snapshots of excruciating truth in some of the details were beautiful. And when a book does that for me--makes me gasp because of its rawness, its rightness . . . there's nothing better to ask for in a reading experience.

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A kids’ book about a vampire illustrated by J. Otto Seibold? Yes please!

I just snagged Vunce Upon a Time by Siobhan Vivian and J. Otto Seibold, and it’s pretty great. Seibold, the visual brain behind Olive the Other Reindeer and the oh-so-cute Mr. Lunch brings his inimitable manic style to the world of Halloween, and it’s pretty much just what you’d expect. The 2-page spread of a town of trick-or-treaters is like a Where’s Waldo? of monsters, creeps, and ghouls that’s worth the sticker price alone.

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Being a best girlfriend isn't easy. Having a best girlfriend isn't easy either. When one girlfriend experiences a crisis, the entire friendship is in jeopardy. This is the premise of Siobhan Vivian's A Little Friendly Advice, a smart Young Adult novel for readers ages thirteen and up.

16-year-old Ruby runs in a pack of four: There's artistic Ruby, smart and social Beth, basketball star and hothead Katherine, and flirtatious, boy-crazy Maria. But Beth and Ruby are best friends within this group and have been since grade school. In fact, Beth has been Ruby's best friend since Ruby's dad disappeared, leaving the family for good.

On the night of Ruby's 16th birthday party, the girls get together to have birthday cake and then head out to drink a smuggled bottle of champagne. And that's when Ruby's dad Jim shows up for the first time in years. Jim's arrival sets of a week-long crisis for Ruby during which Ruby tries to understand why her parents split up, why her dad left, and, most important, why her best friend Beth is keeping secrets from her about Jim.

During this week of turmoil, Ruby also meets her first real boyfriend, tries to come to terms with the volatile Katherine and Katherine's own family problems, and tries to stay afloat at school. But, the heart of the novel is Ruby and Beth’s friendship and what it means to be a best friend: When should you tell the truth, when should you shield your friend from potentially stressful information, and when you should you offer just a little friendly advice?

Told in Ruby's voice, A Little Friendly Advice explores rocky family relationships, first kisses and experiences with alcohol, and, most of all, best friendships. It's a not-to-be-missed honest read for teen girls.
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Other Blog Reviews:

Bildungsroman
Teen Book Review
The Page Flipper
Page Numbered
YPulse
The Book Muncher
Propernoun.net

If I've missed your review, please leave me a comment and I'll update.
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My sun overdose continues. I burned myself yesterday and it was wonderful.

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