Children’s Author, Jessica Lawson & a Book Giveaway!

Make sure to scroll to the bottom for a book giveaway!

One of my favorite children’s author’s, Jessica Lawson, is visiting Maisymak today with the September 5th release of her fourth book, UNDER THE BOTTLE BRIDGE,  by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. You can add it to your Goodreads account HERE, and see it up on Amazon here.

Isn’t this gorgeous cover art by illustrator, Sonia Kretschmar?

If you haven’t read Jessica’s other books, I highly recommend them! (I especially loved WAITING FOR AUGUSTA, so apropo for the times we live in.) Jessica has an incredible grasp of language and uses such clever turns of phrases – I’ve learned a lot from this girl (she’s also the gal I credit for helping me land my own literary agent, woo hoo!)

Here’s Jess:

SEASONS OF CHANGE

by Jessica Lawson

Thank you, Amy, for having me on your blog! UNDER THE BOTTLE BRIDGE will be released on September 5. For anyone wanting an early peek, I’m giving away one advanced reader copy. I’ll choose a winner from any comments on this post (winner will be chosen on August 28).

Autumn has always been my favorite season—it’s a time of such visible and internal changes as nature glides toward its annual sunset. Leaves burst into brilliant colors, then fade, then fall off. It’s metaphor-city for an author (and a welcome way to work cloves, cinnamon, and pumpkin-flavored anything into a story).

In UNDER THE BOTTLE BRIDGE, my main character Minna Treat is not ready to become a teenager. She’s been raised by her uncle, who has a huge collection of parenting books. Minna’s read all of them, and she’s learned enough about the teen years to be nervous for what’s ahead. Here’s an excerpt from the book as an example:

According to the award-winning book Natural Disasters: Emergency Parenting for the Teen Years, youth and innocence were basically over once age thirteen hit, and I needed to be as self-grounded as possible to anchor myself for the “deluge of tumultuous, volatile changes ahead.” If I didn’t have complete faith and confidence in myself as a person before the clock struck TEENAGER, I’d get swept away by some kind of giant invisible flood.

Between that kind of doomsday talk and the fact that my thirteenth birthday was three months away, I felt like I was on my own personal deadline for finding out exactly who “Minna” was before the very last autumn of my childhood was over.

While I wasn’t as apprehensive about the big 1-3 as Minna is, I definitely had reservations about growing up.

At the beginning of sixth grade, I had just moved to a new state. I knew nobody and was starting middle school. I adored elementary school and mourned its ending. Kindergarten to 5th grade was a 6-year-long season in my life that was golden. Everyone started changing a bit after 5th grade. They started growing up and having new concerns that I didn’t share, and it all sort of broke my heart. I was not ready.

I resisted mainly by being myself. I did not wear trendy clothes. I wore things like solid color sweatpants with different-solid-color sweatshirts. I did not wear makeup. There was no “going with” boys for me like there was for the other girls, nor did I want that. I did not get asked to any dances and was relieved, because dancing in public seemed like something I’d rather not do.

I was incredibly shy. But while I struggled a bit socially, other areas were smooth sailing. I was good at school and good at sports and I liked to read. Those things made all the difference.

I liked my teachers and classes. My report cards were thumbs-up. Though I went on to be a Varsity soccer team starter for all four years of high school, in seventh grade, there was no girls team at my middle school. So I tried out for the boys’ team. I made it. Boys did not like being slide-tackled by a girl. Grades and sports did not win me friends. But they gave me the confidence to continue resisting the pressure to “grow up” in ways that I wasn’t ready to. Plus I was a very Late Bloomer, which gave me a natural resistance. The P-word, Puberty, did not pay me a visit until my senior year of high school. I sometimes wonder if my body was simply waiting until my heart was ready for a change in seasons.

In a way, Minna finds refuge in the advice that parenting books give her—she figures that if she knows what’s ahead, there can’t be any hurt or pain. Not to spoil things, but the parenting books do not prepare Minna for what happens in this book. Like autumn leaves shifting colors from green to red and orange and yellow and brown, change sometimes happens whether we want it to or not. Writing this book was a catharsis for me in that way. You can’t always know what lies ahead, but you can choose who is in the boat with you while you weather any storms and celebrate any sunny skies.

And now that I’ve changed from autumn metaphors to sea travel metaphors, I believe that’s my cue to end this post. Readers, do you have a favorite season of the calendar year, or a favorite season in your life?

In the weeks leading up to Gilbreth, New York’s annual AutumnFest, twelve-year-old woodcraft legacy Minna Treat is struggling with looming deadlines, an uncle trying to hide Very Bad News, and a secret personal quest. When she discovers mysterious bottle messages under one of the village’s 300-year-old bridges, she can’t help but wonder who’s leaving them, what they mean, and, most importantly…could the messages be for her?

Along with best friend Crash and a mystery-loving newcomer full of suspicious theories, Minna is determined to discover whether the bottles are miraculously leading her toward long-lost answers she’s been looking for, or drawing her into a disaster of historic proportions.

Thank you, Jess! I can’t wait to read this.

Dear readers, please leave a comment – do you have a favorite season of the calendar year, or a favorite season in your life?

Could you help an author out? Please help me share this upcoming release by hitting the share buttons on the bottom of this post – Facebook, Twitter, Email, or any other social media button you’d like.

We love supporting local and indie bookstores! (tells you your local independent bookstore based on zip code), Barnes & Noble, Amazon, 

Connect with Jessica on Facebook, Twitter, her website, and blog!

THANK YOU so much. And congratulations, Jessica!