We are happy to be be part of the blog tour this week in celebration of Karen Healey's newly released YA sci fi novel, When We Wake. (Little, Brown BFYR, released 3/5/13) As part of the tour, we conducted an interview with one of the characters in the book, Joph, about environmental issues. You see, in When We Wake, Tegan goes to a protest rally with her friends and then the next thing she remembers is waking up...one hundred years later. So many aspects of the world are different for her and Karen Healey has created a version of Earth's future that rings eerily possible.  Joph is one of Tegan's new friends from after she wakes up in the future and we're excited to see what she'll have to say. Welcome, Joph!

Through your actions in the book, it is clear that you care a lot about people in need. Other than protesting, how can young people make a difference? Do you believe that one person can have an impact?

Yes. At the very least, they can make an impact on themselves, and in choosing to live with care for others, they make an impact on them. Groups of people dedicated to change don’t just come about – they originate with individuals who want to make an impact.

And youth makes little difference – young people have less power, but we have more energy, and often more passion. Young people can speak, they can listen, they can give what time or money or goods they have spare. We can be forces of change for the better.

In your current world, there are many commonplace practices in place to adapt to the environmental conditions—humanure composting, roof gardens, timed showers, water rations, fossil fuel taxes, underwater buildings, and gray water systems, for example. While some of these things are around now (2013), none of them are widely used. (save perhaps fuel taxes) What kinds of environmentally savvy inventions or processes do you think will be the first to garner widespread use?

Roof gardens, I’d hope. I like gardens. They’re pretty, and they give you shade, and they feed you, and they soak up carbon dioxide and release oxygen back into the atmosphere. I mean, we can only have roof gardens because we use humanure for fertilizer and water rationing to make sure there’s water for them. It’s all connected. That’s how everything works.

The people in Australia in your time are very pro-vegetarian and put off by those who eat meat. Do you think we have a moral or ethical obligation to alter the way we eat to preserve some aspect/s of the environment?

Oh, the meat thing. Well, I don’t know, does it taste nice? I don’t really miss something I’ve never had. And a vegetarian life is much better for the environment – raising food animals takes a lot of water and energy in comparison. I think it’s wrong to say how other people should eat, though. Maybe you should think about it? And decide what’s best for you?

Tegan is in a particularly interesting position, having experienced the world in two different centuries, but I’m sure you’ve learned a lot about Earth’s history in school. (plus, your being a genius helps!) What surprises you most about our past environmental choices? Are there any historical environmental disasters or events that you find particularly appalling or interesting?

Bethi’s much more your history girl, but let’s see, what can I remember? Oh, flying. We did this project on commercial flight, and how much fuel it took, and how much carbon it emitted. The numbers were shocking, and Bethi was really angry. She walked around for a week saying, “Couldn’t they sail? They had electricity! Why didn’t more people use electric cars and just drive to where they wanted to go?”

I didn’t want to tell her that lots of the electricity came from burning coal anyway, because she was already so upset. So I pretended that I’d taken some color and forgotten to do that part of the project and instead she got angry because she thought I was getting high too often.

It’s sometimes hard to do the right thing by Bethi, but she makes life interesting.

The Iroquois Native Americans originated the “seventh generation sustainability concept,” which basically means that when making important decisions we should analyze the impact that decision will have seven generations, or 140 years, from now. Yet it is very hard to get people to care about issues that are more abstract. What do you believe about the way we should handle our inherited Earth? Are you optimistic about our current trajectory?

The Iroquois are some smart people. Looking seven generations ahead would have done us a lot of good – seven generations ago. Now, no, I’m not optimistic.

I try to be. I hope there will be a solution. I work to help.

But I’m not sure if our species has seven generations left.

My name is Tegan Oglietti, and on the last day of my first lifetime, I was so, so happy.

Sixteen-year-old Tegan is just like every other girl living in 2027--she's happiest when playing the guitar, she's falling in love for the first time, and she's joining her friends to protest the wrongs of the world: environmental collapse, social discrimination, and political injustice.

But on what should have been the best day of Tegan's life, she dies--and wakes up a hundred years in the future, locked in a government facility with no idea what happened.

Tegan is the first government guinea pig to be cryonically frozen and successfully revived, which makes her an instant celebrity--even though all she wants to do is try to rebuild some semblance of a normal life. But the future isn't all she hoped it would be, and when appalling secrets come to light, Tegan must make a choice: Does she keep her head down and survive, or fight for a better future?


And the trailer:

Pretty well done, eh? Healey will also be chatting with fellow writer Malinda Lo about the book on the  Live at the Lounge author video chat on March 23rd. It's going to be a great sci-fi/YA fest! As part of the Wake Up blog tour, the publisher has provided a copy of the book for one random reader at each stop. The giveaway is US ONLY and will run until 3/17.  Be sure to visit all the other stops on Karen's blog tour to hear from more characters and increase your chances of winning a copy!

3/4 - Novel Novice interviews Bethari about media/communications
3/5 - The Book Smugglers interviews Abdi about immigration
3/6 - 365 Days of Reading interviews Dr. Marie about scientific/medical research
3/7 - Forever Young Adult interviews Tegan about music
3/8 - The Readventurer (you're already here!), interviews Joph about the environment

Stay tuned this week for our (well, my (Flann)) 4-star review of When We Wake. In the meantime, check out these reviews from some of our blogging buddies:

A Reader of Fictions
Alluring Reads
Vegan YA Nerds
Book Smugglers

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone! Since probably no one is reading this paragraph, I will take this time to say that I was just perusing Karen Healey's FAQs on her site and this former child chess champion was giddy to find out that her favorite musical is Chess. I'm going to kick my Friday off right by prancing around the house singing Nobody's Side.

Every year, the Audio Publishers Association nominates outstanding audiobooks for The Audies. Last year, Jennifer from The Literate Housewife and Bob from The Guilded Earlobe started the Armchair Audies. (They are joined in this year's hosting by Tanya from Dog Eared Copy) Participating blogs listen to the nominees in one or more of the Audies categories, review them, and predict who they think will take the award in May. Last year, we listened to the Mystery category and predicted a winner. Well, we each predicted a winner and all three of us were wrong. This year, REDEMPTION YEAR, we have a different category and a new chance to make a prediction. For the 2013 Armchair Audies, we are listening to the Solo Narration by a Female category. Catie is excited because two of her favorite narrators, Katherine Kellgren and Cassandra Campbell, make appearances in three of the nominated productions. Here are the nominees for our category:

One of the issues we had last year was that several of the mystery nominees were later installments in series. This year, when looking at the categories, I tried to pick a category where that would be less of an issue because it can be hard to jump into a series later on. The only series book in this year's batch of nominees is The Unseen Guest, which is the third installment in the Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series. We are not so concerned about that specific one as it is middle grade and it should be an easy jump in and catch-up. Solo Narration is an interesting category because the nominees are all over the board; the only common thread is that the narration is "awesome," according to the APA. Of course, a narration is nothing unless the story is engaging. 

So far, we've been able to collect most of the nominees from our libraries. The only one we will probably have to buy is the Audible version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, as it is not readily available to us. We're excited to get started so look forward to a report back on our prediction and hopefully for reviews of each of them! Also, two of our blogging buddies are participating in the 2013 Armchair Audies: Heidi at Bunbury in the Stacks is listening to the children's 8-12 category, and Lucy at The Reading Date is listening to the Teens category. There are still a bunch of categories that have no one to listen to them yet, so go to the main site if you'd like to participate. (I'm (Flann) thinking of listening to Humor as they are on the short side and I've already listened to one of the nominees--Jenny Lawson's Let's Pretend This Never Happened)

I am just making it in the 11th hour this weekend – sorry for the delay! 

I’ll jump right in with the latest in sweeping generalizations about young adult literature, this time in the shape of an outcry about anti-feminism.  In an article for the New Statesman, writer T.I. Burton calls upon her “insider’s perspective” of ghostwriting YA romances to label the entire YA genre (and more specifically, the entire YA romance genre) anti-feminist, saying in part that YA romances encourage girls to see the entirety of their self-worth as something earned by “romantic desirability.” 

It’s not like I don’t agree with her, in part, about some YA romances.  The key word there being: SOME.  Just as in every single other genre, young adult has its examples of books featuring unhealthy relationships.  However, I think it is incredibly short-sighted to condemn an entire genre based on some of the books within that genre.  And I think it’s also incredibly far-reaching to assume that these fictional relationships will encourage any behavior in young girls.  As a scientist, I say: where’s the data?  I read a lot of crap as a teenager.  I’ve read a lot of crap as an adult.  And yet, I’ve somehow avoided letting these books inform my entire personality.  How did I do that?! 

My guess is that this author has not spent a lot of time exploring the young adult genre, and so is not aware of the huge number of great books that are out there – a guess which is supported by her labeling of New Adult as “YA’s more explicit cousin” at the end of the article.  Sigh.

John Green responds to this kind of article much better than I ever could this week in an interview with The Guardian.  In response to yet another article that made sweeping generalizations about YA and its possible negative effects on teenagers, he said:

“The thing that bothered me about it… was that it was a bit condescending to teenagers. I'm tired of adults telling teenagers that they aren't smart, that they can't read critically, that they aren't thoughtful, and I feel like that article made those arguments."

Indeed, John Green.  Indeed.

Salon had a very interesting article last week about DRM and the potential changes that could result from the suit brought against Amazon and the big six publishers last week.  However, author Cory Doctorow pointed out that the indie publishers who brought the suit actually confused the terms “open source” and “DRM-free,” saying in part, “Grossly misusing technical terms (and demanding a remedy that no customer wants -- there's no market for DRM among book-buyers) makes you look like fools and bodes poorly for the suit.”

The Wall Street Journal reported last week on a new book marketing practice: buying a spot on the best-seller lists.  Apparently, some authors are now hiring marketing firms to buy up large numbers of their books during the first week of publication, resulting in a very temporary spot on a best-seller list.  Personally, I think that with the rise in widespread communication between readers, customer reviews, and self-publishing, that the best-seller lists are slated to become more and more irrelevant.  Perhaps this practice will accelerate that eventual decline?

I stumbled across this older article last week, but I wanted to share it because I think it’s great advice: 7 Signs You Are Ready To Self-Publish (A Checklist).  Anyone contemplating self-publishing a novel should read this list.

Our friend Reynje wrote a lovely post about likability, and whether or not it’s important.

In fun news:

• Remember when I posted about Frances Hardinge (again) last week?  Well, you can read the first chapter for free over at The Guardian.

• The cover for Isla And The Happily Ever After was revealed, along with new matching covers for her sister novels.