Take It From the Top: Cover Reveal!

My newest middle grade novel

On November 19 2024, my newest middle grade novel will be released. Although I don’t have the Official Fancy Pants Description quite yet, here’s what I do have:

Eowyn and Jules have spent the past six summers together at Lamplighter Lake Summer Camp for the Arts. But this summer, so many things feel different—Eowyn’s brother has struck it big on Broadway, Jules has learned the truth about how her family’s able to afford camp every year, and while they’re both over the moon about the summer show being Wicked, they’re also full of loathing (“un-adul-turated loaTHING”) for one another. Will they be able to put their differences aside and land the lead roles? Or will hurt feelings + green-eyed envy be the star of the show? Think Tale of Two Cities meets High School Musical meets Bug Juice, but make it middle grade. (Do you see why they don’t let me write my own book descriptions? I’m keeping my day job.)

If you want more of the summer-camp-theater-kid vibes, feel free to peruse the Pinterest board here!

The origin story: When it came time to consider what I wanted to write about next in middle-grade-land, the idea of summer camp kept popping into my mind. I went to camp as a kid and adored it—the choco tacos, the canoes, the endless supply of chocolate milk. But another huge part of my childhood was theater. It’s wild just how many writers were theater kids growing up, and when you think about it, it makes total sense. Theater + writing are just different forms of storytelling. I was part of an all-children traveling theater group¹ and my favorite part of the entire production cycle was the day we would get the script. It was just so enthralling, to see where the story was headed and how the scenes were laid out and in what way the characters would crash + collide. In the back of my head, I always had a secret dream of being able to write scripts for that theater company one day. The company sadly died a painful COVID death, but it gave me a lifelong love of fairy tales, step-ball-changes, and backstage besties.

I was also toying with the idea of a dual-narrative story, something I haven’t gotten to do in the middle grade sphere. I wanted to play around with the idea of the same event from two entirely different perspectives. Take It From the Top is told over the course of six summers (lol, my editor loves my wildly out-of-order timelines, surely²) and you get to see various happenings from Eowyn’s eyes and Jules’ eyes. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Is it all a matter of perspective, or are some things objective? Are we missing things others bring to the table? Can you rank feelings? Or interpretations? Whose are more important, and whose do we listen to? Are we all just playing a role? Do those roles ever switch? Those are the kinds of questions I wanted to toy with.

Take It From the Top releases November 19 2024—just in time for the holidays (and the Wicked movie)! I would love if you would consider a preorder for you or the middle grader in your life. As always, I recommend ordering through your local indie if possible, but if you’re in a season of life where Jeffy B or B&N make the most sense, live your best life:

Meanwhile, something kind of bananas happened recently: WHAT HAPPENED TO RACHEL RILEY WAS NOMINATED FOR AN EDGAR. These are the prestigious literature awards given by the Mystery Writers of America every year and I’m so, so thrilled that Rachel + Anna’s story made the list. I’ve always loved mysteries, ever since my days of Miss Scarlett and Sammy Keyes and Nancy Drew, and this is such an honor. I get to go to the reception in New York in May and “excited” is a bit of an understatement. If you think I didn’t change my professional bio to “Edgar-award nominated author” the literal minute I found out, we have never met.

The book has also been nominated for an Audie, the largest audiobook award in existence! I really can’t take credit for this but I’m incredibly proud of the cast. And I mean…I can take a little credit, because I got to help cast the book. So. Credit accepted. ;)

But the real focus of my #writinglife lately has been launching The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County. I would love to see you at one of our release events, Wisconsin friends/family/readers!

And lastly, a book I’ve loved lately for…

Kids: We enjoyed diving into Barry Wittgenstein’s A Place to Land: Martin Luther King Jr. and The Speech That Inspired a Nation. It was a great conversation starter with beautiful illustrations.

Middle graders: I absolutely loved The Lost Year by Katherine Marsh. It’s about an important historical event I rarely see discussed in kidlit—the Ukrainian Holodomor. It was beautifully written, with elements of hope and grace woven into an immense tragedy.

Adults: I’m currently really enjoying Wavewalker by Suzanne Heywood—kind of like Tara Westover’s Educated, but on a sailboat. I also tore through Pride and Prejudice on audio and learned that I can actually enjoy Jane Austen if she’s read aloud to me! It only took me 32 years to learn this fun fact but hey, better late than never.

Thanks for reading along!

-Claire-

1. The more I think about this the more I’m in awe of the 2 adults who were in charge of supervising 28 children in costume. We were legit just put in random parents’ vans, driven across town, and I as a 12-year-old was in charge of three little kids’ stage makeup at any given time. What the what?! But those years were extremely formative and when I think of my middle school days, I often think of myself backstage, reading the Alice novels by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor and half-listening to make sure I didn’t miss my cue.

2. One of these days I’ll just have, like, a normal, straightforward timeline. I swear! Pinky promise! My fingers are not crossed!