SOPHOMORE SWITCH
by Abby McDonald
Commercial Young Adult
Candlewick Press
www.SophomoreSwitch.com5 Signed Copies will be given away on Friday May 8, 2009
About the Book:
Take an administrative snafu, a bad breakup, and what shall heretofore be known as "The Hot-Tub Incident," and you’ve got two unprepared sophomores on a semester abroad. For American party girl Tasha, an escape to Oxford may be a chance to ditch her fame as a tabloid temptress, but wading Uggs-deep in feminist theory is not her idea of a break. Meanwhile, the British half of the exchange, studious Emily, nurses an aching heart amid the bikinis and beer pong of U.C. Santa Barbara. Soon desperation has the girls texting each other tips — on fitting in, finding love, and figuring out who they really are. With an anthropologist’s eye for detail and a true ear for teen-speak, exciting new novelist Abby McDonald has crafted a funny, fast-paced, poignant look at survival, sisterhood, and the surprising ways we discover our true selves.
Read our exclusive author interview with author Abby MacDonald!1. What was your inspiration for writing Sophomore Switch?The plot came from two ideas I'd been musing over. I was dying to write something based in Oxford, because it really is a place unlike anyother: a kind of bubble world, with its own weird traditions, social rules and, of course, the huge weight of academic pressure and expectation. At the time, I was also addicted to the new breed of reality TV like
Laguna Beach and
The Hills: shows where teens' 'real lives' are reworked into a soap-like drama, with heroes and villains.
I've always wondered what happens after the shows end, because unlike other TV, they can't just leave their 'character' behind. I had the idea of a teenage girl who had inadvertently been painted as a terrible person on one of these shows, who wants to escape that reputation away from prying tabloid eyes.
Putting a California girl in the middle of tweedy, uptight Oxford was a great 'Legally Blonde'-style scenario, but it was only half the equation. I was traveling in America at the time, and what I was noticing was a real culture shock; not over big issues like language so much as things like dating and socializing-elements that would really matter to a teen. I wondered, if my Californian girl, Tasha, was having a hard time of it adjusting to life in Oxford, I could only imagine what a perfectionist, tightly-laced Oxford girl would feel like in the middle of a super-casual Californian campus. And just like that, the book was waiting to be written!
2. The book is written from both girls' points of view (Tasha and Emily). Which one was easier to write and why?People always assume I identify more with Emily, being an English Oxford girl myself, but I actually had more fun writing in Tasha's voice. The thing I love about Tasha is that she's so brave, and completely shameless. It was very important for me that she not regret the infamous hot-tub incident that got her into trouble in the first place; she may hate the fact that it's made her a tabloid joke, and despair over how it's tainted everyone's perceptions of her, but as for the actual hook-up itself? She's not ashamed. Teenage girls fool around; they have sex, and it's a part of their lives, and if Tasha had been shamed into feeling dirty or worthless, then I don't think I could have written her character at all: that's not the message I want to give.
Despite mirroring my own experience more closely, Emily was harder to write, I think because I wanted to shake her and yell 'relax!' so many times! I was a scholarship girl at a high-pressured prep school for several years, but I managed to wake up to the fact that constant perfectionism was making me miserable; I dropped out, switched into the public school system and learned not to stress about every little grade before it really damaged me. Emily takes longer to figure these things out, and her constant worrying-and all those headaches-were definitely a reminder of how unhappy I used to be when I lived like that.
3. If you could switch lives for a semester with anyone in the world, who would you choose?This is a tough one! I've had the great fortune to have traveled quite a bit over the past couple of years (one of the wonderful things about being a writer, is it's just me and my laptop), but I think if it came to studying for a semester, I'd love to do an Emily, and spend time at a college in California. I took a research trip down the coast to plan locations for the book, and I just loved the laid-back vibe, how friendly people were, and - of course - the weather. Sign me up for a semester at UC Berkeley, maybe in something to do with feminism and the media, and I'd be a happy girl.
4. You talk about Tasha's humiliating (and intriguing!) "hot-tub incident" which ended up all over YouTube. What moment in your life would you rather die than see on YouTube?Hmmm, well, first of all, if I didn't want to see something on YouTube, then I wouldn't write about it online either! But seriously, I actually have had a life relatively free from embarrassment, although maybe that's not such a good thing. I've always been quite cautious and careful, so I haven't ended up in any crazy scrapes--but perhaps they would have been fun!
5. What are you working on now? Any more novels to look forward to?Lots! I'm writing full-time, so I'm pretty busy. Right now, I'm finishing up my next YA novel, called BOYS, BEARS & A SERIOUS PAIR OF HIKING BOOTS. It's about an eco-conscious Green Teen from New Jersey, who jumps at the chance to spend the summer with her godmother in the wilds of Western Canada--only to find that nature up close isn't quite what she expected. It's a comic novel (as you can tell from the title!), but it's also been interesting to explore a lot of things around environmentalism, and activist identities in general: the different reasons people become involved in causes, and what happens when our beliefs get challenged.
In addition to my YA novels, I also write adult fiction, and I'm gearing up for the release of my adult debut, THE POPULARITY RULES. It's a story of female friendship, modern feminism, and social manipulation, and will be out here in the UK in September. It's been really exciting getting my first copies through, and celebrating the end point to what has been about four years work for this book. Although, now I have to write the next one in, umm, six months...
About the Author:Abby McDonald is a recent graduate of Oxford University. This is her first novel. A former resident of the U.K., she currently lives in Montreal. Visit the book's official website at:
www.SophomoreSwitch.com
The authors of The Nanny Diaries talk about their first ever Young Adult novel and what it was like to meet Scarlett Johansson! Listen to our exclusive interview with Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus here!
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