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MEDIA RELEASE
Action-filled Children’s Fantasy Featuring Black Characters and Positive Message
Receives USA Book News Best Books 2007 Recognition
UKIAH, California
– The Call to Shakabaz by Amy Wachspress is an
award-winning Finalist in the children’s fiction
category of the USA Book News Best Books 2007 Book Awards
and winner of the
BAIPA 2008 Award for Best Juvenile Fiction. This unusual gem of a read
has also won two other national awards. In The Call to Shakabaz, the
recently orphaned Goodacre children travel with their pesky parrot to the
distant land of Faracadar on a quest to retrieve the powerful Staff of Shakabaz
from the evil enchanter Sissrath. When the young protagonists discover that
violence is foredoomed to fail against Sissrath, they must use their wits and
imagination to defeat him. A terrific family read-aloud with cross-generational
appeal, this book demonstrates the fundamental principles of nonviolence as
practiced by Dr. King within the context of a real page-turner that has the
reader hooked right through to the unexpected, magical climax.
While
raising her three multicultural children, Wachspress sought books with ethnic
children in them. She noticed that almost all of the best African American
children’s and young adult fiction is not fantasy, instead relating historically
accurate stories of a realistic nature. Knowing how much she and her children
loved fantasy adventures, she vowed to write one herself that was set in an
African American cultural context.
The Call to Shakabaz
is filled with adventure, colorful endearing characters both human and nonhuman,
magic and enchantment, thought-provoking threads to spark discussion, children
on a hero’s journey, and of course, an epic struggle between the forces of good
and the forces of evil.
Winner of an iParenting Media
Award and selected as a 2007 Indie Excellence Book Awards Finalist, the book is
a five-star favorite on Amazon. Stephanie Vela, children’s books manager at
Black Oak Books in Berkeley, California, reports that the book was one of her
top 10 children’s books sold this spring. Reviewers promise that if you like the
Narnia books and Harry Potter, you’ll love The Call to Shakabaz.
Author Amy Wachspress has
combined a passion for children’s fantasy stories and a heartfelt belief in the
power of nonviolence with a love of African American culture to create a
rip-roaring ride with magic, depth, and soul for readers of all ages.
Listen to Amy's interview on Book Bites for Kids:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/bookbitesforkids
Listen to Amy's interview at Reader Views celebrating
the first anniversary of the publication of The Call to Shakabaz by using this
link and scrolling down the page:
http://www.readerviews.com/index.html
Listen to Bev Smith’s 30-minute interview with Amy on the Bev Smith
Show on March 1, 2007. (21 min., 21MB)
(The Bev Smith show is broadcast out of
WPGR 1510 AM in Pittsburgh Monday through Friday 7-10PM EST and the show
is syndicated to stations nationwide. You can listen in via the internet
through WAOK in Atlanta.)
Listen to Mark and Andrea at Just One More Book! in
Ontario, Canada talk about their experience reading The Call to
Shakabaz aloud as a family with their young daughters. “Our girls
laughed, swooned, quaked and cheered — then happily chirped Satyagraha!”
Listen to Amy's interview with Jason James, online book
and film reviewer at The Nut Gallery, here: http://www.thenutgallery.com/podcasts/tng010808intwachspress.mp3
Or you can simply click on the podcast posted on the
website main page.
Radio Interview: Annie Esposito at KZYX Radio (Philo, CA) Interviews
Amy About The Call to Shakabaz, November 30, 2006 (17 min, 16MB)
(music heard
on the KZYX podcast was created by Thomas Raglin Douglass, Jr., aka
Nature. P.O. Box 251, Elk, CA 95432.
nature@mcn.org
(707) 877-3811)
Listen to Amy's Interview on Aug. 22, 2007 on Today's
Author ( blogtalk radio show) at:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-96977363323295732
(The show begins with about 15 minutes of jokes told by
host David Ewen before the interview starts.)
My Top Six
Reasons for Buying Harry Potter 7 at My Local Bookstore
It is July 21, 2007. At 12:01 this morning, I paid the Mendocino Book Company in
Ukiah, California $37.70 for my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
While I know this price puts the book out of reach for many low-income muggle
families, our family found a way to include it in our budget this month. Why?
Reason 1. The real magic of Harry Potter.
Trivia question: How many books were printed in the first printing of Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (then called “Philosopher’s Stone”)?
Answer: 1,000. So how did people find out about it? Word of mouth. And who
passed the word? At first, independent booksellers. Then readers (mostly
children) and soon after librarians, teachers, parents, everyone; then the
advertising mucky-mucks got their paws on it. But it started with little local
independent booksellers saying “Psst, hey, little girl, read this.” Without
them, who knows where Harry would be today? That’s the real magic behind Harry’s
catapult to international fame. Although the mainstream literary industrial
complex (B. Kingsolver’s term) produces and promotes many good books, it also
lets many good books fall through the cracks. We have our local independent
booksellers to thank for peering between those cracks and picking those books
up. These independents are literally closing their doors every day because
online and big box booksellers are pushing them out of business. It is up to us
to keep those doors open for them so that they can keep the doors to a heap of
good reading open for us. Our indie bookstores put Harry on the map (and I don’t
mean the Marauder’s Map) so we could find him! Don’t you think the least we can
do is give them our business?
Reason 2. What goes around comes around.
Frankly, I owe Ann Kilkenny (owner of Mendocino Book Co.). She hosted the
successful launch of my children’s fantasy adventure, The Call to Shakabaz,
published by a small indie press in January. While Barnes & Noble and Borders
won’t so much as nod in my direction (I’m an unknown quantity), small
independent bookstores here and there are discovering and hand selling my book
and helping get the word out. Booksellers like Stephanie Vela at Black Oak Books
in Berkeley (CA), Sharon Wright at Carol’s Books in Sacramento (CA), Bob Spear
at the Book Barn in Leavenworth (KS), Susan Sternberg at Alphabet Soup in
Lawrenceville (NJ), and St. Helens Bookshop (OR), are making a big difference in
my life as a first-time author, and in the lives of my young readers. I’m not a
purist. I do shop online. But I also make a conscious effort to buy at Mendocino
Book Co., especially something like HP7. It’s the least I can do to show my
appreciation to Ann and her staff. My survival and the survival of other new
authors like myself depends on her survival and the survival of other indies.
Reason 3. It’s about more than strawberries at the Farmer’s Market.
There’s a lot of talk about community and supporting community by buying local
products (also a factor in reducing global warming), but let’s put our money
where our mouth is. Our local bookstore owner is a member of our community. She
raised her children here. She sells cards and calendars made by local artists.
She provides the service of selling tickets for local dance, music, and theater
performances. She contributes to the local merchants’ association and she is
part of the local economy. Her modest earnings on our purchases do not go to a
corporate headquarters outsourced to the Philippines. Ann’s store doesn’t have
an upscale gourmet coffee bar, fancy pedestal tables, or pastries for sale; but
the store has couches, chairs, and a welcoming atmosphere. While raising my
children, I would often say “Meet me at the bookstore.” The staff knew each of
them by name and could suggest titles just for them. When we say it takes a
village to raise a child, we must remember that part of that village is the
local bookstore. So what better place to celebrate the publication of HP7? An
online bookseller can’t compete with the face-to-face, warm-and-human event of
buying a great book in person, or, furthermore, celebrating the launch of that
book with friends and acquaintances as part of a larger community. There is no
substitute for the village.
Reason 4. Sharing the pie.
Apparently online booksellers will not make a profit on HP7 because of the rock
bottom price they have offered. If the online booksellers want to slit their
wrists on this one, let them, but you can be sure that someone is making
a profit. No matter what price the online booksellers offer, they still have to
pay the publisher a fixed amount per book based on the cover price. The
publisher and the author are making a profit. I don’t begrudge JK a penny of her
millions. She has earned it. If you have read her books then you are probably as
confident as I am that she will make good use of the money. But why are we
begrudging our local bookstores this sterling opportunity to turn a profit? What
other business would you prefer to support? We have a win-win situation here.
The consumer gets a terrific product while stimulating the local economy. What’s
not to like about it? My only complaint is that the cover price is so high that
low-income families can’t afford the book.
Reason 5. Keeping a promise.
I have not heard of a single
independent bookstore that leaked one word of HP7 before the street date. In
fact, it seems the only leak in the world occurred through Deep Discount, an
American online seller. I find it hard to believe that there are those who so
desperately need to feel like a know-it-all that they sought and released the
book or information about the book before the launch date. In the entire world,
this happened only in the U.S. What does that say about our ability to delay
gratification? (Shame on the newspapers who cashed in on the leak and printed
advance reviews.) At midnight in Ukiah, people of all ages, Republicans and
Democrats, children of every ethnicity and many religions (and speaking in more
than one language) joined our counterparts throughout the Pacific time zone as
we gleefully counted down together for the witching moment when the sealed boxes
could be slit open. You know-it-alls missed out on that magic. I honor all the
local bookstores, big and small, for keeping a promise and ensuring that those
boxes remained sealed until the contractually agreed-upon time.
Reason 6. Sheer delight.
What fun to participate in last night’s book launch celebration! I spent hours
in the company of our small community’s beautiful children while they celebrated
the publication of a book. Our children, many dressed in costumes or with
painted faces, talked heatedly about books with each other and adults, ate the
abundant treats provided (many with Harry themes), played games at tables,
watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, skateboarded in front of the
store, entered contests to win prizes by answering HP-related quiz questions and
coloring HP-related pictures, played word games, and filled in word puzzles.
Does it get any better than this? And what about today? July 21 should be
declared International Reading Day in honor of the brilliant imagination of one
woman in Edinburgh and her ability to unite the world for a weekend of peaceful
reading. Now there’s magic for you.
In among the crowd of children at our bookstore last night, I saw one particular
child whose presence lifted my heart. Let’s call her Sylvia. Last winter, my
15-year-old son told me that Sylvia (also 15) had been diagnosed with cancer and
had only a few weeks to live. This news broke my heart, even though I have never
spoken to Sylvia or her family. I have watched many children, such as Sylvia,
grow up from a distance. I have seen her sing, dance, and act in local
children’s performances produced by a performing arts school in town ever since
she was four years old. She is the only child of back-to-the-land hippies who
spend most of their time on an isolated sheep ranch. I find the thought of these
gentle, shy parents losing their only child devastating.
But last night I saw Sylvia at the bookstore. Thin and frail, with a black and
red scarf hiding her bald head, she spoke quietly with friends who asked how she
was doing and sat down with her to hear her tell them and listened and cared.
These children were not afraid to face her or her struggle and to lend their
support. When I left the bookstore at 12:20, I was elated not only because I had
in my hands the final installment of Harry Potter, but also because Sylvia is
still alive. Today I imagine her curled up in bed, reading. Perhaps JK’s complex
and deeply felt thoughts on death will comfort and assist her on her difficult
journey. Whether or not she wins her battle with cancer (and I hope with all the
hope in my heart that she will win), I am grateful that she stayed with us long
enough to find out how Harry ends. I could not have bought the knowledge that
Sylvia is still alive to read HP7 at an online bookseller. It is part of that
community thing. The village. All my reasons aside, just the image of Sylvia
reading HP7 all the way to the very last secret revealed was worth the $37.70 I
paid for the book at my local, terrific, independent, community bookstore.
--Amy Wachspress, July 21, 2007
SUMMARY REVIEW OF The
Call to Shakabaz
The Call to Shakabaz, by Amy
Wachspress, is a children’s fantasy adventure of a different color, many
different colors in fact. The book is set in an African American cultural
context and all the characters in the book are Black, or Black mixed in with
other vibrant hues. There are almost no books for children and young adults in
the fantasy adventure genre with any Black characters, let alone a whole book
featuring them. The book is also unusual in that it does not depend on the
typical Anglo-Saxon imagery to make it magical and it does not rely on a gory
violent battle scene to resolve the central conflict. Instead, the book
demonstrates the fundamental principles of nonviolence as practiced by Dr. King
and Gandhi.
Launched on King Day, 2007 to a standing-room-only crowd at Mendocino Book
Company in Ukiah, California, the book won an iParenting Media Award within two
weeks of its release and it has been honored as a Finalist for the 2007 Indie
Excellence Book Awards in the Children's Fiction Category. The author has been
featured in interviews on The Bev Smith Show (syndicated to radio stations
nationwide) and Just One More Book (an Ontario-based children’s books website).
Bob Spear at Heartland Reviews has identified the book as a recommended title
for reluctant readers because it is high interest, and he nominated it for a
BookSense Pick. It is also recommended by enthusiastic reviewers at Teens Read
Too, Midwest Book Review, and Reader Views. Cheshire Bookshop owner Linda
Rosengarten in Fort Bragg, California writes: “The Call to Shakabaz is
one of those rare books with cross-generational appeal. Readers of all ages will
not be able to put this novel down, right through to the unexpected, magical
climax. The Call to Shakabaz provides a completely satisfying read, with
a refreshing approach to the fantasy genre.” Stephanie Velas at Black Oak Books
in Berkeley, California reports that The Call to Shakabaz was one of the
top 10 children's books sold at the store this spring.
Wachspress sidesteps many of the usual conventions and offers original
resolutions to a variety of sticky situations. When the recently orphaned
Goodacre children are transported to the land of Faracadar, they must discover
and develop their special gifts and talents, which require that they exercise
ingenuity, creativity, and compassion. Fourteen-year-old Doshmisi and her
younger siblings Denzel, Maia, and Sonjay are given the task of retrieving the
powerful Staff of Shakabaz from the evil enchanter Sissrath. They travel through
a colorful landscape with their Faracadaran guide and their Aunt Alice’s clever,
pesky, and often hilarious parrot, Bayard Rustin. The adventurers must contend
with many obstacles and foes, including a giant sea serpent spewing green goo,
skeeter birds with uncanny eyesight, the smelliest man in the land (named
Compost), the deadly mountain geebachings (who cause their victims to laugh
themselves to death), as well as Sissrath himself and his minions (who shoot
deadly poison darts at their enemies). Assistance is provided to them along the
way by the griot, the high chief and his clever daughter, talking whales,
ancient trees, drummers, inventors, butterflies, wolves, tigers, and the
peculiar sprites who live underground in the hills.
The
book offers a refreshingly different perspective on adventuring in make-believe
lands and challenges young readers to reconsider the nature of violence and how
we resolve conflict. When the last page turns and the dust clears, this book
will inspire readers to think and think again. For more information visit
www.wozabooks.com.
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