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MEDIA RELEASE
Action-filled Children’s Fantasy Featuring Black Characters and Positive Message
Now Available in Audio Book Format
UKIAH, California
– The Call to Shakabaz by Amy Wachspress is
now available as an audio book featuring the versatile voice talent of Andrew L.
Barnes and Adilah Barnes as well as original music composed by Timothy Barnes. A
joint venture of Woza Books and Legacy Audio Books, Inc., the audio book brings
this delightful story alive in a new way. The Call to Shakabaz 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.
Visit www.legacyaudiobooks.com for
more information about the audio book.
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 with cross-generational
appeal, this book demonstrates the fundamental principles of nonviolence as
practiced by Dr. King within the context of a real cliff-hanger 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
by Amy Wachspress
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Amy Wachspress (author of The Call to Shakabaz) and her
husband Ron Reed paid full cover price for HP7 at Mendocino Book
Company just after midnight on July 21, 2007.
(right-click on photo to save) |
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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