Hey, do you know what comes out in just two weeks? Guess? Okay, here’s a hint – SUPER, the sequel to my award-winning novel POWERLESS! (subtle, I’m not)
You can pre-order at your favorite local bookstore, or by following any of the bookstore links on the book page.
And don’t forget, Halloween is right around the corner, and that means millions of trick-or-treaters going from door to door asking you to fill their bags with copies of my books . . .
Don’t ruin a great American tradition!
A couple of weeks ago, I ran a contest on my email newsletter to win an advanced reading copy of SUPER (what? you didn’t know about it? Sign up here to stay informed!) Among the winners was Maddie from Minnesota and this weekend Maddie sent me a very nice letter to tell me what she thought of it. So here it is (with just a little FBI-style redaction to prevent major plot spoilers!)
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Matthew Cody,
I couldn’t (and still can’t) believe I was one of the names drawn from your mailing list to read Super! I received it in the mail on Monday and quickly read to chapter ten. The next day I finished it. I really liked it. My favorite part was definitely when everyone XXXXXXXXXX, but it was funny when Georgie XXXXXXXXXXXX.
I think Super is right up there with Powerless on my reading scale. I’m rereading it again. I liked XXXXXXX dramatic XXXXXXX, and the XXXXX, and Theo Plunkett–there was lots of good suspense. And the final conclusion, XXXXXXXXXX.
I liked it so much, that I ended up drawing the front cover! ↴ All in all, Super was an awesome book!
Your fan,
Maddie
A big thank you to the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association for nominating POWERLESS for the state’s Young Reader’s Choice Award! It looks to be in very good company (ie: stiff competition)
I hope I get the chance to meet as many of the Pennsylvanian young readers as I can! Especially those young readers in Noble’s Green, PA!
Some terrific news for POWERLESS! My little-book-that-could has won the 2012 Rebecca Caudill Young Reader’s Book Award!
As a Caudill nominee, I’ve spent a lot of time over the last year talking with the teachers, librarians and students who make this award possible and it’s truly an honor to be chosen as this year’s winner, especially measured up against the rest of the awesome nominees! Check out all of the them here: 2012MasterList
I understand that I’ll get a plaque with my name on it, which I will undoubtedly mount upon a helmet for all to see, but until then this post will serve!
Thanks all! And to Rebecca Caudill, whose memory has inspired such a great tradition!
The advanced reading copies are out in the world, so it’s time to reveal the cover to the sequel to POWERLESS!
SUPER will hit the bookstores in September, and if you’re curious here’s the back cover copy:
“Daniel Corrigan is as regular as can be, especially when compared to the Supers: kids in his new hometown with actual powers like flight and super strength. But Daniel’s not powerless. Only he was able to stop the Shroud, a supervillian bent on stealing his newfound friends’ powers. And thanks to him, his friends got to keep those powers.
Now Daniel himself is starting to display powers, while at the same time, his friends are losing theirs. His friend Eric thinks Daniel is just becoming a Super himself, a late-blooming one. But Daniel worries there may be something more sinister at work, since his power-stealing ability is uncomfortably like the Shroud’s. Of course, the Shroud is gone now . . . or is he? And could Daniel himself be his new vessel? “
What do you think?
Conneticut, er Connecticut is one state I’ll never learn how to spell, but the good folks there have excellent taste in books! Powerless has been nominated for the 2013 Connecticut Nutmeg Book Award and it’s in great company.
I’m thrilled that kids throughout the state will be reading and talking about my little book this year. Thanks to the Connecticut Library Association and Connecticut Association of School Librarians for the nomination!
I hinted at this a few weeks ago, but in today’s issue of Booklist there’s a very nice review for The Dead Gentleman. I particularly like the (very accurate) list of homages towards the end! Here’s the full text of the review:
The Dead Gentleman.
Cody, Matthew (Author)
Nov 2011. 288 p. Knopf, hardcover, $15.99. (9780375855962). Knopf, library edition, $18.99.
(9780375955969).
Two young New Yorkers from different eras unite to save the world from an invasion of zombies led by an elegant, corpse-wearing darkling. Shuttling among worlds, times, and points of view, Cody chronicles the recruitment of Tommy, a street urchin from 1901, into a wormhole-traveling Explorer’s Society menaced by the powerful and mysterious Dead Gentleman. Guided by a device that can peer through time, Tommy contacts 12-year-old Jezebel a century into his future and tasks her with protecting an enigmatic clockwork bird that holds the key to the Gentleman’s ability to conquer our planet. Despite all the quick changes and fortuitous coincidences, readers will enjoy watching the two quarreling protagonists take on zombies and other creepy-crawlies on the way to a fiery, if inconclusive, air battle over the Hudson River. Chucking in elements of steampunk, Jules Verne, and Edgar Rice Burroughs along with vampires, three-armed aliens, inscrutable monks, closet monsters, and even dinosaurs, Cody pays tribute to classic adventure authors and genres here as he dishes up an exciting time-travel tale.
— John Peters
Even more very nice news – Powerless has been selected as a 2012-2013 Reader’s Choice Nominee!
This means that my little book will be making its way into more classrooms and into the hands of more readers than ever before. A big thanks to the Virginia State Reading Association for this honor.
I hope to meet some of the great educators and readers this spring when I come down there for the Virginia Festival of the Book! (details forthcoming on this visit)
I owe a BIG shout of thanks to the Independent Bookstores of St. Louis for making The Dead Gentleman an Riverfront Times bestseller!
Powerless popped up on the list a few weeks ago, and if that wasn’t cool enough now both of my books have had that honor.
Makes me a bit homesick, I cannot lie . . .
