New Series Reveal! THE SECRETS OF THE PIED PIPER

“In the year of Our Lord 1284, 130 children were led out of town into a mountain . . . and there they disappeared.”

I’ve been sitting on this news for a while now, but I’ve finally gotten the go-ahead from the good folks at Random House to give you all a sneak peek at the brand new series I’ll be launching next year. THE SECRETS OF THE PIED PIPER will be a fantasy trilogy, and the above cover that you should be drooling over is by the wonderful Craig Phillips, who is also providing interior illustrations.

Here’s a little about Book One: THE PEDDLER’S ROAD —

It is said that in the 13th Century, in a village called Hamelin, a Piper lured all of the children away with his magical flute, and none of them were ever seen again.

Today tough, pink-haired Max and her little brother, Carter, are stuck in modern-day Hamelin, with their father…until they also led away by the Piper to a place called the Summer Isle. There they meet the original stolen children, who haven’t aged a day and who have formed their own village, vigilantly guarded from the many nightmarish beings that roam the land.

No one knows why the Piper stole them, but Max and Carter’s appearance may be the key to returning the lost children of Hamelin—and to going home themselves. But to discover the secrets of the Piper, Max and Carter will have to set out on a mysterious quest down the dangerous Peddler’s Road.

I hope you all will join me in October to begin the adventure!
-Matt

Very nice award nominations for WILL IN SCARLET!

Six years ago POWERLESS, the little book with the blue cover, was published. Though well-received, it didn’t light up the sales charts. A perfectly respectable opener, but nothing to write about (pun intended)

ENTER THE SCHOOL LIBRARIANS. In the next few years something pretty great started happening, as POWERLESS made its way into the hands of librarians and educators, and they in turn began nominating that little blue book for various state reader awards. For those of you who don’t know, these award lists are compiled by the librarians and voted on by the actual readers themselves, so the books get read by lots and lots of kids.

Suddenly, POWERLESS had a second life. Those award nominations turned my little book into my big book. The blue book that could.

That’s why I am THRILLED that WILL IN SCARLET has started to get some of the same love. So far it has been nominated for the following:

Illinois: THE REBECCA CAUDILL YOUNG READER’S BOOK AWARD (which POWERLESS won back in 2012!)
Missouri: THE MARK TWAIN READER’S AWARD
Mississippi: THE MAGNOLIA AWARD
South Dakota: THE SOUTH DAKOTA TEEN CHOICE AWARD

To the librarians and educators, I say THANK YOU!

VILLAINOUS Contest Update! (Reading . . . reading . . .)

I wanted to update everyone on the status of the VILLAINOUS contest, and the title of this post pretty much says it all – I’m reading!

Thanks to the holidays and deadlines and such, the final batch of contest entries just arrived, I printed out all the emails and I’m digging in. I can already tell this is going to be a very hard decision – so many wonderful stories about amazing people . . . it’s going to be tough, folks.

And I’m THRILLED to see that several entire classrooms participated! Your classes will be getting some special prizes for that, and I’ll be in touch directly once I make it through everyone’s letters.

Honestly, thank you everyone for sharing these with me. It’s inspiring (if a little hard on the printer ink!)

More soon!

-Matt

Its a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a . . . CONTEST!

Who would you like to see flying through the sky to save the day? In ways big and small we all have someone in our life that is a superhero. To young readers, you yourself may be a hero—a teacher who protects a group of students during a tornado, a librarian who helps you find the perfect book that to turn you a reader…
Have your students and readers tell us about their real-life hero in 500 words or less and they could win a SUPER cool prize: Matthew Cody, the author of Super, Powerless and Villainous will write the winner of this contest into a short story as a SUPER.

Submit real-life superhero stories by December 20th, 2014 to:
Email: STrombetta@penguinrandomhouse.com
Snail Mail: Sadie Trombetta
1745 Broadway
New York, NY 10019
Matthew, along with four fantastic ace readers from Knopf Books for Young Readers, will select the winners. The grand prize is the short story and a full set of signed copies of Matthew’s books. Five others will receive signed copies of all of Matthew’s books. As a bonus, any teacher who submits stories from her entire class will be eligible to win a class set of Matt’s books, as well as some select additional titles from Random House. The winner will be selected by January 15th, 2015.

IT’S THE KIDS AUTHOR CARNIVAL!

Anyone in the NYC area, or if you’re in town for Book Expo America, this is your chance to party like it’s 2014! Saturday May 31st I’ll be joining a whole bunch of other authors for an evening of games, signings and general book zaniness. It’s the first ever Kids Author Carnival!

This is a new endeavor, so I hope you all can come out and help us make it a success! And I’ll be giving out free high-fives. Free high fives!!

Hope to see you there!

 

 

Hello 2014! What’s to come . . .

WILL IN SCARLET named one of Amazon’s Best Books of 2013!

 

I’m late posting this (though I did do a ridiculous victory dance on Twitter when it was first announced. But I’m happy to say that Will in Scarlet is in very good company. Just in time for the holidays, too . . . .

It’s time for YallFest Y’all!

The schedule has been posted, the streets of Charleston cordoned off, and locals are hiding their cookie jars because the authors are coming to town!

 

Here’s the schedule for this weekend’s festivities, but I’ll point out a few things I’ll be involved in below (The Storyball will be particularly nuts):

SATURDAY NOV. 9TH PANELS

1PM

CMH: THE MIDDLE GRADE STORYBALL Pseudonymous Bosch, Adam Gidwitz, Lisi Harrison, Alexander London, Lisa McMann, Barnabas Miller, Lauren Oliver, Carrie Ryan, Natalie Standiford, JE Thompson, Sean Williams (All Middle Grade Authors will be on stage!) Moderator: Matthew Cody

4PM

BALLROOM: WRITING FOR KIDS Matthew Cody, Adam Gidwitz, Lisa McMann, Carrie Ryan,, C. Alexander London Moderator: Pseudonymous Bosch

6PM

CMH: YA Smackdown SOLD OUT

Starred Review for WILL IN SCARLET!

I’m currently in lovely Saratoga Springs visiting the equally lovely Northshire Bookstore, but I wanted to take a moment from the road and share this very nice review from The Bulletin. They say so many nice things I’m going all blushy.

«Cody, Matthew Will in Scarlet. Knopf, 2013 [272p]

Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-375-86895-5 $16.99

Library ed. ISBN 978-0-375-96895-2 $19.99

E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-375-89980-5 $10.99

Reviewed from galleys    R* Gr. 5-7

With his father off crusading for King Richard, thirteen-year-old Will Shackley must leave childhood mischief behind him as he takes on the responsibility of governing the Shackley estate. He makes a fine start, slaughtering two wolves during a hunt with his father’s men, but when Prince John’s thugs later attack Will’s home in an attempt to force fealty, the boy flees the battle to survive. Finding refuge among a merry band of thieves (including a drunken archer named Rob) in Sherwood Forest, Will sets out to plan his revenge but is soon confronted with the possibility that injustice is not simply the fault of one bad man. The punches packed in this historical action tale are both physical and emotional, as Will discovers that the sheltered world he grew up in is a privilege for very few and a distant dream for most. Cody’s pacing is a clever construction of frenzied but focused fight sequences balanced with quiet, subtle moments of self-reflection on Will’s part. Rich characterization does justice to each of the main players here, especially the villains: their motivations are made clear and understandable so that readers, like Will, come to realize the world is a complicated place with room for good and evil and much in between. Early scenes of wolf hunting and thrilling ambushes will likely draw even the most reluctant reader in, while the careful prose and likable hero will see them through to the satisfying conclusion.  KQG

A Scurrilous National Book Tour (with updates!)

I’ll be traveling the country this fall talking about Will in Scarlet to any vagabonds and scallywags that will listen! Below is the schedule of where you can find me and when. Be sure to check back for updates as we get closer to the actual dates!

Huzzah!

Friday, October 4^th

Voracious Reader (Larchmont, NY)

Sunday, October 13^th

New York Comic-Con : The Magic of Storytelling Panel – 10:45 am in hall 1A17

Tuesday, October 15^th 

Lemuria Books (Jackson, MS) Signing 5:00 pm

Thursday, October 17^th

The Country Bookshop (Southern Pines, NC) Signing 4:00 pm

Friday, October 18^th

McIntyre’s Books (Chapel Hill, NC) School visits. Not open to the public.

Saturday, October 19^th

Barnes & Noble (Cary, NC) Signing 4:00 pm

Sunday, October 20^th

Barnes & Noble (Skokie, IL) This event has been canceled

Monday, October 21^st

Anderson’s Bookshop (Downer’s Grove, IL) Signing 7:00 pm

Tuesday, October 22^nd

The Book Stall (Winnetka, IL) Signing 4:30 pm

Saturday, October 26^th

Books of Wonder (New York City, NY) Fantastic Middle Grade Reads Panel 1:00 pm

Friday, November 1^st

The Center for Fiction (New York – not open to the public)

Sunday, November 3^rd

Northshire Bookstore (Saratoga, NY) Time TBD

Saturday, November 9th

YALLFest (Charleston, SC) Schedule TBD