I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the WIDER THAN THE SKY by Katherine Rothschild Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!
About The Book:
Title: WIDER THAN THE SKY
Author: Katherine Rothschild
Paperback Pub. Date: December 7, 2021
Publisher: Soho Teen
Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, eBook, Audiobook
Pages: 288
Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, Audible, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD, Bookshop.org
In the wake of sudden tragedy, twin sisters uncover a secret that rips open their world. Katherine Rothschild explores the pain and power of forgiveness in a stunning debut novel that will shatter your heart and piece it back together, one truth at a time.
Sixteen-year-old Sabine Braxton doesn’t have much in common with her identical twin, Blythe. When their father dies from an unexpected illness, each copes with the loss in her own way—Sabine by “poeting” (an uncontrollable quirk of bursting into poetry at inappropriate moments) and Blythe by obsessing over getting into MIT, their father’s alma mater. Neither can offer each other much support . . . at least not until their emotionally detached mother moves them into a ramshackle Bay Area mansion owned by a stranger named Charlie.
Soon, the sisters unite in a mission to figure out who Charlie is and why he seems to know everything about them. They make a life-changing discovery: their parents were hiding secrets about their sexual identities. The revelation unravels Sabine’s world, while practical Blythe seems to take everything in stride. Once again at odds with her sister, Sabine chooses to learn all she can about the father she never knew. Ultimately, she must decide if she can embrace his last wish for a family legacy–even if it means accepting a new idea of what it means to be a family.
Praise for Wider than the Sky
“Sabine’s struggle to reconcile her memory of her father with the man he really was—and to make room in her life for his hopes as well as her own—cuts to the heart of what it means to love someone unconditionally. Wider than the Sky skillfully weaves multiple character arcs together to examine the ideas of home, hope, and family in surprising new ways.”—Misa Sugiura, It’s Not Like It’s a Secret
“Lyrical and lovely, Wider than the Sky is one of those rare books that has everything—masterful storytelling, a great love story, important themes, razor-sharp wit, and memorable characters. It’s a gorgeous debut that will capture your heart.”—Corina Vacco, Delacorte Prize–winning author of My Chemical Mountain
“I haven’t stopped thinking about these sisters since I first read Wider than the Sky. Sabine and Blythe will leap off the page and live in your memories like old friends. There is so much heart and humor in Katherine’s writing; even as her characters grapple with serious concerns and issues, she captures how life can slice us open and yet give us the ability to laugh and love and hope through the deepest pain and loss.”—Jennifer Chambliss Bertman, New York Times bestselling author of Book Scavenger
“Rothschild’s story showcases how secrets impede a person’s ability to see the world clearly and that self-acceptance and honesty are the keys to a happy ending.”—School Library Journal
“Change comes suddenly to the lives of 16-year-old Sabine and her identical twin sister, Blythe, when their father dies unexpectedly, prompting their mother and a strange man named Charlie to move the girls to the small town of Thornewood . . . Rothschild’s first novel is accomplished and nicely plot-rich with some interesting quirks, chief among them being Sabine’s deep-rooted love for Emily Dickinson’s poetry and her compulsive need to recite it.”—Booklist
“Kath Rothschild’s Wider than the Sky is pitch perfect! Young adult readers will fall in love with her wonderfully quirky narrator Sabine and her swoony romance with Kai. Combine that with family secrets and a mysterious stranger and you have the ingredients for a compelling read. I cannot wait to put it in the hands of my young customers!”—Kathleen Caldwell, A Great Good Place for Books (Oakland, CA)
The Cure is the Soundtrack of Wider than the Sky
In Wider than the Sky, Sabine is obsessed with poeting (an uncontrollable urge to share Emily Dickinson verse) while Kai is obsessed with the Cure, and knows and loves all the lyrics. Because only titles of Cure songs are in the common domain, Kai only talks about the Cure in titles. But the inspiration for each character was rooted in their mutual love for lyrics/poetry—with an ongoing debate over whether they are the same thing—or two different things. Spoiler alert: despite their ongoing battle over whether lyrics are poetry, an eventual compromise is reached!
The playlist for Wider than the Sky is all Cure songs with an emphasis on the most heart-wrenching.
- Friday I’m in Love
- Pictures of You
- Lovesong
- Close to Me
- Boys Don’t Cry
- Why Can’t I be You
- Disintegration
- Just Like Heaven
Here is a link to some of the best Youtube compilations of Cure music. Listen while you read Wider than the Sky!
About Katherine Rothschild:
Katherine Rothschild is a Lecturer in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric at Stanford University, a former ballet and Arabic dance instructor, and an obsessive Twitter food truck-follower. Her first-person essays have been published on KQED/NPR, in The San Francisco Chronicle, and other Bay Area and California publications. She holds an MFA in Fiction Writing, a PhD in Composition and Applied Linguistics, has received artist’s grants from Vermont Studio Center and Kindlings West, and is a longtime member of the SCBWI. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family. Her debut novel is Wider Than the Sky from Soho Teen. Find her on Twitter @Kath_Rothschild.
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | Goodreads
Giveaway Details:
3 winners will win a hardcover copy of WIDER THAN THE SKY, US Only.
3 winners will win a paperback copy of WIDER THAN THE SKY, US Only.
Rafflecopter Link:
http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/e2389ba21374/?
Tour Schedule:
Week One:
12/6/2021 | BookHounds YA | Promo Post |
12/7/2021 | Kait Plus Books | Promo Post |
12/8/2021 | perusewithcoffee | Promo Post |
12/9/2021 | Mythical Books | Promo Post |
12/10/2021 | Phannie the ginger bookworm | Promo Post |
12/11/2021 | GivernyReads | Promo Post |
Week Two:
12/12/2021 | Lifestyle of Me | Promo Post |
12/13/2021 | Nonbinary Knight Reads | Promo Post |
12/14/2021 | Eye-Rolling Demigod’s Book Blog | Promo Post |
12/15/2021 | 100 Pages A Day | Promo Post |
12/16/2021 | Two Chicks on Books | Promo Post |
12/17/2021 | Never Hollowed By The Stare | Promo Post |
12/18/2021 | @readingwordsmith | Review |
Week Three:
12/19/2021 | The Momma Spot | Promo Post |
12/20/2021 | Eli to the nth | Review |
12/21/2021 | Emelie’s Books | Review |
12/22/2021 | Two points of interest | Review |
12/23/2021 | Rajiv’s Reviews | Review |
12/24/2021 | #BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog | Promo Post |
12/25/2021 | Karen Dee’s Book Reviews | Review |
Week Four:
12/26/2021 | @jypsylynn | Review |
12/27/2021 | @thebookishfoxwitch | Review |
12/28/2021 | brittreadsalattebooks | Review |
12/29/2021 | My Fictional Oasis | Review |
12/30/2021 | @coffeesipsandreads | Promo Post |
12/31/2021 | Lexijava | Review |
Sounds good!
nice cover
Congrats on the new book! It sounds awesome.
I enjoy writing poetry and reading it, too. My first children are twins, so this story is on my radar. They competed with each other and for attention.
Personality and identity are strange things. They are perceived by the individual and those who either know them or are just casual acquaintances. The truth is somewhere in between and often not even close to what we think. This sounds like a good exploration that and the impact it can have on lives.