Giles, Gail

Personal

Born in Galveston, TX; married Jim Giles; children: Josh. Education: Attended Stephen F. Austin State University. Hobbies and other interests: Watercolor painting, reading, computer solitaire, playing guitar.

Addresses

Home—TX. Agent—Scott Treimel, 434 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10003. E-mail—gail@gailgiles.com.

Career

Writer. Taught high school in Angleton, TX.

Awards, Honors

Best Books for Young Adults selection, and Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers selection, both American Library Association (ALA), both 2003, both for Shattering Glass; ALA Teens Top Ten selection, 2003, for Dead Girls Don't Write Letters; ALA Best Book and ALA Quick Pick for Young Adults designations, both 2006, both for What Happened to Cass McBride?; numerous state awards.

Writings

YOUNG-ADULT NOVELS

Shattering Glass, Roaring Brook Press (Brookfield, CT), 2002.

Dead Girls Don't Write Letters, Roaring Brook Press (Brookfield, CT), 2003.

Playing in Traffic, Roaring Brook Press (Brookfield, CT), 2004.

What Happened to Cass McBride?, Little, Brown (New York, NY), 2006.

Right behind You, Little, Brown (New York, NY), 2007.

OTHER

Breath of the Dragon (middle-grade novel), illustrated by June Otani, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 1997.

Contributor of short fiction to anthologies, including What Are You Afraid Of? and What a Song Can Do: 12 Riffs on the Power of Music.

Adaptations

Shattering Glass was adapted as an audiobook, Listening Library, 2003.

Sidelights

Gail Giles' novel Shattering Glass is "a cautionary tale about high-school popularity and conformity," according to Brian Wilson in Booklist. Giles is also the author of other well-received novels for middle graders and young adults, including Breath of the Dragon, Dead Girls Don't Write Letters, and Playing in Traffic.

Featuring illustrations by June Otani, Breath of the Dragon appeared in 1997. In the middle-grade novel, a young Thai girl named Malila is left in the care of her grandmother after Malila's father is killed by police and her mother immigrates to the United States. Grandmother teaches the girl about the traditions of her country, which Malila translates into beautiful drawings. A teacher recognizes Malila's artistic talents, and she eventually makes plans to reunite with her mother. "The story is simply written," remarked Susan DeRonne in Booklist, "and the beauty of the Thai culture emerges on every page." In School Library Journal Susan Hepler wrote that Giles' "gentle story portrays the prior experiences and emotions of many immigrants—hardship, vivid memories, and hope."

Giles' young-adult novel Shattering Glass describes the efforts of a powerful clique, headed by charismatic Rob Haynes, to flaunt its power by elevating the status of class geek Simon Glass. The plan works but has unexpected consequences: a newly confident Simon challenges Rob's authority and even discovers a terrible secret from Rob's past. Simon's actions only serve to anger Rob and his cronies, including Thaddeus R. "Young" Steward, the book's narrator. The clique enacts its revenge on Simon in a "shockingly violent climax," according to Kliatt reviewer Paula Rohrlick.

On her home page, Giles stated that two famous works influenced Shattering Glass: William Golding's Lord of the Flies and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. "Lord of the Flies, one of my all-time favorites, made me think about the ability of power to corrupt. I even named my nerd character Simon as an homage to the book," she explained. Giles patterned "Young" Steward after the character of Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby. "I liked the narrator, Nick, how he was enamored of the main character, so that his voice was not quite reliable. Now, Nick, in Fitzgerald's novel, is also the moral center of the book and I needed Young not quite that honorable." Giles also addressed her decision to reveal Simon's death so early in her work: "Why did I choose to give away the ending? The ending is violent and the book is not about the violence but what caused it. How things spin out of control. About little wrongs leading to big ones. If I gave the violence away at the beginning, I felt like I defused the shock—and shock wasn't the reason for this book to exist."

Critics found much to praise in Shattering Glass. Writing in Kliatt, Sarah Applegate called it "an intriguing and at times painfully real story" of high school life. Vicki Reutter in School Library Journal stated that the "plot is fast-paced and compelling and there is power in the brewing violence and shocking end." Ilene Cooper, reviewing the work for Booklist, noted some holes in the plot but added that "the pacing is superb, and the story's twists are unexpected and disquieting." A critic in Kirkus Reviews remarked that "most intriguing are the quotes heading each chapter, revealing the perspectives of the characters five years later, and which raise questions of justice, mercy, and individual responsibility."

In Giles' thriller Dead Girls Don't Write Letters, strange events are set in motion after Sunny Reynolds receives a letter from her older sister, Jazz, who was presumed killed in a fire months earlier. Jazz then returns home and is immediately welcomed by Sunny's mother and father. Although Jazz seems to know much about the family's history, Sunny believes the young woman is actually an impostor and works to discover her true identity. "This is a page-turner with sharp dialogue and

psychologically intriguing viewpoints," remarked Cooper, and a critic in Kirkus Reviews stated that "teen readers will love having their preconceptions continually turned topsy-turvy, and will endlessly debate the tale's maddeningly ambiguous conclusion." Some critics found the conclusion of Dead Girls Don't Write Letters unconvincing. A Publishers Weekly critic wrote that "the swift wrap-up … undercuts the carefully crafted nuances of complicated familial relationships," and Lynn Evarts, reviewing the work in School Library Journal, maintained that while "the plot is intriguing, … the ending is just too unclear." In Kliatt, Claire Rosser wrote: "There are plot twists here, which the author manages to pull off if the reader isn't too questioning."

Playing in Traffic concerns two students, shy seventeen-year-old Matt Lathrop and rebellious Skye Colby, and their odd, unlikely relationship. When Skye takes an interest in Matt, Matt is intrigued, despite the danger his Goth-girl classmate represents. Calling the novel "psychologically gripping," a Publishers Weekly critic concluded of Playing in Traffic that "Giles's narrative pace never slackens, and readers will find themselves racing to the finish." As Giles wrote on her home page: "Why do I write such dark and edgy stuff? I want the reader to come up and sneak a peak at violence and darkness, check out the edge of the abyss and decide it is a trip not to be taken. Read about the road that leads to oblivion, but take another." Giles' "dark and edgy stuff" has attracted the interest of reluctant readers, according to a Kirkus Reviews writer, the critic noting of Playing in Traffic that the author "allows her story to unfold without trying to shock."

In Right behind You an intelligent, perceptive young teen gets a new start in life but must battle the demons from his past in order to make the most of his second chance. Five years ago, while living in Alaska, nine-year-old Kip McFarland killed a young neighbor boy by dousing the child with gasoline and lighting him on fire. Supposedly cured in a mental institution, Kip changes his name to Wade, and he and his family relocate to Indiana. There he seems to adjust well, and is even hailed as a star of his swimming team, until his secret comes out in a fit of drunken anger and the family is forced to move again. Now in Texas, Wade has one more chance to make a life for himself in the shadow of his guilt, this time winning the friendship with another damaged teen. Right behind You "explores, with sympathy and compassion, the nature of guilt," according to a Publishers Weekly contributor, and a Kirkus

Reviews critic observed that Giles' "powerful and moving novel of self-discovery gives no easy answers." Booklist contributor Stephanie Zvirin noted that the novel is not characteristic Giles; while the author's "fans won't find outright thrills, … they'll come away with a greater understanding of redemption and forgiveness," Zvirin nonetheless asserted. "Reluctant readers will be drawn to the … accessibility" of Right behind You, concluded School Library Journal Lynn Rashid, as well as "the larger questions the novel poses about innocence and acceptance."

According to a Publishers Weekly contributor, in What Happened to Cass McBride? Giles "grabs readers' attention, and doesn't let go." In the suspenseful novel, Kyle Kirby is devastated when his younger brother, David, commits suicide. Focusing his frustration and anger on the shy and geeky David's seventeen-year-old crush, the popular and snobbish Cass McBride, Kyle kidnaps Cass and buries her underground, with enough oxygen to breathe and a walkie-talkie to communicate. As Cass and her captor talk, they touch on the chain of events that culminated in David's suicide and Cass's predicament, and according to the Publishers Weekly contributor, this "dialogue … make[s] for compelling reading." In a gritty story that plays out tragically for both teens, "Giles's jagged, terse, just-the-facts narrative only amplifies their claustrophobically dire situation," according to a Kirkus Reviews writer, the critic dubbing What Happened to Cass McBride? "just plain chilling." Calling the novel "a truly suspenseful story of suicide and revenge," Kliatt contributor Janice Flint-Ferguson concluded that Giles' "setting is claustrophobic, the characters are complex, and the story will keep readers on the edge of their seats."

In contrast to the high-action plots of her teen fiction, Giles assured SATA that her life is relatively uneventful. "The only other interesting thing about me is that I was born during a hurricane and seem to keep running right back into them," she explained. "While I have lived in Chicago, Indiana, and Alaska, there were no major storms on the Texas coast during any of those years—yet the year I returned to Texas after more than 15 years away we were hit by Katrina, Rita and then Ike. But I swear, it's not my fault."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 1, 1997, Susan DeRonne, review of Breath of the Dragon, p. 1334; March 1, 2002, Ilene Cooper, review of Shattering Glass, p. 1133; March 15, 2003, Ilene Cooper, review of Dead Girls Don't Write Letters, p. 1317; September 1, 2004, Ilene Cooper, review of Playing in Traffic, p. 107; January 1, 2007, Ilene Cooper, review of What Happened to Cass McBride?, p. 80; October 15, 2007, Stephanie Zvirin, review of Right behind You, p. 45.

Bookseller, January 16, 2004, Claudia Mody, "Teenage Reads," pp. 37-42.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, December, 2006, Deborah Stevenson, review of What Happened to Cass McBride?, p. 171.

Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2002, review of Shattering Glass, p. 181; February 15, 2003, review of Dead Girls Don't Write Letters, p. 305; August 15, 2004, review of Playing in Traffic, p. 806; October 15, 2006, review of What Happened to Cass McBride?, p. 1071; August 1, 2007, review of Right behind You.

Kliatt, July, 2002, Paula Rohrlick, review of Shattering Glass, p. 10; May, 2003, Claire Rosser, review of Dead Girls Don't Write Letters, p. 8; September, 2003, Sarah Applegate, review of Shattering Glass, pp. 16-17; September, 2006, Janice Flint-Ferguson, review of What Happened to Cass McBride?, p. 12; September, 2007, Myrna Marler, review of Right behind You, p. 12.

Publishers Weekly, February 11, 2002, review of Shattering Glass, p. 188; January 13, 2003, review of Dead Girls Don't Write Letters, p. 61; October 13, 2003, review of Shattering Glass, p. 82; October 4, 2004, review of Playing in Traffic, p. 89; November 13, 2006, review of What Happened to Cass McBride?, p. 59; June 18, 2007, review of Right behind You, p. 56.

St. Petersburg Times, March 15, 2004, Holly Atkins, interview with Giles, p. 4E.

School Library Journal, June, 1997, Susan Hepler, review of Breath of the Dragon, p. 117; April, 2002, Vicki Reutter, review of Shattering Glass, pp. 148-149; May, 2003, Lynn Evarts, review of Dead Girls Don't Write Letters, p. 152.

Teacher Librarian, February, 2004, Ruth Cox, "Tough Guys," pp. 10-11; February, 2007, Sherry Quinones, review of What Happened to Cass McBride?, p. 116; September, 2007, Lynn Rashid, review of Right behind You, p. 196.

Voice of Youth Advocates, April, 2003, Bonnie Kunzel, "Shattered by Shattering Glass: A Teen Book Group Forsakes Fantasy for Realism," pp. 19-21; December, 2006, Mary E. Heslin, review of What Happened to Cass McBride?, p. 422; August, 2007, Rai Newhouse, review of Right behind You, p. 240.

ONLINE

Children's Literature Resources Web site,http://www.cynthialeitichsmith.com/ (March 5, 2004), Cynthia Leitich Smith, interview with Giles.

Gail Giles Home Page,http://www.galegiles.com (January 10, 2009).

GILES, Gail

Personal

Born September 24, in Galveston, TX; daughter of Isabel Human; married Jim Giles; children: Josh. Education: Attended Stephen F. Austin State University. Hobbies and other interests: Watercolor painting, reading, computer solitaire, playing guitar.

Addresses

Home —Anchorage, AK. Agent —Scott Treimel, 434 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10003. E-mail —gail@gailgiles.com.

Career

Writer. Taught high school in Angleton, TX.

Awards, Honors

Best Books for Young Adults selection and Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers selection, American Library Association (ALA), both 2003, both for Shattering Glass; ALA Teens Top Ten selection, 2003, for Dead Girls Don't Write Letters.

Writings

Breath of the Dragon, illustrated by June Otani, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 1997.

Shattering Glass, Roaring Brook Press (Brookfield, CT), 2002.

Dead Girls Don't Write Letters, Roaring Brook Press (Brookfield, CT), 2003.

Playing in Traffic, Roaring Brook Press (Brookfield, CT), 2004.

Adaptations

Shattering Glass was adapted as an audiobook, Listening Library, 2003.

Sidelights

"Simon Glass was easy to hate. I never knew exactly why, there was too much to pick from. I guess, really, we each hated him for a different reason, but we didn't realize it until the day we killed him." Thus begins Gail Giles' 2002 novel Shattering Glass, "a cautionary tale about high-school popularity and conformity," according to Brian Wilson in Booklist. Giles is also the author of other well-received novels for middle-graders and young adults, including Breath of the Dragon, Dead Girls Don't Write Letters, and Playing in Traffic.

Breath of the Dragon appeared in 1997. In the work, a young Thai girl named Malila is left in the care of her grandmother after Malila's father is killed by police and her mother immigrates to the United States. Grandmother teaches the girl about the traditions of her country, which Malila translates into beautiful drawings. A teacher recognizes Malila's artistic talents, and she eventually makes plans to reunite with her mother. "The story is simply written," remarked Susan DeRonne in Booklist, "and the beauty of the Thai culture emerges on every page." In School Library Journal Susan Hepler wrote that "This gentle story portrays the prior experiences and emotions of many immigrants—hardship, vivid memories, and hope."

Giles' young adult novel Shattering Glass describes the efforts of a powerful clique, headed by charismatic Rob Haynes, to flaunt its power by elevating the status of class geek Simon Glass. The plan works but has unexpected consequences: a newly confident Simon challenges Rob's authority and even discovers a terrible secret about Rob's past. Simon's actions only serve to anger Rob and his cronies, including Thaddeus R.

"Young" Steward, the book's narrator. The clique enacts its revenge on Simon in a "shockingly violent climax," according to Kliatt reviewer Paula Rohrlick.

On the Gail Giles Home Page, the author stated that two famous works influenced her novel, William Golding's Lord of the Flies and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. "Lord of the Flies, one of my alltime favorites, made me think about the ability of power to corrupt. I even named my nerd character Simon as an homage to the book," Giles explained. Giles patterned "Young" Steward after the character of Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby. "I liked the narrator, Nick, how he was enamored of the main character, so that his voice was not quite reliable. Now, Nick, in Fitzgerald's novel, is also the moral center of the book and I needed Young not quite that honorable." Giles also addressed her decision to reveal Simon's death so early in her work: "Why did I choose to give away the ending? The ending is violent and the book is not about the violence but what caused it. How things spin out of control. About little wrongs leading to big ones. If I gave the violence away at the beginning, I felt like I defused the shock—and shock wasn't the reason for this book to exist."

Critics found much to praise in Shattering Glass. Writing in Kliatt, Sarah Applegate called it "an intriguing and at times painfully real story" of high school life. Vicki Reutter in School Library Journal stated that the "plot is fast-paced and compelling and there is power in the brewing violence and shocking end." Ilene Cooper, reviewing the work in Booklist, noted some holes in the plot but added that "the pacing is superb, and the story's twists are unexpected and disquieting." A critic in Kirkus Reviews remarked that "most intriguing are the quotes heading each chapter, revealing the perspectives of the characters five years later, and which raise questions of justice, mercy, and individual responsibility."

In Giles' thriller Dead Girls Don't Write Letters, strange events are set in motion after Sunny Reynolds receives a letter from her older sister, Jazz, who was presumed killed in a fire months earlier. Jazz then returns home and is immediately welcomed by Sunny's mother and father. Though Jazz seems to know much about the family's history, Sunny believes the woman is an impostor and works to discover her true identity. "This is a page-turner with sharp dialogue and psychologically intriguing viewpoints," remarked Ilene Cooper in Booklist, and a critic in Kirkus Reviews stated that "teen readers will love having their preconceptions continually turned topsy-turvy, and will endlessly debate the tale's maddeningly ambiguous conclusion." Some critics found the conclusion of Dead Girls Don't Write Letters unconvincing. A Publishers Weekly critic wrote that "the swift wrap-up … undercuts the carefully crafted nuances of complicated familial relationships," and Lynn Evarts, reviewing the work in School Library Journal, maintained that while "The plot is intriguing,

… the ending is just too unclear." In Kliatt, Claire Rosser wrote, "There are plot twists here, which the author manages to pull off if the reader isn't too questioning."

Giles' 2004 work Playing in Traffic concerns two students, shy Matt Lathrop and rebellious Skye Colby, and their odd, unlikely relationship. When Skye takes an interest in Matt, he is intrigued, despite the danger Skye represents. Giles wrote on her Web site: "Why do I write such dark and edgy stuff? I want the reader to come up and sneak a peak at violence and darkness, check out the edge of the abyss and decide it is a trip not to be taken. Read about the road that leads to oblivion, but take another."

Biographical and Critical Sources

periodicals

Booklist, April 1, 1997, Susan DeRonne, review of Breath of the Dragon, p. 1334; March 1, 2002, Ilene Cooper, review of Shattering Glass, p. 1133; March 15, 2003, Ilene Cooper, review of Dead Girls Don't Write Letters, p. 1317; June 1, 2003, Brian Wilson, review of Shattering Glass (audiobook), p. 1812.

Bookseller, January 16, 2004, Claudia Mody, "Teenage Reads," pp. 37-42.

Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2002, review of Shattering Glass, p. 181; February 15, 2003, review of Dead Girls Don't Write Letters, p. 305.

Kliatt, July, 2002, Paula Rohrlick, review of Shattering Glass, p. 10; May, 2003, Claire Rosser, review of Dead Girls Don't Write Letters, p. 8; September, 2003, Sarah Applegate, review of Shattering Glass, pp. 1617.

Publishers Weekly, February 11, 2002, review of Shattering Glass, p. 188; January 13, 2003, review of Dead Girls Don't Write Letters, p. 61; October 13, 2003, review of Shattering Glass, p. 82.

St. Petersburg Times, March 15, 2004, Holly Atkins, "Interview with Gail Giles," p. 4E.

School Library Journal, June, 1997, Susan Hepler, review of Breath of the Dragon, p. 117; April, 2002, Vicki Reutter, review of Shattering Glass, pp. 148-149; May, 2003, Lynn Evarts, review of Dead Girls Don't Write Letters, p. 152; July, 2003, Jane P. Fenn, review of Shattering Glass (audiobook), p. 71.

Teacher Librarian, February, 2004, Ruth Cox, "Tough Guys," pp. 10-11.

Voice of Youth Advocates, April, 2003, Bonnie Kunzel, "Shattered by Shattering Glass: A Teen Book Group Forsakes Fantasy for Realism," pp. 19-21.

online

Children's Literature Resources Web site, http://www.cynthialeitichsmith.com/ (March 5, 2004), interview with Giles.

Gail Giles Home Page, http://www.galegiles.com/ (March 5, 2004).*