SATA
ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: AND THEN, BOOM!
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://authorlisafipps.com/
CITY: Kokomo
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: SATA 386
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL EDUCATION:
Graduated from Ball State University.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Has also worked as a journalist and public library marketing director.
AWARDS:Sara Laughlin Marketing Award.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Lisa Fipps is a writer of young-adult fiction and poems. She worked as a journalist before becoming a public library marketing director. In an interview in From the Mixed Up Files, Fipps discussed her approach to writing: “I see what I call video clips in my head of scenes, things that help reveal a character’s personality, etc. I watch them and make note of them. It’s kind of odd. I’m a total pantser. I think that’s because I was a journalist for years. But I do plan the overall book. I just don’t do detailed outlines. That totally zaps me of my creative energy. I like to let the story tell itself through me rather than control it so much.”
Fipps published her debut young-adult novel, Starfish, in 2021. Written in verse, the novel centers on middle-schooler Ellie, who doubts her own self-worth. She is constantly bullied at school over her weight. When she returns home, though, her mother and siblings are critical of her weight. After her best friend, Viv, moves to a new city, Ellie and Catalina bond quickly. Ellie is somewhat protected at home by her father, who defends her in front of her mother. He allows for Ellie to speak with a therapist about her weight problems, which ultimately gives her the strength to stand up to her bullies and be proud of herself for who she is.
In an article in the Spokesman-Review, Fipps shared the personal connections between Ellie and herself: “Everything hurtful that happens to Ellie happened to me in some way. … Because I was a fat kid, I was bullied—at school, at home and out and about.” However, after reading a novel written in verse by Sonya Sones, Fipps realized that she could also write Starfish “in poems, too—and get to the heart of the story, the feelings of the character more quickly.” Fipps also told Jone Rush MacCulloch in her titular blog that “I wrote Starfish because it was the book I needed when I was a kid.”
A Kirkus Reviews contributor remarked that “Fipps’ verse is skillful and rooted in emotional reality.” The same critic suggested that readers “make room in your heart for this cathartic novel.” Writing in School Library Journal, Lisa Buffi claimed that “true joy comes in watching Ellie gain confidence in herself and standing up to the bullies, even when they’re family.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Horn Book, May 12, 2021, Roger Sutton, “Lisa Fipps Talks with Roger.”
Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2021, review of Starfish.
School Library Journal, February 1, 2021, Lisa Buffi, review of Starfish, p. 67.
ONLINE
Author Interviews, https://writerinterviews.blogspot.com/ (March 12, 2021), Marshal Zeringue, author interview.
Cynsations, https://cynthialeitichsmith.com/ (March 1, 2021), Carol Coven Grannick, author interview.
From the Mixed Up Files, https://fromthemixedupfiles.com/ (May 1, 2022), author interview.
Jarret Lerner website, https://jarrettlerner.com/ (March 17, 2021), Jarret Lerner, author profile.
Jone Rush MacCulloch website, https://www.jonerushmacculloch.com/ (April 8, 2021), Jone Rush MacCulloch, author interview.
Lisa Fipps website, https://authorlisafipps.com (May 1, 2022).
Reading Middle Grade, https://readingmiddlegrade.com/ (March 15, 2021), author interview.
Spokesman-Review, https://www.spokesman.com/ (April 11, 2021), Mary Quattlebaum, “‘Starfish’ Is Inspired by Lisa Fipps’ Past as a Bullied Kid.”
We Need Diverse Books, https://diversebooks.org/ (March 9, 2021), Alaina Lavoie, author interview.*
About Me
Why a mosaic for my website, you ask? Great question! Here’s the answer: When bad things happen that leave your mind, heart, and soul shattered, you learn from and then discard the dreadful pieces, and then you can puzzle the good back together just the way you want them to create the life you’ve always dreamed of. Broken things and people are beautiful. I am a mosaic. Welcome to my life and my stories.
Short bio
(You’re in a hurry. I get it.)
Lisa Fipps is the award-winning author of Starfish.
Not-as-short bio
(I whet your appetite with the short bio, didn’t I? Didn’t I?)
Lisa Fipps is the award-winning author of Starfish, an award-winning former journalist, and an award-winning former library marketing director.
Longer bio
(In case you’re trying to up your daily reading word count or are just really curious)
With her debut middle-grade novel, Starfish, Lisa Fipps won 13 awards, including the 2022 Michael L. Printz Honor Book Award, and the novel in verse was selected for 45 state award/book lists. Her second novel in verse, And Then, BOOM!, comes out in May 2024. She’s done virtual and in-person author visits with thousands of children in America, Canada, and China, in addition to being a guest speaker and panelist at festivals and conferences. Starfish has been translated into Turkish, Korean, Spanish, and complex Chinese, and will soon be coming out in four other languages. Lisa is also an award-winning former journalist, and an award-winning former library marketing director. She currently lives in Indiana and has lived in Texas.
Princess Gigi Pugsley
11 Random Facts About Lisa
(‘Cause I couldn’t think of a twelfth one.)
I hate to fold and hang up clean clothes, but I begrudgingly and with a lot of complaining do it anyway. (I also put my faith in kids like you growing up and one day inventing a way for clothes to put themselves away. Hint. Hint. No pressure.)
I alphabetize a lot of things because I hate wasting time looking for stuff. (Like spices in the pantry and books on a shelf.)
I keep a list of the many incorrect ways people have spelled my last name – thirty-four to date – including Phipps, of course, but also Sitz, Flips, and Phillips. And the No. 1 misspelling of my name? Simpson. (I don’t understand that either.)
I love dogs, especially pugs – even though they shed a LOT and snore. (Gigi’s full name was Princess Gigi Pugsley, btw.)
I love learning about all kinds of things, but especially other people and life in other states and countries. (I’ve traveled to Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, England (one of my favorite places because my grandma is from there), Canada, and nineteen states, so far.)
My elbows ache when I sneeze. (Weird, huh?)
I enjoy watching TV shows and movies in languages I don’t know that have English subtitles. (Especially those in French, Spanish, and Hindi.)
Ants, crickets, grasshoppers, spiders, and snakes creep me out. (Ants because of this old movie called Empire of the Ants. Don’t watch it. Trust me. Crickets and grasshoppers because when I was in fourth grade there were these two boys who would catch them and throw them on the girls so they’d get all tangled in our hair. And spiders and snakes because … ew!!!)
I love art. (For years I thought I’d become an artist, but then I had an art teacher I didn’t like. So, I quit art and took creative writing. A boy I had a crush on was in the class and said, “You’re a really good writer. Can I have a copy of your poem?” Swoon. And that changed everything. BTW, the poem was about him, but he never knew. Still doesn’t. Unless you go tell him.)
I have a very eclectic taste in music, which means I like to listen to just about everything. (My playlist includes classical, jazz, hip hop, rock, pop, country, Latin, Hindi, and … well, you get the idea. I choose songs based on the lyrics or beat. And my mood. When I’m writing, I also listen to songs I think the characters in my books would listen to. Wanna know songs I listened to when writing Starfish? Click here.)
I collect rocks. (Everywhere I go, I find an interesting one and then bring it home to put in jars with all the others to remind myself of my travels. My favorite is a white rock from Nice, France.)
And Then, Boom!
by Lisa Fipps
Intermediate, Middle School Paulsen/Penguin 260 pp. 5/24 9780593406328 $17.99
e-book ed. 9780593406335 $10.99
Sixth grader Joseph Oaks claims he isn't a superhero (even if he did fly like Superman once): "I don't have any special powers--unless / you count my ability to be invisible, / and to survive." Joe's mother gets what he calls "The Itch" and disappears for "days. / Weeks. / Months. / You never know when she'll take off / or when she'll come back." Thus, Joe "know[s] a lot of things / kids shouldn't / have / to know," including housing insecurity (Joe and Grandmum live in her car), poverty, and hunger. Things start to look up when they find "The Overripe Banana," a mobile home in King of the Castle Mobile Home Park. Once settled in, Joe considers his favorite possession, the quilt Grandmum made years ago: he understands that "Grandmum's the thread / holding her, Mom, and me, / separate pieces so different from each other, / together / as a family." Supporting characters, including Joe's teacher, his friends Nick and Hakeem, and the mobile home park's compassionate owner, are well drawn and vividly portrayed. As in Starfish (rev. 5/21), Fipps uses short lines, lots of white space, and an engaging first-person voice to carry the story. A fine example of how a novel in verse can be the perfect vehicle for getting inside the head of a character and creating empathy for what it's like to be him. DEAN SCHNEIDER
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.hbook.com/magazine/default.asp
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Schneider, Dean. "And Then, Boom!" The Horn Book Magazine, vol. 100, no. 3, May-June 2024, p. 137. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A793839425/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=c1d18b16. Accessed 8 Aug. 2024.
And Then, Boom! By Lisa Fipps. May 2024. 260p. Penguin/Nancy Paulsen, $17.99 (9780593406328). Gr. 4-7.
Joe Oak is a sixth-grader with a love for superheroes and their "and then, boom" moments, when everything terrible can change in an instant. He also has a mess of a mom who takes off whenever she gets "The Itch," abandoning him for days, weeks, or months at a time. Luckily, Joe has an adoring grandmother, but another mom-related disaster leaves the Oaks penniless, and Joe and Grandmum lose their home. After a spell secretly living in their car, they gratefully find shelter in a local trailer park, but another calamity sees Joe left alone to fend for himself. Terrified of the foster system, a desperate Joe works to keep himself alive, his sanity intact, and his secret safe. But after a true "and then, boom" moment of his own, his life will change in a way he never imagined. As in her Starfish (2021), Fipps focuses on another young person on the fringe of their peer group, and the novel-in-verse narrative works beautifully here, invoking urgency and intimacy. Vivid descriptions of housing and food scarcity are intense and unforgettable, sure to spark empathy from any young reader. Though the story tackles heavy subjects, Joe is a wonderful companion, and there are also deep, dear relationships and an undercurrent of kindness that keeps hope afloat throughout. An exceptionally compassionate examination of existence on the edge.--Emily Graham
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Graham, Emily. "And Then, Boom!" Booklist, vol. 120, no. 14, 15 Mar. 2024, pp. 68+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A788125052/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=5fa81907. Accessed 8 Aug. 2024.
Fipps, Lisa AND THEN, BOOM! Nancy Paulsen Books (Children's None) $17.99 5, 7 ISBN: 9780593406328
How do you cope with the unexpected moments that change everything in your world?
Until what he calls "the Mess with Mom," sixth grader Joseph Oak and his widowed English grandmother were doing okay. Between the house Grandmum owned, the money she made cleaning houses and offices, their food stamp benefits, and Joe's free school meals, they were getting by. But about a year ago, when Joe's mostly absent mother got arrested, Grandmum put the house up for bail money. (Joe knows nothing about his dad.) Then Mom fled, and "BOOM!"--they were living in their car: "I felt like we were goldfish in a fishbowl." Grandmum and Joe find an old mobile home to rent, but then, "BOOM!"--Grandmum dies, and Joe's left on his own. Fortunately, he has two best friends who always have his back: Nick, whose mother struggles with depression and who's been in foster care, and Francophile Hakeem, who pays for Joe's convenience store treats. The verse format, combined with Joe's comic book and superhero metaphors, works exceptionally well at conveying honest emotion while maintaining a sense of humor and hope. Fipps doesn't sugarcoat poverty, nor does she romanticize it or treat it as a moral failing; instead, she provides critical representation to the many schoolchildren who are living in poverty. Joe's courage and individuality shine on every page. Most main characters read white; Hakeem is cued African American.
A big, bold, engaging, and important story. (Verse novel. 9-13)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Fipps, Lisa: AND THEN, BOOM!" Kirkus Reviews, 15 Mar. 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A786185601/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=0c1f8d70. Accessed 8 Aug. 2024.