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WORK TITLE: Mercury Boys
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WEBSITE: www.chandraprasad.com/bio.php
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http://www.sawnet.org/books/authors.php?Prasad+Chandra http://hartfordadvocate.com/arts-literature-articles/as-big-as-the-sky-2
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School Library Journal vol. 64 no. 1 Jan., 2018. Ragan O’Malley, “PRASAD, Chandra. Damselfly.”.
School Library Journal vol. 67 no. 8 Aug., 2021. Glass, Alison. , “PRASAD, Chandra. Mercury Boys.”. p. 91.
Booklist vol. 103 no. 6 Nov. 15, 2006, Block, Allison. , “Prasad, Chandra. Death of a Circus.”. p. 30.
Booklist vol. 106 no. 3 Oct. 1, 2009, Huntley, Kristine. , “Breathe the Sky.”. p. 24.
Kirkus Reviews Mar. 15, 2007, , “Prasad, Chandra: ON BORROWED WINGS.”.
Voice of Youth Advocates vol. 40 no. 6 Feb., 2018. Hazlett, Lisa A. , “Prasad, Chandra. Damselfly.”.
Kirkus Reviews June 15, 2021, , “Prasad, Chandra: MERCURY BOYS.”. p. NA.
CHANDRA PRASAD IS THE AUTHOR OF MANY BOOKS, INCLUDING FIVE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED NOVELS.
Her newest young adult novel, Mercury Boys, has drawn comparisons to Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs and The Fever by Megan Abbott.
Chandra Prasad’s first young adult novel, Damselfly, was published by Scholastic in 2018. School Library Journal says, “Prasad’s [YA] debut is a compelling modern-day adventure,” while Booklist hails it “a compulsive read.” Damselfly is currently implemented in middle school and high school curricula across the country as a modern “parallel read” with Lord of the Flies.
Prasad also penned Breathe the Sky: A Novel Inspired by the Life of Amelia Earhart. Booklist praises this “insightful novel” for getting “inside Amelia Earhart’s psyche to give life to the woman behind the myth.” Wally Lamb proclaims, “from lift-off to landing, Breathe the Sky is a novel that soars.” Breathe the Sky was a ForeWord Magazine finalist for “Book of the Year” in the category of Historical Fiction.
Prasad is the author of On Borrowed Wings, a novel that follows a quarryman’s daughter as she attends 1930s Yale University in the guise of a boy. National Public Radio hails the novel “great, believable storytelling” about “race, class, gender, and family.” The author of Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen, notes that Prasad’s novel “combines drama and a strong sense of place that provides both a lesson in history and a fine read.” On Borrowed Wings was a Connecticut Book Award finalist.
Prasad is the originator and editor of, and a contributor to, Mixed: An Anthology of Short Fiction on the Multiracial Experience, which was published to international raves by W.W. Norton. A combination of Indian, Italian, Swedish, and English, Prasad drew inspiration from her own multiracial identity in assembling the book, which includes original material by Danzy Senna, Rebecca Walker, Ruth Ozeki, and Mat Johnson, among others. Booklist calls the anthology “absorbing and thought-provoking,” while The San Francisco Chronicle calls it “wonderful, deftly crafted, and satisfying.” Mixed has been adopted in university-level English courses across the country.
Tom Perrotta, author of the book and motion picture Little Children, praises Prasad’s first novel, Death of a Circus, for its “Dickensian verve, keen historical detail, and heart.” Booklist says it’s “packed with glamour and grit.” Prasad’s career guide Outwitting the Job Market was also well received by its audience: employers, job seekers, and students. Prasad’s short works have been published in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The Week, the official magazine of The U.S. Department of State, Teen Voices, and Faultline, the literary and arts magazine of the University of California at Irvine.
Prasad lives and works in Connecticut. A graduate of Yale, she is a fellow at Morse, one of Yale’s residential colleges. Currently, she is working on more young adult novels, among other projects.
Chandra Prasad is the originator and editor of -- and a contributor to -- W. W. Norton's Mixed: An Anthology of Short Fiction on the Multiracial Experience, which includes original pieces by Ruth Ozeki, Danzy Senna, and Rebecca Walker. Her other works include the novella Death of a Circus, which Tom Perrotta hails as "narrated with Dickensian verve, a keen eye for historical detail, and lots of heart," and the careers guide Outwitting the Job Market. Prasad is also the author of numerous articles, which have been published by the Wall Street Journal and New York Times Magazine, among others. A graduate of Yale, she lives and works in Connecticut.
CHANDRA PRASAD: DAMSELFLY Q&A + GIVEAWAY
POSTED JUNE 27, 2018 BY SARA | NOVEL NOVICE 8 COMMENTS
Today, we’ve got a Q&A with author Chandra Prasad about her new book, Damselfly –– plus keep reading for your chance to win a copy of the book!
I love hearing the origin stories of books. What was the one nugget that inspired DAMSELFLY?
DAMSELFLY was inspired by my 8th grade English teacher, who made the assertion that William Golding had created the “perfect microcosm” when he wrote the classic novel Lord of the Flies. I never agreed with my teacher’s opinion. What kind of “perfect microcosm” has no girls in it? DAMSELFLY is my modern-day answer to what a do-or-die, adult-less survival story would be if it included girls, and people from different races, cultures, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Did anything surprise you while writing DAMSELFLY?
I wrote several drafts of DAMSELFLY, and cut many pages as I went along. I was surprised by how lean the final book turned out to be. There is no fluff or padding, just meat and muscle.
Was your approach to writing DAMSELFLY, your first YA book, any different from your other writing?
I found this book harder to write than some of my other novels. It is a short, fast-paced read, but symbols and themes are packed into every page. This is a book just begging to be explored and analyzed by teen readers.
FLASH QUESTIONS:
Go-to writing snack (or beverage).
Seltzer water and Pirate Booty.
Hogwarts house?
Gryffindor, obviously!
Please pick an Avenger.
The Avengers aren’t my thing. Can I go with Okoye from Black Panther instead?
Favorite Disney movie?
The Parent Trap (original version with Hayley Mills). I also like The Watcher in the Woods, which is scary. Most people haven’t heard of it.
Favorite childhood toy?
My first stuffed animal—a puppy named “Puppy.” Not very original, buy very cherished.
Book you’d like to read “for the first time” again?
ANNE OF GREEN GABLES by L. M. Montgomery, PERFUME by Patrick Suskind, ONE FOOT IN EDEN by Ron Rash, FROM THE MIXED-UP FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER by E.L. Konigsburg.
In the wake of crash-landing on a deserted tropical island, a group of private-school teens must rely on their wits and one another to survive.
Having just survived a plane crash, Samantha Mishra finds herself isolated and injured in the thick of the jungle. She has no idea where she is or where anybody else is — she doesn’t even know if anybody else is alive. Once Sam connects with her best friend, Mel, and they locate the others, they set up camp and hope for rescue. But as the days pass, the survivors, all teammates on the Drake Rosemont fencing team, realize that they’re on their own — with the exception of a mysterious presence who taunts and threatens them. When their initial attempts to escape the island fail, the teens find they need to survive more than the jungle . . . they need to survive each other.
This taut novel, with a setting evocative of Lord of the Flies, is by turns cinematic and intimate, and always thought-provoking.
In Stores Now: Amazon | B&N | IndieBound | Goodreads
Chandra Prasad is the originator and editor of Mixed, an anthology of short stories on the multiracial experience. She is also the author of several critically acclaimed novels for adults, including On Borrowed Wings. Damselfly is her YA debut. A graduate of Yale, Chandra lives and works in Connecticut. To find out more, visit her online at chandraprasad.com.
PRASAD, Chandra. Damselfly. 272p. Scholastic. Mar. 2018. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9780545907927.
Gr 7 Up--When Sam Mishra's plane crashes on an uninhabited island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, she and the surviving members of the Drake Rosemont fencing team have to figure out how to stay alive. Finding food, water, and shelter turns out to be relatively easy--it's other, more insidious forces that prove challenging for these students from an elite boarding school. When the teens discover threatening messages written in the sand, they realize that they are not alone on the island. In addition to the looming menace of the unknown inhabitant, rifts between the teens expose cracks in the veneer of civility. Issues of class and race come into play as group members form allegiances and make decisions that have life-or-death consequences. One charismatic teen, Rittika, attempts to pit those with brown skin (Golds) against those with white skin (Pales), claiming that those with brown skin are survivors, better able to adapt, and in all ways superior to those with pale skin. Sam is forced to decide if she will align herself with Mel, her very white best friend, or with Rittika, a fellow Indian American. Reminiscent of The Lord of the Flies (with a bit of The Swiss Family Robinson), Prasad's debut is a compelling modern-day adventure. The tale of survival outshines the less well-developed exploration of race and class as it affects student relationships. The rushed and somewhat unresolved ending begs for a sequel. VERDICT An entertaining choice, recommended for additional purchase.--Ragan O'Malley, Saint Ann's School, Brooklyn
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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O'Malley, Ragan. "PRASAD, Chandra. Damselfly." School Library Journal, vol. 64, no. 1, Jan. 2018, pp. 82+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A521876216/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=6bd6fdf4. Accessed 14 Dec. 2021.
PRASAD, Chandra. Mercury Boys. 360p. Soho Teen. Aug. 2021. Tr $18.99. ISBN 9781641292658.
Gr 9 Up--A secret society shifts from exciting to toxic in this dark tale with hints of magic. Saskia Brown has recently moved and is trying to figure out her place at her new school. When visiting her only friend Lila at her job in an archive, Saskia gets to see and touch some old items related to photography, including a daguerreotype and some liquid mercury. This has surprising consequences: Saskia can now visit and interact with the person from the daguerreotype, an inventor from the 1800s. But this only happens in her dreams. Saskia shares this strange experience with some potential new friends, and soon a small group of girls has formed a secret society with strict rules regarding their "forever boyfriends," the people from the daguerreotypes they've selected. As the teens become more invested in their visits and the society, rules that seemed innocuous become catalysts for dangerous punishments, and an idea that seemed magical and exciting will have lasting consequences. This story is layered and unique; the surface-level concepts of time travel and secret societies will draw readers in, but the jealousy and desire for revenge that fuel the secret society add depth and unexpected elements to the plot. Saskia is biracial (half white, half Black, of Ghanaian descent). The realities of racism are woven effortlessly into Saskia's present-day experiences and visits to the past. Although the ending feels a bit anticlimactic, the novel blends history, romance, friendship, and a touch of magic into a compelling story. VERDICT Recommended for collections serving teens. --Alison Glass, Dwight Sch. Lib., New York, NY
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Glass, Alison. "PRASAD, Chandra. Mercury Boys." School Library Journal, vol. 67, no. 8, Aug. 2021, p. 91. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A670398001/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=2a75f286. Accessed 14 Dec. 2021.
Prasad, Chandra. Death of a Circus. Dec. 2006. 272p. Red Hen, paper, $18.95 (1-59709-024-7).
What city-weary soul hasn't thought of running away to join the circus? That's the dream of Lor Cole, a young black man leading a lackluster life in early-twentieth-century Connecticut. Lor has talent to match his professional ambition. Tall and agile, he is a superlative high-wire walker, having honed his skills throughout boyhood on the towering branches of neighborhood trees. It's not long before the ringmaster of the Bringlebright Circus turns the young man into a star. For Lor, tiptoeing along the tightrope is infinitely easier than navigating the politics of the circus business, and he must watch his step around roustabouts and seasoned performers alike. Among them: copiously tattooed ruffian Legman Jack and his amply mustached pal, Bar None; fire-eating Cirella, with blazing red hair and a personality to match; and Barnacle, the mercurial ringmaster obsessed with success, starlets, and sex. Prasad conducted extensive research into the world of early-twentieth-century circuses for this richly textured first novel packed with glamour and grit.--Allison Block
Block, Allison
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2006 American Library Association
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Block, Allison. "Prasad, Chandra. Death of a Circus." Booklist, vol. 103, no. 6, 15 Nov. 2006, p. 30. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A155783646/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=a431b54b. Accessed 14 Dec. 2021.
Breathe the Sky.
By Chandra Prasad.
Oct. 2009. 208p. Wyatt-MacKenzie, $14.99 (9781932279399).
"You're living life like it's going out of style," navigator Fred Noonan tells Amelia Earhart in Prasad's keen retelling of the aviatrix's adult life. Indeed, Amelia's overwhelming passion for flying is at the heart of the novel, with all the freedom it grants her as well as the obligations it carries. One of the first pioneering female pilots, Amelia becomes a celebrity, her calendar bursting with speaking engagements and endorsements. She finds love with publishing scion and PR man G. P. Putnam, who chooses her to be the first woman to fly across the Atlantic--though to her consternation, she is the passenger rather than the pilot. Amelia's ambitions grow, and she sets her sights on becoming the first woman to circumnavigate the world--a mission that will be her last. The draw here is the way Prasad gets inside Amelia Earhart's psyche to give life to the woman behind the myth. Add this insightful novel to the list of new nonfiction Earhart books (The Sound of Wings and Amelia Earhart: The Thrill of h) coinciding with a new movie.--Kristine Huntley
YA: Teens' familiarity with Earhart should draw them to this engaging novel KH.
Huntley, Kristine
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2009 American Library Association
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Huntley, Kristine. "Breathe the Sky." Booklist, vol. 106, no. 3, 1 Oct. 2009, p. 24. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A209696224/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=f08077a0. Accessed 14 Dec. 2021.
Prasad, Chandra ON BORROWED WINGS Atria Books (Adult FICTION) $23 Jun. 19, 2007 ISBN: 0-7432-9782-2
Adele Pietra enters Yale, pulls pranks and joins the fencing team, all years before women are admitted to the university.
In the midst of the Depression, Adele and her family struggle in Stony Creek, Conn., where she and her mother take in laundry and her father and brother cut granite at the quarry. Adele's mother has plans for her children--Adele is to marry a quarryman (an aged suitor is already chosen) and favored Charles will be sent off to Yale on scholarship. When an accident kills both father and son, bookworm Adele cuts off her hair and proposes that she go to Yale in her brother's place. With her mother's approval, Adele is off to New Haven, dressed in her brother's clothes. Although it seems unlikely that a short haircut and a wool suit is convincing enough, Adele fits in as a man. Best friend Harry, a Jewish New Yorker, feels a kinship with Adele (now known as Charlie) and her working class roots, while rich, charismatic Wick befriends the two along with the reserved Phin, and the foursome conquer freshman year together. Adele faces the same challenges (though none academic, as she's a whiz) of adjustment as the others, and she manages quite well considering her double identity. She brings a girl to the dance, takes up fencing and works for a eugenics professor collecting data on the working classes, all the while falling in love with Wick. Unconvincingly, Adele's gender masquerade has little effect on her personality. As the term ends, events coincide to threaten her secret identity. But even if she manages to fool everyone for another year, one question haunts her: Degree now in hand, will she have to live the rest of her life as a man?
A sincere, though not wholly believable debut.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2007 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Prasad, Chandra: ON BORROWED WINGS." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Mar. 2007. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A169083757/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=dbbbfc23. Accessed 14 Dec. 2021.
Prasad, Chandra. Damselfly. Scholastic, March 2018. 272p. $17.99. 978-0-545-90792-7.
4Q * 4P * M * J * S
Sam's first realization upon awakening is her hand gripping a glass eye; the second is that she is alone, hurt, and in a dense jungle. She hazily remembers the plane flying her exclusive school's fencing squad to Japan crashing, but has no idea when or where this occurred. Most of her teammates work together to subsist until rescue, but after no one arrives, everyone scatters and lives as desired. Menacing threats and ambushes soon begin, flaming the group's increasing anxiety and prodding the discovery that they, not the jungle, must be conquered for survival.
Narrated by Sam, this is as much mystery as teen-survival; teammates use and explore identity, self-worth, race, class, popularity, and malice as determiners of power and hierarchy, similar to real students, demonstrating what people can become without rules and answerable only to themselves. The characters are individually interesting; their often-startling comments and behaviors create a tense, action-packed plot full of surprises and hints that reveal nothing and no one is as first presumed. The islands presence is strong; beautiful yet eerie, and the discovery of Amelia Earhart's possible parachute pack raises disturbing questions regarding their parent-arranged flight and pilot. Surviving the described crash on a fully-stocked island seems dubious, with glimpsing family reactions adding welcome context, but the story's widespread, nail-biting appeal overshadows these issues. Readers expecting a rescue will instead be begging for a sequel after jolted by the final scandalous and disturbing information insinuated before the stunning ending again reminiscent of Earhart's fate. --Lisa A. Hazlett.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC
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Hazlett, Lisa A. "Prasad, Chandra. Damselfly." Voice of Youth Advocates, vol. 40, no. 6, Feb. 2018, pp. 59+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A529357136/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=f2edc120. Accessed 14 Dec. 2021.
Prasad, Chandra MERCURY BOYS Soho Teen (Teen None) $18.99 8, 3 ISBN: 978-1-64129-265-8
An insecure teen girl becomes fascinated by daguerreotypes and time travel through dreams.
When everyone learns about her mom’s affair with a substitute teacher half her age, Saskia and her dad move from Arizona to Connecticut for a fresh start. Saskia is having trouble adjusting to her new reality and doesn’t feel like she fits in at school; she’s an outsider, mixed race, and not rich. A class assignment to study an early pioneer in photography and a subsequent visit to the university archive to see his original daguerreotype with new friend Lila results in an amazing discovery: Saskia can now visit the inventor in her dreams. In an effort to befriend the popular girls, Saskia shares her time travel secret and pressures Lila to help the rest of the group steal photos of their own, forming the Mercury Boys Club. Prasad explores power dynamics among teen girls through an interplay of various influences such as wealth, appearance, and race (Lila is Latinx, Saskia has a Black mom and White dad, and the other girls are White). Although the character development is not strong, depictions of the teens’ dysfunctional family lives are woven throughout the story, making the appeal of the club and the girls’ hysteria convincing. The speedy conclusion leaves a lot of unanswered questions, however, and readers will wonder what was actually true.
An interesting premise with uneven execution. (daguerreotype images) (Science fiction. 13-18)
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"Prasad, Chandra: MERCURY BOYS." Kirkus Reviews, 15 June 2021, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A667041970/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=a5a25f32. Accessed 14 Dec. 2021.