{Guest Post+Giveaway} Children of Refuge by Margaret Peterson Haddix @mphaddix @SimonKIDS ‏

After Edwy is smuggled off to Refuge City to stay with his brother and sister, Rosi, Bobo, and Cana are stuck alone—and in danger—in Cursed Town in the thrilling follow-up to Children of Exile from New York Times bestselling author, Margaret Peterson Haddix.

It’s been barely a day since Edwy left Fredtown to be with his parents and, already, he is being sent away. He’s smuggled off to boarding school in Refuge City, where he will be with his brother and sister, who don’t even like him very much. The boarding school is nothing like the school that he knew, there’s no one around looking up to him now, and he’s still not allowed to ask questions!

Alone and confused, Edwy seeks out other children brought back from Fredtown and soon discovers that Rosi and the others—still stuck in the Cursed Town—might be in danger. Can Edwy find his way back to his friends before it’s too late?

Years ago I heard the advice that an author struggling to come up with a title for a book should read back through the entire manuscript; magically, she will find that the exact right combination of words has been hiding there all along.More recently I heard of the Terrible Titles game, where an author can scroll blindly through a manuscript, stop at random, and find comically awful title possibilities beneath the blinking cursor.

As with many other seemingly contradictory “rules” about writing, I can easily believe that these two concepts could both be true. (And, really, the difference between “brilliant” and “terrible” is often the difference between working hard at something and thinking deeply about it, or just grabbing the first idea that randomly surfaces.)

Often I have been the struggling author moaning and groaning about how the “right” title for a book just does not exist. Several of my books have appeared with respectable titles only because someone else made the title suggestion.

Fortunately, the title of my newest book, CHILDREN OF REFUGE, came easily. It’s the second book of a series that begins with CHILDREN OF EXILE and will end next year with CHILDREN OF JUBILEE. Much of the action of the book comes in a place called Refuge City. Even if (quasi-spoiler alert) Refuge City isn’t always the peaceful refuge it’s intended to be, it makes sense in the trilogy as a whole for the titles to progress from “exile” to “refuge” to “jubilee.”

Still, I thought I’d play the Terrible Titles game with CHILDREN OF REFUGE just for fun. Nothing I found would be a serious contender if I truly were searching for a new title. But… they do give some hint of what Edwy and his friends and relatives have to contend with in the book:

1. My Father’s Secret Underground Office
2. You Can See Straight Down the Gulch
3. I Don’t Know Enough about Refuge City
4. Lace-Covered Knees
5. Four Guns Pointed
6. It Is Possible for Me to Be Both at Once
7. Prove You Grew Up in Fredtown
8. The Most Annoying Kid Brother Ever
9. Ancient and Clunky and Huge
10. From One Bribed Nanny to Another

CHILDREN OF EXILE, book one of the Children of Exile series, is newly out in paperback this month. Book two, CHILDREN OF REFUGE, just came out in hardback. CHILDREN OF JUBILEE, which will be the third and final book in the series, comes out in September 2018.   

Margaret Peterson Haddix grew up on a farm near Washington Court House, Ohio. She graduated from Miami University (of Ohio) with degrees in English/journalism, English/creative writing and history. Before her first book was published, she worked as a newspaper copy editor in Fort Wayne, Indiana; a newspaper reporter in Indianapolis; and a community college instructor and freelance writer in Danville, Illinois.She has since written more than 40 books for kids and teens, including Running Out of Time; Double Identity; Uprising; The Always War; the Shadow Children series; the Missing series; the Children of Exile series; the Under Their Skin duology; and The Palace Chronicles. She also wrote Into the Gauntlet, the tenth book in the 39 Clues series.  Her books have been honored with New York Times bestseller status, the International Reading Association’s Children’s Book Award; American Library Association Best Book and Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers notations; and numerous state reader’s choice awards. They have also been translated into more than twenty different languages.Haddix and her husband, Doug, now live in Columbus, Ohio. They are the parents of two grown kids.

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