French Ducks in Venice is my first picture book, and is now out, published by Candlewick Press. The illustrations are by a very talented artist named Erin McGuire. Here's a video trailer for the book:
It's about two ducks, Georges and Cécile, brother and sister who believe they are French.
I spent one hot summer afternoon at a county fair with my best friend and her two small children, ages four and seven. The four-year-old was afraid of cows, but desperately wanted to go on one of the dangerous rides. The seven-year-old was anxious to know if I liked each and every sheep, goat, rabbit and chicken we stopped to admire and/or pet.
My best friend went to buy her son something to drink and asked me to take her four year old daughter to the bathroom. It was dirty, crowded and noisy and my small companion, once I had her safely ensconced in the stall, began screaming that she wanted PRIVACY. I think it's easy to say that I have never been so exhausted in my life. All through the afternoon as the children wandered in a daze of over-stimulation, my friend kept them following us instead of their own whims by saying, "Quack quack, baby ducks, let's go."
Fast forward a few months to my visiting Venice Beach so as to see my incredibly glamorous and talented younger sister. She works in Film & TV so her work hours are endless. I would bike around the boardwalk, walk down the canals and drink coffee while looking at the ocean or the ducks. Among the mallards, there were some really odd looking ducks on the canals and I called my best friend to find out what they were (the seven-year-old was a bit of a bird expert).
"They're small birds with black, glossy feathers, white tails, long necks, and what I think are yellow beaks," I told her.
"Those aren't ducks," she said, laughing. "They're cormorants."
I had never heard of (or, until just then, seen) a cormorant and thought it sounded rather French.
Illustrated in a style that is reminiscent of classic animated children’s films, French Ducks in Venice is a story of friendship, loyalty, loss, and healing, told with warmth and heart... a reassuring reminder of the endless opportunity for new beginnings and happiness. — Amazon Best Children’s Books of the Month, December 2011
YA author Freymann-Weyr (After the Moment) examines grief in her first picture book; a dusting of Hollywood glamour makes newcomer McGuire’s rich digital illustrations, which have the feel of concept art for an animated film, an inspired choice... Freymann-Weyr’s mannered narrative voice keeps emotions firmly in check, and her storytelling gifts are unmistakable. — Publishers Weekly
In this story of loss and healing through friendship and creativity, two French ducks stand in for children who may be processing similar changes in their own families...This gentle story delivers a realistic yet hopeful message. Although the hole left by the absence of a loved one can never truly be filled, one can, by doing what gives life meaning, find moments of happiness. — Shelf Awareness
French Ducks in Venice is a book unlike any others I have read this year. It combines elements of fairy tale fantasy with the realities of loss and empathy, and creates this unique world where talking ducks make sense, and strawberry jam is the key to a beautiful dress. — Secrets & Sharing Soda
French Ducks is the perfect tween romance for the tween who longs for romance but needs a little hint of how to cope with the loss of it while still keeping their heart set on the promise of it. (It's a subtle difference but Freyman-Weyr nails it.) — chasingray.com
Freymann-Weyr brings her characteristic eloquence with matters of the heart to the younger set here, and her silky, concise prose keeps the fanciful concept from becoming cutesy... This is a warm, touching tale that will have young princesses (and perhaps a few princes) looking for some feathered friends to call their own. — BCCB
This illustrated fiction title, a lesson in friendship, is touching as the animals try to bring happiness back... — Jo Drudge, Library Media Connection (Recommended)
When I Was Older
When I Was Older had another life as a manuscript titled Juliet and the Idea of Frogs. In it, Sophie's mother was a lesbian, giving me the opening line of: "My mother likes girls, say it loud, say it proud, my mother likes girls." Juliet was turned down by about twenty-seven editors, most of whom said it was unpublishable. About seven said I was really talented, but that the book was beyond editorial help. Four phoned my agent and asked if they could speak to me. I rewrote it and set aside the lesbian mother, Sophie's father having a new wife and a new baby, plus many other subplots (eg., Francis and his mother—in Juliet, it was his mother dating Sophie's mother—had once lived with a cult). My opening line had to go. My father, quoting Virginia Woolf, said, "You have to drown your darlings." Let's just say I love to revise and leave it at that.
There is so much wit and life and action in the conversations that the story just glides forward… This is a new voice, an original voice. — Kliatt
Freymann-Weyr creates an indelible portrait of a girl whose strength is verging on becoming her weakness. Sophie’s voice is completely authentic and continually compelling, and the picture of her family relationships is compassionate yet sharply insightful… — The Bulletin
In this touching coming-of-age novel, the theme of losing a loved one is strong, but does not overwhelm the story of Sophie’s growth as a young woman… Fast-paced, light, yet introspective, this novel of transition, love, and loss explores emotion while telling a fine story. — School Library Journal
My Heartbeat
My Heartbeat is a book that did really well. It got very nice reviews, won a prize, and made my publisher happy with me (they sent flowers). All of which made me quite grateful, but also rather astonished. I had set out to write a novel of loyalty and betrayal, and to examine how little we know the people we love. Since several of my teachers, many of my parents' work colleagues, and three of my best friends in college were gay, I had never really thought about homosexuality as something other than a fact, albeit one with its own history, culture and struggle. It didn't strike me as being central to the book, and yet it was the novel's treatement of Link and James' sexual desires that most readers found interesting. Quite often there is a gap between the book that is written and the book which is read.
Ellen’s mind beats across the tangle of feelings of all these beguiling, intelligent, and complicated folk. Breathtaking in the purity of its emotions and in its refusal to pigeonhole any of its characters, it will engage teen readers to the very last page. — Kirkus Reviews
The fast, clipped dialogue will sweep teens into the story, as will Ellen’s immediate first person, present tense narrative… The family dynamics are just as compelling as the love and friendship drama, especially Ellen’s bewilderment about the unwritten laws that can make people strangers even within the family they love. — Booklist
Narrator Ellen learns about love, family and “society’s unwritten rules” in this sophisticated but gentle novel set in Manhattan… A thoughtful approach to the many confusing signals that accompany awakening sexuality. — Publishers Weekly
Freymann-Weyr writes with an astonishing combination of delicacy and clarity of the genuine complexity of family (and all) relationships. — The Bulletin
Crisply written, this story sticks with you as it subtly celebrates the notion that everyone can learn to thrive to their own heartbeat. — Atlanta Journal Constitution
The Kings Are Already Here
The Kings Are Already Here is my favorite. Not only because I took ballet classes again to be reminded of what barre exercies feel like (they hurt, and no grown woman should be forced to look in a mirror while wearing pink tights). And not because my first real crush was on Gary Kasparov. But because I love it, and love is irrational, and I can't explain.
An intense, contrapuntal novel of exquisite intelligence and sensitivity… Freymann-Weyr’s language is as precise as a blade — Kirkus Reviews
As in her My Heartbeat, Freymann-Weyr creates charming, intellectual characters, and the issues with which her protagonists struggle are complex and cerebral. — Publishers Weekly
The clarity of thought, the remarkably lucid exposition of the characters’ internal epiphanies, are what we’ve come to expect from Freymann-Weyr, who has invented a whole new language to describe the pangs of coming of age. — The Horn Book
Freymann-Weyr’s writing can be as elegant as a beautifully played chess game or a perfect pas de deux. — Booklist
Intensity has always been the hallmark of the work of Freymann-Weyr…. And here she turns her laser perceptions to young people with specific reasons for that intensity. — The Bulletin
Stay With Me
I first wrote Stay With Me from Clare's point of view. It wasn't the right way into the story, but I couldn't see it in any other way. So I put it aside, took Italian lessons, read The Economist from cover to cover every week, and watched Buffy reruns until I had seen all 7 seasons. In short, I brooded.
A friend told me that The Kings Are Already Here had been chosen as NYPL Books for the Teen Age 2004 list, and I decided to go to the reception they have for all those on the list. Which is how I found myself, one April afternoon, at the New York Public Library, in a room filled with librarians, writers and editors. Maybe it was that everyone could pronounce my last name. Maybe it was that all the librarians were also hard core Buffy watchers (I appeared to be alone on The Economist). Maybe it was that I was so close to both the Lions and the Reading Room. I don't know, but suddenly the book cracked open, and Leila pointed at all the ways it could be done.
Brooding is good for you. As is Buffy. And studying Italian.
Freymann-Weyr’s prose always has an incandescent intensity… Strands of information about life in the city, hotel management, stage and lighting design and theater production are tucked in like shot silk in a tapestry. Simply exquisite. — Kirkus Reviews
Elegant and sophisticated, this is a young adult novel only because of Leila’s age; almost everyone else in the book is an adult – even Leila’s lover, a 31-year-old television writer. Like Leila, readers often feel awkwardness coupled with anticipation in the adult world, and capturing this duality is one of the book’s many strengths… This novel pushes the markers of YA fiction onward and upward. — Booklist
Freymann-Weyr writes about privileged New York teenagers; she makes all those popular books (Gossip Girls series, etc.) about the same young people seem like light fluff. Her characters are brilliant, with fascinating families… — Kliatt
Subtle, sophisticated, and so smart, Stay with Me is a beautifully conceived and executed novel of ruin and renewal, of losing and finding that pays its readers the highest of compliments: it respects the abilities of their minds and of their hearts. — Michael Cart
Freymann-Weyr’s Leila is a memorable character in a book that is remarkable for its fullness and richness and the depth of feeling it evokes. A wonderful achievement. — Toronto Globe and Mail
After the Moment
Despite stars from Publishers Weekly and Booklist, this book has received its share of pretty bad blog reviews. Most of them while I (and the novel) were on a blog tour. Lesson learned. Do not tour the internet.
Here's a little promotional video I put together for After the Moment:
As she did in My Heartbeat and Stay with Me, the author creates a wonderful, complicated but loving family for her protagonist... This is an expertly crafted story about a complicated first love. — Publishers Weekly
As in the Printz Honor Book My Heartbeat and other novels, Freymann-Weyr offers another rare, sophisticated exploration of love at the end of adolescence…. Within this story’s raw, honest, psychologically attuned scenes, older teens will find their own aching questions about how best to love, shape a future, and “do the right thing.” — Booklist
After the Moment is a beautiful mess of a young-adult novel, with the emphasis on the beautiful. The book’s strength lies in its moment by moment grace – and its unerring sense of voice — The Boston Globe
Readers who love doomed, tearjerker romances will be enthralled… With its wise writing and literary word choices, this is a smart book. — Kirkus
I spent one hot summer afternoon at a county fair with my best friend and her two small children, ages four and seven. The four-year-old was afraid of cows, but desperately wanted to go on one of the dangerous rides. The seven-year-old was anxious to know if I liked each and every sheep, goat, rabbit and chicken we stopped to admire and/or pet.
