In this post, we feature award-winning author Lamar Giles, whose acclaimed titles include The Getaway, which appeared on many best-of lists and was named a Junior Library Guild selection. You can hear him speak about his new novel, Ruin Road, and try his “invitation to imagine” activity. You’ll also find other resources to explore. Thanks for joining us, and let us know what you think in the comments below!
Ruin Road
- Written by Lamar Giles
- Published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic, Inc.
- Release date: September 17, 2024
Cade Webster lives between worlds. He’s a standout football star at school, but according to his classmates, he lives in the wrong neighborhood. Everywhere but home, people are afraid of him for one reason or another: afraid he’s too big, too fast, too ambitious, too Black. Then, one fateful night, he wishes people would stop acting so scared around him, and the wish is granted. At first, it feels like things have taken a turn for the better. But it’s not just Cade that people no longer fear—it’s everything. Fearless acts of violence begin to escalate in both his neighborhood and at school. With the right moves and brave friends, Cade might have one—and only one—chance to save all he loves. But at what cost? After all, the devil’s in the details. Award-winning author Lamar Giles spins a chilling, contemporary Faustian tale that will stay with readers.
From Ruin Road, written by Lamar Giles.
“You carry your people with you even when you ride alone.”
Click here to view a longer preview of Ruin Road, written by Lamar Giles.
Explore Ruin Road
Listen to Lamar Giles talking with TeachingBooks about creating Ruin Road. You can click the player below or experience the recording on TeachingBooks, where you can read along as you listen, and also translate the text to another language.
- Listen to Lamar Giles pronounce his name.
- Sample the e-book of Ruin Road, by Lamar Giles, on Overdrive.com.
- Sample the audiobook of Ruin Road, by Lamar Giles, on Overdrive.com.
- Explore TeachingBooks’ collection of activities and resources for Ruin Road.
Invitation to Imagine
TeachingBooks asks each author or illustrator on our Virtual Book Tour to share a writing prompt, a drawing exercise, or just an interesting question to spark curiosity and creativity. Enjoy the following activity contributed by Lamar Giles.
Imagination Activity with Lamar Giles
When we write, we help immerse readers in the story by using sensory details: touch, taste, sight, hearing, and smell. (Smell is so often overlooked for some reason.) For this prompt, I want you to think of a favorite memory—it can be exciting, scary, or just plain fun. Then, with that memory firmly set in your mind, I want you to describe things you touched; what you tasted, if food was involved; what you saw, heard, or smelled. Get as detailed as you can. Use the most precise words you can think of. Explore all the various stimuli that comes with that memory. And, if you feel comfortable, read it aloud to your friends, and see if they can sense those very same things based on your descriptions. Go!
Finish This Sentence . . . with Lamar Giles
As part of our Virtual Book Tour, TeachingBooks asks authors and illustrators to complete short sentence prompts. Enjoy Lamar Giles’s response.
“A surprising thing that helps me work is…”
A surprising thing that helps me work is the lighting in my office. I have two big windows for when I want natural light, but I also have several programmable lights that can change to any color in the rainbow and can be programmed into all sorts of multicolored “scenes.” So, if I have to write a scary scene, I can say something like “scary,” and the room will turn red. Or if I write a more mellow scene, I can say something like “relax,” and the lights will soften into an amber tone. I even have a program that I can set to “storm,” and the lights will emulate storm clouds and occasional lightning flashes. It’s a neat feature I installed specifically to set moods when I feel I’m in a slump.
Thank you!
To wrap up this Virtual Book Tour, we thank Lamar Giles for signing a book for all of us.
More Connections to Lamar Giles and Ruin Road
- Discover books like Ruin Road on TeachingBooks.
- Scholastic’s page about Ruin Road, written by Lamar Giles.
- Buy Ruin Road, written by Lamar Giles.
Author photo is by Adrienne Giles. All other text and images are courtesy of Lamar Giles and Scholastic, Inc. and may not be used without expressed written consent.
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