July 2008

A bunch of very cool bloggers featured me and/or Alec Flint (and/or the Alec Flint Book Giveaway Contest!) on their sites last month. If you want to read about either me or Alec (or both of us), you can click on the links below

Through the Tollbooth

A Fuse #8 Production

The Longstockings

Big A little a

Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Jen Robinson's Book Page

There will be at least two more links to follow in the coming weeks...or possibly next month. Also, please note that the Alec Flint Giveaway Contest that was attached to each of the links above is over. (Though I believe two more sites will be posting a chance to win a signed Copy of Alec Flint at some point soon.)

Happy July, everyone!

June 2008

The Nina, The Pinta and the Vanishing Treasure is now in bookstores!

It was also reviewed by Kirkus this month. Check out the review:

Santopolo, Jill
THE NINA, THE PINTA, AND THE VANISHING TREASURE: Alec Flint, Super Sleuth, Book 1
Illus. by C.B. Canga

A mystery at the museum is the perfect case for an aspiring fourth-grade detective. Early one morning before school, Alec gets to go with his father, Officer Flint, to the American History Museum, where somebody has made off with the entire cache of gold coins in the Christopher Columbus exhibit. Curator Dr. Glumsfeld gives Alec an uneasy feeling, but this doesnÕt prevent him from trying to crack the case. His neighbor, Emily Berg, has no interest in detection, but the new girl at school, Gina Rossi, shares Alec's passion for puzzles, and becomes his sidekick. The pair even begins passing coded messages, a puzzle-solving bonus for the reader (with solutions at the back of the book). Santopolo's prose crackles, and she manages to weave in a fair degree of historical information on Columbus as she spins her yarn (and supplements it with a lengthy Author's Note). The first in what promises to be a solid middle-grade series in the tradition of Encyclopedia Brown. (Fiction. 9-12)

I love that bit at the end about Encyclopedia Brown!

Also, if you're going to be in the New York area on June 24th and would like to celebrate the publication of The Nina, The Pinta and the Vanishing Treasure, there's going to be a launch party at Books of Wonder, complete with cupcakes and sparkling apple cider.

And one last thing: The second book, which I said officially had a title last month, now has a new title. It's going to be called The Ransom Note Blues: An Alec Flint Mystery and will be coming out in approximately a year from now. I can't wait!

May 2008

Big news this month! The first review for Alec Flint was just published in ALA Booklist. Here's a copy of the review:

The Nina, the Pinta, and the Vanishing Treasure.
by Jill Santopolo. Illus. by C.B. Canga
July 2008. 208p. Scholastic/Orchard, $15.99
(9780439903523). Gr. 3-5.
Alec, Santopolo's young sleuth, talks like a fourth-grader, acts like a fourth-grader, and, mostly, thinks like one, too. Sometimes he wonders why Tater Tots and pizza always pop up together on the school cafeteria menu. Or why he gets that "marshmallowy" feeling in his stomach when he has done something wrong and has to tell his dad. Or whether clever, daring classmate Gina Rossi will make a good sleuthing partner when they both grow up. In this adventure, gold coins, a broken drinking glass, a plastic telescope, and a newspaper photo are the clues the kids use to solve two mysterious disappearances, one of which seems to stump even Mr. Flint, the cop. Contrived? Sure. But most mysteries for this age group are; what sets this apart is its lively characters, a thoughtfully derived sprinkling of clues for the kids to pursue, and the opportunity for readers to have as much fun solving the mystery (and decoding the coded messages) as Alec and Gina.
-Stephanie Zvirin

In other news, the second book about Alec and Gina, coming out in 2009, just got a title. It's going to be called: Alec Flint, Super Sleuth: Black and White and Blue All Over.

January 2008

This just in! My book is now available for pre-order on Amazon! If you want to check it out, click here.

And in case you don't want to travel over to Amazon to see the book jacket, I've pasted it below. This art was done by C. B. Canga, too, and I love it.

Also, this month I was featured in an interview on a great writing blog called Through the Tollbooth. If you want to take a look at the interview, you can click here.

Happy New Year to everyone, and I look forward to posting more exciting Alec Flint news in 2008!

October 2007

My first book, Alec Flint, Super Sleuth: The Nina, the Pinta and the Vanishing Treasure, will be in stores in July of 2008. Bruce Hale, author of the fabulous Chet Gecko mysteries, read an early manuscript, and this is what he has to say about the book: "A sweet and appealing tale with oodles of kid-appeal. It made me chuckle while whetting my appetite for mystery. Welcome Alec Flint to the ranks of grade-school sleuths!" Thank you so much, Bruce Hale!

Also, The Nina, the Pinta and the Vanishing Treasure is going to be illustrated with some black-and-white drawings by C.B. Canga.  Here's a sneak peek:

Click here to read more about Alec Flint.