If I Stay...the next big book craze!

I'm hearing rumors that Catherine Hardwick's (Twilight's director)next big project is turning the recently published book, If I Stay by Gayle Foreman, into a movie. Summit (the movie house that produced Twilight) released the following statment about this upcoming project:

"Catherine is the first and only filmmaker we considered to direct 'If I Stay,' a book we are as crazy about as we were about 'Twilight,' " he says. "Catherine has an amazing ability to capture the youth experience. She can make the fantastical relatable and the ordinary magical. We'd never try to re-create past history, but we are thrilled about trying to re-create the environment and passion that made our last success possible."

I plan on reading the book next week (mainly because the copy I purchased today was bogarted by one of my 8th grade students who has been BEGGING me to buy it so she can read it! What can I say...I'm a softy for my students who love to read!) As soon as I know more about it, I'll post my own personal review, but for now, here is a bit more about the plot of the book. I'm very excited to read this novel, because I think it will have many elements of the novel The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold that I love so much!

Publisher's Weekly Review of If I Stay by Gayle Forman:

The last normal moment that Mia, a talented cellist, can remember is being in the car with her family. Then she is standing outside her body beside their mangled Buick and her parents' corpses, watching herself and her little brother being tended by paramedics. As she ponders her state ("Am I dead?I actually have to ask myself this"), Mia is whisked away to a hospital, where, her body in a coma, she reflects on the past and tries to decide whether to fight to live. Via Mia's thoughts and flashbacks, Forman (Sisters in Sanity) expertly explores the teenager's life, her passion for classical music and her strong relationships with her family, friends and boyfriend, Adam. Mia's singular perspective (which will recall Alice Sebold's adult novel, The Lovely Bones) also allows for powerful portraits of her friends and family as they cope: "Please don't die. If you die, there's going to be one of those cheesy Princess Diana memorials at school," prays Mia's friend Kim. "I know you'd hate that kind of thing." Intensely moving, the novel will force readers to take stock of their lives and the people and things that make them worth living. Ages 14-up. (Apr.)