The Mysterious Henry Franks

Thought for the day:

“A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit.” ~ Richard Bach ~

A gift for my writer friends:

 Here are a couple of links I think you will find valuable.

Anne R. Allen’s blog has 8 Sure-Fire Ways to Improve Your Writing, tips from Ruth Harris, NYTimes best-selling author and former editor at Bantam & Dell. It’s worth a look: http://annerallen.blogspot.com/2012/10/8-sure-fire-ways-to-improve-your.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AnneRAllensBlog+%28Anne+R.+Allen%27s+Blog%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

Donald Maass and Natalie Goldberg weigh in over at Kathleen Temean’s wonderful Writing and Illustrating blog about whether or not to write what you know. This is also worth a look: http://kathytemean.wordpress.com/2012/10/17/write-what-you-know/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WritingAndIllustrating+%28Writing+and+Illustrating%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

For my fabulous giveaway, the winner is Tracy Helixon! (Cue the balloon drop please!) Congratulations to you, Tracy. I will be sending you an AUTOGRAPHED copy of The Diamond in the Desert. It is a terrific book, and I know you’ll enjoy it. I have another giveaway for today, so stay tuned. By the way, Tracy is also a writer and her first picture book, Little Isaac’s Big Adventure, was recently released by Guardian Angel Publishing. You can find out more about it by clicking HERE.

I really wish I had a better memory. I read a lot of blogs that have book reviews on them, always searching for interesting books to read. And I have very catholic taste. I like just about anything other than romance, but historical fiction and what my Sweet Baboo calls “murder and mayhem” are high on my list. On one of those many blogs (but I don't remember which one!), I read about a book called Henry Franks by Peter Adam Salomon. It had an intriguing premise, so I ordered a copy and took it on my recent trip to Albuquerque. I’m glad I did.

Henry Franks is a sixteen-year-old boy who lost both his mother and his memory in a terrible accident. He has literally been stitched back together. (“Four thousand, three hundred and seventeen stitches, his father had told him once. All the King's horses and all the King's men had put Henry Franks back together again.”) The surgical scars, red and itchy in the insufferable Georgia summer heat, make him the most noticeable boy in school, and not in a good way. He is losing feeling in parts of his body and fears he is dying bit by bit. He has no friends and is teased and bullied a lot.

Henry spends three afternoons every week seeing a psychologist, trying in vain to regain his memory. He lives in a big, rather spooky house with his father, a doctor at a local hospital, who is seldom home, and when he is, locks himself into his room for long periods. He brings bags of fast food home for dinner each night and leaves some on the back porch, where it quickly disappears. Bodies start turning up in the local area, and Henry can’t help but wonder if maybe, just maybe, his father might be involved.

“Long moments passed with Henry hitting the glass with the heel of his palm, not even feeling the impact. He ducked down, squinting to see inside. A flash of lightning illuminated his father, slumped over the wheel. Henry ran around the car, sliding through a puddle and ramming his shoulder into the bumper of the minivan next to him. His ear rang from hitting the light fixture above it, but he didn’t feel any pain.”

Peter Adam Salomon Photo by Jimmy McDaniel

Beautiful Justine, who lives next door and takes the same school bus, begins talking to Henry on the bus. She is rather insistent on becoming his friend, and finally that is just what happens. Henry starts to open up to her about his life, and she helps him try to discover who he really is. All he has to go on is a photo album with a few very old family pictures. Henry and Justine are both pulled into the dark mystery of Henry’s life at the same time a hurricane comes crashing into their town and lives while the serial killer is on the loose. (Whew! That’s a lot to deal with!)

This is a coming-of-age story unlike any I have encountered before. You have to completely suspend your belief in reality to read this, but it is a fascinating, highly-imaginative read. Kids from upper middle-grade through high school will particularly like this one, but I liked it very much as well and think a lot of adults will enjoy it.

I have a gently-used copy I am giving away this week. Just leave a comment and I’ll put your name in the hat. Blog, link on Facebook, or Tweet a link to my blog and let me know for an extra entry. For more middle-grade book reviews, always check on Shannon Messenger's great blog by clicking HERE.

On the book giveaway, this is for U.S. only. Sorry, but it would be too expensive for me to send books out of the country. But please leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you. Remember, if you have trouble leaving a comment, click on the title of the post and it will give you just this post with a comments section on the bottom. Also, if you haven’t signed up by email, please do. Just look in the upper right-hand corner of this page, pop your email address in, and you will receive an email each time I put up a new post. Your information will not be shared with anyone.           

Another Great Book by Kathryn Fitzmaurice and a Giveaway

Thought for the day:

 “[A] piece of creative writing, like a day-dream, is a continuation of, and a substitute for, what was once the play of childhood.” ~ Sigmund Freud ~

A gift for my writer friends:

 Here are some links I think you will find valuable.

Always a hot topic, Adventures in YA & Childrens Publishing posted 13 Steps to getting an agent -- http://childrenspublishing.blogspot.com/2012/10/wow-wednesday-jay-kristoff-with-13.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2Fkidlit+%28Adventures+in+Children%27s+Publishing%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

Something I always need to think hard about, the old bugaboo, Lay vs. Lie – http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/lay-vs-lie?et_mid=585141&rid=3028165

This one is just plain fun and I want one!! – http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/famous-small-offthegrid-worksp-140587

An Announcement:

My first actual published work, other than the book reviews I write for Sacramento Book Review, is now out. An anthology called A MiracleUnder the Christmas Tree: Real Stories of Hope, Faith, and the True Gifts of the Season, published by Harlequin, is now available for early Christmas shopping. My story, Christmas Without Snow, is part of this collection put together by Jennifer Basye Sanders. To check it out, just click on the title.

For my fabulous giveaway, the winner is Christina Mercer! (Cue the trumpets please!) Congratulations to you, Christina. I will be sending you an AUTOGRAPHED copy of The Year the SwallowsCame Early. It is a terrific book, and I know you’ll enjoy it. I have another giveaway for today, so stay tuned. By the way, Christina is also a writer and has a wonderful blog with great links, so stop on over and check it out by clicking HERE.

As I mentioned last week, I won The Year the Swallows Came Early. When the author, Kathryn Fitzmaurice, sent me the book, she also sent me a copy of her newer book, A Diamond in the Desert! How cool is that? I had already promised to review TheYear the Swallows Came Early, and didn’t know when I might get to A Diamond in the Desert, but when I noticed it was historical fiction, a favorite of mine, AND had baseball, also a favorite of mine, I packed it along when I went on vacation recently. Let me tell you about this wonderful book.

It is 1942, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and American citizens of Japanese descent are being herded onto trains and buses with only what they can carry, to be transported to internment camps around the western United States. Twelve-year-old Tetsu Kishi is sent with his mother and little sister, Kimi, to Gila River, Arizona. But Papa is arrested and is being sent elsewhere. The family doesn’t know for how long.

“Her eyes searched mine, and I could see they were telling me the part she couldn’t say aloud: how she’d given away everything she treasured, a lifetime of things, and she didn’t know when my father was coming back, and she couldn’t take losing one more thing.”

Tetsu is a baseball star in his neighborhood, a terrific first-baseman and a solid hitter. He is the captain of his team. Besides his family, baseball is the most important thing in his life. Now he has to leave everything important to him behind, and he has no idea when or if he will play again.

The camp is a dismal place, but Tetsu and his family try to make the best of it. Tetsu makes friends with George and Horse, a couple of kind of tough guys who seem unlikely friends for a boy like Tetsu. Kimi catches lizards and makes pets of them, but she misses their dog terribly. Mama takes a job in the mess hall to earn some money and is gone often, leaving Tetsu to deal with his sister's needs. Two boys move in next door. Both boys play ball, and their father is a baseball coach. The coach vows to build a team and a baseball field to give the boys something to work for and give them some joy. But the lack of privacy and stark living conditions set up some problems for the family that take a terrible toll. Tetsu becomes impatient with his sister and runs off to play baseball, but he has to grow up in a hurry and decide what is really important to him when Kimi goes missing. A most unlikely hero steps up.

This is a quiet story told with absolutely beautiful writing, spare and poetic, rich and complex, a true surprise for what is really a boy story with sports in a very barren setting. The characters are complete and realistic in every way; the story is compelling and believable. It is clear Kathryn Fitzmaurice did her research. She has written a story that is destined to become a classic and will be read and enjoyed by boys and girls and adults. It is the kind of book kids will read over and over and will never suspect they are getting a big dose of history along the way. A Diamond in the Desert is a remarkable, memorable piece of work that should be in every library and on every middle- and high-school class reading list. Were I still teaching, I would certainly be using it in my class. If you don’t read another book this year, well, first of all, shame on you, but really this is the one to read. I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!

This is the kind of book that would usually have me saying, “I can’t part with this one, so, sorry, no giveaway this week," but I happen to have two AUTOGRAPHED copies (an embarrassment of riches!), so I am giving away one. Just leave a comment and I’ll put your name in the hat. Blog, link on Facebook, or Tweet a link to my blog and let me know for an extra entry. If you are looking for more Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday books, hop on over to Shannon Messenger's blog by clicking HERE. You can also check out her brand-spankin'-new book Keeper of the Lost City there as well.

And don't forget to check out my story in A Miracle Under the Christmas Tree.

On the book giveaway, this is for U.S. only. Sorry, but it would be too expensive for me to send books out of the country. But please leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you. Remember, if you have trouble leaving a comment, click on the title of the post and it will give you just this post with a comments section on the bottom. Also, if you haven’t signed up by email, please do. Just look in the upper right-hand corner of this page, pop your email address in, and you will receive an email each time I put up a new post. Your information will not be shared with anyone.

The Year the Swallows Came Early -- A Review and Giveaway

Thought for the day:

"Writing a first draft is very much like watching a Polaroid develop. You can't--and, in fact, you're not supposed to--know exactly what the picture is going to look like until it has finished developing." ~ Anne Lamott ~

A gift for my writer friends:

 Here are a couple of links I think you will find valuable.

Another good blog post on that old bugaboo, Show Don’t Tell –  http://kathytemean.wordpress.com/2012/10/01/show-dont-tell-when-to-break-the-rule/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WritingAndIllustrating+%28Writing+and+Illustrating%29

A good post on books with mythological connections –  http://mayrassecretbookcase.blogspot.com/2012/10/studying-mythology-consider-reading.html

 

For my fabulous giveaway, the winner is Ellen Ramsey! (Cue the fireworks please!) Congratulations to you, Ellen. I will be sending you a copy of Applewhites at Wit’s End. It is such a fun read, and I know you’ll enjoy it. I have another giveaway for today, so stay tuned.

A couple of weeks ago, I was the winner of a book on Elizabeth Stevens Omlor’s fun and informative blog, Banana Peelin’s: Up and Downs of Becoming a Children’s Writer. You can hop on over to her blog by clicking HERE. The book I won is The Year the Swallows Came Early by Kathryn Fitzmaurice. This is a lovely middle-grade novel and I’m happy to not only tell you about it, but offer my autographed copy to one of you out there in my giveaway today.

Eleven-year-old Groovy Robinson has plans for her future. She loves to cook and dreams of going to culinary school when she is grown. Her mother, a beautician, checks their horoscopes every day, and Groovy’s says she should “expect the unexpected.” That is the day big changes happen for Groovy. While she and her dad are walking into town, they are stopped by the town policeman, Officer Miguel. Before Groovy knows it, her father is being driven away in the back seat of the town police car. She is sure it’s a mistake, but when she tells her mother what has happened, her mother not only knows, but tells Groovy she is the one who called the police. It seems Groovy’s great-grandmother had left her enough money to send her to culinary school, but Groovy’s father gambled it away.

“I still thought a lot about Daddy. I thought about him during music class when Mr. Perez asked the class to play a slow song. I’d play that song on my oboe like I was the one who wrote it, like every high and low note was telling my story.”

Groovy’s best friend, Frankie, is there for her, along with his older half-brother, Luis, who owns The Swallow, a great little restaurant in the small town of Capistrano, California, where they all live. Luis often invites Groovy to help with the cooking at The Swallow and even shares some of their secret family recipes with Groovy, helping her work her way through her troubles at home.

Kathryn Fitzmaurice

The main story of Groovy and her troubles is nicely paralleled by Frankie’s story. His mother left a couple of years earlier, promising to not be gone long, but she hasn’t been back since. Frankie is so angry about this situation that he is sick to his stomach most of the time, popping antacids as if they were candy. Frankie and Groovy help each other come to grips with their problems and find their ways through to the other side of these troubles. All this happens against the backdrop of Capistrano, the mission ruins to which tiny swallows return each year to nest. This renewal of nature bears the promise of the future Groovy and Frankie have through forgiveness and love. Not everything is answered in this sweet novel, but then not everything is answered in life.

The Year the Swallows Came Early is a realistic story that will strike a note with far too many middle-grade kids. Kathryn Fitzmaurice's writing is wonderful, and a charming cast of small-town characters round out and support the story. Middle-grade girls will be especially enchanted by this book, but so will many others. I know I enjoyed every word.

One of you will win a gently-used, nicely-inscribed and autographed copy of this book. Just leave a comment and I’ll put your name in the hat. Blog, link on Facebook, or Tweet a link to my blog and let me know for an extra entry.

If you are interested in more great middle-grade books, check out Shannon Messenger's great blog every week on Mondays for Marvelous Middle Grade Monday. Click HERE to visit.

On the book giveaway, this is for U.S. only. Sorry, but it would be too expensive for me to send books out of the country. But please leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you. Remember, if you have trouble leaving a comment, click on the title of the post and it will give you just this post with a comments section on the bottom. Also, if you haven’t signed up by email, please do. Just look in the upper right-hand corner of this page, pop your email address in, and you will receive an email each time I put up a new post. Your information will not be shared with anyone.