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.
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
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