Twerp by Mark Goldblatt -- Review and Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

“Writing a book is like telling a joke and having to wait two years to know whether or not it was funny.” ~Alain de Botton~

Some Gifts for my Writer Friends:

For 22 Rules of Storytelling, click HERE.

HERE is a helpful post on why good people make good villains. 

Boy, do I hope this works. Click HERE for an excellent post on breaking through the creative block: 

A few weeks ago I reviewed Anna Olswanger's wonderful book Greenhorn. Anna sent me an email recently to let me know that there is a project in the works to make a film of her book. I thought you might like to take a look at what is going on with that. You can click HERE to find out more about the Greenhorn Film Project. 

I had a wonderful surprise recently. I was reading Adventures in YA Publishing, a blog run by Martina Boone and one on which I find tons of great information and more book giveaways than you can shake a stick at, and saw ME looking back at me. I was named blogger of the week! WooHoo! If you'd like to take a look, click HERE. If you aren't reading Adventures in YA Publishing regularly, you are really missing out on something wonderful.

Last post I offered a copy of Princess Academy by Shannon Hale to one of my readers. I am happy to announce Jennifer Rumberger is the lucky winner! (WootWoot!!) Jennifer is a children's writer and has a great blog. You can find about more about her by clicking HERE. Jennifer, I will be sending your book out this week.

This post will be short and (I hope!) sweet. I have been sitting in the sun most of the weekend watching my grandson in a baseball tournament. It was a lot of fun, but that much sun kind of wipes me out. So, just a short review and giveaway.

I recently read and reviewed a book called Twerp by Mark Goldblatt, not the movie guy, but the writer guy who happens to be a professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology -- seriously. I have to admit that when I was choosing books for review, I was kind of fascinated to find a book for the middle-grade set written by a prof at the Fashion Institute of Technology. I had to find out if it was any good. I have to tell you, this is one of my favorite books of the year. It reminded me of a couple of books by Gary D. Schmidt -- one of my favorite middle-grade authors. Twerp brought to mind Schmidt's books The Wednesday Wars and Okay for Now.  If you missed my review of Okay for Now, you can click HERE and read it. Anyway, back to Twerp.

Mark Goldblatt

Let me start by saying I LOVE this book. When I compare a book favorably with Gary D. Schmidt's books, it is high praise indeed. This book will not only transport you back to your childhood, but will transport you to the 1960s in a very palpable way. The main character, Julian Twerski, is truly a character, if you know what I mean. He was involved in a terrible case of bullying for which he and others were suspended for a week. When he comes back to school, he is told by his English teacher, Mr. Selkirk, he can keep a journal for the semester to make up for what he did and (here is the bonus) he will also be excused from the Julius Caesar essay. He does, however, have to write about the "incident." That seems easy enough until he is faced with that blank page on which he must bare his soul. We are treated to his journal for that time and see through his eyes what his life is like. But what we don't find out until the end is what the incident was. It was just too hard for him to write, so, like most of us, he puts it off until the last possible moment. With good reason. Along the way, we watch Julian fall in love, lose friends, discover the humanity of his older sister, and much, much more. I don't want to give too much away. I just want to encourage you to READ THIS BOOK! 

I kind of hate to give away my copy of this book, but I feel like I have to share it. It is that good. So I am offering my own hardcover copy in this drawing. If you are a follower and leave a comment, your name goes in the hat. If you aren't a follower yet, just look for the "Join this site" and join. That simple. Then leave a comment. If you tweet the link or post it on Facebook or on your blog, let me know and you will get extra chances.This drawing is for U.S. addresses only.

Make sure you stop by Shannon Messenger's wonderful blog for more Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday posts and giveaways. you can find it by clicking HERE.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading and please leave a comment. I love to hear from you.