The Other Half of My Heart -- Review and Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

“You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”   

 ~ Maya Angelou ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Fiction University has a great post on character development you can find HERE.

The ladies at Writers Helping Writers have a fantastic post on how to have your characters show what they don’t want to show. I know. Really interesting, huh? Click HERE for this don’t-miss article.

The Chicago Manual of Style has a lot of good things to offer on-line. I get an email every so often with a question/answer session that I find really helpful. Click HERE for a look at one. 

Last week I offered a signed copy of Cousins and Robbers -- Tales of Black Jack Jetty by Michael A. Carestio to one of you. This week's winner is jennienzor. Congratulations to you, Jenni! I will be sending your book out this week. For the rest of you, I have another great giveaway, so keep reading.

A few months ago, I read about a book on Carol Baldwin's Blog that sounded terrific, and then I was lucky enough to win it! Yay for me! And thanks, Carol, for choosing me. I wasn't able to get time read The Other Half of My Heart by Sundee T. Frazier until our trip to Utah, but I was glad I had time to savor it. It is so good.  

Keira King and Minerva King, twin sisters, had a lot in common, but on the face of things they were very different. Keira was born black like their mother and Minerva was white, just like their father.  When the girls are eleven, their Grandmother Johnson sends for the girls to come to visit her in the South so they can compete in the Miss Black Pearl Preteen of America. Having grown up in Washington state, the South was really a foreign place to them. Before the trip, the girls go shopping with their paternal grandmother, and, for the first time, Minerva sees real bigotry against her twin. When they reach the south,  Keira is no longer the outsider. She fits right in to her grandmother's community. Minerva, on the other hand, finds herself suffering at the hands of bigots and realizes what her sister has been living with for a long time. 

The family Sundee T. Frazier has created is very authentic, with very real

Sundee T. Frazier at work

problems and relationships. The immediate family of the girls is close and loving. One of the grandmothers is also quite loving, while the other -- not so much. The prejudice Grandmother Johnson exhibits is a real eye-opener, not just for Minerva, but for all of the readers of this fine book. This book should be in every classroom and school library. It will do a lot of good. But beyond that, it is just a good story, well-written, and very powerful. It will open a lot of minds as Sundee T. Frazier's fan base grows. 

I will add one more to that growing fan base next week as I am going to give my inscribed hardback copy of The Other Half of My Heart to one of you. All you need do is have a US address, be a follower or subscriber (check the right-hand column -- it's free and easy), and leave a comment. If you want extra chances, Tweet about the give away or post about it on your blog or on Facebook. Let me know in your comment that you have done that, and I will give you extra chances. Next week, one of you will be the lucky winner.

Thanks for reading my blog. Now please click HERE to go over to Shannon Messenger's wonderful blog for more Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday reviews and giveaways.