Thought for the Day:
“Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.”
~ Mark Twain ~
Gifts for My Writer Friends:
You never know what you will find on writing blogs. I have a LOT of trouble sleeping — getting to sleep, staying asleep, getting back to sleep if I wake up in the night. When I read Marilyn Knowles post on Writer’s Rumpus I knew I had to try what she has to say HERE. You might want to check this out.
Janice Hardy at Fiction University always has such good advice. HERE you can read her suggestions on showing vs. telling.
K. M.Weiland has a post HERE full of good examples and great reminders about the use of “said” in our writing.
Last week I offered a copy of Lost in the Sun by Lisa Graff to one of you. This week's winner is Cindy Tran. Congratulations, Cindy! I will get the book out to you this week. If you don't know Cindy, she is a 12-year-old reader and blogger who runs a lot of book reviews. Check out her blog HERE. For the rest of you, I do have another wonderful book to give away, so keep reading.
This week I want to tell you about a terrific middle-grade novel that was a real surprise to me. It is The Seventh Most Important Thing by Shelley Pearsall. When I read the description of the book, I asked the San Francisco Book Review to hang onto it for me. Here is the review I wrote for them.
Arthur Owens loses his father the same year Kennedy is killed. Life isn’t easy. His mother works two lousy jobs to keep things going. Arthur, 13, is angry when his mother gets rid of the last of his dad’s things, but when he sees an old junk picker wearing his father’s hat, without even knowing what he is doing, Arthur picks up a brick and throws it at the old man. Facing a long time in juvenile hall, he tells the judge what set him off. The old man he had hit stands up in court and asks to speak to the judge. The next thing he knows, Arthur is working for the junk picker with very strange assignments to find particular junk each week. Still, it’s better than going back to juvenile hall. Then something extraordinary happens, and Arthur’s life is changed.
“As they stood there in the darkness, with little sunbursts
of light from the tree shining on their clothes and faces,
Arthur felt strangely hopeful for a minute. It was as if
their old life had briefly flickered back on, like an old
movie—as if none of the bad things had happened to
them yet.”
This amazing coming-of-age story will enthrall middle-grade readers and anyone
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| Shelley Pearsall |
I have a gently-read hardback copy of this book for one of you. To win, all you need do is have a US address, be a subscriber or follower, and tell me that in a comment you leave on this post. If you are reading this in your email, click HERE to go to the blog so you can leave a comment. If you would like extra chances, please spread the word by posting the link on a Tweet, blog post, Facebook, or any other way you like. Let me know what you have done in your comment, and I will put in extra chances for you for each that you do.
Don't forget to check out Shannon Messenger's wonderful blog HERE for many more Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday reviews and giveaways.
