Mayday -- Review and Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

“Literature is the art of discovering something extraordinary about ordinary people, and saying with ordinary words something extraordinary.”
~ Boris Pasternak ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Maybe the best two minutes you will spend this month can be found HERE. 

Anne R. Allen’s Blog has a must-read post that is full of links to help you right size your book. Click HERE for this great, rich post. I will be spending a lot of time in the “Too Much of a Good Thing?” section. 

Kathy Temean at Writing and Illustrating has great stuff to share with writers. Her post HERE is about intruder words and how to avoid them. Very worthwhile.

Last week, I offered a gently-read ARC of Joyce Moyer Hostetter's Aim to one of you. I had more hits on this post than I usually get in a month and more commenters than on any other post I've written. This week's winner is Donna Earnhardt. Congratulations, Donna! I will get the book out to you soon. And thanks for spreading the word. Those extra chances always help. For the rest of you, please keep reading. I have another wonderful book to give away this week. 

I first ran across Karen Harrington early in 2014 when I read her debut novel, Sure Signs of Crazy. If you missed my review, click HERE. There is also an interview with Karen there, so if you missed that post the first time, do check it out. I loved that book and was very excited when I was able to get her second book, Courage for Beginners. I was NOT disappointed. You can find my review of that one HERE.  I had a nice email from Karen a few months ago telling me she had a new book coming out, Mayday. Needless to say, I was thrilled to hear about it. More than that, she offered me an ARC. I think I liked it even better than her earlier novels. I must say, though, I would love to carve out a few days and read all her books again. They are just so good. Here is the review of Mayday I wrote for the San Francisco Book Review, although I added a little extra because their word limit is hard for me and I had a lot to say about this one.

Wayne Kovok is young, but already his life is divided into Before and After. In

Karen Harrington

Before, his mostly-absent dad is a jerk, his mom doesn’t smile much, and Wayne has learned to spout interesting facts to distract his mother, to fill in uncomfortable moments, and to dazzle pretty Sandy Showalter at school. When Wayne’s Uncle Reed is killed in Afghanistan, Wayne, his mother, and his retired drill-sergeant grandfather drive to the funeral. Wayne and his mother fly home and their plane crashes. Most passengers die and Reed’s flag is lost. Wayne and his mother survive, but After really begins when Wayne wakes up and finds an L-shaped scar across his face, his throat injured so he cannot speak, and Grandpa has come to live with them. Mom gets a new boyfriend and the scene where the boyfriend takes on Grandpa in a put-down contest is terrific. Wayne learns much about himself and his family as he searches far and wide for Reed’s flag.

“In the hour I’d known him, he’d already kept his promises. He made my mother smile and not wear her I need to watch English movies face. And he even stood boot to boot with Grandpa.”

Author Karen Harrington writes books that are full of heart with great characters readers will care deeply about and stories that are memorable and important. This is no exception. Her writing is lyrical and difficult topics are deftly handled throughout, and there are many difficult topics. This warm, wonderful coming-of-age book deserves readership far beyond a middle-grade audience. I Don't miss this one. It is simply too good. 

I have a gently-read paperback 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.

Aim -- Review and Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

“Not a wasted word. This has been a main point to my

literary thinking all my life.”  

~ Hunter S. Thompson ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Angela Ackerman has a good one HERE called Let’s Get Sensory: Powering Scenes Using the 5 Senses. 

Dr. John Yeoman has a fun and useful post HERE called How to Shape Great Stories with Word Games. 

Alex at Ride the Pen has some terrific ideas HERE about enriching your story with subtext. Warning: he uses a lot of bad words, but has good advice. 

Last week I offered a gently-read paperback of Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan to one of you. This week's winner is Helen! Congratulations, Helen. I will get the book out to you soon. For the rest of you, stay tuned. I have another wonderful book to give away.

Back in 2011, I reviewed a book called Healing Water: A Hawaiian Story by Joyce Moyer Hostetter. I loved that book (even though I called it Healing WaterS with a big, fat S when I reviewed it HERE). It was so different from anything else I had read. If you are not familiar with it, please check out the review. Anyway, when I heard Joyce had a new book coming out this year called Aim, I was really excited. When I was able to get my hands on an ARC, I was doubly excited. I was not disappointed. It's such a wonderful book. Here is the review I wrote for the San Francisco Book Review. 

Junior Bledsoe has much on his plate. His father’s a drunk, his granddaddy, who shares Junior’s bedroom, is a cranky, mean old man, World War II is looming, and the spinster next door is his teacher. Junior doesn’t see much reason to stay in school. He could be earning money so Momma could have something nice now and then. Junior has watched his father take apart and repair engines as long as he can remember. He’s sure he can do the same. His father goes out one night and is found dead in the morning. Now school really seems useless. Junior needs to find out how his father died. He learns a lot about his family and himself as he tries to discover what really happened.

“There we were, just sort of floating above the river—a grand

place to be on a school day, up at the height of the trees,

with the river below us, washing on downstream.”

Perhaps the true test of good fiction is that the reader must believe every word. That is the case with this wonderful story. Joyce Moyer Hostetter’s writing is

Joyce Moyer Hostetter

spectacular. She’s done excellent research and takes readers to another time and place and creates characters of great complexity and richness. The voice of young Junior Bledsoe is pitch-perfect in this first person narrative. Aim deserves a much wider readership than a middle-grade audience.

Joyce is a very prolific author and all her books deserve your time and attention. Please check them all out. She also has a newsletter about reading and writing that she and Carol Baldwin put out called Talking Story. You can see it by clicking HERE. It always has good things in it.  

Aim won't be out until October, but you can win an ARC here. I have a gently-read copy 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.

Counting by 7s -- Review and Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

“What we expect rarely occurs; what we don't expect is what happens.”

~ Holly Goldberg Sloan ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Tired of your characters all sounding alike. Kathy Temean at Writing and Illustrating has a good post HERE on giving your characters unique voices.

Angela Ackerman did a great gust post HERE on 5 mistakes writers make with setting. As always, Angela has something worth your while. 

Helen Pyne has a fine post HERE on Through the Tollbooth about getting to the end of your novel. This will help most writers. 

No giveaway last week as I was busy supporting my local library, but this week I have knocked another book off my TBR pile and have a giveaway for you. Maybe I am the last person on the planet to get around to reading the very popular Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan. After all, it has been out for almost two years, but I suspect there are a few others who still have this on their I'll-Get-to-It-Soon list. Maybe this will spur you on to get to it.

Willow Chance is 12 years old and is different from most kids her age in several ways. She is obsessed with a few things -- medical problems (she likes to diagnose people's problems), everything about nature, and she counts by 7s. I don't exaggerate when I say obsessed. If someone were to diagnose Willow, it would surely be a diagnosis of OCD. Willow is also adopted and her parents are older than the parents of most other kids with whom she goes to school. Not that she spends much time with those kids. She is really a loner and doesn't have friends. And she is smarter than all the other kids -- probably than most of her teachers! When she is given a state-mandated test, she finishes it in no time and gets a perfect score. The teacher and principal can only come to one conclusion -- she cheated. She is sent for counseling. This is truly life-changing for Willow. Not because her counselor is so good at his job. Anything but. 

Counselor Dell Duke doesn't love his job, but he tolerates it and truly tries to do no harm. But counseling doesn't seem to be a big part of it. The good he does, for the most part, is pretty accidental. But Willow finds a couple other kids, a brother and sister named Quang-ha and Mai, on her forays to Dell Duke's office and decides she wants to be friends with the sister. Naturally, Willow teaches herself Vietnamese to be able to make that friend. It is on one visit to Duke that he ends up taking them all home and, when they arrive at Willow's home, they discover Willow's parents have both been killed in a terrible accident. Thus begins a journey that draws all these people (and a couple more) into a fascinating alliance and changes every one of them in wonderful ways. The writing, characters, and story are all amazing. I need to find out what else Holly Goldberg Sloan has written and add her other books to my TBR list.

Holly Goldberg Sloan

There are a lot of dead-parent stories, it seems, in middle-grade literature. Sometimes it seems a bit much, but I understand the reason for it. If a writer thinks about what worries kids this age, this is probably the very thing that worries them most. For Willow, this is the most devastating since she has no other relatives she knows of. That almost certainly means foster care -- something kids this age worry about too -- but this is a story that is filled with hope and personal growth and is anything but a dead-parent downer. I loved this book and found it so uplifting. If you haven't read it yet, I hope you will. To that end, I will pass along my copy to one of you.

I have a gently-read paperback 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.

Wolf Hollow -- a Review

Thought for the Day:

“To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the

beautiful thing: that is enough for one man’s life.”
~ T.S. Eliot ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Steven Pressfield has a really interesting post HERE about writing out of sequence. I never would have thought of doing this, but now maybe I will.

The Editor’s Blog always has great stuff. The post HERE on reviving scenes with verbs is really terrific.  

HERE are writing tips from 50 famous authors. Some good stuff and some that seems silly. 

When last we met, I promised a gently-read hardback of Maybe a Fox by Kathi Appelt and Alison McGhee to one of you. This week's winner is books4learning. I don't know the person's real name, but you can see his/her blog HERE, and she/he is an educator and avid reader of children's books. Congratulations, books4learning! I will get your book out this week. I have no giveaway this week, but I have a review of a terrific book, so I hope you will all keep reading.

I have had some adult books from the San Francisco Book Review I had to get through so haven't anything lined up for a giveaway, but I did get to the library and finally knock one of the books off my TBR list that has been at the top for awhile. It is Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk. Goodness! What a wonderful book. I'm so glad I got to it. 

Lauren Wolk with her book Wolf Hollow

Annabelle lives with her parents, two younger brothers, her grandparents, and cranky Aunt Lily on a farm near a small town in Pennsylvania. It is 1943 with WWII raging across the ocean, but echoing even in America's small towns. These are simple people and their lives are simple and comfortable. The children walk to school each day through Wolf Hollow, the little boys spurting ahead of Annabelle and leaving her walking on her own. Sometimes she sees Toby in the fields as she's walking. He's an odd fellow who lives in the hills, seldom talks or interacts with anyone, and lives in an old smokehouse. But Annabelle has always known he is a good person and has never been afraid of him.

One day a new girl shows up as Annabelle is walking to school and threatens Annabelle. He name is Betty and she is clearly a bully. But Annabelle says nothing to anyone and decides to handle this on her own. She hears that Betty has been sent to live with her grandparents because she is incorrigible, a word new to Annabelle, but one she soon understands. Betty's behavior escalates and she curries favor with a boy named Andy to assists her in some of her more nefarious escapades. But when Annabelle's little brother James is injured by one of Betty and Andy's nasty tricks, Annabelle nows she must get help in stopping her. Betty turns everything around on Annabelle and soon the town is divided. Things get even worse as Annabelle's best friend Ruth is terribly hurt, and Betty claims the deed was done by Toby. And when Betty disappears, Toby is immediately suspected. How much worse can it get? 

This book should be very high on everyone's TBR list. It is certainly one of the best I have read in a very long time. It reminds me in many ways of To Kill a Mockingbird, and I can't think of much higher praise than that. The writing is amazing. The story and characters and setting are a perfect confluence for a most memorable book, one that should become an instant classic. Even though this is marketed as a middle-grade book, it should be much more widely read than that. Get this book. Read it. And do it soon. It's just so good!

While I don't have a giveaway this week, I will have one next week, so please come back. If you are reading this in your email, click HERE to go to the blog so you can leave a comment. 

Don't forget to check out Shannon Messenger's wonderful blog HERE for many more Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday reviews and giveaways.

Maybe a Fox -- Review and Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

"Gather knowledge about the craft of writing. Immerse yourself in the art of it. Then write.

Write yourself silly. Write yourself mad. Write yourself blind. Trust the excitement that builds

within you when the idea is good and the writing is superb. You can do it, but that's the hell of it as well as the exultation of it. You have to do it.”

~ Elizabeth George ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Think you have a good idea for a book? Janice Hardy at Fiction University has some questions HERE you should ask yourself before embarking on that writing journey. 

Helen Pyne has a terrific post on Through the Tollbooth HERE about how to use setting to reveal much about your characters. 

Alex Limberg has a good post HERE on spiffing up your dialogue — always a good idea.

Last week I promised one of you a paperback copy of Patriot Papers: Bursting with Fun Facts about America's Early Rebels. This week's winner is Patty Hawthorne. Congratulations, Patty! I will get the book out to you this week. For the rest of you, hang on. Another great giveaway coming this week.

I found myself in a strange position this week of having nothing already reviewed and in my queue. My reading and reviewing was cut way back during my husband's long illness, so the well was pretty dry. I do have quite a TBR pile, though, books I don't seem to get to since there always seems to be a book I need to review that has a deadline. On top of the pile? Maybe a Fox by Kathi Appelt and Alison McGhee. I have really meant to get to this one for quite a while, but life got in the way. 

Jules and her sister Sylvie are best friends, but like best friends and sisters, sometimes they argue and want to do things differently from the other. Sylvie is a runner, the fastest runner in their school. Jules is a rock hound with a huge collection of all kinds of rocks, including several wishing rocks. They know from a neighbor woman that if they put their wish on a rock and throw it into "the Slip," a place where the river boils and disappears into the ground, their wish may come true. The girls are strictly forbidden by their father to go anywhere near the Slip. But one morning, Sylvie insists she will run quickly to the Slip and back, in plenty of time to catch the school bus. Jules tries to stop her, but Sylvie slips away, leaving Jules with only Sylvie's empty mitten in her hand. And Sylvie is gone. 

Kathi Appelt

The girls' good friend, Sam, tries to be there for Jules, but he is dealing with losses of his own besides the loss of Sylvie. Though his wishing rocks seem to have worked, bringing his brother, Elk, home from Afghanistan, Elk's best friend, Zeke, did not return, and it is a terrible loss for both the boys. And Elk is not the same, adding to Sam's loss.

At the same time, a fox is about to give birth to three kits, one of which, the mother realizes, is a Kennen, a magical being with a special connection to other Kennen beings, human and animal. The reader comes to realize that the little fox kit, Senna, is somehow connected to Jules. Can all these damaged people be helped by the magical creatures in this story? 

Alison McGhee

I am not a big fantasy reader, but this is such an enchanting book, I am really glad I picked it up. The writing is beautiful, the story is terribly sad and sweet, and the characters will grab your heart and leave an indelible impression. Keep the tissues handy, but make time to get to this one. It's lovely.

I have a gently-read hardback 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.