Big and Little Questions (According to Wren Jo Byrd) -- Review and Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

”Writing has so much to give, so much to teach, so many surprises. That thing you had to force yourself to do---the actual act of writing -- turns out to be the best part. It's like discovering that while you thought you needed the tea ceremony for the caffeine, what you really needed was the tea ceremony. The act of writing turns out to be its own reward. 

~ Anne Lamott ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Cathy Ballou Mealy has a terrific post HERE on changing your perspective to give you a kick in the writing pants. 

Writer’s Digest publishes some interesting guest posts. HERE Catherine Egan gives us 7 Writing Rules You Can Ignore. 

Augusta Scattergood has a nice post about naming HERE on the Nerdy Book Club blog.

I don't mention picture books too often here, but I won a copy of a new picture book from Carol Federlin Baldwin and Joyce Moyer Hostetter on their Talking Story newsletter. You can visit HERE. The book is a wonderful new biography of Dorothea Lange and if you enjoy picture book biographies, you are sure to enjoy this one by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Sarah Green.

Last week, I offered an ARC of Ronit & Jamil to one of you. This week's winner is Ruth Tenzer Feldman. If you don't know Ruth, she is a very well-published author from the Pacific Northwest. You can learn more about her and her books HERE. Congratulations, Ruth! I will be getting the book out to you this week. For the rest of you, please keep reading. I have a very sweet book to give away.

I read about a middle-grade novel somewhere -- wish I could remember where -- and asked the folks at Manhattan Book Review to try to get a copy for me. They did, and I'm happy to share it with you today. The book is Big & Little Questions (According to Wren Jo Byrd) by Julie Bowe and here is the review I wrote for Manhattan Book Review.

Wren, nine years old, has been away for two months staying with her grandparents. She hasn’t texted or talked with her best friend, Amber, all that time. She just doesn’t know what to say or how to tell Amber that Wren’s family isn’t a family any more. Her parents are getting a divorce. But when Wren gets back at the end of summer, she discovers Amber is pretty mad and she has made a new friend, Mariana, who doesn’t seem very nice. But things aren’t always what they seem to be. Navigating middle school is tough enough without a disintegrating family, but Wren finds her way through the morass of having divorcing parents and living in two homes, and she also finds some new friendships and renews some old ones.

Julie Bowe has written a very engaging book for younger middle-graders that

Julie Bowe
Photo Credit: Jake Avery

tackles some tough topics — divorce, friendship, lying, secrets, and more. The voice (first-person narration) is spot on, the characters, both children and adults, are very believable, and the small-town setting is perfect to contain this story. This should be very popular with the middle-grade set and beyond. 

I have a gently-read hardback copy of this sweet book to share with 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.

Ronit & Jamil -- a Review and Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.”

~ Zig Ziglar ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Janice Hardy again with a great revision trick HERE about getting rid of passive voice. 

I received an email from Alex at Ride the Pen with a link to this absolutely spectacular post about getting rid of thought verbs and strengthening your writing HERE. Do not miss this one. 

Writer’s in the Storm has a great post HERE on how to get your characters through adversity. 

Maybe I will find the way back to my writing. The flip house I have been working on is finished and went on the market yesterday. Fingers crossed! If you are interested in seeing what we came up with, you can click HERE. And if you know anyone who lives near Sacramento and needs a house, send them this way. 

Last week I offered a chance to win one copy each of Olga and the Smelly Thing from Nowhere by Elise Gravel and Stick Cat by Tom Watson along with some art work from both. I've never done a giveaway from a publisher before, but the way it works is I send them the winner's information and they will send out the prize, so I have little control on timing. This week's winner is Dorine White. Congratulations, Dorine! If you don't know Dorine, she is a writer of YA and MG fantasy and has several books published. You can read more about her and find some good book reviews at her blog, The Write Path, HERE. Dorine, I will ask the publisher to send your prize post haste. For the rest of you, please keep reading. I have another giveaway.

I am becoming more and more enamored with books in verse, so I always grab them when they come up for review. Part of the attraction for me is the brevity. I simply can get through more books when they are written in verse, but beyond that they are generally great stories and really well written. They sometimes attack difficult subjects and are a conduit to good discussions with young people who see books in verse as very accessible. This week's choice was offered to me through Manhattan Book Review, and I snapped it right up. The book is Ronit & Jamil by Pamela L. Laskin, and here is the review I wrote for them.

Ronit, an Israeli teen, lives with her parents and sisters near the wall that separates her village from the Palestinian territory. Ronit goes with her father, a pharmacist, to a clinic in East Jerusalem run by an Arab doctor. The doctor’s son, Jamil, is there. Both fathers warn their children to not look at the other. Of course, they do look at each other and find each is fascinated with the other. Soon they are finding ways to meet and spend time together, and, inevitably, they fall in love. Over time, their love deepens, and they become more and more desperate to be together. But the danger is always that their families will discover their relationship and put an end to it.

The Israeli/Palestinian conflict is one many young Americans know little about.

Pamela L. Laskin

This modern retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet is an excellent story to use to introduce the issue. It is a short book, beautifully written in spare, lyrical verse that incorporates lines from Shakespeare’s play as well as from Middle-Eastern poetry. Author Pamela L. Laskin also uses some Middle-Eastern poetic forms. This book will likely become a classroom favorite.

I have an ARC of this lovely tome to share with 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. 

Olga and the Smelly Thing from Nowhere & Stick Cat -- Double Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

“Writing is hard for every last one of us… Coal mining is harder. Do you think

coal miners stand around all day talking about how hard it is to mine for coal?

They do not. They simply dig.”

~ Cheryl Strayed ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

We all know our epic novels are made of lots of scenes, but do we always pay attention to making each scene the best we can? Bookfox has a great post HERE to help us make sure we do. 

K. M. Weiland has a wonderful post HERE that will help you keep your readers riveted by your writing. 

We all suffer from writer’s block now and again (or if you are like me, for months on end!). Group Blog has a great post HERE to help you break through. It is filled with a veritable plethora of idea to get you out of a writers miasma. 

When we last met here, I promised a gently-read, autographed hardback copy of Making Friends with Billy Wong, Augusta Scattergood's wonderful new book, to one of you. Our winner this week is Jenni Enzor. Congratulations, Jenni! Thanks for reading and commenting. I will get the book out to you this week. For those of you who don't know Jenni, you can read some mighty fine book reviews at her blog HERE. She is also a writer of middle-grade fiction. Check it out. Please keep reading as I have a rather special giveaway this week.

I was contacted by a publicist at HarperCollins last month to see if I would like to host a giveaway on my blog for two new middle-grade books. They looked pretty cute, so I agreed. I received my copies just a few days ago so have only read one and partially read the other. (Thanks, HarperCollins, for sending me copies and providing the prize package!) 

Olga and the Smelly Thing from Nowhere by Elise Gravel is for the younger middle-grade set. It's the story of a girl who loves animals and discovers a new species -- a strange-looking, smelly thing -- and how she discovers what it likes and how to keep it happy. There are some fun characters her age and even a couple of cool adults who help her along the way. The book is FULL of black, red, and grey illustrations -- very cute ones that really support the story. There is a LOT farting, peeing, and pooping in the book -- not exactly my cup of tea -- but I asked my granddaughter to read some of it and give me her opinion. She thought it was hysterical, so it should do well with the kiddies.

Stick Cat by Tom Watson brings to mind the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and

Big Nate books, books I happen to love. I've only read a few pages of Stick Cat, but I can already tell I will like it a lot.  Here is the blurb from HarperCollins: "In the first adventure (available now), it’s a big day in the big city for Stick Cat and his best friend, Edith. There are treasures to hunt, songs to sing, pigeons to catch, and naps to take. But way up on the 23rd floor, danger lurks just around the corner. Terrible noises and violent crashes trap a desperate man in the building across the alley. Stick Cat will need to navigate his way across the alley—and around Edith’s peculiar ways—to attempt a rescue." I am really looking forward to finishing it. I suspect I will laugh a lot.

HarperCollins has offered one copy of each book and art prints from each of the books creators to one lucky winner. 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. 

Making Friends with Billy Wong -- Review and Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

“A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it,

ignore it; or offer your own version in return. 

~ Salman Rushdie ~ 

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Janice Hardy has been running a 28-day revision workshop. I could have posted links to all of them, but I have picked some that I thought were particularly useful. HERE is one. 

Ride the Pen has a free mini-guide HERE to avoiding the problem of telling instead of showing. 

Just for fun, Buzzfeeds list of 37 of the Most Heartbreakingly Beautiful Lines in Literature is HERE for you to peruse. Yeah, I'd like to write just one sentence as good as most of these.

I am happy to report I have finally shaken the flu that knocked me down for so long. I feel fine for the first time in a long time. And on the house flipping front, we are almost at the finish line. This week there are only a few little touch-up kind of jobs left. We have window and house cleaners coming in and hope to have open house showings next weekend. It has been so much fun. My business partner and I are anxious to find another house to do it all over again.

Last time I posted, I offered a copy of Janet Smart's Duck & Cover to one of you. This time, Patricia Tilton is our winner. Congratulations, Patricia! I will get your book out soon. If you don't know Patricia, she is an Ohio writer for children and blogs at Children's Books Heal. Check it out HERE. It is worth your time. I have another great giveaway, so please keep reading.

Several weeks ago, Carol Baldwin offered a giveaway on her blog, Carol Baldwin's Blog (HERE). Now, I am way behind on my book reviews and trying to get rid of books, not get more of them, so I often leave myself out of drawings, but sometimes the book is one I can't resist. This was one of those times. It was for Making Friends with Billy Wong by Augusta Scattergood. I had read and loved Augusta's other two books but hadn't gotten to read this one, so I threw my hat in the ring. I was surprised a couple days later to receive an email from Augusta saying she would like to send me a copy, that she was interested in my thoughts on the book. Kowabunga! How cool is that? So now I will share my thoughts on the book with all of you.

It is the 1950s and Azalea Morgan, eleven, is looking forward to spending the summer hanging out with her best friend when her parents announce they are taking her to stay with a grandmother she has never met, a grandmother who has injured her foot and needs a helper for several weeks. Azalea is not happy. Being stuck in the little town of Paris Junction, Arkansas instead of her home in Texas is not her idea of a good time. When her grandmother suggests she should make friends with a boy named Billy Wong, Azalea can't imagine making new friends (she is very shy) but particularly with a Chinese boy. Grandma has arranged for some of the children in the town to help in her very extensive garden. Billy is one of them. The other two are a local delinquent and a stuck-up prima donna. The summer is a real eye-opener for Azalea. She makes a great new friend, learns that people aren't always what they seem, and families can be full of surprises. 

The characters are complex, palpably real, and easy to like and relate to. The

Augusta Scattergood

setting gives a real taste of small-town America in the 1950s. The story is rich and the writing  is simply lovely. This is a book that deserves readership far beyond its intended middle-grade audience. I loved it. Honestly, I think this one just might be my favorite of Augusta's books. 

I have a signed hardback copy to share with 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.