Ruby on the Outside -- Review and Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

“First I got really grumpy, and then got very determined to write 

things that were so good that not even the stupidest most irritating 

gatekeeper alive could reject them.” 

~ Neil Gaiman on rejection ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

The Editor’s Blog has a great post HERE on compound words. This is not to be missed. 

Augusta Scattergood has a terrific post on setting HERE. Make sure you check out all the wonderful links on this one. It is chock full of great links. 

The Write Practice has one of the best post HERE I’ve seen on Show, Don’t Tell. It’s very clear. 

I know I've been gone for awhile longer than I expected. My trip east with my grandson was fine. Gehrig declared it a success as we sat in the 7th row by third base in Citizen's Bank Park and watched the Phillies wallop the Braves 12-2. It's always fun when the home team wins. Last Sunday I had every intention of posting, but Gehrig had a baseball tournament and ended up playing late for the championship and winning! It made for a long but exciting day. I was just too worn out to post. I might not be here one of the next two weekends for the same reason. Everything pretty much takes a backseat to my grandkids, as it should.

I promised a hardback copy of Blue Birds by Carolyn Starr Rose last time I was here. Our winner this time is Janet Smart. Congratulations, Janet! I will get your book out this week. If you don't know Janet, she is a children's writer and blogs at Creative Writing in the Blackberry Patch, (Don't you love that title?) which you can find HERE. For the rest of you, I have another give away for this post, so please keep reading.

The book I'd like to tell you about is Ruby on the Outside by Nora Raleigh Baskin. I love this book and think it is really an important one. I hope all of you will have a chance to read it. Here is the review I wrote  for the San Francisco Book Review.

When you are eleven years old and ready to start middle school, everything, absolutely everything is a big deal. But if that is your life and your mother is in prison and you don’t have a best friend, it is much worse. This is the life Ruby Danes has — her mother in prison and Ruby has a chance at a new friend, Margalit, who could become that best friend. But when Margalit tells Ruby her brother is dead, his name triggers something in Ruby. She does some research and finds something that makes it seem everything will fall apart.

“I can’t remember anything specific from before my mom went to prison. We don’t talk about my real dad, but I know my mom was really young when she had me.” 

Nora Raleigh Baskin has written a really important book that speaks for a segment of our society that is badly underrepresented, but please don’t let that scare you away. This book is well-written with a compelling plot, great characters, and a message that will resonate with young people and more. While this book is marketed to upper middle-graders, it deserves a much broader audience. This story speaks to problems many young people face and may help readers be more understanding and

Nora Raleigh Baskin

compassionate. This is a touching, moving story that readers will really enjoy.

I have a very gently-read hardback 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.

Blue Birds -- Review and Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

“The business of the poet and the novelist is to show the sorriness underlying the grandest things and the grandeur underlying the sorriest things.” 

~ Thomas Hardy ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Adventures in YA Publishing has a terrific post HERE on making any scene more interesting. Check it out. 

K.M. Weiland has a terrific post HERE about writing a good character arc. It’s one of the best I’ve seen. 

HERE is a post by agent John M. Cusick about how to write the dreaded query. It’s a good one. 

First of all, a heads up. I may be taking a couple weeks off. Next Saturday, our grandson, Gehrig, and I will be flying to the east coast. There, Gehrig will attend The Ripken Experience, a week-long overnight baseball camp that will, hopefully, give him a leg up and a confidence boost as he starts high school. If you want to know more, click HERE to see the camp he will be attending. I will be able to attend his games every afternoon, but otherwise it's hands off -- let the boy breathe and grow. After his week in camp, we will attend a couple of major league games in Baltimore and Philadelphia, see Liberty Hall and Valley Forge before coming home. During the week I will be doing some touring, writing, and will have a short visit with our daughter who is in the national tour of Once, now in Washington DC at the Kennedy Center. I might get to posting for my blog, but I might just relax and not worry about it. So if you don't hear from me for a couple of weeks, please don't cross me off your list. I will be back. 

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming. Last week I promised one of you a copy of Ranger in Time: Danger in Ancient Rome by Kate Messner. Our winner this week is Jenni Enzor. Congratulations, Jenni! Jenni writes YA and MG and is a regular on Marvelous Middle-Grade Mondays. You can find her blog HERE. Jenni, I will get your book out to you this week. For the rest of you, I have another great giveaway, so stay tuned.

This week I will review Blue Birds by Caroline Starr Rose. Back in 2012, I reviewed Caroline's debut novel May B. If you missed that review, click HERE. It is a lovely book, as is her new book. I am always a little wary of books in verse, but the truth is I seem to fall in love with them as I read them. Here is the 5-star review I wrote for the San Francisco Book Review. 

Alis is twelve when her family sails from teeming, dirty London to the new world. It is 1587. They land on the island of Roanoke and expect to find English soldiers, including Alis’s beloved uncle, who had come before, but there is no one. All they find is some burned buildings and bones. At the same time, Kimi, a young girl of the Roanoke tribe, sees the settlers and is reminded of the deaths of her father and sister. Both girls have lost loved ones, yet they meet in the woods and find a way to become friends, each lacking a girl her own age to befriend. As animosity heats up between the English and the Roanoke, can these two girls survive the hostility and find a way to stay friends?

“But I am like a moth

dancing near a flame.

Thought there is danger,

I’m drawn ever closer.”

Caroline Starr Rose truly has a way with words. She tells this story in the voices

Caroline Starr Rose

of the two girls written in beautiful, lyrical free verse. The voices are distinct enough to not need it, but they are set in two different fonts. The story is compelling and filled with a range of emotions from longing, to sadness, to loneliness, to hope. This book should not be missed.

I have a very gently-read hardback 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.