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.

I'm Back ... With a Book Review of May B.

Hello Blog Readers. I know some of you must think I fell off the edge of the world, but I didn’t. After the craziness of the holidays, my husband was hit with some serious germs, and I have spent my time nursing and worrying. We aren’t out of the woods yet and won’t be for quite awhile, so please excuse me if my blogging is spotty over the next couple of months.

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

I ran across this quote recently and think it really speaks to writers. I am going to make a little poster of it and hang it in my office. I thought it would be a nice way to start the blog post today. I think it would be equally useful for things other than writing, like decorating and fashion design and ………., well, who knows. You might want to fill in the blank yourself. But it is a particularly appropriate quote for a review of a fine book written in verse.

Last April, I reviewed a marvelous book, Three Rivers Rising by Jaime Richards. First, it is historical fiction – well researched and a compelling story. Second, it was written in verse. I found that fascinating. The language was so spare and beautiful. If you missed the review, you can read it HERE . There is also a nice interview with Jaime HERE .

You might wonder why I am bringing up these posts from last year, but I have a reason. It is by way of introducing a brand new book, just released this month. It is also historical fiction and is also written in verse. Now I love historical fiction. I love to read it and I love to write it. My second (not yet published) novel is historical fiction, and I have some other such pieces in the pipeline. But verse? Holy Guacamole! I don’t know how people do this, but Caroline Starr Rose has done it so very nicely in her debut novel, May B.

Caroline Starr Rose

12-year-old Mavis Betterly, May B., has lived most of her life in the plains of Kansas. It is the late 1800s and May and her family live in a sod house (soddy) miles from neighbors or towns. Her best friend is her older brother Hiram, who defends May when her reading disability makes things hard for her at school. It’s a hard life and the family of four struggles. When a neighbor offers to hire May to help his new wife with cooking and housework, May’s father agrees. May doesn’t want to go, but is given no choice. She worries about missing school, especially since she has such trouble reading. Her dream is to become a teacher one day, and she knows she can’t accomplish that if she can’t go to school. Her father promises he will get her back before Christmas, but five months stretches immeasurably for May.

Mrs. Oblinger is young. May thinks she’s not much older than May is. And she is a town girl – apparently miserable in her new life. Mr. Oblinger is a kind man and tries in every way to make his new wife happy. May does her work and thinks about home and her own family.

Ma’s probably rolling dough,

Humming.

Maybe Hiram’s grinding coffee

Now that I’m not there to help.

He’s already brought the milk pail in.

When Pa gets back,

He’ll share what he heard in town.

May isn’t particularly happy or comfortable, but it’s clear she will do what she needs to do to meet the obligation her father set for her. One day, Mrs. Oblinger says she is going for a ride, but leaves a note behind saying that she is going home. When Mr. Oblinger reads the note, he takes the rifle, gets into his wagon, and tells May to not hold supper. He might be awhile.

Fear flashes inside me.

Pa never left Hiram and me without

protection.

All around me there is nothing

but the prairie and the sky.

“Silly girl,” I tell myself.

“There’s no reason to worry.”

But it takes time for my heart to slow.

May faces something few could – loneliness, fear, few supplies, wolves, and finally a huge blizzard. This is a story of courage and perseverance and resourcefulness. It is told in the clear voice of a young girl, true to the time and place of the story. It is beautifully written and a compelling read. You can easily read it in a day and I recommend you do. It is well worth your time.

Here is a link to a great book give-away you might want to check out: http://caseylmccormick.blogspot.com/2012/01/2000-follower-awesome-giveaway.html

If you are reading this in your email, don’t forget to click on the headline to go to my blog. If you haven’t subscribed yet, please do. And please leave a comment. If you have trouble leaving a comment, please click on the title of the post and comments should pop up at the bottom. If you don’t have one of the accounts they ask for or don’t want to use that, please use Anonymous, but let me know who you are. Thanks. I love to hear from you.