All Four Stars -- Review and Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

“Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, 

and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. 

You simply must do things.” 

~ Ray Bradbury ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

K. M. Weiland has a list HERE of ten tools to make writers more efficient. Check it out.

For some good ideas on helpful critiques from Writers Rumpus, click HERE.

Dealing with rejections? HERE and HERE are a couple of links that will help you out. 

Last week, I offered my ARC of The Secret Hum of a Daisy by Tracy Holczer to one of my readers. This week's winner is Helen! Congratulations, Helen. I will get the book out to you this week. For the rest of you, another great giveaway coming up this week, so stay tuned to the end.

I have a positively delicious middle-grade book this week. A few weeks ago, I was the lucky winner of a brand-spankin' new hardback copy of All Four Stars by Tara Dairman from the Literary Rambles blog. If you aren't reading Literary Rambles, you are missing a good bet. Casey McCormick and Natalie Aguirre share duties there and do a lot of book reviews, book giveaways, author interviews, and agent spotlights. There are great resources there. Click HERE to check it out.

Anyway, it took me awhile to find time to read All Four Stars, but it was sure worth the wait. What a fun read. Gladys Gatsby, eleven, loves good food and, even more, loves to cook it. Unfortunately, Gladys's parents are terrible cooks, have absolutely no palate, and certainly don't encourage Gladys's passion. Gladys, a latch-key kid, does all her cooking after school and before her parents get home. She airs out the house and hides the evidence each day, so her parents won't know what she's up to. All is going well until Gladys uses her father's blow torch (Yup. I said blow torch!) to make creme brulee, but sets the kitchen on fire. And, of course, her parents come home early that day. This is not the best day for Gladys. She is forbidden to cook anything, has her allowance cut off until the curtains are paid for, and is ordered to do more "kid" activities like playing video games, watching sitcoms, etc. How will Gladys ever get back to cooking and eating good food? 

Tara Dairman has written a peach of a book for middle-graders and anyone else

Tara Dairman

who loves funny, creative stories. I love the upside-down life of Gladys Gatsby with parents who seem to want the opposite for Gladys than any parents would. I love the persistence and creativity of Gladys. I love the middle-school problems she faces being something of an outsider. In fact, there is nothing about this book I don't love. I just had so much fun reading it, and I know you will as well. Get hold of a copy. This is a real winner.

I am offering my gently-read hardback copy of this to one of you. 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. 

And don't forget to check Shannon Messenger's wonderful blog for more Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday reviews and giveaways. Click HERE to visit.

The Secret Hum of a Daisy -- Review and Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

“Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten. Then when you hit puberty they take the crayons away and replace them

with dry, uninspiring books on algebra, history, etc. Being suddenly hit

years later with the ‘creative bug’ is just a wee voice telling you,

‘I’d like my crayons back, please.”

~ Hugh MacLeod ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Has anyone ever suggested you get rid of one of your characters? (But he’s like my CHILD!! you scream.) Margo Kelly does a guest post HERE at Fiction University on just that topic. It’s good!

Writer’s Digest published an article HERE called 5 Moral Dilemmas That Make Characters (& Stories) Better. Don’t miss this one.

HERE you can find an article that lists fifteen classic children’s books that have been banned and why. Winnie the Pooh an insult to God? Green Eggs and Ham for homosexual seduction? The Merriam Webster Dictionary? Really. You must read this. Fascinating. 

Last week I offered copies of Leroy Ninker Saddles Up by Kate DiCamillo and Family Ties by Gary Paulsen to one of you. I am happy to announce that Jes@Fairday's Blog is the winner! WooHoo, Jes! It pays to spread the word. Jes got two extra chances in the drawing this week, and it brought her luck. Thanks, Jes. If you aren't familiar with the blog, you can find it by clicking HERE. Pretty interesting reading! I will get the books out to you this week.

I have been at a baseball tournament the last two days, and today was a long, long day. We were gone for twelve hours, and I am simply beat, so I am going to post the review I wrote for the San Francisco Book Review of a wonderful book I read a couple months ago. This is a good one and I highly recommend it.

It had always been Grace and Mama, just the two of them, always on the move, never staying any place for long. Grace knows more about being the new kid at school than any kid should. By the time Grace is twelve, she really wants a home, a place to settle and have friends, not just acquaintances. And Grace thinks they have found the right place. Mrs. Green and Lacey are their whole family just like Grace and Mama. They rent a cottage from Mrs. Green, and Lacey and Grace become fast friends. Everything seems perfect, but Mama lets Grace know they will be moving again. Grace is mad and lets Mama know. The last words she speaks to Mama are angry ones. But Grace could not know they would be the last words. And now Mama is gone and a grandmother Grace had never known comes and takes her away, a grandmother who had sent Grace’s Mama away when she was very young. Can they ever become a family?

“Everyone in the class sat there, quiet, giving a moment of silence to the death of Archer’s dignity, but all I wanted to do was ask him if he’d actually seen that girl—had I even smiled in the last five days?—or dreamed her up.”

Tracy Holczer has crafted a story that will touch the hearts of everyone who

Tracy Holczer -- Photo: Lisa Williams Photography

reads it. The writing is lyrically beautiful and the characters engaging. Don’t miss The Secret Hum of a Daisy.


You can win my gently-read copy of this wonderful book. 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 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. And don't forget to check Shannon Messenger's wonderful blog for more Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday reviews and giveaways. Click HERE to visit.