The Safest Lie -- Review and Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

"You can fix anything but a blank page." 

~ Nora Roberts ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

I have been saving this one for quite awhile. So just in time for Halloween writing: Adventures in YA Publishing has a great post up called How to Write Scary by Gretchen McNeil. I know I would like to be better at writing scary. Click HERE to give it a read. 

Aerogramme Writers’ Studio has a post by Patti Frazee called Who is Your Boo Radley? Finding Characters Who Motivate You to Write. Click HERE for a very worthwhile post. 

Rachelle Gardner has a great post on creating a compelling book title HERE. This is something a lot of us struggle with. I know I do.

Last week, I offered a gently-read ARC of The Girl in the Torch by Robert Sharenow to one of you. It was nice to see poet Liz Steinglass pop in and leave a comment, and it was her name that popped out of the hat. Congratulations, Liz! If you aren't familiar with Liz or her work, hop on over to her page HERE and check it out. Liz, I will get your book out to you this week. For the rest of you, I do have another great giveaway this week.

When I choose the books I review for the San Francisco Book Review, I always

keep my eyes open for good historical fiction. Even though I reviewed one last week, I can't resist reviewing another this week. Angela Cerrito wrote a wonderful middle-grade historical that came out this summer called The Safest Lie. Here is the five-star review I wrote. 

Life in the Warsaw Ghetto is almost unimaginable, even for those living it. Nine-year-old Anna Bauman is shocked each time she sees the number of people begging for crumbs from those who have so little. Her mother tells her she must become someone else and begins teaching her Catholic prayers and the life history of a girl named Anna Karwolska, who Anna is to become. Soon a young woman smuggles Anna out of the Ghetto and to a Catholic orphanage.  There for three years, she witnesses the huge sacrifices the nuns make to shelter and protect children from the despicable acts of Nazis. From the orphanage she is moved to a Polish farm family, always keeping her secret, always being Ana Karwolska, always praying to rejoin her parents.

“I must not forget being Anna Bauman. Remembering my real self is a bright flame of truth inside me.”

Angela Cerrito has written a powerful story in honor of and based on the life of

Angela Cerrito

Irena Sendler, a woman who worked with the resistance to save thousands of Jewish children. Cerrito traveled to Poland to meet with Sendler and to research for this book. All that work shows. This is historical fiction at it’s very best and deserves readership far beyond its targeted middle-grade audience.

I have a very gently-read ARC 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.