Watch Out for Flying Kids -- Review and Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

"Start writing something and the ideas will come. You have to turn 

the faucet on before the water starts to flow." 

~ Louis L’Amour ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

The Write Practice has an interesting post on Point of View. Most writers know a lot of what’s HERE, but there are some new things. 

Writers Helping Writers is such a good blog. Everyone should read it all the time. I don’t mention it here nearly enough. A guest post by PK Hrezo on voice (click HERE) is really worth your time. Don’t miss it. 

K. M. Weiland has a really important post on paragraph mistakes and how to avoid them. Check it out HERE. 

I am a little brain-dead tonight as I write this. It was another baseball tournament weekend. On Saturday our boys did not play well and were soundly beaten in one game and barely squeaked a win in the other putting them in 5th position of six teams. That meant an 8:00 am game today, which they won handily. Then we had to wait around for a second game at 12:45, which they again won handily. That meant we would play for the championship at 5:30. More sitting around waiting and then a bit tougher game, but still they won handily. It was a very fun and exciting day, but we were gone for fourteen hours today and I am tired! So if there are typos and such, please be kind.

Last week I promised one of you an ARC of The Safest Lie by Angela Cerrito. This weeks winner is Kim Aippersbach. Congratulations, Kim! I will get your book out to you this week. Kim is a writer, reviewer, and now a Cybils judge. You should check out Kim's blog Dead Houseplants (Don't you love that title?) HERE. I have another great giveaway this week, so please keep reading.

I recently read and reviewed an amazing book by Cynthia Levinson, author of We've Got a Job, a MG non-fiction about the 1963 Birmingham Children's March. Her new book is really a stunner. It is Watch Out for Flying Kids and here is my five-star review for the San Francisco Book Review. 

When most people think of a circus, they probably think of a big tent and clowns and wild animals, but there is another kind of circus people should know about. Fortunately, Cynthia Levinson has written a marvelous new book to tell the story of the social youth circus. Basically that means putting young people together who normally would be on opposite sides of something— class or race or politics or religion — then teaching the kids performance skills that require trust and cooperation. One of these circuses is in St. Louis, Missouri and one is in Israel.

Readers are introduced to members of the companies and some of their instructors through very insightful profiles and photographs. The St. Louis circus, Arches, visits and works with the one in Israel, Galilee Circus. The young performers are further challenged by language differences, being homesick, unfamiliar foods, and even acts of violence in the area.

“The Arches couldn’t tell who was Jewish and who was Arab. 

All of the Israelis looked and sounded foreign to them.”

A great deal of extra information is presented throughout in sidebars that

Cynthia Levinson

enhance this inspiring story, a story of courage, perseverance, and, most of all, hope. It will appeal to children as young as 9 and to people as old as 109 and deserves a broad readership.

I have an ARC of this wonderful book I would be happy to send to 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. 

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.