Greenhorn by Anna Olswanger -- A Review and Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

“You must have been warned against letting the golden hours slip by. Yes, but some of them are golden only because we let them slip by.”  ~James M. Barrie~

Some Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Here are some links I've run across recently that I think you will enjoy. So, enjoy!

This is just fun -- for some wonderful words we should resurrect, click HERE.

Click HERE for an article on Seven Ways to Overcome Writer’s Block. I sure hope some of these will work for me!

 

There is a good article HERE from Writer’s Digest on Five Ways to Make Your Novel More Suspenseful.

On my last blog post, I had a drawing for copies of Below and Dead River. The winner of these two books is (Drum Roll Please!) Nancy!!  WooHoo. Nancy, I will be getting those books to you this week. Congratulations and enjoy!

I was contacted recently and asked if I would be interested in reviewing Anna Olswanger's new book Greenhorn. Well, I certainly was interested. I know of her work and was thrilled to be asked. I wasn't sure when I would be able to get to it, but when it arrived last week, I found it was very short. I decided to make the time to read it right away. 

Greenhorn is the story of boys who attend a boarding yeshiva in New York in 1946. Aaron, who has a bad stuttering problem does not have an easy time in school because of his speech difficulty. 0f course, Aaron has had to learn to live with teasing. A group of boys arrive who have survived the holocaust arrive at the yeshiva. One of these boys, Daniel, is assigned to share the small room Aaron, Ruben, and Bernie already share. Daniel has only one possession, a small box, which he keeps with him at all times. He will show it to no one. He even keeps it in his bed when he sleeps. He hardly ever speaks.

Aaron tries to befriend Daniel and keeps trying even though Daniel does not open up or reciprocate. He keeps to himself and protects his box and his privacy. Some of the boys decide he must be hiding candy from them in his box and knock him down, taking the box and opening it. What they find inside is something that focuses the horror of the holocaust for all to see. 

This is a remarkably rich and powerful book. It would be wonderful to use in a classroom as students could read it in its entirety in a couple of class periods. The world of a 1946 yeshiva is well drawn and very real. The story of Daniel, Aaron, and the other boys is one that young

Anna Olswanger

readers will remember a long time and from which they will learn a great deal. There are a 9-page discussion guide for families reading this book together as well as a 21-page classroom guide for those who decide to teach it. You can find the links to download those for free by clicking HERE. I hope all of you will find this little gem of a book and read it for yourselves. The characters and their story will stay with you for a long time. I will be giving away my gently-read hardback copy of Greenhorn to one of my lucky readers. Please be a follower and leave a comment. Your name will go in a hat and Greenhorn just might come your way.

Don’t forget to stop by Shannon Messenger’s wonderful blog for more Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday links. Click HERE to find it.

On the book giveaway, this is for U.S. only. Sorry, but it would be too expensive for me to send books out of the country. But please leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you. Remember, if you have trouble leaving a comment, click on the title of the post and it will give you just this post with a comments section on the bottom. Also, if you haven’t signed up by email, please do. Just look in the upper right-hand corner of this page, pop your email address in, and you will receive an email each time I put up a new post. Your information will not be shared with anyone.

Below by Meg McKinlay -- A Review and Double Giveaway

Thought for the day:

"When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy." ~ Rumi~

A Gift for My Writer Friends:

These are very useful or interesting articles or posts I've found recently. I hope you enjoy them.

 

I can’t lie to you, sometimes I really have a hard time with certain homophones. I want to lay down my pen and lie in my bed and, well, you get the idea. Click HERE for a good article on the Lay/Lie problem. 

I receive an email each day from The Writer’s Almanac. It’s free and it’s always interesting. It begins with a poem – usually evocative and inspiring – then gives some information about various writers whose birthdays fall on the day. Click HERE for one that has the most fascinating write-up about Margaret Wise Brown, who in some ways, belied her middle name. 

You will find a terrific post on Hiding Emotions if you click HERE. 

When we were last here together, I talked about constructing a dirndl for my granddaughter Gracie to wear to school for their unit on immigration. I didn't have a photo at the time, but several of you said you wanted to see the final product, so heeeeeere's Gracie! 

Last time I also offered copies of a couple of terrific books -- Dear America The Diary of Minnie Bonner and That TimeI Joined the Circus. Our winner (and it pays to get extra chances by passing long the link to my blog) is Darith3duh! (Cue the balloon drop!) Thanks for Tweeting my link, Darith3duh. I will be sending your books out this week. Congratulations! If you didn't win, please keep reading. I have two more books to give away this week.

Summer has begun and I want to let you know that I may not be posting every week. You may have noticed I didn't post last weekend. Our grandson, Gehrig, (how's that for a baseball name?) was in a baseball tournament and his team won the championship! WooHoo!! It was not an easy draw and they worked hard to win. Anyway, I was busy watching great baseball and didn't get to write a post. I have some travels coming up and some grandchildren that need extra time from me, so I'll be posting when I have time to write a post. But fear not, I will still have lots of books to give away, so please visit when you can.

I want to tell you about a wonderful book I read this week. It comes from a very prolific Australian author, Meg McKinlay. I didn't realize until after I was done with the book that the author was Australian. It seemed a very American story to me. The book is Below and I loved it.

Cassie is 13 and was born the day her town was drowned. Some folks had decided a lake and dam was pretty important, so they built a replica of the town, with a few minor tweaks. So the old town is at the bottom of a huge lake. Cassie had arrived two months early, and her lungs had not developed fully. In order to build her lung capacity, Cassie has to swim every day. She hates the over-chlorinated town pool that always seems to have lots of used band-aids floating in it. (Yuck!) She decides to do her swimming in the lake, but not where others swim. She goes to the forbidden side of the lake, the part over the old town. 

A classmate, Liam, who had been in a terrible accident when only a few months old and has terrible scars joins Cassie at the lake. They become better friends than they had been before. They discover the level of the lake is dropping in the long, hot summer, and soon they are able to get down to some of the structures. They discover the water doesn't simply hide building, but secrets as well.

This is a quiet book, but such a compelling story. The well-drawn characters of Cassie and Liam will capture your imagination and you will cheer for them. The other characters that populate this incredible story are real and true. The mystery is perfect for a sophisticated middle-grade audience without leaving older readers wanting. 

I have a gently-read hardback copy of Below to give away. Since I am absolutely buried under books, I am also going to give away a copy of a YA book called Dead River by Cyn Balog. I must warn you -- this one is true YA and not appropriate for middle graders. But if you like YA and you like to be scared, you will like this book. I got it because I just loved the cover. Isn't it spooky? This is another gently-read (although sometimes my palms were sweaty) hardback book. If you would like to win these two books, please be a follower (did you notice I FINALLY broke into triple digits? YAY! Thanks!) and leave a comment. If you want extra chances in the drawing, Tweet the link to this post or put in on Facebook and let me know. I will make sure you have extra chances in the drawing. 

Don’t forget to stop by Shannon Messenger’s wonderful blog for more Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday links. Click HERE to find it.

 

On the book giveaway, this is for U.S. only. Sorry, but it would be too expensive for me to send books out of the country. But please leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you. Remember, if you have trouble leaving a comment, click on the title of the post and it will give you just this post with a comments section on the bottom. Also, if you haven’t signed up by email, please do. Just look in the upper right-hand corner of this page, pop your email address in, and you will receive an email each time I put up a new post. Your information will not be shared with anyone.