A Review of Wonder and Giveaway of Winter's Tide

Thought for the day:

"Substitute "damn" every time you’re inclined to write "very." Your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be." ~Mark Twain ~

A gift for my writer friends:

 Here are some links I think you will find valuable – four great ones this week.

For a wonderful site for those who rhyme, click HERE.  

Non-fiction children’s writer Gina Hagler has two wonderful science blogs – fascinating stuff for those who also write about science or have kids or grandkids interested in science. Click HERE and HERE to find them.

For a great addition to the Show Don’t Tell discussion, click HERE.

First, a BIG announcement -- at least for me. My non-fiction article,  A Princess Who Can Tune an Engine, is in the March issue of Highlights Magazine. Stop by your dentist's office or local library and take a look. I'm pretty excited.

 

For my fabulous giveaway, the winner is Nancy! (Cue the confetti!) Nancy, I will be sending you a copy hardbound A Smidgen of Sky. Thanks for reading my blog, Nancy. The book will be on its way soon. Enjoy! There will be another giveaway, so stay tuned and  please leave comments to have a chance in the drawing.

 

I have been hearing so much about the middle-grade novel Wonder by R. J. Palacio, that I had to take a break from my reading for the San Francisco/Sacramento Book Reviews and read this book. I’m so glad I did. It is such a heartwarming and honest story, the kind that sticks with you long after you’ve closed the book. It is the story of August Pullman, a young boy unlike anyone else around. Truly unlike others. He was born with birth defects most cannot imagine, leaving him with a face that literally stops people in their tracks. Auggie tells the reader at the beginning of the book “I won’t describe what I look like. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably worse.” Perhaps it is, but through the story, we get bits and pieces of descriptions until we have the whole picture and it’s not a pretty one, but by the time we really know what Auggie looks like, we can’t help but love and admire this amazing kid. He’s smart and funny and compassionate and tough as an armadillo’s shell.

Not everyone loves and admires Auggie. He is starting school, after being homeschooled all his life by his mother, when he is in fifth grade. He has an idea what he will face and doesn’t like the idea, but it seems he must try. His parents decide on Beecher Prep, a small middle school. Auggie faces exactly the kind of isolation he expected, but there are a few kind people who befriend him and make it a bit easier.

We all remember how cruel kids can be, but none of us faced what Auggie does. His intelligence and sense of humor help him to hang on through terrible times, but ultimately it’s Auggie who has to survive the war that swirls around him.

“the universe…takes care of its most fragile creations in ways we can’t see. like with parents who adore you blindly, and a big sister who feels guilty for being human over you. and a little gravelly-voiced kid whose friends have left him over you. and even a pink-haired girl who carries your picture in her wallet. maybe it is a lottery, but the universe makes it all even out in the end. the universe takes care of all its birds.”

We, as readers, find it easy to focus on Auggie and forget how everyone around him is affected by his deformity, but R. J. Palacio writes this story in first person not only from Auggie’s point of view, but some of those who surround them, and we see through their eyes how far-reaching Auggie’s problem is and how brave others need to be in this tiny universe.

R. J. Palacio

I can’t recommend this book enough. It will surely be read in middle-school classrooms for years to come, and should be. When my grandson saw me with the book, he told me, “Everyone in my class has read that. I want to read it.” That means I can’t give my copy away. He is dogging me and I have to hand it off. However, I promised a giveaway and so you shall have one.

If you click HERE, you will be taken to the review I wrote for the Sacramento Book Review of Winter’s Tide, a nice middle-grade novel. I will be sending my gently used ARC to one of you. Please leave a comment to have your name in the drawing. If you Tweet the link to this post or put it on FaceBook or put it on your blog post, please let me know and I will put your name in a second time.  I will post the winner on my next post, so check back.

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.           

A Smidgen of Sky -- Review and Giveaway

Thought for the day:

“All the words I use in my stories can be found in the dictionary—it’s just a matter of arranging them into the right sentences.” ~Somerset Maugham ~

A gift for my writer friends:

 Here are some links I think you will find valuable – four great ones this week.

For a giveaway of The Runaway King click HERE.

For a query letter that worked with agent comments click HERE.

For more query letter info click HERE.

For a wonderful blog post on how to succeed click HERE.

I have a LOT of wonderful family stuff going on this week, so this will be short and sweet, but I do have a giveaway, so stay tuned.

I read a wonderful book not long ago, and I want to be sure you know about it, too. I am re-posting the review I wrote for the Sacramento Book Review. It will give you a pretty good idea of why you should get hold of this one. I really like it, and think you will, too. And isn't that a lovely cover?

A Smidgen of Sky

Posted in Tweens by editor - January 11, 2013 

By Dianna Dorisi Winget

Harcourt Children’s, $16.99, 208 pages

Piper Lee DeLuna is about to get a new family. It’s not her idea; she’s happy when it’s just her and Mama. Piper Lee misses her father like crazy and thinks her mother has forgotten all about him, but Piper Lee believes he is coming back someday. After all, his body was never found. Now Mama has gone and fallen in love with Ben, and when the wedding takes place, it will be a package deal with Ben’s ten-year-old daughter Ginger. And Ginger is nothing short of annoying with her cheerleader stuff and wanting dress up and flounce her hair. All Piper Lee wants to do is fly a plane like her father did. She has a great idea to find Ginger’s mother and get her back on the scene. That should stop the wedding bells. While searching on line, she finds someone who claims to know something about her father, and she gives personal information to that person. And once she starts things rolling, it starts to resemble a runaway train.

“I started tapping out answers to Lyn’s questions. But it wasn’t till after I hit Post that I noticed the alarm ringing in my head, warning me I’d just done something I should’ve asked Mama about first.”

Dianna Dorisi Winget creates a character with the pitch-perfect voice of a ten-year-old southern girl as well as a story that is a cautionary tale for all young people.

Dianna Dorisi Winget

I will be giving away my gently-used ARC hardback of this lovely book. Please leave a comment to have your name in the drawing. If you Tweet the link to this post or put it on FaceBook or put it on your blog post, please let me know and I will put your name in a second time.  I will post the winner on my next post, so check back.

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.           

A Review of Keeper of the Lost Cities

Thought for the day:

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."
~ Scott Adams ~

A gift for my writer friends:

 Here are some links I think you will find valuable – three great ones this week.

For a query letter that worked with agent comments, click HERE.

For 7 Ways to Add Subplots to Your Nove,l click HERE.

For Writer’s Digest Most Popular Articles of 2012, click HERE.

For my fabulous giveaway, the winner is Margaret Duarte! (Cue the trumpets!) Margaret, I will be sending you a copy of After Eli. Margaret is also a writer, working in the genre of visionary fiction. You can check out her blog by clicking HERE. The book will be on its way soon. Enjoy! I have no giveaway for today because I just can’t give this one away! But I still hope you will leave comments, and make sure to come back next week when I will have a giveaway.

I want to start by saying I am not a big fan of fantasy. Now and then, I will pick up a fantasy and read it, but it’s not my favorite genre. I read the first Harry Potter book, but was never interested enough to read the rest. It’s just not my thing. So when I find one that holds my interest, it must be awfully good.

I’ve been following Shannon Messenger’s blog for a long time. She’s the founder of Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday, and over the past year or so, she has written about her debut novel, Keeper of the Lost Cities, and the process of bringing it to the market. I was intrigued to see the book after following her journey, so ordered it up recently even though it is a fantasy. I’m glad I did. This is a fun read, and I think a lot more than kid-readers-of-fantasy will like this wonderful story. I sure did.

When we meet Sophie, she is a pretty normal twelve-year-old girl. Well, except for that “hearing voices” thing she has going on. She is inundated with the thoughts of others – a veritable storm of thoughts crashing into her mind. This had been going on since she fell and hit her head when she was five. While on a school field trip to the museum (she’s pretty bright, already in high school), she meets a cute guy, Fitz, who seems to know an awful lot about her. He takes her (traveling by light, of course) to meet his father, Alden, in an entirely different world. Sophie had never felt as if she fit in – not at school and not even at home. Now she knows why. She isn’t human. She is an elf. Not the helping-Santa or Keebler-cookie kind, but a highly evolved society in the new world she’s been taken to. Maybe this is where she belongs.

Shannon Whitney Messenger

Sophie soon learns it’s no easier fitting in at school in the new place, especially when you’re smart and mysterious. There are still mean girls and jealousies and cliques. But Sophie has to keep some of her talents secret while trying to pass her classes and fit in with a new family. Sophie had been hidden among the humans, but by whom and for what reason? And there are other problems in this new world, and there are real enemies trying to do her great harm. Someone has been setting fires in the human world and Sophie’s human family is in danger. When Sophie tries to investigate, she runs into one obstacle after another. Along the way, she has to break a lot of the rules of her new society, some unwittingly, and finds herself in all kinds of trouble. She faces grave danger and even drags one of her best friends into that danger as well. Her enemies are powerful, but Sophie’s talents and special abilities are also great.

Keeper of the Lost Cities is a real page turner. Shannon Messenger manages to endear Sophie to her readers in the first few pages, then takes us on a fantastical journey with her. This is the first book in a series, and I can’t wait for the next installment. There was just enough left unfinished to whet my appetite for a little more fantasy. I recommend this book highly and, sorry, folks, I just can’t bring myself to give it away.

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

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.           

After Eli - Review and a Giveaway

Thought for the day:

“If we had more fairy tales when we were young, we’d need less therapy as adults.” ~James Hillman~

A gift for my writer friends:

Here are some links I think you will find valuable – four this week. Just click on the word HERE after each description to be linked.

An extraordinary poem about life: HERE

Blog with some terrific writing tips from Norman Grock and Wilson Williams, Jr.: HERE

Two ways your brain is wired to undermine your story and what to do about it from Lisa Cron: HERE

Working with Archetypes: HERE

For my fabulous giveaway, the winner is Jennifer Rumberger! (Cue the cheering crowds!) Jennifer, I will be sending you a copy of The Candy Smash. Jennifer is also a children’s writer and participates in Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday. You can check out her blog and a review of a brand new middle-grade book by clicking HERE. The book will be on its way soon. Enjoy! I have another giveaway for today, so stay tuned.

I’ve just finished reading one of the best books I’ve read lately. After Eli by Rebecca Rupp was an absolutely wonderful surprise. When I read a little about it, I thought it might be pretty darned serious and maybe even a little dreary since the story deals with a young boy, Danny, who lost the big brother he idolized three years before. Well, it is a serious book, but handled very lightly and with a surprising amount of humor. And there is nothing dreary about it.

Danny’s brother Eli volunteers to go to war, but promises he will be back. Since Eli accomplished everything he’d ever set his mind to, Danny has no doubt he will return. But he doesn’t. He is killed by a roadside bomb. And that bomb doesn’t just blow up Eli, it blows up Danny’s family as well. Their father disappears into his job and only comes home to share his anger and express his disappointment with Danny. Their mother disappears into a grief so deep and debilitating that it’s hard to believe she will ever return. Danny is really left on his own. He begins to keep a binder he calls The Book of the Dead in which he lists of historical figures – how they died and, more importantly, why. Did their death have purpose? Does any death have purpose? And, of course, he spends a lot of time thinking about Eli, and the reader gets to know Eli very well and learns why he is so loved by everyone.

Danny’s father wants Danny to go to summer school, but instead Danny takes a job working on a potato farm run by Jim, former crack addict and Eli’s best friend. None of this makes Danny’s father happy, but Danny finds a wonderful satisfaction in the work and in getting to know Jim and his girlfriend, Emma. That same summer, Danny meets an incredible girl, Isabelle, with whom Danny falls in love. He also gets to know a guy from school, Walter, who is something of an outcast, but becomes a true friend. These four people have a profound effect on Danny and help him find his way through much of his grief and into the beginning of adulthood. When Isabelle leaves at the end of summer, Danny reaches a crisis in his life facing another great loss.

I loved this book. I loved the characters and wanted another book so I could spend more time with them. And I wanted a prequel so I could get to know Eli better. And I loved the concept of a book that deals with such difficult problems in such a realistic and hopeful way. And I loved the writing – simple, elegant, and profound. It is not a perfect book. A few instances in the book, Rupp loses the male voice of Danny, and her “girlness” shows through, but only a very few. Other than that, I thought it was terrific. It transcends the middle-grade label put on it, and teens and adults will enjoy this lovely story. I highly recommend it.

I am giving away my gently-read hardback copy of After Eli. If you leave a comment, your name will go into the hat. If you post the link on your blog or on Facebook or tweet it, let me know and you will have an extra entry.

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.