Great Links- Writing for BOYS!

I really wanted to be able to follow through on my promise to do a great middle grade book review every Monday, but Mondays are coming so fast!

So in lieu of a new Freshly Brewed Monday Book Recommendation today, I am going to give you something different, something fun, something, well easier for me to do...

But you are going to LOVE it, I promise!

If you are a writer (especially for boys!)....
I went to a fantastic Writer to Writer Event at the Flintridge Bookstore in La Canada Flintridge. (Yeah, the one the semi-truck drive thru last year coming down Angeles Crest Hwy) Yikes! Catherine Linka plans these amazing opportunities for aspiring writers to hear agents, authors and editors speak on really inspiring topics.

The store is all fixed and is really one of the very best independent book stores in the San Gabriel Valley, if not LA proper, so you should stop by if you can.

So here's the scoop/link- Another blogger wrote this fantastic post about the event given by Michael Reisman and Ben Esch I attended on Superbowl Sunday regarding writing for boys. Every wonderful detail is here and all you have to do is click on the above!

Simon Bloom, the Gravity Keeper by Michael Reisman

Sophomore Undercover by Ben Esch







I haven't read either book. The Gravity Keeper is a middle-grade book (8-12) and Sophmore Undercover is Young Adult (13 and up). I have heard The Gravity Keeper is great for any science-minded, adventure-seeker reader/middle-grader and that Sophmore Undercover is strong in its off-beat humor. I hope to read and review The Gravity Keeper very soon.

Really whether you write for boys or not, this post is for you because we all need our boy characters to ring true, so click and enjoy!

Freshly-Brewed Monday Book Recommendation #6!- The Small Adventures of Popeye and Elvis

The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis

by Barbara O'Connor

A Small Adventure is a wonderful thing.

"Mom, where are our set-up army guys?"

The set-up army guys aren't really all army guys. They are mostly army guys (some green and some tan), with a few civil war soldiers (some blue some gray) and a couple of yellow and red Native American Indians. The cowboys are gone. And all the guys are tiny, plastic and their feet melt into a small puddle that helps them stand steady, sort of.

My three boys, sometimes with a friend or two, strategically place all the set-up guys throughout a dry dirt path that winds its way through a massive amount of ivy in our backyard. Once everyone agrees that all the set-up guys are in the right place- in the creek-bed, on a flat rock, under a droopy leaf, the faucet gets cranked on and the hose introduces a whole new element into the game. Sometimes it's a slow drip, sometimes its more torrential but it's always fun and they never tire of it.  

 The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis is about finding something to do. Something different, something unusual, something that makes today special. Popeye lives a slow-paced life in Fayette, North Carolina with his Grandma Velma who "he needed not to crack up because no one else was very good at taking care of things. Not his father who lived in Chatanooga and sold smoke-damaged rugs out of the back of a pick-up truck. Not his mother who came and went but never told anbody where she came from or where she went to. And definitely not Uncle Dooley, who lived in a rusty trailer in the backyard and sometimes worked at the meatpacking plant and sometimes sold aluminum siding and sometimes watched TV all day."

When a Holiday Rambler, filled with a boisterous excitable family, gets stuck in the mud while cruising through town, Popeye meets his new friend, Elvis. The two decide that what they need is a small adventure, and soon the boys come upon boats made out of paper yoo-hoo cartons floating down a creek with hidden messages tucked inside. The boys must figure out what the notes mean, who is sending them and they must do it fast, before the Holiday Rambler is out of the mud and Elvis's family rolls on out of Fayette.

The simplicity of Barbara O'Connor's writing is refreshing and clean. This is a great little new book that feels like classic. In my opinion, that is a hard find for an early chapter book that appeals to boys. A hidden little perk are the vocabulary words Popeye's Grandma Velma is memorizing: cajole, divert and connive just to name a few.

My 9 yr. old and 6 yr. old both loved it as a read-aloud. Plenty to giggle about with a touch a mystery. It might even inspire you to set out on a small adventure of you own, something that might even be more fun than the army set-up guys!   

Freshly-Brewed Monday Book Recommendation #3: Heart of A Shepherd

Only it's Tuesday.

For lots of reasons this is a day late. Monday = MLK Jr Day + 3 boys in the house while it POURED BUCKETS outside, home office was almost flooded so my super-husband and I were scooping trash-can after trash-can of water from in front of the garage and relocating water elsewhere (in case the visual is disturbing, I did have cute pink rainboots on and a leopard print umbrella hoisted high) I do fess up that I gave up on the umbrella after trashcan dump #37- it was a little pointless after that. And the last but not least reason I am a day late, when I was in front of the computer there was lots of fun stuff to search about the ALA awards (the children's writers equivalent of the Academy Awards!) Hooray for When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead winning the Newbery! I dare you to try and read it in more than one sitting, I double dog dare you, I double dog raining cats and dogs double dog dare you!

OK, enough of that. Now to the book recommend of the day!

 

Heart of a Shepherd by Roseanne Parry

Eleven year old Ignatius is the youngest of five brothers. He's known by everyone in his small ranching town in Eastern Oregon as Brother. Brother lives in the shadow of his louder, more accomplished brothers and has a quiet gentle demeanor. Though he is the youngest, he is the only brother left in the house when his father is called to serve 14 months in Iraq with the army reserves. Brother is expected to work with his grandparents to keep the ranch running smoothly until Dad comes back. If he comes back. Brother has never had the passions shared by his Father and brothers for the ranching life. He is sensitive to the pain and death of animals and some of the more harsh realities of running a working ranch.

This book has a quiet strength. The children play war games and the expectation is that all children will at some point at least register for the army reserves, if not outright enlist. It is clear that Brother is not settled with that idea, but that is the only life he knows. He is trying to figure this out, all the while missing his Father.

This book has a beautiful and all-consuming sense of place. For children raised in parts of the country where there is a real connection to the land, this book will ring true in a big way. For children who live in more urban areas, it will give them a wonderful window into a whole other world right here in the U.S. This book emphasizes the centrality of one's family, one's faith, love and service to our country and pulling together as a community in times of crisis. It also speaks to finding one's own path and searching your heart to find that path.

I think this book would appeal to both girls and boys. I would recommend it to 4th grade and above. It is not touchy-feely, but it does deal with a boy sorting through some difficult emotions and drawing conclusions that ultimately seem to bring him the peace one is looking for as one navigates through older childhood. I think my 9 year old third grader might be ready for it next year and I look forward to sharing it with him!