When You Reach Me- Tell the Truth

Have I mentioned yet how much I loved Rebecca Stead's When You Reach Me? I haven't written the book recommendation yet because the book is still percolating in my head, I still think about bits and pieces from time to time as I go throughout my day. I think I'm also afraid I might let an important bit of the plot leak out, like a review or two did when I read them, and I don't want to be a spoiler! I can mention that Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time is an important piece in the overall puzzle, which I am sure is only a huge draw to those of you who grew up in the 70s and 80s as I did! Meg was a heroine easy to love.

I wanted to write about When You Reach Me when it won the Newbery Medal a few weeks ago, but I still felt like I didn't have anything new to add to the conversation. Everyone loves it, everyone is talking about it and has been all year. It is quite simply, a marvelous read.

Instead of writing a review/recommendation, I want to give you this link to Rebecca Stead's blog. It caught my eye because it references the movie Fantastic Mr. Fox (which I loved, by the way, click here to see why).

Rebecca's comments sum up what I believe to be true about children's literature. Tell the truth, the kids want you to. Most people who feel called to writing for children have a child-like sensitivity and will deliver in a like-manner. Children are aching for it. God Bless you Madeline L'Engle, Roald Dahl and so many others. Let's try to tell the truth, it feels so good to be trusted with it. here it is.

Seussical Protegee Spotlight

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DR. SEUSS! 

OK, so I hope this isn't sacrilegious, but do you know P.D. Eastman? I know Dr Seuss would be OK with me doing this because they were friends. P.D. was Theodor Geisel's protegee, they were buddies! You've seen P.D.'s books, they even have the Cat in the Hat on the spine because they are part of the Dr Seuss Library. Heck, you might have even thought Dr. Seuss wrote them. But he didn't, P.D. did, or at least he illustrated them and some he wrote/illustrated. And they are incredible. Here's a few:

And that is just for starters! If you have these books in your house, I guarantee you will read them until they fall apart and you have to buy another copy. Oh, and I guarantee the pictures will stick in your kids heads for their whole life and they will have to buy them for their kids because they just can't get enough. 

(OK, maybe that part is just me:)

I know this is way tiny and blurry, but don't you remember just getting lost in this spread? Those dogs really know how to party! Kick your feet up and read Go Dog Go today in honor of Dr. Seuss, he won't mind! He taught P.D. everything he knew!

Freshly-Brewed Monday Book Recommendation #8!- The Year The Swallows Came Early

The Year the Swallows Came Early by Kathryn Fitzmaurice

Eleven-year old Groovy Robinson is one of the most adorable and compelling voices I've met this year.

Right from the get-go we learn "We lived in a perfect stucco house, just off the sparkly Pacific, with a lime tree in the backyard and pink and yellow roses gone wild around a picket fence. But that wasn't enough to keep my daddy from going to jail that year I turned eleven. I told my best friend, Frankie, that is was hard to tell what something was like on the inside just by looking at the outside. And that our house was like one of those See's candies with beautiful swirled chocolate on the outside, but sometimes hiding coconut flakes on the inside, all gritty and hard, like undercooked white rice." 

Groovy loves to cook, in fact going to professional chef school is definitely in the plans. But when her Dad gets arrested, right there in front of the Swallows Shop and Ferry, things get complicated. Groovy doesn't know why he's arrested, though she does know "Daddy seemed to get the kind of bosses who ended up firing him." Groovy's endearing relationships with her Mom (who owns one-quarter of the small town beauty shop), her Dad, and her friends Marisol and Frankie are heart-warming and real. Groovy encounters surprise after surprise as no one and no situation is exactly as Groovy has believed them to be. This book will please and delight its target audience - 8-12 year olds- as well as their parents!

The sunny seaside setting of San Juan Capistrano and the swallows returning home theme add a beautiful layer of place to this special book.

Fire Petal Book Auction

Reading the fabulous blog of Young Adult author Sara Zarr, I learned that there is an amazing auction going on.

 Fire Petal books is an up-and-coming independent bookstore in Utah and the auction is a fund-raiser. (Having just visited a Borders at our local mall with it's aisles littered with ripped up books and not a clerk in sight made me realize all the more how much I value and need my local bookstore havens- Vromans and La Canada Flintridge Books).

So, in an effort to help an indie bookstore on the rise (and pick up a great book or writerly opportunity to meet an editor, author or agent) check out this site.

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!

Raise Your Hand If You Love Betsy Bird!

The Double Life of Betsy Bird- Forbes.com

Raise your hand if you love Betsy Bird. (For those of you not fully-entrenched in childrens' literature, if that was said at anything kid-litish- the whole room is standing, cheering, holding up their lighters, doing the wave, you get the idea...) All children's literature fans NEED to know about Betsy Bird. I've referenced her in previous posts and she is the well-deserved recipient of this spot-light article!

Read on! 

Freshly-Brewed Monday Book Recommendation #7- Operation Redwood

Operation Redwood by S. Terrell French

I was initally drawn to this book because I thought it might have some similarities to the middle-grade manuscript I am working on. Mine is a botanical adventure/mystery of sorts with a multi-cultural cast of characters and Operation Redwood is well, a botanical adventure/mystery of sorts with a multi-cultural cast of characters!

But, as is often the case, two people do not write the same book and the similarities pretty much start and end in the one sentence I described above. After I got over my fear that the books might be too similar (which happened on page one), I thoroughly enjoyed this fun and exciting book. The setting spanned from San Francisco to the Redwood Forests to a quiet homeschooling kitchen and lots of places in between. I loved it's strong sense of place and the voice of all three of the mystery-solving team: Julian, Danny and Robin.

Twelve year old Julian intercepts a hostile email sent to his Uncle Sibley and thus begins his place in the middle of the fight to save some of the oldest trees in the world. Along with his loyal and hilarious friend Danny, Julian joins forces with people he has never met, travels to places he's never been and sleeps in a tree all to stand up for what he believes in. This is a great book for any 9-12 year-old, boy or girl, who loves realistic adventure/mystery and it has the added take-away of fascinating information regarding deforestation and the Redwoods. 

Can you imagine a treehouse in this beast of a tree? The setting  imagery in my mind, as I read the forest scenes, reminded me of how it felt to read Bridge to Terabithia for the first time. I felt like I was right there with Jess and Leslie, swinging on ropes in our own private hideaway forest. This book is really special and I hope you all read it!


And to boot, can't you just see how great this book would be as part of a late elementary/middle school curriculum on the environment, forests, science, history, you could weave it into basically anything!