Novel – Page 62 – Unleashing Readers

Cody and the Mysteries of the Universe by Tricia Springstubb

April 29, 2016 by Kellee

Cody and the Mysteries of the Universe
Author: Tricia Springstubb
Illustrator: Eliza Wheeler
Published April 12th, 2016 by Candlewick Press

Goodreads Summary: Not everything turns out to be as it first appears when Cody and her best friend, Spencer, navigate a neighborhood mystery and the start of a new school year.

Cody’s best friend, Spencer, and his parents are moving in with his grandmother right around the corner, and Cody can’t wait. For one thing, Cody needs Spencer to help solve the mystery of the never-seen Mr. Meen, who lives on the other side of the porch with a skull-and-crossbones sign in the window and an extermination truck out front. How’s Cody to know that a yellow jacket would sting her, making her scream “Ow! Ow!” just as they start spying? Or that the ominous window sign would change overnight to “Welcome home,” only deepening the mystery? In this second adventure, Spencer’s new-school jitters, an unexpected bonding with a teacher over Mozart, and turf-claiming kids next door with a reason for acting out are all part of Cody’s experiences as summer shifts into a new year at school.

My Review: I loved this one as much as the first one. (P.S. You don’t have to read the first one to enjoy this one, but they are both so good you should read both.) What I love most about the books is that Cody and Spencer and their families and the secondary characters are just so flawed and familiar and real. What I love second most about the book is how Tricia Springstubb writes. It is lyrical yet to the point. Beautiful yet not fluffy. See my example below. What I love third most about the book is the humor. Cody is one funny young lady!

Cody’s story this time revolves around two things: Spencer moving nearby and things not going as expected and the mystery behind the Meens, the bullying girls who live next to Spencer. Springstubb navigates both of these topics (bullying and friendship) with ease along with other minor topics like family and identity which makes Cody’s story perfect for all young readers because they will either relate or be able to use the story to help them in the future.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: Cody’s story represents so many different types of people: different races, different families, different situations, different popularity, different talents, etc., so her stories are perfect for reading aloud to a class/child.

It could also be used as a mentor text for language during a writing workshop’s narrative unit.

Discussion Questions: What does Cody mean by the baton of love?; Is it ever okay to fight?; Why does Payton’s behavior affect Wyatt so much?; How did Cody expect Spencer being at her school to be? How did it end up?

Flagged Passages: “He [Spencer] was getting ready to practice his violin. Mom and Cody sat down to listen. The song he played was called ‘Go Tell Aunt Rhody.’ The music was complicated. Was it sad? Was it happy? Could it be both at the same time? Cody decided it was perfect night-before-school music. All the while he played, her hand un-itched.” (p. 32)

Read This If You Loved: Cody and the Fountain of Happiness by Tricia Springstubb, The Trouble with Ants by Claudia Mills, Marty McGuire series by Kate Messner, Eleanor series by Julie Sternberg, Lola series by Christine Pakkala, The Top-Secret Diary of Cecile Valentine by Julie Sternberg

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**Thank you to Candlewick for providing a copy for review!!**

Blog Tour, Review, Giveaway, and Author Interview: Curiosity House: The Screaming Statue by Lauren Oliver and H. C. Chester

April 28, 2016 by Ricki

Curiosity House: The Screaming Statue
Authors: Lauren Oliver and H. C. Chester
Anticipated Publication: May 3, 2016! by HarperCollins

Summary: Four orphans with extraordinary abilities and questionable pasts—Pippa, Sam, Thomas, and Max—are happy to be out of harm’s way now that the notorious villain Nicholas Rattigan is halfway across the country in Chicago. But unfortunately their home, Dumfreys’s Dime Museum of Freaks, Oddities, and Wonders, is in danger of closing its doors forever.

But their troubles only get worse. The four friends are shocked when their beloved friend, famous sculptor Siegfried Eckleberger, is murdered. As they investigate, they find clues that his death may be tied to the murder of a rich and powerful New York heiress, as well as to their own pasts.

In this second book in the exceptional Curiosity House series by bestselling author Lauren Oliver and shadowy recluse H. C. Chester, the four extraordinary children must avenge their friend’s death, try to save their home, and unravel the secrets of their past . . . before their past unravels them.

My Review: I actually read the second book in the series before the first, and I had so much fun reading both! The murder mystery kept me guessing throughout the series, and I imagine both middle grade readers and readers of all ages will have great fun with this book! The world of this book feels like it is set about one hundred years ago, so I enjoyed reading sections aloud to my son. We talked with him about “freak shows” and their purpose and existence. He is very young, so the conversation did not get very critical, but I imagine that classroom teachers would have excellent discussions with students about these topics. Each of the characters is very different from the others, which made reading this book so enjoyable. What I enjoyed most about the book (and series) is its accessibility. While the freak show aspect is an element of our past, the book feels like it is set right in this moment, and this is what makes it such an engaging book for readers!

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: This series is a creative lesson gold mine for teachers. How neat would it be to print pictures from the museum and post them around the room? Students could walk around the room and be inspired to write their own fiction. Then, they might share stories and see how different their perspectives might be. This could lead to conversations about author’s craft and outside inspiration as a writing source.

Learn More about The Curiosity House:
The Book Website, which includes School Resources!: http://www.thecuriosityhouse.com/
Read More about Authors Lauren Oliver and H. C. Chester: http://www.thecuriosityhouse.com/authors.php
Downloadable Character Buttons!

Discussion Questions: Which character was your favorite? What characteristics made the character most interesting to you? How do others respond to this character?; How do you imagine Lauren and H. C. worked together on this project? (Hint: After guessing, take a peek at the interview questions below.); Why might author collaborations be so valuable?

Flagged Passage: “It was only eleven o’clock in the morning and already topping ninety degrees in New York City. The street outside of Dumfrey’s Dime Museum of Freaks, Oddities, and Wonders was as still as a painting.”

**Please note that this passage is from an advanced reader copy and will potentially change with publication.**

Read This Series If You Loved: Wonder Show by Hannah Barnaby, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, Circus Mirandus by Cassie Beasley, A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd, Mechanical Mind of John Coggin by Elinor Teele, Big Fish by Daniel Wallace, Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

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Interview with Lauren Oliver and H.C. Chester!

What does your writing process look like? Is it mainly collaborative in nature, or do you work alone?

HCC: My working relationship with Ms. Oliver represents what I regard as the ideal collaborative arrangement. I permit her access to my unique collection of rare and extraordinary artifacts–as well as giving her the invaluable benefit of my encyclopedic knowledge of all things related to the strange and arcane–and she does all the work.

What have you learned from each other while writing these books?

HCC: I have learned that MS. Oliver possesses what can only be termed bananaphobia. My discovery of this strange phenomenon occurred when I invited her to join Trudy and myself for lunch during one of her–Ms. Oliver’s–research trips to my private museum and made the error of ending the meal with what I believed would be a delicious dessert of canned fruit cocktail adorned with hand-cut banana slices. I will spare you a description of the scene that ensued. Let me only say that Trudy was so traumatized that it took her an unusually long span of nearly fifteen minutes to finish off her dish of fruit cocktail.

Lauren, how has writing this series been different from writing your other texts, which explore a much different genre? Has the intended audience affected your writing process in any way?

LO: I actually have two other middle grade books, Liesl and Po, and The Spindlers, so writing for a younger audience wasn’t unfamiliar to me. I really love it, because it gives me a chance to explore my humorous side. And I love how sheerly inventive and, for lack of a better word, kooky you can be with a younger audience.

H.C., what have you learned from this writing process? Has it affected the ways you look at the museum?

HCC: I have learned that the most satisfactory writing process is one in which someone else does all the work. As for your second question, my answer is: not really.

Interview with the character, Phoebe the Fat Lady:

Weighing in at half a ton, Phoebe is tremendously proud of her size and keeps up a rigorous diet regimen that includes toast soaked in bacon fat and whole sticks of butter. The scariest day of her life was when she discovered, that due to the flu, she had lost ten pounds.

Since you’ve left, what adventures have you embarked on? Who do you miss most?

Phoebe: Hugo and I have traveled all over Europe, where we’ve seen things that are truly freakish! Do you know that in France, snails are a delicacy?

Have you maintained the same weight? How has life been for you, in general?

Phoebe: Oh, certainly not! That is one of the strongest misconceptions people have about my weight–that I do not have to work, every day, to maintain my fantastic enormity. But in fact as a child I could barely be considered plump! In order to maintain my beautiful physique, I follow a strict diet of twenty-six meals a day and restrict my exercise to less than one hundred meters.

Will we see you again?

Phoebe: Never say never!

**Thank you to Natasha Ochshorn and Lauren Oliver for providing an advanced copy for review!**

Be sure to visit the other great blogs on this blog tour! Before us was: http://www.literaryhoots.com and coming up next is: http://www.memyshelfandi.com!

Author Guest Post!: “Possible Impossibilities: Magic and the Middle-Grade Reader” by I. J. Brindle, Author of Balthazar Fabuloso in the Lair of Humbugs

May 16, 2016April 24, 2016 by Ricki

“Possible Impossibilities: Magic and the Middle-Grade Reader”

When my son, Theo, was about to turn four, I asked him what he wanted for his birthday. His answer was simple, only one thing: Hogwarts Castle. “A mini tree-fort version?” I suggested hopefully. Nope, he wanted the whole thing, old stones, talking portraits, moving staircases, the whole shebang, to be built in our backyard. “Or a Batcave,” he relented, seeing my expression. “If you can’t do Hogwarts, I’ll take a Batcave.”

If little kids have one super power it’s that power to believe random, wacko stuff is totally possible. And why not? Those kind of things are happening all the time in their worlds: steam suddenly whistling out the spout of a kettle, crusty old seeds pushing up pale green sprouts through the dirt, clear light through faceted glass turning into rainbows. I remember clearly when I was four, hammering metal coffee cans and other bits of debris to an old flat piece of plywood to make a boat I would sail across Lake Ontario. My dad, who was sorting the laundry nearby, never told me that was not going to happen. To this day, I think that was one of the best gifts he ever gave me.

Too often, well-meaning adults rush in to help children develop a sense of perspective, an understanding of what is realistic, sealing up the cracks between the world of imagination and the more reliable, tried and true “reality.” The instinct generally comes from a good place. To protect from disappointment. To make sure the child is investing his or her precious hopes and dreams in something that might actually, in a million years, have some chance of ever happening.

“If only he would ask for something we could actually give him,” I remember bemoaning to Theo’s dad after Theo finished showing us the impossibly grandiose Batcave blueprints he had found in the back of one of his Batman books. Then I thought about my boat. About that sense of possibility. I took a deep breath. “This is too big a job for us,” I admitted to Theo. “But how would you do it?” Theo was disappointed in us. But eventually he took a shovel, went out behind the house and started to dig. His friends came over later in the week and they dug as well. And the digging has gone on sporadically from then—for about nine years now. At first it might have been about the bat cave, but as the digging went on it became about something else: about the undefined, mysterious possibilities of the hole itself. Something way better than anything we, his parents, could have cobbled together for him.

By the time kids get to the middle grades, the concept “real” becomes very important. “Is that real gold?” “That is sooooo fake!” At the same time, this age is also the sweet spot for the greatest magical literature ever written: Harry Potter; The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe; The Hobbit; The Dark Also Rises. The other day, my ten-year-old, Nicholas (one of the biggest realists I know), told me that all his favorite books have some kind of magic or fantasy in them. Hardly seems a coincidence. As the concepts of reality become more practically defined and potentially limiting, fantasy allows middle-graders to keep the doors and windows open into other possibilities.

Possibilities is the key word. When your nose is stuck between the covers of a great fantasy book, it’s not because you’re so caught up with bunch of stuff that could never happen. It’s because you’ve entered a place where the outrageous and fantastical does happen and you can’t wait to see what’s going to happen next. And sometimes what happens next is someone comes along and lifts one of these possible impossibilities off the page and turns it into a reality. The Internet search engine, for example, appeared in Douglas Adam’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy long before the real version was created. Sci-fi author, Jules Verne, landed the first rocket ship on the moon in remarkably accurate detail in his novel From the Earth to the Moon over a century before the first real lunar landing occurred. Sometimes what looks like wall between fantasy and reality is actually a door.

These doorway-moments, these meeting points of the real and the fantastical, are essential in middle-grade fantasy. Sometimes these doorways are quite literal. Harry Potter’s first arrival at Platform 9 ¾. Lucy walking through the wardrobe into Narnia. Other times the doorways come through characters that are so powerfully human it’s impossible not to relate to them, even if they are a different species from a totally different place and time. For example, Bilbo Baggins, the furry-footed hobbit who longs for adventure but is so attached to domestic comforts he almost abandons his great adventure when he discovers he has left his handkerchiefs at home.

When writing my middle grade novel, Balthazar Fabuloso in the Lair of the Humbugs, the first doorway I discovered was through Balthazar’s family’s stage magic. When picking up a new bit of magic, they start by figuring out how to fake it, palming a coin to make it look like it disappeared, hiding a dove up a sleeve, etc. Only after they’ve mastered the illusion so fully it becomes second nature does the trick part fall away and the magic become real.

Some of my favorite doorway–moments as a writer come when magic doesn’t work out the way anyone planned. Unpaid bills that are folded into magical origami animals and sent flying away but wind up coming home again to demand payment. An invisibility charm that only works for as long as long as you hold your breath. Magic that is great for levitating sofas and turning puffs of smoke into baby turtles, but is totally useless for eliminating dry-rot or paying down credit card bills. In other words, magic that acts like life: messy and unpredictable, but kind of amazing at the same time.

Can magic help Balthazar get his family back after they mysteriously vanish in a sinister stage accident? Possibly, but first Balthazar must find his own magic, a journey which leads him down a rabbit hole of family secrets, unexpected friendships, surprise betrayals, sinister cliques and a few other twists and turns. A journey that is about messing up, figuring stuff out, banging into walls, overcoming limitations, and, ultimately, about making the impossible possible, although not quite in the way anyone had planned.

One of my favorite games to play on hikes and long road trips is the “what if” game. What if this forest was actually our home? What if the raindrops on the windshield all had personalities? What if that red car behind us is an evil road wizard hot on our trail? What if we could open the plane door and walk out onto the clouds? It’s all about finding the doorways, then seeing where they lead, the more unexpected the better. Sometimes they lead to a story or a sketch. Other times to complete absurdity. But they always lead somewhere. Which is why magical literature is so important to middle-graders. Not simply because of the magic itself, but because of the possibilities it opens up, possibilities which can lead anywhere.

Balthazar Fabuloso in the Lair of Humbugs

About the Book: Magic, humor and high adventure are used to reaffirm fundamental family values in this debut novel.|

Balthazar Fabuloso’s lovable and eccentric family performs a magic show. What makes the act so unusual is that all the Fabulosos actually have superhuman powers, except for Balthazar, a practical-minded 11-year-old who simply aspires to be a normal kid. So when everyone but Balthazar disappears mid performance, the only Fabuloso without real magical skills must save the family. Balthazar wonders if the family’s archrivals, the Furious Fistulas, are to blame or if there are other, even darker forces at work. To free his loved ones Balthazar must work with some questionable characters, including a lunatic long-lost uncle, three enigmatic senior citizens and the loathsome Pagan Fistula, whose family also mysteriously goes missing.

At the center of these disappearances is a force so evil that the world’s most preeminent magicians cower before it. What hope could a ragtag crew of misfits have against it?

Link to the Book: http://www.holidayhouse.com/title_display.php?ISBN=9780823435777

About the Author: I. J. Brindle is an author and screenwriter. She has also produced internet games for Disney, written and directed theater in New York and Montreal, clerked in a bookstore, waited tables, and had a bunch of other adventures along the road. She is the mother of two wild monkey children and the companion of a dog named Moose.

Check Out the Other Books on the Tour:

Thank you to I. J. for this important post. We hope our readers enjoyed her words as much as we did!

Thank you to Brittany at Holiday House for connecting us with I. J.!

and

Blog Tour, Character Interview, Giveaway, and Review!: The Mechanical Mind of John Coggin by Elinor Teele

May 5, 2016April 15, 2016 by Kellee

The Mechanical Mind of John Coggin
Author: Elinor Teele
Illustrator: Ben Whithouse
Published April 12th, 2016 Walden Pond Press

Goodreads Summary: A quirky, humorous, whimsical, and heartwarming middle grade debut about a young boy who runs away from home with his sister to escape working in the family coffin business—and discovers even more adventure than he bargained for.

John Coggin is no ordinary boy. He is devising an invention that nobody has ever seen before, something that just might change the world, or at least make life a little bit better for him and his litter sister, Page. But that’s only when he can sneak a break from his loathsome job: building coffins for the family business under the beady gaze of his cruel great-aunt Beauregard. Having lost their parents when Page was a baby, how else are they supposed to survive?

Perhaps by taking an enormous risk—a risk that arrives in the form of a red-haired scamp named Boz. When Great-Aunt Beauregard informs John that she’s going to make him a permanent partner in Coggin Family Coffins—and train Page to be an undertaker—John and Page sign on with Boz and hit the road. Before long, they’ve fallen in with a host of colorful characters, all of whom, like John and Page, are in search of a place they can call home. But home, they realize, isn’t something you find so much as something you fight for, and John soon realizes that he and Page are in for the fight of their lives.

Elinor Teele’s picaresque debut is a rollicking tale filled with wild adventures, daring escapes, and—thanks to Boz—more than a little catastrophe.

My Review: One thing I’ve noticed is that so many orphans in stories seem to always get into some sort of trouble and then go on amazing adventures. Like Annie, Grubb from Alistair Grim, and Peter Nimble before him, John Coggin, a recent orphan, finds himself in quite a predicament of a situation when he is forced to work for his great aunt’s funeral home. It is the last straw when Great Aunt Beauregard tries to force Page, John’s sister, to go to work with them, and that begins the adventure! Elinor Teele takes us on quite a journey! With Boz, the comic relief with an amazing vocabulary, our three main characters meet some unique characters along the way.

Teele’s ability to weave such an odd story together and make it seem seamless is remarkable. John, Page, and Boz have about 5 stops along their journey all with a wide-variety of characters who all are a bit quirky but also relatable and you end up loving all of them. Although everything that happens is quite farfetched, you end up believing it all because you just want John and Page to be successful!

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: In the classroom, I think this book would be a perfect opportunity to discuss ways to determine unknown vocabulary within a text. Boz has QUITE a vocabulary and uses words that will be unknown to many of the middle grade readers the book is aimed for; however, the author does a fabulous job of having context clues or restatements of what the words mean. I would love to use passages of this book for vocabulary instruction.

It could also be used as a mentor text for imagery, specifically character description. Like I said, throughout the book we meet some very odd characters, but they are all described so well you can picture them. Same with John’s contraptions and the setting. Elinor Teele’s specific word choice really brings the story to life.

Lastly, I think it would be fun to compare/contrast the orphans within middle grade novels and discuss why orphans are chosen for so many adventurous books. Peter Nimble and Alistair Grim along with John Coggin would definitely be a great place to start, and you could even tie it in with “Annie.”

Also check out the Educational Activity Kit based on the book for more ways to use the book in the classroom or library.

We Flagged: “”Up and at ‘em, troops! The back of a new day is already broken, and time marches on!’

Boz blew into the barn like a category five hurricane and came to rest at John’s feet. ‘Where are the foundations of your perambulation?’ His baffled face collapsed even further into itself.

‘Where are the what?’ John asked blearily. The bright summer sun was making fireflies of the dust around Page’s hair.

‘Your shoes, young man, your shoes.’

‘I threw them outside.’

‘Well, find them! We go, we see, we conquer!’” (p. 58)

Special Guest! Q&A with Boz (by Elinor Teele): Boz may, in fact, be the worst interviewee on the planet. It was barely possible to get him into a hotel lounge and almost impossible to keep him there. And his hair! It seemed to have a life of its own. After this experience, I am firmly convinced his only future is a career as a human firework.

Q. So, first I’d like to ask… Boz? Boz! Could you please stop swinging from the chandelier?
A. Of course, profuse apologies my Fallonesque friend. I was merely trying to pump some blood to my knee joints. I ingested a box of sugar-coated hookoo grubs yesterday and I fear they have inflamed my rheumatics.

Q. Where did you get a box of hookoo grubs?
A. A gift from the Queen of Samarrand. She says she misses my winsome ways.

Q. How did you become friends with a Queen?
A. Oh, I have roamed the bureaus and boards of many a parliament. From the sweat-soaked slums to the blasted heaths, I have crisscrossed this great globe itself in eighty days and under. “A wandering minstrel, I…”

At this point in the interview, Boz yanked open the door to the lobby and vaulted onto the hotel’s front desk. From there, he sang operettas to incoming guests until security guards brought him back into the lounge.

Q. I don’t think the concierge enjoyed your singing.
A. It’s a waste of vitriol trying to please critics. Besides, it gave me an opportunity to relieve him of his time commitments.

Q. You stole his watch?!
A. You may say that, but I couldn’t possibly clarify.

Q. Well, what can you comment on?
A. Anything that tickles your pearly whites.

Q. Okay, how about this? Some people have said that your way of speaking is far too complicated to understand. They point out many kids have enough trouble with basics, so why make it harder?
A. I grant you that my vocabulary may be a little bewildering, but why not be wild? There are so many beautiful words in this world that go a’begging. As my dear friend Dodo Dodgson often opines, “Look after the senses and the sounds will look after themselves.”

Q. Yes, I noticed you tend to appropriate phrases from famous writers.
A. Who was it that said that bad artists copy and great men steal? Or was it that the immature youth imitates and the mature matron plagiarizes? I can’t remember.

At this point in the interview, Boz once again made a grab at the chandelier. This time – thanks to the force of his liftoff – he was hurled round and round the room like a demented tornado.

Q. Are you insane? Should I call the fire brigade?
A. Wouldn’t do that, my dear boy. They’re still irked about the incident with the propane and the propellers.

Q. What did that involve?!
A. A gaggle of insurance investigators, apparently.

Q. I give up. I don’t know how John Coggin put up with you.
A. But John and I are friends! Buddies of the bosom. Compadres of the cabana. Say what you will about my ethical standards, but I always believe in my friends!

This was a revealing comment, and I would have liked to ask Boz more about it. Unfortunately, he had let go of the chandelier and was already rocketing skyward through one of the open windows. I last saw him passing a goshawk.

Walden TV Features John Coggin: http://waldentv.com/video/rtwt-john-coggin/

Find Elinor Teele at her website.

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Don’t miss out on the other blog tour stops!

April 11 – Bluestocking Thinking
April 12 – Novel Novice
April 13 – This Kid Reviews Books
April 14 – Maria’s Melange
April 15 – Unleashing Reader
April 18 – Next Best Book
April 19 – Foodie Bibliophile
April 20 – For Those About to Mock
April 21 – Walden Media Tumblr
April 22 – Charlotte’s Library
April 25 – Flashlight Reader
April 26 – Teach Mentor Texts
April 27 – Librarian’s Quest
April 28 – Kid Lit Frenzy
April 29 – Novel Novice

**Thank you to Walden Pond Press for providing a copy for review and giveaway!!**

Exclusive Reveal!: Teaching Guide for Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo

April 22, 2023April 12, 2016 by Kellee

Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo is out today!

And we are happy to be able to be able to exclusively reveal the teaching guide.

Kate DiCamillo writes heartprint stories, and Raymie Nightingale is no different. Raymie Nightingale shares with the reader a story of three very different girls who all are enveloped in sadness for different reasons and need each other to find their way out. You will love Raymie and the Three Rancheros!

I had so much fun writing this guide, and I hope that many of you find the activities and discussion questions within it useful to you and your students!

Please note: There are some spoilers in the guide, so please be aware if you are reading the guide before reading the book.

You can also access the teaching guide here.

You can learn more about Raymie on Candlewick Press’s Raymie Nightingale page.

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Don’t miss out on this one!

“Giving Writing a Try” by Andrea Young, Author of Finny and the Boy from Horse Mountain

April 10, 2016 by Ricki

“Giving Writing a Try”

A teacher once told me I should give writing a try.

Fast-forward 20 years. I was giving a horseback-riding lesson when I overheard someone say that there are not enough good horse books out there for kids these days.

Having always remembered what that teacher said and after teaching kids to ride for almost 30 years, I figured who better than me to give it a try?

Luckily (because it made it easy), I had absolutely no expectations about writing a book when I sat down at my computer and went for it.

What I found out was that I truly loved to write. I would get so lost in the story I’d not realize hours had passed. Many times I only stopped typing because my arms grew too sore. Painful limbs aside, I had found a new passion.

Finny, the heroine in Finny and the Boy from Horse Mountain, finally got the horse she so desperately wanted. The description in the book of the still standing, but near dead, skeleton of a horse was exactly what I found when I was given a free horse at fifteen years old.

I was dropped off at an abandoned ranch to pick up my new horse. The plan was for me to ride it back home. After seeing her, and the state she was in, that certainty wasn’t going to happen. Fearing she wouldn’t survive, but having no other choice. We slowly began the eleven-mile walk home and the journey that would change my life.

That event was a defining moment for me. Not only did the horse survive, she thrived and turned out to be an amazing animal any kid would be blessed to have.

I hoped I could portray in my story how an event like that can bring so much happiness and change a life for the better.

There were two elements in my book that I wanted to stay true to. First, that all the equine information was accurate. I wanted anyone who read the book to also learn from it. That was very important to me because I teach horsemanship and safety around horses. I have read numerous horse books where the information is actually incorrect or misleading.

Second, I wanted to show that the good guys don’t always win just because they’re good and the bad guys didn’t always lose because they’re bad. I wanted to do that because that is how the world works. Another lessons kids should learn.

Finny gets a horse named Sky. Her dream is that someday he’ll become a champion jumping horse. As their story progresses, she has to modify her plans since Sky is proving to be so difficult. I didn’t want this to be a crushing end to a dream, just the beginning of a new one. I wanted my readers, like I do my students, to learn the journey is the joy, not the ribbons from the show arena.

Joe, the male hero in the story, is already years ahead of Finny when it comes to being set as the person he is. His background has been tough, but the sense of self he has gotten from working with horses is enough to get him through the bad times. Finny sees this in him, and admires him for it.

Ultimately, my characters absorb their life lessons from their experiences with horses and each other. All the bad thrown their way, they handle due to the strengths they’ve gained. I hope my real life students can achieve that, too.

Finny and the Boy from Horse Mountain

About the Book: Against the backdrop of the high-stakes and intensely competitive equestrian sport of show jumping, Finny, a fifteen-year-old girl in California, adopts an emaciated, untrained horse without her parents’ knowledge. Soon after adopting Sky, Finny meets Joe, a sixteen-year-old, who has run away from his cruel uncle in Montana. His love for horses and desire to be a trainer matches Finny’s dream of competing in the show jumping arena—against rich girls on fancier horses—and together, they train Sky to become a first-rate show jumper.

But the path is fraught with danger. Sky is not like other horses and is so destructive and difficult he gets them kicked out of the barn where Finny has been working and training. Helped by a kind woman who owns a horse rescue, Joe is able to prove both his and Sky’s incredible talents. When Joe is kidnapped by his violent uncle, Finny and Sky are the only ones who can save him. In a breathtaking finale, Sky and Finny must enter the underworld of the rodeo circuit, an after-hours, illegal race, where they will risk their lives to save the boy they love. Young demonstrates a masterful ability to set a breakneck pace and keep it up until the end of the novel. Finny and Joe are enduring characters who are sure to appear in upcoming sequels.

About the Author: Andrea Young is a highly respected riding instructor at Elvenstar in Malibu, one of Southern California’s top hunter-jumper barns. Her innovative work has been featured in Practical Horseman, Hunter/Jumper magazine,Show Circuit Magazine, Chronicle of the Horse, and others. She is currently writing a trilogy featuring Finny and Joe, the boy from Horse Mountain. She lives in Simi Valley, California.

Thank you to Andrea for this honest post. We hope it will inspire readers and writers!

Thank you to Cheryl from Sky Pony Press for connecting us with Andrea!

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Blog Tour, Author Guest Post, and Review!: The Classy Crooks Club by Alison Cherry

April 1, 2016 by Kellee

The Classy Crooks Club
Author: Alison Cherry
Published March 29th, 2016 by Aladdin

Goodreads Summary: Twelve-year-old AJ dreads spending an entire month living with her strict Grandma Jo. Not only does her grandmother dictate how she walks, what she eats, and which rooms she can enter, she fills all AJ’s free time with boring sewing lessons. Grandma Jo wants nothing more than to transform her adventurous, fun-loving granddaughter into a prim and proper lady.

But AJ’s dull summer takes a sharp turn when she discovers that her grandmother’s “bridge group” is actually a heist club. When Grandma Jo offers to let AJ learn lock-picking instead of embroidery in exchange for help with a few capers, AJ is happy to join her grandmother’s madcap band of thieves, who claim to steal only for ethical reasons. But even the most respectable ladies can hide truly surprising secrets, and AJ finds she must decide for herself what it means to be one of the good guys.

My Review: I love AJ. She is a perfect protagonist because she is just a real middle schooler. She is multi-faceted, funny, has quite a personality, has fears, makes mistakes, and is overall likeable. And she is not the only well-crafted character. Each of the characters, main, secondary, or supporting, are so fully developed that you feel like you know everyone in AJ’s life. I often am skeptical about first person POV because it is always tough to get a character/narrator’s voice perfect while also developing the characters, but Cherry does a great job of both. AJ is a normal middle school girl that is dealing with a quite terrible grandmother who happens to have an unexpected hobby.

Another thing that blew me away about this novel is that something happened that was completely unexpected! Usually when I am reading middle grade novels, I love them but am not often surprised because I can sense foreshadowing and predict; however, Cherry really caught me off guard in this one! You’ll have to let me know if you see it coming!

And finally, I loved the unique premise of the book! Who ever thought there’d be a book about a bunch of old ladies who “liberate” *cough* steal *cough* exotic birds and anything else that suits their fancy?!

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: Alison’s guest post, below, made me really think about how grandparents play the role in different books, so Classy Crooks Club and the books listed below could be part of a grandparent-focused lit circle. How do the grandparents in the book differ from the parents (if they are present)? How are the grandparents different than stereotypical grandparents? How do the grandparents influence the main character?

Discussion Questions: Did you predict the climax of the story?; Why do you think the author chose first person point of view?; Why do you think the author doesn’t share what us about Betty’s past?; How does AJ overcome her fear?; Which of the Classy Crooks Club ladies would you want to hang out with and why?; What does Brianna teach AJ about not judging a book by its cover?; Why do you think Brianna is so mean to Maddie?; Why does Maddie get so mad at AJ? Would you have reacted the same way?

We Flagged: “Every single piece of furniture in my grandmother’s house has a name with too many syllables.

At home we have chairs. We have a couch. We have tables. But right now my grandmother is pointing at this hulking wooden thing in the corner of one of her guest bedrooms — my bedroom, for the next month — and calling it a ‘mission chifforobe.’ It looks like what might happen if a dresser and a closet had a really ugly baby. ‘I trust you’ll be very careful with this chiffrobe while you’re here,’ Grandma Jo says, like it’s some fragile, spindly thing I could possibly break by accident. ‘It was once owned by Buckminster Fuller, as was that ottoman.'” (p. 1)

Read This If You Loved: Wig in the Window & Tiara on the Terrace by Kristen Kittscher, Heist Society by Ally Carter, Peter Nimble and his Fantastic Eyes by Jonathan Auxier

“Five Books I Loved That Featured Grandparents” by Alison Cherry:

The Witches, Roald Dahl:

This creepy novel from 1983 features a boy who is sent to live with his grandmother after the death of his parents. Grandmother is a retired witch-hunter, and she makes sure her grandson knows how to recognize witches by their unusual traits: bald heads that they cover with wigs, square feet with no toes, clawed hands, and blue spit. Unfortunately, this doesn’t prevent the boy from having a run-in with witches while on vacation, and they turn him into a mouse. Grandmother is presented as incredibly kind and accepting—she doesn’t love her grandson any less once he’s a mouse. She’s also very clever and helps devise a plan to get revenge on the witches. The scene that sticks with me most is one in which Grandmother tells the boy that being a mouse will significantly shorten his lifespan, and he says he doesn’t mind because he doesn’t want to outlive her. I read this book over and over as a child!

Tortilla Sun, Jennifer Cervantes:

When her mother gets a grant to study in Costa Rica for the summer, twelve-year-old Izzy is sent to live with her nana in her tiny, rural New Mexican village. Izzy knows nothing about her Latina heritage or her dead father, whom her mother has always refused to discuss, and her summer with Nana is her first opportunity to learn where she comes from and who she is. Izzy’s nana is patient, wise, warm, and loving, and she lets her granddaughter discover pieces of her past slowly, when she’s ready and able to handle them. Reading this book is a rich sensory experience; the descriptions of Nana’s colorful house, the food she teaches Izzy to cook, and the rest of the characters in the neighborhood are beautifully drawn. It made me want to hang out in the world of the story long after it was over.

You’re Invited, Jen Malone and Gail Nall

This novel from four points of view is about a group of girls who start a party-planning business in their small seaside town. While the book isn’t centered around a grandparent like the other four on this list, Lauren’s grandmother Bubby is my favorite part of the story. Bubby is loud, opinionated, bubbly, and a total flirt—she spends most of the book zooming around on her bright red scooter, Wanda, and trying to catch the eye of “hot” Mr. Vernon from her retirement community. Despite her advanced age, Bubby tries her best to act and speak like a teenager—she’s active on “the Tweeter” and constantly refers to things as “amazeballs” and “ubercute.” This horrifies Lauren, who is significantly more dignified, but it delights me to no end. I sincerely wish I had a grandmother like Bubby.

The Lightning Queen, Laura Resau:

This gorgeous novel is about Teo, an indigenous Mexican boy, and Esma, a Romani girl who comes through his village with her caravan each summer. Despite their differences, a fortune teller states that they are destined to be friends for life, however unlikely it may seem. Because the story is told primarily in flashbacks, the reader gets to meet Teo as both a child and as an elderly healer who has lost touch with his lifelong friend and needs his grandson’s help to find her again. Teo is a delight in both incarnations—he’s kind and gentle and incredibly smart, the only boy in his village who braves school and learns to read. Teo also has a soft spot for rescuing animals—as a child, his constant companions are a duck, a blind goat, and a three-legged skunk. Both the Mixteco and Romani communities are treated with great sensitivity, and the writing is captivating.

The Secret Hum of a Daisy, Tracy Holczer:

When her mother dies suddenly, Grace is forced to move in with her estranged grandmother, who sent Grace’s mother away when she got pregnant as a teenager. Grace automatically assumes her grandmother is a horrible person and sets out to be a complete brat, hoping she’ll be sent away. Grace’s grandmother isn’t warm, but she’s patient and steady and gives Grace the space she needs to work out her grief; she’s there every time Grace needs her, but she doesn’t try to force her into a relationship before she’s ready. Grace eventually begins to respect her grandmother’s honesty, forthrightness, and willingness to take responsibility for mistakes she made in the past, even when it makes her look bad. The writing in this book is beautiful, lyrical, and deeply felt—it feels as if Tracy Holczer dug this story up from deep in her soul and pasted it directly onto the page. It’s one of my favorite depictions of two people who have suffered deep losses taking a chance on loving each other, even though it’s hard and painful.

Recommended For:

Don’t miss out on the other blog tour stops!

March 28-29: Pop! Goes the Reader (http://www.popgoesthereader.com/)

March 30: The Hiding Spot (http://thehidingspot.blogspot.com/)

March 31: Mundie Kids (http://mundiekids.blogspot.com/)

April 1: Unleashing Readers

April 4: Kidsmomo (http://www.kidsmomo.com/)

April 5: KidLit Frenzy (http://www.kidlitfrenzy.com/)

April 6: Kidliterati (http://www.kidliterati.com/)

April 7: Hey Kid! (http://blog.heidischulzbooks.com/category/word/book-talk/hey-kid/)

**Thank you to Alison for providing a copy for review and the guest post!**