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Author Guest Post: “Home is Where the Heart is: Lessons for Writing About Place” by Margaret Finnegan, Author of Sunny Parker is Here to Stay

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“Home is Where the Heart is: Lessons for Writing About Place”

If you’re going to tell a story, you’re going to need characters, and to understand those characters, you’ll need to understand the world where they exist. That world is often called the setting. But I don’t like that word. It seems passive—like the backdrop of a play. I like the word place, as in the place where you live. The place where you live is anything but passive. Houses settle. Schools hum. Mountains fall and rise, and then do it all over again. The fact is, the world is its own character. And in our favorite stories, the place—the setting, if you must—is a character. It grounds reality, propels action, and enlivens conflict and drama. Sometimes, it’s an impediment to the protagonist. Sometimes, it’s a savior.

For example, my new book Sunny Parker is Here to Stay takes place in an unnamed but affluent community. There is a country club up in the hills, and most people live in large houses. In fact, a lot of the smaller homes have recently been replaced by McMansions.

Can you picture it? Are you getting a sense of its character? Are you getting a sense of how place affects lives?

Okay. Smack in the middle of town there’s a wide boulevard, three lanes in each direction. Just off the boulevard stands The Del Mar Garden Apartments. It’s an affordable housing complex, a pretty decent one, with balconies and a grass-filled courtyard, but it’s a little neglected too. Sunny Parker, our protagonist, lives here.

This new detail complicates things, doesn’t it? Suddenly, this world seems a little less predictable and a little more fractured. But maybe it also seems more interesting, because like any good character it is multi-faceted, and that makes it fun. After all, you never really know how a multi-faceted character is going to act or what it’s going to do.

Helping writers and readers understand that world building is character building can not only help them grow as writers, but, with the right scaffolding, it can prompt them to think about their own world as more than a place for them to exist, but as an active presence in their own lives, one that they help shape, and one that shapes them in return.

With that in mind, here are two lessons about place—one for writers and one for readers.

Writing About Place

  1. Start with a blank piece of paper. Draw the world you know, in this case, the room/place where you sleep (although other spaces could be fun to play around with too). Be sure to label the furniture, windows, etc.
  2. Add sensory details (as words or pictures) so that you can better visualize what things look, sound, feel, smell, and maybe even taste like.
  3. Look at your picture. What contradictions might exist here? Maybe your side of your room is perfectly clean, for example, but your sister’s side looks (and smells) gross. Or maybe the contradiction is outside. Maybe inside the room/place it’s warm and dry, but outside it’s cold and wet.
  4. Now write about what you’ve drawn, especially the contradiction. Be sure to use those sensory details and other words that give a sense of life and action.
  5. Share your writing with a peer. Have them answer this question: What do you think this writing tells you about the person/people who live here?
  6. Reflect in writing for one minute more by answering this question: Did your peer say what you thought they might? If so, what? If not, did their response surprise you? Why?

Reading about place

  1. Start with a book. Identify passages that describe an important place in the book.
  2. Draw it out on a piece of paper. No need to be fancy, but do try to get those sensory words in there.
  3. Reflect in writing on your drawing. What is your picture trying to tell you about the personality of the place. For example, is it warm, cozy, scary? What clues does the personality of the place tell you about the people or animals in the story?

Published April 23rd, 2024 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers

About the Book: A determined girl spends the summer before middle school learning to stand up for her low-income community in this funny, fast-paced read just right for fans of Kelly Yang’s Front Desk.

Sunny Parker loves the Del Mar Garden Apartments, the affordable housing complex where she lives. And she especially loves her neighbors. From her best friend, Haley Michaels, to Mrs. Garcia and her two kids—developmentally disabled son AJ and bitter but big-hearted daughter Izzy—every resident has a story and a special place in Sunny’s heart.

Sunny never thought living at the Del Mar Garden Apartments made her different—until the city proposes turning an old, abandoned school into a new affordable housing complex and the backlash of her affluent neighborhood teaches Sunny the hard way that not everyone appreciates the community she calls home. Her dad, the Del Mar’s manager-slash-handyman, wants Sunny to lay low. But as hurtful rhetoric spreads and the city’s public hearing approaches, Sunny realizes that sometimes there’s too much at stake to stay silent.

With her friends behind her, Sunny Parker is determined to change the narrative—because she and her community are here to stay!

About the Author: Margaret Finnegan is the author of the Junior Library Guild Selections New Kids and Underdogs, We Could Be Heroes, and Susie B. Won’t Back Down. Her other work has appeared in FamilyFun, the Los Angeles Times, Salon, and other publications. She lives in South Pasadena, California, where she enjoys spending time with her family, walking her dog, and baking really good chocolate cakes. Visit her online at MargaretFinnegan.com or on Instagram at FinneganBegin.

Thank you, Margaret, for sharing these setting reading and writing tips!

Educators’ Guide for The Partition Project by Saadia Faruqi

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The Partition Project
Author: Saadia Faruqi
Published: February 27th, 2024 by Quill Tree Books

Summary: When her grandmother comes off the airplane in Houston from Pakistan, Mahnoor knows that having Dadi move in is going to disrupt everything about her life. She doesn’t have time to be Dadi’s unofficial babysitter—her journalism teacher has announced that their big assignment will be to film a documentary, which feels more like storytelling than what Maha would call “journalism”.

As Dadi starts to settle into life in Houston and Maha scrambles for a subject for her documentary, the two of them start talking. About Dadi’s childhood in northern India—and about the Partition that forced her to leave her home and relocate to the newly created Pakistan. As details of Dadi’s life are revealed, Dadi’s personal story feels a lot more like the breaking news that Maha loves so much. And before she knows it, she has the subject of her documentary.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation and Discussion Questions: 

Please view and enjoy the educators’ guide I created for the author:

You can also access the educators’ guide here.

You can learn more about The Partition Project on Saadia Faruqi’s website.

Flagged Passage: View an excerpt HERE.

Recommended For: 

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Author Guest Post: “Be Kind to the Language” by Chris Lynch, Author of Walkin’ The Dog

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“Be Kind to the Language”

“Wee cliche.”

I have written those words in the margin of my students’ work so many times it is bordering on becoming a wee cliche itself (bordering on? I hear my students cough). To avoid that, I occasionally drop the “wee” part for variety. But the wee is in there for good reason; to call something cliche is among the most stinging critiques one can make of a writer. We are, after all, striving for originality at all times in our work, so to call cliche at somebody is tough stuff. That is one reason I added the wee in the first place—to soften the blow.

But there is another important reason, and that is the fact that I’m usually not flagging one of the big, whopping clichés like “It was a dark and stormy night,” known to writing students the world over. My vigilance is overwhelmingly applied to the small, apparently harmless, turns of phrase that pop up all over our writing without our even noticing. Yes, I include myself in this (boy, do I love editors and editing).

But they are not harmless, are they? As I am known to point out to my students as I attempt to talk them out of hating me: those very small over-common terms and phrases that infect our sentences are the equivalent of termites eating away at the foundations of our prose. They are insidious, and lethal. How many times do we read a piece and get to the end merely shrugging, thinking “That was okay, but it left no pleasant aftertaste”? Going back, you may well find that the language, the syntax, the rhythms (yes, there are cliches of pace and rhythm and theme) are so samey compared to what I have read before. If that is your own writing you are going over, look for all the easy choices, the phrases like broad daylight or a twinkle in his eye, that you almost certainly would not have fallen back on if you hadn’t already heard them a billion times in your life. As a dedicated mentor, I like to emphasize that having heard something a billion times is precisely why you do NOT want to repeat it. Even if it is not a literal repetition of something common, if you even feel like you have heard something before, then treat it as if you have. The joyful endgame here is that in almost every instance where I call out a wee cliche to my students, they come back at me with a fillip, a flipflop, a fandango that instantly stamps that sentence as theirs and nobody else’s.

Now, I am not a linguistic brute. I know these minor weakness of phrase are acceptable in everyday life. Social discourse is scarcely imaginable without them. But. Your creative writing is supposed to be your singularity. You get to lovingly labor over it and polish it until it fully represents you and your artful spirit. So, while you can say in conversation, it is what it is (if you MUST), once you have put it in writing you have expended five words to say exactly nothing. That is a fair description of what we aim to eliminate in a creative writing program.

And while we are at it, please stop using the word Dad as a pejorative? That hurts my feelings.

Publishing March 12th, 2024 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

About the Book: “Lynch is back and better, smarter, and funnier than ever.” —Jacqueline Woodson, National Book Award Winner

A boy learns how to be a friend from man’s best friend in this funny and moving middle grade novel about humans being able to change and dogs changing us from acclaimed author Chris Lynch.

In a family of strong personalities with very strong points of view, Louis is what his mother lovingly calls “the inactivist,” someone who’d rather kick back than stand out. He only hopes he can stay under the radar when he starts high school in the fall, his first experience with public school after years of homeschooling.

But when a favor for a neighbor and his stinky canine companion unexpectedly turns into a bustling dog-walking business, Louis finds himself meeting an unprecedented number of new friends—both human and canine. Agatha, a quippy and cagey girl his age always seems to be telling two truths and a lie. Cyrus, a few years his senior, promises he’s going to show Louis how to be a better person, whether Louis wants him to or not. And then there are the dogs: misbehaving border terriers, the four (possible stolen) sausage dogs, the rest of Louis’s charges, and a mysterious white beast who appears at a certain spot at the edge of the woods.

Dogs and human alike all seem to have something they want to teach Louis, including his menacing older brother who keeps turning up everywhere. But is Louis ready to learn the lesson he needs most: how to stop being a lone wolf and be part of a pack?

About the Author: Chris Lynch is the award–winning author of several highly acclaimed young adult novels, including Printz Honor Book Freewill, Iceman, Gypsy Davey, and Shadow Boxer—all ALA Best Books for Young Adults—as well as Killing Time in Crystal City, Little Blue Lies, Pieces, Kill Switch, Angry Young Man, and Inexcusable, which was a National Book Award finalist and the recipient of six starred reviews. Chris is the author of middle grade novel Walkin’ the Dog. He holds an MA from the writing program at Emerson College. He teaches in the creative writing MFA program at Lesley University. He lives in Boston and in Scotland.

Thank you, Chris, for these pointers to focus students’, and our, writing!

Remember Us by Jacqueline Woodson

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Remember Us
Author: Jacqueline Woodson
Published October 10th, 2023 by Nancy Paulsen Books

Summary: National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson brings readers a powerful story that delves deeply into life’s burning questions about time and memory and what we take with us into the future.

It seems like Sage’s whole world is on fire the summer before she starts seventh grade. As house after house burns down, her Bushwick neighborhood gets referred to as “The Matchbox” in the local newspaper. And while Sage prefers to spend her time shooting hoops with the guys, she’s also still trying to figure out her place inside the circle of girls she’s known since childhood. A group that each day, feels further and further away from her. But it’s also the summer of Freddy, a new kid who truly gets Sage. Together, they reckon with the pain of missing the things that get left behind as time moves on, savor what’s good in the present, and buoy each other up in the face of destruction. And when the future comes, it is Sage’s memories of the past that show her the way forward. Remember Us speaks to the power of both letting go . . . and holding on.

About the Author: Jacqueline Woodson (www.jacquelinewoodson.com) received a 2023 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a 2020 MacArthur Fellowship, the 2020 Hans Christian Andersen Award, the 2018 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, and the 2018 Children’s Literature Legacy Award. She was the 2018–2019 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, and in 2015, she was named the Young People’s Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation. She received the 2014 National Book Award for her New York Times bestselling memoir Brown Girl Dreaming, which was also a recipient of the Coretta Scott King Award, a Newbery Honor, the NAACP Image Award, and a Sibert Honor. She wrote the adult books Red at the Bone, a New York Times bestseller, and Another Brooklyn, a 2016 National Book Award finalist. Born in Columbus, Ohio, Jacqueline grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, and Brooklyn, New York, and graduated from college with a B.A. in English. She is the author of dozens of award-winning books for young adults, middle graders, and children; among her many accolades, she is a four-time Newbery Honor winner, a four-time National Book Award finalist, and a three-time Coretta Scott King Award winner. Her books include Coretta Scott King Award and NAACP Image Award winner Before the Ever After; New York Times bestsellers The Day You Begin and Harbor Me; The Other Side, Caldecott Honor book Coming On Home Soon; Newbery Honor winners Feathers, Show Way, and After Tupac and D Foster; Miracle’s Boys, which received the LA Times Book Prize and the Coretta Scott King Award; and Each Kindness, which won the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award. Jacqueline is also a recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement for her contributions to young adult literature. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York.

Review: Remember Us may be a historical fiction book, taking place in the 1970s, but Sage’s story is timeless. In the book, you have so many layers to look at. First, Woodson’s vignettes are beautifully crafted which makes the book such a wonderful read. Then you have the layer of the fires in Sage’s neighborhood and fire in her own life. There is also her love of basketball, and her amazing talent, as well as the questioning about her identity this leads to. Finally, it is a story of family and friends with Sage’s mom and Freddy playing star roles. All of this leads to a multi-layered novel that is a truthful look at growing up and remembering the past.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation and Discussion Questions: Check out this Educator’s Guide from Penguin Random House!

Flagged Passage: 

After the year of fire
vines rise up
through the rest of our lives
of smoke
of flame
of memory.
As if to say
We’re still here.
As if to say
Remember us.

1

The moon is bright tonight. And full. Hanging low above the house across the street where an orange curtain blows in and out of my neighbors’ window. Out and in. And past the curtain there’s the golden light of their living room lamps. Beyond that, there is the pulsing blue of their tele­vision screen. I see this all now. I see a world continuing.

And in the orange and gold and blue I’m reminded again of the year when sirens screamed through my old neighborhood and smoke always seemed to be billowing. Somewhere.

That year, from the moment we stepped out of our houses in the morning till late into the night, we heard the sirens. Down Knickerbocker. Up Madison. Across Cornelia. Both ways on Gates Avenue. Down Ridgewood Place. Rounding the corners of Putnam, Wilson, Evergreen . . .

Evergreen. Sometimes a word comes to you after time has passed. And it catches you off guard. Evergreen. The name of a family of trees. And the name of a block in Brooklyn. Evergreen. Another way of saying forever.

That year, nothing felt evergreen.

Palmetto. A word that has never left me. A word that in my mind is evergreen. Palmetto. The name for both a stunning tree and an oversize cockroach. Palmetto was also the name of a street in my old neighborhood. And that year, Palmetto Street was burning.

2

That was the year when, one by one, the buildings on Palmetto melted into a mass of rock and ash and crumbled plaster until just a few walls were left standing. Walls that we threw our balls against and chased each other around. And at the end of the day, when we were too tired to play anymore, they were the walls we simply sat down by and pressed our backs into, staring out over a block that was already, even as we stared at it with our lips slightly parted and our hands shielding the last of the sun from our eyes, almost gone.

We said Well, nothing lasts for always, right?

We said One day even the whole earth will disappear.

We were just some kids making believe we understood.

But we didn’t. Not yet.

We didn’t understand the fires. Or life. Or the world.

But we knew that neighborhood was our world.

And we knew . . . our world was burning.

Read This If You Love: Jacqueline Woodson’s books such as brown girl dreaming and Harbor Me, Troublemaker by John Cho, The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez, The Unsung Hero of Birdsong USA by Brenda Woods

Recommended For: 

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**Thank you to Penguin Young Readers for providing a copy for review!**

Author Guest Post: “Coping with Creative Arts” by Rebecca Weber, Author of The Painter’s Butterfly

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“Coping with Creative Arts”

From the time I could speak, I wanted to be a teacher! I bet you thought I was going to say author. But professional writing seemed like the kind of career that only lottery winners and famous-people-who-were-not-me could achieve. I spent much of my childhood bossing around my younger sister and cousins, forcibly sitting them in front of a stand-up chalkboard and passing out quizzes to be sure they were paying attention to my genius lesson plans. With each scrape of the chalk against the blackboard, I had not a single doubt that teaching was the career path meant for me.

Fast forward to student teaching in college and I got a hard dose of reality real fast. Education is stressful for everyone involved: administrators, teachers, and students alike. While I loved working with kids to enhance their wonder of the world, the nearly unattainable standards and diversity of learning styles threw me for a loop, not-to-mention my undiagnosed anxiety acting as my own worst enemy. I made it through student teaching mostly emotionally intact, and one of my favorite memories of the whole experience was when I created a poetry unit for my fourth grade class. I’d been head-over-heels for poetry since elementary school, and surely the kids would explode with excitement over poetry too.

Not exactly! I got quite the mixed response to my unit plan. Some kids took a very simple approach, creating poems that rhymed but didn’t have much personal significance. Some kids stared at me like I’d grown three heads when I brought up “haikus” and “syllables” and “structure.” I’m sure they were thinking “Poetry is for old people long dead. What’s it matter to me?.” However, there were a select few that completely transformed through the week or two of my unit. One boy in particular, an athlete and class clown, read multiple poems in front of the class, each with deep emotional significance and obvious natural talent. He had never written poetry in his life, and yet his words entrapped me, bared his soul for everyone to see. Without it, I probably wouldn’t have glimpsed his ‘truth’. Proud isn’t a strong enough word. I’ll never, ever forget how poetry helped him unfurl his vulnerability.

Poetry is but one of many forms of art essential to living. I’m of the belief that everyone should have something in which to channel their passion. With anxiety and mental illness pervading current day society as it does, the arts have never been more necessary (or underappreciated). Creative arts allow people to see and understand themselves, to sort through emotional struggles or questions in a proactive and beautiful way. And yet, education insists that tests are the true measure of learning. I taught preschool for many years in a private school because it gave me the freedom to teach kids in a way that suited them best. Preschool makes self-expression a priority through fun first: singing, arts and crafts, dance, and active play. As teachers, we wove academic learning into those artistic activities. And the kids were better for it. Preschoolers are essentially at an age where they’re learning to be functioning humans, but who decided that once kids reach elementary, middle, or high school they’ve suddenly achieved full self-awareness? The idea seems ludicrous to me.

In my debut middle grade novel, The Painter’s Butterfly, 12 year-old foster child, Nova, uses her innate talent for drawing to cope with a lifetime without a permanent home. In fact, I’d say the only reason Nova survived her nomadic lifestyle is because of her art. She finds a kindred spirit in her newest guardian, painter Mr. Russell, and they use their mutual love of art to build a positive bond with one another. While The Painter’s Butterfly is a work of fantasy and fiction, the creative arts hold the same merit and potential in our everyday lives. Writing, painting, drawing, music, you name it…each allow us to channel confusing emotions into something tangible that can be more easily understood. The arts allow us to truly be seen.

The creative arts put human passion and well-being ahead of everything else, and I know many educators who utilize these incredible tools in their classrooms, despite the “teaching to the test” mentality.. I hope one day society puts the arts on their deserved pedestal, but until then…

Have you been creative today?

Published February 7th, 2023 by Kinkajou Press

About the Book: What if art could come alive and guide you home?

Twelve-year-old foster child Nova longs to find her one true home. When jealousy of her art ability upends her most cherished placement, Nova’s dropped in the middle of nowhere to live with painter Mr. Russell in his ramshackle farmhouse.

While exploring, Nova sneaks into the attic and discovers a magical easel that brings paintings to life. She puts her art skills to the test and gets caught in a whirlwind adventure, complete with rainbow butterflies, a devious leprechaun, and a journey to the rainforest.

Following the magic, Nova stumbles upon an underground cellar that houses a startling secret. She’s forced to choose: escape to a prior foster home, or mend her relationship with Mr. Russell. Nova makes a dangerous mistake when she strikes a match of revenge. She must survive the inferno to learn the true meaning of home.

About the Author: Rebecca is a Midwestern girl with a lifelong passion for books! She spends most of her time nurturing her baby girl and two Boston Terrier fur-babies, and flipping houses with her realtor husband. It took fifteen years to find the courage to craft her first novel, The Painter’s Butterfly, but now she’s never letting her feather pen go! While she misses teaching preschool-aged children their ABC’s, Rebecca is thrilled to have the chance to reach middle graders worldwide with her fantastical stories.

Social Media Info:
Twitter: @RWeberWrites
IG: rebeccaweberwrites
Facebook: Rebecca Weber – Author
TikTok: @rweberwrites
Email: rebeccaweberwrites@gmail.com

Thank you, Rebecca, for reminding us of the importance of creativity!

Author Guest Post: “Traveling the Globe with the City Spies” by James Ponti, Author of City Spies: Mission Manhattan

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“Traveling the Globe with the City Spies”

I love to travel and I love to write, so it’s not surprising that the characters in my books do a fair amount of globetrotting. In the first four City Spies adventures, the team has been to London, Paris, San Francisco, Moscow, Beijing, and Cairo. My hope is that in addition to providing exciting backdrops for the stories to unfold, these locales also spark an interest in readers for faraway places.

I research each of them thoroughly and try to visit them in person when I can. (Covid made this impossible for books 3 and 4.) I do this research not only for accuracy, but also inspiration.  An unexpected detail about a location can help bring the story to life and provide a boost to the plot. (For example, while working on this book, I learned that an anti-tank rocket was once fired at MI6 headquarters and bounced off!)

Many educators have told me they use the books to “take their students” to the same locations as the City Spies, which fills my heart with joy. One way you can do that is on my website. There is a page (https://www.jamesponti.com/explore) that features the locations from the books and includes research photographs, maps, and travel videos that I’ve made for each one.

With the release of Mission Manhattan on February 6th, I thought I’d tell you about four of the locations that play important roles in the story. (I visited all of them in person with one exception – just like that rocket, I am unable to get inside MI6 headquarters.) In some instances, I was given special tours and in others I acted like the characters and snuck around hoping not to get caught. Along the way, I took hundreds of photos, a few of which I’ve included here.

Piazza San Marco – Venice, Italy

The book starts off in Venice. (My wife was particularly happy to help me research this stop.) Made up of more than one hundred small islands connected by a seemingly endless number of footbridges, the city is unlike anywhere else in the world. The primary setting in the book is Piazza San Marco, which Napoleon is said to have called, “The drawing room of Europe.”

The pictures I’ve included highlight the famous bell tower that stands over three hundred feet tall. During the action scenes in the first chapters, this is where Kat is positioned as the alpha of the mission. I made sure to get a picture of what she would see and I came across a plaque memorializing Galileo, which I worked into the story.

“Four hundred years earlier, this was where Galileo looked to the heavens with his newly invented telescope and discovered order in the universe. Now it was where a fourteen-year-old spy looked across a sea of demonstrators, hoping to figure out which ones were a threat to the others.”

MI6 Building – London, UK

The headquarters of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) is quite conspicuous considering the clandestine nature of what takes place inside. Located in the heart of London, its exterior features prominently in several James Bond movies. In Mission Manhattan, the City Spies travel there to secretly meet with the chief, who is universally known as C.

Since I couldn’t visit in person, I scoured books, podcasts, interviews and their website.  (https://www.sis.gov.uk/) I was particularly interested in the architecture, which is unlike any other building I know.

“The massive Secret Intelligence Service headquarters overlooked the Thames, and its architecture seemed equal parts Mayan temple, medieval castle, and nuclear power plant. Commonly called Vauxhall Cross, it was a well-known London landmark, but up until now, the only time the City Spies had gotten a good look at it was while watching James Bond movies.”

Iranian Embassy – Washington, D.C.

Washington is a favorite city and I visit it frequently. In Mission Manhattan, the City Spies go to some well-known D.C. landmarks like the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial, and the U.S. Botanic Garden. But I was most intrigued by a much lesser-known location – the Iranian Embassy.

Located across the street from the British and Brazilian embassies (which feature heavily in the plot), the Iranian embassy has remained empty ever since the United States and Iran severed diplomatic relations more than forty years ago. It stays empty way because of Article 45 of the Vienna Convention, which someone explains in the book.

“Technically, that land is part of Iran. But the Iranians can’t come here and do anything with it, so it just sits there like a haunted house.”

The idea of this mysterious abandoned building in one of the most expensive locations in Washington, D.C. was too interesting for me to pass up. When I visited to research all the locations in the book, I snuck around and took a dozen pictures of the embassy including these.

New York Public Library, Schwarzman Building – New York City, NY

I love the New York Public Library’s mission, collection, and history. Its main building is featured prominently in the climactic chapters of Mission Manhattan.

“The main branch of the New York Public Library was one of the most iconic buildings in the city. Its Fifth Avenue facade featured three grand arches guarded by a pair of majestic marble lions. The building was home to ornate reading rooms, special collections, and literary treasures as varied as Thomas Jefferson’s handwritten copy of the Declaration of Independence and the original stuffed animals that inspired Winnie-the-Pooh.”

For my research, some staff members showed me behind the scenes along with my wife and editor. One of my favorite details from the tour concerned the interior stacks, which are hidden from public view. There are seven floors of cast iron and steel bookcases that are mostly empty because the books have been moved to a more environmentally appropriate location underground. The shelving units can’t be moved though, because they are structural elements and help keep the building standing. For me, it is a fascinating detail and just screamed out to be the setting of a chase.

BEYOND BOOK FIVE

I am happy to say that there will be at least eight books in the City Spies series and that means there are many more exciting locations to come. In fact, the first part of the writing process is always when my editor Kristin asks me, “Where are we going next?”

Here’s hoping that you come along with us!

Published February 6th, 2024 by Aladdin

About the Book: The City Spies head to the Big Apple when a credible threat is made to a young climate activist who is scheduled to speak in front of the upcoming United Nations General Assembly. With Rio acting as alpha and a new member in their ranks, the team’s mission to protect a fellow teen takes them on an exciting adventure in, around, and even under the greatest city in the world as they follow leads to the outer boroughs, the UN Headquarters, and even the usually off-limits stacks that extend deep under the main branch of the New York Public Library.

City Spies 5 – Book Trailer

About the Author: James Ponti grew up in a small Florida beach town, where he dreamed of one day becoming a writer. He loves pasta, laughing at funny stories, and going to the movies on weekday afternoons. One of his absolute favorite things to do is travel with his family, and it was during a trip to London and Paris that he got the idea for City Spies. He now lives in Orlando, Florida and is the New York Times Bestselling author of four middle grade book series. Find out more at JamesPonti.com.

Meet James at his in-person book tour!

Tuesday, February 6 at 6:00pm ET
Politics and Prose at The Wharf (Washington, D.C.)
In conversation with Hena Khan

Wednesday, February 7 at 6:00pm ET
Books of Wonder (New York, NY)
In conversation with Gordon Korman and Adam Gidwitz

Thursday, February 8 at 6:00pm ET
RJ Julia Booksellers (Madison, CT)
In conversation with Jake Burt

Friday, February 9 at 6:30pm ET
An Unlikely Story (Plainville, MA)

Saturday, February 10 at 2:00pm ET
Bush Auditorium at Rollins College (Winter Park, FL)
In conversation with Stuart Gibbs

Thank you, James, for taking us on this journey with you and the City Spies!

Drawing Deena by Hena Khan

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Drawing Deena
Author: Hena Khan
Publishing February 6th, 2024 by Salaam Reads / Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Summary: From the award-winning author of Amina’s Voice and Amina’s Song comes a tenderhearted middle grade novel about a young Pakistani American artist determined to manage her anxiety and forge her own creative path.

Deena’s never given a name to the familiar knot in her stomach that appears when her parents argue about money, when it’s time to go to school, or when she struggles to find the right words. She manages to make it through each day with the help of her friends and the art she loves to make.

While her parents’ money troubles cause more and more stress, Deena wonders if she can use her artistic talents to ease their burden. She creates a logo and social media account to promote her mom’s home-based business selling clothes from Pakistan to the local community. With her cousin and friends modeling the outfits and lending their social media know-how, business picks up.

But the success and attention make Deena’s cousin and best friend, Parisa, start to act funny. Suddenly Deena’s latest creative outlet becomes another thing that makes her feel nauseated and unsure of herself. After Deena reaches a breaking point, both she and her mother learn the importance of asking for help and that, with the right support, Deena can create something truly beautiful.

Praise: *Khan skillfully weaves in cultural references and Urdu phrases alongside thoughtful questions about the arts, mental health, social media, parent-child relationships, and the pressures adolescent girls face about their appearances. A nuanced and quietly powerful story. – Kirkus, STARRED REVIEW

About the Author: Hena Khan is a Pakistani American writer. She is the author of the middle grade novels Amina’s Voice, Amina’s Song, More to the Story, Drawing Deena, and the Zara’s Rules series and picture books Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns, Under My Hijab, and It’s Ramadan, Curious George, among others. Hena lives in her hometown of Rockville, Maryland, with her family. You can learn more about Hena and her books by visiting her website at HenaKhan.com or connecting with her @HenaKhanBooks.

Review: Art + middle school + identity + family struggles + friends + growth of so many characters = a book that I couldn’t put down. 

As a mental health advocate and someone who believes we should all share our struggles public much more than we do, Drawing Deena is a book that went straight to my heart.

Deena has so much going on. She is truly just trying to hold it together, but it is all too much. However, if you look on the surface, she looks like any other pre-teen and she has learned to mask all of her emotions. But that is what makes the book so insightful. This is how most of our students who are suffering from mental illness deal on a day to day basis–the best they can and often they make it so outside people wouldn’t notice. But throughout the book, she learns to find her voice: her advocacy voice, her friendship voice, her stern voice, her artist voice… She learns that her voice matters.

There is a part of the press release I had to share that pulls it all together: “According to the CDC, anxiety affects approximately one in 11 children aged 3-17. A panel of experts recently recommended that all children 8 and older be screened for anxiety. Thus, Khan hopes to help address America’s mental health crisis among children through her work. Deena is a lovable and relatable character, a young artist who struggles with anxiety, who wants her parents to stop fighting and having money woes, and dreams of being a painter like her idol Vincent van Gogh. She learns to stand up against bullies of all ages and that it’s okay to ask for help when you need it.”

Tools for Navigation: In addition to the advocacy of mental health, I love the art aspects of the book! I think it is a perfect way to move a discussion of art history to contemporary and diverse artists and finding your own style of art. This was a very powerful aspect of the book!

I also love how Deena helps her mother with her business, and I think that what she does for the store could become an activity as well: create a logo, create a website, plan finances, etc.

Discussion Questions: 

  • What is the first sign that Deena is struggling with her mental health?
  • Why is meeting Salma such a pinnacle event in Deena’s life?
  • Why does the Van Gogh experience affect Deena the way it does?
  • Do you think Deena should have gotten mad at Parisa when she did?
  • How is Deena’s school helping her with her anxiety?
  • Why is Deena’s father so hesitant for her to get help? What does this show us about shift in the view of mental health between generations?
  • Why is Deena’s mom so hesitant about Deena’s changes for her business? In the end, do you think that Deena helped her out?
  • Why is everyone so interested in getting on social media so quickly? Do you believe this is good for teen’s mental health?

Flagged Passages/Spreads: I open the door and Parisa bounds inside. My cousin is always in a hurry, whether she’s running for the bus, walking to a store at the mall, or racing down the halls at school. I struggle to keep up with her wherever we go together. It doesn’t help that she’s at least two inches taller than me and has super long legs.

“Be careful, this is still hot,” Saima Khala says, handing me a pot with two worn oven mitts. “Put it on the stove.”

“What is it?” I ask.

“Chicken pulao. Your mother said she didn’t have time to cook, and I was already making this.”

“Yum.” My aunt’s pulao is the best, but I’d never admit that to Mama.

I take the pot, heavy with rice, and carry it to the kitchen, and Parisa sets a bag filled with containers on the counter. Some are full, and others are empty and will probably go back full. This is how it works between our families, there’s a constant exchange of food.

“Leave the daal out and put the rest in the fridge. Where’s your mother?” Khala asks as she opens a drawer and takes out a big spoon.

“I think she’s upstairs. Rubina Auntie just left,” I say.

Khala smiles and pats my cheek. She looks like a younger and more stylish version of my mom although she’s a couple of years older than her. That’s something else I’d never tell Mama.

“How are you?” she asks, her eyes piercing in a way that makes me feel like she cares, and that she remembers what it’s like to be my age.

“Good,” I say, smiling back. “But I haven’t started my homework or studying for my test. We went to the dentist after school.”

“What kind of test?”

“Science.”

“Go study. Parisa can help you. She remembers what she studied last year, right?”

“Oh yeah, of course,” Parisa says. “I remember every single thing I’ve ever learned in school.” She grins at me.

“Okay, smarty-pants, well don’t distract her then!” Khala smacks Parisa playfully on the shoulder. “I’ll take care of this and help your mom.”

“Come on,” I say to Parisa.

Parisa beats me up the stairs and heads to my room. It’s the smallest one in the house, but I have a bigger closet than Musa. My cousin plops down on my bed and sticks out her hand. Her nails are purple with a gold streak running through them.

“What do you think?”

“Did you do them yourself?” I ask, taking her hand and looking at it closely.

“Of course.”

“It totally looks professional.” I’m seriously impressed with Parisa’s nail art skills. She’s been doing her nails since I was ten and she was eleven, and she’s gotten better and better over time. It looks like she got them done at a salon, which she basically did.

Parisa’s mom started offering eyebrow threading to ladies in the community from home a few years ago. She gradually added waxing, facials, and other skin care services. Now, my Khala’s got a legit home-based salon and is always busy. Parisa knows a lot about it and helps her mom out with booking appointments and other stuff. My cousin is the reason I’ve been taking more of an interest in Mama’s boutique lately. Maybe I can help her business take off the same way.

“You should let me do yours,” Parisa says, glancing at my nails, jagged in places from where I chew on them. I try not to, but it’s a bad habit when I’m nervous.

“I’m good.” I clench my fists and hide my nails.

“Come on, it’ll be fun. I’ve got a bunch of new colors,” Parisa says.

“It’ll get messed up when I do my art projects.” I shake my head. I don’t add that I’m more interested in painting a canvas than either my nails or my face.

“Fine.” Parisa fake pouts. “But you have to let me do your hair then. Honestly, Deena, you would look so pretty if you curled your hair and put some anti-frizz in it.”

I try not to react, even as her words grate on my nerves. My cousin’s always pointing out how much better I’d look if I only did something to change myself.

“My hair’s fine,” I mumble, noticing how Parisa’s hair is shiny and smooth with loose curls on the ends. I picture my own head, filled with tighter curls, topped with a layer of frizz. But it takes too long to fight my hair into submission. And the few times I ever had it blow-dried straight, I hated the way it made me look like a different person. I’m not interested in doing that again, so Parisa can make me her project. No, thanks.

“You’re in seventh grade now, Deena. You should pay a little more attention to the way you look. I didn’t care when I was younger either, but now I realize my mom’s right. It’s good to take pride in your appearance.”

Is it though? I want to say. How much pride?

But instead, I swallow my irritation and try to think of a way to change the subject.

“Want to help me choose which photo of you to use for my art assignment?” I ask.

“Sure, Deenie Beenie.” Parisa is instantly interested, and she uses the nickname she’s had for me since we were little. I pull up the photos of Parisa on my phone and swipe through them. There’s one of her seated on my bed, another in a big chair, her gazing directly into the camera, and my favorite, her reading a book.

“That one,” Parisa says, pointing. It’s the one of her looking directly into the camera. She’s got a teasing smile, like she’s hiding a secret.

“Not the one with the book?”

“I look like a dork in that one. Plus, I like the way my hair is falling over my eyes here.”

Parisa made this decision easy. I pull out my pencils and my drawing pad. I’ve already made a big grid with rulers on the page like my teacher Mr. Carey instructed. He said that for portraiture it helps to make sure that you get proportions right. I prefer to freehand, but he’s going to be checking our progress, so I have to do it this way.

I start to sketch out a basic outline of the photo while Parisa watches.

“Can you make my eyes a little bigger?” she asks. “And my nose a little smaller? Right there.”

She points at the photo.

“I’m getting graded on how much it looks like the photo,”

I laugh.

“Yeah, but can’t you, like, put a filter on it?” Parisa grins.

Every time Parisa takes a picture of us, she messes around with it for a while using a glam app. It makes your skin glow and does other things. By the time she’s done with it, we almost look like different people, and then she posts it on her socials.

I’m not allowed to have any accounts until I’m in high school but I wonder if her followers would recognize me if they ever met me in real life.

“Well, just make me look good,” Parisa says after I stare at her and don’t respond.

“You always look good,” I finally say. And I mean it. Parisa is a pretty girl, and she knows it. At least I think she does. Because she also acts like she needs other people to remind her.

I’m going to make sure her portrait is beautiful. But I’m not changing the way she looks.

Read This If You Love: Iveliz Explains it All by Andrea Beatriz Arango, Fifty-Four Things Wrong with Gwendolyn Rogers by Caela Carter, Worser by Jennifer Ziegler

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**Thank you to Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing for providing a copy for review!**