Author Guest Post: “Embracing the Big Picture: Writing About Global Issues Through Fantasy” by Sarwat Chadda, Author of Storm Singer

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“Embracing the Big Picture: Writing About Global Issues Through Fantasy”

Let’s get this out of the way. There is no such thing as ‘fantasy’. Theres’s fiction and non-fiction, and even then I’m not totally sure about that, so much of our ‘non-fiction’, especially history, turns out to have an unhealthy dose of fiction in it even at the best of times.

            There is no fantasy, because all stories are about ‘us’.

            Us? What it is to be human, to live in the here and now, with all its joys and troubles. Fantasy is just a lens, a brilliant, multi-coloured prism that both distorts, and brings into sharp relief, what’s going on around us, giving the writer a chance to express themselves, dealing with the big issues, through a genre that can take it.

            Now having just told you that there’s no such thing as fantasy, I’m just now going to tell you I LOVE FANTASY.

            I love big, bold, noisy stories. I love wild passions spilling out of the page and right into your heart. That pen stabs the paper and it bleeds with life! That’s what I love! Bring in the terror of the dragons, bring I bold heroes, bring in terrible villains! They’re out there, on the tv screen, sprawling over the internet, yelling from the newsstands. Sure, call it fantasy because it’s FANTASTIC.

            It’s that prism that fascinates me. How can I use it to shine a light on what really matters?

            STORM SINGER is about a land where its not rained for centuries. Where the environment has collapsed. Where people scrape a living in the dusty soil while the rich and powerful greedily horde all the resources. Sound familiar?

            It’s about a tyrant who wants to control people, remove their freedoms and have the weak serve the strong, or else. Sound familiar?

            It’s about recognizing injustice, and doing something about it. Shouting out, protesting, doing what you can to change the world for the better.

            STORM SINGER is about how Nargis, a small peasant girl, learns she has power to stand up against tyranny, and learns she is not alone. That many, many others believe in her, and her passion. All it takes is one person to stand up, to inspire others to do the same.

            STORM SINGER is about heroes, and that is about as real life as you can possibly get.

            So, come join Nargis, Mistral, Arjuna, Tripti and the others. You don’t know them yet, but once you meet them you’ll recognize them for sure. They are you, and they are me. Like I said, all stories are about us. What we love, what we desire, what we fear.

            The storm’s coming, and Nargis is bringing it.

            Hold on tight.

Published April 15, 2025 by Simon & Schuster

About the Book: In a land ruled by fierce winged warriors known as garudas, twelve-year-old Nargis is just a poor, lowly human, scrapping a living in the dirt. But Nargis isn’t quite powerless, she is a spirit singer: able to coax small bits of wind, water, fire, and earth to do her bidding through song…well, sometimes.

When Nargis is exiled into the desert, she discovers Mistral, an injured garuda, the prince of her enemies! He’s on a mission to take back his throne from a terrible vulture garuda. In spite of their mutual distrust, the two have no choice but to forge an unlikely alliance.

And as Nargis and Mistral battle dangerous assassins, befriend crafty sky pirates, and sneak into the mysterious sky castle of Alamut, Nargis discovers she carries a family secret, one that could bring Monsoon’s rains back to the desert, but only if she’s willing to risk her life in the bargain…

About the Author: A life-long gamer, Sarwat decided to embrace his passion for over-the-top wild adventure stories by trading in a career in engineering for a highly unstable, brand new one as a writer. That resulted in his first novel, DEVIL’S KISS, back in 2009.

Since then he has been published in a dozen languages, writing comic books, TV shows and novels, preferring non-European settings and legends, such as the award-winning Indian mythology-inspired ASH MISTRY series, the epic high fantasy SHADOW MAGIC trilogy (as Joshua Khan) and CITY OF THE PLAGUE GOD for Rick Riordan Presents, featuring the imprint’s first Muslim hero. His most recent series is the epic eastern fantasy STORM SINGER.

While he’s travelled far and wide, including Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Asia and the Americas, he’s most at home in London.

Feel free to drop him a line on @sarwatchadda or find him of Instagram as sarwat_chadda or visit sarwatchadda.com.

Thank you, Sarwat, for pushing us to think today!

Spelling It Out by Margaret Finnegan

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Spelling It Out
Author: Margaret Finnegan
Published May 13th, 2025 by Atheneum

Summary: A rising seventh grader visits his grandmother in San Francisco for a whirlwind summer of spelling bee training, only to begin suspecting she has Alzheimer’s, in this witty and compassionate middle grade novel for fans of Al Capone Does My Shirts.

Ben Bellini didn’t mean to become a champion speller—after all, he’s not a nerdbut he sure does like spelling bee glory now that it’s found him. He might even be good enough for the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC! And what better way to prepare than to train with a professional spelling coach in San Francisco, where his nan lives?

Through his adventures, Ben gets to know the city—and competitor Asha Krishnakumar, who’s equally determined to spell her way to victory. But Ben also starts having odd interactions with his nan that leave him feeling like he’s missing something. Where is Nan’s forgetfulness coming from? And will anyone even believe him if he tries to get help?

Between showing up for his loved ones and pursuing his own dreams, Ben will need to spend this summer figuring out what he owes others…and what he owes himself.

About the Author: Margaret Finnegan is the author of the Junior Library Guild Selections Sunny Parker Is Here to Stay, New Kids and UnderdogsSusie B. Won’t Back Down, and We Could Be Heroes, which was a USA TODAY bestseller. Her other work has appeared in FamilyFun, the Los Angeles TimesSalon, 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.

Find Margaret Finnegan on social media!
Instagram: @finneganbegin
Facebook: @Margaret Finnegan
Bluesky @finneganbegin

Review: This book is about more than spelling. Yes, it is about spelling, but it is about more than that. It is about finding your passion, growing up, and family. Ben truly gets the chance to figure himself out when he is sent alone to be with his grandmother’s house; especially when his Nan is exceedingly absent from his day-to-day. The struggle Ben has to determine out how he fits into the world is one that many readers will connect with, and if they don’t, they’ll connect with his friend Asha’s similar struggles. Kirkus calls it “a thoughtful coming-of-age story,” and I agree with this sentiment.

I also loved the extra aspects that just truly added to the story:

  • With Ben, we get to explore San Francisco in the 1980s, which is the perfect background to his story.
  • Asha, like I shared above, is struggling with fighting prejudice as an Indian American girl, specifically in basketball.
  • Through Nan’s story, we get to learn about women in architecture and struggles of women in male dominated careers in the early 20th century.
  • Mrs. Sunabee, Nan’s neighbor, was in Japanese internment camps during WWII.

And to add extra fun, this year is the 100-year anniversary of the Scripps National Spelling Bee! It is a perfect year to celebrate spelling and Scripps!

Educators’ Tools for Navigation: Attention, word nerds! Check out these fun activities for Spelling It Out!

And I LOVE teaching students word parts. I think it is one of the best strategies to help students with unknown vocabulary, and in the case of this book, in spelling. We do a schoolwide Word Parts list where the word parts are shared on our news, weekly update, and newsletter and is supported throughout the school to build on vocabulary.

Discussion Questions: 

  • What were some signs that Nan’s memory issues were dementia before Ben figured it out?
  • How does the story taking place in 1985 San Francisco affect the story (vs. it being set in modern times)?
  • Why do you think the author chose to have Asha in the story?
  • What does Ben’s family mean by the web analogy after they come to Nan’s house?
  • Why did Ben need to go to San Francisco alone for the story to happen?
  • Why do you think the author made Roger Nott such a bully?

Flagged Passages: 

Read This If You Love: Frankie & Bug by Gayle Forman, Ferris by Kate DiCamillo, A Two-Placed Heart by DoanPhuong Nguyen, Werewolf Hamlet by Kerry Madden-Lunsford, The Secret of Honeycake by Kimberly Newton Fusco

Recommended For: 

classroomlibrarybuttonsmall 

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**Thank you to Blue Slip Media for providing a copy for review!**

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? #IMWAYR 5/19/25

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?
For readers of all ages

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly blog hop we host which focuses on sharing what we’re reading. This Kid Lit version of IMWAYR focuses primarily on books marketed for kids and teens, but books for readers of all ages are shared. We love this community and how it offers opportunities to share and recommend books with each other.

The original IMWAYR, with an adult literature focus, was started by Sheila at Book Journeys and is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date. The Kid Lit IMWAYR was co-created by Kellee & Jen at Teach Mentor Texts.

We encourage you to write your own post sharing what you’re reading, link up below, leave a comment, and support other IMWAYR bloggers by visiting and commenting on at least three of the other linked blogs.

Happy reading!

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Sunday: Author Guest Post: “Inspiring Students to Write about their own Complex Identities” by Marcella Pixley, Author of Neshama

**Click on any picture/link to view the post**

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Kellee

I didn’t feel well this weekend, so I wasn’t able to do a detailed post. I’ll update on my reading next time, but you can always learn more about any of the books I’ve been reading by checking out my read bookshelf on Goodreads.

Ricki

This is my week off; see you next week!

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Tuesday: Spelling it Out by Margaret Finnegan

Sunday: Author Guest Post: “Embracing the Big Picture: Writing About Global Issues Through Fantasy” by Sarwat Chadda, Author of Storm Singer

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Link up below and go check out what everyone else is reading. Please support other bloggers by viewing and commenting on at least 3 other blogs. If you tweet about your Monday post, tag the tweet with #IMWAYR!

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Author Guest Post: “Inspiring Students to Write about their own Complex Identities” by Marcella Pixley, Author of Neshama

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Inspiring Students to Write about their own Complex Identities

In my eighth-grade classroom, I have stopped referring to the idea of “identity” in the singular and whenever possible, I have begun to speak of our “identities” in the plural to help students think about themselves as being made up of many different interconnected facets, like the tiny, sparkling edges of a diamond that gleam when you turn them to the light. In our novels in verse project, I use Neshama, my forthcoming novel in verse, as a mentor text to help students explore their own complex identities and create their own powerful poetry about what it means to be human.

I begin by giving students a list of identity markers and asking them to reflect upon which aspects of these identities are most important to them and to the people they love. We take notes in the margins and write in our journals and talk in pairs, and share around the circle and finally, when we are ready, we create a fictional character based on the identity markers that feel the most important to explore. The character they create for their own novels in verse becomes a safe way to explore some aspect of themselves that feels important.

Ability
Accent
Appearance
Beliefs
Body Image
Confidence
Creativity
Culture
Family
Friendship
Food Security
Gender
Health
Hopes
Immigration
Insecurities
Interests
Language
Memories
Mental Health
Nationality
Neighborhood
Neurodiversity
Parents
Passion
Personality
Phobias
Politics
Popularity
Race
Religion
Sexuality
Social Class
Social Style
Strength
Struggles
Trauma
Vocabulary

The next step is for students to interview their characters, allowing the writer to talk to themselves before writing. In this exercise, they learn more about who their characters are and what they need most. I use a series of questions based on Uta Hagen’s method-acting technique. These questions are designed to help actors create three-dimensional human beings on the stage, and they are perfect for writers because they allow us to begin our stories with a deep, complex, and realistic character that already reflects some aspect of the writer’s own identity. At the end of their interview, the writer is ready to bring their character to the page.

What aspects of your character’s identity are most important?
Which aspects do they struggle with?
In what ways do your different identities intersect?
What do they need to learn about themselves in order to be happy and whole?
What does your character want and what will they do to achieve their dreams?
What is getting in your character’s way?
What stops them from getting what they want?
What are your character’s weaknesses or flaws?
In what ways are they fearful or inhibited?
How do these aspects of your character’s personality get in their way?
What are your character’s strengths?
In what ways are they brave and resilient?
How will these aspects of your character’s psychology develop through the story

After the interview, the student is ready to create the first poem in their own project. In this first scene, their character will struggle with some aspect of their identity that sets them apart. I show them a poem from Neshama as an exemplar that demonstrates a scene where Anna’s identity is called into question. I tell the students that this scene does not have to take place in the very beginning of their novel. It just has to be a moment when the character is struggling with their identity and this struggle provides a catalyst for the story to deepen. Now we have a character who has a problem and the story must bring the character deeper into the conflict before they are able to heal.

Once you have created your character, and you have chosen an aspect of human identity for them to grappling with, it is time to begin writing. Please write a short scene where your character realizes that they are different from other kids in some way. Pick any one prompt from the menu below or combine prompts as an inspiration for this first scene.

  • Your character is being teased because of some aspect of their identity that makes them special.
  • Your character looks in the mirror and all they can see is what sets them apart.
  • Your character tries to hide some aspect of who they are in order to fit in.
  • Your character recalls a moment in preschool or kindergarten when they first realized they were not like the other kids.
  • Your character gets in trouble at home or at school because of who they are.
  • Your character looks out the window and describes the landscape, but everything they see is clouded by how they feel and what they have been going through.
  • Your character writes in a journal or composes letter to a grandparent or an imaginary friend telling them what they have been going through.
  • Your character looks at a photograph and recalls a time in their life where they felt different.
  • Your character looks at an object that is somehow a symbol for who they are.

 Example from Neshama: 

Parade
I spend the morning
sitting on a bench
in front
of Principal Moroni’s
office.
The kids march by,
snickering.
One boy calls me creepy
Another pretends
to be a ghost
He moans
and wiggles his fingers.

The popular girls
walk arm in arm
on their way
to the bathroom
They flip their hair
and laugh.
When Eden sees me
she stops to stare,
takes a deep breath
through her tiny nose
and makes a face
like she smells
something rotten.

Come along girls,
she says,
there’s nothing here
but trash.

We repeat this process several more times, so that students can have the experience of rising action. The character must move deeper and deeper into their struggle in order to face the world that does not respect them. I read them more poems from Neshama and ask them to push their own character to the breaking point, creating poems where the character’s identities are questioned, attacked, violated, disrespected or invalidated by the other characters in their story. In each of these poems, I use Neshama as a mentor text so that we have a common anchor for discussion. We talk about the pain that comes from writing these poems and discuss how the purpose of this painful process is to lead their character (and ultimately ourselves) to a more enlightened place where we can celebrate the very parts of ourselves that seem most different from others.

Parent Conference
As I mentioned earlier,
I am concerned about Anna,
says Ms. Garland,
sliding my journal
across the desk.
She doesn’t seem
to have any friends,
she pinched a classmate
and said a ghost did it.
She is frightening people,
Pretending to play
with children who died.
It is very disturbing.
We would like Anna to learn
to talk about topics
that don’t scare other kids.

Mom takes the journal
and hands it to me
Anna has always had
a vivid imagination,
she says in a voice
that sounds like an apology.
Her grandmother
is very special to her.
she gave Anna
this journal as a gift.
Dad scoffs,
swipes the beautiful journal
from my arms
the leather binding
tooled with vines and flowers
a garden of invisible ghosts
blossoming inside.

In the final poem, I ask my students to finally bring their character to a place where they can heal from their trauma. The purpose of this last poem is to demonstrate to ourselves and our readers that there is the possibility of redemption and it is possible to live in a world where all the parts of who we are can be celebrated, respected, and protected. This final poem is a triumphant expression of the very aspects of identity we called into question in the beginning of this project. In the end of the story, the character has learned that the parts of themselves that feel the most different are also the most beautiful. These aspects of create the most important stories. These are the stories that will help writers feel empowered to express themselves and for readers to know, maybe for the first time, that they are not alone. In this way, the writing process can be an act of defiance and celebration. As writers, we can create stories of redemption and beauty that heal this broken world that so badly needs more examples of bravery and humanity.

Morning Song
The sky opens its curtains
little by little.
We hold Bubbie’s arms,
me on one side,
Daddy on the other
Mom and Evie trailing behind
and we walk with her
easy now, slow and steady,
up the hill to the house,
where Mom, sighing
puts a kettle on the stove,
and drapes a faded quilt
around Bubbie’s shoulders.

Evie climbs into Bubbie’s lap
and closes her eyes.
Outside the window, the sky
unfurls from ink to silver,
each pine tree more defined
as the morning spreads
its pink brush
across the shivering page.

Published May 13, 2025 by Candlewick

About the Book: Neshama is a haunting story about eleven-year-old Anna Fleischman who has the ability to communicate with the spirits of her ancestors. The problem is, no one believes her. Kids at school tease her and the adults are worried about her strange behavior. Everyone, that is, except Bubbe, who has always treasured Anna’s shayna neshama, her beautiful soul. But when Anna visits Bubbe in her house by the sea, and a restless ghost steps out of the shadows to ask for help, Anna will have to learn how to take matters into her own hands before it is too late. This is a story about family secrets, forgiveness, and the courage it takes to embrace your own complex identity. 

About the Author: Marcella Pixley is the award winning author of  four acclaimed young adult novels: FreakWithout TessReady To Fall, and Trowbridge Road, which was a Junior Library Guild Selection. Trowbridge Road was also long listed for the National Book Award and was a finalist in the Massachusetts Book Award and the Golden Dome Award. It was named a best book of 2020 by Shelf Awareness, Reading Group Choices and Mighty Girls. Neshama, Marcella’s upcoming ghost story in verse comes out from Candlewick Press on May 13th. It was recently named a Junior Library Guild Selection for 2025.

Thank you, Marcella, for sharing this writing exercise!

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? #IMWAYR 5/11/25

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?
For readers of all ages

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly blog hop we host which focuses on sharing what we’re reading. This Kid Lit version of IMWAYR focuses primarily on books marketed for kids and teens, but books for readers of all ages are shared. We love this community and how it offers opportunities to share and recommend books with each other.

The original IMWAYR, with an adult literature focus, was started by Sheila at Book Journeys and is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date. The Kid Lit IMWAYR was co-created by Kellee & Jen at Teach Mentor Texts.

We encourage you to write your own post sharing what you’re reading, link up below, leave a comment, and support other IMWAYR bloggers by visiting and commenting on at least three of the other linked blogs.

Happy reading!

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Tuesday: Isle of Ever by Jen Calonita

Sunday: Author’s Guest Post: “The Whole Family: Story’s Ability to Connect Young Readers to Second Culture Heritage” by Mima Tipper, Author of Kat’s Greek Summer

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Kellee

I am off this week! You can always learn more about any of the books I’ve been reading by checking out my read bookshelf on Goodreads.

Ricki

I read all adult books the last few weeks. I’ve been reading a lot of thrillers and romances to take my mind off the news.

I enjoyed Carter Wilson’s thriller Tell Me What You Did. It tells the story of a woman who is a podcast host. Her show is designed so people can call in and admit to crimes. But then her mom’s killer calls in…

I always enjoy the Katherine Center’s sweet stories. I also love a woman bodyguard! The main character in The Bodyguard is fierce!

Emily Henry is a gift, and this book (Great Big Beautiful Life) was a very enjoyable listen.

I enjoyed listening to Sophie Cousens’ Is She Really Going Out with Him? I didn’t love the title of the book, but the story was wonderful!

Abby Jimenez’s Say You’ll Remember Me offers a painful look at the impacts of dementia on a loved one’s family and friends.

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Ricki

I am excited to read Monica Wood’s How to Read a Book. I’ve heard good things about it!

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Sunday: Author Guest Post: “Inspiring Students to Write about their own Complex Identities” by Marcella Pixley, Author of Neshama

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Link up below and go check out what everyone else is reading. Please support other bloggers by viewing and commenting on at least 3 other blogs. If you tweet about your Monday post, tag the tweet with #IMWAYR!

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Author Guest Post: “The Whole Family: Story’s Ability to Connect Young Readers to Second Culture Heritage” by Mima Tipper, Author of Kat’s Greek Summer

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“The Whole Family: Story’s Ability to Connect Young Readers to Second Culture Heritage”

When I started writing my YA novel Kat’s Greek Summer, the idea was to write a story loosely based on summers I spent as a young teen in a tiny Greek fishing village visiting the Greek side of my family. What surfaced immediately in my process was a blaze of memories full of sun-soaked locales and colorful Greeks. Strangely though, as soon as I put a “character” into those memories, other memories surfaced—ones that were not so sun-soaked or all that colorful. My 14 yro character began asking questions about her experiences and her family that had my adult/writer mind asking questions about my own murky connection to my Greek heritage. Questions that my younger self didn’t have the foresight, or maybe the courage, to ask.

As I asked myself these questions, my writer-self wondered about kids and teens coming from a similar background: not one of tangible trauma or overt and brutal racism, but one where mixed heritage was invisible and perhaps ignored. How that invisibility could result in a lack of connection to the larger family, and maybe even a deep-seated sense of confusion, isolation and shame about that larger family. Children, young teens especially, have a strong need to belong, to be part of the group, so when that sense of belonging is challenged, isolation, shame and hiding are a likely byproduct. Growing up half American half Greek, I often found myself in that liminal space of not belonging in either of my family worlds, and feelings of isolation, shame and hiding were certainly a big part of my childhood.

A little background: my mother is a full-blooded—born and raised in Athens—Greek who married an American, and moved with him to America to live and raise a family. In the early days of their marriage, they didn’t spend much time in Greece or with the Greek side of the family. My dad didn’t speak Greek and none of my mother’s family spoke English. Travel was expensive and Greece was a long, long way from our Connecticut home. My mom spoke fluent English and became an American citizen, quickly diving deeply into her life as an American.

After my parents divorced, she did seek Greek community where we lived in Connecticut, but by then the dye was cast for pre-teen me. I didn’t speak Greek and we didn’t live anywhere close to a Greek-American neighborhood. Sure, we went to the Greek church, only it was about 30 minutes from our house and none of my school friends went to that church because none of them were Greek. I spent Sunday after Sunday sitting in a pew not understanding a word the priest said. And there lies one of the main disconnects.

Even though my mom started taking me to Greece during the summer holidays to spend time with my yiayiá and some other relatives, by then I was old enough to feel the full weight of how different I was from my Greek cousins, and how I didn’t belong. I never got a feel for the Greek language—the different alphabet didn’t help—and looks-wise I took after my dad’s mostly Dutch heritage. When we went to Greece no one really looked like me. The food was different, the smells were different, and all around me was a cacophony of Greek conversation that I didn’t understand. Everything was foreign to me and none of the grownups, my mom included, thought to take time to make anything understandable to me. Sure, I had a bunch of fun/happy times with my Greek relatives, but mostly I was along for a ride where, I suppose, somehow, I was expected to “fit in with the Greeks” by osmosis. Long story short, I didn’t.

Cut to many years later as Kat’s Greek Summer percolated in my brain. Here’s a brief description of the book: soon to be high school freshman Kat Baker is all about training for the cross-country team this summer. Then her Greek mom knocks her off-course by dragging her to Greece. To meet the family. How can a girl train in ninety-billion degrees? And with a sharp-eyed yiayiá watching her every move? Determined to keep her running dream alive, Kat embarks on a risk-filled odyssey, discovering that self-truth is at the heart of dreams, first love—even family—and that it is up to her to speak up and claim the heritage that is uniquely hers.

Though the basic premise of my book tells a lot of my own story, fictionalizing my youth helped me explore the sense of disconnection and confusion about my identity that I experienced as a child and teen, much of which was the result of perceived differences born from a tenuous connection to my mother’s Greek heritage. Writing Kat’s Greek Summer helped me face long-held childhood feelings of shame and hiding about my family, because Kat, my main character, was different enough from childhood-me to ask the questions and make the observations that I never had the courage to ask or make. Her fictional experiences and conversations with her mother, her yiayiá and other Greeks brought adult-me a lot of deep reflection and self-forgiveness. From there sprang a sense of pride about my mixed heritage. Pride I wished I’d had, and been encouraged to develop, as a teen.

I think young readers in particular need to have access to stories about unclear or second heritage and uncertain identity because I believe that—darker, more tangible issues of race and mixed heritage aside—there are many young readers who feel isolated, disconnected and confused about their mixed families, and have no clearcut tools to address their isolation and confusion. That’s where fictional characters become essential, because they are able to spark thoughts, empathy, questions and feelings that may help the reader interrogate their own story. And do so in a way that may ignite genuine conversation with family members that could result ultimately in a stronger sense of family connection and pride, as well as an ability to make healthy decisions around exploring self and family identity.

Published May 13th, 2025 by SparkPress

About the Book: Almost-freshman Kat Baker has big plans to train all summer long so she can become the running goddess of her high school. But when she learns her summer will instead be spent exploring her roots in a rustic Greek village, Kat’s sure her popularity plan is toast. In Greece, punishing heat and cultural clashes force Kat to launch a risky and covert training strategy to keep her running-star dreams alive. During her late-night runs, Kat is swept into encounters with Theofilus Zafirakis, a dreamy but off-limits Greek boy. Soon, Kat’s secret odyssey spirals out of control, putting one of her cousins in danger. In the end, it takes the unexpected meddling of an entire Greek village for her to discover that the key to belonging anywhere is belonging first to herself.

About the Author: Half-Greek, half-American, Mima Tipper and her writing reflect her heritage—a little bit old-country, a little bit rock and roll: one foot wandering through the dreamy realms of myths and faerie tales, the other running on the solid ground of fast-paced, contemporary story. She earned her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and has published YA fiction in Hunger Mountain and Sucker Literary magazine. Her YA short story “A Cut-out Face” received an honorable mention from Hunger Mountain’s Katherine Paterson Prize, her work-in-progress “Chasing a Blue So Wild” was a top ten finalist in Voyage YA’s first chapter contest, and her work-in-progress “Channeling Marilyn” came in second place for Paranormal Romance in the Chesapeake Romance Writer’s annual Rudy contest. “Kat’s Greek Summer” will be her first published novel. Beyond devoting most of her time to writing, Mima volunteers at her local library and is committed to promoting literacy. Mima lives in Vermont with her family. Learn more at: www.mimatipper.com.

Thank you, Mima, for sharing how your book connects to your life!

Isle of Ever by Jen Calonita

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Isle of Ever
Author: Jen Calonita
Published March 25, 2025 by Sourcebooks Young Readers

Summary: Bestselling and beloved author Jen Calonita delivers the first in a brand new series featuring a girl who will inherit a mysterious fortune if she can break a centuries-old curse!

Days after her twelfth birthday, Everly “Benny” Benedict learns she’s the heir to a fortune! But to collect the inheritance, she first has to play—and win—a game. Following clues that her ancestor left, Benny must locate a small island that vanished long ago, according to legend.

She has only two weeks to play the game and find the island. If she’s successful, she’ll break a two-hundred-year-old curse. If she fails, the fortune will be forfeited. And if she’s not careful, she’ll cross paths with someone else who is after the island’s secrets, and who will stop at nothing to get them. Because, as it turns out, there’s far more than a fortune at stake.

Isle of Ever will keep you guessing till the last page, then begging for a sequel immediately.” ― Melissa de la Cruz, #1 New York Times Bestselling author of The Isle of the Lost

“This book has everything…I couldn’t put it down!” ― Stuart Gibbs, New York Times bestselling author of the Spy School series

“Calonita leaves us breathless as Benny races to save the day and her family. Young readers will love it!” ― James Ponti, New York Times Bestselling Author of City Spies

The Isle of Ever is a gripping game and grand adventure. I loved it!” — Chris Grabenstein, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Mr. Lemoncello’s Library series

About the Author: Jen Calonita is the author of the Secrets of My Hollywood Life series and other books like Sleepaway Girls and I’m with the Band. Fairy Tale Reform School and Royal Academy Rebels are her first two middle-grade series. She rules Long Island, New York, with her husband, Mike; princes, Tyler and Dylan; and their two Chihuahuas, Captain Jack Sparrow and Ben Kenobi. The only castle she’d ever want to live in is Cinderella’s at Walt Disney World. She’d love for you to visit her at jencalonitaonline.com and on Twitter @jencalonita.

Review: Isle of Ever takes the idea of a game to win an inheritance and moves to the next level–adding in a fascinating fantastical element that brings in history as well. This genre-bending aspect of this book makes it truly a stand out in this type of book.

I also loved the cast of characters. Everyone was so interesting and played their perfect part in the story. Benny, specifically, is a character that all readers will connect with because she truly just wants to do right by her mom who has struggled and tried the best for her. It is a lot of pressure for her, but it adds suspense to the read because you are rooting for her the whole time!

Publisher-Provided Educators’ Guide:

Book Trailer:

Read This If You Love: The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates series by Caroline Carlson, Lola Reyes is Not Worried by Cindy L. Rodriguez, The Mystery of Locked Rooms by Lindsay Currie, The Liars Society by Alyson Gerber, Conjure Island by Eden Royce

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**Thank you to Sourcebooks for providing a copy of the book for review!**