Guest post – Page 48 – Unleashing Readers

Author Guest Post!: “Reading the Middle Grade Mind” by Sally Barlow-Perez, Author of The Unintended Runaways

May 1, 2016 by Kellee

“Reading the Middle Grade Mind”

Have you ever tried to steer one of your favorite kids toward one of your favorite books? You’re in eager enthusiasm mode. “Hey, you are going to LOVE this book!”

Then the kid rears back, looks like you asked him to drink a glass of hot chalk, gives you that look, and says, “Uh, thanks, but I don’t think so.”

Just like adults, kids pick books for their own reasons. And timing is everything. One week a reader might feel like something light that reflects familiar problems like, The Mother Daughter Book Club series; the next week he or she might relish the challenges of Wonder or maybe a visit to a whole to universe in The Lightning Thief or something as wacky as one of the Wimpy Kid books. It all depends on mood, just like it does with you and me. Or stress level. Or time availability. I’ve seen a 9-year old read and enjoy a Babysitter Club book – standard 3^rd grade level reading—during a school week, and Wonderstruck— 5^thgrade level reading–on her vacation. Makes sense. You and I don’t read Dostoevsky when we barely have time for lunch. Middle grade readers thrive on a huge variety of choice. Which is lucky, since as authors, we are just as eclectic as our young readers!

That said, I am sure there are those of us who try to shake loose a few practical thoughts before we set pen to paper to write our deathless prose. No doubt, in addition to prayer, you’ve tried to psyche out just where that sweet spot in middle grade literature is. Sure, there are trends and the Goodreads lists and I’m sure there are some left-brain writers out there who can successfully write to the formula. But since I’ve always favored on-the-spot research, I thought I’d go directly to the source: my sixth grade consultants: Sarah, Haley, Carolyn, Mia and Emily. “What have you been reading lately?” I asked them. These are just a few samples of the many titles they sent me:

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein
I Will Always Write Back: How One Letter Changed Two Lives by Martin Ganda
The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone.
The Port Chicago 50 by Steve Sheinkin
School of Charm by Lisa Ann Scott
Black Beauty by Anna Sewall
Little Women by Louisa Mae Alcott
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
Hope is a Ferris Wheel by Robin Herrera
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Sure, it’s a girls list; not much blood and guts there but look at the variety. From dystopia to Victoriana to the serious issues of an adolescent with a disability to pure escapism. Irving Stone, no less! Remarkable that reading tastes could vary so widely among such friends from the same school in the same grade with such similar backgrounds. My point being, that predicting subject matter that will appeal to every middle grader is a losing proposition.

Picture this—and if you’ve taken your children or your students to the library, you’ve seen it many times. A middle grader sitting on the floor between the stacks taking out book after book off the shelf, looking at it very briefly, and then returning it to that empty slot among the other books. Those poor, forlorn, rejected books. Someone put his or her heart and soul into writing that book! What was wrong with it! Well, it just didn’t suit, that’s all. For reasons we, as onlookers (or the unfortunate author of said rejected volume) will never know. My conclusion: short of writing a tome on the love life of ants, I might as well forget trying to guess what will suit the middle grade reader and suit myself instead.

At the same time—trying with some difficulty to recall my past life as a lit. major—I tryed to find the commonalities in the lists of books my sixth graders sent me. It wasn’t in the eras, the settings or the subject matter. They varied from Hogwarts, to Ghana, to the rural South, to a dystopian future, to small town USA, to ancient Rome. Lots of variety there and choice in those areas can be a matter of cover art, flap blurb or momentary whim. But in the protagonist (Lit. 101 !) I do think young people make a conscious choice to read a book featuring one of two different kinds of protagonists:

A character with whom they can completely identify; someone who shares their sensibilities, their strengths, their weaknesses, and their secret feelings; someone who permits them to sigh in relief, saying, “I am not alone; Someone else feels or behaves that way too.”
Or
A character with whom they can partially identify, but who is perceived as an individual to emulate; someone with qualities to admire, or aspire to, even if those qualities are as basic as patience, or self-assurance, or courage rather than the ability to fly or fight dragons.

It might be simplistic to say that the former is featured in reading that requires a little less concentration than the latter. I’m sure there are examples either way. But the best authors show us well rounded characters who evolve and change in both cases. What a privilege it is to read the work of the many wonderful authors of middle grade fiction who make their characters come alive for us. I see my young friends absorbing Palacio’s Auggie, Hodgson Burnett’s Sara Crewe, Pullman’s Lyra, Selznick’s Ben and Rose; Riordan’s Percy, and Lowry’s Jonas and I think, “These characters are becoming part of who my young friends are.” How could they not?

I too feel as though I too have been influenced by the thousands of fictional characters that have filled me up over the years. A good number have come from middle grade books. Many from young adult books. One memorable one was the picture book that inspired my own middle grade novel, The Unintended Runaways, with its lively painting of a gypsy wagon and the carefree little girl who lived in it.

The tale that formed around that picture was the story I wanted to tell. I fought it. I’d been in marketing and public relations and I knew historical fiction was emphatically NOT in vogue. Would anyone read it? Newsletters and conferences told me I would never sell it. “Write it anyway,” I told myself. I already had visions of the beautiful blue wagon and the big shire horse trotting down the lovely rural roads of mid-19^th century England. market.

“Don’t be an idiot,” I argued back. “You’re a journalist. You wrote a history book. Get out there and write something that’ll sell. How about an academy for shapeshifters? A middle school mafia? An underground society ruled by 12-year olds? You can do it! Get with the program!”

“Yeah,” said my better self. “And it will suck, big time and you will hate every minute of it. This is 40,000 words we’re talking about.”

So I did it my way. I wrote my historical novel about 19^th century young people. Unfashionable as my setting might be, I knew today’s middle graders would identify with the larger themes of justice, freedom, and family. And I hoped they would fall in love with my characters just as I did.

Thus The Unintended Runaways came into being. My sixth grade consultants – who were very generous early readers!—say they like it. (They kind of have to say that.) But the proof will be in the sales figures. Because as a general rule……

There’s just no reading the middle grade mind.

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Links:

Website: www.theunintendedrunaways.com

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Summary: For a girl who loved adventure, twelve-year old Lia Leonides had the perfect life. Every summer, she and her grandfather traveled the rural roads of England in their gypsy wagon, stopping at fairs and selling horse brasses along the way. It was exactly the life Lia wanted, until the day a mysterious letter arrived. Lia’s grandfather warned her not to get her hopes up, but lifelong dreams are hard to ignore. Lia’s father was alive and looking for her. But when her grandfather suddenly passes away, Lia is sent to work as a servant in an orphanage and is left with a choice that she never wanted to make: let the world decide her future for her, or run away and decide it for herself? Lia, with the help of her beloved pets and some unexpected friends, must take her gypsy wagon south on a harrowing journey before her father disappears forever. A persistent sheriff and the constant threat of misfortune won’t make the trip easy, but Lia and her friends don’t plan to let anything stop them from forging their own destinies.

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About the Author: Sally Barlow-Perez openly admits that books have taken over a good chunk of her life. She gobbles down two or three library books a week, ranging in genre from young adult, to middle grade, to fantasy, to mystery. She tries to balance her book obsession with writing, hiking, and hanging out with the young people who inspire her. But no matter how hard she tries, she always comes back to books. As a fiction writer, Sally’s focus is curiosity. “Curiosity is a great excuse for writing, as well as for reading,” she says. “Even when I finish a book, I still wonder what the characters are doing!” Sally makes her life in Palo Alto, California. She has two grown sons, whom she believes to be her greatest contribution to mankind. The Unintended Runaways is her first middle-grade novel. More information is available at www.theunintendedrunaways.com.

Thank you Sally for this insightful guest post!

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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.!

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Author Guest Post!: “Picture Books: Better Than Teddy Bears” By Dawn Marie Hooks, Author and Illustrator of Sarah and Her Twirling Toes

May 16, 2016April 17, 2016 by Kellee

“Picture Books: Better Than Teddy Bears”

I’ve always been a book lover. As a toddler, I fell asleep with my arms wrapped around my favorite book, The Mitten, like it was my teddy bear. A picture book can be read and reread many times for many months or years and still cherished. Kids are creative with their books. He might use his truck book for a car ramp. She might see if her mermaid book will swim. That’s not exactly what I have in mind when I encourage creativity, but you can use those cherished picture books for more than reading. Read, reread, and discover! Do you have music lovers, math wizards, or budding scientists in your home or classroom? You can explore those interests with a great book!

Fun activities with a favorite picture book can weave many topics and interests together. Choose the book the kids LOVE and do an internet search for an activity guide with that book. Many websites (like my author/illustrator website, my publisher’s website, or teaching blogs) include discussion and activity guides. Sometimes, there are printable worksheets and coloring pages. If an activity guide doesn’t fit your needs, it can spark ideas that do! Some of you are experts at creating fully customized activity guides. Others are thinking, “No way!” Either way, teaching guides can inspire you to create activities for your needs using the book you choose!

When I create materials or talks, I am inspired by what I read – whether it’s the book alone, an activity guide, or an article. As a classroom elementary teacher, I wrote lesson plans incorporating my favorite children’s books. Currently, I have the pleasure writing and illustrating picture books and the discussion and activity guides that go with them. Also, when I am presenting, I like to begin by reading a picture book that captures the attention of the group. (At least, I hope it does!) I even do this when I’m talking to parent or teacher groups. (Don’t you think these books can be just as fascinating to adults?) Whatever the topic, a great picture book can turn boring into captivating!

Do you have a favorite picture book? Think of what you can do with it while reading the 14 examples geared toward my new book, Sarah and Her Twirling Toes:

1. Reading: Look at the cover of the book (front and back). Ask kids to predict what the book will be about. Read the book and check if predictions are correct.

2. Discuss Manners: Does it bother you when other people scream? When is it okay to scream? When is it bad manners to scream? Do you have rules in your home or classroom about how loud you should be?

3. Story elements: Discuss the setting, main character, problem, and solution.

4. Writing: Rewrite the story choosing one story element (setting, main character, problem, or solution) to change.

5. Art: Create a new cover for the book. The book is painted using watercolor and gauche. Work with watercolor or choose something else (watercolor pencils, chalk, torn paper art, etc).

6. Letters: This book is full of words that begin with the letter “s.” Search the book for the words. Make a list.

7. Synonyms & Antonyms: Look through the book for the word “scream” and other words that mean the same thing. Can you think of more synonyms? Now think of antonyms for scream.

8. Music and Body Concepts: Sing “Tonsils, Tummy, Heels, and Toes” like “Head and Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.”

9. Cooking and Measuring: Sarah drank honey ginger tea to try to help her throat. Make some and have a cup of tea. Slice lemon thinly until you have ½ cup. Put slices in a jar. Slice ginger root thinly until you have ½ cup. Add to jar. Squeeze honey into jar until lemon slices and ginger are covered. Refrigerate for 24 hours. Stir contents of jar. Put one cup of warm water in a mug. Add two tablespoons of infused honey into warm water. Stir and enjoy.

10. Science: Explore the five senses. Give each child a slice of lemon. Have them describe the lemon using their five senses – touch, smell, taste, sound, and sight. Do the same with ginger and honey, if desired.

11. Health: Research the health benefits of honey, lemon, and ginger.

12. Health: Sarah had “Screamingitis Syndrome,” a fictional condition. Look up laryngitis and compare the causes, symptoms, and treatment to what Sarah suffered.

13. Math: Count how many times Tiger (Sarah’s dog) is in the book. Multiply by two to find out how many dog ears that would be. Multiply by four to see how many dog legs that would be.

14. History: Research the history of tea used for medicinal purposes.

Sarah and Her Twirling Toes doesn’t directly talk about the five senses, synonyms, cooking, measuring, or even good manners. I took actions from the story (like screaming or sipping tea) and created ideas to delve deeper.

I hope you are inspired to be creative with picture books! Pull out the book that’s being used as a car ramp. Rescue the one that’s swimming in the tub. Explore those books that are better than teddy bears! Have fun and share your ideas with others!!

About the Book: Sarah loves how screaming makes her feel. Her tonsils tickle. Her tummy dances. Best of all, her toes twirl! But one day, Sarah’s scream disappears …

This bright picture book celebrates Sarah’s spunky and endearing personality while showing that she can still be herself, with or without screaming.

Access the “Activity & Discussion Guide” for Sarah and Her Twirling Toes here.

About the Author: Dawn Marie Hooks, M.S.Ed., combines her passion for children’s literature and painting through writing and illustrating picture books. A former elementary teacher, Dawn completed her first book, “Oh, Cookie!” as the final project for graduate coursework. Since then, she hasn’t stopped working on turning more ideas into books. She is a member of SCBWI and speaks to school, parent, and teacher groups.

Dawn currently resides in Vancouver, WA, with her husband, two young daughters, and their feisty puppy, Maui. When she isn’t working, she enjoys family time, Barre3, coffee, sunshine, reading, family vacations, and wakesurfing. Oh, she placed third in Women’s Masters at the 2015 World Wake Surfing Championship!

For the activity and discussion guide and information on giveaways, promotions, and events, follow Dawn Marie Hooks on www.DawnMarieHooks.com, Twitter: @DawnMarieHooks , Pinterest: Dawn Marie Hooks, Facebook: Dawn Marie Hooks. To purchase any of Dawn’s books, find her on Amazon Author Central, B&N, or your favorite book retailer.

Thank you Dawn for the guest post!

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“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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Author Guest Post!: “The Star Wars Effect: Bringing Teens to Space” by Ava Jae, Author of Beyond the Red

March 27, 2016March 27, 2016 by Kellee

“The Star Wars Effect: Bringing Teens to Space”

When I wrote the first draft of Beyond the Red back in the summer of 2014, I didn’t dare to imagine that non-dystopian Sci-Fi would become a Big Thing in YA. I hoped, of course, alongside every other YA Sci-Fi writer, but the truth was it hadn’t happened, not really. And with Dystopian novels taking the spotlight front and center, many were already predicting a downturn in YA Sci-Fi once readers got tired of dystopic Sci-Fi worlds.

I knew all that, but I wrote Beyond the Red anyway. It was the book I wanted to read, but wasn’t already out there—it was aliens, and monarchies, and clashing cultures, and endless crimson sands in a faraway world outside our solar system, but within our universe. It was a place where Earth was a legend, even to the humans whose ancestors emigrated from there. It was, ultimately, the book I wanted for myself, so I ignored the trends altogether and when people whispered that YA Sci-Fi was a hard sell, I shrugged and kept writing.

Everything is a hard sell, I reasoned. I’m going to write this book for me.

So I did. And eventually I got an agent, and my agent said those words to me—YA Sci-Fi is a hard sell—but she also said, I love this book and I’m going to do my best.

We went on submission. Heard the book was “too Sci-Fi” in rejections. Kept submitting anyway. And celebrated when it sold.

Even months after it sold, my YA Sci-Fi writer friends told me their stories—how their books weren’t selling, how YA Sci-Fi was so hard to move. Of the new sale announcements, YA Sci-Fi were in the minority—a couple here, a handful there in a sea of incredible-sounding Fantasy stories. Pirates and time-travel were in. Sci-fi was…there. Floating. Barely.

And then Star Wars: The Force Awakens was announced. And then Divergent mega-author Veronica Roth announced her next book: a Star Wars-ish Sci-Fi YA due in 2017. And then super Sci-Fi-ish Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Asher became a big YA buzz book. And then Star Wars: The Force Awakened sold a bajillion tickets and basically blew everyone’s expectations out of the water.

YA Sci-Fi isn’t a Big Thing—not yet—but with the massive success of Star Wars, and a super huge author writing a Star Wars-like YA, it’s not hard to imagine that we’ll see more teens in space over the next couple years. Readers who watch Star Wars are walking away and craving that same kind of adventure in a book. They want aliens, and extrasolar planets, and advanced technology, and complicated, alien politics. They want characters who have grown up in a technological world far away from our own—they want space travel, and vivid settings that remind them of that movie theater experience.

YA Sci-Fi authors like myself, who never could have predicted the existence of another movie in a galaxy far, far away, had no idea that we were actually writing our spacey books at exactly the right time. We had no idea that teens in space would be exactly what readers would be looking for after getting their movie fix. But despite the uncertainty, the books we wrote for us—the books we were told would be too hard to sell—have now become exactly the stories that Star Wars-loving readers are asking for.

Sometimes when the book idea of your dreams comes knocking at what seems like the wrong time, the timing is more right than you ever could have known.

Beyond the Red
Author: Ava Jae
Published March 1st, 2016 by Sky Pony Press

Goodreads Summary: Alien queen Kora has a problem as vast as the endless crimson deserts. She’s the first female ruler of her territory in generations, but her people are rioting and call for her violent younger twin brother to take the throne. Despite assassination attempts, a mounting uprising of nomadic human rebels, and pressure to find a mate to help her rule, she’s determined to protect her people from her brother’s would-be tyrannical rule.

Eros is a rebel soldier hated by aliens and human alike for being a half-blood. Yet that doesn’t stop him from defending his people, at least until Kora’s soldiers raze his camp and take him captive. He’s given an ultimatum: be an enslaved bodyguard to Kora, or be executed for his true identity—a secret kept even from him.

When Kora and Eros are framed for the attempted assassination of her betrothed, they flee. Their only chance of survival is to turn themselves in to the high court, where revealing Eros’s secret could mean a swift public execution. But when they uncover a violent plot to end the human insurgency, they must find a way to work together to prevent genocide.

About the Author: Ava Jae is an author, blogger, YouTuber, college student, and assistant editor at Entangled Publishing. After graduating from the University of Michigan with a BA in English in April 2016, Ava will probably find a bookstore to live in, where she can write her next novel surrounded by the smell of new books and coffee. She can be found on Twitter at @Ava_Jae or at her website avajae.blogspot.com. She resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Thank you to Ava for her fun guest post!

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**Thank you to Cheryl at Skyhorse Publishing for setting up this post!**

Blog Tour, Author Guest Post, Giveaway, and Review!: Maybe a Fox by Kathi Appelt and Alison McGhee

March 20, 2016March 17, 2016 by Ricki

Maybe a Fox
Author: Kathi Appelt and Alison McGhee
Published: March 8, 2016 by Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books

Goodreads Summary: A tale about two sisters, a fox cub, and what happens when one of the sisters disappears forever.

Sylvie and Jules, Jules and Sylvie. Better than just sisters, better than best friends, they’d be identical twins if only they’d been born in the same year. And if only Sylvie wasn’t such a fast—faster than fast—runner. But Sylvie is too fast, and when she runs to the river they’re not supposed to go anywhere near to throw a wish rock just before the school bus comes on a snowy morning, she runs so fast that no one sees what happens…and no one ever sees her again. Jules is devastated, but she refuses to believe what all the others believe, that—like their mother—her sister is gone forever.

At the very same time, in the shadow world, a shadow fox is born—half of the spirit world, half of the animal world. She too is fast—faster than fast—and she senses danger. She’s too young to know exactly what she senses, but she knows something is very wrong. And when Jules believes one last wish rock for Sylvie needs to be thrown into the river, the human and shadow worlds collide.

Writing in alternate voices—one Jules’s, the other the fox’s—Kathi Appelt and Alison McGhee tell the tale of one small family’s moment of heartbreak.

Ricki’s Review: I read this entire book in one sitting because, quite simply, I could not put it down. I sobbed through the entire book because I connected so strongly with these characters. As a mom, I couldn’t imagine my son experiencing the pain that these sisters felt from the loss of their mother. As a sister, I can’t imagine my own sister disappearing. These two connections, along with the stunning portrayal of character and story, made this book feel deeply personal for me. While younger students won’t be moms, and thus, won’t have this personal connection I had with the text, they will be sons and daughters. Regardless of a reader’s point of view, they will connect with this book because it is written so beautifully. I won’t forget this book, and I don’t think other readers will forget it, either.

Kellee’s Review: This book is one I’ll be talking about for a while. I will say it is probably the saddest book that I’ve ever read; however, it is beautiful. It is very hard to explain unless you’ve experienced because it gives hope while also being so terribly sad. The characters, animal and humans, are so thought out and detailed that as you read you feel with them and for them. I was also in awe of the way Kathi and Alison were able to tell such a unique story without the reader ever feeling like it was an odd scenario. Whenever I try to describe this book to someone, they give me quite a weird look, so I just stop trying and tell them they should read it because it is a heart print book. There is no other way to describe it. Like Ricki said, every reader will feel for someone in the book. And every reader won’t be able to deny how beautifully written the prose is.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: As you will read in Kathi and Alison’s guest post below, point-of-view makes this story quite powerful. Teachers might ask students to consider the varying perspectives of this story and how they work together to form a cohesive whole. The teacher might provide other examples of texts that feature different points-of-view to compare and contrast authors’ styles. Students might then try their hand at writing in various, connected points-of-view and subsequently analyze how this enhances a narrative.

Discussion Questions: How do the authors unfold the plot in the narrative?; What predictions did you make while reading this story? How might the story have turned out quite differently?; How does Senna’s point-of-view enhance the story for you?; Were there any allusions within the text?; What theme do you take away from Maybe a Fox?

We Flagged: “The baby girl fox, Senna, came into the world in darkness, thirty feet below ground in the end dug out of cool brown earth. She was the middle child, born between her older and younger brothers, the three of them separated by minutes.

The first thing she knew was the feel of her mother’s tongue. Shhh shhh shhh, cleaning her off, licking her into life and warmth and love and safety.

The second thing she knew was the feel and smell of her brothers’ bodies pressed against hers as their mother nursed them, their front paws kneading her belly.

The third thing she knew was that there was someone waiting for her, someone she needed to find.” (p. 75-76)

Read This if You Loved: The House of Purple Cedar by Tim Tingle, Pax by Sara PennyPacker, Counting Crows by Kathi Appelt

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A Guest Post from Kathi and Alison about Point-of-View

Finding the best possible point of view for a story is one of the most important choices that a writer can make. The point of view, more than any other aspect of literature, dictates the distance created between the character and the reader. When we embarked upon this story, Alison chose to write from the fox’s story and she decided early on that she wanted to write from an omniscient point of view. This allowed her to place Senna deeply within the pocket of her fox family, and to give our readers an intimate sense of their world. It gave her a way to present the fox-world via the senses of all five members of their family, and put the readers squarely inside of the natural landscape.

When we were first drafting, Kathi chose to write Jules from a first person point of view. However, it didn’t take long before she realized that the first person was too limiting. Yes, first person is quite intimate and there are good reasons to use it, but in this case it felt as though it created too many blind spots. Jules needed a bigger canvas and so Kathi switched to third person. That allowed her to broaden the scope of Jules’ experience, and to let Jules, as well as the omniscient narrator, experience the events as they unfolded.

We always knew that Sam’s point of view would be from the third person too, and he stepped into the story in a way that let the reader get a more objective perspective. We also hoped to show that even though Sylvie’s death primarily impacted Jules and her dad, her loss was felt strongly by the entire community. As well, Sam’s earnest desire for the return of the catamount helped to create a sense of possibility that the other characters couldn’t, simply because of their closeness to Sylvie.

The landscape also gave us a perspective. The woods and rocks, and of course the Slip itself with its local legends, provided not only a backdrop, but its own wild voice, a voice that spoke to each of our characters—fox, Jules, Sam, Elk, Sylvie, Zeke, Dad, and the catamount—in a way that only a wild place can speak.

All this to say that the multiple points of view hopefully helped to create stories within stories that, when woven together, made a single story that was enriched by the viewpoints of each character.

Kathi and Alison.

About the Authors:

Kathi Appelt is the New York Times best-selling author of more than forty books for children and young adults. Her picture books include Oh My Baby, Little One, illustrated by Jane Dyer, and the Bubba and Beau series, illustrated by Arthur Howard. Her novels for older readers include two National Book Award finalists: The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp and The Underneath, which was also a Newbery Honor Book. In addition to writing, Ms. Appelt is on the faculty in the Masters of Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts. She lives in College Station, Texas. To learn more, visit Kathi’s website at kathiappelt.com.

Alison McGhee photo 2015 credit Dani Werner

Alison McGhee is the New York Times bestselling author of Someday, as well as Firefly Hollow, Little Boy, So Many Days, Bye-Bye Crib, Always, A Very Brave Witch, and the Bink and Gollie books. Her other children’s books include All Rivers Flow to the Sea, Countdown to Kindergarten, and Snap. Alison is also the author of the Pulitzer Prize–nominated adult novel Shadowbaby, which was also a Today show book club selection. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and you can visit her at AlisonMcGhee.com.

Follow the blog and book tour!

See Another Guest Post by Kathi Appelt Here!

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**Thank you to Barbara at Blue Slip Media for providing copies for review and the giveaway. Also, thank you to Kathi and Alison for the wonderfully insightful guest post!**

Author Guest Post!: “Visiting Schools” by Iain Reading, Author of The Dragon of the Month Club

March 6, 2016 by Ricki

“Visiting Schools”

I know, I know… it’s been said a hundred times before… One really great way to get kids in schools interested in reading is to invite some authors to come in and talk to them. But at the risk of beating a dead horse by raising this topic again for the hundred-and-first time, let me just say that one of my absolute favourite things in the world is visiting schools and talking about my books and how I ended up writing them.

When I visit schools I have a checklist of things that I always bring with me:

– Many copies of my books to give away. Check.

– Dragon of the Month Club membership cards to give away. Check.

– Trading cards for each of my books to give away. Check.

– Wristbands for my books to give away. Check.

– Pendants from designs from my books to give away. Check.

(As you can see, I always bring lots of stuff for giveaways. Kids love it.)

But even with all the free stuff the kids get I think the most memorable thing for them (although they never really show it – you know how kids are) is when the story in the books I’ve written actually take place right there in their own hometowns and neighbourhoods. One of my own most memorable visits was to a small school in rural Ireland where the kids were amazed to hear that one of the books in my Kitty Hawk Flying Detective Agency had several scenes that took place just a few miles away. And they couldn’t believe that the boring tiny little village where they lived was actually one of the most favourite places in all the world of some writer they never heard of from Canada.

On visits like these I always have a great time and so do the kids and teachers too. There are writers everywhere in the world. And writers tend to write what they know, so they’ve probably written something about every corner of the world where there’s a school. And I bet they’d love to come out and talk to students about their books.

And if not…. well, give me a call… maybe I’ll be in your corner of the world sometime and I can drop in and give away a bunch of stuff.

The Dragon Of The Month Club, by Iain Reading, was published in February 2015 and is available for sale.

Synopsis:

The Dragon Of The Month Club is the exciting first installment in a new book series that tells the story of Ayana Fall and Tyler Travers, two best friends who stumble across an extraordinarily magical book and soon find themselves enrolled as members of a very special and exclusive club – The Dragon of the Month Club.

On the thirteenth of every month a new dragon conjuring spell is revealed and the two friends attempt to summon the latest Dragon of the Month. The varieties are almost endless: Air Dragons, Paper Dragons, Fog Dragons, Waterfall Dragons, Rock Dragons, Tree Dragons – not to mention special bonus dragons for all the major holidays, including a particularly prickly Holly Dragon for Christmas.

But one day when a conjuring spell somehow goes wrong Ayana and Tyler find themselves unexpectedly drawn into a fantastical world of adventure based on the various books scattered all across Tyler’s messy bedroom. Travelling from one book-inspired world to the next with nothing to rely on but their wits and a cast of strange and exotic dragons at their disposal they must try to somehow find their way home again.

Drawing inspiration from some of literature’s most memorable stories – from 19th century German folktales to the streets of Sherlock Holmes’s London – the adventures of Ayana and Tyler bring these classic stories to life in delightfully strange and unexpected ways. Filled with fascinating detail and non-stop action these books will spark the imaginations of readers of all ages to inspire a life-long love of reading and seeking out books that are just a little bit off the beaten track.

Praise for The Dragon of the Month Club:

“No other book bonds together so many stories in such a fashion that is actually readable and enjoyable at the same time. With the title being The Dragon of the Month Club, many might think this is a book strictly about magic and dragons, yet you will find that what’s inside this book will leave you awe struck.” – Red City Reviews

“Iain Reading has quickly become one of my favorite authors. I started reading his Kitty Hawk books and now I’m introduced to a fantastical world. This is the type of book I would have spent hours in my room, wishing I could slip into the pages and have an adventure.” – Sandra Stiles

“The Dragon of the Month Club is a very enjoyable read. I’m a grown adult and I enjoyed it. It reminded me of a Harry Potter meets Goosebumps (the part where the books come alive) meets Sherlock Holmes. I found the book to be engaging and kept me wanting to read on. This is a wonderful series for any young reader.” – sgebhard

Contest:

There is an ongoing contest for readers to win a one-of-a-kind hardcover version of The Dragon of the Month Club with their artwork as the cover.

“Draw a picture! Write a story! Take a photograph! Bake some cookies! Mold a dragon out of clay! Knit one out of yarn! Make one out of LEGO! Whatever you want! Just let your imagination run wild because anything goes – the more creative the better! Send your dragon in and then on the 13th day of every month one entry will be chosen at random and featured on the official Dragon Of The Month Club website. Each month’s lucky winner will also receive a free one-of-a-kind personalized hard-cover edition of The Dragon Of The Month Club book featuring their winning artwork (or other creative content) on the cover or inside the book itself,” says Iain.

To learn more, go to http://www.dragonofthemonthclub.com/

About the Author:

Iain Reading is passionate about Root Beer, music, and writing. He is Canadian, but currently resides in the Netherlands working for the United Nations.

Iain writes middle grade and young adult books. His published works include the Kitty Hawk Flying Detective Agency Series, The Wizards of Waterfire Series, and the dragon of the month club. To learn more, go to http://www.amazon.com/Iain-Reading/e/B00B0NGI6Q/

Connect with Iain on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.

**Thank you, Iain, for this fantastic post!**

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