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Dog rescuers become
kid rescuers. Bring your
hankies -- and lint brush.

White Fur Flying by Patricia MacLachlan. McElderry, 2013, 128 pages.

Lydia and Julie
try their hands as rock stars.
It doesn't go well.


The Popularity Papers #5: The Awesomely Awful Melodies of Lydia Goldblatt & Julie Graham-Chang by Amy Ignatow. Amulet, 2013, 160 pages.

I didn't love the
first one, but I couldn't stop
snorting at this one.

Lulu Walks the Dogs by Judith Viorst, illustrated by Lane Smith. Atheneum, 2012, 160 pages.

A day late on this, I know,
but what a ridiculously
good time.

Fake Mustache by Tom Angleberger. Amulet, 2012, 208 pages.

On the first anniversary
of his death, a
marvel for the eyes.

My Brother's Book by Maurice Sendak. Harper, 2013, 32 pages.

Genre-bending sequel

Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger.

In her mother's eyes, Sophronia is a failure. She's way too interested in mechanics, spying, and climbing and things just happen around her that tend to end with flying desserts landing on honored house guests. She's particularly dismayed when she discovers that a rather meddlesome honored houseguest has recommended her to attend Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.

But Mademoiselle Geraldine's is not what one would expect-- first of all, it's a flying school, so it's harder to find. Second of all dance lessons also include lessons on how to pass messages back and forth without being noticed. Then there are the classes in fighting. And poisons. In the middle of this educational intrigue, there is real intrigue-- flying highway men are attacking the school, after something the school has, and hidden. What is it? And where? Secret late-night trips to the boiler room, mechanical dogs and more...

This is the first book in Carriger's new YA series, set in the same world as Parasol Protectorate. It's set several years earlier, but there is a bit of character overlap-- most noticeably one of Sophronia's classmates is Sidhaeg and the little boy running around helping Sophronia--you'll recognize that one, too.

This is a fun series, with fewer vampires and werewolves and more steampunk technology than Parasol Protectorate. There is no romance in this one, which on one hand-- YAY! A YA book with girls and no romance! On the other hand, BOO! Carriger writes romance so well!

I missed the paranormal politics of the first series, but enjoyed the quick adventure of this one and want to delve more into this part of this world and see how it develops.

Book Provided by... my wallet

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I'm not a fan of
practical jokes, but the ball pit
thing was genius.

Pickle: The (Formerly) Anonymous Prank Club of Fountain Point Middle School by Kim Baker. Roaring Brook, 2012, 240 pages.

Damsel Under Stress Shanna Swendson

This is the 3rd book in the Katie Chandler series. Obviously, there are some spoilers for earlier books

Wahoo! Katie and Owen finally got their act (and themselves) together. But, of course, in the world of corporate magic, it all goes to hell in a handbasket immediately.

Ari’s escaped from MSI’s holding cells and it quickly becomes apparent that Irdis is a puppet in a larger plot to bring down Merlin and the MSI team.

Plus, every time Katie and Owen do get a moment together, Katie’s fairy grandmother tries to “help” with disastrous consequences.

Poor Katie and Owen! Owen just gets more and more adorable and Katie’s determination to keep her magical and non-magical lives separate gets harder and harder. I also love how the Irdis plot continues to deepen and thicken, giving it more teeth. Owen also takes Katie home for Christmas, and finally meeting his foster parents explains a lot.

Not my favorite book in the series, but a good bridge novel for the later part of the series.

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

The White Bicycle by Beverley Brenna

Taylor Jane is living in the south of France for the summer, with her mother, her mother’s boyfriend, and his two sons. The youngest son has cerebral palsy and Taylor is employed as his personal care assistant (that sounds better than babysitter.) She hopes that her mother and Alan Phoenix don’t get married this summer, because then they’d be family, and it wouldn’t be a real job she can put on her resume.

Taylor wants a professional resume so she can lead her own lie, without her mother’s constant watching. She yearns for the independence and freedom that most girls her age have, but Taylor doesn’t. Yet.

Taylor is autistic but by this point in her life she has learned many ways to cope with her anger and frustration. She uses a lot of these ways very consciously and walks us through such things as sending her anger through her feet. She also looks back on her early childhood to see if there are connections that can be made between then and now, but it gives the reader great insight into her mindset, but also her growth as a person.

This is the third book in a series and while it completely stands alone and you don’t need to read the other books, I fell so in love with Taylor that I can’t wait to read the other two to see where she was before France.

I love this book because while Taylor has autism and that causes some of the obstacles to her independance, it’s not really the focus of the story. Trying to break away from home while still loving your parents is a fairly universal story and delicate line to walk for every young adult. Taylor’s mom uses the autism both as part justification, part excuse for holding Taylor too close. (But not in an overbearing way-- Taylor’s mom is also trying to find that balance of wanting your children near you forever and letting them go. The autism is an added complication, but, once again, universal story.)

I'm so glad this was a Printz honor. It's such an amazing book and if it hadn't won, I would have never known about it, let alone read it.

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

2013 GradeReading.NET Summer Reading Lists

You know you should try writing your story in first v. third point of view, but for some reason, you put it off. Why? Because you’ve gotten a first draft of a scene or chapter and you just want to keep going.

It’s exactly the feeling that elementary school children have: “Why do I have to revise?”


Your answer is straightforward: because you are a professional writer. Revising will help you write a book.

You must find the right way to tell this story. I often say that the purpose of a first draft is to find the story, but the purpose of all other drafts is to figure out the best way to TELL that story. Pros experiment, play, explore.

Here are some explorations of character that you can complete in an hour. Just set a time for 5-10 minutes and write something on each of these. If the prompt reveals nothing, drop it. But if it strikes a chord—keep going!

1. 1st v. 3rd. Write a scene using first person point of view and then rewrite it using third. If you want to play with present tense, feel free. Play!
2. Attitude. Choose a scene and look to see what attitude your main character has. Maybe, s/he comes in arrogant, sad, discouraged, or excited. At the top of your page/file, write the opposite attitude and write the scene again, working to make the character’s opposite attitude work.
3. Setting. Choose a scene and change the setting. If it’s in the kitchen, send your characters on a picnic. If it’s set on a spaceship, move the story to a cruise ship on the Mediterranean.
4. Write a Letter. Give your main character a reason to write a letter to someone. It could be written to a family member or to a Congressman. Let your character vent, rant and cry on paper.
5. Put something in your character’s hand. Put a physical object in your character’s hand. Perhaps a mother goes into a grown son’s room and picks up his old baseball glove and sits in a rocking chair and oils the glove and remembers something important about her son. Or, a grandmother is in the kitchen and getting ready to cook and pulls out an iron skillet. Write a couple paragraphs or a scene putting the object in the forefront.
6. Cubing is a way of exploring a topic by looking at it from different angles. I’ve chosen just four ways, but you can think of others.
   • Describe. Using the character’s voice (your choice of POV, tense, etc) describe something important in your story. Repeat with a different POV, tense, etc. if you have time.
   • Compare. Using the character’s voice, compare something in your story. Maybe you want to compare what the character thinks about his/her current situation with where s/he was ten days ago. Or compare two characters. Or compare today’s supper with yesterday’s supper. Any type of comparison that makes sense for your story is grist for this mill.
   • Associate. When your character thinks of roses, what does s/he think? This prompt asks you to enter your character’s point of view and make some associations. While most of your writing in a scene should be pointed, there are places where you can slow down and give the reader a glimpse of how the character’s mind works. When faced with X, s/he thinks of Y or Z.
   • Analyze. What will your character do next? Stop and let him/her analyze what has just happened, thinking about the ramifications of the actions or conversations. If s/he goes this direction, what will it mean for the rest of the story? What is an alternate direction and why should s/he choose that alternate? Analyze, then let the character decide on a plan of attack for the next section of the story.

Take the time to explore your story and your storytelling choices early in your drafting process. It will probably mean fewer drafts—and a stronger story. Great trade-offs for a mere hour of work.

Surprisingly poignant

Quintana of Charyn by Melina Marchetta

After everything Lumatere has been through, it looks like it's on the brink of another war. Tensions have been rough with the Charynites in the valley ever since Phaedra's death.

Isaboe and Finnikin hear that Froi might have turned against Lumatere.

And Quintana is still on the run, trying to find safety, and everyone's after her, some who wish her to find safety, and many who do not.

When Quintana ends up in the valley, she's in the safest and most dangerous spot she can be. Everything depends on Isaboe's capacity for forgiveness, and to trust.

But everything's falling apart. Friends and families are fighting, and bickering. No one dares trust, and this is a plan that depends on trust, and faith.

Oh my. So many threads to follow as this trillogy comes to it's most perfect (oh, so perfect) conclusion. I like how we get little bits from Quintana's voice, in first person narration (although she's always talking to Froi during these parts.)

It's hard and it's messy, and it's utterly perfect. Because it's Marchetta, and it's a messy, brutal land that she's created. So, so heartbreaking. And perfectly wonderful

I don't want to say too much, I don't want to give it away. I couldn't even try to do it justice. If you've read the other two, don't worry-- this is an ending that's worthy in every way. If you haven't read them, go. Go now. Lumatere grows on you and sticks to the corners of your brain. I've read and reread these books, looking the devastation and beauty.


Australian copy of the book provided by... a super awesome friend

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

5thGradeReading.NET

• 2ndgradereading.net
• 3rdgradereading.net
• 4thgradereading.net

I am interested in writing a nonficiton book and talked to an editor about the idea this week. She is interested. Hurrah!

But she needs a full proposal that includes a table of contents and a sample chapter. In other words, I have to do some–no, a lot–of work, on spec, before I get a contract. And then, it will be a ton of research to write the book. It’s daunting. To even be in the game, I have to do a lot of work.

I am inspired by Harrison Ford. In an article in the April, 2013 issue of American Way, Jan Hubbard reports on what Ford had to do to get the his latest role. Ford had read an early version of the screenplay for “42,” the new movie about Jacki Robinson’s entry into the world of baseball. Ford was intrigued by the role of Branch Rickey, the manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who desegregated baseball by signing 26-year-old Jackie Robinson.

Director Brain Helgeland wasn’t interested in well-known actors for any of the parts. He wanted people to see the movie because they wanted to learn about Jackie Robinson; he didn’t want people to go to see another “Harrison Ford movie.”

Helgeland refused to even talk to Harrison Ford about the role. Ford was too big an actor.

“Nothing against him,” says Helgeland, who won an Oscar for writing the screenplay for L.A. Confidential in 1997. “He’s obviously a strong actor and a movie star and someone that movie fans int he country are really fond of, but I didn’t see how it could work. I didn’t see him playing a character.”

Now–what would you do, if you were Ford?
Move on to the next role? There are probably lots of directors courting him for their movies.

Instead, Ford went to work.
He studied his character, Branch Rickey. He found archival film of Rickey and listened to hours of audio tape. He read and re-read the script. He did his homework.

Then, and only then, did he insist on a meeting with Helgeland. (OK, he’s a big enough actor to get that meeting, but the rest of the story depends on his preparation work.)

During the conversation, Ford asked Helgeland how he saw a particular scene playing out, because there were two ways it might go.

Then, Ford broke into a private audition, complete with Rickey’s voice and mannerisms.

“Helgeland said, ‘He took on that Branch Rickey voice and he did the whole scene off the top of his head, so he obviously had memorized it,’ Helgeland says. ‘And I was sitting there saying, ‘Geez. He could really pull this off.’”

From the movie, "42."

Muireann Maguire's Red Spectres: Russian Gothic Tales from the Twentieth Century, a new collection of supernatural fiction featuring eleven short stories from both classic and lesser known Russian writers, is out later this week. Featuring nine pieces never before translated into English, the anthology combines many of the best-loved aspects of the traditional ghost story with the full Gothic

Jepp, Who Defied the Stars by Katherine Marsh.

This is a story that starts in the middle. Jepp is a dwarf in a cage, with a bruised and bloodied face, on a journey to a foreign land. He starts by telling us how he got there, how he left his mother’s safe and loving home on the border between Spanish Netherlands and the Protestant North, how he became a court dwarf for the Infanta in Brussels.

When he arrives at his destination, the story continues on, this time as a dwarf jester for the astronomer and astrologer Tycho Brahe. He is determined to be his own man, to break free of the destiny the stars have set for him. When the truth about his past comes to light, he is even more determined to live his own life on his terms.

Oh, Jepp. Such a wonderful guy trying to figure out who he is and his place in the world, trying to save his friends and family, with people not telling him the truth about everything (in that way that people don’t tell teenagers the truth about everything.) Plus, court intrigue and politics that he doesn’t fully grasp or understand, too wrapped up in his own issues and problems to see the bigger pictures at play until it’s too late.

It’s a beautiful book, and such a wonderful look at destiny and fate versus free will without it getting in the way of the plot. (in fact, most of the plot is Jepp proving to himself and the world that his life can be what he wants, not what his star chart, or anyone else, tells him it should be.)

I think it’s one that resonates to this day, and will appeal to teens who aren’t big historical fiction fans.

LOVE.

Also, it’s printed in blue ink. I love small touches like that in book design.

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Withholding information

When a reader first opens your novel or story and reads the first line, the first paragraph, have you welcomed the reader and tried to put them at ease? It is imperative to invite the reader into a story in a way that puts them at ease. This means clarity must rule. The reader must never question where the story is taking place, or what—exactly—is happening in this scene. You do not have to spill all the backstory at this point—that doesn’t work. But the reader should know when, where and who and a hint of why.

Setting. The setting should be clear and specific, with sensory details appropriately sprinkled throughout the opening scene. This includes information on the geographic location, time frame (e.g. 6th century BC or 2017A.D), and something about the emotional territory.

Character. In the opening pages, the reader should meet a character that intrigues. Please, don’t name five characters on page one and expect the reader to stay oriented. Instead, give each important character a grand entrance. The inner life of the main character should start to come alive, as well. What does s/he fear, love, long for?

Cautions: The worse drafts hide information, wrongly believing that just giving a hint here or there is the best strategy. Instead, the reader becomes confused and closes the book, never to open it again. The great sff writer Orson Scott Card wisely said, “The only thing to withhold is what happens next.” Within the context of a scene, this is exactly right. The reader should understand exactly what is going on—and be so enthralled that s/he turns the page to find out “what happens next.”
Don’t use this as an excuse to include backstory, though! Backstory comes ONLY at the point at which it will create an emotional crisis in a reader. Instead, when the reader is deep within a scene, they should only care about what happens next.

Voice is too formal

In the search for a great voice, some writers fall back on their English class and write too formally. Great fiction is informal writing. This means you can use slang, jargon, curse words (when appropriate), incomplete sentences, sentence fragments. You can, and should, interrupt someone when they are speaking. Characters can be rude. A great novel is not a tea party! Stop being so polite, so formal.

Try making up rules for yourself–play with the formality of your novel; keep what works and discard the rest. Don’t like my rules? Make up your own. But play!

• For every ten sentences, you must use a sentence fragment.
• You must use one slang/jargon word per page.
• You will write one section of dialogue (about 10 exchanges) and every bit of dialogue is incomplete sentences.
• In every chapter, someone must be rude.

Boring

Yawn. What happened in this chapter?
Nothing.
Then, why is the reader turning pages?
They aren’t!
A good exercise is to go through each chapter and write one sentence that summarizes what happens. Something important must develop or change in some way in every single chapter. Novelists do not have the luxury to stop and give us back story or tell every single detail of the setting. You must pick and choose from among the myriad of details, bits of dialogue, actions, thoughts and arrange them in an exciting, fascinating, intriguing order.

Stoic Character

For every action, your main character should have an emotional reaction. Why else is the reader following this character around? OK. Not every single action. But it’s a good exercise to try: underline the actions, and circle the main character’s emotional reaction to what just happened. How do they correlate? Do we have 100 actions and only one emotional reaction? Where ever you are on the continuum from no emotional reaction to 100% emotional reactions, evaluate it in terms of your character, your novel. Is the reader getting enough of your MC’s inner life to keep turning the pages? From my experience as a first reader, most novelists err on the side of not enough emotion. If this is hard for you, push yourself toward too much emotion and you may wind up about right.

Balance

Writing a novel is a continual decision-making process. For each detail you might include, there are dozens of great ways to put that into words. We go from words to sentences to paragraphs—and each word selection carries connotations and denotations. It’s complex! The variety of ways to tell a story are amazing. What scenes do you include/exclude, and why? What character is the main character? The point of view character?

Throughout the process of writing a novel, it’s a balancing act all the way. We walk a tightrope upon which we build a story. One misstep and the reader falls off.
This is one of the main reasons why first pages go wrong. 90% of a story may be working, until a sentence here, a word there, a questionable emotion in the midst of the scene—and the reader puts the book down. Fine tuning the novel is crucial. Here is where first readers can really help, by marking the places that are “off.” Even if they can’t articulate WHY this section is OFF, they know it when they read it. You don’t want an English teacher marking up the story with red marks. You want a sensitive reader saying, nope, this doesn’t fit. Don’t know why, just know it doesn’t fit.

It’s a matter of balance: every word must belong. Nothing must be out of place. The reader must keep turning pages with no interruptions in the flow.