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In the space of a week, I’ve gone from the heights to the depths.

First, the good news.

Last week, I was thrilled to learn that my book, Wisdom, the Midway Albatross was given a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly. This book has defied all the odds–just as Wisdom has done.

“. . .Pattison writes crisply and evocatively, and her closing notes provide a wealth of information and resources for readers interested in Wisdom and her fellow albatrosses.” Publisher’s Weekly 2/18/13

The story is about a 60+ year-old albatross who lives on Midway Island and survived the Japanese tsunami. For over 60 years, she has soared over the North Pacific, only coming to shore to breed. Scientists estimate that she has hatched over 35 chicks, including one each year for the last five years. Last year’s chick was named Wonder and this year’s chick–just a couple weeks old now–was named Mana’olana, Hawaiian for Hope. Yes, a 62-year-old bird just hatched a new chick!

After the 2011 Japanese tsunami, I heard her story of survival and within six weeks, I had contacted scientists, researched her life and times and written her story. I contacted about twenty publishers and none would publish it. I decided to work with my long-time friend, wildlife artist Kitty Harvill to publish it from my own imprint, Mims House. Now, I’ve been in this business long enough to know that it would be a long hard road. But it was an important story, one I couldn’t let go.

It won the Children’s Book category of the 20th annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published award, a $1000 cash prize. So, I submitted it to Publisher’s Weekly for review and it earned a Starred Review! Right now, it is an Amazon bestseller (for the spring season, the ebook version is only $0.99).

The starred review was especially nice, because it was a validation of all the work we had put into the book. Go look for yourself: self-published can be quality.

Next, the Bad News

Publishing has weird math. 9 months + 5 revisions = NO.
The rejection I got yesterday was shocking and painful.

For nine months, I have been working with someone on a project and it has developed in amazing ways. The critiques were spot-on and I revised like crazy. I deleted chapters, added chapters, rearranged chapters, deepened characters, searched for ways to add humor. Then, I did it again: I added a character, took out a subplot, deepened characters and searched yet again for ways to add humor. I expanded the climax scene, set it up better. I created a stronger emotional arc, added a stronger villain. I revised.

I love this story now.
It was rejected.

The world tilted for me yesterday.
Nine months. Three major (huge, gigantic, difficult, rewarding) revision and a couple more minor ones.
No.

Yet, the moon rose as usual, I slept.
The sun rose as usual, I got up and showered and ate breakfast.
I have already queried someone else and will send it to them today.
I am raw. I feel wounded. A trust betrayed. A grieving because they couldn’t see the story in front of them; they only saw what they would have written, if only they were writers.

Are they right? Are they wrong?
I don’t know.

I only know that this is a heartbreaking week, but last week was an uplifting week. This is just the heights and the depths of our profession; somehow, it feels normal. And regardless of the reaction of others to what I write, my job is to plod along putting one word after another.

So, today, I will write.

Bitter Waters: America's Forgotten Mission to the Dead Sea (starred review)
David Haward Bain (Author)
Booklist
Aug 2011. 384 p. Overlook, hardcover, $30.00. (9781590203521)

The 1840s were a decade of global exploration for the U.S. Navy, whose officers charted the seven seas, plus the Dead Sea. Strangely true, a naval expedition to the Holy Land in 1848 is the tale Bain tells. The idea for it germinated in the mind of Lieutenant William Lynch, who nurtured unrealized ambitions for command, a fascination with travel literature, and aspirations to the writing life. His mission approved, out he went, launching his crew in two rowboats onto the Sea of Galilee and thence down the River Jordan into the Dead Sea. Transported by Roman ruins, Crusader battlements, reputed sites of Jesus’ ministry, and remnants of God’s wrath against Sodom and Gomorrah, Lynch in his journals and published account exulted in the region’s religious nimbus as much as in applying his men to their ostensible cartographic
purpose.
Integrating those aspects of the adventure and Lynch’s wary relations with Bedouin tribes, Bain produces an engrossing narrative of the expedition that richly positions the mission’s incidents within Lynch’s Western perspective on the Near East. Wonderfully realized, Bain’s account will enthrall seekers of history off the beaten path.

Falling Down the Page edited by Georgia Heard. Roaring Brook, 2009 (978-1-59643-220-8) $16.95

They say some people would be entertaining reading the phone book. Poems of lists don't sound very promising, but get the right poets and you have a wonderful concept and a wonderful collection. An excellent design doesn't hurt, either.

This is a smallish book--no illustrations, but it doesn't need them. Most of the poems run vertically/sideways, to feel more like reading a list; one is to be read bottom to top, one with four voices. The titles of the poems are all done in different styles, which adds some visual variety: for example, "What is Earth?" by J. Patrick Lewis and "Spinners" by Marilyn Singer are both appropriately round, while "In My Desk" by Jane Yolen is scattered down the side of the page in a a random feeling way and "Creativity" by Eileen Spinelli has leaning and upside down letters. The design adds to the poems without taking attention away from them.

I love how the poems takes a theme that may seem mundane--the contents of a desk, rocks, clay--and find... well, poetry, in them. Thought, sound, imagery, meaning. It's hard to pick one poem to showcase, because I liked each one better than the last. But since it's Poetry Friday, I'll go with this one:

Why Poetry by Lee Bennett Hopkins

Why poety?
Why?

Why sunsets?
Why trees?

Why birds?
Why seas?

Why you?
Why me?

Why friends?
Why families?

Why laugh?
Why cry?

Why hello?
Why good-bye?

Why poetry?

That's why!

If you love poetry, put checking out this book on your things to do list. * (6 & up)


© 2010 Wendy E. Betts

FTC disclosure: Review copy provided by the publisher. This blog is completely independent, but I receive a small percentage if you order books from Powell's via this site.

*Gasp* Look! A review! How nice. I haven't reviewed a historical fiction book in awhile, so I thought I'd mix it up a bit. Be back with more reviews in the next few weeks (hopefully!).

Aftershocks by William Lavender

Jessie’s troubles start when she is discovered looking at medical instruments in the local medical supply shop window. She can’t help but be fascinated by the strange tools used by doctors, especially since she wants to practice medicine herself. However, her father has other plans. A doctor himself, he is adamant that no proper young lady in San Francisco’s high society will ever practice medicine. He insists that it is not a dignified profession for a woman.

All of this changes when Jessie discovers some less-than-reputable late-night excursions between her father and the family’s new Chinese maid, Mei Lin. On New Year’s Eve in 1904, Mei Lin disappears, and Jessie is sure that Mei Lin has fled to protect her unborn illegitimate child. When Chinatown is almost completely destroyed by the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, Jessie seizes the opportunity to search for her half-sister. It isn’t long before she finds Lilly, a Chinese orphan with distinctively reddish-black hair like Jessie’s father. She is sure that this is her half-sister, but how can Jessie save her sister, and spare her strict family the shame of the secret she’s discovered?

San Francisco in 1906 is a dangerous place. William Lavender’s book Aftershocks does an excellent job of capturing this spirit of chaos and showing that sometimes it’s not the natural disaster, but what happens afterward that will ultimately change lives. This one of those truly multi-layer novels that has so much going on, it's hard to summarize in just a few short paragraphs. However, far from making the story confusing, it gives this historical novel a new level of depth and complexity.

The cover of this book reveals that this is “a tale of romance and social justice,” but it ends up being much more. Although this story takes place during a major historical disaster, the book focuses more on how the event changes Jessie’s life, not how it ravages the city. While engulfed in this book, the audience grows, changes, and matures right along with Jessie as she struggles with the family secret that literally changes her life.

Shady Glade Rating: 10/10

Publisher’s Weekly  gives OUR CHILDREN CAN SOAR a starred review!

*Our Children Can Soar: A Celebration of Rosa, Barack, and the Pioneers of Change by Michelle Cook, illus. by Cozbi A. Cabrera, R. Gregory Christie, Bryan Collier et al Bloomsbury, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-59990-418-4

Showcasing the art of 13 artists, this resonant book was inspired by a simple yet searing phrase that celebrates the achievements of African-Americans, which was featured, in various versions, online and at rallies during the 2008 presidential campaign. Cook’s adaptation pays tribute to 10 individuals, including George Washington Carver, Jesse Owens and Jackie Robinson. These figures’ triumphs are shown as part of a seamless continuum: “Martin marched… so Thurgood could rule. Thurgood ruled… so Barack could run. Barack ran… so our children can soar!” The spreads understandably represent an array of artistic styles and media, yet they form a cohesive and affecting collective portrait: a musical staff swathes Pat Cummings’s Ella Fitzgerald like a boa, while Shadra Strickland’s Ruby Bridges is a small yet determined figure, marching up the schoolhouse steps against a backdrop of protestors. Additional images from Leo and Diane Dillon, James Ransome, E.B. Lewis, Eric Velasquez and others, corroborate Children’s Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman’s assertion, in the book’s foreword, that African-American history is “the story of hope.” Ages 4–8. (Apr.)

I Can Has Cheezburger?: A LOLcat Colleckshun by Professor Happycat and Icanhascheezburger.com

As a follower of the site for about a year, I was exstatic when I found out they were releasing an I Can Has Cheezburger?book. My very own collection of Lolcats? I am so there! The book is an excellent collection of the best, funniest, and quientissential Lols found on (and off) the site. It's a quick read (mostly pictures with a few phrase captions) but it's a book I will read over and over, especially when you need a humor pick-me-up. I only had the guts to ask for one book this Christmas (since I have so many already), but I am so happy that this was the only book I got. It totally made up for a lack of books in other areas.

I need to warn you, there's quite a few reoccuring phrases and jokes, which may take a bit to catch onto. And the grammar and spelling are horrible. But that's one of the things that makes it so funny. Besides, you'll be fluent in Lolspeak in no time! Of course, the book is great for explaning the jargon and reoccuring gags, if you're simply lost altogether. Bottom line: if you're in a humor slump, you need to order your copy of I Can Has Cheezburger? right away!

I Can Has Cheezburger? is available to order on Amazon.com:

Author: Charlotte Pomerantz (on JOMB)
Illustrator: Jennifer Plecas (on JOMB)
Published: 1995 Harper Collins
ISBN: 0064441873 Chapters.ca Amazon.com

It’s not often that an early reader turns the whole family to putty, but this simple story of a grandfather with the strength to bend does just that time after time. If you can put up with all the gushing and cooing we do in this review, you’ll be all set for the response of your little one!

Other books mentioned:

• Rattlebone Rock
• The Piggy in The Puddle