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Yum. Scrumpdiliicious yum. It's been a while since a book capitivated me the way this one has. I gladly bought into the fictional dream on the first page and felt as if I'd finished the best peanut buster parfait after it was over.
I know. I know. I don't usually gush about books, but this one was that enjoyable a read for me. The basic science fiction premise admittedly had me hooked from the start. I am a closet case trekkie. The kind who used to watch the original episodes before going to church each Sunday as a kid. I was looking for balance in my philosophical diet early on.
So when I saw a modern day scifi with a mystery twist, I was in hook, line and sinker. Girl gives up life on earth to be frozen for three hundred years as a spaceship, Godspeed, travels across the universe from Sol Earth to Centauri Earth. She is awoken early while the ship is still en route and almost dies. Others frozens are murdered. She tries to find the killer together with the help of the leader to be, Elder, who is the same age as she is, sixteen.
The science part of the story was just enough to make the ship believable without becoming so overwhelming that I felt as if I was sitting back in physics class. The characters were well-developed. The mystery was believable. And the darkness was an artistic kind of darkness. Not the usual sturm and angst that is so prevalent in so many dystopian YA novels these days.
The book is also told in alternating first first POV between Amy and Elder. It works well to give the reader a sense of the earth left, the ship now, and how foreign that ship would seem to an outside, i.e. Amy (the reader as well). Even the ending was believable in the sense that not everything ends happily but realistically both emotionally and plotwise.
I realize I should say something critical, some point Revis missed or didn't quite hit the mark on. After all, this is a review. So....maybe it's that I wish they wouldn't make the book into a movie because movies are never as good as the books.
For more great reads, hop over to Barrie Summy's site. She's dishing them out with whipped cream and cherries on top!
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Wow, when I dared to open Blogger to post my review of Kostova's, The Historian, it had been so long since I'd posted that Blogger had a new interface site. Yeesh. Leave cyberspace for a few months and it remodels entirely. I feel old.
But not as old as the villain in Kostova's book, Dracula. I've have this thing about Dracula since my graduate years back in Kiel, Germany (which predates the vampire fad by over a decade, which really dates me), when I first met the villain in Murnau's classic silent film, Nosferatu: Eine Symfonie des Grauens.
Knowing my penchant for the Eastern European Undead, my best friend bought The Historian for me two years ago, Pre-MFA. It sat waiting for me like its villain. I resisted for two years, toiling away at that blasted MFA. As soon as it was over, this was my reward - a really really really long read with lots of twisted plots and complicated storylines and intergenerational information sharing.
Not your basic five-character-chronicle.
Kostova's work bridges centuries, familial generations, multiple countries, you name it. She introduces so many characters I...well, I forgot one, a crucial one, when he reappeared at the end of the story, at the climax to be exact. I may need to work on my spatial reasoning for retaining complex, three-dimensional, non-kid stories.
I'd like to say there's a basic plot, but there are so many plots interwoven. Here's a go - Dracula's assassination...maybe.
If you like history, this story will pay out in spades. Kostova did an amazing amount of historical research to take her characters from the U.S. to England to Turkey, France, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Italy across centuries.
Like Stoker's version, this is predominantly a book of letters. That began to wear. Stoker's tale is about 200 p. long. Kostova's is 642. I had a hard time believing that the main character could read three hundred pages of her father's handwritten letters to her in one night. Plus, the form slowed down the pacing because it was a retelling within a retelling.
When the family (two of whom are Dracula's descendants) trying to kill Dracula finally catches him, his death is rather...well, quick. The resolution ultimately did not feel earned or catalytic. This may be because the story is just so long. Sheer length draws out the action and slows down tempo such that when the telling speeds up for the climax, it feels as though the author just wanted to get through it.
However, the history in this book makes it well worth the read. If you are a Dracula hobbyist, this book incorporates many of the legends about him across continents and cultures. And, Kostova can write. She does wonderful descriptive work. I want to visit Romania now!
Bray knows her characters. The medley of sixteen year old underachiever/loser guy to talking garden gnome cast she creates is a fun romp to read through. Which is good because this is a looooooooooooong book. Very long. 480 pages long.
I know. I know. I sound like a griping teenager. The target audience. I wonder if the story has enough to keep them reading. I had a hard time remaining engaged.
While I enjoyed the imagination, the characters, the dialogue, the constantly changing setting, it was, ultimately, the leap of faith I was unable to take. At about the end of the first third of the book, when Cameron has already been hospitalized and is degenerating quickly - he's suffering from Creutzfeldt-Jacob (mad cow) disease, which is incurable and deadly. He sees an angel. Not just any angel. A punker angel. Okay, I'm still with you. The weird angel has appeared before in the distance. This might work. A punker angel named Dulcie.
Lost me.
We, as readers, sign a contract to take the leap of faith. To believe in the parameters of the story. Cameron's reality. It seems to incredible to be real. Sure enough, we come to discover in a 100 Years of Solitude sort of way toward the very end (and there are hints throughout that this might indeed be the case) that Cameron's been hallucinating/dreaming the last two weeks of his life. In other words, everything, including Dulcie, is a figment of his imagination. Yet his imagined life is far more alive and real than the 16 years of his life he more or less drifted through.
It's a great ending. Gabriel Garcia Marquez genius type of ending. But will the reader get there? We aren't in Latin American mysticism but modern day Texas. Realistic setting makes the leap hard. Dulcie makes the leap even harder. Granted, we're not supposed to take the leap in the end, we realize. It was a fantastical leap to begin with. One Cameron dreamed up. But because we do not know that right away, and because the fantastical keeps getting further and further out there, it's really hard to stay engaged, leaving the reader wondering, huh? What's the point? And, um, is it coming soon?
I hate not liking a book. I hate finding stuff wrong with the writing. There is no pleasure in it for me, especially with a book so close to greatness. Ultimately, it feels as though this piece lacked a stronger editorial pen. The right external input could have turned unbelievable into fantastical genius marvelous. We authors need editors. We really really do. No matter what stage of writing we are at. And we should never forget that. Because when we do, we are doomed to repeat our own mistakes without correction over and over and over again.
Read Going Bovine for its characters. For its Garcia Marquez crafty twist on reality. But also to notice where the editorial pen would have helped. Could have tightened, condensed and lifted such promise to the next level of greatness.
For other great reads, hop over to our fearless leader's blog - Barrie Summy Blog.
I read both of these books back to back and did not give up on life entirely, which speaks highly to Anderson's talent as a writer. These are not easy reads. Speak, celebrating its 10th anniversary in print, is about rape. Think that's edgy? Wintergirls is about bulimia and anorexia. This is tough stuff. Anderson does a fabulous job with protraying real, troubled teens. For any girl who has been through rape or is battling an eating disorder, these pieces must feel empowering because they let the individual know, you are not alone.
The reason I review them together is because, despite Anderson's skill at real, gritty portrayal of these issues through a teen character, after finishing the books, I was left feeling much like I had after a spree of John Irving books in my early twenties, i.e. like the main characters were the same person over and over. Lia of Wintergirls, birthed ten years after Melinda of Speak, nonetheless feels like the same teen. Anderson's writing chops are much improved, although the symbolism in Speak is incredible, the writing in Wintergirls will leave you rereading again and again to pick up craft points, turns of phrase, ideas on how to take mental illness and make it real for readers. Still, Melinda and Lia are interchangeable.
Why?
Their voice feels very similar. Their reactions, similar. Lia feels like a more mature Melinda, going further in her personal psychosis, more unstable, more suicidal, more detached. Yet still, Melinda.
Which leads me to ask the following questions: What results in similar characters across novels by the same author? Can we authors only get so far from our own perception? Are we slaves to our own hermeneutics? Or do similar driving motives across different stories nevertheless lead to similar characters?
I am not sure what the answers are, but I would like to know more because I find myself falling into that pattern in a present novel. Certain secondary characters feel similar to ones in an earlier novel I wrote. How do I avoid that? Should I? Or does such similarity define an author much as a defining brushstroke can define a painter?
Food for thought.
For more great reads, hop over to our fearless leader, Barrie Summy's blog. And for those of you in the Kansas area, if you get a chance, stop by the Kansas School Librarians Conference Thursday and Friday of this week. Barrie Summy, P.J. Hoover, Zu Vincent, Suzanne Morgan Williams, and I are the guest speakers for lunch on Thursday. It's a whole panel of characters just waiting to share! Add a Comment
The Accidental Adventures of India McAllister By Charlotte Agnell middle grade (151 pp with some b/w illustration)
I won the advance arc for this book on Sarah Laurence's website and eagerly awaited its arrival. My youngest daughter is a serious Junie B. Jones, Judy Moody, Flat Stanley, Geronimo Stilton, you-name-the-series-she'll-read-it kind of kid. I wondered if India would fit the bill.
She more than lived up to my expectations. One of my pet peeves with series books these days is the flatness to the characters. This is not to say they don't have their own quirks, but rather, that they all seem to come from the same amorphous, fictitious middle America neighborhood. It's a great marketing ploy, but gets a little boring after a while, at least for me.
Which is what drew me into this book immediately. India is a adopted from China. Her parents are divorced. Her dad is gay and in a relationship with another man. Her mom is a self-sufficient artist (that really sealed the deal). India lives in a real place, Wolfgang, Maine. It is not middle America. It is a little town with a forest where you can get lost! There is so much texture to this story and its characters. The adventures India has are regular kid adventures. She has a boy who is her friend but not her boyfriend, Colby. He has a crush on a girl India cannot stand. India and Colby sleep out in a field to watch for UFOs. India spends time with her elderly neighbor next door. And all around these adventures is the enticing flavors of real setting, modern day family, and real life.
Go India!
Add to that the gentle illustrations with which Agnell enlivens the pages, and it's a winning combination. I cannot wait to read more.
For more adventurous tales, hop over to our fearless leader, Barrie Summy's blog!
On a tangentially related note, I got to see the inside illustrations for my upcoming picture book, ROPE 'EM, that comes out in March 2011 with Kane Miller. Gorgeous (authorswoons).
A Step from Heaven An Na middle grade - young adult
Bless me Father, for I have sinned. It has been one month since my last posting.
I have a really good excuse! Honest.
I'm bogged down in MFA thesis writing. I have to hand in the rough draft on Friday, which means I've had a whole 2.5 weeks to research and write it out. Stress. Where would I be without you?
Still, I wouldn't miss The Book Review Club for anything so I've surfaced for a few short, glorious moments to commune with the outside world...and remind myself, there is an outside world.
Here we go.
A Step from Heaven is the story of a Korean girl, Yung Ju, and her family as they move from Korea to the United States. The story follows the trials the move presents for all of the family members. The father becomes increasingly abusive, until Yung Ju is faced with either turning him in to save her mother's life (as well as her own), or turning a blind eye yet again.
Gripping stuff.
From a craft angle, I really enjoyed the vignette format An Na used to tell her story. The piece begins with Yung Ju and her father at the ocean. He is teaching her to swim. It is an endearing moment. The father is not just a brute, but he loves his daughter. Also, the scene highlights water, which is an underlying current throughout the book.
By telling the story in vignettes, the effect is very aquatic. The vignettes lap against the reader's mind like small waves. Building. Building. Ever building. Until the climax of the story when Yung Ju saves her mother and with one phone call, sweeps her entire family onto a new, healthier emotional trajectory.
The one issue I had with the piece is that, since it begins when Yung Ju is four, she refers to everyone in her family with their Korean titles, i.e. Mother is Uhmma, Grandmother is Halmoni, and Father is Apa. It might just be me, but it took me a chapter to figure out who each of the titles refers to. In the end, I caught on, but it caused me a great deal of initial confusion, as well as raised the question, if I plan to tell a story in first person, with a non-native English speaker, and want to stay true to character, how do I bring in the names of the people closest to my character without confusing my reader? It's a tough question. This approach did not feel satisfactory for me, but at the same time, I am hard pressed to come up with a better one, other than to abandon the foreign names and use ones in English. Tough call.
Nevertheless, this is a phenomenal read. The writing is tight. The flow even. The climb to the climax excellent. The characters well-rounded. And it is fairly quick. So, if you are looking for a short, craft-packed, well-written piece, look no further. A Step from Heaven is your piece.
For other great reads, check out our fearless leader, Barrie Summy's, blog!
In the interests of full disclosure, this book has been on my mental to-read pile for at least two years. A writer friend of mine, Linda Joy Singleton, heartily recommended it, but I have to admit, I cringed at the title. I knew it would not be a green meadows, blue skies and sweet little bunnies read (I prefer these, I'll admit). This was serious stuff. So....I put it off.
Then it was assigned for the upcoming residency at Vermont College starting next Monday. So, I bit the bullet and got the book from the library.
Basic plot: African American boy from NYC is charged as an accomplice in a felony murder and this is his trial.
The story is gritty and well told; however its storytelling form is the real nugget in this piece. The story is written in script format interspersed with bits of prose and handwritten journal entries, as well as images. As such, it was an interesting mix of Hollywood meets young adult fiction. The images add to that feeling by offering snapshots one could imagine posted up next to beats/scenes scattered along a chaotic storyboard on some lonely script writer's wall.
It is perhaps the latest version of storytelling for our generation. A book of letters does not work super well in today's society. A book of emails or instant texting, absolutely. Just check out the TTYL series by Lauren Myracle. Script format, however, seems like an underused method for the world of kids' novels. I do not know of any other ya or mg books told in this style (and now hope for a few suggestions from all of you much more plugged in readers out there!) It offers the writer novel methods of honing focus on one character and pulling back out, much like a camera. It is worth playing around with as a writing format. Also, because of the vast amount of white space script format inherently brings with it, such books might lend themselves more readily to reluctant readers.
The one question is, what stories lend themselves to script format? Murder trial, absolutely. Drama queen? One-day-in-the-life types of stories? Are there more?
At the very latest, next week in Vermont, I hope to find out!
I thought twice about reviewing this book. It's always hard when a piece wins an award to write a review about it. The prejudice that goes along with an award as weighty as the Newbery is that the book is phenomenal.
Only, I had some serious issues with it.
Of course, making such a statement requires serious justification, and let me say that I think the premise--time travel--and the writing are phenomenal. They are what kept me reading.
However, I had some serious problems with the fact that Stead rested her story so significantly on L'Engle's, A Wrinkle in Time. A professor of mine in grad school told us--as a way of more or less taking the burden off our shoulders of coming up with new ideas for term papers and later, our own research--that we should build upon the ideas already out there (upon the shoulders of giants), not think we have to come up with brand new ones. So, I'm all for building upon the idea of time travel that L'Engle entertained in A Wrinkle in Time, which also happens to be one of my all time favorite books.
What I had trouble with in Stead's piece was that she built the whole book around L'Engle's when she didn't really have to. She set the book in the 1970s, made the main character obsessed with L'Engle's book, kept referring to it and debating the time travel issue as L'Engle explained it in her piece. I'm not sure why. Stead took L'Engle's idea and reshaped, built onto it, like many many writers do, and made it something clever and new. So why the need to incorporate A Wrinkle in Time into the very thread of When You Reach Me? The end result was distracting and placed Stead's groundbreaking thoughts and concepts in the very long, very gigantic shadow of L'Engle's own work.
In the end, if you are looking for amazingly good stylistic writing with strong characters, this piece has them. A new idea on time travel? The book has that too. If only it didn't have such a long shadow interwoven within its very fabric.
For more amazing reads, see Barrie Summy's blog this week!
Another WOW Wednesday and another wonderful author.... We're lucky to have Barrie Summy guest blogging today, so give her a huge round of cyber applause. For those who don't write for the teen or tween market, Barrie's the author of the fun I So Don't Do mystery series starring thirteen-year-old Sherry Holmes Baldwin and her ghostly mother. And no--that's not a typo. Ghostly. Not ghastly. Her latest book, I So Don't Do Makeup was just released on May 11th with five-star kid reviews.
Read on for her take on what it takes to get published. And don't forget to check out the giveaway at the bottom of the post!
Hello All! It's very fun to be away from my corner of cyberspace and over here blogging about getting published! I'm just going to jump right in. I know you're busy and have other sites to visit, meals to cook, jobs to do and, most importantly, stories to write.
Okay. I have three kinda hokey sayings, but these are the three sayings that keep me going. So, I figured I'd share them with you.
The harder you work, the luckier you get.
Apparently, a South African golfer, Gary Player, came up with this sentence. I had no idea until I googled a couple of minutes ago. Anyway, I love the thought that we have some control over our luck. Especially given that there's a huge element of luck in publishing.
Assume you'll beat the odds.
Agent Kristin Nelson publishes her stats most years. Last year, she received (are you sitting down?) 38,000 queries. Of these, she requested a mere 55 manuscripts. And took on only 6 new clients. Are those numbers disheartening? Uh, definitely. But...assume you'll beat the odds and your full will be requested and you'll wind up one of those six new clients. (Here's the link to Krisin's stats post.)
Leave no stone unturned. (I actually set up this shot in my backyard!)
The following is a true story. One night I'm up late with insomnia. I messing around on the computer, answering email, blog hopping, etc. I stumble across an interestiing bit of info on Kristin Nelson's blog. (Seriously, I read a ton of blogs, so it's weird that I've referenced her twice in this post.) Anyway, Kristin had lunched that noon with Wendy Loggia, Executive Editor at Delacorte Pr
Author Barrie Summy got off to a great start with those. Her middle grade mystery series about 13-year-old Sherry, a girl with an active social life and a ghost of a mother (literally) is graced with covers that pop off the shelf, too. A school librarian in town told me the series is a huge hit with 5th grade girls at her school. Which is interesting in and of itself, now that I think about it. At our public library, they're shelved in the juvenile section. But the main character is 13. (Barrie ... if you read this, and I feel your ghostly presence, did you plan the books for the YA crowd, or middle grade readers? Or is it middle school readers and why isn't that a genre?)
The first book in the series was I SO DON'T DO MYSTERIES. Then I SO DON'T DO SPOOKY, followed by I SO DON'T DO MAKEUP, which came out this month. Next year's release is I SO DON'T DO FAMOUS.
Barrie will tell you, herself, that the series had an interesting start. It wasn't instant stardom and fame. Hers is a great story, though. And such a happy ending! I'll let her tell you how it devloped.
1. There are now three I SO DON'T DO books. When you wrote the first one, did you have a series in mind? What kind of schedule does your contract call for? How many words - roughly - are your manuscripts? How do you respond to the pressure of a deadline? Tell us about about your journey into the series realm.
Well, I did actually envision the first book as the beginning book in a series. HOWEVER, I think I was the only who saw it that way! ;) Not my agent, not my critique partners, not my pets!
So, I actually had an outline and a title for a 2nd book when the first book sold. Random House asked if I thought I could write a 2nd book. I jumped up and down for joy and patted myself on the back for my brilliant foresight. :)
I gave Random House the title. They didn't like it. I showed them the outline. They didn't like it either. However, the first contract was for two books. As you can imagine, I SO DON'T DO SPOOKY (the 2nd book) is VERY diffferent from the 2nd book I had in mind. ;) Oh, and the second contract was for the next two books.
The manuscripts are 52,000 to 56,000 words. I'm basically writing a book a year for the series. However, the second and third book came out six months apart. So, uh, that was a pretty tight schedule. :)
How do I respond to the pressure of a deadline? I start off great. I plot on a calendar how much I have to get accomplished by when. And, for a while, it all goes swimmingly. Then life and children and oil changes and colds and whatever start to intrude. Then, I'm behind in my schedule enough to give me a knot in my stomach. So....I book a weekend away in a hotel and work like crazy to get back on schedule. In general, I need a weekend away (sometimes two!) per manuscript. I'm starting to think a weekend away
Actually, I'm not going to try and tell you how to write a series.
I don't approach books that way. I'm wary about rules about how to write anything, basically. I get nervous when writers approach a project by saying, "I'm going to write a series." Or "I'm going to write a chapter book."
I've critiqued many manuscripts which began with the genre first. I would suggest it's not the best way to start a book. That the best way to start is to have an idea and then write. The age of your protagonist, the situation, the conflict ... these are the things that will determine the language you use, the length of your sentences, and the way your characters talk, which ultimately will lead up to the genre your book falls into.
As in, don't try to write a chapter book with a 10-year-old protagonist.
Having said that, of course, I'm immediately aware that there will be exceptions to that idea. With reading levels being what they are, and publishers attempting to fill previously unknown niches to accommodate those levels, new genres seem to be popping up every week.
I have never actually set out to write a series. But I started thinking about the subject when I knew my week here was coming up because the first of what's going to be my 4th series is coming out from Putnam next week.
I wrote the first book as a one-off ... Something. I had no idea it was going to fit into a relatively new "Transitional Reader" genre. The early chapter book genre.
What happened was that I saw a sign in front of a school and I got an idea. The book turned out to be as long as it did because of the simplicity of that idea. It ended up being roughly 2,900 words divided into ten chapters. It had short sentences. It was called KISS AND GO LANE. The little girl was called Megan. She just happened to wear - and depend upon - her pink tutu for courage because it makes her feel like a pink princess.
My editor, Susan Kochan, liked it. She found a terrific illustrator in Stephanie Roth Sisson who made Megan come to life. The character and concept suddenly looked as if they had the potential for longevity. Megan became Posey. I got my first multiple-book contract - ever - and I've been doing this for quite awhile. It has been a delightful journey.
[A bit of background: my other series came one-book-at-a-time, including the six Owen Foote chapter books and the three Sophie Hartley middle grade novels that I did with Clarion. Ditto the 4 Moose and Hildy books I did with Marshall Cavendish. In retrospect, for a person like me, this was a comfortable way to go about ending up with a series. As someone who left her homework, for her entire educational career, until the very last minute, a multiple-book contract feels like homework. Yes, it's great. Yes, it's wonderful. The next book is due on ... gulp.
So. Series can, and do, happen. But which comes first? And what makes it have life as a series - is it the concept? the character? or the plot?
Each writer goes about ending up with a series in his or her own way. This week, I'm going to talk to Barrie Summy about how she ended up writing her middle grade mystery series for Delacorte, I SO DON'T DO MYSTERIES, I SO DON'T DO SPOOKY, and her most recent - I SO DON'T DO MAKE UP.
I'm also going to talk to Greg Trine about his hilarious MELVIN BEEDERMAN, SUPER HERO series.
All of our experiences have been different.
Sometimes, it's a savvy agent who recognizes what you have. Other times, it's your editor. I'm not sure that any one of the three of us went into our projects planning on being handed a series contract, but I imagi
Westerfield's romp into the on-again off-again genre of steampunk will definitely leave you thinking. Granted, the complicated web of alliances that led to the first World War could be something tagged as, dare I say, dry and boring? However, by bringing in the fantastical, Westerfield makes a complicated but important era of history a little more accessible. How many students will groan, however, when they learn that Darwinist fabricated creatures did not, in fact, exist. Oh well. Whatever it takes to grab their attention and get them interested, right?
In short, Leviathan is the story of Aleksander, sole heir to the Archduke of Austria who is being hunted by Franz Joseph and Germany to be done away with quietly, and Deryn, young Scottish girl passing as a boy in order to serve in the Royal Air Force. Their paths cross when the airship Leviathan--part whale, part a thousand other creatures--that Deryn is assigned to is shot down by German planes over the Swiss Alps, where Alek is hiding out. The two join forces to battle a common enemy, the Germans.
If you like science fiction, you'll enjoy. If you like history, you'll have fun pulling apart the real from the alternate. If you like finding new tools for writing, well then, you may actually secretly (or not so secretly) whistle for joy.
Narration is probably one of the hardest aspects to incorporate into writing without killing a story's pace. We demanding readers want action, not a bunch of telling, right? Westerfield has his work cut out for him with this piece. Not only does he have to get in the usual suspects-character appearance, character backstory, historical setting, setting-he has to explain his fabricated creatures, how they work, how they came into being, and all of that alternate history. It's not small feat.
Westerfield tackles the weighty challenge by combining narration with other story elements, such as action, dialogue, and emotional responses. Much like the Darwinists in his story combine life threads of various animals to create fabricated war animals, Westerfield combines to create wholly new show-tell and tell-show “beasties” that turn a potential pace killer into a pace maker.
It's marvelous work, if a writer is looking for a few new tricks. How do I work narration into dialogue without it becoming an information dump? It's here. How do I distract with action while getting across narration? In Blake Snyder's words (Save the Cat) pull a Pope in the Pool? Westerfield uses a sword fight. Dissertations could be written on that sword fight alone. It's narration. It's a segway from Act 1 into Act 2. It's a symbolic cutting of the
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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie YA
It's a bit daunting to review a book that's won the National Book Award. I mean, does it get any better than that? Okay, there is the Pulitzer, or maybe the Nobel Prize, but hey, this is the National Book Award. Wow.
Does Alexie live up to the hipe?
In a word, yes.
This is a character driven piece about a topic - reservation life and the hopelessness it breeds - that, in this generation, is little spoken about. Alexie brings it to life in a deeply emotional way. Death, alcoholism, hopelessness. Love, family, tribal bonds. Heavy topics handled with an honesty that makes the emotional cartharsis at the end of the piece feel very real.
This isn't about fixing the mess the U.S. created when it set up reservations. It isn't about doing away with reservations, or rethinking them. It's about one boy, Junior's, journey to create a new life for himself, a life with hope. It's about his love for his family. His love for his friends. And how he straddles two worlds to become one person. At the same time, his experiences aren't so heart-wrenching you'll be looking into Prosac by the time you're done. It's good, well thought-out, clean writing.
If you feel like honesty, like a solid read, like letting literature change you, read True Diary. Junior lives up to his potential and beyond.
And for more fun and exciting tales, hop over to Barrie Summy's website for the complete list of The Book Review Club's reviews this month!
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Alone Gerstein's name would lure me to read one of his books. It has such an interesting and alluring sound to it. His middle grade novel, The Old Country, is, of course, even more intriguing.
Gisella, a famous violinist, tells her grandson the story of how she was once a fox...in the old country.
Filled with mystery, war, controversy, longing, magic, sarcasm, symbolism, and many other isms, this is a writer's dream of a book. Not only did it grab the reader in me, tempting me into taking that leap of faith into imagination but also it interested me as a writer. How does one pack so much into such a short story, leading the reader on in such a fantastic way that she can only hope the story is long, long, long, Dostoevsky long. It isn't, but then, its shortness is part of its magic.
I happened to listen to this one on tape. Tovah Feldschuh read. She added such depth to Gerstein's characters. Her many voices were so distinct, I often forgot only one person was reading. For once, I'd actually suggest listening to this one before reading it. You won't regret it.
So on the way to school, the grocery, doctor's appointments, gas station, or wherever, get yourself a copy of this book. Just don't be surprised if on the way to one of those countless places we all run to during the course of a week, you might actually forget where you're going and find yourself lost...in The Old Country.
For other great reads these cold winter months, pop over to fearless leader, Barrie Summy's, website. Temptation awaits!
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You know how sticky it can sometimes get when you’re juggling both a mother and a stepmother? Imagine if your mother was a ghost and your stepmother was a teacher at your school! Sherry Baldwin’s mother floats in on a wave of coffee to let Sherry know that she needs to meet her at Dairy Queen, ghost headquarters. There, Sherry learns that her stepmother, aka The Ruler, has a stalker. With her dad out of town, and her mother competing in the Ghostlympics, it’s up to Sherry to solve the mystery. But, she so doesn’t do spooky.
Sherry enlists Junie’s help as they embark upon a journey of the paranormal. A ghost hunter’s equipment picks up signs of her mother while a teen psychic confirms Sherry’s fears about her stepmother. When The Ruler’s tires are slashed, Sherry follows the scents of sweat socks and honey, and wonders what she’ll do when she finds the stalker.
To make matters worse, her uberfantastic boyfriend, Josh, has a glittery tutor who seems eager to take Sherry’s place. Her best friend, Junie, is too distracted to answer her texts, someone is trying to kill her fish, and her school’s rival robotics team has discovered she’s a spy.
Barrie Summy’s I SO DON’T DO SPOOKY is a wonderful romp between teen and paranormal worlds. I thoroughly enjoyed Ms. Summy’s first novel, I SO DON’T DO MYSTERIES and was eager to read I SO DON’T DO SPOOKY. I was not disappointed. It was just plain fun. And if an unusual scent seems to settle around you as you read, don’t be concerned. It’s probably just a ghost that can’t resist reading over your shoulder.
Drugs, sex, teenage pregnancy, you name it, children's authors write about it. Suzanne Morgan Williams is no different. She has taken on perhaps the mother of all controversial issues for this country, the war on terrorism. Bull Rider's story is current, it's controversial, but far more importantly, it's really really well-written. Any book can take on controversy, but take it on without becoming preachy, now that's good writing.
Cam O'Mara's older brother is a marine. He goes off to fight in the Middle East, is injured, and comes back home a very different person. Cam's family struggles with the effects of war on their own world, the world at large, and the way people see them. Cam, a skateboarder by passion, turns to bull-riding, a time-honored family profession, because it is the only way he can escape the discomfort and uncertainty of his life. In the end, he chooses bull-riding to help his brother realize that if Cam can face his fears and straddle a thousand pounds of bull, then his brother can face his, learning to walk again.
This isn't a light read. It isn't a comfortable one. But it is unforgettable. Williams isn't preachy. There are no easy answers to war, not for those opposing, those waging it, and especially not for those fighting it. Her characters are well-shaped, offering all sides to the debate but no judgments. Family, love, hanging in there for each other, these are the driving force of her story.
Read it. It'll make you think.
And for other great reads this crazy December month, hop over to Barrie Summy's blog.
I have to say, I've had this book for a while. I picked it up. Put it down. Picked it up again. And then put it down.
Finally, last week, I made myself read it. I don't know why I hesitated, but after reading John Gardner (yes, I am haunted by Mr. Gardner), Horns & Wrinkles was the perfect antidote. Funny. Insanely creative. Set up north where I grew up, so it felt like slipping into a comfy old chair that had been hidden away and forgotten. Gloriously complete.
Horns & Wrinkles is the story of a girl, Claire, whose cousin, Duke, has a spell put on him for being such a pain-in-the-you-know-what bully. Every time he bullies, he turns a little more into a rhino. Until all is really lost, and he becomes one, only he doesn't mind. And Claire, who hates all of his bullying, finds herself repeatedly trying to save his happily lost soul, help the river trolls find their fathers, turn her grandfather, aunt and uncle (and their dog) back into humans (they've been turned to stone), and hoping all the while that she's not actually a river troll disguised as a human herself.
See?
Imagination cubed.
I couldn't have come up with this in a million years, and now I totally want to get to know Joseph Helgerson. His style in Horns & Wrinkles is a combination of irreverent Mark Twain, folklorish Mississippi-river, and Helgerson hilarity. I grinned. I chuckled. I even laughed. And I kept wondering, "what in the world will he come up with next," and try as I might, Helgerson kept surprising me. Amazingly refreshing.
For more fun reads, pop over to our fearless leaders website, Barrie Summy, and dive into the delicacies listed there. So many good books. So little time!
The ivory tower is granting me a one day pass to go out and see the real world. The things good behavior will get you!
GLEE!
I'm being let out to speak at Oklahoma's school librarian conference, EncycloMedia. I'm excited. Thrilled. And a little nervous. Okay... a lot nervous. I'll be out with real people. I have to talk. I have to talk intelligently, in complete sentences, with no editing, about my middle grade novel, Dragon Wishes. I have to sound like I do this regularly. But all I've done for weeks now is sit in the ivory tower with my imaginary friends - and a few dead writers - and write. My social skills have sort of fallen by the wayside. Ask my kids. My husband. My dog, even.
Fortunately, should my skills waver, I'll be in amazing company and so hopefully no one will notice. I'm speaking with Eileen Cook, What Would Emma Do, Cynthea Liu, Paris Pan Takes the Dare, Jenny Meyerhoff, Third Grade Baby, and Suzanne Morgan Williams, Bull Rider.
We're followed the next day by P.J. Hoover, The Navel of the World, Jessica Anderson, Border Crossing, Barrie Summy, I So Don't Do Spooky, Donna St. Cyr, The Cheese Syndicate, and Zu Vincent, The Lucky Place.
Beforehand, we're being interviewed for a televised program that the Metropolitan Library of Oklahoma broadcasts throughout the state. Please, please, please let my hair cooperate so that I look like someone who actually styles her hair every once in a while, rather than pulling it back in a haphazard ponytail because dead writers and fictitious characters don't care what your hair looks like. And after that, there is a luncheon with librarians. Gulp. Can I carry on a coherent conversation for a whole hour? Or will I get that far off, I-have-an-idea look and start scribbling on my napkin? Librarians will understand if I do, right?
Maybe after all of that real world experience, I'll be ready to lock myself away in the ivory tower again, but I have a feeling, it'll be the other way around. I used to be a pretty social person, some time in the distant past...I think. Either way, I think that seeing, talking and interacting in a spontaneous way with real live people who don't need me to edit their dialogue could be, what's the word?
Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata ISBN: 978-1-4169-7566-3
It has been a whole month since my last post. I blame it all on my MFA program. I can't quite seem to eek enough time out of the 24 hours allotted to us mortals per day. Just two more hours! Just two. I could get it all done...I think.
Nevertheless, I've taken a break in frantic learning for Barrie Summy's amazing Book Review Club. I wouldn't miss this for anything, not even sleep. So here goes, Weedflower.
One of the most stirring Supreme Court cases I read while teaching constitutional limitations was the 1941, U.S. vs. Korematsu, which posed that the U.S. government had violated the civil rights of Japanese-Americans who were forced by the government into internment camps during World War II. The Supreme Court ruled that while the U.S. government had violated its citizens’ rights, the state of war the country found itself in outweighed those rights and made the internment legal.
This background knowledge and prior, personal conflict with the legal aspects of internment made Kadohata’s novel all the more moving for me. It was rewarding, albeit hard, to step into the emotions of what internment must have felt like. Through the eyes of eleven year old Sumiko, Kadohata does an amazing job of showing what it was like for Japanese Americans during this excruciating time. Fear, exhaustion, broken families, paranoia, unusual friendships, the slow rebuilding of a productive, hard-working immigrant population, the uncertainty of starting all over again, bravery, loyalty, love of family and land. It's all in here, deftly woven together in a luminous tale.
The craft aspect of this book I enjoyed the most was that I was not sure where or how the story would end. Would Sumiko and her family ever get out of the camp? Would the war last ten years? By staying very close to Sumiko and her feelings in a Solzhenitsyn, A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich kind-of-way, Kadohata powerfully conveys the endlessness of internment and uncertainty of the Japanese plight during WW II.I was on the edge of my seat to the very end. And when the novel was over, I was left thinking long and hard about why it ended the way it did. The ending begs for discussion.
This is a book to learn from. To enjoy stylistically. To get lost in. I really loved it.
For other great reads, hop over to our fearless leader's website and meander through the rich panoply of choices. That pile next to my night stand grows exponentially each month. I hope yours does too!
If you are thinking about ending your summer reading with a deep, diverse, moving but in tune with the up-and-coming young adult generation book, look north. Canada north. Ontario, to be exact, where Tim Wynn-Jones’ piece, The Uninvited, takes place (and where the author himself lives).
A little bit mystery, a little bit drama, The Univited is the story of three young adults, Cramer, Mimi and Jackson, ages 18 – 24, who share the same father but do not know of their common link. They discover their common link over the summer at a small house owned by their, unbeknownst to them, common father. Sitting on an island created by a side channel, a snye, off of the main river, Eden, the house and its island are “magical”, not in the fairies and demons sense but in the “getting away from it all to think” sense.
Each of the members of the trio escapes to the island to search for something different – inspiration, safety, recognition. They find their soul’s desire, albeit in ways that bind them together forever.
The aspect of this book that really mesmerized me was how Wynn-Jones deftly uses the river Eden and its offshoot, the snye, as mirror reflections of the meanderings of the three siblings as they weave in and out of each other's lives and life itself. The watery mirror intensifies the book’s emotional core like water intensifies the sun’s rays, making the book that much deeper, that much more unforgettable.
If you are a writer looking for a book that expertly reflects aspects of craft, READ THIS BOOK. If you’re just looking for an unforgettable summer novel, READ THIS BOOK. If you’ve ever wanted to read a book set in Canada because, well, because it’s there and you’ve always wanted to see it, READ THIS BOOK.
If I haven’t come up with a reason to woo you over to The Univited, well…READ THIS BOOK anyway. You won’t regret it. Scout’s honor. It’s that good.
For more compelling, zany, thrilling, or just plain fun reads, visit our fearless Book Club whiz, Barrie Summy’s, blog: www.barriesummy.blogspot.com. You won’t regret that either!
The sun was out. The weather warm. And the flowers blooming. It was a perfect day for a lemonade stand on Saturday, and my kids were all over it. Over the last year, they've become lemonade stand pros. They have their own stand, their own company name, they even sell cookies to spice things up a bit.
It's been a great way for me to teach them about "business." I grew up in a family where my father and mother ran my dad's CPA practice. I ate, drank and slept small business USA ever since I could remember. One summer, Dad employed me. I was ten. I spent a whole summer shredding paper. I got a break every once in a while when I got to take out old pages in the tax books and replace them with new ones, but mostly, it was 8 hours a day of paper shredding. Which taught me something. By the end of that summer, I knew I SO VERY MUCH wanted to go to college so that I didn't end up spending my life shredding paper.
Being an author means I don't have the paper shredding to motivate my kids, but I do have the all-American entrepreneurial spirit. The lemonade stand is the one thing just about any kid can do that will, if they work at it, earn them some cold hard cash. What kid doesn't want that?
Mine check weather reports this time of year to see if Saturday is ideal lemonade stand material. They make sure we have supplies. They talk up the stand around the neighborhood a few days beforehand. Come Saturday, they have a booming business. Now, they usually end up having at least five kids working the stand/taking breaks to climb trees and play, which turns the whole business into a great way to spend the day outdoors. I'm proud of them. They always make sure and take out part of the profits to buy new supplies, and the divvy up the earnings evenly across all kids who work the stand. They've learned about profit and loss and supply and demand and neither is ten. And they didn't have to shred any paper!
Yeay, lemonade stand! I love lemonade stands!!!
Which made it all the sweeter when Kim Kasch nominated me for a Lemonade Stand Award for great Gratitude/ or attitude. Yippee!! Virtual Lemonade Stands. I love it.
To accept the award I have to share the Lemonade by --
1. Post the logo on my blog. 2. Nominate 10 blogs with great gratitude/attitude. 3. List and link my nominees. 4. Alert them of their nomination on their blog.
There will only be an uber mini post here today because...
Child #4 spilled an entire cup of water over the keyboard of my laptop.
Can you say fried?
Oy.
Oh? You wonder how I'm managing to post this?
Magic. Pure and simple. (Did no one tell you we hold our classes at Hogwarts?)
But would we, at the Class of 2k8, leave you postless on this glorious Thursday in December. Uh, no!
Go directly to Rachel Vater's blog. Rachel's my agent. She's a huge sweetheart, a tough negotiator and basically the type of person that makes you want to move to New York (even though they have nasty winters) so you can hang out together.
~Today's uber mini-post was brought to you by Barrie Summy, debut author of the humorous tween mystery I SO DON'T DO MYSTERIES. (Like you didn't know it was me!)
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Barrie: And I just want to say thank you to the nth degree to Warwick's and especially to Susan, Event Coordinator Extraordinaire, for making my very first book signing ever so much FUN! And for making me feel welcome and comfortable. Susan was calm and organized and all over the place at the same time.
Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of Susan. Because I wasn't overly calm or organized or thinking about the blog.
Thank you to DH and Child #4 for coming down. Their presence was invaluable. I loved how Child #4 kept filling up my book display when it started to run low.
(left to right) Liz, Eileen, Barrie, Cindy
And yay yay for my great friends who came to offer support! They drove all the way to La Jolla, bought books and hung out with me at the bookstore. Some took me to dinner before the signing. Some took me for drinks and Mexican afterwards until late. Even though it was a school night.
Barrie and fellow blogger San Diego Momma who is incredibly cool!
Thank you to all the shoppers who stopped to chat and buy books. They were beyond friendly.
Ah HA! Told ya I'd (sort of) be there! Rick is the only who looks somewhat like me! He's a great "kid." All heart. Even at 25, he does what's asked of him with no complaints. I can't wait for your book to show up in my mailbox!
Yes, peeps, it's true. We're launching our very last classmate this week.
Please lift your glasses in an enthusiastic clink for Barrie Summy and her humorous tween mystery I SO DON'T DO MYSTERIES.
Ya gotta admit this cover's a beaut!
And here's the hot-off-the-press scoop!
A girl. A guy. A ghost. A heist. Yikes!
Sherry (short for Sherlock) Holmes Baldwin wants more mall time, less homework and a certain cute guy. Instead she's recruited by her mother's ghost to prevent a rhino heist at San Diego's Wild Animal Park.
Meet reluctant sleuth Sherry Holmes Baldwin!
And, believe us, you'll totally fall for this hilarious, sassy, resistant, cell-phone-toting heroine as she juggles a tricky mystery, a ghost-mother, a doubting BFF and, of course, Josh Morton, the coolest, cutest guy in the Southwest .
I SO DON'T DO MYSTERIES (the first in the series) goes on sale tomorrow, Tuesday, December 9. Head down to your local Barnes & Nobles or your neighborhood indie or order online here.
Ya know what's really got Barrie excited? She's finally caught up with the rest of the class. And the next time we do a group signing, she'll have her very own book to sign too.
Congratulations, Barrie, you're a Real Published Author now!
Enjoy your launch week on our blog!
Come on, people, show her some love.
See you all tomorrow when we unveil the fantastic book trailer for I SO DON'T DO MYSTERIES!
0 Comments on Our Last Book Launch: Barrie Summy! as of 1/1/1900
It's nearly November and we're quickly realizing just how soon our debut year will be done. No doubt it's been an exciting time for us. We'd like to take this opportunity to review our greatest accomplishments for 2008 and outline our goals for 2018, when we hope to have one heckuva ten year reunion!
BARRIE SUMMY
In 2008, my goals were (some of these are from my list of New Year's Resolutions):
1. floss daily
2. finish Book #2
3. exercise 3x a week
4. watch more TV
5. buy cute clothes
6. survive the launch of I So Don't Do Mysteries
What I accomplished from this list:
1. I've been incredibly good about daily flossing, especially now that I've found a brand of floss that I actually like. Visit to the dentist planned for November where I will no doubt be awarded stickers for a cavity-free appointment. Which I so deserve.
2. Book #2, currently titled I So Don't Do Spooky, is done and revised and revised and copyedited. Amazingly, I still like it.
3. I'm pretty good with the exercising, although I did take off a month this summer to go to Toronto and eat some of my favorite foods like ketchup potato chips, butter tarts, Nanaimo bars, Swiss Chalet chicken.
4. I'm watching a little more TV now that I've figured out how to download (is it upload?) shows to my ipod. I watch the shows while treadmilling it at the gym. Currently, I watch The Office and sometimes Grey's Anatomy. Please feel free to give suggestions!!
5. I have failed miserably at this. Except when my friend, L, came with me to buy an outfit for my author's photo.
6. Ask me Dec. 21 (the day after my launch)
By 2018 I hope to:
1. still have my own teeth
2. have written 10 or 20 books
3. still be exercising. I'd like to try a personal trainer (if I find a really nice one who doesn't push too hard).
4. watch a reasonable amount of TV so I know what everyone's talking about
5. enjoy book signings6. have a fashion sense or have convinced L to shop with me on a regular basis
NINA NELSON
In 2008, my greatest accomplishments were:
1. Having fun launch parties in CT and MO
2. Speaking at schools, libraries, and bookstores
3. Being able to maintain balance in my life
4. Completing the 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk
5. Having fun working on my second novel
By 2018 I hope to have:
1. Lived in Europe
2. Finished a triathlon
3. Continued to have written books I'm proud of
4. Continued to have balance in my life
5. Climbed another big mountain
What's your now and later?
0 Comments on Day 1: Now and Later as of 10/27/2008 8:37:00 AM
what a great interview and fabulous words of wisdom! I love reading success stories.
Great inspiring interview. I'm off now to work hard at turning over some rocks. :)
Great story. Attitude is amazing, yes it is. I really enjoyed this post. Thanks!
Wonderful interview, thanks Barrie and kidlit!!
Great advice. Thanks Barrie. I love Kristen Nelson's blog and would so love her or Sarah as an agent.
Yay! Excellent advice and how awesome for you BARRIE!!! Inspiring post.
Thanx Barrie that was uplifting after all! It does take hard work and dedication and a lot of luck on the side.
I love "The harder you work, the luckier you get." Here's hoping!
Love the inspiring message. Barrie is great. Thanks for posting.
Thank you, Barrie, for your inspiring post. The odds are daunting, but you're right; we must assume we'll beat them.
I so don't want to miss a chance to win your contest. I entered this morning.
To the point advice, I love it! Thanks!
fabulous interview! thanks to all of you!!
Love the advice! May have to print that out and post it somewhere! :)
Fantastic advice! Thank you!
Thanks for a dose of inspiration! I love this :)