First, I have a winner to announce from last week's giveaway of THE CHARMED CHILDREN OF ROOKSKILL CASTLE. According to randomizer, the winner is
JENNI ENZOR
Congratulations, Jenni! And look for an email from me asking for your mailing address. For those who didn't win, remember the book is now available from Viking or your local indie bookstore.
Now on to today's feature:
Free Verseby Sarah Dooley (March 15, 2016, G.P. Putnam's sons, 352 pages, for ages 10 and up) Synopsis (from the publisher): When her older brother dies in a fire, Sasha Harless has no one left. Her father died in the mines and her mother ran off, so Sasha's brother was her only caretaker. They'd always dreamed of leaving Caboose, West Virginia together someday, but instead she's in foster care, feeling more stuck and broken than ever. But when Sasha discovers cousins she didn't know she had, she finally has something to hold onto, especially sweet little Mikey, who's just as broken as she is. Sasha even makes her first friend at school and is slowly learning to cope with her brother's death by writing poetry.
Then a tragedy strikes the mines where Mikey's father works, and Sasha fears the worst. She takes Mikey and runs away.
Why I recommend it: I know what you're thinking: oh, how sad! And yes, of course, it is sad. As sad as Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt or One for the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt or Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. But what the synopsis doesn't tell you is how strong and likable Sasha is, and how powerfully and in what exquisite detail this novel brings to life a West Virginia coal-mining town. Yes, there is tragedy, but there is also a wonderful ending filled with hope. Best of all? It's about the power of poetry to heal.
Bonus: Poetry Month is coming up in April and this would be a great discussion starter. While not written in verse, one part of this four-part novel is Sasha's poetry notebook, with many different forms that Sasha learns: haiku, cinquain, tanka, found poetry, etc, as well as a section of free verse poems.
Favorite lines: I HAVE STOPPED
corralling
my poems
by form.
They run
loose like
wild dogs.
Now for the giveaway details: The publisher has generously offered one hardcover copy for giveaway. To enter, you must be a follower of this blog and you must comment on this post. If you mention the giveaway on social media, please let me know and I'll give you extra chances to win. This giveaway is open to US mailing addresses only (sorry!) and will end at 10:00 pm EDT on Sunday March 27. The winner will be announced on Monday March 28. Good luck!
First, according to randomizer, the winner of last week's giveaway of a new paperback of THE ANCIENT ONE by T.A. Barron is:
FAITH HOUGH
Congratulations, Faith! And look for an email from me asking for your mailing address.
Now onto today's feature!
The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle by Janet Fox (March 15, 2016, Viking Books for Young Readers, 400 pages, for ages 10 and up) Synopsis (from the arc): Twelve-year-old Katherine Bateson believes in a logical explanation for everything. But even she can't make sense of the strange goings-on at Rookskill Castle, the drafty old Scottish castle-turned-school where she and her siblings have been sent to escape the London Blitz. What's making those mechanical shrieks at night? Why do the castle's walls seem to have a mind of their own? And who are the silent children who seem to haunt Rookskill's grounds?
Kat believes Lady Eleanor, who rules the castle, is harboring a Nazi spy. But when her classmates begin to vanish, one by one, Kat must face the truth about what the castle actually harbors--and what Lady Eleanor is--before it's too late. Why I recommend it: You can just tell from that dark, atmospheric cover that this will be a fantastic and chilling read! Yet it's not too scary (for example, the children find sympathetic adults to help them). The Scottish setting is superb, the writing masterful. I had trouble tearing myself away from the book to cook dinner or even sleep. Kat is a strong and resourceful protagonist, and you'll be with her every step of the way as she puzzles out the mysteries of the castle, Lady Eleanor, and the Lady's mysterious chatelaine with one charm for each child.
I'm honored to be the first stop on Janet Fox's blog tour! And now, for a special treat, a guest post from the author herself.
Please discuss your research process (particularly
if it involved mysterious trips to Scotland!). Please also expand on how your
research brought you to become interested in chatelaines.
Thanks for this great prompt! My entire process - writing
and researching - is very organic.
Many of my best ideas come from a place I can only call
"my magic zone". Lots of my ideas have come from dreams; I've often
started writing a novel from a single image that pops into my head from out of
the blue. In the case of THE CHARMED CHILDREN OF ROOKSKILL CASTLE, the
inspiration was a picture. The chatelaine in the story was posted as a picture
on the internet and the story grew from my reaction to that strange piece of
jewelry.
Once I begin a project I research as I go. When I need to
know more about something, like castles or the London Blitz, I'll look it up,
study the details, read various accounts. I do both online research and
traditional book research, and the only hard part is keeping track of where the
information came from. (Note to scholars: keep a good record!)
That's not always the way it works, however. In the case of
my YA novel SIRENS, I wanted to add something more - some layer, something
deeper - but I didn't know what, until one night in winter while I was
listening to a radio program. The interviewer was discussing a new book on
Spiritualism in the 1920s and the magician Howard Thurston, and how he was a
friend and rival of Harry Houdini. Thurston believed in life after death; Houdini
did not. That was the layer I was looking for, and I bought and read the book on
Thurston and incorporated magic and spiritualism into my story.
More recently, I've been working on another MG novel set in
Scotland (a possible sequel to CHARMED CHILDREN). Again, I was trying to find
some way to make a richer and more compelling story, so I went on line and
began to research old clocks, and discovered that the unfortunate Mary, Queen
of Scots, possessed something called a "death's head watch." If that
novel comes to life, you'll find out just what a death's head watch is, and I
can assure you it's pretty creepy.
As to trips to Scotland, I didn't take that trip on the spur
of the moment! I've been to Scotland before, and my husband and I planned to go
to the UK to visit friends, and when I sold CHARMED CHILDREN we adjusted our
plans to make an excursion through Scotland. That way I could visit the castle
I plucked out of photographs to become Rookskill - and it exceeded my
expectations in its scary splendor.
In short, I tend to follow my instincts, and I've found that
once I become interested in a certain aspect of what I'm writing, references
pop up everywhere. It's as if the universe is affirming what I'm doing. Writing
really is like magic - backed up by science (solid facts) - with an energy all
its own.
Thanks so much for your guest post, Janet. Glad a trip to Scotland was involved somehow! And I'm thrilled to hear of a possible sequel!
And here's the first video of Janet's twelve videos about the charms.
For the next stop on the blog tour, visit Word Spelunking tomorrow, Tues March 15 for a Top Ten List and Video #2! And next Monday, our very own Middle Grade Mafioso has an interview with Janet and Video #6!
Now for the giveaway details. The publisher has generously offered one hardcover copy to one lucky winner (US mailing addresses only. Sorry!). To enter, you must be a follower of this blog and you must comment on this post. If you mention the giveaway on social media, please let me know and I'll give you extra chances for each mention. This giveaway ends at 10:00 pm EDT on Sunday March 20 and the winner will be announced on Monday March 21. Good luck!
The Ancient Oneby T.A. Barron (New paperback edition March 8, 2016, Puffin Books, 320 pages, for ages 10 and up)
Synopsis (from the author's website): When Kate Gordon travels to Oregon for a quiet week at Aunt Melanie’s cottage, her plans are dashed by the discovery of a grove of giant redwood trees in nearby Lost Crater. Caught up in the struggle to help protect the redwood forest from loggers, Kate is thrown back in time five hundred years and finds herself facing the evil creature Gashra, who is bent on destroying the very same forest.
In this extraordinary quest, a girl discovers that all living things are connected in ways she never expected, and that true friendship can reach across cultures, and even across centuries.
Why I recommend it: Long before Katniss Everdeen, we had a strong female heroine by the name of Kate Gordon. I actually read this and the other two Kate Gordon adventures (the first is Heartlight and the third is The Merlin Effect) years ago, before I read all of T.A. Barron's Young Merlin saga. But never fear: each of the Kate Gordon books are stand-alones. In fact, I read this one first.
I love Kate. She's not only strong, she's loyal, caring, and sure of herself. A great role model for both girls and guys.
Bonus: With the theme that everything is connected, this would also be excellent for starting conversations about the environment. Remember Earth Day is coming up in April.
Through the generosity of the publisher I have one brand-new paperback to give away. To enter, you must be a follower of this blog and you must leave a comment on this post. Mention the giveaway on social media and I'll give you extra chances for each mention. Open to US mailing addresses only. This giveaway will end at 10:00 pm on Sunday March 13 and the winner will be announced Monday March 14.
The Morrigan's Curse: The Eighth Day Book 3 by Dianne K. Salerni (January 26, 2016, HarperCollins, 400 pages, for ages 9 to 13)
Synopsis: The battle between Kin and Transitioners that's been brewing for centuries has finally come to a head. The sinister Kin have captured Evangeline's younger sister, Addie, a descendant of Merlin whose presence will allow them to reverse the Eighth Day Spell and free themselves. Addie has been helping the Kin because they value the strength of her magic, something Evangeline never did.
Meanwhile, Riley, Evangeline, and Jax craft a plan to rescue Addie from her captors. But the Kin's unstoppable magic, and a rebellious Addie, force Riley to reconsider whether saving Addie is worth sacrificing everyone who lives in the seven-day week. Jax won't let Evangeline's sister be used as a pawn, so he risks it all in a secret mission of his own. With the Morrigan pushing both sides of the war toward annihilation, Addie must decide where her loyalties lie, while Jax, Riley, and Evangeline confront the possibility of losing Addie to save the world.
Readers, I'm honored to once again welcome Dianne Salerni to my blog. Take it away, Dianne!
It’s very fitting that Joanne asked me to write a post on Leap
Day, a day that doesn’t exist most of the time. My Eighth Day series is
about a day of the week that doesn’t exist for most people.
Last month I was thrilled to launch The Morrigan’s Curse – my
fifth published book, the third in my series, and the most challenging book
I’ve ever written. This book possessed a unique requirement: It needed to serve
as either the final installment of a trilogy OR the midpoint in a series of
five. Even now, a month after its release, I still don’t know which one it will
be. (The publisher will make that decision later this year.)
Because it was so difficult to write, The Morrigan’s Curse has
a special place in my heart. In particular, I’m excited about:
Addie Emrys
In this book, readers finally
meet Evangeline’s little sister. They already know she’s going to be trouble.
In Book 1, Evangeline predicts that wherever her spitfire sister is, she’s
driving her guardians crazy. In Book 2, Addie doesn’t win any points by leaving
her elderly foster parents a petulant list of complaints. We also learn that
she bit Finn Ambrose when he forcibly took blood samples from her. (Really, though,
he had that coming.) And at the end of the book, she willingly runs off with
the evil Llyr family.
So, heading into The Morrigan’s Curse, I was working
with a resentful, prickly protagonist who’d aligned herself with the bad guys.
Nevertheless, I needed Addie to be sympathetic. I wanted readers to like her
and root for her.
Evangeline describes Addie as “difficult,” and she certainly
was difficult to write. I rewrote her POV chapters many, many times, and I
didn’t know whether I’d done her justice until I got my revision letter from my
editor. What she said about Addie made me cry (in a good way). I hope everyone
else will love Addie, prickliness and all.
Stink
In The Inquisitor’s Mark we learn that
Jax’s dad had a pet brownie named Stink. In fact, we met Stink in that book,
although he was never directly identified. (Lots of readers guessed, though.) I
don’t want to post any spoilers here, but let’s just say that Stink is my
favorite new character after Addie. Smartest. Pet. Ever.
The Morrigan
Again, no spoilers, but weaving this 3-in-one deity from
Celtic mythology into my story was a lot of fun. She’s a force of nature,
embodying destruction and chaos. She manifests as an old crone, a middle-aged
woman – or a young girl often referred to as the Girl of Crows.
Jax
I love Jax. He’s like the son I never had. Jax has grown up
a little over the course of three books, but he’s still only 13 years old and
some things about him haven’t changed at all. What’s more, he knows it:
“How’d you end up with
the Sword of Nuadu?” Evangeline whispered.
“Same as usual,” Jax
replied in an undertone. “I did something stupid while Riley wasn’t looking.”
Joanne, thank so much for inviting me here today to
celebrate the release of The Morrigan’s Curse!
My pleasure, Dianne! Thanks so much for your guest post. And that's a great quote at the end of your post.
Readers, have you read the first two books in The Eighth Day series? The Eighth Day and The Inquisitor's Mark? If so, you definitely need to read this book. And if you haven't read the first two, what are you waiting for?
Going Where It's Darkby Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (January 12, 2016, Delacorte Press, 336 pages, for ages 10 and up) Synopsis (from Indiebound): Buck Anderson's life seems to be changing completely. His best friend, David, has moved away; his anxious parents are hounding him more than ever; he has reluctantly agreed to fill in for his uncle and do odd jobs for a grumpy old veteran in town; and his twin sister has a new boyfriend and is never around anymore. To top it all off, Buck is bullied by a group of boys at school mainly because he stutters.
There is one thing that frees Buck from his worries. It is the heart-pounding exhilaration he feels when exploring underground caves in and around his hometown. He used to go caving with David, but he's determined to continue on his own now. He doesn't know that more changes are headed his way, changes that just might make him rethink his view of the world and his place in it.
Why I recommend it: Buck emerges as a very real and likable thirteen-year-old boy, who happens to stutter. I also found it refreshing to read about a large and loving family with two parents, which seems rare in recent MG literature (or is it just me?). The caving adventures add a level of excitement. My pulse raced when I reached the part where the bullies drop him in the pit and he has to find a way out on his own. I think I read the last third of this book without taking a breath. Favorite lines: "Everything he'd heard from outside the kitchen made him sick to his stomach. The pity in their voices, the way they predicted how the rest of his life would be. He hated his mouth, his throat, his tongue, his face." (from p. 102)
Bonus: This is the second novel I've read about a young teen who stutters. The first was Tending To Grace by Kimberly Newton Fusco (reviewed here). The two styles are quite different but both books have much to offer the reader. Each of my sons had speech disorders in elementary school, and speech therapy made a huge difference in their lives. Teachers and librarians: this book would be excellent for helping students empathize with kids who have speech disorders.
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor is the author of more than 140 books, including Shiloh, the Alice books, The Boys Start the War, The Girls Get Even (and many more Boy-Girl Battle books). Read more about Phyllis at randomhouse.com.
Readers, do you know of any other MG novels about stuttering? Or about caving?
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson (August 2014, Nancy Paulsen Books, 352 pages, for ages 10 and up) Synopsis (from Indiebound): "Jacqueline Woodson, one of today's finest writers, tells the moving story of her childhood in mesmerizing verse. "
Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child's soul as she searches for her place in the world. Woodson's eloquent poetry also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child. Her love of stories inspired her and stayed with her, creating the first sparks of the gifted writer she was to become. Why I recommend it: I first discovered Jacqueline Woodson when I read her picture book, Coming On Home Soon, in 2004, and later her MG novel, Feathers, in 2007. Both were books I loved and championed at the indie bookstore where I worked. I found Jacqueline's writing to be gorgeous and poetic. So it's not surprising that she chose to tell the story of her own childhood in verse. In breathtaking, yet spare poetry, we get to know the child Jackie, her family, and all the elements that shaped her into a writer. It's inspiring and deeply moving.
But don't just take my word for it. Look at that cover image. This book has so many awards they barely fit! And they're all well deserved. Winner of the Coretta Scott King Award, the National Book Award, and a Newbery Honor book.
Favorite lines: (from a poem called "The Garden" on page 48)
My southern grandfather missed slavery
by one generation. His grandfather
had been owned.
His father worked
the land from dawn till dusk
for the promise of cotton
and a little pay.
So this is what he believes in
your hands in the cool dirt
until the earth gives back to you
all that you've asked of it.
