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June 26th is National Canoe Day.

By on June 23, 2023   /   Articles, Fiction  

National Canoe Day makes me think of fun, excitement, and the great outdoors. It also makes me think of white water, rapids, and capsizing. These books will send you on a watery adventure but not to worry … you don’t need a life jacket.

Northwind by Gary Paulsen.

When a deadly plague reaches the small fishing camp where he lives, an orphan named Leif is forced to take to the water in a cedar canoe. He flees northward, following a wild, fjord-riven shore, navigating from one danger to the next. Yet the deeper into his journey he paddles, the closer he comes to his truest self as he connects to “the heartbeat of the ocean . . . the pulse of the sea.”

This stunning New York Times Bestseller from the survival story master, set along a rugged coastline centuries ago, does for the ocean what Hatchet does for the woods, as it relates the story of a young person’s battle to stay alive against the odds, where the high seas meet a coastal wilderness. With hints of Nordic mythology, Northwind is a captivating adventure.

Follow the River by Paul Greci.

When Billy and his dad are injured, Tom summons the courage to get back on the water to save them. This time, he must travel in a rickety old homemade canoe through the Alaska wilderness to get help. But it’s not just the canoe and the terrain he has to worry about—he’s surrounded by adversaries. Are his skills enough to fight them off or will his journey be cut short and Billy and his father left stranded?

 

 

Journal of a Travelling Girl by Nadine Neema.

Eleven-year-old Julia has lived in Wekweètì in the Northwest Territories since she was five. Although the Wekweètì people have always treated her as one of their own, she sometimes feels like an outsider, disconnected from their traditions and ancestral roots.

When Julia sets off on a canoe trip with her best friends, Layla and Alice, she’s happy. However, the trip is nothing like she expected. She’s afraid of falling off the boat, of bears, and of storms.

Gradually, Grandma and Grandpa show her how to survive on the land and pull her own weight. They share their traditional stories with her. Julia learns to gather wood, cook, clean, and paddle the canoe and, in the process, becomes more connected to her community.

The Porcupine Year by Louise Erdrich.

Omakayas was a dreamer who did not yet know her limits. When she’s twelve winters old, she and her family set off on a harrowing journey in search of a new home. They travel by canoe westward from the shores of Lake Superior along the rivers of northern Minnesota. While the family has prepared well, unexpected dangers, enemies, and hardships push them to the brink of survival.

Omakayas continues to learn from the land and the spirits around her and discovers that no matter where she is, or how she is living, she has the one thing she needs to carry her through.

The Porcupine Year is the third novel in The Birchbark House Series, stories of one Ojibwe family’s journey through one hundred years in America, written by New York Times bestselling author Louise Erdrich.

National Canoe Day Activities to connect with your reading:

Make your own origami canoe.

Tips for a successful canoeing adventure.

Learn the paddle strokes.

Find out more at the American Canoe Association.

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WNDMG Wednesday — Interview with Debut Author Jude Atwood + a List of Great Spooky Fantasies

By on June 21, 2023   /   Articles, WNDMG  
We Need Diverse MG Logo hands holding reading globe with stars and spirals floating around

We Need Diverse MG Logo hands holding reading globe with stars and spirals floating around

Illustration by: Aixa Perez-Prado

 

“When Clara woke up Saturday morning, the dolls were staring at her with their cold, lifeless eyes.” —First line Maybe There are Witches.

I’m a sucker for a great opening line. When I read this one, I knew I had to read Maybe There are Witches. The imagery has prepared me to read a great spooky fantasy. Getting to know this debut author was even more of a treat.

MAYBE THERE ARE WITCHES

First, a little about the book:

A middle school girl moves to a small town and discovers that her great-great-great grandmother was executed there for witchcraft in the 1800s. After she finds a message addressed to her in a century-old book, she realizes that she and her two new friends must stop a deadly catastrophe predicted by a 19th-century witch. But as their adventure takes them through historic cemeteries, rural libraries, and high-octane academic bowl tournaments, something sinister is lurking, watching, and waiting…

Influences

This is your first book and you’ve created a fast-paced, high stakes story, with witches. That’s amazing. What books influenced you as an author?

I’ve always liked middle-grade books that have a bit of a puzzle to them, where the story unfurls a little at a time.

One of my favorites growing up was Ellen Raskin’s The Westing Game, about a diverse group of characters in an apartment building who work in teams to win a rich man’s fortune.

I also loved the spooky Gothic mysteries that John Bellairs wrote, like The House with a Clock in Its Walls.

The House With a Clock In Its Walls (Lewis Barnavelt Book 1) by [John Bellairs, Edward Gorey]

My mom was an English teacher, and one year for Christmas she gave me a copy of Louis Sachar’s Holes. I was a grown-up—I had just finished grad school, in fact—but she thought I’d like it. She was right; I loved it!

Like those authors–and many more–I try to write books that have a whimsical sense of narrative complexity, with pieces that you can uncover and wrap your head around little by little.

Lessons Learned as an Author

That helps me understand what brought you to write this particular book. Can you tell me what you learned in the process?

I’d like to say that I learned how to write a book quickly and easily, but I am working on my second novel now, and I regret to inform you that it’s like a whole new process. Figuring out who the characters are and what their journey will be is a lot like meeting new people and exploring a new place, all from scratch.

However, I did learn that a huge, huge task—like writing a novel—is achievable if you just keep at it. There was a time when I was about 1/3 finished with Maybe There Are Witches and it felt like I might never finish. I’d write when I found the time, for a few hours a day, but what I’d finished seemed so small compared to what I had left to do. And then I’d put in another day of writing, and another, and eventually, I had a book. (And then of course I had to rework it into a second draft, and then a third—but you get the picture!)

Clara’s Journey

In your story, Clara is thirteen years old, and she’s moved more than once in the past few years. At the beginning of the book, she and her mother move from California to a very small village in Illinois, into a house they inherited from her grandmother. What was important about having Clara go to places she’d never been and work with people she didn’t know?

I think that as soon as we’re aware of other human beings, when we’re very, very young, we begin this journey of figuring out how to get to know other people. In some ways, this is how we get to know ourselves.

In my own life, I know that sometimes people I found off-putting or rude at first became some of my best friends, and I also have some very close friends now who have told me their first impression of me was that I was cold or detached. I wanted Clara to be going through this process, learning to understand some new people, while she’s also uncovering her own family history.

Puzzles

You’ve told us you like books with puzzles. The kids in your book go on a quest that involves some puzzling and deciphering. I bet you really like puzzles.

 

I do! I like all sorts of puzzles, especially word games. And I think a lot of reading and writing involves the elements of puzzles—of figuring out what something means, or figuring out which word fits in a particular place. Rhymes, puns, jokes, even telling someone about your day and trying to get the right tone—it all involves figuring out the right words that fit in the right place.

The past is a puzzle, too. Any time you want to understand something you weren’t present for, you’ve got to, basically, look for clues and evaluate the evidence. You can talk to people who were there, or read about history, or visit places where something happened. It’s all about finding the pieces to understand a mystery, when you think about it.

Dogs or Cats?

Finally, one question for fun—dogs or cats?

I should preface this by saying that I respect all animals. When I was growing up on the farm in Illinois, we had lots of pets. We had cats and dogs, tropical fish, a parakeet, a turtle, a lizard, and even a pet cow named Taffy.

That said, today my heart belongs to my dog Koko, a mixed-breed black-and-white rescue dog who weighs about twenty pounds. She is very smart, and very sleepy.

Learn more about Jude and his projects at:

Website: https://judeatwood.tv/
Twitter: @JudeAtwood
Instagram: @JudeAtwoodSketches
Facebook: facebook.com/JudeAtwoodSketches

Interested in reading more Spooky Fantasies, check out:

Greenglass House by Kate Milford

“An abundantly diverting mystery seasoned with mild fantasy and just a little steampunk.” – Kirkus

Thomas Creeper & the Gloomsbury Secret by J.R. Potter

“A delightfully dark story, hilariously and matter-of-factly morbid, that evokes a modern setting with a decidedly old-fashioned feel.” -Booklist

Freddie vs. the Family Curse by Tracy Badua

“A spirited fantasy enriched with Filipino culture and history.” – Kirkus

The Girl and the Ghost by Hanna Alkaf

“A Malaysian folk tale comes to life in this emotionally layered, chilling middle grade debut.” – HarperCollins

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

oraline by Neil Gaiman“A magnificently creepy fantasy pits a bright, bored little girl against a soul-eating horror that inhabits the reality right next door.” – Kirkus

If you’d like to learn more about writing spooky middle grade stories, check out this post.

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STEM Tuesday– Coding– Writing Tips & Resources

By on June 20, 2023   /   Coding, STEM Tuesday  

http://www.basicbook.org, GPL <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>, via Wikimedia Commons

05 REM I used to think of coding (programming, as we called it back in the day.) and writing as two separate things. Polar opposites.

10 REM Now, I’ve come to realize the two are not as different as they may appear. 

20 PRINT “If you want to learn more about my coding past, press “Y”.”

30 INPUT (N)

40 IF N = “Y” THEN GOTO 150 ELSE 50

50 REM Writing code and writing stories both involve accomplishing a goal through a series of operations.

60 REM To achieve one’s goal with writing, one uses language and word operations to convey ideas.

70 IF (THIS HAPPENS) THEN… 

80 REM The story flows and the plot develops.

90 REM To achieve a goal in coding, one uses a programming language’s set of operations to implement ideas in a functional manner.

95 PRINT “On a scale of 1 to 10, enter your level of excitement for writing like a coder.”

100 INPUT (X)

110 IF X >=1, THEN GOTO 200 

150 REM After my sophomore year, a huge change happened at my high school. The computer programming class moved from punch card programming to actual work on computer stations connected to the school district’s mainframe. Game on!

Pete Birkinshaw from Manchester, UK, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

160 REM BASIC programming was the name of the game back in the day. For some reason, unlike most of my family and friends, coding came naturally to me. The logic, oh the logic, drew me in like a tractor beam. I was hooked. 

170 REM Several years later, probably around 1984, I scraped enough money ($100!) from odd jobs and such to walk proudly into our local Dolgins store and purchase a Texas Instruments 99. I hooked it up to a blue, plastic 13” black and white television we had sitting around in the basement. I was in heaven. 

Ron Reuter, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en>, via Wikimedia Commons

180 REM My parents and siblings worried about my sanity, a 19-year-old sitting in the dark basement for hours, writing a primitive electronic football game or a program to show an animated smiley face graphic saying “Hello” over the 2” speaker and scaring the crap out of my mother as she walked by. Heaven.

190 REM Sometimes, one gets run through the wringer by siblings and friends for buying a freaking computer instead of spending that money on a real video game console, like ATARI or INTELLIVISION, that ordinary people actually want to play. When this happens, one learns to code simple, low-graphic games to show aforementioned siblings and friends that coding can be fun. A football simulator, PONG(!), craps, blackjack, etc. were all in the output of my TI99 and me. My friends and siblings, however, were not as impressed as I was.

195 GO TO 50

200 REM Coding also runs in a similar vein to writing in the aspect of trial and error. One simple mistake, a glitch in syntax or in logic, can stop a program or a paragraph dead in its tracks. Writers and coders both run into walls, fall off cliffs, or get lost at times. That’s when the true creator’s heart and soul kick in. Analyze, problem-solve, take a step back, and then try again. Instead of getting stuck in a loop, a coder or writer changes the subroutine, reformats, and changes the inputs to get better outputs.

210 REM There is a difference between writing and coding, though. In coding, a programming language allows many creators to communicate the story through that single voice of the code. In writing, the opposite is true. The writer uses the tools of language and individual experiences (see Creative Braining) to create their unique voice.

220 REM Finally, a friend recently told me that throughout high school, their child was intent on majoring in computer programming. However, once the student spent a year in programming classes at college, they changed majors. The student figured out that writing code for games was not nearly as fun as playing games. I laughed and said that sounded like the 20+ years I wanted to be a writer before I accepted it was hard work and found the discipline to actually sit down and write.

230 PRINT “Thanks for reading!”

240 END

Ron Reuter, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

My apologies to you, dear reader, for putting you through a rusty and mistake-ridden use of a 1980s version of BASIC programming for this STEM Tuesday Writing Craft & Resources post. Memory fades, as does the free time to go online and review the proper syntax of BASIC.

On a positive note, writing this post did trigger a desire to jump into contemporary programming languages and learn Python or another modern coding language. It also made me dig into the storage boxes to find one of the greatest coding-themed computer games ever written, The Island of Dr. Brain. When my kids were young, we would play Dr. Brain for hours and they had little to no idea they were learning how to think and manage like coders. They probably still don’t since their main memory is probably of Dad hogging the family PC while playing Dr. Brain “with” them.

 

Mike Hays has worked hard from a young age to be a well-rounded individual. A well-rounded, equal-opportunity sports enthusiast, that is. If they keep a score, he’ll either watch it, play it, or coach it. A molecular microbiologist by day, middle-grade author, sports coach, and general good citizen by night, he blogs about sports/training-related topics at  www.coachhays.com and writer stuff at  www.mikehaysbooks.com. Two of his science essays, The Science of Jurassic Park and Zombie Microbiology 101, are included in the Putting the Science in Fiction collection from Writer’s Digest Books. He can be found roaming around the Twitter-sphere under the guise of @coachhays64 and on Instagram at @mikehays64.

 

The O.O.L.F Files

This month’s version of the O.O.L.F.(Out of Left Field) Files explores

Steve’s Old Computer Museum (Warning! This site is a rabbit hole for computer nerds, especially us who sport more than a few gray hairs. I need to go in and see how many of these I’ve had the pleasure of working on.)

The Texas Instruments TI-99

BASIC, how I loved thee!

FORTRAN was, and still is, the language of science and mathematics.

Bill Gates Just Revealed The Best Programming Language for 2023!

Dr.Brain!

 

 

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