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Great Reads for Young Music Lovers

By on September 29, 2023   /   Articles  

Here are seven great reads for young music lovers, both fiction and nonfiction.  These books feature—in unusual ways— musical theatre, young players of instruments, and the great eras of the musical past You’ll encounter a wheelchair actor and a time-traveling jukebox.  You’ll also discover a life-changing family secret. A not-so-extinct tiger. Tales-out-of -school about the Beatles!

Just out from Abrams this month is THE CHANCE TO FLY, by Tony-Award winner Ali Stroker and acclaimed author and playwright Stacy Davidowitz.  Ali Stroker made history in 2019 as the first actor in a wheelchair to appear on Broadway. 13-year-old Nat Beacon, her  main character in the THE CHANCE TO FLY, also gets around with a wheelchair. Nat is obsessed with Broadway musicals. When her family moves from California to New Jersey, she auditions for a kids’ production of Wicked. She not only gets into the ensemble, but she gets to know the cute male lead. Then a week before opening night, things get really challenging! Kristin Chenoweth, Tony and Emmy Award-winning actress and singer,  says of this story: “The perfect read for any dream chaser . . . You’ll realize how unlimited your possibilities are.”

BROKEN STRINGS, by Canadian children’s writer Eric Walters, and Katy Kacer, award-winning writer of Holocaust fiction and nonfiction, (Puffin Canada, 2020).  It is a story about the power of music. Shirli Berman, the best singer in her Jr. High, auditions for the lead in their production of “Fiddler on the Roof.” She gets the part of the old Jewish mother instead. But she decides to make the best of it, so she rummages through her grandfather’s attic for props. She shows him an old violin she finds, and he becomes angrier than she has ever seen him be. Shirli is determined to find out the reason, and an old family secret comes to light.

JUKEBOX by Nidhi Chanani (First Second, 2021) is a time-bending magical family quest story. Shaheen’s father disappears, leaving behind only a mysterious juke box, some old vinyl records, and some notes on music history. When Shaheen and her cousin Tannaz try to figure things out, they turn to the jukebox, which begins to glow. It transports them back through to other eras of music, decade after decade. Will they find Shaheen’s father?

For some nonfiction time travel through the great eras of music, read TURN IT UP!: A PITCH-PERFECT HISTORY OF MUSIC THAT ROCKED THE WORLD (National Geographic Kids, 2019) It traces the origins of all genres of music, from tribal, to classical, to folk, to jazz and blues, to rock, to rap and hip hop. Other topics  include instruments, sounds, and styles.  There is a wonderful glossary of musical terms at the end.  (Not as ‘new’ as most other titles in this post, TURN IT UP! is a timeless treasure for young musicians and music lovers).

In Michelle Kadarusman’s MUSIC FOR TIGERS (Pajama Press, 2021), Louisa, a passionate young middle school violinist, has to go off for the summer to stay with eccentric Australian relatives. There she learns about a mysterious place called Convict Rock, a sanctuary  her great-grandmother set up for the supposedly extinct Tasmanian tigers.  Convict Rock is now under threat from a mining operation. The last tiger must be moved, but it hasn’t trusted any human since her great-grandmother. The more she learns, the more Louisa thinks her own music may be the key to saving the tiger.

Twelve-year-old Rose Brutigan and her twin brother Thomas couldn’t be more different. In GIANT PUMPKIN SUITE by Melanie Heusler Hill (Candlewick, 2021), serious-minded Rose focuses  on winning the upcoming Bach Cello Suites competition,  Her brother is just trying to grow a giant pumpkin in their neighbor’s yard. An accident causes Rose to reexamine her priorities and connect with the community.  Subplots abound in this well-told coming-of-age story.

THE BEATLES COULN’T READ MUSIC? is Dan Gutman’s latest in the series, WAIT? WHAT? (Norton Young Readers, 2023), illustrated by Allison Steinfeld. With Gutman’s famous madcap humor, the sibling narrators of this unique biography, Paige and Turner, reveal little known facts of the rock stars’ lives, from their childhoods through their years of world fame as a group. Both accurate and hilarious.

Apologies in advance if I’ve added to your already tottering must-read pile!

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Book Renovations

By on September 27, 2023   /   Articles  

My three little boys are very vigorous tub-takers. They jump, splash, stick things to the walls, and in some cases, tear those same things off the walls with enough force to pull tiles straight out of the mortar. To their credit, they began the repair work right away, and by the time they confessed to my wife and me, the tiles in question were expertly smooshed back into place.

our lovely bathroom in mid-edit

Anyone who lives in an old house knows that when something breaks, it’s usually just the beginning of a much larger project. In my case, the wall behind the tiles was damaged, so those tiles couldn’t be repaired, which meant other tiles had to come out, which meant the whole wall was coming out. I’m planning to petition my state senator to outlaw all toys with suction cups.

Around this time last year, I wrote an article about new beginnings and the editing process. I was redrafting the opening of my new book at the time, and I’m happy to say I’m now wrapping up what I hope is the last major round of revisions before that book goes out on submission. Between that process and the bathroom renovation, I’ve got edits on the brain again, and I honestly don’t think the two projects are all that different. Sometimes you start an edit thinking you’re just replacing a few tiles, only to find that there are issues that run deeper into the plot. Before you know it, you’re redrawing characters and reorganizing scenes, taking everything back down to the studs. 

In the world of home renovations, there are thousands of very helpful YouTube videos for this purpose (I’m shocked at the number of channels devoted entirely to tiling bathrooms). But editing a book is a lot more nuanced, and much more specific. No one can tell you exactly how to shift the tone of a scene and make it work better for your main character’s overall arch. 

Of course that doesn’t mean there aren’t resources available, so for this post I thought I’d share a few of my favorite books on the subject (and if you’re looking for tiling guidance, shoot me a message and I can probably help there, too).

 

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, by Renni Brown and Dave King

Hitting its 30th anniversary this year, this classic text is a highly engaging one-stop shop full of examples and non-examples (think features like “what’s wrong with this paragraph?”). Even if you’re not an avid writer, there’s something tantalizing about peeling back the curtain on famous books and getting at the heart of why they work (or in some cases why they don’t). The authors even cover complex and difficult to articulate topics like character voice and beats in dialogue.

 

The Plot Clock by Jamie Morris, Tia Levings, and Joyce Sweeney

Full disclosure — Joyce is my literary agent, but that’s not why I shamelessly promote this book whenever I get the chance. I’ve been through three novels with Joyce in the last three years, and each time, my first round of notes on the manuscript is an echo of the themes in this text — things like timing and setting up the third act. The plot of a story can feel like a monstrous, unapproachable thing, but this book reigns it in and gives writers a much-needed confidence boost, not unlike a friendly email from your favorite literary agent. 

 

The Magic Words by Cheryl B. Klein

Cheryl has been a kid lit authority for many years now, and she has had many roles in the writing and publishing world. What makes this book especially exciting for us middle grade folks is that her advice is tailored to writing for young audiences. Concepts like pacing are highly specific to the audience (most adolescent boys aren’t crazy about the slow-burning whodunit). Cheryl also covers very practical concepts like using other people as a lens on your characters and turning a situation into a story. It’s the sort of book you can open randomly and learn something, which I frequently do.

 

 

Hopefully by the time you’re reading this, I’ve finished renovating my bathroom walls. Maybe I’ve even finished editing my book and sent it off to Joyce. But of course there are more stories and more inevitable edits waiting around the bend, so these books will stay where they’ve been for the last few years — right in the corner of my writing desk. Maybe I’ll add a porcelain tile to the collection as a reminder that big or small, every fix brings me closer to a finished project.

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Author Interview with Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow

By on September 22, 2023   /   Articles, Author Interviews, Diversity, Fiction  
image of the author Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow
From the Mixed Up Files

Debut Author Interview with Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow on her Middle Grade novel GROUNDED

I’m so excited to be able to interview the talented author Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow on her book GROUNDED, co-authored by S.K. Ali, Aisha Saeed, and Huda Al-Marashi, and published by Abrams on May 9th of 2023.

Jamilah’s picture books are absolutely breathtaking, and I am delighted to say that so is her Middle Grade writing! I loved every bit of this spectacular Muslim book!

I encourage every teacher and librarian to stock this wonderful book on their shelves, and I am sure every reader will love reading this book about four Muslim kids stranded at the airport (and their adventures within).

a picture of book cover of Grounded, showing four muslim kids in an airport running after a cat

About GROUNDED:

Description taken from the publisher:

Four kids meet at an airport for one unforgettable night in this middle-grade novel by four bestselling and award-winning authors—Aisha Saeed, Huda Al-Marashi, Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow, and S. K. Ali.

When a thunderstorm grounds all flights following a huge Muslim convention, four unlikely kids are thrown together. Feek is stuck babysitting his younger sister, but he’d rather be writing a poem that’s good enough for his dad, a famous poet and rapper. Hanna is intent on finding a lost cat in the airport—and also on avoiding a conversation with her dad about him possibly remarrying. Sami is struggling with his anxiety and worried that he’ll miss the karate tournament that he’s trained so hard for. And Nora has to deal with the pressure of being the daughter of a prominent congresswoman, when all she really wants to do is make fun NokNok videos. These kids don’t seem to have much in common—yet.

Told in alternating points of view, Grounded tells the story of one unexpected night that will change these kids forever.

Interview with Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow:

I loved getting to talk to Jamilah about her book and I think you will enjoy meeting her and her character Feek as well!

SSS: What is the inspiration behind Grounded? And how did you and the other lovely authors decide to co-author this book?

JTB: The inspiration initially came from Aisha Saeed. While waiting in an airport, she imagined four unlikely kids meeting and bonding there. She liked the idea of having different Muslim voices in the narrative and invited me, Huda, and S.K. Ali to join on the project. We had all worked together previously on Once Upon an Eid. From there, our ideas for the book came from fun, collaborative conversations. Aisha came up with some broad strokes suggestions about who the characters might be and we each took a character and developed those ideas more fully and added in our own specifics.

SSS: So many important and wonderful themes in your book- and I have heard mention by the other authors on the importance of the inclusion of Muslim joy in particular – could you elaborate on which themes resonate the most for YOU, and what you hope will be the most impactful for young readers.

JTB: One theme that resonated most was the self-acceptance piece. A few of the Grounded characters are struggling with accepting who they are and have to work through that. That theme comes up a lot in many of my other books because I think it’s such a huge thing for young people and even for older people as we make it through life. Another was about the difficulty of voicing our emotional needs. Kids need to learn how to advocate for themselves and I love how we built in moments where that is explicitly talked about amongst the characters.

SSS: The character of Feek is so adorable and I wanted to reach through the pages and hug him! How did you develop his characters?

JTB: Awww, thank you! Feek is a combination of a lot of preteen and teen boys I’ve seen who are trying to put on a tough and cool exterior when really they are softies inside. I’ve worked with a lot of Black boys in my career in that age group (not to mention having two sons), and it’s always struck me how fragile, sensitive, and multifaceted they can be in spite of the ways the world perceives them. I’m also interested in the challenges of performing masculinity as a young boy. I wanted to explore those things with Feek’s character. Additionally, I thought about the spoken word component of many Muslim conferences and was inspired to somehow add that into the book. As I was writing Feek’s character, he often spoke to me in rhyme and made it clear to me he was a lyricist dying to get out.

SSS: Diverse books are so important (and a passion of mine!). How does being both Black and Muslim affect your writing? (BTW we need MORE!)

JTB: I definitely agree we need more. I write my experience. Period. That can be hard when the expectation seems to be to erase either my Muslimness or Blackness in books. But I stick to writing my experience as unapologetically as I can.

SSS: Will there be more Middle Grade books from you in the future? (Please say YES!)

JTB: Yes! Although nothing is ready to be announced.

SSS: ****Excited Squeal***

Link to preorder Grounded here.

Writing Process

SSS: How long did it take to write Grounded? Do you find it a more difficult process to write Picture Books or Middle Grade books?

JTB: It was definitely over a year of time. Maybe closer to two years. Because it was a group effort, we had to meet to discuss each of our chapters and ensure the book seamlessly connected.

I feel like Middle Grade is challenging in different ways. I need to pull in so many elements to make a book feel complete. With Picture Books, I’m cutting out elements to make a book feel whole. A book feels complete when it’s concise and focused. A Middle Grade is the same in needing to be focused but there are so many elements in terms of the character arcs and plot to bring into that focus. It’s expansive and narrow, which makes it hard.

SSS: How was it to co-write a book where three other authors have distinct voices for their own three characters as well?

JTB: Co-writing was challenging but also a lot of fun. It requires a lot of communication. It helped that we had previously established friendships with each other and got along. The fun is in seeing what the other authors are doing with their characters and falling in love with these other voices. I also loved working out conflicts and creating bonds between these characters and Feek.

Bonus!

SSS: Bonus FUN question! Taking care of animals and finding a lost cat is a huge unifying factor in the book for the characters- Are you an animal lover in real life?

JTB: I do love animals! Especially cats. I don’t currently have any pets due to life circumstances but I watch cute animal videos for fun and am a member of too many Facebook cat groups.

If you liked this interview, check out this link to an article honoring Arab-American books!

Thank you so much Jamilah for answering my questions! I hope everyone picks up a copy of all your beautiful books!!

About Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow

image of Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow

Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow is a Philadelphia-based bestselling children’s book author. Her books, which center around Black and Muslim kids, have been recognized by many, including TIME and NPR, and she is an Irma Black Award silver medalist. A former teacher and forever an educator-at-heart, she is probably most proud that her picture book Your Name Is a Song was named the December 2021 NEA Read Across America book and that it is included in the curriculums of major school districts throughout the United States.

You can find Jamilah on Social Media!

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Twitter

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Website

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