Fiction

Our Mighty Girls (and a mighty giveaway, too)

By on May 19, 2017   /   Book Lists, Fiction, For Librarians, For Parents, For Teachers, For Writers, Giveaways, MUF Contributor Books, New Releases, Writing  

Last month fellow MUFer Sarah Aronson and I were happy to learn that a panel we proposed for this year’s National Council of Teachers of English (aka NCTE) was accepted. The topic is “Our Mighty Girls”, and we’ll be talking about how young middle grade series featuring strong female heroes can help build empathy and demonstrate peaceful problem-solving to all readers. Unless the conference’s organizers decide to give us a half a day or so, I’m afraid we’ll be hard pressed to say all we want!

Our two fellow panelists are:

Kate Hannigan, author of

Cousins Willow and Delia lead a diverse cast of characters who solve their challenges with smarts, humor, compassion and yes, sweets!

And Crystal Allen, author of

Mya, a true free spirit, longs to be a cowgirl. She meets issues of bullying, name-calling and miscommunication with enough spirit for ten kids and a heart big enough to both learn and forgive.

Sarah’s delightful new series  

debuts this month, and features a main character who knows what it’s like to work hard, be patient and never give up if you want to reach your goal.

The third book of my CODY series

is just out (more about that at the end of this post!)

Writing our proposal got us thinking about how many wonderful series there are for young middle graders, and how they pave the way for longer, more complex books without skimping on character development or rich themes.  Readers become long-term friends with these characters, and grow along with them. Two of my current-and-all-time-favorites are hilarious, heart-tugging “Clementine” by Sara Pennypacker and Marla Frazee, and droll, outside the box “Ivy and Bean” by Annie Barrows and Sophie Blackall.

And, to give away my age once and for all, here are three I loved when I was eight or nine:

Best friends forever and ever!

Who didn’t want to be Pippi? Or at least her friend?

Need I say more? That name has become synonymous with childhood.

Which are your favorites, old or new?

*********

I started writing my CODY books as a sort of antidote to my heavier-duty middle grade novels. I wanted to write funny. Simple. I wanted to stay in the light, away from the dark. But as I got to know Cody, a girl who feels empathy for everyone and everything (including skunks and Madagascar hissing cockroaches), I  realized it was going to be more complicated than I thought. Children feel things through and through. They feel joy in their toes, sorrow in their bellies, confusion prickling their skin. This might be truest of all for the younger middle grade reader.

So even when I’m writing about things that seems simple on the surface–a lost cat, a mean teacher, a first sleep-over, a big brother who’s sad–I try to honor how large they loom in Cody’s budding life. Funny and happy as she mostly is, Cody puzzles her way through all sorts of dilemmas. In the newest book, she learns what it means to wrestle with a conscience. Whew. It’s mighty hard.  But then, Cody is a mighty girl.

To celebrate  all the Mighty Girls, I’m giving away  a copy of the new CODY as well as the first two books, “Cody and the Fountain of Happiness” and “Cody and the Mysteries of the Universe”. Leave a comment below to enter. (U.S. readers only, please).

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Wet and Windy: Books about Boats and the Water

By on May 17, 2017   /   Book Lists, Fiction, For Librarians, MUF Contributor Books, Nonfiction  

“The owl and the pussycat went to sea in a beautiful pea green boat…” Ogden Nash

My husband and I have been rather fixated on boats lately; we’ve spent the past several weeks shopping for what is very likely our last step up, to a 30-foot sailboat. It’s not big as sailboats go, but it’s big to us.

Since we met more than 30 years ago, we’ve spent much of our time on or near the water, first in a homebuilt kayak he brought into the relationship, then a series of other small boats. About 14 years ago, he asked if he was being hasty by investing in a “real” sailboat. Hasty? You’ve got to be kidding. Just get the darned thing! He did. We’ve been enjoying real sailboats since.

There is something about the water. I grew up in arid central Oregon wandering the banks of rivers that became trickles in some places in summer. We lived six hours from the coast. When I was a middle grader, my family moved East, and I had my first view of an ocean.

It’s been a love affair ever since, between me and the water. When I met my husband, that love affair extended to boats.

It’s about more than transportation, as Ratty and Mole demonstrate in The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame. “Messing about in boats” is a lifestyle that for us includes wandering the docks of any coastal town we visit, from Greece to Monterey to Halifax. It also includes binoculars for spotting sea birds (and whales!), water shoes for tide-pooling, and every wildlife and plant guide we can carry.

Pacific Intertidal Life: A Guide to the Organisms of Rocky Reefs and Tidepools of the Pacific Coast, by Ron Russo and Pam Olhausen fits in a pocket. We also carry laminated sea bird and saltwater fish guides, the better to explore the many layers of the ecosystem around us.

And we read books about boats, about people who use the water as livelihood, about people who weather storms and find courage in facing the unknown.

My Dad introduced me to the allure of the sea-going story when I was 9 or 10 by sharing some of his childhood favorites, like Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson, and Captains Courageous, by Rudyard Kipling.

Over the years, I’ve found others as well, like Avi’s The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, a swashbuckling story of murder and the integrity of a young girl.

The Wanderer, by Sharon Creech, told through the travel logs of two young sailors, stuck with me a long time.

Boston Jane: An Adventure, the first in Jennifer Holm’s “Boston Jane” series, has the main character, refined young Jane Peck, traveling aboard ship from Philadelphia to a new life in the Northwest.

Our own Rosanne Parry’s Turn of the Tide delivers the excitement and magical allure of sailing as well as the dangers of ignoring the power of our environment. I was really taken with another water-related story line in this contemporary novel, and that was learning more about the Columbia River bar pilots who navigate this unique waterway in the United States. These professionals are trained specifically to navigate the Columbia’s treacherous bars and tricky currents.

Touch Blue, by Cynthia Lord, is an obvious choice, set as it is on an island. This gentle and heartwarming book is filled with the essence of what I love most about the water, and the special attachment one can form for living a life near it.

For older middle grade readers (or grownups), Clare Vanderpool’s Printz-Award winning Navigating Early is a beautiful read for just the right kid, and those who love archaic language and history might also enjoy Joshua Slocum’s Sailing Alone Around the World, a favorite among sailors everywhere.

My Mixed Up Files friends shared many other titles with me, and goodness, how my own TBR list has grown! Here are some they mentioned:

Windcatcher, by Avi

Beyond the Bright Sea, by Lauren Wolk

Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, by Gary D. Schmidt

Flutter, by Erin Moulton

Heart of a Samurai and The Bamboo Sword, by Margi Preus

I’ve got one on hold and the rest in my library wish list now.

Do you have a favorite book about sailing, boats, or the sea? I’d love to add even more to my list.

 

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Five Worlds Giveaway

By on May 2, 2017   /   Diversity, Fiction, For Kids, For Librarians, For Parents, For Teachers, Giveaways  

The Five Worlds are on the brink of extinction unless five ancient and mysterious beacons are lit. When war erupts, three unlikely heroes will discover there’s more to themselves—and more to their worlds—than meets the eye. . . .

  • The clumsiest student at the Sand Dancer Academy, Oona Lee is a fighter with a destiny bigger than she could ever imagine.
  • A boy from the poorest slums, An Tzu has a surprising gift and a knack for getting out of sticky situations.
  • Star athlete Jax Amboy is beloved by an entire galaxy, but what good is that when he has no real friends?

When these three kids are forced to team up on an epic quest, it will take not one, not two, but 5 WORLDS to contain all the magic and adventure!

About the authors:

MARK SIEGEL has written and illustrated several award-winning picture books and graphic novels, including the New York Times bestseller Sailor Twain, or the Mermaid in the Hudson. He is also the founder and editorial director of First Second Books.
ALEXIS SIEGEL is a writer and translator based in London, England. He has translated a number of bestselling graphic novels, including Joann Sfar’s The Rabbi’s Cat, Pénélope Bagleu’s Exquisite Corpse, and Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese (into French).
XANTHE BOUMA is an illustrator based in Southern California.
MATT ROCKEFELLER is an illustrator and comic book artist from Tucson, Arizona. His work has appeared in a variety of formats, including book covers, picture books, and animation.
BOYA SUN is an illustrator and co-author of the graphic novel Chasma Knights. Originally from China, Boya has traveled from Canada to the United States and now resides in the charming city of Baltimore.

To be eligible to win a copy of this first book in the new graphic novel series, please leave a comment below!

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