Posts Tagged contemporary realistic middle-grade fiction

You’ve Got Mail!

By on December 18, 2015   /   Book Lists, For Kids, For Writers, MUF Contributor Books, Publishing & Promotion, Writing  

One of the biggest highlights of being a writer is getting Fan Mail from kids. They are adorable, smart, enthusiastic, honest – and they LOVE BOOKS with deep, hard feelings.

Book Love

When I read these letters I can remember so vividly all the feelings and love for a particular book when I was that age. The emotional power a story gave me. The knowledge that someone out there knew my heart and mind. The feeling that I wasn’t alone in my weirdness.

I never got to meet a real, honest-to-goodness published author until I was almost thirty—and it was the amazing Newbery Winner Richard Peck—pretty darn cool for my first author in Real Life, eh?! Back when I was a kid I was waaaay too shy to ever think about writing to an author. This is also back in the days of snail mail and Authors were definitely up there on a pedestal. They weren’t ordinary people. They were Gods.

Receiving Fan Mail by email, my website, or through the post office brings home the impact books can have on kids all over again. It’s an honor to write for them as well as the child still inside me.

So here’s a smattering of fan mail I’ve received lately. Some funny, some heart-warming and one that kicked me in the teeth and made me bawl.

*******

Hi my name is Elyssa, and I’m a big fan of your book The Time of the Fireflies. I’m 10 years old. You are like my favorite author of all time. If you’re wondering I’m using my dad’s phone. I was going to send you a letter, but I didn’t know what address to send it to. How did you become an author? Please write back.

(I wrote her back and then received this):

It’s like I’m talking to a Super Hero! I still can’t believe that I’m talking to Kimberley Little!

(Wow, I just achieved Super Hero Status!)Time of the Fireflies_Cover

*******

I didn’t get any homework done because I spent 4 hours and 30 minutes reading The Healing Spell. It was so awesome. I love how you write the romance part where there’s only a little bit of it but it’s the best romance ever. I cried so much when T-Baby died.
Sincerely,
A huge fan impatiently waiting for a new book

*******

Dear Ms. Little,

I wanted to write to you to say that your book, When the Butterflies Came, is amazing. I have currently just finished reading it for the 4th time. Please don’t feel like you need to answer. I just wanted to tell you how great of an author you are.

(Of course I answer every single letter.)

When the Butterflies Came Cover Art from Erin*******

The Healing Spell is such a beautiful, book. I’ve read it 4 times now, and it’s always so beautiful and uplifting each time. I first bought this book when I was 10, now I’m 15. Thank you for this work of art! It never fails to bring tears to my eyes, it’s so hard to believe that it’s about an 11-year-old. Better than most books I’ve read, even as a teenager. One of my top 10, for sure 🙂

(It surprised me to hear this from a teenager about one of my MG books. I’m so glad she wrote, it truly made my whole day.)

*******

Dear Kimberley Little,
I have just finished your book Forbidden and I must tell you I was moved greatly. I loved your book so much. I felt everything with your main character Jayden. I cried and it is rare that a book can get to me in such a way. I’m a senior in high school, I am also a writer. I would like to know how you are able to express such emotion in your writing? How do you get your reads to feel that emotion? Please write back I understand you’re most likely busy. But it would mean the world to me.
Thank you, Cassie

(Emotion is definitely one of the hardest things to incorporate effectively as writers.)

*******

(The following letter came in 4 different emails, one right after the other. It made me laugh.)

Hi, my name is Deena and I read all 3 of your divine awesome books

I’m 9 years old and I’m in 4th grade

Please contact me back I have been trying for 2 months to get a Gmail and contact you I’m so happy I found how to contact you

I will go on my knees to beg you to message me back

(No begging needed!)

*******

Dear Ms. Little (what should I call you?),

I absolutely just love your books. I literally idolize you. I especially love Forbidden. I own both Forbidden and The Time of the Fireflies.

(Just call me American Idol)

*******

(This was an email exchange from a fan who wanted to know when Banished, Book 2 of my Harper trilogy was coming out.)

Hi I am a fan of your books I have read When the Butterflies Came { by the way amazing book super good!}

The Time of the Fireflies { also really good book!}

And I want to read Circle of Secrets.

And I have read Forbidden – amazing and this is why I am Emailing you because you should write another book continuing Forbidden because I need and want to know what happens next. Like what really happened to Kadesh and is Jayden really going to marry evil Horeb so I think you should write another book. Thank you sooo much. Your BIG fan Katie

BanishedHC_KGL (530x800)Me: After responding to her lovely words I told her that Banished would publish February 2, 2106.

Katie: Did you mean to say that it will get published in 2016 and not 2106?

Me: Yes, I’m going to let your great-grandchildren read my next book, Katie. Sorry, I couldn’t resist. 😉 Yep, you’re right 2016!! I was typing too fast!

Katie: Haha, really funny, you’ve a great sense of humor!

(Typos: All in a day’s work)

*******

(Final letter for today, the one that still pricks at my emotions.)

Dear Kimberley Griffiths Little,

Around two years ago my family experienced a traumatic occurrence. My half sister Sara was kicked by a horse and she was in a serious condition. When I first saw Sara while she was in the hospital, I felt as if I had been stabbed in the heart. It was extremely difficult for many reasons. When I read your book, The Healing Spell, it reminded me of Sara’s incident, and changed my perspective completely.

I many not have physically hurt Sara myself as Livie did to her mother, but I felt a similar feeling whenever I thought about her injury. Being her big sister, I always felt that it was my obligation to take care of her and keep her protected. I believed the only reason Sara was harmed was because I didn’t take the responsibility to watch her, to make she she did not get herself into trouble. I felt that the entire incident was my fault, just as Livie had blamed herself.

The Healing Spell paperback coverSara’s injury made me much more quiet, before I read your book that is. Livie kept her feelings to herself, knowing that . . . “deep down in the blackest part of my heart that I’d cause Mamma’s sleeping sickness.” I don’t have a “secret” like her, but I was still able to deeply connect with Livie, I didn’t want to share my true feelings about the event with anyone because I was afraid they would react negatively. I kept my emotions to myself, thinking that I was the guilty one, that I should be convicted. Then, I read The Healing Spell. The further I read the more my connections to Livie increased and I began to realize new things about my thoughts and actions from Sara’s accident. In the last section of the book, Livie comes to realize that accidents happen, and once I reached this segment, I, too, realized the same thing.

Your story caused me to comprehend the fact that the accident wasn’t my fault. The whole scenario was a complete accident, and no one meant for it to occur. I can now revisit the past and learn from the incident, and I never again need to think about how I am the one to blame. This has all come to be only because of your story, Ms. Little. The Healing Spell pulled me out of the dark, empty void I constantly felt I was floating through. I feel as if I can share my feelings any time now. I know that my family will not get upset, they will understand. Because of your book, I can maintain a higher self-confidence level, leaving behind the guilt that kept dragging me down.

Thank you.

Sincerely, Alayna

Alayna says that my book changed her life. Well, her letter definitely changed my life.

That’s the power of books.

 

Kimberley Griffiths Little has published 10 award-winning novels with Knopf, Scholastic, and Harpercollins. Her most recent MG, The Time of the Fireflies, was named a Bank Street College Best Books of 2015, a Whitney Award Finalist, a Letters of Mormon Arts Award Finalist, and was recently chosen for the William Allan White Kansas State Children’s Choice List for 2016-2017. 

Find Kimberley on Facebook. and Twitter @KimberleyGLittl. Teacher’s Guides, Mother/Daughter Book Club Guides, and fabulous book trailers filmed on location adorn Kimberley’s website.

 

Back to Top

Interview–and Giveaway–with Shelley Tougas

By on November 27, 2015   /   Author Interviews, Giveaways  

STougasMug7 (1)

Shelley Tougas writes fiction and nonfiction for tweens and teens. Shelley is a former journalist who also worked in public relations. Her award-winning book, Little Rock Girl 1957: How a Photograph Changed the Fight for Integration, landed on the top ten lists of Booklist and School Library Journal. Shelley lives near the Twin Cities.

little rock girl

Today, Shelley has joined us to talk about her new book, Finders Keepers (Roaring Brook Press 2015).

Christa spends every summer at the most awesome place in the whole world: her family’s cabin on Whitefish Lake in Wisconsin. Only her dad recently lost his job and her parents have decided to sell the cabin. But not if Christa can help it. Everyone knows Al Capone’s loot is hidden somewhere near Whitefish Lake, and her friend Alex’s cranky grandpa might have the key to finding it. Grandpa says the loot is gone, or worse -cursed – but Christa knows better. If she finds it, she can keep it and save her family and their beloved cabin.

Booklist gave it a starred review “A charming story of family history and personal connections (both lost and found) that is reminiscent of Blue Balliett and the Penderwicks‘ adventures.”

FindersKeepers_Cover1

Finders Keepers is your second novel, but you have ten published nonfiction books as well. How does your nonfiction inform your fiction writing?

I was a journalist for seven years, so my background is nonfiction. Working at a daily newspaper is a writer’s boot camp. Deadlines range from a week to a frantic thirty minutes. When you have limited space, you learn to treat every word like gold. Clarity and economy are essential. There’s only room for the most telling details and the best quotes. I learned about everything from police investigations to murder trials to elections to sewer systems. I met fascinating people, including a man who walked around the world, a barbed-wire collector, young men who canoed from Canada to the Amazon, a family who raised wolves, an anti-government militant who barricaded herself from the FBI for three months, and so much more.

I did a little Internet research on gangsters in Wisconsin’s Northwoods and was surprised at how many Chicago criminals spent time there. How much of the Al Capone content is fact and how much is legend? How much of it did you make up?

I invented the characters and their adventure, but everything about Capone is based on facts and legends. Capone didn’t use banks or accountants, so even historians and journalists believe he hid money or gave it to colleagues for safe keeping. His illness caused him to be delusional, so he wasn’t making rational decisions. In 1986, journalist and entertainer Geraldo Rivera had a live television special during which his crew used dynamite to blast open a vault of Capone’s. He thought he’d find Capone’s loot and maybe even human remains. IRS agents were there to collect Capone’s estimated $800,000 in unpaid taxes. Thirty million people watched him enter the vault where he discovered … nothing.

The setting in Finders Keepers felt very real to me, even though I’ve never been there. How did you do that?

Christa’s beloved cabin on Whitefish Lake is actually my parents’ real cabin on Whitefish Lake. The difference is my parents’ cabin is part of a group of cabins near a lakeside restaurant. Christa’s cabin is a standalone place near the Clarks’ home, which is also invented. The town of Hayward does have a popular candy store with a fudge lady, an ice cream store, and the National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame in the shape of a huge muskie. I think it’s safe to say there aren’t underground tunnels in town!

800px-HaywardMuskie-061-050507Photo credit: Bobak Ha’Eri

If there was one single thing that you wanted readers to get from Finders Keepers, what would it be?

Put down your electronics, unleash your imagination, and play outside. That’s a message for adults, too.

What other books do you recommend to readers who enjoyed Finders Keepers?

It’s a bit self-serving to suggest my debut novel The Graham Cracker Plot [recently released in paperback], but it’s also a funny adventure story. Two novels I always recommend: Savvy by Ingrid Law and Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage. I recently read Lisa Lewis Tyre’s novel Last in a Long Line of Rebels, which is also about kids seeking a hidden treasure, and I loved it.

GrahamPaperCover

What’s your favorite thing about middle-grade fiction (as a reader or a writer)?

Kids are hilarious, often without meaning to be funny. I’ve had more laugh-out-loud moments reading kid lit than adult work.

What advice do you have for someone who wants to write middle-grade fiction?

Spend a lot of time with kids. Listen to the way they talk and observe how they handle conflict and problems. Read your work out loud to kids and pay attention to their body language. If they’re staring out the window, you know you’ve got work to do. My daughter is my first editor. My early draft of The Graham Cracker Plot  opened with backstory. When I read it to my daughter, she said, “Mom, it’s really good. But when is the story going to start?” And she was right. In middle-grade novels, you need to invite the readers immediately. Most are impatient and won’t wade through a sluggish beginning.

Shelley has kindly offered to give away a copy of Finders Keepers. Leave a comment below by midnight on Monday, November 30 and the winner will be announced on Tuesday, December 1.

Jacqueline Houtman is the author of the middle-grade novel The Reinvention of Edison Thomas (Front Street/Boyds Mills Press 2010) and coauthor, with Walter Naegle and Michael G. Long, of the biography for young (and not-so-young) readers Bayard Rustin: The Invisible Activist (Quaker Press 2014).

Back to Top

Writing About Gender and Sexual Orientation for Middle Grade Readers

By on October 28, 2015   /   Author Interviews, Book Lists, Fiction, For Kids, For Librarians, For Parents, For Teachers, For Writers  

At BEA this year, all the buzz was about GEORGE, a middle-grade novel by Alex Gino with a transgendered protagonist. But GEORGE isn’t the only recent  middle-grade fiction with a transgender theme. There’s also GRACEFULLY GRAYSON by Ami Polonsky, a sweet and poignant story about a boy who knows he’s a girl. And next spring, Donna Gephart, well-known author of popular middle-grade titles (DEATH BY TOILET PAPER; OLIVIA BEAN, TRIVIA QUEEN) is coming out with LILY AND DUNKIN (Delacorte, May 2016).

Even five years ago, such books would never have been published by traditional publishing houses. But it seems that as our culture rapidly becomes more accepting of LGBT people and issues, there’s been an implicit acknowledgement that kidlit fiction–and not just books shelved in the YA section–should reflect this reality. When a book like Tim Federle’s BETTER NATE THAN EVER can become a mega-bestseller, I think it suggests that we’ve underestimated kids’ interest in, and need for, middle-grade books dealing with questions of sexual orientation and gender identity.

I’m currently writing STAR-CROSSED (S&S/Aladdin, Fall 2017), a middle-grade novel about a girl who develops a crush on another girl as they rehearse a middle school production of Romeo and Juliet.  It’s a departure for me; in my books I’ve always been careful not to push any boundaries. But I think that what GEORGE and NATE and GRAYSON have showed us is that middle-grade (or “tween”) fiction can explore themes of gender and sexuality in a way that feels authentic–and yet still remains age-appropriate.

So it’s been a great treat for me to chat with Donna Gephart, as she looks forward to next spring’s publication of LILY AND DUNKIN.

Why did you write this book now?

LILY AND DUNKIN  is a dual narrative of a big-hearted, nature-loving, word nerd transgender 13-year-old, Lily, and Dunkin, also 13, who has just moved to Lily’s neighborhood.  Dunkin is dealing with the move, an impossible secret and managing his bipolar disorder.  Somehow, this duo finds a way to help each other be their best, most authentic selves despite the obstacles they face.

When I began this book several years ago, it was a very different atmosphere when it came to talking about transgender issues as well as mental health issues.  Both were more taboo than they are today.  I decided to write the book despite that fact.  And because it takes a long time for a traditionally published book to come out, the tides have turned dramatically and thankfully, we’re having a more open national conversation about issues that must be addressed sensitively and compassionately.

Do you think standards for what’s “safe” in MG fiction are changing? 

I think the national conversation is changing.  When I wrote LILY AND DUNKIN, I needed to explain how Dunkin would have heard of the term “transgender.”  By the time I was revising it, I deleted that part.  Kids now have heard of the term “transgender.”  It’s my hope that with movies, TV shows and books featuring fully-realized transgender characters, everyone will understand more and fear less.  This tide of more exposure and more information can lead to much greater understanding and compassion.  And what safer way to share these characters than in the pages of a book?  It can be the starting point of meaningful discussions.  If a child has bonded with a transgender character or a character dealing with a mental illness in a novel, then when s/he meets a person like this in real life, s/he experiences recognition and a deeper understanding, instead of fear born from ignorance.

Do you expect resistance from adults who think of you as a “safe” MG author? 

I write with great respect for my young readers and I always tackle difficult subjects in my books — divorce, death of a parent, loneliness, bullying, etc.   Each of my novels has both the difficult and lighthearted, just like in life.  The topics in my upcoming novel are handled sensitively, accurately and with great love.  I’d be delighted to see it in the hands of many, many young readers because I think this book will make a difference in creating a climate of kindness.

How do we assure the gatekeepers that just because an MG book addresses certain topics, it’s still “wholesome”–and appropriate for all MG kids, even those who aren’t dealing with those particular issues?

Librarians and teachers are incredibly smart.  They want books in the hands of their students that will expand their minds and hearts and promote love and acceptance.  These are important kinds of books for all kids to read because we are all different in some way; it’s great to also notice the ways in which we’re similar:  We all need a feeling of belonging, of mattering and of being valued and loved.  That’s what my book is about.  And I can’t wait for it to make its way into the hands and minds and hearts of young readers.

Barbara Dee’s sixth middle-grade novel, TRUTH OR DARE, will be published by S&S/Aladdin in Fall, 2016. fall. STAR-CROSSED will be published by S&S/Aladdin in Fall, 2017.

Back to Top