Posts Tagged kidlit

THE SILVER BOX ~ An Enchantment Lake Mystery: Interview with Award-Winning Author Margi Preus

By on October 26, 2020   /   Author Interviews  

Welcome to my interview with Award-Winning Author, Speaker, and Educator Margi Preus! We’ll explore her latest release THE SILVER BOX: An Enchantment Lake Mystery – book 3 in the series. Margi’s stories hold breathtaking and bold journeys such as found in her books Heart Of A Samurai and Village Of Scoundrels.

The Book📚

THE SILVER BOX: An Enchantment Lake Mystery

The Silver Box ~ An Enchantment Lake Mystery

by Margi Preus

In the final Enchantment Lake mystery, Francie’s search for the truth about her mother—and herself—plunges her into danger during a North Woods winter.

Everything depends on a small, engraved silver box. If only Francie can follow its cryptic clues to the whereabouts of her missing mother she may finally understand the truth about who she really is. But one ominous clue after another reveal that Francie possesses something so rare and so valuable that some people are willing to do anything to get it. When her pursuit leads her into the snowy north woods, It is only to find out that she, herself, is being pursued.

BOOK 1 & BOOK 2

 

The Interview🎙️

It’s wonderful to have you join us here on the Mixed-Up Files, Margi. Let’s begin with your young self. What was she like? Did she enjoy reading? Writing? Was she adventurous?

Young Margi had the independence of Francie (the protagonist of The Silver Box) if not the bravery. As the last of six kids who spent summers at a lake cabin along with dozens of cousins, I had a prodigious amount of freedom and independence. I roamed around like a stray (mostly wet) dog all summer. So, yes, adventure was a big part of life. There was plenty of reading. I like to think I wrote, but I recently found my childhood diary, which is 99%empty, so probably not. However, I used to make up plays with my friends which we would perform for unsuspecting relatives.

Sounds like a wonderful childhood. It also gave you lots of material to write about, I’m sure. (Flannery O’Conner from your answer below😊)

Readers have watched Francie, your main character/modern-day sleuth, grow over the course of the previous two books in THE SILVER BOX Series. Why will young readers be drawn to her?

I imagine that Francie’s life of independence—kind of a more grown up, somewhat more serious Pippi Longstocking—would be appealing to kids. She lives on her own and makes her own decisions—not all of them good ones. She also gets herself into some hair-raising adventures. As a kid I would have been drawn to all of those things.

What do you hope readers learn from Francie’s journey?

I don’t presume to know what, if anything, readers will learn or gain from any of my books. I would be thrilled even if it is simply to have an enjoyable reading experience—one that makes them want to read more!

That would be a wonderful takeaway!

This series has been described as a great read for fans of Nancy Drew and those who enjoy cozy mysteries. What makes this series and THE SILVER BOX: An Enchantment Lake Mystery as its final book, unique? Were you sad to finish it?

I think the setting is one of the unique things about these stories, and it’s been fun to write a book set in a place I know so well, which is northern Minnesota lake country. And it’s been fun to live vicariously through Francie’s dangerous adventures. (Especially when you know she’s going to make it out somehow or other).

Haha! Yes, I’m sure.

It is always sad to leave a character you have grown to know and love. But she is graduating from high school now and it’s a little like sending a kid off to college.

A More Personal View🦋

Your books all have a sense of timelessness about them. How do you believe you accomplish this?

Thank you! And I have no idea! I do try to avoid slang for the most part, mainly because it’s impossible to stay current, but also because it does have a tendency to date a piece of writing. Our constantly changing technology is also a challenge. If you’re writing a story set in contemporary times, you have to acknowledge our ever-present phones, laptops, tablets, and other devices, but fortunately, there are plenty of places in the Enchantment Lake area where cell service is spotty—and of course the cold weather drains batteries rather quickly, so our heroes often have to solve their problems the old fashioned way: resourcefulness, bravery, quick-wittedness.

On your website, you mention being inspired by family members and their stories. Who have you used specifics of their stories and turned them into something unique for your characters and the world they live in?

I suppose most characters have some elements of people we know. None of my characters are direct one-to-one matches to anyone in particular, most are built of a combination of various traits and characteristics of people I know or imagine. I used to say that the somewhat loopy great aunts in the story were based on my own aunts and my mother—I have recently realized that, actually, maybe I am one of those dotty old aunts myself!

I’m sure you’re a wonderful aunt!

You had a lot of ‘odd’ jobs before you began writing for young readers. How have those experiences helped you become a writer and how can aspiring writers look to their current circumstances or situations and turn them into writing fuel and material?

Wasn’t Hemingway a big proponent of having a lot of experiences so you had something to write about? But then there was the genius Emily Dickinson who never went anywhere. And Flannery O’Connor famously said, “Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days.”

So, far be it from me to offer advice about whether to live large or stay home and write, but I personally am glad for all my experiences and my many very “odd” jobs. Although I don’t know that I have written specifically about any of my oddball work experiences, they have given me a wealth of experience, introduced me to a wide swath of humanity, and no doubt broadened my horizons.

This is such a wise and insightful answer. It’s really making me think.💡 Thank you!

What have been your biggest obstacles when a story idea came upon you and what have you found helped you the most in overcoming them?

The obstacles are familiar to all writers:  doubt that your idea, that what you’ve written, and that what you’re about to write has any merit. That challenge rears its head pretty much on a daily basis. The way forward is, as Robert Leckie advised, to “go up and shoot that old bear under the desk between the eyes.”

For Our Teachers and Authors🍎🏫🎒

What is your favorite aspect of in-person or virtual school visits and how can authors be more accessible to students? Do you have any favorite online platforms or activities you use during your visits?

Thanks for asking about virtual visits, which I have done through Skype and more recently Zoom and Crowdcast, but would use whatever platform the school or group is using. Of course I love the energy of being with a whole room or auditorium full of kids, but I am looking forward to doing more virtual—and interactive—visits. Some things I’ve done lately include creating a story together, and a virtual treasure hunt.

Ooh . . . creating a virtual story with students for your visit. Now that sounds like something students would love!

I am currently working on developing a game to accompany The Littlest Voyageur (Holiday House 2020) which would be great for any group reading that book or studying the fur trade. (Read-aloud chapters of The Littlest Voyageur are available on my YouTube channel.)  I am also planning a Zoom conversation with some of the people I interviewed for Village of Scoundrels (Amulet/Abrams, 2020) which I will record and make available as a resource to accompany that book or for holocaust studies. As for The Silver Box or any of the mysteries, I think it would be very fun to construct a mystery with students, which would give us a lot of opportunity to talk about story construction, building suspense, developing characters, and all kinds of other good stuff.  Of course, I am also available to talk about writing and my books in general

In this world that seems so upside-down, what reading and writing advice can you share with our teachers and librarians?

All I really want to say to teachers, librarians, and parents is thank you. Thank you for hanging in there and for taking care of the kids. Please take care of yourselves, too! We appreciate you. And if you really want some reading/writing advice, email me with your specific questions. Seriously.

💚💚💚

Inquiring minds are super excited to hear what they can expect next from you. Please share!

Thanks for asking! I have a couple of picture books in the pipeline. They won’t be out any time soon—but 2020, the pandemic year, was my year for books—I have three out this year: Village of Scoundrels, The Littlest Voyageur, and The Silver Box— thank you anyone for noticing!!

And thanks for taking this time to check in with me, Mixed Up Files!

Picture books . . . Yay! You have so much work releasing soon. So exciting! Thank you for sharing your wisdom and writing self with us. You are inspiring.

The Author

Margi Preus is a New York Times bestselling author of books for young readers, including the Newbery Honor–winning Heart of a Samurai.Author Margi Preus Among her other novels are Village of Scoundrels, Shadow on the Mountain, West of the Moon, and The Bamboo Sword, as well as the previous two books in the Enchantment Lake series, Enchantment Lake and The Clue in the Trees, which were published by the University of Minnesota Press and received the Midwest Book Award and the Midwest Booksellers Choice Award. She lives in Duluth.

Find Margi: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

Love learning about authors? Here’s a recent author interview in our MUF archive.

The Giveaway

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STEM Tuesday — Sustainable Living– Writing Tips & Resources

By on October 20, 2020   /   STEM Tuesday, Sustainable Living  

 

 

Aphoria, Brachylogia, Chriea: It Sounds Greek to me!

Ever since Aristotle, humans have been using rhetorical devices to strengthen their communication. Shakespeare used them. Modern movies use them. And, sneaky science writers use them, too!

Rhetoric is an art. Most frequently we think of rhetoric as speaking or writing for persuasive purposes, but it can also be used to inform. Rhetoric includes logic, motivation, and speaking techniques, plus it includes figures of rhetoric. Figures that fiddle with the structure of sentences. Figures that string words together in a striking way. Figures that focus the attention of the reader.

Nonfiction writers can use some of that.

Rhetorical figures or devices provide formulas that have been tested and tried since the time of the Ancient Greeks. There’s an entire alphabet of effective rhetorical devices out there. Today, we don’t have time to work our way all the way to Zeugma, but we can peak into this world of word wisdom by starting with “A.”

 

Alliteration:

the repetition of the same sound at the beginning of words that are in close proximity

When Shakespeare wrote The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra, he borrowed a paragraph almost word-for-word from Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans. Note that word “almost.” What change did the great bard make to this history that might have sounded a wee bit stodgy?

Alliteration.

“The barge she sat in like a burnished throne,

Burned on the water: the poop was beaten gold;

Purple the sales and so perfumed that. . .”

I bet you spotted all those b’s and a few p’s. Now, let’s look at how a modern book, We Are All Greta: Be Inspired by Greta  Thunberg to Save the World  by Valentina Gianella and illustrated by Manuela Marazzi, puts alliteration to work:

“My daughter’s school chat room has been buzzing since dawn: dozens of colorful cartoons have appeared, with slogans sent out by #FridaysForFuture sites. Today is the day of the great global student strike organized by Greta Thunberg. . .”

 

Try this: Replace every other alliterative word with a synonym. Re-read the passage. How did those changes affect the reading? Practice yourself by selecting a stodgy sentence from this blog and give it some bounce by adding alliteration.

 

Anaphora:

the repetition of entire words or phrases at the beginning of successive clauses

Anaphora adds rhythm. Anaphora adds cadence. Anaphora adds emotional pull to key content. The result is emphasis on a particular piece of text, often making it memorable. Is that something you’d like to do with your writing?

A tip for using this rhetorical device: use active sentences and use anaphora when you wish to emphasize the subject of the sentence.

Try this: Put your hand on the closest book to you. Select a line from that book, a subject in that book, or a character within that book as the starting place, and write something short using anaphora for emphasis.

 

Aphoria:

an expression of doubt or uncertainty

Adding uncertainty to your writing couldn’t be useful to science writers, could it? Aphoria provides the reader an opportunity to evaluate, analyze, or judge the situation for themselves. The doubt

expressed may be genuine, sincere, or feigned. If feigned, the effect may be to guide the reader towards a specific point. If sincere, the effect may be to convey humility. If genuine, the effect may be to encourage critical thinking in the reader’s mind.

Here’s an example of aphoria from Diet for a Changing Climate, by Christy Mihaly and Sue Heavenrich.

“Pulling weeds and invasive kudzu vines from the garden and . . . eating them?”

Try this: Decide if this doubt is genuine or feigned. What effect might this use of aphoria have on a reader? Can you think of more than one?

 

Assonance:

the repetition of internal vowel sounds

Can you ascertain the assonance in this passage from Jodi Wheeler-Toppen’s Recycled Science: Bring Out Your work Science Genius? Bonus points if you find alliteration as well.

“Test out a physics fact, and have a blast at the same time!”

Assonance can be put to good use creating a mood and rhythm within prose. Writers who pay attention to the sounds of letters can maximize the impact of a rhetorical device such as assonance. Consider how assonance affects the mood of “Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite.”

Try this: Search for assonance in another book and ferret out the effect on the mood of the text.

 

26 More Letters to Go!

One list of rhetorical figures includes 108 that begin with “A!” We will stop here, but you can dive into the rest of the alphabet with resources at the end of this post.

Figures of rhetoric can infuse your writing with passion and power. Now that you have easy-peazy formulas, you can just toss in some words and have a masterpiece, right? Maybe not. A gifted writer selects devices purposefully.

 

Try this: Flip through several books, and flag the use of rhetorical devices. Work your way through the book a second time, making note of the frequency per page or absence of these tools. Do you see any trends? When might it be wise to avoid using a rhetorical device?

When you’re ready to level up to the next challenge, compare the figures from several books. Try a textbook, a nonfiction book from a series, and a trade book on the same topic. What differences do you notice?

O.O.L.F. (Out of Left Field)

Resources in Rhetoric

The Elements of Eloquence: Secrets of the Perfect Turn of Phrase, Mark Forsyth

Literary Devices, a list of commonly used rhetorical devices with in-depth explanation and examples, https://literarydevices.net/

The Forest of Rhetoric, a more complete list of rhetorical devices with brief definitions, http://rhetoric.byu.edu/

 

Rhyme Zone, for help with alliteration, plug a word into the synonym search and then sort alphabetically, https://www.rhymezone.com/

Heather L. Montgomery enjoys finding a fun turn of phrase while writing about wild and wacky wildlife. You might even spot a few rhetorical devices in her recent nonfiction: Who Gives a Poop? Surprising Science from One End to the Other.

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STEM Tuesday — Sustainable Living– In the Classroom

By on October 13, 2020   /   STEM Tuesday, Sustainable Living  

Sustainable living protects the environment, and it’s something everyone can try. Here are the books I read that promote sustainable living, covering topics students can experiment with in their in-school classrooms or at-home ones.

Let’s Eat: Sustainable Food for a Hungry Planet by Kimberley Veness

Readers will take a look at the impact of pesticides, fertilizers, food chains, and commercial fishing on our food and environment.

 

The Nitty Gritty Gardening Book: Fun Projects For All Seasons by Kari Cornell, photographs by Jennifer S. Larson

Why rely on others for your fruits and veggies? This book provides readers with easy projects to jumpstart your own gardening.

 

Classroom activity: Try the fall and winter projects in the book, from growing an avocado plant from its seed to making an herb window box. Activities include detailed materials lists and instructions. Incorporate some science into the projects by asking students to record observations such as how much their plant grows in one week, or how different areas in their homes or classrooms affect the growth of their plants. Students will have some fun and tasty projects to try over the winter with this book.

Additional resource: National Garden Bureau, https://ngb.org/2020/03/25/kids-gardening-activities/

Recycled Science: Bring Out Your Science Genius with Soda Bottles, Potato Chip Bags, and More Unexpected Stuff by Tammy Enz and Jodi Wheeler-Toppen

This title shows you how to put your waste to work with ideas to recycle common household items and learn science while you are at it.

 

Classroom activity: Students can earn all kinds of interesting science concepts in this book through activities that recycle what is usually waste–like how wood can bend and how crystals form. Have students try any of the activities in this book. Encourage them to make a video demonstrating their end results, describing the recycled materials they used and the science behind what they created.

Additional resource: NASA Climate Kids, https://climatekids.nasa.gov/recycle-this/

 

Diet for a Changing Climate: Food for Thought by Christy Mihaly and Sue Heavenrich

Can we alter the way we eat to solve the problem of hunger in the world? Authors Mihaly and Heavenrich offer a compelling look at facing the global hunger crisis by eating weeds, wild plants, and bugs.

 

Classroom activity: Most kids (and not just picky eaters) may think eating weeds, wild plants, and bugs is gross, but as this book points out–doing so could really help our environment. Ask students to pick a bug or plant described in the book and create a commercial or poster listing its many benefits to humans and the environment. Ask them to do some further research to support their claims, and think of a meal or recipe their chosen food could be used in. In addition to this activity, students can try making one of the recipes in the book.

Additional resource: Time for Kids, https://www.timeforkids.com/g56/bug-business/

 

There are so many STEM-filled activities in each of these books and the others on this month’s book list. Students will have fun with the science and learn about sustainability with each one!

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