Posts Tagged middle grade books

Author Spotlight: Sandy Stark-McGinnis + a GIVEAWAY!

By on May 4, 2020   /   Author Interviews  

Like many modern friendships, mine with author Sandy Stark-McGinnis began on Twitter. The date was June 4, 2017, and Sandy was about to go on sub for her debut novel, EXTRAORDINARY BIRDS (Bloomsbury, 2019). We shared an agent at the time, and Sandy asked if I could share my insights into the submission process.

Three years later, Sandy and I are still exchanging messages on everything from our shared obsession with The Golden Girls, to our favorite wines (Sandy and I both enjoy reds, particularly Pinot). On a more serious note, when my dad was diagnosed Alzheimer’s disease, Sandy was there with love and support. Her dad suffered with Alzheimer’s as well, before passing away in 2010. This shared struggle brought us closer, and it gave me an even deeper respect for Sandy, and for her latest middle-grade novel, THE SPACE BETWEEN LOST AND FOUND (Bloomsbury, April 28, 2020)—a novel that features a parent’s struggle with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.

Described by School Library Connection as “…{a} beautifully told novel of family and friendship that is brimming with love and feelings,” THE SPACE BETWEEN LOST AND FOUND is available now from Bloomsbury Publishing. Here is a summary:

“Cassie’s always looked up to her mom, a vivacious woman with big ideas and a mischievous smile. Together they planned to check off every item on a big-dream bucket list, no matter how far the adventure would take them. But then Mom was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, and everything changed.

Now, Cassie tries to keep Mom happy, and to understand some of Dad’s restrictive new rules. She tries to focus on math lessons and struggles to come up with art ideas that used to just burst off her pen. When Mom’s memories started to fade, so did Cassie’s inspiration. And even worse, she’s accidentally pushed away Bailey, the one friend who could make it all okay.

After the worst Mom day yet, the day she forgets Cassie’s name, Cassie decides to take action. It’s time for one last adventure, even if it means lying and taking a big risk to get there.”

 

MR: Hi, Sandy. Before we start, I must tell you how deeply moved I was by your novel. It really hit home, because my dad—like yours—had Alzheimer’s. How did your experience with this disease provide insight into your characters, particularly Cassie’s mom? The dad? Cassie…?

SSM: Thank you! My experience with my dad was extremely influential and definitely defined the way I portrayed the characters, from the way my dad behaved at different stages of the disease, to how my mom coped on a day-to-day basis, to how we–my brothers, sister and I–processed and navigated our way through the slow but very real loss of the man we called “Dad.”

MR: As above, THE SPACE BETWEEN LOST AND FOUND focuses on a deeply personal topic. As you were writing and memories of your own experience with your dad’s Alzheimer’s surfaced, how did you keep your head above water emotionally? What advice would you give to other writers who choose to tackle emotionally difficult subjects?

SSM: I think the best way to go about facing any personal topics is to be in a place where those feelings are still strong but you can be objective about them, enough so you’re in the space (head and heart) of being able to portray characters and situations honestly. I think the hardest scene for me to write was when Cassie and her dad go to the assisted living facility to take a tour. I can still remember so vividly the day we took my dad to a facility. It was heartbreaking because his favorite place to be in the world was home, and to take him away from that, well… But, we (my family) knew it was what was best, because my mom could no longer take care of him.

MR: THE SPACE OF LOST AND FOUND is interspersed with flashbacks; the present day, and the years before Cassie’s mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. What was the purpose of using this stylistic device?

SSM: The use of flashback scenes was my editor, Allison Moore’s, idea. I think the purpose was to have a balance of emotion and to show what the family’s life was before the Alzheimer’s. I think the flashbacks also do a great job in establishing what Cassie and her father were saying goodbye to—the memories as a reminder of Kim’s (Cassie’s mom) energy and love for life.

MR: I know you’re familiar with the subject of Alzheimer’s Disease, but what kind of research did you have to do for this book? How did it affect your portrayal of Cassie’s mom? Of Cassie’s reactions to her mom’s disease?

SSM: Well, I mostly drew upon my experience with my dad. There are only a few ways early onset is different than other types of the disease. According to scientists, people who suffer from early onset have more of the brain changes that are linked to Alzheimer’s, and early onset is also linked to a defect in a certain part of a person’s DNA.

MR: Cassie’s mom, Kim, loves dolphins and swimming. I know you were a competitive swimmer back in the day (for 13 years!), but what’s the dolphin connection? Are you a dolphin lover, too?

SSM: In the story Kim’s best stroke was the butterfly, so I think I made the connection to dolphins that way. But I also found through research that dolphins have amazing memories. So, I thought someone’s love of dolphins and the fact they were suffering from Alzheimer’s was an interesting dynamic to explore.

MR: In addition to dealing with her mom’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis, Cassie is having friendship troubles with her ex-best friend, Bailey. Specifically, Cassie doesn’t feel able to talk to Bailey about her mom. As a teacher, what advice would you give to a middle-school student about talking to their friends about personally painful topics?

SSM: Friends can be a great support system. Sometimes when students are going through emotional issues at school, or at home, they just need a friend, or friends, to listen to them. But it’s also wise to have friends who will encourage you to reach out to an adult if you need help.

 

MR: As a teacher and a mom, I can only guess how hard it is for you to sneak in writing time. What’s your secret? Do you have a specific routine?

SSM: I do have a routine! I’m a morning person (thanks to getting up at four o’clock every morning in high school for swim practice), so I get up early to write. I usually set a goal—five hundred, a thousand words—and try to be as consistent with reaching that goal as I can.

What are you working on now, Sandy? Can you give us a teaser?

SSM: Right now, I’m working on a third middle-grade novel that’s based on something that happened to me—an experience that had a great impact on the way I see the world–when I was eight years old.

MR: And finally, since you and I are HUGE Golden Girls fans, I thought we’d finish this interview with—you guessed it, my friend—a GOLDEN GIRLS LIGHTENING ROUND! Are you game?

SSM: OH, YEAH!

Okay, here we go…

Dorothy, Blanche, Rose or Sophia? Rose.

Sicily or St. Olaf? St. Olaf.

Shady Pines or the Rusty Anchor? The Rusty Anchor.

Sophia’s lasagna or Rose’s beef tips on toast? I’m going with the lasagna.

Stanley Zbornak or Glenn O’Brien? Good ole Stanley.

Favorite guest star: George Clooney, Burt Reynolds, Sonny Bono, or Bob Hope? Burt Reynolds

“Johnny No Thumbs” or “Mr. Terrific”? Mr. Terrific!

Favorite episode? “Ladies of the Evening.”

It’s your birthday! Choose a gift: Rose’s piano-playing chicken, or “The Men of Blanche’s Boudoir” calendar? The chicken!

How do you like your cheesecake: Chocolate, or plain? Plain.

MR: Thanks for joining us on the Mixed-Up Files today, Sandy! I really loved your book and can’t wait to read the next one!

And now… a fabulous

GIVEAWAY!!!

Sandy has generously offered to gift a lucky reader with TWO autographed books; the paperback edition of EXTRAORDINARY BIRDS and a hardcover copy of THE SPACE BETWEEN LOST AND FOUND. Just comment on the blog for a chance to win!

SANDY STARK-McGINNIS was born in California. Early childhood dreams: Play quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams or work as a forest ranger. Instead, she became a teacher, a job she found deeply fulfilling. Currently, she teaches fifth grade, and is amazed and inspired by her students every day. She spends her time reading (of course), and traveling with her husband and two children. Sandy believes her thirteen years as a competitive swimmer trained her to have the discipline and perseverance to journey through a writing life. You can find Sandy at her website and follow her on Twitter and Instagram. 

 

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May New Releases

By on May 1, 2020   /   New Releases  

So . . . sudden homeschooling while working from home is exhausting, right? I know a lot of parents are in the same boat. Luckily, there are some fantastic middle grade new releases out this month to keep kids reading, thinking, and even cooking (and everyone staying sane)! Happy reading!

 

The One and Only Bob

by Katherine Applegate

HarperCollins (May 5, 2020)

Bob sets out on a dangerous journey in search of his long-lost sister with the help of his two best friends, Ivan and Ruby. As a hurricane approaches and time is running out, Bob finds courage he never knew he had and learns the true meaning of friendship and family.

Bob, Ivan, and Ruby have touched the hearts of millions of readers, and their story isn’t over yet. Catch up with these beloved friends before the star-studded film adaptation of The One and Only Ivan hits theaters in August 2020!

 

 

Becoming Brianna

By Terri Libenson

Balzer + Bray (May 5, 2020)

Middle school is full of challenges.

Everyone knows how much brainy Bri likes the spotlight (not). So why did she ever agree to something that forces her to learn a new language, give a speech, help organize a party, and juggle drama at school and home?! As the big event inches closer, Bri wonders if it’s all worth it. . . .

Told in alternating past and present chapters, Bri’s heartwarming story unfolds over the eight months leading up to her bat mitzvah—as well as over the course of the big day itself.

 

The Hive Queen (Wings of Fire, Book 12)

by Tui T. Sutherland 

Scholastic Press (May 5, 2020)

Growing up in the hives, Cricket has always had a million questions. Why are trees forbidden, even in art? Why do her parents seem to hate her? And the biggest, most dangerous and secret question of all: Why is Cricket immune to Queen Wasp’s powers? Whenever the queen takes control of all the HiveWings, speaking through their mouths and seeing through their eyes, Cricket has to hide, terrified of being discovered.

Now she’s hiding again, wanted for stealing the Book of Clearsight along with her new SilkWing friends, Blue and Swordtail, and the fierce LeafWing, Sundew. The fugitives need answers, and fast, in order to prevent a LeafWing attack. But Cricket has more questions than ever. How can she stay hidden and discover the queen’s deadliest secret? And if she does succeed — can a powerless dragonet really do anything to topple a regime and stop a war?

Iggy Peck and the Mysterious Mansion (The Questioneers)

by Andrea Beaty  

Amulet Books (May 12, 2020)

Iggy Peck is an architect at his very core: When he’s not making houses out of food, his head is up in the clouds, dreaming of design. So he’s totally blown away when Ada Twist’s Aunt Bernice inherits an old house from ice-cream mogul Herbert Sherbert that is filled with countless rooms from all his favorite architectural periods. But something’s not quite right . . . Everyone says the house is haunted, and it seems that a number of priceless antiques—which were supposed to help Aunt Bernice pay for the house’s upkeep—have gone missing. If they can’t find those antiques, Aunt Bernice might lose the house forever. It will take all of Iggy’s knowledge of architecture and the help of the other Questioneers—Rosie Revere, Ada Twist, and Sofia Valdez—to solve the mystery and find the treasure!

 

Chef Junior: 100 Super Delicious Recipes by Kids for Kids! 

by Anthony Spears, Abigail Langford, Paul Kimball, Katie Dessinger, and Will Bartlett

Sterling Epicure (May 19, 2020)

Cookbooks for kids often focus on bland “child-friendly” fare, but the authors of Chef Junior, five young cooks between the ages of 12 and 15, challenge that assumption. Instead, they present a repertoire of healthy, delicious, and inventive recipes that range from easy to advanced. Kids will love these dishes and drinks, including Tiramisu French Toast, Coconut Chicken Nuggets, Garden Fresh Pesto Pasta, Peach Cobbler, chocolate-y No-Bake Cookies, and Mango Lemonade, along with perennial favorites like mac ‘n’ cheese, hamburgers, pizza, and tacos. In addition, children will learn how to set up a working pantry and shop for healthy, high-quality ingredients; use kitchen tools (including knives) safely and skillfully; and create meal plans the whole family will enjoy.

 

 

Drawing on Walls: A Story of Keith Haring

By Matthew Burgess, Illustrated by Josh Cochran

Enchanted Lion Books (May 19, 2020)

From Matthew Burgess, the much-acclaimed author of Enormous Smallness, comes Drawing on Walls: A Story of Keith Haring. Often seen drawing in white chalk on the matte black paper of unused advertising space in the subway, Haring’s iconic pop art and graffiti-like style transformed the New York City underground in the 1980s. A member of the LGBTQ community, Haring died tragically at the age of thirty-one from AIDS-related complications. Illustrated in paint by Josh Cochran, himself a specialist in bright, dense, conceptual drawings, this honest, celebratory book honors Haring’s life and art, along with his very special connection with kids.

 

Machines That Think!: Big Ideas That Changed the World #2 

by Don Brown

Amulet Books (April 28, 2020)

Machines That Think! explores machines from ancient history to today that perform a multitude of tasks, from making mind-numbing calculations to working on assembly lines. Included are fascinating looks at the world’s earliest calculators, the birth of computer programming, and the arrival of smartphones. Contributors discussed include Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, Ada Lovelace, and Bill Gates. From the abacus to artificial intelligence, machines through the ages have pushed the boundaries of human capability and creativity. Back matter includes a timeline, endnotes, a bibliography, an author’s note, and an index.

 

 

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Re-Read-19: A Short Meditation on Re-Reading in the time of Coronavirus

By on April 27, 2020   /   Articles  

Bookhoarding: Early and Often

Growing up, a favorite Sunday afternoon outing was to the famed Children’s Bookstore in downtown Toronto. It was the 1980s, the heyday of the bookshop and of me and my siblings piling into the wood-panelled station wagon for squabbling as well as other more-intentional family activities.

A 1980 ad for The Children’s Bookstore in Toronto. Can you believe the talent it attracted!?

When it was time to leave the store my parents would first have to locate me hidden in one of the aisles, deep inside the pages of a book I hadn’t bought yet. I remember the pile of my selections and then their hefty weight in the bags as we walked back to the car. Being obliviously squished in the station wagon (for once unconcerned by who got to sit in the “backy-back”) while reading on the way home. Repeat this experience, perhaps on a different Sunday afternoon, at the Judaica store where I would stock up on Holocaust literature (which as the granddaughter of survivors I was obsessed with and is probably another blog post.) And the thrill of receiving the Scholastic mail order to my classroom. And every once in awhile my mother would bring home used books for me.

I am hard pressed to find any material objects from my childhood—my family moved many times and my mother is a ruthless de-clutterer. But I hereby publicly thank my mom for somehow holding on to my copy of Noel Streatfield’s Ballet Shoes—which she bought for me used and which I then made much use of myself, reading it over and over again; and which now exists in my own home library; and which I have now read twice out loud to various children; and which my eldest has read to herself countless times.

Edition of Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild (published in 1937, this edition in 1979) in our home library, except our cover has disintegrated.

Reading is… Re-reading?

What I loved most about reading was the chance to re-read the books I most loved. It was rare that I would read something only once. The fiendish gobbling down of a new book was also in preparation for the judgment of “is this worthy of re-reading?”

There are many pleasures of re-reading. Because the first read is to find out WHAT HAPPENS. And WHAT HAPPENS NEXT. And HOW DOES IT END. But when you read it again you aren’t flipping the pages compulsively to know all that: you already know it. So in the next reading and any subsequent ones, you are reading to enjoy in a different way—to meander on the path a little more, to take pleasure in the characters and language, to understand better what happens, to laugh at the funny parts like one does at a cult movie—the hilarity often being in knowing exactly what’s going to happen and what will be said, the pleasure in the anticipation and then in getting to experience it all over again. Or the heartbreak. Or the unfairness. The antagonist getting their just desserts. Indeed, the satisfaction of a satisfying ending.

Middle Grade and Re-reading

I now see this with my own children. Most young kids delight in making their parents and caregivers (and any other unsuspecting victims) read their favorite picture books over and over (and over) again. But once children learn to read they often delight in reading their favorite books to themselves over and over again. Usually the middle grade book I am reading out loud to my 9 and 11 year old sons, they will then read to themselves—sometimes reading ahead of where we are together, sometimes taking it to re-read afterward, sometimes both. They will read anything in graphic format, and our collection of Big Nates, Dogmans, Captain Underpants, Hazardous Tales, along with Raina Telgemeirs (both the memoirs and the Babysitter’s Clubs) and other coming-of-age graphic novels such as New Kid, Awkward, Roller-Girl or the beautiful Holocaust-introduction White Bird are thickened and dog-eared.

Agents and editors often say that they will only represent and acquire a manuscript they love enough to see themselves re-reading and re-reading and re-reading. One which will stand up to that amount of scrutiny. In which they love the characters enough to see them through their plot again and again and again. Fair enough!

But middle grade books seem particularly designed to be read over and over again. They are filled with emotion, empathy and adventure. They are where kids can learn about the world, themselves, and each other. And middle grade readers seem uniquely designed to be re-readers. They have the time, the curiosity, the intelligence and the emotional ability to connect deeply and expansively with books and stories that move them, engage them or even just make them giggle.

Bookshelf in my sons’ bedroom, examples of what gets lots of re-reading love.

I’ve written before about the unique pleasure of reading a childhood favorite again as an adult, and the relief of it standing the test of time. Like meeting up with an old friend and immediately connecting once again, the kinship felt both the same and different, and maybe even deeper. But as an adult, I find that it is rare for me to re-read something. I am inundated by what’s new and what’s next—it always feels like there’s something else I should be reading, I should have read already, that I need to consume. Or the book I bought as part of a haul from a bookstore visit suddenly doesn’t seem compelling at the exact moment I’m ready to start something new, but I hear of something else—on Twitter, a book review in the paper, something jogs my memory, a friend’s recommendation—that does and order it immediately.

Panic-buying books

When my kids’ schools announced they were closing six weeks ago, and threats of a lockdown were looming, I found myself not only stocking up on toilet paper and canned food, but on books. Bookstores would close, libraries too, and what if Amazon stopped delivering? It was (AND IS) so scary to think about getting sick, people dying, the uncertainty of anything beyond each day. And so—as a further manifestation of stockpiling mentality or as way of sidestepping the things too scary to contemplate— I panicked about how we would manage without something new to read. How would I nourish my soul in a lockdown? How would I nourish my children’s? It felt like it might be the difference between keeping sane and coping with whatever came our way, and not.

Small graces in a difficult time

Over these lockdown weeks, however, I have watched my older daughter, 14, work her way through the new books I bought her that had been piling up, unread for lack of time due to being a teenager (read: school, friends, Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, Netflix.) Now there is suddenly LOTS of time. And when she finished the new ones she started reaching in her bookshelf for all the old ones. The ones she loved when she was 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11. (12 being the beginning of her literary teenage wasteland.) In one of the many surprising twists of lockdown and life in the time of the new Coronavirus, this is one of the positive ones for me, and her.

My new TBRR (To Be Re-Read) pile. I’ve started with Possession by AS Byatt.

So I have taken the lead from my children and have started re-reading again as a general practice.

For now my pantry is (thank goodness) well-stocked – and I’ve realized that I have an even better-stocked home library. I have almost every book I’ve bought or been given since college. (Unless I’ve loaned it to you and you haven’t returned it. It’s ok, I don’t mind.)  From picture book to middle grade to adult fiction, non-fiction and plays, all genres are gamely and lovingly represented (Lonely Planet Ireland circa late 1990s anyone?) Not only is self-isolation and lockdown a chance to work my way through my TBR stack, but it is also a wonderful chance to re-read the books that pleased me as an adult. Or on the cusp of adulthood. Great works that deserve more careful reading. Or which I don’t think I understood as fully in my twenties as I might now.

Indeed, with each re-reading we understand something different. The words remain the same, but we—whether it is our age or our stage or our mental place—are different each time. What new knowledge, understanding, satisfaction and joy will each reading bring?

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