Have you ever read a book that exceeded your expectations? Great, isn’t it? I didn’t know quite what to expect from The Outsiders; I’d noticed it had a special placement in my library because it’s considered a classic, but I didn’t look twice. What got me bringing it home, was Patrick Swayze. Yup. Patrick Swayze.
After [...]
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It is often said that when the pupil is ready the teacher appears. I believe that said teacher can also be in the form of a book by an inspiring author. So in addition to whatever novel, picture books, etc. I am reading at any given time, I am also reading a book of a [...]
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In my search to learn more about writing on the middle grade level, I made a list of titles that have won Newbery Medals as the logical place to begin my education. As the ALA site does not break the titles down by MG or YA, some of the selections I made turned out to [...]
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Here’s the full title – Angus, thongs and full-frontal snogging – confessions of Georgia Nicolson by Louise Rennison. (Yeah – a tad too long for a post title!) My last trip to my local library had my very wonderful librarian, Jennifer, suggest a book to me in addition to my list of MG and YA titles. [...]
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There are times when I’ve finished a book, that I don’t quite know where to put it. In my head, that is. The book is so different from anything I’ve read, that it seems to be searching for a place to settle in my mental bookshelf, and meanwhile, it seems to hover in space.
Dogsong by [...]
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One of the things I love about reading Alice Hoffman is that I never know quite what to expect with the exception of one thing – I will be deeply moved by her story. I find Hoffman’s writing brilliant in her ability to take us so penetratingly into her characters, characters who are not heroes, [...]
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What happens when one of the picture books you’ve been working on evolves into a chapter book due to too much back-story? Then it’s recommended to be a middle grade novel because it’s getting too scary for a chapter book reader? One of the first things is to start reading more in that genre, so [...]
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How many sub-plots are too many? When are there too many POV’s? Too many characters?
Example - A suspense/mystery novel I just finished by an author new to me, The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter by Sharyn McCrumb, brought these questions up – and had me thinking about their relevance in children’s books. Particularly as we write stories [...]
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