Danika Dinsmore

Storyteller

Middle Grade Mondays

(formerly The Accidental Novelist) Middle Grade Monday Sound Off

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(Some subscribers might not recognize my new blog title when posts drop into their inboxes, so I may have to keep letting readers know it’s still me! I’m just feeling less accidental these days)

I do not have an MGM post today. Not due to Thanksgiving, but due to my husband’s 50th birthday. And I’m not so much recovering as pining for the beachfront view we just left in Gibsons, a lovely town on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast, where we spent 3 days staring at the water.

Also, I’ve been reading very little MG/YA fiction lately. I’ve switched over to poetry and more literary adult / speculative fiction for a while. I wanted to get back to my roots and also expand my insight, vocabulary, and creative toolbox. Maybe it’s a bit like being a mother who spends all her time with her young children and craves a little adult conversation. (Finished Cloud Atlas and right now I am with China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station – both of which will challenge you if that’s what you’re looking for. And increase your vocabulary.)

And in case you are looking for you Middle Grade fiction fix, here are those bloggers who did post today:

-Barbara Watson reviews KEEPER OF THE LOST CITIES.  HERE

– Sue Heavenrich joins MMGM with a feature on DON’T FEED THE BOY. Click HERE.

– Dorine White on THE COLOR OF BONES. Click HERE to see what she thought.

– Brennan & Meyrick Murphy on THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET. Click HERE to see what these two middle grader’s thought.
– Andrea Mack on FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX. Click HERE to learn why she thinks its worth a read
– Flash, the Feline Extraordinaire, (and Professional Mews to Cindy Strandvold) recommends KATERINA’S WISH. Click HERE .
– Susan Olson has some LINKS ABOUT DYSLEXIA. Click HERE to see what that’s all about.
– Laurisa Reyes has an interview with  Hans Bauer and Catherine Masicola–plus a GIVEAWAY of FISHTALE! Click HERE for details.
– Click HERE to see The Mundie Moms newest recommendations.
– Shannon O’Donnell always has an MMGM ready. Click HERE to see what she’s featuring this week.
– Karen Yingling also has some MMGM recommend-ations for you. Click HERE to which ones she picked.
– Pam Torres is good for an MMGM post. Click HERE to see what she’s spotlighting this week.
-Click HERE to see what Michelle Isenhoff is talking about today.
– Joanne Fritz’s post can be found HERE.
Author Shannon Whitney Messenger hosts Middle Grade Monday’s every week.
If you would like to join in the MMGM fun, all you have to do is blog about a middle grade book you love (contests, author interviews and whatnot also count–but are most definitely not required) and email Shannon Whitney Messenger the title of the book you’re featuring and a link to your blog at SWMessenger (at) hotmail (dot) com. (Make sure you put MMGM or Marvelous Middle Grade Monday in the subject line)
DEADLINE to be listed on Shannon’s site on Monday morning is 11 pm EST on SUNDAY night. If you miss the deadline, you can always add your link in the comment section.

Middle Grade Monday: Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt

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I adored this book.

It’s the late 60’s and humankind is about to take the first step on the moon. But this isn’t having much impression on one fourteen-year-old who just moved to “stupid Marysville.”

from Amazon:

So begins a coming-of-age masterwork, equal parts comedy and tragedy, from Newbery Honor winner Gary D. Schmidt. As Doug struggles to be more than the “skinny thug” that his teachers and the police think him to be, he finds an unlikely ally in Lil Spicer—a fiery young lady who “smelled like daisies would smell if they were growing in a big field under a clearing sky after a rain.” In Lil, Doug finds the strength to endure an abusive father, the suspicions of a whole town, and the return of his oldest brother, forever scarred, from Vietnam. Together, they find a safe haven in the local library and inspiration in learning about the plates of John James Audubon’s birds. Schmidt expertly weaves multiple themes of loss and recovery in a story teeming with unusual characters and invaluable lessons about love, creativity, and survival.

Yes, the odds are stacked against Doug Swietek. Most of the Marysville townspeople immediately decide that he and his brother are “thugs,” but their exterior demeanor is simply a survival mechanism from living with the regular verbal and physical abuse from their father. Doug finds little solace at home as his brother is following in his father’s footsteps, and his timid mother is simply trying to keep the household together.

But in this town is a library (open only on Saturdays), and in this library is something that changes Doug’s life forever: a book about birds, an Audubon original. Not only is he mesmerized by the illustrations of the birds, he reads the details of the drawings as stories he imagines they tell. Schmidt uses Doug’s voice to narrate his growing comprehension of the art, a combination of imagination and hope, that he extends to his outside world.

We see this change in Doug, his struggle to be a good person, but others don’t. And there were moments I wanted to reach into the book and throttle the adults who fed into his negative image of himself, that he was just a “chump.” But then, there are those adults who decide to give him a chance: his science teacher who tells him he’s not his brother (who has fallen in with the wrong crowd and is accused of burglary), the deli owner who gives him a job delivering food to a cast of characters who are slowly won over to Doug’s side, and most of all Mr. Powell who works at the library and teaches him how to draw . . . It makes one realizes how even small gestures, positive or negative, can make a difference in a child’s world.

(Of course I can’t forget the influence of a stubborn young girl named Lily, the deli owner’s daughter, who manages to see the good in him as well.)

When Doug makes it his mission to find and return all the missing plates from a valuable Audubon book, it gives his life purpose and direction when he could have easily slipped into a life of self-destruction. Yes, this book is about a boy who comes from an abusive home, but at the same time, there is humour here. There is redemption and love here. It’s not all tied up in a pink pretty ribbon, but I found the results very satisfying.

As well, Schmidt does an amazing job of making us see and feel abusive behaviour, but with little vulgarity or graphic violence. He does this through his narrator. Doug will say something like, “My dad’s hands moved really fast . . .” or “Well, you know what my Dad had to say about that.” So that the violence and swearing are left to our own imagination. There’s a few “freaking” this or that sprinkled in his father’s conversation, but I never got the sense of being inundated with it.  Schmidt has created a book that can live solidly on the middle grade shelves, where younger kids who need to find this book will.

I love the struggle between the two sides of this kid, trying to act tough and cool and uncaring, but his artistic, generous side, the side of him aching for approval, keeps on in spite of what his father and bully brothers have drilled into him. He just decides he’s going to prove himself no matter what. And it’s the discovery of his artistic side, of his ability to appreciate the beauty of Audubon’s work, that gives him this confidence. (Well, that and the attentions of a stubborn, and cute, girl. Did I mention that she’s cute?)

She came over and looked at the picture. Then she took my hand. You know what that feels like? Like what the astronauts will feel when they step onto the moon for the very first time. Like what might happen if Coach Reed rang the doorbell at The Dump some afternoon and sat down next to Lucas. Like knowing that Principal Peattie is wrong about what he said. Like laying a missing bird picture back where it’s supposed to be. Like someone seeing what a chump you are and getting you a cold Coke anyway. Like Possibility.

For MORE Middle Grade Monday posts visit Shannon Whitney Messinger

Middle Grade Monday: The Ruins of Noe!

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Yes, I’m blogging about my own book today, darnit! 🙂

I figured it was appropriate since today is the first day of my Imaginary Worlds Fall Tour in conjunction with the release of The Ruins of Noe. The book was actually published in May, but I had to postpone the tour for scheduling reasons.

In The Ruins of Noe, Brigitta’s adventures continue when she and her High Priestess travel to the old faerie ruins in the Valley of Noe, expecting to find them deserted. The Ancients had brought all the faeries north after the Great World Cry and placed them in the protected realm, after all. But when Brigitta and Ondelle arrive, they discover two warring factions of oppressed faeries they had never been told about. After Ondelle is captured, Brigitta must figure out who she can trust, so she can figure out a way to save her high priestess and get back home.

There are some reviews on GoodReads if you want to check them out.

My tour (yay) revolves around several school visits, a writer’s conference, and a book festival. I only have one public reading, though, and it’s at Kepler’s in Menlo Park, CA. So, if you live in the Bay Area, holy cow, that would be awesome to meet you.

Friday, October 26
7 pm
Book Party (reading, drinks/snacks, activities and door prizes!)

Kepler’s Books and Magazines
1010 El Camino Real
Menlo Park, CA

Facebook Event Listing

I am so, so, so in love with this store and its staff. And I haven’t even met them yet. This store was SAVED by its community when it was about to go out of business. The community raised the money to save it and made commitments to shop there regularly.

Have a great week!

Danika

Middle Grade Mondays: a Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

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A MONSTER CALLS was written from an original idea by author Siobhan Dowd who started the story and died of cancer before she could write it. An editor at Walker Books contacted Ness to write the book after she died. That right there should tell you something about the nature of this book.

from GoodReads:

The monster showed up after midnight. As they do.

But it isn’t the monster Conor’s been expecting. He’s been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he’s had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming…

This monster is something different, though. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor.

It wants the truth

I don’t know if one could get through this book without having some sort of emotional response, especially if the reader has ever lost a loved one. This book triggers all those feelings one has as the loved one slips away. That helplessness, that anger.

I don’t know that this book is for every child. The language is that of a middle grade novel, but it deals with complex, real life, issues. It is a serious story about a boy whose mother is dying of cancer (this is not a spoiler). There are no harps and roses. The real monsters in this book, are the kind we will eventually have to deal with in real life.

This is not to say that I think kids shouldn’t read about serious issues (see Wonder and Mockingbird). I’m just saying take into consideration the sensitivity and maturity of the child (especially if he or she has recently lost a loved one). Then again, kids can surprise us by how much they can handle.

Yes, there is a monster in this book (a yew tree that turns into a giant), but Connor is not frightened by this monster, he’s frightened of the monster within him. The story is really about how our feelings of guilt and anger can eat us up, how we are our own worst enemies sometimes, and how we need to forgive ourselves.

The main character has anger issues, and rightly so, but in the story he does a few things so heinous, that I found myself wishing them undone. There is nothing offensive or graphic in the story, but it still may disturb some children. On the other hand, it could be used as a great healing tool for both children and adults.

I’ve seen some label this as fantasy and some label it as horror. I don’t think either label quite does the job. When the monster calls, he tells Conor three stories that come across as fairy tales, but they each have twisted and complex endings that don’t make sense in the world of right and wrong that children live in. That’s something they will eventually learn; that in life, sometimes there are no clean answers.

The artwork, by Jim Kay, is dark and disturbing, and complements the tone of the book.

Click for Jim Kay’s A Monster Calls artwork

NOTE: I realized later that I didn’t state whether I enjoyed the book or not! I thought it was engaging, thought-provoking, and well-conceived..

For more Middle Grade Mondays, visit Shannon Messenger’s blog.

Middle Grade Mondays: Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu

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Every culture has its rules of storytelling. Books that are more “literary” often break those rules, which either serves to irk readers or intrigue and impress them. Cloud Atlas, for instance, caused a flurry of commentary when it ended chapters in the middle of a

We don’t often expect middle grade literature to break the “rules,” we expect it to be linear and simple enough to be understood by children. BREADCRUMBS, a beautifully written book by Anne Ursu, not only breaks a few rules, the journey has so many layers I’m beginning to think this is really a story for adults in the guise of a fairy tale for children. At the very least, it’s a book for highly literate children, as it has so many nods to other books (Narnia, Coraline, Harry Potter, and When You Reach Me) to name a few.

From GoodReads

Once upon a time, Hazel and Jack were best friends. They had been best friends since they were six, spending hot Minneapolis summers and cold Minneapolis winters together, dreaming of Hogwarts and Oz, superheroes and baseball. Now that they were eleven, it was weird for a boy and a girl to be best friends. But they couldn’t help it – Hazel and Jack fit, in that way you only read about in books. And they didn’t fit anywhere else.

And then, one day, it was over. Jack just stopped talking to Hazel. And while her mom tried to tell her that this sometimes happens to boys and girls at this age, Hazel had read enough stories to know that it’s never that simple. And it turns out, she was right. Jack’s heart had been frozen, and he was taken into the woods by a woman dressed in white to live in a palace made of ice. Now, it’s up to Hazel to venture into the woods after him. Hazel finds, however, that these woods are nothing like what she’s read about, and the Jack that Hazel went in to save isn’t the same Jack that will emerge. Or even the same Hazel.

When I was young I used to read fairy tales of the Hans Christian Anderson type. Breadcrumbs reminds me very much of those fairy tales, but grown up, more sophisticated. I have a vague recollection of what Anderson’s Snow Queen was like (Ursu was inspired by it), but you don’t have to know that story to enjoy this one.

The book reads like “literary fiction” for the first half of the book and fantasy for the second. But, like an old-school fairy tale, there’s no wizard-on-wizard action or fey coming out of the woodwork. It’s much quieter than that. As a matter of fact, as I was reading it, I never saw it as fantasy. I saw it as allegory. Because Hazel is introduced as such an imaginative child, I read her outward journey as her inward journey.

There is a great deal of loss in this book and there’s no tidy answer in the end. Sometimes we grow up and we grow apart and it’s never going to be the same again. This is how it is for Hazel and Jack, and it’s a hard lesson to learn for a lonely, artistic girl who doesn’t fit in.

Hazel is adopted (she’s from India and her parents are unspecified Caucasian), and is in the fifth grade in the midst of changes that are both typical for one her age and personal in respect to her own family situation. Her parents are recently divorced, and she is nearly abandoned by her father, who is across the country and about to get remarried. Her mother is struggling financially, which necessitates a change in schools, from a private school for creative children to a rule-bound public one. The only thing she likes about it is that her best friend Jack goes there. But we all know how boy-girl friendships change at that age. The fairy tale aspect of this book explains away how a boy could possibly change his attitude toward his best friend, a girl, seemingly overnight.

The POV shifts at times, which didn’t take me out of the story like it did for some. For the most part, it is from Hazel’s limited perspective. But it is also sometimes told through Jack’s POV, and sometimes the narrator actually speaks to the reader and opens up a slightly larger view of the magical happenings behind the scenes.

The climax is more quiet than your standard fantasy, in the way the ending to Stardust, by Neil Gaiman, is quiet (when they turned it into a movie they had to excitementize the climax so as not to disappoint the masses). It’s not a “loud” book, so I think a battle of some sort would have definitely felt wrong. The story ends a bit abruptly, in that grey area where loss meets new understanding. It’s not an uhappy ending; it’s happy because Hazel manages to navigate the challenges before her, but it’s inconclusive.

No, Hazel and Jack will not be able to return to their previous friendship. They will struggle through that loss, and find love and loss with other people as they grow up, which is one of the tragedies of growing up. And life goes on.

The vocabulary in Breadcrumbs is rich and challenging for the discerning 10 year old. There will be concepts beyond the mental grasp of young ones, but to me this only serves to keep the book timeless while those readers grow up and enjoy it with new insight.

Middle Grade Monday: Wonder by R.J. Palacio

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I adore this book for many reasons. I don’t believe i’ve ever cried so much reading a middle grade novel. Yes, I’m a big softie, but I dare you to get through this thing without at least two tissues.

from Goodreads:

August (Auggie) Pullman was born with a facial deformity that prevented him from going to a mainstream school—until now. He’s about to start 5th grade at Beecher Prep, and if you’ve ever been the new kid then you know how hard that can be. The thing is Auggie’s just an ordinary kid, with an extraordinary face. But can he convince his new classmates that he’s just like them, despite appearances?

When I first heard about this book, I was wondering how the author was going to pull it off without making the story too “After School Special.” She manages beautifully.

Told in multiple perspectives that bring a depth and authenticity to the work, it’s still completely accessible and family-friendly, with no violence or vulgarity. If I were an elementary school teacher, I’d use this book in the classroom to discuss everything from feeling different to bullying.

You have to understand, that it’s not the extreme facial deformity that kept Augie out of school. In his 10 years, he’s had 24 reconstructive surgeries, and for the first time there’s a long break from them, allowing him to attend a public school. He is small for his age as well and was not expected to live.

We start from Augie’s POV as he’s about to enter 5th grade. We then get pieces of the story told by his sister, two of his school friends (one who breaks his heart), his sister’s boyfriend, and his sister’s best friend. I love the chapters by Augie’s sister Olivia (“Via”) because she had to understand at an early age, that Augie’s needs come first. She says she’s not being noble, but that once you’ve seen your baby brother with his jaw wired shut and IV tubes poking out all over his body, it seems kinda dumb to get upset about not getting that new toy.

As August is entering public school for the first time, Via is entering high school and dealing with her best friends’ shunning. She has always been protective of August, but now she feels guilty because she doesn’t want her new high school peers to know about him. She wants an independence separate from him and doesn’t want to be known as “the girl with the deformed brother.”

The premise is simple, and the characters drawn fairly complex for a middle grade novel. The bully and his mom may be a bit one-dimensional, but that’s also because we never get their POV. As a class exercise, I think I’d have my students write a chapter based on the bully’s POV.

This is such a feel-good story at the end that you’ll be crying all over again, but it’s not schlocky or too bubblegum. It’s both heart-wrenching and heart-warming.

for more Middle Grade Monday hi-jinx, visit Shannon Messenger’s blog

Middle Grade Mondays: Circumnavigating Fairyland with Catherine Valente

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[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU4q8dpKhDY&w=480&h=360]

Once upon a time, a girl named September grew very tired of her parents’ house, where she washed the same pink-and-yellow teacups and matching gravy boats every day, slept on the same embroidered pillow, and played with the same small and amiable dog. Because she had been born in May, and because she had a mole on her left cheek, and because her feet were very large and ungainly, the Green Wind took pity on her and flew to her window one evening just after her twelfth birthday…

Thus begins September’s adventures, whisked away by the Green Wind upon the Leopard of Little Breezes to Fairyland, because she seemed to him an “ill-tempered and irascible child,” where she makes new friends with a Wyverary (a dragon-like creature that is a cross between a Wyvern and a library) named “A-through-L” who travels with her to the fairy city. There she meets the Marquess, Fairylands young dictator, who threatens her and her Wyverary unless she retrieves a “sword” from the Autumn Forest that (for reasons I won’t give away here) only September may retrieve.

A lovely read-aloud book for parents, it has the tone and feeling of a classic fairytale, but with the modern imaginative twist of the author. What I enjoyed about this book is that it reads like a middle grade book (there’s a narrator), the character is a middle grade character, and the plot is a middle grade plot (i.e. one clear adventure, no subplot) but the language is so rich and the writing so lyrical that it never condescends. It’s rare that I’m drawn to read passages in a middle grade book multiple times just to feast on the language. There’s a Phantom Tollbooth quality of word-play in the story, as well, and no shortage of interesting vocabulary.

I am in awe of Valente’s creativity. Her world seems to grow without effort, strangely and surprisingly, but never randomly. Some authors seem to pile on the fey just to put something in their protagonist’s way. Valente’s creatures grow authentically, originally, from someone who in my estimation was born to be a writer. And judging by her education an experience, she’s been steeped in myths and folklore for some time. She probably oozes it from her pores and I’m quite jealous.

Now, this is the kind of story where the protagonist is battered about by the fates and is sometimes not the instigator of her own rescue. It falls into the “non-believable” side of middle grade literature. That would normally not be to my taste, but here Valente has gotten me, and I can’t help but be tickled by her humour and drawn to her world.

“Tell me the rules,” Said September firmly. Her mother had taught her chess when she was quite small, and she felt that if she could remember which way knights ought to go, she could certainly remember Fairy Rules.

“First, no iron of any kind is allowed. Customs is quite strict on this point. Any bullets, knives, maces, or jacks you might have on your person will be confiscated and smelted. Second, the practice of alchemy is forbidden to all except young ladies born on Tuesdays –“

“I was born on a Tuesday!”

“It is certainly possible that I knew that,” the Green Wind said with a wink. “Third, aviary locomotion is permitted only by means of Leopard or licensed Ragwort Stalk. If you find yourself not in possession of one of these things, please confine yourself to the ground. Fourth, all traffic travels widdershins. Fifth, rubbish takeaway occurs on second Fridays. Sixth, all changelings must wear identifying footwear. Seventh, and most important, you may in no fashion cross the borders of the Worsted Wood, or you will either perish most painfully or be forced to sit through a very tedious tea service with several spinster hamadryads.”

And, of course, all these rules are addressed within the story…

I wish this book had been around when I was a child, so I would have had the luxury to read it again and again, becoming part of me like the other books I entered over and over when I was young and impressionable.

Middle Grade Mondays: Liesl and Po by Lauren Oliver

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From Goodreads:

Liesl lives in a tiny attic bedroom, locked away by her cruel stepmother. Her only friends are the shadows and the mice, until one night a ghost appears from the darkness. It is Po, who comes from the Other Side. Both Liesl and Po are lonely, but together they are less alone.

That same night, an alchemist’s apprentice, Will, bungles an important delivery. He accidentally switches a box containing the most powerful magic in the world with one containing something decidedly less remarkable.

The box that was switched is actually the ashes of Liesl’s father, who has recently died. With Po’s help, Liesl runs away from home, determined to bury her father’s ashes near a tree at her childhood home. Little does she know she’s actually carrying the world’s most powerful magic instead – magic that took all the colour and sunlight and joy away from the world in order to create it.

Along the way, she joins forced with Will and they race to find the old house and bury her father before a host of evil adults catches up with them.

Those of you who know me know that it is tough for a lower middle grade book to capture my attention (although Kate DiCamillo does it every time). I am much more fond of upper middle grade, tween, and young adult stories.  After many readings and much consideration, I have come to appreciate and understand the difference.

In a nutshell, lower middle grade books have less character development, issues are more black and white, there is little grey area when it comes to good and bad, and there is often unrealistic behavior that comes across as “cartoonish.” I think of Disney movies where the “bad guys” are bumbling idiots and go out of their way to avenge themselves against clever children. Where ugly evil stepmothers lock step-children in attics.

For instance, in Liesl and Po, an old woman on the train hears Liesl talking to herself, decides she’s a nut job and needs to be arrested for the good of society, so she nags a police officer into disembarking the train with her and chases Liesl down over miles of foothills (never mind her luggage or her original destination). That’s the kind of thing I’m talking about with lower middle grade readers. Kids might think this is hysterical, but it’s generally not my cup of tea.

There was something quite endearing about this book, though. Something that tugged at my heart-strings. After reading the book I discovered that Oliver had written a very personal story in order to have closure after a friend’s death. Having lost several people in the past few years, I grew a new appreciation for the book and its allegories.

One of the things I loved most about the book were the descriptions of what it was like to be a spirit and merge with the universe. The metaphysical aspects might be a bit beyond the grasp of an 8-year-old, but they might be comforted on some level, in particular if they have lost a loved one. In any case, I thought the descriptions were absolutely lovely – for any book.

It (Po) had been across eons that stretched like deserts across the universe: places where time was as water in the Sahara – gone, drifting to dust. It had been into cold, black seas where souls huddled together, and into dark tunnels burned straight into the center of existence . . .

… That was a thing about the recently dead. They had not yet learned to communicate without words. They had not learned the language of the deepest pools of the universe; the high, unvoiced rhythms of the planets in orbit; the language of being and breath.

The “evil” characters are completely one-dimensional, but then there’s Mo (!) – if you’ve read this book you know why lumbering, simple-minded, big-hearted Mo is one of my favourite characters. Mo is the Lady Premiere’s guard, and to me he represents the persistent and ever-present love that exists in the world when the dark shadow of grief overcomes us.

To read about more MIDDLE GRADE MONDAY books, visit SHANNON WHITNEY MESSENGER’s BLOG

To check out what other middle grade books are on my Summer Reading List CLICK HERE.

To read my “Tips and Tropes of Middle Grade Fiction” CLICK HERE.

Middle Grade Mondays: Bridge to Terabithia

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(yes, I’m still on summer hiatus, just happen to have some time today)

With so many new middle grade books to read, it’s a challenge to get to the classics. But I made a point to put BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA by Katherine Paterson on my summer reading list this year.

I had not seen the movie, nor read the book, but because of the movie trailers, I was under the impression this book was a fantasy. It’s not, it’s a very real story about a boy suffering, like any 10 year old would, through feeling different (In his case, artistic) and playing second fiddle to his four sisters in a financially-strapped rural household.

WATCH TRAILER

The trailer is deceptive, it makes the story look like some kind of fantasy adventure. I’m not saying I was disappointed in the book, because I wasn’t, I was simply surprised. (on a side note, the screenplay was written by Paterson’s son and the movie is highly acclaimed as a faithful adaptation of the book)

Even though the book feels a bit dated, the emotional content is very real. Two lonely children create an imaginary forest kingdom to help them deal with their difficulties in school, in particular with bullies, for being different (the girl is new to the area and a tom boy). It starts with the boy, Jess Aarons, feeling anxious about entering 5th grade and training to be the fastest runner in the school, something that will give him status. But the new girl, Leslie, joins the race (even though no other girls are allowed), and beats all the boys. After Jess’s initial frustration with her, he realizes she is actually an interesting person and they become friends.Leslie is smart, funny, and outgoing – everything Jess wants to be. Through their friendship and the bravery they exert in their imaginary kingdom, Jess is transformed and learns to let go of many of his fears.

Patterson captures 10 year old emotions quite well. I was a 10-year-old “suffering” from a runaway imagination, so I could definitely relate and know if I had read this as a child I would have enjoyed it immensely.

There is tragedy in the story that I’m not going to give away in case you are one of the few people, like me, who had not read this book. If you read it with your students or children it could lead to some heartfelt discussion.

This is one of the few books I’ve read that I actually wished the author had written more! After the tragedy, I thought the book ended too soon. I wanted to stay with Jess a little bit longer, go a little bit deeper with him.

This is a great book to have on my tool belt for those students who tell me they prefer “real life” stories rather than speculative fiction. The fantasy is all their imagination, which in the movie they obviously bring to life in a magical way.

On a side note, I wanted to say that I really liked the voices of his family, in particular his mother – who seemed to be in that “auto-mother” zone most of the time. You know, repeating her catch phrases out of exhaustion. His snotty older sisters reminded me so much of one of my best friend’s sisters when I was growing up that I had to laugh.

For a list of other MIDDLE GRADE MONDAY books this week, visit Shannon Messenger’s Blog.

Tropes and Tips for Middle Grade Fiction Writers

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I’m still on my summer hiatus, but I just did a guest post on Jack and Bob’s Writing Blog which is a great resource.

TROPES AND TIPS FOR MIDDLE GRADE FICTION WRITERS

Jack Remick (author of Blood, The Deification, and Valley Boy) and one of the best writing mentors and advocates ever, wrote a guest post for me a few months back for a series I have yet to finish. egad. I will!

If you missed Jack’s guest post, CHECK IT OUT.