Category: Book Recommendations

Book Recommendations, Picture Books, Windows & Mirrors

Windows & Mirrors: CARLOS SANTANA Sound of the Heart, Song of the World by Gary Golio, illustrated by Rudy Gutierrez

Publisher’s Book Description: Discover the childhood story of Carlos Santana in Gary Golio’s Sound of the Heart, Song of the World, featuring illustrations by Rudy Gutierrez, the internationally celebrated artist who created the iconic Carlos Santana Shaman CD cover. Carlos Santana grew up surrounded by music. His father, a beloved mariachi performer, teaches his son how to play the violin when he is only six … Continue reading Windows & Mirrors: CARLOS SANTANA Sound of the Heart, Song of the World by Gary Golio, illustrated by Rudy Gutierrez

Rebecca PetruckLeave a comment
Book Recommendations, Windows & Mirrors, Young Adult

Top FIVE Reasons Teens Will Connect with Nic Stone’s ODD ONE OUT

Welcome to Windows & Mirrors, where we feature books that provide us windows to lives outside our own and mirrors to our shared common human experiences. Today we are featuring ODD ONE OUT by NIC STONE. I’ve been a superfan of Nic Stone since I met her in 2017 at a MadCap Retreats Writing Cross-Culturally workshop. Nic rocked the teen world with her debut DEAR MARTIN … Continue reading Top FIVE Reasons Teens Will Connect with Nic Stone’s ODD ONE OUT

Michelle LeonardLeave a comment
Book Recommendations, Young Adult

Recommended: SALT by Hannah Moscowitz

Publisher’s Description of Salt Roaming the Mediterranean Sea on sailboats and hunting down monsters is the only life seventeen-year-old Indi and his siblings have ever known. He never loved it, but now that his parents are gone—vanished during a hunt three months ago—it’s harder and harder to fight his desire to escape. He’s constantly battling his ferocious love for his siblings and the temptation of … Continue reading Recommended: SALT by Hannah Moscowitz

Rebecca J. Allen2 Comments
Book Recommendations, Windows & Mirrors, Young Adult

Windows & Mirrors: TRAIL OF LIGHTNING

Welcome to Windows & Mirrors, where we feature books that provide us windows to lives outside our own and mirrors to our shared common human experiences. Today we are featuring TRAIL OF LIGHTNING by Rebecca Roanhorse. After Big Water (a climate apocalypse), Dinétah—the homeland of the Navajo (Diné)—is one of the few remaining areas where people can live. Many of the Diné have experienced an activation … Continue reading Windows & Mirrors: TRAIL OF LIGHTNING

Michelle LeonardLeave a comment
Book Cover for Trouble With Parsnips by Laurel Decher
Author, Book Recommendations, Middle Grade, Publishing & Promotion, Writer's Life

Laurel Decher Talks TROUBLE WITH PARSNIPS and Self-Publishing

Laurel Decher is an author and writer for The Winged Pen. We are very excited to share her story, TROUBLE WITH PARSNIPS, learn about her writing process, and decision to self-publish. When you’re 15th in line to the throne, it’s hard to make a name for yourself. The youngest princess of Cochem still needs a christening and she’s ten. She can’t get a word in … Continue reading Laurel Decher Talks TROUBLE WITH PARSNIPS and Self-Publishing

Halli GomezLeave a comment
Book Recommendations, Young Adult

GRIM LOVELIES by Megan Shepherd

Q: Is GRIM LOVELIES as dazzling as its cover foretells? A: A big FAT YES! Anouk is an enchanted girl who exists only because the evil witch Mada Vittora created her from an animal. Anouk, a Beastie, is forbidden to venture beyond the confines of her Parisian prison, Mada Vittora’s house, where she is destined to serve her evil mistress for her entire life. That … Continue reading GRIM LOVELIES by Megan Shepherd

Michelle LeonardLeave a comment
Book Recommendations, Publishing & Promotion, Young Adult

Book Recommendation: The Spy with the Red Balloon

THE SPY WITH THE RED BALLOON is the second book in the Balloonmakers series by author Katherine Locke. I loved the first book THE GIRL WITH THE RED BALLOON so much, I couldn’t wait to read the second. (read about book one here) THE SPY WITH THE RED BALLOON is the second book, but it occurs earlier than the first, a nice twist. This time we are … Continue reading Book Recommendation: The Spy with the Red Balloon

Halli GomezLeave a comment
Author, Book Recommendations, Interviews, Young Adult

Interview with NY Times Bestselling Author Beth Revis: GIVE THE DARK MY LOVE

If you crave terrifyingly dark teen fiction filled with danger, impossible choices, and twisty political intrigue, GIVE THE DARK MY LOVE, is your next book! Sometimes to make things better, we have to do things that seem wrong or even horrible to others. Does that make us monsters? Or saviors? Seventeen-year-old Nedra Brysstain leaves her rural island home to attend the prestigious Yūgen Academy as … Continue reading Interview with NY Times Bestselling Author Beth Revis: GIVE THE DARK MY LOVE

Michelle LeonardLeave a comment
Book Recommendations, Windows & Mirrors, Young Adult

Windows & Mirrors: PRIDE by Ibi Zoboi

Welcome to Windows & Mirrors, where we feature books that provide us windows to lives outside our own and mirrors to our shared common human experiences. Today we are featuring PRIDE by IBI ZOBOI. Zuri is the second oldest of five sisters in their family living in The Bushwick region of Brooklyn. Her older sister is coming home from college for the summer after her freshman … Continue reading Windows & Mirrors: PRIDE by Ibi Zoboi

Michelle Leonard1 Comment
Author, Book Recommendations, Interviews, Middle Grade

Interview with R.L. Toalson, Author of The Colors of the Rain

There’s nothing better than a book that touches you, opens your eyes to different perspectives, and makes you want to tell all your friends. THE COLORS OF THE RAIN is one of those books for me. I was thrilled to review it and just had to talk with the author. R.L. Toalson, welcome to The Winged Pen! Before we jump into questions, let’s give readers a quick … Continue reading Interview with R.L. Toalson, Author of The Colors of the Rain

Halli GomezLeave a comment
Author, Book Recommendations, Middle Grade

The Three Rules of Everyday Magic

Back in 2015, Pitch Wars founder Brenda Drake put out a call for middle grade mentors to take on a second mentee. Without any idea who the writer was or what the story was about, Joy McCullough, Rebecca Wells, and I volunteered to co-mentor this mysterious project. That writer turned out to be Amanda Rawson Hill, who was working on a gorgeous story called The … Continue reading The Three Rules of Everyday Magic

Jessica VitalisLeave a comment
Book Recommendations, Middle Grade

Book Recommendation: The Colors of the Rain

The wonderful thing about historical fiction is that readers are able to experience many points in time. We’re able to learn what life was like for people decades, even centuries ago, in different regions and countries. But what I love most about this genre is that I always find the characters and their situations are not that different from today. R.L. Toalson’s novel-in-verse, The Colors … Continue reading Book Recommendation: The Colors of the Rain

Halli Gomez2 Comments