Nominate Your Favorite Kidlit Books for the Cybils Awards!
Book awards are important! Writers can’t read every book on their TBR list even though they devote tons of time to reading! Kids are pulled in tons of different directions by school, sports, texts, television, games and more. If a book has some buzz or wins an award, that might give a child the extra push he or she needs to check out the first … Continue reading Nominate Your Favorite Kidlit Books for the Cybils Awards!
October Four on 400 Contest
Q: What is Four on 400? A monthly contest that provides ONE LUCKY MG or YA WRITER with feedback on their opening 400 WORDS! As part of our ongoing mission to support writers, we’ll give a MG or YA writer feedback from four of The Winged Pen’s contributors. Q: Sounds exciting! How do I enter? To enter, simply click the link the at the bottom of this post and submit … Continue reading October Four on 400 Contest
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
Conferences – Sharing What I Learn
September 28 – September 30, 2018, I spent the weekend at the SCBWI Carolinas “Word and Line” conference. The weekend was filled with craft, networking, and catching up with fellow writers and Pennies. But you know the feeling you get after spending a week or weekend at a workshop or conference filling your mind with ideas, tips, inspiration, and motivation? It’s a little exhaustion, a … Continue reading Conferences – Sharing What I Learn
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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