Tag: featured

Young Adult

Recommended: STRONGER, FASTER, AND MORE BEAUTIFUL by Arwen Elys Dayton

Publisher’s Description of Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful For fans of television shows Black Mirror and Westworld, this compelling, mind-bending novel is a twisted look into the future, exploring the lengths we’ll go to remake ourselves into the perfect human specimen and what it means to be human at all. The future is curious. STRONGER Today our bodies define us. We color our hair; tattoo … Continue reading Recommended: STRONGER, FASTER, AND MORE BEAUTIFUL by Arwen Elys Dayton

Rebecca J. AllenLeave a comment
Book Recommendations, Middle Grade, Windows & Mirrors

Window & Mirrors: BLENDED by Sharon M. Draper

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 BLENDED by Sharon M. Draper. Because her parents are divorced, eleven-year-old Isabella feels like she’s literally torn between two different worlds. Every other week, she’s Isabella who hangs out with her black dad, his girlfriend … Continue reading Window & Mirrors: BLENDED by Sharon M. Draper

Michelle Leonard1 Comment
Author, Four on 400, Interviews, Middle Grade, Young Adult

Interview with Author Christine Grabowski Four on 400 Winner

Welcome Christine Grabowski, young adult author and Four on 400 contest winner! We are excited to share news of your debut young adult novel and learn about your path to publication. Let’s start with your novel. Tell us about Dickensen Academy.  Dickensen Academy is a young YA contemporary fantasy that bridges the gap between MG and YA. It is about a fourteen-year-old girl, Autumn, who … Continue reading Interview with Author Christine Grabowski Four on 400 Winner

Halli Gomez1 Comment
Windows & Mirrors, Young Adult

WHAT THE NIGHT SINGS: A Story About Jewish Identity

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 WHAT THE NIGHT SINGS by Vesper Stamper. At the opening of WHAT THE NIGHT SINGS, sixteen-year-old Gerta is skeletally thin and sick with typhus. The Nazi concentration camp where she has been incarcerated has just … Continue reading WHAT THE NIGHT SINGS: A Story About Jewish Identity

Michelle LeonardLeave a comment
Book Recommendations, Nonfiction

SPOOKED! How a Radio Broadcast and THE WAR OF THE WORLDS Sparked the 1938 Invasion of America by Gail Jarrow

Publisher’s Description In this nonfiction title for young readers ages 10 to 14, acclaimed author Gail Jarrow explores in riveting detail the famous War of the Worlds radio broadcast from 1938; she highlights the artists behind the broadcast, the broadcast itself, the aftermath, and the repercussions of “fake news” today. On the night of October 30, 1938, thousands of Americans panicked when they believed that … Continue reading SPOOKED! How a Radio Broadcast and THE WAR OF THE WORLDS Sparked the 1938 Invasion of America by Gail Jarrow

Rebecca PetruckLeave a comment
Book Recommendations, Young Adult

Recommended: THE LYING WOODS by Ashley Elston

Publisher’s Description Owen Foster has never wanted for anything. Then his mother shows up at his elite New Orleans boarding school cradling a bombshell: his privileged life has been funded by stolen money. After using the family business, the single largest employer in his small Louisiana town, to embezzle millions and drain the employees’ retirement accounts, Owen’s father vanished without a trace, leaving Owen and … Continue reading Recommended: THE LYING WOODS by Ashley Elston

Rebecca J. AllenLeave a comment
Book Recommendations, Middle Grade, Windows & Mirrors

DACTYL HILL SQUAD: An action-packed middle-grade alt.-history fantasy set smack dab in the middle of Civil War times.

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 DACTYL HILL SQUAD by Daniel José Older. Dactyl Hill Squad is an action-packed middle-grade alt-history fantasy set smack dab in the middle of Civil War times in 1863 New York *WITH DINOSAURS*! Magdalys, a twelve-year-old … Continue reading DACTYL HILL SQUAD: An action-packed middle-grade alt.-history fantasy set smack dab in the middle of Civil War times.

Michelle Leonard1 Comment
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
Cybils Book Awards logo 2018, Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards
Book Awards, News

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!

Rebecca J. AllenLeave 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
Conferences & writing retreats, Creativity and Craft, Writer's Life

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

Halli Gomez8 Comments
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