Sunday, December 13, 2009

Reading Assignment Update 1

Reading Assignment Update 1 -- December 13, 2009

I haven't accomplished my SCBWI/Southern Breeze Writing and Illustrating for Kids (WIK) conference critique assignment from agent Steven Chudney in the six-week time frame he recommended, but I'm still working my way through it. I've completed three more contemporary teen novels from my 20-novel goal. The reviews appear below.
In the meantime, I've started a column on grammar for WritingSnacks, completed certification requirements for grant writing and CERT (Community Emergency Response Team), written two grant proposals, several HowStuffWorks articles (see sidebar for links), added a new client for proofreading and editing, and started submitting to children's magazines again.
Happy Chanukah, Merry Christmas, and a joyous season to all of you! May you be blessed with friends and family, health and happiness, and acceptance letters in the mail.

1. How to Steal a Dog
Barbara O'Connor
When Georgina Hayes looks through the windshield and reads the sign offering a $500 reward for the return of a lost dog, she comes up with a simple plan. All she has to do is find a lost dog, return it to the owners, and collect the reward money. Then she and her mother and brother can move out of the car and into an apartment. Georgina works the plan out in her school notebook. She needs to prod the idea along by actually stealing a dog. Then she'll just wait until the owners put up reward signs. It seems so simple. But after she steals the dog, things keep coming up that she hasn't thought of. Where will she hide the dog? What will she feed the dog? What if the owner doesn't put up reward signs? Now, in addition to the strain of being homeless, Georgina has to worry about the mess she's gotten herself and her little brother Toby into. It doesn't help that there's a terrible feeling in her stomach all the time now, making her feel sick and miserable. O'Conner hooks the reader from the first page. Georgina pops off the page like a real girl, and you can't help empathizing with her.
BIBLIO: 2007, Frances Foster Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux
REVIEWER: Heather N. Kolich
FORMAT: Middle Grades Novel
ISBN: 978-0-374-33497-0
ISBN: 0-374-33497-8

2. Leepike Ridge
N.D. Wilson
This book starts out slow and kind of ordinary, but boy does it build tension from there. Thomas Hammond and his mom live in a house that's chained to the top of Leepike Ridge looking down over a valley stream. Thomas doesn't like the man his mom is seeing. To sort out his frustration, eleven-year-old Tom takes a moonlight float down the valley stream, falls asleep, falls over a series of waterfalls, and ends up in a partially water-filled cavern deep inside the mountain. His ordinary story quickly becomes a story of survival with surprising discoveries and a sinister twist. The story begins and ends with a first person narrator, but the other chapters alternate between Tom and his mom. Sometimes there's a feeling of distance, but Tom seems close and immediate while he's in the mountain. I was running out of pages and wondering how Wilson could possibly wrap up the story in the small space he had left, but he did it quite satisfactorily.
BIBLIO: 2007, Random House Children's Books
REVIEWER: Heather N. Kolich
FORMAT: Middle Grades Novel
ISBN: 978-0-375-83873-6

3. Uprising*
Margaret Peterson Haddix
Crackling with emotion and strong characters from the first page to the last, this incredibly well told story takes readers back to 1909-1911 New York, to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory strike and disaster. The story unfolds through the experiences of three young women: 15-year old Bella, a new immigrant from Italy; 16-year old Yetta, a Russian Jew fleeing from pogroms; and 16-year old Jane, a wealthy socialite. In a time of extreme discrimination against immigrants and women, these three stood with thousands of other women laborers to fight for fair treatment. Their separate lives unite during the 5-month Triangle strike that grew into a general strike reaching as far as Pennsylvania, when wealthy women worked with factory girls to advance their dreams of achieving women's suffrage. Yetta, Bella and Jane face and survive dire circumstances by supporting each other. Throughout the story, readers know that the historic fire is coming. But when it finally happens, it is as much a shock as it was to the workers locked in the factory. Haddix sweeps the reader along as swiftly as the fire swept through the Triangle factory. Grab some tissues and savor this book.
BIBLIO: 2007, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, Ages 12 and up, $16.99.
REVIEWER: Heather N. Kolich
FORMAT: Young Adult
ISBN: 978-1-4169-1171-5
ISBN: 1-4169-1171-5
*This novel was represented by Tracey Adams of the Adams Literary Agency. Her husband and business partner, Josh Adams, will be a featured speaker at Springmingle 2010.

4. Blood Brothers**
S.A. Harazin
Seventeen-year old Clay Gardener has no hope of going to college, no self esteem, one friend and a job he loves. Now he's got a really big problem, too. His best friend, Joey, is in serious condition in the hospital where Clay works as an orderly, and Joey's friends are saying that Clay put him there. Which is true, in a way. Clay found Joey, naked, hallucinating, seriously messed up and violent, and called 911. While Clay talked with the 911 operator, Joey attacked him and tried to strangle him. Clay pushed Joey off of him, and Joey fell and hit his head. The next day, Joey falls into a coma. As his friend deteriorates, Clay alternates between trying to take care of Joey -- both on and off duty -- and trying to find out what happened to him before their fight. Clay is so emotionally distant from all the people around him, it takes a long time to warm up to his character, especially since he seems so willing to take the blame for something he didn't do that he even casts it on himself sometimes. The actions of the characters don't always make sense, but it's hard to put this book down before the end.
BIBLIO: 2007, Delacourt Press/Random House, Ages 14 and up, $15.99.
REVIEWER: Heather N. Kolich
FORMAT: Young Adult
ISBN: 978-0-385-73364-9
** S.A. Harazin is a Southern Breeze member. Her agent on this novel, Steven Chudney, was a speaker at the Southern Breeze Writing and Illustrating for Kids (WIK) 2009 conference in October.

5. Queen's Own Fool: A Novel of Mary Queen of Scots
Jane Yolen*** and Robert J. Harris
On the eve of her coronation as Queen of France, Queen Mary liberates a young street performer from her abusive uncle. Queen Mary installs 12-year-old Nicola Ambruzzi into her household as her fool, a position that is part entertainer, part companion. The epic novel traces Queen Mary's life from her brief reign in France, her troubled reign in Scotland, to her imprisonment by Queen Elizabeth. Nicola accompanies the Queen until she departs for England, growing from a child to a young woman. Perhaps because she has a mature voice from the beginning of the book, Nicola doesn't seem to change in voice or manner as she grows up. The first half of the book is interesting; the second half is exciting. Tension builds around the young queen and Nicola in Scotland, and doesn't let go until the end of the book.
BIBLIO: 2000, Philomel Books/Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers, Ages 12 and up.
REVIEWER: Heather N. Kolich
FORMAT: Middle Grades Novel
ISBN: 0-399-23380-6
ISBN: 978-0-698-11918-5
***Jane Yolen will be the keynote speaker for the Southern Breeze Springmingle 2010 conference for children's writers and illustrators in Atlanta, February 26-28, 2010.

6. The Youngest Templar: Keeper of the Grail, Book I¹
Michael P. Spradlin
When a book displays a map across the inside cover, I usually enjoy the story. Spradlin's tale of mystery, action and adventure during the 12th century Crusades is no exception. Fifteen-year-old Tristan, a monastery-reared orphan with no other name, accepts an offer to squire for a Templar Knight bound for the Crusades. With the Templar knights, Tristan gets valuable training, earns friends and respect, and finds a powerful enemy. Action flows from training in Dover to the desert battlefields of Acre. The knights fight with King Richard and his army to take the fortified city of Acre back from the Saladin's forces, but then fall under siege by a much larger army. The Saladin's warriors overrun the city, and at the peak of battle, the knight Tristan serves entrusts him with the Holy Grail and orders him to sneak it out of the besieged city and smuggle it across the Mediterranean Sea to a priest in Scotland. And so, Tristan's adventures continue . . . into at least one more book.
BIBLIO: 2008, G.P. Putnam's Sons/Penguin Young Readers Group, Ages 14 and up, $17.99.
REVIEWER: Heather N. Kolich
FORMAT: Young Adult Novel
ISBN: 978-0-399-24763-7
¹ The agent for this novel, Steven Chudney, was a speaker at the Southern Breeze Writing and Illustrating for Kids (WIK) 2009 conference in October.

7. Hush
Jacqueline Woodson
The armed men came in the middle of the night. They drove 13-year-old Toswiah Green and her family through the dark night in the dark van with the darkened windows. In the morning, at the safe house, she became Evie Thomas. Her older sister, Cameron, became Anna, a palindrome who was not a cheerleader. Her mother transformed from adored teacher to religious fanatic. And her father struggled with his decision to testify against his once-fellow cops. For three months, they hide in the empty, crumbling hotel. After the trial, they hide in plain sight in a new city and try to live with their new identities. Toswiah's story is poignant, full of loss and deepening sadness. It deals with right and wrong and the hardness of making a decision that has no good outcome. It also touches on race relations, although it doesn't seem necessary to the story. The timeline is confused. In one chapter, it's been a year since they left Denver; in the next, it's been seven months. Brief, disconnected flashbacks provide insight to Toswiah's personality and experiences before the incident, adding layers of loss to her new life. But as their parents continue to spiral downward, the two girls each find an avenue for hope and begin to build new, if not better, lives for themselves. This is a thought-provoking read.
BIBLIO: 2002, G.P. Putnam's Sons/Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers, Ages 13 and up.
REVIEWER: Heather N. Kolich
FORMAT: Young Adult novel
ISBN: 0-399-23114-5

8. Deadline
Chris Crutcher
Weeks after his eighteenth birthday, Ben Wolf's mid-summer track physical uncovers an aggressive terminal blood disease. Treatment has a slim chance of extending his time and a certainty of making him sick immediately, so Ben decides to forgo it and keep his condition a secret in the hopes of having a normal senior year. He also decides to take risks he wouldn't take otherwise. Instead of track, he joins his brother, Cody, on the eight-man Trout, Idaho high school football team. They have a spectacular season, including one last-second pass from Cody to Ben that assures Cody a college football scholarship. Cody insists that they'll split the scholarship because they are a team, and Ben begins to understand that his illness and imminent death are not just about him. He feels a duty to inform the people who care about him so that they can prepare. But having kept his condition a secret, it's a struggle to come clean, especially after his amazing new girlfriend and the town drunk entrust him with their secrets. Whom should he tell first, and how should he do it? Ben's brother, their coach, the girlfriend, the drunk and an enigmatic entity who instructs Ben to call him "Hey-soos" play important roles in his last year on Earth.
BIBLIO: 2007, Greenwillow Books/Harper Collins, Ages 14 and up, $16.99.
REVIEWER: Heather N. Kolich
FORMAT: Young Adult
ISBN: 978-0-06-085089-0


9. Heart of a Shepherd
Rosanne Parry
This sentimental tale of a family of ranching soldiers, specifically the youngest son, 12-year-old Ignatius "Brother" Alderman, swings in petal-shaped arcs describing hardships, determination, tragedy, despair and occasionally something genuinely funny. With his dad deployed to Iraq – along with many other members of their Oregon community – and his brothers dispersed to military training centers or boarding schools, Brother and his grandparents try to run the ranch alone. Cougars, droughts and wildfires add to the difficulty. His best friend's parents return early from their deployment because of injuries, but Brother's father's tour is extended. There's plenty of heartache in this story, and when the fire came through, I didn't think I could take it. Brother's quirky family heritage is interesting, but the family members lacked character development. The ending was laid out earlier in the book, but it doesn't feel right when it eventually rolls around.
BIBLIO: 2009, Random House Children's Books, Ages 8 to 12, $15.99.
REVIEWER: Heather N. Kolich
FORMAT: Middle Grades Novel
ISBN: 978-0-375-84802-5

Friday, October 23, 2009

Reading Assignment

At the SCBWI/Southern Breeze Writing and Illustrating for Kids (WIK) conference on October 17, Steven Chudney of The Chudney Agency critiqued the opening chapters of one of my young adult novel manuscripts. This novel developed from the middle to the end, leaving me struggling with the problem of how to get my character into place.

The good news is that he liked my writing style and was enthusiastic about my synopsis. He found my opening chapters implausible, however, and gave me a homework assignment: Put the manuscript away for six weeks and read twenty contemporary novels for teens. "Then," he said, "you'll know how to begin your novel."

"Put it away for six weeks!" I wanted to wail. "But I just pulled it out again after about five years!"

While I stand by my research, I concede the point to Steven, especially since he offered an easy alternative to what he found implausible. So, when I returned home from the conference, I went to the library and checked out several middle grade and teen novels.

I looked first for books written by Southern Breeze authors. My county's library system is short on those, but it does have Shirley Harazin's Blood Brothers. I'm next on the request list for that one. I also requested a copy of The Youngest Templar: Keeping the Grail, a book that Steven represented and talked about while a group of conference attendees ate breakfast in the hotel lobby.

Next, I headed for the Y section and looked for books by Jane Yolen so that I can multitask on this assignment. Yolen is the key note speaker for Springmingle 2010, the Southern Breeze conference for children's writers and illustrators that takes place February 26-28, 2010 in Atlanta. I'm the coordinator for that conference, so I'm brushing up on our speakers. I chose the Scottish Tales co-written by Jane Yolen and Robert J. Harris.

Finally, I stopped by the center-of-the-floor display kiosk of 2009-2010 Georgia Book Award Nominees and picked up three of those.

I've now completed three of my twenty books. I'll be blogging reviews on the titles over the next few weeks (see below). I've also been getting recommendations from friends on what my next book should be. My stack is tall, but Blood Brothers is the one calling to me now. I read the first few pages of it before I left the library.


1. How to Steal a Dog
Barbara O'Connor
When Georgina Hayes looks through the windshield and reads the sign offering a $500 reward for the return of a lost dog, she comes up with a simple plan. All she has to do is find a lost dog, return it to the owners, and collect the reward money. Then she and her mother and brother can move out of the car and into an apartment. Georgina works the plan out in her school notebook. She needs to prod the idea along by actually stealing a dog. Then she'll just wait until the owners put up reward signs. It seems so simple. But after she steals the dog, things keep coming up that she hasn't thought of. Where will she hide the dog? What will she feed the dog? What if the owner doesn't put up reward signs? Now, in addition to the strain of being homeless, Georgina has to worry about the mess she's gotten herself and her little brother Toby into. It doesn't help that there's a terrible feeling in her stomach all the time now, making her feel sick and miserable. O'Conner hooks the reader from the first page. Georgina pops off the page like a real girl, and you can't help empathizing with her.
BIBLIO: 2007, Frances Foster Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux
REVIEWER: Heather N. Kolich
FORMAT: Middle Grades Novel
ISBN: 978-0-374-33497-0
ISBN: 0-374-33497-8

2. Leepike Ridge
N.D. Wilson
This book starts out slow and kind of ordinary, but boy does it build tension from there. Thomas Hammond and his mom live in a house that's chained to the top of Leepike Ridge looking down over a valley stream. Thomas doesn't like the man his mom is seeing. To sort out his frustration, eleven-year-old Tom takes a moonlight float down the valley stream, falls asleep, falls over a series of waterfalls, and ends up in a partially water-filled cavern deep inside the mountain. His ordinary story quickly becomes a story of survival with surprising discoveries and a sinister twist. The story begins and ends with a first person narrator, but the other chapters alternate between Tom and his mom. Sometimes there's a feeling of distance, but Tom seems close and immediate while he's in the mountain. I was running out of pages and wondering how Wilson could possibly wrap up the story in the small space he had left, but he did it quite satisfactorily.
BIBLIO: 2007, Random House Children's Books
REVIEWER: Heather N. Kolich
FORMAT: Middle Grades Novel
ISBN: 978-0-375-83873-6

3. Uprising *
Margaret Peterson Haddix
Crackling with emotion and strong characters from the first page to the last, this incredibly well told story takes readers back to 1909-1911 New York, to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory strike and disaster. The story unfolds through the experiences of three young women: 15-year old Bella, a new immigrant from Italy; 16-year old Yetta, a Russian Jew fleeing from pogroms; and 16-year old Jane, a wealthy socialite. In a time of extreme discrimination against immigrants and women, these three stood with thousands of other women laborers to fight for fair treatment. Their separate lives unite during the 5-month Triangle strike that grew into a general strike reaching as far as Pennsylvania, when wealthy women worked with factory girls to advance their dreams of achieving women's suffrage. Yetta, Bella and Jane face and survive dire circumstances by supporting each other. Throughout the story, readers know that the historic fire is coming. But when it finally happens, it is as much a shock as it was to the workers locked in the factory. Haddix sweeps the reader along as swiftly as the fire swept through the Triangle factory. Grab some tissues and savor this book.
BIBLIO: 2007, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, Ages 12 and up, $16.99.
REVIEWER: Heather N. Kolich
FORMAT: Young Adult
ISBN: 978-1-4169-1171-5
ISBN: 1-4169-1171-5
*This novel was represented by Tracey Adams of the Adams Literary Agency. Her husband and business partner, Josh Adams, will be a featured speaker at Springmingle 2010.

4. Blood Brothers**
S.A. Harazin
Seventeen-year old Clay Gardener has no hope of going to college, no self esteem, one friend and a job he loves. Now he's got a really big problem, too. His best friend, Joey, is in serious condition in the hospital where Clay works as an orderly, and Joey's friends are saying that Clay put him there. Which is true, in a way. Clay found Joey, naked, hallucinating, seriously messed up and violent, and called 911. While Clay talked with the 911 operator, Joey attacked him and tried to strangle him. Clay pushed Joey off of him, and Joey fell and hit his head. The next day, Joey falls into a coma. As his friend deteriorates, Clay alternates between trying to take care of Joey -- both on and off duty -- and trying to find out what happened to him before their fight. Clay is so emotionally distant from all the people around him, it takes a long time to warm up to his character, especially since he seems so willing to take the blame for something he didn't do that he even casts it on himself sometimes. The actions of the characters don't always make sense, but it's hard to put this book down before the end.
BIBLIO: 2007, Delacourt Press/Random House, Ages 14 and up, $15.99.
REVIEWER: Heather N. Kolich
FORMAT: Young Adult
ISBN: 978-0-385-73364-9
** S.A. Harazin is a Southern Breeze member. Her agent on this novel, Steven Chudney, was a speaker at the Southern Breeze Writing and Illustrating for Kids (WIK) 2009 conference in October.

In case you're wondering, yes, I'm still reviewing children's nonfiction for Children's Literature Comprehensive Database and writing for Discovery Communications. Check out some of my recent articles using the links on the left.