Middle Grade Ninja Episode 156: Author Libby McNamee

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Libby McNamee and I chat about historical fiction and her novels SUZANNA’S MIDNIGHT RIDE: THE GIRL WHO WON THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR, DOLLY MADISON AND THE WAR OF 1812: AMERICA’S FIRST LADY, and her upcoming book about Elizabeth Van Lew. We discuss writing about the past with empathy, distilling history into a fictional narrative, history as a context for the present, and so much more.

Libby McNamee is an author and lawyer. She loves exploring America’s many historical sites. When a descendant told her the TRUE story of Susanna Bolling from Virginia and her heroism during the Revolutionary War, Libby was determined to share it with the world. “Susanna’s Midnight Ride” is her first published novel. She is currently writing “Dolley Madison and the War of 1812: America’s First Lady.” In addition, she is a member of the American Friends of Lafayette, the American Revolution Roundtable, the Historical Novel Society, and James River Writers

Libby served as a US Army JAG Officer in Korea, Bosnia, Germany, and Washington State.  A native of Boston, Libby graduated with a BA in Government/International Relations and French from Georgetown University cum laude in 1988, a JD from Catholic University Law School in 1993, a Certificate in English Law from the London School of Economics in 1999. She has lived in the Richmond, VA, since 2002.

DOLLEY MADISON UNITES YOUNG AMERICA!

Amidst the nonstop turmoil of the War of 1812, the decisive First Lady takes action and inspires an anxious nation.

Dolley Madison faces a bitterly divided Washington City when her husband, James Madison, becomes our fourth president. The prospect of war against Great Britain threatens to tear our fragile republic apart. The "Presidentess" hosts open parties in the new President's House to unite political foes and cultivate an American identity.

When President Madison declares war with disastrous results, Dolley carries on, ignoring the threats against her. However, as British soldiers march toward Washington City, she becomes their target. Now America's Second War of Independence hinges on her. What must she do to save the United States while also saving herself?

The true story of a woman with humble Quaker roots who rallies America during the War of 1812!

LibbyMcNamee.com

Middle Grade Ninja Episode 143: Author Alda P. Dobbs

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Alda P. Dobbs and I discuss writing about the Mexican Revolution as well as her own family’s history in her new novel, BAREFOOT DREAMS OF PETRA LUNA, and then translating that story into a second language. We talk about how Alda gained confidence as a writer, the advice she received from Avi, how she applied for grants and became “hardheaded,” found her literary agent, sold a book and wrote another during a pandemic, and so much more. Oh, and I accuse her of back engineering flying saucers while she was in the air force:)

Alda P. Dobbs is the author of the upcoming novel Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna. She was born in a small town in northern Mexico but moved to San Antonio, Texas as a child. Alda studied physics and worked as an engineer before pursuing her love of storytelling. She’s as passionate about connecting children to their past, their communities, different cultures and nature as she is about writing. Alda lives with her husband and two children outside Houston, Texas.

“No hay mal que dure cien años, ni cuerpo que lo aguante.”

- Dicho Mexicano

“There’s no curse that’ll last a hundred years, nor a body that can withstand it.”

- Mexican Proverb

In 1913, during the Mexican Revolution, twelve-year-old Petra Luna and her family flee their burning village. They cross desert plains and battlefields, desperate to escape the wrath of the Federales. Every night, when Petra closes her eyes, she hangs tight to her dreams. In one of them, she can read, and she reads everything – books, newspapers, EVERYTHING. But all of her dreams will have to wait as long as she stays true to her promise to Papa.

Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna was inspired by the experiences the author’s great-grandmother endured during the Mexican Revolution.

AldaPDobbs.com

Middle Grade Ninja Episode 33: Author Kate Hannigan

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Kate Hannigan and I discuss her newest novel CAPE and the 2016 Golden Kite award winner, THE DETECTIVE'S ASSISTANT. We do a deep dive on writing and researching historical fiction. Kate gives some outstanding advice for authors doing school visits and a lot of tips for being a more productive writer. She also shares a real-life object lesson on the importance of being nice in an industry as small as publishing. We chat about superheroes and women in history and just generally have a blast talking about writing.

Chicago author Kate Hannigan writes fiction and non-fiction for young readers. A former newspaper journalist, she loves listening to people's stories and digging deep into research. Her middle-grade historical fiction "The Detective's Assistant" (Little, Brown) received the 2016 Golden Kite Award for best middle-grade novel and was a California Young Reader Medal nominee. Inspired by the exploits of America's first female detective, Kate Warne, it features nail-biting suspense and exhilarating thrills - along with history around Abraham Lincoln and pre-Civil War America.

Kate is also the author of the picture book biography "A Lady Has the Floor: Belva Lockwood Speaks Out for Women's Rights" (Boyds Mills Press), which received four starred reviews, named a Chicago Public Library "Best of the Best" selection, Bank Street College pick for July, A Mighty Girl Best of 2018 Book, Amelia Bloomer Project pick, and a Junior Library Guild Selection. And her three-book cooking caper series "Cupcake Cousins" (Disney/Hyperion) for early middle-grade readers was named to the Illinois READS state list and Chicago Public Library's "Best of the Best" lists.

Hidden Figures meets Wonder Woman in this action-packed, comic-inspired adventure about a brilliant girl puzzler who discovers she’s part of a superhero team!

Josie O’Malley does a lot to help out Mam after her father goes off to fight the Nazis, but she wishes she could do more—like all those caped heroes who now seem to have disappeared. If Josie can’t fly and control weather like her idol, Zenobia, maybe she can put her math smarts to use cracking puzzles for the government.

After an official tosses out her puzzler test because she’s a girl, it soon becomes clear that an even more top-secret agency has its eye on Josie, along with two other applicants: Akiko and Mae. The trio bonds over their shared love of female superhero celebrities, from Hauntima to Zenobia to Hopscotch But during one extraordinary afternoon, they find themselves transformed into the newest (and youngest!) superheroes in town. As the girls’ abilities slowly begin to emerge, they learn that their skills will be crucial in thwarting a shapeshifting henchman of Hitler, and, just maybe, in solving an even larger mystery about the superheroes who’ve recently gone missing.

Inspired by remarkable real-life women from World War II—the human computers and earliest programmers called “the ENIAC Six”—this pulse-pounding adventure features bold action and brave thinking, with forty-eight pages of comic book style graphic panels throughout the book. Readers will want to don their own capes for an adventure, and realize they have the power to be a superhero, too!

KateHannigan.com

AuthorOf.blogspot.com

GUEST POST: "Stepping into the Past (Researching and Writing Middle Grade Historical Fiction )" by Yona McDonough

Even as a kid, I loved stories set in the past (Anne of Green Gables, A Little Princess and A Tree Grow in Brooklyn were all favorites) and when I grew up to become a children’s book author, I gravitated naturally to creating historical fiction set in long-ago times.  So when I was tapped by Scholastic to write a middle grade chapter book set in WW II era France, I jumped at the chance.  

          Called The Bicycle Spy, it was to center on a 13-year-old boy who has no clue that his parents are part of the French Resistance movement. Since he’s an ardent cyclist and they own the bakery in town, they ask him to deliver loaves of bread to various neighbors and relatives without arousing his suspicion.  But the discovery, early on in the story, of secret, coded messages that have been baked into the loaves absolutely rocks his world.

          Since I’d had experience in this genre before, I assumed the research and writing follow a certain pattern.  But I found that this particular book created demands of its own.  For one thing it was slated to be longer than any such book I’d done before.  And while I had previously used the past as a setting—WWI, WW II, the Great Depression—in those books the history was more of a backdrop against which events unfolded whereas in The Bicycle Spy, certain historical events, such as the German occupation, played significant and even pivotal roles in the plot.

          Obviously, I knew where and how to begin. Books and the Internet provided plentiful sources—sometimes too plentiful.  So much dense material to wade through was difficult enough for me, but what about for my young audience? I wanted the book to be fact-based and informative, but not daunting.  So I turned to sources that were intended not for adults, but for other kids.  Books, like those from the excellent DK series, provided substantial material that was suited to young readers and I drew on them, as well as others like them,  to help me sort my way through the complexities of the period.

          I also relied heavily on visual images that were widely available on line and in books.  Although The Bicycle Spy’s sole illustration was on the cover, I wanted to steep myself in period details and have images at my fingertips—and in my mind’s eye.  Uniforms worn by French and German soldiers, the loaves of French peasant bread like those that housed the coded notes, maps that showed the occupied territories and most popular escape routes—all these mental pictures added to my understanding of the time and place about which I was writing.

          Another subject to tackle was the Tour de France because Marcel, the protagonist, is a cycling enthusiast.  I familiarized myself with the history of the Tour and learned the names of its winners, especially during the relevant years. I learned about the origins of the race, as well as its early history. Research of this kind proved invaluable.

          But there was more to the novel than research. I was writing about France in the 1940s for kids in the 2000’s and had the job of making Marcel and his pals sound both believable as characters from the past yet also relatable to readers of the present.  I had to think carefully about the dialogue.  It couldn’t be too contemporary—no, hey dudes—but it couldn’t be too fusty either.  I also wanted to use French terms and phrases where I could without putting off a reader who might not be familiar with them.  In order to do that, I sprinkled the French in sparingly yet I hope judiciously, and provided translations alongside the foreign words.  I also added a glossary at the end as another way of explaining these terms more fully.

          Another important element in writing middle grade historical fiction is the strategic use of back matter.  Back matter is catnip to librarians and teachers, and I’ve heard from many kids how much they love it too.  Back matter is a way of adding context without bogging down the story and I’ve learned to be a bit creative with it.  In addition to the glossary, back matter for The Bicycle Spy includes a brief history of WW II, a time line of the war and a brief history of the Tour de France; in other books, I’ve included things like games, recipes and craft projects. 

          Working on a historical novel is an exacting, and often demanding task. I’ve tried to meet those demands with a combination of the right kind of research and an expansive, kid-centric approach.  And the enthusiastic response to The Bicycle Spy makes me think that I’ve succeeded. 

Yona Zeldis McDonough is the award-winning author of twenty-seven books for children and seven novels for adults: THE FOUR TEMPERAMENTS, IN DAHLIA'S WAKE, BREAKING THE BANK (which has been optioned for a film), A WEDDING IN GREAT NECK, TWO OF A KIND, YOU WERE MEANT FOR ME, and THE HOUSE ON PRIMROSE POND.  Her essays, articles, and short fiction have appeared in numerous national and literary publications. She is also the fiction editor of Lilith magazine. McDonough lives in Brooklyn with her husband and their two children.

Marcel loves riding his bicycle, whether he's racing through the streets of his small town in France or making bread deliveries for his parents' bakery. He dreams of someday competing in the Tour de France, the greatest bicycle race. But ever since Germany's occupation of France began two years ago, in 1940, the race has been canceled. Now there are soldiers everywhere, interrupting Marcel's rides with checkpoints and questioning. Then Marcel learns two big secrets, and he realizes there are worse things about the war than a canceled race. When he later discovers that his friend's entire family is in imminent danger, Marcel knows he can help -- but it will involve taking a risky bicycle ride to pass along covert information. And when nothing ends up going according to plan, it's up to him to keep pedaling and think quickly... because his friend, her family, and his own future hang in the balance.

www.yonazeldismcdonough.com

Book Review: TIGER, TIGER by Lynne Reid Banks

First Paragraph: THE TWO TIGER CUBS, romping in the jungle undergrowth near their den, prick up their ears. 

Lynne Reid Banks will be here Thursday to face the 7 Questions.

Esteemed Reader, it's been amazing how regularly we've been able to have the Ninja's childhood heroes appear at this blog, and this week is a very special one for me. I've been trading emails with Lynne Reid Banks and I have to say, the experience has been surreal. I read all The Indian in the Cupboard books when I was a wee Ninja and loved them all. I've felt about chatting with Lynne Reid Banks the way I suppose a modern fourth grader might feel if he grew up to chat with J.K. Rowling. 

She read my review of The Indian in the Cupboard, which I posted back on August 10th, 2010  It was one of my first classic Book of the Week reviews and when I wrote it I had no idea Lynne Reid Banks might actually read it! Once in a while, life is just too good, and being able to tell my favorite authors how much I love her books is a thrilling experience I highly recommend having:) Her interview is charming and very, very funny, and you don't want to miss it as posting it will forever stand out in my memory as one of my proudest moments as a blogger.

Today, however, we are discussing another of Banks's classic works. Tiger, Tiger is historical fiction that while written with younger readers in mind, like the best middle grade works, is a book meant to be enjoyed by adults as well. The trick, as always, is a good story well-told, and content that would be of interest to any reader at any stage in their life. 

It's obvious Banks means for children to read her book as she slows down for them on occasion:

To launch the entertainment, two tall, splendid gladiators were set to fight, one armed with a sword and the other with a net and a trident—a fork with spiked tines and a long handle.

Yet, for passages such as the one above, where definitions are made explicit for readers, what I admire most about this book is that it does not talk down to the reader. As is characteristic of her writing, Banks keeps the pace moving forward. She presents aspects of history, the relevant information the reader must know, and goes on with the story with remarkable speed. 

And Tiger, Tiger contains a lot of complex themes and ideas. It's an epic tale of the Roman Empire, the beginnings of the Christian church (not exactly in favor of it), animal and women's rights, and true-to-life historical depiction. A lesser writer might've taken 600 pages to tell this story, but Banks trusts her reader to be smart enough to keep up with her. She insists children bring themselves to her level rather than lower herself to theirs and the result is wonderful book still being read and celebrated. 

The main story of Tiger, Tiger is of two tiger cubs later named by two-legged masters Brute and Boots. In the opening pages, the cubs are stolen and their mother is killed. They're dragged back to Rome where Brute is trained to be a killer in the coliseum (can you really have a Roman epic without gladiators) and other is de-fanged and fixed like a house pet to live with a princess in her palace. Much of the novel is devoted to the tiger's experiences in their new lives:

On the fairly rare occasions when he was allowed into the arena, Brute killed again—not perhaps with the spectacular ferocity of the first time, but from the point of view of the spectators, satisfactorily enough. He developed, as man-eaters will, a taste for human flesh, which added to his enthusiasm for the occasions when he was allowed to hunt down and eat two-legged prey, and maintained his growing reputation as the sanguinary star of the circus. 

Only for Boots, nothing changed. His fortunate, pampered life continued. Catlike, he was content with enough to eat, comfortable sleeping quarters, and the petting and affection of his mistress. He no longer missed his brother or the beautiful, savage world he had been bred in. If things had continued as they were, he might have lived out this placid, unnatural life until he died of old age. 

But there were cataclysms ahead for him—for all of them.

I love that last line, which, naturally, precedes a break. Banks may be giving a history lesson, but she still keeps the reader hooked and keeps the pages turning first and foremost. Of course, the nice thing about history is its filled with necessary violence and taboos. There is plenty of horrendous violence sprinkled throughout, all of it historically accurate, which also helps to keep pages turning. 

Over the course of the novel, Banks demonstrates her gift for putting the reader in the viewpoint of multiple characters both human and animal. What would it be like to be a nearly 13-year old princess in ancient Rome whom men thought eligible to be married? What pressures would that bring? Here is what the crowd has to say when poor princess Aurelia is dragged at last to the coliseum to witness for the the first time the slaughter of humans and animals for entertainment:

“How lucky we came today! Imagine how excited she must be, to see the circus for the very first time!” Many were remembering their own first visits. There was a general feeling of privilege and rejoicing, as if the daughter of Caesar were passing through a sort of initiation into the glorious state of being a full Roman citizen.

For much of Tiger, Tiger the reader comes to the story from the third person perspective of the tigers. They never talk nor have thoughts that a tiger couldn't conceivably have. Their take on the world around them in unique and interesting, but Banks makes no attempt to personify them. Instead, she presents their world as they would likely perceive it:

The smells were bad because there was no way to bury their scat. And there was the smell of other animals, and their fear. And there was a strange smell they didn't recognize, a salt smell like blood. But it wasn't blood. It was bad being enclosed. All the smells that should have dissipated on the wind were held in, close. Cloying the sensitive nostrils. Choking the breath. Confusing and deceiving, so that the real smells, the smells that mattered, couldn't be found, however often the cubs put up their heads and reached for them, sniffing in the foul darkness.

A coarse, loud voice shouted, “Quiet, you little brute, or I'll give you something to howl for!” The threat in it was unmistakable. The bigger cub urinated with fear, then found a corner, pressed himself tight to the cold wall, and lay down. He didn't sleep. He was too nervous. He shivered and all his striped fur stood on end. There had been something in that voice that filled him with dread.

Ultimately, of course, Tiger, Tiger is more about humans than tigers--nearly all stories written by humans are. By putting us in multiple perspectives, both human and animal, Banks is cultivating in her reader a historical perspective. After all, those who do not lean history are destined to repeat it. By presenting us with characters as they would've likely been in their time and place, we're able to consider who they were and thus who we were:

“All societies have hierarchies,” she was told. “All societies have higher and lower, masters and slaves.” 

“It must be terrible to be a slave!” 

“You must not entertain such thoughts. Waste no pity on slaves. They have no responsibilities, no traditions to maintain, no laws to make and keep. They have no concerns about food and shelter. They only have to do what they're told, and live out their simple lives in peace and order.” 

In the end, Esteemed Reader, isn't gaining perspective why we read stories in the first place? We want to know how we're to live, so we look to stories to teach us. By considering humans through history, we can learn to be better humans now.

Tiger, Tiger is a wonderful tale sure to enthrall readers of all ages and teach them a few things they didn't know before while entertaining them. What more can a reader ask for? As always, I'll leave you with some of my favorite passages from Tiger, Tiger:

Julius swallowed hard. The pictures in his mind almost unmanned him.

Her mother smiled. “It should, perhaps, but it doesn't. People are bloodthirsty. It's the nature of simple folk. Blood excites them, and they love to be excited. It takes them out of their boring lives.”

...appealed to Aurelia about as strongly as being tied up in the arena and fed to the wild beasts, like those strange, death-inviting Christians

A spear that whistled past him— reminding him of his trainer's proddings—simply enraged him more, so that he pursued the thrower in an avenging bound, and tore out his throat. But after a few minutes of frenzied whirling, pouncing, rending, and clawing, Brute's killing urge left him. He remembered his hunger, lay down—but warily—beside his first victim, and began to eat the man's entrails.

Since he had held her in his arms he ached to hold her again. The little head he had pressed protectively to his chest had left an invisible imprint there that called insistently to be filled.


STANDARD DISCLAIMER: All reviews here will be written to highlight a book’s positive qualities. It is my policy that if I don’t have something nice to say online, I won’t say anything at all (usually). I’ll leave you to discover the negative qualities of each week’s book on your own. 

7 Questions For: Author Annette Laing

British-born Annette Laing is author of The Snipesville Chronicles, a series of novels about the adventures of three kids who time-travel in British and American history. Click here to read my review.

Dr. Laing is also a historian of early America and the Atlantic World. She has written several articles on popular religious culture, and delivered papers at conferences from Los Angeles to Glasgow, including an invited paper at Newnham College, Cambridge University.

As an historian, Annette is perhaps best known for her work in public history. She has developed children's history programs and presentations since 2003, most notably TimeShop (2004-2007), which was the subject of a 2006 Associated Press feature.

In 2008, Annette resigned her position in the history department at Georgia Southern University to devote herself full-time to her writing, presentations, and work advocating history for children. In Fall, 2009, she launched Imaginative Journeys Kids Programs of South Georgia, a nonprofit organization that creates and promotes non-boring educational programs for children. Annette was a presenter at the Georgia Council for the Social Studies Meeting (2008) and the California Council for the Social Studies Meeting (2009.) Annette will present at the National Council for the Social Studies Meeting in November, 2009.

Annette lives in Georgia with her husband and son. And now she must face the 7 Questions:

Question Seven: What are your top three favorite books?

No idea...I have eclectic tastes, and I've forgotten half the books I've enjoyed, much less read. Plus I always feel obliged, when answering such questions, to keep my selections high-falutin'... With that caveat, I will say in all honesty that I'm a Dickens fan, and love David Copperfield. Mind you, I'm also a Sophie Kinsella fan, and love the Shopaholic series, so you count those as #2 and #3. :-)

Question Six: How much time do you spend each week writing? Reading

Depends on how busy I am: I design and direct history camps for kids several times a year, and on camp weeks, I neither read nor write. Once I'm done with camp each day, I loll around drooling for hours. When I'm in full literary mode, I can spend 18 hours a day writing and/or reading. Most often, three hours a day writing. Wow, that was a complicated answer to a simple question, wasn't it?

Question Five: What was the path that led you to publication?

Set out on the wandering trail of midlife crisis, wrote novel as catharsis, amazed when usually critical and always clever friends raved about early drafts. Sharp turn onto what looked like a dead end when I had major health crisis. Ignored yellow traffic lights from pals who urged me to send book to assorted agents, big publishers, etc. Decided I didn't want to be stuck at Stop sign for months or years (might kick the bucket from health crisis meanwhile). Went indie press route with eyes wide open, hoping enough friends would buy copies to avoid embarrassment. Started getting fan mail from strangers. Hit the freeway.

Question Four: Do you believe writers are born, taught or both? Which was true for you?

Both. I have never taken a creative writing class, but I trained as a journalist (learning to write for a broad audience) and as an historian (learning to write for a small audience.) My old friend Katy Gardner (Penguin author, she name-drops) called me a born writer, and she would know, because she and I passed notes in class from the age of 11.

Question Three: What is your favorite thing about writing? What is your least favorite thing?

Favorite: The fun of daydreaming and editing, because I'm a weirdo who loves to edit her own stuff. Least favorite: Nothing. Really.

Question Two: What one bit of wisdom would you impart to an aspiring writer? (feel free to include as many other bits of wisdom as you like)

 Get a life: Don't spend your youth swanning around proclaiming yourself a writer, and go have experiences instead. Write to amuse and entertain yourself *and others*: There are enough people navel-gazing onto paper and calling it art. Don't be an aspiring writer: Just write. Enjoy what you do, because there's no point in writing for fame and fortune.

Question One: If you could have lunch with any writer, living or dead, who would it be? Why?

Having lunch with a dead author would be a bit of a downer, and I don't imagine the conversation would be up to much. So I'll opt for the living. I would have lunch with Penelope Lively, be too tongue-tied to say much myself, and try not to bore her. She's so brilliant, so English, and so interesting. I am not worthy.

www.annettelaing.com

Book of the Week: DON’T KNOW WHERE, DON’T KNOW WHEN by Annette Laing

Today we’re talking about The Snipesville Chronicles, Book One: Don’t Know Where, Don’t Know When. Do you like time travel, esteemed reader? Do you like being immersed in the world of the past and learning about another time and place? Do you like educational fiction that aims to expand your knowledge base as well as entertain? You do! Well, you’re in luck.
Here’s the scoop on Don't Know Where, Don't Know When: Hannah Dias and her brother Alex are moving from California to the most boring place in the world, Snipesville, Georgia, where nothing exciting like time travel ever happens, or does it? It does. Hannah and Alex are having a tough time of things. Not only are they moving, but their mother has died in a car crash and their father is so busy with work he hardly has time for them. Their Grandparents worry that the Georgia schools won’t be up to the standard of California and that it will be the same racist land it was back when Ray Charles had difficulty finding a place where they’d let him sing their state song.

Meanwhile, Snipesville resident Brandon Clark has his own problems to contend with. He’s got an older brother whose trophies fill their house and an overbearing mother who keeps both Brandon and his father under her thumb. What Brandon wants most is to be a college student and to do some traveling, like his cousin Franklin. Brandon is also black and as though to confirm the suspicions of Hannah’s grandparents, Laing writes, “Franklin was a Big Shot, one of many Big Shots who had left black Snipesville to find careers they couldn’t have in town, where white Snipesville controlled most of the jobs.”

If ever there were three children in need of a time travel adventure, Hannah, Alex, and Brandon are surely them. So they fire up the Delorean to 88 mph and disappear into a lightening blast, leaving behind flaming tire tracks, right? Nope, there is no time machine. Okay, we’ll they dress in period clothes and hypnotize themselves until they have traveled through time like Christopher Reeve in Somewhere in Time, right? No, none of that either. In fact, there really isn’t a whole lot of time travel to speak of.

While they’re in a library, the children meet a professor who I am convinced is Annette Laing, though the text never says. Next thing the children know, all of the computers in the library have disappeared and the librarian is asking what the children are doing there, especially Brandon (because he’s black) and that’s how the children learn they are suddenly in the 1940’s. Who is the professor and why is she whisking innocent children through time? How is she doing it? Is she a witch, as the children speculate?

Minor spoiler, Laing never really gives us a concrete reason for the time traveling or the professor’s motivation for sending the children through time other than to teach them about history. The professor later explains, “I find the minute I sum up something, give it a name, and put it in a box, I’ve stopped trying to understand it, and that will never do… Tell me, Hannah, in your view, does everything have to have a creator and a point… Really, isn’t the experience itself the point?” Ka is a wheel, in other words (and if you know that reference, you are awesome).

Some may be disappointed by this explanation of time travel, or rather this lack of explanation. I was okay with it. And a conventional time travel story would not have worked here as lucky for Brandon, the children do not travel to the Georgia of yesteryear, but instead they wind up in England during World War Two. They arrive in “butt ugly” grey uniforms with English money in their pockets and fake identities. There is no conventional time travel device that would account for all of this and so Laing wisely avoids concocting one. Magic is as good an explanation as any.

In this way, Don’t Know Where, Don’t Know When reminded me of A Wrinkle in Time, another famous story in which three children have an amazing adventure without a great deal of explanation for it. Sometimes it’s best just to present a ridiculous premise as is and let the reader take it or leave it. No amount of explanation is likely to convince the reader that children in Georgia randomly travel through time to another country at the whims of a history professor, so why bother with an explanation? If the reader wants to enjoy the story, she accepts the premise, and if she wants to debate the finer points of time travel, she can read Stephen Hawking.

I have to admit, I had motivations for reading this book beyond merely promoting it here. I once had an idea for my own middle grade time travel story that would star two boys, one black and one white. I have yet to write it because I’m not sure how to handle the subject of race. If the boys were traveling back in time here in Indiana, say about forty years back, they would find that my home state was the proud head of Klu Klux Klan at that time. My wife and I wouldn’t have been able to marry and it’s a good thing we haven’t traveled through time as we likely would have been hung. One of my wife’s aunts was left to die by white doctors who wouldn’t admit her to a whites only hospital. When you hear certain politicians crying out for a return to simpler American times and values, do remember that the 1950s weren’t so swell for everybody and they aren’t coming back (thank God).

But I’m getting away from myself. How, then, should a writer deal with the subject of race in a middle grade book about time travel featuring a multi racial cast? I have no doubt this very question keeps you up nights. Does the writer ignore race completely and focus instead on the fun of a good time travel story? That approach might work if the multi racial cast is traveling to caveman times or some other period where race would not be an issue, or if the story itself has little to do with an actual historicaly acurate time. But if the multi racial cast travels to a time and place such as the 1940s and the details of that time are presented accurately in all other respects, the issue of race must be addressed. To do otherwise is to tell a lie and lose credibility. On the other hand, racism is an ugly subject and parents may not want a truly frank addressing of it in a “children’s novel” outside of Huck Finn, which they keep trying to ban from libraries. Maybe it’s best just not to go there, which so far is the approach I have taken.

Laing is not the coward that I am, and she goes there and what she does is to address the subject head on, and then she drops it. A few characters make snide comments to Brandon. He is referred to as colored and a negro and asked to leave the library and then he somehow is separated from Hannah and Alex and travels to 1915 England when race is not as much of an issue. Because Don’t Know Where, Don’t Know When isn’t concerned so much with racism or time travel. Its purpose is to educate and that it does in a fun way. If you’re a history buff or you have children who are eager to learn, this is a book you’ll want to check out. If you’re not a history buff, you might just enjoy checking it out anyway.


STANDARD DISCLAIMER: Book of the Week is simply the best book I happened to read in a given week. There are likely other books as good or better that I just didn’t happen to read that week. Also, all reviews here will be written to highlight a book’s positive qualities. It is my policy that if I don’t have something nice to say online, I won’t say anything at all (usually). I’ll leave you to discover the negative qualities of each week’s book on your own.

Book of the Week: EMMA’S RIVER by Alison Hart

Do you like horses, Esteemed Reader? How about steamboats? Well, if you’re like me, you like horses, steamboats, well-written middle grade historical fiction, and you’re going to love Emma’s River. I certainly did.
I’ve never written any historical fiction. Probably because I have enough trouble doing the research to figure out how characters might react to the current age. I would have a heck of a time adding even another layer of research to my writing. But Alison Hart is more gifted than I and her ability to weave historical facts into her narrative and create for the reader the world of the past is worth studying. More on that in a moment.

Before I get to the book, let me just start by praising what a superior product Peachtree Publishers has put together. I know it’s a little unusual to praise a book’s binding in a review, but seriously this book is so nice it’s a pleasure to hold it in your hand and I like the look of it on my shelf. Everything from the artwork to the layout of the pages to the spacing of the words to yes, the binding, are all top notch. We’re told as children not to judge a book by its cover, but most kids do anyway, and this is a book that was built to attract young readers and sustain any amount of rough treatment (it’s got a thick hardcover).

Okay, enough with that stuff. Let’s talk story. The year is 1852 and ten-year-old Emma Wright is traveling up the Mississippi with her pregnant mother on the steamboat Sally May. Also traveling with Emma is Twist, her horse, and it is Emma’s love of Twist that drives the story. Twist is mistreated by deck hands and stored below the main ship where Emma will not be able to see him for the full four days of their journey. Well, plucky girl that she is, Emma finds ways to sneak down to see Twist and make sure he’s well taken care of, despite the various adults who conspire against her. She makes friends, she learns about the world around her, and the nature of true social justice. Better yet, the book culminates in an action blow out that I won’t spoil here, except to say that I was moved by the sad parts of the story and I truly enjoyed the finale.

So there you have it, Emma’s River is a fine book, well put together, well written, and worth parting with your money for. Everything else I have to say will be directed toward fellow writers, because Alison Hart has got mad skillz and her work is worthy of a little more analysis. The first thing to notice is that Hart doesn’t dumb down history for kids, which I respect. She doesn’t dwell on the unpleasant aspects, but she doesn’t omit them either. Emma and her mother are white and privileged, but there are plenty of Negroes (the right word for 1852), Indians, and Irish people in the story, and Hart doesn’t pretend they were treated any better than the facts suggest. Here is how she handles the plight of a native American man:

“Mist LaBarge, did you see the Indian on the hill?” Emma asked.
“Aye.
“Was he not preparing to attack us?”
He shook his head. “The Indians in this area won’t attack. Too many of them have been wiped out by cholera and smallpox. Others starve on reservations because settlers have taken their land. The rest trade trinkets or beg food to survive.”

Hart’s rendering of history with an eye toward the mistreated underclass reminds me of my favorite historian, Howard Zinn, who’s A People's History of the United States should be taught in classes everywhere rather than the doublespeak dreamed up by Texas text book publishers (that’s a rant for another post). But there are a number of historical books for kids and otherwise filled with a fantasy version of the United States that never existed and that I would not allow my kids (when I have some) to read. I would let my kids read Emma’s River because Hart tells the truth about the bad stuff and in so doing gains my trust regarding her reliability for the rest of it.

Emma’s River is clearly written and published with an eye for school libraries and the classroom. There’s a seven page section at the back of the book filled with factual information about life in 1852 and steamboats as well as a list of material references and a webpage. So if teachers wanted to incorporate Emma’s River into their history lessons, Hart and Peachtree Publishers have made it easy for them.

But for all of that, Emma’s River doesn’t read like a boring history lesson at all! Hart’s most amazing accomplishment as far as I’m concerned is that she has found a story vehicle that delivers historical information as it entertains. Her facts, which in the hands of a lesser writer would have slowed the story faster than exposition, are used to propel the story forward and are presented in the most exciting possible manner. I want to leave you with one last excerpt from early in the book and the thing to notice is that every detail Hart presents is made relevant to the story by its relationship or potential relationship to Emma. Great stuff:

“Aye, I can read these rivers like a schoolgirl reads a primer.”
“Read a river?” Emma repeated.
“Look here. I’ll show you.” The pilot waved her closer. Emma stepped next to him. If she stood on tiptoe, she could see out the open front of the pilothouse. The sun was slowly setting, turning the river into a golden-red ribbon.
Mister LaBarge pointed ahead. “See those ripples in the water to yer left?” She nodded. “See how they slant? That tells me ‘gravel reef ahead.’ If we hit that reef, Sally May could stop dead in the river. “
“We don’t want that.”
“Nay, we do not. Traveling upstream, the Sally May’s slow enough.” He pointed to the right. “See that circular whirl? That signals a snag.”
“A snag is a tree that’s fallen into the river,” Captain Digby explained. If the Sally May is unlucky enough to ram a big one, it could split her hull and we’d sink.”
Emma gasped. “Sink? Just like that?”

And there you have it. Hart just taught us something important about life on a steamboat in 1852, but it didn’t feel like learning. Partly because I’m sure she cherry picked the most interesting details (nothing wrong with that), but also because what we learned about felt relevant. To paraphrase one of my favorite lines from Jaws: “Boat goes in the water. Emma goes in the boat. Deadly Snag is in the water. Emma sinks in the water. Our Emma. Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish ladies…”


STANDARD DISCLAIMER: Book of the Week is simply the best book I happened to read in a given week. There are likely other books as good or better that I just didn’t happen to read that week. Also, all reviews here will be written to highlight a book’s positive qualities. It is my policy that if I don’t have something nice to say online, I won’t say anything at all (usually). I’ll leave you to discover the negative qualities of each week’s book on your own. 

7 Questions For: Author Alan Garinger

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Alan Garinger is the author of Alone, Torch in the Darkness, Water Monsters, and the Jeremiah Stokely series. His books have won multiple awards including the Dorothy Hamilton Award and the Young Hoosier Reader Award of the Indiana Library Federation. His educational laurels include Indiana Outstanding Young Educator, Indiana Outstanding Community Educator, an Indiana State Teachers Association award for Exemplary Inner-city Programs, and appointment to the Indiana Literacy Council. Before entering the field of children’s literature, Garinger wrote all or part of 70 nationally broadcast educational TV programs, 15 books, dozens of magazine articles, and 16 computer courseware programs. I've met Mr. Garinger and his knowledge of the middle-grade novels is unmatched. 

And now Alan Garinger faces the 7 Questions:

Question Seven: What are your top three favorite books?

My all time favorite book is Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon. Since I now read mostly books for young readers, I have to include Holes by Louis Sachar and Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt.

Question Six: How much time do you spend each week writing? Reading?

If I'm into a project, I plan to spend four hours a day doing "writing stuff." That doesn't necessarily mean just composing. It's research, making contacts, planning out troublesome scenes, etc. I am, however much effected by the goal gradient. The closer I get to the end, the harder (more) I work. I've spent many fourteen hour days in front of a screen. I generally read myself to sleep every night.

Question Five: What was the path that led you to publication?

I'd like to tell you that it was all planned out but that's not true. What is laughingly called "my writing career" has been more like life in a pinball machine than anything else. If becoming a professional means you get paid for it, my first professional job was writing the copy for a cartoon strip. Since then I've written everything from tv to political speeches, from books to matchbook covers, from computer programs to ad copy, from scholarly stuff to menus.

Question Four: Do you believe writers are born, taught or both? Which was true for you?

The longer I think about this kind of question the less affection I have for that thing we call "talent." For me the whole experience, especially since I went full-time in 1984, is hacking it out. It has been getting an idea and staying with it until something happens to it.

So I guess writers are born if tenacity is part of what they're born with. I tried to follow the plan that conventional wisdom suggests. Start with non-fiction, build a resume, make contacts and do networking, do some magazine work, write some things in your academic field, establish a presence, etc. It just didn't work out that way. Almost everything I've done happened by fluke rather than plan.

Question Three: What is your favorite thing about writing? What is your least favorite thing?

Without question it's the research. I like that better than the writing and infinitely better than the publishing.

Question Two: What one bit of wisdom would you impart to an aspiring writer? (feel free to include as many other bits of wisdom as you like)

Everything you write is important whether it is published or not. I recommend going over things you have written and look for spin-off possibilities. At least three of my books resulted from having studied things that I had done before.

Question One: If you could have lunch with any writer, living or dead, who would it be? Why?

No question about this. It would have to be Thoreau.

Actual Interview Date: 8/15/2009

www.jeremiahstokely.com

7 Questions For: Author Christine Blevins

Christine Blevins is the author of Midwife of the Blue Ridge and The Tory Widow, both historical novels. From the bio section of her website: “Christine Blevins grew up on the south side of Chicago. She is the youngest of four children born to Ukrainian immigrants. Like most immigrant kids, she was expected to study hard and excel in school. She spent a lot of time with her nose in a book, and in her beloved books, she found the pathways to worlds beyond the grimy neighborhood she lived in. Christine eventually left the old neighborhood, completed design school, landed a job as an interior designer, fell in love with Brian Blevins (a wonderful guy), married him, had children (four great kids), veered into the graphic design business (partners with Brian), all the while never losing her ability to become wholeheartedly immersed in a good story.” Mrs. Blevins lives in Illinois with her family and their golden retriever, Dude. 

And now Christine Blevens faces the 7 Questions:

Question Seven: What are your top three favorite books?

Oy! I hate this question. I have too many! In keeping with me being a historical novelist and all, my three favorites books today are stories that absolutely swept me away to another time and place:

THE HOBBIT by J.R.R. Tolkien

THE THREE MUSKETEERS by Alexander Dumas

SHOGUN by James Clavell

Question Six: How much time do you spend each week writing? Reading?

With a job (I’m a marketing director for a construction company) and a family that I like to spend time with (happily married for almost 30 years, four grown kids, and one lovely granddaughter) I have to maintain a pretty structured routine in order to meet my writing deadlines. I have recently shifted to a four-day workweek, and I devote most of my three-day weekend to writing, and to writing-business stuff, like answering these questions ;-).

I do “write” on workdays from about 7 pm to 11, but that time is mainly spent tuning up whatever I accomplished on the weekend, and compiling research for the upcoming segment.

I have to say I’m extraordinarily lucky to have a very supportive family that pitches in to help me keep the house in order, the laundry done, and the fridge stocked, otherwise, I’d be at wits end.

Reading?

Unfortunately, to keep up a pace of producing a book a year, reading for pleasure is something I don’t have much time for. As a historical fiction writer, I have to read an awful lot of non-fiction in order to really “know” my time period, my setting, and how my characters exist within it. My WIP is a sequel to THE TORY WIDOW—published this past April, it’s a story set in New York City at the onset of the American Revolution—and even though I do have a good handle on Revolutionary America, I still end up having to do a lot of research to keep the details alive and accurate. I do read for pleasure when I’m on vacation though.

We just spent a week in Mexico, and I gobbled up four books. Yum!

Question Five: What was the path that led you to publication?

About 8 years ago, when my younger two became old enough to require less of my attention, I began writing fiction as a hobby. I floundered around on my own for a while, and then joined a writer’s group that met once a week at my local community college. In group, I began to write a novel in my favorite genre—historical fiction.

The group was essential in providing me the camaraderie and structure I needed. Three years later, the novel was finished and polished, and I looked at the stack of 487 manuscript pages and thought, “Now what?”

My husband Brian’s hobby is painting, and when he finishes a piece, it is hung on a wall to be admired and enjoyed. Well, it’s hard to hang a manuscript on the wall! Though I enjoy the writing process, I realized my greatest pleasure is derived in sharing my stories. I write to entertain, and I decided I had to at least try to pursue publication. I figured, what the heck?

So I dove into the business of getting published. I researched the process, compiled a list of literary agents and began sending out query letters. After eight months, and about a zillion rejections, I landed a wonderful agent, Nancy Coffey. Seven months after signing with Nancy, we had a two-book deal from Jackie Cantor at Berkley.

That was a surprise! I had to get cracking on writing THE TORY WIDOW, which Nancy sold based on a five-page synopsis I cobbled together at the eleventh hour in answer to the question “What else does she have?”

This last January, I signed a new contract with Berkley for two sequels to TORY, and so before I knew it, my dream of getting the one book published had turned into a writing career.

Question Four: Do you believe writers are born, taught or both? Which was true for you?

I think people are born with talents that need to be developed with guidance and dedication. A talented musician might take lessons and spend hours practicing to master his instrument. A fine artist might need to be taught theory and technique. A writer might take classes to learn how to command the elements storytelling and language. These paths of development will vary in method and in intensity, but the talent—the ability to create—I think that is innate.

Which was true for me? Both. I think I am a born storyteller who developed into a good writer by observing life, by reading a ton of good writing, by being part of a great writer’s group, and by being lucky enough to get advice from a wonderful editor. I continue to work hard to better my abilities, and I am always learning.

Question Three: What is your favorite thing about writing? What is your least favorite thing?

I love when my characters surprise me.

What is my least favorite thing? Those not-so-positive reviews. I don’t like those very much at all. I put a ton of effort into writing the kind of book I like to read, and I totally understand that I can’t please ‘em all, but still—reading a negative review can be quite painful. I am happy to add that the pain is made bearable by way more oh-so-positive reviews, and lots of email from readers who enjoy my stories.

Question Two: What one bit of wisdom would you impart to an aspiring writer? (feel free to include as many other bits of wisdom as you like)

Grow a thick skin.

Question One: If you could have lunch with any writer, living or dead, who would it be? Why?

I would love to buy lunch for Bernard Cornwell on his birthday. Why? Four reasons:

1- I so admire his work.

2- We have the same birthday.

3- He was kind enough to read my debut novel MIDWIFE OF THE BLUE RIDGE, and give me a great blurb for the cover.

4- He seems like a really cool guy.

Actual Interview Date: 8/27/2009

www.christineblevins.com