Two MG books with strong female MC

Hi! Apparently, I took January off! LOL. But if you look at the extra book titles at the bottom of the last post, I had a lot of reading to do and ALL of them were great! 

So, these two blurbs are pretty short but worth writing about. And MC is main character, in case that wasn't clear. I would have spelled out protagonist but that's long in a title. Both have awesome covers, too. Anyway...on to the books!

The Mystery of Black Hollow Lane by Julia Nobel

From the publisher: Sourcebooks Young Readers (March 5, 2019) (was reprinted with illustrations 2020)

With a dad who disappeared years ago and a mother who's a bit too busy to parent, Emmy is shipped off to Wellsworth, a prestigious boarding school in England, where she's sure she won't fit in.

But then she finds a box of mysterious medallions in the attic of her home with a note reading: These belonged to your father.

When she arrives at school, she finds the strange symbols from the medallions etched into walls and books, which leads Emmy and her new friends, Jack and Lola, to Wellsworth's secret society: The Order of Black Hollow Lane.

Emmy can't help but think that the society had something to do with her dad's disappearance, and that there may be more than just dark secrets in the halls of Wellsworth…

 

I really had fun with this one. Even though it’s a familiar plot, with a Harry Potter feel, I enjoyed the characters and setting and the friendships. AND there’s a second book, which I’m looking forward to reading! If you like boarding schools, England, secret societies, then you’ll like this one. See if you can figure out who are good guys and who are bad guys. Plus, she’s a Canadian writer – and it’s an older book – hopefully you can find it easily.

The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone by Jaclyn Moriarty

From the publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books (October 9, 2018)

Bronte Mettlestone is ten years old when her parents are killed by pirates. This does not bother her particularly: her parents ran away to have adventures when she was a baby. She has been raised by her Aunt Isabelle, with assistance from the Butler, and has spent a pleasant childhood of afternoon teas and riding lessons. Now, however, her parents have left detailed instructions for Bronte in their will. (Instructions that, annoyingly, have been reinforced with faery cross-stitch, which means that if she doesn't complete them, terrible things could happen!).

She travels the kingdoms, perfectly alone, delivering gifts to ten other aunts: a farmer aunt who owns an orange orchard, a veterinarian aunt who specializes in dragon care, a pair of aunts who captain a cruise ship, and a former rock star aunt who is now the reigning monarch of a small kingdom. But as she travels from aunt to aunt, Bronte suspects there might be more to this journey than the simple delivery of treasure.

This one was hard to put in a blurb because it’s layered and complex but not hard to understand from a reading standpoint, but from a writing one.

The language and writing are unique and interesting. There are so many characters and storylines and so much happens that my writer brain wants to implode. That may not sound like a good thing, but it is, since it would be awesome to write like this.

To have all the threads interwoven and fit together, coupled with the language, makes for a magical read. (Also, not a new book, but new to me, so it should be easy to find and there are FIVE books in this Kingdoms and Empires series).

Book Review - FLICKERS by Arthur Slade (The Hunchback Assignments)

I'm so happy to post a review for this book. I hope everyone gets a chance to read it.

There is one word that can describe this cool, new book from Arthur Slade:

Unique, unique, unique, unique, unique, unique! Does that count as one word or six?!

And that’s saying a lot. The setting, the time period, the story and plot and the cover. Loved the art deco look. Once I opened it, I was instantly drawn into the characters’ lives. So well written. Throw in a little sci-fi and this novel appeals to everyone.

You’ve got twins with a curious past, old Hollywood, movie stars, glamour, parties, mysterious disappearances and very strange bugs. Plus true friendship.

From the publisher:

A movie scream so piercing, so chilling and so powerful, it will open up another dimension and summon something beyond all imagining...

Far from the isolated prairie ranch where they were born, orphaned twins Isabelle and Beatrice Thorn are living a glamorous 1920s Hollywood life as wards of Mr. Cecil, a mysterious and influential director. Isabelle is a silent film starlet, destined for greatness in the very first talking picture—a horror flick that will showcase her famous scream, often seen but never before heard by audiences. Meanwhile, Beatrice spends her days hidden away on the Cecil estate with her books and her insect collection, scarves covering her birthmarks and baldness. But Beatrice’s curiosity about Mr. Cecil, the death of her parents, the appearance of scorpion hornets—creatures that should not exist on this earth—and the unsettling fates of two people who visited his estate is getting the better of her, and she’s starting to realize the director has truly dark designs for this movie.

I wanted it to be longer, so that’s always a good sign. There was a really interesting addition at the end of the book that was also unique to the genre. I was going to say what it was but I don’t want to spoil it for readers. If you have read it, I'd love to hear what you thought!

And the fact that he lives in my hometown of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan makes it even more cool!


You can read other reviews of Middle Grade novels at Shannon Messenger’s Marvelous Middle Grade Monday post.

Book Review: Pie by Sarah Weeks

If you made the best pies in town, would you give them all away? That's what Alice's Aunt Polly does when she opens her pie shop in the small town of Ipswitch, Penn. And when Aunt Polly dies, she leaves her prized pie crust recipe to her cat!

Aunt Polly, also known as "the Pie Queen of Ipswitch," won the coveted Blueberry Award for pie-making a record 13 times. While her aunt was alive, Alice spent all of her free time in the shop, cracking walnuts and crumbling brown sugar. So when Aunt Polly dies, Alice finds herself in possession of her aunt's much loved but very cranky cat, Lardo--heir to the pie crust recipe. Now all of Ipswitch is trying to find Aunt Polly's recipe in order to become the next Blueberry Award winner. But without a decent piecrust, can anyone in town take home the prize? Bad pies are cooling on every windowsill. When Lardo disappears and the pie shop is ransacked, Alice and her new friend, Charlie, begin investigating the crimes.

In this gentle mystery, false trails and zaniness abound, and friendship and family rule the day. Aunt Polly lives on through her pies, and her wonderful pie recipes (included in the story). Alice puts it best when she sings, "A cat, a key, a clink, a clue,/ a chocolate pie, a friend that's true,/ A mystery that is finally through,/ And now a happy ending, too." This reader will begin by baking the delicious-sounding Lemon Chess Pie, from page 102. --Lynn Becker, host of the monthly online discussion of children's books for SCBWI, Book Talk. First appeared in Shelf Awareness for Readers 10/28/11, reprinted with permission.

Discover: A charming middle-grade mystery that stresses the importance of friendship, family and the goodness of pies.

Lynn Becker

www.lynnbeckerbooks.com

 

Book Launch - #2 with Robin Mellom

What a perfect day to post my interview with Robin Mellom, because it's her birthday! I had a fun time at her book launch in San Luis Obispo at the B&N. Make sure you check out the book trailer for The Classroom.

Heeeere's Robin!

I’ve had the fortune of planning two book launches in six months—one for my teen book, DITCHED, and the other for my middle grade novel, THE CLASSROOM. It definitely was easier the second time around since I knew what to expect (somewhat), but the planning that went into each one was definitely different.

For DITCHED, I knew most of my audience was going to be adults (friends, family, fellow writers) so I tailored the party to them. It was held at an indie bookstore, Diesel, in Los Angeles, and it was catered with light appetizers and cake. In my speech, I talked about my road to publication and how my writing dream finally came true. Was I nervous? Good grief, yes. But I decided it would be best to not have any notes in front of me and sort of “wing it.” I knew the few stories I wanted to tell and I just let myself tell them in a natural, conversational way. I think it was more entertaining for the audience and it was much easier for me to simply TALK than to worry about following a speech.  Plus, if I’d had notes I would’ve just dropped them since I have an issue with being a dork.

For THE CLASSROOM, there were many kids there and I made sure there were things at the party that would appeal to them. Before I spoke, I walked around and gave out wristbands that said “Be Epic” and at the front of the room I had an animated book trailer playing for them to watch. I kept my speech conversational (and notecard-less again) but this time I focused more on the writing of the book itself. I read some passages from the book but made sure they were pretty short and funny (hopefully!).

Mostly what I’ve taken away from these experiences is to keep your audience in mind and tailor the presentation to them. Then be prepared to think on your feet and change things up if you need to…at THE CLASSROOM launch I had planned on reading three passages but ended up cutting one during my presentation because I could sense my reading was getting too long. So sometimes you just have to “wing it” the whole way through! 

http://www.robinmellom.com/blog/

   

 

Bio: Robin Mellom used to teach middle schoolers and now she writes about them. (Any resemblance between fictional characters and real-life students is purely coincidental. Probably.)
She is also the author of Ditched: A Love Story. She lives with her husband and son on the Central Coast of California. Learn more at www.robinmellom.com and follow her on Twitter (@robinmellom).