The Trojan Horse Traitor

Wow! Here's another spectacular book I've read lately!

The Trojan Horse Traitor is about Levi, a boy who gets sent to a camp on an isolated island for the entire Summer, and must deal with bullies.

Sound familiar? 

But if you were to move J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis to twenty-first century America and put them in that camp they might have been able to write something like this book.

Levi and his new friends must deal with hard work, strict staff, and nasty kids, but also magic and demons.

The plot is full of surprises and Levi learns things he never knew about himself.

While the book is listed for New Adults, it doesn't involve much romance, so younger kids would enjoy it if they can cope with the scary stuff. And, hey, that's what makes fiction appealing, isn't it?

When I first opened the book I intended only to read a few pages at that time, but it was so exciting I had to finish the whole thing.

Amy C. Blake is a wonderful writer and I hope to see more books by her in the future.

What I Review

This is called the Onwords (On Words) blog and it's about words (i.e. language,) books, and kids.
A lot of my posts are reviews of books for kids. That includes all three of the basic topics.

Where do I get all the books I review?

Sometimes I trade with other authors who are willing to review books I've written.
At other times I review library books. I get some at our community's free book swap. 
And once in a while I review one of the many books already on my own shelves.

I can't begin to count the number of kids' books I've read in my life.

When I entered second grade I was reading at fifth grade level, and immediately became a bookaholic with no intention of ever getting into recovery.

As a parent, teacher, and grandparent I've read books to children (usually picture books) hundreds of times. For my own pleasure I usually read five or six middle grade books every week with an occasional chapter book or Young Adult novel thrown in.

I refuse to review books I don't like because it's hard for writers to sell their books and I don't want to make someone else's job more difficult even if I don't like their work myself.

I hope some people who read these posts find out about books they should buy or check out of the library for their own kids, grandkids, students and young friends to read. It would be great if my words here about books help children discover the joys of reading.

Maybe some of them will become bookaholics, too.

The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing

Because I often review books for or about kids on this blog I was happy to have Mayra Calvani give me a copy of her book, The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing to review.

But, wait! Do I really dare write a review of that book? What if I don't do it right?

Okay, I'll be brave and tell you about the book anyway, because it might be helpful to a lot of people.

The book, co-written by Calvani and Anne K Edwards, begins with basic information that would be familiar to most writers, but soon moves on to explain less obvious things. Some of the topics covered are various types of reviews, legal and moral aspects of publishing them, and the influence of reviews on book purchases. There are also lists of places to get reviews published and information about using them on the internet.

Anyone interested in becoming a professional reviewer would find the sections dealing with that especially helpful, but the book is also a good resource for amateurs. (I wish some of the people who reviewed my book, The Peril of the Sinister Scientist, had read the part about not giving away endings.)

I'll keep The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing near my desk and refer to it often in the future. Anyone who writes, or would like to write book reviews will probably find this book helpful.

Things Not Seen

Andrew Clements has written an exciting book for middle grade readers based on a unique and original concept. Bobby, the main character, wakes up one morning and discovers he has become invisible. He must keep his condition secret from everyone but his family to avoid being locked up for government experiments, but needs to go out into the world to discover the cause and search for possible cure. 

He makes friends with a blind girl who at first doesn’t realize nobody can see Bobby, and the two of them manage to get into some dangerous and exciting situations. 

While this book is mainly an adventure story, it involves some Science Fiction, just a touch of romance, and family relationships play an important part as the story unfolds. In my opinion, Things Not Seen should appeal to most young readers because it includes something for nearly everyone.

Same Kind of Different as Me

In this moving book Denver Moore, a homeless black man, and Ron Hall, a rich white man whose wife encourages him to help in a soup kitchen, overcome their prejudices, become friends, and help each other. As a result they also help many others. Lynn Vincent does a great job of combining the information given to her by both men into an inspiring whole and, as a result, she too is touching many lives. Readers of "Same Kind of Different as Me" may go on to do the same. I recommend it.

Another Good Book

I just finished reading Thinking in Pictures by Temple Grandin. She's a well known autistic woman who does a fascinating job of describing how her mind works and how it may differ from "normal' people's minds. If you've read previous blog posts here you probably know I'm fascinated with language and brain development, and I've spent a lot of time with people who have various special needs. Grandin's book includes all those topics, so it's no surprise that I enjoyed reading it a lot.

New and Different

First I must apologize for not posting much recently. I've been overwhelmed with other things, but promise to do better from now on. One of those things is signing a contract for a picture book. My work has been published in periodicals for years, but this is my first book, and in today's world authors are responsible to do a lot of the marketing and publicity. The amount of information about how to do that is amazing. It's about what you'd expect from a whole semester class in college. 

Although blogging is one marketing tool mentioned in the material, I won't turn this blog into just a way to advertise my book. There will still be posts about compassionate communication and I'll probably review other people's books from time to time, but I'll also share information about how I became a writer and the steps it takes to get a book published and made available to people who would want to buy it. I hope you'll come back and join me on the journey.

That's Not All, Folks

This blog was not intended to be just book reviews, but there are so many good books out there I keep thinking of just one more I've got to mention. There will be other things mentioned at times, I promise, but here's my honest confession; I'm a bookaholic with no intention of recovering. And I'm probably not the only person guilty of bibliolatry. Perhaps we should form a support group and call it Bookaholics Unanimous.