I recently finished two middle grade novels that I was reading my 4-year-old twins. They were both novels written in verse and both had the word “Red” in their title, which my 4-year-olds thought was really funny. Different stories, same word. It’s the little things that are amusing to kids.
The first story was called The Red Pencil and was written by Andrea Davis Pinkney. This story is about Amira, a girl from a Sudanese village that is attacked by the Janjaweed, a violent guerrilla group. Many in the village are killed. Amira and her family flee the village, and Amira begins to feel the bonds of her traditional culture clamping down around her. She wants to go to school. She wants to do many things. And she must find the strength to carry on amidst tragedy, disappointment and trial. It was a beautiful story of perseverance, hope and overcoming. Though many middle grade readers will not be able to empathize with Amira’s physical circumstances, they will be able to empathize with her love for learning, her fascination with art and her determination to work hard for what she has.
The Red Pencil is a sweet story about looking on every circumstance—good or bad—and asking what else is possible. It is the red pencil she receives at a camp that opens up the whispers of possibility in Amira’s life.
The second book was called The Red Butterfly and was written by A.L. Sonnichsen. This was the story of an orphan, Kara, who lives in China. She is eleven and spends most of her days in her tiny apartment with her mother, whom the people in her apartment complex see as old enough to be her grandmother. There is some mystery around her circumstances, which all comes crashing in on her when her sister from America comes to visit.
The Red Butterfly was a shockingly beautiful story about the hope of finding a home and not really knowing where that might be. Kara had a home she thought she wanted, but her mother had secrets. So she was forced to find a new home. In the middle of her uncertainty, she has to come to terms with her deformed hand, her dashed hopes and her new reality, while, at the same time, try to figure out who she is.
There are so many emotions that go into this story, and I think this quote will show you just why:
Mama would sit on a stool,
Crack the window
To let in the outside air
As she played
From memory,
Eyes closed,
Shoulders straight,
Body swaying
Forward and back,As if she were a tree
Bending in a slow breeze
As if her fingers were leaves
Tapping sounds into the airWe sold that piano
Because food
Became more important
Than music.Now, two years later,
Mama’s fingers can only
Run over the edge of the tabletop,
Remembering what it was like to be free.
This quote comes at the beginning of the story, and the entire book is filled with gems like this one. Both stories would make great summer reading reads for middle grade readers.
Learning
I recently finished a book called Writing Deep Scenes: Plotting Your Story Through Action, Emotion and Theme, by Martha Alderson and Jordan Rosenfeld. I know that some people have a slight aversion to plotting a novel, and I’ve spoken about this before. I used to write all of my stories as a sort of let’s-just-see-what-happens kind of thing. But I realized that I would end up with a lot of really good scenes but not really necessary scenes (and there’s a difference). And while this served a sort of purpose if you think about it in the terms of getting to know your characters better, it also meant that I was spending more on my stories than I really needed to. So my plotting has evolved since then, and I try to make sure that each scene has all the necessary pieces to it.
This book was really helpful in breaking down what should be present in each scene so that we can ensure that readers will continue reading and not check out or feel bored or decide the book’s not really what they expected. One of the authors is an expert on plotting and the other is an expert on writing scenes, and I felt like they made a really great team. This book was full of great information about how to plot out a scene in a way that makes it irresistible, which is what we always hope as writers. I think any writer, no matter where they are on the spectrum from novice to expert, would benefit by reading this book, if even only for the reminder that every single scene counts, and we have to make the most of them. Writers compete with things like television and YouTube videos, and we have to work harder now to get the attention of our readers and keep it.
You know, when I’m reading a book and a notification pings on my phone, depending on the book, I have to work really hard to not immediately pick up my phone and see why someone texted me. I want my books and every scene to be the kind that people can’t put down, even if their phone is blowing up. This book will help any writer do that.
I’ll definitely be reevaluating all of my scenes in all the books I have yet to publish, even the ones I’ve marked as “final final drafts.”
Personal
I’m a big proponent of getting books in kids’ hands and encouraging them to read. Every summer I sit down with my boys and make a summer reading list for each of them. I pick half the books on the list, and they pick the other half. We have some guidelines around that, of course. The 9-year-old is expected to read chapter books, not picture books. But the 5-year-old will probably have a few picture books and some early reader books on his list, since he’s still getting his feet under him when it comes to reading.
I generally try to make a list of 15 books they’ll read with their actual eyes, four books they’ll listen to on audio, and three books that we’ll all read together. We usually end up reading more than that together, but I don’t like to pressure us if we decide this is a summer to hang out at the pool together instead.
This year, my 5-year-old, 7-year-old and 9-year-old will be reading fifteen books each. My 4-year-olds will be reading as many books as we can get to, since they’re not yet reading on their own. But reading time in our house is really important, so they’ll at least get four picture books a day.
People have asked me whether we reward our kids for reading so much or if we just say “hey, good job.” I like to encourage more reading when they’ve finished their list, so what we’ll do at the end of every summer, is this: we’ll take a trip to a secondhand book shop and let our boys pick out as many books as they can get up to a certain dollar amount. They get super excited about this, and I don’t think the reward is the only reason they finish their summer reading lists. And if it does, well, the reward is more books. So I feel like that’s a win-win.
I’ll be sharing in the next few weeks the summer reading lists of each of my boys, and we’ll also be hearing from each boy about the books they’re most excited about reading this summer.
Writing
I’ve said this before, and I’ll probably say it again, but I never really thought I would be one to write something as involved as fantasy.
My first fiction series has released in digital form, and will release soon in hard copy form, and I’m just so flabbergasted how I got here. I typically write middle grade realistic fiction, but when the idea for Fairendale came along, I started to get a little excited. And also a little nervous, because I didn’t know for sure if I was up to the task. Could I really create a whole imaginary world around all of these characters?
Writing fantasy is not easy.
There are so many things you have to brainstorm. There are other lands, and the boundaries of those lands, and there are timelines and family trees and histories and how the lands came to be called what they’re called, and all the magical rules that the land is bound by, and then you have the storylines, and when you have a series as massive as Fairendale, there are so many storylines. I keep very detailed notes, pages and pages of open loops that will need to be closed by the end of the series. So much planning goes into writing a story like this one. So much care.
But when I think back to a year ago, when Fairendale was just a tiny little hint of an idea in my head, I think about how it felt so very far out of my league, and yet I decided to go ahead and try. And I surprised myself. I did it.
So I want you to know that you have no idea what you’re capable of until you actually try. That thing you secretly want to do? Just give it a go. It’s okay if it doesn’t look exactly like you thought it would. Sometimes that just means it’s better. So go ahead and try.
Watching
My boys and I recently watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the one with the creepy Johnny Depp Willy Wonka, and I was struck, as I have been every time I’ve watched the movie or read the book, by the wonderful imagination that created this story.
The story itself is wonderful. Rich and poor. Entitled and hard working. Disrespectful and respectful. It was clear what Roald Dahl was trying to teach his young readers.
But the movie is so full of color and music and creativity that it’s just amazing. I guess I had forgotten how entertaining it was. Even though it was produced in 2005, my kids still loved it. They’ve read the book, of course, because we don’t allow them to see movies until they’ve actually read the book, and the movie brought the story to life. It was a great experience for all.
Be sure to pick up a free book from my starter library. If you ever have any questions about great books to read or the craft of writing or creativity, leave them in the comments, and I’ll answer them in future episodes.
