revisionnotes

http://www.darcypattison.com/revision/smell-the-flowers/

http://www.darcypattison.com/?p=2306

I finished the second draft of my novel today. After such an enormous task, my only advise is to stop and enjoy the beauty of the world around you. Smell a flower, watch a butterfly.

Monarch of the Sasanqua Camellias

When I left my office, I noticed that the sasanqua camellias (it’s a fall-blooming variety) were full of bees and butterflies! This Monarch looks ragged: he’s only halfway to his migration destination in Mexico and still has to face flying over the Gulf of Mexico. I’m glad he stopped at our flowers for some R&R and to brighten my day.

Sunset on October 30

And this sunset was taken on October 30, the first real sunset after about ten days of rain. Because of the prolonged rain, it reminded me of Ray Bradbury’s classic short story, “All in a Summer’s Day.”

No related posts.

jkrbooks

http://jkrbooks.typepad.com/blog/2009/11/growing-bookworms-newsletter-november-9.html

Today I will be sending out the new issue of the Growing Bookworms email newsletter. (If you would like to subscribe, you can find a sign-up form here.) The Growing Bookworms newsletter contains content from my blog focused on children's books and raising readers. It is sent out once every two weeks (if you are getting daily Feedblitz updates, you might prefer to sign up for the Growing Bookworms newsletter instead, and only receive one email every two weeks). There are currently 961 subscribers to the newsletter. (I know that it's just a number, but I'm really hoping to get to 1000 by the end of the year.)

Newsletter Update: In this issue, I have three book reviews, two children's literacy round-ups (one here and one at The Reading Tub) and three posts with Kidlitosphere news. I also have a post about a nice list of children's literature blogs from School Library Journal. Not included in the newsletter, I have:

• Two posts at Booklights, one with children's literacy links for parents, and the other launching a new series that I'm writing on Tips for Growing Bookworms (Tip #1 is about reading aloud).
• A post showing my favorite Sesame Street-themed Google logo from the week (I love Cookie Monster).

• Angie Sage: Queste (Septimus Heap, Book 4). Katherine Tegen Books. Completed November 3, 2009. My review.
• Angie Sage: Syren (Septimus Heap, book 5). Katherine Tegan Books. Completed November 6, 2009. My review.
• Diana Peterfreund: Rampant. HarperTeen. Completed October 29, 2009. My review.
• Jordan Sonnenblick: After Ever After. Scholastic. Completed November 1, 2009. My review.

I have a trip for work coming up later this week which means that A) I'll probably get some reading done on airplanes; but B) posting on the blog will be sparse for the next few days. Hopefully I'll be able to get back up to speed on reviews after that. I have a huge stack of picture books awaiting my attention.

How about you? What have you been reading and enjoying? Thanks for reading, and for growing bookworms!

© 2009 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. All Amazon links in this post are affiliate links, and may result in my receiving a small commission on purchases (with no additional cost to you).

jkrbooks

http://jkrbooks.typepad.com/blog/2009/11/queste-and-syren-septimus-heap-4-and-5-angie-sage-middle-grade-book-review.html

Book: Queste (Septimus Heap, Book 4) and Syren (Book 5)
Author: Angie Sage
Illustrator: Mark Zug
Pages: 624,
Age Range: 9-12

I recently read the fourth and fifth books in Angie Sage's Septimus Heap series. I never reviewed books 1 through 3, although I enjoyed them, because I listened to them on audio (and I find I need to be able to flip back through flagged passages to write a proper review). The Septimus Heap books are a solid middle grade fantasy series, well-suited to kids who like the early Harry Potter books or Sarah Prineas' Magic Thief series. They are light and fun, filled with lush descriptions and humorous moments. While the characterization isn't as deep as, say, that of the Harry Potter books, Sage has a knack for capturing bad guys and characters of decidedly mixed motives.

The Septimus Heap books are set in a wholly fictional country with castles and wizards and ghosts and a series of ice tunnels that run below ground. Book 1, Magyk, introduces the Heap family, their adopted daughter, Jenna, and the seventh son, Septimus, who was spirited away at birth, and is believed by the family to be dead. Parallel story lines follow Jenna, an orphan called Boy 412, and a young apprentice to a dark wizard. There are assassination attempts, secret identities, diabolical villains, and, of course, magical spells and potions. Other books in the series flesh out various characters and add elements such as time travel, dragons, and alchemy. While major elements are resolved in each book, other threads are left open, to be continued from story to story.

Book 4, Queste, begins as Septimus, Jenna, and Septimus' friend Beetle set out to rescue Septimus' brother Nicko and his friend Snorri, who were lost in the past after an incident with a time-travel mirror. A time-traveling alchemist is able to give them a clue as to Nicko and Snorri's whereabouts, but a dangerous quest is required.

I found Queste to be a bit darker than the earlier books in the series. There's a long, bleak trek through a winter wood, for example. And Septimus' fate lies under a cloud for much of the book. However, there are also lighter elements, such as Beetle's growing crush on Jenna, and another character's addiction to licorice. Here are a couple of passages that I flagged as representative of the feel of the book:

"He stopped and took a last look at the broad sweep of the Castle below him before he descended once more into his bright basement. It was breathtakingly beautiful. The moon was riding high in the sky, casting its cool, white light across the rooftops and sending long shadows down the streets far below. A myriad of pinpoint candlelights glittered across the vast expanse of the Castle, in a way that Ephaniah had never seen before." (Page 318, paperback edition)

"Septimus sat next to Beetle and looked through his Physik tin with anticipation. At last he was getting a chance to try out the Physik he had learned on a real patient. Beside him his unwitting patience dozed peacefully on the floor of the tree house, pale but breathing steadily." (Page 488, paperback)

Book 5, Syren, picks up the very day after the end of Queste. While returning from their previous quest, Septimus, Jenna, and Beetle find themselves stranded on a mysterious island, an island inhabited by a Syren. They eventually cross paths with Septimus' old friend Wolf Boy, traveling unexpectedly with Lucy Gringe (girlfriend to Septimus' bad apple of an older brother), and have to fight off multiple terrifying enemies.

I liked Syren better than Queste - there's a bit  more character development, and I preferred the island setting to the forest of the previous book. It's a nice combination of idyllic and menacing. I enjoyed Jenna's relationship with her usually absent father ("Jenna fought back the urge to kick him" - Chapter 17), as well as the baby steps taken by prior bad guy Simon towards rehabilitation. Here are a couple of quotes that caught my eye:

"It was a bright, blustery spring day in the Marram Marshes. The wind had blow away the early-morning mist and was sending small white clouds scudding high across the sky. The air was chilly; it smelled of sea salt, mud and burned cabbage soup." (Chapter 2) (Can't you just feel this scene?)

"Spit Fyre had flown a very agitated Marcia Overstrand all the way to the House of Foryx without a single mistake. Given the fact that Marcia had got the basic dragon-direction instructions completely backward, this was quite an achievement. Marcia naturally believed it was her innate dragon-riding skills that had gotten them safely there, but in fact it was down to Spit Fyre's innate ExtraOrdinary Wizard-ignoring skills." (Chapter 13)

In general, the adults in this series are presented with a sort of benign, affectionate ridicule, while the kids, though flawed, too, are the real forces to be reckoned with. This is as it should be for this type of book, I think. Sage's writing style is a nice combination of light-hearted humor and multi-sensory description.

Both books featured a wrap-up chapter at the end, with sections giving some additional background, and filling in details of what happened to particular characters. I found these sections anti-climactic and distracting (and I don't recall whether or not the first three books did this, too), though some useful information was conveyed. There's also a tendency for the plotting in the Septimus Heap books to rely on coincidence (Oh look, there's Wolf Boy, turning up on the deserted island that we're stranded on. How fun!). But those are minor points. I still think that the Septimus Heap books are fun, kid-friendly stories that will please middle grade fantasy fans. Recommended.

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Publication Date: March 31, 2008 and September 9, 2009
Source of Book: Review copies from the publisher
Other Blog Reviews: The Bookette, Melissa, Bookworm Blogger

© 2009 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. All Amazon links in this post are affiliate links, and may result in my receiving a small commission on purchases (with no additional cost to you).

amjenkins

http://amjenkinsbooks.blogspot.com/2009/11/worked-on-menelaus-today.html

hornbookfeed

http://www.hbook.com/blog/2009/11/lions-are.html

jkrbooks

http://jkrbooks.typepad.com/blog/2009/11/childrens-literacy-roundup-november-9.html

This week’s children’s literacy and reading news round-up, brought to you by Jen Robinson’s Book Page and Scrub-a-Dub-Tub, a Reading Tub blog, is now available at the Reading Tub. This week Terry Doherty and I have collected plenty of content for you about literacy & reading-related events; literacy and reading programs and research; 21st century literacies; and grants, sponsorships & donations.

Terry's added a special section to the roundups, which we'll have for the rest of the year: Literacy & Book-centric Holiday Events and Activities. I'm guessing that this section will expand as we move forward. Especially interesting in this week's 21st Century Literacies section is a new service that Terry found called the Storybook Research Project. Terry says:

"Well, Nokia just blew my idea for making a personal digital recording reading a book out of the water. It seems that they have partnered with the Sesame Street Workshop to “create an interactive reading experience that can involve grandparents and grandchildren no matter how far apart they may find themselves. The Storybook research project melds the tactile and visual pleasures of reading a real book with video conferencing technology which allows distant relatives to take an active part in a child’s literacy development.”"

I have some additional links for parents focused on raising readers at Booklights today, in my Literacy 'Lights from the Kidlitosphere column. Next week, I'll have Item #2 in my Tips for Growing Bookworms series (Tip #1, about reading aloud, is here).

I'll be traveling later this week, so Terry is going to host next week's children's literacy and reading news roundup at Scrub-a-Dub-Tub. How I ever kept up these roundups before I started partnering with her, I do not know. Thanks for reading, and for growing bookworms!

cybils_feed

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/kidlit/cybils/~3/v_A10zIQFYs/review-chains-by-laurie-halse-anderson.html

Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews is no stranger to the Cybils, and this year she's a round I judge for the Middle Grade Fiction category. Her book review blog has been going for over three years, looking at children's, MG, YA, and adult books and hosting numerous fun reading challenges as well as author interviews.

Becky reviewed one of our MG fiction nominees that was published in late 2008--too late for the 2008 Cybils contest, but eligible this year. That book is Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson, a historical novel about Isabel and Ruth, two slaves freed in their recently deceased master's will. However, their master's nephew ignores the decree of freedom and sells them to an unscrupulous Loyalist family in New York City. Nevertheless, Isabel, the book's narrator, still dreams of freedom. Says Becky:

Set in New York City during circa 1776-1777, the story is vibrant and heartbreaking. It's a story rich in detail and emotional and powerful in nature. Isobel's story--her struggles--resonates so deeply that I think this one is a must-read.

Read the full review here.

anastasiasuen

http://asuen.wordpress.com/2009/11/09/1593/

2009 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement for Jane Yolen! CONGRATS! http://ow.ly/zSTs

Posted in News

courtneywrites

I went to Chicago last week -- I had a school visit and then a book signing at Anderson's Bookshop with the lovely and amazing Wendy Mass.  On the plane from Laguardia to O'Hare, I sat next to a woman who sneezed for basically two hours straight.  I've always been impressed with my best friend's tendency to sneeze in threes, but this woman's sneezing was epic.  She blew her nose and still kept sneezing.  So then all I was thinking about was swine flu, and the regular flu, and all the other airborne diseases out there, as I was trapped on the plane with the sneezed-in air circulating around me.  I turned my face toward the window.  Oh, how I wished I could open it.  I wished for some sort of bubble around me to keep out the germs.  I wanted to slather myself in Purell, but I didn't want to offend the sneezer.  What's the etiquette for situations like that? 

When we landed, I practically burst out of the plane and went to visit my friend Melissa and her one-year-old daughter.  Later that night, I met up with Wendy and we had dinner – we ordered about six different meals between us, just so we could taste everything (reminiscent of trips to Kate Mantilini in LA with Arielle).  The next morning I headed to Jefferson Junior High in Naperville.  The first thing I saw when I arrived was a sparkly sign hanging on the front door that said WELCOME COURTNEY SHEINMEL.  I pulled out my camera to take a picture.  The librarian was waiting for me in the lobby.  She said she knew I must be Courtney Sheinmel; after all, who else would be standing there taking pictures?  There was another sign in the parking lot that said RESERVED PARKING FOR COURTNEY SHEINMEL, which really made me feel like a rock star.

I met with a few different eighth grade classes.  The kids really blew me away with their questions.  One class made bookmarks inspired by the book, with words like “hope,” “friendship,” and “family” on them. I wanted to take the bookmarks home with me, and a couple of the kids did give me theirs, but most of them wanted to keep them – which is more meaningful, because I felt like the book meant something to them.  A few of the teachers asked me about Elizabeth Glaser, and I love when she is remembered.  The whole day was incredibly rewarding.  That night, Wendy and I had a book reading/signing at Anderson’s Bookshop.  I read the passage from Chapter 5 that I always read – I think I’m getting better at reading without rushing through.  A bunch of people came out to see us (well, to see Wendy), and everyone at the bookstore was so lovely and welcoming.  They let us each pick out a book to take home, and I took a copy of JELLICOE ROAD, which a number of people have said I will love, so I’m excited to read it.  It was one of those perfect, exciting, exhausting days.    

We flew home on Friday – the flight was packed but uneventful, and no one sneezed on me.  I’ve been proactively loading up on Airborne, and so far I still feel healthy (hope I’m not jinxing myself!) – I leave for California on Wednesday.