I think that it is more worthwhile to stick with a story and revise it and try to finish it than abandon ship. Revisions, for any writer, are the name of the game.
Gail Carson Levine
Author: Susan Uhlig
The four prime disciplines of any writer are: Imagining, Observing, Reading and Writing.
Stephen Koch
The four prime disciplines
Wonderland
Marvelous Middle Grade Mnday
Wonderland (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018) by Barbara O’Connor is a sweet story I’m glad I found. It’s told in three viewpoints, including a dog’s!
It’s the summer between fourth and fifth grade and Mavis Jeeter’s mother is moving them again. Mavis wants to have a best friend. How can she do that if they don’t stay anywhere long enough? She wants this new home in Alabama to be permanent. She’s decided that Mom’s employer’s daughter will be her new best friend and tells her so.
Ten-year-old Rose Tully doesn’t fit in with the others in Magnolia Estates. But then this strange new girl, Mavis, arrives makes her believe she can have a friend, besides Mr. Duffy, the gateguard.
Then there’s Henry, a dog on the run.
See the awards for this book here.
Last year I recommended Barbara’s book Wish. Here’s a link to this bestselling author’s FAQ.
There are times when the page in front of me is a hot mess. What to do? Make one thing better than it was the day before. And day by day, week by week the story comes to life.
Gennifer Choldenko
There are times when
Sylvia Doe and the 100-Year Flood
Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
Sylvia Doe and the 100-Year Flood (Disney/Hyperion, 2024) by Robert Beatty is a mysterious story.
Thirteen-year-old Sylvia Doe tries to stay with her foster families. But the only place she feels she belongs is Highland Home for Children, with it’s caretaker, and the horses. Sylvia always finds her way back. “Caught in a nook here, and a cranny there, she was the one little pebble that the river could never seem to push downstream.” Once “home” a powerful storm causes the river to flood and Sylvia finds strange things that don’t belong, and even rescues an odd boy, who doesn’t seem to be from her time.
Watch the book trailer on this page.
Read about the bestselling author here and check out his Serafina and Willow series here.