I have a great deal of sympathy for reluctant readers because I was one. I would do anything to avoid reading. In my case, it wasn’t until I was 13 and discovered The Lord of the Rings that I learned to love reading.
Rick Riordan
Author: Susan Uhlig
Westfallen
Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
Westfallen (Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2024) by Ann Brashares and Ben Brashares is not quite time travel, perhaps time communication, but in the same exact place.
79 years apart, six kids meet via an old radio. The 2023 kids (Henry, Frances, and Lukas) unwittingly tell the 1944 kids (Alice, Artie, and Lawrence) some things that change the past and their future–today is not the American the modern three know, but now a country called Westfallen. With men in uniforms with swastika armbands. The six have to work together to change the past and present. But they destroyed the radio…
This is the first book in a planned trilogy of alternate history.
Ann is the bestselling author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books, plus others. Read more about her books here, and about her here.
Ben, her brother, also has other books–check them out here. Read about him here.
Literature duplicates the experience of living in a way that nothing else can, drawing you so fully into another life that you temporarily forget you have one of your own.
Barbara Kingsolver
Literature duplicates the experience
Ban This Book
Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
Ban This Book (Starscape, 2017) by Alan Gratz is such a good read. It’s definitely still timely. I wish I’d noticed this book sooner.
When Amy Anne Ollinger tries to check out her “favorite book in the world” from the school library, the librarian tells her the book has been banned. She learns it’s a classmate’s mom who thought the book was inappropriate. After a failed attempt to talk to the school board about the book, Amy Anne starts a secret banned-book library out of her locker. Trouble ensues.
Of course, there’s more involved in the story. Amy Anne has to learn how to speak up in other places as well…like at home. And you’ll probably recognize books from the banned book lists at Amy Anne’s school.
I love the log line on Alan’s website: “PUTTING FICTIONAL KIDS IN DANGER SINCE 2006.” Read about this bestselling author here. See all his novels here. He’s also written a graphic novel, Captain America: The Ghost Army. His short fiction is posted here.
Previously, I recommended Alan’s historical book, Allies.
Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself.
Truman Capote