We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.
Aristotle
Author: Susan Uhlig
So Loud!
Perfect Picture Book Friday
So Loud! (Annick Press, April 2024) by Sahar Golshan and illustrated by Shiva Delsooz is a book to be put on your to be read list for next spring. (I read an ARC.) It’s funny, charming, and especially important story for little girls who have been told to they’re too loud. (And even for the adult women who were told the same thing.)
Rudabeh, Rudy for short, is too loud. At least that’s what all the adults tell her. But when Rudy turns her volume down like the water in a tap, she doesn’t feel like herself. Rudy’s especially worried that the grandmother she’s meeting for the first time will think she’s too loud like everyone else does.
I love this character so much.
So Loud! is Sahar’s debut picture book. Read about her here and about her other writing here.
And when I’m writing, I write a lot anyway. I might write pages and pages of conversation between characters that don’t necessarily end up in the book, or in the story I’m working on, because they’re simply my way of getting to know the characters.
Norton Juster
And when Im writing
Moongarden
Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
I enjoyed Plotting the Stars 1: Moongarden (Pixel+Ink, 2022) by Michelle A. Barry very much. A girl who doesn’t fit in, a hidden room, unexpected friends including an old robot, shortsighted adults, and magic. All on the moon. (And isn’t the cover gorgeous?)
Myra Hodger is attending The Scientific Lunar Academy of Magic, but is not the Number Whisperer her parents expect. The tattoos aren’t developing, so she hides her forearms with long sleeves. Then she stumbles across a hidden lab with a secret garden. As she learns about the plants, Myra wonders if her newfound magical gift could help solve the food shortage problem the government is trying to hide. But will anyone let her?
Just out this month is the sequel, Seagarden. I’m looking forward to it, too.
This book was the author’s debut and has been called an update to the book The Secret Garden. Read about Michelle here.
What are any of us to do? Abandon the work or complete it, learn from the experience, cry, forgive ourselves, and move on… Now dry your eyes. There’s work to be done.
Eric Maisel