Month: October 2019

And Boo to You too!

by sarahsbookreflections, posted in Early Readers, Scary Stories, Scary Stories, Early Readers

AND BOO TO YOU TOO!

Halloween is creeping up on us yet again. And you’re experiencing the changes Autumn brings to us. Cooler weather, greyer skies, and colorful leaves floating to the ground. Make a big pile of them and jump on in.

I love spooky stories, don’t you? Especially if I’m tucked under at comforter with a mug of something hot. The stories in this first review are just the right amount of scary and silly.

Beneath the Bed and Other Scary Stories

Max Brallier

Illustrated by Letizia Rubegni

Mister Shivers receives a box wrapped in brown paper and containing a tree branch, a doll’s eye, a piece of an old quilt, and a toy’s rusty head. Beside the box is a dead rat. The note that he finds in the box asks Mister Shivers to share the stories. Since he loves scary stories. Here’s what he wrote. In the first story, a boy is challenged to spend the night in the town’s haunted house. He finally convinces his sister to go with him. They search house and find nothing scary until they get to the attic bedroom. Underneath is something staring at them. Read to the story to find out what’s there. In the second story a girl ends up with a hair stuck in her throat all the way to her stomach. Since it doesn’t go away after several days her mom takes her to the doctor who pulls it out, only to discover that it’s not a hair. What is it? The third story tells of a boy who doesn’t heed a warning to leave on the ratty quilt wrapped around an ugly statue his mom bought. Guess what he does? In the third story, Oliver always forgets to bring his toys in from outside. One night during a fierce storm, the toys get even. The final story is about something scratching on a girl’s window. Her parents keep telling her to just go to sleep because it’s only a tree branch. Is it? Funny scary stories make this a good fit for a beginning reader who likes to be given the shivers. The illustrations are just right for the book. Teachers will have fun sharing these stories with their reading level 1 students.

BIBLIO: 2019, Acorn/Scholastic, Ages 5 to 7, $4.99.

REVIEWER: Sarah Maury Swan

FORMAT: Early Readers

ISBN: 978-1-338-31853-1

The next story is a bit more sophisticated, but still fits the bill of being scary and sweet.

Midnight Beauties

Megan Shepherd

Fantasy lovers won’t be able to put this book down. The sequel to Grim Lovelies is full of intrigue, danger, romance whether welcomed or not. The main character, Anouk, is a beastie, the lowest form of entity in this world. She can be switched from her owl form to that of a human. Other of her beastie friends are a mouse, a wolf, and a cuddly dog. Though beasties do seem to have specific special powers, Anouk is rare in that she possesses the ability to perform magic. Other creatures in this world are humans or pretties, goblins, and the “haute,” a.k.a. “shadow rulers” who control the others and possess magic. Then there are the “snow children,” who only appear when it snows. They also are magical, but it’s best not to kiss them. And let’s not forget the witches, because they’ve made a mess of things, which means that evil forces are taking over the world, killing everything they touch. Anouk sets off to save everybody by going through the trials it takes to become a witch, but before she goes, she turns down a prince who rules the world. He thinks that as a married couple they can save everybody, but Anouk doesn’t trust him. Lots of trials and tribulations later, our heroine and her stalwart friends contain the evil power, but not without much peril and damage. There are a number of parallels to the current state of our world to be inferred from this delightful book.

BIBLIO: 2019, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers, Ages 14 +, $17.99.

REVIEWER: Sarah Maury Swan

FORMAT: Young Adult

ISBN: 978-1-328-81190-5

Yeah, yeah, I know I said these stories would all be scary, but I figured I’d scared you enough. So, we’re finishing with something sweet.

Poppleton

Cynthia Rylant

Illustrated by Mark Teague

Part of the Scholastic/Acorn series for early readers, the audience follows the plights of Poppleton, the pig. In the first story the reader learns ways to be a good neighbor, helpful, but not overbearing. Poppleton moves from the city to a less densely populated suburb. He meets his new neighbor, Cherry Sue, who brings him flowers as a welcome present. Then she invites him over for oatmeal and later for cheese toast and later still for spaghetti and sauce. This is very nice at first but even kindness can be overdone. Finally, Poppleton gets so tired of having the spend so much time with Cherry Sue, he squirts her with his hose. She’s horrified until Poppleton apologizes and explains he likes to be by himself every once in a while. Cherry Sue, it turns out, is delighted. She likes quiet time herself. Poppleton’s next adventure is at the town library, his favorite place to go on Mondays. Here he spends the day quietly reading a book. It might be an engrossing book. Or a sad book, for which he’s glad he brought tissues. Whatever he reads, he stays there all Monday and is happy as a hog in slop.

Poppleton’s last adventure for this book is about the pig helping his friend Filmore who’s sick in bed. The only way Filmore will take his pill is if it’s hidden in one of Cherry Sue’s delicious cakes. But Filmore can’t know what slice of cake the pill is in. His friend drive Poppleton to distraction until they’re both sick in bed. Guess how many cakes they go through until they feel better? Beginning readers will find these stories charming.

BIBLIO: 2019 (orig. 1997,) Scholastic, Ages 5 to 8, $4.99.

REVIEWER: Sarah Maury Swan

FORMAT: Early Reader

ISBN: 97813386566673

ISBN: 97813386566680

ISBN: 97813386566796

Outlining a New Story

by sarahsbookreflections, posted in Uncategorized

To see if I could do it and have students feel they’ve learned something about writing their own stories, I’m leading a class at the Pamlico Community College in their “Cultural Enrichment Program.” At the first session, I asked my students to tell me what they wanted out of the class. Several of them wanted to learn how to structure a story.

So, even though I’m a “seat of the pants” style of writer, I set about doing an outline for them. Actually, I’ve done two different outlines. This is the second one. Please let me know what you think.

Plotting Structure outline:

First off you need to have at least have an idea in your head of what you’re writing about.  A memoir? A short story? A poem? History? A scientific treatise? A blog? A play?

The structure of your story is the same whether you’re writing a scene or a book. So, I’m using a scene as a more succinct example of making an outline.

  1. Purpose of the Scene: First scene should set up who the main character is and what’s happening.

A: Physical description:

  1. Age
  2. Sex
  3. Location (In the kitchen? In a car? In the woods? On a boat?)
  4. Is the person alone?

B: Action:

1.Waking up? (Why?)

2. Cooking? (What? And Why?)

3.Driving? (Where? And Why?)

4.Walking? (Where? And Why?)

  • Character’s thoughts. (Anxious? Calm? Frightened? Angry?)

C: Reason for the scene:

1.Going to work?

 2.Meeting someone for dinner?

 3.Grieving?

4.Getting married?

5. About to murder someone?

  1. Arc of scene: Every scene should have a beginning, middle and end.

A: Beginning:

1. Does the alarm go off?

a. Does this awaken the character?

b. Or was he already awake? (Why?)

2.What’s her reaction?

  1. Does she pop out of bed? (Why?)
  2. Does she groan? (Why?)

B: Middle:

1. Character takes a shower:

a.She shampoos her hair, but as she starts to rinse it, the water goes cold or quits running

  • How does she deal with this?
  • She’s finally out of her bathroom.

C:  End:

1.Dressed and fed, she leaves her abode

a.What’s she thinking about?

b. Does she stride out the door with bold, confident steps?

b. Does she pause and listen?

2. What happens when she heads toward where she’s going?

                      a.  Car won’t start?

b. Or the bus is late?

c. Or the heel breaks off her

                          shoe?

d. The bad guy shoots at her?

  b. (Here you leave your reader hanging and solve the    

                          problem in the next scene. Or keep building toward the story climax.)

If this is the end of your book, of course you do complete the scene. The main character rides off into the sunset on his favorite horse.

In the next scene, conclude the immediate problem—She jump-starts her car, calls a cab, etc.—then give your reader time to breathe and cogitate on what’s going, however make sure your scene ends on a compelling note, with a hook at the end.

What I Learned

by sarahsbookreflections, posted in Uncategorized

The first thing I learned is the usefulness of going to conferences even if you think you know it all. Guess what? There’s always more to learn.

Besides, there’s no way I thought I knew it all before I went to this year’s SCBWI-Carolinas conference. (For those of you who don’t know what SCBWI stands for: Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators.)

I always go to the Friday morning Intensive where the speaker spends four hours delving into a subject. Vickie Selvaggio gave us an in depth look at books from the past and present that have been successful. Which reminded me to look to the future, but remember the past.

Highlights for me were visiting with long standing friends and meeting new people. It was sad to bid Teresa Fannin farewell as our stalwart leader, but she has trained a good replacement group of Donna Earnhardt (a.k.a. the Barefoot Contessa), Kelly? who hit the ground running and Elizabeth Rawls. Nary a hitch in the proceedings was noticed.

I attended a delightful presentation on what is one’s voice and how do we know when we’ve found it. Not to worry, it’s been there all along. Sadly, this turned out to be Robyn Campbell’s last speech on this earthly coil. She died on Sunday. But I’m quite sure she’s regaling the Heavenly Hosts with her humor and her unique voice.

Of course, the annual “First Pages” session was delightful and inspiring. I think it’s safe to say that the rhyming picture book about things would or would not eat was the hands down favorite. The final pairing of the part that Alan Gratz read was a rhyme of moon pie with cow pie.

And speaking of Alan, his closing keynote speech had everyone in stitches as he talked about who he is and was. Athletic prowess was not prominent in his list of attributes.

No matter what type of writing you do, be sure to go to at least one conference that covers the genre. If nothing else, you’ll come away with new friends and an energized look at what you want to write.