A What if Gift

Have you ever said you wouldn’t wish a certain illness or excruciating pain on your worst enemy? Well, what if you could? 15 year old Nya can. She has the gift of absorbing pain in her own body and if she chooses, shifting it into another person. Warning: this gift can be dangerous.

THE SHIFTER by Janice Hardy, Balzer + Bray, 2009

This is Book I in The Healing Wars. Before I could blog about it, I treated myself to Book II, and both books are reviewed below. Just as I was, readers will be eager to follow the main character far beyond her introduction.    

As The Shifter begins, the Gevegians have lost the war to the Baseeri.  Orphaned by that war, Nya, 15, is fiercely devoted to her only remaining family member, Tali, 12. Through a series of machinations, Nya sees to it that Tali becomes a Healer’s apprentice for the League led by the Luminary, names that strike terror into the hearts of Gevegian’s. Nya sees it as a safe spot in the eye of the storm. For now.

Besides Healers, the reader will meet Takers, enchanters, and trackers. Although Nya tends to take on the task of saving everyone and everything by herself, she is admirably supported by friends Aylin and Danello, whether she wants them to risk their lives in her endeavors or not. In their own way, they are as stubborn as Nya.

Hunger and exhaustion  threaten  Nya, but her greatest enemy is discovery. And that’s what this book is about: discovering gifts and realizing that sometimes a gift must be used as a weapon, no matter how loudly one’s conscience speaks. Protecting the lives of loved ones turns Nya’s gift into a necessary weapon. Sort of like discovering atomic power and how to use it. 

BLUE FIRE by Janice Hardy, Balzer + Bray, 2010

The Healing Wars, Book II.

The page turning action continues, and the characters behave non-stop, remaining brave and resilient. They are willing to risk all. It amazes me how much pain Nya can absorb even though I understand that this is part of who she is and what she does.

In Blue Fire, Nya is still 15 and wanted for a crime she didn’t mean to commit. Teen readers will relate to the quandary Nya encounters as she struggles to do the right thing but evil nips at her heels on all sides.

Darkfall, the third book in the trilogy is available and I have ordered it. (Note: another book by the same title is written by a bestselling author. This Darkfall is part of The Healing Wars, a Young Adult series. The other Darkfall is not.)

Reading is so addictive! I have to stop and share or I never will. Author Hardy has written more books…

 

For Undercover Readers

What parent can resist this bedtime negotiation: "One more chapter? Pleeeze?"

DOUBLE VISION by F.T. Bradley, HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2012.

“Who, me?”  This could be the theme song of 12 year old Lincoln Baker. He’s his teacher’s field trip nightmare.  Sometimes Linc makes trouble on purpose, but usually it’s for a good cause, like helping out a friend.  Other times, it looks as if Trouble has Linc on speed dial. If this is your son or daughter, reader identification will be immediate.

Linc’s family consists of two loving parents who barely keep the family finances above the red mark. Mom is a nurse and Dad runs a car shop which struggles. Grandpa watches crime shows on TV and absorbs useful tips. I hope we see him in future books.

A software program matches Linc’s face on YouTube with the face of a missing secret agent. How did Linc’s face get on YouTube? It’s a fun story for the reader, not for Linc. Enter two agents from Pandora. (Don’t call them spies. They prefer “secret agents.”) They are close to taking down a criminal organization, but the whole mission is at risk now that top kid agent Benjamin Green has disappeared. The agents see Linc’s match to Benjamin as their opportunity to do Linc a major save the family fortune favor (think reason for YouTube notoriety.). All Linc has to do is stand in for the missing agent. It won’t take long. Linc has much to gain and very little, probably nothing at all, to lose. Said the spider to the fly. 

And we’re off. Twists, turns, friends who are villains or secret agents who turn rogue or might be, instead, deep under cover. Linc dashes from crisis to cliffhanger. The reader just keeps on ploughing through the chapters. It’s hard work to write a book that reads this easily and the writer has been careful to learn her craft.

Linc and his friends’ middle school voices are authentic and consistent.  Henry, a brilliant agent boy wonder scientist teams up with Linc. “The key is to be smarter,” says Henry. He will surely be given more room to shine in future books.

All this talk of future books is more than a wish of mine. Double Vision is the first of a planned series. Double Vision: Code Name 711 will be available in October.  Couple this series for 8-12 with Sound Bender by Lin Oliver and parents who say with a sigh, “my kid is a reluctant reader” will soon enjoy deleting “reluctant” from that sentence.

Summer + Books

Beach, mountains, or my own back yard, my favorite summer spot is a comfortable chaise, chair, or swing, with a stack of good books in reach—always. I’m just back from the beach, rested and ready to share the books I enjoyed the most with you.

Do undercover agents intrigue you? Was Harriet the Spy a favorite book? Are you a James Bond fan? Do you ever wonder about ordinary people waiting for a bus or standing in a grocery line? (I do.) Could they be spies? For those who share your home AND your attraction to suspense (especially ages 8-12), hide this book and leave some clues.

IN DISGUISE! Undercover with Real Women Spies by Ryan Ann Hunter, Beyond Words/Aladdin 2013.

For starters, the author is not what she seems to be. Try to set up a meeting with Ryan Ann Hunter. She can’t come. She doesn’t exist. Ryan Ann Hunter is two people, Elizabeth G. Macalaster and Pamela D. Greenwood who write together under a pen name.

This book was first issued ten years ago but spy tales didn’t end when the authors finished their manuscript. With the release of formerly classified files, new stories emerged. Ryan Ann added more women spies and daring deeds. This edition spans 300 years and covers 30 brave women, including a few who might have stood next to you on an elevator. Ryan Ann Hunter may be a pen name, but the authors’ subjects really lived and some still do.

Readers will meet Anna Smith Strong who lived during the American Revolution and used her laundry as a signal. During the Civil War Mary Bowser was a freed slave whose photographic memory and her position as a servant in the Richmond home of President Jefferson Davis enabled her to pass information about troop strength and war strategy to other Union spies. More recently, Lindsay Moran worked doggedly to achieve her goal to join the CIA. She later resigned and wrote a book, Blowing My Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy. Her book and an email response to the Pam Greenwood half of Ryan Ann Hunter, add immediacy to this spellbinding collection of stories about women secret agents.            

Puzzles and trivia are scattered throughout the pages plus some tips about how to hide in plain sight. I liked the creative ways spies delivered messages and maps long before the aid of high tech. Here are a few: a wax head, a skytale (rhymes with Italy—you look it up) and a few hollowed out eggs in a market basket. How many eggs must be broken to make an omelet or find the secret message? Breakfast must have been an adventure.

Well researched, with notes, a bibliography, and interviews, In Disguise! could open a new career path for readers. It has for me. Right there on page 124 a “Spy Files” note leaped right out at me. “When spies break into a building to plant a bug, they sometimes take their own dust along to replace the dust they may disturb on a table, desk, or windowsill.”

Sometimes?

Is dust in short supply?  With endless resources, I am eager to become a dust supplier to secret agents. For contact information look under a jar of pickles shelved among the cake mixes. Only you will know it’s been misplaced for a reason. (Note: I think this is called a dead drop.)

Shh!

 

Guns in Middle Grade Novels

In my last two blogs, guns were agents of survival. In many homes, especially in the American rural south, guns are enmeshed in tradition and culture.

GONE FROM THESE WOODS by Donny Bailey Seagraves. Delacorte Press, 2009

Daniel Sartain isn’t expecting his life to change. At least, not much. Daniel is 11. It’s 1992, a crisp November day in North Georgia in the Sartain Woods, owned by Daniel’s family for generations. His Uncle Clay is going to teach him to hunt.

Daniel doesn’t really want to shoot rabbits, or anything else for that matter, but he doesn’t want to let his uncle down. How could he?  Clay had presented Daniel his father’s gun—Daniel’s grandfather’s gun--for his 11^th birthday.  This hunting trip would be a rite of passage.

So be it. In spite of his reluctance to shoot anything that lives, Daniel decides that if Clay thinks he should learn to hunt, then hunting is what he will do.

Daniel depends upon Clay as a friend and mentor. Add father figure. Clay’s older brother, Daniel’s father, has demons which no amount of alcohol will drown. Daniel’s feelings for Clay border on hero worship.

Clay’s special name for Daniel is D-Man, a super hero identity which swells Daniel’s chest and builds the confidence his father's words and actions erode on a daily basis. It’s easy to imagine D-Man and Clay growing old as hunting buddies, spinning tales by a fire built in the woods, listening to the sounds of the night.

And then…an accident. Daniel shoots Clay with Granddaddy’s gun. Nothing will ever be the same again.

How will Daniel cope? Overcome guilt? Survive the grief? How can he find meaning in his life after taking the life that meant the most to him?

This debut novel by a seasoned writer and veteran newspaper columnist covers lots of tough issues: gun safety, fault finding, living with alcoholism, depression, suicide, getting into therapy, counseling in school.

The author lists web sites and hot lines for people under stress.  It’s unfortunate that the counselor crafted by author Seagraves for this novel isn’t available to every young person suffering from an emotional trauma. Mrs. Hardy offers Daniel the right amount of comfort and understanding to help him reach out for healing.

To read an excerpt of this thought provoking book, see the author’s web page.
Read the entire book and be ready for questions from your tween or teen. Good stuff here.

Let the discussion begin.

Guns in Young Adult Novels

Alone with a corpse in an isolated cabin in an Artic wilderness. The corpse is your father. You are 14.

 

REVOLVER by Marcus Sedgwick, Roaring Brook Press, 2009

Starting on the first page, this Young Adult novel chills the bones. A sinister character arrives and the situation worsens. He wants his share of stolen gold that dates back ten years to the Alaskan Gold Rush in 1898. He has no patience and he threatens violence. Sig, the son of the dead man, knows nothing about the gold. He does know a loaded Colt revolver is hidden in the cabin storeroom.

The author of numerous acclaimed novels, Marcus Sedgwick lives in Sussex, England. A Horn Book review suggests that fans of Gary Paulsen and Jack London will be drawn to this high anxiety tale. 

Sedgwick paints with bold brush strokes on a wide outdoor canvas but creates a landscape of human emotions. The characters of Sig and his father are fleshed out with the details of a painter given to tiny, layered strokes. Those who analyze such things say that English writers tend to inflict more emotional pain and physical suffering on their characters than American authors do. It seems true here.

A Horn Book reviewer pointed to a “wealth of moral concerns--good versus evil: faith, love, and hope; the presence of God: survival in a bleak landscape; and trusting the lessons parents teach…”. I liked all the contrasts because they provide endless grounds for discussion.

This is definitely a YA for the reader able to handle mature concepts, however. There is murder, rape, death, greed, threats, bullying, and intense fear on all counts. As the plot evolved I felt as if I were watching a snake think. Is that beady-eyed slithery reptile more afraid of me than I am of it? Sig’s courage develops as he assesses the stranger. Is the snake (bad guy) poisonous or not?

Meanwhile, the Colt revolver awaits, loaded and ready. Sig’s father said it would protect him.  His feeling of security grows. Or is it false security?

The author shares an anonymous but telling quote from a newspaper of the early 1900’s: “It wasn’t God or the Declaration of Independence that made all men equal. It was Samuel Colt.”

Does Sig use the Colt to save his family, even a score, intimidate, or kill? What would the reader do?

I repeat: the themes in Revolver offer endless grounds for discussion.

Guns in Children’s Books

To have a gun in the house–or not. For parents who would like a path into a family discussion about the role and responsibility of guns, children’s books can help.

SWIFT by Robert J. Blake, Philomel Books, 2007.

Swift is a hero dog. He’s also the main character in this adventure that grew carefully and thoughtfully, emerging from the notes and sketches of an author/illustrator who has spent many hours outdoors.

Lucky us! We stay warm and safe in our favorite reading places while Swift and his creator lead our imaginations on a wild and dangerous chase. You might want to have a sweater handy.

Readers will relate to Johnnie who has yearned since his earliest days on this earth to go hunting with his dad and their dog Swift. “This year I passed the gun course,” an excited Johnnie tells us. This is only the second sentence in what will become a survival story. Parents will hear the message: training first. 

Gorgeous Alaskan scenery beckons. Swift looks out at the mountains, at attention, as though danger is on the other side of the page turn.  Braving danger is a necessity. Johnnie’s homesteading family depends upon a successful bear hunt to feed them all winter.

Turn the page and the bear appears. We're off and running. Readers forget to breathe. The story barely stops to take a breath. Text and art work together in frantic syncopation.

Pa is hurt and must be left behind with only his gun for protection. Johnnie and Swift take off to find help. Johnnie carries his own gun (which he has been carefully trained to use, remember?)

Do they make it? Far be it from me to spoil the ending. I’m still shaking from the first sighting of that bear.

The author’s web page chronicles the development of Swift from first idea to final version. Anyone interested in the process of bringing a story to life on the page will be fascinated. Other writers and illustrators will appreciate Blake's candid remarks.

Parents and young readers—ten year old boys would be a great audience--will be glad this book exists.

Who knew reading could be this exciting?

Who knew the topic of gun safety could be introduced so smoothly?  

Poetry in Unexpected Places

Tons of fun packed into one little book?

How can that be?

You’ll see.

THE ARROW FINDS ITS MARK: A Book of Found Poems, edited by Georgia Heard, illustrated by Antoine Guillope, Roaring Brook Press, 2012.

 A number of highly regarded poets were challenged to take text from a form other than poetry and turn it into a poem. Editor Heard gathered their creations into forty pages that will delight any age reader or maybe turn any reader into a poet or maybe turn everyone into a reader. Well, let’s just say this small volume could be transformative.

Janet Wong  found her contribution on a box of OxyClean. Lee Bennett Hopkins  developed his poem from selected words in a SPRINT newspaper ad. Robin Hood Black was in that wonderfully inspirational place many writers know well, her laundry room, when she found her poetic lines folded up in a LASERTAG results report. 

At some point in her household adventures, Robyn found time to interview Joyce Sidman who also participated in this challenge. Joyce found her poem in the 2010 Greenpeace calendar.

You’ll recognize the names of poets Jane Yolen, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, and David L. Harrison. Others may become your first writerly discovery of the new year.
 
Georgia Heard, who edited The Arrow Finds its Mark, is a writer and educational consultant.  She’s also a crusader, taking her message about writing  and using poetry with children around the world.

Sylvia Vardell is surely a sister crusader. Her blog, Poetry for Children, is a poetry resource that keeps on giving.   

Now, where have you spotted a poem in hiding?  Cereal boxes on the breakfast table?  Vanity license plates in a traffic jam?

Possibilities are endless!