Could you find seven wonders, comparable to the Seven Wonders of the World, right in your home town? How would you even start to look? Twelve year old Eben McAllister had a plan as he set out to find seven wonders in Sassafras Springs, Missouri, in 1923. If he could find seven wonders in seven days his dad would let him go by train to Colorado’s mountains to visit a cousin. That wasn’t quite like seeing the Seven Wonders of the World he had read about in his book, but it would have to do for now. The wondrous stories Eben heard as he canvassed the town are a folksy combination of down-home humor and a bit of magic. Fourth to sixth graders will enjoy the adventures of Eben and his dog Sal, adults will enjoy the heartwarming historical view of country life. You may be inspired to look for seven wonders in your own home town.

Posted by: Iris

Rosanne Parry is the author of the board book Daddy’s Home, and the recently reviewed novel Heart of a Shepherd, which explored the impact of a deployed military reserve unit on a rural area in Oregon. We’re happy to honor Veteran’s Day with an interview with this wonderful author.

Have you always wanted to be a writer? When did you start writing?
If you weren’t a writer, what would your job be?

I actually hated writing as a child. I had terrible handwriting and was a poor speller, so while I’ve always loved making up stories, it didn’t occur to me to write them down until I was in my 30s. I love to teach and still do it part-time. I’m sure I’d teach full time if I wasn’t a writer. Of course, my initial career plan was to become a circus flyer–still working on that.

How long did it take from starting to write to having your book published? Did you get many rejections?

Every writer gets rejections, not just new writers. Even writers with great reviews and best sellers get rejections. I never counted mine, and now that I have an agent I don’t even hear about them.

HEART OF A SHEPHERD was written over several years because I set it aside and worked on other stories when I got stuck. However, if you put together all the months that I worked on the first draft it would be about a year. I revised it with my critique group over ten months. My editor acquired it in September of 2006 and it came out in January of 2009.

Do you find it hard to stop editing/revising, or do you have a definite ending point?
For you, what is the hardest part of writing a book?

Working on my own, I could revise a piece endlessly. One thing I appreciate about my editor is that he is very focused about revisions. He let’s me know which parts of the story are working well and should be left alone and which parts need to be refined. By the time we got to our third revision I could see that I’d accomplished with the book what I’d hoped to, which made it much easier to let the story go on to copy editing and the rest of the process of turning it into a real book.

The hardest part? Waiting. I finished my edits on HEART OF A SHEPHERD almost a year before it was available in stores. I’m going to wrap up the revisions of my next novel SECOND FIDDLE by the end of the year, and it will come out in the spring of 2011.

I think I gleaned from your author’s note that you don’t live in the area portrayed in the book—what made you decide to write about that area?

I love eastern Oregon. It’s a stunning and spare and wild landscape. The people who live there are remarkable. Malheur County, where my story is set, is the size of Massechusetts. It has 30,000 residents, and yes, wildfire is as much a part of the landscape as mining and cattle ranching. I think my editor chose the book in part for the uniqueness of the setting. There aren’t many books set in the Great Basin about the lives of ranchers. Although if you enjoyed HEART OF A SHEPHERD, you might enjoy BULL RIDER by Suzanne Morgan Williams which is set just one county south in Nevada.

The religious aspect of Brother’s life is so homogenously woven into the story, which is somewhat unusual in modern children’s fiction. Was this something that you planned to do on purpose, or did it just develop by itself?

I didn’t set out to write a book with religion in it, but when I chose Malhuer County as my setting it was only honest to have the majority of my cast of characters devout Catholics. This area of Oregon was settled primarily by Irish and Basques for whom Catholicism is not just their faith but part of their cultural identification. Members of the military are also more church going than the general population, so it would have been lie of sorts to leave Brother’s spiritual life out of the book. It is a bit unusual to have a character be so frank about his faith in a childen’s novel though not unprecedented. Madeleine L’Engle’s work is infused with spirituality. Judy Blume’s ARE YOU THERE GOD, IT’S ME, MARGARET is a classic and the recent MARCELO IN THE REAL WORLD by Francisco X Stork did a great job of addressing faith.

The relationships between the boys and their grandfather are so believable—did you have a close relationship with your grandparents or older relatives?

My grandfather lived with me when I was growing up although he was nothing like Grandpa Alderman. My own parents live near me and are a wonderful presence in my children’s lives. I can’t imagine parenting without them.

Do you have any family members or friends who are in the military?

Yes, many. My husband is a veteran of Desert Storm and has been out of the Army for many years, but I know many people who serve in the armed forces. Oregon has recently deployed the largest group of Oregan Guardsmen in 50 years, so many of the issues that unfolded in the book are alive in my community and many others.

What advice would you give to young writers?

If you love to write, write lots of things. Try all different kinds of stories. Don’t worry about finishing a story. If you get stuck set it aside and come back to it. If it’s just not fun anymore, start something new that is fun. But find a safe place to keep all your drafts, even the ones you don’t like. You might want to come back and work on them some day.

Are you working on a new book right now? If so, can you tell us anything about it? Do you have any cool plot ideas for the future?

I have a million cool story ideas, both for novels and picture books. While I’m waiting on my next revision letter I’ve been working on picture book ideas–one about St Patrick’s Day and a few about grandparents. My debut picture book, DADDY’S HOME was published by Candy Cane Press, and I’m hoping to work with them again.

I’m thrilled to be working with my Random House editor again on a new novel. This one is called SECOND FIDDLE. It’s about three girl musicians who live in Berlin in 1990 just as the Berlin Wall is coming down. It’s a great adventure story with a little bit of political intrigue and a lot of music and a very spontaneous trip to Paris. It has been fun fun fun to write! The story got me back to playing the violin, which I did when I was a kid and loved. I think it’s been fun for my editor, too, because he’s also a musician.

Who is YOUR favorite author or book?

Golly, do I have to pick one? This year my favorite authors are my fellow classmates at the Class of 2K9– a group of middle grade and YA authors with debut novels this year. You can visit all of us at our website. I have a list of my favorite books when I was a kid on my website, and I keep track of new books as I read them on my goodreads account.

What are your hobbies when you aren’t writing?

I like to dance and hike and ride my bike. I don’t get to do these very often, but I also love to ski and sail. Oregon is a beautiful place and Portland is a park-filled city so really anything that gets me outside is a good thing.

Thanks again to Rosanne Parry! We’re so happy that she was willing to answer our interview questions — especially since she had to take time away from revising her book-in-progress.

Adventure and friendship abound in this story introducing Minn, a white-footed mouse who finds herself suddenly stolen away from her cozy Minnesota home with her elderly friend Gerdie. Thus begins Minn’s quest to find her way back home. This book is the 2nd in the Mitt and Minn Series, a collection of stories about the adventures of two Midwestern mice with each book taking place in a different Midwestern state.

In each chapter of this story, Minn meets a different character (mostly animals) and finds friendship and often times a new danger as a predator is always ready and waiting to eat poor little Minn. The story gets even more interesting when Minn meets Paul Bunyon and a small elf-like character who each promise to help Minn find her way back home. Things just keep getting in the way, but the kindness of strangers (birds, bears, and bison) keeps her on her path back home to Gerdie.

This story is written in such an old-fashioned way with lovely language and well-developed characters, even though we know most for only a short time . The illustrations are pencil drawings and add to the richness of the story. The story manages to be heartwarming without becoming too sappy or dated. It is no wonder that kids have been asking for these books again and again. How nice to know that kids still love these kinds of stories!

Posted by: Mary

Those of you who remember our interview with the author Beverly Patt will be interested to know that Ms. Patt is currently running a drawing to win a copy of her new book, Haven! Read her blog entry and leave a comment to enter for a chance to win.

Being a dictionary freak myself, I have always been fascinated by the way we add words to our language. How surprised I was when I discovered that a 10 year old boy could demonstrate so perfectly how it works! That is the story of Frindle’s Nick Allen, who is not known for being the smartest boy at school, or the worst behaved. What he *is* known for, however, is his talent for stirring up controversy. There was that time when he turned his 3rd grade classroom into a tropical beach and later when he drove his teacher crazy by learning how to chirp like a bird. It came as no surprise, then, when he tangled with his 5th grade language arts teacher Mrs. Granger.

Mrs. Granger is the kind of teacher you can only appreciate years after you have her—years and years later. Her true love is the dictionary and when Nick tries to stall class by asking about how words enter her beloved dictionary, he thinks he has pulled off another great scheme—wasting the whole class period! Mrs. Granger is on to him in a hurry and instead tells him to present a report to the class on that topic. Ugh! To get back at her, Nick decides to take this a step further and starts calling a ‘pen’ by the word ‘frindle.’ Soon he has the entire school behind him. Mrs. Granger won’t give in and call a pen ‘frindle’, but neither will Nick call a frindle ‘pen’. Eventually, the entire town and even the country are swept up in the frindle craze. Nick has started a movement that very soon becomes much bigger than he could ever imagine, and he couldn’t quit now even if he wanted to.
The book ends 10 years later to show what happens not just with the word, but with Nick and the teacher who taught him the greatest lesson he ever learned. This is a surprisingly touching story! I was a little embarrassed to have teared up reading a book about a 5th grade boy who gets in trouble at school over a pen, but I am so glad to have read this. It’s a great book for anyone, but I think a reluctant reader, especially a boy, would not be able to put Frindle down.

Posted by: Cindy

The beautiful lion on the cover of this book drew me to it immediately. No wonder. Jerry Pinkney is the illustrator. His illustrations almost always speak to me. As I turned the book over, behold, there was a mouse. Without a single word on the outside of this book, the story is already set and this newest rendition of a classic Aesop’s fable, The Lion and the Mouse, is by far my very favorite.

This almost wordless book is wonderful! The gorgeous illustrations lead us through the story as we witness the kindness of the mighty lion toward a lowly mouse. This kindness is repaid when the big lion is in need of help from the small mouse. Mighty and lowly. Big and small. We all have an impact on each other. This Aesop’s fable is one that we all should know and remember.

Posted by: Wendy

What a wonderful book.

Not a very original statement, I know, but when considering this book I’m unable to speak in anything but superlatives.

11-year-old Ignatius “Brother” Alderman is the only one (along with his grandparents and a hired man) left on the family ranch after his father’s reserve unit ships out to Iraq, and his brothers go back to school. Almost every able-bodied man and woman in the county is in the reserve unit, so everyone, not just the Aldermans, is spread thin.

The best way to describe this book is a coming-of-age story, but it’s without the specifically adolescent experiences that the tag usually implies. Over the course of the year, Brother learns a lot about his family, his father, his grandfather and himself, but even though the book ends with a firm decision about his future plans, adolescence and the teen years are still unthought-of.

The book does deal with some weighty themes, but it’s also hiliarious, charming, sweet, and thoughtful by turns. In spite of the serious subject matter, this book would appeal to 5th and 6th graders–and anyone who likes a moving book.  Even if you don’t think you like this sort of story, you owe it to yourself to try this one out. Highly recommended.

Posted by: Sarah

This is book 2 in The Last Apprentice series. I normally do not recommend violent, scary books but occasionally I do like to read them and this is a series that I enjoy and it is October! The moon is bright, the nights are dark and moody and Halloween is right around the corner, so if you like gruesome, scary books this might be a series for you. But beware, it is not for the faint of heart. It is medieval and has a Spook whose job is to rid the country of witches and boggarts and other dark spirits. This particular book also has a Quisitor who gets rich by accusing people of witch craft and then convicting them and burning them at the stake and confiscating all their worldly goods. There is an evil spirit , the Bane, who lives in the catacombs under the cathedral . It is an ancient evil that was locked behind a silver gate but now is growing stronger and corrupting the priests and the people. The Spook was unable to totally defeat the bane when he was young but he has returned with his young apprentice, Tom, to try once again. Tom, though only an apprentice for 6 months is the seventh son of a seventh son and his mother is a good witch so he has lots of inner strength and has already had lots of experience. When the Spook is captured by the Quisitor it is up to Tom to save him and help him with his challenge. Recommended for stout hearted 6th graders and up.

Posted by: Fran W.

Marfe Ferguson Delano is the author of numerous nonfiction books, including Helen’s Eyes: A Photobiography of Annie Sullivan, Helen Keller’s Teacher, and Earth in the Hot Seat: Bulletins from a Warming World. We’re very excited to share her answers to our interview questions.

Have you always wanted to be a writer?

When I was a kid, a writer was one of the things I wanted to be. I also pictured myself as a concert pianist, as a French teacher, and as a brilliant criminal defense attorney, like the ones I saw on TV who always proved in the nick of time that their falsely accused clients were innocent.

When did you start writing?

I wrote and illustrated my first picture book when I was in sixth grade, for a class assignment. My story was about a boy who built his own rocket and zoomed to a faraway planet, where he had adventures with strange creatures. Some of my classmates and I got to share our books with a first-grade class. I can still remember how my heart thumped when I stood in front of the little kids and read my book to them, and the thrill I felt when their eyes widened at the scary parts and they laughed at the funny parts.

I began writing professionally about 25 years ago, selling recipe columns to a magazine called “Working Mother.” Cooking and testing recipes and then writing them up was great fun, although I think I probably spent more money on ingredients than I was paid for the articles. A few years later I took a job as a copy editor with Time-Life Books, and I eventually began writing for them on topics ranging from vegetable cookery to the Civil War to UFOs. That helped me learn to be versatile, a valuable skill for a children’s book writer, or any writer for that matter.

If you weren’t a writer, what your job be?

I’ve worked as an editor before, so I might do that again, in part because it would help me stay connected with the many wonderful and creative people in the children’s book world. But I think I might also like to teach. I’ve recently become a volunteer ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher for adults, and I really enjoy the interaction with the students, who come from all over the world. Sometimes I fantasize about opening a cozy family diner that would only serve breakfast and lunch. I would make delicious soups and stews and become friends with all the customers. Maybe I’d compile my recipes into a cookbook, and then…oh wait, I’m back to writing.

How long did it take from starting to write to having the book published? Did you get many rejections?

About 12 years ago I was lucky enough to be asked to write my first children’s book by an editor at National Geographic, who had learned about my work from another editor at Time-Life. Called Sky, that book was all about the weather and the atmosphere. It was part of a series called Nature Library, and it was the first of many series-type nonfiction books that National Geographic hired me to write. Eventually I began proposing my own book ideas to my editor there, some of which she’s taken on and some of which she’s declined. She’s also given me some great ideas for books, including Helen’s Eyes and Earth in the Hot Seat. It usually takes at least a year and a half from the time I start my research for a book to the time that published books are available.

Do you find it hard to stop editing/revising, or do you have a definite ending point?

I start editing the minute I start typing, which makes it darn difficult to finish a sentence, much less a paragraph. Then I go back and revise the paragraph. The whole process starts again with the first sentence of the second paragraph–and then I might go back and revise the first paragraph again, and so on. As you can imagine, this nonstop editing approach makes writing a very slow business for me. I’ve tried and tried to let the words flow, to just get my ideas down in a crummy first draft, as so many writing teachers rightly recommend. But that annoying editor inside of me refuses to let go. Because of this I write fewer full-length drafts than many other writers I know. One trick I’ve started playing with myself, however, is to exceed the length I’m aiming for by at least 30 percent. Then I go back and prune the manuscript down to size.

For you, what is the hardest part of writing a book?

Moving on from the research to actually writing the book is the most difficult part for me. Forcing myself to tackle the first chapter is always my biggest challenge, especially when there are so many other tempting things to do, like going for a bike ride by the river…or reading the newspaper…or making soup…or doing more research.

I love to do the research for a book. For Exploring Caves, I got to explore a wild cave in northwest Georgia with two expert cavers. To gather information for Inventing the Future, I went to Thomas Edison’s laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey. I went to Helen Keller’s birthplace in Tuscumbia, Alabama, and to the Perkins School for the Blind History Museum in Watertown, Massachusetts, to research Helen’s Eyes, my biography of Annie Sullivan. Sometimes I go to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., which isn’t far from my home. But I often go no farther than than my wonderful local public library, which I can bike to. And of course I can do internet research at home.

I love to keep digging for information, especially when I’m working on a biography. The more I learn about someone, the closer I feel to him or her personally, and this keeps me going. Author Deborah Heiligman describes this as “falling in love with dead people.” Annie Sullivan really crawled under my skin–in fact she pestered me. During a low point while I was working on Helen’s Eyes, I considered requesting that the release date of the book be pushed forward a year to give me more time to write the manuscript. And then when I was on my walk one morning, a very impatient voice broke into my thoughts. The voice was female, with a light Irish accent, and it upbraided me for being such a pitiful procrastinator: “Sure, if you’ll stop lingering over the newspaper every morning for hours wasting time on things you don’t even remember reading about later, then you’ll have time to write my story. And be sure you do it well.” From that point on I wanted to please Annie, and every time I started to slack off, I could hear her tart tongue chiding me. My excuses seemed pretty lame, especially in light of all that she and her famous student overcame and accomplished in their lifetimes. And so I finished her book.

How do you get your ideas?

As a nonfiction writer, I’m always looking for new ideas. Sometimes I get them from reading an article in a newspaper, magazine, or book. Visiting a museum or a historic site and talking with friends and family members are other great ways to get ideas. So is getting out in nature and taking the time to watch the world around you. My husband inspired me to write Genius, my biography of Albert Einstein, when he told me that he was born in Princeton Hospital in New Jersey on the same day that Einstein died there!

Do you have any subjects that you’ve always wanted to write about, but haven’t?

Lately I’ve found myself drawn to the rich history of my birthplace of Memphis, Tennessee, from the city’s role in the civil rights movement to its legendary music scene. I’m hoping a book will spring from my explorations–and from conversations with my relatives who still live there and witnessed a lot of the city’s history for themselves.

What advice would you give to young writers?

Read, of course! Read books, read magazines, read comic books, read newspapers, read the sports page, read anything and everything. Think about what you read, why you like one thing and why you don’t care for something else. Keep a journal and write in it regularly. And keep your eyes and ears and mind open. The best writers are careful observers. You might want to keep a small notebook with you at all times, so that you can jot down notes about anything interesting that you see or hear or feel or smell or taste. Finally, get outdoors and explore nature. Watch ants march in and out of an anthill, listen to birds chirping, feel the rain on your face, smell the flowers…you get the idea.

Are you working on a new book right now? If so, can you tell us anything about it?

I’m currently doing research at Mount Vernon, a historic estate that’s only about five miles from my home in Alexandria, Virginia. This might help you guess the person who plays a prominent role in my next book!

Who is YOUR favorite author or book?

E.B. White is one of my favorites. I adore Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little, and his Elements of Style, which I first read in high school, is still my Bible for good, clear writing. Two memoirs I’ve read recently and highly recommend are The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson and Knucklehead by Jon Scieszka. Both are hilarious. I also read a lot of mysteries. Lately I’ve been enjoying Donna Leon’s Commissario Guido Brunetti mysteries, which are set in Venice.

What are your hobbies when you aren’t writing?

I sing with a choral society and read a lot for pleasure. I like to explore the museums in Washington, D.C. I go on long walks in my neighborhood almost every day and I hike in the mountains as often as I can. I especially enjoy cooking for my family and friends, and then sitting down to eat and talk and laugh with them.

A big Thank You to Marfe Ferguson Delano! If you’d like to learn more about her, you can visit her website http://www.marfebooks.com/, check out her blog posts at INK: Interesting Non-fiction for Kids, and the related database for teachers, Ink Think Tank

October is a terrific month to read first-rate thrillers and very few authors cover the genre better that Mary Downing Hahn. Closed for the Season is her latest entry into a long list of chillers like Wait ‘til Helen Comes, The Doll in the Garden, The Old Willis Place and All the Lovely Bad Ones to name a few.

Generally with a murder mystery, you get the usual list of suspects. There’s always the hero and most of the time, a sidekick. Then there’s the villain—usually a bully—a victim and many times a “red herring” suspect. In the case of Hahn’s Closed for the Season there’s also a boatload of missing money. But, the real standout in this fast paced thriller is the location, the “Magic Forest,” an abandoned amusement park, gated, padlocked, posted, rotting and almost totally obscured by a blanket of kudzu–a siren’s song for curious 13-year-olds with a sense of adventure.

Hahn has all the right pieces in place and uses her deft touch with this genre to turn out a truly ominous page turner. It’s a genuine grabber that builds like a roller coaster ride continually increasing the tension then plunging into breathless exhilaration before pulling into the “station” with a satisfying ending.

If you’re looking for a good read, don’t be put off by the KEEP OUT signs on the fence or the smell of decay. Places like “The Magic Forest” are only truly Closed for the Season to readers who don’t have the guts to go in…

Posted by: Eileen