Bob — Review & Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

“Fiction is experimentation; when it ceases to be that, it ceases to be fiction.”  

~John Cheever~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Editing? Don’t miss the post HERE from Janice Hardy at Fiction University.

Not all of our protagonists are choir boys, nor should they be. So how do we make unlikable characters work for us? Through the Tollbooth has a great post HERE that can help you with that problem.

Naming of characters is always interesting to me, but if you have any characters from the South, you won’t want to miss the terrific article HERE by Julia Reed in Gun & Garden (yes, there is a magazine called Gun & Garden. Who knew?)

If you haven’t done so yet, PLEASE SUBSCRIBE. Just go to the upper right hand of the page and put in your email address. I don’t share any information with anyone. Promise. And then you will receive an email when I post so you won’t ever miss a chance to read my spectacular posts and win some of the wonderful books I give away.

I hope you all had a nice holiday weekend last week. I had a lot going on and needed to do other things instead of writing a blog post. My exchange student graduated last week, and I took her to the airport in the middle of the night Friday night. I’m still trying to catch up on my sleep. I am looking forward to summer (except for the Sacramento heat!), and I might just be a little spotty in my posting. I have some serious relaxing to do. Next week I will be with a whole lot of family for a reunion in Colorado Springs. Blog posting will not be part of the trip, so I will probably be back here in two weeks.

When last we were here, I offered a gently-read hardback of Road Trip with Max and His Mom by Linda Urban to one of you. This week’s winner is Elizabeth Varadan. Congratulations, Elizabeth! I will get your book back to you soon. If you don’t know Elizabeth, she is a Sacramento writer who has two middle grade novels and a picture book published. You can see all her books HERE on her Amazon page. You also can get to know her on her two blogs — Elizabeth Varadan’s Fourth Wish and Victorian Scribbles. I do have another terrific book to give away this week, so please keep reading.

I am always keeping my eye open when I get the lists of review books for authors I like. When I saw Rebecca Stead‘s name and Wendy Mass‘s name in the same box, that stopped me. Those two writing a book together? It had to be good. So I asked for a review copy of Bob by them. Here is the review I wrote for the San Francisco Book Review.

Bob has been waiting for five long years, in the closet, playing with Legos and reading the big dictionary after teaching himself to read, waiting for Livy to return. And she is finally back, but she doesn’t seem to remember who Bob is. And a small green boy, one would think, would be hard to forget. Livy, ten and a half, almost, is visiting her grandmother in Australia after a five year absence. The land is suffering a terrible drought, and Livy’s grandmother and her neighbors are having great difficulties. But Livy and Bob have important work to do. They need to find Bob’s people so he can go home. It’s been such a long time.

Authors Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass have created a bit of magic middle-grade

readers and more will gobble up. The characters are perfectly enchanting and the story, which draws on folklore to bring a very special twist, will satisfy every reader. The writing is beautiful, the characters are well-rounded and completely engaging, and the story is richly complex. This is a welcome addition to the middle-grade canon and will likely become a classic. Bob deserves readership beyond middle grade. 

I have a gently-read hardback for one of you. All you need do is be a follower or subscriber (it’s free!), have a U.S. address, and leave a comment below. If you would like extra chances, please share the link to this post on Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media outlet and let me know you have done that. If you are reading this in your email, please click HERE to get to my blog, then click on the title of the post, and leave a comment. And don’t forget to check for other Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday posts at the Greg Pattridge’s blog HERE.