Absolutely Alfie and the Princess Wars — Review

Thought for the Day:

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.”
~ J. K. Rowling ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Fear is such an important emotion in writing. Lisa Hall-Wilson has written a terrific post HERE on Writers in the Storm that will help you ramp up tension and make your readers feel the fear.

Janice Hardy has a not-to-be-missed post HERE on 6 Tips on Making Similar Scenes Feel Different.

M. L. Keller at The Manuscript Shredder has a good post HERE on how to keep low action scenes from being boring.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mother’s out there. I don’t have anything clever to write about Mother’s Day, but I do have a link that will give you a little photographic gift. The Bluebird of Bitterness blog HERE has beautiful Mother’s Day photos. Check it out. You will be glad you did.

Last week I offered a gently-read ARC of Shouting at the Rain by Lynda Mullaly Hunt to one of you. This week’s winner is Donna Gwinnell Lambo-Weidner, a children’s writer from the San Francisco Bay area. You can learn more about Donna on her site HERE. Donna, I will get your book out to you soon. I have no giveaway this week as the book has already found its way to my granddaughter’s school library. 

I include books on this blog that are transitional into middle-grade books because we all know middle-graders who are having trouble finding their way through full-blown novels that are so popular in MG. And, let’s be honest, the MG novels seem to be growing in length. I like long books, but so many youngsters find them too daunting, so if you have kids that like the younger, less daunting books, this might be a good choice — Absolutely Alfie and the Princess Wars by Sally Warner. It’s fun and certainly deals with the kinds of problems a lot of kids face. Here is the review I wrote for the San Francisco Book Review.

A new school year is always exciting, but not necessarily in a good way. Second grade will have changes for Alfie. She will have a man teacher and, of course, there will be some new children. And Alfie hasn’t seen some of her friends since first grade. But Alfie has a plan that will make everything great — she will have two best friends, Hanni and Lulu. It will be perfect.

When she gets to school, Mr. Havens, her new teacher, has assigned seats at tables, and Lulu isn’t at Alfie’s table. The students are given a group project to work on for Back to School Night, and problems begin. The kids at her table didn’t listen to the assignment and won’t listen to Alfie! Everything is going wrong.

Author Sally Warner has written a book that is pitch-perfect for the youngest elementary school readers with realistic problems and normal concerns and feelings. Alfie’s family is great, and the relationship with her brother, EllRay, is sweet. The writing is crisp and just complex enough for the age group. Illustrations by Shearry Malone have an old-fashioned feeling that works well for this story and adds a lot to it.

No giveaway this week. I will be donating my hardbound copy to my granddaughter’s school library. 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.