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The Mulberry Tree — Review & Giveaway

rosihollinbeck

Thought for the Day:

“The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can.”
~ Neil Gaiman ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Deep Point of View is a great way to really immerse your readers in your story. Writers in the Storm has a terrific post HERE by Lisa Hall Wilson called How to Tell if You are Writing in Deep Point of View. Great stuff.

Jamie Gold has her eye out for redundancies and her post HERE will help you do the same.

Laurence MacNaughton wrote a good guest post for Fiction University HERE that will give you 3 Secrets to Writing Vivid Scenes.

Last week I offered a gently-read ARC of The Summer We Found the Baby by Amy Hest to one of you. This week’s winner is Janet Smart. Congratulations, Janet! If you don’t know her, Janet is a middle-grade writer from West Virginia. You can read more about her on her blog HERE. Janet, I will get your book out to you this week. For the rest of you, keep reading. I have another great giveaway this week.

mulberry treeCandlewick Press sent me a small stack of books recently, and I want to tell you about another this week. The Mulberry Tree by Allison Rushby isn’t the kind of book I usually pick up, but I’m so glad I did. It’s so good. Here is the review I posted on Goodreads.

Immy and her parents have moved from Australia to a small village in England. Immy’s mother has a new job at a hospital nearby, but her father will be a stay-at-home dad. He’s also a doctor, but something terrible happened to him at their previous home, and he needs time to get back to being himself. While looking for a house to rent, the rental agent, after asking Immy’s age, refuses to show them a sweet little cottage, but Immy insists it is practically calling out to her. When they look at it, it seems perfect. The rental agent does everything she can to discourage them. They finally are able to move in. It seems a perfect place, but there is an old, gnarled mulberry tree in the back garden that seems to keep the sun out and much of the garden lies fallow because of it. Branches tap menacingly on Immy’s bedroom window, and she seems to hear whispering and a weird song coming from the tree. At school, she finds out there is considered to be a curse with the tree. It has taken two young girls on the eves of their 11th birthdays, one hundreds of years ago and one decades ago. Immy’s 11th birthday is coming soon. She is being bullied at school and her father doesn’t seem to be doing very well emotionally. Can Immy find ways to be safe from all the problems that swirl around her?

Allison Rushby
Allison Rushby

Allison Rushby has written a magical book filled with mystery and tension. The characters face real problems of bullying, being the new kid, building friendships, and dealing with mental illness, frightening, unexplained rumors and more. The writing is simply beautiful, the characters are well-rounded and realistic, the story encompasses many things kids face everyday set against some magical mystery. It’s a great mix and will definitely keep young readers turning those pages. It’s a charming book and I recommend it. I received an advanced reader copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I have a gently-used ARC of this book 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. And don’t forget to check for other Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday posts at the Greg Pattridge’s blog HERE.

 

Published by rosihollinbeck

26 thoughts on “The Mulberry Tree — Review & Giveaway”

  1. Hi, Rosi.Thanks for the give away. I look forward to getting the book in the mail. This book also sounds good. I’ve written a manuscript similar where something happens to the characters when they reach a certain age and it has something to do with what happened 100 years ago! Thanks for the review and the writing links! They are always helpful.

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  5. This is a new book and unfortunately I didn’t select it from Candlewick’s list. It sounds like a good mystery with some family issues that are elusive. I have quite of few books to review. Haven’t started the new releases. So I will pass.

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  6. This book sounds just like my type of book (although, to be fair I have several types of books that I enjoy). A good curse, mystery, new unfamiliar setting all wrapped into one book. But I really live that cover. I seem to be drawn to trees in the covers I like, but in this case I also love the muted tones and the mulberry tints and shades.

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  7. Very enticing review! I like the setting, characters, and the elements you described that make it work. Thanks for featuring on MMGM.
    A lot of learning in your links today. Something gained from each one. I’ve dabbled with deep POV and this helped me see it in an understandable way.

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  8. I love the premise of this book and shared for extra chances on twitter, tumblr, pinterest, and facebook. Thank you for the writing articles too–Deep POV is a new idea for me and I enjoyed the post very much.

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