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Real — Review

rosihollinbeck

Thought for the Day:

“The business of the poet and the novelist is to show the sorriness underlying the grandest things and the grandeur underlying the sorriest things.”
~ Thomas Hardy ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Barbara Linn Probst has a terrific guest post HERE on Writers in the Storm that will give you 10 Different Ways to Make Your Point. I love her examples.

Jami Gold has her eye out for redundancy in writing and her post HERE will help you do the same.

Teagan Berry has a very interesting post HERE at A Writer’s Path about what to do When Side Characters Become Interesting.

I got so serious in my rant last week that I decided to go completely the other way this week and give you some more jokes. They were so popular last time I did this. I hope you like these as well.

The past, present, and future walked into a bar. It was tense.
Q: What’s the difference between a cat and a comma?
A: One has claws at the end of its paws, and the other is a pause at the end of a clause.
Q: Why should you never date an apostrophe?
A: They’re too possessive
Q: What do you call Santa’s little helpers?
A: Subordinate clauses
Did you hear the one about the pregnant woman who went into labor and started shouting, “Couldn’t! Wouldn’t! Shouldn’t! Didn’t! Can’t!”?
She was having contractions
Q: What happened when the verb asked the noun to conjugate?
A: The noun declined.
I invented a new word! Plagiarism.
Never leave alphabet soup on the stove and then go out. It could spell disaster.
Q: What should you say to comfort a grammar Nazi?
A: “There, their, they’re.”
When I was a kid, my teacher looked my way and said, “Name two pronouns.”
I said, “Who, me?”
I before e… except when you run a feisty heist on a weird beige foreign neighbor.
“Write a wise saying and your name will live forever.” —Anonymous.

I swear, I have to start writing stuff down. If a book isn’t staring me in the face, I will forget to post the review. I did a review for a book a couple months ago that I thought was so important and so well written, that I wanted to make sure the word was widely spread. After I finished reading it, I thought it was a perfect book for Patricia Tilton, a regular contributor to MMGM, who posts wonderful reviews at Children’s Books Heal. I sent it along to her, and then forgot to spread the word myself! The book is Real by Carol Cujec and Peyton Goddard, and it is a stunner. Here is the review I wrote for the Portland Book Review.

Charity is smart as a whip. She’s great at math and has a near-perfect memory. But Charity can’t speak or communicate, and her body is totally non-cooperative. She has loving parents who do their level best to give her as much education as they can, try to find a good school, and are devastated when they discover the school she has been in is a sham where she’s been badly treated. They finally find a wonderful counselor who truly has Charity’s best interest at heart and the tools to help her. This is life-changing for Charity. She learns ways to communicate, and it is like a damn bursting with all she has to say that she has been forced to hold in all these years. But not everyone wants her in her new setting.

Carol Cujec and Peyton Goddard have written a fascinating and important book that should be required reading for middle-grade and beyond. They has brilliantly told the story from Charity’s point of view, drawing readers into Charity’s world and giving a real taste of life for children with severe autism. Readers will root for Charity every step of the way. Don’t miss this wonderful book!

Carol Cujec on the left and Peyton Goddard on the right.

I have no giveaway this week since I will sent the nice hardback copy I got to Patricia Tilton. Don’t forget to check for other Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday posts at Greg Pattridge’s blog HERE.

Published by rosihollinbeck

19 thoughts on “Real — Review”

  1. What a fun comic and jokes, Rosi. I laughed out loud at the woman having contractions!
    The book Real sounds intriguing. I hadn’t heard of it before. Just checked and the three copies at our library are all checked out, so others must be spreading the word, too!

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    1. Great to hear that your library’s copies are all out. I’m glad this book is being read. I hope you can get a copy soon. Thanks for reading and commenting. I appreciate it.

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  3. Pingback: MMGM for June 7, 2021 | Always in the Middle…

  5. This sounds like a really powerful story! I looked it up, and it sounds like Goddard wrote a memoir about similar experiences that she herself had, so I can imagine that this story, while fictional, is very true-to-life. It definitely reminds me of Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper. I loved the jokes you shared, especially the ones about plagiarism and the anonymous proverb! And the meme and quote are great as well. Thanks so much for the wonderful post, as always!

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  7. I really look forward to reading REAL. It is so important for these stories to be told. Just because someone is autistic and can’t communicate verbally, it doesn’t mean that they don’t understand speech or hear what people say! They are trapped and frustrated! This would pair well with “Out of My Mind” by Sharon Draper. Thanks for the mention.

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  8. This story sounds powerful and important for everyone to read and understand. As a special ed teacher and speech therapist, voices like Charity’s need to be understood. Thanks for the recommendation . And the jokes were great too!

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  9. Thanks for the laughs in your lead-in comments. I remember reading something about this book many months ago and wanted to learn more about the plot. You filled in all the info I needed to know it’s a book I would love. Using Charity’s POV is the perfect way to engage readers. Thanks also for the links. I’ll be sharing them with my writing group this month.

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