Where Snow Angels Go — Review

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:

Kelsey Allagood has written an excellent article HERE called Great Dialogue is the Art of the Unsaid for Writer Unboxed. It has wonderful examples. Don’t miss it.

I sure hope I will need to do school visits one of these days. HERE is a good post on Writers’ Rumpus by Kirsti Call with 3 Secrets to School Visit Success.

I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about tone in my writing, so when I saw the article HERE by Adair Lara in Writer’s Digest called 7 Ways to Perfect Your Writing “Tone,” I thought it was worth a read. I hope you do too.

I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving. We had a nice, quiet day at my house. My daughter made the turkey, I made corn pudding and gravy, and my granddaughter made everything else including a pumpkin cheesecake pie. She is quite the cook, that one. She has no idea yet what is in her future, but chef’s school might be a good option. Whatever she decides, I hope she stays close to home. It’s wonderful having a great chef in the family, especially on holidays. And now comes the long march to Christmas. I avoided the malls this weekend, and I hope to avoid them right on through. I became a big fan of mail-order a long time ago and now use that almost exclusively. My son-in-law, on the other hand, does nothing until Christmas Eve. And somehow he does just as well as I do. Hmmmm. Maybe I have something to learn here.

I chose a book early this year for review for the Manhattan Book Review called Where Snow Angels Go written by Maggie O’Farrell and illustrated by Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini. I don’t know why it wasn’t sent to the book review earlier, because to me it is definitely a Christmas book. That’s why I didn’t review it here earlier. I was saving it until people were in the Christmas-buying mood. This beautiful book (just look at that cover!) is the kind of story that can easily become a Christmas tradition for families. I hope you will have a chance to read it. Here is the review I wrote for MBR.

Sylvie wakes suddenly in the night. She thinks there is someone else in the room. An ethereal being tiptoes around, and Sylvie speaks to him. He is startled, and states that she shouldn’t be able to see or hear him, and then tells her she won’t remember him when she wakes up. He explains he is her Snow Angel, the one she created when she lay in the snow and moved her arms and legs. He tells her everyone who does that has a Snow Angel who watches over them and helps when they are in real danger. But Sylvie does remember in the morning, and sets about to test her Snow Angel by doing dangerous things. Sylvie learns some interesting lessons.

Author Maggie O’Farrell has created a brand new fairy tale that sounds like a classic fairy tale with modern touches. The writing is simply lovely and the story is very compelling. The illustrations by Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini are enchanting, supporting the story with sweet details and beautiful artistry. This is a story that could start new traditions in families with young children, the perfect story to read by the fire on a cold, winter’s night.

Please don’t forget to check for other Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday posts at Greg Pattridge’s blog HERE.