FERRIS — Review & Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

“For me the experience of writing is really an experience of losing control… I think it’s very much like dreaming or like surfing. You go out there and wait for a wave, and when it comes it takes you somewhere and you don’t know where it’ll go.”


~ Margaret Atwood ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Writers are often told to use all the senses in their writing, but just how to do that? HERE Janice Hardy has a terrific post about how to bump up descriptions with senses.

Non-fiction for kids is more salable than it has ever been before. HERE is a really good article from Jane Friedman on How to Write a Query Letter: Non-Fiction and Memoir.

Endings are so important, but when writing a picture book with so few words to use, It’s doubly important to get it right. HERE is a good article from Eevi Jones called How to End a Story — The Perfect Ending for Your Children’s Book. She has some good examples.

Happy New Year to all of you. I hope you had lovely holidays. I sure did. It was great to have my daughter Maggie here if only for six days. I would have liked more, but I take what I can get. My grandson, Gehrig, was here longer, but I didn’t see more of him. He has lots of friends from baseball and high school to catch up with, but we had some great family dinners and a really nice Christmas together. Now it’s back to normal. I’m being inspired each day by Storystorm and have a few new projects to work on. I’m also trying to cut 11,000 words from my middle-grade novel so I can submit it to a small press that has a tight word limit. It’s quite an exercise since I really feel the book is done, but it’s probably a good exercise. Writing is so hard, and it never seems to get easier. Maybe 2024 will be the year I figure it out.

Last time I was here, I promised a gently-read ARC of THE MONARCHS OF WINGHAVEN by Naila Moreira to one of you. The winner this time is Ellen Ramsey. Congratulations, Ellen! I will get your book out to you soon. If you don’t know Ellen, you can find out about her at her site HERE. She has a perfectly charming picture book out called A BOOK FOR BEAR that I promise you will love. Please check it out.

I received some review books from Candlewick Press in November and was lucky enough to get two of Kate DiCamillo‘s books — THE PUPPETS OF SPELHORST, which I reviewed earlier (you can see that review HERE) — and FERRIS, which I will tell you about today. It won’t be out until March, but you can win my ARC and get it early. It does not disappoint, but then which of her books does?

Ferris got her name because she was born under a Ferris wheel at a traveling carnival. With a beginning like that, she is bound to be pretty special. And she has a family that is anything but ordinary. Her little sister, Pinky, age six, wants more than anything to become an outlaw, and she spends her time going around town trying to convince everyone that she will. Outlaws do bite, right? She is pretty convincing in that role. Their Uncle Ted has a doctorate in philosophy and works as a sign painter. He also plans to paint the history of the world in Ferris’s family’s basement, where he now lives since he left his wife, Shirley, a hairdresser. But he really wishes he was still with Shirley. Grandma Charisse and her dog live upstairs, and they are sure there is a ghost in the house. They have seen her. Charisse is sure if they can get candles and light the huge chandelier in the dining room, the husband of the ghost will find his way back to her, and she will finally be able to leave the house. This becomes the mission of Ferris and her best friend, Billy Jackson, who has an interesting history of his own. It’s complicated and it is delightful and sweet and funny and sad. In other words, it’s another terrific book from Kate DiCamillo that will stay with you for a while. The characters are quirky and totally believable. The writing is simply terrific. The story is most compelling. You don’t want to miss this book!

I have a gently-read ARC for one of you. All you need to do is be a follower (it’s free and easy — see the top, right corner of the post) and leave a comment. If you share the link to this post on social media, please let me know in your comment, and you will get extra chances. And please don’t forget to check for other Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday posts at Greg Pattridge’s blog HERE.