DANCING IN THE STORM — Review

Thought for the Day:

“Read, read, read. Read everything — trash, classics. good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the masters.”
~ William Faulkner ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Bitsy Kemper is well-known in my SCBWI region. She used to be our RA. She has a post HERE I will be referencing in the coming months. It is a list of A Hundred Publishers Accepting Children’s Books No Agent Needed!

It’s always a bonus to find good content that specifically addresses MG writing. HERE on Sarah’s Smorgasbord is a great post called Mental Health in Middle-Grade Books, with Cindy Baldwin.

I think we can learn a lot about writing novels from scriptwriters, so I always keep my eyes open for good posts about scriptwriting. HERE is a great post from Writers Digest by Barri Evans on the rule of threes, and a follow-up article HERE. They are both worth your time.

I won’t mention what day tomorrow is. I’ll let Mr. Rogers speak for me. I enjoyed my Sunday off last week. What a great game. And that is really all we can ask for. We said to each other that we didn’t really care who won, but found ourselves cheering for the Chiefs. I don’t know why, but I think they have kind of become America’s team. How sad that their celebration was marred by another mass shooting. What will it take for our country to solve this terrible problem? It’s a miracle more weren’t killed. I can’t dwell on it or it will drive me crazy. Back to sports. Now I am counting the days until baseball season opens. I am thinking of taking a big baseball trip this year. I have 22 parks left to visit, and I hope to get to a lot of them this year — maybe all of them. We shall see. I’m not sure I can stand to be away from home long enough to hit them all. Fingers crossed for good weather and a cooperative schedule.

Last time I was here, I offered a gently-read ARC of JUST KEEP WALKING by Erin Soderberg Downing to one of you. This week’s winner is Danielle Hammelef. Congratulations, Danielle. I will get your book out to you soon. Danielle always shares my link on social media for extra chances, and that works. Thanks for doing that.

When I heard Shannon Hitchcock had a new book coming out, I kept checking the review lists hoping to score a copy, but to no avail. Then I got an email from Shannon asking if I’d be interested in doing a review of DANCING IN THE STORM. Yes, ma’am! Sign me up. Shannon sent me a copy, and I put it on the very tippy top of my TBR pile. I read it this week. Shannon co-wrote this book with Amie Darnell Sprecht, a name with which I was not familiar. It turns out, this is Amie’s story (fictionalized), and it is an amazing story that will really capture readers of all ages, but especially middle graders.

Kate is a gymnast, and gymnastics is absolutely central to her life. She eats and breathes it. After a great match where she wins a gold medal, her shoulder is sore, really sore. But she tries to keep on keepin’ on and ignores it — until she can’t. She finally tells her mom, and off they go to the doctor and then another doctor and another. The news is not good. Kate is diagnosed with Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva (FOP). It is every bit as scary as it sounds. It is an extremely rare disease caused by a genetic mutation, and everything changes for Kate. She can no longer participate in gymnastics. She can’t even go to Girl Scout meetings because the scout leader is afraid of the liability of having her in her house. It is no longer comfortable to eat lunch with her friends since they are all on the gymnastics team, and it seems that’s all they talk about. But her best friend, Mindy, who goes to a different school, is a steadfast friend. Kate educates herself about FOP, and although her research raises a lot of fear and questions, she also finds helpful information and a great friend through an online FOP group.

Shannon and Amie have written a truly important book that shines a light on the issues those with disabilities face every day in so many ways. It also looks hard at themes of family, friendship, and perseverance. The courage it takes for a person with disabilities to just go out their front door into the world is something most of us seldom consider. Amie’s story told through Kate will open readers’ eyes to what happens in the lives of the disabled and how the rest of us can make things safer and easier for them as they face a difficult existence. Shannon is a great storyteller and her skills make this a very compelling read. The writing is beautiful, the characters are perfectly imperfect and realistic, and the story is a real page-turner. This deserves a wide readership well beyond the middle-grade audience.

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