FREE PERIOD — Review & Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

“The first duty of the novelist is to entertain. It is a moral duty. People who read your books are sick, sad, traveling, in the hospital waiting room while someone is dying. Books are written by the alone for the alone.”

~ Donna Tartt ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Writing for middle graders is HARD. We can’t underestimate the audience. HERE Erin Entrada Kelly writing for Writer’s Digest has 6 Golden Rules of Writing Middle Grade. It’s good.

Backstory is important for our characters, but it’s a delicate dance to figure when and how much to put in. HERE is a great post by Mary Kole on KidLit to help you.

Janice Hardy’s post HERE on Fiction University can help you with Why Your Plot Isn’t Working. Her posts are always so good.

We finally are having some fall weather here in the Sacramento area, and it is such a relief. My air conditioner is off for the year, and I actually had to turn on the furnace last week. I have a little contest with myself each year to see just how long I can wait to turn on the furnace, but this year didn’t give me much of a gap between AC and furnace. My new little dog, Mango, helps with the heat. She tucks in next to me and is like a very sweet heating pad! She is settling in but is still very timid and skittish. She gets a little better each week. My son-in-law and grandson are very patient and kind when they come over, and that is helping her get over her fear of men. She went to the groomer this week, and that went fine as well, so we are making progress.

Sorting through all my books for Halloween helped me to find a few that should have been reviewed months ago. FREE PERIOD by Ali Terese is one of those. It is even more relevant now that Tim Walz and his policies had so much attention recently. When I saw the book on the review list for the Seattle Book Review, I thought it might be interesting, so I asked for it. It has a good message for middle-grade readers, and it will keep them turning the pages. Here is the review I wrote for SBR.

Helen and Gracie are besties, doing everything together, although Helen is a math savant and Gracie puts her heart and soul into creative baking. They are pranking their way through the end of eighth grade and are obsessed with the period problems. When one of their stinky pranks goes terribly wrong, trapping them under the bleachers while their skunk bomb goes off, they’re summoned by the principal. They’re assigned to join the Community Action Club headed by Helen’s nemesis, the popular and perfect Madison. Surprisingly, they all have a common cause — to get sanitary products to those who need them. With no help from the school board or PTA, it’s up to the girls and their friends.

Ali Terese has written an interesting story that will strike a chord with a lot of middle-grade students, girls more than boys. She gives voice to Gracie and Helen as they tell the story in alternating chapters. There is a lot of humor in the book, some over the top. Quite a bit of it is bathroom humor, perfect for the age. Themes of friendship and family carry the story forward. Young girls will certainly relate to all that goes on in this book.

I have a gently-read ARC of this book to give to 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) with a US Address, 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 an extra chance. And please don’t forget to check for other Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday posts at Greg Pattridge’s blog HERE.