ON A WING AND A TEAR — Review

Thought for the Day:

“Everything I do is because of writing. If I go for a walk, it’s because I’m thinking of writing. I go look at flowers, I go look at the garden, I go look at a museum, but it’s all coming back to writing.” 


~ Jamaica Kincaid ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

We all want our stories to be compelling, and maybe the way to do that is to create compelling characters. HERE is an excellent post by Gabriela Pereira writing on DIYMFA called Writer Fuel: Craft a Compelling Main Character.

Ramp up the suspense to keep the tension high. HERE is a good post by Nathan Baugh at World Builders for the Storytellers on Secrets of Suspense.

I find a lot of good content on the NF FEST 2025 site. HERE is an excellent post by Lydia Lukidis on Crafting Compelling Hooks. Good advice for both non-fiction and fiction writers.

The new baseball season started this week. The announcers on the game I was watching mentioned that Cincinnati schools are closed for opening day. Did I hear that right? I personally think it should be a national holiday, but it’s nice to know that at least one city got it right! My Giants are off to a pretty good start, winning their first series two games to one. The beginning of a new season is always kind of a shock when you see players that you have known and loved (or maybe hated) in uniforms that don’t look right on them. Taylor Rogers was pitching for the Giants last year, but today, I watched him pitch against us while his twin brother, Tyler Rogers, still pitched for the Giants. Gavin Lux showed up in a Reds uniform after years of being a dastardly Dodger. I still don’t like him. But baseball was a welcome relief from the continuing march of horrendous and frightening news out of Washington D.C. I won’t go there. I’ll get too upset. I won’t be here for the next couple weeks. On Friday, my family and I will fly to Edinburgh for a long-planned vacation. I’m not even taking my computer, so I really will be out of touch.

I’ve been going through my files, trying to make sure I get reviews up that I might have forgotten about. When I give books away, they fall off my radar, and I don’t want that to happen. I found one today that I should have had up a while ago, but now will have to do. It is a contemporary book with a little fantasy thrown in. ON A WING AND A TEAR by Cynthia Leitich Smith is a welcome addition to the middle-grade canon that looks for books that enrich our diverse culture. Here is the review I wrote for the San Francisco Book Review.

Ray Halfmoon and Mel Roberts have become as close as siblings since Mel and her mom moved into the attic of Ray’s Grampa’s Chicago bungalow. Although Mel and Ray are from different native tribes, they have much in common. They find they have a visitor: Great-Grandfather Bat. He injured his wing and has been resting to heal, but he’s found out the birds and animals are having an epic baseball game. He has to get there as he was the hero the last time they met. Grampa Halfmoon is convinced to take Bat and the kids on a road trip to the game. But soon some nefarious characters are following them, trying to kidnap Great-grandfather Bat.

Cynthia Leitich Smith, a citizen of the Muskogee Nation, imbues her story with traditions and language from several Native Nations. Kids will love how the animal characters interact with the human characters and how their stories are intertwined. Magic and a little fantasy are sprinkled throughout this contemporary story, and young readers will find that fascinating. All the characters are well-rounded and believable and the dialog is realistic for each character. This would make a good classroom read-aloud.

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