INCREDIBLY PENELOPE — Review & Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

“The only way you can write the truth is to assume that what you set down will never be read. Not by any other person, and not even by yourself at some later date. Otherwise you begin excusing yourself. You must see the writing as emerging like a long scroll of ink from the index finger of your right hand; you must see your left hand erasing it.”

~ Margaret Atwood ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

I wonder how Janice Hardy at Fiction University keeps coming up with fresh content after all the posts she has written, but every one is worth reading. HERE she has a post called The Difference Between Tricking Your Reader and Surprising Your Reader, and it is a good one. It reminded me of a couple books I wanted to throw across the room when I realized I had been tricked.

We all need antagonists in our stories to make them interesting and compelling, but how we represent those villains is crucial. HERE is a great post from K. M. Allan on Making Your Villains Relatable. It’s worth your time.

Lisa Hall-Wilson has a wonderful post HERE on Writers in the Storm about How to Use Perception to Create Subtext in Deep POV. There is so much information and good examples in this one, you might want to read it a couple times and then bookmark it.

I have been watching some football, now that the baseball season is over. I’m not a huge football fan, but I do have some teams I keep an eye on. I kind of fell in love with the Kansas City Chiefs a few years ago watching Patrick Mahomes. He really brought me back to football after I hadn’t watched for years. He’s such an incredible player, but his age is showing. It happens. Today, the team was playing really well when Mahomes was taken down, and his left knee bent just a little in the wrong direction. I am afraid he is probably done for the season, and what that means for his career, I just don’t know. I also watch the San Francisco 49ers. They are a lot of fun to watch. Brock Purdy just seems to get better and better. And his story is such a great one. I think they have a good chance going forward. I cut my football teeth when I was growing up in Minnesota, so I watch Vikings games too. It hasn’t been a great season. I saw a meme recently that said, “If you have a Viking’s jersey and have ever thrown a football that spiraled, please show up at the stadium at 9:30 in the morning for practice.” Unfortunately, there is a lot of truth in that. Oh, well. There is always next year!

I received a copy of INCREDIBLY PENELOPE by Lauren Myracle from the publicist at Walker Books, part of Candlewick Press, for review. It is the story of young Penelope, who has traveled the world with her mother, Rose, and godmother, Queenie Bee, but Penelope really wants to attend school with other girls her age. She will be entering fourth grade. Her godmother is a huge TV star, and money is no object. Penelope decides she wants to go to a boarding school. She chooses a small boarding school near Savannah, Georgia, where her mother grew up. This seems to freak her mother out, but Penelope goes forward with her plan. Because of her godmother’s fame and fortune, Penelope is treated really well by Mrs. Grimsley, the headmistress, and most of the girls, but some show some jealousy. One girl, Dilly, is particularly prickly and tries to make Penelope miserable at every turn. Mrs. Grimsley is given a generous allowance to make sure Peneope’s every need or desire is taken care of, but Mrs. Grimsley finds ways to use it to take care of her own needs as well. Just before Thanksgiving, the school has a surprise visit from its benefactor, Mr. Wilkerson. Penelope meets him, and they have a nice visit, but he doesn’t find out her name. He promises her he will visit again. Then the news comes that Rose and Queenie Bee have been lost at sea and are presumed dead. A lawyer visits Mrs. Grimsley and says all of Queenie Bee’s money is frozen, and there will be no more money coming for Penelope. Mrs. Grimsley banishes Penelope to the creepy basement, sells her clothes online, makes her stop attending classes, and also makes her do all kinds of disgusting chores. Dilly is loving it. What will become of Penelope?

This is a retelling of The Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett, which was published in 1905. While Myracle did try to update it by adding a non-binary character, she left some stereotypes in place, such as the greedy, evil headmistress with no redeeming qualities. Even though this is clearly Penelope’s story, Myracle chose to use a third-person omniscient point of view, which often comes off as head-hopping and will likely confuse young readers. With a fourth-grader as a protagonist, the target audience is second through fourth graders. Such young readers will have trouble with that point of view. Also, the book is awfully long for that age, and includes a great deal of information that slows the story down. The first half of the book is awfully slow. Readers really don’t need a detailed description of every pair of pajamas worn by the girls or every outfit from top to bottom that Penelope has. Also, the ending is fairly predictable and comes about at record speed with everything perfectly tied up with a bow. That probably worked a lot better in 1905 than it does today. The writing is very good, and I did find Penelope to be an engaging character. The cover is awfully cute and will certainly attract young readers.

I have a gently-read hardback 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.