Thursday, December 30, 2010

2010 Quick Wrap-Up!!!

Wow, 2011 is TOMORROW! It doesn't seem possible.

I got sick two days before Christmas, felt miserable all that weekend, and my husband took me to Urgent Care finally on Sunday, the 26th and I was diagnosed with strep throat. OUCH! I've never had it before and it. is. not. fun!!!

Since I am now recovering and trying to do all the fun stuff I missed doing with my family the past week I leave you with some GREAT articles and links from the past month. Enjoy!!!

Happy New Year's Everybody! May 2011 be your BEST YEAR EVER!!!

1. The Tara Tracks - Getting published isn’t the key to being happy


2.
Lemony Snicket's Pep Talk! Hilarious!

3.
"How To Get Published" by Jim McDonald - perfect advice and right on.

4. The soon to be very famous Beth Revis: Ten Things I Realized in 2010 and 10 Things I Wish I Knew Before 2010


And here is the very fun holiday vlog from THE MIXED-UP FILES . . . OF MIDDLE GRADE AUTHORS that we created a couple weeks ago.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Merry Christmas!!!

Hey guys! What are y'all doing right now? Besides snarfing bags of M&Ms and Cinnamon Santa's, I'm scrambling to finish all my Christmas prep. I got me some dang good recipes, too. Melt in your mouth brownies, lemon tarts, chocolates, caramels, decorated cakes . . . :-) Goodie plates are going out tomorrow to all the neighbors if you wanna move in next to me real quick.

Writing updates: I turned in my copy edits last Friday and sent a partial and proposal for a Very Cool Gothic Paranormal Thriller Set In A Castle to my agent this morning which she wants to read over the break. (Yes, I love me some capital letters, ho, ho, ho!)

While launching THE HEALING SPELL the past few months I also outlined a new middle-grade novel, drafted it, revised and editorially revised AND got through copy edits! We read first pass pages in January, my editor says. It's been a whirlwind and sort of surreal. 

October 1 is the official pub date!!!

Gorgeous cover art is coming in 2011 for the paperback of THE HEALING SPELL and the new novel, CIRCLE OF SECRETS!!! I can't wait to share!!! 

Have a restful, wonderful week, everybody! I'm sleeping and reading and going to the movies and playing with new toys - and hugging a lot of people! 



Monday, December 20, 2010

Last STOPS on the Book Tour Train!

 
What a fantastic 20 days it's been! I'm so blessed and grateful and *awed* by the beautiful reviews and the very fun interview questions. Every interview had different and cool questions (and they're SHORT so easy peasy reading!) 


Go check out the LAST TWO wonderful book bloggers and enter to win a copy of THE HEALING SPELL. You still have about 10 days to enter. And if you go to THIS post you'll get the list of the earlier bloggers which still have copies to give away.

December 17th: Review of The Healing Spell by Steph The Bookworm 

December 18th: Steph The Bookworm Interview and Giveaway of The Healing Spell


December 19th: A Fanatic Book Blog's GORGEOUS review!!!
Lines like: 

"To say that The Healing Spell touched me is an understatement, but I can't quite find the words to accurately describe how much I truly adored this book."

"As for the story itself, it is pure magic. I think I cried more during this book than any other that I've read, as I contemplated how I came to be the person that I am now."


December 20th: Jessica at A Fanatic Book Blog's Interview and Giveaway!

Thank you times a thousand to Kelsey at The Teen Book Scene for a fabulous tour!!!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

December SPELLBINDERS! Winner and a new Giveaway!

Spellbinders Logo
December, 2010
And the winner is . . .
SEA cover The Winner of November's book giveaway Sea by Heidi R. Kling is Maggie Desmond O'Brien! Congratulations, Maggie! Please email Kimberley Little at kglittle@msn.com so we can get your prize mailed off to you!

My Invented LifeAnd don't forget to enter December's book giveaway of the novel, My Invented Life, by Lauren Bjorkman, our guest columnist this month!

To Enter is easy: Just leave a comment on the
Spellbinder blog or email Kimberley at kglittle@msn.com and you might win My Invented Life by Lauren Bjorkman, published 2010 by Henry Holt Publishers.
Feature Article
The YALSA Symposium - by Carolee Dean

November 5-7 the YALSA Symposium was held in Albuquerque, NM where more than 400 librarians, educators and authors met to discuss "Diversity, Literature, and Teens: Beyond Good Intentions." The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) is a division of the American Library Association (ALA). YALSA's mission is to advocate, promote and strengthen library services to teens.
  Lois & Carolee at YALSA
Lois Ruby and I presented a poster on Character and Culture by highlighting twenty-one New Mexico children's authors. Each of us wrote a brief description of how living in the southwest has shaped our experiences and influenced our writing. 


 
Terry TruemanTerry Trueman, author of the Printz Honor book Stuck in Neutral, and parent of a child with severe disabilities, gave a presentation entitled "Beyond Good Intentions and Chicken Soup: Young Adult Literature and Disability Diversity: How Far Have we come?" Co-presenters were Dr. Heather Garrison and Dr. Katherine Schneider who discussed books that include positive portrayals of teens with disabilities and how to use books to promote acceptance and diversity. We will talk more about this presentation in January when the Spellbinders newsletter focuses on Exploring Disability in Children's Literature. 
 



Vaunda NelsonNew Mexico's own Vaunda Nelson was the speaker at the Bill Morris Author Luncheon. Her book, Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshall, was the recent winner of the Coretta Scott King Award. Vaunda is a full-time librarian as well as author and all around sweet person.
   
Peotry Panel
The poetry panel on "Forms and Faces of Poetry for Teens" included (left to right) Ann Burg, Jen Bryant, Margarita Engle, Pat Mora and April Halprin Wayland. They talked about their poetry and read aloud from their novels in verse. 




 
 
Nikki, April & CaroleeOn Sunday morning Nikki Grimes gave suggestions for conducting poetry readings at schools in "Open Mike: Reaching Teens at Risk Through Poetry". That's her in the middle with April on the left and me on the right.
 






Ellen & LaurenThe symposium wrapped up with Ellen Hopkins (left) and Lauren Myracle (right) speaking at the closing session about overcoming intellectual freedom challenges so the right book can get to the right kid at the right time. Mark your calendars for 11/2/12 for the next biannual YALSA symposium in St. Louis, Missouri. Hope to see you there!







 
Texas LibrariansSaturday night 30 authors signed books their publishers had donated to the event. Every participant got 5 tickets they were able to exchange for signed books. Here I am at the signing with three delightful librarians from Texas.
Guest Column
YA Librarians are Awesome   by Lauren Bjorkman
Lauren Bjorkman
Lauren Bjorkman
I like November. My birthday is in November. My first YA novel came out last November. And this November I attended my first national event as an author-the YALSA conference in Albuquerque. There I discovered a few things about YA librarians. They talk to strangers. They have lively conversations in elevators, in fact, a social no-no in other spheres. And they have passion for getting diverse books into the hands of teen readers.

During the pre-conference session called "Beyond Stonewall", authors Michael Cart and Christine Jenkins gave us a "history lesson" on GLBT teen fiction from 1969 to 2010, book-talking dozens of titles. They are experts on the subject.

All the earlier books with GLBT characters were tragedies, and usually ended with the gay character killed in a car wreck. Or truck wreck. Or motorcycle wreck. Seriously! Things got better in the 80's, when some books ended on a hopeful note-particularly those by M.E. Kerr. Still, the majority of GLBT teen lit consisted of "problem" novels.

My Invented LifeIn the 2000's there were many breakthroughs - GLBT books for the retail market, ones with multi-cultural characters, humor, happy endings, and many that received awards.

In the afternoon, I spoke on a panel about future trends in GLBT teen lit with Megan Frazer (Secrets of Truth and Beauty), Kirstin Cronn-Mills (The Sky Always Hears Me), and Malinda Lo (Ash). Our topics were serious-the fluidity of sexuality, labeling, coming out, heteronormativity, and settings without homophobia-but we still managed to make 50+ librarians laugh out loud.

AlamosaFriday night, I participated in a Q&A at Alamosa Books, an Albuquerque bookstore devoted entirely to young readers and teens. From left to right: Malinda Lo, Lauren Bjorkman (me), Kirstin Cronn-Mills, Alexandra Diaz (Of All the Stupid Things), and Megan Frazer.

The next day, I attended a session on "Commercial Success and Diversity". One particularly poignant moment came when the authors on the panel shared stories about their novel covers.

  • The cover for 8th Grade Superzero, for instance, a coming-of-age YA about nerdy African-American teens was given the classic silhouette picture that hides the main character's race.
  • Neesha Meminger (Shine, Coconut Moon) expressed gratitude that the cover of her novel about South Asian teens in NY didn't include a red sari, mangos, or spices.
  • When Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez  (Hater) complained about the three white teens on the cover of her book about a Mexican-American, one of the girls got an airbrushed tan. 
  • Cynthea Liu (Paris Pan Takes the Dare) remembered how sad she felt when she learned that the Chinese-American girl on her cover would be a cartoon. 
Shiprock, NMWith so many talented and multi-published authors in attendance, I felt a bit like a small minnow in a big pond. But what a pond! I got to talk to librarians in Kansas, Indiana, Ohio and even one in Shiprock, New Mexico that had my book in their library collections. Which made me a semi-famous minnow for the day!
Kimberley's Book Buzz
Kimberley Griffiths Little
Kimberley Little
Kimberley Griffiths Little
It's double whammy for Young Adult Book titles two months in a row! In November we discussed some fascinating books that deal with a wide variety of crisis in teen's lives. A great issue so if you missed it go here.

Since YALSA was right in our backyard this year, we can't help dishing about the 800 Young Adult Librarians swarming the Albuquerque Convention Center and talking non-stop about YA literature. So I bring you Young Adult Book Buzz as we prepare for the American Library Association Youth Media Award Announcements that will be held Monday, January 10 at 7:30 a.m. in San Diego, California!

A few titles that have had glowing reviews and are currently *buzzing*!

Ship Breaker
Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

A fast-paced post apocalyptic adventure set on the American Gulf Coast.





  

YouYou by Charles Benoit

Fifteen-year-old Kyle is a member of the "hoodies." So named for their ubiquitous hooded sweatshirts, they are the slackers/burnouts/freaks common to every high school. This book is written in an unusual second person Point of View as we live within Kyle's head as he gets picked on by bullies, serves detention, and pines after a girl.


FinnikenFinnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta

Finnikin, son of the head of the King's Guard, has been in exile for a decade, after the violent takeover of his birthplace by a usurper, followed by a curse by a priestess that has effectively shut the kingdom off from the outside world.





The Sky is EverywhereThe Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

When her older sister dies from an arrhythmia, 17-year-old Lennie finds that people are awkward around her, including her best friend. While dealing with her conflicted feelings toward her sister's boyfriend, her anguish over Bailey's unexpected death, Lennie must also cope with her unresolved feelings about her mother, who left when Lennie was an infant.

Fever CrumbFever Crumb by Reeves, Philip

Foundling Fever Crumb has been raised as an engineer although females in a future London, England, are not believed capable of rational thought, but at age 14 she leaves her sheltered world and begins to learn startling truths about her past while facing danger in the present.



RevolverRevolver by Marcus Sedgwick

Sedgwick's historical mystery, set in the Arctic Circle in 1899 and 1910, makes good use of the word chilling. Outside their remote Scandinavian village, Sig's father dies of exposure after trying to rush home across a frozen lake. The reason for his carelessness becomes apparent to Sig when a hulking beast of a man arrives at their tiny shack with a Colt revolver, demanding his share of a stolen wealth of gold.

Last Summer of the Death WarriorsThe Last Summer of the Death Warriors by Francisco X. Stork

Seventeen year old Pancho is bent on avenging the senseless death of his sister, but after he meets D.Q. who is dying of cancer, and Marisol, one of D.Q's caregivers, both boys find their lives changed by their interactions.




NothingNothing by Janne Teller and translated from Danish

When thirteen-year-old Pierre Anthon leaves school to sit in a plum tree, and train for becoming nothing, his classmates set out on a desperate quest for the meaning of life.




A few more excellent fiction and non-fiction titles:

Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson

Borrowed Names: Poems About Laura Ingalls Wilder, Madam C.J. Walker, Marie Curie, and Their Daughters by Jeannine Atkins

We Could Be Brothers by Derrick D. Barnes

They Called Themselves the KKK: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Will Grayson, Will Grayson, by David Levithan and John Green
Picture the Dead, by Lisa Brown & Adele Griffin

Now that it's December and 2010 is coming to a close - What are some of YOUR favorite books this year? Please tell us in a comment on the blog: http://www.spellbindersbooknews.blogspot.com.
   
Kimberley




The Secret Language of Stories
Carolee Dean
Carolee Dean
Carolee Dean
Adolescence is a period of rapid growth and life-altering change. With this month's focus on young adult literature, it's the perfect time to talk about the transformational arc of characters. In a well-crafted novel, movie, or play a character will grow and change in a significant way. Owen, in the YA novel, Crash Into Me by Albert Borris, goes on a road trip with three teens he met online. They plan to visit the sites of celebrity suicides and then kill themselves, but as he connects with the teens on the trip, he finally discusses his brother's tragic death, and he begins to find hope. In Heidi Kling's novel, Sea, Sienna begins the story deathly afraid of flying and fearful of the ocean because of her mother's plane going missing three years early. She falls in love with Deni, a teen she's met at an orphanage in Yogyarta, and by the end of the story she's travelling with him to tsunami ravaged Aceh to help him find his missing father. In the process she not only overcomes her fear of flying, but faces potential death from a variety of other sources including malaria and bird flu.

This character transformation even happens in short stories and picture books, though often to a lesser degree. The young wife in The Gift of the Magi starts out feeling sad because she has no money to buy her husband a Christmas gift. She sells the one thing that really sets her apart, her hair, to buy him a chain for his pocket watch. When he comes home and appears shocked by her new appearance, she faces the potential loss of what she values most - his affection. In the end he tells her that he sold his watch to buy her a set of combs for her hair. They both realize how truly rich they are because of the great love they possess. 

In the picture book The Frog Prince Continued, the frog and his wife begin the story disgruntled with each other. Married life isn't what they thought it would be. He goes off looking for a witch to change him back into a frog and suffers a near death experience when a fairy accidentally changes him into a carriage. He despairs that he will have to sit in the forest until he rots, but then the clock strikes midnight and he is a prince again. When he finally returns to the palace, he and his wife have a newfound appreciation for each other.

Transformation is often painful and never easy. It is that awkward change from caterpillar to butterfly and typically involves some type of death experience, much like the chrysalis phase where the caterpillar melts into goo before being reborn as a monarch. There is no real change without this death of the old and birth of the new, but it is human nature to avoid it, to hold onto what is comfortable and familiar. The one exception may be adolescence when teens are eager to throw off the bonds of childhood to embrace the "freedom" of adulthood. It isn't until they are mid stream through the river of reformation that they realize just how treacherous those waters can be.  

To read more about the twelve stages of The Secret Language of Stories, visit our previous issues of Spellbinders at http://spellbindersbooknews.blogspot.com.

For a fun activity focusing on character transformation, visit the monthly activity blog on my website at www.caroleedean.com.  
2011 Youth Media Awards
Here is the list of awards given out at the 2011 Youth Media Award announcements at the ALA Midwinter Conference:
  • Alex Awards
  • Andrew Carnegie Medial
  • Coretta Scott King Book Award
  • Coretta Scott King - Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement 
  • John Newbery Medal
  • Laura Ingalls Wilder Award 
  • Margaret A. Edwards Award
  • May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture
  • Michael L. Printz Award
  • Mildred L. Batchelder Award
  • Odyssey Award
  • Pura Belpré Awards
  • Randolph Caldecott Medal
  • Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal
  • Schneider Family Book Award
  • Stonewall Children's & Young Adult Literature Award
  • Theodore Seuss Geisel Award
  • William C. Morris Award
  • YALSA Award for Excellent in Nonfiction for Young Adults
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Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Lovely, lovely, LOVELY!!!

Homongous thanks to Corrine at "Lost for Words"!!! (Some of my FAV lines are bolded. :-))

The Healing Spell - Kimberley Griffiths Little - Blog Tour Review

Title: The Healing Spell
Genre: Middle Grade Fiction, Contemporary
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Publication Date: July 1, 2010
My rating: 5/5

Livie's summer is off to a horrible start. Her mother has been in the hospital for the last eleven days in a coma. No one but Livie knows what happened to cause her momma's accident. Her daddy brings her momma home to tend to her while she is still in a comatose state. Livie is scared, and feeling guilty, and is also feeling like an outsider in her own family. Will she come to terms with the new status of her family, or can she find a way to help cure her momma?
I have to say that this book is so atmospheric, and so vibrant. I connected with Livie right away, as I was a tomboy growing up too, (you could say I still am). She and her mother don't get along, and it seems like they are from two different worlds. Livie can't understand why anyone would want to dress up, or do anything girly, and so she relegates herself to exploring the bayou behind her family's house. She spends a lot of time with her daddy going frog hunting, and emptying the crawfish traps. She is wholeheartedly a daddy's girl. Her voice throughout is strong and pure. I couldn't help but commiserate with her feelings, and I hoped that things would work out for her and her family. I loved reading her interactions with various family members, and chuckled when things went awry. Most of all, I loved her realizations about  faith, and letting in the good memories while letting go of the bad.
Livie's voice brings you into this world of bayou's and alligators, and from the first page I was hooked. The inflection in her voice, and the cadence of the words jumped out at me and enticed me into her world. It wasn't hard to imagine that I was on the bayou with her, making friends with a baby alligator, or getting into hot water with her family. The setting is so vivid, and so brilliant, I couldn't help but fall in love with it, and with Livie's story. I was immersed so deeply in Livie's world that I hated to stop reading. It's an easy and quick read, but I found myself slowing down to savour it. I can't stress enough how beautiful this book is. 
All in all, a gorgeous, vibrant, and beautiful tale about the journey one girl takes on the road to discovery and recovery. A family uniting, wild bayou countryside, hope and faith mesh together to create this warm, inviting, and beautifully descriptive read. I know that this one will definitely be a world that I re-visit. I'd highly recommend this one to people of all ages. Middle grade readers, and their parents as well as teens will enjoy The Healing Spell.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Next Up - Ashley's Bookshelf!!!

I'm honored to be at Ashley's Bookshelf the past two days - thank you so much Ashley! It's fun to think about THE HEALING SPELL on your *bookshelf*!

Here is Ashley's wonderful review of the book - as well as her interview with my main character, the adorable, feisty, tomboy Livie Mouton!

The Healing Spell by Kimberley Little + Giveaway!


Twelve-year-old Livie is living with a secret and it's crushing her. She knows she is responsible for her mother's coma, but she can't tell anyone. It's up to her to find a way to wake her momma up. 

Set in the lush bayou of Louisiana, Kimberley Griffiths Little brings Livie's story to life with power and grace.
_____________________________________________
My Thoughts

Livie’s mama lies in a coma inside their little home near a Louisiana bayou. While Livie’s daddy and her sisters can help care for her mama, she can’t bring herself to touch her. And Livie holds a powerful secret inside herself about the day of her mama’s accident. When Livie starts a quest to find a way to heal her mama, she finds that she must first heal herself.

The Healing Spell by Kimberley Griffiths Little is a story of love and forgiveness and the complicated relationships mothers can have with their daughters. As one of three girls, Livie feels like her mother has always loved her sisters more that she loves her. That’s because Livie is more comfortable hunting and fishing and raising crawfish traps on the bayou with her daddy than she is acting like a young lady. She also doesn’t get along with her sisters for the same reason.

This book teach both mothers and daughters how family members can find a way to appreciate each other’s differences, and what role faith plays in our lives. It should also be fun for readers to learn about the bayou country of Louisiana and the way that some people lived.
 

The Healing Spell is more of a classic story for me. One like Old Yeller, and Huckleberry Finn. While I was reading I couldn't help to think that I was back in middle school sitting in class. This was definitely a book to enjoy and reminisce about the glory days. The Healing Spell is a delight, and I highly recommend it. 



** Thanks to Teen Book Scene for hosting this tour. **

******** GIVEAWAY********


Character Interview: Livie from The Healing Spell

Today I would like to welcome Livie from The Healing Spell [review and giveaway]!

1. Why would you rather clean the bathroom and do the dishes than help with your Mamma?

Cleaning the bathroom is much "safer". You can do it when you want to and you can do it all by yourself with nobody watching, unless Aunt Colleen comes in to inspect with her eagle eyes. If I help tend my Mamma, I'm scared to death she'll suddenly wake up and grab my arm like a dead person rising out of a coffin! Just give me the Comet and a plunger and I'm good. :-) I can clean real fast then run outside and get away from everyone. Pulling weeds is better than tending a person in a coma.

2. How did it feel knowing that you could have been the reason to cause the coma?

Some days I just wanted to run away from home. Or hide out in my pirogue (boat) with T-Baby and my sleeping bag and a bag of Oreos. The secret I was hiding gets so big it starts busting out your chest or gives you a stomach ache so bad you want to puke. Then there's all those nights I cried in my pillow wondering if Mamma was gonna die and I'd get sent to jail. I was worried my family and God would hate me for the rest of my life. Never had a bigger secret in my whole life.

3. How is it growing up as the middle child?

My big sister Faye is a big pain. Always watching me like a snake waiting to swallow up a mouse. She reads all kind a things into what I do and don't do. Then shakes her head like she's the mamma instead of just a big ole nosy sister putting herself where she don't belong. Plus she's real prissy and perfect and likes my baby sister better than me. Big sisters are best left fixing their hair in front of the bathroom mirror or talking on the phone with their boyfriends.

4. Why did you decide to keep an alligator?

They're the cutest little things, especially when they first hatch. Sometimes you can see ten or twelve little babies crawling all over the Mamma gator, sitting in a big pile on her head. They slip and slide into the water, then climb back up again. When they're tiny babies though, they are SO FAST, zipping around in the shallow water. Makes them really hard to catch. You gotta have patience, but it's fun to hold them against your shirt like a baby. Watch out for the razor sharp teeth though! If I had a dog, it'd probably get eaten up by a big ole gator. Course, my daddy says that once my baby alligator gets big he might eat ME!

5. How does it make you feel knowing that you are not as girly as your sisters? Do you like being more of a tomboy?

I've always felt like an outsider, like I didn't belong to my own family. Sometimes I wondered if my sisters and my mamma really loved me, or pretended to love me because they were obligated. I think girls can hunt and fish and make their own boat and learn how to shoot - and wear dresses, too. But no more than once a month and it better be a good reason!

Thank you Livie for joining us today. 
Please make sure to look after your gator and don't get eaten!

Don't forget to check out my giveaway and review!

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

A stunning review from "Bri Meets Books"!

I was blown away by this gorgeous and heartfelt review today. 

Thank you, Bri, from the bottom of my heart. 

The Healing Spell



 

Sometimes you find a book, sometimes it finds you. The Healing Spell by Kimberly Griffiths Little is one of those books.  Rich with grief and hope, it tore me apart and made me sob.  Its resounding theme of the mother-daughter friendship, that really struck a chord.  As you may know, I recently relocated to Ohio from Florida. I left my mom for the first time over 13 hrs away. And as the holidays approach,  I’m missing my mom more and more.

Eleven year old Olivia or “Livie” has a secret that’s greater than the whole bayou in which she lives.  Her mother’s in a coma and only Livie knows the real reason why. But she can’t tell anybody, so she waits for the secret to swallow her whole.  Maybe she’s better off that way anyhow, as she tries to find her place as one of three girls. Not young and girly, like the oldest, Faye, and not small and cute, like the youngest, Aimee (or Crickett, as she’s better known).  Livie would rather go frogging or take her boat up the bayou before put on a dress.  When her mother comes home to recuperate at Livie’s father’s insistence – while still in a coma – Livie seeks the advice of the traiteur, a healer who lives in a house up the bayou all alone, in hopes she can offer a healing spell.   And what Livie finds is faith.

I read it pretty much cover to cover in one day, because it was so good. All the details of the bayou just suck you in, until you hear the cries of the bullfrogs for yourself.    Hats off to Little’s research because it must’ve been exhaustive or done in person to get this nice authenticity.   I love the clean writing with full sentences capturing this soft and quiet bayou mood.
“The dark blue truck looked like a bruise in the dark.” pg. 1
“I stepped back into the front room, and the air seemed as thick as old molasses in a dusty canning jar.” pg. 12
“My chest got so tight it felt like a gator squeezing my heart between its his jaws.” pg. 1
Livie’s so scared of who her momma has become, she can’t bring herself to touch her or aid in her care.   Crickett climbs right up on the bed with their mother, and Faye does her makeup, so she doesn’t look too ghastly to the neighbors. But Livie won’t stay with her because it’s all her fault.    Livie’s guilt was a hefty burden for a character to carry, and Little portrays this really well, as Livie remembers her mother in happier times, and all but tears herself apart for the circumstances that led to her mother’s coma.  Through the novel, Livie displays real growth and learns of forgiveness, not just for her own choices, but her mother’s for Livie.
While the crux of The Healing Spell is a mother-daughter relationship, and there are some lovely relationships in the novel.  Faye is a a nice respite from the bossy older sister of MG fiction, with her stern but still sisterly ways. There were several tender moments between her and Livie.  Crickett is adorable and the scenes where Livie’s father takes her frogging or they paddle in Livie’s pirogue are touching.  They reminded me a bit of Pa and Laura Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie with the gruff father who’s so tender with his little girls.
The Healing Spell is a resounding tale of faith and love and most of all, forgiveness.  It’s a tribute to that sometimes rough yet powerful relationship between a mother and daughter, as each tries to cast the other in an assumed role.   The Healing Spell is a must read for any mother or daughter.

Copy for review provided by Scholastic and The Teen {Book} Scene.  Thank you!  

View the tour schedule for more reviews, interviews, and giveaways.

Title: The Healing Spell
Author: Kimberly Griffiths Little
Date: July 2010
Level: Middle grade
Publisher: Scholastic
Format: Hardback
Pages: 354

Other Reviews
Abby the Librarian
Books Complete Me
Bookworming in the 21st Century

Monday, December 06, 2010

The Teen Book Scene Blog Tour SCHEDULE!

I am so thrilled to see so many new friends here! Thank you for following me! I'm super excited to hit 101 - no, 107 people!!!!! Here's more exclamation marks!!!!!! Hope you enjoy the time you spend here and we can dish about life and good books and writing and books and food and books and cute babies and books and . . . see? There's a reason I call this place Kimberley's Wanderings. Okay, you may now collectively groan.

My current Blog Tour that's happening RIGHT NOW around the interwebs and book blogger world and which I copy right here every single day got a little schedule mix-up so here is the REAL schedule so you can keep track of all the very fun interviews (every single one is different!) or go back and look them up.A humongous THANK YOU to Kelsey for putting it all together and to all the super fantastic bloggers!!!


The Healing Spell by Kimberley Griffiths Little
December 1 - December 20

Picture

Wednesday, December 1: Kristen at Bookworming in the 21st Century (Review)
Thursday, December 2: Kristen at Bookworming in the 21st Century (Interview & Giveaway)

Friday, December 3: Cindy at Books Complete Me (Review)
Saturday, December 4: Cindy at Books Complete Me (Interview & Giveaway)

Sunday, December 5: Anne at Potter, Percy and I (Review)
Monday, December 6:  Anne at Potter, Percy and I (Cover Interview & Giveaway)

Tuesday, December 7: Bri at Bri Meets Books (Review)
Wednesday, December 8: Bri at Bri Meets Books (Guest Post & Giveaway)

Thursday, December 9: Ashley at Ashley's Bookshelf (Review)
Friday, December 10:  Ashley at Ashley's Bookshelf (Character Interview & Giveaway)

Saturday, December 11: Danielle at There's A Book (Review)
Sunday, December 12: Danielle at There's A Book (Interview & Giveaway)

Monday, December 13: Corrine at Lost for Words (Review)
Tuesday, December 14: Corrine at Lost for Words (Guest Post & Giveaway)

Wednesday, December 15: Jessi at The Elliott Review (Review)
Thursday, December 16: Jessi at The Elliott Review (Guest Post)

Friday, December 17: Steph at Steph The Bookworm (Review)
Saturday, December 18: Steph at Steph The Bookworm (Guest Post & Giveaway)

Sunday, December 19: Jessica at A Fanatic's Book Blog (Review)
Monday, December 20: Jessica at A Fanatic's Book Blog (Interview & Giveaway)


MY PUBLISHED BOOKS

MY PUBLISHED BOOKS

Winner of The Southwest Book Award!

Time travel, war, love, rattlesnakes, magic . . .

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