I have joined a SECRET CLUB!

I have joined a SECRET CLUB … I mean, the YA Series Insiders!

I'm extremely thrilled to announce that I’m a member of the YA Series Insiders – a brand-new group comprising authors who all have a new series launching in 2014. But while we’ll naturally be sharing news about our own upcoming titles (I've already got butterflies thinking about my excitement over FORBIDDEN Harpercollins, November 2014), that’s not all we’re about. We’re going to bring you exciting inside tidbits and secrets about all YOUR favorite trilogies and series, interviews with your favorite YA authors, and plenty of giveaways. Want to see what we’ve already cooked up for you?




Who are we? 
Jennifer Armentrout
Nina Berry
Anne Blankman
Martina Boone
Lanie Bross
Tracy Clark
S.E. Green 
Sara Raasch
Claudia Gray 
Kimberley Griffiths Little :-)

You said awesome giveaways. What kind of giveaways? How much awesome?
THIS much awesome, my friends. To get things started with our new Tumblr (http://yaseriesinsiders.com/), we are holding a mega giveaway with (drum roll please) more than $1000 worth of signed box sets or hardcover sets of favorite YA series, plus handpicked items from every author that ties in with her book. Like this from FORBIDDEN!

Yep, it's a belly dance skirt and jangly hip scart and AUTORGAPHED copies of Laini Taylor's DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE 

& DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT!!! 

AND matching belly dance earrings!!!

There are smaller giveaways too, including DVDs, exclusive swag, and jewelry, which you can find (along with YA Series Insiders content) on the following four blogs:
Adventures in YA Publishing –  gifts plus signed hardcover copies of Marie Lu’s LEGEND trilogy
Page Turners’ Blog — gifts plus signed hardcovers of SHATTER ME and IGNITE ME by Tahereh Mafi, and a signed hardcover of ICONS by Margaret Stohl
Mundie Moms – gifts plus signed hardcovers copies of Rae Carson’s GIRL OF FIRE AND THORNS trilogy
YA Books Central – gifts plus an entire signed hardcover copy of the DIVERGENT trilogy by Veronica Roth.

You know you want these things. 
“But wait, there’s more!” There are giveaways of yet more prizes and swag at the following blogs:
How would you like a signed copy of Veronica Roth’s ALLEGIANT from The Story Siren? Or a signed copy of THE DIVINERS by Libba Bray from Jean The Book Nerd? If you want Alexandra Bracken’s NEVER FADE, you want to drop by Candace’s Book Blog. Seeking Victoria Schwab’s THE ARCHIVED? You’ll want to head to Literary Rambles. From I’m A Reader, Not A Writer…, you can win an autographed copy of FROZEN by Melissa de la Cruz and Michael Johnson. And the Girls in the Stacks have a signed hardcover of UNBREAKABLE by Kami Garcia.

The giveaways are all happening now, and you can enter anytime through the end of the year. All eleven winners will be announced on January 1. What’s that, you say? Only 11 winners? That’s right. When you win here, you win BIG.

Hope you’ll follow us on Tumblr, through the giveaways, on Twitter @YASeriesInsider, and more.

Just TWO days left to enter RIGHT HERE! BUT don't forget every single day we post severl inside secrets from your favorite authors AND we'll be doing tons of autographed books and swag all throughout the year!

I had a Little Nut-Tree - and it was delicious!

A few weeks ago I was interviewed by the very lovely and humorous writer/blogger/mom/reader Jill Haugh. She asked questions about my books that I'd never been asked before, and I thought you all might like to read the interview, too. Go here to follow Jill (and doesn't her daughter, Ohana, have the most unique and beautiful name?)

An Interview with Author Kimberley Griffiths Little

Greetings Dear Readers! 

I hope you enjoy the following interview with Kimberley Griffiths Little, author of The Healing Spell, Circle of Secrets and When the Butterflies Came. I recently did a review of the fabulous Circle of Secrets which you can find over at Kate Brauning's "The Bookshelf".  I am still pining that this book is over and am having to detox by reading non-fiction until I sufficiently recover.  Sigh. 

So without further ado... here's a little about Ms. Little.

Welcome to the nut-tree, Kimberley!

  My daughter Ohana and I have so enjoyed reading your books and discussing them.  It's been a wonderful summer of reading for us.  To begin, both Circle of Secrets and  The Healing Spell are set in the Louisiana bayou.  What influence(s) made you choose this setting? 

I became captivated when my family took a trip there about 15 years ago. We got to go out on a boat with a Cajun fisherman and he took us to his crawfish traps and home in the bayou woods. I took pictures like crazy, asked him a million questions, fed the alligators chicken - and absolutely fell in love with the beauty and mystery of those swamps. I spent the next five years visiting and researching and talking with lots of people and taking trips down another 6-7 bayous/swamps around the state. It’s like my second home now and I still return every year or so to visit friends I’ve made.

What does “char” mean?

It’s actually a bastardization of the French word “cher” for “dear” or “darling” or “my dear”. I used it the way I’ve heard the Cajun people say it. “shar”. Often it sounds like they’re leaving the “r” sound off, so it’s even closer to “sha”. They use it a lot for family and friends. And when I talk to Miz Olive and Mister Elward on the phone, they always call me shar, too! I love it.

Water, and the dangers of water in particular, play such a large part in your three books set in the bayou.  Have you ever had a dicey experience in the water?

Not exactly – unless you count the time when I was 7 years old and lost my flip-flops while on an inner-tube on the Russian River in Northern California where I was raised. I slipped off my tube and was screaming bloody murder and my parents hurried over, thinking I was in trouble, only to find out that I was crying for my lost flip-flops - not because I was drowning. My family still likes to tease me about that. BUT, I have always had a fear of what is below the surface of lakes and ponds and the ocean. I’ve gone water-skiing, too, but I hate being stuck in the water for very long after going down. It just freaks me out. 

Where I live now along the Rio Grande, we have ditches everywhere for irrigation. I take daily morning walks along these ditches which run full of water in the spring and summer from the mountain snow run-off. The water is brown and murky and filled with crawfish and muskrats. While writing Circle of Secrets I spent a long time scaring myself silly as I imagined what it would be like to fall into one of those ditches when they’re running fast and full and not being able to crawl up the slippery, muddy slopes to get out. Nobody would be able to hear you, either.

In The Healing Spell, Circle of Secrets and When the Butterflies Came the characters all live in the same town, and either know each other or know of each other.  Did the idea for the stories come before the idea of inter-relating the characters or vice versa? 

I would say both! It was sort of a mish-mash. I thought I was done with Livie and Miz Mirage and the bayou after The Healing Spell was finally published (a journey of 8 years!), but when I began thinking of my next project I found myself wanting to explore the character and unusual swamp lifestyle of Miz Mirage who is a traiteur (French for “healer”) from the perspective of her estranged 11-year-old daughter—a town girl who has never lived in the swamp before—juxtaposing their personal points of view and their rocky relationship. I also wanted to do a ghost story and that ended up being a girl that Mirage used to know so everything is inter-related. 

When I started thinking about When the Butterflies Came, a girl started coming to me in bits and pieces. She lived in an old plantation mansion, has a touch of OCD as well as a bossy, annoying older sister. She also had a very close relationship with her scientist grandmother. Butterflies are magical and mysterious and so I knew Grammy Clare was researching some *unusual* butterflies on a remote island. All of a sudden that girl became Tara Doucet, the rich Pantene Princess from Circle of Secrets. Figuring out Tara’s story also helped explain why Tara did the things she did in that book, essentially the back-story of the town princess who is a bully.

 

Do you have a blue-bottle tree? 

No, but I do have big plans for one – and meanwhile I have a blue bottle hummingbird feeder! See, see?

*Spoiler alert* Read only if you have read The Healing Spell or suffer the dire consequences. 

I was very interested in your choice of ending for The Healing Spell.  While the final chapter was, to me, very mysterious, magical and metaphorical, I was wondering what made you choose to not have the big “wake up” scene at the end.  (note: I did find particular closure with it at the end of Circle of Secrets-- in Mirage’s note about the yam cake, so thanks for that!) 

I've had tons of fan mail about this very question so you are not alone, Jill! I also loved adding that little secret note at the end of Circle of Secrets tying the two books together.

         As I was writing The Healing Spell, and getting closer and closer to the ending I knew that it would be anticlimactic to have the Hallmark ending where Mamma wakes up and everything is hunky-dory. Life isn’t usually like that, and coma patients have a long rehabilitation period when they do finally wake up. But I wanted there to be lots of HOPE. I wanted to show how far Livie’s relationship with her mother and the rest of her family (Mamma, sisters, annoying cousin, even Daddy whom she’s always been the closest to) had progressed—in ways that only she could change things. I also wanted to show far Livie’s faith and love had developed so it felt right to end the book as it is. I’ve been astonished at how many kids *get* the underlying themes, too.

Please tell us about your next book, The Time of the Fireflies.  Was the doll influenced at all by writing about Gwen’s doll from Circle of Secrets? 

Oh, yes! The doll in the antique store IS Gwen’s doll from Circle of Secrets! In The Time of the Fireflies readers will get to find out the history of that spooky doll going back 5 generations, and how past events affected various tragedies the family has endured for 100 years. There is time-slipping and family dramatics and a cool uncle and a girl from 1912 that collides with the future—or maybe it’s the other way around. Hmm . . . How’s that for mysterious!

In regards to your upcoming YA debut trilogy, what pulled your interests East? (And could you tell us a little bit about these books?) 

I’ve been researching and writing about the Middle east for about 15 years, actually. I sold several stories about Arabian horses and Egypt to Cricket Magazine many years back. I also find the stories of the Old Testament to be very fascinating (and I taught the Old Testament for a couple of years to high school students). So I combined these loves and created a story about a girl in 1759 BC, a great-great granddaughter of Abraham at the time that Goddess Temples of Ashtoreth and Innana were widespread and luring young girls into temple prostitution. I’m also a belly dancer and the story is about the roots of belly dance and the women’s world of the desert tent people (Bedouins). After years of dreaming, I finally got to travel to Jordan and Israel this past February and over the next year I’ll be posting on my blog and Facebook about my own Middle East travels. You can go to my Facebook page right now and look at the photo album called Petra, Jordan. I did a lot of research from original sources about the Bedouin way of life, camels, etc. Plus the research and personal experience with belly dancing and how it shapes women’s lives and relationships and health. 

This book has been 12 years in the making. I began outlining in 2002, the novel sold in 2008, was pulled from that publisher (long story) in 2011, sold to Harpercollins two months later in a significant pre-empt deal, and will finally publish Fall of 2014. Whew! 

*I just learned that a photo shoot is scheduled next week for the book’s cover. They have a model and a dress, even – oh, my! :-) 

Here is a quick synopsis if you’re interested: 

FORBIDDEN is a sweepingly epic and sensuous novel, a story of peer pressure and cults set against the ancient art of belly dance, in which 16-year-old Jayden’s faith and character is tested to their limits, even death, as she watches her family and the world around her falls apart. She suffers blackmail over a murder from the tribal leader she is betrothed to, as well as hiding the forbidden love with a stranger from the secret frankincense lands. The Goddess temples of Ashtoreth may be Jayden’s only escape, even though the allure of the sexual rites tempt the women of the desert to turn their back on everything they hold sacred.

Is there a grammar rule that consistently trips you up?

          Hmm. I always got 100% on my spelling tests, and I’ve read so many thousands of books over my life-time that most grammar doesn’t get me anymore (although don’t ask me what a “hanging participle” is) – but I *WILL* rewrite a sentence to the death just to avoid the word “lie” or “lay”.

THANK YOU so much for having me, Jill! This was an awesome interview with questions I haven’t been asked before.

Social Media Links: 

• Website: http://www.kimberleygriffithslittle.com
• Blog http://www.kimberleygriffithslittle.blogspot.com
• Twitter @KimberleyGLittl
• Facebook: Find me at "Kimberley Griffiths Little"
• YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/KimberleyLittle1?feature=watch

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/484627.Kimberley_Griffiths_Little

Cinderskella Cover Reveal - a fun new MG novel with a great Giveaway!

I'm pleased to be part of a massive book cover reveal for Cinderskella by Amie and Bethany Borst, a very adorable mother-daughter writing team and the first book in a funny series, Scarily Ever Laughter. 

TaDA!!! Isn't it intriguing? That cover definitely makes you want to know what this book is about . . . see below! There is also an easy-peasy Rafflecopter for a $25 Amazon gift card PLUS you are automatically entered into a drawing for a KINDLE FIRE!!! Whooeeee!!

Cindy is just a normal, average girl. At least until she wakes up one night to find out she is dead. Well, she isn't technically dead—she just doesn't have any hair, nose, or . . . skin. Yep, she is a skeleton—all bones and no body.

Human by day and skeleton by night, Cindy is definitely cursed. It doesn't help that her mother recently died, only to be replaced by an evil stepmother who makes her do gross things like eat liver and clean rooms with only a toothbrush. It really doesn't help that her father is scared of her strange nightly body appearance and that there's no way she can attend the school dance “dressed” like a skeleton.

What ensues is a hysterical tale of a young girl who, while coping with the loss of her mother, embarks on a journey of self-discovery, love, and forgiveness, all the while learning to deal with an evil step-mother and her "skeletal" abnormalities.

Cinderskella is available for purchase at Barnes & Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/cinderskella-bethanie-borst-amie-borst/1114940702?ean=9781939967244

 

Amie and Bethanie Borst are a mother-daughter writing team. Amie believes in unicorns, uses glitter whenever the opportunity arises, accessorizes in pink and eats too much chocolate. Bethanie is a spunky 13-year-old middle-schooler who loves archery, long bike rides and studying edible plant-life. Cinderskella is their first book together and is part of the Scarily Ever Laughter series.

You can find them on Facebook (www.facebook.com/AmieAndBethanieBorst)
Twitter (www.twitter.com/AmieBorst)
Pinterest (www.pinterest.com/AmieBorst)
From the Mixed-Up Files of Middle-Grade Authors (www.fromthemixedupfiles.com)
 and blog (www.amieborst.com)

GIVEAWAY –
Amie Borst is celebrating her book release and cover reveal with a monthly giveaway in The Great Cinderskella Giveaway! If you’d like to win a $25 Amazon gift card, just fill out the Rafflecopter form below. You’ll be automatically entered into the grand prize drawing for a Kindle Fire in October!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Enjoy!
xo,
Kimberley

Au Revoir & A Book Party at The King's English for WHEN THE BUTTERFLIES CAME!

I'm packing today and leaving bright and early tomorrow, Wednesday, for Utah for my son's graduation from BYU and a family reunion and my book signing at The King's English on Saturday, August 17th at 11:00 a.m.! If you can't come you can order a signed copy by phone and they will ship it to you!

Please come if you're in the area! We're doing butterfly trivia, behind-the-scenes publishing stuff, making butterfly necklaces, and having butterfly cake! Oh, and I'm signing stacks of books! :-)

Until later next week!

xo,
~Kimberley

All the Things! Lots of Catch-Up!

Hello friends and bloggers!

You may have noticed that I did not get a Friday Links up (My "While Cynsations was Out of the Office" series) because I was flat in bed much of last week. I even had to cancel the home-school writing workshop I was scheduled for on Thursday as well as my Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday post. My flu/cold/thingie came out of left field and took me by surprise.

Also, last week I got the copy edits for my Summer 2014 Scholastic title, THE TIME OF THE FIREFLIES - which are due TODAY. Yep. Gulp. (Insert silent panicked scream here).

So blogging went out the window. Although I do - 99% of most days - manage to be on Facebook or Twitter at least once or twice so if you're not following me there you're missing out on ALL KINDS OF AWESOME! Ha, ha. So go HERE and HERE right now and come back instantly! 

 VERY COOL THINGS THIS MONTH!

My humorous, satirical piece on Friend for the Ride blog is at THIS LINK. Check out all the fun and a THREE-BOOK GIVEAWAY! You can Enter until August 25th.

***

WRITE ON CON IS THIS TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY! And I'm doing a post called Revision 101 Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. 

Write on Con is a FREE Online Writer's Conference for two whole days at the link with posts and panels and vlogs by editors, authors, and agents! Amazing, super informative, and a few authors have been able to pitch their stories and get agented through this conference. Read the Success story at the link. Go to the links for the faculty and schedule so you don't miss anything.

The previous 3 years' conferences are all archived so go back and read and watch some very cool stuff.

***

And last, but not least, my new book, WHEN THE BUTTERFLIES CAME (see my sidebar for gorgeous cover!) is the August Scholastic pick for their Mother-Daughter Book Club site! 

I'm thrilled to pieces! Check out the recipe and the Club Guide on the site, too.

Plus, here is *my* marvelous MDBC Guide that my sister (who is a teacher) put together. It's fantastic! And free for download right here at my website: http://www.kimberleygriffithslittle.com/2012/05/Butterflies-Book-Club-Guide-1.pdf

Enjoy!
xo,
Kimberley

"A Day in the Life of a Menopausal Writer" + Very Funny Hubby comments! And 3-book Giveaway!

I'm here today: Friend For The Ride by Barbara Younger - Encouraging Words for the Menopause and Midlife Roller Coaster

A Day in the Life of a Menopausal Writer (and Three Book Giveaways!)

A post by writer Kimberley Griffiths Little:

A Sample Daily Schedule in a household with several adults in college, an Asperger son, three toddlers, and a Menopausal Writer

6:00 am – Wake up freezing—if I’ve even slept in the last 3 hours or one of the kiddos hasn’t come in at 3:30 a.m. – or 1:00 a.m. Pull on warm blanket. Put in ear plugs and fit eye mask over face. Go back to sleep while hubby takes shower and heads out to work.
6:15 am – Roll over sweating. Take off blanket. Try to go back to sleep.
7:00 am – Toss and Turn and finally get up to start working on having a Productive Day.
7:05 am – Decide to check Emails, Facebook, Twitter and the daily blog roll while eating yogurt and prunes – with 1-2 toddlers in lap or wanting breakfast, etc.
9:15 am – Realize what time it is but decide to send just one more email.
9:45 am – Finish Email and rush in to start the shower. Realize I forgot to exercise so quickly lift a few weights or run through an abdominal DVD. Promise myself I will do aerobics or take a 2-mile walk tomorrow. I will lose this ten pounds. I mean twenty. Well, maybe thirty if I’m completely honest.
10:45 am – Finish getting dressed and have a rather large depressive episode that the day is already half over and “Nothing has been accomplished!!”
11:00 – Pick Self up from sobbing Hysterics on the floor and lock self into “Creative Room” to begin writing.
11:20 – Exit “creative room” to get cold drink to deal with hot flash.
11:25 – Return to “Creative room” and start working on Manuscript.
1:00 pm – Realize that it’s lunch time and go prepare food, usually leftover pizza and a Dr. Pepper. There is a reason I need to lose that annoying 30! But I’m into fast meals. More time to write, right?
2:30 pm – After nearly dying from another heat flash, drowning myself from drinking cold water and running to the bathroom every hour, I chase it down with chocolate chip cookies, and finally return to writing.
4:30 pm – Feel nearly frozen and wrap self up in my purple blanket.
Proceed to have a panic attack about the looming deadline as I worry about the 5 guest blog posts I need to write, the editorial letter I don’t understand, the late advance check, the new workshop I’m presenting in two weeks out of state that still needs tweaking, handouts, and a Power Point, that new story idea I keep twiddling with in my Shiny New Idea File, my mother’s birthday gift, the package of giveaway books sitting on my desk waiting for autographs, bookmarks, and addressing, the bills that need writing, the phone call to my sister as well as my son who is out of state at college and needs to talk since his girlfriend just broke up with him.
Tuck chin down and Keep Writing Anyway (and needless to say the heroine of the story is now in mortal peril because of the mood)! Peek at I-Pad just one more time to see if agent or editor is offering me a six figure deal or Oprah is dying to have me on her show.


READ THE REST OF MY DAILY ADVENTURES + A *VERY* FUNNY COMMENT FROM MY HUSBAND RIGHT HERE AT THE LINK

And you can enter to win all three books by just leaving a comment on the post!

Enjoy!

xo,
~Kimberley

While Cynsations is Out of the Office . . . Friday Links!

One of my favorite writers, bloggers, and friends is on Summer hiatus from her site/blog Cynsations. Yes, THE Cynthia Leitich Smith! A wonder of a woman, a wonder of a writer, and a wonderful friend to all writers and authors in the children's lit world. Cyn does an amazing Friday round-up of Links and News for Writers and while I can't even BEGIN to do what she does, here are a few links from blogs/articles that I've particularly enjoyed the past month or two.

Check out all her marvelous books right here: Cynthia Leitich Smith's Amazon Author Page

This is a shorter version this week since I've been DRAFTING like crazy! Just hit THE END!! :-)


THE WRITING LIFE:

Write On Con: The biggest, most stupendous online, and FREE Writer's Conference! Editors, Agents, and Authors share their expertise and knowledge about writing and the business! Coming August 130-14, 2013. Read the past two WOC conferences from 2011 and 2012 on the site. It's all archived!

Tim Tharpe on Breaking the Writing Rules

Sharon Shinn on Writing for the Long Haul

Austin Teen Book Festival Line-Up! Wow!

Corsets, Cutlasses and Candlesticks: a Fantastic Historical Fiction Writing Blog

FOR TEACHERS AND LIBRARIANS

Interview with Colby Sharp, Nerdy Book Club Owner

Nerdy Book Club: if you're not already reading this, you should, whether you're a writer, librarian, reader, or teacher. 

Mr. Schu: Watch, Connect, Read! (5th Grade Teacher)

School Libraries are Year Round despite crippling Budget Cuts/

And just because I love it so much! Shayne Leighton did my book trailer. Check out her brand new book in her "Of Light and Darkness" Series at the link!

Enjoy and Happy Weekend!

xo,
Kimberley

Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday - Family Reunion Edition!

I'm out of town for hubby's family reunion so no review from me this week. But please check out the other great bloggers and reviewers!

ALTHOUGH! My all-time favorite book about families and family reunions is this one. Love. This. Book! Believe me, the synopsis below does not do it justice. The characters are so real and funny and flawed you'd think they were part of your own family.

When the invitation to the Preffyn family reunion arrives interrupting a perfectly decent summer vacation, 15-year-old Shelley Wollcott is anything but enthusiastic. It’s not that Shelley has anything against her relatives, she just can’t stand it when they give her that “what a pity” look. It’s not her fault that her real mother walked out on the family or that her father has remarried yet again. With Dad away on business and her older sister visiting their mother in Paris, Shelley must face the “perfect” Preffyns’ reunion with only her prankster younger brother and her insecure new stepmother at her side. It’s an opportunity to uncover the family’s secrets, but Shelley isn’t sure whether, when she discovers the truth, she’ll laugh or cry.

In this funny and poignant novel by Caroline B. Cooney, Shelley learns to appreciate all the members of her unusual family—including herself!—in ways she never anticipated. And she discovers things are often not as perfect as they seem.

You may be able to find this book in your local library, too, with this original cover.

Enjoy!

xo,
Kimberley

P.S. I'm in the *wilds* of Arizona, outrunning heat and fires and thunderstorms galore. . . :-)  

- Jess from Reading Nook Reviews joins the MMGM fun with a feature on MY BASMATI BAT MITZVAH! Click HERE to welcome her to the group. 

- Laurel Holman also joins the MMGM fun with a feature on THE BOOK OF STORY BEGINNINGS. Click HERE to welcome her to the group.

- 11-year-old Xander is gushing about KEEPING SAFE THE STARS. Click HERE to see what he thought.   

- Joni Patterson is back with a feature on THE WIG IN THE WINDOW. Click HERE to see her review.  

- Mariah Lyons is cheering for THE FALSE PRINCE. Click HERE to see why. 

- Rosi Hollinbeck has two features, WHISTLING PAST THE GRAVEYARD and PRINCESS ACADEMY--with a GIVEAWAY. Click HERE for all the fun. 

- Alex Baugh is spreading the word for ROMEO BLUE. Click HERE to see why. 

- Heidi Grange is raving about CLONEWARD BOUND. Click HERE to see what she thought. 

- Flash, the Feline Extraordinaire, (and Professional Mews to Cindy Strandvold) recommends THE EVOLUTION OF CALPURNIA TATE. Click HERE to see what that's all about.   

- Jennifer Rumberger has chills for DEAD END. Click HERE to see what she thought.

- Natalie Lorenzi is interviewing Ammi-Joan Paquette about RULES FOR GHOSTING. Click HERE for all the fun 

- Maria Selke is championing ZERO TOLERANCE. Click HERE to see her review. 

- Medeia Sharif is sharing some love for ANASTASIA, ASK YOUR ANALYST. Click HERE to read her review. 

- Michelle Mason is totally addicted to ONCE UPON THE END. Click HERE to see her review.  

- Kimberley Griffiths Little also has an MMGM feature. Click HERE to see what it is.

- Barbara Watson has a double feature this week: HATTIE BIG SKY and HATTIE EVER AFTER. Click HERE for both reviews.

- Dorine White has a review of NATHANIEL FLOOD, BEASTOLOGIST: FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX. Click HERE to read more. 

- Joanne Fritz always has an MMGM for you. Click HERE to see what she's talking about this week. 

- The Mundie Moms are always part of the MMGM fun (YAY!). Click HERE to see their newest recommendations. And if you aren't also following their Mundie Kids site, get thee over THERE and check out all the awesome!    

- The lovely Shannon O'Donnell always has an MMGM ready for you! Click HERE to see what she's featuring this week!

- Karen Yingling also always has some awesome MMGM recommendations for you. Click HERE to which ones she picked this time!

- Pam Torres always has an MMGM up on her blog. Click HERE to see what she's spotlighting this week.

- Deb Marshall is an MMGM regular. Click HERE to see what she's featuring this week. 

If you would like to join in the MMGM fun, all you have to do is blog about a middle grade book you love (contests, author interviews and whatnot also count--but are most definitely not required) and email me the title of the book you're featuring and a link to your blog at SWMessenger (at) hotmail (dot) com. (Make sure you put MMGM or Marvelous Middle Grade Monday in the subject line so I see it)

NOTE: I used to not have a cut-off time for adding links to the post, but with how insane my schedule is right now, if you don't email me by Sunday evening (usually around 11pm PST is when I put the links together) I can't guarantee I'll have a chance to add you. BUT, you are welcome to add your link in the comments on this post so people can find you!

*Please note: these posts are not a reflection of my own opinions on the books featured. Each blogger is responsible for their own MMGM content and I do not pre-screen posts ahead of time, nor do I control what books they choose. I simply assemble the list based on the links that are emailed to me ahead of time