One of the reasons that I (Cari) have not ben so active here, although it’s not one of Holly’s reasons (she somehow manages four busy boys, artwork, writing and posting book reviews and I am pretty sure her house is way cleaner than mine and I am NOT jealous or anything of my sister), is I just finished my first novel for Young Adults. Whoo Hoo, I am turning cyber cartwheels, which is the only kind I can.

Last year we went to the amazing Writing and Illustrating for Young Reader’s Conference (WIFYR) held at the Waterford Institute in Sandy, UT. Since we had such a lovely experience the first year, we are both returning for another week of energizing enlightenment and excitement. Last year I (Cari) learned from the talented Emily Wing Smith and Holly rocked out in Krystin Crow’s hip and cool picture book class.

Holly, (who, unbeknownst to me, almost majored in art on the recommendation of her high school art teacher, but then majored in something practical and boring (in my opinion), business finance) is taking the art class with Julie Olson. I am taking the contemporary fiction class for YA with Kirk Shaw.

If you have any inkling to become a children’s author and/or illustrator come and join us at WIFYR.

Holly and Cari’s top ten list of reasons to attend:

1. No kids allowed (yes, we do love our kids)
2. Cari needs Holly’s help to walk. (Last year Cari tripped in the parking lot and managed to scrape her knee without ruining her pants.)
3. Meet other like-minded people
4. Network with other writers/artists
5. Book signings by your favorite author/teachers
6. Get a peak into current publishing trends
7. Agent John Cusick
8. Editors Alexandra Penfold and Ruth Katcher
9. Beautiful campus to inspire you to polish your manuscript
10. Carol Lynch Williams -If no one else was there but Carol, you would still be so happy you came. She’s amazing!

I just had to check out this book that has been hyped as the modern Secret Garden. That was my favorite book in 5^th grade, thanks to my teacher Mrs. Haneke. I spent hours on the cover of my big Secret Garden project, illustrating the perfect robin (most likely based on an encyclopedia picture) and old-fashioned key. We had to read the story out loud with a partner and I sometimes read it in an English accent to show off or better express my love of the book- I’m not sure which it was exactly, a little of both I suppose. I wished to be in the story more than once. You can see why I would want to read The Humming Room.

Roo Fanshaw is the victim of a modern plague, drugs- a parallel to the original story where Mary Lennox’s parent’s fall victim to a plague of cholera.How fortunate that we are able to avoid so many plagues that were unavoidable before due to advanced medicine and research, and yet how unfortunate that there are so many children who are the unwilling victims of the plagues their parents at one point, at least, consciously chose.  When Roo’s parents are claimed by violence, Roo is sent to live with a reclusive Uncle who inhabits an island previously used to house a tuberculosis sanitorium for children. Creepy things happened there once upon a time… actually creepy things continue to happen. Roo finds an old chute that was used to dispose of expired patients and in her discovery, happens upon a hidden world, that helps to heal her soul and find a place in her new family.

I really enjoyed this modern re-telling of the secret garden. The original will always be my favorite, but I think many of the younger crowd will prefer this one. It would be fun to have a school unit comparing and contrasting the two stories.

I love the soothing rhythm of this prehistoric tale. The life cycle of a turtle has changed little from ancient days to present. This is a fun read- especially for lovers of dinosaur lore. I felt like I was bobbing on the waves of the ocean as I read it out loud to my boys, who loved it as much as I did. Kurt Cyrus has a very interesting story that you can read more about on his website here.

A fun little story about a bird that finds a lost egg and devotes her days to finding a home for the precious egg. When no distraught parents show up to claim the egg, and she has searched high and low with no luck, Blue takes the egg under her wing. Blue pours lots of love on the little foundling. They have many adventures together and Blue demonstrates a heart of gold, only to make a startling discovery at the end. Children will love this sweet story!

I have been waiting for this book to hit the shelves since last summer when I heard about it at the WIFYR writer’s conference in Utah. Julie Olson, the illustrator, came and spoke to the students in the picture book class I was taking from Kristyn Crow, and gave us a sneak peak at some of the illustrations.  She has a great blog with tons of tips on honing your artistic skills.

Ok, sometimes I wonder why I wasn’t born in the princesss era. Back in my day I was obsessed with Little House on the Prairie and prairie dresses. The whole  princess thing would have been right up my alley, though. So, maybe it was lucky after all (for my parents and siblings, who would have had to tolerate me and my frills). Many of the clothes I grew up wearing were hand-me-downs from neighbors, remakes of old polyester outfits, or on sale at the thrift store. The closest thing I had to a princess dress at home was a prairie dress that came from a neighbor down the street whose daughter had outgrown it. So, I probably would have had hand-me-down princess dresses too. Which really wouldn’t have bugged me, because that’s all I knew. There’s nothing wrong with thrift and economy right? Especially when you come from a large family. I have to say though, I’m not sure how you could have made a very fancy princess dress out of blue polyester pants.

Back to the topic at hand, my review… in Dear Cinderella, Snow White and Cinderella write to each other (actual real letters, not emails) as pen pals in this adorable picture book. It’s fun to get a first-person perspective to the fairytales that we hear mostly in third-person retellings. Olson’s watercolor illustrations are lovely and the story is charming. It reminds me of endless letter-writing sessions in high school and college, trying to keep track of friends who had moved. It’s nostalgic for us grown-ups because of the letters, and perfect for little princesses. It could also be used for a letter writing unit in school by resourceful teachers. The almost-lost-art of letter writing has found new life in this beautiful picture book fairytale.

I just finished this time-travel series and I have to say, I’m in awe. I only hope that someday I can do something this amazing, or at the very least in the shadow of something this amazing. I’ve read time-travel series before, and I’m usually fascinated by them at the same time that I’m a little annoyed because there is so much randomness to how the time travel actually takes place. I had no such irritation this time. Lisa Mangum has an amazing imagination. Have I said how amazing she is yet? I know, I’m getting a little redundant. Moving on…

#1 – The Hourglass Door

The first book in the trilogy had me a little nervous at the beginning. I really was afraid that Dante might be a vampire or something. Not that I’m afraid of vampires, just a little sick of them. I was refreshingly surprised to find that it had nothing to do with vampires, but the river of time. Abby is living a life that seems ideal, but it’s not the life that she wants and she decides to look into changing that life to the dismay of her boyfriend and family. I enjoyed each one of the three books in the series, and think that you will too. Be sure to check out the second and third books in the series, The Golden Spiral and The Forgotten Locket. I think the third was my favorite, but I think that all of them are worth adding to a home library.

I’m posting a review of the book Twilight Child, by Sally Warner In keeping with a faerie theme- since it’s March, the month of St. Patrick’s Day- the land of the faeries and all that. The closest this book comes to Ireland is Scotland, but as I well know from experience, most Americans celebrate them as one and the same. How do I know this? Well, if you must know, I grew up Irish Step Dancing with my sister, Cari. You can read more about it in our 2011 St. Patrick’s Day post on Eoin Colfer’s Half Moon Investigations- scroll all the way to the bottom if you don’t want to read the whole double scoop, but I recommend reading the whole thing of course!

One lesser known fact is that we actually performed Irish reels and jigs in our local Irish Pub called Quinn’s- it was always one of the top fund-producing endeavors for our small school. But that’s a story for another day. Back to my point. We spent most of the St. Patrick’s holiday dancing around town- almost inevitably just before or after the Scottish Highland Bagpipers, either that or the local cloggers. It really didn’t make a lot of sense, but I guess once you’ve tipped a few too many, they’re all one and the same, apparently. It used to irritate us to no end in our child-like views of fairness, truth and justice. Now I just think it’s rather funny. The Scottish don’t have their own holiday here (that I know of, I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong), so I guess us Irish people will just have to be nice enough to share. In that same spirit of sharing, I thought I’d give a book that has Scottish themes a place of honor in our March holiday celebrations. I know, I’m a really nice Irish person, aren’t I?

Twilight Child, in summary, is about a girl named Eleni who is born on the longest day of the year, just at the magical hour of Twilight- making her able to see and communicate with all sorts of creatures from the magical world of faeries and spirits. The story begins in Finland during an occupation by Sweden- a country at war with Russia. Eleni’s country is torn by conflict- not only that between countries themselves, but that between wealthy ruling class, and servant/peasants, which is the category Eleni finds herself in.   But, her life is destined for many shocks and challenges as she is spirited away on a ship. She faces many dangers of the sea, and works hard to find her true home. 

Sally Warner obviously knows a lot of folklore and history of these great places. Although the book does have many elements of fantasy which Warner weaves throughout her story due to the rich tales inherent to Finland and Scotland and the sea, it actually qualifies as historical fiction. That is so cool!