Monday, October 14, 2024
AWARENESS TOUR: Winslow Scarecrow: Scarecrows are Supposed to be Scary by Stephen G. Bowling, Illustrated by Vitali Dudarenka - REVIEW + GIVEAWAY!
Saturday, October 12, 2024
RRR presents... The Little Provence Bookshop by Gillian Harvey - REVIEW!
Monday, October 7, 2024
AWARENESS TOUR: Sea Without a Shore by Barb Rosenstock, Illustrated by Katherine Roy - INTERVIEW + GIVEAWAY!
I was born on April Fool’s Day (if you know me, that says everything!).
I have lived my entire life in the Chicago area.
I was a musical theater nerd in high school and still love to sing and dance.
I love my family first and the smell of lilacs and marigolds second (or maybe eating pizza).
I never met an author until I was an older adult, and never thought someone like me could be a writer.
2) What inspired you to write about the Sargasso Sea?
I tripped on the idea. Seriously. I was walking with my grandson on the beach in the Dominican Republic and tripped on some seaweed on the beach. While pulling it from my feet, I noticed it had what we thought were berries and searched on my phone. I learned that I had tripped on some rotting Sargassum, and that much of it was created in the Sargasso Sea…and a year later, I was still fascinated by this place and its creatures.
3) Of all the formats out there, what about the Picture Book drew your heart?
It’s the idea of specificity and teamwork. A picture book requires an author to be intensely specific in their use of language. Writing a picture book is like working a puzzle. The work also requires the author to leave room in the story for the illustrator, even before they know who that person is! Great picture books are ART DEPENDENT, the story is told half (or less) through words and half (or more) through art. I love that words and art working together create something more than either could have created alone.
4) Reading is subjective, and everyone gets something different out of the experience, but if you could have readers walk away with one message from SEA WITHOUT A SHORE, what would it be?
That every creature on earth, no matter how strange, no matter how far away, has a home, and that those homes deserve protection.
5) Any words of advice for writers in the making in our reading audience?
I used to think that I couldn’t be a good writer because I could never get my words as perfect as the writing in the books I read. But, what you see on the page when you are reading your favorite authors is the result of thousands of hours and typically dozens of people working together. I think sometimes trying to make “good” writing, stops young people from writing at all. At the start, you are not trying to write a “finished book,” you are learning how to get an idea or experience in your head down on paper. And, just like sports or dance or music, writing requires lots of practice and lots of “do overs.” The drafts of the most famous books by the most famous authors STINK! All us authors stink at writing, until we do it over (and over!), get help, and keep trying to say what it is we have to say. Because YOUR experiences, and what YOU have to say about them is important for everyone to hear.
Friday, October 4, 2024
RRR presents... SISTERS OF THE RESISTANCE by Jina Bacarr - REVIEW!
Thursday, October 3, 2024
AWARENESS TOUR: Sophie and the Swans by Holly Peppe, Illustrated by Aeron Cargill - REVIEW + GIVEAWAY!
Wednesday, October 2, 2024
RRR presents... You Had Me At Chateau by Portia MacIntosh - REVIEW!
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Content by the Insatiable Reader