Books

Book related

Middle Grade Favorites

by

 

At the Bath Book Bash in Bath, Maine, I met some author friends and added a few children’s books to my collection – no surprise.

In author Anna Jordon’s debut middle grade historical novel, SHIRA & ESTHER’S DOUBLE DREAM DEBUT, Shira and Esther don’t know each other. But they soon will, thanks to Benny, the hotel bell hop who discovers that Esther has a twin living in the same town.

Formatted as a stage play with an overture (introduction), three acts (chapters), and a curtain call (glossary of Yiddish words), the book invites the reader into the different worlds of two girls with gumption. Esther longs to study Torah, but her stage star mom urges her to be a performer. Shira dreams of being on the stage, but her father, the Rabbi, urges her to practice for her bat mitzvah. When Benny arranges for the two girls meet, they realize that a little mix up could help them realize their dreams, but can they pull it off? As they get to know each other, and their respective parents, they learn, not only are they each other’s mirror image, they were born in the same hospital on the same night!

A delightful deli man named Morty narrates the story and offers occasional commentary sprinkled with Yiddish, becoming a beloved character himself. Anna Jordan skillfully weaves the girls’ stories together, enabling each one to achieve her dream debut, and sets the reader up for a surprise ending which doubles the satisfaction. A charming read and highly recommended not only by me, but also…

  • Kirkus Reviews Best Middle Grade 2023 (starred review)
  • Publishers Weekly Best Middle Grade 2023 (starred review)
  • Tablet Magazine “The Best Jewish Children’s Books 2023”

 

 

 

A Moon Poem

by

A Moon Poem

Ramona hosts Poetry Friday today at Pleasures from the Page. Thank you, Ramona! A big thank you to Irene Latham for the autographed copy of Moonstruck! Poems About Our Moon, edited by Roger Stevens and illustrated by Ed Boxall. In celebration of the upcoming publication of The Museum on the Moon, Irene offered Stevens’ book of poems by random selection. It arrived in my mailbox! The anthology features Roger Stevens’ fun poems, along with moon poems by other poets. Emily  Brontё’s poem “Moonlight, Summer Moonlight” is included.

Moonlight, Summer Moonlight 

‘Tis moonlight, summer moonlight,
All soft and still and fair;
The solemn hour of midnight
Breathes sweet thoughts everywhere,

But most where trees are sending
Their breezy boughs on high,
Or stooping low are lending
A shelter from the sky.

And there in those wild bowers
A lovely form is laid;
Green grass and dew-steeped flowers
Wave gently round her head.

 

With all these moon poems in my brain, I visited the Colby College Art Museum and found a moon painting! August Moon, by Dan Namingha, is part of an installation named “Painted: Our Bodies, Hearts and Village.”  20 and 21st century Native artists’ work is paired with art by the Taos Society of Artists in early 1900s New Mexico, creating a dialogue with differing perspectives of Pueblo culture.

Namingha’s gorgeous painting inspired me to write this poem, a Nonet, which I learned to write in this poetry forum. If you’re not familiar with this form, it’s a nine-line poem with the first line containing 9 syllables. The remaining lines contain syllables in descending order. So 9 syllables followed by 8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1. Since this poem is inspired by a painting, it’s an ekphrastic nonet!

Three Sisters

They stretch in waves of harvest color

now summoned by Moon Mother’s glow.

Three sisters raised with strong roots

helped one another grow.

On a moonlit stage,

corn, beans, and squash,

moon-boldened,

laugh at

Crow.

            ~Joyce Ray ©2023

LIGHT COMES TO SHADOW MOUNTAIN

by

LIGHT COMES TO SHADOW MOUNTAIN – a Book Review

This book review comes an admission – Author Toni Buzzeo is a personal friend! She is a New York Times best-selling children’s author who has published twenty-nine picture books, including the 2013 Caldecott Honor ONE COOL FRIEND, illustrated by David Small. I am delighted to recommend Toni’s first Middle Grade novel, LIGHT COMES TO SHADOW MOUNTAIN, published this summer by Holiday House.

Cora Mae Tipton yearns for electricity to come to her Kentucky mountain in 1937. Convinced of its benefits, she and her best friend set out to educate their classmates through a school newspaper, in hopes they will persuade parents to join the electric cooperative. Resistance to change comes from where it matters most – Cora’s and Ceilly’s own homes. As much as Cora loves her rural mountain life, she knows that the future will require communication dependent upon electricity. Her dream of becoming a journalist also depends on light for nighttime exam studies. Cora will win readers’ hearts as she navigates the demands of a mother suffering from depression, the near tragedy of an injured brother, and her own sorrow in her quest to bring light to Shadow Mountain.

Author Toni Buzzeo has created a detailed setting for well-developed characters in this story of friendship, family, loss, and personal motivation. While the action keeps the reader turning the page, Light Comes to Shadow Mountain is a rare gem of a book that invites reflection. Readers who love Lauren Wolk’s Echo Mountain will love Light Comes to Shadow Mountain.

You can visit Toni on her website: https://tonibuzzeo.com/

SUSTAINABILITY, BASHO, AND A NEW BOOK

by

What does the 17th century poet Bashô have to do with sustainability? As a Buddhist, this haiku master revered nature. His haiku celebrate frogs, cicadas, summer rain and much more. He lived in simpler times when sustainability was a way of life, not a call to save the planet.

Bashô traveled by foot throughout Japan and recorded his impressions. The Narrow Road to the Interior is his literary travelogue in a totally new poetic form – haibun. Haibun consists of a paragraph of prose followed by a haiku. The haiku is meant to complement the text or suggest new meaning. My new book is both a nod to Bashô and a call to sustainable practices.

the seed of all song
is the farmer’s busy hum
as he plants his rice

~Bashô, The Narrow Road to the Interior

 

Thank you to Linda, hosting today from A World Edgewise. My blog has been on vacation for a long time – Covid, broken arm, rehab, other projects. Sometimes it’s a challenge to pick up from where you left off!

This month I’m thrilled to announce publication of Food for All our Tomorrows, Poems on Seed, Soil, and Sustainability by the Asian Rural Institute Press. AFARI (American Friends of ARI) has generously printed copies for a North American audience.

This book is a collection of twenty-nine bi-lingual poems for middle grade in the haibun style. Four years in the making, the idea for this book germinated throughout three volunteer stints at the Asian Rural Institute in Tochigi, Japan. Though the haiku that complete each haibun are classified as English language haiku, I hope that Bashô might have approved.

ARI is tucked away on a hillside in Japan. It’s a green school, one committed to sustainable farming where grassroots people can learn and share ideas for building a better world.

My husband Bob and I spent 4 months at ARI in 2010, and two months each in 2013 and 2018. We planted and harvested, mucked and fed pigs, along with chickens, goats, and fish. We provided office support, cooked meals, worshiped, sang and played together.

And we fell in love with ARI where grassroots participants from Southeast Asia, the Pacific, Africa and South America produce food, honor the earth by caring for the soil, conserve resources, and care for each other.

 

 

I am honored that the Asian Rural Institute chose to publish this book. I hope it will plant many seeds- seeds of respect for soil and plants, and seeds of awareness of our need for each other.

 

See the Blog Post for comments

After Edna St. Vincent Millay

by

After Edna St. Vincent Millay

Karen Eastlund hosts this week’s Roundup. Thank you, Karen. Find all the poetic offerings and end-of-June musings over at Karen’s Got a Blog!  

This week I’m writing from Maine, and it feels so good to be back in my home state. Almost as if to welcome me home, one of my poems aired on WERU Community Radio in Blue, Hill, Maine last week.

During an April online workshop, participants were asked to write a poem using the first line of another poem. I began with the delicious first line of an Edna St. Vincent Millay poem, “Elegy Before Death.”

There will be rose and rhododendron

(after Edna St. Vincent Millay, “Elegy Before Death”)

There will be rose and rhododendron

before you take your leave.

Apple blossoms’ heady scent

will welcome swarms of bees.

In the crotch of Cortland branches,

finches will nest and sing.

Eggs will hatch, young will fledge,

blind to your scourge’s sting.

There will be solitary picnics

beneath gnarled apple trees,

gratitude for setting fruit,

for cool shade of leaves.

Oh, would the plucked fruit of Eve,

her curious mind cursed,

yield knowledge of a longed-for cure

before orchard drops are pressed!

Your demise will leave us reeling.

Our wounds are grave and deep.

Not one of us will mourn your passing;

for you, we will not weep.

~Joyce Ray © 2020

You can hear the radio recording of the poem on a post on my website, along with a piece about my writing journey.  I’d love to have a visit from you!

VCFA’s The Launch Pad interviews Joyce Ray about Feathers & Trumpets

by

Welcome Joyce Ray, author of Feathers & Trumpets, A Story of Hildegard of Bingen!

Hildegard agonizes over the origin of her visions. Is God speaking to her? Does she dare share her secret? In 12th century Germany, she could be declared heretic and burned at the stake. In a life fraught with challenges, Hildegard emerges as the most dynamic 12th century female voice.

Enduring a beginning unimaginable to today’s teens, Hildegard strains against the ascetic lifestyle of Jutta, her mentor nun. Relationships with Volmar, her monk tutor and Richardis, her daughter nun, bring joy to Hildegard. But does she allow herself to love them too much?

Feathers and Trumpets chronicles the life of the recently named saint and Doctor of the Church against the backdrop of a rich tapestry we know as the Middle Ages.

Joyce Ray’s nonfiction work includes Women of the Pine Tree State: 25 Maine Women You Should Know and other titles in the America’s Notable Women series

What was the most difficult element to cut/change during the revision process and why?

It was difficult for me to cut several chapters from the end of the manuscript. The novel evolved from a biography, and I wanted all the important elements of Hildegard’s life to be included. Striving to achieve that goal blinded me to the real climax of my story, and I resisted eliminating these chapters which were essential to my character’s life but not to the story.

What authors do you love for their sentences? How about plot? Character?

I love Cynthia Rylant and Beth Kephart for language. Two representative titles are: Appalachia, The Voices of Sleeping Birds by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Barry Moser (Harcourt Brace, 1991); Small Damages by Beth Kephart (Philomel, 2012)

Deborah Wiles delivers every time with character! I love Each Little Bird That Sings (Harcourt, Inc., 2005)

And Katherine Paterson for everything!

What nugget of craft advice has been especially helpful to you?

I’ll pass on two bits of advice. For the first two semesters I wrote picture books, or what I thought were picture books! I couldn’t even say the word “novel” if it applied to my writing. Then I heard Norma Fox Mazer and other wise mentors say, “Just write down the scenes and fit them together like pieces of a puzzle later.” And it worked!

Eric Kimmel told me to make my mantra “Persistence and volume.” Feathers and Trumpets‘ journey to publication took 13 years. Don’t give up!

Who were your advisors at VCFA?

Marion Dane Bauer, Eric Kimmel, Jane Resh Thomas and Carolyn Coman

How did attending VCFA affect your writing life?

VCFA made me part of a community of writers and elevated my writing to a lifelong adventure. I began to see what made books work. My critical analysis skills developed, and my critiquing skills improved. Most importantly, I learned to write from my heart.

Feathers & Trumpets, A Story of Hildegard of Bingen, (Apprentice Shop Books, LLC, March 16, 2014)

Joyce Ray
www.joyceraybooks.com
www.joyceray.blogspot.com (Musings)            originally posted March 26, 2014

Reader Review by Becky Goodwin

by

What a simply beautiful book. The ongoing themes of fear over loss, fear of sexuality, fear of pain and that God will ask too much of her (Hildegard) made her character feel human, approachable and profoundly accessible, even though the details of her life are so foreign to today’s audience. The details of the time period – the specific mention of everything from the furniture in the monastery to the herbs used in the infirmary made the 12th century come alive and created texture to the story – the space itself became real for me. I couldn’t put it down!

Author Interview at Catholic Fiction.net

by
“I strive to write from my heart” – An Interview with Christian Novelist Joyce Ray
“I am a writer with faith. Because I believe my writing ability is one of my gifts from God, I strive to write from my heart to produce literature that means something. What I imagine does not have to be true, but it has to mean something, and hopefully, speak something of value to the reader’s heart. Feathers & Trumpets combines imagination with historical fact to offer a window into the heart and mind of a woman who now holds an elevated position in the Catholic faith.”

Catholic Fiction.net Review

by

Reviewer Mary Woods says…

“One of the remarkable things about the book is Joyce Ray’s skill in portraying Hildegard as a character with whom the reader can sympathize.”

“As a young adult novel, it does an excellent job of turning a character who would at first seem foreign into a person whom the young reader can care about. Under Joyce Ray’s pen, the monastic life becomes a drama of love between God the Creator and his created. Feathers and Trumpets is a worthy tribute to this unique and wonderful saint.”