Welcome to The Natural Genius of Ants Blog Tour!

Five Writing Tips
by Betty Culley

1. Don’t worry about following trends. Instead, write about what interests you, what you are passionate about. I held onto an article about meteorites for years because there was something about it that captured my imagination. It was the spark that turned into my first middle-grade novel DOWN TO EARTH.

2. Find your writer friends. I wrote alone for years and didn’t share my writing with anyone, out of shyness and fear of being judged. It’s hard when your heart is on the page. But when I joined a writing group of kind and sympathetic people, my writing world expanded. Having other eyes read my words made all the difference. For instance, it was one of my critique group writer friends who suggested changing my manuscript THREE THINGS I KNOW ARE TRUE from prose to verse. It ended up being my debut verse novel. There are things in your writing you just won’t see, no matter how many times you look at it. That’s where the magic of other writers comes in! Also, it helps to have people there who understand when you’re struggling with a difficult revision or discouraging publishing news. My writing group met virtually during the pandemic and it helped us all keep going.

3. Read! It doesn’t have to be what you think you should read. Read what interests you and what gets you inspired, whether it’s a beautiful picture book, a poem, or a magazine article. Also, read the latest books coming out in your genre. There are so many wonderful books recently published and more coming out that you can’t read them all, of course, but choose some that speak to you.

4. Don’t get discouraged. Writing can be a beautiful and joyful thing.  I write partly to figure out what I think and feel, and to see those thoughts and emotions expressed on paper is what keeps me going. There can also be discouraging times, when a writer is tempted to give up. If I could go back and give myself advice, I would say Don’t give up. Try to focus on what you love about writing and keep going.

5. Only you can tell your stories. You have stories that only you can tell. Somewhere, there is someone waiting to hear those stories, someone who needs to hear them. So, tell them!

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On Shelves May 10, 2022!

“Culley gives readers characters that are natural, fallible individuals, which add credibility and tenderness to the story. Endearingly executed, this gentle tale will see readers applauding as they reach the end.”
—Booklist (Starred Review)

“Quietly and emotionally intelligent, this tale satisfies.”
—Kirkus

A summer ant farm grows into a learning experience for the entire family in this lyrical coming-of-age story from the award-winning author of Down to Earth.

Harvard is used to his father coming home from the hospital and telling him about all the babies he helped. But since the mistake at work, Dad has been quieter than usual. And now he is taking Harvard and his little brother, Roger, to Kettle Hole, Maine, for the summer. Harvard hopes this trip isn’t another mistake.

In the small town where he grew up, Dad seems more himself. Especially once the family decides to start an ant farm—just like Dad had as a kid! But when the mail-order ants are D.O.A., Harvard doesn’t want Dad to experience any more sadness. Luckily, his new friend Nevaeh has the brilliant idea to use the ants crawling around in the kitchen instead. But these insects don’t come with directions. So the kids have a lot to learn—about the ants, each other, and how to forgive ourselves when things go wrong.

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Betty Culley’s debut novel in verse Three Things I Know Are True, was a Kids’ Indie Next List Top Ten Pick, an ALA-YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Nominee, and the 2021 Maine Literary Book Award Winner for Young People’s Literature. Her first middle-grade novel Down to Earth was inspired by her fascination with meteorites, voyagers from another place and time. She’s an RN who worked as an obstetrics nurse and as a pediatric home hospice nurse. She lives in central Maine, where the rivers run through the small towns.

GIVEAWAY

• One (1) winner will receive a finished copy of The Natural Genius of Ants,as well as a copy of Betty’s first middle grade novel Down to Earth and a bookmark!
• US/Can only
• Ends 5/22 at 11:59pm ET
• Enter via the Rafflecopter below
• Visit the other stops on the tour for more chances to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

“A captivating middle-grade novel.” —Booklist (Starred Review)

“Heartwarming and absorbing, this is a solid choice for middle grade collections. Perfect for readers who want a great small-town story mixed with STEM.” —School Library Journal

Counting by 7s meets See You in the Cosmos in this heartwarming coming-of-age story perfect for the budding geologists and those fascinated by the mysteries of the universe.

Henry has always been fascinated by rocks. As a homeschooler, he pours through the R volume of the encyclopedia to help him identify the rocks he finds. So, when a meteorite falls in his family’s field, who better to investigate than this rock enthusiast—with his best friend, James, and his little sister, Birdie, in tow, of course.

But soon after the meteorite’s arrival, the water in Henry’s small Maine town starts drying up. It’s not long before news spreads that the space rock and Henry’s family might be to blame. Henry is determined to defend his newest discovery, but his knowledge of geology could not have prepared him for how much this stone from the sky would change his community, his family, and even himself.

Science and wonder abound in this middle-grade debut about an inquisitive boy and the massive rock that came down to Earth to reshape his life.

Blog Tour Schedule:

May 9th — YA Book Nerd
May 10th — Mrs. Book Dragon
May 11th — Pragmatic Mom
May 12th — Feed Your Fiction Addiction
May 13th — From the Mixed-Up Files of Middle Grade Authors

The post Getting Antsy for The Natural Genius of Ants appeared first on From The Mixed Up Files.

MUF: Tell us about Code Name: Serendipity?

A: Code Name: Serendipity tells the story of eleven-year-old Sadie, a lonely misfit whose life seems to be going all wrong lately — she can’t get along with her older brother, her best friend moved away, and it seems no one understands her. That is until she meets a stray dog and realizes that they have a very special connection: They can communicate telepathically. Sadie sets out on a mission to rescue the dog, but in the process, she might just rescue herself too.

MUF: You’ve written several great young adult novels, and Code Name: Serendipity is your first MG? How was the experience different?

A: In terms of process and structure, it wasn’t too different to switch from writing YA to MG. But I found that it took me quite a while to find Sadie’s voice. As I was drafting, I struggled to balance her youth and maturity in a natural way, one that was so different from the older characters I have been writing for years now. Once I found it, though, the pieces of the puzzle just started falling into place!

MUF: Your bio says that Code Name: Serendipity was inspired by your own experiences rescuing animals. Are there any particular animals that inspired Dewey? Are there any stories from your time rescuing animals that particularly inspired this story?

A: Definitely! My wife and I are both huge animal lovers – we currently have seven rescues (two dogs and five cats). There are little pieces of each of these sweet furbabies threaded throughout the story, but the one who really inspired it was a third dog, Darwin. I rescued him from a shelter when he was still a puppy and he was with me his whole life, up until he was a senior, and eventually passed. I always refer to him as my “soul dog” because we had such a close bond that at times, it really did feel as if we knew what each other were thinking. Not quite telepathy, like Sadie and Dewey, but pretty close! So, I started writing this book in memory of him, and how much joy and love he brought into my life.

MUF: Not gonna lie, I really wish that I had Sadie’s power not only with my own cats but also the cat that I TNR’d. (Trapped, Neutered, Released) Have there ever been animal rescue experiences where you wished that you had Sadie’s power?

A: First, I love that you participate in a TNR program!

This is how we have ended up with the majority of our rescue cats. Former members of feral colonies, who, when brought in for spay/neutering, were found to have health issues that prevented them from being re-released back into their feral colonies. These kitties can have such weird and sometimes aggressive behavioral issues that prevent them from being (or staying) adopted — after all, they’ve never been a part of a household or family. So, my wife and I have become known as the “crazy cat ladies” the shelters call to take the cats who have run out of options. I have definitely wished I could telepathically communicate with some of these cats (we have five of them currently) to explain what it means to transition from feral-to-house cat. They get it eventually, but it would be so much easier if we could just talk it out!

MUF: Code Name: Serendipity deals with some weighty issues with Sadie’s grandfather’s illness, her LD, and also what could happen to Dewey if she’s not rescued from the shelter. How do you approach writing about these topics for MG. Is it different from how you’d approach writing them for YA, and how so?

A: My YA novels have all dealt with some pretty heavy, hard-hitting topics that sometimes get into dark places, and while I definitely wanted to touch on serious real-world topics in Code Name, I was very conscious of not wanting any of Sadie’s problems and challenges to ever feel insurmountable. One of the ways I tried to achieve this was to show her finding tools, help, and allies along the way – so there was always a light at the end of every tunnel.

MUF: Why does Gramps call Sadie Sassafras?

A: Gramps has a lot of what Sadie refers to as “Grampsisms” – or his own unique made-up expressions – old-timey sayings, but with a twist! When I was brainstorming nicknames he might have for Sadie, I kept thinking he’d probably want to express his admiration for Sadie’s spirited (or, some might say, sassy) nature. I thought at first, he could call her “Sassy,” but I wanted it to be something a bit more endearing and special, so in true Gramps style, Sassy became “Sassafras.”

MUF: Your descriptions of food in this story are awesome. I ended up buying a box of Uncrustables because I was craving PBJ after this. Were there any foods that you wrote, that you were hungry for after describing them?

A: Yes, I ate many a late-night PBJ sandwich while writing this book – and I still don’t know whether it was my snack that inspired the recurring PBJs in the book or the book that made me crave the recurring sandwiches. Also, Sadie has a penchant for French toast and big weekend breakfasts with her family, which is something I always looked forward to as a kid!

MUF: Sadie’s very gifted with art. I loved the scene where she’s drawing out the word problem. Do you draw? Or do origami like Macy? (Fun side note, I tried to learn origami in Japanese class in college because we did this whole Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes thing, and I literally made one sad, pathetic paper crane because like Sadie, I cannot figure it out.)

A: I actually do have a background in visual art – I went to college for Painting and grad school for Art History, so I love to incorporate creative and artistic themes in my books. I honestly don’t practice art too much these days, but it will always hold a special place in my heart as my first creative love. (Side note: I probably logged at least 100 hours of YouTube tutorials on origami while writing this book because I wanted to get the descriptions of Macy’s creations just right!)

MUF: Also, in a similar vein, throughout the story, we see Sadie working on her graphic novel. Are you a fan of graphic novels? If so, what are your favorites?

A: When I was a kid, I wanted to be an illustrator, but my wife is the true graphic novel aficionado in the family, so I borrowed that interest of hers for Sadie.

MUF: What are your favorite books?

A: I have too many to name (and the list is always growing), but on the middle-grade side I love anything by Lynda Mullaly Hunt, Holly Goldberg Sloan, and Kate DiCamillo – Because of Winn-Dixie has been a long-time favorite of mine, and definitely inspired Code Name!

MUF: What are you working on now?

A: I am in the beginning stages of a new middle-grade novel that I’m super excited about (all I can say right now is that it involves another special animal – this time, a cat).

How can readers find you online?

A: I love connecting with readers! You can find me online at www.AmberSmithAuthor.com, @ambersmithauthor on Instagram and Facebook, or @ASmithAuthor on Twitter.

Thanks for having me on From the Mixed-Up Files!

Code Name: Serendipity is out now, and here at Mixed-Up Files, we’re giving away a copy to one lucky reader.

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The post A Serendipitious Interview and Giveaway appeared first on From The Mixed Up Files.

Tell us a little bit about Guitars and the Made By Hand series? How did , or more broadly, the Made By Hand series, come about? Did you select the subjects? If so, why?

The story of how Made By Hand came about is a true tale of admiration. An editor I have worked with in the past has a great love of hand-made objects. She knew that I shared that same love. It was this editor, Karen Nagel at Simon & Schuster, who created the Made By Hand series and asked me to be the writer.

The editorial team decided they wanted to focus on two objects used for transportation—one of wood and one of metal and use the same materials for two musical instruments. And that is how the book on Bicycles, Skateboards, Steel Drums and Guitars was born.

Did you actually visit Coloma Guitars? Or do you have any fun stories from researching the book?

The story of how I learned about the oh-so-talented Meredith Coloma is, I think, a New York story.  I happened to pass by Chelsea Guitars, a famous guitar store that is located at the equally famous Chelsea Hotel. I entered the long narrow shop and marveled at the guitars hanging on all the walls, from the ceiling etc. and asked the fellow behind the counter if he knew of a female luthier. [The three other books all had male makers and I wanted to highlight a woman for this book.]

The man behind the counter confirmed with another gentleman that I should contact luthier, Meredith Coloma—which is exactly what I did. She lives in Vancouver, BC. She was delighted to be a part of this project and so I put her in touch with the editorial department at Simon and Schuster.

Meredith and I spent a fair amount of time doing telephone interviews during which she shared her story—how she became a musician and decided to become a luthier—the latter all occurred because of a violin maker she happened to come to know. He only spoke Yiddish. His wife translated but he and Meredith spoke the language of music. It was that elderly gentleman who showed her the brochure of a luthier school not far from her home in British Columbia. I thought her story of becoming a luthier was magical and had to be included in the book.

We had extensive conversations and Meredith shared pictures of how step-by-step she creates an acoustic guitar as well as an electric guitar. I had no idea how complicated and how delicate the process is to create an acoustic guitar.

How did you approach the research and writing of Guitars?

I feel fortunate to live very close to New York Public Library of the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.  There, I found so many books in circulation that dealt with the history of guitars, guitar greats and the science behind guitars.

I was able to bring those books home to do extensive research. Between those books and the wealth of information I found on the internet from a variety of guitar periodicals, I had tons of material to read and educate myself on the history of guitars.

Most nonfiction writers tell us that they learn so much about a subject that not all of it can fit into one book. Are there any fun facts that you learned that didn’t make it into Guitars?

That is so true. Each evening I’d recount to my husband all of the fascinating facts I’d learned about the guitar. Although I will admit that, since I’ve never studied an instrument and can’t read music, some of the facts on the number of strings on an acoustic guitar and the sound differential was too confusing to understand…plus, I knew that would make the book too technical to include. What I did find I had to cut was the longer history on how electric guitars were really influenced by Hawaiian ukuleles but I was able to include a few fun facts.

Do you play an instrument? If so, what do you play?

As a child, I studied ballet and in college continued with dance classes, jazz and then tap and never studied a musical instrument.

If you could have a custom guitar made for you, what would it look like? Would it be acoustic or electric?

If I did own a guitar it would most likely be the guitar that Meredith made with a gorgeous tree inlaid on the acoustic guitar’s back. It’s on page 15 of the Guitar book.

I read on your bio that you’re inspired by movies. What is your favorite movie, and why?

Wow! I am such a movie fan that I don’t think I could pick a favorite. Going to the movies as a child, and now, even as an adult, is a special treat for me. Sitting in a darkened theatre, having those images up on the screen, larger than life—speaks to me in ways that I find totally magical.

Thank you for a fun interview! For more information about Patricia Lakin and her books, please check out her website. And don’t forget to check out Guitars and The Made By Hand series. For more information about, please visit Simon & Schuster’s Made By Hand page.

The post Going Backstage on How GUITARS Was Made appeared first on From The Mixed Up Files.

Welcome to the Violets Are Blue Blog Tour!

To celebrate the release of Violets Are Blue by Barbara Dee on October 12th, blogs across the web will be featuring exclusive guest posts from Barbara as well as 5 chances to win a signed copy all week long!

The Sounds of Their Voices 
by Barbara Dee

I’m an auditory writer, not a visual writer. By that I mean I rarely write descriptions of landscapes, or even the way characters look. I’m much more interested in the way characters sound, especially as they interact with each other in conversation. And as I write dialogue, I keep in mind that adults need to sound like adults, kids need to sound like kids—and that they all need to have distinct voices.

So I ask myself certain questions about the characters’ speaking styles. For example: Do they speak in long sentences, or short ones? Do they ask a lot of questions? Do they interrupt? Do they pause or hesitate or trail off? Do they use slang or formal speech? Do they have favorite expressions, especially those they use in moments of anger, frustration, excitement? What’s their tone—sarcastic, sympathetic, tense, calm? Is their voice hoarse, sharp, quiet, shrill, musical?

To get a grip on my characters, I don’t need to see their faces; I need to hear them speak. Sometimes as I’m writing I’ll read a manuscript aloud to hear how my characters are sounding. What I’m listening for most of all is natural, authentic speech—no elevated diction (unless it’s in character). This is essential, because middle grade readers have sharp ears exquisitely attuned to authenticity.

I remember how, when my daughter was about eight or nine, she abruptly abandoned a popular series, so I asked her why. “Because the characters never use contractions,” she told me. “They say ‘I cannot,” and ‘I do not,’ and that’s not how kids talk.”

If you’re writing middle grade fiction, nothing is more important than sounding like a kid. The challenge is not to overuse kidspeak. You need to keep in mind that certain expressions will sound fresh as you’re drafting your manuscript, but may become passé by the time the book is published. As I learned from my daughter,  if you get the voice even slightly wrong—if you sound dated, or, even worse, if you sound like an adult– you’ll turn off your readers.

And here’s the funny part: Although I know my characters are working when I can hear how they sound, I know my plot is working when I can see where they live. For every book I write, I develop an almost architectural blueprint of the main character’s house. In Violets Are Blue, I have a strong sense of the layout of the townhouse: the door leading into the kitchen, the living room next to it, the staircase, and the two bedrooms, each with its own bathroom. All of this detail is significant to the plot, so it’s important to get straight how characters travel from one room to the next.

And of course how you can hear, or overhear, their voices throughout the house.

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

“Barbara Dee has done it AGAIN! She tackles tough topics with such great care. She is to middle schoolers today what Judy Blume was to me in the 80’s. I give Violets Are Blue ALL the stars and thumbs up.”
– Amanda Jones, 2021 School Library Journal Co-Librarian of the Year

“[F]requently poignant… With flawed, realistic characters and dynamics, this reconciliatory novel is a believable balm for young people at the mercy of adult choices and scenarios.”
– Publishers Weekly

From the author of the acclaimed My Life in the Fish Tank and Maybe He Just Likes You comes a moving and relatable middle grade novel about secrets, family, and the power of forgiveness.

Twelve-year-old Wren loves makeup—special effect makeup, to be exact. When she is experimenting with new looks, Wren can create a different version of herself. A girl who isn’t in a sort-of-best friendship with someone who seems like she hates her. A girl whose parents aren’t divorced and doesn’t have to learn to like her new stepmom.

So, when Wren and her mom move to a new town for a fresh start, she is cautiously optimistic. And things seem to fall into place when Wren meets potential friends and gets selected as the makeup artist for her school’s upcoming production of Wicked.

Only, Wren’s mom isn’t doing so well. She’s taking a lot of naps, starts snapping at Wren for no reason, and always seems to be sick. And what’s worse, Wren keeps getting hints that things aren’t going well at her new job at the hospital, where her mom is a nurse. And after an opening night disaster leads to a heartbreaking discovery, Wren realizes that her mother has a serious problem—a problem that can’t be wiped away or covered up.

After all the progress she’s made, can Wren start over again with her devastating new normal? And will she ever be able to heal the broken trust with her mom?

Learn how to create the mermaid makeup effect from the cover!:

Follow Barbara: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Barbara Dee is the author of twelve middle grade novels published by Simon & Schuster, including Violets Are Blue, My Life in the Fish Tank, Maybe He Just Likes You, Everything I Know About You, Halfway Normal, and Star-Crossed. Her books have earned several starred reviews, have been shortlisted for many state book awards, and have been named to best-of lists including the The Washington Post’s Best Children’s Books, the ALA Notable Children’s Books, the ALA Rise: A Feminist Book Project List, the NCSS-CBC Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People, and the ALA Rainbow List Top Ten. Barbara lives with her family, including a naughty cat named Luna and a sweet rescue hound named Ripley, in Westchester County, New York.

GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 

• One (1) winner will receive a hardcover of Violets Are Blue by Barbara Dee with a SIGNED bookplate
• US/Can only
• Ends 11:59pm ET on 10/24
• Enter using the Rafflecopter above
• Check out the other stops along the tour for more chances to win!

Blog Tour Schedule:

October 11th – Pragmatic Mom
October 12th – Imagination Soup
October 13th – From the Mixed-Up Files of Middle-Grade Authors
October 14th – YA Books Central
October 15th – Good Choice Reading

The post The Sound of Violets appeared first on From The Mixed Up Files.

MUF: I’m Mimi. I write for From the Mixed-Up Files of Middle Grade Authors, a blog for people who love middle-grade books (parents, teachers, librarians, kids, writers, etc.). It’s an honor to be able to interview you. (My husband is also a fan. He’s the one who introduced me to Dinosaur Comics).  And congratulations on the Eisner nomination this year.

Ryan North: Aw thank you, Mimi!  That’s very kind.  I’m excited about it!  And say hi to your husband for me.

MUF: So, tell us about The Mystery of the Meanest Teacher?

Ryan North: The Mystery of the Meanest Teacher is a middle-grade graphic novel about a younger version of Constantine – Johnny Constantine, but he prefers you call him “Kid”.  Kid Constantine has to escape from the UK to the United States after one of his capers involving ghosts and demons goes wrong. When he arrives at his new boarding school in America, he discovers his spells don’t work as well as they used to, so he’s left scrambling, faking it till he makes it – but luckily he soon discovers he’s not the only magical kid there.  And he’s going to need all the help he can get when one of his new teachers seems to have it out for him personally, and might be a real-life witch…

It’s a stand-alone graphic novel, so you can read it knowing nothing of the character (or even DC Comics!) but if you do, there’s some fun little secrets you might pick up on.

MUF: I’ve gotta admit, Constantine is one of my favorite DC characters, but he’s not exactly kid-friendly, why did you choose Constantine for this project?

Ryan North: Right?  He’s basically the last DC character you’d ever expect to be in a middle grade graphic novel.  I was working with DC on another project that got bogged down unfortunately, and when they said “Hey, what about Kid Constantine?” I laughed at the idea – always a good sign!  And I quickly realized that he actually transforms into a 13-year-old version of himself very easily.  That idea of trying to cover for what you don’t know, trying to act like you’re super cool and in control even though you have no idea what’s going on – it’s something that I think feels pretty universal to most of us, and to both Adult and Kid Constantine.  So there weren’t actually a lot of changes I had to make!  The adult version has a lot of bad habits that we altered (instead of smoking, Kid has a lollipop sticking out of his mouth at the start of the book) but beyond that there really wasn’t a lot to change, to adapt for younger readers.  So I loved that the idea sounded so wild, and really wanted to see if we could pull it off.

MUF: You do a great job of capturing Constantine’s wit in a way that’s accessible for kids. Was writing young Johnny difficult?

Ryan North: No, it was actually pretty familiar!  Like I mentioned before, Constantine goes through some pretty relatable stuff, so all I had to do was remember what it felt like being the new kid, being somewhere where I don’t know anyone, and I could tap into that pretty easily for Constantine.  And while some of the fun is seeing him cover for what he doesn’t know, he’s also a really clever guy, and it’s always fun to write clever characters.  They get in the best zingers.

It’s funny – if you look at the Wikipedia article for John Constantine, there’s a section called “In real life“, where several (several!) of the authors who have written Constantine claim to have met him in real life.  I kept my eye out for any young kids in a trenchcoat while I was writing – it would’ve been way easier to write the book if I could just ask Kid Constantine what he’d say and do in particular situations! – but unfortunately I never spotted him. So far, anyway…

MUF: I love that you included Etrigan as a “young” demon and that his rhyming is forced. It’s such a cool nod to his lore. What other Easter eggs can eagle-eyed fans catch?

Ryan North: Haha, thank you!  Etrigan was the hardest character to write because he speaks in rhymes.  It would always slow me down when I got to him, until I finally started writing placeholder dialogue for him: it had what I wanted him to say, but didn’t rhyme, and then I got to go back and spend an afternoon composing poetry that said what I needed it to say.

Beyond the lollipop visual reference I mentioned earlier, there’s also elements in what Constantine and his new friend Anna wear that references the costumes they wear as adults.  The artist of the book, Derek Charm, told me that the challenge in designing the characters was that we wanted them to look like their adult versions, but still look credible as kids: their outfits had to be something a 13-year-old would wear.  Constantine wants to look cool all the time, so it’s no surprise to me that he’d have a t-shirt printed with a design that makes it looks like he’s wearing a tie.  I wanted a shirt like that when I was a kid.  Still do, really!

MUF:  Also, was it hard coming up with all of those rhymes and/or was it difficult to make them sound stilted?

Ryan North: Hah – well, the secret is that it’s never hard to make a rhyme sound stilted, so that was good at least!  As hard as Young Etrigan was to write, Adult Etrigan would be even harder, because there he’s got his rhymes down pat.  I tried to use iambic pentameter for his rhymes at the start until I realized Etrigan is speaking a second language here, and he’s definitely not as good at it as his adult version is, so that became a bit less precise in his speech.  But honestly, I just went for walks and tried to think of different ways to say what he wanted to say until I came up with one that worked!  I like to think out loud when doing character voice writing, so my Secret Writing Technique is to wear a headset with a mic on it when I’m walking.  That way, passers-by think I’m a very important businessperson on a very important call and not a random guy trying to make a demon in his head have better rhymes.

MUF: In the book, Constantine and Anna have a few tricks up their sleeve, what do you wish that you had a magic spell for?

Ryan North: Kid Constantine mentions at one point having an anti-blushing spell, and for most of my life before 20 I would’ve loved to have that power.  But these days I’d love a spell that would let me learn faster.  Every time I try something new there’s such a gulf between what you want and what you can accomplish, and yes it just takes practice, but that means you make a lot of just okay cookies before you unlock the really good stuff.  So that’s a shortcut I’d gladly take, thanks magic!

MUF: And similarly, if you were able to sneak into an otherworldly candy shop, what would be your go-to snack?

My favourite food is ice cream, so if I could find a ghost who’s spent their entire afterlife perfecting the art and craft of ice cream production, unlocking levels of flavour and delight that simply aren’t reachable or teachable within a standard-issue human lifetime… I would be there in a heartbeat.

MUF: I read in your bio that you studied Computer Science. How do you go from Computer Science major to creating award-winning graphic novels?

Ryan North: I always kinda did both at the same time!  I started my webcomic, Dinosaur Comics, in 2003, when I was in undergrad. (It’s still running today – you can read it at qwantz.com!)  Then I kept up the comic through grad school (I studied computational linguistics) and then when I graduated I faced a choice: keep doing comics, or get a real job.  And it was really easy to keep doing comics, because all I had to do was fail to get a real job!  Super easy.  So since then I’ve used my CS knowledge to develop different services that help comic creators, and get to live the best of both worlds.  It’s an unusual career path but it’s one that I recommend!  All of us have lots of interests and I don’t think you should have to pigeonhole yourself so early in your life – do different things!  If you can, do different things simultaneously! 

MUF: What were your favorite books and/or comics as a kid? Who were your influences?

Ryan North: The earliest book I can remember loving is The Monster At The End of This Book

by Jon Stone and Michael Smollin. If you haven’t read it, it’s a great Little Golden Book where the fourth wall doesn’t exist, and Grover is afraid because he knows there’s a monster at the end of the book.  He does all he can to stop you from turning the pages of the book – building walls that you smash through with your mighty page-turning strength, and so on, until you reach the end, and he finds out the monster… is him, loveable ol’ Grover!  And then he’s really embarrassed.  It just blew my mind that books could do that, that you could have this object in your hands that was physically like all the other books but told a story in a different way.  I still love that, and lots of my projects involve playing with the potential of the form like that.  That’s actually one of the things I love about comics: it’s still a young medium and there’s still discoveries about the basic form being made.  You can do things in comics that haven’t been done before, and I think that’s really incredible!

MUF: What advice do you have for someone wanting to write comics or videogames or basically just be like you?

Ryan North: The greatest advice I have for someone looking to do writing is to start doing it, keep doing it, and put that work online.  This has two benefits: it makes your commitment public, so now you have to keep writing to keep that commitment up (this is why a webcomic works so well: if you say you’re going to every day, you’ve got to do it!) and of course the more you write the better you get at it, even if you’re not trying to improve.  There’s no way you can spend a few years writing a comic and not get better at writing comics, it’s just how our brains work.  The other thing putting your work online can get you is an audience: people who like your work and want to support it.  This helps you in a bunch of ways, but one of the first things it does is make you realize you’re not alone and people are interested in hearing what you have to say.  For an early writer, that was really big for me.  It made me feel like there was a purpose to it, that it wasn’t just me talking to myself!  And of course, when your work is online people can see it and maybe, on day, say “hey, I really like the writing that person did, I wonder if I could hire them to write for me?” and that’s literally how I went from writing a webcomic for free to being paid to write comics for other people too.

MUF: What would fans be surprised to find out about you?

Ryan North: I’m really tall, but also, taller than you think even if you think I’m really tall.  I’m that tall.  Other than that I don’t think I have that many secrets!  Unless of course this is a ruse to get people off the trail of my many startling secrets!

MUF: What are you working on now?

Ryan North: I’m working on a few unannounced projects I can’t really talk about, but I will say that Derek Charm and I have been trying to do more books together for a while and hopefully some of those will bear fruit soon!  I’m also working on something that’s sort of a spiritual successor to my first nonfiction book, which was called “How To Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveller”.  (That book has also found a lot of middle-grade readers: turns out we’re all kinda interested in seeing if we can rebuild civilization from scratch if we ever get sent back in time!)

MUF: How can people follow you on social media?

Ryan North: I’m not really active anywhere but Twitter, where I’m @ryanqnorth !  I’m also @qwantz on Instagram, where I sometimes post pictures of my dog, Noam Chompsky.

MUF: And, that’s all I’ve got. Thank you for your time, and the opportunity to interview you.

Ryan North: Thanks Mimi!  These were really thoughtful questions – I appreciate it!

The Mystery of the Meanest Teacher is out now! And I enthusiastically recommend it to anyone who is interested in spooky, mysterious adventure comics with smart, sarcastic heroes, as well as anyone who is a fan of the grown-up Constantine comics.

The post Why Writing Kid Constantine Was No Mystery for Ryan North appeared first on From The Mixed Up Files.

But after binging all 11 episodes of the first season, I started to realize what kept pulling me in hour after hour. Each episode is a puzzle onto itself, and its resolution would provide small clues to the overarching mystery of the series. These clues were tiny, just enough to get me to continue watching until the next episode.

It made me start looking at my own stories, and how I plot them. How can we, as writers, create bingeable books? I think that it’s by giving our characters a goal and making sure that the resolution of that goal contributes to the larger story just enough to make the reader want to turn the page and see what happens next.

Our namesake, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler is a great example of this, and more mysteries can be found on the following booklists:

Mysteries in Bookstores and Libraries, at Book Fairs and Festivals, in Literary Landmarks, and Other Literary Places

Middle-Grade Mysteries, Spy, & Sci-fi stories featuring South Asian Characters: Interview and Giveaway with Sheela Chari

Diversity in MG lit #19 August 2020 Mysteries

But a book doesn’t need to be a mystery to be “bingeable”. What are some MG books that you couldn’t put down?

The post Writing Bingeable Books appeared first on From The Mixed Up Files.

MUF: Welcome Rina. Thanks for joining us today. I’m really excited to be talking to you about this book.

Rina Heisel: Thanks. I’m excited to be here.

MUF: So, tell us about Journey Beyond the Burrow.

Rina Heisel: Journey Beyond the Burrow is an adventure story about a young mouse, Tobin. He’s the top weather scout in his burrow, and he’s an expert in the Rules of Rodentia. He’s very proud of this, and always follows the Rules, until a big storm introduces a new predator that scuttles off with Tobin’s new baby brother. The Rules say to never pursue a predator, but Tobin goes on a rescue mission, along with his best friend and his little sister.

MUF: Speaking of the new predator, they definitely freaked me out, but not as much as the part where Tobin winds up in a nest of snakes. I had to put the book down at that part. Snakes scare me.

Rina Heisel: I’ve actually heard that from a few reviewers. Some people go into Journey Beyond the Burrow expecting a cute animal story, and it is that. But it’s also got some pretty scary, intense parts. Those are some of my favorites because I always loved those types of books when I was a kid.

MUF: Speaking of books that you enjoyed as a child, can you tell us some of the books that influenced you?

Rina Heisel: I read a lot of animal fantasy: Charlotte’s Web, Watership Down, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. I liked horse books and animal rescue books, but I also loved ghost stories, especially books by Mary Downing Hahn, and the Choose Your Own Adventure books.

MUF: Oh! Those were so good. I saw on your website that you worked on nature shows for South Dakota Public Broadcasting, how did your time there influence Journey Beyond the Burrow?

Rina Heisel: The natural science shows were my favorite projects. I spent a lot of time in the Badlands getting prairie dog footage and observing them and their burrows. It got me thinking about the relationship between predator and prey.

MUF: So, you started with prairie dogs, why is the story about mice?

Rina Heisel: Mice are so expressive, and they have fingers. It’s so helpful in writing animals that an animal is able to hold something because it’s such a human quality.

Also, I had a pet mouse in college that I rescued from a tarantula cage. The owner tried to feed the mouse to the tarantula, but the spider was scared of this little baby mouse and just clung to the top of its cage. I had a very understanding roommate who let me take the mouse back to our room. We named it Lucky, and it lived on cafeteria food.

MUF: Oh! That’s awesome. So, are the Arakni in the story based on that tarantula then?

“Hunstman Spider (Heteropoda sp.)” by GeeC is licensed with CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Rina Heisel: Arakni are based on tarantulas, yes, but also on Hunstman spiders, and A. Eximius spiders, which are spiders that live in colonies. I basically took the most terrifying traits of several spider species and combined them to make the Arakni, much to my agent’s chagrin. She had to go over all of the

different versions of the cover with spiders on them.

MUF: Wait! There’s a spider on the cover? I never noticed.

Rina Heisel: Yes! The mice that Paul Canavan drew are so expressive that they just pull you in, but there’s definitely a spider on the cover if you look for it.

MUF: Oh, I see it now. It’s kind of … menacing. So, tell us about the Rules of Rodentia. How did you come up with them?

Rina Heisel: The Rules come from nature and the relationships that animals have with each other. I got the idea from a biologist who talked about rabbits and the trails that they memorize. I thought about how all animals have these codes that they follow instinctively, and I wondered what that would look like written down.

MUF: Are there more rules that weren’t covered in the book?

Rina Heisel: There’s a little wiggle room in the numbering. So, there may be new rules, but there’s also a gray area. In life, it’s not just black and white. There’s this whole murky gray area.

MUF: That really feels like Tobin’s arc is finding that out. Rules of Rodentia would have made a pretty good title too.

Rina Heisel: It’s funny that you bring that up. Rules of Rodentia was my title, but my editor, Alice Jerman, wanted a title that would convey more of the story. So, my daughter and I brainstormed about 10 titles, and Journey Beyond the Burrow was one of my daughter’s suggestions.

MUF: Ha! That’s awesome. Can you tell us about your writing journey so far?

Rina Heisel: This story has been with me for about 15 years. The idea for the plot came to me in the Black Hills when we were interviewing a biologist about symbiotic relationships between animals, and I wondered “What would make a mouse and a snake team up?” I carried that little kernel of an idea around for a year or so. Then, the spiders came into play, and I wrote a summary. Then, I went to SCBWI classes and conferences to learn about writing for kids. It was around that time that my family moved to Florida, and I met my amazing writing group, The OWLS. I My first meeting with them I brought a 15 page first chapter of this animal fantasy that started out with Tobin just thinking about life. The OWLS were very patient with me, and I learned so much from them.

“Giant Batfish!” by montereydiver is licensed under CC BY 2.0

MUF: So, would that be your advice to new writers? Find a good group?

Rina Heisel: Yes, a supportive group is the biggest blessing, and SCBWI is a good resource. I learned so much by going to conferences, and going to conferences with my writing group was like imagination fuel.

MUF: Speaking of imagination fuel, what are you working on next?

Rina Heisel: I have an idea for a possible sequel to Journey Beyond the Burrow sketched out, but, right now, I’m working on an MG ghost story about siblings who visit a haunted hunting lodge in the North Woods.

MUF: Sounds spooky! Only a few more questions. What is something that readers would be surprised to find out about you?

Rina Heisel: Well, I love nature and being outside, but I’m scared of big fish. I went scuba diving with a friend near the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, and we saw a huge batfish. My poor diving partner, when we surfaced, said, “You kn

ow, for a small person, you have the most vice-like grip.” I was terrified!

MUF: That sounds like nightmare fuel. How can readers find you on social media?

Rina 

Heisel: I’m on Twitter: @rinaheisel. Instagram: rina.heisel and my Facebook page is Author Rina Heisel.

MUF: Thank you so much for talking with us today.

Journey Beyond the Burrow comes out July 13th, but one lucky winner will have a chance to win a sneak peek by entering our giveaway below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The post Digging Into Journey Beyond the Burrow appeared first on From The Mixed Up Files.

MUF: Hi Drew! I’m really excited to talk to you today because I’m actually a really big fan of Catstronauts and Hangry, which I’ll ask you about in a bit, but first, can you tell us a little bit about Metropolis Grove.

DB: It’s about these three kids who become instant friends in a suburb of Metropolis, Metropolis Grove. The two kids that live there, Duncan and Alex, they’re really skeptical about superheroes. Nothing happens in their small, quiet suburb. It all happens in the big city, and all they see is all this superhero stuff happening online or in the news. So, when Sonia moves from Metropolis to their neighborhood, they’re instant friends, but with Sonia being from the city and having seen Superman, she’s like Superman’s number one fan. She tries to teach them about how cool superheroes are, and they try to teach her about living in the suburbs, exploring the woods, and building a clubhouse. They see Bizarro out in the woods, and everybody assumes that he’s Superman. Sonia, having seen Superman, isn’t so sure, but she doesn’t want to mess up her new friendships. So, she starts keeping secrets.

MUF: That leads right into my next question. Sonia is pretty Superman obsessed. Did you have any favorite superheroes growing up?

DB: Growing up, we had a big collection of the old Super Powers action figures. I was definitely a fan of Batman and Superman growing up. I was really into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as well. That’s actually how I started drawing. I was getting more into the Turtles and learning how to draw them.

MUF: So you got started doing fan art?

DB: Haha, yeah I guess. Back then, I don’t know if the term was fan art, but I was just drawing in my spiral notebook. I remember my brother teaching my how to draw 3-D so that the characters weren’t just flat on the horizon.

MUF: Kind of going back to Metropolis Grove, Sonia’s fish-out-of- water story dovetails nicely with Bizarro’s. Did you choose to write about Bizarro or how did that work?

DB: DC really wanted a story that was not another little Bruce Wayne story or Wonder Woman growing up on the island. They wanted to dig a little deeper into their universe of characters. I came across Bizarro in the animated series, and I remembered him from Superman comics from when I was a kid. I really liked his origin that he was a Superman clone that wasn’t finished and escaped. So, I liked this idea that he’d just broken out of the clone facility and had the idea that he was a hero, but he didn’t know how to go about it.

MUF: I’ve already talked about how much I love Catstronauts and Hangry. You’ve already created these wildly popular characters and worlds. What was it like going into an already established world?

DB: That was a little daunting, and part of the reason of me taking it out of Metropolis and putting it in the suburbs gave me the blank slate so that I could build that world. But there was this point where I was working on it that I realized that they existed in that same universe. It’s a scene where Sonia is doing research on the DailyPlanet.com, and there’s a story by Lois Lane, and it’s as I was writing those lines, I was like “Oh yeah, this in the universe.” So, then I went back and mined the DC Universe for those nuggets to pull in to make it feel like it’s part of the same world, but it’s a new part of a map that you haven’t explored yet. So, that was exciting to dip my toes into.

And the other thing that I wasn’t prepared for that I should have been was that this was a book with humans as opposed to cats like in Catstronauts. So, I had to remind myself how to draw humans, and just because you are drawing a person, there’s a lot more attention you have to pay to the artwork to make it feel more natural. Like no one has ever seen a cat flying a spaceship, but when there’s a kid climbing out of their window, you have a very specific image of what that looks like. So, it was a much more intense art session.

MUF: Did the story come first or the art? What does that process look like?

DB: When I was working on this book, I was writing the outline to the story, but also in my sketchbook, I started trying to figure out who these characters were and what they looked like. The character design happened as the same time that the outline was being written, and as I started writing the script, I do really rough page thumbnails to gauge how the book is gonna be paced. Then, I go back through and revise the thumbnails and tweak the script. When all the words are in the bubbles, I read the words out loud so that it sounds like something a human would say.

MUF: Can you tell us a little bit about your writing journey to this point?

DB: Catstronauts was the first book that I published and it was the first thing I’d written professionally. Before I spent two years working on a graphic novel that was to teach myself how to write graphic novels and explore comics. I also started going to different comic cons and zinefests. I was working on this large graphic novel and also working on all these mini comics. I remember when I got the green light from Little Brown on Catstronauts, and I was like “This is amazing!” A few days later, they came back and wanted four graphic novels, and I was kind of diving in and trying to figure out how these characters were gonna grow in the series. The cast of Catstronauts is really large, and one of the big hurdles is how to further a character’s development when they’re only in the book for a page or two. I started re-watching Star Trek The Next Generation, and that’s a huge ensemble cast, and you have all these little nuggets of characters in the background, and I really took that to heart and put that into practice while working on the Catstronauts books. I’ve now written 6 Catstronauts books, and one picture book, which is another way different genre to write for. When I was working on Hangry, you only have 40 pages to tell your complete story, and word economy is such a big part of picture books. So, every thing you write has to be the word you intend on using, as opposed to Catstronauts where you have room to play. Then, pivoting to work on Metropolis Grove, with these new characters that have to exist in the DC universe, I relied on those lessons from Catstronauts and working with an ensemble. I needed to make sure that when you met these kids, they had a whole childhood before the story.

Someday, I really want to write a story where someone is shipwrecked on a new planet or on an island where it’s one person and they’re all by themselves because everything I’ve drawn lately, like the last Catstronauts had like nine characters that I had to draw, and Metropolis Grove has 3 kids and Bizzarro, and the whole middle school showing up, and it’s like what am I doing to myself.

MUF: I gotta ask because I saw it on your bio. Cheese-eating contests?

DB: My old neighborhood had a big street festival every summer, and the local cheese shop would sponsor a cheese-eating contest. So, I was a part of that for about four years in a row, and my personal best got better every year. They always did New York Cheddar which is a strong, dry cheese, and you had two minutes to eat as much New York Cheddar as you wanted to. My personal best is 9 ounces of New York Cheddar in 2 minutes, and I trained for it. I remember reading how the hot dog people can eat that much, and they do things like swallowing ice cubes to condition their throat and mouth to take bigger gulps and take a sip of water after each bite.

MUF: Do you have any writing or art advice to anyone who is starting out?

DB: If you don’t have a sketchbook, start a sketchbook. It doesn’t even need to be a book. It can just be a folder that you keep all your drawings in. That has been a game changer for me. Seven years ago, I took a self-imposed sabbatical from my graphic design job. And I said, “I’m gonna take a year. I have this graphic novel idea. I have a new sketchbook, and I’m going to draw in it every day.” That was my goal. I just needed to draw something. Some times I’d do drawing prompts from Inktober or random word generators online, and every basically every story has started as doodles in my sketchbook. Catstronauts started as a doodle, and then a joke with a cat holding a fish that says “Prepare for lunch”. I made a comic to help deliver that joke, ad now that joke is in every Catstronauts book.

MUF: What are you working on now?

DB: Right now, I’m working on a picture book called Puppy Bus. It’s about a kid who moves to a new town, and he’s about to get on the bus and go to his new school and accidentally gets on a bus full of puppies and spends the day at obedience school. It’s about how to navigate this new culture you’re in. It’s kind of absurd, but really fun. I just finished the artwork on that, and I’m working on a prequel series for Catstronauts about Waffles when he was a kitten. It’s about how he found the inspiration to become a catstronaut later. It’s called Waffles and Pancake. The first one is Planetary Yum, and it’s coming out in September. Waffles and his sister Pancake go to the science museum with their

dad and see a planetarium show and have lunch in the cafeteria. It’s intended for earlier readers, but Catstronauts readers will find lots of fun Easter eggs and cameos.

MUF: How can people follow you online?

DB: I’m on Twitter and Instagram, and I have the same handle for each. It’s @thebrockart, and I’m constantly posting behind-the-scenes and sketches and things I’m working on. You can follow on there for behind-the-scenes, and every once in a while, I’ll try to do a live drawing.

MUF: That’s so cool! Thank you for sitting down and talking with us today.

DB: It was great to talk to you too.

The post It’s a Bird; It’s a Plane; It’s Drew Brockington’s Metropolis Grove! appeared first on From The Mixed Up Files.

Buy: Amazon | Indiebound | Bookshop

Add on Goodreads

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With every hit, ball, strike, and home run numbers are being calculated on the baseball field. Get ready to learn all the ways digits and math factor into the game, from the countless statistics used to measure an individual player’s game to the exact timing used to steal a base.

Read about all the greatest players from baseball history and get fun facts, like what the most retired jersey number is. Discover what countries dominate in the Little League World Series and check out cool graphics that show the frequency of hits to every part of the field. Jam-packed with sports trivia, awesome photos, and fun activities at the end of every chapter, this number-focused look at the game is the ultimate grand slam.

JAMES BUCKLEY, JR. is the author of more than 100 books for young readers on basketball, baseball, football, soccer, and more. A former editor at Sports Illustrated and NFL Publishing, he is also the author of the top-selling annual Scholastic Year in Sports. In the non-sports world, he has written a dozen titles in the New York Times best-selling Who Was…? biography series. He lives in Santa Barbara, California, where he runs the Shoreline Publishing Group, a leading producer of nonfiction for kids.

 

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GIVEAWAY

 

 

 

• One (1) winner will receive a finished copy of It’s A Numbers Game! Baseball by James Buckley, Jr., and foreword by Cincinnati Reds’ Pitcher Sean Doolittle and a $25 gift card to the MLB store!
• Check out the other four stops for more chances to win
• US/Can only
• Ends 3/21 at 11:59pm ET

The post Book Blast: It’s a Number’s Game! appeared first on From The Mixed Up Files.

Welcome to the Ensnared Blog Tour!

To celebrate the release of Ensnared by Ann Bausum on January 12th, blogs across the web are featuring exclusive articles from Ann, plus 5 chances to win a hardcover copy!

Picturing the Past

by Ann Bausum

Often the best way to bring history alive is to share it through the eyes of people who witnessed it happening. Ensnared in the Wolf’s Lair is bursting with cherished photos, personal recollections, and primary source documents about the family punishments that followed the failed attempt to kill Hitler on July 20, 1944. Although the book focuses on a handful of affected families, I deliberately folded breadcrumbs into its pages about many others. Savvy readers can trace additional relationships using these embedded strands of history.

Consider the Hayessen family, for example. Although the children are never specifically mentioned in the main text, readers can learn about them by using visual clues and the book’s supplemental reference material. Take a good look at the meticulous inventory of families that appears in the back matter. Not only do readers discover the names, ages, and genders of each person; the itemized listing includes a key that helps to identify their individual fates.

By consulting this guide, we can surmise that Hans-Hayo Hayessen, the oldest child in the family at age two, had probably barely begun to talk by the time of his family punishment detention. Volker, at age nine months, was unlikely to even be walking. We can tell from the Hayessen family listing that the boys’ father died because of his involvement in the attempted coup, and their mother was detained.

Using the book’s index we are taken to the last photo ever taken of the family. This image captures an ordinary family moment that would, within months, be impossible to regain. The facing page authenticates some of the family’s trials by showing the certificate Margarete Hayessen received when she was discharged from Ravensbrück concentration camp.

BTW—here’s a tip to keep in mind when reading German dates: Europeans typically present the date and month in the reverse order from the American pattern. So the day shown on her discharge certificate of 6–10–44 represents the date October 6, 1944.

Would you like to follow some more breadcrumbs?

Let’s start with Dagmar Hansen. We can tell from the itemized listing of families that she was a newborn during this period, and this fact is reinforced several times in the text. By using the index we can find a family photo that predates her birth, and we can read about how her christening served as an alibi for her father on the day that the conspiracy unfolded. Subsequent text references are indexed in the book, including the revelation that Gestapo agents took Dagmar away from her mother when the girl was just two weeks old.

Visitors to my author website will find a series of classroom suggestions for Ensnared in the Wolf’s Lair. Among other ideas I challenge students to research various families using the book and other resources. A good first stop beyond my book is the German Resistance Memorial Center in Berlin. If the site displays in German, click the EN option in the upper access menu to switch the text to English. Then use the BIOGRAPHIES tab that appears at left in the home menu to find brief biographical essays about all coup conspirators.

Are you curious about other family members? Savvy internet users will discover that one of the 46 detained children became a famous German model and actress. (Hint: you’ll find a childhood photo of her on page 44.)

*****

Blog Tour Schedule:

February 8th – Teen Librarian Toolbox

February 9th – Christy’s Cozy Corners

February 10th – Bookhounds

February 11th – From the Mixed-Up Files

February 12th – Ms. Yingling Reads

Buy: Amazon | Indiebound | Bookshop

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Follow Ann Bausum: Website | Twitter | Facebook

“I’ve come on orders from Berlin to fetch the three children.” –Gestapo agent, August 24, 1944

With those chilling words Christa von Hofacker and her younger siblings found themselves ensnared in a web of family punishment designed to please one man—Adolf Hitler. The furious dictator sought merciless revenge against not only Christa’s father and the other Germans who had just tried to overthrow his government. He wanted to torment their relatives, too, regardless of age or stature. All of them. Including every last child.

During the summer of 1944, a secretive network of German officers and civilians conspired to assassinate Adolf Hitler. But their plot to attack the dictator at his Wolf’s Lair compound failed, and an enraged Hitler demanded revenge. The result was a systematic rampage of punishment that ensnared not only those who had tried to topple the regime but their far-flung family members too. Within weeks, Gestapo agents had taken as many as 200 relatives from their homes, separating adults and children.

Using rare photographs and personal interviews with survivors, award-winning author Ann Bausum presents the spine-chilling little-known story of the failed Operation Valkyrie plot, the revenge it triggered, and the families caught in the fray.

ANN BAUSUM is an award-winning children’s book author who brings history alive by connecting readers to personal stories from the past that echo in the present day. Ensnared is her 11th book for National Geographic Kids and her fourth look at international history. While researching the book, she traveled twice to Europe to get to know the people and places that became intertwined in 1944 after the failed effort to kill Hitler at the Wolf’s Lair. Previously Bausum has explored international history with such works as Stubby the War Dog; Denied, Detained, Deported; and Unraveling Freedom. Many of her books highlight themes of social justice, including her National Geographic title The March Against Fear. In 2017, her body of work was honored by the Children’s Book Guild of Washington, DC. Individual titles have won numerous starred reviews and been recognized with a Sibert Honor Award, the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award, the Carter G. Woodson Award, and the SCBWI Golden Kite Award, among other distinctions.

GIVEAWAY

• One (1) winner will receive a hardcover copy of Ensnared
• Check out the other four stops for more chances to win
• US/Can only
• Ends 2/21 at 11:59pm ET

The post Picturing the Past: ENSNARED IN THE WOLF’S LAIR Blog Tour appeared first on From The Mixed Up Files.