Books for kids, teens, & those who are young at heart

Category: Middle Grade (Page 2 of 16)

WITCH TEST Cover Reveal & ARCs

It’s here! The cover for my upcoming middle grade WITCH TEST is such a mood. I love Liza’s stance and the glowing moon reflecting off of everything. It’s got the corn maze and the crows, which are so important to Liza’s story. Big shout-out to MiblArt for creating the cover!

WITCH TEST will be out on September 13, 2022. I’m working on getting it up for pre-order on all the usual book retail sites and scheduling events for the fall. In the meantime, ARCs (advanced reader copies) will be going out in the next few weeks. If you’re interested in receiving an early copy to read and review, you can fill out the ARC form here.

WITCH TEST blurb:

Liza is sinking in a bubbling cauldron of middle school rumors.

When the entire eighth grade begins studying the Salem witch trials, it seems everyone is on a witch hunt…with Liza as target number one. Worst of all, her ex-best friend is the one who started a rumor that Liza bewitched a boy with a love potion.

As the bullying intensifies, Liza’s loneliness grows. More than ever, she wishes her mother were still alive. A glimmer of hope arrives when Liza finds her mother’s diary…until she actually reads it. Turns out Liza’s family connection to witches goes back for centuries. So much for the witch stuff being rumors!

If Liza can channel her inner witch at the Halloween night corn maze, she might find the strength to stand up for herself. If not, she risks losing a piece of herself to a growing depression and any hope of happiness.

WITCH TEST is an upper middle grade Mean Girls meets The Craft novel for pre-teens and young teens.

Doesn’t it look so pretty next to PIRATE ISLAND? I love how my two middle grade book babies complement each other.

Middle Grade Author Micki Bare on Needing Distractions from Writing

I’m very happy to have children’s author Micki Bare on the blog to talk about the writing life and her latest release, the middle grade novel SOCIETY OF THE SENTINELIA. Welcome, Micki!

What do fairy tea, gardening, and closet karaoke have in common?

Let’s start with the fairy tea. I recently discovered it in a boutique shop a few blocks from my house. It smells amazing and is quite soothing after a long day of work on top of author obligations. It’s whimsical, yet practical. It occupies all my senses as I sip.

Next we have gardening. My hubby built a new raised bed this year. The tomato plants are heavy with green fruit. The cucumber and pepper plants I grew from seeds tossed in the soil are huge and healthy. The grapevine I planted last year has dozens of clusters bursting forth. The plants require almost daily attention, pulling me outside into weather of all sorts.

Then there’s closet karaoke. That’s when I crank up the music on our Echo Show (it displays lyrics) and I belt out my favorite tunes along with the artist. I do this when no one is home. When I’m writing, editing, or working, I have the music on in the background. But when a song jolts me into the present with a blast from my past, I have to get up and sing. I stand, I stretch, and I forget everything except the lyrics as scenes from the 30-something-year-old music video flash through my memory.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, fairy tea, gardening, and closet karaoke are distractions. And while distractions often get a bad rap, they also have a glass-half-full side. Distractions can reignite creativity. They can ease the messy, uncomfortable aspects of life. Distractions can also help an author who is on the precipice of a book release maintain their sanity.

Writing a book is a huge accomplishment. If you also want your work “out there,” being an author includes the publishing process and marketing. Many authors, like me, also work full time. When I signed the contract for my Zahra of the Uwharries middle grade series in August 2021, I essentially took on a second full time job.

When you write, edit, and market before work, then write, edit, and market after work, and then write, edit, and market on weekends and holidays to make your dream a reality, you can burn out. You can become a little batty. You can run out of every ounce of steam. That’s why you need distractions.

My closet karaoke habit, which I developed as a tween with my boom box and my version of lyrics, gives me an extra boost of energy. It also cranks up feel-good hormones, which help authors overcome imposter syndrome.

My thumb wasn’t always green, but I enjoy being out in the dirt so much that I’ve gotten better over time. The smell of dirt, vegetable plants, and herbs always makes me feel better. That feeling of accomplishment when I pick herbs for Friday pizza or harvest tomatoes and squash for summer recipes fills me with hope, inspiration, and resolve to make healthy choices.

Discovering the fairy tea a week before the release of the first book, Society of the Sentinelia, was serendipity. I’m going from the moment I wake up until I try to sleep at night. The tea pulls me away from the chaos without pesky ‘I’m wasting time I need to be doing something’ guilt tied to it. Technically, because it’s called fairy tea, I’m researching a product I can use in my marketing or networking endeavors. For example, I may bring some to the session I’m presenting at the SCBWI-Carolina’s fall 2022 conference and give it away as a door prize. Or maybe I’ll send fairy tea to my editor as a thank you.

You don’t have to be a crazy busy writer to need distractions in your life. We’re all busy and we all need the oasis of a rejuvenating break now and again. Reading is another great distraction. For tweens (and adults, too), I humbly recommend Society of the Sentinelia. And while you’re busy reading, discussing, and recommending it, I’ll be knee-deep into book 2, THE BLIND FAIRY, due out May 2023.

SOCIETY OF THE SENTINELIA blurb:

Zahra, a sprite-like tween no bigger than a loblolly pinecone, befriends an 11- year-old human on a quest to find her parents and sister. When a neighbor muddles their plans, kidnaps Zahra, and threatens her new friend, Zahra discovers unnerving truths about herself and her family.

Set in the Birkhead Wilderness of the Uwharrie Mountains in central North Carolina, Society of the Sentinelia is the first book in the Zahra of the Uwharries series that chronicles Zahra’s unique and critical role in saving her species.

Buy Link: https://tinyurl.com/yc4myafz

About the Author:

Micki Bare is a graduate of N.C. State University. In addition to Society of the Sentinelia, she’s the author of three early reader chapter books and has short stories published in two anthologies. She wrote a weekly human-interest column for 18 years and published articles in Thrive Magazine, Piedmont Parent, Asheboro Magazine, and Our State. Her career in early childhood spans more than two decades, with service as a teacher, administrator, and marketing director. She currently serves as the Director of Marketing and Community Engagement for Randolph Partnership for Children. She has three grown sons. She and her husband, Dave, live in central North Carolina.

Visit her website at www.mickibareauthor.com or connect with her on social media: Twitter @turtleauthor, TikTok @inspiredscribe, Facebook @MickiBareAuthor, Instagram @mickibare.

Her main character in her middle grade novels also has an Instagram account: @Zahra_Aylward.

Still Mourning Kylene 20 Years Later

This weekend marked the 20th anniversary of my sister’s death. I’ve written a lot about Kylene, her life and mourning her. On the 8th anniversary of her death, I shared a poem she wrote. A year later, in my post “A Lonely Anniversary,” I expressed having a feeling of loneliness that I could place…until finally realizing I was missing my sister. And I shared another one of her poems.

On the 11th anniversary of her death, I was once again “Thinking of Kylene” while reading through one of her journals. One of my favorite posts about her is “No Matter How You Do The Math, Death Death Just Doesn’t Add Up,” where I memorialized her life and tried to make sense of her death. And, of course, there is “The Story of How I Became A Writer.”

Mourning is a life-long process, and something that often weaves its way into the stories I write. In my upcoming middle grade novel WITCH TEST, I once again explore this concept. The main character, Liza, was only three when her mother died in a car crash. Now 13 and friendless because her ex-best friend, Abby, has turned on her, Liza finds herself thinking of her mother. New and confusing feelings surface.

An ache settles in my chest, strong enough to make me groan out loud.

I think I miss my mom. Maybe that’s what’s been causing this feeling of loneliness that has been overwhelming me all afternoon. I think somewhere deep inside of me I’ve been missing her a long time, but this whole Abby thing has finally made me realize how much I lost when I lost my mom.

I never thought of it like that because it’s weird to miss someone you can’t remember.

Witch TEst

I think about the complicated feelings of losing someone young. As time passes, you change and the person you are mourning would have changed. I’m no longer the person my sister knew, and she would no longer be the person I knew. I miss who she was, and I miss who she would have been, even without knowing who exactly that person would have been. I also miss who I would have become if Kylene had lived.

Like Liza, I wonder if “miss” is the right word. In her case, she wonders if she can miss someone she doesn’t remember. In my case, I wonder if I can miss the versions of my sister and myself that never existed. All the while knowing I miss who she was.

I’ve come to call this complicated set of feelings “long mourning.” When the sharpness of new grief has faded away, you’re left with a longer pain — an ache that never really goes away, occasionally punctuated by a sharper pain.

So I guess that’s my convoluted way of saying I still miss my sister — in all the many ways you can miss someone who died young — 20 years after her death. I’ll suppose I’ll continue exploring those feelings in the stories I write, and in my own way, celebrating and mourning my little sister, Kylene.

WITCH TEST Book Announcement & ARC Reader Search

I’m very excited to announce that my middle grade novel WITCH TEST will be coming out later this year! I don’t have an exact release date, but look for it in September. Of course, I’ll have all the details here on the blog as things move forward. You can make sure you’re subscribed to the blog by entering your email address on my website homepage https://katielcarroll.com.

I talked a little about this book in my post “WIP Update: Witchy Middle Grade & a Fear of Asking for Help.” Think of it as an upper middle grade Mean Girls meets The Craft.

Not the real cover…just something I was playing around with.

Liza thought her summer fight with her ex-best friend, Abby, would blow over, but a month into eighth grade and the rumor firestorm has reach a whole new level of awful. And everyone believes that Liza is a witch! Even as a rekindled passion for art leads to new friends, Liza retreats into a bubble of depression. All these feelings get tied up in the never-ending grief of having lost her mom at a young age.

A glimmer of hope arrives when she finds her mother’s diary…until she actually reads it. Before Liza was born, her mom and aunt performed a ritual to conjure an ancestor persecuted in the town’s witch trials. So much for the witch stuff being rumors! As Liza digs into her witchy ancestry, everyone else is making plans for the Halloween night corn maze. If Liza can channel her inner witch on Halloween, maybe she can find the strength to stand up to Abby. If not, she risks losing not only her new friends but also a piece of herself to the growing depression.

I’m currently working on edits and developing a cover with the cover artist (not the real cover above, just a fun visual I put together myself). Some of my favorite things about this novel are the crows, the Halloween night corn maze, Liza’s aunts, her aunt’s shop Mother Goose Apothecary, and all the tea drinking! And the ending of this story never fails to get me all choked up, no matter how many times I read it.

I’ll be looking for ARC (advanced reader copy) readers soon, so let me know in the comments if that’s something that interests you. What is an ARC reader? That’s someone who gets an early copy of the book (these will be in ebook form) in exchange for a honest review.

Writing Nature Fantasy with Sara Webley Author of ZO IN THE ROOSTING TREE

Crows are an important part of my witchy middle grade book, so it felt very serendipitous when I connected with Sara Webley, author of ZO IN THE ROOSTING TREE. Let’s give a big welcome to Sara and and her clever crow character Zo!

Besides writing books for young readers, I’m an editor of texts ranging from academic writing to consumer health to kids’ books. I’ve also worked in the zoo and aquarium field as an animal technician and zookeeper. I love fiction and nonfiction about animals and nature. So when I decided to write a fantasy about a young girl who switches places with an American Crow, I wanted to combine the real with the magical—nature with fantasy. Write what you know, but…twist it! I wanted my readers to view nature from the perspective of the animal.

So I had to decide: How to construct Zo in the Roosting Tree? How to bridge reality and fantasy?

I began by researching crow behavior, crow myths, crow intelligence. Write what you know—and anything you don’t know, educate yourself about it! So I was continually checking: How would a real crow act in the scene I’m writing? What cool example of crow behavior can I include? This research gave me a framework for creating my plot and characters. What I aimed for was a fantasy close enough to reality that it would pull my readers in and make them wonder…Could that really happen? Would the crow I see outside my window every day be able to do that? And…Is that crow watching me?

The crow and human needed to switch places, so they could each learn about the other’s world. Because of my own bond with nature, I created a human character who loves birds: a young girl named Jae, who would live inside Zo the crow’s body. And the crow would live inside Jae’s human body. That’s the magical “Switch”—girl and crow, crow and girl. I hoped to excite young readers about a bird they probably see every day and don’t think much about. I wanted them to care about animals by being one for a while.

I made choices about plot, scenes, conflicts, and fun based on what I know about real crows. Planning my storyline, I wanted the magical crow Zo to behave in ways that reflect reality. Crows are smart, social, playful, adaptable birds. So I made Zo clever, fun-loving, family-oriented. Crows recognize human faces—people they like, and people they don’t. Crows are also problem-solvers, comparable in intelligence to monkeys and dolphins. They can use tools to find hidden food, slide down a snowy windshield just for fun, or surf the clouds by gripping a big piece of bark with their toes. So I set some problems in front of Zo to see how she might solve them—like being hunted by a scary owl at dawn. Zo may live in a fantasy world, but her behavior reflects the skills of a real crow.

But what’s fun about writing nature fantasy is not having to be totally accurate! After editing academic writing for years, I needed a 180-degree turn. So I took liberties: A real crow would not be friends with a young cardinal. A real crow would not ride on a snapping turtle’s back. I enjoyed starting with what I knew about the true nature of crows, and then twisting that into fantasy.

My goal was also to get readers interested in the much-maligned crow (think: Hitchcock’s The Birds) by presenting a sympathetic crow who teaches us something about natural behavior. This winter, a friend told me that she’d seen a huge group of crows gathering in a parking lot before they flew off to roost for the night. She said it made her think of “the apocalypse.” That’s what I wanted to counter with Zo’s character, by showing readers how crows communicate, play, and care for each other. In that parking lot, those crows were probably discussing where to find food the next day, not planning the apocalypse!

Nicer beliefs exist about crows, too: they’re famous for leaving “gifts” for humans. There’s some disagreement about that among bird scientists, but I wanted to use a shiny gift in the plot. I make silver chain maille bracelets, so I decided that Jae would have one. The real bracelet jump-starts the magical crow-and-girl Switch. Nature and reality…with a fantasy twist.

ZO IN THE ROOSTING TREE blurb:

Caw! Zo looks like a crow, sounds like a crow, and flies like a crow. But Zo thinks she’s a human girl inside!

Zo in the Roosting Tree tells the story of a clever crow, through the eyes of a human girl. A girl who loves being a crow, but who must find the secret to being human. Follow Zo’s adventures as she wakes up one morning in the roosting tree, learns to fly, plays games with a goofy cardinal named Rufus, and surfs the wind with her wings in the clouds. Kahr! Kahr!

Being Zo the crow is fun. And Rufus has become her best birdy friend. But when Zo discovers the dangers of her new life—owls and bobcats and cars—she misses her human family. Time is running out. Can a mysterious snapping turtle help Zo find the magic she needs to go home again?

Learn more about the book at zointheroostingtree.com or purchase it at Amazon, Vermont Institute of Natural Science, IndieBound, or Norwich Bookstore.

About the Author:

When Sara Webley was ten years old, her grandmother’s monthly magazine published Sara’s poem about a lobster…minus the final stanza. Not too happy with Grandma’s editing, Sara became an editor and writer herself. She has helped others do their best work through her editorial company, JAS Group Writing & Editing. Sara’s poetry has appeared in Flyway, Cold Mountain Review, and Appalachia.

Also trained as a veterinary health technician, Sara worked at Boston’s Franklin Park Zoo and New England Aquarium caring for seals, otters, porcupines, coyotes, snakes, monkeys, turtles, and other animals. Currently, she volunteers handling hawks and owls at a nature center, where she met one very special American Crow. As an author, Sara combines her love of animals with her love of books for young readers. She enjoys watching the crows gather at dusk in their roosting tree near her home. Follow Sara and Zo on Instagram @sara_webley_author and @zo_crow at facebook.com/zointheroostingtree.

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