The Weekly 411 (3/21/25)
 |
| © Colleen McKeown |
March 21, 2025 vol. 12
The Weekly 411 gathers all the links added to Kidlit411 each week. To receive this post by email, sign up for our email updates. Are you on Facebook? Join our Kidlit411 group for conversations and camaraderie. We can also be found on Bluesky. This week's illustration is by Colleen McKeown.
Kid Lit News
The Middle Grade Landscape: A Year End Wrap-Up of Middle Grade Books Published in 2024
Turning the Tide on Middle Grade Books
Middle Grade Giveaway
 |
| cover art by Johanna Springer, design by Anabeth Bostrup |
About the Book: The year is 1915 and the world is at war. Marta and her father are passengers on the Lusitania, desperately trying to get back home to Germany. While aboard, they must keep their identities hidden or risk being mistaken for enemy spies. Then the Lusitania is attacked by a German submarine. They just make it off the sinking ship, but her father is discovered and detained. Marta suddenly finds herself alone in enemy land.
To survive, Marta must draw upon a deep well of bravery she never knew she had. Fortunately, she meets Clare, a young Irish girl who can talk a mile a minute, and her kind family. Believing that Marta is a Dutch refugee, they welcome her into their home. She can't risk letting her new friends know she's actually from Germany—the very nation that the Irish and English are fighting against. But could these people who have shown her nothing but kindness truly be her enemy?
Sweeping from the Irish Sea to a cathedral city in England, this story shows us that friendship, especially in times of war, may be the greatest gift of all.
About the Author: Anne Blankman has loved to write stories for as long as she can remember. She grew up in Niskayuna, New York, where she met a classmate who had survived Chernobyl and who eventually inspired Anne to write The Blackbird Girls. They are still friends to this day. Currently, Anne lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband, Mike, her daughter, Kirsten, and two rescue cats. For several years, she worked as a children's librarian but now she writes full-time. When she isn't writing, Anne likes to spend time with her family, read, travel, knit, and go for long runs. She loves hearing from readers, and you can visit her at AnneBlankman.com or @AnneBlankman.
Kishotenketsu: A Plot Structure without Conflict
Characters Can Just Know Things
6 Tips for Writing Deeply Emotional Fiction
Why Many Writers are Moving to Substack (And Why You Might Want To, Too)
March 29, 9:30-11am PDT. Making Emotions Concrete. a free workshop from KidLit Craft. To make emotions real to readers, writers need to go beyond the stereotypical eye roll or shrug. Often the tools for making more effective choices already exist in a rough draft. Manuscripts are peppered with objects and character interests that can be used strategically to communicate a character’s emotions to the reader–and make the reader feel them too. Through examples from mentor texts and exercises based on your current work-in-progress, you’ll learn how to use metaphors and objects as concrete expressions of emotion and develop a range of options to incorporate into your work. Taught by KidLit Craft founder Anne-Marie Strohman, MFA. For all writers for children, from picture books to young adult. Free. Recording available for 30 days after the event.
April 26, 10-11:30am PDT. Building a Novel with Touchstone Moments. A KidLit Craft Workshop taught by award-winning middle grade author Lindsay Lackey. Touchstone moments are meaningful story moments for the character, but equally important, they are meaningful story moments for you, the author. To build an effective emotional arc in your story, you must weave in moments that authentically give you “all the feels” while writing. In this workshop, middle grade author Lindsay will introduce you to the idea of touchstone moments and guide you through a series of exercises to discover how touchstones can be found in everything from character to setting to prose. $35. Recording available for 30 days after the event. Can be paired with our April 22 Ask the Author Book Club event, where Lindsay will discuss writing her most recent middle grade novel, Farther Than the Moon.
Daily Writing Practice: 5 Tips for Writing More
Support Kidlit411
If you are enjoying these weekly updates, please consider supporting Kidlit411 with a small donation. We are so grateful that you are a part of our writing and illustrating community.
This book sounds like something my school's WWII historical fiction fans would really enjoy!
ReplyDeleteWonderful links this week. Thanks so much.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feature.
ReplyDelete