Starred Kirkus Review!

From Kirkus Reviews special BEA print edition today!

 SURE SIGNS OF CRAZY

by Karen Harrington

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"Readers intrigued by the premise of this moving story will sympathize with the plucky protagonist and rejoice in the way her summer works out. (Fiction. 9-13)"

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Worried that she will grow up to be crazy like her mother or alcoholic like her father, rising seventh-grader Sarah Nelson takes courage from Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, writing letters to Atticus Finch and discovering her own strengths.

Sarah is a survivor. She survived her mother’s attempt to drown her when she was 2 and the notoriety that has followed her and her father from one Texas town to another in the 10 years since. In a first-person, present-tense narration interspersed with definitions, diary entries and letters, she describes the events of the summer she turns 12, gets her period, develops a crush on a neighbor and fellow word lover, and comes to terms with her parents’ failings. In her first middle-grade novel, Harrington revisits the characters of her adult thriller, Janeology (2008), to imagine what it might be like to be the child of a filicidal mother. Sarah’s 12-year-old voice is believable and her anxieties realistic. Intellectually precocious and responsible beyond her years, she is also a needy child who finds helpful support when she reaches out to a grieving elderly neighbor. Although her situation is difficult, Sarah is resilient and hopeful.

Readers intrigued by the premise of this moving story will sympathize with the plucky protagonist and rejoice in the way her summer works out.

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So you know what that means, right? Time for the Carlton Dance! 

Monday Morning Inspiration: Benefits of Laughter

John Cleese explored the benefits of "laughter yoga." Try it. I hope you laugh.

Wordless Wednesday: Letters

I recently found this letter slot at an antique store. It's one of those found items you wish could tell the tale of its life. What words have passed through it? What news? Secret notes? Love letters?

View other Wordless Wednesday posts here.

Teaser Tuesday: Tapestry Of Fortunes by Elizabeth Berg

"My best friend Penny's grave has a simple headstone: light gray granite inscribed with her name, the date of her birth, and the date of her death, which was four months ago. Below that, as agreed, are these words: Say it. Penny believed that people didn't often enough admit to what they really felt, and she thought that made for a lot of problems." p. 5, TAPESTRY OF FORTUNES by Elizabeth Berg

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Love this passage. 

Love this cover. 

Love Elizabeth Berg. She can do no wrong for me. Reading her books is like talking with a good friend. I always feel better for it. I just got her book in the mail yesterday and now that the house is sort of clean, I've made a cup of tea and can commence reading. 

What are you reading today? 

About the book (from Elizabeth Berg's Website):

A motivational speaker who isn't great about taking her own advice finally does. After a catastrophic event, she moves out of her large, well-appointed house into a house she shares with three other women. After she receives a postcard from a man she never quite got over and last saw many years ago, she decides to take a driving trip to visit him. The other housemates come along, each for her own reason, each with her own agenda. So it's a book about destiny, fate, memory, chance, possibility....

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

Monday Morning Inspiration: John Irving on "the beginning process"

I love Irving's acknowledgement about the excitement of approaching the blank page as he begins a new work. I think that might be a universal feeling among writers. In the beginning, there are no mistakes and it's all possibility.