"Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly" by Gail Carson Levine

Writing. For those of us who enjoy doing it, writing can be magical. We can create our own little worlds on paper and fill them with characters from our own imaginations.  

When our hands touch the keyboard or our pen touches the paper, anything becomes possible.

But sometimes we get stuck. We don’t know what to write. Our characters don’t feel real. We get bored with the story.

In Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly award winning author Gail Carson Levine shares tips and techniques she’s learned in her career. She admits that she often gets stuck or bored or completely frustrated with her characters.

With fun examples and ideas, she gives you advice on how to get over these humps and discusses what stories are made of. From this book I learned what a good beginning to a story often looks like, tips on how to wrap up a story, and the best way to write a conversation.

But the thing that impressed me most about this book was that it wasn’t boring. It didn’t feel like a typical how-to book. It was actually extremely fun and enjoyable to read.

Really, though, I shouldn’t have been surprised. Levine’s always been able to grab my attention with her writing.

Through this book you might just learn how to grab your reader’s attention too.

Note:

Some of what Levine shares is just her opinion. Whenever you are listening to advice about writing, try to keep in mind that quite a bit of it is probably just opinion. Don’t discard the advice, however: listen and consider it.

Just know that writing is not like math. There is no exact formula, no “one” answer to a problem. Everyone has his or her own unique writing style.

With math, two plus two always equals four and if you dispute this people will think you’re crazy.

With writing, one person will tell you one thing and someone else will tell you something entirely different. Who’s in the right?

They might both be in the right. Their advice might be equally viable. In the end, you have to decide what your own unique style will look like.

Will you use the first person’s advice or the second person’s advice?

You decide. You’re the writer.     

Should your sentences by long or short?  

You decide. You’re the writer.

Should you use first-person point of view or third-person? Which is better?
You decide. You’re the writer.

Book Review of "The Wave" by Todd Strasser

The students in Mr. Ross’ high school history class have asked him some questions he’s not sure how to answer: why did anyone follow Hitler? Why did people join the Nazi party? How come the Germans denied any knowledge of Hitler’s death camps?
At last, Mr. Ross comes up with an idea. Without telling his students what he’s up to, he organizes a movement structured after Nazi ideals and invites students to join it. He calls it “The Wave.” Their slogan is, “Strength Through Discipline, Strength Through Community, Strength Through Action!” He hopes that this movement will give them some sort of an idea of how it was like to live in Nazi Germany.

To most people, The Wave seems harmless enough. In less than a week, nearly every student in the high school has joined it. Slowly but steadily however, things start to get out of hand. What began as a simple classroom experiment has grown and taken on a life of its own, leaving in its wake brainwashed students…and a teacher who discovers that power is more seductive than he thought.

This book is closely based on a true event that occurred in a high-school in 1969.

When I researched what actually happened in the course of the real-life experiment, I discovered that the major points of the experiment were identical to what is portrayed in “The Wave.” In a only a few days, a fascist movement took over an entire high-school.

To me this book is a chilling reminder that brainwashing and the desire for power can take hold of anyone: even people born in the freedom-loving United States.

To find out how the experiment ended and what came of it, I encourage you to read “The Wave.”

Note to Parents: Due to some mild language and the book’s serious content, I would not recommend it for children.

"Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows", by J.K. Rowling

 Have you ever read a series that reeled you in from book one and did not release you until you had read the very last word of the final book?

This is what I experienced with the Harry Potter series.

Avidly, I read my way through books one, two, three, four, five, and six. The books seemed to grow with the character. As Harry became older and discovered more of the often dangerous world around him, the books became darker and more intense.

Each one pulled back a layer of the many mysteries surrounding the person of Harry Potter, and in each one I got to know Harry better and like him even more. 

At last, partly reluctant, mostly excited, I started book seven, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."

I was reluctant because I did not want the series to end. I did not want to finish the book and realize that no more would follow it.

I was excited because yet another chapter in the life of Harry Potter was unfolding. I sensed the imminent climax, the feeling that everything I had read in the other 6 books, everything that had occurred in the life of Harry Potter heretofore, was about to culminate in something big…

But even these premonitions could not have prepared me for the rising action and climactic end of the Harry Potter series.

To tell you even a little of what happened would give away too much.

The book made me laugh. It made me cry. It made me bite my knuckles in barely containable excitement.

All in all, “Harry Potter” is a series that I know I will be re-reading many times in the future.

Admittedly, it’s not for everyone. (After all, if we all liked the same books the world would be a pretty boring place.)

But if you are a fantasy fan who is looking for an engrossing, magical series with colorful characters that you can relate to and who become real to you, “Harry Potter” might just be for you.

"The Borrowed House," by Hilda Van Stockum

Janna is an eleven-year-old girl who lives in a small German town during WWII. She is a proud member of the Hitler Youth group, and admires Hitler above all else. All of her life she has been told that the Jewish people are dangerous criminals and that Hitler is doing the world a favor by getting rid of them. She believes that the Jews are being sent to a special place where they will be treated kindly and kept from harming other people.

One day Janna is sent to Holland to live with her parents, famous German actors who she has not seen in 2 years.

During her stay in Holland, certain events occur that slowly but surely began to shake her faith in Hitler and his soldiers, and which challenge her bigotry against Jewish people.

This thoughtful, descriptive story by one of my favorite historical-fiction authors instantly grabbed my attention. It explores the lies Hitler told to his people and unearthed the reasons so many German young people admired and believed in him. During the book, instead of feeling angry at Janna and other young people for supporting Hitler, I was deeply saddened for them. They were carefully shielded from the truth and consistently spoon-fed lies, ultimately becoming brain-washed supporters of one of the most terrible and wicked tyrants who ever lived.

As you read this book you will cheer Janna on as she searches for the truth.

Inspirations 4 Writing

Write a story from the perspective of a person who holds views you do not agree with. Reveal why this person believes the way he or she does. Does this person end up changing his or her views? If so, why?

"The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins

Katniss Everdeen is a 16-year-old girl, and the sole provider for her family. She lives in what might once have been America; now it is merely a country divided into 12 poverty-stricken provinces and presided over by the evil Capitol. To remind the people who populate the provinces of their subjugated state, the capitol holds a yearly event called “The Hunger Games.” A boy and a girl from 12 to 18 years of age is chosen from each district. After a short training period, the tributes are thrown into an arena and forced to fight each other to the death. The event is televised and everyone, including the contestants’ parents, are forced to watch it.

This year, Katniss is the tribute who must fight in the arena for the warped entertainment of the capitol. 

Quite frankly, I had a hard time reading this book. It wasn’t that the writing was bad. (In fact, I thoroughly enjoyed Suzanne Collin’s style.) It wasn’t even the violence. It was because Suzanne Collins writes so vividly that I felt like I was Katniss. It was as if I was the one who was in that arena, killing and waiting to be killed. I was the one with the hopeless feeling in my chest, and the raw determination to somehow survive. I was the one watching children being slaughtered. Sometimes I became so involved in Katniss’ emotions that I had to put the book aside. At the end I was left with the depressed feeling in my heart that is ultimately what Katniss feels at the end of the book. 

Over-all, Suzanne Collins does an excellent job of subtly yet openly infusing her views and opinions into the pages of the book. I did not agree with all of those views, but I still had to admire how she was able to express what she believes through a science-fiction novel.

In conclusion, I’d have to say that this book is very well-written and will provide you with an exciting, heart-throbbing adventure, but if you dislike books with dark, heavy content or get very emotionally involved with the characters, “The Hunger Games” might not be for you.

Note to Parents: This book is not for younger readers.

"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" by J.K. Rowling

For years, I thought that Harry Potter was a terrible book. I assumed that it was a dark story about witchcraft that glorified evil, and I was shocked if anyone told me they had read it. However, I supposed all these thing without actually having read the book for myself. One day my mom and I made the decision to try it out. We sat down in the living room and started reading it together. I was in love with it from the very first sentence. I discovered quickly that Harry Potter is anything but dark and evil. On the contrary, it is an enchanting fantasy story full of excitement and adventure that makes you think deeply about life.  

In "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," (which is the first book in the series), Harry Potter is a 10-year-old orphan who has lived nearly his entire life with his aunt and uncle. On Harry’s eleventh birthday he discovers a truth that will change his life forever. He is a wizard.

Simultaneously, he receives a letter telling him that he has been accepted at Hogwarts school of magic. Harry is abruptly thrust into a world he never knew existed; the wizarding world. In that world Harry learns that portraits can talk, trolls really exist, and animals sometimes turn out to be people.

Yet he also discovers something else, a fact far more sinister: there’s a dark wizard on the loose, and he wants Harry dead.

Note to Parents: I would not recommend this book for younger children, but rather for ages 12 and up. 

Inspirations 4 Writing

One of the many reasons I admire J.K. Rowling is her stunning imagination. It’s as if she left all boundaries behind when writing about the wizarding world and let her imagination go wild. The result is a book full of spell-binding adventures, fantastical creatures, and magical objects that excite the curiosity and capture the mind’s-eye. If you like writing children’s fantasy, try letting your imagination loose as well and see what you come up with.   

A Child's Anthology of Poetry

A Child's Anthology of Poetry, edited by Elizabeth Hauge Sword with Victoria Flournoy McCarthy

Do you find poetry boring? Dull? Dreary? If so, then you have not yet read this book. It is an anthology of some of the most interesting and entertaining poems I have read. They range from light-hearted poems by such authors as Emily Dickinson, to dark tragedies like the famous poem, “The Highwayman.” All in all, this book will give you a round diet of some of the best poetry written. Even people who strongly detest poetry might just change their mind after reading this collection.

Inspirations 4 Writing

After reading some of the poems in “A Child’s Anthology of Poetry” try your hand at writing a poem or two of your own.

Stuck? Here are some suggestions to get you started. Study the rhythm of the words in “The Highwayman.” Why is it as haunting is it is? How can you infuse this style into your own poetry?

Read a poem by Emily Dickinson and then write your own poem from the unique outlook of life that she possessed. See if you can see things in a new and whimsical way, like she did. Keep studying the other poems in the book for inspiration. Who knows? You might even become the next Robert Frost!