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August 27, 2008
An Old Fashioned Frame of Mind
Please don't faint: I'm posting again today and will post once more in an attempt to get caught up. I want to tell you about two delightful and old fashioned books and encourage you to read them. The first is Jeanne Birdsall's latest Penderwicks installment: The Penderwicks on Gardam Street. I fell completely in love with the first book. It cast me right back to the days of reading Besty, Tacy and Tib and Little Women. Okay, yes, I could see the ending coming from the first few pages but I . . .did. . .not. . .care! I enjoyed every tasty morsel that Jeanne Birdsall sprinkled on the page for me to nibble at as I followed my favorite four girls and their father. Sweet but definitely not saccharine.
I am going to be on a program with Trenton Lee Stewart in November at Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas. So I moved his book, The Mysterious Benedict Society, way up the pile on the nightstand. Orphans, codes, and evil geniuses -- how could this book miss? While I may have a quibble with a certain revelation at the end of the book about the age of one of the Society members, this was an engrossing and delightful read. I could never decide which was my favorite BS member: Remy, Sticky, Constance or Kate. I think it was Kate because that girl can do anything! And she is never without her trusty bucket, which reminds me of a writing tip Susan Patron passed on from someone (was it Franny Billingsley?) to always put something in your character's hands.
Having read these two fine books, my current manuscript looks worse than ever. But it is my manuscript and the only thing left to do is put on my Skye Penderwick-Mick Harte soccer persona and scream odd insults to confuse the critics, while I motor my way down the field to the goal line.
Posted by kirby at August 27, 2008 09:16 PM