Thanks to #MGBooktober organizers@Jarrett_Lerner, @kmcmac74, @lhnatiuk, and @AnnalieseAvery, I got to take some time away from stressing about pandemic teaching and upcoming elections, and think about middle grade books. Here is a round-up of the books I posted during the month. For other recommendations, make sure to visit the hashtag on twitter.
I spent the month of October tweeting about middle grade books, so I thought I should capture it all on this blog. I wasn't prepared for opening up the site and realizing that my last post was three days before my school shut down and we started remote teaching, so before I post about books, a post about the journey. After all, it's all about the journey.
In February, before we were really thinking about COVID, I sent out the following query based on a #MSWL post looking for books with a Ren Faire twist:
Eleven-year-old Catherine of Aragon Smoot has had it with Medieval Times. It’s bad enough during the school year her dad owns the oddest shop in town, selling medieval artifacts while talking in old English and wearing tights. She can’t bear to spend one more summer at her family’s camp where Cat, her parents, and sisters, Elizabeth and Dragon reign over a small band of badly dressed renaissance obsessed aficionados. She wants technology and running water, not three layers of dresses and jousts in her honor.
When Cat is the only one to notice the mysterious bald knight who is wreaking havoc from the jousting competition to the festival dinner, it is up to her and her best friend Henry to solve the mystery of what he’s truly up to and save the camp. That is, if Cat decides she wants the camp to be saved.
On May 1, I received a request for the full. I sent it off and forgot about it in the mist of pandemic remote teaching and trying to find a way to make sure the year ended well for my students, especially my fifth graders who weren't expecting to perform Shakespeare from the comfort of their own homes.
On August 5, I received a message from Emily Forney, a new agent at Bookends. She was taking over for the agent who requested my manuscript and wanted permission to read the full. Little did I know at the time that Emily had studied Medieval Times, the Renaissance, and the Tudors and would be the perfect fit for this story. I signed with her at the beginning of September.
So while COVID has been a challenging time for many things, my writing has never been stronger. I'm excited to see where the journey takes me next.
For more, read my client interview over at Bookends.