Spy Runner is a noir thriller for middle-graders. Chases, crashes, shootouts, and cliffhangers at the end of each chapter will keep even the reluctant readers turning the pages. Unbeknownst to them, they will be learning about Cold War. At that time, certain politicians exploited the communist threat against democracy by dividing American people. Nationalistic […]
Category Archives: Author Posts
March
19
LEARNING HOW LANGUAGE WORKS BY MARA ROCKLIFF
posted by CBethM
When my daughter was eleven, she decided to learn Esperanto. We had watched a video about it called The Universal Language, and in twenty minutes, she was hooked. A cool secret language spoken all around the world by a special few—and yet, easy to learn? Sign her up! I was intrigued by the fact […]
March
14
The Art of Being Uncomfortable And Still Inspiring Hope In YA & Middle Grade Lit by e.E. Charlton-Trujillo
posted by CBethM
It was a few weeks before Thanksgiving in rural south Texas when my parents’ bubble gum pink, wall rotary phone rang. It’s the ringing I remember more than the homework I’d been rushing to finish. It was a vivid, piercing sound I can hear to this day. My cousin had committed suicide. Too much drugs. […]
March
13
It’s All in the Names by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
posted by CBethM
The second I saw him I knew who he was. Through the eyes of my main character, Delsie in Shouting at the Rain, I watched him. He wore black jeans and a black, long-sleeved shirt on a hot July day. And, he stood on the edge of the ocean in the middle of a lightning […]
March
12
Through the Woods: On the Magic Of the Outdoors by Ashley Benham Yazdani
posted by CBethM
As a child growing up in the suburbs north of Manhattan, I had the best of both worlds: a bustling metropolis was a short train ride away, but back home my own tree-filled backyard stretched out into relatively undisturbed forest. The city was an accessible electric dreamscape, but the forests that I was […]
March
10
Gaining Visibility: How books helped me find myself by Jessica Rinker
posted by CBethM
My parents raised me like a free-range chicken. They set me out on eight acres, surrounded by hundreds more, and basically said, “Come home by dark.” Actually, come to think of it, I don’t think they ever said that. I did have a bedtime, however, and that’s quite simply the only rule I ever remember […]
March
08
Those Jeans by Rebecca K.S. Ansari
posted by CBethM
To say I started writing The Missing Piece of Charlie O’Reilly thirty-six years ago due to a fight over a pair of Guess jean wouldn’t be true. It also wouldn’t be entirely false. I was twelve, and those jeans—with their peg legs and five-inch zippers at the ankles barely allowing one’s foot passage through their […]
March
07
When Research Leads to Inspiration by Karyn Parsons
posted by CBethM
It was the way she smiled at me. Self-assured and at ease. Confident and bright. Her fingers interlaced at the crossed knee belied the tomboy fire in her eyes. And, of course, there was her hat. Tilted to the side and worn at once with pride and grace. I’d come across her photo […]
March
06
Don’t Give Up by Barbara Carroll Roberts
posted by CBethM
What if you’d always been the best at something you really loved doing, and then suddenly, you weren’t? Suddenly, there were lots of people better than you. And what if, at the same time, you realized that you would almost certainly never again be one of the best, because you hadn’t inherited the physical gifts […]
March
05
The Day the Universe Exploded My Head: Confessions of a Reluctant Reader
posted by CBethM
Dear Nerdy Book Club Nerds, I begin my guest blog with a confession. I am an imposter. I am not worthy. On the Nerd-o-meter scale, I’d rank myself at about a “5.” And in the nerdy world of nerd-dom, a “5” doesn’t even really count. I do exhibit nerd-like behaviors of course. I […]
