For Readers: Spring into a Book

Spring comes early to Northern California, and the dry hills are green and dotted with poppies, shooting stars, and blue-eyed grass. It’s a time of renewal, even though there’s so much to make us dispirited. The one thing I know to do is to keep trying to make connections. That’s why I write stories (see below!) and read.

Here are two books about our capacity to evolve and change, one for adults and one for young readers:

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans. Written entirely as letters to and from Sybil, a woman in her seventies, this novel is a gem. Slowly, we become invested in Sybil and her relationships through letters with her children, her best friend, her brother. I kept turning pages for the moment when the emotional walls come down. This one is worth the hype!

All the Blues in the Sky by Renée Watson. This verse novel, which won the Newbery, is a moving exploration of grief, through the voice of 14-year-old Sage whose best friend was killed by a drunk driver. Sage awakens to the persistence of sadness and how, slowly, happiness returns to live side-by-side with it. And it’s okay to feel all of it.

TA-DA! Here is the cover of Stifled, coming September 1, from Beach Lane Books! Some of you may wonder about that fuzzy mute, and yes, it’s an echo back to the cover of Muffled. Huge thanks to Javier Pérez, who is the artist of both! Remember Amelia’s loud friend, Madge? She gets to tell her story now, as the two begin middle school.

Happy reading,

Jen

PS: If you are a teacher, librarian or bookseller, please let me know if you’d like an advanced reader copy. If you are on goodreads, please mark Stifled as want-to-read! And if you plan to buy it, it helps create buzz if you pre-order the book.