Kids Book Index
Gail Carson Levine
Gail Carson Levine offers practical guidance for writing stories and poems. Drawing on questions from readers of her blog, she addresses ways to begin a story, create fictional creatures, invent a country, develop a villain, and write a love story. The book also considers how to make characters feel vivid on the page. Its advice spans the stages of shaping fiction and poetry.
This book appears on 1 reading list across 1 edition.
A Year without MomDasha Tolstikova, illustrated by Dasha TolstikovaSet in early-1990s Moscow, this graphic novel follows twelve-year-old Dasha after her mother leaves to study in America. Dasha stays with her grandparents while political change unfolds around her, and she faces family life, friendships, and school without her mother. As she begins to find her footing, she learns that she is expected to join her mother in America, far from the people and place she loves. The book is illustrated with pen-and-ink drawings using a gray wash.Twelve to FourteenOn the same reading list for the same age or grade groupView book details
Newt’s EmeraldGarth NixAt her eighteenth-birthday celebration, Lady Truthful Newington’s magical family emerald is stolen. The jewel grants magical power to its wearer and supports the Newington family’s fortune; after it disappears, Truthful’s father becomes ill. Determined to retrieve it, Truthful goes to London and, using her great-aunt’s magic, adopts the disguise of a male French cousin so she can travel freely. She meets Major Harnett, who agrees to help search for the missing heirloom as the mystery unfolds amid Regency society and magic.Twelve to FourteenOn the same reading list for the same age or grade groupView book details
A Night DividedJennifer A. NielsenAfter the Berlin Wall rises, Gerta’s family is split between the city’s eastern and western sides. Gerta, her mother, and her brother Fritz remain in the Soviet-controlled East, while her father and middle brother cannot return after going west for work. The wall and East German soldiers confine Gerta, her family, neighbors, and friends within their own city. On the way to school, Gerta sees her father on a viewing platform in the West making an unusual gesture.Twelve to FourteenOn the same reading list for the same age or grade groupView book details