I posted my review of M.E. Breen’s Darkwood.

The short review is that I loved the characters and the story world, but experienced some confusion at the openings of several scenes. I do recommend it for children who enjoy fantasy/fairytales, and I look forward to more shivery tales from this author.

For the full scoop, read the review.

Every time I review a book to see if I want to put it on the blog tour, I say I’m going write the review right away while the story is fresh. And I never do. Every time the tour comes along I’m stuck trying to remember the book I read ten books ago, and I curse myself for a fool.

Here I sit, again. I read Darkwood, by M.E. Breen a couple of months ago and never did the review. The upside is that I get the read the book over and I’m enjoying it. The downside is that I don’t have a lot to say about the book today.

I will give you a few gems I’ve picked up so far. I’ll add more to this post tomorrow, probably. Molly Breen is a master of description. 

• Aunt Prim slept in the narrow slice of bed between Uncle Jock and the wall.
• The darkness roared over her, a landslide, an avalanche. The black air, heavy as earth, filled her throat and banked in her lungs.
• A hawk screamed overhead, no more than a black dash against the blue sky. Hawks loved to hunt the cutting fields at the forest’s edge, full as they were of little dazed creatures knocked from their nests.

For more on Darkwood, please visit the other bloggers on the tour:

A Patchwork of Books, Abby the Librarian, Becky’s Book Reviews, Cafe of Dreams, Dolce Bellezza, Hyperbole, KidzBookBuzz.com, Never Jam Today, My Utopia, Through a Child’s Eyes, Through the Looking Glass Reviews

Today is the first day of the KidzBookBuzz.com blog tour for Darkwood, by M.E. Breen.

I am lagging, I’m sorry. Still tired from my dad’s funeral.

I read Darkwood a couple of months ago. I loved the characters and the descriptions of the world. I hope to grab the book and give it another quick read and give you a review on Wednesday.

Look at this cover, though. I love the shadows of the wolves in the trees.

Sorry for neglecting the blog. Dad died a few days ago. He was 90 and tired and ready, so we are fine, but family is in from all over. I’ll be back next week.

Here we are on the third and final day of the Kidz Book Buzz blog tour for Michelle Knudsen’s The Dragon of Trelian.

And once I again, I’m at loose ends about what to write about.

So I think I’ll talk about a couple of things in the book that interested me and that I’m hoping to find out more about in the sequels.

I found it interesting that in The Dragon of Trelian the mages had tattoos put on their faces according to how powerful they were. There is a governing body, the Magistratum, that sets law and tries law-breakers. And one law is that the mages must be marked to show the world who they are. Because what can a normal man do to protect himself from a powerful mage? But to be forewarned is to be forearmed, apparently. I thought this was an interesting thread and I’m anxious to see if, after the world-building of the first book, future volumes will delve more deeply into political/social issues à la Harry Potter.

The second thing I want to see more of is the poor woman who died a hundred years before the story opened. A young woman, all alone in a dark place. I want to know more about her, and I’m hoping the future books will bring that out. I want to see more of Serek, too, because I loved his personality and voice, and I really want to see Calen grow into a noble and powerful young man.

So I’m looking forward to future books in the Trelian series.

Oh, and one little note about my recommendation in my book review, yesterday. I said I’d recommend it for middle grade readers. But my mom (87) is reading the book now and enjoying it. She reads a book a day to keep her brain ticking along at a steady pace, and we often share books. It’s great fun and even more fun now that my teen-aged daughter is in the loop with us (she’ll get The Dragon of Trelian , next).

Day two of The Dragon of Trelian book tour is underway.

I have an apology to make. I’ve not been able to concentrate on writing my review of the book and I didn’t get my interview questions in to the author. I have a good excuse: My father is dying. I’m his caregiver and so I’m busy with care-giving, as we wait with him through these final couple of weeks.

But there has been a benefit to my lack of preparation. While I always read all the interviews and reviews, this time I’m reading them, looking for something to interact with. Looking for blog post fodder.

And here is what I’ve noticed.

A few of the bloggers have said it took them several chapters to get into the book. One blogger gave up on the book after four chapters.

I find this interesting because I didn’t think The Dragon of Trelian started slowly. And I’m usually the one complaining about sloooowwww starts in books. It’s one of my major complaints when I have complaints. And I can almost always attribute my lack of interest to a lack of goals in the characters.

This is not a problem with The Dragon of Trelian. Read my review to find out what I thought of the start of the book.

Today is the first day of the Kidz Book Buzz blog tour for Michelle Knudsen’s middle grade fantasy novel, The Dragon of Trelian.

Since I’m always on the lookout for good fantasy novel, I was delighted to find this one.  A princess, an apprentice mage, a dragon, a royal wedding and an assassination planned for the same day…What’s not to like about a middle grade novel with all of this?

The thing I like best about the book is the comfortable dialogue, I think. Michelle Knudsen produced a novel with likable characters interacting with each other with ease and humor. I liked the characters and enjoyed the book.

I’ll be giving a better review in a couple of days. In the mean time, you can read the first chapter at the publisher’s site (Candlewick). Check it out. I bet you’ll like it.

Also, please feel free to visit the other bloggers on the tour:

A Christian Worldview of Fiction
Abby the Librarian
All About Children’s Books
Becky’s Book Reviews
Cafe of Dreams
Dolce Bellezza
Homeschool Book Buzz
KidzBookBuzz.com
Novel Teen
Reading is My Superpower
Reading to Know
Small World Reads
The 160 Acrewoods
Through a Child’s Eyes
Through the Looking Glass Reviews

OK, I may be jumping the gun a bit with that headline. 

And I may be coming off as just a tad arrogant. 

But I just have to say this:

I finished the rough draft of my WIP!  

So now it’s all about revision, revision, revision. But man-oh-man it feels good to have that rough draft done.

Jill Corcoran linked to this PW article about Borders and children’s books. It says in part:

Expanded children’s book sections will be rolled out to every Borders store within 90 days, Anne Kubek, Borders executive vice president of merchandising and marketing, said after the shareholders meeting. “It’s a tremendous growth business for us.”

Okee dokee. The kids and I love to hang out at the bookstore and we have a Borders just down the road. This is so exciting.

We’re kind of slowing down for summer, here. Only eight entrants, this time for the wonderful picture book, Crocodaddy, written by Kim Norman and illustrated by David Walker. I put all them into the one-armed bandit and pulled the handle and the winner is Cathy C. Hall. ( I only entered her once even though she made up three rhymes, but I guess the contest gods saw that she put in such great effort and decided to reward her.)

Congratulations, Cathy. Send me your snail mail addy at sally AT paraklesis DOT com and I’ll forward the info to Kim Norman, who is the generous author behind this book giveaway. And you may have a signed copy of this delightful book in time for Father’s Day.

The rest of you…go buy the book. It’s very cute.