Category Archives: Great Groups and Activities

Favorite Middle Grade Books

I’m thrilled to be taking part in the Kid Lit Blog Hop for Children’s Book Week!

There is not much dearer to my heart than books for kids. During my early marriage, my husband was always furious about how much money I spent on picture books when I went to teaching conferences, but we still have 90% of those books on the shelves or in the attic–waiting for the next generation of our family to enjoy them.

For this blog I thought I’d focus on middle grade books because it is a genre that is often confused, misunderstood, or blurred into the young adult group. It is also the genre of books that I currently publish with my Cats in the Mirror series. At the end of this post I’ll give you some recommendations of my own and those shared by friends and former students, but first let’s be clear on what I mean by middle grade books.

Middle grade book are specifically designed for elementary age students–around ages 8-11. The print is larger and easier to read, the vocabulary simpler, and the book itself is normally not very long. I limit myself to 35,000 words for my middle grade books. Middle grade readers will avoid a book simply because it looks too long.

Listening to agents and editors over the years, I’ve clarified that middle grade also focuses on main characters who are in elementary school and worrying about the problems that go with being that age. As with my books, the characters are often animals as well. If the characters in a book are worrying about puberty, boys, or middle school and high school issues, you have made the jump into the young adult genre. Middle grade genre is not the same as middle school age. That’s very confusing, but I don’t make the rules. Middle school (ages 10-13) is where kids begin to make that transition into reading longer, more complicated books, but not all of them will be ready. Those middle school years are often a mixed up time in more than what they are reading, but by 7th grade most kids are leaning toward vampires, shifters, and darker themes.

In general, middle grade books also tend to have themes that are lighter, funnier, and more upbeat–unless you want to win a Newbery Award. Then something awful has to happen or someone has to die. It’s rather like winning an Academy Award. Again, I don’t make the rules, but these are things you should be aware of when simply picking books off a list of award winners.

Ivan

“The One And Only Ivan” by Katherine Applegate is a perfect example. The print is large, the vocabulary is appropriate, but the subject matter is actually quite dark/depressing and includes discussions about horrible things that poachers do to gorillas. A large part of me thought the book didn’t need to go there. The story was wonderful and thought-provoking enough without a few sentences that made me cringe, even though I was already well aware of the horrors it mentions. Newbery Award winners are traditionally like this, so just use caution if your child is tender of heart. I’ve never heard quite as impressive a collective gasp as I did in the movie theater during “Bridge To Terebithia” when a certain horrible event occured. Clearly, they had not read the book. It’s an amazing story, but be ready to talk with your child or students about it.

Here are some of my favorites from days gone by that would qualify as middle grade, as well as recommendations from friends–trying to avoid the obvious ones that you can find on any published list:

Socks

 

It’s probably not terribly shocking that one of my favorite books was “Socks” by the outstanding Beverly Cleary. She is the epitome of a middle grade writer, and I would recommend all of her books. They are light and fun and reach elementary school kids perfectly. The Ramona series, everything with a mouse on a motorcycle, and “Henry and Ribsy” are delightful.

 

 

Ballet Shoes

 

Not sure how I missed out on them since ballet was my life, but I didn’t learn about the shoe book series until I saw the movie “You’ve Got Mail.” My daughters loved them. I hate to draw lines, but I would say the series falls firmly into the girly section of things.  Being from a different era, the shoe books don’t have all the trademarks of a current day middle grade book as far as vocabulary and print size, so it would be best for a stronger reader.

 

 

“Tangle of Knots” by Lisa Graff

“The Spy Catchers of Maple Hill” by Megan Blakemore

Big Honey Dog Mysteries by H. Y. Hanna

Wayside School Series by Louis Sachar

“Frindle” and anything else by Andrew Clements

“Castle in the Attic” and “Battle of the Castle”  By Elizabeth Winthrop

Time Warp Trio Series by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith

Indian in the Cupboard Series by Lynne Reid Banks

“City of Orphans” by Avi

“Privateer’s Apprentice” by Susan Verrico,

“Liar & Spy” by Rebecca Stead,

“The Shadow Collector’s Apprentice” by Amy Gordon.

“The Phantom Tollbooth” by Norton Juster

“From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler” by E.L. Koingsburg

“Charlotte’s Web,” “The Trumpet of the Swan, and ” Stuart Little” by E. B. White

Little House on the Prairie Series by Laura Ingalls Wilder

“Maniac McGee” by Jerry Spinelli

“Sarah Plain and Tall” by Patricia MacLachlan

“The Invention of Hugo Cabret” by Brian Sleznick (slipping into the young adult genre)

Elsewhere Series by Jacqueline West

“The Hero’s Guide To Saving Your Kingdom” by Christopher Healy

The Keepers by Lain Tanner

 

Please feel free to post your own favorites in the comments section so everyone can find them!

PRIZES!!

I will be randomly selecting two winners from the comments on this post to receive free copies of both of my award-winning middle grade Cats in the Mirror books (either paperback or ebook). Last entries to be considered will be at midnight on May 18th. I don’t use a service for this because it will require you to share information you might not want to, so be sure to agree to follow the other comments on this blog or check back to see if you won.

Kimba-ThirdPrinting2FrontCover

New cover with Mom's Choice Award in place.

Winners will be notified on May 19th.

You can also add both books to your “to read” library at Goodreads by clicking on their links here:

“Why Kimba Saved The World”

“Vacation Hiro”

Many thanks go out to the friends and students who helped me compile the list of favorite books: Kim Piddington, Ruth Outland, Tori Ellithorpe, Lori Kilkelly, Janet Anderson, Leanne Raymond, and Michelle at Reading is Better Than Real Life.

And thanks to all of you for taking part in the Kid Lit Blog Hop!!

Blog HopAre you a children’s book or teen literature blogger, an author, a publisher, or a publicist looking to share copies of a fabulous book?  Mother Daughter Book Reviews  and Youth Literature Reviews  are joining forces to provide you with the opportunity to take part in the Children’s Book Week Giveaway Hop 2014, featuring links to giveaways for fabulous children/teen’s books, gift cards, cash, or other prizes.  What better way to celebrate Children’s Book Week?

 

 

 

 

Turpentine Creek Volunteer Day: Putting My Actions Where My Mouth Is

I have done several posts about my love for Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge and the good work they do. Just recently I even posted an award-winning story I wrote about a tiger getting the chance to run and move freely in a larger habitat area. Today I had the chance to prove how important those habitats are by helping to build some of them.

Rescue Ridge expansion work. I'm in the purple coat, securing fence for the welders with some wire. My husband is in the blue, digging trenching for the fences with a pick ax.

Rescue Ridge expansion work. I’m in the purple coat, securing fence for the welders with some wire. My husband is in the blue, digging trenching for the fences with a pick ax.

Glad I didn't have to climb up there! Volunteers securing fencing at the top of the new yard area. Glad the tiger living there was locked up tight.

Glad I didn’t have to climb up there! Volunteers securing fencing at the top of the new yard area. The tiger living there was locked up in his house. Whew.

When the work on Rescue Ridge first began, my family and I went right away to help build. I think today was our third trip to that section of the refuge. As part of a Volunteer Day, we helped to hang fencing to allow more tigers the chance to run and move and lie in the grass. Each enclosure already has a small yard area, but these larger sections are about 10x the size. The cats in Rescue Ridge are mostly from one very large rescue event, but we learned today that this section is also helping the older cats who cannot manage the hilly areas where most of the other large yards are located. Rescue Ridge is serving as a place for the rescued cats who don’t care for humans to be separate from the tour groups and loudness of the main sections, but it is also a retirement area for the older cats who need some flat ground, as well as peace and quiet. 

My husband and daughter, tying off a section of fencing for the welders.

My husband and daughter, tying off a section of fencing for the welders.

It’s important to stand behind the causes we support. If you are going to shout about pet adoption, you’d better be ready to volunteer at a shelter or foster some of those displaced pets yourself. We have four rescue cats and a rescued dog, so I’m safe on that one. I’m grateful that I often get the chance to volunteer at Turpentine Creek. So when I say I think it is vital for those rescued tigers to have habitats with open spaces and grass and nature available to them, I can stand behind those words because I have hacked at the earth and carried fencing and spray painted and picked up rocks (and donated money when I can) and done whatever else is necessary to give those tigers that space. It may be years, if ever, that I get to personally see those exact tigers roam in that exact space. Rescue ridge is not open to the public. But I still know it is there and it is happening. That’s enough for me. As we walked back to the trucks, it made my heart so happy to see tiger after tiger, lounging in the sun in the already completed yard areas. One was belly up, feeling safe and comfy regardless of the people and machinery all around him. He was home.

Willy was just released into a large yard area after many months in a small concrete enclosure. He is so amazing! We could hear him caroling from Rescue Ridge today.

Willy was just released into a large yard area after many months in a small concrete enclosure. He is so amazing! We could hear him caroling from Rescue Ridge today.

Ivy, the volunteer coordinator we have worked with many times, mentioned that they may soon be ready to demolish all of the small concrete enclosures at the front of the refuge. Every tiger and lion and cougar there now will have a real habitat. You can be sure I will show up for that demolition day, and I’ll bring my own sledgehammer.

What causes makes your heart happy? How can you put your actions where your mouth is today?

“In Sonya’s Steps” and Love of Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge

I had promised to post one of my winning pieces from the Ozark Writers Conference, and today seems like a perfect day for this particular story because the setting for it, Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge, is celebrating the success of a matching funds campaign to help build more of the large enclosures that are also celebrated in my writing. My daughter and I have gone twice to help build, clean, and prepare these grassy areas that provide open space for the tigers and other creatures at the facility to play and move and have fuller lives. Those still in the holding enclosures, waiting for their turn, have even watched us.

My daughter, spray welding marks so they won't rust, with a curious tiger watching. This enclosure is for BamBam, the adorable grizzly bear.

My daughter, spraying welding marks so they won’t rust, with a curious tiger watching. This enclosure is for BamBam, the adorable grizzly bear.

It is one of my favorite places in town to visit. Besides being allowed to stand only a few feet away from an enormous white tiger while he has his dinner, I am just immensely grateful for the staff there who work tirelessly to provide as much care and comfort as they possibly can for these displaced animals — sometimes rescued from horrible and life-threatening situations. Their stories are sometimes just sad, but others are heartbreaking. There may come a happy day when facilities like this are not necessary and all big cats can live in freedom, but that time is nowhere near at hand. So I love to go and share my time and energy helping make their lives better when I can. Turpentine Creek will be one of the settings in my next book, “Miss Fatty Cat’s Revenge” because, according to the Cats in the Mirror series, tigers and lions are aliens too.

My husband, spraying the welding marks on the new enclosures on Rescue Ridge in last winter.

My husband, spraying the welding marks on the new enclosures on Rescue Ridge last winter.

Me, picking up rocks to help clear the way for BamBam's new habitat.

Me, picking up rocks to help clear the way for BamBam’s new habitat.

The piece of writing I’m sharing today was specifically written in October for a conference I attended here in Eureka Springs. The challenge was to write a story “walking in someone else’s shoes” and to be creative with it. One of the dear tigers that had just been a part of a huge rescue effort at Turpentine Creek came to mind, and I wondered about that moment when, after a lifetime of nothing but a small, concrete cage, those soft paws finally had the chance to touch grass and run and play. “In Sonya’s Steps” was the end result, and it won first place. If after reading this you are inspired to make a donation to Turpentine Creek to help build more enclosure for the dozens of big cats waiting for them, I would be absolutely thrilled. I promise to personally go help build them.

 

Here is “In Sonya’s Steps.”

In Sonya’s Steps

Soft. The ground beyond the open, black gates is softer than anything I have ever felt, like a vast sea of well-groomed fur. I carefully put one foot through again and press down gently. So soft.

I’m amazed to find the gate open from the new, small enclosure where I woke up. The doors in my world are never open. The concrete floor is chilly and hard, sensations I’m familiar with, but beyond that open gate is something I have never experienced before.

A gentle breeze blows past me, and I inhale deeply. Pine trees and rocks and the first hints of spring are all familiar. Even the smell of that soft stuff outside the gate is one I recognize. I’ve just never touched it before. A fence was always in the way.

Tentatively reaching a second foot through the gate onto the soft surface, I chuff out a gust of air, hoping to calm anyone else who might be lurking in that immeasurable expanse of softness. My eyes have never tried to focus so far away. The distant edges are blurry. Instinct warns be to be wary.

As far back as I can remember, I have never felt anything under my feet but the solid gray concrete of my small home. Gray fencing stood between my eyes and the landscape of freedom beyond it. Gray fencing covered my view of the sky. Every day. Just the same.

There was a small wooden box for shelter, a bowl for water. Before night fell, the old woman would come by and throw me some bits of meat for my daily meal. Some fresh water was poured in the bowl. Then I would be alone again, except for the faint sounds and smells of others like me. Others trapped just like me, all around.

We could count each other’s steps. One, two, three, then turn. One, two, three, then turn. That was all there was. Stretch out on the hardness of the concrete for a nap, inhaling the bitterness of it, then up and pace some more. One, two, three, then turn. One, two, three, then turn. Listening to the others around me, waiting for something to happen that never did.

Some days the woman would stand by the cage and talk to me. Her voice was quiet and kind, but she never opened the gate and let me out to run free. She never opened the gate and came in to join me either. The fence was always between us. Day after day. Year after year.

Until today.

The morning had started out like any other. I could hear the chuffings and murmurings from the others around me, but there was also the low rumble of a machine approaching up our quiet hill. A huge grumbling monster, rancid smells wafting out behind it, ground to a stop in front of my home. The old woman climbed out of its belly, but there were other people too. They all moved slowly, approaching me just beyond the gray wire mesh of my small home.

A tall, blonde woman moved to a far corner of my enclosure. She squatted down and spoke quietly to me. I was intrigued. Stealthily moving toward her, our eyes locked, I snuffed the air but did not recognize her smell. Then there was a cracking noise and a sharp pain in my side. Turning toward the noise, I saw that one of the men held a long, thick stick. He was watching me intently and speaking softly, just like the woman.

He hurt me! Did he jab me with that stick? It will be the last thing he ever does!    I’ll find a way to get past that fence and show him what comes of causing pain to a creature like me!

I turned to face him, but my legs felt weak and wouldn’t cooperate with my directives. I tried to glare, to terrify him with my gaze, but the man and the fence were suddenly blurry and seemed far away. The old woman stood silently behind the man with the stick. She shook her head softly, but she didn’t attack him. She didn’t defend me. She just stood there, watching me.

The blonde woman moved around my home so I could see her again. She made soft chuffing noises. She spoke quietly and leaned in closer to my fence. Yes, just a bit closer, I thought, reach your hand right in here. Then everything was dark as night.

The next thing I knew, I was here in this strange place. New, but very much the same at first glance. Chilly, gray concrete floor. Fence between the world and me, but this fence was heavier and darker. For a long time I just lay on the concrete and stared at the fence.

What happened? I wondered. After that man with the stick poked me, I just fell asleep. I’ll have to get him later, I thought, a low growl rumbling in my throat. Right now, however, I could barely move.

As time passed, I was able to lift my head and look around. The world beyond the fence smelled similar, but the rising ground beyond me was in different shapes and the trees were thicker and taller. Instead of a wooden shelter, there was a large concrete box off to one side of my new home. Peeking inside the small door, I could see that it was dark and empty inside. It would do to get out of the heat and the rain, but not terribly interesting.

But looking in the other direction, I realized that there was nothing between my gaze and the world. The gate stood wide open. Beyond that door was a sea of that softness that I was now strong enough to step out into.

Is it a trick? I thought. Will the man with the stick come poke me again if I venture out? There’s no sign of the man, but I can smell the blonde woman on my fur. Was she touching me while I was asleep? I stop and lick my side carefully, my rough tongue removing the offending odor. Then I stare back out into the openness.

The thought of exploring that wide, limitless space is thrilling and terrifying at the same time. My heart aches to step out onto the softness, but my heart is racing with a fear of the unknown, untried, untested. Maybe I should wait and watch for a while. Sniffing the air again, I can tell that the others who were around me before are around me here.

Are they still sleeping? Are they already out in the softness? We have never been face to face. Will they attack if I step out?

My sensitive ears twist and turn, searching for answers. I hear nothing but the birds and the breeze. Focusing on the open door, I cannot hear anything beyond it. No breathing but my own. Tuning in even more carefully, I cannot detect any heartbeats close by. Nothing but quiet and softness.

All senses on alert, I step out, putting my full weight into the softness. The ground yields gently under my foot. Then the next foot. Again I wait, testing the sounds and the air. No one attacks. With greater confidence, I step fully out of the door, all four feet now buried deep in the freshness and softness of that ground beyond the concrete. It has a warmth and energy and aliveness to it that the concrete is not capable of. The sensations of the ground vibrate up my legs and all along my spine. This is what the earth is supposed to feel like, and now it is mine. If someone is waiting to attack, he will find me ready. I will not easily yield this new territory. Come and try to take it, I growl at the openness.

One stride, then two, then an even longer one, my huge padded paws take me farther than I ever imagined. No pacing back and forth, only a few steps at a time before having to turn back again. I stretch out my long, stiff legs and try three trots at a time. I pause and smell the air. Four trots. Pause. Five trots in a row. Then I reach the fence.

It is there. I’m not free, but as I turn and look back, the immensity of this new space looms around me. I look back toward the concrete room and the concrete house, and I feel something rise up deep inside me. There’s an instinctive urge to attempt something I’ve never done, not once my whole life. I crouch low, I spring forward in a giant leap, and I RUN! No pacing or trotting only a step or two. I leap and leap and leap, my orange and black stripes a blur over muscles so weak they soon give out and need rest, but I did it, if only for a while. I RAN.

Exhausted, I collapse onto the softness, my sides heaving in and out, gasping for air in larger amounts than I have ever needed. Contentedly, I lift my head and stare at the fence. It is still there, but it is so far away I can make out the world beyond it without feeling suffocated. Is that the blonde woman, hiding downwind in the trees?  I bare my teeth and snarl a warning. Come close at your own risk. Then I peer up above me. There is nothing but openness. No gray bars. No fence.

I notice the sky, really notice it for the first time in my life.  A rich sunlight pours freely over every inch of my fur. There is still fence around my sides, but it is far away from where I lie. Overhead, there is an infinity of space.

I’m not free, but this is close. Stretching my legs out to the front and back, a move that would have left me touching the edges of my home just that morning, I roll onto my back and snort and allow the glorious smell of the softness to cover me.

*****

Sonya is an imagined name for one of the 27 tigers recently rescued by Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge. 

Copyright, Meg Welch Dendler, 2013.

HP0016

Celebrate Shelter Pets Day Is Here!

Check them out on Facebook!

Check them out on Facebook!

Today is Celebrate Shelter Pets Day, and we here at the Dendler house are certainly grateful for our family of rescued pets. Kimba and Hiro were found in a box when they were only a day or two old, so they never got as far as a shelter, but they were rescued all the same. Samantha and Tabitha (aka Miss Fatty Cat and Slinky) were rescued through Noah’s Ark no-kill shelter in Cypress, TX, when they were a few months old. Max (aka The Big Black Beast) was also rescued from a no-kill shelter that I don’t even remember the name of now when he was a year old. Even Buddy came to us out of the woods behind a house in Livonia, MI, and was with us for many years.

Adopting or buying a new pet is always a risk. You never quite know what you are going to get, so why not take that chance on a shelter pet who desperately needs to be given a home. Send your money and your love to a shelter near you today!

Follow Shelter Pets Day at Facebook or at #celebrateshelterpets on twitter. Shelter pets rule!

Book Donation to Wee Care Community Outreach

Today, I just wanted to take a moment to shed some light on a great group that is focused on getting books into the hands of families who cannot afford to buy them — or even have the means to get to a library: Wee Care Community Outreach. Savannah, one of the women involved in this non-profit group, won a copy of “Why Kimba Saved The World” through Goodreads.com, but after hearing about her group I also donated two more copies. I will let them speak in their own words.

Wee Care Community Outreach was set up approx. 7 years ago. I founded the organization to help families with everyday needed essentials-cleaning supplies, infant supplies, work tools, school supplies, etc. After several major changes in my life I relocated to Georgia and in my experience in this state there are many literacy issues. There are children who do not read well, one main reason is that families are trying so hard to ‘make ends meet’ and can not afford to purchase children’s books. While libraries are available, often times many families do not have a vehicle to take their children to the library-or the price of gasoline stops them from doing so. We distribute children’s books to lower income at-risk children between the ages of 3 and 17. We also feel literacy is important because we live in an area of Georgia in which the children may be the only English speaking members of a family. It is our hopes that instilling the importance of literacy and helping these children read and write better in hopes that they will teacher their elderly family members to learn English as a secondary language. Our recent donations from the children’s literacy program is:

100 Book Donation to Center Point Baptist Church
100 Book Donation to Province Children’s Home
100 Books Donated to individual families in the month of March 2013

Hospital Book Donation Program-This program is designed to loan books to patients who are recovering in the hospital. I added this program because I once had a surgery and was alone in the hospital. I felt like all I thought about was the pain I was going through. We feel that this program touches many peoples lives in different ways–we are able to show a lonely patient that someone cares, spread the importance of literacy, and take a patients mind off of their illnesses, injuries, and pain-allowing their bodies to heal quicker. This program is in the beginning stages beginning with book collection.

While we are NOT a religious based organization, we were contacted by an organization called Province Boys Home. (They have other homes as well that also service men, women, and children.) The individuals that they help include families who are homeless and have lost everything, people who have been addicted to drugs, and those who have been in jail/prison. This is a transitional home helping to put these people back on track. They only allow religious based books but, when I go in to make a book donation many of the residents ask me for their own books. The smile on their faces of gratitude is a wondrous something as simple as a book. The religious books donated almost always are donated to this wonderful non profit organization.”

You can make a book or other donation to:

Wee Care Community Outreach
C/O Dawn Lowery
2873 Wells Drive
Dalton, Georgia 30721