The Readers and Writers Paradise

The real scoop on middle grade books.

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Kid Writers Webcast

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Hey everyone, you’ve probably heard about the launch of Kid Writers Magazine. Make sure to check it out because the special discount will be ending soon, and it’s an awesome magazine with stuff you definitely don’t want to miss!

I’ve also recently started Kid Writers Webcast, a weekly half hour show that will talk about various aspects of kid writing. Anyone can come live and ask their questions, too. The webcasts will be held every week at 4:30 pm EST.

I’ve already done a couple, so check out the replays (the first is an introduction and the second about why writing is important), and I hope to see you there in the future!

My Awesome New Project You Can’t Miss! – Kid Writers Magazine

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Hi everyone! Wonder why this blog has been kind of quiet lately? It’s because I’ve been devoting all my time to something amazing, something far beyond anything I’ve ever done before. It’s taken three months and hundreds of hours of work, and I’m proud to tell you today about the launch of Kid Writers Magazine!

I decided to start Kid Writers Magazine because I’ve been a kid writer for a very long time, as you guys know. There are truthfully not many opportunities for kid writers to be published, nor are there a great deal of ways for kid writers to get help and advice and improve their craft. Kid Writers Magazine is the only writing magazine managed by kids, for kids, and it is a great way for kid writers to get published.

Any kid from the ages of 6-12 can send in their stories to our magazine for publication. We will personally review all of them, and those that are good but that we can’t publish in the magazine will go on our website, kidwriters.org. I would have loved to have something like this when I was younger.

The first edition of the magazine is now launched-today! They are rolling off my printer as we speak, and we’ll be getting them out to you as soon as possible. In this first edition are almost 20,000 words of content–seven awesome stories, an interview with author Gordon Korman, writing tips, book reviews, and inspiration. It is chock full of fun and inspiration for kid writers. You can learn a lot more about our magazine and get sneak previews at our website.

Most of the contributors to the magazine are personal friends of mine or kids who have gotten in contact with me for the magazine. One kid in the magazine who you all know is Erik of thiskidreviewsbooks.com, who is writing a book review column. We have all worked very hard to put this magazine out and think it will greatly help all kid writers. I especially recommend it to parents of kid writers, teachers, and librarians. To be honest, it is a great magazine even for kids who aren’t necessarily writers, because any kid can appreciate the crazy stories inside!

So are you wondering how to get your hands on this super magazine? Good question 🙂 You can purchase a print copy of the first issue of Kid Writers Magazine for $12.99, and an e-copy for $8.99. However, because I love you guys so much, I’m offering a special 20% discount only for readers of this blog for the next two weeks if you get a one year subscription! The magazine will be coming out six times a year, and a subscription costs $69.99, so you already save 11% per issue. An e-subscription costs $47.99. To get a 20% discount on a subscription, simply enter the code below writersparadise. Or you can choose to not get a subscription and simply order the first edition.

Either way, we hope you love our magazine! It’s a great tool for kid writers, and my hope is that it will become widely used and loved by kids, parents, teachers, librarians, and more everywhere!

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7 Lessons Learned from 4 Months away From Blogging

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Hi everyone, as you may have noticed, I haven’t posted anything on this site since I graduated high school back in May (yay!). I’ll share more about what’s going on later, but I’ll definitely be writing more regularly now. So I’d like to share some of the biggest things I learned from my four-month hiatus:

1. Getting Kids to Read Isn’t Enough to Help Them Become Readers

Over the summer, I volunteered for several weeks at a reading literacy program. I will write more extensively about my experience with that later, but it shocked me the level of illiteracy going on in this country. Even in my city, many people have absolutely no idea how to read.

Most of these kids have no ability to understand books at all. Nor are they trying to read because they want to actually understand the books. They have long since decided that reading is boring and something that they must do. If they come across a book they really enjoy one day, then they might become a reader. Maybe not; some people just aren’t. But if all they’ve been reading is books they have absolutely no interest in, then they’re only going to dislike books more and more, and may never know if they could’ve experienced great happiness from reading books they really did like.

That’s why book reviewers are so important, because you only have a certain amount of opportunities to sell a child on the idea of reading. They may trust you and read the first few times, but if the books you give them are boring, they’re never going to want to read again. But if you give them really interesting books that they love, then they’ll want to read as much as they can! That’s why “reluctant readers” will commonly love certain books. It’s not that they don’t like reading or their reading abilities are insufficient; it’s that they’ve never had a book they enjoyed that would make them want to read.

I already knew all that, but I guess I learned how many people still think that just by forcing kids to read any old book they are going to become great readers. It is not going to happen.  

2. Built to Last

This website has continued to grow in traffic since I stopped updating it. Several of my all-time best traffic days have been in the last couple of months, and I’ve still been getting feedback and questions. Part of this I believe has to do with recent Google updates, but it only goes to show that the important thing is that I have created a website of value that actually helps people and stands the test of time. Even though my traffic increases every time I take a break, it still amazes me. I have no doubt that even ten years from now someone could be looking up my reviews and stuff on this website and it would be just as relevant then as it is today.

3. Time Away Makes it More Important

I’ve always taken the information on this website very seriously, and being away for awhile makes me appreciate even more how great a website like this can be and motivate me to make sure everything I do here I always do with the greatest passion and make it the best that I can. I’m continually trying to make everything I do better and better, and I want this website to be the type that people will smile from having seen and known, and a magical place that I will always be proud of.

4. Connections

The purpose of this website is of course not to make money, like a lot of similar ventures out there are. Instead, I do it because I enjoy it and I like the idea of helping people. But I was again struck at how great this website is for developing connections and getting opportunities that I would never have gotten otherwise. I’ve gotten to know some great people because of it and gotten to do some great things and I can only hope that will continue in the future.

5. We Can’t Decide what Happens So We Should Just Do Our Best

This goes along with the last one. Nothing that has happened as a result of this blog could I have possibly foreseen when I started it back in 2009. Nor could I foresee now the great things that are going to happen. But in creating this website I’ve just done what has felt right and enjoyable to me, and I’ll keep doing exactly that and hope good things will happen!

6. What I Like about Books is Going into a Great World

Of course, even though I’ve taken a break from this blog, I haven’t taken a break from reading or writing; in fact, I’m reading more than ever before! I’ve learned, beyond anything I previously discovered, that there is a world that exists in my mind, a magical world of greatness, where things sparkle and everything is great forever. This is the world I’ve committed my writing from now on to try and express, and the judge of any book to me is how accurately they create that world.

7. I’m not a Kid Book Reviewer Anymore-and that’s ok!

When I first started this website, I was twelve years old and most certainly a kid book reviewer. Now I’m 17, going to college part-time, and am not really a kid book reviewer in the strictest sense. That’s ok, though, because I’ve only gotten smarter and learned more, and the meaning of a kid book reviewer to me is someone who understands kids, and therefore is able to give accurate advice about what books they like. I understand what books kids like these days now as much as ever, so I’m going to just keep calling myself a kid book reviewer. At least for now 🙂

Thanks for reading this and stay tuned for more!

 

New Email List

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Hi everyone, Erik from This Kid Reviews Books has recently brought to my attention that my old email system wasn’t working (thanks!).

I looked in to it and have changed the way I do my list from Feedburner to Aweber. Feedburner is pretty much dead anyways, and I’m really impressed with Aweber’s software.

I’ve also started to set up a new email series with special tips for getting to kids to read and the books you should get them, so stay tuned for that soon.

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Schooled by Gordon Korman Review

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Gordon Korman has made his name writing about funny characters doing even funnier things; and the great things that come out of it. Schooled is one of my favorite books because of its honesty and its total shattering of normal social norms and attitudes, all through the simple love of a modern hippie.

Gordon Korman’s books fall into two main categories: Humor/human greatness and adventure. This falls into the first category, and these are my favorite books that Korman writes. He is just a master at creating believable characters that change our picture of the world and stick with us forever.

Summary

Cap Anderson is a thirteen year-old boy who lives with his grandmother Rain on a hippie farm. Rain was the leader of the local hippies movement back in the day, and she and Cap are still living it even though everyone else has deserted them.

Cap doesn’t go to a normal school (and never has) because he is being homeschooled by his grandmother. Unfortunately, however, all of this changes when Rain falls out of a tree and hurts herself. Until Rain can recover, Cap is taken under foster care and goes to a regular school.

Very regular, in fact. “C Average” Middle School, as the students call it, is a complete unknown for Cap. Cap is totally entrenched in his own hippie world, and has never even turned on a TV. He knows nothing about the ravages of junior high.

He finds out before too long, however. Zach Powers, the BMOC (big man on campus) singles him out as a fun target to bully. He elects Cap the eighth grade class president (the honor always goes to the biggest nerd), and leads him to fake meetings.

Cap, however, refuses to be phased. He doesn’t get angry at Zach, and in his innocence does a lot of great actions. These range from writing huge sums of money to charities on blank school checks to saving an ailing bus driver by driving without a license.

Before long, people begin to admire Cap and he also starts becoming more in tune with them. While he doesn’t care about their world, he knows that it means a lot to them, and that’s what matters to him as well.

Cap is also helped by Mrs. Donnelly, his foster mother. She was actually brought up on Rain’s commune, so she knows exactly what Cap is going through when he tries to function in the normal world.

A series of events lead people to believe that Cap is dead, but of course he is not; he’s just going to live with Rain. Or is he? Will he settle back into hippie life on the farm, or will he and Rain branch out to the outside world?

Review

This is an awesome book. Cap is a really identifiable character just because of how good a person he is. In fact, he is so good a person that he rises to the top of his middle school and makes those who try to attack him look like idiots.

This book also switches which character narrates based on the chapter, which introduces us to a lot of different perspectives and makes us understand the characters better. All of the characters are engaging and dynamic.

This book is hilarious, with all kinds of jokes riddled throughout. It also teaches a strong lesson, however. Cap’s simple kindness and good attitude completely changes his school and inspires everyone in it. Cap is a person we can all learn from.

Some people have criticized this book because they think it stereotypes homeschoolers. I was homeschooled for a total of a couple years, however, and I can’t agree. Cap is a hippie, not just any regular homeschooled boy. This book has nothing to do with homeschooling.

If you decide this book, you’ll be in for quite an adventure. This book is funny yet suspenseful, sad yet inspiring. Kids around fifth to ninth grade will love this book.

Buy the book

 

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The Big Splash by Jack D. Ferraiolo Review

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Another one of those books kids just eat up, The Big Splash by Jack D. Ferrailo is a hilarious and exciting middle school tale.

I first decided to read it when I saw Gordon Korman’s praising words on the back cover. You can’t go wrong when the G-Man’s involved, can you?

Summary

The book is narrated in the first person by a kid named Matt. Matt is the private detective of Franklin Middle School, working through the night to crack cases and let people vent to him.

From the very beginning of the book we learn that “The Frank” is not a normal middle school. In fact, it is more like the mafia than junior high.

Matt gives us the scoop of the history of the school. In the past, there was a lot of “black market” crime going on. People getting shaken up, black market tests, “black market” copies of tests, and stuff like that. And then came Vinnie.

Vinnie used to be just a little guy in the works of Franklin Middle School, a target of bullies. Vinnie was smart, though, and he had a plan. He decided to start organizing all the illegal operations going on and start profiting from them himself.

It was a long road, but Vinnie did it. This included putting his former bully on “the outs” (shooting them with a squirt gun in the pants to create a rather unfortunate connotation, and dressing up Joey (“The Hyena”) in a diaper. When Vinny and his posse walked away from the scene, everyone knew it was now his school.

We start off with Nikki “Fingers,” the most feared girl in the school, getting put in the outs. Nikki used to be the top water gun squirter for Vinnie’s operation. Getting put on the outs basically means your life is over in middle school. Many people have to move out of town because no one even talks to you anymore.

Nikki decides to retire from Vinnie, however, and instead becomes a normal girl. Until one day, when she gets hit. The question is…who did it? The person darted out of there fast enough that nobody saw it.

That’s where Matt comes in. He was on the scene of the crime, doing a favor for Vinnie by returning a pendant to Nikki. As a detective, it’s his job to find out who soaked Nikki…and why. Will he find the crook in time? Or will he fail, and also be cast into the outs?

Review

This book is a ton of fun! A world where the kids run the school and there is a secret mafia is just awesome. I really enjoyed reading about it.

The characters are great, too. Vinnie is a former victim turned into king of the school who deals not only in ruthlessness but also in respect. Matt was offered by Vinnie to be his right-hand man and run the operation with him, but declined. He has always prided himself on not working for Vinnie.

And the truth about who really got Nikki truly is a story to behold. There are so many plot twists and changes that I can remember a couple of the decoys, but not the real gunner. Oh, and it’s funny too. This is a book any fun-loving middle school (or elementary school, for that matter) kid will enjoy.

Thank you for reading this review and if you’d like to purchase the book you can do so through this link. You can also like my Facebook Page or enter your email below to get more book reviews.

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