Book Review: The Little Country

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The Little Country by Charles de Lint

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The blurb: When folk musician Janey Little finds a mysterious manuscript in an old trunk in her grandfather’s cottage, she is swept into a dangerous realm both strange and familiar. But true magic lurks within the pages of The Little Country, drawing genuine danger from across the oceans into Janey’s life, impelling her–armed only with her music–toward a terrifying confrontation.

Come walk the mist-draped hills of Cornwall, come walk the ancient standing stones. Listen to the fiddles, and the wind, and the sea. Come step with Janey Little into the pages of…The Little Country.

My review: You would have noticed by the sidebar that I’ve been reading The Little Country by Charles de Lint. Last night I finished it.

What did I think?

It started out really well, very interesting. There are two stories running parallel with each other. At first, I enjoyed one story more than the other but I was eventually taken over into the other story. However, the middle seemed to drag on a bit. By the end it all made sense but I sort of lost a bit of interest – not much, just a bit but I’ve had worries and that could have contributed to this.

The pros for the book was that the author used his imagination and touched on things that I’ve thought about but never said out loud. You’ll have to read the book to know what I’m talking about but the way our memory works was the main thing I found interesting…and the possibility that there is magic in our world, if only we could “see” it.

The cons were that there were several scenes that I felt were there for shock purposes. This book certainly is not recommended to under 18 year olds. Then again, that might be me being a bit of a prude. That aside, there were some awkward sentences that broke the flow and a fair bit of head hopping (which I find annoying).

Overall, this was a good read. I feel that if I had given the book more time and read it quicker then I would have gotten deeper into both stories and would have loved it but time is something I don’t have a lot of so it took me a couple of months to read the 630 pages. It was worth it.

More on Writing for Children

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Knowing what a publisher is looking for is important to me. There’s no point spending months writing a manuscript only to have every publisher reject it because you didn’t follow the rules.

So with this in mind, I wanted to find out what publishers of children’s books want. Yesterday, I visited the Write4Kids website and asked Laura Backes the following (I’ve removed the pleasantries):

Can you please define the difference between age groups 4 to 8 and 8 to 12? In particular, I would like to know the minimum and maximum word count for each group and what an editor might consider taboo subjects.

This was her reply:

The age group 4-8 falls into the picture book category. These books are generally 32 pages long, with illustrations on every page, and average 1000 words of text. The pictures are just as important to the story as the words. Picture books are written to be read out loud to children, so you don’t have to worry about vocabulary as long as the words are understandable within the context of the story.

Middle grade (ages 8-12) are actual novels or nonfiction books with chapters. The text can be 20,000-35,000 words (nonfiction tends to have less text than fiction) and may or may not be illustrated (fiction usually has no illustrations, nonfiction can be illustrated with drawings or photos). These are read by the children themselves, once they’re accomplished readers.

There are two categories between picture books and middle grade: easy readers (ages 5-8, short books meant to be read by emerging readers, so the sentences are short and grammatically uncomplicated) and chapter books (ages 7-10, short novels of about 9000-12,000 words broken into chapters about four pages long).

As for taboo subjects, there’s almost nothing taboo in children’s books. As long as you deal with a topic in an age-appropriate way, you can write about it. For example, a picture book might deal with the death of a grandparent or a pet. A young adult novel (ages 12 and up) might be about the main character’s best friend committing suicide. If your main characters are within the age range of your readers, then their problems and the way they handle them will be appropriate to the readership.

I’m interested in writing a chapter book for 8 to 12 year olds. So from the information I’ve already gathered, it seems that 12 chapters of approximately 10 pages will give me around 30,000 words. Perfect! I already have a story in mind, four characters and a hazy setting. The theme jumped out and bit me during the night and the motivation behind the main character fits the theme perfectly.

I do believe I want to write. What a wonderful feeling!

Writing for Middle Grade Children

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Well, this has to be a good start. I’m actually interested enough to do some research on writing for middle grade children (that’s the 8 to 12 age group).

The following information was taken from Ask Laura at Write4Kids and was written by Laura Backes:

1. Middle grade novels contain about 12-15 chapters, with about six to eight book pages per chapter. This translates to up to 10 manuscript pages. This is just a general guideline; your story might require more chapters, but will probably fall within this range.

2. The traditional middle grade audience is ages 8-12. There is also now an upper middle grade age bracket of 10-14. The main thing that differentiates a middle grade novel from a young adult book is that the protagonist is 10-14 years old (most are around 12) and so are dealing with problems and concerns of a preteen, as opposed to a high school student. Middle grade characters are wrapped up in themselves, their friends and family. Young adult characters also think about these things, but in the context of how they fit into the larger world. Young adult characters are stepping across the threshold to adulthood, whereas middle grade characters are learning how to be adolescents.

3. Subplots are a hallmark of middle grade novels, and are what set them apart from simpler chapter books for ages 7-10.

4. Most publishers accept a query letter along with one or two chapters. Send for publishers’ guidelines to be sure.

And this was a comment made about talking animals, which I’m not sure if I’ll have or not but it’s worth knowing:

Talking animals aren’t completely taboo, it’s just that most writers don’t do them very well. What’s important is that your animals have completely developed, unique personalities and characteristics. You need to develop these characters just as carefully as if you were creating human characters. Too many writers use their animal characters as stereotypes, thinking kids will be immediately drawn to them just because they’re animals.

Everything your animals say and do should be a logical extension of their individual personalities. And give your readers some surprises. For example, a rabbit might not be cute and cuddly; he may be absentminded, selfish, or cunning. I suggest you read some previously published “talking animal” books to get a sense of what I’m talking about. William Steig and Kevin Henkes are two good picture book writers. Also, Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White (a middle grade novel) is an excellent course on how to create unique animals characters.

DVD Review: War of the Worlds

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A week ago we went to see War of the Worlds starring Tom Cruise.

This movie has attracted some criticism, yet we thoroughly enjoyed it. It kept me focused and involved, and at no time did I wonder about the time (which is usually an indication that I’m getting bored).

Some things were different from the original, but I didn’t feel that took anything away from the movie. The screaming of the daughter, Rachel, was tedious after a while and I also felt the ending was too quick but neither of these things spoilt the effect or the entertainment value.

Recommended as a must see. 😀

DVD Review: Robot

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I saw this movie the other night and, unfortunately, I was disappointed with it. Usually I love these types of movie. They are fun to watch but there was something lacking from this one.

I admit that the play on words was amusing but I felt the plot was weak. Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood to watch it, I don’t know, but it’s not a movie I’d be eager to see again and I certainly couldn’t recommend it.

Book Review: Passage

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Passage by Connie Willis

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The blurb: A tunnel, a light, a door. And beyond it … the unimaginable.

Dr. Joanna Lander is a psychologist specializing in near-death experiences. She is about to get help from a new doctor with the power to give her the chance to get as close to death as anyone can.

A brilliant young neurologist, Dr. Richard Wright, has come up with a way to manufacture the near-death experience using a psychoactive drug. Joanna’s first NDE is as fascinating as she imagined — so astounding that she knows she must go back, if only to find out why that place is so hauntingly familiar.

But each time Joanna goes under, her sense of dread begins to grow, because part of her already knows why the experience is so familiar, and why she has every reason to be afraid.

Yet just when Joanna thinks she understands, she’s in for the biggest surprise of all — a shattering scenario that will keep you feverishly reading until the final climactic page.

My review: This was the strangest book. It started out repetitive but kept my attention, then the pace increased so much I hated having to put the book down. Then…at a major turning point (I won’t say a word) it flipped into repetition again.

Despite my label of strange, it was a really good book. I read all 700 odd pages, so that accounts for something but after that major turning point I spoke of a second ago, there were elements that really, really flattened me. And I don’t mean this in a good way. The author picked the reader up and took them along but then she went too far. Instead of stopping, and letting the reader marvel in what a great author she is, she kept going and going and going and spoiled it. I was disappointed.

The ending was meant to have a reason and everything, and I didn’t miss what it was or anything, I just thought she killed her own book. I learned a lesson here, when a story is over – it’s OVER!!!

Punctuation in Dialogue

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This is an area I know a lot of people have difficulties with. I’ve seen a lot of mistakes made where writers are not sure where to put a comma or full stop. Here is an example of the correct way to use them:

“I meet a wizard today,” Sam announced.

“Sam, you’re nuts!” Peter replied. “Wizards don’t exist.”

“They do,” Sam insisted, “because I meet one today.”

With the first piece of dialogue, some people make the mistake of placing a full stop after the word “today” (ie “I meet a wizard today.” Sam announced.), which is wrong. The dialogue tag is part of the overall sentence.

In the second set there are two complete sentences so a full stop is placed at the end of the dialogue tag. Also, when using a name or another word like – hey, oh, well, boy – you should always place a comma after that word. A good way to test this out is to read the sentence without the word, if it makes sense without it use a comma – if it doesn’t make sense then a comma is not required.

With the last line, the dialogue tag is placed in the middle of a complete sentence so you should place a comma after the first part – the word “do” in this case – and at the end of the dialogue tag as shown.

Oh, one more thing, ALWAYS start a new line for each person who speaks. ALWAYS!