Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween!!

Spellbinders Logo
October 31, 2011
Special Spellbinder Book Launch!
HAVE A SPOOKY HALLOWEEN!!!
 ~and~
 SPECIAL BOOK LAUNCH
for one of your SPELLBINDERS!

This month we have a special haunted treat for you. Carolee and Caroline will interview Kimberley about her new ghost story. Read the reviews below, then scroll down for the Q&A. 

 Circle of Secrets
SCHOLASTIC PRESS
ISBN: 978-0-545-16561-7
Hardcover: $17.99
Kindle: $9.99
Fall & Spring Book Fairs
Available through Follett and Mackin, Amazon, B&N, any bookstore 

"The summer I turned eleven,  
I found out that ghosts were real . . ."

Critically acclaimed author Kimberley Griffiths Little weaves a haunting story of friendship and family and the power of faith, once again set against the lush backdrop of the Louisiana bayou.

Goodreads Review: Hauntingly beautiful. Terrifying, yet compelling. One of the best Middle Grade novels I've read in years. Kimberley Griffiths Little is a master at bringing readers the perfect story with the exotic flavor of the Bayou mixed in.
  
Kirkus Reviews: A steamy Louisiana bayou is the atmospheric backdrop to a tale about a daughter's estrangement from her mom, the mother's long-held guilty secret and a restless ghost's long-sought closure . . . A very dramatic climax leads to a sweet, satisfying ending with some surprising twists. For readers who like their ghost stories more friendly than terrifying. (Suspense. 9 -12)   

Q&A
  
Spellbinders: Circle of Secrets takes place in the same town in the bayous of Louisiana as your first book, The Healing Spell, but it's not a sequel. What is the difference between a sequel and a companion book?    

 

Kimberley: A sequel is a new book in a trilogy or series about the same characters featured in a previous book. Think of Harry Potter and Twilight where the characters of Harry and Bella continue their story with new adventures and problems. A "companion" book is a story set in the same world, but with completely new characters and a new plot.   

Spellbinders: Do any of the characters reappear?

Kimberley: Only one character appears in both my books: Miz Mirage Allemand, the traiteur (treater) woman.She was introduced in The Healing Spell and in Circle of Secrets we learn more about her mysterious lifestyle as told through the eyes of her 11 year-old daughter, Shelby.  

Spellbinders: Oh, good. She was a delightfully creepy character.

Kimberley: Circle of Secrets also has a mysterious charm bracelet, an antique doll, secrets notes in a bottle tree--and a ghost!   

Spellbinders: Is it helpful to read the first book before reading the second?

Kimberley: The two books can be independently read, but I had a lot of fun putting in a few links and ties between the two book that enriches the experience of both stories.
 
The setting is the same small town of Bayou Bridge--but that changes a bit, too. I compared/contrasted  the setting between Livie and Shelby. The Healing Spell is from the point of view of a girl who grew up in the heart of the bayou and goes fishing and frogging with her Daddy. Circle of Secrets is about a girl from town who suddenly relocates to the swamp and finds it very primitive and spooky and weird.   

Spellbinders: Why did you decide to write a ghost story?    
    
Spellbinders: La Llorona is a wonderful New Mexico ghost story.    

Kimberley:
Ghost Girl 
was one of my early attempts at writing and not ready for publication, but I always loved the ghost girl and the secrets she's hiding. I took her out of that old document, brushed her off, and gave her connections to Miz Mirage and Shelby and the swamp--as well as mysterious connections to the charm bracelet, the graveyard, an old porcelain doll, and a deserted island.    

Spellbinders: You've been having some jewelry making parties at some of your book signings. Tell us about the charm bracelets. 

 
If YOU had - or have - a special charm bracelet as a kid or an adult, tell us about it in the comments on the blog here: Spellbinders Book News Blogspot  
  
A picture of the charm bracelet from Circle of Secrets!  
  
Email me at kglittle@msn.com if you'd like to order one for a gift!!!

Email me at kglittle@msn.com if you'd like to order a bracelet  
from the book for a gift! Only $13.99 which includes shipping! 



 View our videos on YouTube 
      
Kimberley Griffiths Little has been taking lots of recovery bubble baths since sending off her new manuscript to Scholastic for publication in January, 2013 called When the Butterflies Came.  
 
 Black Stripes
Meet the Spellbinders

Kim Bio PhotoKimberley Griffiths Little is the recipient of the Southwest Book Award, The Whitney Award for Best Youth Novel of 2010, and the author of the highly acclaimed, The Healing Spell and Circle of Secrets, published by Scholastic Press. Look for her books at the Scholastic Book Fairs, as well Circle of Secretsas two more forthcoming novels in 2012 and 2013. She lives on a dirt road in a small town by the Rio Grande with her husband, a robotics engineer and their three sons. Kimberley is a favorite speaker at schools around the country, presenting "The Creative Diary", a highly successful writing Healing Spellworkshop and has been a speaker at many conferences. Please visit her website to download free Teacher's Guides and Book Club Guides. 

Follow me on Twitter 

 Carolee Dean
Carolee Dean has made numerous appearances as a guest poet/author at schools, libraries, poetry events, and teacher/library conferences. She holds a bachelor's degree in music therapy and a master's degree in communicative disorders, and she has spent over a decade working in the public schools as a Comfort Paperback Coverspeech-language pathologist. Her first novel, Comfort,was nominated as a Best Book for Young Adults, was named the Best YA Novel of 2002 by the Texas Institute of Letters, and was on the TAYSHAS (Texas Library Association) reading list. She conducts teacher trainings on inspiring reluctant writers including "The Secret Language of Stories" and "Random Take Me There CoverActs of Haiku."

To find teacher's guides, writing activities, and information about author visits, go to www.caroleedean.com.

 Follow me on Twitter 
  




Caroline Starr RoseCaroline Starr Rose spent her childhood in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and New Mexico, camping at the Red Sea in one and eating red chile in the other. She's taught English and social studies to upper elementary and middle-school students in New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, and Louisiana. Back in New May BMexico, Caroline now writes middle-grade novels and picture books full time.


Blog   
  
  
    
  
  
  

  
UPCOMING AUTHOR EVENTS
  

  
Saturday, October 29th
time TBA
Carolee Dean
Workshop
"Random Acts of Writing"
NCTE Conference
National Hispanic Cultural Center
Albuquerque, NM
  
Saturday, November 5th
2:00 p.m.   
Kimberley Griffiths Little
Presentation & Reading for Circle of Secrets 
Plus make the charm bracelet from the book!
Alamosa Books
Paseo del Norte/Barstow
Albuquerque, NM
(505) 797-7101

 
 

  
  
  

Monday, October 24, 2011

Book Clubs for Kids

Spellbinders Logo
October 24, 2011
Caroline's Classroom Connections
Book Clubs for Kids

Book clubs are a fabulous way to get kids reading. I've run both after-school and summer book clubs with varying degrees of success. Over the next few issues I'll share some tips on how to form a book club, how to select books, how to run a meeting, and pitfalls to avoid.

I found while teaching sixth and seventh-grade social studies that an after-school book club naturally grew out of a classroom assignment I called Where in the World Are We Reading. Students were to read 1-2 books each term and keep a detailed "Travel Log" about what they learned. By ordering inexpensive packs of historical fiction, I was able to extend the project in a new way. I offered extra credit to any student who wanted to read either PEAK or REBEL HART for their assignment and attend the book club discussion. Just reading the book wasn't enough. Kids had to be present and active in the meeting. Discussions were very lively and sometimes spilled into class time. My sixth graders were passionately split on which book was better than the other and once had an impromptu desk-pounding session, where one half of the room chanted, "Rebel Hart! Rebel Hart!" and the other half answered, "Peak! Peak!"

FeverThat same summer I led two book clubs. Both groups read FEVER 1793. We met several times to create reading journals, act out scenes, and play games, all relating to the story in some way. I assigned specific pages to be finished before each meeting, so discussion could follow the progression of the story. One of the most memorable parts of the summer was the Yellow Fever Performance, where my students studied then acted out the stages of the disease. The gross-out factor helped everyone remember exactly how the disease played out!

The following year, though I'd stop teaching to write full time, my wonderful principal allowed me to keep the after-school book clubs. I met three times a month (yes, you read that correctly!) with three different age groups: third graders, fourth and fifth graders, and sixth and seventh graders. It wasn't easy juggling three books, book lists, and groups, and some clubs fared better than others. Some kids stuck it out the entire year; some came once or twice. Through the process, I learned a lot about what worked and what to avoid.

Next month I'll address getting a book club up and running. If you'd like to use the assignments I've listed above, feel free to use the links below:


UPCOMING SPELLBINDERS AUTHOR EVENTS 

Saturday, October 29th
time TBA
Carolee Dean
Workshop
"Random Acts of Writing"
Caroline Starr Rose
"Where in the World Are We Reading? Using Historical Fiction in the Classroom"
NCTE Conference
National Hispanic Cultural Center
Albuquerque, NM


Saturday, November 5th
2:00 p.m.   
Kimberley Griffiths Little
Presentation and Reading for Circle of Secrets
Plus make the charm bracelet from the book!
Alamosa Books
Paseo del Norte/Barstow
Albjuquerque, NM  
505-797-7101 
  

A special note to those of you who have generously been forwarding our newsletter to your entire school - Please use the button at the bottom of this page marked Forward this email to send to your list. If you forward through your email server, you may inadvertently get unsubscribed.  It's a quirky feature of Constant Contact. Sorry about any inconvenience.

Another option is to follow us on Twitter in which case the newsletter will come right to the phone.


 Black Stripes
Meet the Spellbinders

 
Caroline Starr RoseCaroline Starr Rose spent her childhood in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and New Mexico, camping at the Red Sea in one and eating red chile in the other. She's taught English and social studies to upper elementary and middle-school students in New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, and Louisiana. Back in New May BMexico, Caroline now writes middle-grade novels and picture books full time.




CaCarolee Deanrolee Dean has made numerous appearances as a guest poet/author at schools, libraries, poetry events, and teacher/library conferences. She holds a bachelor's degree in music therapy and a master's degree in communicative disorders, and she has spent over a decade working in the public schools as a Comfort Paperback Coverspeech-language pathologist. Her first novel, Comfort,was nominated as a Best Book for Young Adults, was named the Best YA Novel of 2002 by the Texas Institute of Letters, and was on the TAYSHAS (Texas Library Association) reading list. She conducts teacher trainings on inspiring reluctant writers including "The Secret Language of Stories" and "Random Take Me There CoverActs of Haiku."

To find teacher's guides, writing activities, and information about author visits, go to my website.

 Follow me on Twitter
 



Kim Bio PhotoKimberley Griffiths Little is the recipient of the Southwest Book Award, The Whitney Award for Best Youth Novel of 2010, and the author of the highly acclaimed, The Healing Spell and Circle of Secrets, published by Scholastic Press. Look for her books at the Scholastic Book Fairs, as well Circle of Secretsas two more forthcoming novels in 2012 and 2013. She lives on a dirt road in a small town by the Rio Grande with her husband, a robotics engineer and their three sons. Kimberley is a favorite speaker at schools around the country, presenting "The Creative Diary", a highly successful writing Healing Spellworkshop and has been a speaker at many conferences. Please visit her website to download free Teacher's Guides and Book Club Guides. 

Follow me on Twitter 

Monday, October 17, 2011

October's Book Buzz!

Spellbinders Logo
October 3, 2011
Kimberley's Book Buzz
halloweenBecause it's Halloween this month I'm doing *spooky*!  

Let's talk about the Teen Paranormal Phenomenon of the past decade - VAMPIRES are dead, right?! Or are they? Many people might wish vampire novels were done, because it's been an extremely saturated market since the worldwide success of the Twilight series and all of it's off-shoots. Writers and readers immediately turned to a werewolf craze. Then zombies. Then faeries and mermaids and witches. Now it's Dystopian/Apocalyptic type stories of a science fiction nature.

But! Just yesterday I read about a major book deal for popular author, Holly Black (Spiderwick Chronicles) who sold a new vampire trilogy set in the future where vampires live in Cold Towns outside of the mainstream population. Vampire novels still sell--if they have a new twist.

In 2011, we're watching the Paranormal genre convolute into new directions. Teens with secret super-powers. Magical realism. Alternate realities. As well as Victorian Era paranormals and Steampunk.

Is the Paranormal Phenomenon an invention of the new Millennium? It might appear so, but when we take a minute to ponder, we realize that vampire, werewolf and ghost stories have been around for at least two hundred years beginning with authors Mary Shelley (Frankenstein) and Bram Stoker (Dracula).

Paranormal stories (especially when you include that yearning romance) is escapism at its best. When I was a kid the television show, Dark Shadows, which was about a vampire in a small town in Maine, was popular and now enjoys cult status. During the 1970s women--and teens!--gobbled up dark and stormy Gothic Romances by writers such as Victoria Holt and Mary Stewart. Or how about the dark and stormy novels Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. No vampires, to be sure, but they are creepy, and the love stories are twisted and delicious like any good vampire/werewolf love triangle today.The old and new generations aren't so different from each other after all! 

Jane EyreLia Keyes, a writer repped by Andrea Brown Literary asked her readers on Facebook whether they preferred the romances of Jane Austen's world or the dangerous romances of Charlotte and Emily Bronte.  

Lia herself prefers the Bronte Sisters. She says, "It's the emotions they evoke in me as a reader. One is primal, the other is polite. Fiction is for giving into men that you wouldn't give the time of day in real life.
The Bronte darkness wormed its way into my teenage soul never to leave. It speaks to me on a primal level that I can't articulate. It's my form of horror story, and gives me chills that Austen's chandelier sparkle can't provide."

I agree. Jane Eyre is all about the danger and the obsession. A dark and almost magical tale that is pure fantasy. In stories, we have the opportunity to think about how we would react, how our own lives would be different, and what WE would do in the same situations. To me, the dark, paranormal romances contain fantasy on a much more personal level than a book about dragons or elves."

Here are a few new titles that bring great new twists to the Paranormal Genre and your insatiable teen reader:

Vespertine 
VESPERTINE by Saundra Mitchell
It's the summer of 1889, and Amelia van den Broek is new to Baltimore and eager to take in all the pleasures the city has to offer. But her gaiety is interrupted by disturbing, dreamlike visions she has only at sunset-visions that offer glimpses of the future.  
When one of her darkest visions comes to pass, Amelia's world is thrown into chaos. And those around her begin to wonder if she's not the seer of dark portents, but the cause.


 
THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER by Michele Hodkin
Seventeen-year-old Mara cannot remember the accident that took the lives of three of her friends, but after moving from Rhode Island to Florida, finding love with Noah and more deaths, she realizes that uncovering something buried in her memory might save her family and her future.  




witch 
THE NEAR WITCH by Victoria Schwab
The children of Near start disappearing from their beds, and a mysterious boy falls under suspicion as 16 year old Lexi searches for them. As the hunt for the children intensifies, so does Lexi's need to know--about the witch that just might be more than a bedtime story, about the wind that seems to speak through the walls at night, and about the history of a nameless boy.


divergent 
DIVERGENT by Veronica Wroth
In a future Chicago, Beatrice Prior must choose between five predetermined factions to define her identity for the rest of her life, a decision made more difficult when she discovers she is an anomaly who does not fit into any one group, and that the society she lives in is not perfect after all.  



afterAFTER OBSESSION by Carrie Jones & Steven E. Wedel
Aimee and Alan both have unusual pasts and abilities they prefer to keep hidden. But when they meet each other, in a cold Maine town, they can't stop their secrets from spilling out. They believe something--or someone--is haunting them, but they're wrong. Despite their unusual history and powers, it's neither Aimee nor Alan who is truly haunted. Alan's cousin Courtney who, in a desperate plea to find her missing father, has invited a demon into her life--and into her body. Only together can Aimee and Alan exorcise the ghost. And they have to move quickly, before it devours not just Courtney but everything around her.

frost1FROST by Marianna Baer
As classes get under way, strange happenings begin to bedevil Frost House. Frames mysteriously falling off walls, doors locking by themselves, furniture toppling over. Celeste blames the housemates, convinced they want to scare her into leaving. And while Leena tries to play peacekeeper between her best friends and new roommate, soon the mysterious happenings in the dorm, and the reawakening of childhood fears all push Leena to take increasingly desperate measures to feel safe. But does the threat lie with her new roommate, within Leena's own mind . . . or in Frost House itself?
 

 Black Stripes
Meet the Spellbinders

Kim Bio PhotoKimberley Griffiths Little is the recipient of the Southwest Book Award, The Whitney Award for Best Youth Novel of 2010, and the author of the highly acclaimed, The Healing Spell and Circle of Secrets, published by Scholastic Press. Look for her books at the Scholastic Book Fairs, as well Circle of Secretsas two more forthcoming novels in 2012 and 2013. She lives on a dirt road in a small town by the Rio Grande with her husband, a robotics engineer and their three sons. Kimberley is a favorite speaker at schools around the country, presenting "The Creative Diary", a highly successful writing Healing Spellworkshop and has been a speaker at many conferences. Please visit her website to download free Teacher's Guides and Book Club Guides. 

Follow me on Twitter 

 Carolee Dean
Carolee Dean has made numerous appearances as a guest poet/author at schools, libraries, poetry events, and teacher/library conferences. She holds a bachelor's degree in music therapy and a master's degree in communicative disorders, and she has spent over a decade working in the public schools as a Comfort Paperback Coverspeech-language pathologist. Her first novel, Comfort,was nominated as a Best Book for Young Adults, was named the Best YA Novel of 2002 by the Texas Institute of Letters, and was on the TAYSHAS (Texas Library Association) reading list. She conducts teacher trainings on inspiring reluctant writers including "The Secret Language of Stories" and "Random Take Me There CoverActs of Haiku."

To find teacher's guides, writing activities, and information about author visits, go to www.caroleedean.com.

 Follow me on Twitter 
  




Caroline Starr RoseCaroline Starr Rose spent her childhood in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and New Mexico, camping at the Red Sea in one and eating red chile in the other. She's taught English and social studies to upper elementary and middle-school students in New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, and Louisiana. Back in New May BMexico, Caroline now writes middle-grade novels and picture books full time.


Blog   
  
  
    
  
  
  

  
UPCOMING AUTHOR EVENTS
  

  
Saturday, October 29th
time TBA
Carolee Dean
Workshop
"Random Acts of Writing"
NCTE Conference
National Hispanic Cultural Center
Albuquerque, NM
  
Saturday, November 5th
2:00 p.m.   
Kimberley Griffiths Little
Presentation & Reading for Circle of Secrets 
Plus make the charm bracelet from the book!
Alamosa Books
Paseo del Norte/Barstow
Albuquerque, NM
(505) 797-7101

 
 

  
  
  
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Spellbinders | 3 YAF Authors | Albuquerque | NM | 87181