Best Blogs by Authors

Hi! Today we wanted to share with you some of our favorite authors' blogs. We learn so much from them!

Gail Carson Levine's Blog

Gail Carson Levine is the author of Ella Enchanted, Dave at Night, The Two Princesses of Bamarre, Fairest, A Tale of Two Castles, and more. She runs a mostly writing blog, talking about anything and everything to help readers' writing. A cool thing about her blog is that she answers questions from readers they post on her blog. Another cool thing about posting a question on her blog is that other readers can help answer your question, too! That way you get lots and lots of advice. Check out Gail Carson Levine's blog today!

Heather Vogel Fredrick's Blog

Heather Vogel Fredrick is the author of the Mother Daughter Book Club series, the Spy Mice series, The Voyage of Patience Goodspeed  book, Absolutely Truly, numerous picture books, and more. Her blog is full to the brim with author inspiration and giveaways. Heather Vogel Fredrick also tries to answer ALL reader mail that comes her way, so be sure to write her!

Middle Grade Ninja: Robert Kent's blog

Middle Grade Ninja is author Robert Kent's blog. Robert Kent has written the middle grade novels Banneker Bones and the Giant Robot Bees and the young adult novel All Together Now: A Zombie Story. Even though it's Robert Kent's blog, he has a lot of help! Guest authors write blog posts for him on a multitude of things: Turning a Video Game into a Series (with Adventure and Meaning); Are Authors . . . Mentally Unstable?; Showing Children Our World( Good and Bad) Through Books; the amazing 7 questions for agents, editors, and authors; book reviews; and more. Be sure to check out his blog, it's really thousands of authors' blogs!

Skila Brown's Blog

Skila Brown is the author of Caminar, To Stay Alive, and Slickety Quick: Poems about Sharks. Skila Brown writes a blog full of photo inspiration, her daily life, her books' progress, and so much more! I had the pleasure of meeting Skila; she is such a sweet lady! Her books are great too, so be sure to check out her blog today!

Hope you enjoyed this post! Be sure to check out these blogs. Have a great day!

Review: Secret Garden: An Inky Treasure Hunt and Colouring Book

Secret Garden: An Inky Treasure Hunt and Colouring Book by Johanna Basford
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a great adult coloring book! Usually it's hard for me to stay coloring one picture to its finish, but this book kept me captivated. The drawings are great, complex and simple and the same time. It was so much fun to have a treasure hunt AND coloring book all in one! I would recommend to anyone above age 7, not just adults! Small children may also enjoy coloring in small portions.

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Review: A Million Ways Home

A Million Ways Home by Dianna Dorisi Winget
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Poppy Parker's holding on. She's holding on to the hope that her Grandma Beth will come out of the Huckleberry Home soon. She's was in the hospital for a while, and they just moved her to the Huckleberry Home. Poppy knows Grandma's really fine, she just NEEDS to visit her. They have to stick together! After both Poppy's parents were killed by some terrorist thing, Grandma Beth and her have been inseparable. So now Poppy's living at the Home for kids. Ms. Austin, her social worker, won't take her to the Huckleberry Home till tomorrow, however. So Poppy sets out to the home by herself. On the way, she becomes lost. A kind cashier pays for Poppy's candy bar at a gas station. All Poppy wants is to be with Grandma Beth at their apartment. However, a crime at the gas station is going to make that a whole lot harder! Can Poppy and her new friends find the culprit to the gas station crime, help Grandmother Beth recover, AND help save a special dog?
This is such a great book. I cried four times at the ending, it was so good.

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Review: 30 Days of No Gossip

30 Days of No Gossip by Stephanie Faris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Maddie and Vi are best friends. Actually, they're sisters. They've spent enough time together to be! Maddie and Vi are practically joined at the hip . . . or so Maddie thinks. They're the absolutely ONLY people who know about Vi's secret crush, except that Maddie just told Vi's crush. He probably likes her! He just needed a little prodding, you know? Except Vi isn't a fan. She deems it gossip and tells Maddie she can't be her friend anymore because she gossips way too much. Maddie writes Troy Tattler, the school's gossip paper, and talks about people with her friends. That isn't so bad, right? But Vi seems to think so. Maddie is ready to do ANYTHING to save the friendship. So Vi grants her a challenge: 30 days of no gossip and the friendship is on. If not, they're not friends. Can Maddie handle that?

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Review: All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook

All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook by Leslie Connor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wanna know why teeny, tiny Surprise, Nebraska is called Surprise? Surprise gets snow and lots of it. When winter fades away and the snow melts, people find things. Things like keys, dolls, things people never knew they lost. That's what Big Ed tells all the new residents.
11 year old Perry T. Cook lives on the Inside. He lives in the Blue River Correctional Facility with his mother, Jessica Cook. They were granted special permission from Warden Daugherty. They always knew they were lucky. They're SO close to being able to move out to the Outside. Everyone has been able to overlook it. Until now. Thomas Vanleer is the eager new district attorney, ready to please the itty, bitty town of Surprise, Nebraska. When he learns the shocking truth, that Perry and his mother Jessica were never separated, he pounces. It's a big case. A lot of attention. It also will give Vanleer a lot of much-wanted publicity. He immediately "rescues" Perry from Blue River and, blaming the wimpy foster care system, takes Perry home with him. Perry is shocked when he finds out his best friend Zoey is Vanleer's step-daughter! Vanleer claims he wants the best for Perry, but he cuts visiting hours with Perry's mom short and draws unwanted attention to the situation of Perry's living quarters for the past 11 years. Thank goodness for Vanleer's beloved wife, Robyn! Perry also has trouble at school. Brian Morris and his gang won't leave him alone ever since Perry beat Brian in the mile run! Perry, the Blue River residents, and his new friends are working toward Jessica OUT of Blue River. But along the way, Perry is given a school project that may just uncover the truth . . .

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Review: Paper Things

Paper Things by Jennifer Richard Jacobson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I feel that a lot of the books out there have the same theme ( disability, bullying, etc.). Don't blame me, they're great books! But it's just so interesting to have a whole new character with a whole new background that still totally changes your take on a subject. I would recommend this book to 4th grade to middle school readers.
Arianna (Ari) Hazard is a shiny, gifted and talented student with a best friend Sasha. But her life isn't all shiny. She doesn't have a mother or father, just a bossy guardian Janna and an older brother Gage. Gage can't stand Janna! Finally, he decide it's time to live his life and get away from Janna. When faced with the choice of either staying with Janna or Gage, Ari picks Gage. Who can blame her? It was practically her mom's dying wish that Gage and Ari stay together! The only problem is, Gage doesn't really have an apartment. He doesn't even have a real job. So Gage and Ari move from place to place, staying at friends' houses, storage units, and shelters. It's a lot of stress, especially because Ari hasn't told anyone. Her grades are dropping and so are her teacher's expectations, Sasha's seems to be drifting away from her, and Gage still hasn't found an apartment or job. Her mom always wanted her to go to Carter, a school for the gifted. Based on what's happening right now, there doesn't seem to be much chance of that! Through all that chaos, Ari hold on to her Paper Things, a folder full of paper doll families cut out from magazines. With her new friend David, can Ari and her Paper Things survive that?

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Review: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have read this with my mom and sister, with my third grade class, and several times on my own. I loved it every time! This thrilling and highly humorous book is the story of true Christmas; the boring Christmas pageant turned upside down. Every neighborhood has the troublemaking kids nobody likes. But if you haven't seen the Herdmans, you haven't seen anything! They don't have a dad with them, and their mom barely ever sticks around. And for a good reason too! They lie, cheat, steal, burn down buildings, smoke cigars, and beat up kids. They also took over the Christmas Pageant.
This book is very funny, and will change your whole perspective of Christmas and all the troublemaking kids out there.

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Review: The Sleepover

The Sleepover by Jen Malone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What a book! I'm a big fan of Jen Malone. Meghan has a bad history with sleepovers. Even when she's with her best friends Paige and Anne Marie, she's never been able to make it through lights-out before. She's 12 now, and determined to make it through the night. Even though Paige and Anne Marie try to convince her the birthday sleepover's going to be "epic," Meghan can't stop thinking about her strict parents' rules AND her super-secret-crush Jake who's a little bit of a rebel AND next door. When she arrives, however, the girls' plans are flipped upside down. Anne Marie's new step-sister Veronica is coming! Veronica's homeschooled, goofy, socially awkward, and doesn't understand anything regular 12 year olds do. She also sneezes in sevens and plays unicycle floor hockey. Catch my drift? Veronica does make a point in their favor however . . . or so they think. Veronica's birthday present to Anne Marie is a hypnotist! They think it's so cool! Well, until they wake up with silly string everywhere, baby chicks in the bathtub, a missing school mascot, no Anne Marie, and Jake's jacket on the scene. Wait, what? And the worst thing of all, no one remembers anything about last night. An epic night just got a whole lot crazier.

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