Kit Devlin knows her family is cursed. Every three years someone dies like clockwork, and the Devlins do what they do best: scheme, gossip, and look out for themselves. So when wealthy Grandpa Amos dies and the whole family descends on Grimlore Manor expecting an inheritance, Kit isn’t surprised by the drama… but what she doesn’t expect is a game: instead of a straightforward will, Amos has left behind a series of riddles, puzzles, and magical tests. Whoever solves them first will inherit his fortune.

But Grimlore Manor has secrets of its own: hidden rooms, curse creatures, enchanted clues, and a crimson-eyed cat named Carmine who only seems willing to talk to Kit (well, mostly to insult her). As the game turns more dangerous, Kit realizes the puzzles are not just about winning money, and that they may be the key to finally understanding the Devlin family curse, the truth about her parents, and her own mysterious connection to magic. To survive, she’ll have to outsmart her scheming relatives, team up with an anxious cousin who may be hiding secrets of his own, and solve the mystery at the heart of Grimlore Manor before the curse strikes again.

Kalyn Josephson is a major voice in children’s fantasy – her Ravenfall series was a New York Times bestseller and was nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Middle Grade & Children’s Book. She is also the author of the Storm Crow duology, the This Dark Descent duology, and other acclaimed fantasy titles for young readers and teens.

Family curses can’t really be real….can they?

I guess that depends on what you define as a curse! Do curses have to be magical? Can they be inherited? How many paragraphs can I spend equating curses to the ways things like grief echo across generations? As for magical curses, well, as a middle grade author I have a healthy belief in magic.

It is refreshing to know that I’m not the only one with…ahem…personalities in my extended family. Without possibly offending your family members, how did you come up with delightfully quirky Devlin extended family characters?

Funnily enough, I didn’t draw inspiration from anyone in my family when designing the Devlins. Rather, I focused on how to make each character in this sprawling cast unique, which let me focus on some fun, out-of-the-box character traits that would help them stick in readers’ minds.

I like to think there can’t possibly be any new puzzles and riddles that we haven’t thought of already, but The Grimlore Game had some fun ones in them. What was your inspiration for creating these?

I got a lot of help from a friend, who wrote me a whole dissertation on the types and styles of puzzles I could draw from. Then I set about coming up with puzzles of those type that fit the themes and characters of Grimlore, so that they would be both action-packed and effective at driving the characters’ journeys forward.

Same with the gothic manor. This one was delightfully creepy, especially at the end in the (spoiler alert) room with the (spoiler alert). I can’t say I’ve been in a ton of gothic manors, but maybe you drew your inspiration for creating this house from somewhere in particular?

A lot of Grimlore and the larger setting was inspired by my trips to Scotland, in particular Edinburgh, which has a lot of beautiful Gothic architecture. Traveling about the UK, I also got the opportunity to stay in a lot of old manor homes that had been converted to hotels and B&Bs, so I definitely pulled from those when designing Grimlore.

I’m going to be honest and tell you that all the cats I’ve ever met are evil. Yet Carmine, the cat in the book, cooks and cleans! I’m guessing you’ve never met a cat because Carmine is too good to be true. You said in your author note he popped into your head immediately. How did that happen?

All of my books have magical cats in them that turn out to be something else. As a kid raised with cats, it bothered me how cats were always the bad guys in media. I wanted to shift the perception of cats as cold and standoffish (and evil!), so I decided that if I ever got published, my books would have cats that everyone loves, and which reflect the cats I’ve known in my life. Carmine is largely inspired by my cat Snags, whereas Max from the Ravenfall series is inspired by my cat El.

What was the most fun and most challenging part of writing this book?

Definitely the puzzles. Coming up with them hurt my brain! But it was also such a fun creative exercise.

What are some of your favorite middle grade novels and why do you like them so much?

I adore the magic, humor, and adventure in Bashir Boutros and the Jewel of the Nile by George Jreije, as well as the heartbreaking and heartwarming story of family in Alyssa Colman’s Where Only Storms Grow.

Now that this book is out in the world, what are some next steps for you?

Grimlore will have two sequels, which will be released very shortly after book 1! Look out for book 2 in May 2027.

Is there anything else you want to share about The Grimlore Game for our audience of teachers, librarians, and middle grade authors?

One of my favorite elements of the series is the different types of “games” I get to explore. For example, book 2 is a treasure hunt!

The post Author Interview – Kalyn Josephson – THE GRIMLORE GAME appeared first on From The Mixed Up Files.

Readers will love Mystery’s – and Ally’s – return to the chills of the Olde Ellis Town Cemetery and the mysteries contained within. Here, Ally discusses writing the second part of a duology, crafting sharp dialogue, and coming up with perfect names – and what thrills await!

This is the second book in the Mystery James duology, after the tremendous success of Mystery James Digs Her Own Grave. Did you have this part of the story mapped out when you started working on the first book, or did this come later? What was the experience of writing this book vs the first?

I had a general synopsis of book two ready to go by the time I finished writing book one. The synopsis changed and became more detailed as I actually wrote the book. The experience was fun, because I was returning to a developed world with characters that I have fallen in love with; however, I have to acknowledge the challenge of trying to maintain a consistent tone and mood across two books. It was tough! I did my best to capture the spirit of book one, so that readers wouldn’t feel detached from Mystery and Ellis Town.

I love your dialogue in both the first book and now in …Returns from the Grave – it crackles off the page and defines your characters so wonderfully. Do you have any specific techniques for writing dialogue from character to character?

That’s so kind of you to say! I love writing dialogue. I don’t have any specific techniques other than reading the dialogue aloud. This is important because it helps me determine if the dialogue is too clunky, too adult, too much, or not enough. Dialogue should sound natural. Some dialogue sounds better when written on the page, but it doesn’t translate well when it leaps from the page to the screen or other mediums, so I’m always thinking about that when I write. Humans communicate with body language too, so sometimes dialogue isn’t necessary. 

You have a way with names, from the brilliant Mystery James, of course, to Coffin the harvestmen spider and “Hellish” Hazel, and beyond. How do you come up with such great names? Is there a character name out there you wish could be used in one of your books?

Would it surprise you to know that I struggle with names? Town, landmarks, characters, and book titles—naming things is one of the most difficult parts of my writing process. Sometimes, I drop in placeholders so that I can focus on getting the story down on the page, and then I go back and add names. I keep a notebook of names that I like, and I cross them off whenever I use them in a project. One time I forgot to do this, and I had a minor side character with the same name in two completely different books. Oops. I guess I really liked that name.

I wanted Mystery to have an unconventional name, so I tried to think about what Tía Lucy might call her. I imagined Tía Lucy playing peek-a-boo and other games with Mystery and saying something like, “Where did you come from? It’s a mystery!” I worried that her name was too odd, but once she had a name, her personality leapt off the page, so I stuck with it. 

I do have a character name that I absolutely adore, but I don’t want to share it publicly. It begins with “C,” and the name is also used by a villain in a spooky children’s movie.

In your acknowledgments, you write that it was vital for you to “….conclude this duology in a way that would leave [readers] happy and clutching the book to [their] chest.” What were some of the books that left you doing the same? Were there any second-books in a series that you looked to as you told this part of Mystery’s story?

Alexandra Bracken’s Prosper Redding duology comes to mind. I flew through The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding and couldn’t wait for The Last Life of Prince Alastor to be released. I remember clutching the book to my chest as I teared up while reading about the malefactor and Prosper Redding. I’m not sure that I looked to any particular sequel for guidance as I wrote Mystery 2. I just tried to tell a complete story that tied things up in a way that lets Mystery live on in the minds of readers.  

Speaking of endings, yours comes together in such a fulfilling way, trying together the storyline and especially highlighting Mystery’s relationships with Garrett, Eliza, and Tia Lucy. What were the any challenges pulling those threads together, and how did you resolve them?

I think the challenge came in trying to show readers, especially young readers, that most relationships change over time—for better or worse. I’m 39 years old, and my relationships with friends and family are constantly changing and evolving. This is a normal part of growing up (and we never really stop growing up). I wanted to show that even though the dynamics of Mystery and Garrett’s friendship change, they are true companions who will always fight for each other. 

You write that, although these characters will always live beyond the pages of the books, this is the end of Mystery’s journey. What can we look forward to reading from you next (after going back to binge your incredible, frightful debut, It Came from the Trees)?

I’m trying my hand at YA horror (yikes!), but I’m not sure the tone is right. The story feels like it wants to be upper middle grade/young YA. I’m going to keep writing and follow the story wherever it needs to go. I’m also thinking of another middle-grade book (a heist book), but I tend to think about stories for years before I actually write them, so I’m not sure when that will make it on to the page. I have a few other projects that I’m not allowed to talk about yet, but keep your fingers crossed that they get announced soon so that I can shout about them. 

Ally Russell is the USA TODAY bestselling author of It Came from the Trees and the Mystery James series. She grew up on a steady diet of Halloween parties, horror films, Unsolved Mysteries, and Goosebumps books. She has always loved scary stories, and got her MFA from Simmons University and, eventually, a job working in children’s publishing. She hails from Pittsburgh—ground zero for the zombie apocalypse. Ally lives with her husband and her two black cats, Nox and Fury. She’s afraid of the woods, the dark, and heights.

The post Interview with Ally Russell, author of MYSTERY JAMES RETURNS FROM THE GRAVE! appeared first on From The Mixed Up Files.

Welcome to STEM Tuesday: Author Interview, a repeating feature for the last Tuesday of every month. Go Science-Tech-Engineering-Math!

Today we’re interviewing Laura Mucha, author of Kaleidoscope: Step into a world of color.

Kaleidoscope paints a vivid and often creepy picture of humankind’s quest to create coloful art materials. The history and science of color is on full display in vivid spreads that highlight specfic colors from indigo to dragon’s blood to vital green. Shocking tales of red candy made with bugs and poisonous wall paper will have kids shouting No way!” and “That’s awful!” and “How cool!” on repeat.

And now, let’s dive into this vibrant interview:

Emily Starr: Let’s start with the shocking: Your final spread shares that a color was made from dead bodies. Wow! How did you discover that information, and what other research surprised you most?

Laura Mucha: I read about it in a general book about color – then to check it actually happened, I found it in Harvard’s Forbes Pigment Collection, which has a tube of Roberson’s ‘Mummy Brown’, plus mummy fragments donated by the firm. I was pretty surprised that artists used paint made from dead human bodies – and I particularly love this paragraph from Kaleidoscope:

Mummy was sold as a paint until quite recently. In 1964, one company stopped selling it because they ran out of mummies, saying, “We might have a few odd limbs lying around somewhere, but not enough to make any more paint.”

I was shocked by how many colors came from bugs, bodily fluids and poison! Some red candies are still colored with crushed insects, Indian yellow was made from the pee of cows fed on mango leaves, and people slathered poisonous lead white on their faces to look their best. But one of the most shocking was Scheele’s green: its inventor knew it was poisonous, but it still ended up covering 100 square miles of British walls and killing people, and no laws were ever made to stop it.

Emily: Allowing poisonous paint to kill people is almost as shocking as the mummies – almost! Like the colors you just mentioned, on each spread, you share specific color names and how those colors are/were created. Are there any colors that didn’t make it in the book that you wish you had space to include?

Laura: My notes ran to nearly 100,000 words, with little comments to myself like “not that interesting?!” I wrote DO NOT INCLUDE next to Amaranth – a pink because the Aztecs reportedly mixed it with human blood to make cakes. (Not ideal for bedtime reading…)

But there were some I really liked that didn’t make the cut because of space. For example, the painter Edward Burne-Jones, who buried his tube of mummy brown in the garden when he found out what was in it. Or the Indian artists who used shiny beetle wings for the emeralds in their paintings. I cut other things to avoid repetition: why the sky and sea are blue, for example, is really about light, which I covered elsewhere in the book. Every spread was a fight over which brilliant fact got the space.

Gray, gold, and silver all nearly got spreads of their own – silver has wars, currencies, and even a country named after it (Argentina comes from the Latin for silver). But in the end gold made an appearance and silver and gray didn’t – a decision I still agonize over.

Emily: Your examples span a long timeline and include the use of color in different cultures. Did this require you to consult with experts? If so, can you talk a little about that process?

Laura: I researched the book using books and articles written by experts, doing a HUGE amount of fact-checking, and going to experts when I needed to. I kept doing rounds of fact checks and was frustrated to find major errors in books by reputable authors, published by top publishers. (One told me Neanderthals made violet 25,000 years ago – which would have been tricky, given they’d almost certainly died out some 15,000 years earlier!)

I think color is especially hard to write about accurately because it belongs to chemists, archaeologists, art historians and textile specialists, and they don’t always read each other’s work. So where experts disagreed and I couldn’t resolve it, I didn’t include the information.

Where something was too important to lose, I asked someone. Two of those people are in the acknowledgments: Aviâja Rosing Jakobsen, Curator at the Greenland National Museum and Archives, who helped me check that what I was saying about West Greenlandic national dress was accurate (which I couldn’t verify from books), and Dr. Ruth Siddall, who helped me get to the bottom of a very niche question about cave art.

I also relied on the young reviewers, who are in the acknowledgments too – they told me if an explanation hadn’t actually worked (or was boring!).

Emily: Throughout the book, you mention environmental concerns–especially for animals that are killed to produce specific colors. How do you personally think about balancing the desire for pigments (and the reality that we know more today than in the past) with the need to protect our natural resources?

Laura: Humans have gone to extremely destructive and sometimes dangerous lengths to create color.

Making Tyrian purple usually meant smashing the shell of every snail, leaving rotting heaps piled up along shores. But people in Nicaragua found another way: squeeze out the mucus and put the snail back. So the damage didn’t have to happen – but most people smashed the shells anyway. Damage is usually the cheaper option, chosen by people who won’t be the ones to pay for it – the snails, the miners, the elephants.

I don’t think the answer is to want less color. I’d never ask a child to feel guilty for loving it – people 17,000 years ago walked three miles to make black from manganese when there was perfectly good charcoal by the fire. The question is what we’re willing to pay, and who does the paying. What’s genuinely different now is that we can see the bill – and we have more ways to avoid it, from a lilac color grown from bacteria to dyes made from algae.

Emily: You include many examples of colors that are dangerous or deadly. Do you know if any of those colors are still in use, and if so, why? What precautions are taken? After reading your book, I’m going to steer clear of all pea green wall paper! (Shouldn’t people avoid plastering pea green all over their walls anyway?! Ha!)

Laura: Pea green walls are safe these days – whether they’re stylish or not is another matter…

The arsenic wallpapers are gone. But lead is not. According to the World Health Organization, as of January 2024 only 48% of countries had any law controlling lead paint. It’s still legally made and sold in much of the world. Some of the book’s toxic colors are still made for artists, too. You can buy real vermilion and lead white from specialist suppliers, but they come with warning labels, and there are safer look-alikes. They’re still made because the dangerous colors are often excellent performers – for example, lead white stays flexible and resists cracking.

But people and countries disagree on how dangerous something is. For example, the European Union stopped allowing titanium dioxide in food in 2022 because its food safety authority couldn’t rule out that it damaged DNA. Whereas Great Britain, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand looked at the same evidence and have kept it (so far). So, depending on where a candy is sold, the same white coating is either allowed or banned.

Emily: Given that reality, is there a resource you recommend for readers who want to investigate how the colors in their everyday lives are currently produced?

Laura: There’s no one-stop shop. The information is scattered across food regulators, textile certifiers, conservation scientists and paint manufacturers. But here are some good places to start.

Harvard Art Museums’ Forbes Pigment Collection holds more than 2,500 pigments, with a free online audio tour through twenty-seven of them, from charcoal to YInMn blue (harvardartmuseums.org/tour/660). The mummy brown tube lives in that collection.

The FDA also has a guide to the colors in your food: fda.gov/food/color-additives-information-consumers/color-additives-questions-and-answers-consumers The best thing to do when it comes to food is read the ingredients list, though not every color has to be named (titanium dioxide, for instance, can appear on US labels simply as “artificial color”). In the US, look for “carmine” or “cochineal extract” on the label; in Europe and the UK, it’s often listed as E120. It’s crushed insects, it’s in the book, and it’s probably in something that you have in your kitchen.

Emily: This is the perfect STEAM book for all classrooms! You artfully show how science and art are inextricably linked. I instantly thought of Next Generation Science Standards connections in kindergarten, fourth grade, fifth grade and middle school.  How do you recommend educators use your book with students?

Laura: Thank you so much for your kind words!

For kindergarten, K-ESS3-3 asks children to communicate solutions that reduce human impact on the local environment. The Tyrian purple spread (pp. 44–45) gives children two ways to get the same color: smash the shell and kill the snail, or squeeze out the mucus and put it back in the sea. Ask five-year-olds which is better, and why – and to explain it to someone else. Then ask what “squeeze” or “smash” would look like where they live.

For fourth grade, 4-PS4-2 is about modeling how light reflects off an object and into the eye. The goldfish spread (pp. 14–15) is exactly that.

For fifth grade, 5-PS1-1 asks for a model of matter being made of particles too small to see. Gamboge (pp. 20–21) gives them the evidence: a physicist watched tiny yellow grains darting about in a way that only made sense if invisible particles were knocking into them, and it won him a Nobel Prize. And for 5-PS1-4, the reaction spreads are everywhere: copper turning green, iron turning red, lead and vinegar turning white in a clay pot packed in animal dung in a shed… The copper and iron ones are easy to try in class (vinegar-soaked pennies, damp steel wool) – just not the lead one!

For middle school, MS-PS4-2 is about light being reflected, absorbed or transmitted depending on the material. Kaleidoscope has two examples where structure, not pigment, decides what happens to light: Vantablack absorbing almost all visible light (99.965 percent) – and then the blue morpho butterfly, which is blue purely because of the shape of its scales (it has no blue pigment). Both make one of the NGSS crosscutting concepts visible: structure and function.

But if I could get teachers to use one spread at any age, it would be the cave art spread (pp. 10–11): young María finds the paintings, an important expert in prehistory declares them fake without ever going to the cave, most experts believe him for years, he eventually admits he was wrong and apologizes to her – but he’s too late to apologize to her father, who has died. It’s a case study in how science actually works: experts can be wrong and being willing to say so is essential. Having discovered, while writing this book, how many confidently stated facts about color don’t survive checking, I’d love every child to learn this lesson!

Another theme throughout the book is that science and art were never really separate subjects. Colors are often a chemistry problem someone solved because they wanted to make something beautiful.

Photographer: Rii Schroer

Laura Mucha is an ex-lawyer turned award-winning poet and Author-in-Residence in the Department of Public Health & Primary Care, University of Cambridge. Her writing has won multiple international awards and been featured on TV, radio and public transport, as well as in hospitals, hospices, prisons, books, magazines and newspapers around the world.Last year, as well as judging the British Book Awards, she broke the Guinness World Records title for Largest Poetry Lesson (multi venue) together with 43,516 young people from over 500 schools around the world. The year before, her book Welcome to Our Table won Children’s Book of the Year 2024: Non-Fiction (The Week Junior) and she was the runner up for the Ruth Rendell Award for the author who’s had the most significant influence on literacy in the UK over the past year. When not writing, Laura spends her time visiting schools around the world and working with organizations such as the Royal Society of Medicine, National Literacy Trust, Centre for Literacy in Primary Education, and UNICEF to try to improve the lives of children.

The post STEM Tuesday– Light and Color– Author Interview – Laura Mucha appeared first on From The Mixed Up Files.

Why Reading?

Like many authors, you might already have a question on your mind: What if I’m too influenced by what I read? This question can also be asked as What if I accidentally plagiarize another book? These anxieties can make it tempting to avoid reading entirely while you’re drafting, just to be on the safe side, but you might be surprised at how easy it is to tell when an author has stopped picking up books. This is because shows up in the writing itself.

You may not realize it, but every day, we take in tremendous amounts of storytelling through movies, music, games, ads, and even memes. Research shows that with the help of the screens that come with us almost everywhere, we absorb far more of this kind of storytelling than actual books. Everything you take in is teaching you different ways of sharing information, building interest, keeping attention, and, simply put, telling a story. These other kinds of storytelling can add unique flavor to your writing, but they are fundamentally different from written storytelling, using different techniques for different audiences for different purposes. There’s no replacement for the wealth of knowledge that comes from studying authors who are using the same medium you are, and there’s no reason to miss out on such a great education while discovering fabulous new stories!

Character Investigation

Every book you read contains characters, which makes this the most obvious place to start as you sit down to read like a writer. The simplest way to begin is to ask a simple question: Which characters stand out to you? It doesn’t matter if you like that character or dislike them. Once you’ve identified one or two characters that jump out at you, you can ask more questions. How is the author building this person on the page or making them distinct? Do they use description? Is it their dialogue or how they act? Do these characters change from beginning to end, and how would you describe that change? Asking questions about what other authors have done to make compelling characters can help you do the same in your own book.

Technique Collecting

If you’re new to reading like a writer, this approach might feel a little more advanced, but you can learn new techniques from reading with many of the same skills you use to investigate characters. If there is a part of the book you’re reading that changes how you’re reading, stop to reflect on why this has happened. For example, if you find that you’ve started reading more quickly and reached the end of the chapter faster than you expected, look at what the author was doing there. Did they use shorter sentences, punchier wording, or more dialogue? Did the author raise tension, up the stakes, or use foreshadowing? Any time you notice your reading has changed—whether you’re slowing down, rereading, or even highlighting—this is a great opportunity to take a closer look at how the author is changing how you as the reader is experiencing the story. If you can put words around what they’re doing, you can collect the technique and begin using it yourself.

Impact Evaluation

The third approach to reading like a writer is considering how the book as a whole strikes you. When you finish reading, what would you say the author set out to do, and do you think they achieved it? Thinking about the author’s purpose can help you consider the effectiveness of all the parts together. Did they use their characters and techniques well, or can you see opportunities they didn’t take advantage of? Were there chapters you felt like didn’t need to be there, or was the story a page-turner from start to finish? If this feels like too much to start with, begin by asking yourself if you liked the story. If you did, why did you like it? If not, what led you to feel that way?

Fall in Love with Reading

Reading closely is a fantastic way to discover tools and techniques and see how they’re being used. If starting with a fresh book is intimidating, pick up a book you’re already familiar with or one you love. This way, you can focus on analyzing what’s there without slipping into the way you normally read. Once you’re comfortable putting on your writer hat while you read, then you can ask these questions of books you’re reading for the first time.

If you need inspiration for good books, here at the Mixed-Up Files of Middle Grade Authors, we have lots of recommendations!
You can check out our book lists here: https://fromthemixedupfiles.com/mixed-up-files-book-lists/

For more specific lists, jump right in with these specific categories:
New releases: https://fromthemixedupfiles.com/category/new-releases/
Diversity: https://fromthemixedupfiles.com/category/diversity/

The post Become a Book Detective by Reading Like a Writer appeared first on From The Mixed Up Files.

In my TEDx talk, Science is for Everyone. Even YOU!, I offer suggestions for how we can help kids to be excited about science. There are ways that we as adults can support kid’s interest in science as well as the teachers who teach science in the classroom and homeschool.

I realize that not everyone loves science as much as I do.  Ever since I started a science club in my garage when I was 7 years old, I have been been hooked! For me, science is how I view the world. But of course, not everyone sees science in that way.

Science shouldn’t be intimidating, it should be FUN! At one time, practically every kid was a scientist and asked lots of questions about how things work. The key to all of this is CURIOSITY and AWARENESS.

Let’s talk Curiosity!

1. Notice the Science all Around You– One way to get kids curious is to encourage them to notice the science that is all around them all the time. Ask kids to look around the room, outside, or wherever they are and name 5 things that come from science. They could be grass, trees, a table, a computer… whatever. When you help kids to become aware of science and the fact that it’s in everything they do, it becomes less scary.
2.  Fun FACTS! — Most kids LOVE fun facts! I know I do. I guess all of those years watching the Jeopardy show when I was growing up and also having my kids made me really excited to learn obscure and intriguing facts. Try to play that up with your kids, or your grown-up friends, too.

Why are facts so great?

They engage curiosity. A great fun fact can start a discussion. Get kids to ask questions. And promote family interaction. In the age where screen time is ever-increasing, being able to sit down and chat about something cool is a great way to promote family time. Or get kids to read books to discover how things work and why stuff happens. Ever wonder why developing video games is important for space exploration? Check out the Atlas Obscura’s Explorer’s Guide to Inventing the World 

They provide mini-learning moments. When you are reading something, a fun fact can make you stop and think. It can spur you on to do your own research. It can help you to learn more about something that you maybe didn’t even know you were interested in. These learning moments can take place anywhere at anytime. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been watching television and learned something new from a show that I just had to stop and look up. Learning keeps those brain cells working and energized.

They help expand your vocabulary. Some fun facts come about because you aren’t familiar with the topic. Maybe you hear a word that you don’t understand. Or perhaps you hear it used in a way that seems strange to you . Doing the research by looking things up, allows you to not only increase your understanding of the topic, but also to learn new words, new ideas, and gives you a new perspective on the topic. Check out this book below. This book, Actual Factual Files: Ancient Egypt by Workman Publishing is filled with new vocabulary words.

They increase critical thinking skills. This is probably one of the most important benefits of curiosity. Being curious can cause you to think about what you just learned.  You might consider the fact. Is it right? Is it a little off? Does it challenge your beliefs? All of these are parts of critical thinking which is incredibly important skill for how we navigate life!

Awareness is Key!

Becoming aware of science and how we interact with it on a daily basis is a great way to open up a discussion about science. It encourages people to not be afraid of it, or intimidated, but to ask questions and learn more. If we, as adults, become aware of science and point it out to our children, and each other, then it will become a natural part of our lives.

We don’t need more information about how to teach science, we just need more awareness. Do you cook? That’s chemistry. Drive a car? That’s physics and engineering. Like to go on hikes? That’s environmental, biological, and meteorology. Those are only a few types of science that you will encounter in these activities.  Want to learn about the night sky? Check out this Actual Factual Files: Outer Space book by Workman Publishing

Encourage everyone to be a scientist in their own right and see the world around them. For once we see ourselves as scientists, we will see how important science is. After all, science is our shared language for understanding the world.

These books, Actual Factual Files: Ancient Egypt and Actual Factual Files: Outer Space  and the Atlas Obscura’s Explorer’s Guide to Inventing the World  by Workman Publishing are excellent resources for awesome fun facts! I think they are really fun and kids love them!

So BE CURIOUS! Encourage AWARENESS! and remember Science ROCKS!

Check out my SCIENCE ROCKS APP for your iPhone and Samsung products!!

Apple App Store   

App Google play 

Jennifer Swanson is the award-winning author of over 50 STEM/STEAM books for kids. She is the creator of the STEM Tuesday blog, STEAMTeamBooks promo group, and the creator and cohost of the Solve It! Science Podcast for Kids. You can find her at www.jenniferwansonbooks.com 

The post Be Curious and Pass it On — Science ROCKS! appeared first on From The Mixed Up Files.

I recently showed a MasterClass to my students from Michael Lewis, the author of Moneyball and The Blind Side (both made into popular movies).

As the video rolled, I was reminded of how profound his writing advice is and realized a lot of his advice could apply to middle grade novels.

Here are some of the highlights of his master class and how they apply to our craft:

Lewis focuses on finding your voice, developing an idea, creating characters, structuring a narrative, hooking the audience, simplifying complexity, and crafting strong beginnings and endings. Sounds familiar?

Lewis’s central question is essentially: What is the story here?

He’s especially good at taking subjects that sound complicated or dull—finance, statistics, economics—and finding the surprising human story inside them. His MasterClass specifically teaches how to “make anything interesting.”

One of my favorite Middle Grade writers is Donna Gephart, and she’s an expert on making ordinary things interesting, such as toilet paper or a trivia contest. The same can be said of Nicole Melleby or Jason Reynolds, who bases one book on a thrilling elevator ride in Long Way Down.

Lewis emphasizes character and uses real people in his own books as the engines of his narratives. MasterClass’s description of the course specifically includes developing characters and building a story around them.

Some of the questions Lewis poses: Who wants something badly? Why can’t they have it? What are they afraid will happen? What terrible choice might they make? What will they learn about themselves?

Lewis teaches the importance of hooking an audience and controlling the story from beginning to end. A middle-grade reader doesn’t need constant explosions. They need questions people care about.

One of Lewis’s strengths is relating to the reader. That’s particularly useful for MG writers. You can have sophisticated ideas in a middle-grade novel—grief, inequality, family divorce, identity, friendship, injustice—but the storytelling needs to remain accessible.

Extending Lewis’s message, you want your middle grade reader to understand what the character wants, what stands in the way, and why it matters.

He also said don’t be afraid of the messy first draft. Draft first. Diagnose later. Don’t stop Chapter 7 because Chapter 3 isn’t perfect.

For MG (or any genre really), every chapter should create some version of: pacing, character motivation, missing scenes, exposition, chapter endings, voice during revision.

The Michael Lewis formula I’d give an MG writer:

My Child:
Who is the protagonist?

They want:
What does the protagonist desperately want?

But:
What’s stopping them?

Because:
Why does this matter so much?

Then:
What unexpected thing happens?

So:
What does the protagonist do about it?

Which makes:
How does that decision make things worse?

Until:
What’s the biggest crisis?

Finally:
What choice does the protagonist make?

And afterward:
How has the protagonist changed?

That gets very close to the practical heart of Lewis’s approach: find the compelling human story, build it around memorable characters, create momentum, simplify the complicated parts, and make the reader care what happens next. Happy writing!

The post ‘Moneyball’ author Michael Lewis’s MasterClass hits home run with Middle Grade craft appeared first on From The Mixed Up Files.

It is difficult to follow the actions and motives of the pressure groups, government officials, and decision makers who are responsible for 92% of these challenges, (only 3% of challenges originated from private individuals). Stories help bridge the gap of understanding what is at stake when books are censored. This list includes books that introduce readers to ideas of censorship, freedom of speech and activism in a concrete, relatable way.

Attack of the Black Rectangles Amy Sarig King

Mac, a boy who seeks historical truths, is at first curious to discover why his teacher blacked out some of the words in Devil’s Arithmetic, a book about the Holocaust. Then he is outraged. He rallies his friends to join him in a fight against censorship. Although his hometown is conservative in strange ways, such as banning junk food and Halloween, Mac’s mom and grandfather support his efforts to confront the School Board and protect intellectual freedom. All the while, Mac struggles with keeping the secret of his father’s mental illness. With moments of humor, this is a realistic and uplifting book which will inspire readers to stand up for what is right.

Answers in the Pages David Levithan

This bold story about taking action is unique in that it is told from three different perspectives. Through Duncan’s eyes we see his mother reading his assigned book for school, The Adventurers. When she discovers the last line of the book, she believes it implies that the main characters, Rick and Oliver, are in a gay relationship. These two characters tell their fast-paced adventures as they try to save the world from an evil genius. And then there’s the pure and heartfelt story of Gideon and Roberto who, while working on an English project together, find themselves becoming more than friends. The fight to keep The Adventurers from being censored reminds me of the movie The Librarians, where a son is fighting for freedom of expression, while his mother wants to control what all young people read.

Not Another Banned Book by Dana Alison Levy

Book Club is Molly’s happy place. She and her BFF are not getting along, and she’s being taken from the only home she knows, the one where her deceased brother lived. When the Book Club disbands, and her favorite teacher Ms. Lewiston is suspended for sharing a controversial book, she decides to do whatever it takes to get it all back. She teams up with six other students to fight censorship. They rally together to organize school walkouts, spy on book banning meetings and contact a sympathetic author. Levy provides a gripping testament to the ups and downs of activism and middle school life.

Same Page by Elly Swartz

Bess Stern is a unique character – she practices mindfulness techniques to help calm her anxiety, and as 6th grade president, she puts  a book vending machine in her school. She’s called to action when a parent complains that some of the books (including one on the Holocaust) are ‘inappropriate, indecent and offensive,’ and should be removed from the machine. Bess starts the Book Warriors, a banned book club, and meets with a group of librarians to combat this censorship. Things get complicated when she discovers that her best friend’s mother is responsible for the removal of the books. Subplots of Jewish life and faith, Barnaby, the dog, and a crush on her best friend’s brother, all contribute to make this a rich, multilayered story.

Finally Seen by Kelly Yang

Lina is excited to be reunited with her parents and little sister after living apart for five years. She thinks that moving from Beijing to L.A. will be a dream come true. But she’s confronted with the challenges of living in poverty, being bullied at school for not knowing English and missing her grandmother whom she left back in China. As the story progresses, Lina adjusts, and gains language skills. When a parent of a student in her class challenges a book by a Chinese American writer, calling it ‘divisive, and not relevant and inappropriate,’ Lina is compelled to speak up. At a School Board meeting, Lina gives a speech to share how much this book meant to her. She says, “For me this book is a mirror. For other kids, it is a sliding door. . . . A door to see real life.” (p. 266)

Banned Books, Crop tops and Other Bad Influences by Brigit Young

Rose has always been a rule-follower – until she meets Talia. Her new friend, who is also Jewish, pushes Rose to take risks in all sorts of ways, including forming the Banned Book Brigade. The four members meet in secret to discuss the titles of books that have been pulled from the school library, including a book about Jewish refugees, and a book exploring gender identity. The core of the book revolves around friendship, trust and betrayal, paralleling the need to speak out when things aren’t right.

For more information about book bans:

American Civil Liberty Union / ACLU and Banned Books

American Library Association

EveryLibrary

Pen America

**ALERT** 3 Censorship Bills Active in Congress RIGHT NOW!

The post DEPICTING CENSORSHIP: kids standing up to book banning appeared first on From The Mixed Up Files.

Warm, cool, bright, energetic, somber, dull, faded, vivid, pastel, glowing.

We use a lot of words to talk about colors!

Research finds that colors can change our moods, and we use color to communicate our thoughts and emotions.

I’m an illustrator (as well as a children’s author), so I use color a lot. It can set the mood for a story or add energy to an exciting moment. It’s also a fickle thing. A color may look bright on a blank page, but turn dull when it’s surrounded by a different color.

We invent fun names for colors and create color wheels to sort them into patterns. Some people can see colors that no one else is able to see. So, why not play with color a little this week?

Here are two projects to get you started!

Image by congerdesign from Pixabay

Project #1: Create Your Own Colors

This project requires a little hands-on work. You may also need to spend some time outside foraging, or you can find supplies at the grocery store to make your colors.

Start by thinking about nature materials that have bright colors.

You may have some ideas already if you’ve read about the history of colors or foraging. (Two great books from this month’s list: Before Colors: Where Pigments and Dyes Come From by Annette Bay Pimentel and Madison Safer and How to Be a Color Wizard: Forage and Experiment with Natural Art Making by Jason Logan.)

If not, get creative and make a list!

Think about plants that leave a stain—beets, purple cabbage, walnut shells. You can boil and smash them to extract the juice. Once the liquid has cooled, strain out the pulp.

What about rocks or dirt? Try grinding up soft rocks like chalk. Or, you can collect dark or reddish soils to see what colors you can make. You may need to add water to soften the pigment and make grainy paint.

Collect your colors on a tray or in small jars. Now it’s time to try them out!

Paint small swatches of your color. As you do, make sure you write down your materials! What did you use? Where did you find them? What worked—or didn’t work?

Can you name the colors you created?

Photo and painting by Audrey Sauble

Project #2: Journal with Your Colors

Journaling is a fun way to combine art (color) and writing. If you’ve done project #1, you’ll have a set of colors ready to go. Prefer to use ready-made colors? Watercolor paints, finger paints, or any other art tool will work fine.

First, plan your journal page—do you want to plan it first, then paint? Or can you be spontaneous?

You could:

• Make a self-portrait
• Paint something you noticed outside
• Make color swatches and mix your paints to create new colors
• Scrub your new paints across the page in an abstract pattern
• Add backgrounds or fancy borders to your page.

As you paint, add some notes. What questions do you have about color after this project? What did you notice while working on it? Would you try something different next time? What happened when you combined two colors?

You may also want to add ‘metadata’ or information about your project: date, time, location, goals, results.

Final thoughts:

When it comes to color, there’s a whole rainbow to explore! You could try either of these projects several times and still have more to explore. So, keep playing with color! (And write down what you discover to spark new ideas for your next color adventure!)

– – –

Audrey Sauble is a children’s author and science illustrator with a passion for exploring nature through picture books. She started writing picture books several years ago after her oldest asked a question that turned into a conversation. Her new release, Can a Rock Grow?, is the third book in her Early Science Questions series.

You can find her books and various kid activities on her website, aesauble.com.

The post STEM Tuesday– Light and Color– Writing Tips & Resources appeared first on From The Mixed Up Files.

Of the life in the fields that he captures in this second graphic memoir, Mexikid Dreams, Pedro says, “I think we [he and his 8 siblings] have all have noted it was difficult out there, but this story has to be told.” He explains, “I started at 7 years old out in the field. This was the only life we knew. The idea of working hard was really my father’s thing and we just wanted to make him happy. As we got older, we recognized there were differences between our family and other families. We also knew the dangers of pesticides. But if we weren’t out there, we knew our family’s finances would collapse.”

Pedro’s childhood was also full of joy and music. While attending school, Pedro picked up a trombone and played in a band organized by his parish priest. It was that priest who convinced Pedro’s Apá that his purpose in life was to ensure his children made better lives than he had experienced. Each generation helps the next generation move forward.

“Once we realized there was a way out, we all worked to find that way,” says Pedro who studied graphic design and music composition in college before finding himself “in the arts 100%.” That led to an early career and a move to the Midwest with Hallmark to design and create greeting cards. But he never forgot his beginnings. He grew up eating foods native to his Mexican culture, having strawberry fights with his many siblings, and listening to shared music with his siblings as it played on his transister radio. The love of family and music eased time as the siblings worked. He admitted they all always scanned the horizon for dust clouds that could mean La Migra raids. These raids were dangerous even for the siblings were all legally in the US, but more dangerous for the migrants who had to prove their right to be in the country.  Pedro makes all of these memories come alive in Mexikid Dreams.

A Newbery Honor winner and Pura Belpre Author/Illustrator for his first memoir, Mexikid, Pedro talked about the reality of writing about family. He says of his award-winning book, “I sent a text to my brothers and sisters, and wrote, “if you have a problem with it, tell me now. To a person, they all said, ‘Sounds great! Good luck to you.’ Which was sibling-speak for that’s never going to happen.”

He admits that his brother Hugo struggled after publication of that first memoir with one story, claiming he wasn’t the one who stalled a motor home on a hill. “You defamed me and I want a public apology,” Hugo.  He has since used humor to remind Pedro that he believes his brother misremembers by adding “Justice for Hugo” to all of his brotherly correspondence.

All of Pedro’s siblings recognize the value of telling the immigrant story and reminding readers that immigrant labor is still a reality. As Pedro points out, “If you ever go into a produce department in a grocery store and you see all these fruits and vegetables stacked beautifully in the stores, there’s no machine that picks strawberries, no machine that picks cilantro, or broccoli. Somebody bent over in a field, all day long for ten hours a day.”

While many laws have changed child labor laws, there are family farms. “In family farms, the rules are way more lax, and so, kids do end up picking things out in the field with their family because that’s the only way they can survive. A lot of times the hands of mothers, fathers, children, picked these fruits and vegetables you see every day in your local market. I always hope people start recognizing that. Even though these people seem invisible, you can actually touch their labor. It’s really important that people have empathy and a realization that those people are basically invisible and they have no rights in the US and they have no way to fight injustice that comes to them. They’re all here doing a thing that nobody here wants to do. And they’ve crossed deserts and rivers to do it. It’s an amazing story of tragedy and heroics to survive.”

As Pedro points out, industrial farming has changed the way immigrant laborers are treated to an extent. Industrial farms have more rules but tenant farming, much like share cropping, exists on these farms.

In this memoir, Pedro shows how La Migra or ICE frightening and dehumanizing the immigrants he worked alongside. He admits, “I had trouble talking about it. Should I lay weight on injustice or show what I experienced?” He decided in this writing, “Let’s tell the story as it happened so people can experience along with you. Everybody was scared all the time, on guard.

In one instance, Pedro includes the story of the death of an immigrant in this memoir. “It happened and I was trying to show all the different outcomes of immigration I experienced.” So he showed the good and bad of his life. “Here is success when I got to play music. Here’s the hard path my father took but he survived. Not everybody made it back.”

Pedro hopes readers find empathy in his story, and he wants them to recognize that his culture is rich in tradition, food, and hard work. “It  might kickstart readers to look into their own backgrounds and rituals. I think every culture and every group has regional cultural things they can celebrate.” He wants his story to encourage readers to “celebrate where they comes from and how they got here.”

He hopes teachers and librarians use his memoir to bring about conversations about cultural diversity and immigration. He recalls how his first book brought up questions. “I was surprised the kids had very deep questions about immigration, I’ve learned immigration has always been there. For us to survive we have to move geographically, if we run out of food, we have to move toward food. This is the way humanity has existed for hundreds of thousands of years. Don’t let this moment in time, even though it’s a terrible moment in time, scare you. Immigrations infuses us and makes things happen.”

This is a book about empathy, Pedro explains. “I want kids to experience something different and try to understand that, specifically now, the people they’re scooping up and taking are people they’ve gotten to know in this book. These are the people being disappeared.

Pedro’s stories can create shared experience, and he has a special place in his heart for those who bring his stories to his readers. “I really want to thank librarians and teachers from the bottom of my heart. I understood how hard their work is and thank you for the subtle ways they influenced my life. The one librarian moved me toward a book about Norse gods. That little nudge opened a whole new world for me. That magic teachers and librarians have to nudge kids is powerful.”

Pedro’s hope is for the US and all countries. “I’m hoping that there’s more acceptance, better paths to security and higher education and creating new ideas for all immigrants everywhere. Very simply, I hope this country and any other countries become so much more responsive to the needs of our neighbors. We must get past this idea of us and them and into the idea of we.”

###

The post MEXIKID DREAMS Creates a World of Empathy in This Graphic Memoir appeared first on From The Mixed Up Files.

The first in an original and entertaining sci-fi series for middle school readers from the award-winning author Guy Bass. For fans of the worldbuilding in WALL-E and the themes in The Wild Robot!

The year was Something Something. Humans had spread like peanut butter across the galaxy, looking for new planets to call Somewhere… One of those planets was Somewhere Five One Three.

When the humans arrive on Somewhere 513, they discover that the robots sent to prepare the planet for humanity’s arrival have chosen to keep it for themselves. Only one robot remains loyal: K1-NG, aka King of the Robots. But even with the most powerful robot on their side, the outlawed humans don’t stand a chance.

Ten years later, Gnat and her sister Paige are the only humans left and have spent their lives hidden underground. Now they must venture out in search of the one robot that stood by the humans. There’s just one problem—the once mighty K1-NG has vowed to never help another human for as long as he lives…

Interview with Guy Bass

LJ: I’m excited to dig into SCRAP. The interplay between human and machine intelligences has never been more timely. And this one promises to add a lot of adventure to the mix! Where did you get the initial inspiration to write this novel?

GB: I was reading about the export of waste, and the vast piles that have built up all over the world. An image popped into my head of a rusty robot sitting on a pile of discarded robot bodies, each more impressive than the one he was occupying. It’s more or less the image on the cover. I liked the idea of a robot city whose citizens had become vainly obsessed with self-improvement. With enough currency (charge) they could upgrade their bodies – their cases – and then discard the ones they no longer wanted.

I knew Scrap had to start out at the lowest point possible. When he was brought online, he was the most powerful robot ever made but ended up downgraded to the rustiest, crummiest case on the planet. He’s spent years on a pile of parts, angry and bitter and resentful but at the beginning of the book he’s just starting to accept his fate … then the last humans on the planet show up and throw his life into chaos.

C3-PO and R2-D2, Star Wars

LJ: What makes you uniquely qualified to tell this story?

GB: Nothing, except that I told it! My obsession with robots is definitely not unique; a nerdy corner of my generation were co-parented by Transformers, R2-D2 and C3-PO, Machine Man, Robotman, K-9, Johnny 5, Twiki, Zax…

The Unique Twists of Scrap

LJ: How does this title differ from some of your other stories?

GB: Scrap is aimed at a slightly older readership than I generally write for so the stakes are higher, the drama is more intense and the consequences of character’s actions are more significant and far-reaching. The book is also two or three times longer than my usual, so it took me a while to appreciate how much more breathing space I had in terms of world-building and the characters’ inner monologues.

LJ: Did you ever find your characters acting in ways that even you hadn’t predicted?

GB. Absolutely, especially Paige, who’s wildly protective of her little sister. I didn’t imagine her being quite so hard-nosed and intense but the minute she and Gnat were out in the world with nothing but their quest to find the King of the Robots, I found she was unpredictable. I wanted her to warm to Scrap but she was so single-minded and suspicious I wasn’t sure it was going to happen.

LJ: It must have been exciting to see your characters and situations come to life through Alessia’s illustrations. Did you have a particular scene that you liked best?

GB: I’m a huge fan of Alessia’s work. There’s a section in the book where Scrap is trying to get his old body back. He’s convinced it’s being occupied by another ‘bot and takes him on in a gladiatorial arena. Alessia captures the moment perfectly, from Scrap’s determination to the sheer size of the task (and robot) as well as the raucous atmosphere of the ‘Bot Bout stadium.

Finding the Fun

LJ: What do you hope readers take away from this novel?

GB: I hope they enjoy it! Beyond that, I’m hoping not to hope too much. I’m trying to teach myself – badly! – not to anticipate the reader’s reaction – not to obsess too much as I write about what they might think or how I want them to feel. I keep trying to tell myself that while I write, it’s mine. And I should enjoy that because as soon as it’s finished, I have to leave that world and those characters behind and the story belongs to whoever reads it.

LJ: What’s your favorite thing about being a writer and storyteller?

GB: Doing something for my job that I did for fun. I spent my childhood making up stories with my brother and we never thought about sharing them with anyone else. It was enough that we made them. The doing of it – the making of it – was the whole point. I still can’t believe that somebody might entertain the idea of turning one of my stories into a book, and then a bunch of people might actually want to read it.

Looking Ahead

LJ: Is there anything else you’d like us to know? Do you want to share anything about other upcoming projects?

GB: Look for the Stitch Head graphic novels – full-color comic book adaptations of the original novels with artwork by the brilliant series illustrator, Pete Williamson. The Ghost of Grotteskew is the third in the series and it might be my favorite.

However, I can’t possibly suggest that you track down The Worst Thing That Could Possibly Happen. It’s a collection of short horror stories with incredible illustrations by David Roberts. But, once you read it, you’ll know about the Sideways Doors and the World Behind the World. Once you’ve read it, it can’t be unread. You have been warned.

Because no MUF interview is complete without a…

Lightning Round

Coffee or Tea?

Coffee. I’m more coffee than man these days.

Sunrise or Sunset?

Sunset.

Favorite City (besides the one you live in)?

Tokyo.

Favorite Ice Cream Flavor?

Cheesecake.

Favorite Book From Childhood:

George’s Marvellous Medicine.

If you could have one superpower, what would it be? 

The power to be wittier in interviews? No wait, flight! But not the flight power I have in my dreams, where if I go too high I get nervous and start to sink back down to earth. Sheesh.

LJ: This illustrated chapter book sounds like the start to a series perfect for reluctant readers. Thank you so much for being with us today, Guy!

About the Author and Illustrator

Guy Bass is an award-winning author whose children’s books series include Stitch Head, SCRAP, Skeleton Keys, Spynosaur and lots of books that don’t begin with ‘S’ like Dinkin Dings, Anna Gain, Laura Norder and Noah Scape. In 2010, Dinkin Dings and the Frightening Things won the Blue Peter Award for Most Fun Book with Pictures.

Alessia Trunfio was born in southern Italy in 1990 but grew up in Rome, where she still lives. She has wanted to be an illustrator since she was a child but she hasn’t excluded the possibility of becoming an astronaut.

After graduating in 2013 with an Animation Degree from the International School of Comics in Rome, Alessia has worked as background artist for some of the most important animation studios in Italy. She currently works as a freelance artist on various animation and illustration projects. Fundamentally passionate about cinema, anime, literature, indie music, and fried food, Alessia is an eclectic, energetic, and inexhaustible illustrator. She uses digital techniques for her art, which is constantly evolving. Powerful colors, lighting, and everything that can move her, like a beautiful soundtrack or a good book, inspires her work.

The post Author Spotlight: Guy Bass appeared first on From The Mixed Up Files.