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Today, Kid Lit Reviews is pleased to welcome Dr. Ellen Prager, Scarletta Press author of The Shark Whisperer, June 8th–this Saturday–is World Oceans Day and Dr. Prager will be speaking. But before she can speak there, she has to speak here. I asked her a few questions about her book series, her writing habits, and what kids could do to help the oceans of the world. Here is what she told me:

Hi, Dr. Prager. What prompted you to write The Shark Whisperer?

While promoting my last popular science book (Sex, Drugs, and Sea Slime: The Ocean’s Oddest Creatures), I was repeatedly asked if I had anything specifically for middle grade students (8 to 12 years old). The answer was no. My previous books are either illustrated children’s books for younger kids or High School and above popular science books. I then investigated (did my homework) to see what type of books kids of that age like to read. The answer was crystal clear – fun fiction series, such as Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. I was particularly taken with Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series and how he combined Greek mythology with adventure and totally sarcastic, creative humor. I became a huge fan and thought: Hey, what if I could do something like that with the ocean and sea creatures. What a great way to get kids engaged in reading and learning about the sea at an age where so many love marine animals and the ocean.

Many of the things that occur in the story are true. Can you tell us about one or two  fascinating facts?

In the book, one of the main teen characters develops the ability to change the color of his skin (later the shape of his fingers as well….teaser for book #2) to mimic other creatures or his surroundings. This is modeled after the octopus (and squid and cuttlefish), which is the best and fastest camouflage artist on the planet. They are also smart, have excellent eyesight, and can squeeze through amazingly small openings (the Houdinis of the sea). Truly amazing creatures!

After a series of events, the main characters go to the Exuma Islands in the Bahamas where they attempt to rescue some kidnapped teens and outwit a shark killing, coral reef blasting villain. In the Bahamas they confer in a cave, swim through coral reefs and over stromatolites, and come upon giant underwater waves or dunes of sand made up of small white beadlike grains called ooids. These are all based on my real experiences when I lived in the Exuma Islands and worked as the director of a small marine laboratory on tiny Lee Stocking Island.

Will Tristan be a central character in each book of the series? How many books will comprise The Shark Whisperer series?

Yes, Tristan will be the main character, accompanied by his friends Hugh and Sam. Right now we are planning for five books!

What was the hardest task involved in writing the book and how did you handle it?

Writing the book was the fun part. I love writing these books. The hard part was finding a publisher. Because I am a scientist and had not written a fiction series like this previously, I think publishers were hesitant to take it on. In addition, the combination of an entertaining fiction story with ocean science was also somewhat of a novel idea, so that also presented an obstacle for publishers. I received numerous “soul sucking” rejections and was nearly ready to throw in the towel, when Scarletta Press thankfully picked up the series. I am extremely grateful to them for taking a chance with the books and me. And hopefully, given the wonderful response so far from readers they are happy as well!

Sometimes I took the rejections as a challenge and was ready to fight for the book. At other times I went running, swimming in the ocean or jumped into my kayak to ward off the self-doubt and depression that occurred. And I had great friends and family who kept telling me to keep at it. The fact that my test readers LOVED the first book also gave me confidence that I had something worth publishing.

Of all the abilities the kids have in The Shark Whisperer, (such as Tristan understanding sharks and talking to them), which skill would you want to be a real thing and why?

Now that’s a tough question. I would definitely like to be able to talk to sea creatures, especially sharks, dolphins or eagle rays. Sam’s ability to echolocate is pretty cool too. Then again, developing webbed hands and feet and being able to swim fast and stay longer underwater would be fantastic. I just can’t choose!

Those skills definitely saved our heroes lives.  World Ocean Day is this Saturday, June 8^th. What is most important about this day?

World Ocean Day provides an opportunity for us to recognize the importance of the ocean to the planet, marine life, and especially people. It is a chance to share knowledge of and passion for the sea, and hopefully to foster a greater connection in people of all ages to the ocean and to build lifelong stewards.

What can kids do to help restore and maintain the ocean?

Kids have enormous power! But they don’t hear that all too often. Kids are a huge influence on their parents and other kids. They can get involved in coastal cleanups, ocean camps, programs at nature centers and aquariums, and share they commitment to the ocean with others. They can teach people about marine life and why we all should dispose of our trash properly and recycle so it doesn’t end up in the ocean. Kids can write their local leaders or even the President to tell them we need to take better care of the ocean. They can also ask their parents to only purchase seafood that is fished sustainably (see Monterey Bay Aquarium or the Blue Ocean Institute website for information on this). And they are the leaders and innovators of the future. Kids have power!

Can you give us a little insight into book 2?

If you liked book #1, you are going to love book #2. Tristan and his friends go on a mission to investigate mysteriously dying fish in the British Virgin Islands, an area well known for its pirate history. They will encounter strangely aggressive sharks, spooked manta rays, get trapped, be set adrift at night, and have to deal with an oncoming hurricane. There is also some cool underwater technology in the second book, including a small submersible and a robotic jellyfish.

The teens will explore some of the most beautiful and fascinating real locations in the British Virgin Islands, such as the giant boulder trails and caves of The Baths. And in dealing with a creepy new villain, Hugh surprises everyone in a move that is a real shocker. Also included in the story is a mantis shrimp with anger management problems, some squid, a moray eel, sea turtles, tarpon, dolphins, frigate birds, and more.

There is nothing worse than a fish with a sharp tail and a anger management problem. Let’s shift gears, but just slightly. Describe where do you do most of your writing. 

I write mainly in my office at home. It is light, airy, and overlooks some palm trees. I can even see the ocean in the distance. I like it to be quiet or with just the sounds of nature, such as birds chirping. Sometimes I write while traveling, but I find that harder. Though if the inspiration hits, I suppose I can write just about anywhere!

When you wrote book 1, did you write the first draft straight through before editing anything or did you edit along the way? If you can recall, how many drafts were written before the manuscript was polished enough for submission?

For me, writing is all about re-writing. I try to write pages at a time and then come back repeatedly to edit. And I definitely edit as I go. I’ll work on sections at a time to get them pretty well crafted and then move on. Many, many drafts were done before I submitted the manuscript. No idea on the number, let’s just say lots!

Is there anything you would like to add? Maybe tell us a bit about the upcoming books.

Real world ocean issues are integrated into each book. In the first book the bad guy is shark finning. Tens of millions of sharks are killed each year for their fins, meat, cartilage, and oil. As top predators, sharks are very important to the ocean ecosystem, they help to keep prey populations in check and weed out sick or diseased animals. We need to better protect sharks to protect the ocean and all of its valuable resources we depend on, and so that we as well as future generations can continue to enjoy the sea and sharks. In the second book issues such as marine pollution and overfishing are integrated into the story.

We’ll start the editing process soon for book #2 so that it will be ready to publish early May 2015. And I’m well into writing book #3. Grand Cayman’s Stingray City plays a major role in the story. If people want to learn more about the science in the books or me they can also go to www.tristan-hunt.com.

I love Stingray City. Such a cool place. Just don’t jump into the ocean with a pocket full of squid. They will make you scream as they converge upon you as you hit the water.  But great fun!

Dr. Prager, thank you for being here and answering my questions. I very much enjoyed The Shark Whisperer and will be thrilled when book 2 arrives.

Readers can read a REVIEW of The Shark Whisperer HERE or an EXCERPT HERE.

The Shark Whisperer can be bought at Amazon —B&N—Scarletta Press—at your local bookstore.

Visit Dr. Ellen Prager at her website:  http://www.earth2ocean.net/
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Readers, Thanks for hanging in there! <3

The current generation of kids has been termed the “Me Generation” and judging by the number of selfies my daughter posts to Instagram daily, those labelers might be onto something. Everything is social for them: sleeping with a cell under the pillow for  “emergency” midnight text sessions, gaming while chatting on headsets, tv watching while hashtagging on Twitter, reading while… wait, no. Reading isn’t social.

But why not meet kids on their own terms and make it so?

The Margin Project is a new incentive that originated from the antics of a group of 2014 debut kidlit authors. To allow us to better promote each other’s titles, we sent our advance copies on a mail tour to one another. Most of us invited notes, leading to pages that looked like these:

Our books have merits all their own, but the margin notes enhanced the read exponentially.  Often the scribbled comments/doodles were laugh out loud funny, highlighted a line that might otherwise have gone unnoticed, or offered an inside glimpses into the lives of those reading. Few of us are close, physically speaking, but we got to know one another in those notes, and it gave me a thought:

If something makes reading this much fun, shouldn’t it be shared?

The concept is simple. Books are designated as part of the The Margin Project by a simple bookplate on the inside cover. This lets readers know they are free to write or doodle (clean and friendly) comments while reading. That’s it. There’s even a Pinterest page where people can post the results.

The early response from librarians and teachers has been tremendous. I’ve heard from libraries that have or are planning to introduce The Margin Project in several ways:

1. Meeting-less book club. Perfect for kids who can’t attend, or are too shy to speak up at, meetings. Six different books go into rotation at once, so that, by the end of six months, all kids will have read and made notes in the same six books.
2. Summer reading program. One library is printing copies of The Margin Program bookplates and offering them to patrons along with a flyer introducing the program as a fun way for friends to stay in touch over the summer or for grandparents and grandchildren to share a book on the child’s summer reading list across a geographical distance. In this case, the library isn’t providing the books, necessarily, but rather introducing the program and offering the tools to get participants started. There will be prizes for patrons who send pictures of their margin notes to the library by a program end date.
3. Some libraries are dedicating a small shelf of books as Margin Project selections and allowing patrons to write notes to share with other patrons.
4. Library trade-off. One library is passing around a few books among its patrons and then they will be mailed to a partner library across the country. The libraries in question are choosing local authors/settings.

This program is just getting off the ground, and I’d love to hear (and then share) more ideas for introducing it to readers. More information on The Margin Project, along with free printable bookmarks and bookplates, can be found at www.jenmalonewrites.com.

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Our guest blogger today is Jen Malone. Jen’s  first middle grade novel AT YOUR SERVICE, about a tween concierge at a posh NYC hotel, publishes this August with Simon & Schuster/Aladdin Mix.

Please note that as a guest post, the views expressed here do not represent the official position of ALA or ALSC.

If you’d like to write a guest post for the ALSC Blog, please contact Mary Voors, ALSC Blog manager, at [email protected].

If you would have told me six years ago that I would someday work in a public middle school library and love it and that I’d be the author of 11 children’s books, I’d have said you were crazy.

All right, at the time, I was the author of nine non-fiction middle grade children’s books with Mitchell Lane, so that part was not so unbelievable. I have since published two other books.

Actually, the books are the reason I was hired five years ago to work in the library at Bluffton-Harrison Middle School in Bluffton, Indiana. The principal at the time thought that my experience in writing children’s books for Grades 4-8 would help in working in the library.

Yes and no.

• Yes, I could tell students what it was like to write books.
• No, I had not read many fiction books for children at that point though I have since read hundreds.
• Yes, I had previous library experience in working at the Circulation Desk of the library at Taylor University-Ft Wayne.
• No, I had never purchased a book for a library.

It took me a couple of years to catch on to the rhythm and style of working in a middle school library in a public school. But it only took me a few months to realize my opportunity – and privilege – as an author of working with 400+ students.

As a lifelong book lover and mother of three grown children, I had naively thought every parent emphasized the importance of reading to their children. Sadly, that is not so.

To introduce students to books is such a thrill, I can hardly contain my excitement when a student with a bored expression says he needs a book to read during homeroom.

“Do you like Greek mythology?” I ask. This is a valid question due to Rick Riordan’s popular books. If the answer is yes or at least a shrug, I find the Riordan shelf in fiction and then take him to the non-fiction section to point out my three books on Greek gods—Hades, Hephaestus, Hermes.

When I show him my name on the covers, the student usually looks at me quizzically like I’m trying to fool him.

I then point out our biography section and my books on Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Big Time Rush. Still looks of disbelief on the student’s face, although if the student is female, she by now at least looks a little interested in the books. That’s my ultimate goal. The boys are also interested, they just don’t want to show it.

I then take the student to the cookbook section and point out my Recipe and Craft Guide to Indonesia and Now You’re Cooking: Cuba books. By now, the student is becoming familiar with the library and hopefully seeing that it is a friendly, interesting place with books he/she may not have imagined to be there.

As an author, there are other advantages to working in a library. I’ve learned students love to read scary books – lots of ghost story books are checked out. They love to read about freaky things – Guinness World Record Books are very popular! Sometimes they love the librarian.

While I’ve not yet written a book about freaky things, it’s at the top of my to-write-about list. At this point I’m following Rick Riordan and Taylor Swift on social media to thank them for making me popular in my middle school library.

What personal advantage do you bring to your job in working with children and books?

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Our guest blogger today is Kayleen Reusser. Kayleen is the author of Cuba, Healthy Recipe from Latin America from Purple Toad Publishing and 10 other children’s books. Check out her website at website at www.KayleenR.com

Please note that as a guest post, the views expressed here do not represent the official position of ALA or ALSC.

If you’d like to write a guest post for the ALSC Blog, please contact Mary Voors, ALSC Blog manager, at [email protected].

Andrea Davis Pinkney (image courtesy of Scholastic)

ALSC and the University of Minnesota Libraries, Children’s Literature Research Collections (CLRC) would like to remind the public that tickets for the 2014 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture featuring Andrea Davis Pinkney are available.

The lecture, entitled “Rejoice the Legacy!,” will be held at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 3, 2014 at Willey Hall on the campus of the University of Minnesota. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. A reception and signing will follow the event. Required tickets are free for the lecture and must be obtained through the University of Minnesota website. To learn more about acquiring tickets, please visit the 2014 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture website.

The May Hill Arbuthnot Lecture is sponsored by ALSC. The lecture title honors May Hill Arbuthnot, distinguished writer, editor and children’s literature scholar. Each year, an author, artist, critic, librarian, historian or teacher of children’s literature is selected to prepare a paper considered to be a significant contribution to the field of children’s literature.

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2014 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture With Andrea Davis Pinkney
University of Minnesota Libraries, Children’s Literature Research Collections
Saturday, May 3, 2014 from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM (CDT)
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Today’s post is a guest post by Diane Mae Robinson, award-winning author of the Pen Pie Yu Series with Sir Princess Petra and her trusty steed, Snarls. I appreciate Diane filling in at the last moment after I awoke with the yuckies. Diane is reviewing genres in children’s writing.

NOW, with a cough and a wheeze), I present Ms. Diane Robinson!  yeah! yeah! cough. yeah.

Book Categories in Children’s Books

There are several different types of children book categories and sub-categories. The writing style and word count is different in each type of category. The following list is a general guideline of the categories, and these guidelines may vary by publisher.

Board books/ Toy books:  Ages newborn to 3 years. These books are for the youngest of listeners and are meant to engage their minds in learning with textures, pop ups, flaps, noise makers, and lively illustrations. The words in these books are more about the sound they make when spoken by the reader. These books can have one word or just a few words per page.

Toddler books/ Concept books: Ages 3 – 5 years. Introducing basic learning through shapes, colors, alphabets, animals, and people, these books have a stronger emphasis on the words than the previous category.  The images and interaction of the book are still the main focus for the child. These books average 200 – 300 words and are often in the form of the board book format.

Early picture books:  Ages 4 – 6 years. Often referred to as picture story books,these are books written to be read to preschool and kindergarten children. The words are still simple but more intriguing with their sounds.  The word count is between 200 – 1000 words with just a few lines per page and a simple plot. The color illustrations on every page are still the main focus for telling of the story. Pages vary as per content–usually less than 32 pages.

Picture books/Easy readers:  Ages 5 -7 years.  Early picture book are books written for children just starting to read on their own. These books have between 500- 1500 simple words (1000 words being the average) and have a stronger focus on an entertaining story through the story’s action and dialogue. Color illustrations are still on every page or every other page. These books are usually 32 pages.

Early chapter books:  Age 6 – 9 or 7 – 10 years. The story is divided into chapter of 2 – 3 pages per chapter.  The plotting and characters become more complex than a picture book, but not too much that the child loses interest.  Theme and style of writing grab the child’s attention. Most chapter books for this age group still include some illustrations, usually black and white, but not on every page. The word count can be up to 10,000 words and up to 65 pages.

Middle grade chapter books: Written for children 8 – 12 years of age, the characters and plotting of the story becomes more complex as the topics have a wider range and the writer has more leeway to include some narration and descriptive setting, introduce more characters, and add dramatic effects to the theme and style of writing.  Chapters are 3 -4 pages each with few illustrations or no illustrations. Kid get hooked on character at this stage of reading. Word count can be up to 20,000 words within 65 – 200 pages.

Young adult books: Often referred to as YA books or  juvenille novels, are written for readers 12 and up, 14 and up, and 17 – 18 years.Topics and language vary greatly. Most YA books have an adolescent protagonist where the focus is on plotting, character and setting, while theme and style often take second place. Plotting can have subplots with several major characters, although, one character should still emerge as the focus of the story. Harry Potter books are consider YA novels.

Whatever age group your intended audience, the main character of your story should be a little older than the intended audience.

Visit my author’s website to learn more about my dragon books for children:  http://www.dragonsbook.com
And Diane’s Homemade Blog http://www.dianemaerobinson.com/

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If anyone would like to guest post, please send it to my using my email address, if you know it, and the Contact Form.  (Navigation bar to the right). Thanks.

I am honored to feature today one of the bookworld's BEST Urban Fantasy AUTHOR and not only that she's also the New York Times bestselling author of the Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series, the Mythos Academy young adult urban fantasy series, and the Bigtime paranormal romance series. Let's welcome Ms. Jennifer Estep! Not only that she generously donated a copy of Midnight Frost to one lucky follower :) Read on  to win :D Jennifer Estep is a New York Times...

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When I was writing my first novel, Catch Rider, I drew on years on knowledge that I gained by working with horses.  In fact, sometimes I think I wrote the book because I had to do something with all of the facts I had in my head about horse shoes, feed, boots, and veterinary science.  Once I started working on the book, it felt great to have a place to put these facts and names.

When people started reading the drafts, a frequent comment was that I had created a “world.”  I did know this world well, but I didn’t grow up in the Appalachian mountains, and I felt like a little bit of a phony.  I wanted to make the world richer and more believable, so I started adding more details and researching them as far as I could.  This meant, for example, that if I referred to Fiebings hoof dressing, I made sure it was still available in the same can, and that it was still used on the horse show circuit.  My first draft referred to custom Vogel boots, and a horse person who read a draft pointed out that girls don’t wear those anymore.  They wear boots with zippers up the back.  Realizing that I hadn’t shown horses hunt seat in a few years, I found Kaitlan Parker, who had just qualified for the equitation finals, and I asked specific questions:  Who makes your boots, helmet, and coat?  What breeds are your horses?  How much sleep did you get before you rode in the finals?  I also found someone who rode at Madison Square Garden and asked her what it was like.  She told me that there were huge structural pillars in the middle of the warm-up ring, and that the barn area was tiny.  That was enough.  Sometimes you just need a few small details, and your imagination and storytelling sense can go from there.

It’s important to me that the story is believable, and that someone who had actually ridden in the equitation finals would buy it and suspend their disbelief.  I know Catch Rider is a stretch – I won’t give away the ending – but the final act is entirely possible.  I had to work hard to make it believable by playing with the details for months.  My editor doesn’t ride horses, so she asked me a lot of questions and trusted me to put the time into answering them.  She pushed hard, and I’m very grateful for that.

But back to creating a “world,” because this is important… You don’t have to grow up in the mountains to write about them.  You don’t have to grow up in the projects to write about them.  But if you’re going to “create a world” somewhere, spend as much time there as possible and research everything.  Ask detailed questions, and when people start talking, let them talk.  Let them give you the details that have meaning for them.  If, for example, I was going to write a story about a Chinese real estate developer in Beijing – I’ve never been there and know very little about the culture – I would spend as much time as possible with people there, and ask them to tell me stories about their day, their jobs, and their lives.  That way, the details that you get are filtered through their consciousness, and what comes out is rich and valuable.  Listening becomes really fun as you make new friends and soon you’ll find yourself up to your eyeballs in material.

I would urge writers to think about creating a world somewhere.  All of us readers love to be transported to a new place and learn how other people live.  I think the most successful books are those that help us escape into a new place with new rules, and that can be anywhere.  You don’t have to be born there, all you have to do is dig deep into what really interests you. And don’t be afraid to buy interesting people a cup of coffee and let them talk.

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I’ve always been a writer, but never a children’s book writer. I wrote screenplays, musicals, tons of commercials, humorous op-ed pieces for the Times. But never a kids’ book.

Until I had kids.

Three boys – Charlie, Joe and Jack — who all hated to read.

Now, here’s the thing. I LOVED to read as a kid. I was a book-devourer. So when I had kids of my own, I was so excited that I could share my love a reading with them!

Didn’t exactly work out that way.

After my kids made up their minds to avoid books, I sprang into action. I scoured the libraries and bookstores and tag sales and lost-and-founds to find the magic book that they would love. I never found it.

But what I DID find was the passion to try to create something that would possibly help my kids change – that would turn them into readers. I decided to try and write my OWN magic book, about a kid just like them, who loves his family, is nice, funny and respectful, but just happens to really, REALLY dislike books. That’s how the Charlie Joe Jackson series was born. To tell you the truth, I highly doubt they’re magic books. But if they make even one non-reader change his mind about books just a little bit, then I’m satisfied. And my kids even read the books! (I forced them to, but still.)

I liked writing Charlie Joe so much I decided to keep writing. My new book, JACK STRONG TAKES A STAND, is also about something I know very well but would love to change: the epidemic of overscheduled kids. And the one after that, KATIE FRIEDMAN GIVES UP TEXTING, is about how addicted kids are to their phones.

So that’s the secret for me. When I write what I know, I’m satisfied. But when I write about something I know I’d love to change, then I’m inspired.

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Picture credit: Suzanne Sheridan

Today’s guest blogger is Tommy Greenwald, the author of the Charlie Joe Jackson’s Guide To series. Tommy’s most recent book, Jack Strong Takes a Stand, was just published by Roaring Brook/Macmillan in September 2013. Find out more about Tommy on his website!

Please note that as a guest post, the views expressed here do not represent the official position of ALA or ALSC.

If you’d like to write a guest post for the ALSC Blog, please contact Mary Voors, ALSC Blog manager, at [email protected].

. . . . Cheryl is the author of three children’s books. Her latest is King’s Ransom, reviewed here on Friday, January 25, 2013.  Cheryl is a retired teacher, with passion for working with kids, especially with their writing skills.  Her Medieval Writing Workshops are held for local elementary and middle grade students and girls …

"I always loved reading. After school, I'd rush home and settle myself in the high branches of a tree to read all about Narnia or Middle-earth. Every book was a secret door and I wanted in."

"I think most of the stories wait down inside a person, like a secret storyteller. Things that happen in the outside world awaken the storyteller, and suddenly she begins to speak. So it's not so much a matter of making the stories up, as learning how to sit very still, and listen."

One minute I was in graduate school studying public policy in Massachusetts, and the next minute I was tooling through the bush in Central Africa visiting primary schools where chickens roamed through classrooms, and school roofs blew off in the rain.

Laugh with the Moon (Random House, 2012) grew out of the incredibly eye-opening experience I had, in a country where the average life expectancy is now 54 years old. The trip changed my life, and I wanted to share my experience with young people in the United States.

Laugh with the Moon follows the journey of Clare Silver, a 13-year-old American girl whose father brings her to Malawi, Africa, because he thinks it will help her heal following the death of her mother. Clare soon finds herself surrounded by children all too familiar by loss, and slowly, they teach her how to grieve and how to cope.

Enrolled in a rural primary school, Clare is aghast at the conditions. Fifty three books for all the students in the school to share! No posters on the walls! Hardly any pencils or paper! Clare’s shock becomes all the more pressing when she’s asked to teach the class of standard one students—all 176 of them!

Soon, though, Clare’s friends show her how they not only manage, but also to thrive. Memory and Innocent teach her how to make alphabet letters from termite hill mud, and how children can learn to write by using sticks in the dirt. No chalk? Not a problem. Go into the bush and search for a cassava root to use instead.

Once Clare begins work in the standard one classroom, her own creativity overwhelms her initial sense of helplessness, as she makes posters from empty grain sacks, and even uses the tin roof that blew off the classroom block as a stage for her students’ play.

However, when Clare’s new friends take her on an outing to see the country, the trip goes horribly wrong. It is because of this adventure gone awry, that Clare ends up inside the local hospital where her father works. She sees for herself the empty white walls, the young patients sharing beds, and the supply closet that is empty of medicine patients desperately need.

Clare, Memory, Saidi and Agnes decide to fix up the hospital for the children inside. They mix paints from flowers they find in the bush, and create murals on bed sheets which the nurse hangs on the walls inside.

In Laugh with the Moon, African characters innovate left and right, and Clare learns to emulate their survival skills. And this ingenuity is drawn from what I witnessed firsthand during my visit to Malawi.

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Our guest blogger today is Shana Burg. Shana is the author of A Thousand Never Evers (Random House, 2008) and Laugh with the Moon (Random House, 2012). Both novels are for tween, teen, and adult readers. You can visit Shana at www.shanaburg.com, follow her on Twitter @ShanaBurgWrites or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/S