Friend Friday

The Sixty-Eight Rooms
is the first novel by friend Marianne Malone (sister of close friend, Emilie Nichols, who introduced us.) It is a fantasy adventure novel for young tweens, happily bridging that awkward gap between Juvenile and Young Adult (which latter genre I personally think should be re-named Young Depressive...mostly all angst and tragedy. Not much fun for the still sparkle-eyed tweenagers.)

Anyway, I can't say enough about how terrific this book is! Marianne, a mom herself, has a great feel for the zeitgeist of this age group: an itch for action, developing intellectual curiosity, new emotions arising, burgeoning social awareness and of course... a huge appetite for fun! The book reminds me of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, only with more of a magical twist. It is charmingly illustrated by Greg Call.

I was privileged to be an early reader of the manuscript when Marianne asked me for my unvarnished opinion before she'd even gotten a book deal. What a pleasure it was to honestly be able to say "This is a winner!" (And how extremely nice to be proven right, too.) Released by Random House last month, Marianne is already juggling a number of book events. If there is a young middle-schooler in your life, I recommend you run right out and get it: spring break, a.k.a. "Mom, I'm bored!"-ville is on its way!

Here are some additional links:

Marianne's website

Publisher's Weekly Interview

Kid Literate

PURPLE
is the theme of PhotoFriday today. I was momentarily stumped...it's not a color I have a lot of in my life. Then I remembered meeting the wonderful Beth Krush at a brunch last month, and that she was wearing a gorgeous purple sweater. You probably know Beth, even if you think you don't. She and her husband Joe are well-known illustrators, and their many projects include The Borrowers, that redoubtable children's classic. The books are very well written of course, but I've always thought that the fantastic illustrations really make the books come alive, amplify and enlarge the text to such a degree, that I can't imagine the books with any other illustrations but those by the Krushes.

So how absolutely appropriate it is that Beth is wearing purple, the color of royalty. In my mind she is a queen amongst illustrators.