Hello, friends! This week, over at Emu’s Debuts, we’re celebrating the launch of my friend Melanie Crowder‘s debut novel, PARCHED. I have a new blog post up over there (featuring quite a few pictures from my round-the-world travels!) about water use around the world. And if you leave a comment, you’ll be entered to win a signed copy of the book!
Here’s my Goodreads review of PARCHED. It should definitely be on your to-read list.
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This slender volume packs the punch of a much longer novel, and won’t soon be forgotten by its readers, young and old alike.
Taking place in a drought-plagued country, it alternates between the stories of a boy (Musa) who has been kidnapped by warlords for his unique ability to seek out water; a girl (Sarel) who is orphaned by those warlords; and the brave dog (Nandi) who protects Sarel. The writing throughout is haunting and evocative, but the dog chapters are especially breathtaking, written in a deeply sensory way that truly immerses the reader in the animal experience.
A brilliant debut novel.
In other news, I recently wrote another blog post for the Emus addressing the writerly question of “When to Stop Asking for Feedback.” I also participated in the most recent “Mad for Middle Grade” feature at OneFour Kidlit, in which we discuss why we write middle grade.
I’ll be doing quite a bit of traveling over the next month, so I don’t expect to be posting much here, but come July I do have some exciting new plans for this blog. Recipes may be involved. 🙂 Hope your summer is starting off well!
Oooo, recipes 🙂 Heading over to your Parched post!