What Reviewers Are Saying
Deadly Flowers
…about Deadly Flowers:
“As [Kata] learns to rely on her new traveling companions and others who reach out to help them along the way, she begins to question some of her long held beliefs. Rather than trusting no one, she learns to decipher who is trustworthy, and instead of blind obedience to a master, she starts to wonder if freedom from any master is possible. This journey through feudal Japan and its hero folklore is reminiscent of some of Lloyd Alexander’s works. Ninja fans and others will fall in love with this daring, determined, and silent warrior.”
–Children’s Literature
“This is a great fantasy/historical/adventure mashup of a book. And I love that it is a female protagonist that has to think, act, and save the day. Seriously, this is one great adventure story. Just watch out for all those pesky (and sometimes evil) demons.”
—Provo City Library, Provo, Utah
The Eagle’s Quill Arrives!
Sam and his friends Martina and Theo must brave the wilderness of Glacier National Park to find Thomas Jefferson’s quill pen.
Just released: The Eagle’s Quill, second volume in The Secret of the Seven series. Get your American history with a side dish of breathless action and entertaining brain-teasers as three friends race against the bad guys to find the quill pen Thomas Jefferson used to write the Declaration of Independence.
“Another page-turner of a quest.”
–Booklist
What I’ve Been Reading–1984
Call me a cliche, but I did what so many other people are doing these days–I read George Orwell’s 1984. Somehow, it was one of those classics I never managed to get to, despite an English major and a career in literature. (I never read The Illiad either. I admit it. I only recently got around to Middlemarch.)
So much was chilling, so much was eerily familiar. If you’ve read it, you don’t need me to go into it–the glorification of war, the vicious hates that transfer all critical thinking and all criticism away from the powers-that-be onto vague, nebulous, ever-changing others. And of course, the doublethink. Mexico will pay for the wall, but they won’t, but they will. War is peace. Obama bugged Trump Tower, but he didn’t, but he did. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.
And yet…somewhere in there I found a sliver of hope. No, really.
Winston Smith is not a very heroic hero. He isn’t terribly brave. (Julia is much bolder). He’s not all that smart. (All his instincts about people are completely wrong.) He doesn’t actually accomplish anything.
All he has going for him is some basic humanity. A joy in rare physical comfort and glimpses of beauty–the smell of real coffee, the clouded loveliness of old glass. A sense of the past as something that actually existed. Brief love shared with a woman. These are small things.
But look at what the Thought Police and the Ministry of Love have to do to get him to surrender. Look at what he endures. It takes hours and days and actually years of brutal mental and physical torture before all that is good in Winston is ground down to nothing. He’s a simple man, an ordinary man, just one man–and it takes all their resources to undo him.
Humanity dies, but it doesn’t die easily.
Read MoreFun and Games
It’s so much fun to imagine libraries all over the U.S. filled with eager girl ninjas figuring out rope puzzles, finding clues in the stacks, and eating Pocky! Download your copy of the ninja library game for Deadly Flowers!
Look What Turned Up…
…in my Easter basket–galleys for Deadly Wish! The bunny was here early this year!
Maine Student Book Awards
The Eureka Key pops up on the Maine Student Book Award list! Loud jubilation! State awards are always particularly exciting because the actual kid readers get to actually vote, and it’s even better to be nominated in your own state. Maine readers, I salute you!
Read MoreSarah L. Thomson
A children’s book author publishing award-winning nonfiction, poetry, picture books and novels including…
“Readers will treasure the blossoming friendship between opposites in this whimsically illustrated tale. Short chapters and plenty of action make for an accessible and appealing reading experience. . . . Touching and inspiring.”
—Kirkus Reviews