Welcome to the #April12thMGshelf book-cover-dance-crew mashup of extr

Sorry for that, folks. Apparently I hit my character limit on the title above so now you'll never know exactly what I was going to say. But rest assured...

It would've been cool.

It would've been amazing.

It would've Blown. Your. Mind.

Very much like the four books I'm going to spotlight today!

*humbly accepts award for most seamless segue ever*

By now you've all heard about our #April12thMGshelf event. I've been lucky enough to pal around online with three brilliant middle-grade authors—Melanie Conklin, Shari Schwarz, and Laura Shovan—for a while and fall in love with their equally brilliant books. We each share an April 12th release date and for this leg of the event tour, I'm sharing a little bit of these stories with you in one of the art forms I love best.

DANCE.


First to the stage we've got Melanie Conklin's Counting Thyme.

When eleven-year-old Thyme Owen’s little brother, Val, is accepted into a new cancer drug trial, it’s just the second chance that he needs. But it also means the Owens family has to move to New York, thousands of miles away from Thyme’s best friend and everything she knows and loves. The island of Manhattan doesn’t exactly inspire new beginnings, but Thyme tries to embrace the change for what it is: temporary.

After Val’s treatment shows real promise and Mr. Owens accepts a full-time position in the city, Thyme has to face the frightening possibility that the move to New York is permanent. Thyme loves her brother, and knows the trial could save his life—she’d give anything for him to be well—but she still wants to go home, although the guilt of not wanting to stay is agonizing. She finds herself even more mixed up when her heart feels the tug of new friends, a first crush and even a crotchety neighbor and his sweet whistling bird. All Thyme can do is count the minutes, the hours and the days, and hope time can bring both a miracle for Val and a way back home.

This book is all about family, hope, and perseverance. It's heartfelt. It's honest. It's just plain beautiful. So, naturally, the routine I chose for Melanie's book had to be one that I felt showcased the raw emotional power of dance. And what I decided on was "Fix You" featuring Robert and Alisson from So You Think You Can Dance.

Next up is Shari Schwarz's Treasure at Lure Lake.

An epic adventure—that’s all Bryce wants this summer. So when he stumbles upon a treasure map connected to an old family secret, Bryce is determined to follow the map, even if it means risking his life and lying to his grandpa while they're on their wilderness backpacking trip. Bryce must work together with his difficult big brother, Jack, or they...and the treasure...may never see the light of day again.

This book took me back to my childhood when I first read My Side of the Mountain. Combine Shari's ability to yank you out of your seat and put you deep into the forests of the Rocky Mountains with the treasure-map goodness of The Goonies and you've got one special book. So for this story, I knew I had to choose a routine that blended fun and adventure. And what better one than a Sonya Tayeh routine that bridges the gap between fury and beauty?

Now welcome Laura Shovan's The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary.

Eighteen kids,

one year of poems,

one school set to close.

Two yellow bulldozers

crouched outside,

ready to eat the building

in one greedy gulp.

But look out, bulldozers. 

Ms. Hill’s fifth-grade class 

has plans for you. 

They’re going to speak up 

and work together 

to save their school.

This was the very first novel in verse I ever read. And it was the perfect one to start with because not only did Laura get me cheering for these kids on their quest to save their school, but she did it while allowing me to get to know every kid in the class. It doesn't get much more fantastic than that. So the routine I chose was an equally fantastic group contemporary piece all about lifting each other up when times are tough.

Finally, Brooks Benjamin's My Seventh-Grade Life in Tights.

LIVE IT.

All Dillon wants is to be a real dancer. And if he wins a summer scholarship at Dance-Splosion, he’s on his way. The problem? His dad wants him to play football. And Dillon’s freestyle crew, the Dizzee Freekz, says that dance studios are for sellouts. His friends want Dillon to kill it at the audition—so he can turn around and tell the studio just how wrong their rules and creativity-strangling ways are.

WORK IT.

At first, Dillon’s willing to go along with his crew’s plan, even convincing one of the snobbiest girls at school to work with him on his technique. But as Dillon’s dancing improves, he wonders: what if studios aren’t the enemy? And what if he actually has a shot at winning the scholarship? 

BRING IT.

Dillon’s life is about to get crazy . . . on and off the dance floor.

Okay, so this one's mine. And I love it so much. It's upbeat and fun and is all about friendship and being yourself and finding the moves that fit. Since my book is about dance, I decided to pick a fun routine that I feel the Dizzee Freekz would love to perform. Enjoy!

Now here's your chance to win all four of these books! Be sure to use every entry you can and don't forget to check out the other #April12thMGshelf posts below, too!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

— Sub It Club: March 22nd, Topic: Path to Publication

— Kidliterati: March 29th, Topic: #April12thMGShelf Talk Books, Writing, and Inspiration

— KIDLIT411: April 1, Topic: Friday bonus feature

— MGM: April 4, Topic: Brooks Benjamin pairs videos with our books

— Mixed up Files: April 7, Topic: Interviews

Book review: COUNTING THYME by Melanie Conklin

Title: Counting Thyme
Author: Melanie Conklin

Genre: MG Contemporary

Pages: 320 pages

Publication date: April 12, 2016

Publisher: Penguin Young Readers

Website: www.melanieconklin.com


My Rating: 5 / 5

You know, no one ever said reading books was easy. Some are, sure. But some grind you up into an emotion-filled pulp and leave you puddling on the floor at every turn of the page. You being wondering what in the actual expletive was running through the author's head when she wrote it. Was she trying to transform people into wads of blubbering messes? Was she sitting there at her laptop grinning evilly, fueled by pictures of her readers all collapsing into a nervous heap--just a pile of arms, legs, tears, and snot bubbles?

Maybe.

I don't know.

But maybe.

I can't weasel my way into Melanie Conklin's brain (even though I'd love to), but Counting Thyme did just that to me. From the very beginning of the story, we learn about Thyme's little brother, Val, and his struggle with cancer. And it was from that moment on that I fell in love with this book. Not because it dealt with a child fighting a life-threatening disease, but because of the reaction the entire family had to it. Every action, line, phrase, and word is smothered in sincerity. Melanie never once plays the pity card. We absolutely feel sorry for these people, especially Val, but there's never a moment when she dwells on that for even a microsecond too long. This family maintains a positive attitude in such a believable way that you find yourself nodding your head to what the parents say, to the words of encouragement from Thyme, even to the occasional fed-up reactions of her sister.

You keep the smile on your face.

You tell yourself it'll be okay.

You begin to believe everything's going to be all right.

But the entire time you do that, you still know. There's that whisper telling you that it could all go wrong at any moment. That the next day could bring the news no one dares speak of. So you wait. And you melt. And your body is so tense that it's hard to turn the page. Because somehow Melanie has put you so deeply into the story of Thyme and her brother, that you're not just feeling what they're feeling, you're living it, too.

And that's why this book gets five stars. Because of its ability to capture those experiences and extend them out to the reader in such a subtle way that, before long, we're completely unaware that we're not in our world any longer. We're with Thyme. With Val. With the family. And even though their lives are constantly operating under this umbrella of potential devastation, they operate together. They operate with hope and trust and love. And we feel that, too. Because Melanie knows no one can escape bad news when it shows up. What we can do, though, is surround ourselves with the people we love and make every single moment a memorable one.

Just like this book. Because once you read Counting Thyme, you won't soon forget it. You've found new friends on those pages. You've found people you can trust.

You've found hope, too.