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Don’t forget to participate in the poll to determine the winner of the April CSFF Top Blogger Award. Round one ends Wednesday.
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I suspect some of you are curious why I am participating in the Children’s Book Blog Tour hosted by Kidz Book Buzz. No, I’m not a children’s author, but I taught middle school kids for so long, I’m pretty invested in that age. And I have teacher friends still in the business (that’s a phrase I picked up from writing—I never thought of education as “the business” before 
). Not to mention that my writing partner writes for kids—middle grade and YA.
In fact, when I first decided I wanted to write fantasy, I planned to write a story for the just-turning-into-a-teen crowd. For years it was a neglected age group, and the books that were available seemed to pander to the foibles of the target audience, not to their strengths, hopes, or aspirations.
Happily, there are many more books for those kids now. Some still play to the greed and fears and brashness often associated with teens, but some, like this month’s Children’s Book Blog Tour feature, Savvy by Ingrid Law (Dial Books for Young Readers in conjunction with Walden Media), take a serious look at what’s behind those off-putting qualities.
Here are some of the topics Savvy tackles obliquely:
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how a parent’s illness and/or absence affects kids
how being on the outside of a clique feels
how family secrets can separate kids from their peers
how children have noble desires and aspirations
how negative input can tear down a person’s belief in his ability to do the noble things he dreams of
how a person can appear to be a lot more cocky and confident on the outside than she is on the inside
how insisting on personal boundaries can be scary but necessary
how people express caring in different ways
The point is, Savvy is the kind of book that makes the reader think. Yes, it is also a fun story, a fantasy of sorts, along the lines of Paul Bunyan with Babe, the Blue Ox. But in the midst of entertaining young and old, Ms. Law gives the reader some meat to go with the dessert.
Take some time this week to read what other bloggers participating on the tour have to say about this delightful middle grade book:
[...] Becky says the book offers meat that makes you think along with the entertainment. [...]
Becky, I, for one, am glad you are reviewing children’s books here on your blog. I appreciate your reviews, always. You usually look deeper than I do and see things I miss. I’m a fan and I read like a fan a lot of the time.
I agree with you that Savvy is more than mindless entertainment.
Under criteria for the Newbery Awards the first listed is that the Committee must consider the “Interpretation of the theme or concept.” That’s why the Newbery books usually say something, I guess, beyond being entertaining.
Savvy does make you think
And it is one of the reasons why it is so charming.