Kate Messner – a talented middle grade author who wrote The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z. (Gianna Z. won the E.B. White read aloud award! And Kate recently announced a three book deal with scholastic. Woo hoo! Go Kate!)

 A girl (Gianna). A boy. A leaf project. A cross country meet. A grandmother who is developing Alzheimers. A family who doesn’t want to admit it. Italian wedding cookies. And there is Gianna Z in the middle of it. Trying to get her leaf project done to be able to compete in the cross country meet while dealing with her grandmother.

 Let’s just say, I cried off and on throughout the last quarter of the book.

 Let’s go back to the New England SCBWI conference. Kate Messner’s new arc – Sugar and Ice. I brought it home. My first arc. Yay!!! I read it. I loved it. Stayed up to midnight reading it.

Sugar and Ice – Claire Boucher, a farm girl who likes to skate on frozen cow ponds, starts training at Lake Placid. As she experiences the ups and downs of competitive skating, she must decide which of her dreams to follow.

Though I didn’t cry in this book, tension crackled (I seriously think I heard it) and had me reading straight through. I couldn’t put it down.

These books are the perfect example of great contemporary middle grade. You’ll find it all. High stakes. Three dimensional characters. Great dialogue. Emotion. Conflict.

Oh, yeah. Secrets. I have a secret –about my reading and writing – to share on Wednesday when I start a summer series called, How I  Write. Wednesday is all about idea creation.

And then on Friday I might or might not be having a book give-a-way contest. (And it might or might not have to do with the books in this post.)

Share the last great book you read. I want to know.