R.L.S. Hoff's Blog, page 4
March 3, 2022
On Pets
Just after Christmas, our eldest brought home a kitten, so now we have two pets in the house. Our cat and our dog don’t get along particularly well together, but every so often there’s a moment like the one above.
I think, in some ways, our family feels a bit this way after the adoption. There have been lots of moments over the years where we didn’t seem to mesh well. We’re too different. We don’t always understand each other. Sometimes people who have been in the family longer feel like they’re being displaced in their own home. Sometimes people who are newer feel unwelcome.
Then there are moments of love and kindness, when it seems like we might (someday?) start feeling like a family after all.
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Leaving Hope Read-Along Chapters 1-3
This is the first reading day of the Leaving Hope Read-Along (there’s an introduction here.) So, on March 2, I read Leaving Hope Chapters 1-3. These first few chapters are mostly set-up, and here are a few of my thoughts on them.
First of all, it’s weird to re-read my own books just to read them. A part of me itches to make changes, to tinker with a word here or a metaphor there, and I have to remind myself to stop and just enjoy the story.
Even so, as I read Chapters 1-3, a few things do make me smile. Anya’s art (I’m always amazed by people who can paint or draw or otherwise make great visual art). The sibling sparring between Borsk and Sarka. The little bits about gardens and gardening indoors (I lived in apartments long enough to have a keen appreciation for container gardening.)
It’s also fun to recall how the dating system on Hope came to be. I took some research on the population needed in order for an endangered species to survive. Then I mixed that with some elements from the one-child policy (I was living in China when I first drafted this series.) To top it off, I tossed in the pressure that comes when a group of people that once was the privileged majority becomes an ever-shrinking minority.
How about you? Was there anything in these chapters that caught your interest?
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March 1, 2022
Leaving Hope Read-Along
Why do a Leaving Hope Read-Along? Well, because it has been awhile since Leaving Hope was published, but Book 2 in the Golden Terrace Colony Universe is coming out March 15, 2022! (Kindle versions of StarRacer can now be preordered: US link, UK link, Canada link, India Link, Australia Link.)
If you have forgotten what the Leaving Hope was like (or if you never read it), but want to be all caught up when StarRacer comes out, you can read along with me here on my website. I’ll put in a blog post each day with some of my thoughts about that day’s chapters of the book, and I’d be happy to hear what others are thinking as well (Drop comments under the post, and I’ll approve them as quickly as I can–the approval process is to weed out spam, not honest opinions.) If you’d prefer, I’ll also have a Facebook group doing the same read-along. You can find it here.
Don’t have a copy of Leaving Hope? You can get a Kindle copy for $2.99 (or free on Kindle Unlimited). Leaving Hope Amazon links: US link, UK link, Canada link, India link, Australia link
So, here’s the schedule:
Day 1: Chapters 1-3Day 2: Chapters 4-6Day 3: Chapters 7-9Day 4: Chapters 10-12Day 5: Chapters 13-15Day 6: Chapters 16-18Day 7: Chapters 19-21Day 8: Chapters 22-24Day 9: Chapters 25-27Day 10: Chapters 28-EndAnyway, comment below if you’re interested in doing this Leaving Hope Read-Along with me! I think it will be fun. (And I’ll give away 2 StarRacer paperbacks to participants on March 31, 2022. )
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February 17, 2022
The Holidays We Have to Learn
When you’ve adopted a kid from a culture different from your own, holidays can be a challenge. Both familiar ones and unfamiliar ones. (I mean familiar to the adults in the household.)
I’ve been thinking about this as we’ve made our sixth attempt to create a satisfactory Spring Festival season for our Chinese child. Of course, after living in China for years, we had some idea of how the holiday is often celebrated. However, the traditions we’d seen weren’t exactly the same as the ones our child participated in.
And, we’d never really had to put together the celebration for ourselves, since it wasn’t really our thing.
Now, of course, it has to be. And we’re trying.
We did the best when we could invite a big crowd over for snacks and fun–in pre-COVID times. Though that wasn’t much like the family-oriented celebrations we’d been guests at in China, our child celebrated with parties.
Now we muddle through with a smaller guest list. We hope our more restrained celebrations will still communicate that we love our child–and appreciate the culture he was raised in.
But we also understand how it’s easy to get depressed when holidays are happening back where you’re from. Particularly when hardly anybody knows or cares in the community around you. That’s the way it was for us around Thanksgiving and Christmas back in the day.
So, we remind ourselves to extend extra grace during the holidays. Because we know (since we’ve experienced it) that celebrating holidays in exile can be incredibly hard. It’s a glorious time, but also a sad time. A time of celebration, and also a reminder of all that you’re missing from the place that will always, at least to some degree, be home.
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February 14, 2022
When You Reach Me
Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me is a beautifully written book that walks a tightrope strung between reality and fantasy–or maybe sci-fi.
Miranda is a latchkey kid, and the neighbor boy she’s been friends with forever seems to suddenly want nothing to do with her. An exploration of friendship follows. Miranda makes friends, learns to be a good friend, and gains understanding of how friendships change.
And in the background, someone’s sending Miranda notes–someone who seems to know all about Miranda. Someone who seems to even know what will happen in the future…
When You Reach Me felt just a touch slow to me, but it has so many layers that it stands up to multiple readings. I’d strongly recommend it if you like middle grade with just a hint of something beyond the world as we know it now. If you liked Hello, Universe, I suspect you’ll like this one, too.
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January 4, 2022
Moon over Manifest
Clare Vanderpool‘s Moon over Manifest immerses readers in a small town where a new girl is discovering herself and her roots all at once.
Abilene Tucker wants to ride the rails with her father. Unfortunately, he has sent her to Manifest for the summer (or maybe longer). He seems to think she needs something more than a transient life now that she’s twelve.
In this town she’s heard about all her life, Abilene discovers a story from years before her birth. This story teaches her about not only the town, but also herself.
Moon over Manifest is a book rich in details and full of heart. I strongly recommend it for anyone who likes immigrant stories, historical fiction, or explorations of inter-generational friendships.
Interested in another middle grade historical fiction title: try Dead End in Norvelt
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December 28, 2021
2021 Writing Successes
Why am I writing about my 2021 writing successes?
Well, children’s author Julie Hedlund challenged participants of her 12 Days of Christmas for Writers series to post SUCCESSES (rather than resolutions) on our blogs this year. She believes the way New Year’s resolutions are traditionally made comes from a place of negativity – what DIDN’T get done or achieved in the previous year. Instead, she suggests we set goals for the New Year that BUILD on our achievements from the previous one. I decided to participate in this Anti-Resolution Revolution! Here is my list for 2021.
Finished a draft of RowanFinished a second draft of StarRacerPublished 19 newsletters (it will be 20 before the year is out)Published through chapter 54 of Hope Gardens (on Channillo)Wrote 2 picture book draftsImproved my paperback formatting skillsWore a couple of poems and a vocabulary booster story for my website.Came up with more than a hundred story ideas in Storystorm 2021Redesigned my websiteMy 2021 writing successes list feels a little flat to me after the successes of last year, but as I look it over, it’s far from nothing. I feel a bit better about how this year went, writing-wise, than I was feeling before I started this exercise.The post 2021 Writing Successes appeared first on The Pencil Princess Workshop.
November 8, 2021
Dead End in Norvelt
Jack Gantos‘s Dead End in Norvelt is a funny middle-grade book about a young man growing up in a town founded by Eleanor Roosevelt.
Jack gets in trouble with his parents and spends the rest of the book grounded. His only amusement is helping the eccentric neighbor woman, Miss Volker. As amusements go, Miss Volker turns out more interesting than Jack expects. He soon finds himself embroiled in town history, a decades-old love story, and a mystery. Why are the old Norvelt ladies dropping like flies?
In the background is an ongoing argument between the book’s adults about whether to stay in a dead-end town. Jack’s parents are on different sides, which makes home tense at times.
The characters are quirky, but believably well-rounded, and Jack is particularly enjoyable. Furthermore, the book manages to touch on a plethora of intense topics with humor, but enough sensitivity that it’s never crass. This probably explains the Newbery for Dead End in Norvelt. If you enjoy historical fiction (mid twentieth century) or well-written middle-grade books, this one might be for you.
Like your historical fiction a bit older? Try Mazie.
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November 3, 2021
A Psalm of Thankfulness
in the style (and some of the words of) Psalm 136
by RLS Hoff
Give thanks to the LORD for he is good
His love endures forever
To him who alone does great wonders
His love endures forever
Who thought up galaxies and DNA,
His love endures forever
Rainforests, mountains, oceans, and deserts
His love endures forever
Who brought our ancestors from lands of poverty and persecution
His love endures forever
Into a place of prosperity and peace
His love endures forever
He freed the slaves
His love endures forever
He educated the simple
His love endures forever
He protects the overworked
His love endures forever
He remembers the forgotten
His love endures forever
He gives food to every living creature
His love endures forever
Give thanks to the God of Heaven
His love endures forever.
This is an attempt at a psalm, written as an assignment for my Sunday School class, Imago Dei:
You can find other work for Imago Dei here and here.
Want to make your own psalm? Feel free to add it to the comments. (And if you’re local and don’t have a church, I recommend mine)
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October 25, 2021
The One and Only Ivan
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate is a sweet, well-written book. It features a gorilla who makes art (and throws his own scat) in a small cage in a run-down mall circus.
The story is told from Ivan’s point of view (Ivan is the gorilla). Instead of being disastrous, this choice is brilliant. The thoughts feel not-human, like they really could be from a gorilla. In this way, the book reminds me of Watership Down (a book I think I’d like to reread one of these days.)
In The One and Only Ivan, I also enjoyed the well-drawn characters and plot with significant stakes. Though the story has a definite moral, it doesn’t feel overly preachy. If you enjoy middle grade books and haven’t read this one yet, I’d recommend it.
This is an excellent book like other Newbery award winners I’ve reviewed. (Of those I’ve reviewed so far, Flora & Ulysses might be the one most similar to this one. Though, in a way, each book is entirely its own.)
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