57 Stars and Counting
I’ve made a commitment to posting an update on Tales of a Fifth-Grade Knight at least every couple of weeks because some folks have expressed an interest in knowing what’s happening with me and the launch of my first book. I can’t thank you enough for your interest!
So what’s the first thing I’m excited about that’s happening?
My first official author reading and signing is coming up at that paragon of indy booksellers, Malaprop’s in Downtown Asheville.
I’m going to devote an entire newsletter sometime to how awesome the staff at Malaprop’s is, but for now I just want you to know that I am so excited about this event, and I would really love to see you there, so here are the details:
It’s Saturday, September 26th at 3:00pm
at Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe
55 Haywood St, Asheville, North Carolina 28801
I hope you will join us in the celebration! In addition to the reading/signing there will be CAKE AND PRIZES!! If you can make it, would you please press reply and let me know? (We want to make sure there’s plenty of cake!)
So what’s the second thing I’m excited about that’s happening?
Well, all I can say is that if you’re writing for kids, you may find what I’ve found—that the best reviews, the ones that touch you the most, are the ones where your book has gotten a kid reading.
A couple of friends and acquaintances have passed along stories about how their fifth-grader read the book straight through. Or how their kids fought over the right to read it. Or how their child normally isn’t much of a reader but couldn’t put Knight down. In addition to making me feel like I told a halfway-decent story, these anecdotes tell me that I (and Capstone, who are totally into this, too) have succeeded at fostering a love of books and reading.
That said, other reviews are also fun. There was one blogger who detailed the plot up to about chapter three, and then wrote “That’s when it got really weird for me . . .” The review ended there, so I’m not sure if “weird” was a negative or positive.
Over on Amazon, I’ve gotten twelve reviews, and they’ve been universally positive–3 four-star reviews and 12 five-stars. Here’s some of my favorite things folks have said:
. . . this book was a lot more inventive and entertaining than I expected, and it carried off its weirdness with style. You get a modern, more adventurous, less literary “Alice in Wonderland” feeling from the project, and that’s not a bad thing.
It was a great balance of adventure, friends, intrigued and just plain fun. As a parent, it is nice to see positive, realistic relationships where the characters genuinely care about each other and work together. But that wouldn’t work if the story wasn’t fun, engaging and a joy to read.
For me, any book that gets my kids reading is a good book. But I also loved some things that kids may not pick up on, like the friendship between the main characters. They’re warm and loyal to each other, but even with all the weird stuff going on around them it’s totally believable.
My son and I loved reading this book. The main character Isaac is, in his own words, “nothing special” but once he stumbles into the Underground, you’ll see that he is, indeed, very special.
I love imaginative books for kids, and Douglas Gibson’s book stretches the imagination in a delightful way…This is a fun and original book that I’m sure young kids will enjoy.
This was a fun story with great characters that will engage and entertain from beginning to end! My eldest daughter who is in fifth grade read this along with me and we both had a great time reading this together.
This story of four elementary students finding a secret passageway under their school to a weird Underground World ruled by a burping Elf King reminds me of Alice in Wonderland meets the Wizard of Oz in Hades.
My 7 year old was a little skeptical at the beginning because there are no pictures in the book but I told her to use her imagination to create the pictures in her mind. This book is great for just that-many imaginative creatures and possibilities for visual imagery!
So quite a few parents liked the book, which is good news. But again, the best news is that kids are reading about Isaac and his friends and enjoying the experience. To my mind, no better review is possible.
