Summer ILC, Week 6: Read All the Things!

I checked out a dozen Middle Grade books from the library this past week, and it felt utterly delicious. I can’t believe this qualifies and business research. And I’m right in the middle of Storm of Swords as well, so switching over from that was quite a shock. “I can read an entire book in TWO DAYS? This is awesome!”

In my search for comp titles in the heroine-goes-on-a-magical-quest-to-save-her-family subgenre, I reread Two Princesses of Bamarre. On a friend’s recommendation, I also read Poppy for the first time. I know, I’m about twenty years late to the party, but I loved it. Some of my favorite literary heroes and heroines are mice—Despereaux, Mrs. Frisby, Stuart Little, Ralph S. Mouse, almost everyone in the Redwall Series (Mariel was my first and favorite). I like to think my daemon is a mouse. (My patronus is a river otter.)

I got the rest of the books in order to read what the literary agencies I’m submitting to have produced. For me, this includes:
   Olivia Kidney (Ellen Potter)
   The Puppeteer’s Apprentice (D. Anne Love)
   Deadwood (Kell Andrews)
   The Total Tragedy of a Girl Named Hamlet (Erin Dionne)
   The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart (Jesse Bullington)
   Thirteen Reasons Why (Jay Asher)
   Pip Bartlett’s Guide to Magical Creatures (Maggie Stiefvater and Jackson Pearce)
   The Legacy of the Clockwork Key (Kristin Bailey)
   The Jumbies (Tracey Baptiste)
   West of the Moon (Margi Preus)
   The Mysterious Woods of Whistle Root (Christopher Pennell)

“Adventure is out there!”