Category: Uncategorized

Middle Grade Ninja: Book of the Week: WAITING TO FORGET by Sheila Kelly Welch

Meet T.J., also known as Timothy, also known as Terry Jerry, and “it’s not unusual” for him to be referred to as Tom Jones (cracking myself up this week). But he prefers T.J. (for most of the story) and he’s an eleven-year-old kid with an adult’s problems because there is no adult to handle his […]

Middle Grade Ninja: Cover Reveal: ROB WORM’S BIRD ADVENTURE by Rob Kent

  A tale so thrilling you’ll wriggle on the edge of your tail! After an early spring rain, Rob Worm’s bunch burrows to the surface to enjoy the mud. At nine-and-a-half months old (ten years in human time), Rob has been deep underground over half his life. He yearns for adventure and can’t wait to […]

Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “The Big Five No-nos to Querying a Literary Agent” by Mark Gottlieb

As a literary agent in major trade publishing at the Trident Media Group literary agency, I receive hundreds of query letters a week. I find that there are so many things an author can do wrong in querying an agent with a submission letter, while there are very few things an author can do right […]

Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “Hybrid Publishing Middle Grade” by Glen Wood

What a journey it’s been so far! The Brain Sucker began life a few years ago as a story called “The Manners Thief”, which came about after I saw several young kids misbehaving in a supermarket. They were barrelling around the aisles, throwing packets of frozen peas in the air and almost knocked over several […]

Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “Publishing Middle Grade in the Indie Age” by J.B. Cantwell

I am not one of those writers who has been penning stories since I was five, dreaming of the day that I would see my work on store shelves. I started writing just sixteen months ago, practically by accident, and twenty pages into what was supposed to be a companion guide for a video game, […]

Middle Grade Ninja: GUEST POST: “Undeniably Real: An Author Realizes He Can Make a Difference” by Chris Minich

Over the summer, I was fortunate to speak with my target audience on a couple of occasions related to my first book as an author. There I was, in a room full of students, one class about to end the school year and another class participating in a summer reading program. The spotlight was on […]

Middle Grade Ninja

Newbery Award–winning author Louis Sachar is the creator of the entertaining Marvin Redpost books as well as the much-loved There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom, winner of 17 child-voted state awards. Louis Sachar’s book Holes, winner of the 1999 Newbery Medal, the National Book Award, and the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, is also an […]

Middle Grade Ninja: Fuzzy Mud

Newbery Award–winning author Louis Sachar is the creator of the entertaining Marvin Redpost books as well as the much-loved There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom, winner of 17 child-voted state awards. Louis Sachar’s book Holes, winner of the 1999 Newbery Medal, the National Book Award, and the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, is also an […]