#uncommonmagic

So how did YOU spend last weekend? I spent it offline catching up on some reading, because the guy who aerated our lawn on Saturday morning unwittingly aerated our internet cable as well. Instant social media hiatus! . It was kind of a nice break, to be honest, but I’m happy to be back with another installment of #mybookalphabet. Our next letter is I for Isaveth, the tween heroine of my MG magical mysteries A POCKET FULL OF MURDER and today’s featured book A LITTLE TASTE OF POISON. . Isaveth’s family has fallen on hard times, because her Papa is out of work and her country is going through an economic depression. So when she’s offered a scholarship to attend the most prestigious magical school in the city free of charge, she can hardly believe her good fortune. But Isaveth fears her wealthy and privileged schoolmates finding out where she comes from, not just because she’s poor but because her family are Moshites — a despised religious minority with a history of being persecuted for their faith. . At the time I decided to write these books, I’d seen a few MG novels that touched on class and racial bigotry, but few if any that dealt with religious prejudice. As a child who was not only bullied at school for wearing cheap hand-me-down clothes and using “big words” but had suffered some painful backlash for talking about my faith as well, I wanted to show young readers a little of what it feels like to be despised for what you believe. It’s not the main conflict of the story, but it certainly plays a part in Isaveth’s experiences as a student at Tarreton College, and adds some complications to her efforts to solve the book’s central mystery. . Have you read any good MG, YA or adult fantasy that deals with religious persecution? I’d love to hear about them in comments! . . . . #middlegradebooks #middlegradereads #middlegradefiction #IreadMG #MGlit #kidlit #littletasteofpoison #alittletasteofpoison #uncommonmagic #readalouds #alwaysreading #bookish #bookworm #booknerd #booklover #bibliophile #booksofinstagram #fortheloveofbooks #readingismagic https://www.instagram.com/p/CAbVztnANaW/?igshid=1x5r1yxbd10es

Have you ever met someone who seemed to be effortlessly clever and charming? Did they leave you dazzled, suspicious, or a little of both? . Today’s letter of #mybookalphabet is Q for Quiz, my heroine’s dauntless street boy sidekick in A POCKET FULL OF MURDER. Though they get off to a rocky start when he crashes into Isaveth by accident and nearly gets her arrested, he soon makes amends by rescuing her from the neighbourhood bully. And as you can see from the quote I’ve included, it doesn’t take him long to win over Isaveth’s curious younger sisters as well. . More importantly, though, Quiz has a generous heart and shares Isaveth’s passion for justice — they’re both fans of the weekly talkie-play AURADIA CHAMPION, LADY JUSTICE OF LISTERBROKE, after all! — so when he finds out Isaveth’s father is in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, he’s eager to join her in trying to clear Papa’s name. Together they pedal all over Tarreton in search of clues, finding plenty of excitement and adventure along the way. But as Isaveth gets to know Quiz better, she starts to realize that her new friend has a few mysteries of his own… . Quiz is a nickname, of course: as he tells Isaveth, it’s short for “inquisitive” because he can’t resist sticking his nose into everything. Early in the drafting process his name was actually Quill, because I had some idea of him being a printer’s apprentice and would-be junior reporter for one of the local newsrags. But when I heard that the protagonist of the then-new Marvel movie GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY was named Peter Quill, I decided to change my boy hero’s name a little — and I’m glad I did, because Quiz is much more fun, I think! . . . #middlegradebooks #middlegradereads #middlegrademonday #MGlit #kidlit #pocketfullofmurder #apocketfullofmurder #uncommonmagic #forestofreading2017 #silverbirchaward #bookstagram #reading #bookish #bookworm #booknerd #booklover #bibliophile #booksofinstagram #fortheloveofbooks https://www.instagram.com/p/B-8Ud9jAxGs/?igshid=mlncs5q95ubu

For our third entry in #mybookalphabet, I had to cheat a little since I don’t have any characters or book titles that begin with X… but I do have an important character whose name ends with one, so today it’s X is for ERYX. . That is to say, Eryx Lording, the handsome, charming and idealistic political heir to the magic-powered city of Tarreton in A POCKET FULL OF MURDER. His father the Sagelord might be grossly selfish and indifferent to the needs of Tarreton’s poor, but Eryx is determined to win back the hearts of the working class and change their struggling city for the better. . As I was researching POCKET I did a lot of background reading on 1930’s Toronto (on which the alternate-universe city of Tarreton is based) and how the Depression affected Canadians in general. My twelve-year-old heroine Isaveth lives with her father and three sisters on Cabbage Street, an allusion to the old Cabbagetown neighbourhood later known as Regent’s Park which was one of the poorest areas of Toronto during the Depression. The political rallies and protests in the story reflect those that were going on in Canada at the time, as so many citizens found themselves unemployed and desperate for the basic necessities of life. . Isaveth’s determination to support her family by baking spell-tablets and selling them on the street also echoes the real-life, not nearly so magical efforts of many young girls of Toronto’s past. But Isaveth has more than money to worry about, because her beloved papa has just been falsely accused of murder and taken away to prison. So when Eryx Lording heroically steps in to rescue Isaveth from a tight spot, it’s no surprise that she ends up a little dazzled… . If you’re interested in finding out more about A POCKET FULL OF MURDER, you can find the first chapter on my website — or you can read the whole book on @scribd, along with its sequel A LITTLE TASTE OF POISON, for the next 30 days free! . . . #middlegradebooks #middlegrademarch #MGlit #kidlit #pocketfullofmurder #apocketfullofmurder #uncommonmagic #forestofreading2017 #silverbirchaward #bookstagram #reading #bookish #bookworm #booknerd #booklover #bibliophile #booksofinstagram #fortheloveofbooks https://www.instagram.com/p/B-DX10xgyeb/?igshid=wvnnb05qj9da

It’s another entry in #mybookalphabet! Today’s was a tricky one, as I don’t have many character names or story elements that begin with this letter. But then I remembered Orien, the well-respected governor of Tarreton College, whose untimely death kicks off the plot of A POCKET FULL OF MURDER. . At the beginning of POCKET, Master Orien, the governor of the prestigious Tarreton College, has just offered Isaveth’s hard-working but unemployed Papa a job that could save him and his four daughters from destitution. All seems well until the Lawkeepers turn up at the door, and arrest Urias Breck as the prime suspect in Orien’s murder. . Isaveth knows her father has no motive to kill Master Orien — in fact the opposite — but nobody else seems to believe that he didn’t do it. So she sets out to find the real murderer before it’s too late. In the excerpt I’ve included, she disguises herself as a maid at Tarreton College so she can investigate the scene of the crime, and also get a chance to talk to Orien’s proud and rather prickly secretary about who else visited the Master that day and what really happened. . In many of the Golden Age mystery novels that inspired POCKET and its sequel, the murder victim is a deeply unpleasant person who seems to have earned his or her grisly fate. But real life is seldom so neat or satisfying, and I wanted to explore the impact of a good man’s death on the people left to mourn him — including a couple of characters who turn out to have been somewhat closer to Orien than my heroine Isaveth ever guessed… . If you enjoy reading mysteries, which case or detective have you found the most memorable, and why? . . . #uncommonmagic #apocketfullofmurder #middlegrade #middlegradebooks #middlegradereads #middlegradefiction #middlegradefantasy #middlegrademystery #middlegradelit #mglit #bookstagram #books #booknerd #booklover #bookstagrammer #bookworm #bookwormlife https://www.instagram.com/p/B_V9QxIgC0d/?igshid=1oi6mded1b0bk

The next letter in #mybookalphabet is a vitally important character from A POCKET FULL OF MURDER, even though we don’t see that much of him in the story — Isaveth’s beloved Papa, Urias Breck. . Like the other names in the Breck family and in the Moshite community to which they belong, Urias’s name is a modified version of an old Biblical name, that of Uriah the Hittite. Uriah was a faithful soldier under King David, known for his loyalty, integrity and courage — but when King David wanted Uriah’s wife Bathsheba for his own, he arranged to have Uriah put on the front lines of the battle so he would be killed. In a similar way (though for very different motives), Isaveth’s honest and hardworking father becomes an innocent scapegoat, accused of a murder he didn’t commit. . The quote in this image carousel comes from early in the book when Urias is arrested and dragged off to prison, leaving Isaveth and her three sisters alone. Unlike her older sister Annagail, who works long hours in a shirt factory to help support their family, twelve-year-old Isaveth is too young to have a full-time job — but not too young to realize that she can’t depend on Tarreton’s corrupt political and legal system to clear her Papa’s name. If anyone’s going to find the real murderer and prove Urias’s innocence, it has to be Isaveth herself… . . . #uncommonmagic #apocketfullofmurder #middlegrade #middlegradebooks #middlegradereads #middlegrademarch #middlegrademarch2020 #middlegradefiction #middlegradefantasy #middlegrademystery #middlegradelit #mglit #bookstagram #books #booknerd #booklover #bookstagrammer #bookworm https://www.instagram.com/p/B-XufvPAk3q/?igshid=1vz8tnagc8o86