Spying on Spies, How Elizebeth Smith Friedman Broke the Nazis’ Secret Codes
Written and illustrated by Marissa Moss
Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2024
I usually feature picture books on my blog, but after receiving and reading a copy of this book from Darlene Beck Jacobson, I thought there might be others who would be fascinated by the tenacity and brilliance of code breakers!
Secret codes are a thing! Decoder rings, special clues, ciphers, and so on are intriguing. I love watching movies where puzzles and special codes are solved on the journey to success (whatever that goal might be). But being clever enough to solve intentionally secretive and difficult secret codes-eek!
Spying on Spies was an amazing chapter book to read. The strategies, machines, and secrecy kept me captivated. I loved that this book focused on a woman code breaker. Go girls! Each chapter begins with a short cartoon/graphic novel type illustration, and then jumps into the chapter. The back matter is glorious! There is not just a glossary, but also photos, additional information and explanations about ciphers and codes, notes, timeline, and bibliography, all of which provide more opportunities to dive deep into the world of code breaking.
You can read more about this book in Darlene’s post here.
Two thumbs up for this fascinating historical book! Perfect for the code breakers in your life!
Written by Darlene Beck Jacobson, Wishes, Dares, and How to Stand Up to a Bully might be just what your middle grade reader needs! OR maybe you also write for middle grade and want to do some research about middle grade books. Either way, thanks Darlene, for this opportunity!
Darlene is offering a copy of her book to someone who comments over on Kathy Temean’s blog. I mean, I would love to hear from you as well (wink, wink), but to get in her drawing, you need to hop over to Kathy’s blog and comment there.
Click the link below to comment. Happy reading, everyone!
Haiku means “light verse.” At its center, haiku are unrhymed three-line poems that focus on nature and are written in simple language. Follow this condensed checklist from How Do You Haiku? to make your haiku shine!
#1 Three Short lines: There are two ways of writing modern haiku. One way is to write haiku using a 5-7-5 pattern of counted syllables. That’s five syllables in the first line, seven in the second line, and five in the third line for a total of 17 syllables. That said, a haiku should take just “one breath” to read, so if counting syllables makes your haiku feel too long or “clumsy,” go ahead and write your poem with three short lines without counting syllables. In modern haiku, both styles are accepted.
#2 Imagery: Painting an image with words is essential for writing a good haiku. Imagery is a word or group of words that tap into the senses. Writing about what you can smell, hear, taste, see, or touch in nature will create strong images in your haiku.
#3 The Real Deal: Haiku is always happening around us. The trick is to pay attention and think deeply about what we see. When I say the real deal, I mean try writing from an actual experience. What you witness firsthand will give you details you couldn’t possibly imagine.
#4 Season Words: Haiku is about seasons, but the poet rarely mentions the season directly instead, they replaced the words winter, spring, summer, and fall with” kigo” (a season word). For example, when we read about tulips, we know it’s springtime without reading the word spring. Use season words whenever possible. I’ve included a template for a Saijiki (season word dictionary) below that you can download and complete to help you when writing haiku.
#5 Feeling: Haiku can make readers feel emotions like loneliness, grief, fear, or joy. The feeling is never said directly. Instead, the emotion is shown through the image the poet paints with words. Instead of writing “the sad dog,” you could write “lost puppy in a storm.” With these descriptive words, your reader can imagine the dog is cold, hungry, afraid, and, therefore, sad.
#6 Love of Nature: Haiku is a brief poem filled with compassion for nature. There is no room for hatred, violence, or cruelty.
#7 Ah! Moment: The best haiku ends in a way that surprises or enlightens your reader. The surprise makes us say, “Ah, I understand,” or “Ah, that’s funny.” The surprise comes at the end of the haiku as a subtle turn or change in the poem.
Now, as promised, here are some fun things you can do with haiku:
Carving a poem on a stone is an old Asian tradition. These stones are called kuhi (coo-hee) that are placed in gardens, parks, and temples.
Kuhi is a great writing activity for the whole family! Walk outside to find a smooth, flat stone, and try your hand at Kuhi! You can paint the rocks and add doodles or drawings if you’d like. Anything goes! Just have fun. Be sure to spray a couple of coats of clear sealing varnish when you are finished to protect your work from the outside elements. Create kuhi for your garden, for a friend, or leave one in a public park for someone to discover.
HAIKU COMICS:
Comic strips offer a contemporary and creative way to celebrate haiku. Download this template with example and write your own haiku comic strip. Remember to use speech bubbles, thought bubbles, and sound words, like swish, pop, or splash.
DIGITAL HAIKU:
Showcase your haiku in a short video or graphic. Here’s an example of a haiku video I created in Canva, but you can use Google Slides, Word Swag, or another digital platform to make your digital haiku featuring your poem along with nature photos or videos. Post your graphics or video on your website or social media platforms to share your #haikumoments.
(Angie here. Sorry, but my blog does not allow videos. Please click the link below to go to Danna’s post on her blog to see her video. It’s super easy. Thank you!)
In tip #4 above, we talked about season words. Every country or region has its own weather and kigo. Download this template to create a Saijiki(season dictionary) for writing your haiku! Print four templates, one for each season.
ENTER GIVEAWAY
I am giving away two paperback Poetry Pop journals to one lucky winner (one of each color)! Use these journals to keep track of your #haikumoments or write along with poetry pop’s posts and challenges. To enter, just comment on this post. Angie will randomly choose a winner on August 21, 2024. If you’d like to purchase a hardcover or paperback Poetry Pop journal, you can do so here.
Thanks again, Angie. This was a blast!
Oh, and readers, did you know Angie contributed to the book How Do You Haiku? You can find her beautiful haiku on pages 36 and 57!
I thoroughly enjoyed this chapter book. In part, I liked learning about a new area to me. Just check out this map at the front of the book! The writing was clean and understandable, characters engaging, the mystery lots of fun, illustrations just right, and current topics were spot on.
~fun setting, normal school adventures for elementary students (homework, projects)
~just right illustrations and back matter
This book is definitely a keeper.
Amazon Blurb:
It’s Fall now and the Cayuga Island Kids are busy with homework, projects, and after school activities. But there’s still plenty of time for mystery and adventure! In the third book in the Cayuga Island Kids chapter book series, Julian is exploring food science as he experiments with recipes on his quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie. Being a cookie sampler takes Mac’s mind off his troubles with fractions. Yoko is practicing gestures and facial expressions in anticipation of the school play tryouts. Maya is Ms. Choi’s helper in the after-school Make-and-Take-Club for younger crafters. Lacey is taking care of the little community library that Gram built—and searching for the next mystery to solve. When two of Ms. Choi’s glitter pens go missing, Maya turns to Lacey for help. The clues and evidence point to a suspect, but are they jumping to conclusions? When a classmate jumps to conclusions and shares false information about Julian’s cookies, the Cayuga Island Kids join forces to set the facts straight. When the kids research explorers for a school project, they uncover misinformation that blurs the truth, and makes the reasons for being a fact detective crystal clear. As the fall leaves turn color, the Cayuga Island Kids come to realize that sorting through clues and evidence—just like research—means making sure information is factual, and not just a fraction of the truth. Young readers will cheer for the Cayuga Island Kids as they embark on this latest adventure involving faulty assumptions, missing facts, flour bugs, and chocolate chip cookies.
Blackout poems are challenging and fun. I love playing with words and this take-everything-away-except-the-words-you-want is an exercise in deleting the fluff. I thought I was done with this poem, but something did not flow. It originally had 17 words. Actually, the entire page had hundreds of words, but I didn’t count those. I kept reading and rereading. Aha! I figured out which 2 words needed to be blacked out. Ta-dah! Here is horse king, a 15-word blackout poem by yours truly.
From the 15-word poem, can anyone guess which book this page comes from? Don’t worry, the book is old, missing pages, and falling apart. Besides recycling, wrapping gifts, art projects, and decorating walls, there is not much else I can do with this book. Let me know your guess in the comments below.
Historical fiction for middle grade, here I come! Thanks to Kathy Temean and her blog Writing and Illustrating, I won a copy of Wheels of Change from author Darlene Beck Jacobson. Thank you both for introducing me to this fascinating trip back in time.
Twelve year old Emily loves spending time in the carriage-building shop, even though it is not appropriate for young ladies who should be spending their time inside learning how to sew, bake, clean, and care for a house. With a quick mind, sincere heart, and means-well actions, Emily seeks answers to why people act the way they do, often getting herself into trouble.
Set around the turn of the century (1890s to 1900s), Wheels of Change indeed focuses on the changes of that time period. From the plight of being female to the lingering after-effects of the abolition of slavery to the ever-moving-forward march of replacing horse and buggy with motorized vehicles, Jacobson does not shy away from history. The clash of changes factors is faced head-on, all through the eyes of Emily. A few facts are based on personal family history while the rest of the story springs from her creative mind.
Why I Loved This Book:
~the story is based on history and changes that cause struggles and disagreements for most people
~the time period is one about which I enjoy reading
~great writing and descriptions allowed me to “see” what was going on
~the emotions and the conflict of the story seemed to be what could have really taken place
~it was obvious that plenty of research went into the writing of this book
~LOVED the back matter and learning about the family connections to this story
~the book would be perfect for young readers to read as they learn about history (for both education and pleasure)
Notable Social Studies Trade Book 2015
Mighty Girl Pick 2015
Grateful American Book Prize Honorable Mention 2015
Amazon Blurb:
Racial intolerance, social change, and sweeping progress make 1908 Washington, D.C., a turbulent place to grow up in for 12-year-old Emily Soper. For Emily, life in Papa’s carriage barn is magic, and she’s more at home hearing the symphony of the blacksmith’s hammer than trying to conform to the proper expectations of young ladies. When Papa’s livelihood is threatened by racist neighbors and horsepower of a different sort, Emily faces changes she’d never imagined. Finding courage and resolve she didn’t know she had, Emily strives to save Papa’s business, even if it means going all the way to the White House.
With Great Power, The Marvelous Stan Lee, An Unauthorized Biography
Written by Annie Hunter Eriksen
Illustrated by Lee Gatlin
Page Street Kids, 2021
Ka-POW! Sending thanks to Annie Hunter Eriksen, Lee Gatlin, and Kathy Temean for sending me a copy of this super picture book about Stan Lee, the comic book hero icon!
I enjoyed reading Kathy’s feature on With Great Power, The Marvelous Stan Lee, An Unauthorized Biography. You can read her post here.
This fun picture book is filled with engaging history, colorful action scenes, and plenty of comic book feel. I thoroughly loved reading more about Stan Lee. If you love comic books and super heroes, you’ll want to read this one! THWACK!
What I Loved About This Book:
~ fascinating information about Stan Lee
~ detailed, comic book feel of the illustrations
~ fun and engaging read
~ inspirational story
Amazon Blurb:
Every superhero has their origin story: a radioactive spider bite turns ordinary teen Peter Parker into Spider-Man, wealthy Tony Stark escapes captivity by building his Iron Man suit, scientist Bruce Banner survives gamma rays only to transform into the Hulk.
For Stan Lee, it was books of adventure, monsters, and magic that helped him transform from an ordinary boy to a superstar superhero creator. At first, reading these stories was a pathway to a world bigger than his family’s tiny apartment in New York City, but it wasn’t long until Stan was crafting his own stories, creating comics professionally when he was still just a teenager! Still, writing wasn’t exciting when the heroes were always the same: strong, perfect, and boring. Stan had a revolutionary idea. What if anyone―even an ordinary kid―could be a superhero?
Discover more about the life of the Cameo King, known to many for his appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and how he revolutionized comics with this vibrant introduction bustling with action, humor, and references for fans new and old. ‘Nuff said!
And the winner is . . . Debra Daugherty! Congratulations, Debra. I will be in touch soon! Thanks everyone, for stopping by to check out Amalia’s new book!
Get ready to read Masha Munching on March 1, 2022!
Hello, dear readers! Welcome to a very important blog post featuring a special book by author-illustrator Amalia Hoffman, Masha Munching!
Be sure to read to the bottomto learn how you can get your name in the hat to win a free copy of Masha Munching, compliments of Yeehoo Press (US only). Thank you, Yeehoo Press and Helen Wu, for this opportunity!
Welcome, Amalia! Let’s get to it and learn more about your newest book.
Congratulations, Amalia, on your newest picture book Masha Munching! Living next door to goats, I couldn’t wait to see what Masha munched. What was your inspiration for Masha Munching?
Growing up in Israel, my family spent our summers in a small village where farmers raised cows, chickens and goats. We used to laugh as the goats tried to nibble on our cloths. I have another book, The Klezmer Bunch, with a goat character, also named Masha, so that means that I have a soft spot for goats. One day, I just came up with this alliteration; Masha Munching and that kind of sat in my brain for a while, till I came up with the idea of a goat that longs for great food.
I love hearing how picture books get their beginning. I’m sure growing up around goats gave you plenty of ideas.
I love that you create all of your own art and illustrations. They are amazing! What is the process you used to create Masha Munching? Do you write the story first or begin with the illustrations?
As an author/illustrator, I usually start by scribbling images and words in my sketchbook. As the story evolves, the scribbles become more and more defined. For Masha Munching, I used paper cuts. The animals and many elements are hand painted and hand cut. I cover the board surface with Liquitex modeling paste and add textures by scraping the surface while it’s wet. When dry, I paint the background on the board. Then I glue all the cut-up elements on the board. When satisfied, I photograph the image. Sometimes, I add more textures, details and color in Photoshop.
Fascinating! So many details and steps. Masha Munching has wonderful backgrounds and colors.
Where do you do your creative work?
In my small studio that was once my son’s bedroom. I like working at home, close to the fridge and coffee pot.
Me too! I work in a she shed I named Huckleberry Hutch.
What special plans do you have to celebrate the March 1, 2022, release of your new book?
I plan to present the book in several libraries and bookstores. I’m in the process of creating a puppet that looks like Masha. I designed it in such a way that the mouth will open and close, so Masha can eat all sorts of stuff like old socks, empty containers, and newspapers. I think the kids will get a kick out of that. I plan to create a video to demonstrate how I created my illustrations. Also, I plan to have a contest on social media for kids to come up with funny things Masha could eat.
What a blast! I think young readers (and their parents and teachers) will enjoy meeting Masha!
You’ve had several picture books published through Yeehoo Press. How did you get started with Yeehoo Press and how do you submit new picture ideas to them?
I found out about Yeehoo Press from a message they posted on Facebook. Then, my agent sent them my book dummy for my story, My Monsterpiece. Yeehoo accepts non-solicited submissions so authors and illustrators can send their submissions directly.
Great advice! Thank you.
What is one tip you could give to new picture book writers and illustrators?
Be tough and ready to take rejections. Join author and illustrators groups. Stay true to yourself. Don’t write what you think will sell. If you’re an illustrator, don’t try to mimic someone else’s style.
You have several wonderful books out in the world. What surprises are you working on now?
I’m working on another picture book, illustrated in the style of Masha Munching and also a nonfiction story.
Yay! I can’t wait to see what’s next.
Thank you, Amalia, for sharing Masha Munching with us! Congratulations and best wishes as you continue to create amazing picture books for young readers.
Ready to find out how to get your name in the hat to win a copy of Masha Munching (US only)? A winner will be randomly chosen in one week on Thursday, January 14.
1. Like and comment on this blog post. Please make sure I have your email address so I can notify you if you win. Example: bookwinner (at) yahoo (dot) com
2. Follow this blog and tell me how you follow. Please make sure I have your email address so I can notify you if you win.
Amazon Blurb:
Award-winning author-illustrator Amalia Hoffman delivers a hilarious tale about a goat with an insatiable appetite and her journey to finding the best meal ever! Perfect for farm animal-loving readers.
Masha LOVES food. She chews and chomps, slops and slurps, and gobbles and gnaws through breakfast, lunch, and dinner on the farm. But Masha grows tired of eating the same meals every day. She decides to venture outside the farm in search of something new.
When Masha discovers The Bistro Magnifique, where waiters serve fancy meals in bow ties, Masha thinks it’s her lucky day! But at a proper restaurant, can Masha satisfy her desire for wonderful food while staying true to herself?
With colorful, intricate paper-cut art to amuse readers on every page, this timeless tale follows a young goat discovering that the best meal is the one shared with good friends.
Author Bio:
Amalia Hoffman is an award-winning author and illustrator of many children’s books, including My Monsterpiece, which was a 2021 Next Generation Indie Book Award gold medal winner; All Colors, a 2019 School Library Journal Best Board Book; and Dreidel Day, a PJ Library selection. She is also the author of The Brave Cyclist: The True Story of a Holocaust Hero, illustrated by Chiara Fedele, which was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. Amalia frequently tells her stories in schools, libraries, and bookstores with puppets and props. She lives in Larchmont, New York.
Books by Amalia:
Masha Munching, Yeehoo Press, Chinese & English versions, March 2022
My Hands Make the World, PJ Publishing, May 2022
My Monsterpiece, Yeehoo Press, Simplified Chinese and English editions March, 2021
Once I received my copy in the mail, I couldn’t put it down. Until I was finished. I loved Jonesy and the many adventures and disasters she encountered in this fast-paced sci-fi tale. I thought it would be fun to reach out to James and invite him to stop by for a visit. Thank you, James!
Welcome, James! Tell us a little about yourself. Hi! I’m a writer and engineer from Michigan. I like long walks on the beach and filling my pockets with fossils along the way, but mostly I write a lot. Outside of that and my day job, most of my time concerns the corgi and pair of high-octane children that have been systematically destroying our house for the last few years.
Oh dear, the dreaded disasters of helpful children and cute dogs!Well done for being able to squeeze in time for writing!
What was your inspiration for Jonesy Flux and the Gray Legion? It’s hard to narrow this down too much. There’s a real sense, for me, that I “had” Jonesy’s story long before I knew about it. Her character came from a one- or two-page sketch about her and some other kids marooned on a space station that I shelved sometime in grad school. Her world came somewhat from that of my very earliest shots at writing a novel in middle school. The concept of Fluxing was what ended up gelling it all together. That’s one item whose inspiration I can point to; although I think I made it mine in the end, I’d be a big fat liarface to deny Fluxing’s roots in a trio of anime series I followed at one point and another. I figure they won’t mean much to most people and the remainder won’t have too tough a time figuring it out, so I’ll leave guessing which as an exercise for the reader (with the hint that one is French). Either way, it all snapped together out of nowhere-or-everywhere at a time when I was really longing to write something fun, colorful, and preferably well-stocked with spaceships. It’s probably no coincidence that this happened when my wife was pregnant with our first child — I think there was a huge element of me just needing to process Kids and Parenting and Identity and Growing Up as I put it all together.
Hahaha. Liarface. In picture book writing, we call those influential books “mentor texts.” ;0I can hear your writing voice even in these answers, which is a huge part of why I loved reading Jonesy Flux.
What was the writing journey you took as you wrote this book? Writing it was a whirlwind. I’ve never taken anything from idea to completed draft as quickly as I did with Jonesy’s story — something like ten weeks! Even if Fluxing was what kicked off the story, Jonesy’s character stole the show for me immediately. Maybe it was because I was a little tired of all the Middle-Grade protagonists who get praised for their virtue and heroism but can’t give an adult a straight answer until the closing scene, but I had a ton of fun exploring the story from the perspective of a “pure-hearted” character who gets in trouble mostly from sticking to her convictions and having high expectations for the hapless adults who cross her path with Grown-Up notions of Compromise and Shades Of Gray. The rest of it was the usual-ish process of editing, waiting a couple of years while my agent moved countries, getting ambushed with a sale to a super-awesome editor, frantically editing some more with the blinds drawn against the lockdownpocalypse, and so on.
That’s amazing! This story was meant to be.
Everything is different right now with COVID-19, but how did you celebrate the book birthday (release) of Jonesy Flux and the Gray Legion? I had plans to celebrate my debut publication day with my last two cans of Vault Soda, but those expired in 2012, so . . . I left them in the fridge. (I made those plans a long time ago. I’m still on the fence about trying one anyway.) We had dinner and cake at my mom’s house instead. It was nice!
Maybe go back to your mom’s for dinner instead (avoid Vault Soda . . . ). But, if you like to live on the edge, please do let us know how it goes and if you get food poisoning.
What’s your next writing project? Will we see Jonesy again? In no particular order, “Yes!” and “Another Jonesy story!” Assuming all goes to plan, her full journey will take a more-than-trilogy sort of series to complete, partly because I am nothing if not overambitious, but mainly because I want to see her shake things up at the grandest possible scale before she boosts off into the stars for the last time.
Yay! Keep me (I mean us) in the loop. I love long drawn out epic tales that are not over too soon and explore all of what can and usually does happen for both good and evil.
Surprise us! What else would you like to share? Oh noes, an open-ended question? Well, I’m (on absolutely no schedule at all) posting bonus content for Jonesy at my website (jamespray.com), including something like 40 pages’ worth of glossary to fill out the backdrop. And I’ll mention that Twitter (@jamespray) is a great place to chat with me for those who might care to, even if it’s really not a great place in pretty much any other respect. Otherwise, I hope everybody has a good day, and maybe takes the chance to help somebody else have a good day. Like, maybe share a video of cute cats instead of that one article that makes you feel like the world is sliding facefirst into an incinerator? Or something. Oh, and a big, big thanks to Angie for helping get the word out about Jonesy!
You are most welcome! Friends, there is indeed a HUGE glossary at https://www.jamespray.com/bonus plus plenty of other fun information. Perhaps if I had realized this, I could have referred to it as I read Jonesy Flux. My engineering/spaceship/technology lingo is a bit behind the times. But NOW I know. Heh-heh.
Thank you, James, for stopping by today! Best wishes as you write future editions about the adventures of Jonesy Flux!
(OOPS! In my picture, I have the hash tag incorrect! Sorry! Should read #Haikufromtwo!)
look! by Angie Quantrell, photo by Angie Quantrell
How fun! I love writing haiku, though I usually pair it with one of my photos. I had so much fun writing the first #Haikufromtwo, I had to do it again! Thanks, Amanda (https://www.instagram.com/amandadavis_art/)!
ridiculous + flower
first word: ridiculous
Taken from Potato Pants! by Laurie Keller (Henry Holt and Company, 2018)
second word: flower
Taken from Jonesy Flux and the Gray Legion by James Pray (Sterling Children’s Books, 2020)
Love, Laughter, and Life 
