middle grade reading Archives - fundinmentalfundinmental

MY REVIEW

The Secret Winners Club by Donna Gilanti is written for those between the ages of eight and thirteen, but I think people of all ages can relate to the message: Embrace your own unique self because you’re special just the way you are.

Each chapter begins with an illustration that spotlights a character’s point of view. I love when an author adds that something extra to the story.

Thirteen year old Sunny Whitlock is the main character. She has alopecia, an auto immune disease that caused her to lose her hair. I love the way she deals with it, by making her own headscarves. She doesn’t hide with bland colors, but bursts with colorful designs. She also has joined the junk bot club competition. Her father owns the scrapyard in town, so she has access to a lot of the parts, but her father also donates parts to the club. She gets picked on because of his work. It’s still the usual that we all struggle with, the haves and the have nots and those that are considered different, ouside the norm.

Sunny’s best friends are also auto immune deficient and together they form The Secret Winners Club. The goal is to step outside of their comfort zone, support each other and to win…at any cost. Do you see where this is going? What will be the cost of putting winning ahead of all else? This is one of those things…it’s a great idea, but they are doing it for the wrong reasons. As they begin to succeed, they learn the cost of their decisions.

The Secret Winners Club is a coming of age story that shares thoughts, feelings, and actions we can all learn from. I loved how the characters developed, learning life lessons as they strive to achieve the goals they set for themselves.

Tbank you Donna Galanti for the opportunity to read The Secret Winners Club.

ABOUT THE SECRET WINNERS CLUB

1^st Rule of The Secret Winners Club:
Do whatever it takes.

Thirteen-year-old Sunny Whitlock has alopecia; an autoimmune condition that’s made her lose her hair—and she’s desperate to be seen as more than just the bald kid. But how? By setting an epic goal: win her school’s junkbot club competition. And if she’s #1, then other kids will have to see beyond her disease … and she’ll finally fit in.

Sunny’s immune-deficient best friends are also tired of looking different and achieving second place in their school competitions. With a bold plan, Sunny bands with them to create The Secret Winners Club, a club devised to win—at any cost—and push them outside their comfort zones.

They promise to trust no one else. It’s all classified! And in total secrecy they aim to help one another become #1 before this middle school year is over. But as they start to succeed, they quickly discover that crossing the line and hurting others can make them even more visible and even more an outsider.

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ABOUT DONNA GALANTI

Donna Galanti is the author of the middle-grade ooks Unicorn Island series, Joshua and the
Lightning Road series, and Loon Cove Summer. She’s lived in fun locations including England, her family-owned campground in New Hampshire, and in Hawaii as a U.S. Navy photographer. Donna is an avid outdoor adventurer and nature lover. She volunteers for the Old-Growth Forest Network and the National Audubon Society. For details on her books, events, and school programs, visit donnagalanti.com.

GIVEAWAY

Donna Galanti is offering a paperback (US ONLY) or ebook (International) of her book, Loon Cove Summer. Entry is easy peasy.

Enter a comment that answers the question, do you go on summer vacations?

Giveaway ends 3.10.26

MY DONNA GALANTI REVIEWS

A Human Element
A Hidden Element
Joshua and the Lightning Road
Joshua and the Arrow Realm
Unicorn Island
Unicorn Island (Secret Beneath The Sand)
Unicorn Island (Beyond The Portal)
Loon Cove Summer

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I am a huge fan of Michael F Stewart and was excited when I got my hands on Heart Sister, an amazing story that is a perfect example of The Butterfly Effect in Chaos Theory.

The wonderful cover for Heart Sister definitely fits the story inside.

Amazon / Goodreads

MY REVIEW

I love the cover and it definitely relates to the book and means so much more after reading Heart Sister by Michael F Stewart. Michael speaks from the heart in this fabulous story of a young boy that searches for the people that received his sister’s organs.

The characters are fully developed, richly detailed and I love how Michael F Stewart shows them growing and changing. Emmitt steals the show. It’s not awful enough that he lost his sister, but he lost his twin sister.

The movie that Emmitt is making was a different take on the story than I expected, but a wonderful way to tell the tale. Anything more, you will want to learn for yourself.

My heart goes out to him. I love him. He is doing everything for his mother, to pull her out of her paralyzing depression, but so much happens and many lives are changed. His sister gave them life, he helps them live it.

The butterfly effect is an idea that is more commonly used in chaos theory. it shows that a small change can make much bigger changes happen; that one small incident can have a big impact in the future. The ripple in the pond….

I cannot say enough about this novel, which is inspired by Micheal F Stewart’s own life.

Heart Sister has it all…fun and games, grief and misery, laughs and tears..and the way Michael presented it was heartbreakingly and heartwarmingly wonderful.

Even though Heart Sister is aimed at middle grade, to me, Michael F Stewart’s novels are excellent for all ages. He sends a subtle message that I hear loud and clear.

I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of Heart Sister by Michael F Stewart.

Animated Animals. Pictures, Images and Photos — 5 Stars

GOODREADS BLURB

After Emmitt’s twin sister, Minnie, dies in an accident, his world goes sideways. He’s lost his best friend and it feels like his family is falling apart without her. But Minnie was an organ donor and Emmitt soon receives an anonymous thank you letter from one of the transplant recipients. Inspiration strikes, and he decides to try and put his sister back together, in spirit. He’s going to track down each organ recipient and film them to show his parents Minnie’s selfless act and help them move on. But when each recipient falls short of his expectations and the star of his film, the girl who received his sister’s heart, refuses to meet him, Emmitt has to turn to extreme measures to find her. What he doesn’t know is that his “heart sister” is hiding an agonizing secret, one that could push Emmitt to the breaking point.

ABOUT MICHEL F STEWART

Michael F. Stewart is winner of both the 2015 Claymore Award and the 2014 inaugural Creation of Stories Award for best YA novel at the Toronto International Book Fair.
He likes to combine storytelling with technology and pioneered interactive storytelling with Scholastic Canada, Australia, and New Zealand’s, anti-cyberbullying program Bully For You. In addition to his award winning Assured Destruction series, he has authored four graphic novels with Oxford University Press Canada’s Boldprint series. Publications of nonfiction titles on Corruption and Children’s Rights are published by Scholastic and early readers are out with Pearson Education.

For adults, Michael has written THE SAND DRAGON a horror about a revenant prehistoric vampire set in the tar sands, HURAKAN a Mayan themed thriller which pits the Maya against the MS-13 with a New York family stuck in the middle, 24 BONES an urban fantasy which draws from Egyptian myth, and THE TERMINALS–a covert government unit which solves crimes in this realm by investigating them in the next.

Herder of four daughters, Michael lives to write in Ottawa where he was the Ottawa Public Library’s first Writer in Residence. To learn more about Michael and his next projects visit his website at www.michaelfstewart.com or connect via Twitter @MichaelFStewart.

Michael is represented by Talcott Notch.

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MY MICHAEL F STEWART REVIEWS