Folks ask me to reveal middle grade covers from time to time. Sometimes I say yes. Sometimes I say no. If you ever happen to be interested in my doing so then the following elements should ideally be combined:

A nun
A smarmy man with a mustache (handlebar preferred but not required)
An unnerved woman staring at the smarmy man with the aforementioned mustache
A pig
Admittedly, it’s only once in a blue moon when I can find such a book jacket to premiere, but when I can . . . magic!!

Always remember mama: Even if Ruby Clyde was terrible (which it obviously isn’t), even if it was unreadable (which it obviously isn’t), even if you couldn’t even string three coherent words together (which you obviously can), even if you were a babbling idiot in some 19th century insane asylum somewhere (which I suppose we can’t rule out), even if ALL of that were true, Markham, Jesse, Pop, me, and many, many other people in this world still love you more than words can express.

PAPER WISHES by Lois Sepahban Middle Grade Historical Farrar, Straus and Giroux January 5, 2016 Middle Grade Historical It is March of…

If this weren’t such a good book I would play Hollywood Agent and say THE MIDDLE OF SOMEWHERE is Love Story meets Deliverance. There I said it anyway, couldn’t resist.

Cold Mountain, made famous by Charles Frazier’s book and movie by the same name, is about 15 miles south east of Waynesville. The town was founded by Revolutionary War hero Colonel Robert Love who named the town after his commander, the explosive and fiery personality General “Mad” Anthony Wayne.

The Book Shelf has always been owned by women. It offers national and regional bestsellers in fiction and non-fiction, as well and cards and gifts. You are also invited to have coffee and spend your afternoon with a book in their comfortable reading nook. And did I mention their senior citizen discount?