award-winning picture book and middle-grade author
An Enemy of Envy :: Austin Kleon
What are we teaching boys when we discourage them from reading books about girls? :: The Washington Post
Boo Hags and Br’er Rabbit: Your Black Folklore Starter Pack :: Shondaland
Word Count for Novels and Children’s Books: The Definitive Post :: Writer’s Digest
Auspicious Days: Musing on Childhood Readings :: Writer Unboxed
10 Things I Learned on Book Tour :: Modern Mrs. Darcy
age group: 8-12 years
genre: ghost mystery
setting: rural South
Karen Strong’s website
Strong’s prose pours from her pen like iced sweet tea on an August afternoon—it’s refreshing, steeped in tradition, and mixed with love. A stirring Southern middle-grade book that burns brighter than fireworks on the Fourth.
— Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
Strong’s prose presents a world so real readers will feel the warm Georgia breeze, or the haints’ chilling breath down your neck….Readers will need a sweet tea to calm their nerves after this emotional adventure. First purchase for all collections.
— School Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
Strong packs a lot of heart into this vivid debut about love, family, forgiveness, and the kinds of horrors few can scarcely conceive….Free-flowing dialogue, a rich story line, and warm characters nicely ground the more supernatural elements. This is a must for readers who appreciate a heartfelt mystery.
— Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
Readers of Turnage’s Three Times Lucky will appreciate this well-wrought, atmospheric mystery.
— Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
Karen and I met a good ten years ago through blogging. I’m thrilled to be able to share her debut novel with you today! Welcome, Karen. Please tell us about your book.
Just South of Home
What inspired you to write this story?
This story is inspired by my girlhood of growing up in the rural South where I heard stories of curses, haints, and secrets.
How did you conduct research for the book?
I didn’t have to do much research since the book was primarily inspired by my own upbringing and Black Southern culture, but I did have to delve into some historical aspects of the 1940’s. My focus included sharecropping and the landscape of the segregated South during Jim Crow. I also read books from that period and interviewed relatives who were children and/or young adults during the 1940’s-1950’s.
What are some challenges associated with fictionalizing difficult topics and events?
I think the biggest challenge was to figure out a way to write about racial terrorism without it becoming a high-level history lesson or to focus solely on Black pain. I knew I wanted to focus on a specific family and how the unacknowledged past was literally haunting them. I know some people may be concerned that middle-grade readers won’t be able to handle some of these details. While writing this novel, I wanted to present this information in a way that was accessible to this age group while also not glossing over the truth. We need to give middle-school readers more credit because they can handle reading about the darker history of our nation.
What themes does your book touch upon that would make it a perfect fit for the classroom?
There are many themes in Just South of Home that would make it a great addition to the classroom:
The theme of relationships between friends and family. How do you forgive a friend? How do you deal with difficult relatives? Are blood relatives the only form of family?
The theme of social justice. What does it mean to honor victims? How do you find the courage to do the right thing? What can a community do to deal with tragic events? What are some of the things we can do to heal from trauma?
The themes of empathy and vulnerability. What do you do when someone disappoints you? How can we relate with those who are different from us? How can we overcome our own personal bias in our relationships to others?
The theme of science vs the supernatural. Do you believe in the spirit world? How does the scientific method prove or disprove the existence of ghosts? Do you think a person’s beliefs in the supernatural can be changed with the proof of science? Can science and the supernatural exist in the same world?
Even as you seek books that you will enjoy reading, demand ones that make demands on you. Books with sentences so exquisitely crafted that they must be reread, familiar words used in fresh ways, new words so evocative that you are compelled to look them up, and images and ideas so arresting that they return to you unbidden for days to come.
— Karen Swallow Prior
Jamie and I became fast friends in our early twenties before either of us had children. (Now we’re middle-aged mamas with five teens between us.) Her newest book, Introverted Mom: Your Guide to More Calm, Less Guilt, and Quiet Joy, is the book I wish I’d had when my guys were little and I (guiltily) longed for a few quiet moments alone. Much like Susan Cain’s Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, I stepped away from my reading proud of the way I’m wired. Being an introvert isn’t wrong or less-than, and meeting your needs as an introvert isn’t a self-centered act.
Introverted Mom is full of encouragement, candid stories from Jamie’s life, reminders of God’s steady grace, and moments of humor other introverts will understand. The book is structured around the lives of four literary introverts many book lovers will consider old friends — Jane Austen, L. M. Montgomery, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Louisa May Alcott. All chapter titles come from one of the authors’ works. I appreciated the reminder that while our lives might feel quite different from these nineteenth-century women, our needs are largely the same.
Fellow introverts in need of some space and validation — Introverted Mom reads like a heart-to-heart. Settle in with a cozy blanket and cup of tea!
As long-time readers here might remember, I have a picture book about a remarkable journey coming out later this year. It’s called A Race Around the World: The True Story of Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland. In 1889, a journalist named Nellie Bly set out on a round-the-world trip that she hoped to complete in less than 80 days. Unbeknownst to Nellie (and unbeknownst to me when I first started researching her story), another lady journalist named Elizabeth Bisland embarked on a competing journey that very same day!
From first idea to finishing edits, this book has been an adventure to write. I’ve loved delving into the lives of two very different women who nevertheless shared an experience no one else in the world could claim. Nellie and Elizabeth “girdled the globe” faster than anyone who’d tried before, even beating the fictional record of Jules Verne’s storybook character, Phileas Fogg. I’ve been excited every time I’ve returned to this project. The story is compelling because it’s real. I love knowing young readers can have a Nellie book on their shelves just as I did as a child.
Here’s the beautiful cover for A Race Around the World, illustrated by Alexandra Bye. That’s our westward traveler, Elizabeth, on the left, with her pen in hand, and eastbound Nellie on the right, with the only dress, coat, and bag she brought with her. The steam train and steam ship were Nellie and Elizabeth’s primary means of travel. The inclusion of the compass and watch show this race was a journey of distance and time. Isn’t it just lovely?
Once a cover goes live, readers are able to place pre-orders, which signal to publishers interest in a book. The more early interest, the more orders retail and online bookstores make, which in turn influences the number of books a publishing house prints. Did you know pre-orders typically account for 3-30% of a book’s total sales? Readers hold tremendous power in welcoming a book into the world!
If you’d like to read of Nellie and Elizabeth’s one-of-a-kind journey, please consider placing an order through, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or your local independent bookseller. Thank you, friends, for your ongoing support. It means so very much.
