Book Review of The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow, Titles to Write By, The Monday Muse, Being Thankful

The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow by Jessica Haight and Stephanie Robinson is now available HERE.

After waiting to read it for a long while, I received an ARC of this book and was not disappointed.

My review:

Fairday Morrow is not happy about moving with her family from the city to the country. Her best friend Lizzy, and fellow mystery solver, is a whole hour away! But the minute Fairday steps into the old spooky Begonia House her parent's have bought to turn into a guest house, she knows there's a mystery to solved. Plus, it doesn't take her any time to make friends with Marcus, a boy at her new school. When Lizzy comes to visit over a week-end, the three kids are confronted with an evil willow tree, a villainous being they assume is ghost, and a house loaded with secrets. Will they be able to solve the mystery before Fairday's parents discover they've made a HUGE mistake buying the house?

There's lots of spooky action in this middle grade. Fairday, Lizzy, and Marcus each have distinct well formed personalities as does Begonia House. Even Fairday's dog, Auntie Em, is a character. I'm looking forward to reading any further adventures the Detective Mystery Squad may have.

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Next week, Monday the 14th, I will be one of Jessica and Stephanie's stops on their fabulous tour!

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"Titles to Write By" is an occasional blog post in which we play with a single word and turn it into, what else, titles! Afterwards the object is to pick one of them and write a little something.

It was Ray Bradbury, in his book ZEN IN THE ART OF WRITING, who taught me about making lists of words and turning them into titles. If you haven't read it I highly recommend it.

For no particular reason today's word is: (Well, that's not entirely true. With all the anger, fear, and hate being thrown at us by the media these days, a little COMPASSION would be a good thing.)

The Heart of Compassion

Compassion Comes In All Sizes

How Compassion Saved the World

The Doorway into Compassion

The Life of a Compassionate Mind

After Anger, Compassion

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The Monday Muse: In which we take one of the above titles and play with it.

After Anger, Compassion

Anger clouded his face, a dark bruised cloud in shades of blue-black purple, streaked with red lightening bolts.

"She makes me so mad..." he said.

"Where is the anger?" I asked.

He pounded his chest with a fist, slapped his head. "Here!"

"So how is she making you so angry when the anger is inside you?"

The darkness on his face seemed to fade every so slightly.

 "Isn't it your own mind making you mad? Isn't it the story you keep telling yourself over and over about how she left you that keeps the anger fueled?"

He looked at me, eyes narrowing.

"Think of a time when you were really very happy," I said.

The hard lines around his eyes softened, the hint of a smile peaked out from behind the dark clouds.

"There," I said. "Who is that? Who is making you happy?"

He looked away from me as if embarrassed. "I am."

"And who is making you mad?"

He shrugged wiping away the first tears of pent up pain. "I am."

"Don't you think it's time you gave yourself a little compassion?"

***
Being Thankful

Today I'm thankful for robins.

Robins aren't true migratory birds, they simply go where the food is. Because of the drought, we haven't seen any for the last four or five years.
Thanks to a wet spring and fall they're back.

What a delight it is to hear their chirping in the trees surrounding our home, to see them flying across the sky by the hundreds.

Welcome back robins!

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What are you thankful for? Have you read The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow? Care to share a title in the comments? Do any of the titles interest your muse?