Hi guys!! I remember as a kid my favorite picture book was Rainbow Fish & Friends: The Great Treasure Hunt. I still have it on my book shelf today, even though it’s very worn out and many of the flaps are missing. It was the only book that I saved when I donated a whole box of children’s picture books to my FBLA chapter’s book drive, and I’m happy I did. It’s a little treasure from my childhood. Today, I am very glad to have the author of the Rainbow Fish and Friends series Gail Donovan on the blog today to talk about her latest MG contemporary novel Finchosaurus. I hope you enjoy!
About the Book
How do you help others if you can’t help yourself?
Finch has trouble paying attention in school. He’s just too busy dreaming about uncovering a dinosaur fossil and naming a new species after himself—until he digs up a note in the fifth-grade class garden with the word HELP on it. He is determined to come to the aid of the mystery note-writer. But when the quest turns out to be harder than expected, Finch risks losing two things that he really wants —his best friend Noah, and a field trip to Dinosaur State Park. Acclaimed author Gail Donovan gets inside the hearts and minds of fifth graders on this journey told with unexpected humor and impressive insight.
Finchosaurus releases from Islandport Press on October 23rd! Pre-order it today!
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Getting Inside the Mind and Heart of a Fifth Grader
I have a confession: I’m a children’s writer who doesn’t remember my childhood in great detail. So how do I get inside the heart and mind of a fifth grader?
I once heard Lincoln Peirce give a wonderful answer to the question of how he gets inside the head of somebody like Big Nate, with his big, irrepressible ego. Peirce said, “I’m already there!” He said there was a part of him that goes to bed at night thinking, I bet tomorrow the Red Sox are gonna call me up!
When it comes to fifth graders, “I’m already there,” too.
Fifth grade is an in-between place. You’re not a baby. You’re not a grown-up. You’re in-between.
Picture a toddler, crying at the top of their lungs. If they aren’t happy they will let you know it! Now try to picture a grown-up doing that. It’s hard to imagine. It’s not something we see in real life, for two reasons. One, grown-ups have (hopefully) learned how to navigate their world so that it doesn’t hurt so much. And two, even when it does hurt, they’ve learned not to show their feelings so much.
What do you do in that in-between place, when you still feel things deeply but don’t yet have the ability to control your world? Instead, you have teachers and parents and grown-ups all telling you what to do. But you need to figure it out yourself. Fifth graders trying to figure things out—how to live in the world and still be true to themselves—is what I write about, because I remember how that feels.
But to write for children, is it enough to remember how it feels to be a child, without recalling historical details of your own childhood? I think so. And I take solace in knowing Maurice Sendak thought so, too. In World of Childhood, The Art and Craft of Writing for Children, Sendak said, “People think I have some magic link to my childhood. If there is such a link, it’s a process that bypasses my conscious mind, because I have very little real recollection. I couldn’t stop and tell you why I’m writing and drawing certain episodes; they’re coming from some inner source that does recollect.”
Me, too! So, thank you, Maurice Sendak. Thanks, Lincoln Peirce. And thanks to fifth graders everywhere.
About the Author
Gail Donovan is the author of the middle-grade novels The Waffler, What’s Bugging Bailey Blecker?, and In Memory of Gorfman T. Frog, which was named a New York Public Library Best Books for Children. She is also an author for the Rainbow Fish & Friends picture book series based on the bestselling books of Marcus Pfister. Donovan, who was born and raised in Connecticut, lives in Maine with her husband and two daughters, where, in addition to writing children’s books, she is a library assistant at the Portland Public Library.
Did Someone Say… Giveaway?
10 Winners will receive a copy of Finchosaurus by Gail Donovan
Ends November 5th, 2018
Open to International.
Must be 13+ to enter
Follow the Rest of the Tour Here!
Happy Reading!
+ J.M.J.
~ Kester
“For it is in giving that we receive.” — St. Francis of Assisi
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LILbooKlovers 
Thank you for hosting “Finchosaurus”!
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Thanks so much for coming onto the blog!! It was so great having you!!
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