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It's been a while since our last event! A little thing (actually a microscopic thing) called a virus got in the way, and then our host bookstore went out of business during the pandemic. But we've overcome all that, and now the All But True series is back, virtually, with the assistance of A Novel Idea on Passyunk, which besides being a great idea is also a wonderful indie bookstore.
The next event, online, is on November 30 at 6:00 p.m. Called Past Present: Time Travel & Historical Fiction for Middle Grade Readers, it features debut novelists Nicole Valentine and Jennifer Robin Barr. Info about registering to join the event will come soon. Meanwhile, here's a description of the two featured books:
In Nicole Valentine’s A Time Traveler’s Theory of Relativity, 12-year-old Finn copes with abandonment and grief by clinging to concrete facts in his physics books, until he learns that the women in his family are Travelers, able to move back and forth in time. His mom is trapped somewhere in the timeline, and she’s left Finn a portal to find her, if only he can leap beyond logic.
The next event, online, is on November 30 at 6:00 p.m. Called Past Present: Time Travel & Historical Fiction for Middle Grade Readers, it features debut novelists Nicole Valentine and Jennifer Robin Barr. Info about registering to join the event will come soon. Meanwhile, here's a description of the two featured books:
In Nicole Valentine’s A Time Traveler’s Theory of Relativity, 12-year-old Finn copes with abandonment and grief by clinging to concrete facts in his physics books, until he learns that the women in his family are Travelers, able to move back and forth in time. His mom is trapped somewhere in the timeline, and she’s left Finn a portal to find her, if only he can leap beyond logic.
“. . . an incredible book, no matter which time universe you’re in.”
—Erin Entrada Kelly, New York Times bestselling author and Newbery Medal winner
“An excellent adventure that pulls at the heart as much as the mind.”
—Fran Wilde, award-winning author of The Bone Universe series and Riverland
Goodbye, Mr. Spalding, Jennifer Robin Barr’s middle grade debut, tells the story of Jimmy and Lola, two enterprising 12-year-olds in Depression-era Philadelphia, who conspire to stop a wall from being built at Shibe Park—a wall that would block their rooftop view of Athletics’ games and cut into their family’s incomes. But the effort strains the friendship, and the pair must work to rebuild their relationship.
“A sweet debut about friendship and love of the game.”
—American Library Association/Booklist
“Life lessons, baseball, and good friends; it’s all here.” —Kirkus Reviews
★ “A great addition to the history curriculum.”
—School Library Connection, starred review
Nicole Valentine earned her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She teaches writing workshops for children’s writers at the Highlights Foundation in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. She was also the founding Chief Technology Officer of Figment.com, an innovative website for teen fiction writers and readers, which sold to Random House in 2013. (Author photo by Nina Pomeroy Photography.)
Drawn to writing about little-known nuggets of history, Jennifer Robin Barr aims to bring the past alive through imaginative explorations of characters’ feelings. An assistant dean at Haverford College, Jennifer wrote two how-to books for adults before writing Goodbye, Mr. Spalding, her first novel. Her next novel is also set in Philadelphia, at Mount Pleasant in Fairmount Park.
