Hurricane Child review

Hurricane Child cover

I’m perenially catching up on my reading, and just finished Kacen Callender’s 2020 MG debut, Hurricane Child. It was a thoroughly engrossing read. Set in the US Virgin Islands, it delivered a multisensory immersion into the life of a lonely 12-year-old. The main character, Caroline, is friendless and motherless. Her isolation nurtures her unique spirit. Caroline’s not quite like anyone else on the inside, and knows it. She sees spirits, and falls in love with an equally unusual girl.

The book’s structure feels a little messy, but in a way that works. Middle school is messy. For example, Caroline’s questions around her ability to see spirits are left unresolved. But that’s OK. No one’s finished figuring themselves out at 12.

Continue reading “Hurricane Child review”

Making Frances Gilbert Laugh

Text: The marching band filled their tubas. AROOGAHFLOOP
She had me at “Aroogahfloop”.

This past Tuesday, I took in a webinar with Frances Gilbert, cheerfully titled “I’ll Acquire Your Book If You Make Me Laugh: Writing Humorous Picture Books”. Frances Gilbert is both an editor at Doubleday Young Readers and the author of several really funny picture books.

Continue reading “Making Frances Gilbert Laugh”

The problem with near-future SF…

… is that it’s not long before it’s no longer fiction!

My 2019 story The Auditor and the Exorcist included an IoT coffeemaker that was hijacked by a malicious hacker. It’s 2020, and here’s the hacked IoT coffeemaker: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/09/how-a-hacker-turned-a-250-coffee-maker-into-ransom-machine/

Continue reading “The problem with near-future SF…”