2023 IPPY Idependent Publishing Award

LITE: The High Treason Incident, by A. G. Roberts and illustrated by Alicia Schwab is a middle grade fantasy chapter book.

2023 IPPY AWARD

May 24, 2023

Merion is a young mouse who has worked hard to overcome her physical disability and earn her place as a messenger for the Royal Message Service of her country, Lyleechee. When she stumbles upon a plan of high treason, however, her life is upended. In this crisis the intelligence agency LITE is reestablished by Xander Shadow and Merion is recruited to the newly formed LITE Academy as an agent in training. Before she finishes, she will be called upon to use her cunning, courage, and daring to help foil the plot to take over Lyleechee.

Reading Wednesdays

August 10, 2022

Middle grade and Graphic Novels:

Tuesday, August 9th is National Book Lovers Day. I am a sucker for picture books but this week, I switched to reading older books for my reading-for-research series. And check out my middle grade written by A. G. Roberts. https://www.aliciaschwab.com/books#/lite/ #libraryloot

ONE TRICK PONY, by Nathan Hale;
THE SOMEWHAT TRUE ADVENTURE OF SAMMY SHINE, by Henry Cole
THE NOTEBOOK OF DOOM (SERIES): SNEEZE OF THE OCTO-SCHNOZZ, by Troy Cummings

Reading Wednesdays

February 9, 2022

The theme this week is funny and sweet animals!

I’m reading for research. #ReFoReMo (reading for research month) isn’t until March, but look at the #libraryloot I’ve been hauling to the studio!

BEFORE I LEAVE, by Jessixa Bagley

BAABWAA & WOOLIAM, by David Elliot and Melissa Sweet

SLEEP TIGHT CHARLIE, by Michael Escoffier and Kris Di Giacomo.

CHIMPANZEES FOR TEA, by Jo Empson

HOLEY MOLEY, by Lois Ehlert

DINOASAURS LOVE UNDERPANTS, by Claire Freeman and Ben Cort

Reading Wednesdays with author, Matt Lilley

December 29, 2021

Are you hungry? There’s a ton of good eating if you know where to look. My friend, Matt Lilley has a yummy, new book coming out from Tilbury House in January 2022, Good Eating: The Short Life of Krill and is illustrated by Dan Tavis. Perhaps krill are not the kind of food you and I eat but they are on the menu for many ocean creatures from humongous blue whales to not-so-big penguins. I recently received the ARC and the Reader Guide (link below) for this thought-provoking book. It is a belly-full of animal facts about their eventful lives and has been nominated as a “Junior Library Guild Selection”.

“Good Eating: The Short Life of Krill follows the life of an Antarctic krill, starting with an egg sinking in the deep sea. The 2nd-person narrative follows the krill as it metamorphoses from a “six-armed oval” into a 26-legged glutton, and as it rises from the ocean’s deep midnight zone to the surface, encountering all sorts of hungry sea creatures as it grows.

Antarctic krill can catch and eat one-celled phytoplankton, and krill in turn are eaten by the largest animals ever to live on earth—blue whales—as well as by seals, penguins, and a host of others. Antarctic krill are the keystone species of the Southern Ocean.

This book will lead to discussions about

·      The ocean food web
·      Life stages and metamorphosis
·      Narrative point of view”