From Anvil Publishing Instagram Page: Join the book launch of “Wild Song” by Candy Gourlay! The new YA novel follows a Bontok teenager named Luki whose life changes forever when she is invited to the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
The event will be at 3:00 PM on August 26 [2023] (Saturday) at the Level 1 Main Wing Hallway in front of National Book Store Shangri-La Plaza. Register here.
Admission is FREE! There will be an open forum and book signing session with Candy Gourlay. We hope to see you there!
Love is strange. It’s an acute kind of loneliness, isn’t it? That constant yearning for the other person. That hunger. I didn’t think it was possible but there it was. It’s not pleasure but pain.
What you want is not always what you get.
Even when your wishes come true
Andi desperately hopes her long lost half-brother Bernardo will be as mad on basketball as she is. But when he steps off the plane from the Philippines, she cannot believe her eyes. She hasn't seen him for ten years, but even so, how did he get to be EIGHT FOOT TALL? An eight-foot tall boy who is about to crash into her life with his size 22 feet.
But Bernardo is not what he seems.
Bernardo is a hero, Bernardo works miracles, and Bernardo has an amazing story to tell.
My Thoughts
My Rating: 4/5 stars
I absolutely love and adore this book! This is the story of Bernardo and his family, dealing with unusual things such as being EIGHT FOOT TALL and moving to London after being away from his mom and sister for so long. First of all, we get a dual perspective, one from Andi and one from Bernardo. They tell us two converging stories, one from before Bernardo arrived in London (Bernardo’s perspective) and one after (Andi’s perspective). Half of the story is then set in San Andres, Philippines. I am so unbelievably excited that a book like this has been published where it’s set in my home country!
The style of narration is interesting because we get to learn about this family and their personalities through the eyes of two kids, and we see each of the main characters as they get to know each other. It feels like they’re sitting down telling you the story of how this EIGHT FOOT TALL giant came to be and it’s just such a fun writing style. The chapters are really short, so you go through this book super quick!
The family aspect is also so real. It feels absolutely wonderful to be able to relate so well to the characters. The Filipino culture felt so genuine and not forced. We got to see glimpses of it in a natural way. I do wish there was more Tagalog phrases interwoven. I would have lost my shit had there been complete sentences in Tagalog, but it’s fine it’s fine.I love the little phone calls, the special attention to time zones because I understand that the struggle is real. The mom and the dad figures aren’t just adults in the background; they’re actually important characters. I love them all so much.
My favorite part is probably when Bernardo talks and his English isn’t quite right (he makes a lot of grammatical mistakes and his accent is thick, especially with uncertainty), BUT NO ONE IN THE ENTIRE BOOK EVER MAKES FUN OF HIM FOR IT! God, when I first moved from the Philippines, people made fun of the way I said things, and it was so lovely to see this where people acknowledge that he’s learning and trying his best. It was done in such a funny (but really respectful) way, and I really appreciate it.
I HIGHLY ABSOLUTELY MOST ARDENTLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK. YOU NEED TO READ IT. GO!
PS - If you can listen to this on audio as well, that would be superb! The narrators did such a fantastic job, and they make it all the more humorous.
Please do yourself a favor and enjoy a fun book. GOOOOOOOO.
It has been a while, hasn’t it? But I’m back with this again since my work sched has finally loosened up a little! In this week’s edition, we’ve got news from the Frankfurt Book Fair, Reese Witherspoon’s first novel, and the death of Baek Se-hee.
Continue reading Your Week in Books #44
It’s the 20th anniversary of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
It’s the only largest organisation for published AND unpublished writers in the world and I’ve been part of it for years. Holding hands with fellow writers as we climb through the snowdrift of rejection letters to publication has kept many of us going.
4 MG Books to Read During Filipino American History Month
Are you looking for new Middle Grade books to add to your shelf? Hollywood News Source has you covered! As part of our celebration of Filipino American History Month, we’ll be recommending four of our favorite MG books. This list is very scarce, it features two Filipino authors, Erin Entrada Kelly and Candy Gourlay. Even though there is a…
4 MG Books to Read During Filipino American History Month was originally published on Hollywood News Source
We Got Candy and Chocolates at our Megaphone Master Class
It was fitting that the Custard Factory was bustling with young families celebrating Roald Dahl Day as we patiently waited in room 204 for Candy to arrive. Joyce brought along a box of chocolates which bore a striking resemblance to Ferrero Roche but were clearly labelled M&S Operettas, for any eagle-eyed lawyers out there. They were divine, almost as good as any Willy Wonka confection.
The topic of the master class was structure. Candy led us through her own writing journey by way of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. She told us about growing up in the Philippines, a place of hardship, emigration and natural disasters. If you have studied screenwriting then the Hero’s Journey will be familiar to you and Candy’s treacherous journey in getting published ended happily, of course, as she learnt along the way how to write a novel that was true to herself rather than an English facsimile. Candy is a dynamic, warm, funny speaker who engaged us from start. She made us do an exercise where we plotted out all the major points of our stories from beginning to end.
What was our hero/heroine looking for?
What do they want or desire?
Over the course of the journey what will it be that they realise they actually need?
Child protagonists tend to be written as passive as they cannot take action in the same way as an adult but our young hero/heroine needs to be active, making a high-stakes choice that is both visual and emotional that will shift the story up a gear.
I thought about my own story which is acquiring layers which is good because I was worried that my story would be too thin. I don’t want a ‘quiet’ novel because publishers don’t want ‘quiet’ novels no matter how well written they are. Listening to Candy, I’m determined that my heroine seizes the moment as much as she can throughout the story, after all it’s her story. My heroine’s desire is the thread that will string my plot points together into a cohesive novel.
Candy said that symmetry in beginnings and endings helps to give a novel a sense of completeness. I would have to be a masterful writer to accomplish that as I can’t see the symmetry yet, I’m too early in my draft trying to get the thing written, but I love the idea of a novel being bookended by two mirroring scenes.
We were filmed for Central News so we might pop up at some point on the telly. Who knows with these things.
It was a drizzly, cold afternoon with darkening skies as I dashed out to do some last-minute shopping. I really wanted to stick around but time was against me. We’ve all agreed that we need to spend time together as it’s as vital as our master classes and mentoring sessions. We learn so much from one another, talking about our anxieties, worries, writing experiences, hopes and dreams. It’s such a privilege being part of Megaphone and I can’t wait for the next master class.
