 I am excited to begin this week of Halloween with a Middle Grade/YA new "Witch" series by a talented author! I can't wait to begin book 2! I am starting it today!  The Blue Witch: (The Witches of Orkney #1) by Alane Adams
When her new friend Hugo's life is put in danger by a stampeding sneevil, a desperate Abigail manages to call up her magic―only to find out it's unlike any other witchling's at the Tarkana Witch Academy! As mysteries deepen around her magic and just who her true parents are, Abigail becomes trapped in a race against time to undo one of her spells before she is kicked out of the coven forever! Rich in Norse mythology, The Blue Witch is the first of a fast-paced young reader series filled with magical spells, mysterious beasts, and witch-hungry spiders! REVIEW By LAWonder10: The Blue Witch is the first in the 'Witches of Orkney' series written for older elementary and Middle Grade age students. Due to some graphic violence, I woulld recommend Middle grade and YA. The Blue Witch was an exciting, fast moving beginning. It is filled with unique, fascinating creatures... Even the human kind. Abigail is not accepted by the other witchlings and feels very lonely. She was miraculously admitted to the coveted Tarkana Fortress Academy for witches. Here she would learn to develop her skills of witchery. Like all schools, it had three bullies determined to get her expelled. She mustn't allow it. One day while trying to avoid their cruelties by breaking rules to get to safety. While doing so, a buy hiding in the tree dropped down to protect her. Thus they both had to flee the grounds to safety... But outside the Academy, there was no safety near... The boy, Hugo, and Abigail began a friendship full of devastating danger, intrigue and unending adventure. They made amazing new discoveries and began the journey of finding their own "paths" of life. The book left the reader eager to delve into the next book, which I intend to do this week preceding Halloween! The Characters were very well developed and the scenes were easily visualized, the added cartoon-like illustrations by Johnathan S Made the imagery even clearer. I do feel for the age group, the occasional strong language needs to be discouraged, not included in children's literary works. I offer a Four and a Half Stars rating. *This book was gifted me with no pressure for a positive review. This is my honest review. OTHER BOOKS in the SERIES:
Alane Adams on Supporting Educators with #PointsForTeachers Teachers spend on average $400-$600 out of their own pockets to provide basic classroom supplies for their students ranging from pencils, dry erase markers, colored paper to glue sticks— a fact which is both heart wrenching and hard to fathom in one of the wealthiest countries in the world. As a children’s author and literacy advocate, I am a huge supporter of helping teachers succeed in the classroom. Last summer, while trolling on Twitter one night, I discovered a grassroots movement gaining momentum on social media. A young teacher in Texas, tired of having to spend money out of her own pocket to provide basic classroom supplies for her classroom had come up with the idea of posting her Amazon wishlist on social media, asking other teachers to help fund it and inviting them to do the same thing. This effort became known as #clearthelists and thousands of teachers began posting their lists and buying items off each other’s lists. The simple joy they felt at empowering themselves to solve this problem by helping fellow teachers spread like wildfire and it quickly became a movement. We quickly put our heads together at Rise Up, the literacy foundation I founded in 2008, and agreed we should try to help as many teachers as we could. Using humorous tweets, I quickly became known as the #gifqueen, and by the time fall had settled in, we had helped fund over 500 teacher wish lists. Since the global pandemic struck, we’ve seen a surge in requests for pandemic-related Back-To-School needs with teachers asking for remote learning tools such as document cameras and new laptops. Classroom needs are changing as well with a need for individualized containers to keep students supplies separate, along with increased sanitation supplies, face masks, hand sanitizer—all this is on top of their normal requirements. We at Rise Up tried to think of new ways to engage and help teachers meet the challenges ahead. I realized I had an enormous stockpile of unused credit card reward points sitting around that could easily be converted into Amazon dollars. Using reward points is easy on Amazon—all you have to do is register your participating rewards credit card—American Express, Citibank, Chase, and Discover are just a few they accept—and when you get to check out, you simply choose “use reward points” and the points value is deducted off your total. This inspired us to expand our efforts to help teachers clear their lists with a movement we call #PointsForTeachers. The goal is to educate individuals who would like to help but maybe don’t know how they can make an impact. We hope to encourage them to look at those unused reward points that are sitting idle on their credit card statements and reach out and find a teacher to help. It’s super simple and easy to make a big impact. All you have to do is follow these steps: · Register your card on Amazon at amazon.com/shopwithpoints. · Search for a teacher to help on Twitter using #pointsforteachers or #clearthelists. · Shop for items on the teacher’s list. · Use your points to pay at checkout! To kick the program off we pledged 1 million reward points toward teacher’s wish lists. To date we’ve helped 200 teachers get back to school with essential items and we have many more to go before we run out of points. To donate your points, just go to JustGiving.com and search for Rise Up Foundation. With everything that is asked of teachers during these challenging times, now more than ever, they need our support to get them the items they need to make a difference in the lives of their students. Won’t you join us in making a difference in the life of a teacher and their classroom today?  About Rise Up Foundation Rise Up Foundation strives to improve the lives of children and families living in poverty and difficult circumstances, as well as teachers and educators of young children. Rise Up supports literacy projects as a path toward improving the future prospects of children in underserved communities by making book donations, providing classroom support, and grant-making. In addition to literacy efforts, Rise Up works with organizations committed to defining and solving the problems that chronic poverty brings to children and their communities. For more information, visit https://riseupfoundation.org or follow on Facebook @Rise.Up.Foundation and on Twitter @RiseUpFdn.  About Alane Adams Alane Adams is the author of award-winning titles that include the Legends of Orkney™ Norse mythology series for middle grade readers, the Witches of Orkney prequel series, and a series of historical picture books set in the 1920s including The Coal Thief. Alane's newest Greek mythology series, The Legends of Olympus debuted Spring 2020 with The Eye of Zeus. Alane Adams and her books have been featured on BBC, Fox, the CW, Parade, Bustle, Today, People, and many more! When Alane is not writing or talking to kids in schools about Reading Is A Superpower, she’s out hiking somewhere in the world or hanging out with her three boys in Southern California. For more information, visit Website ~ Facebook, Twitter and Instagram  Brought to you by SPARKPOINT STUDIO | ALL YOUR STORY NEEDS® • booksparks • sparkpress • she writes press • she writes • she reads •shebooks
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