Now you can order my middle grade novel in ebook form from Barnes & Noble Booksellers. If you’re a B&N member, you can use your discount too!

For the tweens on your holiday gift list, this is a book that speaks to their challenges with carving out their own identity, with navigating friendships, and in learning and growing from their family relationships.

It looks like I need to add another sticker to my book cover! My middle grade novel, Finding Tate, has earned the coveted Story Monster Approved! status.

What does that mean? The same people who award the Purple Dragonfly Award each year for children’s books have put my novel through their rigorous process and deemed it a good choice for its target audience.

According to their website:

“The Story Monsters Approved! book designation program was developed to recognize and honor accomplished authors in the field of children’s literature that inspire, inform, teach, or entertain. A Story Monsters seal of approval on your book tells teachers, librarians, and parents they are giving children the very best. 

Kids know when they see the Story Monsters Approved! seal, it means children their own age enjoyed the book and are recommending they read it, too. How do they know that? Because after books pass a first round of rigorous judging by industry experts, the books are then judged by a panel of youth judges who must also endorse the books before they can receive the official seal of approval.”

I am excited to share this news with parents and teachers of fifth to eight graders.

My middle grade novel, Finding Tate, has won a B.R.A.G. Medallion for the Juvenile Fiction category! This Medallion signifies that my novel has passed a two-stage assessment and is in the top 15 – 20% of the many books reviewed by this organization, indieBRAG, LLC. The acronym stands for Book Readers Appreciation Group. I’ve earned a gold B.R.A.G. Medallion sticker for the cover of my novel!

The mission of indieBRAG, at www.BRAGMedallion.com, is “to discover talented self-published authors and help them give their work the attention and recognition it deserves.” This organization has brought together a large group of readers, both individuals and members of book clubs, located in the United States and ten other countries around the globe.

Authors of eBooks are invited to nominate their books for B.R.A.G. review. The book must pass a rigorous, two-stage review process; readers then score the book on ten criteria categories, including plot, characters, dialogue, writing style, content development, title, cover, formatting, and copy editing. The author receives the Report Card on her book and a reader’s review.

My book received the highest grades and I am happy to pass on these reviewer’s comments:

“I really enjoyed this book! Very nice story for middle grade readers. The writer does a good job of creating characters that are relateable to its target audiences. Taylor was very well created and the dialogue is appropriate.”

“I think the flow of the story was good from beginning to end and kept my attention throughout the entire book. I would definitely recommend this book to middle grade readers.”

I hope all my readers enjoy the book! And I’d love to hear what you liked about it!