CHILDREN’S BOOKS
“For Blume, [writing children’s books] is a respite from the kind of books she has been writing for adults. Her most recent was Fallout, about the U.S. coverup of the effects of the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Before that, it was Everyone Behaves Badly, about Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises and the decidedly [adult, postwar] adventures of his friends in the ‘Lost Generation.’” In her latest book for young readers, Blume brings some of the protagonists from Hemingway’s world to life for a new generation. It isn’t, however, her first children’s book; Blume has previously written six of those.”
See more on Blume’s works for young readers below.
SOURCE: Romper feature on Blume and her latest children’s novel, Alice Atherton’s Grand Tour, February, 2024.
ALICE ATHERTON’S GRAND TOUR
“Simple yet elegant … [with] tantalizing bits of period artifacts, history, and biography. Sweetly entertaining.” - Kirkus Reviews
“A charming book [that brings] legendary artists to young readers.” - Romper
“An upbeat escapade.” - Publishers Weekly
Set in 1927, the heartwarming story of a young girl sent to live with the extraordinary Murphy Family in southern France.
Ten-year-old Alice Atherton is sent by her father to spend the summer with his dear friends Sara and Gerald Murphy, who live with their three children and pet monkey in the French Riveria. There, Alice will meet and learn from some of the most extraordinary luminaries of the time. She visits a junk yard with Pablo Picasso looking for objects to make into art, performs a dance inspired by celestial bodies with the renowned Ballet Russes, and imagines magical adventures with Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
An uplifting story that will appeal to readers who love books by authors like Kate DiCamillo and Jeanne Birdsall.
MODERN FAIRIES, DWARVES, GOBLINS, AND OTHER NASTIES
“Sometimes funny, sometimes dire, Blume weaves a new look at fairies in the city and leaves the reader wanting more. Even the most countrified kid will find something to love about this truly metropolitan fare. It’s a doozy…Blume has the ability to make you believe in the impossible.”
- Betsy Bird, School Library Journal / Fuse #8
Perhaps you think that fairies are figments of the imagination, or relics of an ancient past. You may even think all fairies are lovely winged creatures who dance in bluebell fields, granting wishes to anyone who encounters them.
You would be wrong on all counts.
Introducing Modern Fairies, Dwarves, Goblins and Other Nasties, guidebook, a tome that divulges the secrets of the modern fairy world. Fairies are still very much alive today, and they are everywhere – in our cities, our backyards, and even our kitchen cupboards. Some of them are indeed the sweet-tempered winged creatures of folklore, but the fairy family also includes goblins, trolls, brownies, and other strange creatures – some of which are revealed in this book for the very first time. While many fairy breeds are harmless, others can be quite nasty or even dangerous.
Both a guidebook and collection of short stories, Modern Fairies, Dwarves, Goblins and Other Nasties is an invaluable source of practical advice on matters such as:
* How to tell a good fairy from a bad one
* How to spot a “fairy ring”
* How to tell the difference between dwarves and trolls (one species is far deadlier than the other)
* How to defend against fairies who would do you harm
… and much more. Also included: eight true cautionary tales about children who have experienced dramatic fairy encounters in ultramodern New York City.
Provocative and peculiar, Modern Fairies earned national attention upon its 2010 release, including a major feature on National Public Radio. The book remains “magical, entertaining and informative … [with] expressive, black-ink illustrations haunt[ing] every page,” wrote the Library School Journal.
CORNELIA AND THE AUDACIOUS ESCAPADES OF THE SOMERSET SISTERS
Over 300,000 copies sold from bookstores and bookfairs across the country.
“Beautiful, moving and humorous, this book will be cherished by anyone who reads it.”
– The Los Angeles Times
Eleven-year-old Cornelia S. Englehard lives in New York City and is the daughter of world-famous concert pianists. Her legacy should feel fabulous, but instead it feels just plain lonely.
In a world where privacy is as rare as diamonds, Cornelia isolates herself inside a fortress of books full of long and complicated words. But when a glamorous writer named Virginia Somerset moves next door with her servant Patel and her mischievous French bulldog, Cornelia discovers that the world is a much more exciting place than she had originally thoughts.
With a cast of unforgettable characters – from the ghost of King Arthur to Pablo Picasso to Virgina’s three winsome and irrepressible sisters – and deliciously imaginative storytelling that takes the reader around the world and back again, Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters is a magical story of friendship and adventure. Children will long remember this “fabulous read that will enchant its audience with the magic to be found in everyday life,” said the School Library Journal in a starred review.
TENNYSON
“Brilliant, unusual writing.”
- The Chicago Tribune
“The writing offers its own hypnotic montage of poetic images, turning stereotypes into archetypes.”
- Publishers Weekly, starred review
“This book is so haunting, so carefully detailed, and so wonderfully written, we dare you not to recommend it to everyone you know.”
– Powell’s Books
It’s 1932, The Depression. Things are evening out among people everywhere. Fresh eggs are a luxury. Diamonds are a dream from another world. On the banks of the Mississippi River, Tennyson Fontaine and her sister, Hattie, play endless games of hide-and-seek and make up fantastical stories about the latest adventures of their wild dog, Jos.
But when their mother doesn’t come home and their father sets off to find her, the sisters are whisked away to Aigredoux, once one of the grandest houses in Louisiana, now a vine-covered ruin.
Their caretaker, Aunt Henrietta, becomes convinced that she can use the girls to save the family’s failing fortunes. But then Tennyson discovers the truth about Aigredoux, the secrets that have remained locked deep within its decaying walls.
Caught in a strange web of time and history, Tennyson comes up with a plan to bring Aigredoux’s past to light. Will it bring her mother home and her family back together? Tennyson is a heart-breakingly evocative story, steeped in Southern lore, about one girl’s struggle to come to terms with her family’s dark past.
Widely noted for its “beautiful, poetic writing” (Booklist), Tennyson earned Blume comparisons to writers Truman Capote and Flannery O’Connor.
JULIA AND THE ART OF PRACTICAL TRAVEL
“A wise and tender story.”
- The Wall Street Journal
“Delightful and quirky…This book is filled with familial love and the joy of traveling.”
- School Library Journal
When her grandmother dies and the once-majestic family estate is sold, eleven-year-old Julia Lancaster and her aunt Constance must take to the road to find Julia’s long-lost mother. They bring with them only the most practical travel things—silver candlestick holders, a few Oriental carpets, some steamer trunks, and Julia’s beloved Brownie camera, which she will use to document their journey across 1960s America.
On the road, Julia and her aunt meet a cast of peculiar characters, including guitar-strumming hippies in Greenwich Village, a legendary voodoo queen in New Orleans, the honorable proprietor of the World’s End Cattle Ranch in Texas, and the colorful sheriff of Gold Point, Nevada (population: 1), who also happens to be the town’s mayor, fire chief, and reverend. But will they find Julia’s mother and a place to call home?
Poignant, engaging, and funny, Julia and the Art of Practical Travel is a meditation on the thin line between being an insider and being an outsider, and the deep-rooted need we all have to find a place where we can feel at home.
THE WONDROUS JOURNALS OF DR. WENDELL WELLINGTON WIGGINS
AN AMAZON “EDITORS’ PICK”: BEST BOOKS FOR AGES 9-12
“The journals are a fascinating mixture of whimsy and reality … an amusing science fantasy with some subtle but incisive commentary on modern civilization.”
- School Library Journal
In the pages of his thought-to-be-lost diaries, Dr. Wendell Wellington Wiggins, the greatest paleozoologist of all time, reveals the secrets of the ancient animal and plant world–a world before human beings; a world before dinosaurs; a world that, until now, existed well beyond the outer reaches of our imaginations.
Oddities such as the deadly Amazonian Whispering Vine (Vitus Sussurus), the curious tribe of Brittle Bones (Futilis Ossis), a rather gaseous northern-lights creature (Animato Inflatio ab Aqulonius), and a mysterious and indispensable pet named Gibear (Chiropetra Vicugna Pacosis) live again in Dr. Wiggins’s vivid and captivating sketches.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that Dr. Wiggins’s journals have surfaced now, in a time predicted by scientists and religions all over the world to be the beginning of the next mass extinction. Can we learn from the mistakes of those who came before us and avoid such a fate?
A strange and original book, The Wondrous Journals of Dr. Wendell Wellington Wiggins has amused and entranced reviewers. “A glorious unveiling of the long-hidden and very weird ‘history’ of life on Earth,” decreed Publisher’s Weekly. Added Kirkus Reviews: “Dr. Wiggins’s discoveries should, as he hopes, ‘enlighten, amuse, appall, and guide young fans of the biosphere’s imaginary reaches.”
THE RISING STAR OF RUSTY NAIL
“A story that is as rich as it is delicious.”
- Booklist, starred review
Time drags in Rusty Nail and nothing ever seems to happen. Once it was the exciting American Coot capital of the world, but in 1953, it’s just a sleepy backwater farm town with one dusty traffic light and a bizarre cast of characters.
Franny has lived there all her life: ten whole years. On the surface, she seems like a regular girl. She goes to school, throws water balloons at her neighbors, and watches space movies at Hauser’s Movie Palace like everyone else. Her dad is an accountant who always forgets to take off his green eyeshade and her mother is the worst cook in town.
But one day, a mysterious Russian woman arrives in town, turns the town upside-down, and changes Franny’s life forever. “Blume has skillfully combined humor, history, and music to create an enjoyable novel that builds to a surprising crescendo,” said the Library School Journal.
The Rising Star of Rusty Nail – inspired by the life of Blume’s mother, a piano prodigy who grew up in the rural Midwest – has delighted readers for nearly a decade.