True Confessions of a Heartless Girl by Martha Brooks

She touched a hand to her face, and a delicious warm feeling fizzed along her fingers, tumbling like a wave through her whole body until it reached all the way down to the tips of her toes.

It’s at this moment that something extraordinary happens:Īs Daisy watched it fly away, her cheek began to tingle as though something was sparkling beneath her skin. “That meant she had actually been on time twice.” Ah, she’s an optimist! Catching sight of a beautiful yellow butterfly stuck in a spider’s web, Daisy saves the insect and releases it. When we meet Daisy Dawson in Chapter 1 (“An Unusual Conversation”), she’s late for class at Nettlegreen Elementary School - yet again - her mother reminding her, as is her habit, “Daisy, don’t dawdle!” Actually, she’d been late three times the week before.

Fortunately for us all, the front jacket flap says that “Steve Voake introduces beginning readers to a little girl with a big heart.” Yes, that emphasis is mine, and color me jumping-up-and-down, since that statement indicates we might have a series on our hands here. And Jessica’s done the illustrations for a new early chapter-book from Candlewick, Daisy Dawson Is on Her Way! by British author Steve Voake (just released yesterday, according to this link).Īnd I’d like to say that this book will so entirely wrap you around its finger and not let you go. I really want to tell you about this book.Īs I mentioned in this recent post about Jessica’s debut title ( Small Sister Clarion Books May 2007), Meserve studied illustration at Edinburgh College of Art, worked in publishing as a children’s book designer, and is now freelance illustrating.

Granted, she was born in New Hampshire, apparently, but she now lives in Edmonton, Canada. Today several blogs will be writing about Canadian authors, and I thought I’d talk a bit about an illustrator whose work I think is one-to-watch, and that would be Jessica Meserve.

Jules: It’s another multi-blog One-Shot World Tour Day (our most recent one being a visit to Australia with our Margo Lanagan interview last August, though I could have sworn we participated in another One-Shot Day.

True Confessions of a Heartless Girl by Martha Brooks