Happy Monday Everyone! Today I’m excited to have R. M. Romero here to share about her MG fantasy The Tear Collector. It deals with a timely issue—climate change—and I’m looking forward to reading it.
Here’s a blurb from Goodreads:
This
darkly fantastical climate change tale explores hope, memory, and what really
makes a monster—set after the end of the world.
Climate change culminated in the Flood, an
enormous wave that wiped out entire countries. Malka and her younger brother
Ezra survived and now live with Dr. Jonas Hollman on the Island, the only piece
of land left on Earth. Scavenging useful things from the shoreline under the
watchful eye of the Island’s sinister leader Mr. Gray, Malka and her family get
by. Barely.
But an illness called the Sorrow is changing
people into monsters when their memories of the Mainland grow too sad…and Ezra
is the latest to get sick. Desperate not to lose her brother, Malka throws
herself into helping “Uncle” Jonas with his research to find a cure.
Then her family’s dismal lives are turned upside
down by the mysterious Olivia, who crashes a plane on the beach. More people
are out there, she says. The world isn’t lost forever. To save Ezra and the
other Islanders, Malka will have to uncover the secrets of her flooded
world—and the lies even the people she loves have told her about the true
nature of the Sorrow.
R.M. Romero tackles our fear and anxiety
surrounding climate change and weaves it through with hope in this beautifully
told adventure that will resonate with readers young and old.
Now here’s R. M.!
In 2019, after Hurricane Dorian became a Category 5 storm and nearly struck my home of Miami, Florida, I started to grapple with the very real possibility that I might become a climate refugee someday. And since I write for children, I also began to think about how I could discuss the topic of climate change with kids.
The climate crisis is one of the many issue young readers will have to face in their lifetimes. According to the UN Refugee Agency, 32 million people were displayed by weather-related events in 2022—a 41% increase since 2008. Children are smart; they may not know the exact statistics, but they understand that the world around them is changing, and not always for the better. And it’s easy for anyone—kid or adult—to fall prey to what’s referred to as “climate doomerism: the idea that it’s too late to for us to change course and that the harm human beings have done to the environment has already reached the point for no return.
In The Tear Collector, my most recent Middle Grade novel, the worst has already happened: climate change triggered a massive Flood that brought about the end of the world as we know it and my tween protagonists, headstrong Malka and her gentle younger brother Ezra, find themselves on a mysterious Island in the aftermath.
According to the adults around them, the only people who survived are their neighbors. The sea swallowed everything else, and kids like Malka and Ezra have to make due with whatever washes ashore. Worse, climate doomerish has become an actual illness on the Island called the Sorrow, which turns its sufferers into monsters with multiple eyes, legs, and other animal characteristics if they grieve the old world—the “drowned world”—too strongly. Determined to find a cure, Malka decides to help her adopted uncle Dr. Jonas Holman in his research—a grim task that involves collecting the tears of the other Islanders.
The protagonists of The Tear Collector have different responses to the climate crisis. Malka is angry about how the bad choices made by adults created the difficult world that she lives in; Ezra mourns the ecosystems, animals, and people that the Flood destroyed; and the Island’s newest resident Olivia sees the possibility of a way forward despite everything that’s happened.
When I was a young reader myself, I loved stories in which the kid protagonists end up being braver and more competent than the grown-ups and ultimately save the day. But I also knew that saving the day would have to look different in a book like The Tear Collector. Malka and Ezra can’t bring back what was lost or single-handedly solve the climate crisis, but they slowly begin to realize that their future can be better than their present. We can learn from our mistakes, have hope, and use that hope to change things for the better. And hope is was what I wanted to focus on the most in The Tear Collector. Kids need hope. We all do.
Thanks for all your advice, R. M. You can find R. M. https://www.rmromero.com/
Giveaway Details
R. M. is generously offering a hardback of The Tear Collector for a giveaway. To enter, all you need to do is be a follower of my blog (via the follower gadget, email, or bloglovin’ on the right sidebar) and leave a comment by December 6th. If I do not have your email (I can no longer get it from your Google Profile), you must leave it in the comments to enter the contest. Please be sure I have your email address.
If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or other social media sites and/or follow me on Twitter or Bluesky or follow R. M. on her social media sites, mention this in the comments, and I'll give you an extra entry for each. You must be 13 years old or older to enter. This book giveaway is U.S.
Marvelous Middle Grade Monday is hosted by Greg Pattridge. You can find the participating blogs on his blog.
Upcoming Interviews, Guest Posts, and Blog Hops
Monday, December 1st, I’m participating in the Holly Jolly Giveaway Hop`
Wednesday, December 3rd, I have a guest post by Leigh Madrid and a giveaway of her YA My Lips, Her Voice, and my IWSG post
Monday, December 7th, I have an interview with Sarvenaz Tash and a giveaway of The Treasure of Ocean Parkway
Wednesday, December 10th, I have an agent spotlight interview with Andie Smith and a query critique giveaway
Monday, December 15th, I’m participating in the Dashing December Giveaway Hop
Wednesday, December 17th, I have an agent spotlight interview with Marissa Cleveland and a query critique giveaway
I hope to see you on Monday!
0 comments:
Post a Comment