You've Got Five Pages, The Lost Library by Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass, to Tell Me You're Good.

The first chapter can make or break a reader’s engagement with a story. We as writers must craft brilliant opening pages to hook those picky readers, so let’s study the stories of others to see how they do it! My daughter Blondie came to me a few days ago hoping I could share Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass’ The Lost Library with you, so here we are! I can see why Blondie enjoyed this Middle-Grade tale, too. We have a by-the-rules cat determined to keep mice out of the old house’s basement but refuses to eat them. Mortimer the cat is also a bit envious, for cats do not have many words while mice do. The multiple references to this in the first chapter leave us readers wondering if those abilities with words have something to do with this Middle-Grade mystery. Overall, this first chapter does a fine job establishing the story: we have a sense of our protagonist, we have a sense of how he interacts with others, and we also have a little bit of mystery established with Mortimer describing a guilty feeling about a library book cart in the house’s basement. Why is there a book cart down there? How could old library books make a cat feel so guilty, guilty enough to shoo mice along instead of eating them? I’m intrigued! And hey, if you've got a young reader in your household, The Lost Library could be a fun little mystery to share with them for a little extra after-school read. And what will you find in those first five pages? Let’s find out! Cheers!