Looking for something to read this summer?

I recommend you head on down to your local bookstore (or click on over to your favourite online bookseller) and pick up a copy of INK by Amanda Sun.

Not only is Amanda a good friend of mine from back home in Deep River, she is a great up and coming Young Adult Fiction Author.

The story is about Katie who moves to Japan to live with her aunt after her mom dies.  As a first-timer in Japan, Katie needs to adjust to a lot--new language, alphabet, culture, food--not to mention life without her mom.  In the middle of her adjusting, Katie befriends Tomohiro a  boy with a mysterious secret.  Katie feels like an outsider in her new country and Tomo is an outsider because the things that he draws have a tendency of coming to life and trying to hurt people.  The powers that Tomo finds himself with are due to his connection to the kami, the ancient rulers of Japan.  Katie's presence in Tomo's life and their developing relationship has made his ink drawings more difficult to control.  Tomo and Katie must work together to prevent an already difficult situation from getting even worse.

INK is Amanda's first novel and it is also the first in the Paper Gods series.  There is also a prequel called SHADOW that was published as an ebook on most platforms.

When INK was first released, Amanda asked people to take pictures of her book in the wild.  Here are some:

SHADOW ebook in my iBooks bookshelf

INK in the Coles at Bayshore Shopping Centre in Ottawa

Some reading and knitting on a summer's day

My niece playing with Jenga blocks and INK (it doesn't get much more wild than that ;-)

Every once in a while I come across an image in a book that stays with me or that makes me think differently about something.  This can be for better or for worse (Mordecai Richler, I'm looking at you and your description of orange juice drying and sticking on Duddy Kravitz's feet...).  In INK, Amanda describes the sour sound of rain hitting an aluminum roof.  I have never thought of that sound as being sour before but it totally is! 

 Some other things I will take away from reading Ink:

1.  Tomo puts the hero in Tomohiro! 

2.  I want to try Japanese curry...like really a lot.

3.  I want to see the cherry blossoms some day.

4.  I got in the habit of looking up the Japanse words in the glossary at the end...that brought me back to my French class dictionary days...

5. My only regret is that the next book in the series, RAIN, is not out yet...

If you're looking for a great summer book or wanting to do some couch (lawn chair, or beach towel) travelling this summer I think you should check out INK!

If you're wondering what that green bit of knitting became:

...a Milo Vest! 

Milo is a cute pattern written by Georgie Hallam.  It ranges in size from newborn to 6 yrs.  I figured that this little number would be perfect to knit for the many, many babies coming into my life this year (seriously, nearly everyone I know is expecting and if they're not expecting, they have just given birth!).  

I knitted this lovely in Berroco Vintage DK, an easy-care wool-acrylic-nylon blend (colour: #2175).  I used a US 5 needle for the yoke and hem and a US 6 needle for the body.  The cable pattern is called Aran Braid and is one of many different options included in the pattern.