E-galley Review with Author Interview: The Song of the Orphan’s Garden by Nicole M. Hewitt

Posted January 16, 2025 by Lisa Mandina in Review / 8 Comments

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

E-galley Review with Author Interview:  The Song of the Orphan’s Garden by Nicole M. HewittThe Song of Orphan's Garden by Nicole M. Hewitt
Published by Feiwel & Friends on January 21, 2025
Genres: MG Fantasy, Poetry
Pages: 352
Source: the publisher
Format: E-galley
My Rating: five-stars
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Blurb:

Combining the gentleness of Miyazaki, the wintry wonderland of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and the whimsicality of Newbery winner The Girl Who Drank the Moon, Nicole M. Hewitt’s debut middle-grade novel, The Song of Orphan’s Garden, is an enchanting fantasy tale with all the makings of a new classic.

In an arctic world that’s getting colder every day, Lyriana’s only hope of survival is to get her little brother Zave and herself to the fabled Orphan’s Garden. It’s rumored to be the one place in the world not controlled by deadly Winter Spirits or ruled by the tyrant Giant king. In Orphan’s Garden, healing trees will melt away Winter’s pains, and Lyriana and Zave can live safely in the warmth of Spring. If the garden exists, they must find it. They won’t live much longer without it.

Brob, a Giant boy, also needs sanctuary. When the Giant king banishes his family to the Winter Blight, it’s a death sentence. Orphan’s Garden is his family’s only hope, and as far as Brob’s concerned, it belongs to him. After all, he was the one who accidentally used an ancient magic to grow the garden years ago. He has no intention of sharing his haven with pesky humans, who will just use up its magic and ruin it.

When it becomes clear that Orphan’s Garden is in danger of being destroyed, Lyriana and Brob are the only ones who can save it—but only if they can put the ages-old battle between Humans and Giants aside and find a way to work together.

I was so excited to get the chance to read this debut novel by one of my favorite fellow book bloggers early! I don’t read a ton of middle grade books anymore since I switched from being a middle school teacher to a high school librarian. But occasionally I’ll give in and give them a try. It’s kind of interesting that both of the middle grade books I’ve read this year were also novels in verse, as I don’t tend to read a lot of poetry or novels in verse either. However, just like the one I read earlier this year, but in a completely different way, this one was a winner for me as well!

The characters were definitely ones that I was rooting for, especially as we see both sides of the story. We see how both have been led to believe things about the other side based on what they’ve been told. And as younger children, well, 13 years old I believe, that is a time when kids start to look and see maybe things aren’t exactly as they’ve been led to believe by their parents or other adults in their lives. When they start basing their opinions based on their own experiences and making or wanting to make their own decisions.

Lyrianna is on a desperate mission to get her brother to a garden to be healed. And she’s heard of the Orphan’s Garden, where no payment or fee is required and supposedly only orphans are called to it. It is so much tension and being on the edge of the seat while reading hoping that each obstacle can be overcome even in this cold, hard world.

Then there is Brob, which I love the full name, Brobdingnag – which I know that word thanks to The Big Bang Theory, lol. Perfect name for a giant! His family has been turned away from their own garden and lives thanks to what their king has decided is a betrayal, a failure by Brob’s father. They are sent away. And Brob remembers the garden he created when he was separated from his parents a long time ago, and he heads there to show his parents what he’s done and maybe help them to secure favor with the king again.

Of course there are children there that he has to get rid of, human children or tinies as they are called. But soon after getting rid of them, he realizes that maybe he needs them to keep the garden going and not having it turn into the winter blight that surrounds the garden. Together they all come to work together to save it. But then there is danger in either his parents bringing the giants back, or possibly the humans coming to take the garden for themselves. The final battle is one that will be won but not without some losses.

As I said, a wonderful tale that I can’t wait to share with the middle school librarians I know. And I’m so proud of Nicole for creating this wonderful story!

1.  What does your writing process look like? Do you know the whole story when you start?  Or do you just start writing and go with it (seat of the pants writing)?  If you plan it out, how do you do that?  Outline, notecards, post-it-notes, etc.?  

The first book I ever tried to write, I used the pantsing method. I had some very specific scenes in mind- including a beginning and an ending and some pivotal scenes in between – but I didn’t have much else. That didn’t work out so well, because when I got to the “messy middle” (as it’s called – for a reason!!) I had no idea where I was going or what should happen next. I eventually abandoned that book, but I learned some great lessons along the way.

These days, I write myself an outline and use Scrivener to organize things. I also usually do some character/plotting exercises via a writing craft book or two (for The Song of Orphan’s Garden, I worked through Story Genius by Lisa Cron). Even though I don’t end up using everything I come up with in these initial planning phases (and things change because the story demands it), this gives me a jumping off point and an outline so I know where I want to go!

2. Do you edit as you go, or wait till you’re finished before you edit?  How many times would you say you go over it yourself before having another set of eyes look it over? 

I do a bit of editing as I go, especially when I write in verse because the language is so important in verse. Each word needs to be weighed heavily. When I write in prose I can get “good enough” on the page and move on, but I find that a lot harder to do with verse (though I definitely did do that in certain sections). Then I go over everything many, many times. I find with each editing pass, the verse gets more lyrical. I don’t know exactly how many times I went over it myself before sharing it with critique partners – but it was a lot! 

3.  Are you part of a writers group that gets together and helps each other with their writing?

 I’m part of a fantastic local SCBWI group that meets monthly for critiques. Full disclosure – I use this group more for the support/camaraderie than for actual critique, just because I do find novels hard to share in these types of groups. Sharing five pages here and there is tough because people can’t get a real sense of the book. It’s great if there’s a particular scene you’re struggling with, though, or if you just want to get a sense of if the idea resonates. (It also works well for PB critiques and query/synopsis critiques.) I have a few critique partners who I share full manuscripts with, and that feels more useful for actual critique purposes.

4.  How do you come up with your ideas for your stories?

The idea for The Song of Orphan’s Garden came from the short story “The Selfish Giant” by Oscar Wilde (which I listened to over and over as a child). Other story ideas – well, I don’t know. I just get a concept or a character in my head that won’t leave and I expand on it!

5.  How long have you been writing?

 I’ve been writing in one way or another for as long as I can remember. I’ve always had stories in my head that I’ve wanted to share with the world. But I started my first true attempt at a novel during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in 2014. Wow! Just over ten years ago!! (I actually had to go look that up on my blog to find out when it was.) That was the novel I mentioned that was basically a failure, but then I started reading more writing craft books and resources, and my next attempt (in 2016) was much more successful! After many many rounds of editing, that book got me an agent in 2019. But as Shakespeare said, “the path to publishing never did run smooth” (okay, fine, he actually said this about the “course of true love” not about publishing, but it tracks.) That book, unfortunately didn’t sell, but I kept writing, and sold TSoOG in mid-2022!

6.  What tips do you have for aspiring writers?

 Learn as much as you can. Soak it all in – the craft of writing, the publishing industry, the querying process – everything. But then still expect the unexpected because no two writing journeys are alike. Also, expect a long road ahead! (Hey, you might be the exception to the rule, here, but it’s definitely better to prepare yourself for the long haul.)

7.  How important are names in your books?  Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds, or the meaning?  Do you have any name choosing resources you recommend? 

In the past, my names have been chosen pretty randomly, just based on what I like. But for this book, I was much more intentional. Lyriana’s name was chosen to reflect “lyricism” since she’s a Songsummoner. Brob’s name actually comes from Gulliver’s Travels – Brobdingnag is the land in the book that’s inhabited by giants. (Funny story, I originally misspelled the name as Brobdingrag and shortened Brob’s name to Grag – it wasn’t until a late edit of the book that I realized the mistake and I had to change his name!!). Zave’s name is a shortened form of Xavier because he was originally meant to be the “savior” in the climax of the story! I totally changed the climax, but didn’t change his name. 

If you study the map of Gairda, you’ll also find that all of the Giant’s gardens are also named after mythological giants. I had fun with that! Norse mythology has frost giants(!) so I used those stories for reference too. Gairda is a variation on the Norse goddess of gardening and horticulture and Ymir River is named after the forefather of all the frost giants.

8.   What are your favorite:

Books/authors/genres

I’ve always gravitated toward fantasy, which is why I write it. For MG, I love many of the Rick Riordan Presents fantasies that feature mythologies from around the world – the Aru Shah Series by Roshani Chokshi and the Gifted Clans Series by Graci Kim are particular favorites. My YA favorites are the Unwind Series by Neal Shusterman and the Three Dark Crowns Series by Kendare Blake.

When it comes to MG verse novels, I especially love Alone by Megan E. Freeman. My YA favorite is Me (Moth) by Amber McBride.

Movies/TV Shows

My favorite TV show of all time is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (Lisa and I have bonded over Buffy many times in the past!)

Music

I’ll confess I don’t listen to music all that often because I tend to spend “listening time” on audiobooks, and I use random TV shows for background noise. I do love musicals, though. One song that I used to sing over and over again is “So Big/So Small” from Dear Evan Hanson.

Food/Writing snack

I don’t really have a particular writing snack, but one of my favorite foods is BLT pizza. (We have a local place that makes one, and it SO good! Now I want one…)

Nicole first had visions of a writing career when she won the third-grade Young Authors competition at her school. She went on to write and direct many a backyard production–making sure to cast as many of her neighborhood friends as possible so all their parents would be forced to attend and she would have a large audience to view her achievements.

Nicole kept writing throughout high school and college, where she was an acting major but took writing classes as well. She wrote a short play that was chosen to be performed at a showcase, attended mostly by her peers and their parents. (College students’ parents are a big step up from the neighborhood kids’ parents, right?)

After college, she somehow ended up working at a software company as a business analyst, where she wrote stacks and stacks of technical documentation and lamented the loss of her creativity.

When her kids were born, she decided to stay home with them, and eventually ended up homeschooling two of the three (she learned quickly that every child is unique, and each of her three children have ended up on different schooling paths). She rediscovered her love of books and writing when she started her blog Feed Your Fiction Addiction. And she was able to stretch her creative muscles even more when she taught acting, language arts, and writing at a large homeschool co-op for six years. When she couldn’t find plays that worked perfectly for her acting classes, she wrote them. This time she had a whole co-op’s worth of parents forced to watch her productions!

In addition to writing, Nicole now also works as a bookseller, where she gets to spend all day telling people about books she loves.

Nicole’s debut middle grade novel is coming in early 2025!

Author website: https://nicolemhewitt.com/

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8 responses to “E-galley Review with Author Interview: The Song of the Orphan’s Garden by Nicole M. Hewitt

  1. Melanie B

    Great interview! I’d love to read this, good luck to Nicole and wishing her much success on her middle grade novel!

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