With an authentic style and three-dimensional characters that brings to mind Barbara Kingsolver and Jacqueline Mitchard, Judy McGinn's debut short story collection Rising Up on Ordinary Days ushers us into the intimate world of family dynamics and childhood. Complicated relationships between parents, children, siblings and schoolmates, at times touched by magic, at others ominous, enchant us. We climb a tree with a young girl in lace ankle socks. We swim with a tired mother whose son is soon to leave home. We smell, taste fresh biscuits, hear the thunder of wild ponies, and most of all we feel the love. With personalities as varied as that of an eccentric neighborhood hoarder to an older brother confined to a 1960s mental hospital this gem of a collection is filled with love -and the sometimes-transformative power of heart break- in all its many forms and keeps you turning the pages. McGinn's talent for helping us see the world from a child's intense point of view amazes and delights. This book is sure to leave you wanting more. Rachael Ikins, poet, author of Just Two Girls and The Woman with Three Elbows