Review and Interview: The Girl Who Could Not Dream by Sarah Beth Durst @sarahbethdurst @HMHKids

Title: The Girl Who Could Not Dream
Author: Sarah Beth Durst
Publisher: Clarion Books (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Release Date: November 3, 2015
Sophie's favorite place in the world is the hidden shop beneath her parent's bookstore where dreams are bought and sold to select and secretive strangers. Sophie is fascinated by dreams -- weird, scary, or magical -- in part because she has never had a single dream of her own.

When the shop's dreams are stolen and her mother and father go mysteriously missing, Sophie must unravel the truth to save her parents. Together with her best friend -- a wisecracking and fanatically loyal monster named Monster -- she must decide who to trust with her family's carefully-guarded secrets. Who will help them, and who will betray them?

Interview

Amber: Thank you so much for stopping by Bibliophilia, Please again for your newest book! Please tell us what has been going on since your last stop?

Sarah Beth Durst: Lots of writing!

I've pretty much pared down my life these days to (1) writing and (2) spending time with my family. Also eating. And sleeping. And last weekend I watched too many episodes of Tiny House Hunters because I simply cannot imagine my book collection ever fitting in a house like that and I was fascinated. But I'm counting that as "spending time with my family" because I didn't watch alone.

Amber: What should we know about your new book, The Girl Who Could Not Dream?

Audiobook Review: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente #giveaway

Title: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (Fairyland #1)
Author: Catherynne M. Valente, Ana Juan (Illustrator)
Narrator: Catherynne M. Valente
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends (Macmillan)
Release Date: May 10, 2011
Acquired Via: Personal Collection
Twelve-year-old September lives in Omaha, and used to have an ordinary life, until her father went to war and her mother went to work. One day, September is met at her kitchen window by a Green Wind (taking the form of a gentleman in a green jacket), who invites her on an adventure, implying that her help is needed in Fairyland. The new Marquess is unpredictable and fickle, and also not much older than September. Only September can retrieve a talisman the Marquess wants from the enchanted woods, and if she doesn't . . . then the Marquess will make life impossible for the inhabitants of Fairyland. September is already making new friends, including a book-loving Wyvern and a mysterious boy named Saturday.

With exquisite illustrations by acclaimed artist Ana Juan, Fairyland lives up to the sensation it created when author Catherynne M. Valente first posted it online. For readers of all ages who love the charm of Alice in Wonderland and the soul of The Golden Compass, here is a reading experience unto itself: unforgettable, and so very beautiful.

My Review

I've been meaning to read The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making for years, but I've kept putting it off. I have owned copies on and off over the years. I truly believe the time was right when I finally did read it because The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland was exactly what I needed. I am in no way exaggerating when I tell you that when it comes to adventures in a magical land, it's right up there with The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland.

Blog Tour (Guest Post): #ChasingSecrets by Gennifer Choldenko #giveaway #historicalfiction @randomhousekids

Title: Chasing Secrets
Author: Gennifer Choldenko
Publisher: Wendy Lambe Books (Penguin Random House)
Release Date: August 4, 2015
Newbery Honor–winning author Gennifer Choldenko deftly combines humor, tragedy, fascinating historical detail, and a medical mystery in this exuberant new novel.

San Francisco, 1900. The Gilded Age. A fantastic time to be alive for lots of people . . . but not thirteen-year-old Lizzie Kennedy, stuck at Miss Barstow’s snobby school for girls. Lizzie’s secret passion is science, an unsuitable subject for finishing-school girls. Lizzie lives to go on house calls with her physician father. On those visits to his patients, she discovers a hidden dark side of the city—a side that’s full of secrets, rats, and rumors of the plague.

The newspapers, her powerful uncle, and her beloved papa all deny that the plague has reached San Francisco. So why is the heart of the city under quarantine? Why are angry mobs trying to burn Chinatown to the ground? Why is Noah, the Chinese cook’s son, suddenly making Lizzie question everything she has known to be true? Ignoring the rules of race and class, Lizzie and Noah must put the pieces together in a heart-stopping race to save the people they love.

Guest Post

One of the best things about writing for kids is I get to read books I love to read and that fascinate my characters. I picked up a nonfiction book about rats partly for Jimmy Mattaman from the Al Capone books and partly because I’m partial to quirky facts. While reading Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City’s Most Unwanted Inhabitants, I discovered there was a plague outbreak in San Francisco in 1900. I’ve lived in the San Francisco Bay area most of my adult life, and I’d never heard of a plague outbreak here, so I immediately became interested.

So You Want to Be a Princess Blog Tour: From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess by Meg Cabot #Giveaway #MiddleSchoolPrincess

Happy Wednesday, fellow bibliophiles, and thank you for visiting my stop on the So You Want to Be a Princess blog tour! This tour consists of essays written by bloggers about what they would do if they woke up one morning and found themselves to be a princes or princesses. There is also a giveaway on this stop, thanks to our wonderful friends at Macmillan!



Title: From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess (From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess #1)
Author: Meg Cabot
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends (Macmillan)
Release Date: May 19, 2015
Olivia Grace Clarisse Mignonette Harrison is a completely average twelve-year-old: average height, average weight, average brown hair of average length, average brown skin and average hazel eyes. The only things about her that aren't average are her name (too long and princess themed), her ability to draw animals (useful for her future career as a wildlife illustrator), and the fact that she is a half-orphan who has never met her father and is forced to live with her aunt and uncle (who treat her almost like their own kids, so she doesn't want to complain).

Then one completely average day, everything goes wrong: the most popular girl in school, Annabelle Jenkins, threatens to beat her up, the principal gives her a demerit, and she's knocked down at the bus stop...

Until a limo containing Princess Mia Thermopolis of Genovia pulls up to invite her to New York to finally meet her father, who promptly invites her to come live with him, Mia, Grandmère and her two fabulous poodles...

Maybe Olivia Grace Clarisse Mignonette Harrison isn't so average after all!

What I Would Do If I Woke Up a Princess

As a mother, I don't get too many opportunities to be selfish. However, if I woke up one morning and found myself to be a princess, I would exercise a little bit of selfishness - in the beginning.

The first thing I would do if I woke up a princess is roll back over and wake up at a more reasonable hour. My five o'clock alarm clock is a little ridiculous. I mean, who doesn't prefer to wake up with the sun shining in the windows on them?! And, of course, I would require a breakfast of pancakes from scratch, fresh fruit, egg whites, and maybe a filet mignon for protein to get me through the day. I mean, I'm sure being a princess would be hard work, and I'd need some energy to get me through my first day!

Early Review: A Curious Tale of the In-Between by Lauren DeStefano (ARC)

Title: A Curious Tale of the In-Between (Pram #1)
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Release Date: September 1, 2015
Acquired Via: Around the World ARC Tours
Pram Bellamy is special—she can talk to ghosts. She doesn't have too many friends amongst the living, but that's all right. She has her books, she has her aunts, and she has her best friend, the ghostly Felix.

Then Pram meets Clarence, a boy from school who has also lost a parent and is looking for answers. Together they arrive at the door of the mysterious Lady Savant, who promises to help. But this spiritualist knows the true nature of Pram's power, and what she has planned is more terrifying than any ghost.

New York Times bestselling author Lauren DeStefano is beloved by critics and readers alike, and her middle grade debut is lyrical, evocative and not to be missed.

My Review

When I received A Curious Tale of the In-Between, I knew that I would be reading a beautifully written book. I've read DeStefano's Wither, and I follow her on Facebook, reading the informal writing that she shares there. I was not disappointed. I did find, however, that the book was not something that I would ever expect from a middle grade novel because she truly wrote it for its target audience and not the "standard".

Waiting on Wednesday (89): Monstrous by MarcyKate Connolly

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.



Title: Monstrous
Author: MarcyKate Connolly
Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books
Release Date: February 10, 2015
The city of Bryre suffers under the magic of an evil wizard. Because of his curse, girls sicken and disappear without a trace, and Bryre’s inhabitants live in fear. No one is allowed outside after dark.

Yet night is the only time that Kymera can enter this dangerous city, for she must not be seen by humans. Her father says they would not understand her wings, the bolts in her neck, or her spiky tail—they would kill her. They would not understand that she was created for a purpose: to rescue the girls of Bryre.

Despite her caution, a boy named Ren sees Kym and begins to leave a perfect red rose for her every evening. As they become friends, Kym learns that Ren knows about the missing girls, the wizard, and the evil magic that haunts Bryre.

And what he knows will change Kym’s life.


This sounds like it was written just for me! Curses and beastly girls! I just love a good Beauty and the Beast retelling, especially one mixed with Frankenstein and has the girl as the beast.

What are you waiting on this week?

Review: Beastkeeper by Cat Hellisen

Title: Beastkeeper
Author: Cat Hellisen
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (Macmillan)
Release Date: February 3, 2015
Acquired Via: Publisher
Sarah has always been on the move. Her mother hates the cold, so every few months her parents pack their bags and drag her off after the sun. She’s grown up lonely and longing for magic. She doesn’t know that it’s magic her parents are running from.

When Sarah’s mother walks out on their family, all the strange old magic they have tried to hide from comes rising into their mundane world. Her father begins to change into something wild and beastly, but before his transformation is complete, he takes Sarah to her grandparents—people she has never met, didn’t even know were still alive.

Deep in the forest, in a crumbling ruin of a castle, Sarah begins to untangle the layers of curses affecting her family bloodlines, until she discovers that the curse has carried over to her, too. The day she falls in love for the first time, Sarah will transform into a beast . . . unless she can figure out a way to break the curse forever.

My Review

I wanted to read Beastkeeper because it seemed like Beauty and the Beast except the girl is the beast. I loved the cover, too, and it makes a lot more sense now that I've read the book.

It seemed more like a middle grade novel than an older YA novel, not in the way it was written, but because the thoughts and actions of the main character were that of someone who wasn't yet a teenager. The writing, however, was beautiful and more mature than middle grade fiction.

Blog Tour (Review): Tuck Everlasting - 40th Anniversary Edition #Tuck40th

2015 marks the 40th anniversary of Natalie Babbitt’s celebrated, groundbreaking title Tuck Everlasting (Anniversary edition on sale January 20). In celebration of the anniversary, Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group will publish a special anniversary edition featuring an introduction from Wicked author Gregory Maguire.

Tuck Everlasting asks readers “What if you could live forever?” Doomed to, or blessed with, eternal life after drinking from a magic spring, the Tuck family wanders about trying to live as inconspicuously and comfortably as they can. When ten-year-old Winnie Foster stumbles on their secret, the Tucks take her home and explain why living forever at one age is less of a blessing than it might seem. Then complications arise when Winnie is followed by a stranger who wants to market the spring water for a fortune.

Upon the book’s publication in 1975, Natalie was greeted with concern from parents and educators who were stunned to read a book about death written for children. She is an author who challenges her readers and thinks the best questions are the ones without answers.

This 40th anniversary will introduce a whole new generation to this timeless classic. The book has sold over 3.5 million copies in the US alone, and has never been out of print since publication.



Title: Tuck Everlasting
Author: Natalie Babbitt
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Macmillan)
40th Anniversary Edition Release Date: January 20, 2015
Acquired Via: Publisher
Blessed with—or doomed to—eternal life after drinking from a magic spring, the Tuck family wanders about trying to live as inconspicuously and comfortably as they can. When ten-year-old Winnie Foster stumbles on their secret, the Tucks take her home and explain why living forever at one age is less of a blessing than it might seem. Complications arise when Winnie is followed by a stranger who wants to market the spring water for a fortune.

A brand-new introduction from Gregory Maguire, the author of Wicked, and additional bonus materials make this special edition of Natalie Babbitt's Tuck Everlasting a must-have for lovers of the book and a great way to introduce a new generation to a classic.

Would I Want to Live Forever?

If I was offered the opportunity to live forever, I think I'm old enough now to answer immediately with a resounding "NO!", but I haven't always been so sure. When I was a child, I thought it would be a wonderful thing to spend all of eternity with your family safe and healthy with you for all eternity. However, as I've grown older, I've learned that things are taken for granted when things are promised to us forever, and we lose what makes them special. I know that I would be like Angus Tuck, laying around in bed day after day, waiting on the world to end.

I feel that we appreciate the people and things we love because the time we have with them is finite, and none of us are promised tomorrow.

What if YOU Could Live Forever?
My Review

I read Tuck Everlasting for the first time more than twenty years ago, so reading it again in anticipation of the book's 40th anniversary (and as an adult) was an entirely different experience. When I was a kid, I marveled at the idea that a person could drink from a magic spring and live forever. I, like Winnie, was half in love with Jesse Tuck and debated what I would have done in the same situation. However, as an adult, Tuck Everlasting made me very sad for the immortals and their lack of choice in the matter.

Blog Tour (Guest Post & Giveaway): The Forbidden Library by Django Wexler

Welcome to The Forbidden Library blog tour! In honor of Django Wexler’s new series, perfect for fans of Coraline, Inkheart, and The Books of Elsewhere, we’ve paired Django and fellow Penguin author Seth Fishman (The Well’s End) in a battle of wits! Each day for the next two weeks, Seth and Django will challenge each other to escape from popular story scenes in the most creative way. Follow along as the two try to outmatch each other and check out some cool interior art from The Forbidden Library along the way!



Title: The Forbidden Library
Author: Django Wexler
Publisher: Kathy Dawson Books (Penguin)
Release Date: April 15, 2014
Alice always thought fairy tales had happy endings. That--along with everything else--changed the day she met her first fairy.

When Alice's father goes down in a shipwreck, she is sent to live with her uncle Geryon--an uncle she's never heard of and knows nothing about. He lives in an enormous manor with a massive library that is off-limits to Alice. But then she meets a talking cat. And even for a rule-follower, when a talking cat sneaks you into a forbidden library and introduces you to an arrogant boy who dares you to open a book, it's hard to resist. Especially if you're a reader to begin with. Soon Alice finds herself INSIDE the book, and the only way out is to defeat the creature imprisoned within.

It seems her uncle is more than he says he is. But then so is Alice.

Django vs. Seth

Seth to Django: Speaking of Ender's Game, what would Alice do with to get past the giant in the fantasy game?

The Giant's Drink game would be very frustrating for Alice, as it was frustrating for Ender. She has a pretty logical mind, and figuring out that the game is rigged so that you always lose would be infuriating. She's not quite as angry as Ender got, though, so I doubt the solution of killing the giant would occur to her. She might try talking to it -- Alice's first instinct is always to talk to creatures, even scary-looking ones, and see if she can work out a solution that way.

I have always thought that, if Alice lived in a more modern time, she would be very into computers -- she has the right sort of attitude for them. So if she'd grown up in the Ender's Game universe, I like to think she might be an accomplished hacker. In that case, she's definitely the sort of person who would break into the code and change the rules so it was possible to win the game, like Captain Kirk at the Kobayashi Maru.

Interior Artwork Sample

Blog Tour (Guest Post & Review): Alice Will by Ashley Chappell

Title: Alice Will (Dreams of Chaos #1)
Author: Ashley Chappell
Publisher: Center One Books
Release Date: November 13, 2012
Acquired Via: TLC Book Tours
With her leaky powers and premature smiting problem, fourteen year-old Trotter was still just trying to get the hang of the demi-godding business when the apocalypse began. In a world where the gods have withdrawn from humanity, leaving mortals bitter toward magic, she finds herself torn between the human and the goddess in her. When the world begins to fade away and she becomes the prime suspect, her search to determine the cause and prove her innocence ends up revolving around a mysterious little girl named Alice. Then she discovers that not all of the gods had been as distant as they seemed...

Now, with everyone against her and the gods fighting amongst themselves, Trotter is on her own to save her world and stop a spiteful god from using Alice to destroy everything.

Book Trailer


Guest Post

Just Inching Along
Ashley Chappell
If there is one thing that social networking has done better than anything else for us writers, it’s how obsessed it’s made us over word count. How many times have we all felt good about a 500 word day just to turn on Facebook and see someone’s status update with a 5,000 word day? It makes your own hard work feel insignificant in comparison, no matter how hard you sweated over those 500 precious words. That feeling is never worse than when writer’s block hits and I had a doozy of a case just a few weeks ago.

Blog Tour (Guest Post & Giveaway): Nick & Tesla's Robot Army Rampage by Steve Hockensmith & Science Bob Pflugfelder

Title: Nick and Tesla's Robot Army Rampage: A Mystery with Hoverbots, Bristle Bots, and Other Robots You Can Build Yourself (Nick and Tesla #2)
Authors: "Science Bob" Pflugfelder, Steve Hockensmith, and Scott Garrett (Illus.)
Publisher: Quirk Books
Release Date: February 4, 2014
In this second novel of the Nick and Tesla series, the precocious brother-and-sister duo find themselves solving another baffling mystery. As the story opens, their Uncle Newt takes a consulting gig at a cut-rate amusement park, engineering animatronic figures for a cheap Hall of Presidents knockoff. One perk of the job is that Nick and Tesla have unlimited access to the amusement park all summer long—but the kids quickly discover that one of the park employees has a sinister plan. They’ll have to build a few robots of their own to foil him!

Readers are invited to join in the fun as each story contains instructions and blueprints for five different projects. Learning about science has never been so dangerous—or so much fun!

You can read my review of Nick & Tesla's High Voltage Danger Lab (Nick & Tesla #1) HERE.

Steve Hockensmith Guest Post

Hello My name is Steve, and I’m a fraud.

Or so it seems to me as I sit down to write this blog post. I was going to write about the books and TV shows and movies that influenced Nick and Tesla’s Robot Army Rampage, the second entry in the new middle-grade mystery series I’ve been doing with “Science Bob” Pflugfelder. So the first thing I thought of was my elevator pitch. You know -- the cheesy “It’s such-and-such meets so-and-so!” line you’re supposed to have ready in case you find yourself in an elevator with a movie producer.

The elevator pitch for the Nick and Tesla books would be “It’s the Hardy Boys meets MacGyver!” Or maybe “It’s Nancy Drew meets Popular Mechanics!”...though that sounds terrible, doesn’t it? Nothing in an elevator pitch should meet Popular Mechanics.

So we’ll stick with “It’s the Hardy Boys and/or Nancy Drew meets MacGyver!” The books are about a pair of science-loving 11-year-old twins who solve mysteries using gadgets they cobble together from common household items and simple parts. (The books even include directions so readers can build the gizmos at home.) So I think the elevator pitch is pretty accurate.

But here’s where the fraud comes in. I’ve never read an entire Hardy Boys book. I’ve never read more than a chapter of Nancy Drew. And MacGyver? I think I saw the credits once, but that’s about it. Everything I know about the show is pure hearsay. I think it’s about a laid-back adventure-bro (I’ve seen the mullet) who...umm...gets into a lot of trouble, most of which he gets out of by turning old refrigerators into hang-gliding flamethrowers or whatever.

So what really influenced the Nick and Tesla books? Well, the idea of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew and MacGyver, I suppose. But I have to give Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? a lot of credit, too. That’s where I first encountered and (through hours upon hours of TV-viewing repetition) internalized the mechanics of a mystery.

Heroes stumble upon sinister, puzzling plot. Gather clues. Identify suspects. Entrap and unmask the culprit. Howl “Rooby-rooby-roooooo!” while stealing food from a hungry hippie. The End. (The “Rooby-rooby-roooooo!” and food-stealing are, of course, optional for non-Scooby-Doo mysteries.)

But while the Nick and Tesla books have a lot of humor in them, I don’t think it’s necessarily Scooby-Doo humor. There’s nary a talking dog in sight, and you won’t find lines like “That vampire is a real pain in the neck. Get it! Pain in the neck? Ha ha!”

So where does the humor come from? You got me. I guess it’s sort of James Thurber-y in some of its whimsy and Monty Python-y in some of its absurdity and Phineas and Ferb-y in some of its geek-friendly goofiness. And there are a gazillion other influences I could trot out, too, but won’t. I think asking a writer where his or her sense of humor comes from is like asking a stray mutt about its pedigree. You’re better off just making your own guesses.

As for the inspiration for the gadgets, it’s a lot easier to come up with a simple answer: Go ask Science Bob.

So what would my real, honest elevator pitch for the Nick and Tesla books be?

“It’s Scooby-Doo meets James Thurber meets Monty Python meets Phineas and Ferb meets all kinds of science stuff you’ll have to ask someone else about!”

So I think if I do ever end up in an elevator with a producer, I’m going with “The Hardy Boys meets MacGyver.” Maybe that would make me a fraud, but at least I’d be a fraud with a movie deal.

Buy Links
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Fishpond


About the Authors






Steve Hockensmith's novels for grownups include the Edgar-nominated Holmes on the Range, and the New York Times bestseller Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls. This summer he'll launch a new mystery series for adults with The White Magic Five & Dime, about a con woman-turned-fortune teller who uses her newly discovered skills with the tarot deck to track down a killer.






Find Steve Online
Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter
Giveaway

Enter to win the audiobook of the first entry in the Nick and Tesla series, Nick and Tesla’s High-Voltage Danger Lab by Steve Hockensmith and Science Bob Pflugfelder, courtesy of Quirk Books!

Open to US Addresses ONLY
Ends at 12:01am on February 22nd
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Guest Post: The Mystery of Shadow Hills by Carrie Cross

Title: Skylar Robbins: The Mystery of Shadow Hills
Author: Carrie Cross
Publisher: Ward Design LLC DBA Teen Mystery Press
Release Date: July 30, 2013
Thirteen-year-old sleuth Skylar Robbins plans to become a private detective like her grandfather. Stuck at her bullying cousin Gwendolyn’s Malibu estate for the summer, Skylar brings her detective kit, portable spy tools, and her journal for taking notes in secret code. She had no idea how dangerous the next eight weeks would prove to be. On the first day of summer school an odd classmate named Kat passes a note in backward writing, introducing Skylar to the secret world of witchcraft. Practical Skylar didn’t believe in magic—until the spells they perform in an abandoned garden actually begin to work. Skylar finds herself accepting the increasingly risky challenges made by her new BF, and when Kat tells her that a mysterious group is doing wicked things up in Shadow Hills at night, she can’t help but investigate. Her classmates are nervous and rumors are flying. The teen sleuth uses the tools in her detective kit and faces her most embarrassing fear to find the truth. If Skylar survives the summer, her life will be changed forever.

Guest Post

Inspiration for Writing Skylar Robbins
Carrie Cross
Skylar Robbins: The Mystery of Shadow Hills was written for the bullied kid in school, and the strong girl who protected her. The intelligent student who is misinterpreted as a nerd. The creative one who isn’t afraid to appear weird and different. And everyone who is afraid to take a risk—but is glad in the end that they had the courage.

My favorite books of all time were the ones I read in junior high, and they were further inspiration for the Skylar Robbins series. I have great memories of lying in bed on stormy nights reading Judy Blume novels like Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, Zilpha Keatley Snyder’s The Changeling and The Velvet Room, Nancy Drew mysteries, and Harriet the Spy,. Since books for this age group were the most fun to read, I thought that they would also be the most enjoyable to write.

I planned to create a teen detective series, and decided to start a new trend: that the smartest kid in class can also be the coolest. The one kids look up to and want to follow. So many television shows over the years have had a main character who was the opposite of intellectual. Think of the lead roles in Happy Days, Beverly Hills 90210, Married with Children, That 70's Show, Vampire Diaries, and Gossip Girl. None of them use their brains in a way I'd want today's 'tweens to emulate.

So I created Skylar Robbins: a rational 13-year-old sleuth who methodically pieces together clues until she finally solves each challenging mystery. Very often smart kids in books, television shows, and movies are portrayed as dorks. I wanted to create a protagonist who kids could relate to, empathize with, and look up to. One who was quick-thinking, courageous, and determined, while also funny, cute, and cool.

Put a detective kit in a young girl's hands, and ask her to look for clues. Then decipher their meaning, put them together in the proper order, and use deductive reasoning to solve a fun and challenging mystery. Now that's a goal I'd be happy to see today’s teens going after. I want the smart kids in class to be proud of their brains, and not afraid to show them off for the asset that they really are.

Skylar Robbins is a relatable main character. She admits her fears to her readers while showing them creative ways to stand up to bullies and find the guts to try new things. Many of us have a secret phobia that we are ashamed to admit. Like an intelligent thirteen-year-old sleuth who is afraid of horses, while the rest of her class is horse crazy. We’ve all gone through the nervousness of the first day at a new school, had a relative or nasty classmate who picked on us, and have experienced feeling left out. Everyone has met a mean girl who keeps everyone on edge so they won’t realize how desperately afraid she is that no one likes her. We’ve all had that aggressive friend who pushed us to take dangerous chances or experiment with something we were ashamed to admit we were afraid to try. These characters all appear in Shadow Hills, and Skylar shows us clever ways to deal with them.

The storyline concentrates on Skylar's introduction into witchcraft. When an intriguing classmate promises her that the spells they’re about to cast in an abandoned garden will charm a cute boy and enable them to grow their own diamonds, Skylar reluctantly agrees to participate. She was too practical to believe in magic—until the witchcraft actually starts to work.

On a more important level, this book illustrates what true friendship is all about. The novel portrays the shallowness and dishonesty of the classmate who teaches Skylar about witchcraft with the genuineness of hearing-impaired Andy, a very tall African-American artist, Rudy “Beanpole” Dean, and especially Skylar's dyslexic BFF, Alexis. Rudy's parting words after the climax of the story, "Stay real, Skylar," are the essential message of the book.

At the end of The Mystery of Shadow Hills, Skylar sends a shout out to the readers: The Skylar Robbins Detective Agency needs a few secret agents to help solve her next case: The Mystery of the Hidden Jewels (June, 2014). But they must have mad detective skills. They need to decipher her web address (www.skylarrobbins.com), find the Secret Agent Application Form, and decode their password using a code they learned in the first book. The second mystery is interactive: Skylar’s agents will help her figure out what the clues mean by posting their guesses on the website. Seven secret agents have already signed up. Who’s next?

Buy Links
Amazon | Barnes & Noble


About the Author


Carrie Cross is the author of the Skylar Robbins teen mystery series. She is currently at work on the fourth novel in the series, The Curse of Koma Island (2016).

Follow Carrie on Facebook, on Twitter and visit her Website for more information.

Guest Post: The Ravens of Solemano by Eden Unger Bowditch

Title: The Ravens of Solemano or The Order of the Mysterious Men in Black (The Young Inventors Guild #2)
Author: Eden Unger Bowditch
Publisher: Bancroft Press
Release Date: September 24, 2013
The note read simply: They Will Be On The Train…

It has been mere days since the brilliant children of the Young Inventors Guild slipped through the fingers of the horrible Komar Romak. They have escaped with their lovely and caring schoolteacher, Miss Brett; with their long-absent parents; and with their bizarre captors, or protectors, or both – the Mysterious Men in Black. Now they are traveling by train, destined for parts unknown.

But a note in the hands of a dead man in a New York tunnel guarantees that safety is but an illusion. When the children’s world is blown open, life will never be the same again.

The children – Jasper and Lucy Modest, from London; Wallace Banneker, from New York; Noah Canto-Sagas, from Toronto; and Faye Vigyanveta, from New Delhi – soon find themselves in the ancient Italian village of Solemano and being pulled ever deeper into a centuries old mystery. As they maneuver ever closer to the truth of the Mysterious Men in Black, and turn out new inventions and gadgets to help on their quest one terrible fact remains clear:

Komar Romak is still out there. He is still after them, for reasons they cannot begin to imagine. And he knows exactly where they are…

From the rolling plains of America to the wide-open waters of the Atlantic, through the Strait of Gibraltar to the remarkable village in the hills of Abruzzo, Italy, The Ravens of Solemano or The Order of the Mysterious Men in Black, the second book of the Young Inventors Guild trilogy, is an adventure like no other.

Guest Post

Book Blast (Giveaway): Eve Hallows and the Book of Shivers by Robert Gray

Title: Eve Hallows and the Book of Shivers (The Nightmare Series #3)
Authors: Robert Gray
Blast Organizer: I Am A Reader, Not A Writer
Release Date: October 26, 2013
So far, Eve's summer vacation has been uneventful, but when her grandparents—traveling all the way from the monster world known as Gravesville—appear at her doorstep, she learns that the URNS Director has gone missing. Worse, a new director, bent on destroying humans, has taken over URNS.

Eve and her family are no longer safe in the human world, and as they race to escape this new threat, Eve stumbles into a trap, which forces her back to Gravesville along with her family and friends. But once there, everything goes adorably wrong, and her best chance to get out of this mess is to seek out The Book of Shivers and the elusive author Sedrick Creach—the only creature who knows the secrets of the Nightmare Books. Unfortunately for Eve, searching for Sedrick and the next book in the series will reveal uncomfortable details about her own murky past.

Once again, Eve and her friends find themselves on an incredible adventure—one that involves underground battles with bloodthirsty creatures, a lightning-fueled train, and some unexpected new allies.

Hilarious and bone-chilling, this third book continues the story of an unlikely hero trying to save not one, but two worlds … This time around, though, Eve's not sure she can even save herself.

Buy Links
Amazon | Barnes & Noble


Other Eve Hallows Books

Audiobook Review: The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer

Title: The Wishing Spell (The Land of Stories #1)
Author: Chris Colfer
Narrator: Chris Colfer
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (Hachette)
Acquired Via: Library
Release Date: July 17, 2012
Alex and Conner Bailey's world is about to change, in this fast-paced adventure that uniquely combines our modern day world with the enchanting realm of classic fairy tales.

The Land of Stories tells the tale of twins Alex and Conner. Through the mysterious powers of a cherished book of stories, they leave their world behind and find themselves in a foreign land full of wonder and magic where they come face-to-face with the fairy tale characters they grew up reading about.

But after a series of encounters with witches, wolves, goblins, and trolls alike, getting back home is going to be harder than they thought.

My Review

Fairy tale retellings are some of my favorite things to read, and I'm pretty sure that middle grade versions of these are the best. That being said, The Wishing Spell did not disappoint. Many childhood favorite fairy tales are prominent in the so-called Land of Stories, and the book was a fun way to find out what happened to the main characters of those stories after their happily ever afters.

Audiobook Review: Magic Marks the Spot by Caroline Carlson

Title: Magic Marks the Spot (The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates #1)
Author: Caroline Carolson
Narrator: Katherine Kellgren
Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books
Acquired Via: Publisher (print) & Library (audio)
Release Date: September 10, 2013
Admiral Westfield sucked in his breath and released it in a tremendous gust. "My dear," he said, "let me be clear: You are a young lady. You will not tell silly tales and you will never be a pirate."

Hilary Westfield has always dreamed of being a pirate. She can tread water for thirty-seven minutes. She can tie a knot faster than a fleet of sailors. She particularly enjoys defying authority, and she already owns a rather pointy sword. There's only one problem: The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates refuses to let any girl join their ranks of scourges and scallywags.

Girls belong at Miss Pimm's Finishing School for Delicate Ladies, learning to waltz, faint, and curtsy. But Hilary and her dearest friend, the gargoyle, have no use for such frivolous lessons—they are pirates! (Or very nearly.)

To escape from a life of petticoats and politeness, Hilary answers a curious advertisement for a pirate crew and suddenly finds herself swept up in a seafaring adventure that may or may not involve a map without an X, a magical treasure that likely doesn't exist, a rogue governess who insists on propriety, a crew of misfit scallywags, and the most treacherous—and unexpected—villain on the High Seas.

Will Hilary find the treasure in time? Will she become a true pirate after all? And what will become of the gargoyle?

My Review

I promised myself a blog hiatus, but here I am writing this review. It's an illness, I tell you - very similar to the pleurisy that has taken over my lungs and breathing. But you're here to read my thoughts about Magic Marks the Spot. I'll start off by saying that this book is unbelievably, painfully, and wickedly adorable, with my new favorite middle grade character. However, I started this book back in May, which means that it took me approximately seven months to read. I started with an eARC, but I got accosted with All The Life Things and finally had to finish with an audiobook. Let me tell you something - the audiobook is SO GOOD, that you're missing out if you read Magic Marks the Spot any other way.

Book Blast (Guest Post & Giveaway): Finn Finnegan by Darby Karchut

Title: Finn Finnegan (The Adventures of Finn MacCullen #1)
Author: Darby Karchut
Publisher: Spencer Hill Press
Blast Organizer: Xpresso Book Tours
Release Date: March 12, 2013
Finnegan MacCullen: a thirteen-year-old apprentice with the famous Irish temperament.
Gideon Lir: a legendary Celtic warrior with a bit of a temper of his own.

Secretly, these blue-collar warriors battle the hobgoblins infesting their suburban neighborhood…when they are not battling each other.

Finn (not bleedin’ Finnegan) MacCullen is eager to begin his apprenticeship. He soon discovers the ups and downs of hunting monsters in a suburban neighborhood under the demanding tutelage of the Knight, Gideon Lir. Both master and apprentice are descendants of the Tuatha De Danaan, a magical race of warriors from Ireland. Scattered long ago to the four corners of the world, the De Danaan wage a two thousand year old clandestine battle with their ancient enemy, the Amandán, a breed of goblin-like creatures.

Now with the beasts concentrating their attacks on Finn, he and his master must race to locate the lost Spear of the Tuatha De Danaan, the only weapon that can destroy the Amandán, all the while hiding his true identity from his new friends, Rafe and Savannah, twins whose South African roots may hold a key to Finn’s survival.

Armed with a bronze dagger, some ancient Celtic magic, and a hair-trigger temper, Finn is about to show his enemies the true meaning of “fighting Irish.”

Book Trailer

Blog Tour (Audiobook Review & Giveaway): Zoe & Zak and the Ghost Leopard by Lars Guignard

Zoe & Zak and the Ghost Leopard Tour Schedule



Title: Zoe & Zak and the Ghost Leopard (Zoe & Zak Adventures #1)
Author: Lars Guignard
Publisher: Fantastic Press
Acquired Via: CBB Book Promotions
Release Date: February 26, 2013
Zoe and Zak are lost in exotic India, where gods and magic still exist. Before they can find their way home, they just have to do one little thing...

...Save a mythical creature from an ancient evil that wants to rule the world.

When Zoe Guire goes along on her mom's business trip to India, things get very weird, very quickly. An elephant god speaks to her from the bottom of a swimming pool... She and her classmate Zak get locked in a trunk and shipped off to a strange city near the foothills of the Himalayas... and a crazy snake charmer tells them they've been chosen to protect a mythical creature called the Ghost Leopard from an ancient evil that wants to take over the world.

As they travel deeper into the majestic mountains known as the Realm of the Gods, things get even weirder. If she and Zak want to make it back to their parents, they're going to have to tap into powers they never knew existed.

Because if they don't, things will never be the same for any of us ever again.

My Review
Zoe & Zak and the Ghost Leopard by Lars Guignard is a super fun audiobook that I listened to over the course of about two weeks. It is about two kids who go to school together who happen to run into each other in India while traveling with their parents. They weren't really friends at the start of the novel, but we see the progression of their relationship. (Not THAT kind of relationship - they're eleven.) It reminds me of The 39 Clues series mixed with magical realism.

Book Blast (Giveaway): Hades & the Helm of Darkness by Joan Holub & Suzanne Williams

Hades and the Helm of Darkness (Heroes in Training Book #3)
The Heroes in Training are entering the Underworld—if Hades can conquer his canine fears, that is.

The Underworld usually isn’t really meant to be a fun place—but tell that to Hades! He loves the dark and the stinky smell of sulfur. However, there is one thing that Hades is not a fan of: dogs. And when Zeus and his fellow Olympians encounter Cerberus—a snarling, three-headed dog—Hades must conquer his fears and tame the hound so everyone can continue into the Underworld and deposit their Titan prisoner, Oceanus, back where he belongs!

But with magical water that causes forgetfulness, hot beds of lava, and another epic battle with two more Titans standing in their way, will Zeus and his heroes make it out of the Underworld with everyone intact?

Buy Links
Amazon | Amazon Kindle | Barnes & Noble
Heroes in Training by Joan Holub & Suzanne Williams

Authors Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams deliver fun, adventures, and a few surprises as ten-year-old Olympians go on a journey of a lifetime to discover their true identities and defeat their Titan enemies.

Praise for Heroes in Training

"Readers will gobble this down and look for more, make no mythtake." ― Kirkus

“This is a fun read, casting Zeus in the role of relatable kid, and there is a nice balance between his primary goal of survival and his sense of destiny and adventure. . . Share this title, and likely more to come, with those still too young for Percy Jackson’s adventures.” ― School Library Journal

#1 Zeus and the Thunderbolt of Doom
#2 Poseidon and the Sea of Fury
#3 Hades and the Helm of Darkness
#4 Hyperion and the Great Balls of Fire

Aladdin Paperbacks (ages 6-9)
http://series.simonandschuster.com/Heroes-in-training

Book Blast (Giveaway): Pheme the Gossip by Joan Holub & Suzanne Williams

Goddess Girls #10 - Pheme the Gossip

Get to know Goddess Girl Pheme…the original “gossip girl”!
As the goddess girl of rumor and gossip, Pheme prides herself on being “in the know” and having the most up-to-date info on anyone and everyone at Mount Olympus Academy. To make sure that people really get her VIP messages, her words tend to linger in cloud letters above her head—just in case people don’t catch what she says!

But not everyone is thrilled with Pheme’s insider knowledge on everything MOA—including the Goddess Girls. Can Pheme ever be trusted? Or will this “gossip girl” find herself on the other end of the rumors?

Purchase
Barnes & Noble | Amazon

Praise for The Goddess Girls