So Sad, Only Four Days Left...

Yes, that's right. The awesomeness of the It's NOT Just A Dog! blog tour is speeding towards its last days. We've had quite a month with interviews, guest posts and giveaways. If you missed any part of it, here is a list of of stops along the way. And another chance to win. Be sure to check in on the Project Madison Fan Page for a chance to win one last time on Friday! 

June Blog Tour Schedule and Links

Week One

2- Randomly Reading

3- R-Cubed’s Reads and Reviews

4- Book Dreaming

5- Ordinary Girlz Book Reviews

6- The Write Game

7- Indigo Quill

Week Two

9- Always In The Middle 

10-I Am A Reader

11-Beach Bound Books

12- Mommies Reviews

13- Susan Kaye Quinn

      The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia

Week Three

16- Rockin’ Book Reviews

The Write Path

17- The Owl’s Skull

18- Literary Rambles

19- Social Cafe Magazine

20- This Kid Reviews Books

Week Four 

23- That’s Another Story

24- Pretty Opinionated

25- The Reader’s Perch

26- That’s Another Story

27- Reads 4 Tweens

Week Five

30- Tales Between The Pages

July 1st- Buried In Books

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Why Do We Like Dragons So Much?

Almost every group of people can find a dragon somewhere in their ancient myths, legends or folktales. In fact, dragons are often one of the first magical animals children associate with stories they enjoy. Here are a few dragon's and books with dragons I remember from my own childhood:

Puff the Magic Dragon
A Chinese Dragon
Leviathan
Bibliotheca
Argonautica
Beowolf
King Arthur
Jabberwocky
My Father's Dragon 
Voyage of The Dawn Treader
Smaug in The Hobbit
Earthsea Cycle Series by Ursula K. Le Guin's 
Falkor in The Never Ending Story
Norbert, Hungarian Horntail, Welsh Green, Swedish Short-snout and Chinese Fireball in The Harry Potter Series

Here are some great websites that have awesome, never ending lists of books with dragon's in them. 

Pragmatic Mom
From The Mixed Up Files...
Goodreads List
The Saffron Tree

So why dragons? Why do they fascinate us so much? Lucinda Hare in her article on the blog We Love This Book said, "Authors love dragons for the very same reasons as their readers – because they open up our imaginations. And perhaps that is the key to why dragons are such an enduring feature of children’s literature. Dragons let us hold on to the magic of childhood when other dreams are left behind. Dragons allow our imaginations to take flight. Dragons give us all wings." —See complete article here.

Here are two new middle grade books I thought you might also enjoy.

Diego's Dragon by Kevin Gerard

About The Book: An eleven-year-old Latino boy wins a district-wide writing contest for sixth graders. When an author visits his school to award his prize, Diego Ramirez has no idea how much his life is about to change.Nathan Sullivan hands Diego his statue, a handsome, glistening black dragon. He shakes his hand and leaves him to his friends. The students crowd around Diego, asking for permission to hold it.After hearing the name Magnifico spoken aloud by family and friends, Diego awards it to his new dragon. If he only knew how fitting the name was, he might have known what lay ahead. Magnifico is the leader of the Sol Dragones, dragons that live within the magical fires of the sun. Nathan Sullivan is the earth's connection to the mysterious creatures. It is his task to find Magnifico's guide.As Magnifico comes to life he becomes quite mischievous, playing tricks on Diego to embarrass him. As he discovers his bloodline, however, Diego assumes greater control over his dragon and his destiny. In the climactic journey, he frees his people and suffers a terrible loss by guiding Magnifico to their goal.

Fury of the Storm Wizard by Shauna E. Black

About The Book:  A storm is brewing in Silver Valley, where an unusual string of mining accidents has locals whispering of dark magic. When the marshal sent to investigate goes missing, his young assistant Boone turns to Jesse and Eliza for help. But Jesse is a new mage with raw magic, and Eliza is hiding a secret. The three must learn to trust each other before the valley is destroyed and they are ripped away from everything they hold dear.




What's your favorite book about dragons?

MMGM: Sky Jumpers by Peggy Eddleman

Published: September 24, 2013
ISBN: 0307981274 
Genre: Middle grade, fantasy, adventure, dystopian
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Themes: Post apocalyptic, bravery, adventure, hope, finding strengths
Add it on: Goodreads, / Amazon / Barnes And Noble/ *Indie Bound*
About The Book:  What happens when you can’t do the one thing that matters most?
12-year-old Hope lives in White Rock, a town struggling to recover from the green bombs of World War III. The bombs destroyed almost everything that came before, so the skill that matters most in White Rock—sometimes it feels like the only thing that matters—is the ability to invent so that the world can regain some of what it’s lost.

But Hope is terrible at inventing and would much rather sneak off to cliff dive into the Bomb’s Breath—the deadly band of air that covers the crater the town lives in—than fail at yet another invention.

When bandits discover that White Rock has invented priceless antibiotics, they invade. The town must choose whether to hand over the medicine and die from disease in the coming months or to die fighting the bandits now. Hope and her friends, Aaren and Brock, might be the only ones who can escape through the Bomb’s Breath and make the dangerous trek over the snow-covered mountain to get help.

For once, inventing isn’t the answer, but the daring and risk-taking that usually gets Hope into trouble might just save them all.

First Line: You would think I'd never jumped off a cliff before, based on how long I stood there. Not jumping.

What Others Are Saying:  "A general sense of adventure and wonder permeates this tale, making it a fun, quick read. Eddleman brings a strong sense of atmosphere to this post-apocalyptic coming-of-age piece, and the underlying message—that it’s possible to contribute in unexpected ways—is a positive one." —Publishers Weekly

"Sky Jumpers is an absolutely thrilling, seat-of-your-pants adventure for middle school readers. Fans of The Emerald Atlas and Percy Jackson will rush to this tale about a village that, after WWIII, is one of only a few remaining on what is left of Earth, as ‘green bombs’ have devastated the planet." —American Bookseller’s Association 

Bloggers Weigh In: 

Charlottes Library

Queenedsheena

Lizzy's Dark Vision

Commutinggirl

What I Thought: Edleman's debut, set in a post-apocalyptic world after WWIII, is an original adventure and once it winds up really gets moving. I found that the characterization was more telling than discovering through action, which might explain the slow start. I also found myself jolted from the first person perspective when Hope seems to know what's going on in the minds of the other characters. The world she builds is unique. I liked the way she organized her world as small townships separated by harsh terrain that bandits roam created by "green bombs" used in the war. 

About The Author: 

Peggy Eddleman

Website
Blog
Facebook
Twitter

Who: Peggy lives at the foot of the Wasatch Mountains with her three hilarious and fun kids (two sons and a daughter), and her incredibly supportive husband. Besides writing, Peggy enjoys playing laser tag with her family, doing cartwheels in long hallways, trying new restaurants, and occasionally painting murals on walls.

Newberry Award Classic MMGM: Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

About The Book: "How about a story? Spin us a yarn." 
     Instantly, Phoebe Winterbottom came to mind. "I could tell you an extensively strange story," I warned.
      "Oh, good!" Gram said. "Delicious!"
And that is how I happened to tell them about Phoebe, her disappearing mother, and the lunatic.

As Sal entertains her grandparents with Phoebe's outrageous story, her own story begins to unfold — the story of a thirteen-year-old girl whose only wish is to be reunited with her missing mother.

In her own award-winning style, Sharon Creech intricately weaves together two tales, one funny, one bittersweet, to create a heartwarming, compelling, and utterly moving story of love, loss, and the complexity of human emotion.

Of course many of us have read this delightful book, if not once, perhaps several times.  So I'm changing up the format just a bit and to explore what Creech has done and why this book is so powerful.  

First Sentence: Gramps says that I am a country girl at heart, and that is true.
      This is what screenwriters would call the opening scene. In his book Save The Cat, Blake Snyder says that the opening image "sets the tone, mood, and style of the (story), and very often introduces the main character and shows us a 'before' snapshot of him or her." 
       Look at all this sentence accomplishes.  Protagonist is a girl and the narrator. Gramps is important to her and sets the tone for how she speaks. Using the words heart and true are not an accident these are cleverly placed clues to theme. We hear the voice immediately, we get the setting and who the narrator, the protagonist, thinks she is. Amazing in only 14 words. 

“In many cases when a reader puts a story aside because it 'got boring,' the boredom arose because the writer grew enchanted with his powers of description and lost sight of his priority, which is to keep the ball rolling.” —Stephen King

First Five Pages: These five pages are probably some of the most important, yet they are usually the first ones we written. Or are they. Obviously, you have to start somewhere, but any writer knows that often those first drafts change considerably when we figure out what we are trying to say. These should set up the thematic premise. Let's see if we can find where Creech states it. 
    When Sal tells us about her father chipping away at the plaster in the living room and finding something behind it, Creech effectively creates a visual image of how she is going to tell the story that our protagonists story will unfold within another story. Complicated to explain but executed perfectly. 
       The reason that Phoebe's story reminds me of that plaster wall and the hidden fireplace is that beneath Phoebe's story was another one. Mine. 
     And were off...

Characters: This is where Creech truly shines. She always tells us just enough to get a real feel for the the character. Usually she does it through the protagonists eyes.  Here is one great example:
     Mr. Birkway was mighty strange. I didn't know what to make of him. I thought he might have a few squirrels in the attic of his brain. He was one of those energetic teachers who loved his subject half to death and leaped around the room dramatically, waving his arms and clutching his chest and whomping people on the back. 
      He said, "Brilliant!" and "Wonderful!" and "Terrific!" He was tall and slim, and his bushy black hair made him look wild, but he had enormous deep brown cow-like eyes that sparkled all over the place, and when he turned these eyes on you, you felt as if his whole purpose in life was to stand there and listen to you, and you alone.(80)
      We get bits and pieces of his physicality but the description is active, so much so, that we feel like we're right there in the classroom. This is significant because later when Mr. Birkway reads their journals aloud it would be easy to assume he was just being a jerk but because Creech used her description to move the story along and set up her story, we feel sorry for him because he didn't think of the outcome and honestly feels bad when he realizes that some of the students have had their feelings hurt. 

These are just a fraction of some of the ways that Sharon Creech creates the depth and timeless resonance. Reading her books have done more for my writing than any exercise or how to book ever has. 

"If you don't have time for reading," Stephen King says,"You don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”
     
Question Of The Day: What have you learned about description and character lately?

Next week: Troll Hunters by Michael Dahl

Give Away and MMGM: Nikolas and Company: The Merman and the Moon Forgotten by Kevin McGill

About The  Book:  Nick lives in a time when one can extend their life indefinitely through cerebral downloads, zip from country to country in hovercars, and have every whim taken care of by the ever faithful nannydrones.


Nick hates it.


Aside from the refugee camps, overpopulation, and unchecked consumerism filling every city across the globe, Nick just doesn’t belong. That is when he hears the voice of a woman: “The Rones lie about their true intent. They enter the city of Huron at the peril of us all.” 

Shortly after, his slightly crazed grandfather reveals to him:  “All you’ve ever heard about the Moon is a lie, my dear Nikolas. He was not always a mere satellite, a ghost wandering the stars. In an age before our own, Moon was our twin, and in him bore the whole of magical life. The cradle of this magical civilization was a fantastic metropolis filled with fire-breathing winged lions, volcano-born nymphs, automaton-legged mermaids, and so much magic you can smell it. We called this city Huron, and you, Nikolas, are her steward.”

Meanwhile on the moon, the senior stagecoach driver Yeri Willrow thought he was performing a simple drive and drop for his mysterious passengers, until they are attacked by foul-breath red-eyed creatures. He soon learns that his passengers are a family of automaton-legged merfolk, and he is their only hope. Yeri suddenly finds himself tasked with saving the merfolk or they will fall to the peril of the creature most foul. -Goodreads




First Line: "Sweet Huron!" Yeri swore according to his mother’s standards. 


What Other's Are Saying: "Kevin McGill has a refreshingly fresh perspective in world-building and I enjoyed the depths he took 
his character development as well. I enjoyed the jaunty dialogue the characters shared as well as the dark villains that had hunted poor
 Nick." -Author Elizabeth Mueller

"It's great for anyone that loves fantasy, science fiction, it's clean with just the slightest hint of boys and girls taking a notice of each other. Lots of adventure, but not so far fetched that you don't believe it."

-Buried In Books



What I Thought: What attracted me to Kevin's book was the Merman with automaton legs. I wanted to know how it would work.  Then once I immersed myself in the stories characters and settings I couldn't put it down. I found myself in a swashbuckling adventure with danger around every corner. Great descriptions of setting and characters and the dialogue was wonderful. Another great boy book recommendation. 

About The Author: Kevin McGill
Website- Be sure to check this out he has a contest going.
Twitter
Blog
Guys Can Read -Great podcasts reviewing books!


Who: Kevin knew he liked this writing gig when 3rd grade classmates paid him two bucks for every story he wrote. Unbeknownst to him, the students turned in the stories as homework assigments (If Kevin had known, he would have charged double). His literary operations were exposed because the monkey scribble was undeniably Kevin's handwriting. Unless, it actually was monkey scribble. Kevin was cast into detention. But, being the industrious boy that he was, detention served as a place only to imagine more fantastic worlds. Today, his wife graciously listens as he reads wild stories about foul monsters, fire-breathing winged lions, and the mysterious voice of Huron city, which speaks only to its 14yr old steward, Nikolas Lyons. 




I will be interviewing Kevin in the next few weeks, so come back to learn more about this author.


Check out all the awesome MMGM reviewers in my sidebar!


To enter just leave a comment before next Monday!

MMGM Giveaway: Stout Hearts And Whizzing Biscuits by Daniel McInerny

Book One 

About The Book:  When Oliver Stoop, age 11, moves with his family to a remote piece of land in northern Indiana, he soon discovers that someone is already living there - an entire kingdom of someones, in fact. These are the good citizens of Patria, a secret land founded by refugees from the Trojan War who sailed across the Atlantic in a reconfigured Trojan Horse - 3,000 years ago!
     For Oliver, Patria is a land of wonders - and for the first time in his life, friendship. There's young Prince Farnsworth Vesuvius, inventor of the Magna-Pneumatic Whizzing Biscuit Blaster, and his formidable sister, Princess Rose, whose inedible, stone-hard biscuits provide the blaster's ammunition. But there's also the rest of the eccentric and lovable Patrian Royal Family, the boy warriors in the Potawatomi Indian Camp, not to mention the Viking kids from the Geat Village, newcomers to the area who only arrived 1,000 years ago.
    Yet when the noble Knights of the Blue Sock threaten to drive off the Stoops by force of arms, Oliver has to decide where his loyalties lie, and whether he has the courage to undertake the quest that is both Patria's, and his family's, last, best hope of peace.
   Join Oliver now as he discovers a new world of fun and excitement right in his backyard!   —Amazon

Book Two

Illustrator: Theodore Schluenderfritz

Website

Imagekind

First Line: Every once in a great while—perhaps no more than once—life hits you over the head with an adventure. 

One Great Passage:  "I want you to draw up a list of rhymes for the names Farnsworth and Oliver.”
“Very good, Your Majesty. May I I immediately suggest, for Master Farnsworth, “yarn’s worth, barn’s dirt, and darn squirt”?

What Others Are Saying:  "The adventure is amusing and fast paced. I appreciated that it stays fairly light—although the mystery is important, you don’t get the “OMG the world is going to END!” feel that so many books for tweens have." —Reads 4 Teens

"This story is filled with unconventional characters and circumstances that reflect the imagination of the Author Daniel McInerny. an enchanting read for middle grade children and for adults as well."—Confessions of A Reader

What I Thought: Author, Daniel McInerny has created the ultimate adventure for Tweens—one that never ends. How has he done it? He begins with an eleven-year-old character that's curious and has the bravery to back it up. Add to that an entire kingdom at the edge of his property, a mystery to be solved and a quest and Oliver is the one that can sort it all out.  Like Oliver you will find yourself confused as you start to piece together what is going on, all the characters and a huge shot of alternate history. Once you get your bearings you will find this story difficult to put down, which makes it incredibly convenient that it is an ebook. But, that's not all, the adventure continues online with added content, character interaction and games. Instead of closing the cover and impatiently waiting for the sequel Tweens will engage actively with the story and the author, taking an active role in creating and interacting with the world of Patria. 

Good News: Book two is already out! Stoop of Mastadon Meadow

Interactive Website: Kingdom of Patria

About The Author: Daniel McInerny 

Who: Daniel McInerny, founder and CEO of Trojan Tub Entertainment and honorary member of the order of the Blue Sock, is a native of South Bend, Indiana (just downriver from Patria). He holds a PhD in philosophy, and taught for many years at various universities in the United States. He currently lives in Virginia with his wife, Amy, and his children, Lucy, Rita and Francis. He also writes the blog, High Concepts, devoted to the arts, entertainment and culture. —Ignitum Today

This is an exciting development in book publishing. It's not just about the book anymore. I will be interviewing Daniel in the very near future. You won't want to miss it.

Be sure to check out all the other awesome MMGM posters. You can find them in my sidebar!


Be sure to leave a comment before next Monday to be entered into a drawing for the free E-book!