The Night Parade Spotlight Tour {excerpt & giveaway}

I'm thrilled to have The Night Parade Spotlight Tour stopping by today...

The Night Parade

by Kathryn Tanquary
January 1, 2016

Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

In the shadow of the forest, the Night Parade marches on…

The last thing Saki Yamamoto wants to do for her summer vacation is trade in exciting Tokyo for the antiquated rituals and bad cell reception of her grandmother’s remote mountain village. Preparing for the Obon ceremony is boring. Then the local kids take an interest in Saki, and she sees an opportunity for some fun, even if it means disrespecting her family’s ancestral shrine on a malicious dare.

But as Saki rings the sacred bell, the darkness shifts. A death curse has been invoked…and Saki has three nights to undo it. With the help of three spirit guides and some unexpected friends, Saki must prove her worth- or say goodbye to the world of the living forever.

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Praise for The Night Parade:

“Wonder and imagination abound in Tanquary’s debut, a fantasy set in a contemporary Japanese mountain village; filled with respect and admiration for cultural tradition, it evokes both Grimm’s fairy tales and Miyazaki’s films...Vivid details and realistic situations ensure accessibility, and subtle teaching moments are wrapped in wide-eyed enchantment.” –Publishers Weekly STARRED Review

“An entertaining mix of Japanese folklore and teen angst” –School Library Journal

“Highly imaginative, beautifully written and what a wonderful book that talks about becoming true to oneself. While reading this all I could picture was a Miyazaki film in my head, and it was beautiful!”--Teresa Steele, Old Firehouse Books (Fort Collins, CO)

Excerpt from The Night Parade:

In the dead of night, she woke to three cold fingers on her neck.

Saki blinked in the darkness. The sliding door was open to the forest. The fingers pressed against her jugular, and bright, thundering panic surged through her body.

The fingers curled down toward her throat.

She tried to open her mouth to scream, but her jaw was locked shut. Her hands groped for her phone under the futon. Before she reached it, she touched her grandfather’s worn-­out charm. The three fingers retracted, leaving her skin cold and bloodless.

“Oh good, you’re awake.” She heard her brother’s voice.

Saki flipped around. Lying on her back, she stared up into a pair of eyes.

It was not her brother.

It knelt next to her on the tatami floor, knees brushing the edge of her pillow. Her brother’s futon was empty, and the blankets were flung around the room. It may have been Jun’s body kneeling there, but whatever stared back at her was not her brother.

The clouds shifted, and light fell through the open door, burning moon-­blue on everything it touched. Her not-­brother’s eyes reflected the light like a will-­o’-­the-­wisp.

“I thought you might sleep through it.” The creature smiled. Her brother’s teeth seemed sharper than usual.

Saki touched her hand to her jaw. It unlocked. Her voice was little more than a whisper. “Sleep through what?”

It leaned over. She stared into its will-­o’-­the-­wisp’s eyes.

“The Night Parade, of course.”

With a single movement, it was standing by the crack in the door. The forest stretched on into the night.

“Get up, get up! We’re late already.”

Saki scrambled to her knees. She pulled a blanket around her shoulders and clutched her phone to her chest.

“W-­what have you done to my brother?”

It rolled her brother’s eyes around the room and licked his teeth. “Impressive, isn’t it?” It opened its arms and looked down at the body it had taken. “Of course, beautiful maidens are traditional, but we must work with what we have, no?”

Saki eyed the backpack in the corner. It was heavy enough to swing in a pinch. “If you touch me, I’ll scream.”

The creature with her brother’s body became very serious. “Oh no, that won’t do any good. They won’t hear you anyway. This is your burden, little one.” It barked out laughter, eyes wide open, reflecting the moon.

“This is crazy. Jun, if you’re playing a joke, it isn’t funny. I’m telling—­”

“Why do you refuse to believe what you observe to be true?” it asked. “I don’t know what sort of game you’re playing at, girl. You invited me here.”

Saki blinked. “What?”

It dropped on her brother’s knee beside her. “Don’t you remember? On hallowed ground, you put your hands to the summoning table. You called out our names. You rang the bell. So we came to you, as we must. Well, I came to you.”

“You’re Kokkuri-­san?”

“No and yes. I am the first of three. The others will be along later.”

“Others?”

“Oh yes. I’m always the first, whether I like it or not. The third you will like very much. Everyone likes him. But the second…” It covered her brother’s mouth as a malevolent glee twinkled in its eyes. “Oh my. I daresay you will not like him at all. Very…scary.” It curled and uncurled her brother’s fingers.

“No,” Saki said. “No. No, no, no, no.” She pulled the blanket over her head and rolled into a ball on the floor. “This is crazy. This is insane. This is not happening. I am asleep and having a dream. When I wake up, it will be over.”

The creature sighed. “Very well. If that is your
final decision…”

Saki waited underneath the blanket. The wind whistled through the cracks of the old house, but after more than five minutes, she heard no sounds of the stranger anywhere. Bit by bit, she peeled back the blanket and peeked over the top.

Her brother slept soundly on a mess of tousled blankets. His face squished against his pillow as he drooled a bit down the side. His eyes were closed and didn’t shine at all in the moonlight. Saki wrapped her blanket around her shoulders as she rose to shut the open door.

On the wooden walkway in full moonlight sat a fox with four tails.

Kathryn Tanquary is a graduate of Knox College with a B.A. in Creative Writing. She currently resides in Japan as a teacher of English as a Foreign Language. website * twitter

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My Rules For Being A Pretty Princess Blog Tour {author interview}

I'm honored to have the My Rules For Being A Pretty Princess Blog Tour stopping by today with author Heath McKenzie here to chat about his new picture book...

My Rules for Being a Pretty Princess

by Heath McKenzie

5/5/15

Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

Rules are meant to be broken in this laugh-out-loud picture book about staying true to yourself.

One little girl gets her greatest wish of becoming a princess – only to discover that the rules of royalty are no fun. She has to have perfect hair and eat daintily and dance gracefully — boring! So, she decides to make up her own rules... A delightfully subversive picture book that teaches girls to be themselves — clumsy dancing, crazy scribbling and all.

goodreads / amazon / b&n / indiebound

Praise for My Rules For Being A Pretty Princess

"This ironic take on the Cinderella story is one that will delight many readers." — Reading Time.com

"Funny and pointed; a fast, enjoyable read for both the youngest, would-be princesses and their male counterparts." - Kirkus

What three words best describe My Rules For Being A Pretty Princess?

independent.

cheeky.

slightly silly.

Grab a copy of My Rules For Being A Pretty Princess and answer the following:

favorite page?

Hmmm…this is a tricky one!

I think, after much consideration (because I do love pretty much every page in the book for one reason or another), I’m going to say the page where the title girl has cast aside her blue princess dress and is writing ‘my’ in big bolt red crayon next to ‘Rules for being a pretty princess’. That page really kind of sums everything up perfectly!

favorite illustration?

Again - obviously mighty tricky to choose! I do love the first tea party page! It was an awful lot of fun drawing all that food (though it did make me hungry for each thing as I drew it!)

flip to a random page and give us a 1-2 lines teaser:

I guess, the best thing to say would simply be ‘giant bouquet of roses and puppies!’

What inspired My Rules For Being A Pretty Princess? How did the story come to be?

The story was inspired by the impending birth of my first child! At the time, I didn’t know if it was going to be a boy or a girl, however, I felt that if it were a girl I was worried about all the nonsense I’d have to educate her about. (I was going to say ‘protect her from’…but education is totally the best defense!) I knew she’d come into a world of relentless body image nonsense from the media, magazines and tv shows and the online world constantly firing beauty myths and weight-loss garbage and body image junk from all angles! I was also inspired by an old Lego ad from the 70's. It shows a little red haired girl in blue jeans and a blue t-shirt proudly holding up a multi-coloured thing she’d made. There was no skew towards either gender, no pink, no language in the ad aimed at girls - it was just presenting a kid who happily made a thing! Nothing more! Which was the image I wanted to portray to a daughter if I had one. So ‘Pretty Princess’ was born out of all that - just trying to create a book that basically says you can be whatever you want to be! You can love whatever you want to love - there are no boy or girl colours or toys - just like what you like!

In the end, I did have a daughter and so far (she’s almost three now), she’s developed a lovely balance of interests. She certainly loves dancing about in fairy dresses, but often while also pretending to be a dinosaur or lion before going outside to dig in the dirt and jump in muddy puddles!

What are your top three rules for being a true pretty princess?

1. Enjoy life! (It’s far too short to pass up any treats on offer at a tea party!)
2. There’s much more to life than looking perfect!
3. And of course, be whatever you want to be! If you want to be a fireman or doctor or artist or chef or nurse or lion tamer or circus clown - go for it!

What do you hope young readers will learn or walk away with after reading My Rules For Being A Pretty Princess?

I hope they walk away with an understanding that they can be and do and enjoy whatever they like - and still be a pretty princess at the same time (if they like!).

Fill in the blanks:

I’m really awesome at making apple pie.

I’m really embarrassed to admit I’m kind of afraid of whales! (they’re so huge and living in the bottomless, deep, dark ocean! Creeps me out!) On a visit to the Natural History Museum in New York it took a lot of courage to go into the hall with the massive whale hanging in it!

The last great book I read was ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’.

If you were to bake a cupcake inspired by My Rules For Being A Pretty Princess, what would it look and taste like and what would you call it?

I’d naturally call it a ‘pretty princess’ cupcake - it would probably taste like chocolate (the cake bit atleast). And it would look something like this!

Thank you so much for stopping by, Heath! That cupcake looks AH-mazing!!

To learn more about Heath McKenzie, visit him here:

website / facebook 

Celebrating National Poetry Month with Changes by Charlotte Zolotow

From Celebrated Children’s Author Charlotte Zolotow Comes a Seasonal Poetry Collection, Gathered Together for the First Time!

Changes: A Child's First Poetry Collection

written by Charlotte Zolotow with illustrations by Tiphanie Beeke

• April 28, 2015
•  Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
• amazon / b&n / indiebound
• 
  

Charlotte Zolotow (1915-2013) was a distinguished author and editor of children’s books, and one of the most important contributors to children’s literature. During the course of her career she wrote more than 70 books, many of which are picture-book classics, including the Caldecott Honor medalist Mr.Rabbit and the Lovely Present.

Now, for the very first time, and published on the occasion of her 100^thbirthday, Zolotow’s most beloved seasonal poetry will be available in one collection— Changes:  A Child’s First Poetry Collection.

Illustrator Tiphanie Beeke’s resplendent watercolors work beautifully with Zolotow’s poems, which capture the beauty of nature at different times of the year. Children will follow along as the seasons change with each poem. There is spring with the business of nest-building, summer with its abundance of roses, fall with the tangy perfume of chrysanthemums, and winter with the frozen pond surrounded by whiteness.

Poetry and nature lovers of all ages will delight in Zolotow’s classic poems and Beeke’s lovely illustrations, making Changes a perfect poetry collection for every child.

 “Few writers for small children so empathize with them as does Charlotte Zolotow.” — Zena Sutherland, children’s literature reviewer and scholar

“Ms. Zolotow’s own picture books — she wrote more than 70 — were cleareyed explorations of the interior landscape of childhood by one who had obviously not forgotten what it felt like to dwell there.” – Margalit Fox, The New York Times

Picture Book Review: A Halloween Scare by Eric James

I'm thrilled to share my review of Eric James' custom Halloween picture book today..

A Halloween Scare in the Carolinas

by Eric James

Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

A fun and funny Halloween romp for children and parents alike!

It's Halloween night, and creatures and critters from near and far are starting to gather outside the front door. And now here comes a whole army of monsters, on broomsticks, buses, and bikes, all clamoring in the darkness. What is it they want? Are they coming for you?

This humorous, creative story is the perfect Halloween adventure for children and parents to share.

Eric James’ picture book, A Halloween Scare, is a truly unique and spectacular reading experience. As Eric’s website states, A Halloween Scare is “A funny, spooky children’s book with a an uplifting and empowering ending, set in a world your child already knows”. A Halloween Scare comes in 29 different versions, covering 29 different locations throughout the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. Each different location books is slightly altered to include sights, places, buildings, cities, etc in that specific location, both within the text and pictures.

I received, for review, A Halloween Scare in the Carolinas and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! This is seriously one of the cutest, funniest, most clever, and entertaining little Halloween books I’ve ever read. Told in lyrical, amusing rhymes, A Halloween Scare is utterly delightful and adorable. James creates such a fun and spooktastic story that is appropriate for even the littlest readers. Here is an example of the wonderfully whimsical verse and how it’s been altered to fit the specific location:

The creepies were crawly, the crazies were crazed,

The zombies from Charleston had eyes that were glazed.

The ogres from Asheville were ugly as sin,

With big bulging noses and warts on their chin.

Marina Le Ray’s illustrations are fantastic! Bright and eye-catching and full of so many funny, silly pictures, each page will charm and entertain little readers. And like the altered text, the illustrations depict well known places, sights, sports teams, etc around its specific location. I had so much fun flipping through the book and discovering each little nod to the Carolinas.

My Final Thoughts: A Halloween Scare is about as perfect as picture books get! With its clever and customized story, fantastical text, and spellbinding illustrations this is one book your little readers will want to read again and again. I can’t recommend it enough!

MY RATING

-You find out more about this customized picture book, see more illustrations, and find buy links HERE

-You can see which locations are available and which cities, sights, symbols, etc are featured in each book HERE

Watch the full animated UK version of this book below!

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Eric James lives in the South of England, with his beautiful family. He’s a children’s author, word tickler and champion asparagus thrower. His first book, a rhyming story about Halloween is out now (first published in August 2014). 

The Unicorn Thief Blog Tour {Review & Giveaway}

I'm thrilled to have The Unicorn Thief Blog Tour stopping by today with my Review and a Giveaway...

The Unicorn Thief

(Unicorns of the Mist #2)

by R.R. Russell

May 6, 2014

Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

A bold thief runs rampant in the land of unicorns and now no one is safe.
Twig and Ben are hard at work taming the last free unicorn herd on Lonehorn Island when Ben’s loyal unicorn, Indy, disappears. When their search leads them to the island’s secret passageway of Terracornus, the land of unicorns, they discover a bold thief at work. There Twig learns the tangled truth about Ben and the evil queen who’s enslaved all of the unicorns. Now all of the captive unicorns are in danger and only Ben and Twig, the last unicorn riders, can save them.

Goodreads / Amazon / B&N / Indiebound

R.R. Russell’s first book in her Unicorns of the Mist series, Wonder Light, charmed me and captured my heart completely, so I was super excited to read book two, The Unicorn Thief...and I’m so happy to report that The Unicorn Thief is just as magical, fun, and imaginative as book one!

After helping “wild boy” Ben defeat Dagger, a deadly unicorn, Twig is more sure than ever that she’s meant to be a rider. Ben, and his unicorn Indy, and Twig, and her unicorn Wonder, are determined to round up the remaining unicorns on Lonehorn Island and keep them safe, but there’s a unicorn thief on the loose! When the unthinkable happens, Ben and Twig must travel to Ben’s homeland, Terracornus...something he is not happy about. Secrets and unexpected revelations come to light, dangerous duels are fought, and Twig must face her future.

Everything I loved about Wonder Light -the exciting, enchanting premise; sparkling storytelling; endearing characters; and fresh, pitch-perfect middle-grade voice- is seamlessly carried over to The Unicorn Thief and R.R. Russell has spun a spectacular sequel!

The Unicorn Thief picks up right where Wonder Light ends and the adventure, mystery, and excitement bursts off every page. I absolutely love Russell’s darkly whimsical take on unicorns and riders. Russell’s world of unicorns isn’t full of your cliched prancing, shimmery, rainbow colored unicorns...no, this world is full of fierce, majestic, beautiful and captivating, yet dangerous creatures. Fresh and crafted with a great deal of imagination, this world is easy to fall into and hard to leave. In book one, Twig and readers, got to explore and fall in love with Lonehorn Island, and in The Unicorn Thief we get to visit the intriguing world of Terracornus. Ruled by an evil queen who has enslaved the unicorns, this world is both bleak and bewitching.

Many secrets are revealed and many hard choices are made in The Unicorn Thief, and through it all, Russell’s characters remain relatable, likable, and interesting. Young readers will continue to find a kindred spirit in Twig, want be be best friends with all the girls at the home, find the Murleys warm, lovable guardians, and be enamored with “wild boy” Ben...and in book two, we learn some very unexpected and exciting things about Ben! And of course, the breathtaking and fierce unicorns simply shine with their almost tangible spirits.

The mystery of just who the unicorn thief is, is a twisty and surprising one that will keep young readers guessing and turning pages. And book two concludes in such a heartwarming way.

My Final Thoughts: The Unicorn Thief is a wildly charming and fun sequel in a wonderfully imagined must read series!

MY RATING

author website * series website * goodreads * twitter * facebook

R.R. Russell lives with her family in the Pacific Northwest. She grew up traveling the world as an army brat and now travels the country as a coach with a non-profit judo club. She loves to read and draw, and like Twig, once spent a lot of time sketching unicorns. Visit her at rrrussellauthor.com.

Win a finished copy of The Unicorn Thief!

The awesome peeps at Sourcebook have offered up one book.

DETAILS

-US only

-ends 5/14

-must be 13+

-winner will be emailed and must claim prize within 48 hours

-Word Spelunking is not responsible for lost, damaged, or stolen prizes

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