Omega City by Diana Peterfreund Releases Today!

  

Releasing today, Diana’s first book for readers eight and up is a thrilling adventure story, perfect for people who like their books with a side of rocketships and hidden treasure. Find out what secrets are hidden beneath the Maryland countryside in...

Omega City

Gillian Seagret doesn’t listen to people who say her father’s a crackpot. His conspiracy theories about the lost technology of Cold War-era rocket scientist Dr. Aloysius Underberg may have cost him his job and forced the family to move to a cottage in the sticks, but Gillian knows he’s right, and plans to prove it. When she discovers a missing page from Dr. Unerberg’s diary in her father’s mess of an office, she thinks she’s found a big piece of the puzzle–a space-themed riddle promising to lead to Dr. Underberg’s greatest invention. Enlisting the help of her skeptical younger brother, Eric, her best friend, Savannah, and Howard, their NASA-obsessed schoolmate, Gillian sets off into the ruins of a vast doomsday bunker, deep within the earth. But they aren’t alone inside its dark and flooded halls. Now Gillian and her friends must race to explore OMEGA CITY and find the answers they need. For while Gillian wants to save her dad’s reputation by bringing Dr. Underberg’s secrets to light, there are others who will stop at nothing to make sure they stay buried...forever.

GoodReads | IndieBound | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple iBooks

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

“With seamless writing, a thrilling plot, lots of engaging science puzzles, and remarkable characterization, Peterfreund's exciting tale keeps the adventure solidly in the foreground. Young readers looking for a page turning quest should get into this planned series on the ground floor." — Booklist *Starred* Review 

"Peterfreund's focus on character development is complemented by the equal attention she gives to the vast underground city itself. Gillian’s instincts to protect her friends and clear her historian father’s tarnished name are admirable, but Peterfreund gives every character the opportunity to grow, revealing themselves for who they really are."— Publishers Weekly

“With nonstop action, sly humor, and nothing short of the end of the world at stake, Omega City is the alpha book in a new series that mashes up mystery, scifi, and action/adventure into a thrilling novel you’ll want to devour in one sitting. I did, and I can’t wait to read what comes next!” — Peter Lerangis, New York Times Bestselling author of the Seven Wonders series

“Peterfreund’s boundless imagination takes on a new and exciting adventure!” – Jessica Day George, New York Times Bestselling author of Tuesdays at the Castle”

“Diana Peterfreund takes us to an underground city that’s utterly mind-blowing, yet disturbingly possible. A knockout of a story that will have readers cheering straight through to the final, shocking, twist.” — #1 New York Times bestselling author Gordon Korman

Website  Facebook  Twitter

  Diana Peterfreund has published ten novels for adults, teens, and kids, including the four-book Secret Society Girl series (Bantam Dell), the “killer unicorn novels” Rampantand Ascendant (Harper Teen), For Darkness Shows the Stars (a post-apocalyptic retelling of Jane Austen’sPersuasion), and Across a Star-Swept Sea (inspired by the classic series The Scarlet Pimpernel). Her newest novel, OMEGA CITY, is a contemporary adventure novel for younger readers set in a secret bunker city somewhere under modern Maryland. Her works have been named to the New York Public Library’s Books for the Teen Age list, the Capitol Choices (metro DC-area) reading list, and the Texas Lonestar List, as well as having been named to Amazon’s Best Books of the Year. In addition, she’s written several critically acclaimed short stories and a variety of non-fiction essays about popular children’s literature. Diana lives outside Washington D.C., with her family.

   

Who Was Adventure App and More!

I recently had the chance to try out Penguin Young Readers new app, Who Was? Adventure, and I LOVE it! This fun, visually appealing, educational app will entertain both kids and adults. Read all about the app and more below...

WHO WAS ADVENTURE

Launching on April 13, 2015, this exciting, addicting, and, best of all, educational trivia app is the perfect challenge for children—even their parents!—to test their knowledge of some of history’s most fascinating figures. With gameplay based on classic arcade favorites , players must answer questions about everyone from Albert Einstein to Frida Kahlo to Stan Lee as their pictures fall from above. With time limits, obstructions, power-ups, and more, the game can be played in Adventure mode, with nearly 10 hours of continuous game play, or in Arcade mode, where kids can invite friends and classmates to compete against each other for endless trivia
fun.

Priced at only $1.99, this 100% child-safe, COPPA compliant app features:

• 4,500+ questions taken from the books to put your knowledge to the test—more than some of your favorite classic trivia games.
• 85 levels of Adventure mode; complete the tasks and collect rewards as you play.
• Endless play in Arcade mode; try to beat your family and friends’ high scores!
• Power-ups to improve your scoreand help you beat levels.
• Learn before you play: timelines and facts from thebooksat the start of eachlevel.
• Beautiful, fun design, music,and sound effects.
• Premium game with no ads,in-app purchases, or external links

The Who Was? Adventure App was created by the awesome Makeable. Founded in 2007, Makeable is a leading  innovation company based in New York City. Makeable partners with some of the world’s most interesting and innovative companies––from the Fortune 500 and leading brands across almost every industry to high growth, venture backed start ups. . From creating and launching new businesses, to developing products and services that market themselves, to disruptive branding and marketing, Makeable designs and delivers profitable growth  by making design and technology connect . More information can be found at www.itsmakeable.com.

“THE WHO WAS…? INSANELY AWESOME TRIVIA SHOW!”

Penguin Young Readers has partnered with the acclaimed educationand media group, Story Pirates, to bring schools across America a hilarious, educational performance that students and teachers alike will love! Featuring trivia from 23 titles in the Who Was…?series, this school-wide, game show-style event pits studentsagainst the show host (“The Smartest Person in the World”) to see who knows the most about fascinating people of the past and present. Visiting thousands of students in more than 20 cities across 12 states, the tour will runs from April 13 –May 15, 2015.

INTRODUCING WHERE IS…? 

A companion series focusing on historically and culturally significant locations around the world, Where Is…? launched on February 5, 2015 with the simultaneous publication of Where is the White House?, Where is the Grand Canyon?, Where is the Great Wall?, and Where is Mount Rushmore?

Each Where Is…? book tells the story of a famous place, and includes fascinating trivia, such as:

• It was the dream of George Washington to have an elegant "presidential mansion" in the capital city that was named after him—but he is the only president who never got to live there!
• Because of the spectacular colors in its rock layers and fascinating formations of boulders, buttes, and mesas, the Grand Canyon is known as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.
• If the original Great Wall were placed in North America, it would reach from the tip of Florida all the way to the North Pole!
• It was world-famous sculptor Gutzon Borglum's dream to carve sixty-foot-high likenesses of four presidents on a granite cliff in South Dakota. Sound like a wacky idea? Many at the time thought so!

Featuring 80 high-quality, black and whiteillustrations in each book, as well as a fold-out color map, Where Is...?titles are fantastic resources for school projects and papers, but are so entertaining, kids will read them for fun! The Where Is…? series continues on May 19, 2015, with the release of WHERE IS THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING? and WHERE IS MOUNT EVEREST?

100TH BOOK: WHO WAS STEVE IRWIN?

Last spring, Grosset & Dunlap launched the Who Was…?100th book contest, allowing readers from all over the country to cast their vote at their local bookstore or online for the personality they wanted to see featured as the 100th biography in the series. The contest was a popular one, having garnered over 67,000 votes! With 14,000 votes to his name, Australian wildlife expert Steve Irwin was chosen to be the subject of the 100th book. The diverse group of runners up included religious icon Mother Teresa, the country music group Florida Georgia Line, King of Pop Michael Jackson, and Kenyan political and environmental activist Wangari Maathai. WHO WAS STEVE IRWIN? will hit shelves on May 19, 2015

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