Marvelous Middle Grade Monday-Giveaway, Rebel McKenzie by Candice Ransom

It's the first MMGM of September! Hope you are all stepping into the month with a nice looking pile of books to read. Speaking of books to read...

Joanne Fritz will be adding CIRCLE OF SECRETS to that pile as she is the winner of last Monday's  giveaway. Congrats Joanne! I will be contacting you to get your snail mail, then forward that information to the author.


Here's my recommendation and giveaway (details at end of post)  for this Monday:

Rebel McKenzie by Candice Ransom.


From the author's website:

Rebel McKenzie
Disney-Hyperion Books
Ages 9 to 13
978-1-4231-4539-4

Twelve-year-old Rebel McKenzie wants to spend her summer at the Ice Age Kids’ Dig and Safari where kids discover prehistoric bones, right alongside real paleontologists.  But digs cost money and Rebel is broker than four o’clock. Instead she must spend her summer watching her 7-year-old nephew, Rudy, who picks out clothes for people’s funerals before they are dead and has lunch with God. Rebel decides to win the Frog Level Volunteer Fire Department beauty pageant to earn money to go to the dig. But things keep getting in the way, like a 22-pound Siamese cat named Doublewide, a bullying neighbor who is all bluff, and Bambi, the reigning queen of Grandview Estates, the mobile home community. Still, Rebel learns that friends are more important than winning and that the best discoveries are found in one’s own back yard.

“Spunky and sassy, Rebel redefines beauty pageants in this rollicking tale.”  Kirkus

“Surprises in both plot and character development create a quick pace; extra material like Rudy’s cartoons and pages from Rebel’s “field notebook” provide welcome and often amusing insight.”  Publisher’s Weekly

“Everyone is worth knowing in this rich and funny book.  While Rebel learns a thing or two about loyalty, family, and empathy, her sharp-as-a-tack wit and boatload of sass guarantees that no lesson is delivered with a heavy hand.”   Booklist, starred review.

And and AND...Candice Ransom has a vintage Trixie Belden collection. That's something I want to start my ownself. How I loved Trixie and the Bobwhites. Erm.  End of gush. Here is the interview with Candice where I discovered this cool fact. On to why I think this one deserves its MMGM spotlight.

Kids enjoy reading about other kids whose circumstances are very different from theirs. Whether those circumstances are difficult and sad with glimpses of hope (ie The Breadwinner series by Deborah Ellis) or quirky with a good dose of edge and reality like in REBEL MCKENZIE. Rebel has dreams. Big dreams. She is going to be a paleontologist and feels like she will seriously die of sadness if she can't go to the best paleontology camp for kids ever. Her parents can't send her, a fridge with no freeze needs the money more. A fridge! No worries. Rebel runs away with the clothes on her back and seven pairs of underwear on her butt. Unfortunately this lands her grounded for life and babysitting her really odd (and yet to the reader totally loveable!) seven year old nephew. Fortunately friendships unfold with the glam Bambi and crabby Lacey Jane. Friendships that could lead to win in a local beauty pagent, which leads to money which leads to...carrying on with the dream of becoming a paleontologist. Hilarity ensues with a cast of characters that are well developed and perfect foils for Rebel and mirrors of what happens when you follow your dreams--the good and the bad. When I wasn't smiling as I read this, I was laughing (and a lot of times at the cat named Double Wide). Rebel is sassy, speak your mind kind of kid who kids will enjoy reading about because she is so funny and so real. They will also be grabbed right from the beginning with the opening scene of Rebel, plumped out with all the clothes she has on, trying to convince a convict working with a roadside work crew that she is not running away. And a quick note to us writers...it's a smooth scene that incorporates backstory in a rather brilliant and funny manner. It also shows how a great writer can show you a whole lot about a character in the opening pages of a novel. Kind of loved it.

That's it from me. Looking forward to seeing what everyone else has lined up for MMGM. Enjoy the day and as you have time do check out Shannon Messenger's Blog for the round up of what else is happening, including my thoughts on WONDER by R.J. Palacio.

Here are the giveaway details:

• Open to US/Canada
• Leave a comment to enter, include contact info
• You have until next Sunday, Midnight MST
• RandomOrg.Com will be used to pick winner