Best of Summer 2013 Kid Lit Giveaway Hop

Welcome to the Best of Summer 2013: Kid Lit Giveaway Hop hosted byYouth Literature Reviews and Mother Daughter Book Reviews.

From YouthLitReviews: This giveaway hop is an opportunity for a community of kid lit bloggers, teen lit blogger, authors, and publishers to come together and share their favorite books of the summer! There are almost 70 great giveaways as part of this hop! Click here to check them out!

I am giving away one of two books. I will leave the choice up to you. Will be using Book Depository to send the book out and random.org to choose the winner from the comments. And that is how you enter. In the comments, with your book choice and email so I can contact you if you win. Now. On to the two books to chose from:

THE EMERALD ATLAS-Called “A new Narnia for the tween set” by the New York Times and perfect for fans of the His Dark Materials series, The Emerald Atlas brims with humor and action as it charts Kate, Michael, and Emma's extraordinary adventures through an unforgettable, enchanted world.

 
These three siblings have been in one orphanage after another for the last ten years, passed along like lost baggage.
 
Yet these unwanted children are more remarkable than they could possibly imagine. Ripped from their parents as babies, they are being protected from a horrible evil of devastating power, an evil they know nothing about.
 
Until now.
 
Before long, Kate, Michael, and Emma are on a journey through time to dangerous and secret corners of the world...a journey of allies and enemies, of magic and mayhem.  And—if an ancient prophesy is correct—what they do can change history, and it is up to them to set things right. (Good Reads)

ZERO TOLERANCE-Seventh-grader Sierra Shepard has always been the perfect student, so when she sees that she accidentally brought her mother's lunch bag to school, including a paring knife, she immediately turns in the knife at the school office. Much to her surprise, her beloved principal places her in in-school suspension and sets a hearing for her expulsion, citing the school's ironclad no weapons policy. While there, Sierra spends time with Luke, a boy who's known as a troublemaker, and discovers that he's not the person she assumed he would be--and that the lines between good and bad aren't as clear as she once thought. (Good Reads)

Happy Hopping Everyone!

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

What? Another Monday is here already? The time is a flying by and that is fine with me because tomorrow is my first day at the new school. Prep time before the kids are back, oh yes yes it is. I here I must SQUEE. Even went shopping for new school clothes. Will confess that it was all I could do to keep myself from buying school supplies.

This is the final Marvelous Middle Grade Monday of the summer! Hope you had a great one and are looking forward to the fall.


It's always been my favourite time of year and now even more so because of #Cybils. Even if you are not applying, start thinking of books in all the different categories that you'd like to see nominated. I did apply again this year and even if I don't get placed on my panels of choice I am ready to take part by nominating and helping spread the word!


Here is some of my Marvelous Middle Grade reads, I recommend you check out:

House of Secrets 

Oh my, what a ride. It has everything that would have appealed to middle grade me who loved dark and scary, creepy gothic style. It also captivated with the crazy world the siblings are pulled into via a curse unleashed by a rather nasty being. And I loved loved the sibling relationship...so real, believable, it really made the book pop. Siblings with very different personalities that will clash, but when the going gets tough the sibs get tight. Good stuff.

From Goodreads:

The Walker kids had it all: loving parents, a big house in San Francisco, all the latest video games . . . but everything changed when their father lost his job as a result of an inexplicable transgression. Now the family is moving into Kristoff House, a mysterious place built nearly a century earlier by Denver Kristoff, a troubled writer with a penchant for the occult.

Suddenly the siblings find themselves launched on an epic journey into a mash-up world born of Kristoff’s dangerous imagination, to retrieve a dark book of untold power, uncover the Walker family’s secret history and save their parents . . . and maybe even the world.

The Year of Billy Miller

Speaking of showing real and true family relationships. This book does that via the voice of Billy Miller. A short novel with fourth sections that take us through those relationships and into the year. Billy is in grade two, so it will most likely have the highest appeal to younger and same age. However, I am thinking this will be one to share with my third graders. In both cases with readers who are already strong or as was pointed out in a review (can't remember which! Maybe Ms. Yingling?) as a read aloud. I am a huge Kevin Henkes fan and think he is a master at portraying kids in their family and peer dynamics in his picture books and novels.

From Goodreads:

When Billy Miller has a mishap at the statue of the Jolly Green Giant at the end of summer vacation, he ends up with a big lump on his head. What a way to start second grade, with a lump on your head! As the year goes by, though, Billy figures out how to navigate elementary school, how to appreciate his little sister, and how to be a more grown up and responsible member of the family and a help to his busy working mom and stay-at-home dad. Newbery Honor author and Caldecott Medalist Kevin Henkes delivers a short, satisfying, laugh-out-loud-funny school and family story that features a diorama homework assignment, a school poetry slam, cancelled sleepovers, and epic sibling temper tantrums. Illustrated throughout with black-and-white art by the author, this is a perfect short novel for the early elementary grades. Yeah, so quite likely more a chapter book than a middle grade-especially when it comes to Cybil Nominations?

Ta for now and thanks for stopping by. Will see you around the blogosphere as I head over to Shannon Messenger's to see what Marvelous Middle Grade Goodness she is a rounding up for us!

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday with The Heartbreak Kid, #Cybils and Some Housekeeping

Hey all! I am back and ready to roll with blogging at my new spot, "My Library Notebook". I kind of messed up how I made the switch so I know some of you are wondering where my blog disappeared to! I re-directed my domain back to my host servers. It is now  going to function as my author website, www.debamarshall.com . Have non-fiction middle grade book on Russia coming out with Weigl Publishers so just making preparations for that.

ALSO--this fall I start my dream job which is running a school library. Hence the "My Library Notebook". Thought when I did the nifty switcharoo, you would all still be pointed to this blog. NOPE. So, here I is at mylibrarynotebook@blogspot.ca

CYBILS are here, they are here! Love this time of year.

Applications are open for Cybils Judges! Please do go read the requirements and if you think you are a fit, apply. Don't think it is not possible, or that you are not qualified. If you love children's literature, read it, blog about it, review it, this could be for you. And if you are not successful the first or second time, apply again. That is what I did. Now, lots and lots of reading is required as a first round judge...you will be giving over your live for a couple of months. But let me tell you it is so worth it to be part of a team of professionals who are just as passionate about finding the best of the best when it comes to high kid appeal with the kind of literary quality that makes you go...whoa.

Finally, it is Marvelous Middle Grade Monday. Boy I love this day and so appreciate that decided that Middle Grade deserved a special day. Speaking of Marvelous Midde Grade, watch for announcements coming this fall and winter about The March of the Middle Grade, formerly hosted by Jill at the Owl. This 2014 it will be Akoss and myself taking it over.
Shannon Messenger

My suggested read for this Monday is The Heartbreak Messenger by Alexander Vance. Watch this book trailer:




Read this blurb from Goodreads: Twelve-year-old Quentin never asked to be "The Heartbreak Messenger," it just kind of happened - and he's not one to let a golden opportunity pass him by. The valuable communications service he offers is simple: he delivers break-up messages. For a small fee, he will deliver such a message to your soon-to-be ex-girlfriend. If you order the deluxe package, he'll even throw in some flowers and a box of chocolates...well, you don't want to leave a girl completely alone.

At first, Quentin's entrepreneurial brainchild is surprisingly successful. But as he interacts with clients and message recipients, from the teary-eyed football player to the dangerously powerful soccer chick, it doesn't take him long to start wondering whether his business will create negative repercussions in how life, especially for his relationship with his long-time best friend Abigail. Quentin discovers the game of love and the emotions that go with it are as complicated as they come - even for an almost innocent bystander.

And let me tell you this one if filled with heart and funny and believable kid characters who are on the cusp of becoming teens, but still very much middle graders. This is a book I could easily hand to a boy or girl. At first I was concerned that the cover might be something I'd have to talk a boy into taking, but after seeing the video and taking a second look at it, that could just be me-either way I am totally book talking this one.  Heck, I will even quote the author if I have to. From his website:

Don't let the pastel hearts on the cover of this book fool you. It's chock full of manly chest-thumping testosterone. Heck, I cry every time I read it.

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I mean, I laugh.

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Laugh every time I read it.

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Laugh until I cry. Yeah...that's it.

Have one young summer reading club member (boy) who I am pretty sure will love this. He is a fan of Gordon Kormon, Louis B. Sacher and Gary D. Schmidt.  I am saying he and many others will be a fan of Alexander Vance!

Until next Monday all!