Mundie Moms

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Chills & Thrills Tour Re-Cap & Giveaway


Last weekend I had the chance to stop by the Chills & Thrills Teen Book Tour at Book People. This leg of the stop featured TX YA authors, Sophie Jordan, Tera Lynn Childs, Lara Chapman, Tracy Deebs, Jennifer Archer, Mari Mancusi and Jordan Dane.

(From left to right: Lara Chapman, Jennifer Archer, Jordan Dane, Tracy Deebs, Sophie Jordan, Tera Lynn Childs, Mari Mancusi)

These ladies were so much fun! We all shared in a lot of laughs and enjoyed talking to them about their writing process, YA books, and the authors asked us in attendance how we find out about new books. There were a lot of bloggers there and many of us agreed that we find out about new books from other bloggers via their reviews, Waiting on Wednesdays, In My Mailbox and Goodreads, as well as recommendations from other authors.

(Sophie Jordan, Me, Tera Lynn Childs, Team #yaamer)

It was a lot of fun visiting with each author, being able to talk to them about their books. They had a lot of books to sign and I was so excited to talk to a few of the debut authors who's books I just received in the mail a few days before. Each author gave me some wonderful swag to giveaway on MM's. Here's what I'm giving away.....

- Signed Tempest Rising chapter sample & swag from Tracy Deebs
- bookmarks, temp. tattoos and signed Sweet Venom bookmark from Tera Lynn Childs
- signed Through Her Eyes book mark from Jennifer Archer
- signed Flawless bookmark from Lara Chapman & a pen
- signed bookmark from Jordan Dane
- Firelight bookmark from Sophie Jordan

Two winners will be drawn via random.org. The 1st winner will receive everything shown in the picture of above and the second winner will receive everything shown, except the signed Tempest Rising chapter sample & the Tempest Rising swag.



You can visit their site here to see more pictures from the Austin stop. If you've missed their first few stops don't worry, they have three more stops. You can visit them at the following places:

May 22, 2011
B&N NE Mall
2:00pm
Hurst, TX

May 28, 2011
Murder By The Book
4:30pm
Houston, TX

May 29, 2011
Katy Budget Books
2:00pm
Houston, TX

Must Have Middle Grade Reads

Fantastic Middle Grade Reads posts are coming back. I've been a slacker and haven't been highlighting some of our favorite MG reviews we've shared on Mundie Kids. This last week I reviewed two MUST HAVE books, John Stephens The Emerald Atlas and M.P. Kozlowsky's Juniper Berry. I highly recommend picking both of these books up and adding them to any tween, MG readers Summer Reads list.

Released on April 5th, 2011
Source- ARC/book from publisher to review
5 stars
John Stephens' aptly-titled new fantasy trilogy begins auspiciously with a nimble, fast-paced tale of three siblings. Kate, Michael, and Emma have suffered through ten years of odious orphanage "care"; now they have slipped into the care of the eccentric, disturbingly mysterious Dr. Pym. While exploring their new home, the children discover a magical green book. With that discovery, a decade of tedium dissolves into cascades of dangerous time travel adventures and struggles with a beautiful witch and decidedly less attractive zombielike Screechers. High early reader marks for strong characterization and battle scenes (quoted from Goodreads).

A superb book that readers of all ages will enjoy. There's adventure, time travel, magic, wizards, dwarves and plenty of monsters that will keep fans of fantasy and adventure glued to the pages.
I love it when I sit down to read a book and I find myself immersed into it's world. That's what it was like reading The Emerald Atlas. This book has the perfect mix of everything middle grade readers will love, from it's memorable characters, to the heart pounding adventure, the battles, the laugh out loud moments, and the moving moments that the three main characters, siblings Kate, Michael and Emma share.
You can read the rest of my review here.

By M.P. Kozlowsky
Illustrated by Erwin Madrid
Published by Walden Pond Press
Ages 10 & up
Source- ARC from publisher for review/blog tour
4.5 stars
Juniper's parents have not been themselves lately. In fact, they have been cold, disinterested and cruel. And lonely Juniper Berry, and her equally beset friend, Giles, are determined to figure out why.

On a cold and rainy night Juniper follows her parents as they sneak out of the house and enter the woods. What she discovers is an underworld filled with contradictions: one that is terrifying and enticing, lorded over by a creature both sinister and seductive, who can sell you all the world's secrets in a simple red balloon. For the first time, Juniper and Giles have a choice to make. And it will be up to them to confront their own fears in order to save the ones who couldn't.
M.P. Kozlowsky's debut novel is a modern-day fairy tale of terror, temptation, and ways in which it is our choices that make us who we are (quoted from Goodreads).
Juniper Berry is a fabulous middle grade mixed with fantasy, mystery, twists and great characters. The story has a powerful message of being careful of one's true desires and what you wish for. Outback in Juniper's spacious backyard lies a tree which leads to a world controlled by an evil man who prays on the weak minded making their desires and dreams come true. Everything comes at a price and not everything is what it seems. "Be careful what you wish for".
You can read the rest of my review here and you can read my interview with M.P. Kozlowsky and enter to win a copy here.

Guest Post: from one of our Aussie Mundie Moms

Today we're excited of have one of our Aussie Mundie Moms, Vanessa Monaghan, who attended Cassie's session at the Sydney Writer's Festival this weekend (which was yesterday) with us. Vanessa wrote up an awesome post for us to share with everyone from Cassie's session. There are COFA SPOILERS in this post. If you've not read the book please do not read any further.


Hi Katie,

Here's a couple of pars on today's session with Cassie.

I've always wanted to attend the Sydney Writer's Festival, but when I saw that Cassandra Clare was going to be appearing this year, I knew it was a sign. I'd just finished reading the Mortal Instruments books and Clockwork Angel, and now I had the opportunity to see Cassandra in person. So I booked my flight and began counting down the days.

There were only 160 seats available for Cassandra's session, so I arrived early with about twenty other people. While the average age of the audience was about 17, there were a few mums like me scattered through the line as well. During the session Cassandra talked about her life as a writer and about her books. I'll be writing a couple of blog posts tomorrow about the session, but here's a few tidbits that relate directly to the books.

- She bought Sebastian back because he is a villain who has a conflicting and personal connection with Clary, Jace and many of the other characters. He was too much fun to abandon.

- Killing Max gave Sebastian unredeemable qualities that the reader needed to recognise. He has very little human emotion or qualities.

- Sebastian thinks he is unique and is looking for someone similar to himself. That's why he told Isabelle that he thought she was most like him in City of Glass. Fortunately Isabelle is nothing like Sebastian, she's just good at putting up a front.

- The Iron Sisters make the Shadowhunter's weapons and will be in City of Lost Souls.

- Will and Jace are related and share similar personalities, however Alex and Gabriel are also related and nothing alike. Gabriel is "the nastiest jerk in the world most of the time"

- Jessamine was developed to be the anti-Isabelle. She is her opposite in every way.

It was so much fun getting to see Cassandra in person. She is so funny and well spoken. Everyone I spoke to afterward was similarly impressed. It was a wonderful afternoon and well worth the day trip for me.

I'm writing a guest post for my friend Carina's blog (
www.waxings.wordpress.com) which will focus on what Cassandra had to say about becoming a writing and her writing life. I'll let you know once it's up.

It was fun being your Aussie correspondent today :)

Cheers

Vanessa
www.facebook.com/vanessajmonaghan

Thank you so much Vanessa being our guest today and sharing those fabulous notes from Cassie's session!!

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