Friday, September 9, 2016

Blog Tour: Roald Dahl 100 Year Celebration {Excerpt + Giveaway}

This year Penguin Young Readers and the Roald Dahl Literary Estate are celebrating 100 years since the birth of Roald Dahl —the world’s number one storyteller. 

In just under a week, our beloved Roald Dahl is going to be 100! Needless to say, you should be excited. If you're anything like me, your childhood is filled with warm memories of curling up with Roald's books, and those books still give you warm fuzzies when you see a child picking them up. (I definitely extended our selection of his books in my store--never enough!)

And now, Penguin is celebrating in a big way. They've got this huge blog tour that you're (obviously) enjoying, plus they're releasing gorgeous redesigned copies of some of Dahl's most beloved books--lots in paperback, and a select few in collectible hardcovers. (Seriously, they're gorgeous. I just shelved the hardcovers yesterday, and may have petted a few before putting them on the shelf.)

The book I get to share is a lesser-known one, at least for me, but it's just a fun and memorable as all of your favorites from Roald: The Giraffe, the Pelly and Me. Read a little about it and the excerpt, and you'll know why.


About the book:

Billy's biggest wish is to turn a weird old wooden house into a wonderful sweet-shop. But then he finds a giraffe, a pelly and a monkey living inside - they're the Ladderless Window-Cleaning Company! Who needs ladders when you've got a giraffe? They become best friends and when they meet the richest man in all of England, there's a chance that Billy's scrumptious-galumptious dream just might come true . . .






Not far from where I live there is a queer old empty wooden house standing all by itself on the side of the road. I long to explore inside it but the door is always locked, and when I peer through a window all I can see is darkness and dust. I know the ground floor used once to be a shop because I can still read the faded letting across the front which says THE GRUBBER. My mother has told me that in our part of the country in the olden days a grubber was another name for a sweet-shop, and now every time I look at it I think to myself what a lovely old sweet-shop it must have been.

On the shop-window itself somebody has painted in white the words FOR SAIL.

One morning, I noticed that FOR SAIL had been scraped off the shop-window and in its place somebody had painted SOLED. I stood there staring at the new writing and wishing like mad that it had been me who had bought it because then I would have been able to make it into a grubber all over again. I have always long and longed to own a sweet-shop. The sweet-shop of my dreams would be loaded from top to bottom with Sherbet Suckers and Caramel Fudge and Russian Toffee and Sugar Snorters and Butter Gumballs and thousands and thousands of other glorious things like that. Oh boy, what I couldn't have done with that old Grubber shop if it had been mine!

On my next visit to The Grubber, I was standing across the road gazing at the wonderful old building when suddenly an enormous bathtub came sailing out through one of the second-floor windows and crashed right on to the middle of the road!

A few moments later, a white porcelain lavatory pan with the wooden seat still on it came flying out of the same window and landed with a wonderful splintering crash just beside the bathtub. This was followed by a kitchen sink and an empty canary-cage and a four-poster bed and two hot-water bottles and a rocking horse and a sewing-machine and goodness knows what else besides.

It looked as though some madman was ripping out the whole of the inside of the house, because now pieces of staircase and bits of the banisters and a whole lot of old floorboards came whistling through the windows.

Then there was silence. I waited and waited but not another sound came from within the building. I crossed the road and stood right under the windows and called out, "Is anybody at home?"

There was no answer.

In the end it began to get dark so I had to turn away and start walking home. But you can bet your life nothing was going to stop me from hurrying back there again tomorrow morning to see what the next surprise was going to be.

Copyright © Roald Dahl, reprinted with permission from Puffin Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House


About Roald Dahl:

Roald Dahl (1916-1990) was born in Wales of Norwegian parents. In 1951, Roald Dahl met his future wife, the American actress Patricia Neal, who starred in films including The Day the Earth Stood Still, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and Hud, for which she won an Oscar. After establishing himself as a writer for adults, Roald Dahl began writing children's stories in 1960 and wrote two of his best-known novels, James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in the U.S.

In September 1964, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was published initially in the U.S. with the U.K. following a few years later. It would go on to become one of the most famous and best-known of Roald's stories. The idea for the story grew out of his own well-documented love of chocolate and his school-day memories of acting as a taster for a famous chocolate factory. These first stories were written as entertainment for his own children, to whom many of his books are dedicated.

Today, Roald Dahl’s stories are available in 58 languages and have sold more than 200 million books. With more than 40 million Roald Dahl books in print in the U.S. alone, Dahl is considered one of the most beloved storytellers of our time and his popularity continues to increase as his fantastic novels, including James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, The BFG, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, delight an ever-growing legion of fans. 
Find Roald online: Website | Twitter | Goodreads | Instagram | Facebook | Pinterest | YouTube


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Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Blog Tour: The Ones by Daniel Sweren-Becker {Character Profile + Giveaway}


I'm so excited to have the blog tour for Daniel Sweren-Becker's The Ones stop by today! I've been excited for this one for months--and it's out today! I know what I've got to share with you will whet your appetite, so you should absolutely head and out get yourself a copy ASAP. But, I've also got a giveaway for my friends in the US, so stick around and enjoy! :)


About The Ones:

Cody has always been proud of being a One. She and her boyfriend James were two of the lucky babies from the 1% of the U.S. population that were randomly selected to benefit from genetic engineering. Now, she and the rest of The Ones are excelling. They are healthy, beautiful, and talented. They aren't otherworldly, just perfect. And to some, that's not fair. The Equality Movement, capitalizing on the growing fear and jealousy, gains political traction and actually outlaws their existence. Society shows its darker side as The Ones are marginalized. The line between right and wrong blurs in the face of injustice and Cody becomes closer to a group of radical Ones intent on fighting back. James begins to fear just how far she is willing to go for the cause.
Add to your to-read shelf: Goodreads



Character Profile, Cody:





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About the author:

Daniel Sweren-Becker is an author, television writer and playwright living in Los Angeles. He has written for ABC, USA, MTV and Nickelodeon, and his play Stress Positions premiered in New York at the SoHo Playhouse. He grew up in Manhattan, before attending Wesleyan University and NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Nowadays he tries to get to the beach as often as possible, hopes to sample every ice cream sandwich in LA, and teaches creative writing at 826LA's community center. The Ones is his debut novel.
Find Daniel online: Twitter | Instagram

Follow the tour:

August 30: Fiction Fare (Author Interview)
August 31: ReadWriteLove28 (Character Profile - Kai)
September 1: Take Me Away to a Great Read (Mood Board)
September 2: Swoony Boys Podcast (Fan Cast)
September 3: Book Briefs (Character Profile - James)
September 4: Lili's Reflections (Guest Post: Equality Movement)
September 5: That Artsy Reader Girl (Character Profile - Taryn)
September 6: Paper Cuts (Character Profile - Cody)
September 7: It Starts at Midnight (Playlist)