SHADES OF EARTH GIVEAWAY AND ASK THE EXPERT INTERVIEW

Today I’m excited to interview Maya and Sarah, 5^th graders, who started a book club with their friends, for my ASK THE EXPERT series. And Maya’s mom is Kristin Lenz, who contributes to our Tuesday Tips and who blogs with a number of other bloggers, many who are published authors, at YA Fusion. I follow it regularly and recommend you check it out here.

Hi Maya and Sarah. Thanks so much for joining us.

1.  Please tell us a little bit about yourself, your school, and what you like to read.

We are good friends in the fifth grade, and go to a public elementary school. We both like to read fantasy and realistic fiction.  Some of our favorite books are: Harry Potter, Gregor the Overlander, The Mysterious Benedict Society, the Magyk series, Hugo Cabret, Ida B. and True, Rules, and Out of My Mind.  At school, our teacher is reading Wonder, and we are really getting into it.

 

2.  So glad you two like Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins. It was the first series I read of hers before Hunger Games became so popular. I know you’ve recently started a book club with your friends. Tell us a little about that and how it’s going.

           

The book club is going pretty well.  We have a few members that want to be in the book club just to be with their friends and don’t want to read the book. We still are working on a compromise. We found some book club rules in an American Girl Book Club book to try to get everyone to read the books and take it seriously and be respectful. 

We started at the end of the summer and wanted to meet once a month, but we’ve had to be flexible because it takes some members longer to read.  Our first book was the Green Glass Sea, and the second was Out of My Mind.  We just finished The Hobbit, then saw the movie together.  Our next book is Princess Academy.

 

3.  Sounds fun to read The Hobbit and then see the movie together. How do you find out about the books you read? What about new books coming out?

The Mighty Girls website (http://www.amightygirl.com/book-club), searching on Amazon and reading summaries and reviews, suggestions from teachers and friends.

 

4.  I hadn't heard of that website. I'll have to check it out. Maya, does the fact that your mom is a writer influence what you read? How?

Sometimes she recommends certain books, and sometimes I get to read manuscripts from some of her writer friends and give them suggestions.  My mom and Sarah’s mom are in a book club together so they have given us suggestions and tried to help when we’ve had problems with our book club.

5.  Wow! Your mom's friends are lucky that you're willing to read their manuscripts. What books are you waiting to be released?

More books in the Magyk series and the Heroes of Olympus series.

6.  I can't wait for the next book in the Magyk series too. Do you buy most of your book or get them at the library? How often do you go to a bookstore?

Both, but we go to the library more often.  We go to the bookstore a few times a year.  Sometimes we get Barnes and Noble gift cards for Christmas or birthdays.

7.  I love the library too, though I get there less often now that I get so many ARCs. Do you read any teen book blogs, author blogs, or author or publisher websites? Become a fan of an author on Facebook? Why?

No.  We aren’t on Facebook yet.

8.  Have any of your teachers recommended any blogs or websites to your class or to you?

No, but sometimes they recommend books.

9.  Are there things your favorite authors could do that would make you more likely to visit their website, their blog, or become a fan on Facebook?

Maybe if they had a contest to win their books.

10.  I think the contest idea is an excellent one both for connecting with authors online and in school visits. Have any authors visited your school? Who? Is there anything you’d recommend that an author do to make their presentation more interesting to you and other kids at your school?

A picture book author came when we were in first grade.  She was good, but we can’t remember her name.  Jonathan Rand has come to our school 3 times.

We would recommend doing a book signing, and if you’re an illustrator maybe you could do a raffle where the winner gets his picture drawn.  You could also giveaway book related stuff like bookmarks.  You could recommend your favorite books, and teach writing techniques like how to overcome writer’s block. Also, please don’t talk on and on about your life story, and don’t say “dude” every few minutes, don’t try to act younger.

Thank you for interviewing us for your blog!

Thanks Maya and Sarah for sharing all your great advice.

Everyone, I'm looking for more kids to interview for my ASK THE EXPERT series starting in July. If you know a kid who'd be willing to be interviewed, e-mail me at rmarma2 at yahoo dot com. Thanks so much.

Today, I'm beyond thrilled to share SHADES OF EARTH with you. I feel so lucky to have gotten an ARC.

Here's a description from Goodreads: 

The final book in the  New York Times bestselling trilogy, perfect for fans of Battlestar Galactica and Prometheus!

Amy and Elder have finally left the oppressive walls of the spaceship Godspeed behind. They're ready to start life afresh--to build a home--on Centauri-Earth, the planet that Amy has traveled 25 trillion miles across the universe to experience.

But this new Earth isn't the paradise Amy had been hoping for. There are giant pterodactyl-like birds, purple flowers with mind-numbing toxins, and mysterious, unexplained ruins that hold more secrets than their stone walls first let on. The biggest secret of all? Godspeed's former passengers aren't alone on this planet. And if they're going to stay, they'll have to fight.

Amy and Elder must race to discover who--or what--else is out there if they are to have any hope of saving their struggling colony and building a future together. They will have to look inward to the very core of what makes them human on this, their most harrowing journey yet. Because if the colony collapses? Then everything they have sacrificed--friends, family, life on Earth--will have been for nothing.

FUELED BY LIES.
RULED BY CHAOS.
ALMOST HOME.

 

This is absolutely amazing! It’s one of the best ends to a trilogy that I’ve read.

This book is filled with action. Right away, Amy and Elder land on Centauri-Earth. And while Amy loves leaving the confines of the ship and Elder marvels at seeing a real sky, they quickly realize this is not a paradise. There are pterodactyl-like birds, deadly plants, and something even scarier that lives on the planet with them. The planet is filled with mysteries Amy and Elder must unravel or the group they lead won’t survive.

We get to meet new characters, like those finally woken up, including Amy’s parents. And many of them aren’t what we were expecting. There’re plenty of secrets, lies, and betrayals.

One of the things I loved about this book was the character development of Amy and Elder. They have so much to face and they do it together. And they’ve grown into leaders that can make the hard decisions necessary to lead their people as they try to create a new life.

Beth is certainly not afraid to kill off characters, even when it breaks our hearts and Amy’s and Elder’s. She does a fantastic job twisting the plot, revealing things you wouldn’t have thought of, and  racketing up the problems, the betrayals, and the conflicts leading up to the final race to survive.

I SO recommend this fantastic book. I’m sad to leave this world, but can’t wait to see what Beth Revis has in store for us next.

I'm giving away my ARC of SHADES OF EARTH. To enter, all you need to do is be a follower (just click the follow button if you’re not a follower) and leave a comment by midnight on January 26th. It would be great if you could leave a comment about the interview. I’ll announce the winner on January 28th. If your e-mail is not on Blogger, please list it in your comment.

If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or your blog, mention this in the comments and I'll give you an extra entry. International entries are welcome.

Here's what's coming up. I hope you're as excited as me about it.

On Friday I'm doing a Dreaming of Books Book Giveaway Hop. I'll have a fantastic list of popular books for you to choose from.  These book hops are really popular so I'm going to try to do a few more of them this year.

Next Monday, I'm interviewing our follower Leigh Moore and giving away a copy of ROUGE, her fantastic gritty, romance set in Reconstruction New Orleans. I don't read any romance books, but loved this one.

Wednesday that week, I'll be participating in Michael Pierce's blog tour and giving away a copy of PROVEX CITY, an urban fantasy told from a male POV,which also has some contemporary issues.

Then, on the last Monday of the month, I'm interviewing Marie Lu and giving away an ARC of PRODIGY, her fantastic second book in her series. I'm SO excited to share Marie's book with you because it's so good. Marie is so kind to stop by for another interview, with her busy schedule. She's already had an amazing career as an author and I can't wait to find out what's been going on with her since she became a debut author a year ago. 

And don't forget our Tuesday Tips and Casey's Thursday agent spotlights.

Hope to see you on  Friday!