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Giveaway: Four Middle Grade Novels by Greg Leitich Smith & Pterodactyl Puppet 
Enter to win a set of four signed copies of middle grade novels by Greg Leitich Smith and a pterodactyl puppet!

Today he makes his home in Austin, but Greg grew up on the north side of Chicago.

He is of German and Japanese heritage, and many of his characters are similarly mixed-race.

Greg holds degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Texas at Austin. In addition, he holds a degree in law from The University of Michigan Law School, Ann Arbor. His interest in science and law has influenced his writing.

Little Green Men at the Mercury Inn (Roaring Brook) 

Twelve-year-old Aidan lives and works at his parents’ motel on the Space Coast in Florida, so he’s seen a lot of weird stuff. Even his best friend, Louis, is a little bit crazy—he’s obsessed with UFOs and swears he saw one two years ago. But things at the Mercury Inn are about to get a whole lot weirder.

When an actual unidentified flying object suddenly appears in the sky over the motel, Aidan begins to realize that some of the residents of the Mercury Inn may be much more unusual than he thought. And Louis might not be so crazy after all.

“In this gleefully absurd tale, Smith (Chronal Engine) unfurls a series of alien-inspired hijinks at a space-themed motel on Florida’s Space Coast…Arnold’s skillfully drafted spot cartoons give this offbeat story a lively layout and match Smith’s light and breezy tone, grounded by the occasional serious moment. The result is an engaging, humorous look at humans learning that they’re not alone in the universe.” –Publishers Weekly

Chronal Engine (Clarion)

When Max, Emma, and Kyle are sent to live with their reclusive grandfather for the summer, they’re dismayed to learn he thinks there’s a time machine in the basement.

But when Grandpa Pierson predicts the exact time of his own heart attack, and when Emma is kidnapped by what can only be a time traveler, they realize he was telling the truth about the Chronal Engine. And if they want their sister back, they’ll have to do it themselves.

So Max and Kyle, together with their new friend Petra, pack up their grandpa’s VW and follow Emma and the kidnapper back in time, to Late Cretaceous Texas, where the sauropods and tyrannosaurs roam. Can the trio find Emma and survive the hazards of the Age of Dinosaurs, or are they, too, destined to become part of the fossil record?

“[T]his is exactly the book young dino fans would write themselves, crammed with sandbox-style action and positively packed with words like Nanotyrannus and Parasaurolophus. Great back matter clarifies fact from speculation, while Henry’s manga-inspired illustrations provide a good sense of the monsters’ scary scale.” – Booklist

Ninjas, Piranhas and Galileo (IntoPrint, originally Little, Brown) 

“Smith’s sparkling debut offers three seventh grade narrators, each of them precocious, intelligent, and wickedly funny…Readers will identify with these smart characters and enjoy the vicarious attendance at their idiosyncratic school.” -Publishers Weekly

Tofu and T. rex (IntoPrint, originally Little, Brown) Vegan Frederika Murchison-Kowalski returns to the Peshtigo School after a brief “hiatus.”

But she then discovers that she has to live with her grandfather, who just happens to own a butcher shop and sausage deli.

Not only that, Freddie’s cousin, Hans-Peter, is a diehard carnivore but needs Freddie’s insider knowledge to get accepted into the Peshtigo School himself.

Throw in a flaming dinosaur, a recipe for vegan kielbasa, and an accidental amputation, and this battle of generations, wills, and diets will have readers laughing out loud.

“This book will make kids laugh out loud.” –School Library Journal

“Tofu and T. rex captures the quirky eccentricities of small private schools, especially in the way they seem to foster and nurture quirky and eccentric (and highly intelligent if quixotic) personalities. This book is a fun read and a fitting continuance of the earlier work, Ninjas, Piranhas, and Galileo.” –Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy
 Labels: giveaway, Greg Leitich Smith, Texas author Heidi Grange said...

I think this is the first trailer I've seen made from Lego people. I liked it though and I am pretty sure that kids will too.

Wednesday, December 03, 2014 11:08:00 AM 
These books look GREAT, Cynthia! I know I just won a book through your blog (Shannon Wiersbitsky's WHAT FLOWERS REMEMBER--yay!), but I'll be greedy since, if I win these, they're totally going to my daughter-in-law for her 3rd-5th-grade Special Ed classroom :D

Wednesday, December 03, 2014 11:20:00 AM 
I LOVE this trailer!!! I mean, really---to be able to put us on the edge of our seats using LEGOs is brilliant! :D It also brought to mind that one image in the movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer" with the legos set up like chess men :D

Wednesday, December 03, 2014 11:29:00 AM Rachel S. said...

Love the trailer. Then again, I love Legos. And Lego videos. I haven't read Chronal Engine, but I've heard good things about it.

I also want to read "Little Green Men..." I grew up near Cocoa Beach and my dad worked at NASA, so the idea of the book speaks to my roots. I also love the idea of handing my kids a book set in my hometown area.

Wednesday, December 03, 2014 11:19:00 PM SRMcEvoy said...

I have read all the books but would love signed copies for the kids.

Thursday, December 04, 2014 7:03:00 PM 
I'm a vegan, so I have to have a copy of Tofu and T. Rex!

Thursday, December 11, 2014 9:05:00 AM K. Messerly said...

How exciting! I work at an alternative school for grades 6-12 (who get in trouble for various reasons). The middle schoolers are harder to 'trick' into reading than my high school students. We have a budget of $0 (all money for library books goes to their home schools) and I'd LOVE to have these cool books to entice those guys.

Sunday, December 14, 2014 8:05:00 AM