Duly Noted-Posted Blog Tour

Surviving middle school is akin to surviving (and enjoying) life in general.  It's a testing ground for becoming who you want to be for the rest of your life.  Everything is under a microscope; magnified and scrutinized.  Cruelty walks the halls alongside compassion.  In surprising moments of utter clarity one will rise above the other. 

Eighth grade, the final year before moving to high school, is when those foggy things hovering in the background of our days move to the front and center, sharply in focus.  Posted (Walden Pond Press, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, May 2, 2017) by John David Anderson, author of Ms. Bixby's Last Day (Walden Pond Press, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, June 21, 2016) presents to readers two life-changing weeks for the members of the Branton Middle School community; specifically those of four plus one friends.  Those bonds, of the first four, forged over years are about to be measured.

I PUSH MY WAY THROUGH THE BUZZING MOB AND FREEZE, 

heart-struck, dizzy.  It takes me a minute to really get what I'm looking at.

When you read these first two sentences of the two page introduction narrated by Frost, Eric Voss so named for winning a poetry contest, there is no turning back.  You are entirely attracted and attached to the story.  Frost takes us on a journey through the previous two weeks blending past episodes with present events.

When Frost came to this school a little more than two years ago due to his parent's divorce, his mother reassured him by saying

"It will be awkward at first, but it gets better.  You find your people and you make a tribe and you protect each other.  From the wolves."

Four guys, highly intelligent but different, find each other.  Bench, Jeremiah Jones, plays football, basketball and baseball but usually sits on the sidelines until there is nothing he can do to alter the course of the game.  Advik Patel, DeeDee, is a Dungeons & Dragons fanatic and collector of polyhedral dice.  He is never without a ten-sided dice, carrying it for good luck and rolling it to make decisions.  Wolf, Morgan Thompson, is a piano prodigy.  His nickname is shortened from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  Frost is certain the other three will someday be sitting in the audience at Carnegie Hall listening to Wolf.   

On a nothing-out-of-the-ordinary day in math class, Ruby Sandals (don't you dare call her Dorothy) is caught texting on her phone.  Of course, phones are not allowed in class but everyone uses them.  What makes this infraction grow from small to ginormous is what Ms. Sheers reads on the screen and the fact this is the final violation of many.  By the following Monday no phones are allowed in school...at all.  If there are special circumstances, they are to be turned in to the office where they will be held for the day. 

Into this scenario walks Rose Holland, a new student.  Now Rose is a big girl, tall and muscular.  She's not afraid to speak her mind.  She's not afraid to ask if she can sit at the table with Frost, Bench, DeeDee and Wolf who have been sitting at that same table for more than two years during every lunch period.  Her presence there not just for one day but for each day thereafter, alters the dynamics of the group significantly.  

With the absence of phones, middle-school student creativity grows to an all-time high.  No one can pinpoint how it starts exactly (it might have been DeeDee) but post-it notes, required school supplies, start to appear everywhere as a means of communication.  Unlike phones, the identity of the author is not always known.  The tone of the notes escalates from funny and friendly to vicious.  

A lunchtime origami session, the introduction of The Gauntlet and Hirohito Hill, Mr. Sword's aphorisms, a spectacular play during a football game, and a night of re-arranging rules contribute to huge shifts in loyalties.  Another school policy rule heightens the stakes.  Then two huge instances of deliberate harassment bookending a contest bring readers to a poignant point.  Utter clarity.

When John David Anderson writes about middle school students it is with a thread of universality running through it.  No matter your age you completely comprehend every aptly described moment and interaction with the characters.  The staff members, the principal and the parents are familiar, like people you know.

For each of the twenty chapters Anderson uses only two word titles beginning with the word the; The Catalyst, The Tribe, The Variable, The Catch, The Bet or The Confession.  It's an art form.  It's amazing to read how incidents, conversations, thoughts and people build layer upon layer from the singular word.  Please enjoy the selected passages below.

People talk about nightmares where they are falling or where they are trapped in a burning building or buried alive.  But ask any incoming sixth grader with at least two forehead zits and a Great Clips haircut and he will tell you the prevailing image from his nightmares is standing in the middle of a buzzing cafeteria, tray in hand, desperately looking for somewhere to sit.  That was what made me sweat through my sheets at night.

Forget the bogeyman; the lunch lady haunted my dreams.

We all need something that's ours.  A thing that we know absolutely about ourselves that others can only guess at.

We started walking toward the playground where our bikes were racked, the swings and slides full of carefree kids, little ones who didn't need a tribe yet because when you're five, everybody's a member.

What made it unique was the battleground.  Every skirmish took place on three square inches.  Sticky notes were the weapons and words were the ammunition.

"Turds," he said.

"Huh?"

"Cheetos.  The look like turds.  Little cheese turds.  Especially the stubby ones.  I never noticed that before."  He was sitting cross-legged on his bed with a copy of X-Men #25 spread out in front of him.  The one where Wolverine has his adamentium sucked out of his pores by Magneto.  Brutal stuff.  Good stuff.  I looked at the Cheeto like it was some divine artifact worthy of a museum.  He wasn't wrong.  They did sort of look like that.  I'd always imagined them more as tree roots.

"When I was little I thought they were supposed to look like toes.  Cheese-toes.  Except they left off the s," Wolf said.

"I'm pretty sure nobody's toes look like that," I said.

"I think my grandmother's toes probably look like this."

He popped the crunchy cheese turd in his mouth and started chewing.

"And I'm pretty sure you have now ruined Cheetos for me for life."

Wolf gave me a giant grin with bright orange mush smeared across his teeth.

Posted written by John David Anderson is an intimate and insightful look at middle school life.  He understands the middle school mind.  He understands people and their relationships.  I sincerely believe every middle school student should and will want to read this book.  You will need to have multiple copies on your shelves.  Please read the Acknowledgments.

To learn more about John David Anderson and his other work please follow the link attached to his name to access his website.  You can enjoy the first five chapters here.  Click on Start Reading Now!

John David Anderson is the author of Ms. Bixby's Last Day, Sidekicked, Minion, and The Dungeoneers.  A dedicated root beer connoisseur and chocolate fiend, he lives with his wife, two kids, and perpetually whiny cat in Indianapolis, Indiana.  This picture is of John David Anderson after he survived middle school. 

Blog Tour Participants

April 17          Librarian's Quest

Walden Media Tumblr

April 18          Nerdy Book Club

April 19          For Those About to Mock

April 20          Teach Mentor Texts

April 21          Unleashing Readers

April 22          Next Best Book
                       Read, Write, Reflect

April 23          Bluestocking Thinking

April 24          Litcoach Lou

                        Book Monsters

April 25          Kirsti Call

April 26          Educate-Empower-Inspire-Teach

April 27          The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia                                                                                       

                        Ms Yingling Reads

April 28          Maria's Mélange                                                                                                                    

                        Novel Novice

April 29          The Hiding Spot

April 30          This Kid Reviews Books

The Good Ones---Ms. Bixby's Last Day Blog Tour

Decades after elementary, middle, junior high and high school they are firmly affixed in our memories as if we just left their classroom only days ago.  They are the teachers who don't teach subjects but children.  These teachers create an aura of close community, family, in the space you will share with them for the next nine months.  Their goal, always, is to help you discover your best self.

I consider myself one of the fortunate ones.  Most of my teachers were wonderful.  I can still picture all of them in my mind noting memorable things about each of them.  The special educator who will continue to be the one who most inspired my life is my fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Urquhart.  Before we had the polio vaccine, she contracted the disease.  She moved around using a wheel chair and special crutches.  While visually we were aware of her limitations, it never interfered with her ability to teach.

During the early sixties when President John K. Kennedy was in office, there was a huge push for physical fitness.  I can vividly recall Mrs. Urquhart playing the Chicken Fat song sung by Robert Preston every single morning.  Years later when I was assigned to teach physical education at the elementary level in addition to being the teacher librarian, I located a copy of the song to play at the beginning of our gym classes.  The students groaned but loved it.  We all loved it.  Mrs. Urquhart was there in spirit cheering us on as she often did a group of fifth grade students in the 60s.

I am sure during the course of the year Mrs. Urquhart read many stories and books to us, but the ones I remember the most were those of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox.  She didn't just read us these stories, the stories became a part of our classroom.  We studied the characters in depth creating life sized images which were placed on all four walls.  We learned about the cultures from which these stories arose.  I could almost hear her voice when I needed a push to attend storytelling school in Jonesborough, Tennessee for two summers.  I taught storytelling for more than twenty years with my students.  To this day whenever I visit a community I locate their public library browsing through the 398.2 section hunting for new stories to tell.  If I could have another last day with Mrs. Urquhart, I would tell her how much I love her.  I would tell her she is one of my life's heroes.



After spending a day reading and rereading portions of John David Anderson's newest title I know this man experienced one of these special people in his life.  In Ms. Bixby's Last Day (Walden Pond Press, June 21, 2016) we come to know Ms. Bixby and three significant students in her sixth grade classroom becoming intimately involved in their lives.  Quite simply we don't want this story to end...ever.

REBECCA ROUDABUSH HAS COOTIES.

With this opening statement Topher, short for Christopher, introduces us to his two friends, Steve, a brilliant boy with a photographic memory and a love of statistics and numbers and Brand, a creative wordsmith and a young man who stands fast no matter what happens and Ms. Bixby.  It is here we read the first of many Bixbyims.

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be," she adds.

We also conclude this first chapter with a sense of sadness.  We know bad news is coming.  Ms. Bixby delivers it three short weeks later.  She has been diagnosed with ductal adenocarcinoma.

In the alternating voices of Topher, Steve and Brand, chapter by chapter, a story of the present day is intertwined with past episodes.  To start, all the plans for a party on the scheduled last day for Ms. Bixby are cast aside when the school principal announces she has had to leave five days early.  This calls for action by the trio of boys.  They devise a plan during recess which, by the way, is written in ink from a stolen pen on Brand's arm.

Of course, life being what it is, obstacles pop up immediately.  They cannot complete their quest on a Saturday but must skip a day of school.  Every step of their plan is continually revised from one moment to the next, sometimes leaving readers hardly able to breath at what might happen but nevertheless turning pages as rapidly as possible.  Each boy outside of the grand scheme has a very specific reason for needing to see Ms. Bixby again.  Sometimes it seems as if everything has gone wrong but ultimately everything is better than expected because it's with Ms. Bixby.  Their year's journey with her and this day's adventure to be with her changes everything for Topher, Steve and Brand.  It will change you too.


John David Anderson had my attention from the first line.  With every single sentence I found myself more and more attached to these three boys and their teacher, Ms. Bixby.  Their conversations and thoughts are very realistic; to the point you believe these boys are flesh and blood people.  And yes, there are Ms. Bixby's in our schools.  There aren't as many as there should be but thankfully they are there guiding children and hopefully mentoring other educators.  Ms. Bixby's interactions with her students are professional but personal.  She sees into the hearts of her students as individuals knowing what to do and say and when her presence is needed.

You will chuckle and nod knowingly at Topher's description and attributes of teacher categories, Zombies, Caff-Adds, Dungeon Masters, Spielbergs, Noobs and The Good Ones. You will feel your heart swell when she places a ribbon earned by Steve on the board for a day, honoring him more than his A-or-nothing parents do.  You will cheer at the bravado of Brand in confronting a teacher who attempts to thwart their plans.  Every single incident plays out like the best kind of movie with its setting, time of day and dialogue.  Here are some sample passages.

"If we could pull it off," Steve repeated, then sighed before saying, "But you're right about one thing.  You couldn't possibly do it without me."

Brand looked back up. "So you're in?"

Steve nodded reluctantly.  I smiled.  Brand started rubbing his hands together, super-villain-like. "But only if you can promise that we won't get into any trouble." Steve countered.

I gave him my Indiana Jones smile.  "When have we ever gotten you into trouble?"

"Three days ago," he replied.  "And twice last week."

"I swear I thought Mrs. Samuelson's dog had an Invisible Fence," I said, remembering the three of us running like mad down the street, that wannabe-ferocious little schnauzer yapping at our heels, threatening to chew Steve's shoes off his feet.


Constants are called that for a reason.  You can take them for granted.  Like sunrises or breathing or the hissing sound a can of Coke makes when you open it.  Like the quote your teacher puts on the board every morning.
Or your best friend saving your seat on the bus.


The door swings shut behind us, no chimes or ringing bells to give us away.  Topher call out a "Hello?"  There's no answer.  "Bizarre," he says.

"Yeah," I say.

"And creepy," Topher adds.

"That too."

"You ever been here before?"

I shake my head.  "Didn't even know the place existed."

Topher inches a little closer to me.  I can't imagine what he's thinking.  His imagination must be in overdrive.  "Reminds me of the bookstore from The Neverending Story," he says.

"Never read it," I say.

"That's all right.  It's practically impossible to finish anyway."
Any other time I'd laugh, if I wasn't feeling so weirded out.  We stand by the door, none of us wanting to take a further step inside.  There aren't enough lights---at least a third of the bulbs are burned out---and that makes for a lot of shadows on the walls.  I get a chill, and it seems to be contagious because Topher and Steve shiver too.  Then, just as I'm about to suggest turning around, heading back and waiting at the bus stop, Steve sneezes so hard he get a blob of snot in the crook of his elbow.  A huge yellow glob quivering there like Jell-O.  I think about the time I picked his nose.  This is way grosser.


Ms. Bixby's Last Day written by John David Anderson is one of the finest middle grade titles of 2016.  It will resonate with all readers but will find a permanent place in the minds of middle grade readers.  I imagine it being passed from individual to individual and never being on the shelf all year long.

John David Anderson is a guest at Scholastic's Ambassador of School Libraries, John Schumacher's blog Watch. Connect. Read. Here he completes John's sentences talking about this book and writing for Walden Pond Press.

Here is a link to a forty-six page excerpt from the book.

Here is another link to a video and additional resources for this book.

To learn more about John David Anderson and his work read:

John David Anderson

Links:
http://www.johndavidanderson.org/
https://twitter.com/anderson_author
https://www.facebook.com/JohnDavidAndersonAuthor/

Author Bio:

John David Anderson is the author of many books for young readers, includingSidekicked and The Dungeoneers. A dedicated root beer connoisseur and chocolate fiend, he lives with his wife, two kids, and perpetually whiny cat in Indianapolis, Indiana. You can visit him online at www.johndavidanderson.org.

Books/ISBNs/Dates/Descriptions:

MS. BIXBY’S LAST DAY
ISBN: 9780062338174
ISBN 10: 006233817X
On Sale: 06/21/2016

John David Anderson, author of Sidekicked and The Dungeoneers, returns with a funny, heartwarming, and heartbreaking contemporary story about three boys, one teacher, and a day none of them will ever forget.

Everyone knows there are different kinds of teachers. The boring ones, the mean ones, the ones who try too hard, the ones who stopped trying long ago. The ones you’ll never remember, and the ones you want to forget. Ms. Bixby is none of these. She’s the sort of teacher who makes you feel like school is somehow worthwhile. Who recognizes something in you that sometimes you don’t even see in yourself. Who you never want to disappoint. What Ms. Bixby is, is one of a kind.

Topher, Brand, and Steve know this better than anyone. And so when Ms. Bixby unexpectedly announces that she won’t be able to finish the school year, they come up with a risky plan—more of a quest, really—to give Ms. Bixby the last day she deserves. Through the three very different stories they tell, we begin to understand what Ms. Bixby means to each of them—and what the three of them mean to each other.

The Dungeoneers

ISBN: 9780062338143
ISBN 10: 0062338145
On Sale: 06/23/2015

An action-packed, funny, and unexpected middle grade fantasy-adventure from the acclaimed author of Sidekicked.

The world is not a fair place, and Colm Candorly knows it. While his parents and eight sisters seem content living on a lowly cobbler's earnings, Colm can't help but feel that everyone has the right to a more comfortable life. It's just a question of how far you're willing to go to get it.

In an effort to help make ends meet, Colm uses his natural gift for pickpocketing to pilfer a pile of gold from the richer residents of town, but his actions place him at the mercy of a mysterious man named Finn Argos, a gilded-toothed, smooth-tongued rogue who gives Colm a choice: he can be punished for his thievery or he can become a member of Thwodin's Legions, a guild of dungeoneers who take what they want and live as they will. Colm soon finds himself part of a family of warriors, mages, and hunters, learning to work together in a quest to survive and, perhaps, to find a bit of treasure along the way.

Minion

ISBN: 9780062133113
ISBN 10: 006213311X
On Sale: 06/24/2014

John David Anderson returns to the world of superheroes he created in Sidekicked with an entirely new cast of characters in Minion, a funny and emotional companion to his first breakout tween novel—perfect for superhero fans who also love the work of bestselling authors Rick Riordan, Louis Sachar, and Frank Cottrell Boyce.

Michael Morn might be a villain, but he's really not a bad guy. When you live in New Liberty, there are no Supers and only two kinds of people: those who turn to crime and those who suffer. Michael and his adoptive father spend their days building boxes—special devices with mysterious abilities—that they sell to the mob at a price. They provide for each other, they look out for each other, and they'd never betray each other.

But then a Super comes to town, and Michael's world is thrown into disarray. The Comet could destroy everything Michael and his dad have built, the safe and secure life they've made for themselves. And now Michael and his father face a choice: to hold tight to their life or to let it unravel.

Sidetracked

ISBN: 9780062133144
ISBN 10: 0062133144
On Sale: 06/25/2013

The Avengers meets Louis Sachar in this hilarious and action-packed tween novel by John David Anderson, which Publishers Weekly called a "superhero story that any comics fan will enjoy" in a starred review.

Andrew Bean might be a part of H.E.R.O., a secret organization for the training of superhero sidekicks, but that doesn't mean that life is all leaping tall buildings in single bounds. First, there's Drew's power: Possessed of super senses—his hearing, sight, taste, touch, and smell are the most powerful on the planet—he's literally the most sensitive kid in school. Then there's his superhero mentor, a former legend who now spends more time straddling barstools than fighting crime. Add in trying to keep his sidekick life a secret from everyone, including his parents, and the truth is clear: Middle school is a drag even with superpowers.

But this is all before a supervillain long thought dead returns to the city of Justicia, superheroes begin disappearing at an alarming rate, and Drew's two identities threaten to crash head-on into each other. Drew has always found it pretty easy to separate right from wrong, good from evil. It's what a superhero does. But what happens when that line starts to disappear?

BLOG TOUR LIST
6/2/2016	Nerdy Book Club
6/3/2016	Next Best Book
6/6/2016	Walden Media Tumblr
6/7/2016	Teach Mentor Texts
6/8/2016	This Kid Reviews Books
6/9/2016	Read, Write, Reflect
6/10/2016	Flashlight Reader
6/13/2016	Julie Falatko
6/14/2016	A Foodie Bibliophile in Wanderlust
6/15/2016	About to Mock
6/16/2016	Kid Lit Frenzy
6/16/2016	The Hiding Spot
6/17/2016	Unleashing Readers
6/20/2016	Ms. Yingling Reads
	Novel Novice
6/21/2016	Maria's Melange
	Novel Novice
	All the Wonders
6/22/2016	Lit Coach Lou
	Novel Novice
6/23/2016	Novel Novice
6/24/2016	Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers
	Novel Novice
6/27/2016	Librarian's Quest
6/28/2016	Educate.Empower.Inspire...Teach
6/29/2016	Bluestocking Thinking
6/30/2016	Reading Writing, and the Stuff In-Between
7/1/2016	All the Wonders

Minion by John David Anderson Blog Tour

Remember thirty years ago when Bonnie Tyler's voice rang out loud and clear singing the lyrics for Holding Out For A Hero?  She sang about what readers of mythology and folktales have always known; people throughout history seek a champion.  People want to believe goodness with always be triumphant over evil.

The line between right and wrong can get very fine; people who are basically honorable can make flawed choices and those thought to be bad can unexpectedly be downright respectable.  John David Anderson created the alternate world of Justicia in his novel, Sidekicked (Walden Pond Press, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, June 2013); a world much like our own but populated with superheroes, supervillains and their sidekicks.  In the newly released companion volume, Minion (Walden Pond Press, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers) in another town, New Liberty, no superheroes or supervillains have chosen to make an appearance for years.  This does by no means equal the absence of good and evil.

I want you to know, right from the start, that I'm not evil.  I'm not saying I'm Captain Fantastic, either.  I just don't want you to misinterpret everything that I'm about to tell you.

Michael Marion Magdalene Morn has been raised by nuns at the St. Mary of the Woods School for Wayward Boys having been found as a baby abandoned in a White Castle restaurant.  When he had all but given up hope of ever being adopted a Professor Benjamin Edson shows up one day and three days later Michael is no longer a resident of St. Mary of the Woods School for Wayward Boys. His life with Professor Edson does not follow what people would call the straight and narrow.

First and foremost Michael has a gift, the ability to look people straight in the eyes and command them to do his bidding.  Secondly, Professor Edson, Dad, is a genius creating small black boxes of various sizes filled with technology capable of doing anything you can imagine...really.  This duo, son and adopted father, have made a life for themselves, carefully leaving no real trace of their existence except for a few carefully selected friends.  They have survived by crossing that fine line drifting into the criminal element.

For protection Michael is homeschooled studying year round.  His best friend, Zach, is a henchman for one of the local mob kings, Tony Romano.  Romano is also a business associate of his father.  After a trip to the local mall one afternoon, on their return home, Michael and Zach witness a crime the likes of which New Liberty has rarely seen.  What makes this event even more startling is the ear-shattering sonic boom which announces the return of a superhero, a streak of blue which drops from the sky and returns with equal speed, named by the media as the Comet. The game being played by Michael, his Dad, Zach and the controlling mobs in town is about to change in far-reaching and frightening ways.

Relationships will be tested, the meaning of family will be defined by the actions of Michael, his Dad, Zach and Tony Romano and a chance meeting with a girl named Viola adds a new dimension to Michael's musings about the direction his life will take.  Understand that woven into all the action of superheroes, supervillains, mobsters and the three teens (not to mention several plot twists and turns) is the constant weighing of choices balanced by intention.  Even the final sentence leaves readers wondering, albeit with a smile on their faces.


The writing style of John David Anderson in this title, as in Sidekicked, keeps you constantly on the edge of your seat, flipping through the pages as fast as you can to discover what happens next.  Chapter by chapter he builds his plot, fleshing out his players' personalities, through Michael's voice and character dialogue.  You have to remind yourself to breath during the descriptive battles between those for whom you are silently cheering and those you hope will lose.

To provide understanding to the reader about the relationship between Michael and his Dad Anderson skillfully employs a technique of flashback at the beginning of many chapters blending it with the present.  His perception of how teens think, act and speak is right on target.  You can't help but want the less than good guys but not quite bad guys to win.  What follows are a few samples of his writing from this book.

"Are you planning on taking over the world?" I asked.
"No," the man said.  "That was a joke.  Why? Are you interested in taking over the world?"
"Are you kidding?" I cringed.  "That's like asking to have everyone's problems dumped on you all at once."
Professor Benjamin Edson pounded on the table with hairy-knuckled fists, causing me to jump out of my seat.  "That's exactly what I keep telling them, but they never listen to me."
I said I didn't know who them was.  He said he didn't either.  This man was bizarre.  I kind of liked him.

Villains wear masks because it gives them courage to do something extraordinary, something they might not have the guts to do otherwise.  But heroes?  Heroes wear masks because deep down inside, I'm guessing, they just want the chance to be normal.  That's my theory, anyway.
Personally, I don't trust either of them.

Minion written by John David Anderson is one wild roller coaster of a read exploring what it means to be good and evil.  Even when the last page is read, you will be reluctant to leave New Liberty and the people you have come to know very well.  I, for one, certainly hope this series will continue.

To learn more about John David Anderson follow the link to his website embedded in his name.  To read an excerpt from this title follow this link to the publisher's website.

ABOUT JOHN DAVID ANDERSON

ABOUT THE AUTHOR, IN HIS OWN WORDS:

John David Anderson writes novels for young people and then, occasionally, gets them published. Besides Minion, he is the author of Sidekicked, and Standard Hero Behavior. He lives with his patient wife and brilliant twins in Indianapolis, Indiana, right next to a State park and a Walmart. He enjoys hiking, reading, chocolate, spending time with his family, playing the piano, chocolate, making board games, chocolate, not putting away his laundry, watching movies, and chocolate. Those aren't his real teeth.

To read other posts on this tour please visit:
June 23 Maria's Melange
June 24 The Library Fanatic
June 25 The Next Best Book
June 27 The Book Egg
June 28 Word Spelunking
June 30 Ms. Yingling Reads
July 1 The Book Monsters
July 2 The Book Monsters
July 3 Read Now, Sleep Later
July 7 The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia
July 8 Candace's Book Blog
July 9 Middle Grade Mafioso
July 10 Librarian's Quest
July 11 Unleashing Readers
July 12 Trisha Perry
July 14 This Kid Reviews Books
July 16 Charlotte's Library
July 17 Literacy Toolbox
July 18 Small Review