I
am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the THE DRAGON THIEF by Zetta Elliott Blog
Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the
giveaway!
About
The Book:
Author: Zetta
Elliott, Geneva B (Illustrator)
Pub.
Date: January
12, 2021
Publisher: Yearling Books
Formats: Hardcover, Paperback,
eBook, audiobook
Pages: 176
Find
it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, Audible, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD, Bookshop.org
STEALING A BABY DRAGON WAS EASY! HIDING IT IS A LITTLE MORE COMPLICATED, IN THIS SEQUEL TO REVIEWER FAVORITE 'DRAGONS IN A BAG'.
Jaxon had just one job - to return three baby dragons to the realm of magic. But when he got there, only two dragons were left in the bag. His best friend's sister, Kavita, is a dragon thief!
Kavita only wanted what was best for the baby dragon. But now every time she feeds it, the dragon grows and grows! How can she possible keep it a secret? Even worse, stealing it has upset the balance between the worlds. The gates to the other realm have shut tight! Jaxon needs all the help he can get to find Kavita, outsmart a trickster named Blue, and return the baby dragon to its true home.
Grab the other book in the series!
Excerpt:
Kavita
“Thief!”
The word whistles through the air and pricks the back of my neck. I turn to
find Aunty’s black eyes fixed on me. She was snoring loudly when I crept into
her room just a moment ago. That gave me the courage to pull a chair over to the
mountain of boxes and stuffed plastic bags she keeps in the corner. At the very
top of the mound of junk is a wire birdcage that’s shaped sort of like the Taj
Mahal. I need it—and I need it now.
I inch up on my tippy-toes and reach for the birdcage. My other hand sinks into
the soft, squishy contents of a yellow plastic bag that’s wedged between two
boxes. I don’t know what’s inside the bag, and I don’t care. Mummy would never
let me keep my room like this, but no one ever criticizes Aunty—Papa won’t allow
it. She’s the oldest person in our family and spends almost every day buried
under the heavy, colorful quilt that covers her bed. Sometimes she hums to
herself and stares out the window. Other times she watches game shows on the
little black-and-white TV that sits next to her bed. Now I see her pointing a
wrinkled brown finger at me.
“Thief!”
She says it louder this time. I feel my cheeks burn with shame.
“No, Aunty—I—I…” By pressing my hand deeper into the squishy plastic bag, I
manage to steady myself and turn all the way around to face her. “I just need
to borrow—Whoa!”
I was so close to reaching my prize, but then I lose my balance. I fall off the
chair, bounce off the foot of the bed, and land on the floor with a thud. My
fall brings down an avalanche of boxes, and so I cover my head with my hands.
When I open my eyes, the empty birdcage is rolling on its side next to me.
“Tut-tut-tut.” Aunty makes the strange sound without opening her mouth. “What a
mess you’ve made.”
“Aunty? Is everything all right?”
My eyes open wide. If Mummy comes upstairs, she’ll want to know why I’m in
Aunty’s room. And if I tell her the truth, she’ll want to know why I need an
old birdcage. I can’t tell her that there’s a dragon in my bedroom. I can’t
tell anyone that I’m a dragon thief!
Aunty watches me with a slight smile on her face. Against her dark skin, her
black eyes sparkle with amusement. I don’t think she’s angry with me, so I
decide to plead for help.
“Please don’t tell on me, Aunty! I’ll clean everything up—I promise.”
We both know Mummy’s standing at the foot of the stairs. Her hand is probably
on the railing, and she’s wondering whether she needs to come upstairs to check
on Aunty. My heart is pounding fast and hard, but I don’t yet hear Mummy’s
slippered feet climbing the stairs. “Please, Aunty,” I whisper.
Aunty clears her throat and calls, “I’m fine, dear. I just knocked over some
boxes. Kavita’s here to help me.”
We wait, frozen and silent, until we hear Mummy’s voice floating upstairs.
“Okay, Aunty. I’ll be up soon with your lunch.”
Because she’s an elder, Aunty doesn’t have to do much around the house. She
really only leaves her room to use the toilet and take two-hour baths. Aunty
doesn’t even come downstairs to eat with us unless we have company over on
special occasions. Mummy brings Aunty’s meals up on a tray. I scan the messy
room for a clock and find one on the nightstand next to the bed. It’s a square
digital clock that Vik and I gave to Aunty last Christmas. Its giant blue
display reads 11:38.
I hop to my feet and scramble to pick up all the things I’ve just knocked down.
Aunty waves her hand at me and says, “Leave it, child. It makes no difference
to me whether they are up against the wall or on the floor. What is it you came
to borrow?”
I feel guilty, so I set the chair back on its legs and stack a couple of boxes
on its seat. Then I point to the pink wire cage and say, “I came to borrow your
birdcage, Aunty.”
Her dark eyes narrow as she squints at me. “You don’t have a bird.”
My cheeks burn again, and I dig my toes into the thick green carpet. “No,
Aunty.”
After studying me for a moment, she says, “Do you have some other kind of pet?”
I nod without looking up. How much should I tell her?
“I put it in a box, but…” I stop and decide not to tell Aunty that the dragon
set the cardboard box on fire. “I need something stronger.”
Aunty leans back against her pillows and smooths the quilt with her hands. “I
see. And your mother doesn’t know about this new pet of yours.”
It’s not a question. I nod again and dare to glance at Aunty’s face.
“Then you’d better take it,” Aunty says with a nod at the cage on the floor. “I
had a songbird once, but I set it free before I left India. I only keep the
cage to remind me….”
I pick up the cage and hold it to my chest. “Remind you of what, Aunty?”
She sighs and closes her eyes. “That every living thing wants to be free.”
I look down at the cage in my arms. It might be shaped like the Taj Mahal, but
it’s not a palace and certainly not a good home for a baby dragon. My cheeks
burn again, and this time tears spill from my eyes.
About Zetta:
I’m a Black feminist writer of poetry, plays,
essays, novels, and stories for children. I was born and raised in Canada, but
have lived in the US for over 20 years. I earned my PhD in American Studies
from NYU in 2003; I have taught at Ohio University, Louisiana State University,
Mount Holyoke College, Hunter College, Bard High School Early College, and
Borough of Manhattan Community College. My poetry has been published in New Daughters of Africa, We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices, the Cave Canem
anthology The
Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South, Check
the Rhyme: an Anthology of Female Poets and Emcees, and Coloring Book: an
Eclectic Anthology of Fiction and Poetry by Multicultural Writers. My novella, Plastique, was excerpted
in T Dot Griots: an
Anthology of Toronto’s Black Storytellers, and my plays have been
staged in New York, Cleveland, and Chicago. My essays have appeared
in School Library Journal, Horn Book, and Publishers
Weekly. My picture book, Bird, won the Honor
Award in Lee & Low Books’ New Voices Contest and the Paterson Prize for
Books for Young Readers. My young adult novel, A
Wish After Midnight, has been called “a revelation…vivid, violent and impressive
history.” Ship of Souls was published
in February 2012; it was named a Booklist Top Ten
Sci-fi/Fantasy Title for Youth and was a finalist for the Phillis Wheatley Book
Award. My YA novel, The Door at the Crossroads, was a finalist in
the Speculative Fiction category of the 2017 Cybils Awards, and my picture
book, Melena’s Jubilee, won a 2017 Skipping
Stones Honor Award. I received the Children’s Literature Association’s Article Award for
my 2014 essay, “The Trouble with
Magic: Conjuring the Past in New York City Parks.” I am an advocate
for greater diversity and equity in publishing, and I have self-published
numerous illustrated books for younger readers under my own imprint,
Rosetta Press; 3 were named Best of the Year by the Bank Street Center for
Children’s Literature, and Benny Doesn’t Like to Be Hugged was a
first-grade fiction selection for the 2019 Scripps National Spelling Bee. Dragons in a Bag, a middle grade
fantasy novel, was published by Random House in 2018; the Association for
Library Service to Children (ALSC) named it a Notable Children’s
Book. Its
sequel, The Dragon Thief, was named a Best
Middle Grade Book of 2019 by CBC Books. Say
Her Name, a young adult poetry collection, was published by Little, Brown Books
for Young Readers in January 2020; A
Place Inside of Me: a Poem to Heal the Heart from FSG was
named a 2021 Notable Poetry Book by the National Council of Teachers of
English. I currently live in Evanston, IL.
Click here if you’re not sure how to pronounce my name.
I’m represented by Johanna Castillo of Writers House.
Photo credit: me!
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Amazon | Goodreads
Find out about the illustrator Geneva
B HERE!
Giveaway Details:
3 lucky winners will win a finished copy of THE DRAGON THIEF, US Only.
a Rafflecopter giveawayTour
Schedule:
Week
One:
|
1/18/2021 |
Excerpt |
|
|
1/19/2021 |
Excerpt |
|
|
1/20/2021 |
Review |
|
|
1/21/2021 |
Review |
|
|
1/22/2021 |
Review |
Week
Two:
|
1/25/2021 |
Review |
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1/26/2021 |
Review |
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|
1/27/2021 |
Review |
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|
1/28/2021 |
Review |
|
|
1/29/2021 |
Instagram Post |
I love the premise of this book and the cover is so much fun.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the excerpt.
ReplyDelete