I am thrilled to be hosting a spot
on the FROZEN PEACHES by Erin Soderberg Downing Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out
my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!
About The Book:
Author: Erin Soderberg Downing
Pub. Date: April 4, 2023
Publisher: April 4, 2023
Formats: Hardcover, eBook, Audiobook
Pages: 288
Find it: Goodreads, https://books2read.com/FROZEN-PEACHES
A frozen family “business trip” to
Sweden’s Ice Hotel sets the Peaches on a new grand adventure.
The third book in The Great Peach Experiment, great for fans of The Penderwicks
and The Vanderbeekers.
Cashing in on his family’s recent good-luck streak, ten-year-old Freddy Peach
has been entering his family in a bunch of sweepstakes, but he doesn’t really
expect to win. And then he does—a free family trip to the Ice Hotel in
Sweden!
Since the Peaches are now the proud owners of their own bed-and-breakfast, they
decide they can’t pass up on the opportunity. It’s research. They'll learn more
about what it takes to operate a successful hotel from one of the most famous
tourist destinations in the world.
But what the Peaches don’t know is that five families from five frozen
locations have been brought together to compete for the honor of frozen best.
They’ll face-off in a series of challenges from dog sled racing to ice carving
to an ice-cold cook out. But when the going gets tough, the Peaches have always
come together in the past? Why should this time be any different?
The third book in the Great Peach Experiment series, Frozen Peaches is
a sweet treat, mixing humor, adventure, warmth (despite the cold) and a lot of
heart to make another great book readers will be delighted to devour.
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
Excerpt:
1
SWEEPSTAKES SURPRISE
Freddy Peach
had been keeping a huge secret from his family, and it was
finally time to spill the beans. “Everyone, I have an announcement,”
just-turned-eleven-year-old Freddy blurted out at dinner one evening, a few
weeks before spring break. Then he sat quietly and waited for their full
attention. The trouble was, Freddy made many announcements—most
of which were interesting random facts he’d recently learned—and the
rest of his family sometimes ignored him. He cleared his throat and added,
“An important announcement.”
Twelve-year-old Lucy grabbed a roll from the plate in the
center of the table and began to butter it. “Freddy, you already told us
that bees can only produce about a teaspoon of honey in their entire
lifetimes.” She turned to their younger brother, Herb, and asked,
“Can you please pass the milk?”
Herb, who was eight (but almost nine), set down his fork and
carefully slid a carton of milk across the giant wooden table that filled the
center of their family’s large and formal dining room. “And we also know
that a queen bee can lay up to two thousand eggs in a day.” Herb popped a
piece of curly pasta in his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. “That’s more
than one egg per minute!”
“This isn’t a bee announcement,” Freddy clarified.
Their dad, Walter, stood up to get himself some sparkling
water from the fridge in the kitchen, then returned to his spot at the head of
the table. “We have just one family of four checking into the
bed-and-breakfast tomorrow,” Dad blurted out, continuing to ignore Freddy’s
announcement. “I was thinking we could let them spread out into both of
the guest rooms on the second floor, since no one else is staying with us at
The Peachtree B and B this weekend.”
The Peach family had recently opened a bed-and-breakfast in
an old, historic mansion in their hometown of Duluth, Minnesota. They had
spent several months fixing up their Great Aunt Lucinda’s former house and had
opened their doors to the public just after Thanksgiving. There were
three guest rooms at the B&B in total, but ever since Christmas had come
and gone, these guest rooms stood empty most of the time.
Though Duluth was a beautiful city nestled right at the very
tip of Lake Superior in Minnesota, it was freezing cold most of the winter, and
not a lot of people wanted to visit. The Peaches were hoping business
would pick up a bit come summer, because the mansion was an awfully big house
for just the four of them. And, in order to continue to be able to afford
to pay all the expensive heating and electric bills that came along with living
in a house like this, Dad had told them they really needed more customers.
“That’s a good idea to let the guests spread out, Dad,” Lucy
agreed. “I’m sure they’ll be much more comfortable in two rooms than they
would be in one room with a couple of fold-up beds crammed in. We can hope
for a great review online after they stay!”
Freddy cleared his throat.
“How old are the kids who are coming this weekend?” Herb
asked. “Where do they live?”
Lucy added, “Are they coming to Duluth for an event, or to
ski, or—”
“WHY IS EVERYONE IGNORING MY IMPORTANT
ANNOUCEMENT?” Freddy shouted, interrupting his sister. The other
three members of the Peach family turned to look at him. Freddy nodded. Much
better. “Hello, family. Now that I have your attention,” he said, “I
have something very exciting to share with all of you.”
“There’s been an awful lot of lead-up to whatever it is
you’re about to say,” Lucy muttered. “This better be a good announcement.”
Lucy made a fair point, but Freddy ignored the jab. “Do
you want the good news or the very good news first?”
Herb squeezed his eyes closed, then blurted out, “Start with
the regular good news.”
“Thanks to good ol’ Freddy Peach, everyone’s favorite brother
and son,” Freddy said with a flourish, “we have won…a whole year’s supply of
yogurt!”
Dad blinked. “What, now?”
“A whole year’s worth of yogurt,” Freddy
said with a mile-wide grin. “For us, for free.” Before anyone had a
chance to ask any more questions, Freddy explained. “Over the past couple
of months, I’ve been entering Dad in dozens of sweepstakes and contests.”
“Me?” Dad said.
“You have to be eighteen to win most
sweepstakes,” Freddy explained. “So I’ve been using your name and
birthdate. And a fake email address I set up with Theo’s help, so you
wouldn’t get a bunch of junk emails in your regular account.” Theo was the
guy their family had hired to help at the B&B whenever Dad was at work and
the Peach kids were at school. He was also a counselor at the Cardboard
Camp that Freddy went to each summer, which made him one of the coolest people
on earth.
“Ah—” Dad said, covering his mouth to hide a bubbly-water
burp.
“Anyway,” Freddy went on. “I felt like luck has finally
been on our side lately, so I decided to enter us in some sweepstakes to test
my theory.”
Up until about nine months ago, things in the Peach house
hadn’t been so great. After Freddy’s mom died a couple years ago, their
family sort of fell apart. Dad disappeared into his work, they never had
time or energy for fun as a family, and the world felt all wrong without Mom in
it anymore. But last spring, one of Mom’s inventions had sold and Dad used
part of the money to buy a food truck so the four Peaches could travel around the
country baking and selling pies. After they came home from that road trip,
Great Aunt Lucinda had given them her mansion, and they’d somehow
managed to turn her old Peach Pit into the all-new Peachtree
B&B. Life still didn’t feel right without Mom in
it, but at least everything didn’t feel quite as wrong anymore.
“I entered us in every single sweepstakes and contest I could
find online and in magazines—the ones that looked legit, anyway—and we
won!” Freddy grinned.
“Yogurt,” Lucy repeated blandly.
“Yogurt,” Freddy agreed, nodding. “A whole year’s worth
of yogurt!”
Dad slapped the table. “Well, that is good
news.” Then he frowned and said firmly, “It’s not okay that you
impersonated me to enter a bunch of sweepstakes, and I’ll need to talk to Theo
about the whole fake email thing…but it’s pretty neat that you—uh, I—actually
won something.”
“I also entered you in a contest to win a lifetime supply of
coffee and free breakfast at the New Scenic Café. I signed up for a cheese
contest and entered to win the chance to get bread-baking lessons from a French
chef…” Freddy was having a hard time remembering all the sweepstakes he’d
entered but rattled off a few that popped into mind. “A free
cookie-of-the-month subscription! Um, a trip to visit the set of a soap
opera, a walk-on role in a Nickelodeon show, family season passes for a minor
league baseball team in Kansas—”
“I always thought sweepstakes like that were fake,” Herb
interrupted. “I assumed no one ever won.”
“Me too!” Freddy said. “But we won. A
whole year’s worth of yogurt. Do you think they deliver it all at once, or
do you think it comes in the mail every few weeks? Do you think we get
to pick the flavors we want, or will they just mail us a
random selection and we’ll be stuck with, like, fourteen coffee-and-cream
flavor yogurts that no one wants to eat? I wonder if—”
Lucy cut him off. “Wait…you said this was the good news. What’s
the very good news? Are we getting a year’s supply of
granola to go with the yogurt?” She bit her lip
hopefully. “Or a walk-on role in the Nickelodeon show?”
Freddy shook his head. “Nope, even better.”
“Spill it,” Lucy said.
“We also won…” Freddy paused, for dramatic
effect. “A trip to…”
Dad, Lucy, and Herb all stared at him. The only sound in
the dining room was the snuffling and smacking sound of the family’s four small
dogs chewing bits of food that had mysteriously “fallen” off Herb’s plate and
onto the floor.
“Ladies and gentlemen, buckle your seat belts and zip up your
coats! The Peach family will soon be on our way to one of the most famous
tourist destinations in the world, because we’ve won…” he said, dangling
his secret news before them like a wrapped gift. Finally, Freddy
hollered out, “We’ve won a trip to the world-famous Icehotel in Sweden!”
The dogs all began barking like crazy, sharing in his
excitement.
“To an…ice hotel?” Dad echoed. “Did I hear that
correctly?”
“You heard right,” Freddy said, pounding his fists on the
table. “Get ready, Peaches, because we’re going to Sweden!”
About Erin Soderberg Downing:
Erin Soderberg Downing has written more than seventy-five books for kids, tweens, and young adults, including Controlled Burn (a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection) and the forthcoming Just Keep Walking (February 2024), a story inspired by a 100-mile hike she took with her son on Minnesota’s Superior Hiking Trail. She has also written several popular series for young readers: The Great Peach Experiment (a JLG Gold Standard Selection), Puppy Pirates, The Quirks, and Disney's Daring Dreamers Club.
Erin loves reading, swimming, exploring the woods, traveling
with her family, and walking around Minneapolis lakes with her fluffy and
mischievous dogs, Wally and Nutmeg.
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Giveaway Details:
1 winner
will receive a finished copy of FROZEN PEACHES, US Only.
Ends May 16th, midnight EST.
a Rafflecopter giveawayTour Schedule:
Week One:
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5/1/2023 |
Excerpt |
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5/1/2023 |
Excerpt |
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5/2/2023 |
Excerpt/IG Post |
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5/2/2023 |
Excerpt/IG Post |
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5/3/2023 |
Excerpt/IG Post |
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5/3/2023 |
Excerpt |
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5/4/2023 |
Excerpt/IG Post |
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5/4/2023 |
Excerpt/IG Post |
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5/5/2023 |
IG Review |
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5/5/2023 |
TikTok Spotlight |
Week Two:
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5/8/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
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5/8/2023 |
IG Review/LFL Drop Pic |
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5/9/2023 |
IG Review/LFL Drop Pic |
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5/9/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
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5/10/2023 |
IG Review |
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5/10/2023 |
IG Review |
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5/11/2023 |
IG Review |
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5/11/2023 |
Review |
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5/12/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
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5/12/2023 |
Review/IG Post |
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