BooksChatter: ☀ Sign of the Green Dragon

Thank you for joining us on the Virtual Book Tour for Sign of the Green Dragon, a Middle Grade novel by C. Lee McKenzie (3 August 2016, C. Lee McKenzie, 182 pages).

PREVIEW: Check out the book's synopsis and excerpt below. Read various excerpts with Amazon Look Inside.

Author C. Lee McKenzie will be awarding a $15 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Please do take part: comment on our post and follow the tour where you will be able to read other excerpts (☀).

Synopsis | Teaser | About the Author | Giveaway & Tour Stops

Synopsis

When a wall of their cave hideout crumbles, three boys discover a skeleton, clutching a treasure map. They set off to trace the story of an old murder, but stumble into a modern crime, and confront ancient Chinese dragons.

This hasn’t been the best year for Sam, and it just got worse. Right when he thought he’d found a permanent home, his finicky guardian tells him he’s shipping Sam off to private school. This means Sam won’t bat for his team, and if he doesn’t, Haggarty Elementary won’t win the baseball championship again this year. His two teammates, Joey and Roger, are determined to stash him in their secret cave—at least until he brings in the winning run.

While the boys explore the hideout, an earthquake crumbles a wall, revealing a hidden room—and it’s not empty. A dragon-carved chest opens to reveal a human skeleton, its hand-bones clutching a note with a crudely drawn map. At the top of the map is scribbled, 1859.

Sam, Joey and Roger learn about a treasure lying in wait, if only they can locate something called the Dragon Twin, reveal the truth about an old murder, and return a person named Mei Ling to her ancestors in China.

The boys are up for the challenge. But how? They only have the map showing the way to an old mining town, and some strange symbols they can’t understand. None of them can make sense of the note. Who’s Mei Ling? And what the heck is a Dragon Twin?

With time running out before he’s sent packing, Sam and his friends set out on an adventure that has much higher stakes than any baseball championship—one that gets them into trouble with a modern crime, pits them against ancient Chinese dragons, and reveals the true meaning of treasure for each of them.

Teaser: Excerpt

     Sam inched forward and aimed the flashlight inside. “Uh oh.”
     “What?” Joey gasped.
     “It’s a ... well, kind of a ... skeleton.”
     “Awww,” Roger screamed, ran, tripped, and sprawled on his stomach.
     “It can’t hurt you, Roger,” Sam said. “Come on.
     Take a look.” One thing about being in a family of paleontologists, you got used to bones. Roger quick-shook his head. “No. No. No.”
     Joey took three slow steps and stood next to Sam. “Sweet. A dead guy. Man, let’s get out of here.”
     “Hold this.” Sam handed Joey the flashlight. “Keep the light on him, okay?”
     The skeleton was partly covered by a tattered shirt and pants. Bony fingers clutched a wooden box with a piece of thin metal about two inches long on its top.
     Reaching inside, Sam tried to pry the box from the skeleton’s grasp, but the finger bones fell through the rib cage and clattered to the bottom of the chest. The box lodged between the ribs. The light jiggled in Joey’s hand. “Come on Sam, enough already.”
     Sam picked up the thin metal piece from the top of the box, and held it under the light. One end of it was bent at a right angle. A faded red tassel looped through the other end.
     “Here, take this.” Sam handed Joey the strange object, then reached inside the chest and gripped the box. He lifted it slow and easy. It could be a trap. It could be dangerous. His hands twitched and the edge of the box caught on a rod that held the chest lid open. He barely snatched the box free before the lid crashed down.
     What sounded like an angry dragon exploded around the cave.
     The walls trembled, and the floor heaved under foot.

Sign of the Green Dragon
Out on 3 August 2016! Pre-order NOW!

About the Author

C. Lee McKenzie has a background in Linguistics and Inter-Cultural Communication. Her greatest passion is writing for young readers.

Sign of the Green Dragon is her third Middle Grade novel. Alligators Overhead and the sequel, The Great Time Lock Disaster were her first two.

She has traditionally published four young adult novels: Sliding on the Edge, The Princess of Las Pulgas, Double Negative and Sudden Secrets.

"I'd like to highlight the fact that I always have a free ebook (a different one every few months) available on my website for visitors." - C. Lee McKenzie

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