BooksChatter: ☀ Poppy Mayberry, The Monday: Nova Kids [1]

Thank you for joining us on the Virtual Book Tour for Poppy Mayberry, The Monday, a Middle Grade Novel by Jennie K. Brown (13 September 2016, Month9Books, LLC, 214 pages).

This is the first book in the Nova Kids series.

"Whimsical, imaginative, and fun. Poppy Mayberry is a modern Annie-- immediately likable, charming and spunky." --Robert Beatty, author, Serafina and the Black Cloak

PREVIEW: Check out the book's synopsis and excerpt below. Read the first two chapters with Amazon Look Inside.

Author Jennie K. Brown will be awarding a scrabble tile book cover charm (US ONLY), and five (5) digital copies of Poppy Mayberry, The Monday by Jennie K. Brown (INT) to randomly drawn winners 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 (☀), interviews (ℚ), reviews (✍) and guest blog posts (✉).

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

Synopsis

What if your teacher could read your mind just because she was born on a Thursday? Or the kid next to you in class could turn back the clock just because he was a Wednesday?

In the quirky town of Nova, all of this is normal.

Poppy Mayberry, an almost-11-year-old Monday, should be able to pass notes in class or brush her dog, Pickle, without lifting a finger. Poppy's Monday telekinesis ability has some kinks and that plate of spaghetti she's passing may just end up on someone's head.

If that's not hard enough, practically-perfect Ellie Preston is out to get her and Principal Wible wants to send Poppy to remedial summer school to work on her powers! It's enough to make a girl want to disappear. If only she were a Friday.

Author Jennie Brown is often asked if she always wanted to be a writer...

"I wrote stories for as long as I can remember, so yes. I’ve always wanted to be a writer, and I’ve always been a writer.The first story I wrote was a ghost story called The Third Attic. I read it to my best friend Lindsey as we were sitting on a swing set outside of my childhood home, and I remember her saying it was awesome and that I should be a writer. I submitted that ghost story to a contest my elementary school was having – and actually won! That gave me tons of confidence as a child. And my love of writing grew from there. I wrote at home, at school, in the car, at my grandparent’s house (where I actually “played” librarian with their book collection – stamping books and all!), everywhere. I completed my first full-length young adult manuscript in 2008, and then POPPY followed in 2012. As a full time English teacher, children’s book author, and freelancer, writing is a huge part of my life."

Find out more answers on her Frequently Asked Questions page, and discover your Week Day Power!

Teaser: Excerpt

Chapter One

The first time I knew for sure I was a Monday, I was sitting in one of Mrs. Flannagan’s boring English lessons last year in fourth grade. She wanted to know if anyone could tell her the difference between smiles and meteors (that’s what it looked like when I glanced at the board).
      Of course, there was no way I could have possibly known the answer because I hadn’t been paying attention. Mark Masters had been picking at his nose for like the last ten minutes, and that always distracted me a little. Total gross fest. Mark’s in my class again this year and I feel sorry for him. Not because he still picks his nose, which he does, but because he is a Saturday. And Saturdays don’t have any special powers.
      “Who can tell me?” Mrs. Flannagan asked for the third time now, pushing her bright purple glasses up her bulbous nose. Her face grew pinker by the second.
      From the corner of my eye I watched Ellie Preston’s perfect little manicured hand shoot up. She always has the right answers.That’s because she’s a Thursday. And Thursdays read minds. Once, I thought that I wanted to be one too, but decided it would get exhausting always being in other people’s thoughts. Plus, I wouldn’t want to share Thursday with Ellie. I’d rather be forced to spend my evenings at Power Academy, or eat fried cockroaches with anchovy sauce. Yuck. Heck, I’d rather be a Saturday.
      “Miss Preston,” Mrs. Flannagan called, beaming.
      Ugh.
      Ellie perked up while pushing away from her face a few strands of long straight chestnut hair that had escaped from her obnoxious headband. She answered confidently as usual. “Similes compare two objects using the words ‘like’ or ‘as.’ Metaphors don’t.”
      Ellie had the brightest, whitest smile that was always plastered across her face when answering a question. She pursed her lips and shot me an of course you didn’t know the answer, Poppy kind of look. She’s never liked me.
      Cheater. You’re not supposed to use powers in school, but Ellie got away with it, and still gets away with it today.
      “You took the answer right out of my head, Ellie.” Mrs.Flannagan chuckled and her double chin jiggled right along like Jell-O.Cherry Jell-O. Her face always turned bright red when she taught about special literature terms. My best friend Veronica looked over at me and we rolled our eyes together.
      Mrs. Flannagan kept babbling on and on about more English stuff. I zoned out again.
      Ellie’s desk sat right across from mine, so I could see her blue eyes darting around the room from person to person. I knew what she was doing—listening to thoughts. How could Mrs. Flannagan just ignore this? I couldn’t wait for the day she would actually get punished.Ha. Ellie Preston sitting in Principal Wobble-Wible’s office? That would be pretty much the most amazing thing ever.
      I laughed to myself and imagined Ellie’s fluorescent-pink-and-green headband flying off her perfect little head and breaking into teeny tiny pieces on the tiled floor below.
      That’s when it got weird. What I imagined actually happened.
      In like a millisecond after my thought, the sparkly headband literally flew off her head, without a push, shake, or anything. It smashed on the SMART Board directly behind Mrs. Flannagan. The pieces scattered across the floor. A few of them even hit grossy Mark.His dirty finger immediately pulled out of his nose.
      “Who did that?” Ellie’s head whipped around and her hair smacked Veronica in the face. Ellie’s eyes searched down the rows, one by one. She was using her powers on us yet again. But at that point, who was I to comment on using powers? I put her in this position in the first place by using mine. I thought so, at least.
      Before she got into my head, I quickly changed to thoughts of my dog Pickle. If Ellie looked in, she would see dog poop and dirty fur. Nothing that could incriminate me for what just happened.
      But someone knew it was me. Veronica smirked. I winked back.
      “Poppy Mayberry!” Mrs. Flannagan’s nostrils flared as she stomped toward me like a big, red bull charging. “How dare you use your powers in this classroom!” Her pudgy hand pointed about a foot above the door to a plaque stating the number-one rule of Nova Elementary: No power usage!
      Although I should have been ashamed of the awful trick I had just played, I couldn’t stop the giant smile from spreading across my face. Finally! My telekinesis was here. That’s when I knew that I, Poppy Rose Mayberry, was officially a Monday.

Poppy Mayberry, The Monday
Available NOW!

About the Author

Jennie K. Brown is a high school English teacher by day, freelance magazine writer by night, and middlegrade/young adult author by late-night and weekend. When she isn’t teaching or writing, Jennie can be found reading a good book, traveling, or spending time with her awesome husband, amazing son and super-spoiled yorkie.In 2010, the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) named Jennie the Pennsylvania English teacher of excellence, and she currently serves as President of the Pennsylvania Council for Teachers of English and Language Arts (PCTELA). She is also an active member of SCBWI, NCTE and ALAN.

Follow Jennie K. Brown:

Giveaway and Tour Stops

Enter to win a scrabble tile book cover charm (US ONLY), or one of five (5) digital copies of Poppy Mayberry, The Monday by Jennie K. Brown (INT).
a Rafflecopter giveaway