Blog Tour and Book Giveaway: Dinosaur Boy

 

Spotlight Dinosaur Boy Blog Tour

 

Book Giveaway: I have FIVE copies of Dinosaur Boy up for grabs. For your chance to win: simply post a comment to the blog. Please include your first name, city, state and email. Deadline for posts is Feb. 16 at noon MST. Winners will be notified shortly after noon on that day. Check your email at that time. Winners have 24 hours to respond to my email. Books will ship from New York. Good luck and start posting! Pamela

 

See what others are saying about Dinosaur Boy:

 

 

Dinosaur Boy

By Cory Putman Oakes

Sourcebooks Jabberwocky ● February 3, 2015

ISBN 9781492605379 ● Hardcover/$12.99 ● Ages 9+

Advance Praise for Dinosaur Boy

“A wild and wacky adventure…with enough twists and turns to rival a roller coaster, Dinosaur Boy is sure to appeal to wonderfully weird kids of every shape and size.” —Kelly Milner Halls, award-winning author of In Search of Sasquatch

“With issues like bullying, not fitting in, and heroism...it's Wonder with dinosaurs and is sure to touch your heart.” —P. J. Hoover, author of Tut: The Story of My Immortal Life

“An entertaining barrel ride past sheaves of middle-grade themes from bullying to racial identity.” – Kirkus

“Credible characters and real-life issues like bullying, appreciating differences, and being true to oneself keep Oakes’s (The Veil) series kickoff grounded...Oakes draws on everything from the dubiousness of zero-tolerance bullying policies (especially when they’re being used to ship students to Jupiter) to the importance of tolerance and the injustice of discrimination to create a story with unexpected depth.” –Publishers Weekly

Fifth grade is tough. Fifth grade with a dinosaur tail and razor-sharp spikes is tougher.

Like every kid who has seen the government-issued public safety video, Sawyer knows that many years ago, Amalgam Labs accidentally transmitted dinosaur DNA to some of its scientists. The result of the accident was dinosaur/human hybrids, so it’s not a complete surprise to him when he starts to change the summer before fifth grade. After all, his grandfather was part stegosaurus.

Despite the new principal’s zero tolerance policy on bullying, the school’s bullies are on Sawyer like a pack of Jurassic-era predators the minute they see his stegosaurus tail. Befriended only by Elliot a.k.a. “Gigantor,” and the weird new girl, Sawyer does his best to fend for himself.

When the bullies start disappearing, Sawyer is initially relieved, until he discovers a secret about the principal that’s more shocking than Dino DNA. The missing bullies are in for a galactically horrible fate…and it’s up to Sawyer and his friends to rescue them.

In this wacky and whimsical middle-grade series debut, Texas Book Award finalist Cory Putman Oakes masterfully explores the issues of bullying and tolerance, and celebrates the value of diversity in a quirky and clever way that will both educate and entertain readers.

Excerpt from Dinosaur Boy- “That Stupid T-Rex from Jersey”

“I just want you to know that I know. I know you’re eating them.”

 

“That’s crazy,” I told him. “You’re crazy. Why would I eat anybody?”

 

“Because you’re a monster,” Allan told me. “Just like that kid in Jersey. I knew from the very beginning that it was only a matter of time before you went all dinosaur--psycho on us.”

 

“Shut up,” I muttered. I was so angry my hands were shaking, but I hid them under the table so Allan wouldn’t see.

 

“Make me,” Allan suggested.

 

My hands started to shake harder. It wasn’t because I was nervous. It was because I was angry.

 

“Get out of here, Allan,” Elliot whispered loudly. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

 

Allan didn’t look at him. His squinty eyes, buried beneath his eyebrows, were focused squarely on me.

 

“Sawyer knows what I’m talking about. He’s a monster. He doesn’t belong in a school. I’m going to prove it, and when I do, they’ll put him somewhere safe. Like in a zoo. Or some lab. Just as soon as they recognize him for the freak he is.”

 

My hands were now shaking so hard that they were vibrating the table. I couldn’t control myself anymore. I shot to my feet and screamed right in his face:

 

“Shut up, Allan! You don’t know what you’re talking about!”

 

At least, that’s what it sounded like in my head.

 

Out loud, it sounded like:

 

ROOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRR!

 

It was the loudest sound I had ever heard in my life. And I couldn’t just hear it. I could feel it. It shook the entire cafeteria. The tables rattled uncontrollably, and people grabbed for their lunches while also trying to cover their ears. It was kind of like we were all standing really close to a bass speaker, only about a hundred times louder.

 

I shut my mouth. The sound stopped.

 

There were about two seconds of silence. Absolute, perfect silence, as all three--hundred--something people in the cafeteria stared at me without moving a muscle.

 

Then the screaming started.

 

Every kid in the cafeteria jumped to his or her feet, knocked over their chair, and scrambled for the exit doors. Only Sylvie and Elliot stayed in their seats. Allan, who had been knocked on his butt by my roar, made two failed attempts to get to his feet before he finally crawled away as fast as he could. He was soon lost in the crowd that was fighting to fit through the double doors that led to the quad.

 

In less time than I would have thought possible, Sylvie, Elliot, and I were alone in the cafeteria.

I collapsed into my chair before my knees could give way. Across the table, Elliot looked sheet--white and shaken.

 

Only Sylvie looked unaffected. She passed us each a Pixy Stix, and sat back in her chair with a contented smile on her face.

 

“Finally, some peace and quiet around here!”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Cory Putman Oakes was born in Switzerland and grew up in California. She graduated from UCLA and Cornell Law. Since then, she’s been an associate at a big law firm, taught at Texas State University, and written several books. Cory lives in Austin, Texas, with husband and daughter. Visit Cory’s website at corypoakes.com.

                                                                Cory Putnam