BLOG TOUR: Hamster Princess: Giant Trouble by Ursula Vernon - REVIEW + GIVEAWAY!

Hi there!
Welcome back to Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers.

Today, I'm more than excited (we're talking fangirl levels here!) to be playing host to a stop along the Penguin Young Readers blog tour starring the latest (dare I say, greatest?  Oh yeah...I DARE!) addition to the Hamster Princess series from author/illustrator Ursula Vernon.  I fell in love with the author's work once upon a time when I was working at a local bookstore.  It was Dragonbreath that brought me in (if you've not indulged in reading it, you seriously should), but I'm totally sticking around for Harriett, aka the Hamster Princess.  Ready or not, fair readers, here comes today's book of choice and blog tour guest, fresh off the beanstalk....

Hamster Princess:  Giant Trouble

by

Ursula Vernon

9780399186523

Penguin Young Readers

About the book...

A magical beanstalk leads to a GIANT surprise in book four of Ursula Vernon's critically acclaimed Hamster Princess series.

Harriet Hamsterbone doesn't go looking for trouble. Somehow it always finds her. So she isn't completely shocked when a salesman attempts to sell her some magic beans, or when one of those beans grows into a towering beanstalk leading up into the clouds. But even Harriet is surprised to find a giant castle--complete with one very poetically challenged giant-- at the top of it. And she certainly never thought she would make a new friend named Strings who is half harp, half hamster. But Strings isn't the giant's guest--she and a rather large goose are his prisoners! This calls for a heroic rescue, and Harriet is just the hamster for the job.

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From the first release to this the fourth, Harriett has been a HOOT!  The stories are adventure filled with danger around many corners as she tackles fairy tale after fairy tale of evil intent...all aimed at her at some point or another.  Good thing she's got the bravery thing down pat and it doesn't hurt that she kept the GOOD part of her initial curse.  Don't know what I'm talking about?  Well then, you've got some catching up to do.  ^-^  Anyway...



So, here we are facing the worst enemy yet...a pushy salesman.
AAAAAHHHHHHH!
No, really!  He's selling magic beans and we all know what THOSE lead to...and Harriett is too smart to even think of accepting that offer, but what to do when your trusty battle quail gets his beak into things.  Yeeeaahhh...better get a really sharp axe or prepare to climb because this puppy isn't coming down on its own, but that doesn't mean something else won't....dun dun dunn...

Seriously guys, this book rocked!
Harriett was at her hamster best, swinging into action, taking charge, laughing in the face of danger...okay, quietly at first because really, if you don't have to wake a giant, you don't want to wake a giant.  The new friends she makes are right in tune (HA!  Inside joke!) with her, the appearance of old friends was a genuine surprise but so well timed, and the dangers slayed carefully enough for the intended audience leaving us with a spectacular ending...well, for now anyway.



So, if I haven't gotten the point across yet, I LOVE THIS SERIES and this release is no exception. The author practices her craft to near perfection, giving us not just another bookish entertainment option, but a heroine to count on when times get tough.

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About the author...

Ursula Vernon is a full-time author and illustrator whose work has won a Hugo award and been nominated for an Eisner. She loves birding, gardening, and spunky heroines, and thinks she would make a terrible princess. Ursula lives with her husband in Pittsboro, North Carolina.

SITE  |  TWITTER

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Special thanks to Chelsea at Penguin Young Readers for the copy for review as well as the chance to bring this tour to you.  (THANK YOU!)  For more information on this title, the series, the author, or the publisher, feel free to click through the links provided above.  This title is available now via Penguin Young Readers, so be on the lookout for it on a bookstore shelf or virtual retailer of your choosing.

For more Hamster Princess fun, be sure to check out the rest of the tour!

May 8 – Margie’s Must Reads

May 9 – Doodlemom’s Homeschooling Life – Review + Craft

May 9 – Ms. Yingling Reads – Review

May 10 – Adventures in Homeschooling – Review

May 10 – Four Violet – Review + Craft

May 11 – The Delightful Life

May 11 – All Done Monkey – Q&A

May 12 – Pirates n’ Pixie Dust

May 13 – Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers – Review

...and speaking of fun...

...how would you like a chance to WIN BIG!

Enter for a chance to be one (1) grand prize winner and receive a set of Hamster Princess books, including Harriet the Invincible, Of Mice and Magic, Ratpunzel, and Giant Trouble (ARV: $51.96), or to be one (1) of five (5) second place winners to receive Hamster Princess: Harriet the Invincible (ARC: $12.99 each).

 

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Enter between 12:00 AM Eastern Time on May 8, 2017 and 12:00 AM on May 15, 2017.  Open to residents of the fifty United States and the District of Columbia who are 13 and older. Winners will be selected at random on or about May 18, 2017. Odds of winning depend on number of eligible entries received. Void where prohibited or restricted by law.

JUST CLICK HERE TO ENTER!

Until next time, remember...if it looks good, READ IT!

CHILDREN'S BOOK WEEK: Hamster Princess by Ursula Vernon

Hi guys and gals!

Welcome back to Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers.

Well, we're marching towards the end of the Children's Book Week celebration (which if you haven't entered the GIVEAWAY HOP as of yet, you best get to it...it ends tomorrow at midnight!), but we've still MORE than enough material to go around.  That's the beauty of the bookish world...you're never in short supply of new things to discover, new adventures to embark on, and new "best friends" to make.  

Speaking of literary best friends, I've made a new one recently that definitely stands out from the rest.  How?  Well, let's see.  She's a Princess for starters...and a HAMSTER.  Yes, a hamster, and before you go thinking tutus, crowns, and lording over kingdoms and dinner parties, take a step back because you might have to duck her sword.  Now, now, Princess...stay calm...the people just need to get to KNOW you first.  Without further ado, I bid you to grant a warm welcome to our guest, Princess Harriett, as we embark on not one adventure through the pages, but TWO thanks to the creative efforts of author Ursula Vernon!  Up first, its...

Harriet the Invincible

Hamster Princess, Book 1

Sleeping Beauty gets a feisty, furry twist in this hilarious new comic series from the creator of Dragonbreath

Harriet Hamsterbone is not your typical princess. She may be quite stunning in the rodent realm (you’ll have to trust her on this one), but she is not so great at trailing around the palace looking ethereal or sighing a lot. She finds the royal life rather . . . dull. One day, though, Harriet’s parents tell her of the curse that a rat placed on her at birth, dooming her to prick her finger on a hamster wheel when she’s twelve and fall into a deep sleep. For Harriet, this is most wonderful news: It means she’s invincible until she’s twelve! After all, no good curse goes to waste. And so begins a grand life of adventure with her trusty riding quail, Mumfrey…until her twelfth birthday arrives and the curse manifests in a most unexpected way.

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As it suggests, it's a furry, witty take on Sleeping Beauty like you've never seen before.  Where Aurora was meek and graceful, Harriet is out there and take charge.  Though Harriet is lucky (or not) to learn of the curse that's been placed on her from birth, she doesn't choose to hide from it...much to the chagrin of her noble parents.  Nope.  Instead, she figures out that in order for it to ACTUALLY work, she has to be ALIVE, thus granting her a few years of invincibility.  Pretty cool, right?  Oh it gets BETTER if you can believe it!  If you can't, well then you probably haven't read this author's work before; it's okay...we all have to start somewhere, and this NEW SERIES is a great place for that to happen.  Now that we've met the princess, it's time to scope out her second adventure (which obviously means she survived the first, but I shan't tell you how!)...

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Of Mice and Magic

Hamster Princess, Book 2

Princess Harriet is nobody’s hamster damsel in distress! 

Princess Harriet has absolutely no interest in brushing her hair, singing duets with woodland animals, or any other typical princess activities. So when a fairy tells a very bored Harriet about twelve mice princesses who are cursed to dance all night long, she happily accepts the quest and sets off with a poncho of invisibility and her trusty battle quail. But when she arrives at the Mouse Kingdom, she discovers there’s more to the curse than meets the eye, and trying to help is dangerous business . . . even for a tough princess like Harriet. 

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Think the story of the dancing princesses (you know, the ones that danced all night wearing holes in their shoes but no one knew how, where, why, or with whom), only lacking a prince as the actual hero.  Well okay, there is a prince and he has potential to be a hero but just like Harriet, he has no intention of following convention.  Served him well the first story round, right?  Eh, okay...let's not remind him of that.  It was hard enough to restock his Chapstick supply after all that smooching.  *ahem*  Anywho, here we have Harriett off on another adventure, after all, she's a princess with time on her hands.  What is she expected to do...sit around and look pretty?  Yeah, wrong princess...though she is still lovely.  You're welcome, Princess!  No, this princess doesn't believe in sitting on her laurels and good thing too!  As it seems, the mouse princesses in the next kingdom over have a bit of a curse on their hands, and who better to help break it than the breaker of her own curse?  Except this one is a bit trickier, a bit harder to pin down, and with a grouchy (oddball) king demanding it be solved on three days time, she'll need all her wits about her, and the help of a friend or two made along the way.

To conclude, BOTH stories are fairy tales twisted in on themselves yet recognizable.  There's wit and snark, adventure and daring, self realizations and friends of all shapes and sizes.  The author really brings Harriet and her world to life, giving readers young and young at heart, a new pint sized hero-ess to look down, I mean UP to.

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Special thanks to Rachel at Penguin Young Readers for the review copies, connection to the author, and amazing prize pack to give away in the Children's Book Week Giveaway Hop.  (YOU ROCK!)  For more information on these titles, the series, the author, or the publisher, feel free to click through the links provided above.  These titles are available now, so be on the lookout for it on a bookstore shelf or virtual retailer of your choosing.  Piqued your interest?  BOOK THREE, Ratpunzel, is set to release THIS OCTOBER!  I know what's on my wish list...

Until next time...happy reading!

CHILDREN'S BOOK WEEK: Author Interview: Ursula Vernon

HI guys and gals!

Welcome back to the site that aims to please the bookish part of you every day of the week...Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers.

Despite yesterday's break (hey, a girl needs one now and again especially with the Dell H*ll I was going through - for those that follow on Twitter and Facebook, my apologies for the rant - but I digress), we're still celebrating Children's Book Week like it'll never end.  What does that mean for you?  Well, let's see...you still have a chance to win an AMAZING prize pack starring NINE titles by none other than Children's Fiction author Ursula Vernon ... just CLICK HERE to get your entries in ... and it just so happens that today's post ties in with that very giveaway.  How so?  The obvious reasons of course, being that it centers on Children's Fiction, but the less obvious one is what makes our red carpet roll out today so spectacular.

Along with the opportunity to bring this FAB giveaway to all of you, I had the chance to do what most bloggers dream of doing...interviewing an author!  In this case, the very mind behind the works I'm giving away (courtesy of Penguin Young Readers!)!  That's right!  Prepare to be dazzled.  Prepare to be amazed. Prepare to step inside the whit and worlds of none other than Ursula Vernon!

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AUTHOR INTERVIEW:

Ursula Vernon

Hi Ms. Vernon!  It's a pleasure to "meet" you.  I was first introduced to your work when I stumbled upon the Dragonbreath series in a bookstore I was working in a few years back.  (I believe it was Curse of the Were Weiner.)  From there, I simply haven't looked back and have had the pleasure of placing your series into the hands of many young readers.  It's a great privilege to "speak" with you today and I thank you for your time!  Now, let's get this thing started...

Author Ursula Vernon...sorta

1. Tell me, what inspired you to become a writer?  What was that AH-HA moment that convinced you THIS was the path for you?

That’s a great question, and I wish I had a great answer! But I actually always wanted to be a writer. I don’t remember having an ah-ha moment so much as reading books, even when very young, and immediately thinking “I want more like this! I will write more!” I was hammering out Watership Down fan fiction when I was seven years old, which may tell you something.

2. Though you write Children's Fiction, there is quite a good bit of wit, humor, and snark for older readers to enjoy as well.  Tell us, how do you determine the "voice" your stories will have?  Is it purely about the audience, or are you writing the stories that you would want to read?

Heh! I wish I could determine a ‘voice’ for my stories—I actually just started writing and my editors told me that it was middle-grade! I only seem to have one voice, when you get right down to it. (This occasionally leads to problems when I want to write for adults…) I figure that since I enjoy children’s books, lots of adult readers probably do too, and I like to include a few things for them as well as the kids.

3. I have to say, I enjoyed the Dragonbreath series dearly, but Princess Hamster is a hoot!  Of all the works you've created thus far, which was has been your favorite and why?

I really enjoy Hamster Princess, but also Castle Hangnail. It’s hard to choose! The humor in Hamster Princess kept me laughing while I was writing it (which is either a good sign or a terrible one!) But I loved be able to expand the world out in Castle Hangnail and include things like Wormrise and minor characters like the bats and moles.

4.) Now that we've established that, how about another FAVORITE question?  Of the characters throughout your works, which do YOU identify with the most and why?

I am definitely Wendell. I am nerdy and full of strange animal facts. (My mother informs me that I was absolutely positively Christiana when I was young, though.)

Now for a few DEEPER questions.  Just say (umm, type) the first thing that comes to mind.

Wombat

Favorite...

...food? Sushi

...color? Purple

...sound? Rain on dry ground

...smell? …also rain on dry ground

...animal? Wombat

...book (at the moment)? Robin McKinley’s The Hero & The Crown

...thing about writing? Frequent naps!

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Ursula Vernon is the author and illustrator of "Nurk," "Digger," and a number of other projects. The daughter of an artist, she spent her youth attempting to rebel and become a scientist, but eventually succumbed to the siren song of paint (although not before getting a degree in anthropology, because life isn't complete without student loans, right?). Her work has been nominated for an Eisner award, "Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition" and a number of Webcomics Choice Awards.

Ursula grew up in Oregon and Arizona, went to college at Macalester College in Minnesota, and stayed there for ten years, until she finally learned to drive in deep snow and was obligated to leave the state.

In addition to writing and making art, Ms. Vernon is "an avid birdwatcher, occasional neophyte practitioner of the sword art of iaido, and an amateur thrower of pots." She is active in her local webcomics community, and can occasionally be found at local science fiction conventions, looking vaguely baffled by the crowd and signing anything put in front of her.

Having moved across the country several times, she eventually settled in Pittsboro, North Carolina, where she works full-time as an artist and creator of oddities. She lives with her boyfriend, a spastic Beagle, a (fairly) mellow Border Collie, a small collection of cats, and a large collection of Indonesian demon masks, which generally manage to keep her out of trouble.

Connect with her online...

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Special thanks to Rachel at Penguin Young Readers for the chance to shine the spotlight on this author's works as well as ask those burning questions racing through my mind.  My thanks as well to author Ursula Vernon for humoring my infiltration into her writing world and sharing a bit of herself with all of us.  (THANKS!)  For more information on the author, her growing body of works, or the publisher, feel free to click through the links provided above.  

REMEMBER!

YOUR CHANCE TO WIN THE TITLES BELOW IN THE CHILDREN'S BOOK WEEK GIVEAWAY HOP ENDS 05/08/16!  

DON'T DELAY, ENTER TODAY!

  

  

  

Until next time...happy reading!