Read any good children’s books recently? Stuck for ideas? Well, this week is your big chance to hop around the world in search of good reads for kids. You may even win copies, too! Children’s Book Week is a celebration of the best books for children.
This is the last day this week I’ll be posting here, talking about my books, my characters and other books that inspired me. There is a link to my Giveaway, which you can visit again tomorrow for a last few entries if you like. I hope you’ve enjoyed your visits here, and you’ve ‘followed’ us to keep in touch..
Humphrey – star of The Talent Seekers
If all goes well, this time next week there will be a new Princelings ebook in the Amazon stores. Called The Talent Seekers, it stars Humphrey, who was born and raised in the Lost City of Arbor, but escaped and began his journey west at the start of the third book. This is the story of how he found friendship and a purpose in life. Here’s a short (580 word) extract for you.
Humphrey (who is pretending to be from Castle Fortune) has left White Horse Castle after a security scare, but is drawn back for the Narrathon, a story-telling marathon during a festival.
Humphrey woke and shook himself. The sun was as high as it was going to get, and if he didn’t make up his mind, he’d miss the Narrathon and that would make this whole thing a waste of time and effort. Maybe it doesn’t matter if you miss the Narrathon, a small voice said inside him. No, said a bigger one. I want to see it!
He stepped boldly from the path and headed to the castle.
Less than half an hour later he joined a short line of people waiting to go through the castle gates. He listened to the people in front of him and hoped he would be able to make up the answers to the questions he was asked. They moved forward quickly. He’d be there in a few minutes. He started to panic, and looked around for somewhere to hide.
Behind him was a brown coloured person with a very strange pile of sticks on his back.
“Bit of a pain, this, isn’t it,” he said.
“Er, yes,” said Humphrey, not entirely sure what he meant by “this”.
“I mean, it’s obvious who I am, they know me. I came through yesterday but I still have to go through all the checks.”
“I was here yesterday,” Humphrey said, “I have a visitor’s pass but I left before they gave out the sashes.”
“Oh, you’ll be okay then,” said the brown person, who was beginning to remind Humphrey of someone he had seen the day before. “Just show your pass.”
Humphrey wondered where he’d put it. Then he realised it was still tucked under his arm, hidden safely away. He wondered if the person would mind if he asked him about his sticks.
“Come on, then,” said the brown person, nodding up the path to the gates where a gap had opened up. Humphrey turned and quickly closed up to the person in front. They were nearly there. He hugged his pass tighter, making sure it was still there.
Then it was his turn.
“Name?” asked the guard. Humphrey thought he was very large and fierce.
“Humphrey of Fortune,” he replied, trying not to stutter, and he pulled out his pass and showed it to the guard.
“Why didn’t you get a sash yesterday, then?”
“I, er, I left before they were given out.”
“That was silly of you, Humphrey of Fortune,” said the guard, handing over a purple sash with an F marked on it in white. “Put this on, and don’t take it off, and don’t lose it.”
“Thank you,” said Humphrey breathlessly, climbing into his sash.
“Come on, Harrison,” said the brown person to the guard, “let me in, won’t you?”
Harrison, the guard, laughed. “Yes sir, Mister Willoughby. Or should I call you Lord Willoughby since you seem all high and mighty all of a sudden?”
Humphrey’s insides did somersaults. Willoughby the Narrator! He’d been talking to a real live Narrator! Who was taking part in the Narrathon!
“Excuse me, Mr Willoughby,” he said to him as they moved through the gates. “Where is the best place to sit to listen to you today?”
“Right by my fiddlesticks, Humphrey of Fortune,” he said with a wink. “Don’t they have narrators at Fortune yet?”
“Er, no, not yet,” Humphrey hoped he was right, and remembering what someone had said about Fortune: “we’re still rebuilding things.”
“Well, you make sure they have a Narrathon at Yule and I’ll be there.”
Things to do
I haven’t any more things for you to do today, but I hope you enjoyed visiting during Children’s book week. If you’ve been collecting the pictures and colouring them in, you could post them on our Facebook page! If it won’t let you post on the book page, post it on my Jemima Pett page instead. I still have trouble knowing what you can post where.
Enter my Giveaway
Thanks to Mother Daughter Book Reviews and Youth Literature Reviews I’m taking part in a worldwide promotion, the Kid Lit Giveaway Hop. My Giveaway is part of that.
The prizes are:
- one copy of the Princelings Trilogy (paperback) to a winner in the EU (plus Norway and Switzerland)
- a bundle of the first three ebooks (as pictured) for a winner elsewhere in the world.
- one copy of my latest ebook The Talent Seekers (or another of the series if preferred) to a winner (worldwide)
It’s open now and it will close at midnight 19th May (New York time). Click the Kid Lit Giveaway button above to enter – and you can enter every day!
Even more – you can go to other blogs with more books and competitions! Let’s go hopping…
Click here to find more participants and view this Linky Tools list.
Powered by Linky Tools
