Happy Thursday and welcome to my stop on the blog tour for THE CURSED CARNIVAL AND OTHER CALAMITIES by Rick Riordan Presents! I’m so excited because today I have an excerpt of the book to share with you! This book is truly amazing and I’m so excited to for you to find out more about it, PLUS enter for a chance to win a print copy!
The Cursed Carnival and Other Calamities by Rick Riordan, Roshani Chokshi, J.C. Cervantes, Yoon Ha Lee, Carlos Hernandez, Kwame Mbalia, Rebecca Roanhorse, Tehlor Kay Mejia, Sarwat Chadda, Graci Kim Published on September 28, 2021 by Rick Riordan Presents
Genres: Anthology, Fantasy, Middle Grade, Multiverse, Mythology, Queer, Retellings
Pages: 496
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Best-selling author Rick Riordan presents ten new stories--including one of his own--about beloved heroes that sprang from the imaginations of some of the best middle grade authors working today.
A cave monster . . . an abandoned demon . . . a ghost who wants to erase history . . . a killer commandant . . . These are just some of the challenges confronting the young heroes in this highly entertaining anthology.
All but one of the heroes previously starred in a popular book from Rick Riordan Presents. You''ll be reunited with Aru Shah, Zane Obispo, Min the fox spirit, Sal and Gabi, Tristan Strong, Nizhoni Begay, Paola Santiago, Sikander Aziz, and Riley Oh. Who is the new hero? Read Rick Riordan''s short story to find out!
Ten bestselling and award-winning middle grade authors contributed to this collection: Roshani Chokshi, J.C. Cervantes, Yoon Ha Lee, Carlos Hernandez, Kwame Mbalia, Rebecca Roanhorse, Tehlor Kay Mejia, Sarwat Chadda, Graci Kim, and Rick Riordan, who also served as the editor.
The cultures represented by these own-voices stories are: Indian, Mesoamerican, Korean, Cuban, Black American, African, Navajo, Mexican, Mesopotamian, and Celtic.
There's something for everyone in this collection of fast-paced and funny adventure stories that show what it takes to be a hero in any time, setting, and universe.
Welcome to the Multiverse Mansion
Imagine a multiverse mansion in which all the heroes of Rick Riordan Presents exist together. Think of it as like the Hotel Valhalla, only even bigger and stranger (in the best possible way).
You unlock one door and find yourself on an adventure with Aru Shah, solving riddles and zapping snakes with lightning bolts in the Grove of True Love. You unlock another door, and you’re on a field trip with Gum Baby to the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, which might be fun—except for a cantankerous ghost who’s causing all sorts of trouble. You unlock a third door, and you are side by side with Paola Santiago, searching for magical meat flowers to cure her sick chupacabra puppy, Bruto. And we will do anything to help our chupacabra puppies!
The book you’re holding right now is that multiverse mansion. All your favorite authors from the Rick Riordan Presents imprint have contributed stories about heroes on fantastic adventures—myths remixed for modern readers. I’ve contributed one, too—my very first foray into the wild world of Celtic mythology! This book offers ten doorways into adventure— ten stories that offer chills, thrills, and lots of laugh-of-loud moments from across the mythological spectrum.
It’s impossible to pick a favorite. I got to see Sikander Aziz wielding Abubu, the sky-cleaving sword (magic shovel?) of Gilgamesh. I got to hang out with Riley Oh and her witch clan friends at the Gifted Carnival, which was awesome until an evil spirit from the Hell of Infinite Ice crashed the party. I got to see Sal and Gabi again, along with their class-nine AI toilet friend Vorágine, as they dealt with stray unicorns, prank-universe versions of themselves, and the ever-present threat of the dreaded chicken universe. The beauty of this anthology is that you don’t have to choose. In a single book, you get to see a bunch of your favorite heroes in new adventures, and you’ll meet some new friends as well.
So go ahead and insert your master key, demigods. Zane Obispo has a cave of doom to show you, with countless horrors like reptilian doppelgangers and human tourists. Jun and Min, galactic fox spirits, are back in their first adventure for the Thousand Worlds’ Domestic Security Ministry . . . except it’s not quite the mission they were expecting. Nizhoni Begay wants to take you to the All-Nations Assembly powwow, which should be a nice break from monster-hunting . . . unless, of course, monsters show up. I’ve got to be honest—some of these situations, I’m not sure how even Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase would handle them!
I hope you guys enjoy your trip through the multiverse mansion as much as I did. The real danger is that once you start exploring all the wonders herein, you may want to stay forever.
Excerpted from The Cursed Carnival and Other Calamities by Rick Riordan Presents with permission from Disney Publishing Worldwide.
About Carlos Hernandez
Carlos Hernandez has published more than thirty works for fiction, poetry, and drama, including Sal and Gabi Break the Universe, for which he won a Pura Belpré Author Award from the American Library Association, and its sequel, Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe. He is an English professor at City University of New York, and he loves to both play games and design them. He lives with his wife, Claire, in Queens, New York.
About Graci Kim
Graci Kim is a Korean-Kiwi diplomat turned author who writes about the magic she wants to see in the world. The Last Fallen Star is her middle grade debut. In a previous life she used to be a cooking show host, and she once ran a business that turned children's drawings into plushies. When she's not lost in her imagination, you'll find Graci drinking flat whites, eating ramyeon, and most likely hugging a dog (or ideally, many). She lives in New Zealand with her husband and daughter. Follow her on Twitter @gracikim and Instagram @gracikimwrites.
About J.C. Cervantes
J.C. is a New York Times best-selling author of books for children and young adults. Her books have appeared on national lists, including the American Booksellers Association New Voices, Barnes and Noble’s Best Young Reader Books, as well as Amazon’s Best Books of the Month. She has earned multiple awards and recognitions, including the New Mexico Book Award, the Zia Book Award, and most recently the 2021 New Mexico Land of Enchantment Readers’ Choice Award.
She currently resides in the Land of Enchantment with her family, three spoiled dogs, and a lifetime collection of books. But she keeps part of her heart in Southern California, where she was born and raised. When she isn’t writing she is haunting bookstores and searching for magic in all corners of the world.
Her work is represented by Holly Root at Root Literary.
About Kwame Mbalia
Kwame is a husband, father, writer, a New York Times bestselling author, and a former pharmaceutical metrologist in that order. His debut middle-grade novel, TRISTAN STRONG PUNCHES A HOLE IN THE SKY was awarded a Coretta Scott King Author Honor, and it—along with the sequels TRISTAN STRONG DESTROYS THE WORLD and TRISTAN STRONG KEEPS PUNCHING, out October 5th—is published by Rick Riordan Presents/Disney-Hyperion. He is the co-author of LAST GATE OF THE EMPEROR with Prince Joel Makonnen, from Scholastic Books, and the editor of the #1 New York Times bestselling anthology BLACK BOY JOY, published by Delacorte Press. A Howard University graduate and a Midwesterner now in North Carolina, he survives on Dad jokes and Cheezits.
About Rebecca Roanhorse
Rebecca Roanhorse is a NYTimes bestselling and Nebula, Hugo, and Locus Award-winning speculative fiction writer and the recipient of the 2018 Astounding (Campbell) Award for Best New Writer.
Rebecca has published multiple award-winning short stories and five novels, including two in The Sixth World Series, Star Wars: Resistance Reborn, Race to the Sun for the Rick Riordan imprint, and her latest novel, the epic fantasy Black Sun. She has also written for Marvel Comics and for television, and had projects optioned by Amazon Studios, Netflix, and Paramount TV. Find her Fiction & Non-Fiction HERE.
She lives in Northern New Mexico with her husband, daughter, and pup. She drinks a lot of black coffee. Find more at https://rebeccaroanhorse.com/ and on Twitter at @RoanhorseBex.
About Rick Riordan
Rick Riordan is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of over twenty novels for young readers, including the Percy Jackson series, the Kane Chronicles, the Magnus Chase series and the Trials of Apollo. He is also the author of the multi-award-winning Tres Navarre mystery series for adults. For fifteen years, Rick taught English and history at public and private middle schools in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Texas. While teaching in San Antonio, Saint Mary’s Hall honored him with the school’s first Master Teacher Award. While teaching full time, Riordan began writing mystery novels for grownups. His Tres Navarre series went on to win the top three national awards in the mystery genre – the Edgar, the Anthony and the Shamus. Riordan turned to children’s fiction when he started The Lightning Thief as a bedtime story for his oldest son. Rick Riordan now writes full-time. He lives in Boston with his wife and two sons.
About Roshani Chokshi
Roshani Chokshi (www.roshanichokshi.com) is the author of the instant New York Times best-selling books in the Pandava series, Aru Shah and the End of Time, and its sequel, Aru Shah and the Song of Death. She also wrote the New York Times best-selling YA books The Star-Touched Queen and The Gilded Wolves. She studied fairy tales in college, and she has a pet luck dragon that looks suspiciously like a Great Pyrenees dog. The Pandava novels were inspired by the stories her grandmother told her as well as Roshani's all-consuming love for Sailor Moon. She lives in the south and says "y'all," but she doesn't really have a Southern accent.
About Sarwat Chadda
Sarwat Chadda was born and raised in London. He has lived and traveled throughout the world, from China to Guatemala. He’s been lost in Mongolia, abandoned at a volcano in Nicaragua, hidden up a tree from a rhino in Nepal, detained by Homeland Security in the US and chased around Tibet by the Chinese police. He used to be a senior engineer, but now he's a full time writer, renouncing his once adventurous life.
About Tehlor Kay Mejia
TEHLOR KAY MEJIA is a bestselling and award winning author of young adult and middle grade fiction.
Her debut young adult novel, WE SET THE DARK ON FIRE, received six starred reviews, as well as the Oregon Spirit Book Award for debut fiction, and the Neukom Institute Literary Arts Award runner up honor for debut speculative fiction. It has been featured on Seventeen, Cosmopolitan, and O by Oprah Magazine’s best books lists, and was a 2019 book of the year selection by Kirkus and School Library Journal. Its sequel, WE UNLEASH THE MERCILESS STORM, followed to continuing acclaim, while MISS METEOR (co-written with National Book Award Nominee Anna-Marie McLemore) was named to the American Library Association’s 2021 Rainbow List, honoring outstanding contributions in LGBTQIA teen fiction.
Tehlor’s debut middle grade novel, PAOLA SANTIAGO AND THE RIVER OF TEARS, was published by the Rick Riordan Presents imprint at Disney/Hyperion. It received four starred reviews, and was named Amazon’s best book of 2020 in the 9-12 age range. It is currently in development at Disney as a television series to be produced by Eva Longoria.
Tehlor lives with her daughter, partner, and two small dogs in Oregon, where she grows heirloom corn and continues her quest to perfect the vegan tamale. She is active on Twitter and Instagram @tehlorkay.
About Yoon Ha Lee
Yoon Ha Lee (yoonhalee.com) is the New York Times best-selling author of Dragon Pearl, a companion to this book and winner of the Locus Award and the Mythopoeic Award. He has also published several books for adults, including a standalone fantasy entitled Phoenix Extravagant, and the Machineries of Empire space opera trilogy: Ninefox Gambit, Raven Strategem, and Revenant Gun. Yoon draws inspiration from a variety of sources, e.g. Korean history and mythology, fairy tales, higher mathematics, classic moral dilemmas, and genre fiction. His website can be found at yoonhalee.com and his Twitter handle is @deuceofgears.
Week One
| 9/1/2021 | YA Books Central | Excerpt |
| 9/2/2021 | Kait Plus Books | Excerpt |
| 9/3/2021 | Rajiv’s Reviews | Review |
| 9/4/2021 | @Curlygrannylovestoread | Review |
Week Two
| 9/5/2021 | #BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog | Review |
| 9/6/2021 | A Dream Within A Dream | Review |
| 9/7/2021 | Nonbinary Knight Reads | Review |
| 9/8/2021 | The Bookwyrm’s Den | Review |
| 9/9/2021 | Log Cabin Library | Review |
| 9/10/2021 | Lifestyle of Me | Review |
| 9/11/2021 | Emelie’s Books | Review |
Week Three
| 9/12/2021 | @pagesofyellow | Review |
| 9/13/2021 | Locks, Hooks and Books | Review |
| 9/14/2021 | More Books Please blog | Review |
| 9/15/2021 | Little Red Reads | Review |
| 9/16/2021 | Don’t Judge, Read | Review |
| 9/17/2021 | Fyrekatz Blog | Review |
| 9/18/2021 | booksaremagictoo | Review |
Week Four
| 9/19/2021 | The Phantom Paragrapher | Review |
| 9/20/2021 | BookHounds YA | Excerpt |
| 9/21/2021 | Cindy’s Love of Books | Review |
| 9/22/2021 | dinipandareads | Review |
| 9/23/2021 | hauntedbybooks | Review |
| 9/24/2021 | Books a Plenty Book Reviews | Review |
| 9/25/2021 | Books and Zebras @jypsylynn | Review |
Week Five
| 9/26/2021 | The Momma Spot | Review |
| 9/27/2021 | Zainey Laney | Review |
| 9/28/2021 | @fictitious.fox | Review |
| 9/29/2021 | Two Points of Interest | Review |
| 9/30/2021 | PopTheButterfly Reads | Review |
Enter here for a chance to win a print copy of The Cursed Carnival and Other Calamities!
(US Only)
What do you think about The Cursed Carnival and Other Calamities? Have you added it to your tbr yet? Let me know in the comments and have a splendiferous day!
I love this cover and I see many of my favorite authors here–this book is a must read for me.
My grandson would be thrilled if I won this. He loves many of these authors. I love the cover.
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