Where has November gone?  No really, it zipped by at the speed of light didn’t it?

As I gear up for the biggest road trip holiday of the year let’s take a look at this week’s awesome stops. We’ve got two great stops showcasing two great authors.

Illinois
Devourer of Books showcases James Whitcomb Riley

Pennsylvania
BethFish Reads spotlights both author Mitch Sommers and introduces us to a local literary magazine called Philadelphia Stories

As always, if you are a participant who is showcasing authors from a particular location please remember to submit a link to your posts via the Mr. Linky provided on the Literary Road Trip page on Galleysmith.com.

Because I’m going on an actual road trip to visit with family for the holiday there will not be a road map posted next Sunday. I’ll actually be on the road fittingly enough.  So expect to see the next first week in December.

Until we meet again road trippers….safe travels!

Title: Bad Apple
Author: Laura Ruby
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Harper Teen
Source: Review Copy Provided by Publisher
Parental Warning: innuendo (light), vandalism

Summary:
Tola Riley has a secret that isn’t so secret anymore.  It’s been said that she’s having an affair with her high school art teacher Mr. Mymer.  But, the real questions are whether that rumor is true and who initiated it.  According to many Tola is the local Lolita who wove a spell around the poor man until he was unable to resist. However, a good portion of bystanders (her mother in particular) believe Mr. Mymer to be a predator that pounced on a young impressionable student looking for academic and artistic guidance.

Enter an array of characters who all seem to think they have the answers.  The overbearing mother who didn’t see it coming trying to make up for her inattentiveness, the absent father whose new life and new wife have him interested in only small snippets he can remotely control, the OCD sister whose own life is in a shambles in a far different way, and finally several friends, foes and a suitor who all have an opinion or comment about how the affair did or did not play out.

Using art as an outlet for her trouble and pain Tola happens upon a lovely older woman who encourages her to harness and embrace her talent as a coping mechanism.  Listening to her advice Tola begins attending her class and continues to paint as therapy until finally the truth comes out.

Opinion:
Bad Apple was fairly predictable in it’s plot in almost all areas with the exception of the most important one — the did she or didn’t she reveal.  The back and forth of each step down the path to that ultimate revelation was well done.  I personally didn’t know if the affair happened, at what level and who initiated it until the very bitter end and I appreciated that fact.  I liked that we got to see small glimpses of the truth but didn’t know that it was.  It made that part of the story more intriguing and enjoyable.

The different characters were equally interesting.  Most particularly I had a strong reaction to the young bully Ruby created in Chelsea Patrick.  Scorned after the dissolution of her former friendship with Tola she takes to tormenting her in the hallways,on her blog and just about anywhere she could possibly find. This young woman was spiteful, bitter and it seemed to me one step away from escalating into some form of violence.  She also played a significant role in Tola’s circumstances (which I will not spoil) with Mr. Mymer that furthered the progression of the story quite significantly.

On the other hand, I found the art as therapy angle to be a bit too convenient and sweet, particularly at the end of the book when the grand reveal and resolution was made public.  The older woman who took Tola under her wing was a small part of the story but one that ended up glossing over. She was a means to an end but it was an end that was just kind of there.

Further, the budding romance between Tola and Seven was cute and added a much needed respite from the drama and dysfunction.  Again, this was a small part of the larger whole but one that I appreciated.  I also found the quirky neurotic sister who constantly sassed everyone to be fun as well, she brought a slight humor to the events.

All in all Bad Apple was a quick and entertaining read one that is safe for laterr aged pre-teen and teen aged readers interested in stories about high-school dynamics and navigating different types of relationships.

Title: The Brain Finds a Leg
Author: Martin Chatterton
Genre: Middle Grade
Publisher: Peachtree Publishers
Source: Review Copy Provided by Publisher
Parental Warning: nefarious activity by adults

Summary:
Farrago Bay Australia has seen it’s share of tragedy and curious circumstances — none smaller than a pack of formerly docile humpback whales attacking a tourist boat.  As a result Captain McGlone, the fearless leader of the ill-fated cruise, left his wife and two sons behind to make their way alone.

Most affected was Sheldon, the youngest, as he was an odd boy who was further thrust into the life of a loner and outcast among his peers.  The target of taunting and bullying Sheldon is befriended by a curious new boy in town who is equally as peculiar as he.  The Brain, a young wannabe sleuth, arrives at school one day full of pre-teen swagger and (quite literally) a great big noggin on his shoulders.  A brain made larger than the average child’s due to a medical marvel his dearly departed parents invented.

This medical marvel and the loss of his parents are what spurn The Brain to adopt Sheldon as the Watson to his Sherlock as they attempt to investigate a local surfer’s murder by peculiar circumstances.  Setting out to solve the case the twosome run into kooky town inhabitants, a plethora of animals acting strangely human, and ultimately come face to face with evil in the most unexpected of places.

Opinion:
A quirky read The Brain Finds a Leg will certainly entertain middle grade children.  Filled with wit and humor Chatterton puts his main characters in outlandish circumstances via a most fun and fantastical way.  From thieving kangaroos to stalking birds then back to an alligator that thinks she’s a dog the I was is taken on a wild ride through the animal kingdom, never once feeling like the strangely realistic behaviors different species took on were so far beyond outrageous that it drifted into the territory completely unimaginable.

It was, quite simply, just downright fun.

It is that same creativity and spirit that brought to life the main character of The Brain.  Always a child at heart this young boy maintains the intellect of those twice his age and more; yet in doing so it doesn’t diminish his likability or his believability as the person who had the most potential to solve the crime he and Sheldon were investigating.

I enjoyed the best buddy relationship between the two boys — Sheldon was introverted and picked on, the class outcast, so it was realistic that Brain (being the new kid in town) would gravitate towards befriending him.  Not only that but Sheldon allowed for Brain to hold the reigns in the relationship, steering them through the investigative process with the utmost trust that all would be alright in the end.  Brain too had endearing qualities as it related to his new partner.   He took great care to value Sheldon’s opinion and let him take change when it was most critical.

The mysterious circumstances surrounding the bizarre animal behavior and the events of the surfer’s death made for a good mystery.  There was just enough of an ick factor to make it appealing to boys yet not so distasteful for girls. It was not so complex that an attentive reader wouldn’t be able to have an idea of the direction the story would take, yet the events weren’t so transparent that I was bored with the twists and turns.  On occasion I was surprised by a revelation or two myself.

Chatterton has written both the plot and the characters with a winning combination of humor and intelligence making it perfectly crafted to enthrall your middle grader.

[This review is part of a blog tour arranged by Peachtree Publishers please visit the next stop in the tour tomorrow at Stella Matutina Blog]

It is my absolute and distinct pleasure to take the opportunity to give the reigns of Galleysmith over to Mr. Martin Chatterton today.  As a former Floridian the story of how his book  The Brain Finds a Leg (which shows the same humor and tone below) came to be holds a special place in my heart because I can totally picture the scenario he’s describing below.  Please join me in giving Mr. Chatterton a very warm welcome.

—-

Martin Chatterton ‘The Brain Finds A Leg’

A few years ago in England – which is where I’m from originally- there was a TV ad for wood varnish which had the copyline ‘Does exactly what it says on the tin’. To some extent, ‘The Brain Finds A Leg’ is pretty much the same in that a character called ‘The Brain’ does, in fact, find a leg. That’s probably the only point of similarity I’d guess.

‘The Brain Finds A Leg’ is a well-travelled book. It began life when I was living in south west Florida at a place called Bonita Springs. To someone like me, raised in the grey drizzle of northern England (Liverpool, to be precise), moving to Florida was a revelation. They had sun! White sand beaches! Rum punch and blue ocean! Snowbirds and rednecks! After a while though I began to notice other things about the place.
I was playing golf one day –please don’t judge me, I only play about once a year, if that, and I’m very bad at wearing correct golfing attire (and while we’re on this subject, how come it’s only golf that has the word ‘attire’ naturally attached? You don’t ask your wife or husband what attire they’re going to be wearing for the PTA meeting, do you?). Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, golf. I was about to play a tricky chip shot from the sand trap on the par five 13th when I stepped on an alligator sunning itself just under the lip of the bunker. I say ‘stepped’, but what I mean is that I placed my foot on the creature’s tail and levitated spontaneously about eighteen feet in the air, squealing like an eight-year old girl who’d been sucking helium down for the past hour. Me and the alligator departed in separate directions, both feeling like they’d avoided contact with something repulsive.

The experience left me somewhat chastened. I had to have several stiff gin and tonics before I regained the natural sang froid that is as much a part of the average Englishman’s make-up as his tweed underpants or nylon soccer shirt. There were alligators on the course! Why wasn’t someone doing something about this? And then the penny dropped. It was us, not them, who were at fault. The gators had been rubbing along quite nicely for squillions of years until we came along and began playing golf in their backyard. If they want to grab some zees in the sand trap then it is they who are in the right, not me.

All of this gave me the start for ‘The Brain Finds A Leg’ which I conceived as both a ‘fish out of water’ story, the fish being The Brain, an expat 13 year-old detective, and as a comic detective thriller giving a nod and a wink to the immortal Carl Hiassen – who if he isn’t already Governor of Florida, should be before too long.

Time passed as it does and the Chatterton family moved back to the UK and then very quickly over to sunny Australia where we still remain.

A very lovely New York editor and writer friend of mine called David Levithan (who is busy right now zooming up the fame and success ladder in an extremely annoying fashion) was kind enough to put me in touch with some kind-hearted Australian book people. I was looking for another project to show one of them when ‘The Brain Finds A Leg’ popped into my mind. I promptly re-wrote it set in Australia – in Byron Bay to be precise – and the rest is history. For gators I substituted crocodiles, for retirees I substituted hippies (of which Byron has a ludicrously large stock). I kept the leg bit.

—-

Thank you Martin for taking the time to share your inspiration for The Brain Finds a Leg it’s been a pleasure hosting you.  I’m very much looking forward to The Brain’s continuing adventures in The Brain Full of Holes forth coming in Spring 2010.

Be sure to watch for my review of The Brain Finds a Leg tomorrow here on Galleysmith.com.

A great big giant thank you to all who took the time to listen in and call me during my That’s How I Blog interview conducted by Nicole at Linus’s Blanket.  I had a wonderful time!

I got to gab a little about a few personal things, blogging drama, the advice I’d give to new bloggers, and of course our 20 minute book club at the end about Jennifer Brown’s Hate List.  If you’re interested in hearing me talk Nicole’s ear off please do head over to the archives and listen to the recording of my show.

As I was gearing up for the show I offered a prize for one lucky caller to the show so Chris from Chris’ Book-a-rama (who called in and asked me about vlogging) come on down you’re the lucky winner of a brand new copy of Hate List! Email me your mailing address and I’ll get you a copy toute-suite.

Once again, I want to thank Nicole for being a lovely hostess and to all of you who had the opportunity to come out and enjoy the show.